*The following article contains discussion of suicide/self-harm.
Traumatic scenes depicted in movies–as convincing as they seem–will never compare to witnessing real-life horrors.
Curious to hear from strangers who wish they could unsee the tragic situations in life they happened upon, Redditor RoyalAd1555 asked:
"What is the scariest thing you witnessed with your own eyes?"
These deaths will haunt the following Redditors for a very long time.
Dying Mother
"Finding my mom unresponsive 6 months ago and subsequently watching her die as a result. Neither cellphone or landline would connect to 911 so she was dead by the time we got through to anyone. It was 20 minutes but it felt like a lifetime and now 6 month later I get the grief and the trauma with no mom to comfort me."
– Practical-Implement3
Helping A Bereaved Woman
"Helped a woman move out of her apartment maybe 90 minutes after the murder-suicide of her husband and son. Police were done, but the room had not been cleaned."
"A very sad and harrowing experience for me."
– HoarsePJ
The Site Of Tragedy
"When my son drowned in my in-laws pool, they had put that yellow crime scene investigation tape all around the pool. While planning his funeral, my mom and i had to make a trip out to my in-laws to get his favorite animal for him (It was at their house because I was working that day and they were watching him). My mom pulled all the way up into the driveway not even realizing what she had done and I had a clear vision of the pool with the tape. when I saw that, I immediately felt nauseous and had to vomit."
"It’s been almost 1 1/2 years and I still can’t bring myself to go out back. The rest of the family still gets in the pool when they have get togethers but I have no desire to get in that pool. I just hang out inside the house and people will come in and talk with me but when I see their pool, it’s like I get hit with a semi truck-i feel like my breath is knocked out of me as the image of my baby going down the pool slide and then laying in a hospital bed fighting for his life take over my brain and I can’t make it stop."
– NecessaryCod
Watching A Friend Flatline
"Was there in the emergency room with someone close to me who had just died from a completely random brain aneurysm/seizure episode. Being there overlooking someone you know well, and had just spoken to hours earlier, with a flat line on the heart monitor is pretty terrifying. Especially when we had talked about death (as an idea/concept) not long before."
– Mathgoat123
Many horrific sights can be seen while driving.
A Malicious Plan
"When I was around 6, we were going to my grandparents' house. On the interstate, a woman seemed to fall out of a car in front of us. My dad had to swerve to avoid hitting her. That's all I saw with my own eyes."
"It turned out the woman's husband was trying to murder her and make it look like a suicide. The intention was for my dad to have run her over, but he had time to swerve. The husband had an accomplice behind us, but he couldn't hit her because of how my dad swerved."
"Some other good Samaritan stopped and gave the woman a ride to the hospital. The guy who gave her a ride and my dad were both called as witnesses at the trial. The husband and the accomplice were both convicted for conspiracy for attempted murder."
– Awdayshus
The Roadside Conflagration
"Car ablaze on side of road with passengers crawling out very slowly and on fire."
– BillyBobbaFett
"Driving home from work one night. Tons of traffic. I am sitting second at a red light turning left and this truck stops in the opposite lane to leave an opening so the car in front of me can turn(it was a traffic jam so he would have stopped in the intersection if he didn't). Car turns, out of nowhere this semi is driving super fast along the side of the road (not in a lane). One second the turning car is there, the next second it is blown to pieces. I was turning right behind them. Maybe was 10 feet away from it. Felt almost surreal how close I was."
– Korbindallas912
These Redditors talked about people taking their own lives.
The Graphic Scene
"Driving up to an Amusement Park, King's Island, there is this longer exit as it gets off the highway. My friends mom just started getting on the exit lane and me and my buddy, probably around 10 watch this person jump in front of a semi. It was like the whole world just kinda stopped for those few moments. As we drove passed the body I fully remember the jeans around their ankle and the body just twitching."
"I really don't think I will ever forget the image."
– Sarnick18
The Siblings Who Didn't See It
"My mom tried to kill herself Infront of me, watching my siblings hide away from what was going on was the only reason I stayed remotely sane. I'm glad they didn't see any of it."
– user deleted
The Passenger Inside
"Well it wasn't me but my friend noticed a vehicle in the parking lot at his work had been there a few days in the same spot. He walked up to it and found a man who blew his head off with a shotgun. Suicide note was on the dashboard."
"His work offered him counseling with a professional if he needed it but he declined."
"He did tell me though months later he had a nightmare about it, but that was it, and he never really thought much about it after that."
– Trickery1688
No One Should Ever See This
"Step dad hanged himself in front of my mum and me. I feel you."
