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People Who Were Kidnapped Explain How They Escaped With Their Lives

People Who Were Kidnapped Explain How They Escaped With Their Lives

Kidnapping is one of the things we're trained to fear from a young age.

Don't talk to strangers. Don't go to unknown places by yourself. If someone you don't know is offering you something? They're trying to kidnap you. It can't happen as often as you've been trained to think, right?

What about when it does?


u/mado_134 asked:

Has any Redditor been kidnapped? If yes, what is your story?

Here were some of those stories.


Fun For You, Not For Me

My old teammate got kinda kidnapped. Nicest guy you'll ever meet. Told me a story about when he got kidnapped. Mind you he was a 190 lbs college athlete at the time.

Essentially he got car jacked and shoved in his own trunk. But the perpetrators just wanted to use his car for a joy ride. So after a night of speeding, smoking blunts in his car, and doing whatever else, they got pulled over by the police. He said the looks on the cops was something else thinking they were coming up on a routine traffic stop only to find the owner was in the trunk of the car.

JediRugger

Prison Forever

I lived in Cambodia. I was at the local market with my then 2 year old daughter. I turn around and she was gone.

I was in a complete panic, rushing around searching for her.

I had to pay to local police $200 to do their job. Thats how it was back then.

My daughter turned up around the border, the person who took her was trying to take her out of the country.

The only reason she was noticed was because she had a distinctive yellow t-shirt on.

This was 13 years ago. She wasn't traumatized by the event. Thankfully, she was too young to remember.

The man who took her got sent to prison for 15 years. Thats the last we heard of him.

MeRikeyBukuDong

This Could Have Been Bad

When I was around 7-8 years old, my Mom took me to a karate lesson for the first time. The "dojo" was in a strip mall. The lesson ended and as I was leaving the room (for whatever reason I was the last one out), a man approached me asking if I enjoyed the lesson. I told him I did and asked if he was a friend of my Mom. He was dressed normally (not an instructor) and didn't have a kid with him, so I was confused as to his interest in me. He told me he was not a friend of my Mom's, but that He and I would be friends. He put his arm around my shoulder and started walking towards the front door.


As we approached the exit, I saw my Mom chatting with the instructor in his office through the small window on the door. The office was right next to the exit and the handle within reaching distance. I quickly reached for the door handle, turned, and pushed. The man left my side and walked out the front door before the door to the office fully swung open.

I walked in and the instructor/my Mom start asking about the lesson, if I enjoyed it, etc. As we talked, I asked about the man. Neither the instructor or my Mom seemed to know who I was talking about and shrugged it off. After we left, I told my Mom it wasn't for me and never went back.

It wasn't until a decade later when I finally grasped the possibility of the situation.

thelittlestviking

A New Installment In "Taken"

I've posted this story before, but here goes:

I was in Turkey for a while in my early twenties with two friends. We had made quite a few friends in the coffee shops. They were mostly Kurdish and I was pretty oblivious to the racial tension there.

One day walking through the market, 5 men walked up to us. The four beefiest surrounded us while the fifth told us we were invited to tea at his place and to come. He was all smiles but the beefy dudes and general posture of them all made it clear what the score was.

We were escorted back to a shop with a few more scary guys and the patriarch of the family. The doors were closed and bolted, and the window shades drawn down.

For the next 5 hours we were "guests." It started mostly outwardly polite and utterly terrifying with polite veiled threats. When they served us tea, we were sure it would be drugged, but couldn't refuse and escalate the situation.

It culminated with them trying to hand the three of us swords, while the rest of them stood around us with swords in hand smiling and talking about how some of them had been in the family for generations and been used to take the heads off of Western Europeans in the crusades (BS I'm sure, but the point was taken).

I was absolutely sure if we took the swords they offered, we'd be cut down and they'd have plausible deniability and could claim we attacked them or tried to rob the place.

We remained calm and kept declining the swords politely as they got angrier and angrier. They finally let us go with a warning to mind who we associated with because "sometimes people disappear."

