Being kidnapped has truly got to be one of everyone's greatest fears. We see it in movies and real life situations on television and it's amazing how people will find ways to escape and survive. It takes a mental toll like no other. All the moments spent wondering if you're going to live? It's too much to think about. Don't talk to strangers.
Redditor u/Raevin_ wanted to hear from the survivors of kidnappings by asking them to divulge.... People who have been kidnapped, what happened and how did you escape?
Don't Hide....
GiphyI was kidnapped by a relative as a small child. I was told to hide in a closet while the police searched for me, and if they found me, they would hurt my kitten. I was found. Kitten & I were returned home safely. Freezygal
An Attempt is Close Enough!
Used to live and work in Kyrgyzstan. We had a car service that took us between from work and home. One day I go to leave, a car pulls up and says "I'm your driver for today!" He knows my name, though I've never seen him before in my life. He was also at the space our cars usually picked us up at. I thought it odd, but decided it must have been a different driver for the day (which happened somewhat regularly).
Opened the back door to get in, noticed there were no handles inside either door in the back. Huge red flag. I backed out of the car, and before I could react he drove off instantly. Never saw him again.
To this day I've no idea what happened. Attempted kidnapping? Guy who would just try to extort me for money (common scam). No clue. But the fact he knew my name threw me off. DragoneerFA
Make a Scene....
My friend's mom was almost kidnapped in Sweden.
I say almost because as soon as they grabbed her, she faked having a seizure. They freaked out and left her on the street. Ksrugi
Your friend's mum is a smart woman to think that quickly in such a terrifying situation. Raichu7
We need kidnap insurance?
Not me a cousin was kidnapped walking into work in Mexico. He was held for two weeks while the insurance company negotiated ransom. In the end his kidnapping insurance paid up and he was let go. I don't know how much they paid but I do know they threw in a couple rolex watches. martij13
Bite to Live....
GiphyWhen I was a child I had a man grab me by the arm and try to pull me into his van. I bit his hand that was holding me so hard I got to the bone and he punched me and two of my baby teeth were in his hand. He let go of me though and I ran home. I was in my neighborhood when this happened. I believe I was only able to stay conscious from the adrenaline. Cannabilistichokie
An Angel Comes....
I was almost kidnapped when I was 6. I was in the mall and my mom said I must wait with my brother, 10 at the time, while she went to the bathroom.
The bathrooms were close to the exit and after my mom went into the bathroom; my brother wanted to use the bathroom. So he left me, but he didn't warn me. I got super scared and to this day I thought I saw my brother head out the exit. I ran after him and searched outside in the parking lot, I was crying a bunch.
Then this man came behind me, grabbed my shoulders and started to tug me away from the mall. I began to cry louder. This lady drove up next to him and said if everything was alright. I said no and I didn't know where my mom was. The man booked it. The lady parked her car and helped me look for my mom. Who was crying inside the mall calling my name. That lady was an angel. UmOkay_Hi
DIP!
I was forced into this utility workers truck and after he put a belt around my neck and everything I told him that the car next to us was my mom and she recognized me so he pulled over pushed me out and dipped. Flamingo-_-joe
Be Careful.
Alright. I'm going to tell a short story that happened a while back. Not as bad as others but was scary. Bless you all for your strength and please be careful.
I had a neighbor who needed something fixed on a game system they had. Anyhow my SO and I walked in the door and everything was fine. They smoked in their house so I bummed a cig and after the 3rd puff my head felt like it was the size of the living room. It was just the 3 of us in the room. I started to hallucinate really hard. I got up and tried to walk out and the person we were helping stopped me at the door and said its okay just sit and relax and they locked the door.
So I sat down and began to get very groggy. I was becoming very uncomfortable and got up walked to the door and somehow got the door unlocked and walked across the street and back into my home. My feet and legs felt like they were huge and weighed as much as cars. Luckily my SO came right behind me and nothing else happened. The persons who's home we are helping was at least 8 inches taller and much bigger than me. My SO was even smaller.
