r/AskReddit • u/PlasticBee1438 • 7h ago
Serious Replies Only What was the scariest “We need to leave… now” gut feeling that you’ve ever experienced?[Serious]
5.4k
u/limponion36 6h ago
Met up with someone whom we shared mutual friends with many years ago before a party. He made drinks for us and at one point kept tipping my cup back and encouraging me to drink. I said I had to go to the bathroom. I ran out of the house and called a friend to pick me up. I don't remember the rest of the night because I was drugged.
→ More replies (27)3.6k
u/Beowulf33232 4h ago
Not just for you, for anyone reading this:
If some dude tips the back of your cup so you can't put it down, don't drink. Clamp your mouth shut, hold your breath, and let the drink wash over the sides of your face and down your outfit. You get to call them names, and if you feel safe enough with the other people in the area, loudly ask them what they put in the drink that they want you to have so bad.
I know someone who was given "their very own bottle" at an underage party. She woke up naked in the hosts bedroom to the host getting dressed. Begged her friends not to tell anyone because of the reaction her parents would have to her going to a party and drinking, instead of reacting to her being drugged and assaulted.
If you didn't get your own cup and pour your own drink from a sealed container, the only other acceptable way to get a drink is to watch a paid bartender make it. And if for any reason they turn their back on you and hold it where you can't see, or get your glass from somewhere they haven't pulled every other glass from, it's possible that someone else is paying them more.
920
u/Unique_Ad_3312 4h ago
Unfortunately I was drugged once at a bar, my drink never left my sight, so I think it was the bartender. Kind of a shady bar.
→ More replies (10)453
u/teklaalshad 4h ago
Years ago I lived next to a bar where police and ambulance were on site nearly every weekend for young women suffering from drugged drinks. I don't know anyone who was sad when that place shut down.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (37)374
u/WwwionwsiawwtCoM 3h ago
Shout out to the bartender at my local place, who flat out tells people “I have to turn around to get something, I’m not moving until your palm is over your glass.”
→ More replies (2)
10.4k
u/Jessintheend 7h ago edited 7h ago
Hiking in a a slot canyon and noticing a trickle of water running down the floor of the canyon.
I told my friend to gtfo and hurry back the way we came. Within an hour the canyon was half full of raging water
3.3k
u/mrphreems1 7h ago
That’s why we never went canyoneering during monsoon season in Arizona.
The storm doesn’t have to be on you, all it needs to be is uphill in the canyon
→ More replies (64)878
u/Current_Mess_9586 6h ago
My oh shit was driving out of a Canyon in monsoon season.... Had sleeping kids in the backseat of the truck and the bmw touring bike loaded in the bed . I looked into the rearview mirror and went oh shit need higher ground now
→ More replies (4)488
u/lew_rong 5h ago
Some friends and I were in Tucson the day after a monsoon. My friends were agog at how green and lush the desert could be after all that rain, and I was keenly aware that the wash we were in had probably been a raging torrent of water about twelve hours previously.
→ More replies (4)929
u/MountainManWithMojo 5h ago
Same realm as your story, but kind of the opposite. Mine was the moment I realized, "I need to stay."
In my early 20s, I worked for a notable canyoneering guide company. The owner had guided members of a president's family, had thousands of technical canyons under his belt, and was doing first descents around the world. I'd done maybe 100 technical canyons myself, so I trusted his judgment. One day we took a family through a technical slot canyon. Ropes, harnesses, rappels, anchor building, the whole deal, not just a hike. There was rain in the forecast, but the boss said it was a chill canyon with plenty of exits if things got sketchy.
It did not have plenty of exits.
It starts pouring.
Soon we're in a tight section with water up to our waists, Boss pulls me close and says "move now, fast", rushing toward the next exit opportunity. The boss blows out a knee trying to move the fam faster down some technical climbing. I find myself perched on a ledge helping the family's two kids rappel down to their parents while watching the water keep rising. And I remember having this very clear thought:
I can probably get myself out of here. I could climb out. I don't have to have this be it.
I couldn't live with bailing on them. So I got weirdly calm. Not brave. Just calm. I accepted that dying was a possibility and kept rigging ropes and moving people through. The water eventually stopped rising around chest deep and the rain let up. Closest I have ever gambled with death.
We finally got out and made it back to the family's car. We'd spent the whole ordeal trying to stay calm so they wouldn't panic. They casually cracked open a couple beers like they'd just finished a fun afternoon hike. Meanwhile, I felt like I'd stepped into another universe. Being young and dumb, I convinced myself it was a fluke. The boss had misread the conditions. He was still a safe guide. Nobody had died on one of his trips. Then two days later there was another chance of rain, and he had us go anyway.
Maybe he was good enough at riding the edge of risk to never get anyone killed. Maybe not. Either way, I suddenly knew I didn't want to keep finding out. I came up with a reason I couldn't finish the season and quit.
The whole thing also made me propose to my girlfriend shortly afterward. Nothing like almost dying in a flash flood to stop procrastinating your life.
→ More replies (23)299
u/MountainManWithMojo 5h ago
Still canyoneer though, got 200 odd descents under the belt. Never gone out in rainy conditions since.
→ More replies (4)775
u/Try2MakeMeBee 6h ago
Most of my GTFOs are water-related. My parents live in the jungle, rip tides and flash flooding are facts of life. You learn quickly when to haul ass or risk drowning.
→ More replies (7)438
u/thurn_und_taxis 6h ago
Reminds me of an experience I had at the beach many years ago. I noticed some people swimming out to a big rock near shore. I’m not a crazy strong swimmer, but I’m comfortable in the water, and besides, some of the people out by the rock were young kids - so it seemed perfectly safe.
I wasn’t ready to get in the water yet, so I sat on the beach chatting with my friend for another 20 min or so. Then I got in and started swimming to the rock. I hadn’t really noticed that the whole time I’d been sitting on the beach, the tide had been coming in. It still wasn’t a super long swim, but the water around the rock was now much deeper and the waves were huge. Just as I reached it, I was lifted up by a swell and smashed back down onto the rock. Luckily I just got some scrapes and bruises, but it easily could’ve been worse. It was crazy how quickly it went from being a safe spot for children to play to a serious hazard.
→ More replies (5)74
u/Zestyclose-Ear-1293 4h ago
Yeah, I grew up on the water on the PNW coast. We could read the sea at a really young age, all very strong swimmers, and even still, sometimes not everyone comes home. Rogue waves, weird rip currents, submerged log, a cramp or any number of other things can take you out. It’s just an accepted if tragic fact of life on the water.
We also grew up in the mountains, and just like the sea, even the best prepared most experienced folk don’t always come home.
→ More replies (6)207
u/Dheorl 5h ago
One place I used to hike regularly had a pair of usually dry or very low rivers along the path that you had to cross about 500m apart.
I remember at least once coming down and it started to rain. Reached the first river as the trickle of water was starting to build and absolutely booked it to the second. Got across safely and stood watching it grow. Not even 2 min later there were rocks being swept down the mountain big enough to snap your leg.
Being either side of the rivers was fine; one way was civilisation and the other a mountain hut. Being stuck in those 500m was not somewhere you wanted to be.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (45)342
u/inductiononN 7h ago
Goddamn. I don't think I would ever in a million years connect that to the canyon being filled (but I'm not outdoorsy whatsoever). Not to be dumb, but how did you know that would happen?
589
u/PinkDeserterBaby 6h ago
Rain is happening somewhere enough that it’s trickling down to you and not absorbing into the earth, (so it’s a decent amount and quick) and if you’re in the canyon, you’re at the lowest point of terrain, which is not a place you should want to be. Also, if the canyon is in a dry area, the earth may not be able to absorb rain well if the ground is really dry, or the canyon walls are mostly rock, etc. so you need to leave since you’re now in the path of where all that water is headed
→ More replies (5)128
u/PhoenixFirwood 6h ago
Slot canyons are known for flooding. You must pay attention to the weather, National Weather Service will issue flash flood advisorys. If hiking at a state or national park, you can also talk to the park rangers.
→ More replies (2)155
48
→ More replies (11)162
u/dumnem 6h ago
It's a sign of rain further ahead of you, and that amount is possible from even light rain
→ More replies (2)
2.7k
u/Monkeyslunch 6h ago
On a bike camping trip with my buddy, we were getting close to the site. The foliage near this particular backwoods area gets extremely dense and the only way with mountain bikes for a bit is the designated trail.
We're biking along and I see the biggest pile of bear scat right in the middle of the path and we stop. I'm like "Man, I don't know. If there's a bear there's literally nothing we can do except turn around, shout, and bearspray." My buddy urges me to keep going.
Sure enough, another hundred metres and a corner, and there's a huge brown bear sitting like an adorable dumbass on the trail. We start slowly going backwards and it matches our pace for a long while. Very stressful. Couldn't make it to the site that night, that's for sure.
1.4k
u/its_pixiie 5h ago
They really do look like "adorable little dumbasses" when they sit. 🥲
→ More replies (1)187
u/Far_Ladder_2836 2h ago
Honestly they look like adorable little dumbasses until they start playing. I have a doorbell video of my bike on my front porch falling over and scaring the literal shit out of a Sow and her cub.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (19)204
u/ankhmadank 4h ago
Damn, I have a story like that. My friend and I were going for a hike in the mountains above Kyoto, Japan. There are a lot of beware ot bear signs, but we had been to the area before, and it was a well known trail.
What we hadn't accounted for is that we got there late, and it was starting to get dark. We turned a corner and suddenly could smell strong, fresh bear musk all around it. We turned around and left, passing some pretty fresh poop on the way.
→ More replies (2)37
u/ChevronSugarHeart 2h ago
Oooof I live in the states but I’ve been reading about Japanese bears!!! You have the most deadly bears in the world!!! I can’t believe all the attacks and deaths in Japan.
→ More replies (4)
7.4k
u/Motor_Bowler3048 7h ago
Walked out of a bar with two friends many years ago. They were hammered and oblivious to any and everything around them. I was more tipsy and still aware of my surroundings. Just as we exit the bar, two very large men pass us going the opposite way on the sidewalk. I get a very odd feeling about it for reasons i am still not sure of to this day. I turn around, and they’ve both stopped and are watching us intently. I immediately call out to my friends and make up a lie about leaving something in the bar. We go back in and I convince them to just hang out there for a few more minutes.
The next morning, a story comes out about a guy who was stabbed nearly 50 times and robbed in the parking lot of a bar just down the road. I saw those two large men again in the posted mugshot.
1.8k
u/HurricaneIan25 6h ago edited 5h ago
Kinda reminds me of my freshman year of college. There was a walking path in the cypress swamp around the campus that me and my friend wanted to check out. We decided to go after her class and my sport practice. Days were getting shorter so the shadows were growing long inside the path, which had a good amount of tree cover, despite it being around 6 pm and the sun still fully up. We got about 100 yards in and saw movement maybe 50 yards ahead by a tree, like somebody, looked like the figure of a man, had just stepped out from behind the tree. We both had the hair on our necks, blood run cold feeling and instantly booked it back to the entrance.
