Most of us can pinpoint at least a few times in our life where we could have easily died. Maybe we were a dumb teenager who pulled a stunt that temporarily injured us, but could have easily turned out much worse.
Perhaps we are constantly distracted and have nearly been hit by cars multiple times while walking, or driving, in congested traffic. There are countless everyday activities that could lead to fatalities, and for the most part we take it for granted, because adding up all the times you could have died isn't the healthiest concept to ruminate on. That being said, far fewer of us have memories of escaping death by an attempted murderer, a feat that is both traumatizing and remarkable.
In a recent Reddit thread, people who survived murder attempts opened up and shared their stories, and it would be a crass understatement to say this is yet another reminder to count our blessings.
1. VyrPlan almost died because he didn't let someone into a club.
"Was a bouncer at a club in LA for a minute in the 90's. Stopped some dudes clearly affiliated (in a gang) at the door after they refused security checks. After a few minutes of their threats & Manson lamps they left spewing all sort of warnings."
"A little later it starts to wind down and because it's a little slow & we're overstaffed so I start to drink. I get a bit drunk (not wasted, but sleepy-buzzed) so I tell my buddy I'm going to go lay down in the back of his car for a while."
"A few minutes after lying down I realize I have to piss. I get out and stumble a few into a spot between a guard gate (for a parking lot) and a building for a little privacy (there's a few dozen people milling around in front of the club). I'm about 25 feet away from the club's entrance and just off an alleyway."
"While I'm relieving myself, a dude runs right past in front of me, around the guard booth to my rear, and unloads a 9mm (recovered rounds from back seat/trunk/roof/bumper) into the back seat of the car I'd just crawled out of."
"bam bam bam bam..." Unloading into the car. He then turns, runs right back past me, and down the alley into the night. Don't think he saw me at all. Nothing really came of it. Except my partner was convinced I was a "marked man" and refused to be near me for a year or so."
"Edit: holy crap, I kind of expected this to get buried. This was Los Angeles. I was about 25 (almost 50 now) so some specifics are long gone - but I remember this: my buddy was genuinely terrified by this, I don't think he knew anything about it (in fact he seemed to interpret the event as a larger conspiracy to have me snuffed - not some random pissed off dude making a point/getting jumped in) and because he ditched the car/wouldn't take my calls it got left at that."
"For those concerned with the car - it was, like, a 1980's rusted out sedan...maybe a $500 car. Details about the slugs/number of rounds fired were relayed to me later by third parties (my friend and I were known in the neighborhood, people were talking about it). Thank you for the well wishes. Honestly though, this wasn't even the first time I was shot at (it's been a long strange trip)."
"Edit 2: Also, I tried to argue later that it's just as likely the guy was shooting at someone else across the street and that the car just got in the way. But there were holes all through that thing. Back seat had 4/5, another 2/3 went into the back window and ended up in the backs of the front seats, another 2/3 rounds went right into the trunk. I honestly don't know if he was a terrible shot, or if he hit right what he was aiming for."
2. anonymousdefensejd almost got shot by an angry client.
"Throwaway because it got some media. I'm a criminal defense attorney. I was representing this guy that had embezzled almost $500k from his business partner. He was looking down the barrel at several years in prison, a bunch of his assets had been seized by the government, was being sued by multiple creditors for north of $2 million, and was in the midst of an ugly divorce and wasn't allowed to see his kids. I was one of 3 lawyers he had - criminal, civil and divorce. He was drinking a lot and using coke -- I used to get this incoherent phone calls in the middle of the night that ranged from threats to crying."
"He came to my office one day and asked for me but I was in court. My secretary said he was perfectly civil. He then went to his divorce lawyer's office and shot him to death. Got stopped by the police a short distance away and was wounded in a shootout. He would later tell the cops that he had come to my office to shoot me that day and also planned to shoot his civil attorney."
3. iSquash was abducted by a very crazed man, and walked out alive.
"I was abducted at a gas station during undergrad. The locks on my car were broken, and as soon as I got back in, a strange man came in and forced me to drive him to an ATM. I am paralyzed with fear so any sense or reason I had went out the window. He claimed he worked at Wendy's and for my generosity he would give me all the Wendy's I ever wanted. On the way to the ATM he showed me pictures of his daughters (on his clearly stolen cell phone)."