I don't know for sure what the person was going to do but it was scary. All from 3 maybe 4 puffs off a cigarette. We avoided that neighbor like the plague. About a year later we heard police on bull horns outside, all the while my folks were visiting (at the time a year later). The police had their long guns out and had that place swarmed. I have not seen that person who done that to us ever since.
Please if you read this be careful. This was terrifying. We never had any issues before this happened with this person so I figured all was going to be fine. By the way I rarely have a smoke and if or when I ever do I will be extra careful. CommonDimension
Party Politics.
GiphyMy mom was kidnapped. Her dad was in the embassy and was abusive/neglectful. A guy took her from a party her dad was having when I think she was about 6 and living in Mexico in the 70s. She eventually convinced him that he'd be in much worse trouble if he didn't return her. Her dad didn't notice she was gone, so nothing came of it legally. She still has a panic attack if someone covers her eyes because he blindfolded her. She's gone through a ton of therapy and is a generally cool person now, but she had to work on it a lot. Allredditorsarewomen
Who hasn't, at one time or another, dreamed about hitting the lottery big time?
When you do lotto research (as I frequently have), you learn the best thing for you is anonymity.
Hiding your fortune is one of the best ways to stay alive!
That's not a dramatic statement.
There are horror stories surrounding lotto winners.
Money changes everything, so keep your secrets.
Redditor divorced_dad_670 wanted to hear about how creative people would get to make sure nobody knew they were super rich, so they asked:
"Powerball is currently at 1.4b, if you won, what is your cover story as to why you’ve suddenly gained so much wealth?"
I have thought long and hard about how I'm going to win the lottery and how I will hide it.
I'm clearly not alone as may Redditors have their own plans.
Out West
Farm Workers Food GIF by Denyse®Giphy"No cover story. I'd tell no one. Then I'd move to a ranch in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Northwest, and spend the rest of my days riding dirt bikes and gardening."
Clintman
Fists Up
"Keep working for a week or two. Get more and more angry. Get in a fight with someone and get fired, never to be heard from again. No one will miss me."
dr_xenon
"I would totally miss you, dude. I feel like we are kindred spirits, you and I. And I would never let a kindred spirit miss out on a prime business opportunity like the one I am about to tell you."
TigLyon
"Bro, for 10k, I'll start the fight with you, and you can leave because of a hostile work environment. Then in 6 months when you blow it all, you can come back to work and I'll apologize."
spenser1994
Spend Less
"If people have realized I've gained obscene wealth, I've failed already."
thoawaydatrash
"The only way to really tell is if you go straight Hollywood baller route. I remember 50 Cent saying you don't want a house that big. If you think s**t I don't want to walk all the way down there it's too big."
Klashus
"This. I would absolutely not tell anyone, keep working, pay off my house and car (and not tell anyone), (secretly) invest, and keep my mouth shut."
AnAntsyHalfling
Remember
"Bought Bitcoin early. Forgot password. Remembered password."
savethearthdontbirth
"This sort of happened to me. I got tipped $1 in Bitcoin years ago because of some stupid comment here on Reddit. I forgot about it for years until Bitcoin was actually worth something. Sold that little bit for ~$300! Most forgettable comment I’ve ever made on here, but the most profitable!"
Vefantur
Be Gone
"I won the Powerball. I'm disconnecting my number. You won't be able to reach me. If I want to reach you, I'll send a helicopter. Lol, get screwed, nerds."
"Vanishes in a cloud of smoke which cost me $230,000 to have set up!"
d**k_for_hire
A big, splashy peace out "I QUIT" MOMENT can be a lot of fun.
Fools...