Two days later we see on the local news that a student had been raping girls on that walking path.
→ More replies (10)1.1k
u/Then_Dust260 6h ago
Both stories are a good reminder that “I have a bad feeling about this” is sometimes a good enough reason to walk away.
315
u/Writerhowell 4h ago
Obligatory mention of 'The Gift of Fear' by Gavin de Becker. Someone's always gotta mention it when stories like these are brought up, so I shall!
→ More replies (5)491
u/ranchspidey 5h ago
Yep. I’m a woman living alone in a big city so my head is on a swivel at all times and I bounce as soon as I feel even a hint of paranoia. Even if I’m wrong sometimes, I’d rather trust my gut and be wrong than not trust my gut and be hurt or worse.
243
→ More replies (7)225
u/Moldy_slug 5h ago
I’m not at all jumpy, even when walking around alone at night.
Except one time I was walking on a secluded trail at night and got a really bad feeling as I approached a blind turn. I was so spooked I went home without getting my groceries. Felt pretty silly about it.
Found out later another girl was attacked on that trail the same night I got spooked.
→ More replies (2)106
u/FlyBulky106 3h ago
I always wonder if the person who was assaulted in these stories felt the same feeling but decided to ignore it.
→ More replies (1)74
u/ascannerclearly27972 3h ago
A former best friend & I went on a spontaneous trip deep into the woods at a state park once, where we ended up getting lost & had to be saved by a Search & Rescue team close to 10 hours later. We were pretty lucky to have survived the ordeal.
I had a bad feeling before we went into the woods initially but decided it was stupid & there was no logical reason not to proceed & didn’t want to spoil the adventure, so I didn’t say anything. Turns out my friend had the same bad feeling & also didn’t say anything for the same reason.
So to answer your question… potentially maybe.
→ More replies (10)295
u/failed_novelty 5h ago
That's your subconscious picking up thousands of little signals it never tells you about and putting them together into a big red panic button.
→ More replies (1)382
u/Proper-Dinner6406 6h ago
I've had two "what if?" type moments like that.
One was in high school. I ran cross country but I was a slacker. So for practice runs most days I was well behind everyone else. Some guy in a car very intentionally cut me off at a corner and gave me some weird stare down. Not like an aggressive driver or anything, just the "very odd feeling" like you said. So then about 15 minutes later I see him way up in front of me, parking to the side of the road and getting out of his car. The only way he'd be there is if he intentionally had looped around to do this. He started walking towards me, I crossed the road, and then he crossed the road. By this point we were about 10 feet away. That's when I stopped slacking off on running practice and hit the jets, crossing back to the other side and off. He started shouting at me that I should stay with my group in the future. I've always wondered if he was a weirdo trying to scare me or some sort of kidnapper/rapist.
The other was in a city area, I was meeting some friends at a bar. Two guys were behind me, which is not unusual. But again, "very odd feeling" and we'd had the same route for a while. I started taking a less direct route to get a sense of if they may actually be following me. They kept following me turn for turn. I started walking faster, they started walking faster. By the time I was in eyesight of the bar I was getting pretty scared so took off. Again, always wondered if they were just trying to scare me or if they were up to no good.
→ More replies (6)190
u/rebelallianxe 4h ago
When I was a teenager I stupidly decided to walk after dark to meet my mum at a local supermarket. It was quite a long walk and, though a main road, there weren't many people around. A guy started following me, speeding up when I walked faster and then jogging when I picked up the pace. I've never been a strong long distance runner but I was sprint champion at school. I ran flat out for about a mile and a half. I was gasping for breath when I made it to the supermarket and found my mum. Never been so scared before or since.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (21)241
u/piratepixie 5h ago edited 4h ago
Similar situation here. My housemate and I were walking home up an alleyway (well lit, but not a great decision from either of us tbh) and we walked past a guy who looked uncomfortable, so we linked arms together and walked faster out of the alley. The following morning, driving to work, I saw a bunch of cop cars on the other exit from the alleyway (where we'd entered from) and checked local police news and found out a dude with a sawn off shotgun had shot a police officer through a door whilst robbing a house. They had his mugshot on the article because he was still on the run. It was that dude we walked past. Dude looked shady cos he had a fucking shotgun in north fuckin England.
Edit to add BBC article
1.2k
u/Ambitious_Net_698 6h ago
I was driving with my mother down an empty street at night in Seattle. I slow down in front of an alley to make a turn. All of a sudden, there's a loud pop and glass bursts from my windshield. My mother tries to leave the car to figure out what happened. I lock the doors and speed away. When we get back to our Airbnb, I check the dashboard, and sure enough, there's a 9mm bullet just sitting there. It would have gone into my shoulder if it hadn't been stopped. The cops found bullet casings in the alley, but we never figured out why we were shot at. That same night, four other people had been randomly shot around the city. Life is strange.
→ More replies (5)693
u/lumoslomas 6h ago
The window shattered and your mum wanted to leave the car??
→ More replies (4)426
u/intern_steve 5h ago
Many people, most people even, don't immediately suspect a gun shot when they break down. I'm not saying I would have done the same thing, but inspecting the vehicle to determine if it's safe to continue operating it isn't strictly a wrong reaction, it just wasn't the right thing in that specific situation.
→ More replies (3)
5.5k
u/The_Techsan 7h ago edited 7h ago
I was in college, about to turn 21. The date was 9/16/11… I was over at my buddies’ “studying” which really meant I took an Adderall and was just hanging out chain smoking cigs. I didn’t talk to my mom all that often - ever since my parents had divorced 4 years earlier and my mom had remarried.
But I was struck with an overwhelming gut feeling that I needed to call my mom. It was unlike a feeling I’d ever felt. So I picked up the phone and dialed her. When she picked up, there was a lot of loud noises in the background, and I told her I couldn’t hear her. She walked away from the crowd she was standing in, towards some parking lots. We chatted for a few minutes, she told me she was at the Reno Air Races because her husband was running ATC for it.
After we got off the phone, she calls me back not even a minute later, freaking out and sobbing. While walking back to the crowd, a P-51 Mustang had a rudder hardover, lost control and slammed into the crowd pretty near to where my mom had been standing prior to my call. 11 people were killed in this accident.
That one always stuck with me - was weird having this info a good 15 minutes before it hit the news wire. Grateful I listened to my gut, can’t be certain she would’ve been killed, but she was initially within ~100 ft of where the plane hit.
1.5k
u/Joshawott27 6h ago
My Mum had something similar with my Nana, her Mum. Despite living in a different part of the country, one evening while getting me out of the bath, Mum apparently had a sudden, urgent feeling that something was wrong with Nana.
She phoned my Nana’s doctor who was convinced to do a house visit. It turned out that my Nana had suffered a stroke, and it was a rare time when my Grandpa was out without her.
Fortunately, she had a full recovery and lived for another 17ish years.
→ More replies (2)498
u/ImSpacemanSpiff 5h ago
My aunt is a career nurse, and at that time had been one for about 25 years. She just so happened to be at that event and was one of the people providing initial care to the ones who could be saved. She said that was by far the most traumatic thing she's seen in her now 40 year long career.
→ More replies (1)255
u/Banana_Wonderland 4h ago
This reminds me of my brother and his now wife. She's always been very clingy, so pretty much since they started dating she goes EVERYWHERE with my brother, like, she's even kind of earned the nickname "glue stick" by my family haha. But this one night my brother came over to see us alone, she didn't feel like going out that night, even when he came over we were like "huh? alone?" because they just don't do alone. A car ran a red light on his way home and completely smashed in his front passenger side, like absolutely obliterated it. My brother was fine, thank God, his car was a write-off though and anyone sitting in that front passenger side would have been gone too. Dude who hit him was being an idiot and not focusing because he was arguing with his girlfriend in his car. The one night she didn't join him probably saved her life.
318
u/linguinejuice 6h ago edited 6h ago
Never heard of this and just looked up a video… holy shit. The way it tilted up and then how fast it started nose diving… those poor people didn’t even have time to react, not even to just register what was about to happen.
→ More replies (7)218
u/Cat_Biscuit 5h ago
My father and brother were at that air show, but randomly decided to leave early, which was unusual for them. They had their cellphones off during lunch, and they didn’t know about the crash. It was a dreadful couple of hours waiting to hear from them, unsure if they were alive. It sounds like your phone call really did save your mom’s life. That is some crazy intuition you’ve got.
→ More replies (35)123
u/No_Meringue_1769 5h ago
I saw this on Air Disasters! The trim tab screw came loose or something to that effect - P51 Galloping Ghost was the name. I’ve been to a lot of airshows I can’t imagine something like that happening
→ More replies (4)
745
u/Adicol 7h ago
Us being a bunch of dumb teenagers decided to cross-country ski across a frozen portion of Georgian Bay to a small island for a cookout. Midday the sun was out and the temps kept going up and the ice started cracking. Just got a feeling we needed to head back right away. Started out back across and could see the water moving just below the ice. Made it back safely but I’ve never been so terrified. We knew nothing about the ice depth and hadn’t discussed our plan with any adults. Just stupidity.
93
u/its_pixiie 5h ago
Phew. Glad you made it back safely, that Bay is merciless.
41
u/swords_of_queen 4h ago
Absolutely frigid water. I went to Flowerpot Island with my family. I was in awe of my daughters, they were around 13 and 15 years old at the time, they swam at the island! I swam by the shore at the mainland and it was ok but out in the middle of the bay was unbelievably cold.
3.2k
u/Affectionate-Owl1992 7h ago edited 3h ago
The other day it was the opposite. The cross walk signal went off, and I decided to wait. Moments after I would have walked, a car sped through. It saved my life, no doubt.
Edit: As others have mentioned; ALWAYS watch for cars regardless! This was one of those cases that it came from seemingly nowhere. I immediately burst into tears after, and a person who saw what happened asked if I was okay - Life is short.
974
u/Mediocre-Fan-495 7h ago
I always look at the actual traffic light because you can't trust crosswalk signs sometimes.
→ More replies (25)517
u/VolsFan30 7h ago
I live right next to a cross walk. I’m still looking for cars too, because the frequency in which people just roll thru right hand turns is absurd. I’ve seen so many people almost get hit at that intersection.
→ More replies (34)243
u/ObeseTsunami 7h ago
Had something similar while I was living in Texas. Was driving and my light turned green and I had a feeling that I should wait just a couple seconds, a car honked at me but I stayed for another second and a big red lifted pickup blew through the red light from behind a building I couldn’t see past. No idea what compelled me to wait but that spidey sense really saved my skin.
