When it comes to safety, some people are very "Better Safe Than Sorry" and others are entirely "Safety Third." Almost all of us, though, have had that moment where we did something we normally may not do just to be on the safe side.
A little extra precaution never hurt anyone, in fact, it can be the thing that saves our collective rumps. Need proof?
Reddit user OvertOperation asked:
What "you know what, just to be safe..." thing you did ended up saving your butt later?
The responses vary from little things to major game changers, but they've all got one thing in common. Sometimes "just to be safe" does exactly what it's supposed to. Check out these replies:
Because Hers Was Crappy
About 10 years ago when I was married, my wife's best friend kept on flirting with me. One time when she was being super aggressive, I recorded it on my cell phone. A few months later, she accused me of saying to her the very things that she said to me. One listen from my wife to my phone completely exonerated me and shut her down completely. She was trying to ruin my marriage because hers was crappy.
Yup, Australia
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Flipped over my shoe and shook it just to make sure, cause I had found a spider in it the night before.
There was another spider in there. And yes, I'm in Australia.
That European Bonus
I was offered a job in Europe, where I was promised a bonus that was x% of my salary, paid twice a year. When the offer was sent, there was no mention of the bonus and when I questioned why, I was told, "don't worry, it's in this email with my official company signature." I put that one into the saved folder, "just to be safe."
Fast forward to moving, on the first payout period I was told I needed to be with the company for 90 days first before a bonus would be paid. Ok, I was annoyed, but I guess that makes sense.
On the second bonus payment, they mentioned that the company hadn't had a great year and nobody would be getting bonuses. More annoyed, but if the company isn't doing great, what are you going to do? I should add this was in 2008.
The following year rolls around and the company announces that things have really taken off and they will pay out the previous bonus period, in addition to the current bonus period. Only problem is, I literally handed in my resignation that day. I inquire to find out if I'll be receiving my bonus from the previous bonus period, and they say "are you kidding? You just quit."
I call a lawyer. I dig up the email from the start of this post, hand that over, and the lawyer says it's a slam dunk case. She goes after both bonus payments from the first year, and both bonus payments from the current year, even though one of them hasn't happened yet. Company HQ calls me and tries to get me to drop it, and I refer them to my lawyer.
A week later, at my new job, the lawyer informs me that they've paid all 4 bonus payments, and she also went after her own fees, so it cost me nothing.
Glad I saved that email. Cover yourself, and do not let others push you around.
Spidey Senses
4 students of mine won the 1st prize for a project they did and we all got a free trip to London.
We had spent the day sightseeing and were exhausted, so we got an ice-cream and sat on a bench in a park to relax. A couple of minutes later I notice this couple walk by slowly, staring at us. My spidey-senses go mental. I do not like these people for some reason. She walks by and sits on the bench next to ours and he sits on the bench across from hers. They aren't talking, just looking at each other.
And that is when I notice her reaching into her pockets.
I jump up, grab my students and run out of the park. My poor students are confused and wondering what on earth is wrong with me, when all of a sudden we hear screaming. Turns out she stabbed a couple walking through the park, trying to rob them.
It scares the ever-loving crap out of me knowing that had I not gotten my students out of there, we would have been stabbed and robbed. For all those will try to turn this into a racial issue, everyone involved in this incident was white.
- Penya23
That Shady Fire
Was remodeling my house, took out a loan and had to get the house appraised to get the loan. Found that my house was worth 100k more than i had it insured for.
Raised my limits on the home insurance. To 50k more than the appraised value in anticipation of completing renovations.
2 weeks later house burned to the ground due to a faulty bathroom fan that i did not touch.
City, insurance company and loan company all sent separate investigators due to how shady it looked.
The Moose Test
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I took one of those extra driving classes you always hear about to get the discount on your car insurance. I was in college and my premium was killing me. The one I signed up for was an 8 hour course that I knocked out in one day. The focus was maintaining control of your vehicle in bad weather. I took it over spring break which is still a pretty snowy/icy time of year around here.
The big test at the end to determine if you got the certificate was to pass the "moose test" though some places call it the elk test or the deer test. Either way, to pass the course you had to successfully swerve around some cones on an icy road and regain control of the car on the other side of the cones.
