Kinda sorta copy/pasted question from Reddit. But wanted to see what your answers are like on here!
You must log in or register to comment.
Oh my god. My friends and I were doing a road trip around the US when we got lost somewhere crossing the border into southern California. We took some weird back road into the woods looking for a campsite that was on Google (we were roughing it as much as possible to be cheap), but it became super apparent that we took the wrong turn somewhere and we went deeper and deeper into the woods. It started to get dark and at this point my ex and I were like, “Let’s just go to a hotel, it’s already too dark to camp.” My friend, the driver, was convinced we were almost there and the campsites were just around the next corner and wanted to save the money.
At some point, we saw this tree across the road and the only way to keep going forward was into what looked like just a clearing where some rusted out cars were. Immediately my ex and I felt this overwhelming, hair-raising “it’s time to go” vibe and we started telling him to turn around. My friend pulled into the clearing saying something like, “No, this might be it, there’s cars parked here”. We pull into the lot and kinda do a loop, just to put the headlights on the surroundings and see what’s all there. Like I said, it’s an island of gravel, short, dry grass, and some rusted out cars in the middle of dense, mountainous forest.
My friend is juuuuuuust about to park and gloat about ‘finding the campsite’ when some feral looking dude comes barreling out of the woods like a cryptid, sprinting at the back of the car. My ex and I start screaming like loons as this dude closes the gap and my friend punches it and starts driving back down the road we came in on. The dude just stood in the road behind us with something metal (I think a pipe) and watched us go in a cloud of dust and taillights.
Absolutely HORRIFYING experience and we still have no idea what the fuck the situation was there.
- 29 days
About 2 weeks ago, packing a few belongings and my cats into a car to evacuate from an impending flood. Didn’t know when I would be back home or what condition it would be in when I did.
Did your place end up flooding? Glad you took your lil homies with you
- 20 days
It did, about a foot of water inside my house. Lots destroyed. But we made it out and kitties are okay!
- 29 days
I trust my spidey sense. When the hairs on the back of my neck go up and i get that feeling in my chest, i listen to it.
Its gotten me out of an armed store robbery, 2 ither street level robberies, 2 houses that just didnt feel right, multiple encounters with dangerous animals ( gators and 1 panther).
My wife just thinks im paranoid.
- 30 days
Ignored the Tornado warning, shouldn’t have.
If there’s one thing that’ll get the Lizard Brain going… it’s the only time I’ve ever felt like something deeper was telling my brain that we had to get the fuck out of here.
- 30 days
When I was sitting in the car, parked, engine off. And some incoming pickup pissed off the elephant and he turned towards us…
- 30 days
I was young and had just moved to a decent sized midwest city by myself. I didn’t know anyone so spent a lot of my time exploring by myself. There was a large park in a quiet area of town where it wasn’t unusual to be the only person around. I was sitting at the end of a very large rose garden when I noticed a tall skinny guy in a dirty wife beater and jeans standing on the outside of the garden with his dog. Something big like a Rottweiler or pitbull I don’t remember exactly. I just remember being super freaked out because he was just standing there looking directly at me.
I got up and started walking back to my car but he started walking parallel to me matching my pace. When I walked faster he did too. I got my phone and keys out and just kept walking as confidently as I could. I was parked a couple minutes away and over time his pace did slow slightly as mine got faster but I knew he was still behind me. I had a habit of unlocking my car several times with the keyfob because the car beep was satisfying. After I did so the white cargo type van parked next to me unlocked and beeped the exact same amount of times mine did.
At this point I as terrified. I backed out and raced out of the park without even looking behind me. I needed to pick up something from one of the neighborhood Walmarts on the way home so I stopped there and headed inside to calm down. The sun was still out and I’m a guy. I was young, short and slender but I still felt like that somehow protected me. I convinced myself I was being crazy and that guy just happened to be leaving the park when I did. I left the store and started walking to my car when I saw him. The white van was parked directly next to my car and he stood there at the back watching me. No dog this time. All I remember thinking is I had to get into my car because it was the only place I had any leverage. I slow motion got in, backed out, and headed back into a neighborhood where I knew I could zig zag my way around different blocks to try to lose him. I spent 10 minutes looking over my shoulder making random turns before I headed back to my apartment.