→ More replies (7)75
u/Spidercat99 7h ago
I had a similar experience while driving. I was in the far right lane, which was clear, and the left turn and left forward lanes were full. The light turned green as I was approaching, but something told me to keep slowing down. Sure enough, a person in a motorized scooter had decided to just go, signals be damned. Had I gone when I was supposed to, I absolutely would have hit him.
No idea what compelled me to slow down, but it saved both of our skins.
→ More replies (3)59
u/TheD0UGH 6h ago
The amount of people I’ve seen speed through an intersection as the lights change is seemingly more common than not. At this point, I’ve started a habit of checking my left and right before driving off after being stopped at a red light.
I’ve had a few close calls already, and I recommend everyone try to incorporate it in their driving habits.
→ More replies (3)205
u/hiddenkobolds 6h ago
Similar: I was driving Lyft, with a passenger directly behind me. I was first in line to turn left. I got a protected left arrow. My instincts told me to wait a beat. The passenger said "why aren't you--" and before she could finish, a monster truck absolutely blew through the light on our left side at easily 50 MPH. It would have T-boned us both.
Go with your gut.
→ More replies (6)136
u/ChrimmyTiny 6h ago
My friend just lost her 16 year old daughter to a T Bone from one of those huge trucks running the light. She didn’t have a chance in her little car. Glad you were safe.
→ More replies (1)125
u/Little_Yesterday9904 6h ago edited 5h ago
I have 2 similar stories…
I was driving down a road near my house. Usually I went about 5 mph over, but I remember distinctly thinking to myself, “let’s go the speed limit, there’s a cop up there sometimes and the car is brand new”. So I drove forward at the speed limit. Then, a firework went shooting across the road about 20 feet in front of my vehicle.
A family was having a bonfire in their yard and didn’t realize a box they were burning still had a firework in it, and were just as shocked by this. If I didn’t listen to myself, I would’ve gotten hit.
Another one is that I was driving on a 2 lane expressway at 4 am to clear my head. I was very tired, and usually I drive a little faster in the left lane. But I decided just to stay in the right lane, that way I could cruise and people could pass without me having to get over.
So I was going over a highway overpass, where the road narrows and there’s no shoulder to pull off to. The road is also shaped like a hill, so you can’t see further up the road. I looked down to change my music, and when I looked up, headlights were coming right at me and in a split second, they passed me.
No one would’ve had any time to react. If I didn’t choose to drive in the right lane, I would’ve been hit and killed. A minute later, she hit a 30 year old man and killed him. Sometimes I think that he’s only dead because I’m alive, and if she had hit me instead, he would still be alive.
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (25)76
u/One-Head-1483 6h ago
One time I lingered at a 4-way stop sign to put my sunglasses on (I had just pulled out if my driveway that was on the corner) and that extra 4 seconds, a truck came speeding through without stopping. I would have been right in their pathway. It felt like some other worldly intervention.
→ More replies (1)
497
u/Secure_Ad8013 6h ago
Not exactly a “we need to leave,” but close enough. My dad was leaving work one night (pharmacist closing the place up at 9pm) and came out to a dead battery in his truck. He called my mom and she loaded us kids into the car and headed over there with some jumper cables. We got his truck started and he was all set to follow us home. My mom started slowly leaving the parking lot and we got past a building where we couldn’t see him anymore.
Then my mom got a bad feeling (she told us this later on) and something told her to go back. So we come back around the corner and my dad was leaned over into the bed of his truck rearranging his stuff for whatever reason, and a much larger man was walking straight toward him, very fast, and with his hand tucked into his jacket like he had a weapon. It was an empty parking lot so definitely headed right for my dad. And dad was oblivious to him.
As soon as we spotted this, mom cut across the spaces and pointed her headlights right at my dad. The other guy immediately changed direction and took off running. I’m pretty sure my dad was about to be assaulted and robbed/ carjacked, and my mom’s random gut feeling prevented it.
→ More replies (1)47
u/DiligentMagikarp 1h ago
If you read The Gift of Fear, one of the things he points out is how women in general have much better situational awareness than men, so rookie male cops have to learn to develop this skill.
→ More replies (1)
2.6k
u/Tiny-Party2857 7h ago
My husband and I stopped at a gas station to not only get gas but walk our dog in Tuba City, AZ. He pulled around back to give the dog some space and I was walking him while my husband was making a call. It was about 98F and two teens both wearing parkas and backpacks are walking toward us. My husband noticed one of them had what looked like a machete peeking out from the bottom of the parka. The young man was holding his jacket closed with one hand. My husband called out to me to get in the car with the dog. I heard the timbre of his voice (he's never told me to get in the car before) so I hustle in and buckled up with the dog. The teens turned around and walked into the gas station/casino and we went to a gas station on the opposite corner. I bought a soda and was telling the man behind us what just happened and his reply was that we were lucky it wasn't a chain saw. The cashier overheard me and said there's a lot of strange things that happen here... I will never stop in Tuba City again and will consider bringing a weapon for the rural areas of the west.
1.0k
u/hessofluffy1992 7h ago
It’s wild hearing about Tuba City. When I was in high school we did mission trips with my church there. Mostly we built roofs and houses for local people. They didn’t have to go to church.
The minister there was a crotchety old guy and he was super serious about us young girls being safe.
You do not leave the outside of the church grounds. There was also a street dog we called mama dog. And she would escort the girls to the bathroom since it was in another building.
There was extreme poverty there. I’m not sure if I would go back either.
180
u/jaglife16 5h ago
I’ve also been to this same church in Tuba City with my church on mission trips. The minister there was crotchety but he was a legend, did a lot of good in that community while he was alive.
I definitely had to run from some wild dogs though
→ More replies (2)273
u/One_Camel_4997 6h ago
That part about the guide dog mama dog escorting girls to the bathroom hits different...like even the locals knew the situation was bad enough that protection had to be improvised
169
u/noalum 6h ago
i lived on the navajo rez for a while in high school, in chinle. no difference between there and tuba city. we used to play against them in sports. by the way, i'm not native american. what i can say about the area is that it can be more dangerous than other places and things that happen on the rez often go unsolved. that's the worst part. somebody gets killed and nobody saw nothing. but general basic precautions taken by anybody anywhere are enough to get you by in chinle, or tuba city for that matter. its beautiful country but its poverty stricken. still, nobody's objective for the day is to wake up and slit your throat.
→ More replies (1)480
u/zdhonda93 6h ago edited 6h ago
I grew up in Flagstaff , AZ which isn't far from Tuba City. Basketball games out on the rez were always an experience. We beat the Chinle HS basketball team my senior year and had to be escorted out of the gym to our bus by the tribal police. We were also set to get dinner at the BK in Chinle afterwards but after getting an escort out of the gym our coach decided otherwise.
I repoed cars for a bit in my early 20's and the only time I ever was shot at during a repo was in Tuba City
→ More replies (4)209
u/mrphreems1 7h ago
Northern AZ is beautiful but there are definitely some shady areas. I remember a 24 hour Walmart just littered with tweakers doing tweaker shit
→ More replies (1)103
u/zdhonda93 6h ago
The good old Flagstaff 24hr walmarts. Always tweaker shit going on there. Born and raised in flagstaff, moved to Oregon 20 years ago and don't regret it for second.
→ More replies (6)69
386
u/hotinhawaii 6h ago
I was in Tuba City once. My brother and I were on a backpacking trip and wanted to rest for the night. We stayed at a "hotel". It was a blocked off section of the high school. Our room was a classroom. And the bathroom was a locker room. They blocked off a section of the school to teach students how to do hospitality jobs. Kind of cool but also so sad.
→ More replies (4)209
u/AdmirableParfait3960 6h ago
Was that as insanely creepy as it sounds? I can’t imagine staying the night somewhere like that where I was being watched by poverty stricken teens.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (33)136
u/WarTurbulent2063 7h ago
That is creepy. That's on a reservation, I believe?
So random side story: I have never been to Tuba City and I don't live anywhere near AZ. But I have a hooded sweatshirt (it's one of my favorites) from some car wash in Tuba City, AZ.
→ More replies (4)72
1.2k
u/lookyloolookingatyou 7h ago
Opposite, everyone but me was keenly aware of the undercover cop at my dealer’s house and cleared out five minutes after his arrival.
Warning signs I missed:
-He had a crew cut and was 45-years-old
-Conspicuously shirtless despite being indoors
-Calm, cool demeanor. I don’t remember him saying a single word, leading to
-The dealer’s regular customer who introduced the cop to us was piss drunk at noon and couldn’t look us in the eye
-the drunk guy kept repeating certain words over and over with a strange emphasis
867
u/Free_Pace_2098 5h ago
Poor old detective at our local nightclub in his new balance and tidy haircut.
It was a punk music venue. He was asking if anyone knew "where to buy ecstacy tablets"
We felt bad for him. Not bad enough to stop making pig noises, but a little bad.
→ More replies (18)200
u/ButtSexington3rd 3h ago
Oh man, reminds me of the 40 year old cop I saw in the rave club with a flat top and a fucking Hawaiian shirt
→ More replies (2)122
→ More replies (8)332
u/therealdanhill 6h ago
Damn his own customer set him up to avoid a possession charge I bet, that's fucked. You play in that world you have to take what comes.
Did they bust him then or later
313
u/lookyloolookingatyou 5h ago
Honestly I think the drunk guy went over-the-top to tip us off. The third time he patted the undercover on the shoulder and loudly said “This is my cousin usually I take care of him but I’m going out of town and he likes to smoke a lot so I figured I’d introduce you” literally everyone else got up and left like it had been rehearsed.
I don’t think the dealer got busted. This was 2009 and he was selling $20 bags of weed, he wasn’t an immediate layup and kept stalling while providing plausible deniability to the drunk guy. Not the kind of idiot who watches Scarface and gets big ideas.
610
u/JamJm_1688 7h ago
Guy in minivan insisting that he knew my mom and would drive me to school, i had no idea who he was, my mom had not mentioned anyone agreeing to let someone drive me to school. and i repeat he drove a nice and spacious minivan with no windows
I dont know if he was a kidnapper (we live in a small town) but he sure as hell felt like one, even to kid me, the scariest part is that if i had been a little more trusting of a person i would totally have gone in since i could not poke a hole in his story outside of calling my mom and making it a huge deal.
i just felt... off at the offer, and, just in case i said something along the lines of "oh no thats okay, i can walk, its not that far and i like to walk" which was the absolute truth but, still.
301
u/nicethingsarenicer 6h ago
I can't imagine how your mum felt when you told her. I'd have died a thousand deaths if it were my baby.
→ More replies (2)232
204
u/g0Ids0undz 4h ago
When I was like 6 I got lost from my mom while out shopping. When I was frantically searching for her a man came up and asked me if I was lost. I said yes and he told me he was a police offer. He told me I could come with him to the station to wait for my mom. He said I can color and bake cookies. I was about to go with him, even though he was not wearing a police uniform, but the comment about making cookies at a police station didn’t make sense to me. Like why would a police station have an oven? Ended up running into a store and an employee helped me find my mom.