Scariest five hours of my life and I have no idea how it ended well for us.

goffstock

Divorce Does Awful Things

I was kidnapped when I was younger, but I didn't realize it at the time. My uncle and my aunt were going through a divorce, and he was staying at our house with my cousin. One day he said we were "going on a trip." I was young, and I loved going on trips, so I didn't think anything of it. He took us from Connecticut to Minnesota, and we stayed there for a few days. What I didn't know was he was about to lose custody of my cousin, so he took us and ran. I think he also took me just because I was there and he didn't want to leave me home alone. He was arrested shortly afterwards and sadly he killed himself in jail.

Dr_King_Schultz

Oof Yikes

Not me but my room mate at the time.

We lived in Johannesburg, and studied at the local university. One day I'm at class and he is at home. He steps outside to get something from his car (it's a typical SA block of flats with tall walls and a motorized steel gate)

Some guy climbs over the gate, runs up to him and throws him inside the house, demands he gets the keys and drags him outside to his car that was waiting on the street. He then takes my friend on a trip around Johannesburg, collecting debts owed to him (can only imagine he is a drug dealer)

After a good 6 hours of driving around, my friend is now terrified, the guy takes him home, drives into the driveway, strolls into the house and locks him in his room while he casually takes a shower. He comes back out and steals everything from my friend, clothes and all. Makes himself a sandwich and leaves like nothing happened.

My friend is still traumatized and this happened around 5 years go.

Lesson to learn, always keep your house locked, even if you have fancy security, electric fences and all that jazz. Sometimes this country amazes me.

PregoRoll

Vicious

I was almost kidnapped once.

I was visiting the mall with some others and left alone to go to the bathroom, which was down a long isolated hallway.

When I came out of the women's bathroom, a dirty old man rushed out of the men's and pinned me up against the wall.

There was an emergency exit at the end of the hallway, and he was dragging me toward it when another dude came out of the bathroom. He was big and bald and looked like a biker, complete with vest.

He yelled "HEY!" and the old man dropped me and ran.

I was 15 at the time.

SuddenTerrible_Haiku

Mania

When I was like 10, a friend's mother abandoned me in another state while she kidnapped her own children.

I was spending the weekend at a friend's house. The friend's mother had a manic episode and decided to leave her husband and move in with her recently deceased sister's widower. He lived in Vermont, we lived in Georgia. She packed us into the minivan at five AM and took off. Her two oldest children (13 and 15)got pretty upset so she left the three of us with an aunt in Pennsylvania.

It was pretty terrifying for my parents.

LeapingMouse

Casual Kidnapping

A friend of mine, not me.

So my pal goes to Bolivia every year and always tries to convince us to come with him. We never do, because he casually mentions to bring kidnap money with us.

Long story short, drugs are dirt cheap in the rural area his family lives. (A big round of drinks at certain bars will come with two/three grams of complimentary coke). And he loves the white stuff.

Anyway, every year he goes he gets kidnapped. They treat him good, no harm, gets a semi decent meal etc. And the ransom is like £150 or something equally irrelevant, apparently they once accepted £50 for his release.

PI3M3I

After A Stunt Like That???

I was 10 and (half)sister 8, stationed with (Step)father and Mother in Europe at the time (military from the USA). I was told by my father that we would eventually be going on a Sunday school trip. My sister and I had pictures taken weeks before, and were told they were for the same trip. Turns out my mother had hidden our passports and the pictures were for new passports...

Sunday rolled around. As we were driving my Dad had us guess where we were going. We kept guessing tourist attractions in Europe. "farther!" he would say until we guessed correctly. It was to my grandmother's house in the USA.

At this point I still did not realize we were being kidnapped. In fact I didn't realize it until days after our arrival, when I kept seeing our picture in the papers (the front page in many cases). "CUSTODY BATTLE TURNS OVERSEAS". A reporter had showed up shortly after our arrival to grandmas house and I couldn't understand what the fuss was about.

The crazy part is that my (step)Dad ended up with custody of both me and my sister.

fritzguye

Products Made By People Who Clearly Never Use Them

"Reddit user DongLaiCha asked: 'What products are clearly made by people or companies who never actually use them?'"

A pair of sunglasses, their case and an iced espresso coffee are placed on top of a counter
Photo by Tamara Bellis

Do you ever use a product and wonder... "Who in the world thought this would work?"

That seems to be an issue with a lot of items in life.

Like, who designed all these extra dinner forks?