– RinaPug
Handling Death Claims
"Working property insurance I see death claims occasionally. Usually when someone tries to or successfully commits suicide. I had one where a mother and daughter were murdered by the daughter’s ex boyfriend. You could see the trails of blood in the hallway of the mom trying to drag herself to get help and where he caught her and shot her in the head. It was awful. I cried and ended up having to have the claim transferred to a more seasoned adjuster."
– Moxson82
These Redditors thought they were about to witness shootings.
Threatening The Dog
"When I was a kid, I witnessed my drunk step father wielding a loaded shotgun with the safety off. It was pointed inches from the face of my dog, and he threatened to blow her head off right then and there. Fortunately, he didn't shoot her in front of me. Bad news is that she 'ran away' (leaving her collar and tags behind) a few days later."
– VeloxFox
In The Face Of Death
"Guy pointed a revolver at my face and pulled the trigger, thought for sure in that split second I was going to die."
– bigsam63
These are examples of the unpredictability of animals.
A Kid And A Horse
"I was standing 6 feet way and watched a full size horse kick some kid in the face.. The kid is now considered mentally challenged."
– IllprobpissUoff
Happy To Be Alive
"Happened to my friend a few months back. She owns several horses and this happened with the last horse she would've ever expected. The wound on the right side of her head, was 6 inches long, down to the skull. I wanted to faint when I saw the pictures. After several months of complications with swelling and infection, she's finally healed up, but she now suffers with all that comes with TBI and PTSD. She said she's just glad to be alive. It's crazy how your whole world is changed just like that."
– Abject_Presentation8
One incident I will never forget is a house party gone wrong, where the apartment's occupant had her brother and his friends over. They were high and one of them carried a firearm while another guy had a knife.
A brawl broke out in the living room, and all I remember is jumping off the second-floor balcony with a handful of my friends and running to the car as we were being pursued.
Six of us managed to pile into the car as the guy pounded the rear window of the vehicle with his fists.
Cops eventually showed up.
Nobody was killed, but some of my friends were taken to the hospital to have their wounds treated. It was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced and made me never go to another party in a long while.
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/
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"What companies shamelessly make sh*t products, year after year?"
False Advertising
"Holiday gift basket companies."
"I once felt obliged to buy one from a lady I worked with and it cost around fifty dollars."
"She had a brochure with various baskets and I chose one that was assorted candies and had a decorative wooden rocking horse."
"When it arrived it was just a bag of candy that I could have paid 35 cents for at a gas station."- Artai55a
30 rock gift basket GIFGiphySave A Few Cents For Inferior Quality
"It’s a throwback, but rose art for sure."
"They just decided their destiny was to sit on the shelf next to Crayola and get purchased by folks who are balling on a budget or cheap."
"No goals for product improvement at all."
"Just 'hey, wanna save three bucks?'"- Lucetti
Improvements Unlikely In This Digital Age
"Any printer manufacturer."- gbeegz
"HP printers."
"I have a $600 fancy laser HP printer we got six or seven years ago, and they have succeeded in updating the software to the point that nothing works anymore."
"I used to be able to print over Wi-Fi easily, scan over Wi-Fi, etc and now none of it works."
"I haven't changed any of my network hardware, things are hardwired."
"Also, I used to be able to use aftermarket ink cartridges and the printer has started giving me sh*t about it."
"I really like HP's computers, but their printers are a bunch of bullsh*t."
"Oh and their auto-update software won't go away even though I keep disabling/ removing it, and it installs software updates that breaks the current functions."- Bazirker
It's The Customer Service You Pay For...
"Oracle."
"Products intentionally sh*tty so they can make most of their money selling consulting just to make it, sort of, work."- s-starr
One Reason Sports Should Always Be Played Outside
"EA sports titles."- Stitches_Ito
Even Carrie Bradshaw Doesn't Like Shoe Shopping THAT Much...
"Doc Martens."
"My old pair from 20 years ago are still going strong, any new pair I get craps out after a year."- korar67
Doc Martens Shoes GIF by SORANGiphyScreaming For Ice Cream... And Not In A Good Way...
"Breyers and their 'Frozen Dairy Dessert' nonsense."
"Before 2006, Breyers ice cream was really good!"
"I loved their coffee ice cream!"
"And then they changed their formula and made the mess they have now to the point that they can't even legally call it ice cream anymore."
"Does anyone remember those old Breyers commercials where the kid tries to read the ingredients on an inferior product and struggles to pronounce things like 'mono & diglycerides' and then easily reads Breyers ingredients as 'milk, sugar, and cream?'"
"What a joke."
"Unilever loves to buy brands people trust for quality products and use that trusted brand name to get people to buy lower quality for higher prices."
"It seriously has the same consistency as Cool Whip now."
"And Unilever has the audacity to say that this is what customers asked for!"- akittyafterus
World Cup Wow GIF by FIFAWho Exactly Is His Audience?