→ More replies (2)58
u/Pinealforest 2h ago
The fact that some creepy guy was there the moment you got lost is fucked up. My daughter of three years left the bookstore once when i was paying and I couldn't find her. I almost shit my pants. This is so scary.
→ More replies (10)124
u/MyAlbinoFrog 5h ago
That was a huge concern when I was growing up in the 80s. My parents trained my sister & I that if they ever sent someone to pick us up the person would know the code word so we knew we could trust them. It was a super complicated dog breed name.
→ More replies (5)48
u/sheflies 3h ago
Same for my sister and me also growing up in the 80s/early 90s and our code word was also a dog breed. I think it’s safe now to divulge the code word was “Dalmatian”.
→ More replies (1)34
u/MyAlbinoFrog 3h ago
I can’t tell you mine because I still use it for security questions & the pass code for my security system.
703
u/Eyruaad 6h ago
My worst was a school trip to Tokyo. Two of us were grad students, and the rest were like 19/20 year old kids. Our professor said we could go out, but put myself and the other grad student "in charge."
Stumbling around Tokyo near Shinjuku at about 2:30 AM trying to get back to the hotel and we very obviously turned down the wrong street into a back alley. From the left and right of the alley, 4 absolutely well dressed men in suits and neck tattoos barely peeking out just kind of appeared. Myself and the other grad student were in the front of the pack and stopped dead in our tracks. The younger kids didn't notice anything. The 4 guys kind of stood still and basically squared off with us, staring me and the other grad in the eyes, then did kinda a tongue click thing and nodded back in the direction we came.
IMMEDIATELY. It's time to go. We will be leaving now. I bowed, and immediately started turning the kids around.
389
u/Purely-Pastel 3h ago
You just met some friendly neighborhood Yakuza members, no biggie!
Jokes aside, glad you got outta there. I would’ve shat bricks.
185
u/Eyruaad 2h ago
Luckily the other grad student was former army who served after 9/11 and I was the instructor of the local MMA gym. Our situational awareness was on point compared to the drunk 19 year olds behind us.
Though I will say, big respect to Yakuza on that one. Some streets in America we would have just died for being in the wrong place. They clearly gave the message to go away and we respected. They didn't want to do anything bad, and we all understood it's better to go home.
→ More replies (3)89
u/LocoCoopermar 2h ago
From what I understand, the Yakuza most definitely do not want to cause an incident/want to keep things going like they are. If you don't get involved in their business they keep to themselves for the most part
→ More replies (3)210
u/JustASpaceDuck 3h ago
Gotta love the friendly neighborhood Yakuza rolling a perfect intimidation check to communicate across language barriers that you should not be here.
→ More replies (2)
149
u/thirstygregory 5h ago
When I was a kid in the 80s my Mom took me to the local drug store. Our area was pretty sketch back then.
I was spacing out looking at Star Wars action figures when she abruptly guides me out and says, “let’s go.”
I was really confused until as we were walking out I saw a dude with a gun holding up the checker.
We got in our car as the guy ran out and down the street. Mom had a bit of crime watch lady to her so we sneakily followed behind him in our car as he was walking blocks away.
We somehow found a pay phone (remember 80s), called 911 and told them where he was walking — and they got him!
We crimestopped his ass!
301
u/Visual_Department_11 6h ago
Paramedic on scene of a call of a man who had an injury to the head in his home. He didn’t know who it was or where the guy went. I kept begging my work partner to leave the scene with me and patient because I had a bad feeling. Cops ended up not searching the place until I decided to take the family and go outside. The attacker was in the closet with a loaded gun the whole time not 15 feet from us. Wound on patients head was a gunshot.
→ More replies (5)63
277
u/Sbinar 6h ago
Riding the bus and got a really bad vibe off a guy a few seats behind me. He didn’t look at me or anything, just a really bad gut feeling. I got off the bus a few stops early and raced into the vet’s office I took my cat to and called my mother to come pick me up. When I looked out the window he was across the street staring at me through the office window. Took off when my mother showed up and we drove off.
→ More replies (4)
394
u/Povapants 6h ago
I was slowing down for a stoplight, and instantaneously had a feeling like I needed to watch what was going on around me since this was a brand new light in a really weird spot. If you didn’t know it was there, it would be easy to fuck up and continue through. I look up in my rearview mirror and see a semi truck that is obviously not slowing down. There was one minivan behind me with a mother and a couple of kids. I get myself into the second lane and start honking. The Mom gets the idea and moves over with probably 3 seconds to spare before the truck barrels through the intersection. Really happy that nothing bad came from it, since the other lane had a green.
→ More replies (3)
129
u/macar0nunic0rn 6h ago
We booked an Airbnb last minute in rural Alabama after kayaking all day rather than making the drive back to the city. It looked nice enough, just some old house, but one slightly weird thing was that one room was locked and you could see a sliver of light under the door. My husband found a switch that turned that light off in the kitchen and we went to sleep, exhausted, figuring the locked space was just the laundry room or something - I’ve definitely stayed in Airbnbs where that’s the case.
But in the middle of the night, he woke up, and the light was not only back on, the previously locked door was hanging open. The room had a window in it, but not much else. We ran to the car and floored it before we could put any more of those puzzle pieces together and drove straight back to Atlanta at 3am.
→ More replies (2)35
1.3k
u/Capital-Scallion8634 7h ago
Was 9 months pregnant, about to go on a hike in a large park that borders several residential neighborhoods and a big open area that has a playground and some picnic shelters (in LA). Trail entry is a narrow path and once you turn the first corner you're fully "in" the park and not in view of the residential areas or the playground. It was not a busy day, but as I was about to enter the path, I saw this guy walking about a block away. He was bent a little to the side. I couldn't see him but something didn't seem right. Suddenly he starts running straight at me.
Nope. Time to go. Luckily my husband and I could get to our car, which was parked about 10 feet away from the trailhead. The guy chased our car as we drove off. Fucking bizarre.
→ More replies (25)1.2k
u/Arryu 6h ago
You narrowly avoided an encounter with shia labeouf.
77
→ More replies (15)59
322
u/Important_Bowl_8332 6h ago
My bf and I were driving around looking at Christmas lights in the wealthy neighborhoods near my apartment. We live right outside of a city so the whole area is heavily populated. As we are slow rolling a guy pops out from behind a car and jumps in front of my car (my bf is driving). I scream stop and my bf comes inches from hitting him.
I literally saw this guy JUMP and put his hands up. My hackles are up. It’s dark and cold and my bf starts to stop the car to get out to yell at the guy and I scream no and tell him to hit the gas that it was intentional. He’s a smart guy and immediately gets what I mean. We speed out as quickly as possible.
The area is prone to carjackings. I’m almost possible we dodged a felony that night. Crazy
→ More replies (1)
1.2k
u/tricksofradiance 7h ago
Broad daylight, driving to New Orleans, stopped somewhere in Alabama to pee at a gas station. The lady behind the counter looked at me and my boyfriend and said “this place ain’t safe for you” We found another exit
→ More replies (89)326
1.8k
u/60nine_lol_NICE 7h ago
This one was eerie, to is at least
I went out the window of the bathroom window of a gutted out party house because I could feel the crowd turn bad. I could just feel it. I needed to leave sooner than we could reach the exit so we went out the nearest window. I was so thankful because it was like a reverse horror movie, where everyone was like yeah, seems logical, time to go. Got on the same page and took off back to our car.
A huge fight broke out, cops were called, emergency services came because the fight got really bad and a bunch of people jumped in. Not to mention all the minors that got busted. I could just feel the anger in the air and I had to get out. There some really heavy music playing and you could feel people on edge, you could literally smell it. So glad I bailed.
165
u/floppydo 6h ago
This happened to me twice! First time was like yours where I was a minor at house party and all of a sudden it was super off so we bailed and heard the next day someone got stabbed and then of course the cops showed up and a bunch of people got arrested.
The other time was at a bar when I was older. All of a sudden I just knew a fight was about to break out so we got off the dance floor and sure enough there was a BRAWL. Like 15 hard looking dudes going at it like crazy. I had to play mosh pit edge to protect the women in our group from getting smashed but if we'd all still been on the dance floor someone for sure would have gotten hurt.
→ More replies (5)566
u/PNGN 6h ago
Stories like this are more proof that we pick up on a LOT more than our basic senses make us believe. Like dogs can consciously smell cortisol, but that means that we probably can, too, to some extent, and I always wonder with stories like this if something like that may be what subconsciously tipped you off.
→ More replies (3)213
u/baardvark 6h ago
I was thinking there’s got to be an anger pheromone that we can subconsciously pick up on.
→ More replies (1)135
u/ProxyMuncher 6h ago
I know at least for me when I get stressed the fuck out and angry specifically I will smell different to myself (anger sweats I call them) it’s very fragrant even soon after a shower. I wish I wasn’t such an angry person irl but what can you do nowadays lol. My partner can pick up on it too
→ More replies (7)230
u/clarasdiary 7h ago
Glad you left, that's one thing I learned in life especially as a girl. Always listen to your gut.
→ More replies (1)157
u/Gratefulgirl13 6h ago
And always have an exit plan. That’s the first thing to establish when you show up at a club, concert, party, etc. Know the ways out and not just the main entrance exit.
286
u/Everythings_Magic 6h ago
Same. Back in late 90s. Fat Tuesday in Philly. Was on south street. You could feel the angst in the air. We bailed and went back home and a found out the next day a full on riot broke out.
→ More replies (3)130
u/thatsucksabagofdicks 6h ago
I've had this happen once.
High school party, it was one of my friends birthdays. Vibe shifted at a certain point when this group of recently graduated guys showed up. I decided it was time to bounce and took off. Im taking off down 3rd street and can see through the ABCDE streets down to first that there is like 6 cop cars heading to where I just left. I find out the next day that like as soon as I hit the door one of those recently graduated guys just starts swinging on people. Huge fights break out, his neighbor breaks through the fence with a bat, cops come, people are arrested, they have to call parents for rides. It got pretty bad. Not for me though, excellent night.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (23)45
u/gogogadgetdumbass 6h ago
I was a big partier in my teens, when you are always at a party you do get a sense for it. I’m glad you and your friends were in tune.
698
u/cafeyvino4 6h ago edited 3h ago
My family is from a small town in northern Mexico. We used to visit every summer and winter. Everyone in the town knows each other/is related. Some cousins and I were walking from an aunt’s house to the corner store for snacks one evening. We were all teenage girls.
We noticed this old beige car driving our way. It was full of men. I didn’t recognize the car or the men, and I instantly felt that hot panicky feeling all over my body. We all grabbed each others hands and ran back as fast as we could. We didn’t have to tell each other a word, we just knew we would be taken if we kept walking. I turned back to see if they were following us and saw the barrel of a large gun sticking out from the window.
