I’ll never forget the time I was driving down a six lane highway, going probably 70+ mph, when suddenly, out of nowhere, one of my tires blew.
The car was now far less under my control, skidding and swerving, and I desperately tried to tame it just long enough to get to the shoulder – across multiple lanes – without hitting anyone.
How close I came to any actual impact, I have no idea. I can’t remember. All I recall is that when I got out on the shoulder, I looked at my blown tire and said, “Ok. Well. I’m alive.”
I cancelled whatever I was going to do. I didn’t care at all. I’d survived and that was literally all that mattered.
What’s the most elaborate scam you fell for?
byu/Pissgf inAskReddit
These bullet dodging stories are intense and memorable, and as these Reddit posts will demonstrate, also very disquieting.
1. The Boys and Girls Club
When I was 10, I had a friend who had a Boys and Girls club adult mentor. My friend invited me to come meet him, and I was immediately creeped out. The way the dude smiled at me still gives me nightmares.
Two days later, a local news story identified him as a child molester, and he had been molesting my friend for two years at that point. I will always trust my gut when it says “get the f**k outta here.”
– Mikeronomicon
2. A Lot of Gall
Had gall stones and the doctor game me a choice between surgery to remove the gall bladder or antibiotics. I choose the surgery, which is very unlike me.
When they started the surgery they found out the gall bladder had burst and the stones were in my body cavity. What was supposed to be a short procedure through the belly button turned into a 10″ incision to remove the stones.
I was supposed to leave the hospital that day, but it turned into a week. However, if I chose antibiotics and went home with a burst gall bladder, I probably would have died of sepsis.
– Wu-Kang
3. Hail Xenu
I was dating a girl for a while, and despite living and working on the opposite side of town, she’d always be near this one neighborhood coffee shop that I frequented, so I’d randomly run into her there and ask what brought her to that neck of the woods. She’s usually reply “grabbing some coffee” or “I had a hunch you’d be here and wanted to say hi”
One day she up and moves out of the state with zero warning, and tells me that we aren’t dating anymore. I was confused, but it was casual so while it sucked I just thought “oh she probably had some family emergency or something and didn’t want to tell me.”
A few weeks later on her snap chat I see that she’s just making absolute STACKS in San Diego, and is always wearing the same uniform in these pictures. I was a bit confused but didn’t think much of it.
I started dating this other chick who frequented the aforementioned coffee shop, and after a month or two of dating, the first chick comes back and starts hanging out with her a bunch around the same neighborhood the coffee shop was in. A week later, BOTH of them are moving to San Diego, and want me to come with them, live with them, and work where they work. Something just felt EXTREMELY fishy, so I said no, and off they went.
Eventually a picture got posted with both of them in it, in front of a very strange but very instantly familiar building. The HQ of the Church of Scientology.
The reason the original chick was always in that neighborhood is because kitty corner from the coffee shop was the local chapter of the church of Scientology. She got pretty ingrained in the church, and moved to San Diego to work for them, then came back to recruit gullible people to come back with her.
And that’s the story of how I lost two girlfriends to the church of Scientology, and was none the wiser.
Definitely glad I dodged THAT bullet.
– fullalcoholiccircle
4. The Hot Day
I left a store and it soon became obvious something was wrong with the car – I pulled into the Walmart parking lot I was by and yep – flat tire on the front left side. My rather pregnant wife, and 3 year old daughter get out. It was HOT.
Got out the crappy scissor jack that came with the car and I was about to get started when my brother in law stopped to see if we needed anything – so I said maybe let them sit in your car while I change the tire.
I loosed the lug nuts, jack the car up, pull the lug nuts off, and tire is a little stuck. I lay down partially under the car to pull on the tire.
The next thing I hear is my brother in law shouting LOOK OUT – so I just roll away from the car and the very next thing I hear is crunching metal. The crappy jack had snapped in half, dropping the car all the way to the ground where my arm/shoulder had been like 1 second earlier.
No damage done to me, but I had to walk the adrenalin rush off for a few minutes after that. Fortunately we had triple A so they sent a guy to come fix it. The tow truck driver said he’d seen those jacks snap a bunch of times.
So if the only jack you have for your car is the crappy screw type jack – please buy a better one. PLEASE. I do not expect to come that close to getting injured and not have anything happen twice in one life time.
– ConsultantForLife
5. Blessing in Disguise
I got into a car accident that seriously f**ked me up.
During the initial scans to see how dented up I was from the accident they found a mass on my pancreas.
Turns out I have PNETS, endocrine tumors. It was just sitting there, getting bigger.
I took a bullet to dodge a bullet
– Rounder057
6. Fight or Flight
Me and my girlfriend at the time were traveling from New Zealand to my family back home in Sweden. We both decided to spend a bit more money to fly back (to NZ) through Paris instead of Amsterdam, just because we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. It cost us maybe an extra $50 and we got to see it on the landing and then take off, but never actually set foot in Paris proper because we were poor students.
When we landed in Auckland, New Zealand, jetlagged to s**t, we turn on our phones and notice that we have about 50 missed calls from our travel agent, which was odd. When we call her, she sounds super relieved and out of breath. She tells us the flight she originally suggested to us, the one from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over Ukraine.
My brain couldn’t process that information at the time, but once I woke up the next day it hit me like a ton of bricks. $50 made the difference between seeing the big steel thingy that has so many photos of it and bring sent to Sweden in body bags piece by piece.
Sometimes the absurdity of my existence comes over me, and this story always gives me goosebumps. One h**l of a story to tell over beers, though.