"Then a Whitney Houston song came on the radio and he starts BAWLING his eyes out and screaming "Why do all the good people have to die, only bad things should happen to bad people." I go to the ATM, take out cash, give it to him thinking it's over. He then makes me get back in the car and drive him somewhere else. We pass by some train tracks and I'm thinking this is it, this is where I will be murdered."
"He asks me what I'm studying in school, and I tell him Biochemistry. "I believe in jet propulsion and all that shit. WE ARE NOT ALONE ALIENS ARE AMONG US." He then makes me pull over at a gas station and he tells me "drive away sweetheart". I call the cops, had to do a line-up, apparently this dude had done this to a ton of other women, and some were less unscathed than I was...."
4. _DoobieTime is alive because of their gut instincts.
"Mines not extreme by any chance but a couple of years ago my brother and I went to walk the dog at like 11pm. We left through the side gate (live on a corner) and right as we exit I see this weird looking dude at the corner of the footpath walking weirdly towards us. Got bad vibes and told my brother to get the dog and get back inside. This dude is walking kind of side on and hiding something in his hand behind his back, as I'm getting my brother through the gate the dude says something like "oi mate can I come in, I need a blanket I'm freezing"
"I just ignored him and went inside and locked the door. We then get a call from the people who live two doors up, the same dude knocked on their door and their 10yo son opened it to see the dude holding a fucking hatchet. Anyway I'm glad I went with my gut on that one."
5. RedRoverLaws survived a mom addled by the violence of addiction.
"Well. My mom got mad at me when I was 20 and I didn’t give her money for her birthday, which I’m assuming was to pay off drug dealers of hers, so she stabbed me between the ribs. Ended up getting stuck in the bone and had to get it taken out in surgery."
6. stayathmdad had a best friend do a homicidal 180.
"My supposed best friend decided that my wife and I were too perfect. Therefore it must all be an act and I was obviously abusing her. He was at our house after I made an awesome dinner and we were having fun drinking and singing karaoke."
"I went to the kitchen to put some glasses away, came back and leaned on the couch with him slightly behind me to the left of me. Then I heard a thunk and felt an amazing amount of pain on the top of my head. He had picked up the whiskey bottle on the table and smashed it into my skull."
"I was very confused as to wtf was happening. Then the blood started pouring. I didn't want to get blood everywhere so I went to the kitchen. Dude is pacing back and forth saying weird shit. I thought about my gun (which was close by) but I wasn't thinking quite straight. He left."
"I had a huge concussion and still suffer side effects from it. My number 2 goal in life is to live longer then that asshat just so I can shit on his grave."
7. kae_shann's friend barely survived a party.
"I have a friend who had a party at his parents house when he was in high school that a ton of random people went to. He got super drunk during the party and went upstairs to go to sleep, knowing that his friends would watch the party for him. My friend woke up from his nap to a guy from his school sitting on top of him stabbing him death."
"He was stabbed seven times before it stopped and he laid there on the bed dying. The only reason he is still alive is because his best friend came upstairs to ask him if it was alright if he made a frozen pizza and found him. The assailant was put in jail and recently was released and it scares me to know that a guy who “wanted to know what it would feel like to kill someone” (said during the trial), is still out there free."
8. greenlightracer almost got murdered because of a doppelganger.
"I was exiting a bar once after last call and was with a friend who was a medic. We saw a girl laying in a snow bank near a telephone pole who had just been hit by a car. We ran over and tried to help her, some others were already on the phone with 911 and I, not having any medical training didn't have anything to contribute but didn't want to just leave, the whole situation was concerning."
"I turn around for a second and start to hear people screaming... I turn around a a minivan was heading for us, the few people around this woman. They already started to run, but I was too late..."
"He hit me as I was trying to flee... put the car in reverse, ran over me again, and then went forward and run over me a third time."
"Turns out the guy was high and drunk and got into a fight with the women's bf, whom I bared a strong resemblance too. He thought I was him. Not to throw a pity party for myself but 9 years later I have a ton of medical issues, and my life pretty much started on a downward spiral since then... but sure, I guess I "survived".
"Edit: For everyone wondering about the guy, An off duty cop watched the whole thing go down, and copied his license plate number. He was apprehended 20 minutes later & charged with attempted murder, along with many other things.
He plea'd out to just 3 years in jail. He had actually killed someone else a few years before drunk driving. How they thought that was appropriate is beyond me."
