“What Is The Most Terrifying Thing To Happen To You In A Well-Lit And Populated Place?”: 30 People Tell Some Terrifying Stories
Most of the population feels totally safe in broad daylight. Think of the public places from bus stations to malls, from crowded streets to squares, here we are surrounded by an seemingly infinite amount of strangers. So we assume nothing can happen to us.
Unfortunately, this is not precisely the case. Quite on the contrary, in some peculiar instances, people find themselves in creepy and sometimes plain dangerous situations even though it’s a lit and crowded place.
So you may wonder how on earth that happens. This thread that has people sharing “the most terrifying thing to happen to you in a well-lit and populated place” has some answers.
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"Sitting on a bus on my way to school one morning in my catholic school-girl uniform (knee-length skirt with opaque tights and button-down shirt) when I notice that I can feel the back of the hand and knuckles of the guy next to me on the outside of my upper thigh. He had his arms folded with his jean jacket over them. I thought nothing of it and moved to give some space between us. Our bumpy ride continues and I'm engrossed in my book. I feel his hand again and so I move again. The bus became more crowded and then I feel his palm grab and rub my thigh. I was shocked. I don't know if it was a flight response or that my brain clicked into autopilot because I booked it off the bus - probably both.
"I told my friends who were on the bus with me. Another friend spoke up and said she had had a similar experience a few weeks ago. I drew a picture of the guy as best I could (his profile was very memorable) and we filed a report with the police.
"Months go by. I was standing on the same public bus, chatting with friends. I see a student from my school from a younger year sitting alone in the back of the bus, and I see the jean jacket guy sit right next to her!
"I don't know where it all came from, but I was so empowered in that moment. I f*cking screamed at him. I can't even really recall what I said. Something to the effect of, 'Hey you. Get the f*ck off this bus. You grabbed my leg. You grabbed her leg (pointing to my friend). And something tells me you'd like to grab this girl's leg too. Get the f*ck out of here, you f*cking pervert. I reported you to the police and I'll tell them you're here again so they can catch you.'"
"He BOOKED it off the bus and we never saw him again. I followed up with the cops, but I have no idea whatever came of it (probably nothing). I'm pretty proud of 16-year-old me, speaking up like that though - first time."
Was taking my kids for a walk in the park near our apartment once when a guy and a woman came out of the tree line suddenly and the guy said to give him my wallet and anything else in my pockets. He had some weird screwdriver / knife thing and I pushed my daughter, my eldest child, behind me. I was going to do the same for my son but the woman grabbed his other arm for some reason and my heart felt like it was going to explode for some reason, I suddenly forgot about self preservation and jumped forwards and broke the woman's nose. I felt a sharp pain under my ribs and looked to see that the man had just shanked me, but at this point two other guys who had been jogging were running up and shouting.
The police that patrolled the park showed up not long after that. I was sitting and trying not to bleed to death, the man had ran off and his screwdriver was still in me. The woman was on the ground crying and shouting because I had also knocked the top front of her teeth loose / out. The two joggers were originally asking the woman if I was the assaulter but the situation cleared up soon. I got taken to the hospital and questioned about the incident, there was a while when it looked like I was going to be charged with battery for the woman since it turns out she actually had a decently well off family, was just an addict. They tried to sue me but it was thrown out and she was sentenced for attempted kidnapping.
I had a tube in my chest for two weeks after my surgery to remove the shank, but it all cleared up after that. Just glad my kids are safe.
**EDIT**: I am male. Sorry for not clarifying. The mother of my children passed away several years ago.
When I was really young, a guy stopped me when I was leaving school and asked if I liked PlayStation and Nintendo. I told him I did, and that I really liked final fantasy and he said "what a coincidence, I have that with a TV in my van. wanna come play?"
I told him I had to ask my mom first, and to stay here. I ran home and called my mom to ask, and she told me to lock the door, get in the basement, and don't open the door for anyone. She explained what was happening to me when she got home and once I knew, I was pretty freaked out.
I was a Senior in High School and was dropping my girlfriend off at her house. She lived in a pretty ghetto area, and I was from the "nice" part of town. As I was saying bye to her, her neighbor from across the street walked over to us and started yelling at me. This guy was our age and I guess she knew him as well. He started yelling at me for some reason, so I started walking towards him to do who knows what, when he said "I have a gun and I'm gonna f*****g kill you". At this I just stop in my tracks trying to determine if he's being serious. And then my girlfriend stalks past me, walks up to him and slaps him in the face as hard as she can and yells "get the f**k out of here Junior and go home!". I stood there thinking "Holy s**t, she just owned that guy". That was 15 years ago and we're now expecting our third kid :)
I was standing on a bus during London's morning rush. It was an absolute crush - nowhere to move. I felt a boner press into the back of me, so I shouted for the driver to stop the bus. He promptly ignored me.
I had absolutely nowhere to go. I was trapped. And then this man reached under my skirt and tried to stick his fingers up my [private parts], so I kept shouting what was happening. Nobody on the bus did anything. The driver wouldn't stop, so I struggled with this man who, by that time, was holding me by my crotch and licking me.
So at the next stop - Warren Street - the doors open and I ran. This man chased me until he caught me and put me in a bear hug and kept telling me he was going to rape me then and there in broad daylight. I threatened to stab him in the eye with my keys (in my hand and pressing into his eye) and he backed off.
I kept shouting for people to call the police (I didn't have a mobile at the time) and people just kept walking past.
So I ran to work. The police thankfully took me very seriously. They said that the CCTV systems on the bus weren't working at the time, so it would be difficult to identify my assailant.
A week later, this same bus was bombed in 7/7. I wasn't on it because I was terrified that some man would do this again. That certainly isn't to say that I would have been on that exact bus at that exact time it was blown up, but I also know that the CCTV wasn't working, making it harder for the police to identify the bomber.
