We are pretty far removed from our days living among the animals in the wilds (relatively speaking), but that doesn’t mean all of our instincts have faded into the night. We still get the chills, we still sense when things aren’t completely right, and most of us get a spidey sense that tells us when it’s time to leave the party, so to speak.
These people are recalling moments exactly like that, when they knew they needed to leave – and fast.
1. I just choked on my drink.
When my (now ex) husband called to me to tell me the reason why he was late for dinner was because he was arrested for mast*rbating in public. I got out. I’m too old for that sh%t.
2. Why is it always Waffle House?
Grabbing some Waffle house in a not so good part of town around 2 am after work. Dude whipped out a gun and was screaming at the chick he was with…definately my most gotta get the f**k out of here moment.
A few years later got a job as a 911 call taker.. same waffle house got shot up. So there is that.
3. Smart girl.
My parents divorced when I was 7 years old, and their time with me was split down the middle week by week. Except it wasn’t. My mom constantly made excuses why she couldn’t take me for the week. This went on for years. Examples include: Going on a road trip with her brand new boyfriend in his 18 wheeler, “working too much”, and other bulls**t excuses. When she did take me, we were constantly moving houses, staying at her other new boyfriends houses(with me sleeping on the living room floor with just a pillow, while she was in his bedroom with the door shut right by the living room).
I didn’t have a bed or a room for almost 3 years. Around the age of 15, we were living in an insulated shed behind my older sisters house(no lie) with no bathroom and just one bed and a couch. She lost her license, she lost her job, and lost her car. So I had to rely on my very understanding friends to get me places.
One night I walked into my sisters house to go to the bathroom, and there I see my mom passed out on the toilet from being to drugged out. That was when I found out my mom had a paink**ler addiction. I had to pick her up and take her to her bed. I tried talking to her about it the next day, and she acted like I just accused her of mu**der. She yelled at me and told me that I was a jacka** and that she couldn’t believe that I would do this to her.
As a 15 year old who was always naïve towards my mom, I was super confused as to why I was getting blamed for what had happened the night before. I finally smartened up, packed up the little that I had, and walked to my dads house. This was 10 years ago. About 5 years ago is when I cut all communication with that side of my family. They kept acting like nothing was wrong and that she didn’t do anything. She never once apologized, and insisted I was to blame.
So naturally I put the blame on myself, but then I realized that the child is not supposed to be the parent. It wasn’t my job to fix her. She should’ve provided for me, and she didn’t do that. I still think about that situation a lot when talking to my youth students, and it helps me give them some guidance.
Never ever blame yourself for your parents shortcomings.
4. Beyond weird.
This was like 5 years ago, I was 24 years old; got way too d**nk at my local bar and ended up going back to this guys apartment. It was decorated by somebody’s grandmother for sure…there were candelabra’s everywhere. He lit ALL of them; then sat me on the couch and proceeded to go through all of these old family photo albums specifically looking at pictures of his siblings and cousins as children.
No joke he was getting so hard that I could see the album start moving up and down. Then he asked me if I had any pictures of when I was a child or my siblings when they were children….
Never sobered up so fast and booked it right the F out of there.
5. Never go to the secondary location.
A bit of backstory, a friend of mine borrow few hundreds from me, after a month, she asked me to meet her at the atm. I thought she wanted to pay me there and then. Instead, she asked my to get inside of her car which I did because it didn’t seemed shady at first and she was a close friend.
During the ride, she said she wanted to bring me into a meeting and pay me there. I quickly surmised that it was probably MLM and the money borrowed was her capital and her act of paying me was for the audience and she was probably intending to recruit me.
After the car stopped. I noped out and walked back 3 KMs to my uni.
6. What a nightmare.
I hit a tricky spot because the house that I was living in was being sold off by the owners. I wasn’t able to find a place I could afford in time, and ended up having to go live with my dad.
My dad had always been a little…cagey about describing his living situation. I understood he was living in a very poor area because it was all he could afford at the time, but I wasn’t prepared for the hell hole he’d stubbornly insisted on trying to make something of.
There’s no heating system. All heat came from a dangerously clogged fireplace that triggered my asthma like crazy.