9. To_a_Green_Thought was saved by a fork in the path.
"I was doing volunteer work in Central America, working in a really bad area of the capitol city--it was a slum built on top of the city's garbage dump. The whole place reeked of trash, and there were large metal cylinders coming up out of the ground throughout the area to vent the gas from decomposing garbage underground."
"As a fellow volunteer and I walked down a dirt path, two men approached us. I'd never seen them before. They were acting strangely, but I just thought they were drunk or high--a lot of people in the area drank rubbing alcohol to get drunk, since it was cheaper than beer or liquor. Over time, drinking the rubbing alcohol would really mess with their brains."
"As the men got closer, they began acting really friendly--too friendly. One of them came close to me, trying to put his arm around my shoulders. At first, it seemed like the behavior of a guy who gets happy and friendly when he's drunk. However, an alarm went off in my head, and I gently--but firmly--pushed him away. I tried to make it seem lighthearted and playful, like, "Hey, man! How's it going?" (Affectionate shove.) I didn't want to make a scene, since I was a gringo; I didn't want to seem like an ugly American."
"This went on over and over down the whole path--he'd get close, I'd shove him off, he'd come close again. Finally, my friend and I came to a fork in the path, and we went one way while they went another."
"After we got to the house of some people we knew, we told them about the two guys. (I was so focused on protecting myself, I didn't even notice much of what was happening with the other guy.) They said, "Oh, everyone around here knows him. That's his routine--he comes up to people, pretends to be friendly, puts him arm around them, then pulls out his knife and stabs them in the stomach."
I was that close to getting stabbed to death."
10. TrashTashy's fight or flight saved her.
"I (18F back then, now 25) was on my way home at night after meeting a friend. My home was just 10 minutes away from the train station. After a few minutes I felt someone following me. No big deal I thought, just someone else walking home. But I started walking faster. I realized the person behind me was catching up...weird. In my head I started to make up scenarios of how to defend myself if the person would attack me. Never would I think of this to actually happen."
"Well, until I felt something on the back of my head, hitting me hard. I went furious. I turned around and attacked the guy. My mind was just full of anger towards this stranger who, what I thought, hit me."
"We were wrestling until I fell on the ground. He was sitting on top of me, strangling me. I tried to crawl my nails into his eyes as deep as I could, but I started to black out. Suddenly there was this tought in my head "wake up, or you will die"...well, adrenaline kicked in again and I opened my eyes and screamed of the top of my lungs, attacking him again."
"That helped. He stood up and began to run. I layed there for a few seconds, then I started to run home, still screaming. My mom was already at our door and opened for me because my screams woke her up (or her mother senses, who knows?) She immediately called the cops and they could arrest him on the same night."
"It turned out that he actually shot me in my head from behind. They assume that the gun didn't work properly, the bullet didnt penetrate my skull and stuck in there, but as far as I know they never found out why the gun misfired. I'm glad though. He told the cops that he already followed me a few times in the past, but never had the guts to "do it". He wanted to kill me and rape my dead body. I know that's a wild story, I have some swiss news paper articles as a source if someone cares though."
11. harpejjist got attacked when she was mistaken for an ex wife.
"I was riding in a train across Eastern Europe. I was running low on money and even though I had been warned that a woman should not travel alone in second class seating I did not spring for first class. I was sitting alone in one of the compartments that seats six. This was also a mistake and a very stupid one to sit alone. Eventually the train stopped and a man got on - he was very drunk. He came into my compartment and I guess thought I looked like his ex-wife. He attacked me. If it were not for the fact that this particular station was the border between two countries I would be dead."
"Instead border patrol from both countries were on the train and while I was unable to scream, the door was open and at least a half a dozen uniformed men jumped him and saved me. I was in the hospital for a little while but recovered. At one point during the trial, one of the cops asked me if I wanted him and his buddies to hold the guy down while I hit him. I thought he was joking. So I said no, go ahead you do it. I was also joking. But it turns out they took it seriously and were about to! I did put a stop to that at least. But they were so offended that someone from their country would attack a young female American tourist. They were furious with him. So many people there depended upon tourism."
12. muffinyipps13's screams saved them.
