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Have you ever dodged a bullet? I mean, probably not literally. Unless you’re Neo. In which case, how’s it goin’, Chosen One? Shame about those second and third movies.
For the rest of us, the bullets we’ve dodged have been metaphorical, but in some cases, no less frightening or dangerous.
What’s your “dodged a bullet” story?
byu/MentalMaddness inAskReddit
Hang on tight, because Reddit has got some stories.
1. The Virgin Islands
When I was a dumb young woman I lived in St. Thomas Virgin Islands. I worked in an area that could be very sketchy after dark.
One night after work I got really drunk. I stumbled into a taxi to head home. So drunk I’m not even sure how I gave him my address. When we arrived I started digging in my pocket for cash to pay the taxi driver and he reached over and said “no, no baby. I’m not a taxi. I just wanted to make sure you got home ok”.
Apparently I had just jumped into a random car.
I will be forever grateful to this stranger and much more careful in my after work decisions.
– mixednuts_trailmix
2. The Bad Doctor
At about [the age of 10], my school referred me to a specific psychiatrist. I was my normal oblivious self but my mom decided we were noping right the heck out of there after she talked to him for five minutes.
10 years later we found out he had a string of victims that were in my demographic at the time. Thank God for Mom-intuition.
– dandudeus
3. Catch That Bell
I was on my way to taco bell in the back of a friends small truck. The cab was full so I was in the bed. We passed by my apartment on the way and I chose to have him drop me off (it was a bit chilly in the open air back there).
By the time I got into my apartment I had a snapchat from the driver. It was a picture of his totalled truck.
While he was stopped at an intersection, a drunk driver approached from the opposite direction going 100+. The driver clipped a bus causing an abrupt stop and his whole engine to rip out of his car, fly through the intersection and into my friends truck where I had been riding, unseatbelted moments before.
None of my friends were injured. I think both the people in the other car died.
– tubahero
4. The Boston Marathon
My father competed in the Boston marathon the year of the bombing.
Thankfully he finished about 90 minutes before the explosion and we already away from the race.
– Brick_On_A_Stick
5. Seen Saw
I was cutting a tree with a chainsaw. The saw wasn’t mine, it was old, and I don’t know how well maintained it was. The chain broke and came whipping back at me. I didn’t even react, it was too fast. I didn’t feel any pain, I turned and saw the chain was hanging, half stuck into a tree behind me at head/neck level. The tree was directly behind me, in a straight line from the chainsaw. Somehow the chain whipped off, curved around my head/neck and buried itself in a tree 3 feet behind me. If it had gone straight I would be dead or disfigured.
I didn’t even try and take the chain with me, I just called it a day, walked off, and didn’t pick up another chainsaw for about six or seven years.
Whew!
– dances_w_dingoes
6. Off the Chain (Seriously these things are dangerous)
Was helping two other people cut down a tree with a chainsaw after a storm that knocked out power, we had to get specific trees down before the electric company would come out to fix the lines.
The tree snapped and gave way above the chainsaw cut and kissed my lip. If I was standing an inch further it would have been…. extremely painful.
– MooseOnTehLoose
7. Mr. Plow
I was as living in Utah and going to work at 5 in the morning. It was January and there was a fair amount of snow on the road.
I was crawling down the icy hill that I lived on that has a traffic light at the bottom. I was about to go through the intersection since it was green for me when I noticed a snow plow that definitely wasn’t going to stop at his red light.
Luckily I was paying attention and was able to stop before the light. I definitely would have been t-boned if I had kept going.
– blanksource
8. The Straight Dope
Partying in Mexico dance club, Tijuana. I went to bathroom, on the way there was a group of people smoking pot, they offered, so I took a hit. I proceeded to go into the bathroom and pee. When I came out of bathroom, the group of people smoking pot were being arrested by federalis (Mexico police).
I just kept on walkin! Mexico jail is the last place I would want to be.
– Hollywood899
9. Come on and Slam
We visit my in-law’s every single Saturday for dinner. We leave around the same time and take the same exact route home. This time, I realized we forgot something so I told my husband to get into the other lane to go straight and head back to their house instead of taking the exit for the highway.
We are sitting at the red light and suddenly a loud screeching sound of someone slamming on their breaks as they try to not go through the red light in the lane we were supposed to be in. Then another person follows suite and slams right into them.