There’s no running water to anywhere in the house. Just the main in the basement. That means any water for cooking, cleaning, hygiene, or even just to flush the toilet needed to be carried by bucket up at least one flight of stairs if not two.
No electricity either until I paid off the overdue bills. That meant until I got that figured out, there were no lights, no appliances, nothing. Phone charging was done by risking leaving them in my dad’s running car. If I wanted anything more than that, I had to bike two miles away to a better part of the city to use the wifi and electricity at Starbucks to charge everything, including power banks for night time use.
Holes in the walls. Holes in the ceiling. And by holes I mean I could look down and see the living room through the upstairs linen closet floor. Heat pretty much was constantly escaping the house even when we got electric heaters for our rooms. It also extended to the roof, so there was constant water damage to my dad’s room.
Ontop of all this, my dad took in an abusive hoarder that proceeded to fill his house with garbage. My dad being overly empathetic, and possibly afraid of being alone, refused to kick him out.
I lasted three or four months before finally shipping the hell out to another relative in a completley different part of the state. It sucked because it meant leaving behind everything familiar to me. But honesty my life improved greatly once I got a new living situation and job figured out up here. I don’t regret leaving. I shudder to think about having to try to spend another winter there.
My dad has since found better work, and has his own apartment. So I’m greatful he got out of that hell hole and left the abusive hoarder far behind.
7. Sometimes you just know.
Probably walking in Gastown, in Vancouver BC. My mom and I were looking for her sister (missing, homeless, that whole dtes life).
Dude in his 30s or so walks up to us, dressed normally, sort of business casual, and we look up and are about to say hi, when he covers his eyes, and starts counting down really slowly and drawn out. Nope. Big ole nope. We backed up and he followed, eyes still covered. He got to 4 or 5 and my mom just grabbed my arm and yanked me away towards people.
The downtown east side of Vancouver is something else. A really tight knit family of homeless mentally ill possible drug using men and women. Many by choice, but not all. My naani used to live in a sort of hotel there, so I know it well, but that rattled me.
8. And he still brought her home.
The guy that I met… College educated, handsome, retro digs in Long Beach Ca. Articulate, funny, packed a picnic for our blind date complete with cloth napkins. Went back to his place and the kitchen was a hoarders dream… at least 6 FULL SETS of dishes, dirty, sitting in neatly stacked piles everywhere. Pots and pans, the same thing.
Hundreds of dollars worth of iron cookware stacked on the floor, rusting. Instead of washing dishes he would buy more….
Noped the f*ck out.
9. Ew.
When I was 19 (F) after graduating from my 2 year college (I was studying film), a professor that I, and many other students, looked up to a lot asked me to travel with him to Colombia to finish a documentary he was working on. Having traveled with him internationally in the past for class trips I thought it would be a great opportunity. It was an all expense paid trip so how could I not?
So I traveled from NY to South America all by myself, and once I got there he gave me a tour of our air bnb that went like this; “so here’s the office, kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom. There’s just one bed, I hope that’s okay”.
I tried to keep cool and slept head to toe the first night. The next morning he sits me down to talk and after his long intro he final gets to the point. He asked that the next part stay between us and started with “so I’ve only ever been with my wife”. That was the moment that all the hairs on my body stood up and I was like “I NEED TO GET THE F*CK OUT OF HERE”
So that evening I told him that while i was “flattered” I wasn’t interested and thought it was wildly unfair for him to do that to me. I tried to be polite because I didnt know what to expect at that point. The last thing I wanted was for him to get violent.
He backpedaled the entire time (all of which i have an audio recording of) and I slept on an arm chair in the living room the rest of the stay. Also for reference, my professor looked like a small Venezuelan Gandalf. Long white beard and all!
10. Strange, to be sure.
When I first moved to where I’m living now, it’s across the river from a college town/city with a Main Street that is littered with restaurants and bars. So one night a couple friends and I went out and decided to bar hop. Nothing crazy, just wanted to check out the different places
Walked into one hole in the wall joint with only a handful of people in there. Everybody’s head turned and looked at us like we were from another planet. Weird vibe immediately. Bartender approaches slowly, asking how we’re doing and what he can get us. We order our round of drinks, bartender very slowly says “is that all?” Again, weird vibe but whatever.