"I was 15 and outside in my garage petting my cat. It was November so it was already dark by 5pm. Someone opened the door behind me without me hearing, grabbed me by my Ponytail and starting dragging me outside. They hit me on my head with a brick and knocked me out. Pulled me halfway around my house when (I'm guessing this is when) they stabbed me on the left side of my stomach. This must have brought me out of my daze, because my mom said she heard me scream from inside where she and my brother And sister were in the kitchen. They came out the front door and saw me bleeding out on the side walk, called 911. had 12 stitches (double layer) and a severe Concussion, and whiplash. didn't eat and hardly slept for a week. They never found them."
13. throwawayseventy8 barely escaped a massacre.
"If you're from the area I'm from this will probably sound familiar. But I got absolutely black out drunk at an end of the year/graduation party and ended up having to get taken home early. Later that night another student at the party ended up stabbing and killing 5 people. Turns out he had mental issues (schizophrenia) and thought everyone at the party was a werewolf/vampire who threatened his life. He never went to jail but ended up being founded non criminally responsible instead..."
14. Apatheticforcredit escaped homicidal neighbors.
"So, I did not know it was a murder attempt at the time, but looking back now - it was a definite possibility. In middle and high school my next door neighbors were a boy one year younger than me (John) and his younger brother who was four years younger than him (Nathan.) My own younger brother and I had a similar age gap, and we found ourselves around each other all the time. Now I am a female and the rest of the group was all males, so there were just naturally times when the three of them would hang and I wouldn't be around."
"One day my little brother who was around 9 at the time comes home with a porno mag and is telling me about the porn videos they were watching as a little unit. Now guys, I have no idea if this is something that is done in your pre/adolescent circles, but it freaked me the hell out and I told my mom. My mom then went and told their single dad. What I didn't know was their dad was an abusive piece of shit who beat both of those boys so badly that they couldn't go to school for weeks. No, we didn't call the police - we just filed it away and knew from that point forward to never tattle. I still carry the guilt of telling on John and Nathan with me to this day, because it set off a chain of events I would have never anticipated."
"As we got older, the brothers started acting out more and more; bullying other kids, vandalism, weird shit like toying with road kill. As the level headed female in the group I opposed all of these things, and a faction emerged with me and the other neighborhood kids on one side, and John and Nathan on the other just fucking shit up and causing trouble. One day I had done SOMETHING to piss off John, and he came at me with a large chef's knife. I didn't have shoes on, so I took off running through the backyard and crossed into the neighbor's."
"John was hot on my tail, trailing me by maybe 4 feet when I fell down. There was some sort of exposed PVC drainage pipe that had been shattered at the top that I didn't see it and ran over, my foot was sliced open immediately and I went down screaming. I think it shocked him; my screaming, the sudden change of pace, and the blood. He stopped, laughed at me, then ran home- presumably so he didn't get his ass whipped."
"After I took care of myself, I told my mom what happened with the knife. She had started dating someone new, and I think this was the sort of feather that broke the camels back. We moved to another part of town in the same district about a ten-minute drive from our old house. Around that exact time we moved in, a new family moved into the house on the other side of John and Nate."
"Things continued down a bad path for those boys. Over the next year they got in trouble with school, and would randomly show up at our new house locked out of their own. The year I went off to college I received a panicked phone call from my mom telling me to look up the local newspaper, John had murdered the girl who had moved into the other house next door to him. It was really grisley too, he chopped her up and stuffed her into a trunk that sat outside in his dad's car all day while a family picnic was happening."
"He and his little brother got caught trying to throw the trunk into the river from a bridge at night by a cop who happened to be driving by. I just thought to myself that could have been me! Both brothers have been locked up for what has to be about ten years at this point, they were both tried and convicted as adults. Everyone in our town just wants to see them burn in hell, but honestly the only thing I can think about is how it might have been different if our family reported the abuse from the onset - maybe their little minds wouldn't have warped from a tender age."
15. braxtonianman barely survived a robbery.
"When I was two weeks into my first job as a 16 year old (at a smoothie establishment that should be known to NBA fans), we were robbed. It was late, and my coworker's friends had been playing pranks on her all day, so when I saw someone burst through the door, i thought it was just that. Until, that is, i had something metal pressed against my back and an arm wrapped around my chest. The robber gave the whole stereotypical "give me all the money" spiel, and ordered us to go into the back room, kneel down, and face the wall. As I was kneeling and hearing him walking towards us, time seemed to slow down. Thankfully, I had been refilling juices whenever he came in, and so the door to the back room was partially blocked by a heavy cart."