It's all too confusing when you just want to eat a salad and a steak.

Let me keep my fork.

You're wasting water on all the cleaning.

Think before you create.

Redditor DongLaiCha wanted to discuss some products that may need more in-field research, so they asked:

"What products are clearly made by people or companies who never actually use them?"

Remember CDs?

It was easier to break into the Pentagon than open that plastic wrapping.

Who thought that idea up?

Too Dry

Hair Bathing GIFGiphy

"I swear that people who design some shampoo and conditioner bottles have never tried to use them while wet."

danarexasaurus

Assessments

"Elementary state assessments. They are the most obtuse, poorly written, unrealistic questions on earth. They enrage me. They are clearly written by people who either have zero experience in elementary education or haven’t had any in a decade or so."

meadow_chef

"I have a BA in English and couldn't figure out one of the answers to my child's third-grade ELA state test practice. I spoke to the teacher about it and she sounded so defeated about the testing. There's no way to prepare children for a test when the questions and answers are so poorly written that the students, their teacher, and the parents can't pick the correct answer."

DistractedHouseWitch

Cheap and Expensive

"A few years ago we wanted a coffee maker with a slightly larger carafe. The only 14-cup one we could find at a reasonable price was branded with Drew Barrymore's name. Whatever, we bought it. It was the worst kitchen device I've ever owned. The interface to set the clock, program it, etc. was absolutely baffling to use, never seemed to do the same thing twice."

"The instructions were apparently written by whatever guy at the factory had a cousin who'd seen an American TV show once. And when it actually did somehow make coffee, it came out shriekingly hot, to where I would put a couple of ice cubes into my travel mug when I left for work just to get it down to drinkable temperature."

Fabulous-Quality-282

Flip It

"Those who make the 'pull this flip to open' on plastic packaging of cold cuts."

MissNatdah

"Similarly, the people who make 'resealable' packages of food products where you have to cut it open in a certain place, but cutting there either results in: A) the package still being sealed closed, or B) ruining the internal sealing zipper. I have this issue with the frozen dumplings I buy and no matter what I do, I have NEVER been able to reseal the package as advertised and have to resort to a chip clip."

pls_send_caffeine

Punch a Hole

Mac And Cheese Eating GIF by Megan BatoonGiphy

"The 'push here to open' spot on Kraft Mac and Cheese."

coop_doop

"Whenever I get a different brand I just punch a hole in the same spot out of habit. It’s about exactly as hard to do as with the Kraft ones. So they might as well take out the perforating step and save .001¢/box in the production process."

Reaper_Messiah

Why do they want to keep our Mac and Cheese from us?

Give me my meal!!

Tearing Sheets

office paper GIFGiphy

"Those toilet paper holders in public toilets that cut off at two sheets."

theshortlady

"Same area: those paper towel dispensers that require a two-handed pull, commonly leaving you with two little torn-off triangles of paper in your hands."

repowers

Useless

"Zebra printers. I swear Zebra customer service is useless. I've had to call the help desks for the specific companies I've worked for because the Zebra CS is just like 'Huh!?'"

monotoonz

"We wrote our own internal manuals for how to setup, manage, and troubleshoot Zebra printers. It includes helpful information like 'Do not call Zebra about this issue, instead, see Appendix A' (which is screenshots of conversations about how it is is a known issue and the resolution should be coming shortly (dated 2016))."

001235

City Life

"Maybe a bit off-topic, but in a meeting with a former colleague of mine, the person in charge of the metro for a nearby city admitted that he had never used the metro. Not that he didn’t use the metro, but that he had never used it in his life, even once. I suspect that this kind of thing isn’t uncommon for government services."

KireGoTI

"Similar story. A lifelong friend of didn’t even know we had a Metro until a recent expansion meant she had to drive a different way into her office. She works for the city council."

TheKingMonkey

Warn You

"Hospital beds. From the standpoint of the person who has to push it around and mess with rails that get caught in the mattress and plug it in with a long dirty cord that gets mixed up with another random cord that no one knows its purpose. No retractable cords so they constantly drag on the ground and try to trip you when pushing the bed."

"Brakes that are in the most awkward position that you have to invert your knee to reach with your foot. And worst, the screeching, ear-piercing alarm that they emit to 'warn you' that the bed is not locked. Hospital beds are obnoxious."