This was the year that cartel activity escalated. Several kidnappings happened in those areas after that incident. We were so, so lucky.
→ More replies (6)
739
u/__Dark_Triad__ 6h ago
Rest stop in the middle of nowhere in Texas. It was a much-needed break in a long cross-country road trip, on one of those roads that you're happy you have enough gas because there's nothing for miles. There were some storms moving in, but nothing alarming. We were all running around, happy to use our legs after hours in the car.
Then the air shifted. Not sure how to describe it, it just felt suddenly oppressive in a very uneasy way. My ex waved across the grass field we were playing in, signaling us to get in the car. I felt it too, so I stayed calm but gathered everyone up as quickly as possible.
Moments after we started driving, our littlest daughter turns around and points out the back window to show me the "interesting thing" behind us. I looked in the rear view mirror and a tornado was spinning up right next to the rest stop we were just at. We watched it cross the highway behind us as we sped off. If we hadn't left when we did, we would have been right in the path after it formed.
→ More replies (1)283
u/Prudent_Honeydew_ 5h ago edited 5h ago
Oh yeah that air change right before a tornado is not to be ignored. Woke up one November morning to mid-70s temps. Very weird, everything seemed kind of slowish and heavy? Then the shift and we looked out to a tornado. Ran downstairs, luckily our block was spared most home damage but others just a ways down weren't so lucky.
→ More replies (3)
284
u/F0regn_Lawns 6h ago
My bf and I were sailing on a hot summer day and anchored up behind an island on the ICW in SW Florida. We thought we would go for a swim and after about 2 minutes in the water we both looked at each other and just swam back to the boat and were like yeah we’re done. A minute or so later a huge bull shark swirled a few feet away from the boat. It was weird we both could sense the potential danger.
→ More replies (4)
272
u/Wonderful-Ad4972 6h ago
When I was 13, my friend had been texting a guy. We had never met him, but he told her he was a friend of one of our friend. The guy told us he was about our age. After a few days, we (my friend, the guy and I) decide to meet up at a gas station close to my house. We were just talking and I ask him how he knew the friend we had in common. He told us he doest know him. After a few minutes, he says one of his friend would like to hang out with us, so we walked to that friend’s appartement. My friend and I stayed outside, but the guy went inside the building. He came back outside to tell us his friend wanted us to meet him inside. He insisted alot. My friend was about to follow him, but I had a bad feeling. I whispered to my friend that we should run. So, as soon as the guy was turned around, we ran back to my house. It’s been more than 10 years and I still don’t know if he had bad intention, but I’m glad we did not go inside.
112
u/somesketchykid 2h ago
For anybody reading this who doesn't know - never go with a stranger to a second location. There are almost no exceptions to this rule, its never a good plan.
→ More replies (4)35
970
u/kfunions 7h ago
Visiting a city I didn’t know, was trying to find a particular neighborhood people had recommended but must have got off on the wrong train stop. Walked a block or two, turned a corner to find a parked car fully engulfed in flames and a bunch of people sitting around on their stoops as if it was just an ordinary day. No cops, no fire department. Turned to my husband and said “I think we should leave now”.
171
u/jessicahueneberg 6h ago
I had something similar happen while I was travelling. I turned a few corners looking for a shop while I was in London (many, many years ago) and got really sketched out on how the buildings and atmosphere changed. Only I didn't take off... I kept walking looking for this store. Suddenly I had a man walk up to me and ask why I didn't show up to our date last week. I tried to explain that he must have me mistaken and he started getting really aggressive in his questioning asking why I am doing this to him. Mind you, I literally was not in the country during this alleged date.
I took off running because he was scaring me so much and ran and hid in a convivence store when he he chased after me. Luckily the shop keeper caught on right away that I was hiding from the guy. I stayed in the store until they gave me the all clear... But damn, it was scary.
I wish I had been like u/kfunions and walked away as soon as I realized how sketchy it was becoming.
→ More replies (2)325
u/IchooseYourName 6h ago
I visited New Orleans in 2006 to help with the Katrina clean up. Volunteered with a grass roots organization that set up its headquarters in a church school in the Upper 9th ward. I flew in at night time, and the shuttle dropped me off about a mile and a half away, just outside the neighborhood. The entire environment was so creepy, absolute silence completely empty, no lights anywhere, just deserted. I had a big hockey duffle bag with my stuff and supplies I intended to donate, so it was a hefty walk. My gut kept telling me "This is not where we want to be." Multiple horror movie scenarios ran through my head, but I kept trudging until finally saw the one street lamp that was turned on outside of the school with people hanging out in the front like it was any other Saturday evening. It was freaky as hell, but I'm so glad I went through with it. That week was one of the most inspiring times of my life.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)32
93
u/AfterDeathComesSushi 6h ago
Walking through a park at night with a friend. See a group of people walking rather fast in our direction. Group seemed ominous, too many people this late at night (00:00) in the park (we where the only ones there) We decided to turn around almost immediately and get out of there unscathed. Later learned that same night, that same park, several people had been robbed at knife point and one person stabbed.
168
u/DrDH21 6h ago edited 58m ago
My parents and I were flying home one summer in the mid 90s. Got on our plane on the layover and something just felt bad. I got more and more nervous to the point that I told them that there was something wrong with this plane and we need to get off. They finally listened to me and we were going to deplane. Not more than a minute later the flight attendant nearby (we were in the way back), who had also heard the whole ordeal, received a call from the pilot that we all had to deplane as there was damage to one of the wings found on inspection.
Needless to say, I did not like the first final destination movie years later
→ More replies (3)
299
u/Zanian19 6h ago
Not we, since I was by myself. But many years ago I was on holiday in Egypt taking a shortcut on foot through the desert (honestly no idea how I've survived this long), when I found an ancient looking deserted village. After a bit, I saw armed soldiers canvasing the area. I hid and made my escape once the coast was clear.
Turns out it was a holy site and my guide at the hotel later told me it was a shoot on sight situation with trespassers.
→ More replies (2)77
602
u/LudovicGiulyStan 7h ago
I was in downtown Denver 2023 after the nuggets won the championship. Not just a feeling but could tell as the night went on the number of idiots increased exponentially. Looked at my boy who had a kid on the way and said ‘we all have too much to lose for this.’ Walked back to our car with my group of 6 and we heard gun shots right in the heart of downtown 20th and market. Luckily no one died but 4 people got shot.
→ More replies (3)190
u/Rossum81 6h ago
Similarly, I was in Kenmore Square after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. The crowd felt ugly, so I left. Shortly after a girl was killed by a pepper ball round that struck her eye.
→ More replies (6)112
227
u/skiing_trees1022 6h ago
February in NYC as COVID really got underway. I was an ICU RN at the time. Walked into that unit that day and several other RNs were there as patients, intubated, etc. the manager looked at us all hopelessly after saying the mask you have is the only mask you’ll get. The hospital was out of them. I did that shift and when I got home I told my wife and we need to leave now.
Luckily was able to work as an ICU RN in another state & hospital that had adequate supplies. My wife has a congenital heart condition. So while I felt bad leaving, I didn’t want to get her fatally sick. Never been that scared in my life.
→ More replies (1)104
u/operasaab 5h ago
NYC during the beginning of lockdown was bone-chilling. I passed through midtown in early March and saw only 3-4 cars/ a few pedestrians. It was almost apocalyptic in a way
→ More replies (4)
628
u/Deweyoxberg 6h ago
Many years ago, hiking through the Rockies in Canada, with a bunch of youth under my care.
The forest had gone eerily quiet, which most folks know is generally not a good sign. We were already on the way out as-is, and simply had hastened the pace a little just in case.
We were maybe a click or so from where we parked and the forest just... stopped. Where there was eerie quiet with the odd chirp or chatter from some critter, a woodpecker here and there... there was now this ... bizarre all encompassing thick silence. Like when you're home alone with no sounds and that "hiss" sound is deafening in your ears.
Anywho - the temperature and wind were doing weird things as well. Rapid cooling, with "sort of windy" translating quickly into a standstill. Gut said it was time to GTFO quite promptly - we double timed it as the sky started to turn this ugly green colour...
Oh yes. THAT kind of green.
That thing touched down about 30 minutes later right where we had been jog-walking... When we went back, there was nothing left of the big huge dead tree stump thing we'd been resting at. As if a hand had reached down and ripped what was already left clean out of the ground just... cleanly gone, like a toothpick.
Best part though?
Across the river maybe 100 feet or so... bear and her cubs coming out from whatever hidey hole they'd found, looking around like "WTF?" I don't blame them.
Have never seen a sky like that since. Almost a teal-green. Yech. No thanks!
184
u/Titania_2016 6h ago
When I was In elementary school , a tornado touched down at a local elementary school a city over. Three kindergartners were killed, it was awful. So we were under a tornado drill at school ( sitting with our backs against the wall in an upstairs hall , very safe, lol!) but I remember looking out the window and the sky was just this awful like you said , teal green color that i've never seen before or since , but I know for , damn sure if I see that color sky again , i'm getting out of Dodge!
→ More replies (13)130
u/ablackcloudupahead 5h ago
I like the idea of the mama bear and her cubs looking at you like "Are you seeing this shit too?"
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (23)87
u/Cloudinterpreter 4h ago
Green sky means tornado?
→ More replies (14)113
u/Traditional_Mango920 4h ago
Yeah, the color of green isn’t teal where I am, though. It’s more of an olive color. It’s just very angry looking. And green doesn’t always mean tornado. The air has a very perceptible heaviness to it, for lack of a better word.
It’s very hard to describe to people who don’t live in tornado areas, though. It’s not uncommon, in my area at least, to see everyone come outside and look up when the sirens go off. Sirens go off if the storm has a potential for tornadoes, not just because one is imminent. So we go out, look at the color of the sky, check how it “feels” and either go take immediate shelter, or go about our day…keeping one eye on the sky of course. Which sounds absolutely bonkers to anyone that doesn’t live in a tornado alley. But you sort of have to learn to assess in order to get anything done. Two weeks ago, the sirens went off 16 different times in one day. Not a single tornado. Siren fatigue is real here.
→ More replies (8)
77
u/ColoradoCattleCo 6h ago
Pre-smartphone era: I was near the silage pit on our farm when the wind made the tops of the trees bend over sideways and it was completely still on the ground. The cattle started running around in an erratic manner and the sky had turned a gray-green color. 5 minutes later it was rain/hail as I drove quickly back to the farmhouse. We got everyone into the basement and sure enough, an EF3 tornado touched down about a half mile away. Scary stuff
254
u/veryredapples 6h ago
I have 2:
It was a windy day for a hike in the canyon. I sat down on a boulder under a tree and suddenly, I felt that I needed to get up right now. As I stood up, a massive branch from the tree fell where I was sitting just moments ago. We left immediately after that.