"With whatever substance he was on, he wasn't coordinated enough to get past it to us, so he fled. He was followed by my coworker's husband and caught. When he was caught, they found an industrial sized pipe wrench wrapped tightly in his fist, so that he could get a stronger grip when swinging. I'm so glad that cart was there. Once a year or so, I would look him up in the parish prison roster to see if he was still in jail. One year, he suddenly wasn't. I later found him named in a lawsuit as having stabbed his cellmate a half dozen times while the guy was asleep. Definitely doesn't seem like the nicest of people. Nine years later, I'm still unpacking this incident in therapy - it's why I dont like walking around cities at night or sitting where I can't see the door."
16. -Benjamin_Dover-'s mom saved their life.
"I don't know if this counts because I didn't find out until ten years later.
When I was 7-8 years old, when my parents broke up. My dad apparently tried to kill me and my mother, along with everyone in the household at time. Including the cats. He failed to get in house. The 2 times he tried."
17. TitoBeans123 survived a frightening jump.
"I got jumped by two grown men when I was a freshmen in college. I was walking back from my friends house and it was about 30 past midnight. One posed as a homeless man asking for a dollar and the other had on a security jacket like he worked for the university’s safety patrol. When I passed the homeless guy saying I had nothing to give him, I saw the “security” guy walking towards me. This is when I felt a rear neck choke hold and the “security” guy started whaling on me. I had my bag on me, but like I said, I literally had nothing on me. They couldn’t take me down to the ground (surprisingly..I must’ve had an adrenaline rush)."
"The guy posing as a homeless guy said “open the back pack, find anything let’s dip”. This lasted about 2-3 minutes, but it felt like forever. The whole time I could feel something pointy in my back, but I just like to think that the guy was extremely excited, and it wasn’t a knife. Luckily, it was right outside my friend’s house and a couple of them came running out when they heard the commotion. The guys fled immediately when 3 of my friends came sprinting towards them. I still look behind me when I walk home alone."
18. thelemonx wife's ex put a hit out on him.
"This all happened many years ago."
"I was a lead man at a factory. A girl starts working there, and I take an interest. After a few months, I find out she is in a terrible drug-fueled abusive relationship. Every night, I tell her to call me, I'll come get her. Finally after months, she calls me, I come get her and take her to my house."
"The guy she was in the relationship with didn't take too kindly to me taking her away. He spends the next 2 years harassing and threatening us."
"A few months after she and I got married we went out for a few drinks. Her ex just happened to be at the bar we went to. He apologized to us for the threats and harassment. We were sitting outside talking with a few other people."
"Next thing I know, I'm on my back on the ground with someone choking me. I try all I can to get them off of me, but being blindsided and them being on top of me, it wasn't easy. As I struggle to get free, everything goes black, then I see "the light at the end of the tunnel". In that moment I was certain that this was the end of me. I somehow manage to get a better hold of this person's head, and I yank them off of me. We run to the car and get away."
"A week or so later, my wife had been talking to everyone she thinks might know what happened. Turns out, her ex had paid 2 people $50 to kill me that night."
19. anangryafrican barely drove away from a shooting.
"Chilling with the bros drinking at a park. As we drive off to leave, a car coming our way almost hits us. Driver obviously reacts like “wtf” and I guess the other car noticed."
"They turned around and caught up to us at a stop sign. Other driver asked if we had a problem, we told them stop driving like assholes. Then their back window rolls down and two guys in the back draw Glocks with drum magazines."
"We just kind of froze up at first but then our driver pulled off hastily. Later found out those guys got arrested for shooting someone else that same day."
20. conanfegan's dad was almost murdered by friends.
"Posting for my dad, I'll call him John. He grew up during the troubles in Northern Ireland and at the time there were numerous tit for tat shootings between republicans and loyalists. My da was walking home when a car pulled up quickly and men with masks bats and guns jumped out. He started running but they caught up with him. Just as they got to him they stopped and one pulled off his balaclava and said "oh shit John didn't realise it was you, thought you were someone else were so so sorry". He said he genuinely thought he was about to die there and then and if he had of been someone else he would have been."