It was the absolute helplessness I felt, whereby every person around me watched, but didn't do anything. Hundreds of people - passersby, the bus driver, my fellow passengers on the bus all pretended that it wasn't happening. The terror of what happened in that instant didn't stick around (thankfully,) but the mistrust of the bystander effect keeps me on my guard 11 years later.
It also means that whenever I see people in trouble, I make a point of helping instead of standing idly by. I will not allow anything like this to happen to anybody else. It has gotten me in sticky situations, but I don't want another person feeling the helplessness that I did.
I am so sorry that you went through that. :-( Like you...I've been through situations (though thankfully not quite the same) that have made it so that I am more aware of what's going on around me these days, and I do not hesitate to stand up for myself or someone else.
When I was twelve years old I was beaten up in a crowded bus station at rush hour by a boy several years older than me for absolutely no reason whatsoever. It was a completely unprovoked attack and I was trapped against a one-way door. The adults standing around waiting for their buses to go home from work did absolutely nothing to help me or to stop me from being attacked.
The hospital. Called 911 because my mom had a seizure. At hospital in the ridiculous bright light and the dr comes in and says they found a brain tumor. Texted my sister immediately and then moments later I could hear her sobbing in the waiting area from a where I was.
The beginning of the end.
OP wrote, "She had the tumor removed and we were able to enjoy 3 more years with her before she passed from the brain cancer two years ago this week. Thankful for the additional years of good days with her."
I accompanied my dad to the hospital while he was undergoing a routine procedure. They put him under for an hour to do a laryngoscopy. I kicked back in the cheery, well-lit lobby with my tablet, playing a game.
I was engrossed in the game, but about ten minutes later I realized the place had gone eerily silent. I looked up and there were no nurses or staff anywhere. I was the only person in what had been a room with a half-dozen people going back and forth. Looking around, I suddenly noticed a red light flashing over one of the doors.
My heart dropped out of my chest. My hands went icy and numb. I started counting the doors. The red light was flashing over my dad's door. I walked slowly down the hallway, trying not to make a sound. I didn't want to disturb anyone. I didn't want to miss any sounds. I didn't want to know what was happening in the room I was walking toward. I felt like a scared seven-year-old.
A nurse came out and he grabbed me on the shoulder. "Hey," he said casually, "we're working with your dad right now but I need to have you wait in the lobby right now, okay?"
"Okay. What's going on?" My voice was small and timid and high and I hated hearing it, hated feeling helpless.
"Oh, we'll be out to talk to you in just a second. Sorry, but I gotta go." He slipped back into the room and the unearthly silence came back. So, I walked back to the lobby and sat down.
A chaplain came by a bit later, as I was sitting motionless. My dad had a heart attack while under. He went into a coma, but they got his heart beating again. As I went in to see him, nurses and doctors filtered out of the room. Blood spatters on the sheets and floor. My dad quiet, wired into a half-dozen machines. About 15 minutes later, when my mom arrived to answer my urgent texts and calls, the lobby had a couple of families in there chatting happily, and the staff was back to its business. We pulled his life support four days later, after learning he was irrevocably brain-dead.
The world can change so fast. Your life can get turned upside-down. Your life can end. And for the people around you, it can just be another day. They go on without even noticing the pain inside you. That was the moment in my life this truth was most starkly plain. Nothing has ever been more terrifying.
A guy tried to drag me to his room when I was sick and confused at a con. Pulled me right through the lobby.
The only reason I didn't end up in his room is because I couldn't think of how to get away, so I just sat right down in the middle of the lobby and he couldn't pick me back up again.
No one helped.
My friends came back from pulling the car around and found me sitting there. Thankfully they helped me into the car and that was that.
When I was 3, someone tried to kidnap me from a shopping centre. I had been standing next to my mum when some random guy grabbed me by the wrist and started making a fast move to the exit. Even nearly 30 years later I can still remember this vividly, from what he looked like to being too scared to say anything as I was being led out whilst frantically trying to look for my mum. Luckily enough mum had spotted me and screamed as we we're next to the exit and he let me go and ran out. I had nightmares about the man with the yucky eyes for years after this.
A couple of years ago I was jogging in the centre of my town as usual, when I realized I was being followed by some guy I had never seen.
He kept trying to talk to me, and at some point he grabbed me from behind and went full molester on me. I shook free then started screaming, knocking on the hood of a car passing by. He ran away, never to be found.
I couldn't jog for over a year.
Edit to add: obligatory rip my inbox, also thanks for the encouraging replies (I resumed jogging after a year or so by the way).
Would also like to remind everyone in a situation of possibile assault to run away, make a lot of noise, run towards houses/people/cars so you can get someone's attention and be helped. Scream "fire!" if need be, people may ignore calls for help but usually respond in case of fire. And, lastly, report the incident to the authorities.
Was walking down the sidewalk on a busy city street holding my 4-year old son's hand. He suddenly shouted "Yay!" and pulled away from me to jump, two feet, in the water at the curb. Just then a bus was pulling over to the bus stop in front of us. I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out. I lunged forward-- too late, but the observant bus driver did a quick "yank-and-back" on her steering wheel and the bus went exactly around my son, no room to spare, and still pulled into the bus stop. I pulled my son back to the sidewalk, started started crying and yelling at him, which scared him, so he cried, then I hugged him so relieved he was still alive. By the time I looked up, the bus was gone.
What scared me the most was that no one else noticed, and it was over in two minutes. Those 120 seconds could have changed my life forever... but since no one else witnessed it it was like it didn't happen. How many other times has stuff like this happened?
THANK YOU bus driver, wherever you are. You had to be watching far in advance... "look there's a squirrelly kid up there, I better be ready in case he... s**t!".
