We live every second of everyday on borrowed time. What they say is true, we start dying the second we're born. And we avoid crisis and death more times than we realize. One of the main causes of death that is always lurking near is evil. Fact. People are crazy and there are way too many people willing to exterminate the life of another. How many of us have tales of escaping death at the hands of another? Far more people than we'd like to believe.
Redditor u/Robz05 was hoping people would be willing to share some stories of hope and survival by asking... Have someone you know ever tried to kill you? And why?One of my favorite shows of the past decade was a creepy tale on FOX called "The Following." It starred Kevin Bacon and it was about a cult of serial killers. It used to come on at 9pm on Mondays. I would take my dog on a really long walk at 8 because I refused to go out after 10pm once the show was over. It reinforced for the me the fact that crazies are everywhere. Need proof? Listen...
Blades
When I was about 4/5 (f) (I had dreams about it growing up and then was told the whole story when I was older) my half brother (who has empathy issues and poor choice skills; 16 at the time I believe) was playing a game where him and his friend were bad guys and me, my sister, and our cousin had to run from them. We were also playing in an abandoned shop our grandparents owned.
Well he ended grabbing one of those sharp circle blades you cut wood with and threw it at me; slicing my head open. He then proceeded to scoop me up and climb on the roof while I was bleeding in his arms. My grandpa had to climb onto the roof and take me from him so I could go with the ambulance.
Vehicular
Someome decided to string a thick line of wire across a dark single lane of an unlit country road at the night. The plan was to take out a vehicle in the hopes of killing the people inside. Well, the people inside were my mom and me, and the attempted murderer... he was good old dad. A true narcissistic psychopath who despite his serial infidelity and his pathological liar, who decided he could not take the hit to his pride and ego of mom filing for divorce first.
Her saying she was done before him was an unthinkable situation in his mind. He decided he would rather play the role of grieving widow then rejected husband. And as for me, he knew how he could use the death of his daughter to manipulate women in sleeping with him.
Fun Times
My dad's mother tried to drown me when we visited her (for the first & only time ever again), because she didn't like that I was born a girl :). She wanted a grandson. From what my mother says: My dad's mom let me swim in her pool, 'cause hanging out with adults is boring (they were there to talk about her husband who had died recently, my dad's dad). My parents were inside with her in the living room. She said she wanted to check on me & she'll be back in a minute.
Much more than a minute passes, Ma starts getting worried. Dad goes to see what's up. Closer dad got to the backporch door, heard splashing, saw her trying to drown me in the pool & my dad knocked her to the ground. Yelled for my mom. Ma snatched me up & took me to the car as I struggled & cried, trying to breathe again.
Filed a police report & they never made contact with her again. Fun times.
Duck and Cover
car GIFGiphyMy ex husband and I had been separated a few weeks. I arrived home late at night from work. My work shift ended at 11:00 p.m.
I didn't notice his car in the parking lot as I walked toward my apartment until he gunned the engine and drove straight toward me. I ducked into the entrance alcove and his car struck a parking barricade and the curb and some landscaping before it stopped within 2 feet of me and the building. I ducked inside and called the police (not for the first time).
Ok, see there? You can't even trust the people closest to you. You just never know what kind of warped mind is too close for comfort. This thread is making think about hitting up the shooting range. Or maybe I'll go back to church. Ask God for some shelter. I'll continue...
Under the Water
When I was around 7, an older kid at the local pool was trying to teach me how to do something (dive, I think?) but I wasn't catching on fast enough for him.
So, naturally, the best way to express his frustration was to try to drown me.
Chopped
Not intentionally, but my dad ran me over with a boat once. The propeller went all the way up my side. Surprisingly, didn't really cut me though, just left a line of crazy bruises and a couple of scratches from my knee up to my shoulder. Still hurt like a witch.
That was Then...
Mine isn't so much an attempt to kill my brother, it just could have ended that way. Anyway...
When I was around 10 and my brother around 4, we shared a room. He would drag his red tricycle into the house and up to our room and ride it in circles in said room. One night mom yelled up the stairs that dinner was ready and we needed to come wash up for dinner.
Broham parked his trike right in the doorway, I was annoyed by this and proceeded to push him and his trike down the stairs. He held on for dear life and rode that thing to the bottom like some kind of trike pro, then slammed into the door at the bottom of the stairs. He got hurt, but nothing was broken. Just some cuts and bruises.
We are best friends now.
The Last Call
This man my mom was with kidnapped me when I was two years old. I've always joked about it because the guy was just a loser alcoholic and I assumed he did it just to upset my mother. When the cops found us, we were at his favorite bar. What kind of idiot kidnaps someone and then goes to a place where everyone knows that you go? That's why I never took it seriously.