Random guy (later found out to be the “owner”) comes and sits next to us and starts chatting us up. Where we’re from, what we’re doing in the area, if we’re “cool”. Lots of weird conversation starters. At this point, we want out but our drinks haven’t come back yet. So we get our drinks and try to keep to ourselves. Guy keeps asking if he can “get us anything. Anything at all. Off the menu”.
It’s at this point, I realize that the two women at the other end are doing coke OFF THE BAR. There’s also now two large men standing against the wall right behind us, just grilling us. Not wanting to make a scene we all shared a “let’s get the f*ck outta here” look, talked amongst ourselves for a minute, finished our drinks as fast as possible, paid and left. The “owner” was trying to talk to us the entire time were paying and making our way to the door, trying to keep us there as the two large men slowly close in. We got the f*ck out and said NOTHING until we hit the other side of the street.
11. You definitely don’t want to be there.
My ex best friend convinced me to go to a concert with her. I told her I couldn’t because I had a long drive the next morning and didn’t want to waste gas or go to bed too late and she said it was fine, she would drive and would get me home right after the concert. Went to the concert, it was fine. I was ready to go home but she told me she wanted to go to an after party with the band because her crush would be there. I agreed because she REALLY wanted to get with this guy, the chances of it happening seemed high, and I wanted her to be happy.
Turns out the afterparty was at a decent hotel. Underage kids were straight up walking in with handles of alcohol and it was really obvious what was going on. The receptionist was eyeing everyone but nobody gave a f**k. My friend and I got to the room and… we were the only girls there. Around 40 d**nk college guys and 2 girls both under 110lbs. I’d never experienced being looked at like a juicy steak until that moment. I told her we had to go but she was hellbent on staying with her crush. I couldn’t convince her, so I called my mom (the most awkward phone conversation of my life) and had her pick me up.
Turns out the receptionist called the cops soon after I left and the party got broken up. I think some people got charged.
12. How big was the stone?
Crazy guy on the LRT train CTrain taking a stone out of his mouth and saying he “k**led a guy with it”, but it was self defence so it’s okay right?..
Yeah, that was peak “I gotta get the hell out of here” for me. Plus he smelled like puke, that didn’t help either.
13. Sometimes family isn’t worth it.
I had been renting a house from my sister. I paid my bills every month precisely on time for 6 years, no delays, no missed payments, etc. About 6 months ago my sister lost her job. She decided to drink her (not insignificant) savings away and not look for a job, and then when things got tight she started using my rent check to pay her rent instead of the mortgage on the house I was living in. I didn’t discover any of this until a letter showed up one day from some attorney saying pay up or we foreclose in 30 days.
Fortunately things dragged out long enough for me to be able to afford to move, but that was the last straw — I had to get away from family. This was not the first time I had been forced to rely on them and gotten screwed, but it is definitely the last.
14. Something not right about that.
Happened a few hours ago. Was in the park with my younger brother just playing football, having. nice time. Suddenly I see a man looking over in our direction, however I can’t be too sure because I don’t have my glasses and I don’t want to scare myself for no reason. He’s carrying a orange bag so it’s easy to see him.
I ignore him and brother and I start walking around randomly (not following the path, backtracking, just not walking ‘logically’ if that makes sense) kicking the ball to each other. The last time I went to this park on the 1st, a man of the same build/ethnicity followed me so I felt myself getting paranoid. This man kept his distance but for instance we went into the basketball area and he would come to the entrance and lean against the gate just watching us.
He could go behind the trees (it was clear he knew his way around this park) and follow us which I wouldn’t notice if it wasn’t for his bag. I wanted to confront him but I was with my younger brother and didn’t want to cause trouble.
I wasn’t really scared but more angry and frustrated. The man suddenly starts getting braver and walking faster towards us, and so we decide to quickly run home even though we were only out for 15 mins.
15. He didn’t know who he was dealing with.
Was in New Orleans interviewing for a job that required driving a company vehicle 10 hours a day that had valuable specialty equipment.