Never saw him again and to this day I still feel like I’m in a bit of denial about the whole thing. There were plenty of other cars in the parking lot. It was early evening. If he was trying to kidnap me it was a stupid place to do so. Perhaps he saw how scared I was at the park and just wanted to mess with me. Whatever the case I’ve never been so scared for my own life.
- Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish30 days
I’m surprised you actually got in your care at Walmart with the van right next to it. I probably would have gone back inside and asked a security guard to come out with me.
- 30 days
If this ever happens again, or for anyone reading this, the best thing to do if you’re being trailed in a car is to drive to a police station. (Despite the other dangers that can also cause unfortunately)
- 30 days
When I was around 11 I was at the McDonald’s down the street from my house with a couple of friends. It was just three 11/12 year old girls chilling eating in the back of the restaurant. It was dark out but not late, probably 7 or 8 at night. After a bit my friend leaned over to me and said the guy at the table next to us “looks like (her abusive stepfather)”. Realistically it could not have been her abusive stepfather and she was across the other side of the country.
However, he was creepy and sitting alone and watching us VERY closely. We started getting nervous and at some point I said loudly enough for him to hear “okay, my dad is coming to get us”. He wasn’t, but I was hoping that would make the man leave us alone. He immediately got up and went to go stand just outside of the back door into the parking lot.
We panicked even more and walked to the front entrance of the McDonald’s, called my dad from a payphone. I remember how panicked we must have looked because a random person who was in line came over and asked if we were okay. Thankfully my dad was home and came to get us from the front entrance and we left together.
Another time I was on the last train home from work, I was around 18. A man had gotten on the train near my stop, first sat on a further seat and then moved closer as the trip went on. From my stop, I had to walk about 50 meters to a not-very-well lit taxi pickup area. This man got off at my stop, and as I approached the well-lit exit of the train station I could feel him following me. I almost went outside and then thought better of it. Turned back and thankfully found a transit worker on the platform. I asked him if he could walk me to the taxis and he did. As my taxi was driving away I saw the man who had been following me walk back further into the train station. As I mentioned, it was the last train of the night so he had no reason to have gotten off at the stop if it wasn’t his stop. There were no businesses or anything else around. Anyway my favourite part of this story (not favourite) is that when the transit worker was walking me over to the taxis he said something along the lines of “oh you’re just too cute thats why that man is following you”. No thank you.
Always trust your gut, kids.
- 29 days
I absolutely agree. Better safe than sorry.
Nevertheless, I want to tell a quick story of where someones gut feeling was wrong.
More than 20 years so I used to go to an evening school (don’t know the English name for, maybe college or something like that). One day I was done, it was very late and dark outside (around 10 in the evening) and I was tried and not in the best mood and I just wanted home. To get there, I had to catch the last train of the evening and the train station was a few minutes walking away.
Since I’m a pretty tall guy with long legs, I can walk pretty fast. I was walking down the narrow sidewalk towards the train station when another pedestrian appeared on front of me. This pedestrian, a young lady, was slower than me and since I was in a hurry I tried to overtake her (get in front in of her so she wouldn’t slow me down and could walk at her own pace). However, when I started my maneuver she got a little faster, but I still wanted to finish my maneuver and walked a little faster myself and she got a bit faster again… after a short while of this, it ended with her running away to a street on the other side of the road while screaming in fear.
This way quite confusing for me since I had no bad intentions at all. However, from her perspective it was probably super scary with a tall grumpy looking guy “following” her and then getting into snatching range. So I think she did the right thing and from that point I tried to avoid accidentally scaring other people.
- 29 days
Yeah I’ve had a similar experience, when I was in my early 20s, and have since chosen to accept missing the train or whatever is the reason I’d need to hurry, so as not to scare someone that bad. Jesus it’s awkward and it’s entirely understandable, but man does it get me questioning whether I look scary or weird or do I seem suspicious and has been a constant source of anxiety ever since. But I’ve realized it’s my job in that situation to clearly signal I’m not a threat, and I’ve chosen to do it just by slowing down myself so the distance grows and I become no threat to them (feels so bad to think of one’s self this way by the way, fuck me, but what can you do?) or alternatively if there’s a detour I could take to still catch the train as in your example, I’d rather go to another block and jog if nobody’s there and not miss the train. Either way, if I’m perceived a threat, there’s nothing in the moment that can be done about that other than no longer be perceived one, i.e stall or reroute away.