Diva Hello GIF by WHOLLY GUACAMOLEGiphy"I'd tell people I stopped buying avocado toast based on a story on the news - next thing I knew it I had a ton of extra cash."
random-idiom
Making a Family
"I’d immediately start some bogus MLM, and begin soliciting anyone who asked about my money. I know I haven’t seen you since high school, but I’d like to talk to you about an exciting business opportunity. We’re more of a family than a team, really. If you’re a go-getter, you’re exactly who we’re looking for. #Bossbabe #MyownCEO #IDidYouCanToo."
Nwcray
"This is actually genius. People will think you're swimming in debt to sell the idea, when in fact, you're swimming in cash 😂."
69stangrestomod
Florida Issues
"I would say I sold all my crypto. Those who say they didn't know I was in crypto I would say yeah I didn't want to talk about it because too many crypto bros out there ruined talking about it. Florida releases the names of winners 90 days after they claim it. So the lie is not going to work for long. I would have isolated myself by then so it's not like I will need to worry about people showing up where I live and work asking for money."
"Apparently a corporation, trust, non-profit, partnership, or estate can claim lottery winnings in Florida. I was told many years ago that you had to claim it yourself. That's great to know I don't have to claim it myself. I'm still concerned it would get out that I won. That would be a nice worry to have compared to worries I am dealing with."
Orcus424
BOOM!!
"When a colleague who ran our work lottery syndicate decided it was our turn to win, he said we should figure out how we were going to quit."
"His plan was supposedly to blow the south wall off the open plan office all the programmers use, hire a helicopter with some sort of harness arrangement, and the London symphony orchestra to play him away from the car park with Ode to Joy as he disappeared backward on his harness over the city under the helicopter with two fingers up at the building the whole time. I wish he’d won, he was just crazy enough to have possibly done it."
JT_3K
Karma
"I will ask everyone I know if I can borrow money. Every single person will be asked for an amount that will be enough that they don't say yes instantly but not so large they can't afford it. If I barely know you maybe I ask to borrow $40. If you're my parents I ask for $10k. I write down every single person's response. When I am later asked for anything I will reply with that exact answer."
nevetscx1
Simple Plans
signing season 3 GIFGiphy"No cover story. You call an accountant, a lawyer, and a financial advisor. You move states and claim the ticket after you have moved."
-brokenbones-
Money is fantastic but it can be dangerous.
Lessons learned.
Do you have any fantasies about winning the lotto? Let us know in the comment below.
Reddit user rigorousthinker asked:
"Which person who died too early in life had the most potential?"
Henry Mosely
"Henry Mosely, a British physicist."
"One of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. Developed Moseley's Law that helped to define the atomic number."
"The reason why nobody has heard of him is because he [was killed by] sniper at Gallipoli when he was 27 years old."
"Isaac Asimov wrote about him: 'in view of what [Moseley] might still have accomplished ... his death might well have been the most costly single death of the War to mankind generally'."
"He's the reason why countries keep their scientists and researchers from being drafted or allowed to fight anymore."
~ Vio_
GiphyÉvariste Galois
"I'd forward Évariste Galois."
"At the cutting edge of mathematics, as a teenager solved a centuries standing open problem, and created a field of mathematics which was so complex at the time that Galois' contemporaries were stymied and overlooked it's value."
"He was killed in a duel at the age of 20."
~ butts-kapinsky
Arthur Tudor
"I'm going historical. Prince Arthur Tudor. He died aged 15, leaving his younger brother Henry to become Henry VIII of England."
"Arthur was apparently more of a scholar than anything else, compared to his brother who was more into the idea of being a warrior king."
"Had Arthur survived and gone on to become King, then global history would have taken a very different turn."
~ c0_sm0
"Many of those priceless manuscripts existed nowhere outside of England because they were written in English. Back in the ninth century, the West Saxon king Alfred the Great had established an educational system where children learned to write their native language first before learning Latin."
"The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is in English because of that. Beowulf was written down in English because of that. The Old English they spoke then is practically indecipherable now except to scholars, yet English is still the best documented secular language of the early Middle Ages."