Well, two weeks ago, I'm texting with my older brother and I made a joke about him kidnapping me. I said something like "what was he planning on doing? Raising me? Killing me?"
He was maybe ten or eleven when this happened, so he remembers a lot of that day. He told me that I'm lucky to be alive. Apparently, he planned on killing me. My mother had lied to him and told him that I was his kid. In a brief moment of clarity, he pieced together that the timing was off and I wasn't his. He went to that bar so he could get drunk enough to go through with it.
I still can't really believe it.
Liar
Looney Tunes Reaction GIFGiphyMy mom's mom did not like me. At all. I always tried to be polite and pleasant and helpful. One day when I was about 16 she asked for my help with an outlet she had been fixing. Of course I ask if she'd turned the power off. She said yes. She lied.
PUSH
I'm so glad you asked!
I was ten years old. After school with a couple of neighbor friends. We walked a block to the corner store for snacks. Walking back home, we're standing on the corner. Next thing I know I wake up in the hospital. Find out I was hit by a 30mph mack truck. Kid next to me pushed me into it.
Told police I , "darted into traffic and turned around to taunt them." Ten years later I found out from a mutual friend the kid admitted to pushing me. That kid is currently in Indiana State Prison for two counts of armed robbery. He's still "innocent" for pushing me.
(Currently looking for legal help before offender is freed in 2026. He will hurt somebody else).
I Can Taste It
My mother-in-law did something to me the first two times I went over for dinner. The first time she put an allergen in the food, and then when I asked before eating (as I always do anywhere I eat) she lied about it. I could clearly taste it and had a really bad reaction, then she suddenly remembered that it was there. The second time, we reminded her of the allergy, she cooked food with the allergen in it, but then admitted it before I started eating.
Just Eat It
A kid a used to hang out with in my neighborhood wanted to test my peanut allergy, so she deliberately ate a PB&J before seeing me and was very adamant on sharing a soda. Another kid was in on it, and when I drank from the soda after she did they were both wide eyed and asking me if I felt ok. Luckily my allergy was not extremely sensitive so I did not have a reaction and I was completely fine. The other kid told me about a year later and that's the only reason I knew. I stopped talking to both of them.
Don't Shoot
What Did I Do Love GIF by juliaveldmancGiphyNot intentional. But my idiot friend negligently discharged a .357 magnum in between my legs.
It blasted a bunch of mud and dirt up right into my business and actually hurt my testicles and for a second.
Ramming for Me
I was riding my motorcycle home from work, when all of the sudden this van starts aggressively blocking me from passing him. No matter what I did he would block me over and over. He was literally swerving from lane to lane to block me out. Finally, I passed him and then made a poor decision. I gave him the finger for blocking me.
He immediately floored it and rammed me from behind causing me to veer into another lane and slam into the side of a semi truck. I managed to save it through sheer luck. I unfortunately never got his license plate number but it was the closest I've come to being murdered.
No Air
Not me, but a cousin of mine when he was a kid tried suffocating his younger toddler sister with a pillow to make her stop crying.
He didn't know it would kill her though. They're both fine today.
Freedom!!
My ex-husband was a controlling a**hole who eventually cheated on me. When I found out, I told him I was taking our kid and leaving. He seemed cool with it, even to the point where he was willing to drive me to my friend's house to pick up empty boxes to pack my crap.
On the way there he told me I was never going anywhere again.
After he attempted to kill me, I walked a mile and called the cops from a daycare that I found. They picked me up, took me home, and found him and told him he had to be out of the house for 24 hours so I could pack my crap.
I called my mom, who sent my sister and nephew to drive eight hours to pick me up with a Uhaul.
I never pressed charges because it would have meant staying in that city in order to do so, and I was terrified and alone.
That was almost 14 years ago. Life is much better now.
Leaving Me Behind
Can't be proved but my ex husband - I had some work done on my teeth under general anaesthetic, wasn't supposed to be left alone. He laid me out in front of the gas fire and went out to do whatever... I woke up hours later to an empty house and the smell of gas everywhere. I used to chalk this up to him being thick and self centred but realistically... he had no need to leave that long when he was supposed to be keeping an eye on me, and he seemed really surprised to hear from me when I called, thinking back on it.
Frenemies?
Two friends i had snuck into my bedroom one night and tried to hang me from my bedroom door. They locked the door to stop it from opening and woke me up to brag about how easy it was. I started banging on the wall while choking to wake up my other housemate. Their ego is why I'm still alive.
Only One
country music baby GIF by Toby KeithGiphyWhen I was a baby and my brother was toddler, he tried smothering me with a pillow lol. My mom found us in time. I guess he took "there could only be one" seriously.