The second one scared me more: I was changing my daughter in our car in a full, covered parking lot. There were a few people passing by, men and women, all going to the beach. I was standing outside the open car door, preoccupied, when I felt something was off. I looked over my shoulder and there were 3 men standing just behind my car, blocking me and my daughter. I looked at one of them and made full eye contact and something in his gaze scared me. I immediately got into my car and locked the doors. They left soon after. I secured my daughter and we left the lot. This experience made me get a pepper spray.
→ More replies (10)
64
u/captainp42 6h ago
(Not me, my wife).
When my daughter was 4-5 years old, my wife took her to a local mall for the Build-A-Bear store. They were there for an hour or so, and bumping around doing other things. My wife said she just suddenly got a bad vibe...and decided they needed to leave.
That night on the news, we saw that there was a riot about an hour later...shots fired, etc.
282
u/WillowLocal423 6h ago
My wife and I were staying with my brother and his friends at a shared Air BnB in Boston, visiting for a football game.
They were all pretty heavy alcoholics. At one point I was on the porch having a cigarette, talking to one of my brother's friends. I can't remember what I said, but all of a sudden his face just went cold, like shark eyes, and told me to stop talking about whatever I was talking about. Idk what it was but it just rubbed me deeply wrong, that look in his eyes.. Just cold violent rage. I can't even remember what I said but I remember that feeling.
My wife and I ended up leaving the next morning and catching a flight back early for many reasons (not fun sharing a place with a bunch of alcoholic binge drinkers in their 30s), but that man really freaked us out.
A couple months later he murdered his ex and mother of his child for.. going on a date with somebody else.
→ More replies (4)
176
u/Ok_Echidna_2933 5h ago
I was out hunting on my family's chunk of land. I heard my mom say my name like she was right next to me, while I was alone in the middle of the woods...mind you she passed two years prior. It freaked me out. I had a horrible feeling something bad was happening or going to happen. I headed home, to find my dad on the floor having a dangerous low sugar level being diabetic. 911 called, panicking trying to get him to take his glucose tablet. I'm just glad I went home in time to save him.
→ More replies (2)
270
u/mcman12 7h ago
Last night of Woodstock 99
→ More replies (28)207
u/InevitableCodeRedo 6h ago
I got out about halfway through Saturday before all the shit started to go down. The vibe was completely off and I just knew it was time to bail. My buddy felt the same way.
337
u/Homofuckbro 6h ago
One of the creepiest experiences I've had happened while driving home late at night with my puppy. It was well after 11 PM, and I pulled into one of those little highway pull-off areas so she could get out and pee. There was nobody else around. While I was there, another car pulled in behind me. Nothing obviously wrong happened, but the second that car showed up, I got a really bad feeling. I immediately picked up my puppy, put her back in the car, locked the doors, and sat there for a minute watching. The guy got out of his car and walked around the front. He appeared to be looking at his headlights, which were both on and seemed perfectly fine. Maybe there was a legitimate reason. I honestly don't know. I can't say he was pretending or that he had bad intentions.
I can't say anything other than that was one of the few times in my life that I got that big GTFO feeling.
69
→ More replies (6)40
u/2PlasticLobsters 4h ago
It could've been both. Psychopaths have car trouble like everyone else. "Uh-oh, better pull off & check on that noise... Oh good, a fresh vicitm!"
Always trust your instincts.
58
u/Popular_Replacement 6h ago
We were standing on a sidewalk outside a restaurant waiting on a table. There was an alleyway that ran along the side of the restaurant. A car pulled up and I just felt immediate dread. I told my husband I wanted to leave and we’d just grab takeout somewhere. That night and in that exact spot, I’m not sure how much later, a couple was attacked. The man was tied up and the woman was assaulted there in the alley. We were shocked when we saw the news the next day. Because of this, my husband never questions the rare occasions where I get weird vibes. I’m sure I’ve been often wrong, but that night I wasn’t and we’ve never forgotten it.
→ More replies (1)
53
u/FutureGold4132 6h ago
I was in college studying abroad, arrived in athens train station quite late and intended to sleep there for a few hours, but got kicked out. Started walking up the street with no hostel reservations, and ran into two friendly guys.
I asked them where I could stay for cheap and they said just come stay at our place. I said oh that's nice, and I had couch surfed before, and hitch hiked, and stayed in a lot of weird places before, so it wasn't that far out of my comfort zone. They led me back to a tunnel that went under the train tracks into pitch black, saying "our place is just over on the other side", and my gut literally turned over. I've never bailed like that in my life, but I noped the fuck out, walked for a mile, and found a hotel. I'm glad I don't know how that story ends.
109
u/RetroBerner 6h ago edited 1h ago
We were sitting at a red light and I hear music getting progressively louder real quick. I tell my wife to back up a bit and like 2 seconds later a lifted truck comes flying around the corner, looses it and flips right where we were previously stopped.
The truck slides to a stop upside down on its roof. 80s hair metal is still blasting, gasoline is pouring out of the gas tank, a case of beer flew out of the broken back window and dude crawls out and calls for me to help him flip it back up.
I said fuck that noise and called the cops. They came within minutes and dude took off running down the street barefoot when he heard the sirens. I told the cops what happened and where dude ran off to.
It wasn't that scary, but I'm sure glad I listened to my gut when I heard "Cum on Feel the Noize" coming at me at what sounded like 80 mph
→ More replies (5)
229
u/earth_worx 6h ago
Eh…when I was 18 I got followed home driving home from a club at 1am. I realized what was going on, panicked, took off crazy weaving through the neighborhood, lost the car behind me, drove around for an hour and a half before I was brave enough to go home
My parents dismissed me, said I was freaking out for no reason
The next week we found out that the neighbor across the street had been held at gunpoint the night before this happened to me and the neighbor to the south of us had likewise been held at gunpoint the night after
These were two middle aged dudes and they were just robbed of their cash. Me, I was an 18 year old girl, and really really bad things happened to people like me in our neighborhood
My parents were fucking jackasses about it
I never went out at night alone again
I left that city as soon as I could and I never want to go back
→ More replies (3)70
u/aliquotiens 5h ago
The fuck is wrong with your parents! You were a smart kid, I would have been so proud (and terrified)
52
u/Nyx_Shadowspawn 6h ago
When I was a teenager I was jogging at night in my neighborhood and this car passed me driving really slow. I started running a different direction, and it turned and followed me. I cut through a neighbor's yard, but was still pretty far from my house, so I just hid for a while. It passed slowly several times, and seemed to be looking for me. My mom was walking- we didn't stick together because I wanted to run and she wanted to walk, and she called me and asked if I was okay, because there was a car that was freaking her out and it drove away when she pulled out her phone. We met up in a well lit area and went back home together. It really freaked us both out.
52
u/atlasc1 6h ago
One evening many years ago, I was standing at the edge of an enormous lake with a fishing rod (on a canoe trip trying to catch dinner). There were some dark clouds maybe 10-15 miles away, but the weather was clear above.
The person I was standing next to turned to me and said "Wow that looks funny, your hair is standing straight up!"
I felt a tingling sensation moving in my body from my feet up through the top of my head, and somehow my instinct was to say "we need to go RIGHT NOW," and I sprinted away from the edge of the water back to camp. We didn't have any fish, but the rest of the night was uneventful.
I looked up the phenomenon later and saw a bunch of photos and stories online where people's hair was standing up like mine only moments before they were struck by lightning.
→ More replies (1)
264
u/mammaV55 6h ago
My late husband and I were admiring the ocean in a cliff side overlook in St. Croix. I heard a dog or two barking in the distance, didn’t think much of it until my husband said, “Get in the car. Get in the car now.” He realized the dogs were barking to each other to the left and right of us. They were hunting us. We peeled out of there quickly. Man, that man never let me down. He was always looking out to protect me.
→ More replies (1)66
355
u/BustinMakesMeFeelMeh 6h ago
Friend brought me to her “friend’s” house to buy some weed. They invited us in, and it immediately became clear that they were much more than weed dealers. Guns and scales and such all over the place. Still, they were nice to us, told us to take a seat and went upstairs—climbing over people—to get the weed.
As soon as I sat down, I broke the couch. The opposite side swung upward, and my friend quickly sat on it to return balance. The whole time we were waiting, we were carefully maintaining balance, like we were on a seesaw. But I weigh like 100 pounds more than her.
The wait took forever. Stoned people just staring at us. Waiting for this guy to come back down. Praying he’ll just let us go.
Eventually he did. He accepted our polite decline to smoke it with him, and my friend and I managed to time our stands so the couch appeared stable. And we got THE FUCK out of there.
82
→ More replies (5)62
u/OhHeyItsMeM 5h ago
I am so happy that weed is now legal to buy because some of those dealers were sketch af
→ More replies (1)
283
u/huiscloslaqueue 7h ago
I was out with a friend that was visiting, so we were walking to a bar near my place in the downtown core when we came across an argument outside that exact bar. There was two groups in a heated argument with two main players and their crew.
I worked in bar/venue for many years, and I know the look that a man gets that means he won't be talked out of a fight. I saw that in the one person's eyes when I walked past, so I told my friend to turn around, that we were going somewhere else.
That argument resulted in a murder. The joys of living an major urban core.
I don't know which dude died that night, but we read about it in the news the next day.
49
u/flowerchild2003 6h ago
When my friends and I were around 10/11 we were walking in a neighborhood new to us and a random dog came out of left field and started to chase us. My one friend K fell down and she scrapped her knee and was bleeding. Across the street this old man comes out of his house and asks if we need help. The dog ran off and we tell him what happened. The second I saw him he gave me bad vibes. We told him we were lost and he got his truck and yelled at us to get in. We got in and he left to go get something in his house real quick. We’re all scared thinking are we going to get kidnapped? I tell them we need to leave right now before he comes back. We all book it even though my friend can barely walk before he came back. We had no idea where we were going but knew we needed to get out of there and away from him. Minutes later K’s mom comes by in her car looking for us and we didn’t have the guts to tell her how we almost got kidnapped.
48
u/NotDinahShore 6h ago
Woolsey Fire 2018. I packed our valuables into our SUV by 5:30pm. By 7:30pm the air was thick smoke and the wind was blowing like a giant fan was aimed right toward us. We evacuated at 7:45pm.
Formal evacuation order came at 2am. People frantically packing and getting in their cars, only to be stuck in gridlock traffic, with fire literally everywhere.
We were safe in a hotel 27 miles away. My phone was lit up all night. Scariest night of our lives, but we spared our young kids the trauma of the evacuation most everyone else was caught up in.