Agitated-Effort3423

Help Please

Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno CalypsoGiphy

"Customer-facing software. Developers should be required to hire grandmas under the explicit condition that if grandma can't look at a menu option and decide what to click without giving up and calling the help desk your functionality has failed."

Puzzleheaded-Bat8657

I can't even begin to get into software options.

It brings back too much PTSD.

We are now aware that the distribution of wealth is severely skewed to the top one percent of the population, and rich people have a completely different perception of how the world works and what's "hard" than middle- and lower-class people do.

But what's so disheartening is how their beliefs and limited understanding of hardship trickle down to their children, and how those children are interacting in society is honestly shocking.

Redditor WaterWire asked:

"What's the worst case of 'rich kid syndrome' that you've ever seen?"

The Jet Doesn't Count

"I used to work with someone who proclaimed to be an environmentalist. She was very preachy."

"Once I had a can of Coke on my desk. She said, 'You're going to recycle that, right?'"

"She used her father's personal jet all the time. Once, just to fly from NYC to Boston to see a baseball game."

- LiterallyOutToLunch

Disposable Cars

"A girl I went to school with crashed and totaled six cars in three years and her parents continued buying her better newer cars because every accident 'wasn’t her fault' and if she had stuff like a backup camera and sensors they 'wouldn’t have happened.'"

"She got into a fender bender in the school parking lot and her dad showed up with a wad of cash and paid the other student off."

- nosenseofpermanence

A Simple Grade Change

"When I was in college for my grad degree and I was working as a T.A. (teacher's assistant), during a specific term I was helping my professor with some admin duties for one of his post-grad courses he taught for a different field than mine, and we had this one student who was arguing that she wanted a higher final grade than the one she had gotten."

"We listened to her explanation to see if there was any merit to her request and there was something that needed to be changed, but it basically boiled down to, 'I think my grade is too low and I deserve a higher grade because I say so,' and we simply told her that after reviewing her performance we could confirm that her final grade was correct and there was nothing to be done about it."

"She completely lost it and transformed into a Super Karen and after arguing for a bit, she stormed off and started emailing me and the professor and copying everybody in the email chain: her program director, the department head, the head of our registry office, Will Hunting, the security guard, the librarian, etc., and every email she sent was progressively ruder and more entitled than its predecessor because everybody kept telling her that she was unfortunately in the wrong and there was nothing to be done about it."

"Eventually, she sent a really smug email where she said something to the effect that since everybody was a dumba** and incompetent at our jobs, we had forced her to copy her father who was really close friends with the dean to the email, so we were f**ked and we had to do as she said or daddy would get us all fired. Keep in mind, this was a grad student in her mid-twenties."

"The highest ranking person in the email chain replied, reiterating that we were all very sorry, but she was in the wrong, her grade was correct, and it would not be changed."

"Then her father replied to the email chain and just said, 'There you go, dear. I hope you learn from this.'"

"She didn't reply anymore after her daddy's email, and the matter was closed. To this day, I like to imagine that dear old dad tore her a new one for dragging him into her bulls**t and making him look bad in front of a bunch of professors from a well-known university where his BFF was the dean because she, his grown-a** daughter, chose to behave like a spoiled brat."

- Tough_Stretch

First. World. Problems.

"I'll never forget a former friend stamping her foot and crying because 'Dad sold the jet and I have to take a commercial flight to our raaaaanch.'"

- tnrivergirl

The Cost of Priorities

"An 'Influencer' wondering why other people in their home country don't spend their life traveling like them."

- OrderIntegration

"I love the 'I’d rather have a passport full of stamps than a house full of expensive things!' schtick."

"Most of my furniture is from the free section of Craigslist and I would be thrilled if I ever get to a point where I can afford an international trip every few years."

- TogarSucks

No Help At All

​"Not me, but a friend of mine was an assistant trainer at a Panera store. They hired a teenager who was only working there to meet people, and one day had a group leave a huge mess in the dining room."

"Apparently the teen turned to my friend and said, 'Should we get the help to clean that?'"

"My friend had to explain that they were the help. He quit not long after."