This only ever happens in dark, at night, and them likely drunk or tired, so it’s entirely understandable. I’d be fucking anxious too if someone bigger than me started speeding up on me. I have the privilege not to be scared this way due to my physique, so I also have to respect it the other way around too.
It’s so easy to go with the gut reaction of “this is disrespectful” without considering the scenario from a third person you know? I think this is where most end up in and start thinking “you can’t do or say anything anymore” and become either incels or too fucking loud magas or equivalents, because it is kind of hard on self confidence to be in that situation. But it’s always going to be worse for the other, they might fear for their life, and rightly so, so there’s no comparison there once you actually start thinking and exercising your empathy. So if you manage to get past the initial feeling of disrespect, frustration and self-doubt, then this is a real non-issue. And something very small to avoid and handle properly in the moment.
But if you don’t get past it, or lack the empathy to see it from others’ pov, well, you end up a shithead basically, coping unhealthily with that and it might even grow as large to be the whole identity ultimately.
Just rambling here I suppose, sorry to hog all the space, felt like I needed to let that out. I’ve had some friends go with the disrespect and self image and confidence shattering effect that I’ve helped get past it and see it objectively, and I just can’t help but think of everyone who doesnt have the help nor the inner capability, and stray from the sensible and humane path due to something so small as this.
- 29 days
I feel like if I were ever in that situation I’d just straight-up yell something to the effect of “hey lady, I’m not trying to chase you; I’m just in a hurry” and try to get her to cross the street or something so I could get by. I have no idea if it would actually help or not, but if it’s awkward anyway I’m the kind of jerk to be willing to make it more so.
- 29 days
“On your left (right if you’re in a right hand pass country)” is something that would personally make me feel safer as a woman. It’s a clear, “hey I’m passing you not chasing you”
- UnfortunateShort@lemmy.worldEnglish30 days
Was at school, classes were just about over, but suddenly it got dark. Like nightfall dark. So dark one after another just silently started looking outside the window. Then the sky tinted slightly green - a phenomenon that in hindsight they should tech about at school, because it usually means shit is about to go down. Teacher was like: ‘Okay, that looks really bad, pack your things, class is almost over anyway’.
I went outside with some friends. It had already started raining. Initially we wanted to wait under some roof in front of the school, thinking it was just a heavy summer shower. There were no reports on anything - no storms, nothing. But it kept. Getting. Worse.
Worse than anyone of us had ever seen, yet no signs of imrpovement. We started getting nervous. I called my mom to pick me up. She told me whem she was there, but it had already gotten bad enough that I was reluctant to step into that shit. Like, I had an umbrella, but it seemed like it wouldn’t do much at that point.
When we sensed an ever so small opening we took off. I went to the parking lot, my friends to the bus station, which was the other way. (They all lived in completely different directions, in case you’re wondering why my mom didn’t want to drive them.) Everyone covered with whatever they got. When I arrived at the car, I was wet to the bone waist downwards.
My mom drove home ultra carefully. Visibility was basically none. It was like driving through a carwash. I texted my friends, they made it to the bus. However, the bus driver was not prepared for fucking rivers and ponds forming on the streets, so eventually they go stuck and had to walk home through knees deep water.
Even those with ‘waterproof’ backpacks had their school stuff ruined - which they of course presented like war trophies the next day and probably saved them some homework they didn’t do in the first place. So yeah, that’s the story of how we witnessed, probably one of the heaviest rainfalls our city had ever seen. Monsoon-like in Germany, completely out of nowhere.
If we had waited at school, we would have been stuck there. There was some heavy damage too. Our school’s basements were flooded for example. Our school is build on a hill.
They teach about green skys in the Midwest part of the US. Your story didn’t end where I thought it would. When the sky turns green over here, there’s a twister headed in your general direction, if not right for you.
