If we acknowledge how fragile the lives we lead can be, that can help us better appreciate what we have. Recently, someone on Reddit asked others to share stories of how people had ruined their lives, and those tragically broken lives can serve as cautionary tales for the rest of us.
Some of the stories are tragically cruel twists of fate. In others, we can only guess at what caused people to bring ruinous consequences upon themselves. The thing uniting all of them, however, is just how shockingly quickly these people’s lives were destroyed. Most lost everything, and for some, that happened within a matter of minutes. Treasure what you have, and learn from these stories to remind you of just how lucky you are.
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My husband had a nice job as a high level retail manager, before his store closed. He became a lead for less $ in an inventory company. He was generally considered to be a nice, but quiet. You'd see more of his personality when he was working on computers (self taught) or video games or pool. General consensus was that he was a good guy always ready to game with the kids. Less than a month after our 6th anniversary, I found a video on our tablet from a hidden camera in our bathroom that showed my 14 year old niece. It looked like he kept the image on the cloud and would add it to what ever device he was using and then delete it. He just missed that last step. I called the police immediately and he never came home again. They found more imagines on his computer and a 20 minute video, full front view of his face, as he tries to hide the camera. He plead guilty and received 40 years with 34 suspended. He will have to register as a sex offender and has some pretty stiff rules to follow(no alcohol, no items that can connect to the internet unless he pays for a company to put monitoring software on every internet accessible device. The day I found it , I sent him to work with a kiss. I found the images around 1130am and had surrendered the tablet and gotten the case started with the police by 1145. I have told every relationship Ive been in, husband included, that the one thing that will make me turn you in and walk away and never look back. He, truly thought, I would never leave him and was all surprised Pikachu face when I kept my promise. His actions caused him to lose everything he took for granted that he would always. Our daughter was 5, then, and for her he just disappeared one day. Now, I am watching her grow and mature into a beautiful person and he doesn't get the privilege of even knowing this beautiful child. I'm sure that separation has hurt him a lot, but you don't get trusted with any child, even your own, after you do something like that. Good riddance 34 years suspended sentence*
I was an alcoholic for years. It was widely known but I at the time had a job and was a "successful" functioning alcoholic. More and more small cracks were becoming bigger cracks in my personal foundation until the only thing I didn't really lose was my car. My father who I lived with at the time gave me the ultimatum of basically either going to rehab or never talking to him again and given that he was the only person left I could even talk to I had to do the right thing.
I spent 97 days in a facility and got out in November of 2021. It took me a couple months of adjusting to my new lifestyle outside of rehab but now, I have a job working third shift. I have the majority of people I love/loved back in my life although I know I won't get all of them back and that is 100 percent my fault.
Every day is a different day I can try my hardest to avoid being the person I became and I am going to do that every god damn day until my body gives out because I have too much to live for without alcohol. I lost years or my life, people, money, property, and eveny freedom and self respect but I am slowly gaining all of it back.
My cousin (18F) finished her senior year early, so she was basically just waiting for May to do the graduation and get her diploma. She worked at a lake restaurant and had started hanging out with a bad crowd. At this time she had been smoking a lot of weed and drinking, as well as just being generally reckless all the time. She was my best friend so she texted me to tell me about everything she did basically. One night she texted me to tell me that she had tried m**h and it was “the best high of her life but she will never do it again.” Exactly one month after that text she overdosed and died. They put her portrait in her graduation seat and her dad got to walk and pick up her diploma.
I'm a lawyer. Another well respected lawyer in my jurisdiction was involved in an absolutely huge property settlement involving dozens upon dozens of deeds, side agreements, financial documents, yada yada yada. The whole lot (presumably involving literally a hundred or so signatures) had been signed off by her client.
In the early hours of the morning - having no doubt slaved away for untold hours getting everything ready for the settlement the next day - she must have realised that she had missed getting one signature on one minor document from her client so she faked it.
I can see the pressure she was under and how she probably thought "it doesn't matter, my client would have signed it anyway and only didn't because they overlooked it, no one will ever notice".
Someone noticed and she went from high paid property lawyer to never being able to practice again, just like that.
People occasionally ask me to sign things off, as a lawyer, and suggest I overlook minor irregularities such as wanting me to witness a signature even though I didn't actually see the signatory sign. Then they get all offended and act like I'm being a stick-up-the-a*s perfectionist when I won't do it.
When I was the acting chairperson for a local charity, the committee members often tried to pressure me into doing illegal things (such as pre-signing cheques, for example) because “everyone does it!”. My standard reply was always: “I don’t care, I’m not going to prison for you.”
The numb nut that carved on the Coliseum
And their defense was they "weren't aware of the age" of the monument.
An acquaintance. He had a good job, nice truck, mortgage on a nice home, minimal debt, in a relationship with someone out of his league. Before I knew him he'd had a DUI, but his attorney got him a plea deal that dropped the DUI down to a minor charge. A real lucky break. All he had to do was stay the course.
He could have walked home that night. It was less than two miles. But he was too proud to leave his truck at the bar, so instead he wrapped it around a power pole. No one was hurt, including him. The judge who got his case was furious to learn his previous DUI had been pled down. The judge rejected a plea deal and vowed to throw the book at him.
There was prison, then a year on house arrest. His job required a driver license, so that was gone. I don't know at what point in his house arrest he could have started working, but he refused to. His former employer offered him a non-driving job, less money but still good money. He turned it down because it was beneath him. He said the same thing to two jobs his girlfriend singlehandedly secured for him. Even after his house arrest, he refused to work. He said he didn't want to. Apparently yelling at his girlfriend to pay his mortgage was better than working.