"Only a tiny sliver of that literature survives. Mostly because Henry VIII had the rest of it burned."
~ doublestitch
GiphyThe Classics
"Amadeus Mozart.
"While he wasn't terribly young, I'd say his true potential life was cut in half. Imagine what music will never be or where it could have gone had he lived a longer life."
~ WhoFan
"35 IS terribly young. And throw Franz Schubert in this thread as well. Died at 31 and was writing some of the greatest music ever produced."
"Just for the final 2 movements of the Unfinished Symphony alone! Supposedly on his deathbed he said 'I have so much still to say'."
~ 8805
"And Chopin, too. Died age 39, was writing the greatest piano works ever."
~ BreadBoi-0
"Shout out to my boy Felix Mendelssohn, died at the age of 38. Wrote 4 amazing symphonies, the famous music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the greatest violin concerto in the repertoire."
"I'd give anything to see what he would have done with another 38 years."
~ Plug_5
Otis Redding
"Otis Redding."
"Based on his energy, the fact that after a short career with an amazing voice, he came back from surgery with a better one, recorded one of the great songs of the 20th century, and then immediately died."
~ TDOMW
"Otis is interesting to me. He died right before he was going to crossover to white audiences."
"What would Dock of the Bay sound like if he got to finish it and realize his vision (he had kind of a Pet Sounds vision for the full album)?"
"If he didn’t die, would soul have lost so much ground to funk in the 1970s?"
"And would Stax Records still be around and thriving, instead of closing in the mid-1970s?"
"All interesting questions."
~ ChocolateOrange21
GiphyAlan Turing
"Alan Turing—died for the worst f*cking reason and what happened to him was a travesty."
~ Far-Polaris
"Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts. He accepted hormone treatment with DES, a procedure commonly referred to as chemical castration, as an alternative to prison."
"Turing died on 7 June 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death as a suicide."
~ DimesOHoolihan
"If you're unfamiliar with Turing and what he did for the world (and also the punishment he had to endure after the fact), I highly recommend watching The Imitation Game."
"It's a phenomenal movie, and Benedict Cumberbatch plays the role of Turing amazingly. It really drives home how extra terrible his death was, considering all of the good he did for the war effort."
"We likely would have lost the war (or struggled through it for a lot longer, and lost many more innocent lives) if not for him."
~ TenFoxxe
Roberto Clemente
"Roberto Clemente was going to be a great humanitarian and role model after he retired. Charity and helping the people of the Caribbean and Latin-America was really important to him and he spent almost all his free time doing charity work.
"He played 18 seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, 13 seasons as an All-Star, played in 15 All-Star games, 12 Gold Glove Awards."
"Clemente was the first Caribbean and first Latin-American player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was the first for many things in his career."
"MLB was only integrated for 8 years when Clemente started playing in 1955. What Jackie Robinson did for Black players, Clemente did for Caribbean and Latin-American players. Just think of all the MLB stars he paved the way for."
"The Roberto Clemente Award is given to the player who 'best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team'."
"His friends and teammates described him as a humble, kind man. He was 38 when he died in a plane crash delivering humanitarian aid to earthquake victims."
~ LakotaGrl
GiphyStevie Ray Vaughn
"Stevie Ray Vaughan."
"He really got his sh*t together and seemed to really be in a good place career wise and in his personal life."
~ 1-21_Jiggawatts
"Dude played the cleanest guitar I've ever heard. No missed notes or leaning on too much feedback or too many effects or anything."
~ loptopandbingo
Steve Irwin
"Steve Irwin—I believe his conservation work would have probably spilled over into environmental issues and he seemed passionate about doing good not just fame and money."
~ No_Character_5315
"He is my inspiration."
"I was in 6th grade when he died, and it took me some time to get here, but I currently have a degree in Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries and I'm working on a second in Forestry conservation and restoration sciences."