So my first day back at school from spring break, I'm driving myself and my roommate from the liquor store back to our dorm in some bad weather conditions. I try to turn left into our parking lot and my car just slides straight past it, and down a hill. I try to turn the wheel right to get into a different parking lot and get closer, but not quite where I need it to be. I'm heading straight for a telephone pole.
My roommate is panicking but I looked at it and I realized this is just the moose test. I managed to swerve around the pole, narrowly missing a wall of parked cars next to it, and regained control on the other side, finally bringing my car to a stop in an empty section of the parking lot. Then we walked back to the dorm and drank our faces off.
So the moral of the story is, those extra driving classes you might take for the insurance discount may just save your life.
A Deadly Dipstick
I was undergoing pilot training and was pretty new to the whole thing feeling the pressure to perform, etc.. I walked out to preflight a plane for a solo flight (you do this completely alone... instructor was back at flying school doing something else).
After doing my walk around it's time to check the oil. Cessna 172's have a dipstick that is attached to a cap that screws into the engine. You unscrew cap and remove dipstick along with it and check the oil. Except, after I unscrew the cap there doesn't seem to be a dipstick attached to it.
I have this thought: "Well, the engine is still warm from the dudes who just flew before me so ... they flew it like this.... maybe they had a separate dipstick? They must have checked the oil then some other way ....". Then I have the "well, to be safe, I should actually pack this up and go ask someone at the flight school exactly how to check the oil in this case". Note: This takes quite a chunk of time out of my supposed flight and will cut my "lesson" for the day short by quite a margin, but I do it anyway.
Long story short (info gleaned from subsequent investigations): The dipstick had broken off during the previous flight, that had landed just minutes before, and had slid straight into the engine, where the crank-case had been chomping away metal from the tip, that metal now circulating in the engine. The aircraft was grounded, it was extremely dangerous to fly, and at massive cost had to be stripped down, the entire engine disassembled, and they actually had to find every bit of metal missing from the dipstick and "re-assemble" the dipstick before plane could be re-assembled and made flight worthy again.
If, in a moment of stupidity, I'd taken off in that plane I'd probably be dead.
Thanks, Ghost Grandpa
I was 19 and home for the summer from college. I had a contraband bottle of Bacardi stashed in my bedroom under a pile of clothes and other stuff between my bed and the window. My grandfather appears in a dream and sits me down with this bottle to chew me out...not for having booze as a kid/teen, but for hiding it so poorly.
I wake up, a bit disturbed by this dream and throw the bottle of Bacardi in a duffel bag and toss that in the trunk of my car as I leave for work. Get home that evening, and the pile it had been stashed under was moved as my mom had set up a table with a fan by the window to get air moving (grew up in northern WI without AC). Wouldn't have been a fun rest of the summer had I been busted with that.
Wild Nights With Wild Turkey
Very minor, but once I was going out drinking in San Francisco with some friends. We loved going to this kinda dive bar in the tenderloin (rough neighborhood). Anyway, I had just bought a new car and was worried about parking it in the Tenderloin, all my friends assured me it'd probably be fine.
As we parked on the street about two blocks from the bar, a homeless guy came up to me and said "Man, you don't wanna park that new car here! Somebody gonna smash them windows and steal your stereo! Your sunglasses!"
On a whim I just said "Yeah, but we're kinda late. Wanna keep an eye on it for me?"
He pauses for a sec and goes "Like a security guard? Yeah, man. I'll watch your car. You got $10?"
My friends, confused, started mumbling about just walking on, but I thought it couldn't hurt much, so I gave the guy $10.
"Here's your $10, keep an eye on it, man. If it's still in good shape when I get back I'll give you another $10."
"Damn! $20? All I gotta do is sit here?"
"And make sure nobody smashes my window. There isn't anything inside anyway it's new."
"I got you, man. I got you!" He took a huge swig off this bottle of wild turkey.
Anyway, the night progresses, we drink and have a good time, and now we're all proper drunk except for my friend Mary who was our DD. I gave her my keys and we start walking down the block. One by one we notice almost every parking spot has shattered glass next to it. Somebody went through the area and smashed each window to get into the cars. I get this sinking feeling in my stomach. I'm already mentally prepared to have to shell out a few hundred bucks to replace the window of a car that wasn't even mine a week ago.