→ More replies (1)
47
u/Hippydippy420 6h ago
I was in the basement of a K Mart with my two young kids shopping in the toy department when I locked eyes with a man walking by us. Immediately a wave of shear and utter panic overcame me. I don’t know how or why but I KNEW I had to get me and my babies far, far away from that man. I put both my kids in the carriage and found another mom shopping with her two kids and told her we needed to get out of there asap. She and I started walking towards the elevators and we saw the store manager, I told the manager about the man and he went looking for him. I left everything and took my kids and left. As I was loading the kids into the car I watched that man come running out of the store and he ran all the way across the entire parking lot and disappeared into the woods.
→ More replies (2)
47
u/honeyandspicex 5h ago
Years ago my boyfriend and I got home from traveling to our old apartment complex late at night, like 2 or 3 in the morning. We had to park in the auxiliary lot pretty far away from our building, but it was usually no big deal as we lived in a pretty sleepy, safe area.
I got out of the car first and looked up to realize there was a car next to us with two guys inside. They immediately got out, and initially I thought nothing of it, but my boyfriend was getting his bag together and not out of the car yet so I had a second standing outside waiting for him. I watched the guys look at me, look at each other, and then look back at me. They weren’t smiling, just completely blank, and when I met the eyes of the one guy, I had the worst feeling of dread I have ever felt in my life.
When my boyfriend got out, they realized I wasn’t alone and they hesitated. We started walking towards the building, and when I looked back, the guys were talking to each other quietly and then started following us.
My boyfriend immediately put his hand on my back and started propelling me a little ahead of him, without saying anything we both clocked what was going on. We got to our apartment building exterior door and inside, but I heard the guys speeding up and trying to catch up to us. When we got upstairs and looked out the window at the door, the guys were arguing with each other, and pretty clearly were pissed they didn’t catch up to us.
I found out later that people were getting robbed in that lot by two guys with a knife, and a girl who had been alone was almost assaulted. Definitely made me realize things can happen anywhere, realized how lucky we were to make it to the door, and if I ever feel that feeling I trust it immediately.
122
u/PINHEADLARRY5 7h ago
TLDR: went to a frat party and saw rooms with door handles only on the outside.. bugged out as fast as possible
This was a loooong time ago now. Maybe 15 years or so. I was a freshmen in college and got invited to a frat party. My roommate and I knew the guy who invited us and we were considering running for that fraternity. He was a year older than us and was a member so we decided to go.
Well, we get there and where everyone was dancing and drinking there was a whole wall of rooms on one end with super heavy oak doors with cots inside with door handles only on the OUTSIDE of the room.
We both gave each other a look and just dipped the fuck out of there as soon as our "friend" was out of sight. Like nope, there is no way we're getting seen within a 1000 yards of this place. This particular frat was then busted for a bunch of stuff a few years later.
→ More replies (12)
42
u/PuppyJakeKhakiCollar 6h ago
On Fridays I only work half days and like to go hiking at a nature preserve after. One Friday I was planning to go as usual but started feeling weirdly tired on the drive there and my brain kept telling me to go home so I did. A couple of hours later severe storms rolled through and one produced a tornado that touched down right in the nature preserve in my favorite area to hike and watch birds. Tornados are not common where I am. I definitely think my brain was trying to warn me.
320
u/mrellisisaelf 6h ago
Originally wrote this for the letsnotmeet sub:
I know “trust your gut” gets repeated constantly online, but about six months ago at Dulles airport, my body reacted to a stranger with such intense fear that I still think about it regularly.
About six months ago, my husband (29M) and I (24M) flew from the west coast back to the east coast on a red eye. We landed at Dulles early in the morning, exhausted and kind of delirious in that weird post overnight flight way.
If you know Dulles airport, you know the pickup situation can be chaotic. Arrivals gets backed up constantly, so instead of waiting downstairs, we took our luggage upstairs to departures because pickups there are usually way faster.
It was cold outside, but after hours in airports and on a plane, the fresh air honestly felt nice. We leaned against those concrete barriers outside the terminal while my husband called his mom, who was driving from Potomac to pick us up. Traffic was bad, so we were just standing around waiting.
That’s when a man came over.
At first, there was absolutely nothing strange about him. He looked like a completely normal late 20s or early 30s tech guy. Clean clothes, fleece vest, AirPods in, well groomed (maybe slightly dirt nails). Honestly the type of person you wouldn’t look twice at.
He told my husband he liked his jacket. My husband thanked him. Then he complimented mine too. I awkwardly said something like, “Thanks, man, you too,” even though his outfit was pretty generic.
He smiled and sarcastically replied, “I’m sure you do.”
It was subtle, but something about the tone felt slightly off.
Still, none of it seemed alarming. We made small talk. He asked where we were headed, and we said we were staying with family nearby. He started talking about family too, except every comment he made had this bitter, self deprecating edge to it. At one point he said something along the lines of friends and family not mattering anyway.
We tried being nice about it. Just casual conversation with a stranger while waiting for a ride.
Then something changed.
I cannot explain this properly without sounding insane, but the atmosphere shifted so suddenly that I physically felt it. I got chills all over my body. Not anxiety. Not nervousness. Actual primal fear.
The guy’s expression changed completely.
He was still talking normally, but the way he was looking at us suddenly felt deeply wrong. The only way I can describe it is that he looked at us like he wanted to hurt us. There was this intense anger behind his eyes that absolutely had not been there before.
I remember noticing he had no luggage at all. Just a backpack. Which struck me as odd because he’d mentioned getting off a long flight.
Then somewhere in the conversation he casually said:
“I don’t have a home.”
Again, none of this sounds terrifying written out. But standing there in that moment, every instinct in my body was screaming at me that something was wrong with this person.
My husband usually gets absorbed in conversations and doesn’t pick up on weird vibes immediately, but I knew I needed to get away from this guy without escalating anything.
So instead of abruptly saying we were leaving, I quietly walked back inside the airport and down the ramp toward arrivals, leaving my husband outside talking to him. I made up an excuse that I had to go to the bathroom and he just said "oh the bathroom huh?"
I know that sounds terrible, but I genuinely thought if I acted alarmed or made it obvious I was scared, something bad would happen.
Once I got downstairs, I called my husband and told him, as calmly as I could, “You need to come inside right now. Something is seriously wrong with that guy.”
While I was on the phone, I could hear the man say:
“Oh, is that your friend? Tell him to come back out.”
My husband wrapped up the conversation politely, saying something like, “Nice meeting you, man.”
And the guy responded in this cold, almost mocking voice:
“Yeah. I’m sure you really mean that.”
The way he said it genuinely made my stomach drop.
A minute later my husband finally came back inside. The second I saw him walk around the corner, I felt relief wash over me. Before I could even explain myself properly, he immediately said:
“No, I get it. That felt really fucking scary”
That was the moment I knew I wasn’t imagining it.
We waited inside until my husband’s mom arrived. The second we got into the car, she started asking how we were, excited to see us after we’d been away for a while. And honestly, I was relieved to see her too, not just because we hadn’t seen her in some time, but because it genuinely felt like she had unknowingly pulled us out of something awful.
The entire time we were driving out of the airport, I had this horrible adrenaline still running through me. I immediately started trying to explain what had just happened, talking too fast, trying to describe why the interaction had scared me so badly.
But the more I tried explaining it out loud, the more impossible it sounded.
Nothing had technically happened.
The guy never threatened us. He never followed us. He never raised his voice.
And yet I have never felt a stronger instinctual fear response in my life.
I think part of what frustrated me so much was that I couldn’t properly communicate what had felt so deeply wrong about him. Not to her, not fully to my husband (although he felt it too), and honestly not even to myself.
As we drove out of the airport, we passed the same man sitting alone further down the terminal.
He didn’t look over at us.
But I remember staring at him through the car window feeling like we had narrowly escaped something I still can’t explain.
92
u/cussbunny 5h ago
I get it. I used to read stuff like this and try to imagine it and just come up short, until I experienced it myself, and I even had less to go on than you. Client came into my place of work, I had a five minute interaction with him, he was pleasant, he wasn’t rude, wasn’t even snarky. But something about him put my whole body into fight or flight. I cannot explain it (I tried, to a colleague, right after it happened, she laughed), but the feeling was visceral in a way I had never experienced, not even close. I’ve had interactions with men who were clearly a threat and made me deeply uneasy, but that all paled in comparison to how my gut reacted to this seemingly pleasant man. All I could think after was I just met someone like Ed Kemper.
106
u/Slight-Wash-2887 5h ago
Sometimes we don't learn the reasons why these feelings happen, or figure out what we narrowly escaped. But i totally believe this guy had sinister plans. I'm just glad you and your husband were able to get away from him safely.
53
u/Spirited-Way2406 3h ago
I used to work front counter for a small business, all women on staff, none of us particularly tall or strong. My boss's two o'clock walked in the door and my brain said this man is dangerous. He was just this tall, broad old dude. I still can't explain what it was about him. Maybe that he didn't have laugh lines OR frown lines, just lines. Maybe the way he stood perfectly still and stared with his little blue eyes. But it was like some thing was staring at me from behind a human face, measuring me against criteria I did not want to know. Even an autistic person who can't be bothered to put their "face" on has expressions (it's me, hi, i'm the autie, it's me), but this dude just kind of. Existed. And evaluated.
So he went into my boss's office in the back to go over some financial stuff, and then he left and my very neurotypical boss came to the front and said, "Open all the windows and turn up the happiest music you can find, God that guy was creepy."
Found out later he was a slumlord. But that doesn't explain why he scared the hell out of me.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (8)68
u/Beowulf33232 4h ago
People can absolutely read intent in body language. He likely was just waiting for you to drop your guard in a way you never did.
When my kid was a baby we had my father in law doing mechanic work for us whenever one of our cars needed something. His shop was a good 40 minutes away, but he did work at cost for us, and who are we to turn that down.
There was a woman who decided my father in law was her boyfriend, just showed up one day and decided it. Father in law was the only one not entirely offended by her existence.
One day my wife and I take the baby to the shop to switch the car we have for the one her dad just finished working on. Crazy lady is there.
As soon as I get my kid out of the car, I'm given that "please don't let me go" hug that terrified kids give their parents the first time they witness something new and terrifying.
This woman comes up to me going "Oh a baby! Let me hold it!" and I tell her we're in a new place and kiddo is a bit scared, so the kid is fine with me. She keeps coming up with her hands out like she's going to grab my kid.
I didn't say a word. Maybe she picked up on my posture. Maybe it was a specific lack of not just eye contact, but where I was looking. It might have been exactly how I held my kid.
What I do know is that in my head I was working out the most damage I could do to her wrists without shaking my kid up to much, and my outward posture change was to line up my first move with how she was coming at me.
The moment I told myself I was going to act if she got within striking range she stopped in her tracks. She didn't even give me a puzzled look, she just took two steps backward and then turned and walked elsewhere.
Two things are true:
My kid did not want to leave me so I had zero plans to dissapoint my kid.