I was 10 or maybe 12 years old. My mom took me to the mall so she could go to the Target. There was a baseball card/comic book store right next to the Target and while she shopped I got to go look at the collectibles. While I was looking at the cards in the case, a guy came in. He looked around for a minute, then approached me and asked if I liked baseball cards. I said that I did and he said he had a Babe Ruth card in his van and asked if I would like to see it. We were right at the counter and the clerk was right there, but I got a real creepy vibe from this guy. I said no and left the store to go back to Target and find my mom. I looked behind me as I walked into Target and, sure enough, he was following me. I was starting to get a little scared, so I turned into the women's underwear aisle, thinking he wouldn't follow me. He kept after me until I finally found my mom. I never told her about it because I didn't want to scare her. At the time I thought maybe he wanted to steal my $10 but now I'm pretty sure he wanted more than $10.
TL;DR Creepster tried to get me in the mall
Why didn't the clerk say anything? The OP says the clerk was "right there", surely the clerk overheard?
I went to my local library which is very large. I was in the reference section which is a bit secluded looking for books about writing. I noticed a shady looking man following me up and down the aisles. I got a little nervous because I was pretty far from the desk or anyone else that I could see. Once he saw me notice him and that I was walking faster r ran at me and slammed me into a shelf, smelling my neck and grabbing a fistful of my hair. He reeked of alcohol. I screamed. Lots of people came running. Security and the police were called. I was later told by their security liaison that perhaps if I had dressed differently it wouldn't have happened (tank top, shorts). I was so dazed I just stared at him and the female officer said "are you f*****g kidding me?" It was so scary and surreal.
i was in a local swimming pool and a ~~friend~~ mentioned how he thought i could fit into the storage locker. i jumped in and he locked it behind me. i learned a few things that day.
1 i can indeed fit into some storage lockers.
2 this person was not my friend.
3 strangers won't help you if your ~~friend~~ says you are fine even if you are crying for help.
4 putting the vents at the bottom of a locker is real dumb.
Side note: it really disgusts and saddens me how many of these stories are women being molested/sexually assaulted by men in broad daylight and no one does anything about it. Wow.
Anyway, I almost got killed by a city bus when I was like 13. I guess I wasn't paying attention. My friend reached out and yanked me back **hard** and the bus flew right in from of me. It was so close I felt the wind from it, didn't even have time to react. My life could have been completely different if he wasn't there.
i few years ago I was at a bowling center on a busy day. When we were about to leave we heard a big bang.
A man had thrown the heaviest bowling ball on a woman's head. Later I read that he did it on purpose and the women had severe brain damage. And was lucky to be alive. The man got sentenced to 18 months in prison.
edit: someone noted to me that I forgot forced psychological evaluation and the 7.5k reimbursement he had to pay
Back when I used to wear a hijab, I got on a really crowded train with a friend after a day of shopping. Some a*****e grabbed my head and tried to rip it off whilst hurling abuse at me. My friend managed to get the guy to let go but everyone else just watched. I was only 17 and it scared the c**p out of me for a long time.
When I was in 5th grade, I had a seizure in the middle of class. When I woke up on the floor, kids were running around me and laughing, and the teacher was yelling at me to get back in my desk and stop trying to get attention. Everything hurt and I was completely out of it for the rest of the day, and I didn't understand anything about what happened, or just how big of a sh*tlord the teacher was, until a couple of years later.
Teacher should have been sacked, charged with child neglect and banned from anything to do with kids. That teacher is the sort that rips an insulin pump catheter out of a students body because they thinks it’s a phone.
Recently went to Dolphin Cove to take care of my number one bucket list item, swim with sharks. I went with my best friend. Her and I are in our 40's and cute enough in our own right. Our shark trainer flirted with us but we thought nothing of it. Once we were in the water, we had to sit on a bench. He maneuvered the shark on our lap. Part of the program was the trainer guiding our hands to feel the shark. He put both of our hands on his very erect p*nis. We again kind of blew it off thinking it was an accident. Then he told us to spread our legs so we could hold and balance the shark on our legs. He slid his hand up our thighs and got his fingers under both of our bottoms before we stopped him. We both felt violated and it ruined my very top bucket list item experience for me. It horrifies and frightens me to think of how often he's done that with other women and kids.
I'm not sure it was the most terrifying thing that happened to me, but it was the most terrifying thing that happened to me at that point in my life.
I was about 11, in Cape Town - South Africa, visiting family.
My parents were walking in front of me, and I was walking with my little cousin directly behind them. We were in a shopping mall (Tyger Valley Center for any South Africans out there).
Anyway, I think my parents had stopped to get some money out of an ATM, and my and my cousin were just being silly, as you do at that age.
This guy, maybe in his mid-20s sat across from us on a bench, pointed at us, then my parents, and then dragged his finger along his neck. He then pulled open his jacket, and pulled a gun out of a pocket.
I don't know if that was a real gun, and I didn't care to find out. I told my parents immediately, and we kind of circulated the security personnel before eventually leaving.
Was a bit of an uncomfortable situation.
I was 18 or 19 and picking up a prescription at the pharmacy. While I was waiting in line, a man (who I guess was waiting in line as well) started taking pictures of my feet with his cell phone. He wasn't even trying to be subtle, just kind of bent over and aimed his phone at my feet. I moved a few feet away and he just followed me. The pharmacist saw the whole thing and mouthed "do you know him?" I shook my head with my eyes wide, grabbed my prescription and bolted away from the counter. I hid in the store until I saw him leave and drive off because I was afraid he might follow me.
Maybe not terrifying, but definitely unnerving and creepy. Still creeps me out thinking about it.