But lo and behold, we get to the spot and my car is fine - and the homeless guy is bundled up in a sleeping bag and he sees me and goes "HEEEEYYYYY! You back! You won't believe what I did for you! Check THIS out!" and he shows me this huge bruise on his face and pulls off his gloves and shows me his knuckles, which are scraped to hell.
"What happened?" I said.
"Some motherf-, some tweaker cracker mother, he come around here smashing windows and grabbing stuff He gets to your car and I'm like 'Yo, pass that one. That's MY RESPONSIBILITY' and he turned around pulled back on this big ol' brick he's got in his hand, and I JUMPED HIM from behind and he hit me in the head with his damn brick but I knocked him good, man, I changed his MIND man. He was all strung out and he run off down the block!"
My friends and I are staring at this guy incredulously. My car is fine, spotless. I reach into my pocket for $10 but I realize I don't have cash. "Dude, thanks so much! Give me a second I gotta get your cash." I say as I walk into the liquor store on the corner to use the ATM. As I'm checking out I realize they've got 750's of Wild Turkey in there for like $10. I buy one for him. I give him the $10 and the bottle. "Thanks for keeping an eye on the car for me."
You would have thought this dude just won the lottery.
"OOOHHHH SHOOT!" he kept screaming. Then he kicked the pile of blankets on the side and I realized he had a girl there sleeping and he goes "WAKE UP LOOK WHAT I GOT!" and she rubs her eyes and looks confused at us, then at him, then at the bottle, then at us.
Wordlessly she reaches for the bottle. He hands it to her. He's still screaming and hollering like it's the best day of his life.
- gaqua
Opted For Mom
I was at a party when I was 16. It was in a small farm town about 20-25 minutes from my actual town and everyone was out partying in somebodies parents barn and having a real good time.
I didn't realize that our DD had been drinking all night. When it was time to go, I couldn't even tell she was tipsy. But something wasn't right so I didn't want to drive back with them. For whatever reason I decided to get the verbal tongue-lashing from my mom when she came to pick me up.
Well, my friends in the first car were apparently veering across the road. Got picked up by the cops and all of them got to spend the night in jail.
Glad I opted for my mom.
Leopard Spots
I was at collage and was having a bad time. I had started a new anti depressant a week or so before, but was also using sleep aids because without them I had not been sleeping at all.
So one night I'm laying in my dorm room after having taken my sleep aid, and sleepy me notices that I have oddly shaped spots on my arm.
and my legs.
and my belly.
"What the - why am I a leopard?" sleepy me thinks. I want to roll over and lay down, but for some reason the fact that I looked leopardy bothered me.
Just to be safe I stumbled out of bed to talk to the RA. I remember very little of that part.
Anyway. She took me to the hospital and it turns out I am DEATHLY allergic to one of the ingredients in that new drug I was taking. It just took a few days to build up in my system. By the time we got to the hospital my throat was closing and I could hardly breathe - but because of the sleep aid this seemed like no big deal to me.
I remember like 5 doctors/nurses around me. They had oxygen on my face, were rubbing my chest trying to help me breathe. I got like 7 shots in the hip.
Eventually they let me rest.
When I woke up they made it very clear that had I gone to sleep in my dorm I would not have woken up.
Washing Machine Bat
Was about to put a new load of laundry into my washing machine in the dark, saw what looked to be a large sock still in the washing machine. Put my hand halfway into the washing machine then pulled my hand back up and thought huh, I usually don't leave things in my washing machine. Turned on the light, and it was a bat sitting in there...
I put him in some Tupperware and brought him outside. Left the container open and left him a bag of Doritos; he was gone in the morning.
The Chicken Truck
when I was about 15 I was visiting my dad way out in the country, and we went to my aunt's ranch to help with baling hay or something. My dad lived right down the road from my aunt (literally, she owns over a thousand acres of land and had let my dad have a patch of it in exchange for help with basic upkeep on the fences) so it was just a couple of minutes' drive up the gravel road to get to her place. Once we got there, I realized I'd forgotten something at Dad's, but he was already busy and didn't have either the time or the desire to take me back to get it. So I borrowed a 4-wheeler from my aunt and headed back down the gravel road.
Now, if I had gone the other direction along that road, further away from the main highway, there was a big commercial chicken farm, and it wasn't uncommon to see 18-wheelers barreling at very unsafe speeds up and down that gravel road, collecting chickens for slaughter and/or eggs for transport to grocery stores.