"I'd like to think that one day I'll be able to make the world a slightly better place even if I'll never have the impact he did."
~ redwolf1219
"I think Robert and Bindi (and recently, Terri, too!) are doing great work to reach a modern audience with social media these days. Of course, nothing will ever be like The Crocodile Hunter ever again."
"That show was a gem of its time. I still grieve Steve when I watch their content, especially when they show clips of him. But it's so cool to watch his family carry on his legacy."
~ only_1_
GiphyJeff Buckley
"Within the sphere of music, I think Jeff Buckley is unquestionably the answer."
"'Grace' is an absolute tour de force of a debut and my easy pick for best album of the 1990’s. He was an almost indescribably incredible vocalist and fantastic young songwriter who likely would have only gotten better at his craft."
"It’s such a shame he never got to finish that second album because even what we have of it contains some gems and I’m sure the finished product would have been incredible."
~ dcrico20
Buddy Holly
"Buddy Holly. Of course, he already wrote some fantastic songs, but man would it be a treat to see his songwriting in the '60s!"
"Could end up being the same or he could have grown. But it's those what-ifs!"
~ DirtlessEye
"Buddy Holly was only 22 when he died. Lennon and McCartney had not peaked by that age, so who knows where he would have gone with his music."
"Buddy would have been 30 in the summer of 1967, the Summer of Love. Maybe he’d have been out playing in a toga in Golden Gate Park with shoulder length hair and granny glasses, protesting the war in Vietnam."
"Sadly, we’ll never know."
~ AtmosphereFull2017
GiphyDouglas Adams
"Douglas Adams."
"His ability to create the most absurd possible sentences and situations and make them as funny as they are... amazing writer."
~ shapiritowastaken
"The infinite improbability drive. The hyperspace bypass. The bowl of petunias. Really knowing where your towel is."
"So much happy silliness. Might just have to dig out my copy and read it again."
~ lurkerwholeapt
Martin Luther King Jr.
"Martin Luther King Jr. People remember him as some wise old man. He was 39 when he died."
~ FredTheLynx
"Martin Luther King Jr., Anne Frank, and Barbara Walters were all born in 1929."
~ miclugo
"It's actually crazy to think MLK could have feasibly lived past the 00's, even the 10's."
"Like, can you imagine THE Martin Luther King Jr weighing in on the 2016 election as an 85-year-old man?"
"What an alternate timeline that would be."
~ thattoneman
"Or if he lived to see Obama become President."
~ Currywurst_Is_Life
GiphyThomas Sankara
"Thomas Sankara was only 37 when he was assassinated."
"He brought through huge reforms in Burkina Faso in such a short space of time."
"He increased literacy massively and improved women's rights, also brought through vaccination programs and improved infrastructure."
"None of which was popular with the French."
~ shawbawzz
Jimi Hendrix
"Jimi Hendrix hadn't even reached his full potential when he died."
"Yet he is still regarded by many to be the best guitarist of all time."
"Imagine if he had lived."
~ CoatsBoi
"The man made sounds that no one had ever heard before in the history of humanity."
~ No_Net_1590
GiphyThe Good Doctor
"My husband. He was special to me yes, but he was important to his patients. We all know about the ER docs that are dismissive, condescending, and are just all around jerks. My husband, even at his most burnt out wasn’t like that. He was the type you pray you get."
"The one that will actually listen, who will figure out what’s going on. It didn’t matter if you were female, a POC, trans, or any combination. He was listening. He was going to treat your pain. He wasn’t going to send you home until he had an answer."
"I knew this about him, but it was confirmed by the patients that left messages on his obituary page. Sure he did the usual emergency med life saving things. But a car accident is easy. There’s no argument about whether or not a patient is hurt. It’s assumed something is wrong."
~ koolchicken
It was surprising just how young some of these people were when they died.
Who else do you think was gone too soon?