21. TyroniusTheGreat and his family escaped an unstable ex.
"Well idk if this counts as an attempt or not but My wife, my kids and myself went to church one time and we ran into one of my wife's old "flings", this guy followed my wife around and our daughter and kept trying to talk to them. So I confronted him about it and told him to back off."
"As we were leaving he makes sure to yell across the parking lot telling my daughter good bye. My wife forces me in to the car and we leave. So I message the guy on Facebook to ask him what his problem is and he tells me that my wife and daughter are his friends and I have no right to tell them who to be friends with. I told him again to back off our I would call the police."
"Fast forward a week (I worked every other Sunday) I get a call from the pastor saying that they had to call the police on the guy because he was causing drama looking for me. When they arrested him he had a back pack with him that had a sawed off shotgun, a meth pipe and some meth in it."
22. NeedsMoreTuba was saved by a weed dealer with a heart of gold.
"In my late teens, I used to buy my weed from random dudes in the projects (low income housing.)
One day we gave some money to a guy named 40. He took it and went inside one of the buildings. We waited in the car for several minutes. We started to think he had taken our money and left. Right about that time, a car full of coked-up white dudes pulled up beside ours. Apparently my friend owed them money. They pointed a gun at him and said that if he had enough money to buy weed, then he could pay them back."
"I really thought they were going to shoot us and just drive off like it was nothing, and I hadn't even done anything wrong. I thought I was gonna pee my pants.
Right about that time, 40 came back out with our weed and an even bigger gun. He scared them away and then we went back to his apartment and smoked a blunt. What a good man. Turns out he was only selling weed because he had a 6-year-old daughter and that was the only way he knew to give her a better life than he had."
"I babysat his daughter occasionally for the rest of that summer. I really hope she got a decent childhood and that her dad stayed safe and out of jail.
TLDR; Almost got shot but was saved by random drug dealer who turned out to be a decent fellow."
23. MissourisOwn had an incredible mom and grandma who kept them alive, despite their father's meth addled murder attempts.
"My dad was a meth addict. He did lots of fucked up things - dropping me off at trap houses to have "sleepovers" with other "coke babies", living in a house full of animal shit and hoarding. He sicked his pitbull on a black child. He was a real fucking character."
"One night he came looking for my mom and I at our place. Mom wasn't there. Grandma was babysitting me. I was sleeping in bed when somebody started to try and open my window. It was locked, but they kept jamming something into the bottom to try and force it open. At the same time, I heard the living room door being tried by somebody else. My grandma snuck into my room in her nightgown, apparently woken up by the same thing, and told me say NOTHING. Don't even whisper. We laid under my bed while a group of men shouted for my mom to come out, slammed their hands on the windows to try and break them, and jumped on my grandma's car."
"She called the police and barely whispered into the phone. Eventually the cops arrived and the men scattered. Long story short, my dad and his other methhead friends came to the house with guns and knives with every intention to kill me and my mother because she was going to get custody of me. If my mom wasn't so vigilant with locks (we had three different kinds on the front and back doors), we would have died."
24. Raiseyourspoonforwar almost got killed by an acquiantance, until they remembered who it was.
"I was around 20-21 years old and walking home at about 3 am after a night out and I was absolutely plastered from drinking so much, I was about 200 meters from my house when a hooded figure jumped out from behind a bush and immediately had a knife pushing into my stomach as he grabbed my neck and tried pulling me in, fortunately I was stronger and pulled away, he went to lunge at me with the knife when suddenly he stopped, stared for what felt like an eternity but was probably a second or 2 and then said "Holy shit raiseyourspoonforwar, I haven't seen you in so long, my bad mate" and then walked off like nothing had happened. I still don't know who he was to this day."
25. 4KUHD9's quick thinking saved their life.
"Walking home from my pregnant gf's house at the time.. Honestly it wasn't a bad neighborhood. Well I'm walking basically just minding my own business, passed these guys maybe 3 or four of them , they were heading the other direction on the other side of the street.. Something told me to look back and right as I did that, one of them had a gun pointed to the back of my head.. I turned around fully and was just like yo! They were like give us your money etc I had a wad of dollars and not sure if it was quick thinking but I stuck my thumb in between the cash pulled it out and threw it on the road and it scattered."