- SailorVenus23

Garage Entitlement

"I was complaining about having to clear off my car from the foot of snow we'd gotten. A guy at work told me there was no way I had to clean off my car. I definitely did and it took a long time."

"Him: Well then, it's your own fault for not parking in the garage."

"Me: I don't have a garage."

"Him: Everyone has a garage."

"I'm like, look out the window next time you are driving?"

- Okay-Cheetah-9125

The Intrusive Thoughts Won

"A senior rich kid in my HS was driving his dad's Jaguar when his buddy asked him what would happen if he threw into reverse at 60 miles per hour. So they tried it and essentially blew the transmission and the motor up."

"A few months later, he got a Porsche for Christmas."

- New_Section_9374

Humbling Experiences

"I had a guy work for me in the military. He thought he didn’t have to do anything because his parents would just 'call their friends.' He ended up getting kicked out for LSD and cocaine use."

- ElfLordSpoon

"I did my mandatory military service when I turned 18, seven years ago. I cleaned s**t more than once, and my father had prepared me for it by saying, 'In the military, it doesn’t matter who you are, you’re still going to clean toilets.'"

"Only a few of my mates from back then knew who my family was and that was after a lengthy, alcohol involving, conversation/interrogation, lol (laughing out loud). You don’t wanna be standing out."

- RolexWearInGray

Unrealistic Shopping

"A therapist once asked me how much money I spent on clothes each year."

"I told her about 100 to 200 dollars, depending on the year and what was needed."

"Her response was, 'You can’t even get one dress for 100 dollars' and then proceeded to tell me that maybe I didn’t value myself enough."

"All I was thinking was, 'This b***h has never been to TJ Maxx?!'"

- FortunaLady

Very Different Backyards

"When I was in elementary school, this kid lived in the only gated community in the area, and the houses were all mansions. He was telling me a story about his tennis court in his courtyard."

"I said, 'Wait, you have a tennis court at your house?'"

"He looked genuinely shocked, and responded with, '…you don’t?'"

"It blew my mind as a little kid who had to share a room with my single mom, lol (laughing out loud)."

- Spare_Invite_8191

College Tuition

"Some girl in my college classes was genuinely shocked there were students who had to take out loans because their parents couldn’t afford to pay the 65 thousand dollars a year for tuition."

"I have a lot of extended family out in California who I’ve never met, but I sometimes hear stories from my parents who keep in touch with a few relatives out there."

"One of my distant cousins, who was like 17 at the time, intentionally totaled the new BMW his parents bought him because he wanted a Mercedes instead. Can’t remember if they ended up buying him that Mercedes or not, but they probably did. Sadly."

- Scortor

Exam Buyouts

"Rich Dude in my high school chemistry class flat out asked how big of a check his dad could write to get him out of taking a major test. He was serious. Nothing happened to him."

- GrayBox1313

Poor Packing Skills

"I had a friend who worked as a counselor at an American summer camp somewhere in Pennsylvania. He said that these kids would leave so much of their belongings because they couldn’t be bothered packing them up and they would just expect their parents to replace what they had left."

"He came away with Beats headphones, brand new shoes (although a few sizes too small), and gaming equipment."

"He also said that one day they were playing a game of flag football and one of the kids fell and grazed his cheek. This kid was some child model, so his parents had him HELICOPTERED OUT OF THE CAMP so he could get plastic surgery over the injury."

- amerika0210

Messy Kitchen Dilemma

"I had a roommate who would cook huge meals and destroy the kitchen. She would eat her meal and head to her room."

"A couple of hours later, she’d come out and be fully p**sed off that the kitchen was still a mess."

"She’d had servants most of her life and was now on her own."

- msjammies73

Though we know that the rich are often incredibly out-of-touch, these examples were still really surprising. Not only is their perception of money so different, but the disposable nature of big purchases, like vehicles, is just wild to think about.

It's easy to take our lives for granted and to forget how lucky we are in our own scenarios, but perhaps the rich experience this even more so.

Pair of scissors
Markus Winkler/Unsplash

According to the Cleveland Clinic, over 50 million men have had a vasectomy.

Although avoiding sexual intercourse is the only effective way to avoid pregnancy, the male birth control procedure still has a low failure rate.