She finally got the courage to leave. His parents found him dead. No one will ever know if he intended to drink himself to death or whether it just happened. His parents blamed the girlfriend. Apparently the world would still be graced by his presence if she had stayed to get hit and yelled at.
Please don't drive drunk. Not ever. Not even a little. If you're not sure, just don't. And if you suspect you have the disease of addiction, please get help. I don't really care that this person died, but he hit a lot of innocent branches on the way down. A lot of suffering for no reason.
There were a lot more issues than the DUI (and that was already a huge one). The guy was abusive with a far too high opinion of himself; his parents were enablers.
My Dad was an alcoholic. In his youth, he was the quintessential golden boy, handsome, an exceptional athlete, married to my beauty queen mother with three little girls, barely 2 years apart. Great job, house, new car, the works. Little by little it all slipped away. He died while living in the Salvation Army, penniless. He always told me a drinking man will never have anything.
I miss you Daddy. More than you could ever know....
A close friend of my best friend grabbed his eight year old son's new skateboard and took off down a hill in Georgia. Hit a rock, landed on his head and had permanent brain damage. He lived years before he mercifully died. Had to be restrained the whole time because the damage made him erratic and violent. Wear a helmet!
I literally did the same thing, while vacationing in Georgia at a campground. Down a hill, hit a rock, but thank God landed on my arm. Scrapped off lots of skin but no permanent damage other than a fear of skateboards. Never got back on.
have a friend who had a drinking problem and got into an argument with a gas station worker while drunk. The worker tried stopping his car by standing in front of it and my friend ran him over and killed him.
Wife, career, freedom, everything lost...
Ok this is sad :( but wow I’m surprised that killed is not censored
Singapore here.
One Chinese lady ranted on Facebook about a nearby Malay wedding in a public space. According to her, divorce rates among Malay couples are high due to weddings which cost, according to her, only 50 SGD (30 USD).
She posted that rant on a Sunday afternoon. The backlash against her was fast and furious. By Monday morning four government ministers (including our Prime Minister) had spoken out against her.
She was out of her cushy directorial position at a major government agency by lunchtime Monday.
We take racial harmony in Singapore very, very, seriously.
Something similar happened in South Africa. From Wikipedia: "In January 2016, Penny Sparrow, a white woman who lived in the coastal city of Durban, compared littering black beachgoers to monkeys. She consequently apologized for her remarks but defended them as being taken out of context. She faced various legal consequences"... she was fined and got a jail term, but it doesn't look like she served any time as it was suspended. She died in 2019.
I don't understand how context would have made those remarks any better....
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The United States could learn some lessons from Singapore. Thanks for sharing.
Again, the Chinese woman was in the government, making these racist remarks online, so they lost their job.
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A government official made a racist comment and lost her job as a result of it. I don't think that's much different to what would happen in most countries. (I'm not defending / supporting the Singaporean regime - I don't know enough to comment either way, something I will shortly be fixing - just saying that, in this case, the outcome seems pretty normal. )
Load More Replies...Patients with actual curable ( early stage ) cancer and decide to get treated with a “ more natural approach”. SPOILER ALERTS: they always come back with metastatic disease.
Arrive at work on their first day as a temp at around 10am, caught stealing the bosses wallet at 12:30, taken away by Police at 1pm
Had an employee on her first day take a 2hr lunch to go to get her makeup done in the middle of the day. She came back and was escorted out looking amazing.
A high school friend drove drunk and killed the local doctor of a small town. Last I heard, he was still in prison.
Drinking and driving is illegal, a life was taken as a result. So, I’m not surprised he’s still in prison. Lesson learned? Probably not, wouldn’t be surprised if the first thing he does when he gets out is go to the bar. 😒 I hope I’m wrong though, for the sake of others, as well as his own sake.
Former friend of mine was arrested for soliciting an 11yo online and traveling across state to meet her. I never expected him to do that. His girlfriend at the time asked if I wanted to be a character witness and I noped out before she finished her sentence. Judge made an example out of him and sentenced him to life, apparently it wasn’t his first SA offense. I can’t believe she even stuck around to even consider looking for people to testify on his behalf Edit: he was only caught after her friend saw pictures of her “boyfriend” and realized he was way too old to be an 11yo’s boyfriend and told the girl’s mother. He was 31 when he was sentenced.
« looking for people to testify on his behalf » That’s not how it works. If it ever happens to you, you’re not expected to defend the person or say only good things. You’re expected to honestly answer some general questions in order for the judge to know more about the person.
Watched a guy gamble $30k away in a night and then cried about losing his life savings and security had to get involved and escort him out because he started to get angry at the dealers because all they could offer him was free night stays at the hotel for playing so much but he wanted freeplay at the tables/slots and they refused
A coworker sent an explicit text to a new Hire using the company comms system.
She pretended to be interested and then reported him, with a very long thread as proof.
Dude was married, with kids, a supervisor.
Now: Divorced, kids hate him, works a low level job.
My daughter's boyfriend, July 4, 2023.
Hopped in his car blackout drunk to come see my daughter. DUI and hit & run.
He is just about to begin a painful, life-altering process.
Crime, specifically felonies. My lawyer took out a loan forging my signature. He’s doing 15 years in federal prison. I would have given him the $5000. His kid was very sick and I would have gladly helped him out.
If only he lived in a civilised, first-world country, he would not have needed a $5,000 loan for his sick kid. Unfortunately, I suspect he lived in the USA.
About 16 years ago, the company I worked for wanted to expand into America. To do so they sent me and several of my coworkers abroad. We lived in the US for several years to set it up.
