It's easy to forget that what we think is impossible, could potentially happen. There are people out there who have lived through their worst nightmares- stuff that seems unimaginable. Here are their stories.
Incognito1101: People who have survived an attempted murder, what is your story?
When pizza delivery goes lethal.
"I delivered a pizza to a house just outside of the city. On the way back, I stopped to help a car that pulled over in front of me with their hazard lights on. I pulled up beside them and thought it was weird that nobody rolled down a window or made any kind of contact with me for around 15 seconds. The passenger then jumped out of his side of the car yelling that they needed help as he made his way toward my car. I thought something was weird about this. As I started to pull away before he could get to my passenger door, he began shooting at me. I ducked my head after the first shot entered through the back window and embedded in my passenger seat headrest. Another shot entered through the rear window, while the other 3 only hit the outside metal parts of my car, he missed all together with another shot.
I remember being sure I was about to die as he fired more shots at me. I was very surprised that it wasn't panicky, it was just like "Oh, I guess this is it."
Turns out it was a plot to rob me, the pizza was ordered and the guys were stationed down the road to intercept me. They knew who I was and they knew that I would be able to recognize them, as I had delivered a few orders to them before. The guy wasn't wearing anything to cover his identity, which leads me to believe that he would have shot and killed me if he would have made it inside my car.
By the next morning they had all been arrested. The shooter was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He later appealed that sentencing because there was a word wrong in the jury instructions, he won the appeal and ended up being sentenced to 10 years, and was released November of 2010 after 5 years. The remaining 5 years were to be served as parole/probation. He was arrested twice for parole/probation violation when he was only a couple months away from total freedom. I laughed."
That's messed up.
Giphy
"Had a girl cut my brake lines on my car, didn't know until we checked the camera from the apartment complex.
Luckily she cut straight through them vs slitting them, when I attempted to crank the car the brake pedal went straight to the floor and I immediately knew something was wrong."
Bet that shooter feels really stupid.
"Random dude shot me in the chest because he thought I was my drug dealer neighbor. My neighbor was 6'3 and black. I'm 5'11 and white.
Jokes on him, all he got were a few cigarettes, some pocket change, and 35 years on an attempted 2nd degree homicide conviction."
What a horrible birthday.
"My older sister tried to stab me with a large knife in an attempt to kill me on my 16th birthday, my mother grabbed the knife off her before it got my stomach and slammed her against the fridge and yelled at me to run
Last time I saw my older sister she said "I've gotten over it and you should to, it's pathetic to hang onto it" she then told people it was self defense because I tried to hurt her. I was literally eating my birthday breakfast.
I didn't sleep properly for 2 years while she was in the house because she constantly tried to break into my room at night to slit my throat while I slept. I hate her."
Wrong place at the wrong time.
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My uncle was attempted murdered by random and pure bad luck.
He was living in a high rise and some crack head pressed every single buzzer. Someone let him in out of laziness/not caring/wanting the buzzer to stop. The crack head proceeded to knock on every single door down the hallways and my uncle is the first to answer the door.
The crack head pulls out a pair of scissors and plunges them into his throat.
The crack head then nonchalantly walks out of the building and says to a passing couple, 'you should probably call the police because I just murdered someone'.
He was picked up very quickly, and my uncle survived.
For a year or two before his epilepsy killed him.
Absolutely terrifying.
"My mom attempted to murder me and my sister when we were younger. She was going through a psychotic episode and pretty suicidal, and I said the wrong thing that set her off. She chased us down to the basement with a knife. We ran into my room and my sister hid in the closet while I tried to fight my mom off at the door. She was trying to push it open while I was trying to push it closed. It was a back and forth struggle until she put her hand in the door (I think she was trying to engage my non-violence because she thought I wouldn't shut the door on her hand) but I slammed the door over and over again.
Meanwhile, my dad who was in the house finally came downstairs to check in what was happening (mind you, this all happened VERY fast and my dad has a habit of zoning out when my mom gets in her episodes.) He ended up pulling her off of the door and my sister and I ran out of the house and jumped in our van. He drove around the corner and turned off the lights and we all ducked down in our seats to hide and stayed there until my dad saw her drive our other car off."
Not related? Seriously?
"When I was a kid, probably around 2nd grade, our house got robbed and my mom and I came home while it was in progress. For whatever reason, she decided to go in and interrupt them. She grabbed her gun (didn't shoot), yelled at them to "get the f out of my house" and then we drove off in a hurry to the corner store to call the cops (this was before cell phones).
Less than 2 weeks later, my mom and I are sitting in the living room on the couch, our backs to the front door. Someone drives by and fires about 6 or 8 shots into the front of our house. Thank God for a steel front door. The cops came and said they didn't think the two incidents were related."
Some people are just truly awful.
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"This happened a couple weeks ago. It was 4:00 AM on a Monday night, playing Rust with some friends and my curtains were slightly open.
All of the sudden I hear a loud pop and my monitor jumps and starts smoking. The screen is completely messed like I had thrown it on the ground, and I was utterly confused as to what happened.
Turns out someone was looking for someone to hurt. When they saw me through the window, they thought they had found their victim.
A .22 pistol bullet was shot through my window at my chest and was stopped by my monitor. Who knows how long I was aimed at, or why they wanted to hurt someone. All I know is I got really lucky, and I should send a thank you card to Asus."
DANG.
"I posted this story already a long while back. But basically, I worked in a jail and a guy from a biker gang tried to pay $10,000 to have me killed because he somehow got the idea that I was the fed who busted him and was merely pretending to be a jailer so I could spy on him (don't do meth kids.)