– Haxxer
7. Don’t Listen to Your Parents
I stayed out of the house overnight while in high school. My dad was p**sed off and told me that I better be home that night. I didn’t listen and instead stayed at a friends house with my girlfriend. At around 2 am a kid from high school drove a Denali into my house. It ran directly into my room and destroyed my room, bed and anything else around. He was estimated to be going around 60mph.
My dad is blind and thought that I may have been in the room. He was searching for me frantically my mother said. I remember getting a ton of phone calls from home knowing that I was going to get into trouble for staying out against my parents wished. The next day when my gf dropped me off at home, I found a massive wood board and tarp covering my room. I would definitely not be here today of I had stayed home that night. Best case scenario I’d be a paraplegic. I guess sometimes it does pay to not listen to your parents.
– yeahdude4930
8. Food for Thought
I’d planned on doing some grocery shopping one afternoon after running other errands in the morning. By the time I got done with my morning errands, the weather looked quite gloomy so I decided to leave the groceries for another day.
Just as I got home I got frantic texts from a friend of mine asking if I’m okay and to respond immediately. Apparently around the time I decided last minute to forgo shopping, someone opened fire at that exact grocery store I planned on going to.
If I remember correctly, fortunately nobody got hurt and the shooter got apprehended quite quickly.
– fl00fypanda
9. Loose Ends
Was coming back home from a night out.
Noticed my shoelace is undone, stop to tie it.
10 feet in front, exactly at the place I would have been if I haven’t stopped, a drunk guy from the first floor of an apartment building sits on his window, pulls his di*k out and starts pissing on the pavement.
Biggest “phew” I had in a while.
– wuxy95
10. Last Friday Night
Stealing this story from a friend. He lives in another country where alcohol use is frowned upon heavily, but it isn’t illegal. Having said that, there aren’t many “bars” or “clubs” or places like that for younger people to hang out at and drink – but there are a few.
Well, in my friend’s neighborhood, there was this one “bar” that he and his friend group went to pretty much every Friday night, without fail. For years they’d go every Friday. One Friday, his then girlfriend had a family event to go to, so they didn’t go. Since they weren’t going, the other friends decided not to go either. I think they went to someone’s house to hang out instead.
That night there was a terrorist attack on the bar. Dozens of people were killed. My friend and his friends were extremely lucky.
– AccusedOak04
11. Going Downtown?
I got out of school and I was about to take the bus, but decided to walk home since it was a nice day.
Turns out a couple of blocks later I saw the same bus surrounded by cop cars turns out someone pulled out a weapon and one of the passengers managed to restrain them.
– getsuga_tenshu
12. Love at First Sight
I went out with some friends to a bar, the bouncer kept flirting with me so I flirted back. He seemed funny and charming enough, so as I left the bar he ran out to ask for my number, which I gave him.
We texted for a bit and had plans to meet up for our first date….the day before this date he tells me that he loves me. Which throws me off completely, I then tell him that I do not love him. I don’t even know him. He says that is okay, but I have to admit that I have never felt this way about someone before…wtf??? No lol.
As the time nears to meeting him I just get this overwhelming anxiety and obviously just don’t want to go, but I felt bad about just canceling on some guy who seems to be nice, and other than the weird love outburst, has been really sweet to me through our limited interactions.
Cue detective work…after some intense searching, I find out this dude is a registered s** offender for attempted r**e by excessive force and violence. It even says that he has a high risk for repeating.
I am so glad I didn’t dismiss my feelings and decide to go on that first date, who knows what would have happened.
– Keishamarie4
13. Out Cold
I once went scuba diving with two friends to try a drysuit to dive in really cold water. As we entered the water it felt really cold. I thought everything was normal. Back than I had no reference for cold water and the feeling in a drysuit. The suit had a leak and was filling with water ( 1.5°C). After 15 minutes realised that the temperature wasn’t normal.
I signaled to my buddies that I need to get back. By that time the suit was halfway filled with water. It took us quite some time to get back to the coast. When I left the water I couldn’t move my hands and started to feel dizzy. My friends had to undress me because I almost fell unconscious. If I would have stayed longer I would have felt unconscious while still submerged.
Never underestimate the dangers of cold water. That stuff gets you quick
– Paulecut
14. The Bell
Back in HS my brother, a friend of his, and I attended a football game (it might’ve been the homecoming game; memory is a little fuzzy).
After the game my brother and I were craving Taco Bell and there was one a couple blocks away from our campus. My brother’s friend opposed the decision and told us that his dad was going to pick us up soon. We didn’t feel like walking home and we started thinking of how packed it might be at Taco Bell right after that game.
Not long after we get dropped off at home I turned on the tv to watch the “Friday Night Football highlights” on our local news station. The news instead is reporting on a shooting at the Taco Bell my brother and I wanted to go to after the game. It must’ve happened around the time we had gotten picked up. No one died but a few kids got seriously injured.
As far as I know they never found out who was responsible, but I do think about how different it could’ve turned out had we went.
– pradbitt87
15. Pain in the Neck
After having neck pain for my entire last year of school, I went out and got drunk one night and woke up unable to hold my head up without using my hand.
I went to the doctor who told me to get an X-ray and it turned out there was a tumour that had taken away 60% of my c3 vertebrae.
I had surgery and made a complete recovery, but if I’d had even a small fall a month later it would’ve been enough to kill me.
– PeppercornMedley
Enough to freak ya out a little, huh?
What bullet have you dodged in the past?
Tell us in the comments.