"As they went to pick it up I bolted.. These assholes chased me.. I just run to some dudes house who luckily for me he was cool let me in closed the door and called the cops.. A few weeks later those same dudes were arrested for robbery and killing the person they robbed.. These guys were from a neighboring neighborhood.. So ya.."
26. papicoiunudoi watched a friend survive a psychopath.
"I was out with a few friends, and with us was a girl that had just broken up with a psychopath (we didn't know he was a psychopath, we found out that night). We were just walking back home from a restaurant, it was about 1 AM, and the guy came running out of nowhere, I don't know how he knew where and when to meet us. He ran to the girl, lifted her shirt up and stabbed her in the gut, literally splitting her belly open like a fish, and then ran off. This whole thing happened really quickly, so we were all in shock."
"The girl was holding her own intestines in her hands and she was so shocked that she didn't even seem scared, wasn't screaming or anything. She just stood there. We called an ambulance and they managed to somehow put everything back and sew her up. This happened about 3 years ago and she still has pretty serious problems with her digestive tract, can't eat certain things and that kind of stuff. That image of her just standing in the middle of the pathway holding her own guts will remain stuck in my head forever. The guy got 13 years in jail btw."
"Edit: Now that I think about it, a big part of why they broke up was his constant abuse towards her weight. She wasn't even fat, just a bit on the chubby side, I wouldn't even call that overweight, but he would always tell her that she had a big gut. That was almost an obsession for him. So maybe the fact that he stabbed her in the abdomen is a symbolic action of some sort. I don't know what was in that fuckhead's brain and I honestly don't even want to know."
27. Sweetragnarok jumped and ran from their death.
"I jumped out of a moving vehicle. This was in college in a different country. There were commuter buses that takes us to and from the campus and dorms. I had to stay 30 mins later for a project so around 7:30 PM by then the commuter rush was gone. I was the only passenger and I was sitting at front next to the driver."
"He was acting already shady, it was dark and rainy. He made a sudden dark turn of a grassy unlit hill. He said somethings wrong with the tires. I said Im getting off, he wont let me."
"The hill leads to a cliffside where rapes and murders have happned before. I had the pointy stick of my umbrella facing him ready to jab if he tried anything, which he tried to reach/grab for me. I jumped and ran straight to the highway were another commuter bus stopped surprised seeing a girl coming out of the tall grasses.
I saw the driver of my previous ride, speeding away. Nothing was wrong with his tires."
28. Lord_of_Lost_Coast biked themself to safety, despite the gaslighting of adults.
"When I was a kid I was riding my bike home from a friends house at sunset. I rode past the community pool which had been closed for a couple months. There was a car in the lot with a guy in it. I didn’t think much of it as I continued the trek home. I cut through the local elementary parking lot which has gates. I get like 20 yards past the gate and I see that car pull up at the bottom. Thinking that’s odd. Anyhow he backs out away from the gate. My spidey senses were kinda tingling at this point. I get up to the school and head towards teacher parking lot which is my standard direction. As I’m about to turn the corner I see headlights from the parking lot."
"I stop and peek around the corner and it’s that fucking guy again. I flip my bike around and start going the long way around the school. He sees me but just gets back in his car. And starts driving around the front of the school. I camp in these bushes, heart pounding. He is slowly driving up and down the front of the school keeping an eye on the teachers lot. Another car comes down the street and he has to move his dumb car out of their way. As soon as he does I just blasted up to the street and full tilt flew my bike into some random open garage."
"So I’m hiding in the garage waiting for him to come around again. But he doesn’t. I give it a few minutes then decide to pop my head out. Still no one. Ok I’m a few blocks from home just gotta go for it. Bust out the bike and start hauling ass home. Not half a fucking block later this dude turns the corner on me. I just veer my bike into some random lawn and run up to the front door. I look at him and he’s just in the street staring at me. I grip the front door handle praying to any and every god these people don’t lock their doors. I see his reverse lights flicker and I know he just put it in park."
"I just rip that door open, run inside and slam it. Two old people just sitting there. I look at them and I’m like some dude is trying to get me out there. They don’t completely believe me cause they barely react to what I said. But they don’t kick me out or anything either. I’m watching the dude from their window and he’s just chilling. Then the grandpa looking dude gets up from his Lazy Boy and opens the curtain to look for himself. When he does this the asshat in the car just leaves. Old guy is like well looks like he’s gonna leave. I’m like I’m not leaving for a bit."