I was alone at the park and I was either 5 or 6 and these girls in grade 8 (there was 3 of them) started yelling at me to get off a swing I was sitting on. Apparently it was 'their swing'. I just sat there and stared at the sand cause I was terrified until one of the girls walked behind me and then violently pushed me off the swing. Then they proceeded to kick me, throw sand at me, and shove my face in the sand till I couldn't see and barely breathe. Then they took of my shoes and threw them in a tall tree. They were those Mary Jane shoes (Powerpuff girls wore them) and my mother had just bought them for me 2 days ago.
I walked home bare foot crying and not one person did anything. The park I was at was surrounded by apartment buildings. I'm sure somebody saw. I never felt so helpless in my life.
I'm a 20-something lady. I was heading home from the gym (tired) dressed elegantly (on my way from work) along a large, well-lit street. About a block from my house, a man first tried to catch my attention and then to grab me and pull towards the bushes on one side of the sidewalk, having already partly removed his pants.
I screamed bloody murder and ran home. After calling the police and describing the attacker, they asked what I was wearing. I was going to get mad, but it turned out he matched the description of a local pedophile suspect that preys on young girls form the nearby school. I was wearing a rather girly navy blue skirt with a white shirt that day.
He was never arrested.
Seeing the guy who raped me stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart. I walked into an aisle and there he was. This feeling of dread washed over me. This guy looked familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. Then it hit me. I knew and I froze. It had been seven years and he looked so different now. Next thing I remember is sitting in my car shaking and trying to get the keys into the ignition.
Edit: I would like to say thank you to all the people who had such kind words to say. And to the people with similar stories- I'm sorry. I know that it's hell. People keep asking why I didn't report him. I wanted to but when I seeked support from my friends I received nothing of the sort. Instead I was told that it was my fault. I went to his house willingly so I had to have known that he wanted sex. One friend even made a comment about him being cute. These were my best friends. If they didn't support me, how could I depend on strangers? I rationalized in my head somehow. He wanted me *that bad*. When I hear stories of people getting attacked and raped while walking home, I feel like my rape was so mild compared to that. I know that it's an unhealthy thought process but I still don't want to believe that it happened to me. I stopped thinking about it until I seen him that day.
An addict wanted money from me down town, but I literally had nothing but my clothes on me. So I said sorry man, all out.
Dude lumbers towards me slowly, pushes me over, and stab me in the thigh with a Swiss Army knife.
I booked it to the hospital for stitches. Didn't hurt until I actually looked at it. Adrenaline didn't stop pumping for a very long time.
Edit: Lot of people asking "why didn't you run if he was lumbering towards you?"
A: I was 13, he was a full grown adult, I had a bad haircut, he pulled a knife on me, I froze in fear.
Fistula rupture of a patient in my hospital. Blood everywhere. Blood on the floor, ceiling, workers, and everywhere else you can imagine. Splurging everywhere. Doctors and nurses worked on her for 45 minutes, but nothing they could do to save her. It looked like someone had been slashed open with a sword in the room, and the worst part is that her 3 kids were there to see it.
Almost drowned as a 6 year old in a populated adult pool. I was floundering for what felt like a minute, quickly loosing breath and swallowing water. No around me heard my gargled cries. No one helped. Thank god my mother pulled me out before it was too late.
And that's how i developed my fear of water.
There are so many cases when a child has drowned right in front of adults eyes
Junior high, first year. 85 Ib loner book gal. Get followed by much larger (150Ib+) boy, boy kicks legs out from under me, I pick up books walk on, boy shoves me face forward, I get to my feet and continue. Boy is enraged by my lack of resistance. Punches me between back of head and neck. Everything flies, saw neat colors. Stumble and struggle to pick up papers, books etc. There were at least fifteen or twenty kids watching this unfold, no one helped. No one said a word. I was lucky that I wasn't knocked out or hurt worse. But I lost a lot of faith in humanity that day. Now? Still lose hope in people, but work as tech in ER and there's always, AT LEAST one thing that makes your heart melt and feel like life's more than worth it, everyone's lives are worth it. Trouble is you can't be scared to intervene when needed.
My dog and I are stopped at a crosswalk and he barks and scares this woman. As soon as he barked the walk dude came up to cross but the lady started yelling about my needing to control my dog and she pulled out a taser. I'm just trying to get across the street and she starts making even a bigger scene saying how she's going to shock me. My dog is barking at the crazy lady we are standing in the street now, at a busy intersection and I thought to my self I'm about to get tased in front of all these people.
A few things come to mind but this is the biggest one for me...a few years ago I was at the local mall, outside waiting for my mom to get there. I see her car pull up, and she turns around and goes to park. Parking is accomplished without incident. She's maybe 50 feet away from me. She gets out of the car, and some car drives up into that row of parking about 10 seconds after she finishes parking. This guy (maybe 45) gets out of his car and starts yelling at my mom for "stealing his parking" (even though he wasn't anywhere near her when she was parking), calling her some nasty s**t, and says that if this were his country that "she'd be dead for crossing a man." Anyways, my mom had parked fair and square. After he starts throwing this s**t at her, his relative gets out and also starts yelling at her. I'm a large person (6'1, 230 lbs and I have a lot of muscle but some extra chub too cuz I'm too lazy to diet perfectly and my wife likes it....that'll be my excuse), but I HATE fighting and violence. Regardless, I run towards them and my mind goes into warrior mode. This guy was getting uncomfortably close to my mom, so I bark some obscene stuff at him and act like a caveman in heat fighting a sabertooth and the guy actually screamed like a child and fell backwards over his car and begs me not to cut him (I didn't even have a knife or anything on me). I tell him that respecting women is both important and honourable and asked him to apologize, and then he drove off. Adrenaline was going crazy and my heart was pounding but my mommy dearest is safe and hopefully dickwad learned his lesson.