Interview is going great and we get to the part about pay. Guy goes we can offer you 10 an hour. A big smile came over my face and I leaned over to shake his hand. He thought I was agreeing, I was telling him bye.
Popeyes pays around 15 an hour here.
16. Ugh.
It was years ago, when I was in 4th grade. My parents used to get into fights all the time, especially when my dad was drinking. They’d start yelling and that would turn into actual fist fights. At this time we were living in a small trailer, and the room I shared with all 3 of my siblings was at one end of the trailer, near the back door.
So my dad comes home d**nk, mom is pi**ed and starts yelling and it escalates from there. Being in a small trailer everything sounds so close and terrifying, and as the oldest of 4 I felt the need to protect my siblings but I didn’t know what to do. After a while my mom starts screaming my name at the top of her lungs and I can still hear my dad screaming too, and I knew that I needed to get myself and my siblings out of there ASAP. I ushered them out of the room, down the hallway, and out the backdoor and told them to head to our aunt’s place, who lived a few trailers down. My mom was still screaming for me and all I knew to do was yell “I got them out Mom we’re leaving!” before also going out the back to my aunt’s. I don’t recall ever being that scared. Cops came, they both went to jail and were both out in a couple days and acted like nothing ever happened.
A few years ago I brought the incident up to my mom. I told her that I thought she was screaming at me to get my siblings out of the house and that’s why I had. She told me she was screaming my name cause she was scared and wanted help and didn’t know who else to call for. I felt so bad cause I didn’t help her, but there’s not really much I could’ve done.
17. That’s an easy decision.
When my manager told me, “Sometimes you need to make a choice between your health and your job.”
18. The image is obviously burned in his brain.
On the NYC subway I watched a grown man pull his pants down and use the support rod in the middle of the train as leverage to take a wicked steamy dump while making aggressive eye contact with me and a few other passengers.
19. They made the right decision.
I pulled into a gas station to fill up my car at 4 am on the way to work. The station was well lit and actually pretty busy, so I didn’t feel unsafe. I pulled up next to a pump, go out, and just when I put the nozzle in I heard someone trying to get my attention.
I turned and it was a guy who had been leaning against the wall of the station when I pulled in. There was a van nearby him. He asked if I could call his girlfriend to come pick him up. I called one number, voice mail box full. He gave me a second number. Mailbox also full. Then he asked if I had jumper cable and if I could give me a jump. I agreed, thinking the van he was nearby was his vehicle. Then, after I agree, he tells me the story of how he got there. According to him, his car had broken down at another gas station up the street. He said it was closed so he couldn’t get any help, so he borrowed a bike from someone and rode it down to this gas station.
Then he went into the gas station to leave the bike there. As soon as he started walking away, my brain started racing and pointing out all the things that didn’t add up about this story. First, all I could imagine in those voice mail boxes were a bunch of people going “your boyfriend is stuck at the gas station.” Then, I thought about how in the hell would he legitimately borrow a bike from someone at a closed gas station in the middle of the night in the middle of winter.
At that point, I decided it was time to get the f**k out of there. Thankfully, I hadn’t pumped any gas yet, so I quickly put it back on the pump, got into my car, and tore out of there.
I actually felt a little bad because what if he actually needed help, but then I reminded myself about him “borrowing a bike” in that situation, how he was trying to get me to a dark, secluded secondary location.
This dude was absolutely trying to rob/m**der me.
20. You don’t mess with raccoons.
In the fall I was walking down a trail in the woods during the middle of the day. A raccoon was sitting in the middle of the trail, facing us. Sitting on it’s butt, head kind of lowered, bugs buzzing all around it. It didn’t move at all. It just stared at us. We decided to turn around.
I don’t know what rabies looks like, but that’s not how I want to find out.
21. Never feel bad about it.
I was walking into a store in a strip mall. It was after dark but like your gas station, it was busy and I felt fairly safe. That’s when a guy got my attention. He said his car had broken down on the interstate at this spot about 10 miles outside of town and that he needed a ride back to it. It would’ve been a very dark location and at that point in the evening, there wouldn’t have been much traffic. At first I started going along with it and even got my car keys back out, then my gut took over.