When we were there, one of my coworkers became fascinated with, I guess what you’d US gangster culture. He started dressing like a stereotypical gangster, got tattoos, said the n-word with a hard r constantly, and even got a gun from who knows there.
So it was a nice night, about 3 weeks before we were due to go back. We had set up chairs in a park to drink beers and were pretty buzzed. Suddenly some dude starts shouting at us from a distance, and my friend, with all his logical thinking concluded that it must be a threat, so he pulled out his gun and opened fire.
That guy was a cop.
The policeman understandably returned fire. The rest of us dive to the ground and my friend is hit twice, one in his shoulder and one in his leg.
It turns out that there had been some kidnapping nearby by some people that matched our general appearance, which was why the cop started out hostile. I didn't blame him, and it was both his and his partner's testimonies that protected us from any legal trouble. The next few weeks were a blur, but I remember him still being hospitalized when I flew back home.
I don’t actually know what happened to him after that, my boss told me he’s still alive but he got fired obviously but I never saw him again.
Did a rotation in a trauma/burns ICU: two big ones that stuck with me.
1) 16/17 year old kid got drunk and decided to climb a water tower with his friends. Fell and broke his neck. Paraplegic, couldn’t talk or move. His friends would come and see him, but when they left you could just see the desperation in his eyes. Heartbreaking to see.
2) 15 year old kid was breaking into cars. Well, the last one he broke into, the owner ran out and shot him. Hit him in the head. Had cranial surgery, half his cranium was missing. Kid survived, but needed complete care. Felt terrible for his mom. I never saw her leave his side.
Lots of other patients that completely changed their own/family/strangers lives with one poor decision.
Saw a pilot without instrument rating take off into IMC conditions (instrument-meteorological conditions is a flight category that describes weather conditions that require pilots to fly primarily by instruments rather than use visual cues to maintain controlled flight).
He had his whole family on board. Weather was closing in. He agreed that it was impossible to get home, but wanted to make it to a larger municipal airport so they wouldn't have to stay in a motel. The fuel attendant and a bunch of old veteran pilots hanging around the airport office all said they'd drive him to a nicer place, but he thought he'd have a better chance of getting out the next day from the other airport. Conditions weren't *that* bad when he took off, but we all agreed later that no one without instrument rating would/should have flown that day.
So the last time anyone saw that whole family (pilot, wife, two adult sons) alive was all of us watching him take off and fly just under the cloud base to do a "scud run" in the direction of the nearest muni. They crashed in full overcast ten miles out. No survivors.
All told, it probably took fifteen minutes for this guy to make the worst- and last- decision of his life.
This was over 30 years ago, but it's haunted me ever since- what could/should I have done differently that might have convinced him to not fly? I was a newbie pilot at the time, but even I knew it was a bad idea. There were at least three other pilots there that day. Did he feel ganged up on? Could we have appointed the most grizzled straight-shootin gravel-voiced veteran to take the guy aside and give him a "I'm not your dad, but" talk? Should we have tackled him and taken away his keys? Called the cops? What would we even have told them? I've long since come to terms with it, but there are still the occasional moments where I feel like I failed.
You cannot hold yourself responsible for another's actions. He made an informed decision after everyone told him it's unsafe to fly. Not your fault.
I wound up having to change the number for my first real cell phone, because the previous owner of that number still kept giving it out. Apparently she had just moved, and her old job couldn’t get ahold of her to send her her last check. Her new job couldn’t get ahold of her to get her schedule. Her vet couldn’t get her to pick up her cat. I got calls from her leasing company who needed documentation to secure her apartment. Ever single day was some new way an idiot was f*****g up her finances, her housing, her job, her pets, her social life… all because she couldn’t remember her new phone number. After a month I finally got fed up and had the number changed.
Melissa, if you were supposed to be a massage therapist for the PGA tour in 2013, I hope you eventually got your s**t together.
15-20 years ago, an ex worked at a dream job type of place. If you make it professionally in that field, this employer was/is the absolute peak, there is no better place to go. New guy started there, on ex’s team, right out of university. His first day he went to the company store and got ALL the gear with company’s name on it- tshirt, hat, socks, etc- and proudly put it all on. After work, team took the new guy out to drinks to celebrate his first day at dream job employer. New guy gets way too drunk, goes outside to smoke a cig, and then takes his penis out and presses it up against the bar’s glass window. Penis man’s new colleagues, all the bar’s patrons, and all their staff see his d**k. Ex closed out their tab and got drunk guy home- the bar calls the employer the next morning, complaining about the new guy’s d**k antics, banning him and anyone wearing company gear. New Guy, was fired before lunch, on day 2. A cautionary story EDIT: The bar was in a never gentrified, always wealthy part of SF, CA. Patrons were very wealthy people, entitled. Myself, Having worked in fine dining in college, I can only imagine the absolute HELL those patrons raised about seeing some dips**t’s d**k while slurping down their 3rd martini. Many of you relate to this story, and have shared about not even wearing something as small as a lanyard w/ company info on it. This is all great logic, please keep it up and share that advice. It is especially pertinent, when your employer, like the subject of my story, is known globally for children’s entertainment. Exposing yourself to anyone, let alone a bunch of connected, rich a******s, is definitely not the move when Pixar signs your check.
A senior girl from my college pushed another girl she was friends with off a ~30 foot bridge into water as a joke, broke her neck and collarbone and she's permanently in a wheelchair Edit: Holy S**t this blew up while I was asleep I'll answer some questions: 1. Two days in hospital for her 'friend' Two days in jail for the girl who pushed her, She spent the same time in jail as the victim spent in hospital it's f****d up 2. The parents of the victim chose not to press charges. 3. It was not Taylor Smith 4. I've seen similar stories online but succesfully found the actual story it's not the one that went viral [https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-paralysed-after-being-pushed-25291101](https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-paralysed-after-being-pushed-25291101)
1. That is definitely not enough time in jail 2. Who is Taylor Smith?
The kid in the national guard posting gov't secrets online for internet cred.