This happens too often. Like Karen’s “saving” a parking spot by standing in it
Many years ago, I was just about to walk into the restaurant where I was the assistant manager, when I was approached by this huge guy who was all smiles and generally gave across this body language of being friendly, is a "sorry but I need to ask you something" kinda way. Next thing I knew, he was screaming at me about some friend I hadn't seen in a while. Turns out my friend had stolen some weed off this dodgy guy, and my name had come up for some reason. Right there in the middle of a busy road in a busy city, he pulled out a Stanley Knife and told me he was going to cut my throat with it if I didn't give him his £350 right there. I still don't remember exactly what I said to him but he left, told me he was going to kill me if he ever saw me again and I went into work.
A guy felt me up on an extremely crowded (peak hour) bus.
I totally froze.
Couldn't bring myself to move a muscle as his hand slid up the bare skin of my inner thigh (I was wearing a skirt).
It was an odd experience. I never expected myself to react like that. I always imagined that if something like that happened I'd shove them off or call them out or something,
but I didn't.
I didn't do anything.
Don't blame yourself!! Freezing up in scary situations is a natural human reaction.
When I was little, I used to play "the hi game," where you would wave to strangers as you drove by. When with a group of friends, you'd try to get the most people to wave hi back to you.
One time, my mom stopped to buy some flowers, and had left my friends and I in the car. For some reason one of my friends decided to keep playing the game while we were parked (which is obviously against the rules, but this isn't the time for technicalities). So she waves to this dude and he comes over, and the very first thing he says is
"So, uh... Where's your mom?"
To me as a kid, something about the way he said it was terrifying. We all thought we were done. Turns out he was just concerned, and somehow ended up tracking my mom down. But those few moments immediately after he said that were terrifying.
I use to take those classes at a Catholic church in the evening. I was put ahead into an older kid class (I believe I was 8, and most of them were pre teens or early teens). This one guy (14 or 15) kept offering me money for a blowjob, which at the time I had no idea what it was. A bunch of the other girls would always swarm me when he was nearby and tell me to ignore him, not take the money, etc. He was known as a trouble maker.
I asked my parents what a blowjob was, so they found out, and made a complaint. His family gave a lot of money to that church so nothing happened to him.
Then I got to church early and was just roaming around. He was there and got physical with me. I didn't really understand at the time, but now I realize he was likely trying to rape me. I called out for others to help but absolutely no one did. A few adults would stop and watch, but then they'd keep walking. Thankfully my older sister ran into us and put a stop to everything so ultimately nothing happened. He got kicked out after that.
I understand not getting involved, but no one even called the cops.
The least you can do is dial 000, 911, 999 or whatever the emergency number is in your country
I walked out of the subway in NYC on a warm, sunny September day and found it was cloudy and snowing.
It was 9/11. Over the next five minutes I learned the WTC towers had been hit by planes and the snow was actually ash from the collapse of the first tower.
My sister and I were at a sort of outdoor flea market with my dog. A lady came up really close behind her, and my dog, who was sitting down, stood up and barked once. The lady moved away, and that seemed to be it. Out of nowhere, a man runs up to us, gets really close to me, and starts yelling about how he's a dog trainer, and my dog is clearly aggressive and unfit to be around people. He's fairly tall, way too close to me, angry, and his eyes are staring in different directions. We point out that she wasn't attempting to bite or lunge towards anyone, just barked once because she was startled, and Crazy Eyes starts screaming that we need to leave immediately or he'll call the cops. My sister and I start walking away, figuring if we just get away from him it'll be okay. Nope. He follows us, getting angrier and angrier, and now I'm getting pretty freaked out. I loudly tell him to stop following us. People are staring but no one is about to get in the middle of this. We ended up just ducking through a side gate to get him away from us. While we were at that gate, the lady who my dog barked at came up and told us that the man couldn't force us to leave and that my dog clearly wasn't dangerous. Some people just have scarily short fuses, and he seemed like he wasn't really all there, so I had no idea what he would have done if we weren't able to get away from him
Sure it wasn’t “Downtown Karen”? Search Downtown Karen on YouTube and google
Got jumped, put in a headlock while groups of people looked on while I was screaming help(I was 13), and while this was going on a crack head picked up my bike and took off with it. All on my city's public square(literally the center on town). Now I carry a knife where ever I go. Got the bike back though!
Edit: it was mid day btw
EDIT #2:
So many of you have said that I shouldn't carry a knife. Well the problem with that is if I don't, I'm probably dead. That's sad to say but its how this area is. Most people wouldn't think a city in NorthEast Pennsylvania would be bad... But my city came in at #4 for the most homicides per capita in america 2 years back. I've had friends that have been jumped and almost killed just by a guy beating on them. I've had friends get robbed at gunpoint. I understand when people say it can be used against me and I wouldn't pull it out if someone had a gun. But its my only option. I'd carry a gun if I was old enough to get a concealed weapons permit but until then its my one line of self defense. I'd rather pull a knife and stab someone than loose my life. Its that simple.
Yes aways carry a weapon when walking not everyone will help you. And sometimes there no one around. So you have to fight sometimes, for yourself cause you never know what bad people are capable of.
One morning I was sitting in a café, waiting for a friend. At the table next to me, there was a Chinese exchange student, who obviously just came to the city and didn't speak our language. Some guy walked up to her, sat next to her, groped her and said very nasty sexual things. I said "Hey that's not cool, I don't think that you are welcome and this place anymore, get out of here." Then he got to me, tried to shove me and said "What do you want from me, let's get out, I will beat you up, you a*****e." It got a bit louder but finally he went out.
Thing is, the café was half full, it was 10 AM and no one cared what happened to that girl or me. And no one even thought of calling the police. Pretty sh*tty of these people.