"So I hang out for 10 min and no creepy abductor car to be seen. I assume he figured i called the cops. Finally I’m like I have to get home. This is before cell phones were common for average people. I hop on my bike and I swear it felt like I drove 35 mph the whole way home. Get home and tell my parents. I’m exhausted and in complete shock. They basically brush me off. I’m stunned that every adult I interacted with acted like I was crazy. I basically never talked about it again it was so traumatic to talk about at the time."
"That image of him in his car while I held the door handle to the random house is permanently seared into my brain. To this day it’s still as crystal clear as if it happened yesterday. Like 18-20 years later i decided to confront my parents as to why they didn’t do anything that day. They were like wtf you talking about. I explained it far better than I could’ve when I was a kid in complete shock. Anyhow, with the current, more expansive explanation my mother b-b-b-broke down. She started crying at this public restaurant cause she saw how serious I was when I was like how could you ignore what I said that day."
"As well as talked about how that morphed my stranger danger techniques for better or worse. Thankfully I was on the verge of puberty and ended up becoming a giant human being so my actual fears diminished quickly as I could defend myself. Until I moved away from that town however, I looked every day for that god damned car. Never saw it again. I would fantasize about what I’d like to do if I ever found that guy, hell, I still do.
TLDR dude tried abducting me at like 10-12 years old. Got lucky hiding in random garage and some old people’s house. Never got any level of justice."
29. underpantsbandit and their husband fought a terrifying Bonnie and Clyde duo.
"My husband and I live above our place of business. Out alarm company called us at 3AM to say there was a motion detect alert, just one, in a weird place. We assumed it was a mouse but went to reset/check it out.
Husband ended up face to face with a burglar who was on his way out the window he had broken. He ran back inside, I called 911 and we heard mad chaos going on in the depths of the building. So much crashing and smashing."
"Burglar monkey climbed a 10' iron gate, bodily smashed through two sets of commercial grade glass doors and was outside again. My husband was like yeah FUCK this dude, tore after him and tackled him. He got him on the ground and pinned him."
"Bear in mind the whole time I'm narrating to 911, and chasing around in panties and tank top. I was a bit behind my husband, in the middle of the street about 15' away when a minivan squealed around the corner."
"It was his GF/getaway driver. I luckily missed it- I was super focused on reading the license plate which was one of those cutesy font out of state ones and therefore hard to read but she yelled "Get the fuck off him or I'm running your bitch over."
"Then she tried to. The audio and video I had to watch for the trial was horrifying. I had blocked it out nearly completely, and really didn't remember how close it was. She guns the engine at me, I throw my hands up in front of my face when I realize what she's doing and scream, and jump out of the way with inches to spare."
"He jumped in and off they went. He bled all over my husband (YIKES) and eventually the DNA and the partial plate info nailed them. They're both in prison. Addendum, trials SUCK."
"ETA: to make this clear, do NOT do this. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug and it's best to not fight burglars! We definitely both could have died. It was the third time this fucker had broken in and caused $XX,XXX amount of mostly uninsured damage and inventory loss and that definitely contributed to the whole thing. He wouldn't have stopped doing it. He was a pro and was doing upwards of 3 jobs a night most nights, all over the state, for years."
30. BlueComms and their girlfriend escaped a violent Army obsessed man.
"I was 15-16, at a party. I went outside on a balcony for a smoke with someone I was talking to, and there was already a guy out there. We chatted as a group, and the friend went back inside. I started chatting with the guy who was already out there, who seemed a little funny. He started talking about how he was in the Army for a little bit but got kicked out, then pulled out a big knife and handed it to me. I looked at it and gave it back to him. At that point he pushed me against the edge of the balcony, put the knife to my neck, looked me in the eye, and said "do you know why I wanted to join the Army? I wanted to fucking kill people, man. People just like you". He then made a slicing sound with his mouth and took the knife away, then started laughing."
"I went inside, grabbed my gf, and we locked ourselves in a bedroom. He ended up smoking a lot of meth that night and was kneeing holes in the wall and beating on the door. I slept with my knife under my pillow. The next morning he seemed totally normal, except for the fact that he had turned his jeans into short shorts."
"Fucking scary looking back on it.
EDIT: Originally put age as 14, but realized later it was closer to 15/16. Also, I found out later that the guy got kicked out in basic training."
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