"If lockpickinglawyer is anything to go on its lock-companies."- knatten555
Literally Selling Sh*t...
"Home Depot has been selling manure since its founding in 1978."
"In fact, a quick search of the website found they proudly sell over 178 manure products."- atomicscateboard
The Original "Catfishers"...
"Mad Catz got away with murder for years."- Einar_47
Apple Is Listening...
"Samsung appliances."
"F*CK YOUR FIRMWARE UPDATE ON THE FRIDGE!"
"Also those plastic trays keep breaking and are sh*t quality."
"My 1987 Maytag is still cranking the coldest brews on earth and hasn't been serviced ever in its life and sits in a dark room in my basement since he was demoted from the kitchen for being out of fashion by my wife."- zendor666
Customers Weren't Looking For An Authentic "Frontier" Experience...
"Frontier Airlines."
"Sh*t experience, customer service, quality, reliability, comfort, convenience and fees."- Micklikesmonkeys
There are those who always like to give second chances whenever possible.
When it comes to spending a little more money for a more reliable product, however, customers should rightfully be one and done.
Redditor AdonisBlackwood wanted everyone to share about the spooky things they've seen or experienced, so they asked:
"What paranormal activities have you witnessed?"
I hear things in my house.
At all hours.
Whispers. Clangs. Clacks.
And at night... there is a shadow.
Flying Foods
Chef Cooking GIFGiphy"A package of corn tortillas literally jumped off the shelf and onto the floor once at a large grocery store right in front of me. They did not slide nor did they fall. There was no one else around. I thought it was a sign to make enchiladas or something but it was also quite frightening."
_perl_
At Home
"Lights turning off/on. Items flying off of shelves/counters. One time when I was home at night by myself, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and the bottom of one half of my scarf that I had draped over the top of my bathroom door was suspended at a 20-degree angle, including the tassels in midair. At this point, so many things were happening in my apartment (including physical welts down my back) that I was terrified to be in it."
"I ended up getting dressed and going outside the building before I broke down crying and called my grandma to come to pick me up. At a different time, my friend and I were outside the building smoking when we heard what sounded like someone thrashing my apartment. I'm talking chairs being smashed into walls, shelves being tipped over. I was the only person living in the building at the time."
"We raced upstairs to catch whoever it was but not a single thing was moved in my apartment and all the other units were locked (I checked). I never saw a ghost, apparition, shadow, etc. When we first moved in, everyone hated coming into our building. They said it felt off. My ex and I never felt that way at first and thought everyone was exaggerating."
"By the time I moved, I wouldn't speak about ghosts or watch anything remotely paranormal in my apartment. Eventually, I watched the Paranormal Activities at a friend's and cannot describe the chill I felt. Similar things were happening in my own home. Haven't experienced anything like it since I moved."
ElectronicDiscoBeans
Louder & Louder
"Not sure if this is considered paranormal, but when I get fevers as a child, I would always, in my fugue and pain-infused state, hear a man counting in a very deep voice. He would count from 1 and up; as the numbers get larger, the voice gets louder and more intense."
"It started to get less frequent as I grew older and now I do not experience it anymore. I've brushed it aside as a recurring nightmare until only recently, I've learned that my sister would experience the exact same thing when she was younger as well. It's not the scariest thing, but it does send shivers down my spine trying to comprehend this."
Issualave
I Froze
"I work in a cemetery. One evening I stayed late to do some catch-up work. I was taking pictures of some granite samples to have on my phone and had already locked up. I was alone. As I was holding my phone, I heard the doorway to the basement swing open, slam shut, and heard footsteps go down the stairs. I froze."
"I thought for sure someone had come in. I called out to see if it was someone from maintenance. No reply. I got scared because if it wasn’t them someone had broken in. I stayed still for a bit and listened then called out again. Nothing. Finally, I got brave enough to look. No one was there. I peeked down in the basement, empty. All the doors were still locked."
DannyPantsgasm
Face to Face
The Shining Halloween GIF by This GIF Is HauntedGiphy"At least once every couple of years, I'll be walking around the apartment at night, when it's dark, but I can still see enough to get around, and I'll have some shadow/figure type thing suddenly come out of nowhere and get right up in my face, so close that I can feel like I'm breathing on it. It disappears immediately after."
coldshadow31
I am convinced that every home is haunted.
We mortals just have to adjust.
In the Stars
"One night me, my dad, and a friend of his were standing outside watching the stars."
Carl Sagan Space GIF by Feliks Tomasz KonczakowskiGiphy"After a bit of watching, what appeared to be a shooting star made a sudden and sharp 90-degree turn and then kept going for about 15 seconds and then did an equally sharp and sudden 90-degree turn to disappear a few seconds later. We all saw the same thing, but none of us had a good explanation of what we saw."