When I was living in Paris, I was attacked in the Bastille metro station during the early evening, while in a group of 5-6 girls.
This guy followed us off the train and onto an escalator, and placed himself right behind my friend. She went around me farther up the escalator to get away from him. He tried to follow her. Being fluent in French, I put my arm out to block him and told him to leave her alone.
He then grabbed my arm so hard that I later had fingerprint bruises. And then he just stared at me. It was terrifying. I was telling him to get off and leave me alone, all while trying to pry his fingers off me, and there was just no emotion or reaction on his face.
Luckily then, my friend just above me turns and sees this, **and full on Falcon kicks this guy right on the chest!** He fell back a bit, but caught himself, then grabbed her by her ponytail and punched her in the face.
By this point, we're finally at the top of the escalator (yes, this all transpired in the duration of an escalator ride) and a group of men chased the guy off.
I love you Paris, but f**k did the men there harass the s**t out of me.
**Edit:** I should also add, that while I was thankful that this group of men chased him off, they also then started yelling at us, saying we must have provoked him, and that we shouldn't talk to men like him, and next time just to call the police. To which I just yelled AND WHERE THE F**K ARE THE POLICE NOW?
Needless to say, our going out plans were thwarted and we went home. On the way home that night, I got my a*s grabbed twice and one guy flashed me right outside my house. Now, that one, he got punched in the face.
This problem in France was mentioned in the worlds worst holiday destinations post too
I was pretty close to a Lightning about 36 years ago, and by pretty close I mean less than 10 ft from it.
Was with family in a older hotel the pocono mountains, we had a thunderstorm roll through after dinner. I just stepped out of my room at the hotel and was going to walk to my parents room two doors down. Just as I stepped out of my room the bolt struck ground in the court yard followed by the loudest bang I had ever heard. There was this smell of burnt ozone, a patch on the ground were the rain water had been vaporized and was bone dry again. I swear that the bolt appeared to be as thick as a tree trunk and the sound of the bolt was like the Tesla coil I heard at the Franklin institute in PA. My parents said I literally levitated into the room and that all the hair on my body was standing on end and when my father touched me I discharged a static spark like I had been running on wool carpet for the last 2 days...
Its a vivid memory and I sure do take care when I am out in severe weather.
Sixteen, female fresh out from school for the day. Take bus home and am standing next to a kid who felt like wearing all red. Car pulls up and a guy in the backseat has a handgun. Points it at the kid in the red but I knew more or less everyone at the bus stop was going to get shot because some dumba** wanted to wear gang-affliated colors. Light turns green and the driver goes and I'm left reeling with the whole "what if" scenarios for a few days.
Was in Chicago last year for a conference and brought my friend who was slightly terrified of urban areas (Keep in mind, we are from rural Iowa.)
Had to use the subway to get to the conference when suddenly a fight broke out in the car infront of us. They moved the fight throughout most of the train and started to flash guns at one point in our car.
Luckily for us, a brave young fellow helped break it up and no one was seriously injured, but my friend legitimately thought there was about to be a shooting.
Im a little late to this party but here goes. I was on a 300 mile ride on my motorcycle when I stopped for gas at a sketchy gas station. While I'm stopped this homeless guy in a puffy ratty fur jacket and a flava flav style Viking hat rides up on his bicycle with a milk crate for a basket and a home made trailer. He rings the bell on his handle bar and tells me I have a nice bike as I'm walking in to pay. I say "thanks you too bud" and he charges at me on foot and pushes me, from behind, hard and says "no man I said you have a niiiiiiiiceeeeeeee biiiiiiiiiikkkeee". Im freakin out now cuz this dude looks high as hell on something hard and, though I'm not a small dude, I've heard drugs make ya fight hella crazy. So I push this guy to the ground and yell for him to BTFU and he gets up, adjusts his hat and says "this is what you wear when you wanna sing immigrant song by Led Zepplin..... AHHHHHHH-AHH-AHHHHHHHHHHHH-AHHHHHHH!!!!!" then he runs to his bike like a mad man and rides off. Most terrifying and hilarious thing to every happen to me
Tldr; cranked out homeless dude attacked me in a parking lot. May have been Robert Plant
On a crowded bus and a drunk older man corners me. Talks to me until I take my earbuds out, then asks about the book I'm reading and before I can realize what I'm dealing with, he takes it out of my hand and starts telling me how beautiful and "yummy" he thinks I am. I'm trying to get my s**t back and he won't stop telling me how he could just eat me up, I'm delicious, etc. I'm attempting to be just polite enough that I don't set him off, but firm enough to get him to leave me alone. At one point I look around and see all these people staring at me and nobody did anything. It was a double length bus so the driver was clueless. I got off at a random stop because I didn't want him to know my real stop, thankfully he did not follow me. I had to call my work and tell them I was going to be late.
Saw how two hitmen in a motorcycle shot a guy walking right next to the restaurant I was in. I was probably 13 years old. Come to think of it fear wasnt the strongest emotion though, I was furious, I couldnt believe how someone could talk a life so easily.
Well about 4 years ago a fighter jet crashed into my apartment complex and almost blew me up. Thank goodness for the creation of walls.
As a young teenager, in the early 90s I went to a slightly low-rent amusement park on a school trip. They had some rides, nothing like the huge ones at premium parks, but there was a reasonable looking rollercoaster - with a full loop and a corkscrew-style part (I'm sure there's a bunch of terminology I don't know about rides, so don't mind me).
My group of friends all decided to give it a try. I'd never been on one, so while I was a bit scared, it looked pretty cool, so why not? Our group all get on at the same time, talking and bullsh*tting each other in the way excited kids do.
The cars start moving backwards up a slope. Once it gets to near the top, the cars would release and go down the track. We're still moving up the slope and I look across at my friend and his restraint is down. Mine isn't. Oh s**t.