The guy was bragging about it and one of the other inmates who I had saved from a heart attack with first aid didn't like that so he beat the living snot out of the guy and then told me about it. Phone call recordings confirmed that he had promised the money to two guys if they shot me in the back of the head while escorting him to court and busted him out.
Federal Marshals rolled them up and on his way to court I whispered to him "your friends won't be joining us" when we got to the planned ambush point, instead of a bond hearing he got charged for trying to have me murdered and organizing an escape."
She's lucky to have survived.
"Not my story but grandmother's friend was getting picked up from work by her husband when he shot at her 5 times. He missed 4 times and the 5th bullet hit the underwire of her bra. He then turned the gun around and killed him self. He had just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
She's alive, and was completely uninjured. She now jokes about how bad of a shot he was to miss that many times. Crazy story."
That's so messed up.
"When I was 6 years old I saw my bio dad stab my bio mom 20 times in front of my little brother and I. He took my bio mom's blood and rubbed it on my brother's face and said "this is your mothers blood".
She almost died right in front of us. They got her to the hospital in enough time to save her life. But it was scary, and I remember everything. He only went to jail for 8 years. He claimed he heard demons telling him to do it."
How can someone be so evil?
Giphy
"I was 3 years old and went to this lady's house for swimming lessons. What my parents didn't know was that the lady hated boys.
One day she threw me in the pool and left me to die. I sank to the bottom. I was under for several minutes.
Some how a teenager saw this, jumped the fence and rescued me. The ambulance came and I was in ICU for a week. My parents never found out who the teenager was.
The lady wasn't arrested. The cops told my parents that it would cost them money to take her to court. A lawyer read an article in the newspaper and decided to go after the lady, pro bono. She had several businesses involving kids. He was able to shut her down. She ended up as a waitress and eventually got cancer and died.
As a lovely parting gift, growing up I sometimes felt like I was drowning when taking a shower or in water. I've over came this and eventually got a scuba license and still enjoy swimming."
Dammit, Cindy.
"I had just bought a full sheet of acid (this was 20 years ago, sorry FBI) and I went over to where my friend was living with a bunch of roommates to share the wealth. I knew most of the people he lived with, but there was one guy staying there who I hadn't met before. I basically handed out however many doses people were tough enough to take at once, including three or four hits to the new guy.
We came to find out pretty quickly that new guy had never taken LSD before. OK, no problem, he's at home, he's surrounded by people he knows (except me), he can just chill and have a good time. We wanted to watch a movie so we landed on the Brady Bunch movie (which is trippy af, btw). Everything's going good, we all start peaking and we're laughing and having a good time...and then, on the movie, the little girl Cindy is getting advice from her dad and says "But I don't want to be a snitch..."
New guy stands up and roars "IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK? YOU THINK I'M A FUCKING SNITCH?" We all try to calm him down, explain to him that it's a line from the movie, we even rewind the movie so he can watch that part again, but nothing is working. He's tripping too hard to reason with, and he's convinced that we're accusing him of being a snitch. Then he starts pacing back and forth, back and forth, muttering "This is the kind of shit that makes motherfuckers kill. This is the kind of shit that makes motherfuckers kill." over and over. Great."
"He zeroed in on me, I'm sure because he didn't know me, and he's still pacing back and forth and muttering but now he's giving me a death glare while he does it. I'm getting pretty uncomfortable, obviously, and I'm also peaking from like 10 hits of acid so my ability to cope with the situation is pretty low. I stand up because, well, there's a guy I don't know pacing around behind me muttering about killing people, and I don't want my back to this dude. This would be a really intense situation even if I wasn't tripping balls, but the acid certainly doesn't help.
Suddenly he pulls out a huge hunting knife, lunges at me, and tries to stab me. I dodged him, then he made another try but by that time his friends had jumped up and were holding him back. He's struggling to break free and screaming "YOU THINK I'M A FUCKING SNITCH? I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!", and I took the opportunity to bop right on out the door. I was about half a mile from my house but it took me about two hours to find it because I was tripping so hard and I kept getting lost in my own neighborhood.
Addendum: He was, in fact, a snitch, and the whole house got raided a few weeks later. A bunch of the guys who lived there got arrested for drugs, although my friend had moved out by that point so luckily he wasn't one of them."
That guy shouldn't be a doctor.
"I don't think it was really attempted malicious murder, just ignorance murder.
I was in the ER for what I found out months later was a gallbladder attack. At the time I was in so much pain I couldn't think or see straight, I could barely sit up, I was sweating, it was bad. Doctor tells me I'm on drugs. I've never done drugs in my life. I don't even drink. I'd even quit smoking! He ignores me and tells me to stop pretending. He gives me toradol.
I am very, very, very, allergic to toradol. I broke out in a rash from head to toe and my whole body felt like it was on fire. I told the doctor, he told me I'd done it to myself from being so dramatic and he's discharging me. He leaves and I start getting super lightheaded and start shivering uncontrollably. I kept pressing my call light and I was crying and saying 'help' but no one was coming. A nurse walked out of a room next to me and peered in and saw me and fucking RAN 'We need help in room 7!'"
"Within seconds my nurse was there, with a big cart. I'm laying down at this point I remember her yelling at me to answer and stay awake but I couldn't. I remember the blood pressure cuff going off and looking at the numbers and they were low, and pulse was dropping too. I was just really warm and sleepy and didn't care about anything any more. She kept telling me not to go to sleep but it's the only thing I wanted to do in the whole world.
I woke up about 7 hours later still covered in a rash and kind of confused but otherwise ok. Alive, at least. Still hate doctors to this day."
When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
Money Burn GIF by nog
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Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
south park wedding GIF
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See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
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Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno Calypso
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Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
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The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.