I had a friend that had a promising career got upset and went into full road rage for a woman who forgot to turn her blinker on and he slightly bumped her back bumper on the freeway causing her to lose control and flipping over and killing the driver and her two daughters. Oddly..it was all caught on his car dash cam and a trucker with his own dash cam that was behind him. He is now doing 40+ years in prison. *Post update* I wasn't expecting much attention on this story. Additional details that people keep asking me. I can't say we were close friend or good friends. We hung out during high school years. I may have seen him a couple times afterwards. He moved out of state. Most information I got was from his sister. I do know that he is in jail for what he did. Now I'm not sure if his sister is not giving me the full story but I do know he definitely received high jail sentence. I know he went to college for marketing. I believe he was interning for high end sports marketing company.
My older brother was in high school, already secured a full baseball scholarship and one of the best players I've ever seen. His "friends" who were in the neighborhood gang told him that they would let him join if he stole a 12 pack from a gas station.
He did it, of course, and the police found him walking down the road with it. He got a slap of the wrist after a night in juvie, but that scholarship went out the window. Not long after he dropped out, shaved his head, got caught up in the violence of the gang, tattooed his face, got half his teeth replaced, and had a few kids with different girls.
He rode that life for almost 10 years until his new girlfriend set him straight and has spent the past few years trying to be a good dad, got off drugs, got a steady job. We don't talk anymore, but I'm still rooting for him.
One use of M**h. Seen so many people and friends jump right off the deep-end by "Just trying it." and after 20 years have yet to jump out of the self-made dumpster fire that is their life. Nasty s**t, M**h.
The reason I have not tried stuff like meth, cocaine or heroin is that I know I will like it.
My sister started doing m**h and h****n, she went from super smart to completely dumb. By the age of 19 she was already a felon. No one in the family wants to help her anymore cause each time we tried, either sending her to rehab or tried getting her sober she would just go back to it. Was supposed to go to college but now shes 22 and stays at different peoples houses and begs people for money. Completely cut me and everyone else off from her cause she thinks us trying to help her is us being jealous and not wanting her to be happy in life
MÈTH AND HÈROIN. Goddamn BP, quit this bullshít censoring, it's fúcking annoying.
Bar fight. Heard a loud commotion for about 30 seconds. Some guy thought this guy was hitting on his date. Suckered punched him. The other guy fell down and clipped the bar. The bar had brass foot rest at the base. Snapped the guys neck so loud you could hear it across the room.
I don’t want to imagine what the sound of a neck snapping sounds like. Dang it, I just did
My cousin fell for one of those *To Catch a Predator* style police stings. The day of the sting he posted something on his Facebook about going to have a great night. I even responded saying "awesome man have fun." Well that night he tried to meet a 14-year-old girl and found a bunch of cops instead. Was charged with multiple felonies, got kicked out of his Ph.D. program, lost his job, lost his wife, died two months later. He was 28 years old and had *everything* going for him. Great job, crazy book smarts, a bright future with his family.
A few high school classmates. Dan (not his name) just started hanging out with bad peers.
One weekend, the guys decided to hang out at Dan's house. They ordered pizza and told Dan to get change for $100. They left Dan's house to get drinks. Pizza arrives and while exchanging the order with Dan, the other guys run out from the bushes. They start beating up the delivery driver. Dan didn't know they were going to do that and tried to stop them. Yet, none of them knew the driver was legally carrying. Dan got shot and died otw to the hospital. The other guys got arrested and spent 3+ years in jail. They were supposed to graduate in 2 months.
I would have hoped they got more than 3 years. Seems too lenient. 😪
Watched a buddy spend his entire life savings betting on the Paulo Costa Vs Adesanya. I begged him not to do it and he lost his and his wife’s entire 60k nest egg. She left him immediately with the kids and now he lives at his moms house.
EDIT: wow this blew up. So a little more back story. He had been betting on prize fighting for a short while and winning. Nothing outrageous and heck I even bet with him on a time or two because it was smaller bets 1-200. He had been winning probably made a few grand not sure how much but he was always saying he won and showing off his bets. So I can confirm he had been winning and his luck was pretty impressive.
As far as I know he doesn’t gamble anymore and is just trying to rebuild his life. He lost his wife but does spend a lot time with the kids.
Guy I knew in high school slept with a girl at a party. He was 18 and she said she was 18, too. Turns out she was 16 and when her dad found out about it, had the guy arrested and charged with SA of a minor. Got sentenced to 13 years and has to register. Sad part is, the girl testified that she lied about her age to sleep with him. He was a star athlete and had a D1 scholarship. Lost everything. This was 20 years ago and last I heard he's back in prison on another charge.
Wow, this is cruel. Obviously the law in that country (US?) didn't left the judge leverage for a not-life-destroying sentence. I'm happy to live in a European country were this special age-gap is nothing that carries any legal concerns. As long as the sex is consensual and the age-gap is not too big - I think a line is drawn at 21. Otherwise my first boyfriend might have faced the same charges as the OP describes.
Dude I know won a 3 million dollar settlement from being hit by a car. Spent it all on h****n and was dead within 3 years. Under 30 years old. Edit: Wow, this really blew up. To answer some of the questions I see in the thread - I don’t think he got hooked on opioids due to the accident. This guy did a lot of weed and shrooms and occasionally c**e even before the settlement; the money just allowed him to “graduate” to h****n How’d he spend all that money? Sadly, he had a bunch of addict friends who he enabled. He’d “treat” them to free h****n at these lavish parties.