I panic naturally. We must be over a hundred feet up, on a 45' slope. There's nothing I can do to get off and it can't be too long until the cars will drop. I grab my restraint and pull it down across my chest. I *think* it locks into place, but now the cars drop.
I can't do a f*****g thing except hold on. The speed pins me into my seat, and while I don't think I'd come out in the corkscrew part, here comes the loop. As I pass the top of the loop I feel the cars slow just a little. My knuckles must have been transparent, they were gripping the edge of my seat so hard in a vain attempt to hold my upside-down a*s in the seat...
We exit the loop and go up another slope to then reverse the track direction. As it slows I can just about prise my hands from the seat to check my restraint and it felt secure. Naturally I didn't quite trust it and I gripped my seat all the way back through the course.
I got off the ride in a daze and never said a thing about it.
- Looking back I didn't know s**t about rollercoasters, I think I assumed restraints would come down and lock in automatically. There was a ride operator (a bored, tired kid not much older than I was) who probably should have walked down the cars before they left, to check stupid kids like me were locked in, and just missed me.
London bombings in 2005. My friends and I were leaving the hostel to get to the airport. Somehow, the tube had just been shut down and we had to take a bus. Inside the packed bus, a man started screaming that other busses had blown up and we should leave immediately. The people didn't react with panic, but with silence, and to me that was pretty terrifying.
Unfortunately Brits are used to random stuff exploding around them. In the UK between the white supremacists, the IRA, middle eastern terrorists and lone whackos UK citizens are desensitised
It was well lit and populated as it was my workplace, i was a pourer in a foundry at the time. Due to a mistake in the metal, it had to be put back into the furnace instead of being poured, a job that is done by using a crane to take the ladle (big bucket full of molten metal) back to the furnace. The ladle is then manually rolled over and the metal poured back into the furnace.
I was the lucky guy to roll it in, and whilst rolling it the crane driver made a mistake and moved the ladle out of position. This resulted in a wave of 1600C (~3000f) metal flying toward me like water off a spoon in the sink. Due to the light coming from the molten metal I couldn't guage the depth of the wave at the time, but looked down to see nothing but orange light surrounding me from the waist up. This lasted a moment at most, but in that moment every possible injury that could come from that crossed my mind.
No injury came of that, like a spoon in the sink the wave was very thin and my gear was good enough. But I was genuinely terrified then.
[EDIT]
There's a few people having difficulty picturing this, the wave of metal that hit me was splash back off the top rim of the furnace. I was on a stand, about half of my body was above the rim of the furnace. When rolling the metal in, it comes out of the top of the bucket, and the crane operator managed to clip the furnace ventilation. This turned the ladle and caused it to go everywhere. What hit me was more like a sheet of metal that happened to be molten. Seeing it hit me, I was unable to tell how deep the actual wave was so from my perspective, I had a sheet of molten metal around my waist that was unknown depth and incredibly hot. As I was the one turning the ladle in, I flicked down the lock on the turning wheel and quickly turned to jump down from the stand. This all happened very quickly. There was a distinct line and some metal splash on the front of my jacket where the wave had come into contact with me. Once I determined I was OK, I put the gear back on and finished the roll over.
In rio I was robbed at ..gun.. point on a crowded street in broad daylight. The guy just put the gun to my back and walked with me and said,"give me your money or your life." My heart hasn't ever beat faster..
Edit: God damnit.. I definitely was not robbed at fun point..
Also for those curious, I gave up my money without a fuss. Beforehand you may think you'll do something different but when you are there in the moment you don't have time to think through each scenario. Is your life worth risking 10 bucks over? Nah.. However, I was robbed again by the same guys 2 more times with a knife and then a gun again. On the third time I just yelled kinda pissed threw the money on the ground and kept walking, they didn't get my cell phone at least. Told the cops and they did nothing each time. We eventually stopped seeing them (we being exchange students and me who all got robbed by them on multiple occasions) around but idk why. I was studying abroad (on year two in Brazil) so I fit in fairly well and spoke the language but I guess I didn't fit in well enough.
For those going to rio for the Olympics, look up safety tips online. It isn't just a "be smart about it" scenario. Guys should watch their drinks be made as well (good night Cinderella druggings) and people should watch for credit card cloning, and be careful about when you withdraw money and who's watching outside the bank etc.
Better than being kidnapped and held for ransom. Also a common occurrence there
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/03/nyregion/officer-is-shot-lining-up-3-suspect-slain.html
In the second grade, around 7-8 years old, babysitter picked me up from a church ( I went to a catholic elementary school and was practicing to make my communion that sunday, I think this was a tuesday or thursday), and we were walking down the sidewalk when I saw a man breakdancing on the street (Circa 1992 in Queens, New York at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church/School) and thought cool...
but at the same moment, my babysitter was pushing me against a metal fence alongside the sidewalk.
I didn't hear anything but what I was witnessing was a NYPD (police officer) being shot multiple times by two criminals who had stolen a womans purse several blocks away (how stereotypical). One criminal was on one side, the officer in the middle, and the other criminal on the other side, so who knows who shot who, but the officer was shot many times (over 5), one criminal was shot in the head and died on the spot, the other criminal got away but was caught nearby.
F*****g hectic, I believe my mother saved the newspaper the next day, and I remember watching the news that night. Astoria circa 1991-1992. If anyone could find more info, it would be like tying up some loose ends in my life as it's been something I've thought about many many many times before.
EDIT: HOLY S**T, I've googled this many times in the past couple of years and never found anything and in 2 seconds of searching I found the article. As you can read in the article, it seems my memory serves me slightly incorrect...