And whatever she saw in me that day scared her enough that she's never said another word to me. She stole my kids school pictures from my father in law and claimed kiddo as her grandkid to strangers she'd show the picture to, but has never spoken to me.
→ More replies (1)
152
u/ladybuglala 5h ago
This one isnt mine: it's my mom's. I've shared it before on Reddit. My mom went to law school at the University of Washington. Unlike a lot of the kids in her program, she was from a working class background and had to get a job to put herself through school (even though you weren't supposed to). Because of this, she really didn't have any time for a social life or to meet people. She did have 1 friend (who is still her best friend) that we will call Penny who was very social and always tried to get my mom to go out with her. One night my mom finally allowed herself to be persuaded by Penny's charisma. "Please, please come. John just moved into a new apartment and is throwing a party and inviting a lot people who we dont know, so dont worry. You wont be bored!" John, Penny's bf, knew everyone and my mom was intrigued by the thought of not having to spend more time with the stuffy kids of her cohort.
They arrived at the party the next evening, and at some point, John walked over and said, come on-- I'll introduce you to some people. They followed him to the kitchen and my mom stopped cold in her tracks. She made eye contact with a man she hadnt seen before. "Who is that?" She asked. "I don't know. One of John's friends probably."
My mom recounts how the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She'd heard the expression before, but it had never happened to her. She got a horrible feeling that she couldnt explain, but also couldnt shake. She looked at Penny and said, "Im sorry. I dont want to be here. I have to go." The way Penny tells the story is that she knew my mom was not dramatic or finicky by nature. So when she saw my mom's face she just said, "Ok. Lets go." And she kissed her bf goodbye and they left.
My mom couldn't forget that guy's face. For some reason it burned a hole in her mind and she wondered for a long time why she had reacted that way to a perfect stranger that she had never even spoken to. Maybe she was just wary because of what had been happening around town that year--she thought.
But a little over a year later she saw that man again. She saw him splashed across the headlines. His name was Ted Bundy.
→ More replies (8)
100
u/wonderingdragonfly 6h ago
I was 16, driving my 15 year old friends to the movies. Way before cell phones. On the way home about 9:30, we ran out of gas on a lonely stretch of highway. We decided to walk to the next exit to call my parents, but as we were 50 feet or so from the car, a passing car pulled over ahead of us and started backing up toward us. We noped out and went back to the car, this car followed. The lone driver gets out and offers assistance. We ask him to go call our parents. He says he can’t do that but would take one of us to go get gas. I’ve never wished for a transporter as much as in that moment. Luckily just then a police car pulls over, and the guy just leaves. May have been nothing but we thought he was pretty sus.
→ More replies (7)45
431
7h ago
[deleted]
→ More replies (23)128
u/JusticeIncarnate1216 6h ago
Kinda, but I feel like this is less of a gut feeling and more of an obvious fact.
48
u/Bradybigboss 6h ago
lol yeah it’s not hard to pick up on the danger of being surrounded by a house fire
147
u/Life_Preparation5238 7h ago
I was at a playground with my child, one in a wooded area of my neighborhood. Leaves were all over the ground due to it being fall.
All of a sudden, a man stands up from being completely covered in leaves, in a camouflage jumper and a mask on. He starts walking around and I was so scared. He looked like he would pull out a gun at any second. I grabbed my daughter and went as fast to the car as I could and drove off.
I never saw a news story of anything happening so I guess he wasn’t there to cause harm. He was a weirdo and maybe just trying to scare people. Still demented though.
→ More replies (7)
271
u/SignificanceNo2238 6h ago
I was 17, in the middle of extremely rural appalachia, driving home at 1 am from work. On a road with nothing for miles. Suddenly, I come to a stop when I see something massive in the middle of the road.
It's a perfectly groomed golden retriever. It's face is covered in bright, red blood as right in front of it is the biggest deer I've seen in my life, its chest torn to absolute shreds. The dog full face is inside it's chest, devouring this deer.
Slowly, as I approach, the dog looks up and fucking... smiles. I swear on my life, it was not a dog smile. This was the most human smile, most human EYES, I've seen on any creature. It was menacing and haunting.
It held eye contact with me for a good ten seconds before standing up on its back legs.
I really wish I wasn't making this up. I slammed the reverse so fast I'm so lucky I didn't end up flying off the steep drop offs. I then went home and threw up. Also at my big age slept with my dad that night cause I was so scared and he had a gun.
167
u/LemmeLaroo 4h ago
Imagine being a Werewolf but you just turn into a Golden Retriever
→ More replies (1)115
u/OwnLoss2612 5h ago
Being from Appalachia, I am pretty desperate to know where this was, because I wholeheartedly believe it.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (21)77
u/Logical_Month_7657 5h ago
Honestly I believe this. I grew up in Appalachia and one early while morning riding to school with my mom, I see something huge sitting on the side of the road and convince her to turn around for us to see what it was. I really loved animals and thought it was a small bear.
Nope. A fucking owl. The size of a middle schooler. Just ..sitting on the side of the road. My mom and I both spent a lot of time bird watching together and immediately were shocked by what we saw, knowing that nothing around us got that large including great horned owls. To this day no one will believe the story because it’s just …implausible really. I even question my sanity at times.
Appalachia is a weird place.
→ More replies (5)
473
u/Serious_Shine_9356 7h ago
We were rolling down the 401hwy Ontario Canada My husband and I in front seats our 2 little sons in backseat Something in my gut kept screaming at me to get in other lane something bad was happening. I told my husband calmly please get out of this lane he said this lane is fine.. I then started panicking and crying to get out of this lane. My husband finally listened as he was just turning to get us out that lane into next there was a explosion the truck who had been driving beside us 4 tires just blew. If we hadn't moved we most likely would have gotten badly injured or worse. We were safely in New lane and since then I've never ignored my gut feelings. Id like to think our gut feelings are actually our guardian angels alerting us
→ More replies (13)
98
u/ahjummacore 6h ago edited 1h ago
I was rockhounding with a couple girl friends in the Arizona desert, some 20-30mi off-road in BLM land, picking our locations by GPS coordinates on downloaded maps because there’s zero cell service. We parked my truck and walked another mile or so. We never came across other people when we were far out in the desert like this, so when we ran into this guy out there we were surprised. He asked for a ride because his truck ran out of gas, and we said sorry our car is pretty far back. He said he had been stuck for days and he was out water and food and his phone was dead. He had erratic behavior. One of my friends offered him her phone to make a phone call out to somebody with her 1 bar of service and he said he had no friends or family anymore. We offered him water and he also declined. We immediately didn’t feel safe, even though none of us said anything to each other. He lingered around for a bit while we looked for some rocks and then wandered back over to his truck. We were up on some hills so we finally got a sec to talk to each other without him around, and agreed to try to lose him and started planning how we’d get back to my truck, when suddenly we see another truck come barreling through the desert towards the guy. We immediately started running down this gravely sage bushy hill towards my truck and sprinted the whole way.
All of it felt so sus. Being in the middle of nowhere as 3 women with no self-defense and shoddy cell service was def not smart. No clue if they had been following us or what.
→ More replies (1)
65
u/Fine-Following-7949 6h ago
We stopped at a rest area one night because my son was a very fussy baby at the time. It was pitch black outside. No street lights or any buildings, for whatever reason. I took him out, and was trying to settle him down. A car pulled up behind us, a lot closer than it should have. I just felt really freaked out, and got back in the car, screaming baby and all, and we left right away. The car followed us out. Just bad vibes all around.
63
u/enthusedandabused 5h ago
July 4 a few years back now. Me(f) and my then fiancée(f) now wife had been out boating earlier and we ended up at a bar nearby afterwards. She recently broke her tibia and is wearing a cast on her lower leg/ankle. We were chatting with a 3 guys, who were complaining they had never had girlfriends or kissed anyone before. The conversation had been fine before that and mostly how she and I met and stuff like that. Then one of the guys starts pressuring her to give him a kiss cause she doesn’t know she won’t like it if she doesn’t try. She’s a lesbian 100%. Then they start saying weird stuff like “your body is made to fit mine”, and “maybe if you try having sex with me you might learn to like it.” Progressively gross behavior. Then I notice the woman who is a bartender looks at me with an expression that was not normal, like she was watching something wild and didn’t know what to do. I realize I don’t have my pocket knife I normally carry on me. That’s about the time when I look at her and we give each other the same look and just start running. We start running away from them and see a girl standing outside the building trying to call an uber. It’s 10pm on a holiday and we are out in the country, like 2-3 miles from town and there’s no service and 0 chance she’s getting an uber. We tell her to come with us and run to the car. She asks why and I say “Those guys are going to come after us and if you stay, there will only be you. I’ll drive you home. Run now!”. She hesitates but then starts running. We barely make it in the car when we see them running toward our vehicle. I whipped out of that parking lot and we all made it home safe. It was traumatizing but it could’ve been 1000x worse. That’s how we learned to not comfort incels at the risk of our own safety.
→ More replies (2)
90
u/Shahfluffers 6h ago
Was house-hunting with the lady and found a sweet place: Old Victorian style, everything was original wood, well taken care of, cheap too! Somewhat below market rates.
As soon as I entered the place I got a... "vibe"... that something was not right. Couldn't put my finger on it. Tested the floor to see if there was a "fun house effect" at play, but everything was fairly level (even in the corners!). Checked for mold in all the usual places. Nothing. Meanwhile the lady was gushing about how amazing the place was.
As we continued the tour the feeling begins to turn oppressive. I decretly went outside to get some air and... the feeling lifted. I felt fine.
As soon as I went inside the feeling came down again; harder this time. I asked my partner if we could go and she reluctantly agreed.
In the car I emphatically vetoed the place from consideration and told her, "something is not right there. Just trust me."
I checked the records on that place a few minutes ago. 2 different owners in 5 years.
→ More replies (12)38
u/MissyChevious613 4h ago
My husband and I toured a number of houses when we were house hunting years ago. We found one on Zillow that was in our price range and looked cute and it wasn't a bad neighborhood. Idk what happened but as soon as we stepped in that house my hair stood up and I got this panicky, oppressive feeling. We walked through the whole house to be nice but it was incredibly unsettling. We did not go with that house for a number of reasons (like the tree growing in the dirt floor of the basement) but that house genuinely freaked me the fuck out. I've never been able to figure out what it was that spooked me so much but my husband felt an off vibe too. He admitted it to me when we got in the car afterwards.
→ More replies (1)
•
u/AutoModerator 7h ago
Attention! [Serious] Tag Notice
Jokes, puns, and off-topic comments are not permitted in any comment, parent or child.
Parent comments that aren't from the target group will be removed, along with their child replies.
Report comments that violate these rules.
Posts that have few relevant answers within the first hour, and posts that are not appropriate for the [Serious] tag will be removed. Consider doing an AMA request instead.
Thanks for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.