Sometimes when I read these threads and there’s so much censorship I mind goes in auto mode, have no clue what is being said, yes was never good at playing along to wheel of fortune, sorry pat and vanna
A friend of mine drove his bike without helmet (had the helmet didn’t bother to wear it), it was late at night, we were having a party at my home and he was coming to join us, it had rained earlier so the roads were wet, his motorbike unfortunately slipped and he fell hitting his head on the curb. Some passerby called the ambulance. We got to know about it early in the morning from his parents. His head trauma caused him to go into a coma. He never came back from it, he was in a coma for a few months and then sadly passed away. He was a chill dude, if only he wore the helmet while driving. Rest easy D!
Edit: He was an avid biker, drove his bike across the country all the way to the Himalayas. He used to wear Helmet all the time except for that fateful night. I was having a party at my home, you know bbq/ beer/ whiskey and all that, he was gonna join us after work. He had the helmet on him even that day, I will never know why he decided to not wear it that day.
Wear a helmet! I should show this to my neighbors because even though I have talked to them about it many times they still don’t wear helmets riding bikes! I don’t know how they haven’t gotten seriously injured yet!
I work for the Canada Revenue Agency. When you're hired, they tell you never to plug your phone or other storage device into your work computer, or you will be immediately flagged and s**tcanned. This one girl was like 1 month into the job, and I watched her pull out her phone and plug the charger into her computer. 10 minutes later, our head of security was looming over her, watching her clean out her desk. She will likely never be allowed to work for the government ever again. At least once a year, I see an email reminding existing staff of our rules because somebody went and plugged their phone in.
2 of my high school friends went to a strip club during the pandemic, refused to wear a face mask, so eventually they got kicked out, they were drunk
got mad and shot at the strip club with an AK47.
18 and 19 years old.
Nobody died, but some people got hurt
Edit: the 18 year old just had a baby at the time of the shooting, his gf couldn’t even grasp the idea of him at a strip club while she was taking care of the new born
She decided to keep the baby. She wasn't ready in any way, not financially, emotionally, or even physically. It was a very hard pregnancy, and then she got hooked on opioids after the pain of birth and recovery. I did everything I could to stop the skid, but some things can't be fixed, even with all the will and all the love in the world.
One of my best friends was close to finishing his BA, got career plans, money, was physically fit. Everything was fine but then on new years eve night he went into a famous night club in Berlin, bought some drugs and then jumped from the 7th floor. Either he bought something he wasn‘t familiar with or the drugs were laced with something stronger. Anyway security cameras have him aimlessly wandering the floors of his 20 story appartment building and I guess he got paranoid and wanted out, so he jumped. Apparently he didn‘t die instantly but slowly bleed out over the next 30 minutes. But since this happened shortly after midnight nobody noticed because of all the noise and fireworks. They found his body around 4am. Don‘t do drugs, it‘s not worth it.
An old customer got fired from Uber and DD for being slow/arriving with cold food way too often.
Comes into my bar the next day with limited edition XO Weeknd sweater + jeans, new apple watch and new iphone all paid cash.
Says he took out a payday loan for $10k and doesn't intend to pay it back, he'll just cancel the bank account.
His exact words "Who needs credit anyways?".
He stopped showing up to the bar after about 3 months - Never saw him again.
Edit: For those asking - No I don't think this is some mafia s**t. A very stupid decision by a reckless individual, with no way to pay any of it back and incurring crazy debt/interest at ~22 years old.
I’ve learned my lesson the very hard way and in my own, once my son turned 20 I applied for his first credit card for him, it was only $300, told him he can get himself stuff from target but spend only $ 150 for now, I made sure it was paid on time plus an extra $20 with the minimum due, then once that was paid same thing, so doing this for a year, one day I got an email about his limit increase up to $1000, also been monitoring his credit score, it’s at 721 right now, I really wish I would’ve known this younger or this could be taught at school like part of home economics , wait, is that even still offered?
A guy I worked with at Papa Johns when I was in college bought a gun from a coworker. Our other coworker got robbed delivering a pizza. He told me he wants to see if it works. He went and shot it into an empty developing neighborhood into some trees. The bullets hit a house behind the trees with a family and kids. Nobody was hurt but they were scared to death. Police immediately came and arrested him before he could even pull off. (They were camping out in that neighborhood already since people were coming at night to smoke weed, have sex and shoot guns smh. He shot 3 shots. Got 25 years in prison for attempted murder and reckless endangerment. First time ever shooting a gun. We were only 19. This was in 2006. I think about him alot. We weren’t close like that. But he’s still in prison over a 5 second mistake 17 years later. Really nerdy kid too. First time ever in trouble. I follow his sister on Facebook. He’s unrecognizable now. Imagine Mclovin from Super Bad who looks like Jason Momoa now with Tats on his face. Sad.
Also my roommate a few weeks later was struggling financially and decided to buy 2 pounds of weed to sell with his student loan refund check. Got pulled over and arrested the same day! Got 5 years. Can’t make this s**t up.
2 guys got into an argument at an old job I had, one of them was clearly the provocateur and a bit of a d******d, but the other snapped and they started pushing and shoving and that second guy punched him.
He got fired as a result, he was otherwise a pretty mild guy. I wouldnt say it wrecked his life, but he had a good job and it's a industry where it definitely affected his reputation, felt kind of bad for him. The provocateur guy got writtent up, he didn't lose his job, but he did get bad performance reviews etc. and eventually left, but his reputation didn't suffer as much as the first guy.