As I was nearing Dad's, I randomly thought of the chicken trucks and imagined how awful it would be if one came around the blind corner up ahead just as I reached it. I briefly considered moving as far over to my right as I could, to give any potential truck as wide a berth as possible, but dismissed the idea because both sides of the gravel road were lined with bigger, bulky rocks that had been kicked off to the side by tires over the years, and I wanted to stay in the center of the road where it was smoother instead of bouncing all over those chunky rocks. Anyway, I reasoned that the odds of a chicken truck coming around that blind corner just as I reached it were pretty low. But as I got closer, I got more and more uncomfortable.
I knew I wouldn't even be able to hear one coming over the noise of the 4-wheeler, and at almost the last possible moment, decided to get over to the right as far as I could, just in case. No sooner had I done this than a huge 18-wheeler zooms around the corner at terrifying speed, partly crossing into my "lane," and misses me by about 18 inches. If I'd waited literally another 2 seconds, I would have been killed instantly.
The reality of how close I'd just come to death didn't really set in until I got to Dad's and collected whatever I had forgotten. Then I remember standing there in his kitchen, shaking, staring out of the window at the blue skies and sunshine, and thinking in awe "I almost missed all this. I almost never saw anything ever again. I almost DIED!" That was a pretty terrifying realization.
Wikipedia
Saved the "group" project a couple hours before my moron partner decided to make some "beneficial" changes. One of those changes was, and I quote, "You forgot to cite Wikipedia."
Citing Wikipedia was an immediate ZERO, which was underlined, bolded, italicized, and UPPER CASED on the rubric.
Stubbed Toe
A few weeks ago I stubbed my toe on the coffee table on my way to bed. Instantly I had a feeling that something was wrong as the pain was much more substantial than a normal stubbed toe. I was fairly sure that it was broken, which seemed odd as I hadn't hit the toe particularly hard (I'm somewhat clumsy and hit my limbs on furniture regularly). As I was laying in bed googling broken toes I confirmed my suspicion that there was really little a doctor could do for a broken toe in most cases. I drifted to sleep secretly hoping that I was wrong and that it would feel better in the morning.
It did not. For whatever reason, I decided to go to the hospital for an x-ray even though I was fairly certain it was broken and that the doctor wouldn't be able to anything to speed the healing.
The x-ray and subsequent conversation confirmed all of my suspicions, but also found something else: a bone tumor which had weakened the bone of that toe. I am waiting for more testing to determine whether or not it is benign. Regardless, if it wasn't for the broken toe and my decision to get an x-ray, they would likely have never found it so early.
- LiamFilm
The New Kid
New kid in school offered to take me to San Francisco to hang out with him and his friend on Saturday. Thing is, he gave off a weird vibe especially since it was like his third day; so I politely declined.
Well on Monday I find out he and his friend ended up going to a small town near ours, stealing a gang members car, and joy riding. They didn't leave that area and the person whose car they stole got fellow gang members and went looking for them. The gang member found them, shot and killed the new kid ,and shot one of his friends in the butt.
Disappearing Posts
This isn't really a story I'm comfortable telling in real life, so I'll vent it here, in the company of strangers. I found a high school friend on some random social media site. We'd share dumb memes and chat from time to time. One day I was mindlessly browsing at midnight when noticed something strange; her posts seemed to be disappearing...I'd try to look at a picture or something she shared, and when I clicked it didn't exist anymore. In fact, nothing on her page existed anymore.
Something about the situation felt really off to me, so I messaged her and asked why all of her posts were gone, if she was quitting the site, etc. She just responded that she was cleaning stuff up, and that she wasn't going anywhere, so I shouldn't worry. We chatted for a while well into the night, but at some point she stopped responding.
The next day, I got a text from her. Being a salty kid at the time, I didn't like being ignored, so I just ignored her back. Then she told me that last night she swallowed a bunch of sleeping pills. She was set on killing herself that night, but after chatting about fun times in middle school and other stuff she didn't really feel like dying anymore, so she went to the ER.
I don't think anything's changed my worldview as much as talking to her. The idea that the difference between life and death was some random, seemingly innocuous sign. I try my best to remember that anyone I meet could very well be having the worst day of their lives. Just try to be kind to others.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
The Annoying Thump
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Heard a thumping noise in my dryer. Sometimes my dryer thumps when it has a large load and is thrown off balance, so I let it go for a few seconds. Then I figured I might as well adjust it rather than deal with the slightly annoying sound.