The second person hit so hard she knocked herself out and knocked the first car through the intersection and they went about 75 feet. I just had back surgery so it would not have ended so well for us. The girl in the second car had no idea what happened.
– Rarely_Trust
10. C-
Making out with my girlfriend at the time. She was on top of me and leaned in and whispered that she wanted to have s**. I told her I didn’t have any condoms and that we’d have to go get some, but she got frustrated and said that we could anyways, but eventually said nevermind.
Next day I’m at work and she pops in to apologize. I tell her it’s not a big deal and that I’ll see her after work only for her to say, “No no, I shouldn’t have put pressure on you and acted like that. I need you to know to have hepatitis C so we need to be careful.”
Big bullet dodged. We broke up a couple weeks later after even more s**t from her past that she hid came out into the open.
– omgwowloljkstfu
11. Stuck in the Middle With You
Living in southern Vermont, I work for a small software company, wife teaching at a small local college.
We decide to move to the southwest, wife gets a job, we sell house & move cross country.
Within a year my company was sold and most employees let go, wife’s college closed.
We would have been stuck with a hard to sell house and the only possible jobs at least an hour away.
Happy where we are, timing is everything
– Bechimo
12. Legalize It
One night my freshmen year of college, my then boyfriend and a few friends had the idea to drive through the night to a lake upstate and smoke some weed while the sun came up. We were in a state where marijuana was very much illegal (still is, Deep South). I opted not to go with them because I had an 8AM class in the morning.
Cut to me freaking out the following afternoon when their car still wasn’t back and I hadn’t heard from them all day. They all got arrested for possession, and spent the night in jail. Thankfully they were bailed out but they all had some long term probation and reduced job opportunities afterwards that affected them for a few years.
– kthrin11
13. BMW’s Can’t Corner
When I was in my 20s in the UK drinking with my friends 2 brothers offered to give me and friend Tommy a ride into Doncaster which was about 8 miles away to go to a club. We declined because they were leaving at that moment but weren’t ready yet. The older brother worked for a car dealership and was always driving different new cars. Porsche BMW etc. This particular night he was in a fancy new BMW. He was driving,brother in the passenger seat and their 2 girlfriends in the back seat.
Maybe an hour later we jumped into a taxi and set off to Doncaster. About 4 miles into the journey we came to a police road block and had to turn around and go a different route. The next day we found out there had been a crash. The car was totally ripped apart. The driver had gone around a bend and lost control and ran into a 3’x3’ brick column. The two brothers and one of the girls died on impact. As the car had ripped open the remaining girl basically kept going down the street in her seat. I think they put her in a coma until she had healed some. She lived but was very badly hurt.
At their funeral I was talking to one of the drivers coworkers and he said..I can’t believe he tried to go around that bend like that,we all know BMW’s can’t corner. Very sad but me and my best friend dodged a bullet. This happened at least 20 years ago.
– usernamebj69
14. At Ease
Always had a crush on a girl I used to be friends with in high school. Around 6-7 years after we graduated I finally asked her out and after a while we started dating.
It was going great until I started seeing signs of her being manipulative. Then when it came to her venting to me about how she misses her daughter and doesn’t have full custody she would say different reasons almost every time. I didn’t say anything about it or call her out but then the gaslighting came.
We would have simple disagreements in opinions on certain things which is fine. But during the fights she would tell me that I’m sensitive because I always tried to defuse the fight onto another topic because I knew I was wrong. Then after we both cooled off to talk about it she would completely deny that she said anything and that I’m just imagining things.
It started to make me feel crazy like what if she’s right?
Cut it off about a week after.
Turns out she had been discharged from the military for psychological problems and also the reason she didn’t have custody.
– StraightToJail__
15. The Collapse
Not me but my dad.
He placed hockey as a child and one day he wasn’t going to go to the practice. Decided at the last minute that he would go after all and headed to the arena. When he got there and walked in the door the entire roof collapsed, blowing him back out of the doorway.
Several of his classmates were killed that day.
If anyone wants to look it up it was the Listowel Ontario arena collapse.
– My_fair_ladies1872
Pretty sobering stories.
Have you dodged a bullet like this?
Tell us in the comments.