Those who are apprehensive about having a vasectomy fear the following: pain, impact on sex life, effectiveness, and side effects like cancer. (The National Cancer Institute and the American Urological Association have found that the procedure does not increase the risk of prostate cancer).

To seek some reassurance, Redditor GaleNotTheWind asked:

"Men of Reddit who have gotten a vasectomy, what was your experience?"

Guys discuss what happened after the snipping.

Making Sure

"For the love of God, do the follow-up appointment. The last thing you want is to be accidentally playing with a loaded gun."

– sleepypanda59

Wise To Wait

"The paper work I got for mine which was done less than 2 weeks ago said that you could have sex 2-3 days after but... definitely said to wait another few days."

– SisterPhister666

Follow Post-Surgical Procedures Or Else

"Had it done twice while living in Japan no less. Why twice? The first one failed."

"... apparently, so did the second (says my now 6 year old daughter)."

– shoelessmarcelshell

These men found that the procedure itself wasn't a big deal.

Assurance

"I was super anxious, but I had a great procedure. I was more freaked out about the shot of numbing agent to the balls, but it was legit nothing to worry about."

– Reddit

Normal In No Time

"Little operation, blue balls and no wanking for a week, then back to normal but without getting anyone pregnant."

– Bright_Composer_3901

"Made the mistake of having a pop after a couple of days. Jesus, the regret."

– Alante

Best Money Ever Spent

"When I woke up after the anesthesia - yes I asked to be put under, best $55 (after insurance) I ever spent - the caffeine headache I had upon waking was the most painful part. The preoperative instructions were nothing but water the evening before, no water for 4 hours before going under. The Safeway brand cola that the angel aftercare nurse brought me was pure refreshment."

– HarrumphingDuck

Cherry On Top

"Local anesthesia stings for a second or two then all you can feel is tugging after all is done the pain I would describe is like blue balls for like 2 days tops. I took a week off work recommend by doctor since I’m a construction worker and the heavy lifting but I felt like after day 3 I was good to go. Cons: minor pain discomfort, no hanky panky until last semen sample came out clear. Pros: , no unplanned pregnancies(it’s still possible very rarely)."

– Secure_Requirement84

Some final thoughts.

Only Pros

"To me, the only bad part was the smell of the cauterization of my vas deferens.. the procedure was fine. Local anesthesia before and during just felt slight tugging no pain. Recovery was easy. No pain. No cons. Only pros. And if absolutely need be it’s reversible. Much easier and less invasive than a woman getting her tubes tied and significantly less harmful than birth control. I’m an advocate. Get it done!"

– PunchARacist

One Unsettling Thing

"For me, it wasn’t the smell but watching the little puffs of smoke during the cauterization. That was truly and deeply unsettling."

"Otherwise, yeah, nothing major to report. Stayed in bed for a day watching old horror movies and assembling a Lego plant. Pretty much business as usual after that."

– GuestCartographer

The One Constant

"Got a vasectomy, it worked. Got it reversed, that worked.... twice Got another vasectomy...17 years later, all good. Just go to a legit great Dr. I mean top of the field Dr. For ANY messsin around down there. Vasectomy is WAY easier now than 25-30 years ago. In/out in an hour... The only thing that hasn't changed? ... The bag of frozen peas ..😂"

– richwat00

Vasectomies are performed via two methods, the incision vasectomy or a no-scalpel vasectomy, and both use local anesthesia to numb the scrotum.

Always consult a healthcare provider before undergoing the procedure and–most importantly–make sure you don't want to have children or that you and your spouse don't want to add additional family members.

Based on the anecdotes above, there's nothing to fear, so feel free to man up and get to snipping.

gray conveyor between glass frames at nighttime
Tomasz Frankowski on Unsplash

I've always enjoyed a good scare on film and my Mother indulged my preferences as she also loved a good horror film.

While we thoroughly enjoyed a good Disney movie together, I was also allowed to watch Jaws, The Exorcist and The Omen before I was 10 years old.

Slashers and sci-fi frights were good, but to me the most effective scares involved nightmarish scenarios that might easily happen in the not so distant future.

For me, growing up Roman Catholic meant demonic possession and the AntiChrist were on the list of plausible fears.

But what films offered possible Hellscapes for others?

Keep reading...Show less