Moral of the story? If you want to punch a colleague, do it after work and not in the office.
Someone I went to school with, after we graduated, him and a friend were drinking one summer night and messing around on a skid steer (I live in a small town). apparently one of the boys was in the bucket part, and one was driving. They hit a bump and the boy in the bucket fell out, and got ran over. It killed him. To make the story worse, the boy who died- his older brother had died just a couple years previous, and that older brother was best friends with the one who accidentally killed his younger brother. So this guy dealt with the death of one of his best friends, and then accidentally killed another friend, who happened to be his deceased best friends brother. It really messed him up. Parents apparently walked into his room with a gun in his mouth.
I have no idea how the guy is doing these days because I don’t think he has any social medias. In highschool he was pretty popular. Played football, but was generally nice. Wonder if he’s holding up okay these days.
And before anyone comments negativity: yes it was wrong they were drinking and messing with such equipment. But it’s still tragic and I’m sure he’s been punished enough by his own thoughts for it.
My father in law is 65. Was married to his wife for 37 years and has 3 daughters. The picture perfect family from the outside looking in. He was well respected in his career field and was also an interim pastor/deacon at our local church. After he retired his health started to deteriorate drastically and he started drinking. This past November we learned that he had fell for a “love scam” on Facebook and had spent his entire life savings, took out a second mortgage on his home, and opened up numerous credit cards, to send this fake person money. All in all he sent them roughly $300K. He was truly convinced “she” was going to move here from overseas and they were going to ride off into the sunset, leave everything behind, and live happily ever after. Now he is divorced, lives in a crummy apartment about 45 minutes from his family, and is miserable. He can barely walk and has essentially zero control over his bowel movements. To make matters worse, he has very narcissistic tendencies and thinks that none of it is his fault, and instead blames his ex-wife, claiming that she didn’t love him and show him any affection. As you can imagine, this has affected my wife, her sisters, and mother immensely, and caused all sorts of problems and stress over the last 8 months. But long story short, he lost everything. His assets, his family, his health, and happiness. I would be shocked if he’s even alive a year from now.
My old friend ran across the street without looking because her dog was getting attacked by a snake. The car was probably going over 60mph and it ran into her. She's alive to this day but she did suffer serious and permanent injuries. This happened years ago by the way. It was traumatizing for her and everyone (including me) that saw it happen. At that time, I lived in a 3rd world country so the streets were busy as hell.
(It was also a rainy day so it was hard for drivers to see) it was truly no one's fault. The driver also took responsibility.
Watched oxys/roxys turn a kind and smart girl into a scab coverd fellon in roughly 5 months... and watch m**h turn a talented musician into an attempted murderer in less than 6 weeks (he attacked his own momma with a hatchet)
All I can think of, is to say how sorry I am, you've had to live through these experiences. Those who fall victim to addictive substances, have no idea how badly they hurt others.
Knew a guy in the military that had 18 years in, and was doing online classes to get his MBA. He was in his final semester of getting his MBA, and 2 years away from a military retirement. Then he traveled 1500 miles across the country to try hook up with an underage girl. Spent 2 1/2 years in prison, was kicked out of the military and his college he was attending. I'm not entirely sure if he could pick up where he left off to get his MBA at the same college (or a different one), but that's probably useless for him anyways now since he's a convicted felon. I don't think having an MBA is going to make employers overlook your felony for trying to have sex with a minor.
in germany, there was a contestant on the show "wetten dass" (translated as 'bet that') a few years ago. in the show, statements about crazy talents and activities were presented by the participants. The contestants bet on things they could do and get a prize if they could actually perform the self-proclaimed tasks/talents. One participant bet that he would be able to jump over moving cars. It went wrong and he was left a paraplegic. He has since largely recovered (psychological, not physical) and is handling it great as far as the public is concerned, but the situation will probably always stick in my mind.
A HS teacher from my hometown who was married with children had an affair with her 17 year old student. Apparently it was going on for over a year before anyone found out. When the whole thing came out her life was basically over. She lost everything.....
Drugs. My father went from a normal, functioning individual with a house and a 200K yearly salary to a man sleeping in his bmw, with bad tags, outside a church, - in the course of about 18 months, all because he’d much rather smoke his life away then live normally or be a grandfather.
Colleague starts out great at new job, gets through probation, then gets out of control drunk at a company party. She makes out with the bosses date and hooks up with another colleague while her husband is there.
Fast forward, she's dating this colleague now and their relationship is causing disciplinary measures at work. They decide to double down and sign a new lease together anyways.
She then lies about getting poached by a customer to leverage a raise and when it doesn't work she actually has to quit. Her boyfriend then follows suit by not showing up and ghosting the company.
Now he's a stay at home step-dad (oh, did I mention she has 3 kids??) after being with this girl for 6 months and they both don't have a job. Kind of a two for one.
A coach at the school I worked at lead the boy’s basketball team to state and was awarded coach of the year. Comments on the post about his award started filling up with SA accusations from former students. Obviously an investigation was immediately launched and he shot himself in the head by the end of the week. Literally went from being awarded and praised to dead by s*****e within days. Left behind a wife and two young kids.
I knew someone who had a full scholarship to an in state university. He got addicted to h****n, overdosed, fell into a coma and now he’s confined to a wheelchair and has the mental capacity of a toddler. It happened within 2 or 3 years.