Everybody always seems so innocent. Clearly it's all an act and a plot. When you can't even trust grandma, there is no hope left. I would say recommend reading this thread to a friend, but not in the dark. Bless those that are still able to tell the tales.
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Do you ever wonder what it must've been like to experience major events throughout world history when reading about them in text books?
But if you take pause and actually think about it, we're living through many newsworthy current events that succeeding generations will be talking about long after we're gone.
Reading about them online or in newspapers is one thing. But seeing them happen unfold before our eyes is another.
Curious to hear from those who'll have anecdotes to tell in the future, Redditor "What is the most historically significant event you witnessed IN PERSON?"
People recall the natural disaster events they've witnessed.
Tremors
"1964 Good Friday Earthquake 9.2 Richter. Was a boy in Cordova, Alaska at the time."
– KitchenLab2536
"My father was skipper of the USCG cutter stationed there. He was inport, and when the quake struck shortly before 5:30pm, he and my mom gathered me and my three siblings on the front porch. At first, it felt like the house was crumbling at the foundation, but on the porch we could plainly see our whole world was shaking. I remember watching telephone poles swaying, and the wires snapping and crackling in the street. The quake lasted about five minutes initially. My dad got his ship underway to avoid the tidal wave which was sure to come. We had several aftershocks in the coming weeks, some of which were quite strong, though nowhere near as strong or as long as the quake itself. I was seven at the time."
– KitchenLab2536
Collapsing Freeway
"October 17th, 1989. I watched the 880 Nimitz freeway collapse during the San Francisco earthquake. The Honda in front of me had the upper deck crush her front-end engine compartment. The mother and her daughter were shaken up but completely fine."
"I was driving a convertible Triumph Spitfire, which was scratched up slightly from debris. However, I walked away unscathed. Aside from the fact I pissed my pants, which I didn't notice until much later."
– CatDaddyWhisper
Thar She Blows
"I sat on the roof of our house and watched Mt. St. Helens erupt less than 100 miles away."
– stinkykitty71
"This must have been fascinating and terryfing in equal measure. What a thing to witness."
– runrossyrun
"It was amazing! The ash that covered everything like snow was interesting to kid me, but less so to my parents."
– stinkykitty71
People recall seeing major catastrophes as a result of malfunctions or judgement errors.
Bomber Crash
"The b-52 crash that led to changing what large military aircraft are allowed to do for airshows."
"I didn't see the plane, but immediately saw the fireball. It was just a perfect, bright red turning to black mushroom cloud."
"Fairchild is a nuclear air base and there were a few minutes there where I was sure the world was about to end."
"A few years before a KC-135 doing the same thing crashed near the school while we were in class."
– goffstock
Tragic Takeoff
"I was standing on my front porch watching the launch of the Challenger."
– StarChaser_Tyger
"Was riding in my parents car to a basketball game in the next town over in north texas when we saw a shooting star and thought that was neat."
"It was the Columbia..."
– Misdirected_Colors
Demolition Gone Wrong
"The failed implosion of the Zip feed mill in Sioux Falls, SD in 2005."
"They hyped it up, sold tickets to it, had a big 'BOOM' marketing thing, and broadcast it live on TV."
"The explosives took out the main supports on the first floor, and the rest of the building above it just plopped down 10ft or so and came to a rest. It was a massive failure, and was a funny little blurb on news stations around the world that day. Definitely not major news, just the rest of the world taking 20 seconds to laugh at us."
"The building sat like that (the leaning tower of SuFu) for quite a while until they figured out how to safely demolish it."
"Here's a clip of the failed demolition."
– KitchenBandicoots
These well-known historical events were seen by very few who are alive today.
Historical Remnant
"The tumbling of the Wall in Germany… along with people selling bits and pieces of it on tables in lobby in front of commissary and px in the following weeks and months. I had picked up a chunk about the size of an oreo and kept it… has blue spray paint on the flat side. Wonder if anyone is buying them now?"
– SingedPenguin13
Major Upheaval
"I would have to say the LA riots. I lived about two blocks from where it started. I was on my way home from school and saw someone throw a brick through a window. I didn’t even wait. I just started running the whole way home."
– Scarlaymama0721
Day Of Infamy
"9/11, I could SMELL the collapse of the towers."
– go4tli
"A friend of mine was there. One day in the warehouse we worked in together there was an odd electrical burning smell. He stopped in his tracks and went 'this is what 9/11 smelled like.'"
– mantistoboggan287
I didn't physically witness the fall of the World Trade Center but I was living in New York City at the time.
However, I did see the smoke.
I was living up north in Washington Heights at the time and knowing what happened, uncertain of what was to come, and seeing the plumes of smoke from the attack site was the most ominous sight I've ever seen in my life to date.
Have you ever lived through a historic moment or witnessed something sure to be noted in history books? Let us know in the comments below.