Walking back from lunch to my office. I work in a urban area but it usually is safe to walk. From the corner of my eye I thought I saw someone following me. Didn't think too much about it but picked up my pace a little. I had to stop at the crosswalk and the person behind me catches up and I feel something on my back and he tells me to make a left turn. I turn into the next street and he asks me for all the money in my wallet. I gave it to him and he bolted past me. It had to be no later than 1:00 PM and I got mugged right in broad daylight.
I guess this qualifies... thunderstorm downdraft on a fully laden plane. Your seatbelt is done up, but there's fresh air between your butt & the seat as the plane drops.
This probably isn't on par with everyone else's posts, but when I was visiting a long-distance boyfriend in NYC. We were waiting to cross the street in Times Square and while traffic is going he proceeds to PUSH me towards it and then pull me back onto the sidewalk.
That happened a few more times while I visited him. It wasn't even playful. When I asked him why he did that he just laughed. :c
When I was living in Geneva, one day I got a craving for something from home. So, naturally, I went to McDonalds and got some fries / pommes frites. I'm sitting outside with my frites when I notice some chaos and cacophony coming across the bridge - looks like it's a WTO protest, complete with tractors and black bloc protesters throwing bricks and fire bombs. This is odd, Geneva is usually quiet, tidy, and calm. I get up and start walking away from the McDonald's to try to get to a different part of the city, not realizing how wild this was about to get.
As they get closer things start getting real. They smash out storefronts, light cars on fire, and the Swiss police form a police line behind me. I am now stuck between black bloc protesters and irritated police. I get up and start moving quickly down the street as both parties are closing in on me and start inhaling a mix of burning car and some sort of gas - not sure if it was tear gas or some sort of improvised smoke bomb from the protesters. People are yelling and it is loud as hell.
I round a corner and run right into about 12 Swiss police who are preparing to set up a cordon to corral the protesters into a more controllable part of the city and start asking them to please let me through. They tense up and stare at me, then one of them grabs me by the shoulder and sort of flings me behind them and then they move on. I'm in the clear and it is immediately quiet, with clean air and a free path back to a streetcar.
Was pretty scary at the time. Now, it's just interesting.
I got assaulted. In Jerusalem, by a pre-pubescent boy who in hindsight was probably trying to mug me.
Longer story: I was watching the Wailing Wall around the start of the Sabbath (lots of dancing and rejoicing) from an observing platform with several tourists. I'm enchanted, then out of nowhere all I know is someone has grabbed me from behind and is *thrusting*. I yell and hit immediately (guess I can thank my brother for all our childhood roughhousing that that was my reaction before I knew what was what), I turn around, and it's some Palestinian kid. I keep yelling at the kid, he and his friend scamper off.
Frankly this was nothing a shot of whiskey couldn't handle, and the only time in traveling to 60 countries as a woman where something like this happened. But the most upsetting thing about it was how there were so many others who saw a woman being attacked, and didn't do anything. Afterwards grown men told me stuff like "I saw it happen but I was so shocked I didn't know what to do!" and "wait, you didn't know him?!" WTF. I definitely understand now why worse things can happen in public while good people stand by and do nothing.
I was walking with my girlfriend in an outdoor shopping area, restaurants, stores, small business etc.. 2 guys started following us as we turned down one of the side streets to go to a particular restaurant. They started calling out to her, saying nasty & vulgar s**t, calling me names. I turned around told them to leave us alone, and they approached pretty quickly, saying they were going to kick my a*s and there's nothing I could do about it.
I lifted my jacket, put my hand on my sidearm and told them to f**k off and leave us alone. Their eyes got big. They mouthed off some more, but walked off.
My mother having a panic attack. I think I was 12 or 13.
It got easier to deal with after that but the first one was nightmarish.
**Most** terrifying. Well lit and populated. Okay, 4th grade on the playground after lunch a kid from a different 4th grade class pulled a big a*s kitchen knife out of his backpack, it was wavy and serrated and had forks on the end. Apparently he hated the gigantic (for a 4th grader) black guy that was in **my** class. So he's screaming and swinging the knife in big arcs in front of him and everyone else near the big toy basically loses their s**t and runs for it.
I want to help but I'm small and nearly s******g my pants in horror. I'm behind the knife kid and he starts lunging and actually trying to stab the other guy. I'd like to think I was about to do something but who knows. Right then the black guy steps towards the knife guy and the knife actually slices his left bicep, but the black **GUY** is huge in comparison and still manages to wrestle the knife guy to the ground and sit on him until the adults show up, less than a minute start to end. About a month later I started my first TKD class.
*edit: **GUY**. The black guy, not "The Black". Sorry.
That was full on and completely disturbing. I kept thinking that old line of evil flourishes when good people do nothing but seriously, wtf? The dystopian future is here. The stories of women being violated is truly sickening. The future is looking pretty f****d up.
Unfortunately, these stories of women being assaulted in broad daylight are as old as the human race.
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I had to stop reading, at some point. So so many sexual predators in this world. It is terrifying adn utterly depressing. What is wrong with humanity??
Saw a guy drop a French fry on a sidewalk, it landed on flattened brown substance. He picked it up and ate it.
But was it a McDonalds french fry....cause...well....it IS a Mcdonalds french fry..
Load More Replies... That was full on and completely disturbing. I kept thinking that old line of evil flourishes when good people do nothing but seriously, wtf? The dystopian future is here. The stories of women being violated is truly sickening. The future is looking pretty f****d up.
Unfortunately, these stories of women being assaulted in broad daylight are as old as the human race.
Load More Replies... I had to stop reading, at some point. So so many sexual predators in this world. It is terrifying adn utterly depressing. What is wrong with humanity??
Saw a guy drop a French fry on a sidewalk, it landed on flattened brown substance. He picked it up and ate it.
But was it a McDonalds french fry....cause...well....it IS a Mcdonalds french fry..
Load More Replies...