My ex decided to touch himself in tje library of a community college and got caught. The school kicked him out and then he decided to start sneaking around and smoking pot instead of trying to get a job. He now has several thousand in loans to pay back, 2 inappropriate conduct charges and thinks all women hate him because he self diagnosed himself with DID
Girl’s divorce sent her into a manic episode. Her friends understood, but she lost her medical license (that she had less than a year) because she posted patient information on social media. She lost her job, made her lose her income so she lost her home, she decided to stay in *nice* hotels (from the mania) and was in debt by the end of two weeks.
I know a guy who came home drunk to his parent's house, got in an argument with his step father and punched him once. Step father died. Guy ended up in prison on a murder conviction.
Friend of mine had a girlfriend that was notorious for tieing men to herself by 'accidently' getting pregnant when things weren't going well in the relationship. At that point, she already had three kids from different guys while in her early/mid twenties. Said friend was lucky enough that things ended before she could do that again, however, his best friend caught feelings for her too and had an on/off relationship for a couple of months. To no one's surprise, she got preggo, and he now has to pay for a child he hasn't seen once.
She's on child no. 5 now btw
Had a friend that had the perfect girlfriend, a good career path, and just so many things going his way. Then the dude picked drugs over his girlfriend and basically he gave up on everything for drugs. I haven't heard from the guy in about 7 years so tbh, I don't even know if he's still alive
A **former** friend I knew lost a good job by stealing from it and sold everything he stole for drugs.
The amount of time it took for him to finish his first bump of c**e. He was hooked instantly and been chasing it ever since. He's been hospitalized at least once, and as many as four times, due to complications that are hitting him harder and harder.
Lockdown 2020
Friend got the fatty stimulus payments, was a redcap
Dude had never seen money like that in his life
Thought COVID was fake
Moved to NOLA, drank himself to pancreatitis and got COVID, died before Xmas
Took him less than 9 months
Was barely 35 years old
EDIT:
Lotta questions-
It’s a shame, he was a redcap with a lot of money dumped on him by government incompetence with a crazy PPE loan (no, not 1200 bucks, they s**t tens of thousands on this guy) not any education past HS, fell into the Q hole, thought he knew better than everyone saying stay home and wear a mask and had a drinking and whoring problem in NOLA and lost all the marbles he had left and it killed him
Choosing the wrong partner. A friend of mine married his love and they had a daugther. But soon that woman found someone "better" so she accused him of a variety of things ranging from beating her to SA. Ofcourse the new guy backed that up. So yeah, he lost his job, his house, his daugther and his wife (even tho this seems to be better for him in the end). A lot of his friends abandoned him too but I know him long enough to know that he would never do that and she made that up. She didnt have any proof other then the new guy stating that he saw it. Because of this the judge didnt pled him guilty but said he couldnt visit his daugther till she turns 18 as a precautionary measure. This didnt matter to other people tho because they heard something about him beating his wife so it must be true... or so idk.
I've seen a lot over at r/wallstreetbets where people buy puts and literally burn they life savings.
Good comment about betting & buying options, bad English "Literally" means "actually"
25 years ago I decided to dig a garden. I had a severe allergic reaction to mold in the soil and wound up in the hospital with life threatening pneumonia. I was given a brand new miracle antibiotic. A week later I went home with a 10 day supply of the same med. Over the next several months I started developing neurological problems. Over the next several years I started developing unexplained arthritis. It took years.... 10 or more.... before we realized the antibiotic was responsible. I have severe chronic pain issues and neurological issues. 4 joint replacements by my 50th bday. Multiple other orthopedic surgeries. No known treatment other than managing the symptoms as they come. I've been on disability for 20 years. Can't even describe how this antibiotic has ruined my life even though it also saved my life. I just wanted to grow some flowers...
That is so horrible, I'm sorry you're going through that!
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I honestly wonder how many stories would be left here if we took out all the ones involving drugs and alcohol? Would we even have 50? Edit: I couldnt even read through most of these since they were so sad. I'm here to be uplifted and not (even more) depressed. Sorry, not sorry.
Yeah, good call. Avoid what's depressing for you. Wishing you lots of funny meme posts and articles full of cute puppy pictures.
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A woman at my job had worked here for 24 years, high-level executive (almost c-suite), brilliant woman, great career. It took one Facebook rant about how her grandson didn't get into his dream university and blaming the university favoring underserving people of color (I am paraphrasing here) to end it all. She is now unemployable and has threatened law suits over her termination. You shouldn't put your workplace in your Facebook profile if you are going to be racist, Elinore.
When I was in high school, I had a friend who told me that his family used to be rich. His Dad had a really good job making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year (1980s money). They'd had a huge house, and everything money could buy. Then Dad started using cocaine, and they lost almost everything. Dad went to rehab, got clean, got a new job ... but a lot less money. But my friend said it was all okay because he got his Dad back, and his Dad became a really good Dad. When his Dad was at the old job, he worked all the time, so my friend rarely saw him. But in his new job, his Dad was home a lot more and they spent a lot of time together and had a good relationship. I've always found this story inspiring and heartwarming, because although the Dad messed up really bad, he got the help he needed and became a good person for my friend.
I'm not proud to have a few moments in my life where I've made really stupid decisions that could have ended very badly, like many of these. Thankfully there's no drugs or alcohol involved, just doing stupid s**t that could have gotten others or myself hurt. Very fortunate that I did not face the consequences of my actions.
I think most people in this world are just one moment of bad luck away from ending up on this list.
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An absolutely brilliant senior at my High School decided to play an over-the-top prank by setting off a military helicopter smoke cannister in the chemistry room. It was very toxic and got spread by the ventilation across the entire school. He lost his full ride and admission to Yale. I think they let him graduate though.
Not very brilliant if you don't have common sense.
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A lot of these might not have happened if we treated drug addiction as a public health issue rather than a crime.