Yeah you know where this is going. It was my cat. Little dunce had climbed inside in the few seconds it took for me to empty it out and walk the dry clothes to the living room. I then loaded the front facing dryer with wet clothes. She made not a sound. Then closed the door and ran the tumble dryer for about 30 seconds.
I sobbed uncontrollably as I clutched my uninjured cat. And then sobbed again every time I looked at her for the rest of the night. I'm obsessive now about checking the washer and dryer for her stupid behind.
The Winter Kit
Had a bad snowstorm a few years ago. My husband always laughed at my winter trunk kit because it reads like a preppers stash. Til we (myself, 9yr old and the newborn) got stuck in a sudden white out for 6 hours and had to be rescued by national guard. We were fine. They were shocked we weren't panicking. Why should we??? We had clean hot water for tea and cocoa, food, blankets, extra battery packs for my phone, a jumper for the car and my diaper bag with diapers and wipes.
He doesn't laugh at it anymore.
Airport Bathroom
Was at an airport. Went to the toilet to pee. Finished up, went out. "You know what, I'll go back in to see if I can poop too in case I won't be able to on the plane".
Had left my ticket on the sink.
- Gerf93
Landscaping
Working landscape with my dad. Pulling dead leaves from a plant pretty much blindly and quickly to get it over with (also no gloves on since my dumb self never used to use gloves) and I realize At some point I should probably stop and check just in case there's a spider since they love hiding in plants. Voila! I find a rattlesnake coiled up right next to where my hand was pulling dead leaves from. Was pretty lucky that day.
Prepping For The Street Cleaner
3 years ago I lived in Brooklyn. If anyone here is from New York then you know there's street cleaning on almost every street in which the drivers need to move their vehicles before a set time. I needed to move my truck before 8am.
I walk to my truck and before I enter to start it I decided to do a walk around and make sure everything is fine (no scratches, flats, etc) Under my truck directly behind the rear tires I see a guy sleeping. He is literally pressed right against the tires!
I tried waking him up but he reeked of alcohol and had most likely passed out. I called 911 and they handled it from there. I can't imagine what it would've been like if I drove over the poor guy.
Fireworks
I was at a church function about 12 years ago. It was the 4th of July and they were shooting fireworks off. They had been very careful in choosing these fireworks and closely inspected them beforehand as well. Anyway, my step-cousin asked me to hold her 3 year-old while she went to the bathroom. I took her spot close to the fireworks because the baby actually was enjoying them. I started feeling too nervous where I was standing since I was holding someone's child. So I decided to pick up her chair and move back at least 20 feet.
Right after I got re-situated, one of the fireworks exploded and started shooting out of the sides. I ducked, protecting the baby, and took off running as far away and as fast as I could go. Once everything calmed down and my cousin returned, I went to go look at the damage done. There was shrapnel and a small fire right where her chair was. Her bag of food she brought caught fire as well. If I hadn't decided to step back, we would probably both be dead.
Finger Guillotine
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When I was twelve I was really into magic tricks. One was a finger guillotine. The plastic blade would bend around your finger and pop out the bottom, making it look like it went through your finger if you pushed really fast. Done slow and one could see the gimmick.
ANYWAY one day we were at a family friend's house. And, lo-and-behold, the dad happened to have one over by his bar! Except, since he was an adult, this one was much fancier. And in fact the blade even looked real!
I stuck my finger in and brought the blade to my finger and pushed lightly.
"Hrm," I thought. "The blade doesn't look like it's giving at all..."
I figured this one might had a special switch to activate the trick blade that I didn't know about, so I decided it was best to leave it alone.
It was a cigar cutter.
Still gives me chills.
The Balkan Train
Went on a road trip with the ol' girlfriend through all of the Balkan countries. We sometimes stayed in ho(s)tels but mostly wild camping.
So we're in rural Romania and it's getting dark so we leave the highway, leave the main roads and search for a small farm road. Driving in the dark through acres of corn we pass a really old train track with the lights and signs all overgrown and rusted.
There was a nice flat grassy field there so we set up camp. As I'm about to enter the tent I notice the car is partially on the track but it's obviously out of use. But just to be safe I move it a few meters.
Guess what came barreling down the track at 3 AM, a few meters from our tent.