I’ve never had such a strong reaction before, but I got this overpowering feeling that he was trying to get me out into the middle of nowhere so he could rob me. It was so strong that I felt like I’d been given a zap by an electric fence. I did a 180 and told him that sorry, I had somewhere to be and that if he’s in trouble, he should call the police. He started shouting at me about what a bad day he’d had, that his wife was pregnant, and that he just needed one f*cking person to be kind for once, then he stomped away.
I went into the store and was completely fine, then when I got back home, the fear set in. I got the shakes and had a very strong feeling that something bad would’ve happened to me had I gone with him. It was a little difficult to fall asleep that night.
So to the dude who approached me–wherever you are now, if you were legit and in trouble, I’m sorry. I hope you made it to your car, but I don’t feel all that bad about it.
22. A terrible moment.
I gave my ex a ride to his court hearing for hitting my daughter. I pointed out to him inside that there was a sign that said no cellphones and that I would run our phones out to the car and she right back. I felt like my heart was going to break my sternum and I had tunnel vision as I called my sister and told her I needed her and her husband to come with their pick up truck to my house right now because I had a small window to get as much of my daughter’s and my possessions out of my house before he was released from court.
Just as we were wrapping up I saw him running down the street like Usain Bolt right for me. I yelled for them to drop what they had and get in the truck and go. Just as I close my car door he runs up and tries to smash it open. I fumbled with my keys to get the engine started. He then stands in front of my car blocking my path. I dismissed my burning desire to run him over and threw it in reverse and smashed the gas pedal down the block to the next street.
I’d like to say things got better after that. But that was just the beginning of the worst year of my life. Now I’m past all of that and living a better life.
23. Wow. He really loves his aunt.
My friends crazy d**nk cousin grabbed a circular saw in attempt to k**l me because he thought I said something bad about his aunt.
I left.
24. Nope.
I was at a “marketing recruitment” presentation in college and this guy started talking about how we would be able to go to Disneyland and buy Ferraris if we just signed up for his exclusive elite program.
He wanted a small down payment right there in the auditorium, and we shouldn’t talk about it with friends or family because h**ers online had damaged the company’s reputation.
25. When it hits you, you know.
It was Friday. I was in a room full of 5th graders playing the recorder.
26. I gasped.
I worked in a factory that made large plastic items via a giant industrial oven that heated to 550 degrees F.
At the end of the week I was cleaning said oven and my boss, not knowing i was inside, turned it on. At the sound of hydraulic doors closing i dove out of the oven just as they closed and avoided free cremation.
I got the h*ll out of both that oven and that company pretty quick
27. Bullet dodged.
I was visiting London and just got out of sports bar by myself at 3AM, d**nk as s**t. I decide to walk from the bar (near Leicester Square) to my hotel (near King’s Cross), despite not knowing exactly where I am or how to get to the hotel.
I start walking in a direction and within a minute I’m walking down a rather wide shopping street when I see two bald guys coming the other way, both pretty much built brick s**thouses, and looking like they want to start s**t. They hadn’t spotted me yet but one guy suddenly walks to the side of the street and just flat out punches the steel grate in front of a shop entrance as hard as he can.
I pretty much did a straight 180, double timed it back to the bar, and asked the nice bouncers to get me a cab. Cab drops me off in front of the hotel and I go to bed without getting the s**t kicked out of me first.
28. Sometimes you just know.
My second from last job. The company owners are arrogant a**holes who think workers are scum, the management are always blaming the workers for their mistakes and the workers themselves were always arguing and bickering amongst themselves.
The place was so toxic for people like me who just wanted to do a days work without all the drama.
29. It’s like a horror movie.
I go to school in Poughkeepsie. One time my friends and I were walking along some train tracks by the river on a foggy night (not smart). We could barely see 5 feet ahead but we weren’t afraid because it was a popular hangout spot.
All of a sudden we hear loud barking and a f**king crackhead lunges out of the fog at us, barking like a dog. The fog around him cleared up and we could see more druggies lying under some leaves by the side of the tracks, watching us and laughing.
Never ran so fast or came so close to sh%tting myself in my life.
I don’t like reading about situations like these, but I hope I would have the same good sense.
Tell us in the comments about the last time something like this happened to you!