Most of these were definitely not only close to one single mistake.
This was a huge news story in my city about 10 years ago. A guy was going out to dinner and pulled into the restaurant parking lot. The car in the space next to him was a Hummer. The owner of the Hummer got angry because he felt that the guy parked too close to him. They got into a fight and the Hummer owner pulled out a gun and shot the man. Now the Hummer owner is in jail for manslaughter and won't be driving his car for a long, long time. And if you thought these two men would be 18 year-old hot headed teens, you'd be wrong. They were both in their 50s or 60s.
My friend drove to a party. He decided to sleep in the back of the car since he was too drunk to drive. Smart. Then a woman we know couldn't find a ride home from the party, and she solved her problem by stealing the car. Halfway home she crashed, flipping it two times before wrapping it around a tree. My friend was thrown out and landed 50 meters from the car. The woman had put on the seatbelt and was stuck in the wreck. She's paralyzed from the neck down and has brain damage. Her parents raised her kids. My friend is paralyzed from the armpits down. He had to give up his dream job and move in with his grandmother while learning to live as a wheelchair user. He started drinking and we lost touch but from what I've heard he's an alcoholic now.
I got a concussion by misjudging the height of a pole and running into it. Ever since then I’ve had occasional migraines, light and sound sensitivity, and worse memory and thinking speed. Not as bad as other things on this list but people are often unaware of the long-term effects of concussions.
25 years ago I decided to dig a garden. I had a severe allergic reaction to mold in the soil and wound up in the hospital with life threatening pneumonia. I was given a brand new miracle antibiotic. A week later I went home with a 10 day supply of the same med. Over the next several months I started developing neurological problems. Over the next several years I started developing unexplained arthritis. It took years.... 10 or more.... before we realized the antibiotic was responsible. I have severe chronic pain issues and neurological issues. 4 joint replacements by my 50th bday. Multiple other orthopedic surgeries. No known treatment other than managing the symptoms as they come. I've been on disability for 20 years. Can't even describe how this antibiotic has ruined my life even though it also saved my life. I just wanted to grow some flowers...
That is so horrible, I'm sorry you're going through that!
Load More Replies... I honestly wonder how many stories would be left here if we took out all the ones involving drugs and alcohol? Would we even have 50? Edit: I couldnt even read through most of these since they were so sad. I'm here to be uplifted and not (even more) depressed. Sorry, not sorry.
Yeah, good call. Avoid what's depressing for you. Wishing you lots of funny meme posts and articles full of cute puppy pictures.
Load More Replies... A woman at my job had worked here for 24 years, high-level executive (almost c-suite), brilliant woman, great career. It took one Facebook rant about how her grandson didn't get into his dream university and blaming the university favoring underserving people of color (I am paraphrasing here) to end it all. She is now unemployable and has threatened law suits over her termination. You shouldn't put your workplace in your Facebook profile if you are going to be racist, Elinore.
When I was in high school, I had a friend who told me that his family used to be rich. His Dad had a really good job making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year (1980s money). They'd had a huge house, and everything money could buy. Then Dad started using cocaine, and they lost almost everything. Dad went to rehab, got clean, got a new job ... but a lot less money. But my friend said it was all okay because he got his Dad back, and his Dad became a really good Dad. When his Dad was at the old job, he worked all the time, so my friend rarely saw him. But in his new job, his Dad was home a lot more and they spent a lot of time together and had a good relationship. I've always found this story inspiring and heartwarming, because although the Dad messed up really bad, he got the help he needed and became a good person for my friend.
I'm not proud to have a few moments in my life where I've made really stupid decisions that could have ended very badly, like many of these. Thankfully there's no drugs or alcohol involved, just doing stupid s**t that could have gotten others or myself hurt. Very fortunate that I did not face the consequences of my actions.
I think most people in this world are just one moment of bad luck away from ending up on this list.
Load More Replies... An absolutely brilliant senior at my High School decided to play an over-the-top prank by setting off a military helicopter smoke cannister in the chemistry room. It was very toxic and got spread by the ventilation across the entire school. He lost his full ride and admission to Yale. I think they let him graduate though.
Not very brilliant if you don't have common sense.
Load More Replies... A lot of these might not have happened if we treated drug addiction as a public health issue rather than a crime.
Most of these were definitely not only close to one single mistake.
This was a huge news story in my city about 10 years ago. A guy was going out to dinner and pulled into the restaurant parking lot. The car in the space next to him was a Hummer. The owner of the Hummer got angry because he felt that the guy parked too close to him. They got into a fight and the Hummer owner pulled out a gun and shot the man. Now the Hummer owner is in jail for manslaughter and won't be driving his car for a long, long time. And if you thought these two men would be 18 year-old hot headed teens, you'd be wrong. They were both in their 50s or 60s.
My friend drove to a party. He decided to sleep in the back of the car since he was too drunk to drive. Smart. Then a woman we know couldn't find a ride home from the party, and she solved her problem by stealing the car. Halfway home she crashed, flipping it two times before wrapping it around a tree. My friend was thrown out and landed 50 meters from the car. The woman had put on the seatbelt and was stuck in the wreck. She's paralyzed from the neck down and has brain damage. Her parents raised her kids. My friend is paralyzed from the armpits down. He had to give up his dream job and move in with his grandmother while learning to live as a wheelchair user. He started drinking and we lost touch but from what I've heard he's an alcoholic now.
I got a concussion by misjudging the height of a pole and running into it. Ever since then I’ve had occasional migraines, light and sound sensitivity, and worse memory and thinking speed. Not as bad as other things on this list but people are often unaware of the long-term effects of concussions.