JonaJonaL
Grandma
"My brother was on the phone once with his gf when she started saying that she could hear some old lady asking my brother for a glass of water. There was nobody around him so he ignored it but she kept on insisting. He hung up the phone and went to check on our grandma who was in her bedroom and found her dead. Fast forward a couple of years, around 11 pm, I was on the phone with a girl when I saw a guy on a bicycle go past (phone was by the windowsill. Same spot as my brother)."
"That's when I noticed she stopped talking and asked her if she was still there. She apologized as she thought I got into trouble. I said no and asked why she said that and she replied with someone was telling me to 'stop talking on the phone, it's late. Go to bed.' I was on my own, everybody in the house was already asleep."
"I asked her if it was an old lady and she said yes. Told her it was my grandma and that the same thing happened to my brother. She started talking about ghosts and stuff so I told her I'm hanging up and bolted into my room."
ghentres
The humanoid shadow figure
"One time I woke up in the middle of the night and I checked my phone to see the time, and then as I was about to lay down and close my eyes I checked in front of me and a huge tall humanoid shadow figure was standing there blocking the view of a broken wall clock and I just started panicking and it still was there after many seconds and eventually it just disappeared after I looked away from it for a second."
AppleIsTheBest124
In the Ravine
"My family's old house backed onto a pretty substantial, forested ravine. I slept on the ground-level floor, and my room was at the back of the house. On 4 separate occasions, over the span of 5 years, I saw a middle-aged man dressed in a flannel shirt, blue jeans, and a red hat walk through my room with a dog leash in his hand."
"He would briefly stop at the same spot every time, and look around, then keep walking towards the ravine. I should note that this was fairly new construction in a suburb of a small city, and all that had been there previously was a forest."
"I think he lost his dog in the ravine at some point, and he was there trying to find it."
mikeytruelove
Gettysburg
Whoopi Goldberg Comedy GIFGiphy"I saw a ghost sleeping in the same bed as my brother at a bed-n-breakfast in Gettysburg."
ccottonball
"Gettysburg has such an oppressive heavy feeling in the air. It's absolutely beautiful but it reminds me of the home I grew up in VA in the Bull Run Battlefield."
Chichi_lovesme
The ghosts of war are always in unrest.
Well, most ghosts in general are in unrest.
And they clearly visit often.
Customer service jobs are not for the faint of heart.
Dealing with people at their angriest and rudest does not breed a positive work environment.
Customer service can be a downright toxic job.
And if it's not the customers setting your spirit on fire, it's the companies themselves.
Some companies seem to revel in creating discontent.
That's why these types of jobs have such high turnover.
Redditor Psychological-Name15 wanted the customer service reps out there to give us some truths, so they asked:
"Customer service workers of Reddit, what secret can you reveal from your former company?"
I want to know about the inner workings of Comcast!!
I loathe them!
Oh Dear
Jennifer Lopez Smh GIF by American IdolGiphyI used to work in tech support for Citi Bank. The people working there are not intelligent. My favorite interaction went like this..."
"Banker - How do I type the upside down I?"
"Me - Ma'am, that's an exclamation point."
slappy_mcslapenstein
The Crappy People
"In every CS job I’ve ever had: we will bend over backward to help a nice person. We will expedite any complaint, give maximum compensation, and harass other areas of the business for you."
"We will do the absolute bare minimum to help a shi**y person and if you’re really bad, we will do everything in our power to make sure you get nothing but what you’re legally entitled to and it will be a process to get that."
11catsinahumansuit
"I don’t work in CS but 100% the same for us in IT a nice person will get new stuff while a shi**y person will get questionable secondhand crap that will take 12 months to fix! I will make sure that you wait as long as humanely possible to have anything fixed!"
Sharp-Demand-6614
Go to Holiday Inn
"If you ask for a supervisor calling Marriott you will just get another person who is not a supervisor, but say they are."
cryptnificent
"Yep. I've seen this done numerous times across multiple industries. Usually, it only involves an actual sup if it's a genuine problem or if they want to make a point."
"The last job I had was in towing junk cars. Two of the inside buyers, one male, and one female, would bounce that sup card around constantly. Idk how no one ever put it together. We'd get repeat callers and repeat sellers so I don't know."
ItsBobFromLumbridge
Heartless
"Worked at a contracted call center for Centrelink. The manager told us to deny as many emergency payments as possible and they would back us no matter what. They were actively working towards a culture that despised the callers and churned staff to get heartless right-wingers who hated the poor."
Rizza1122
"I feel ya. My best mate is a quadriplegic. Centrelink denied his disability pension because he wasn’t disabled enough."
Less-Storage
Go to Home Depot
You Are Dumb Patrick Star GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy"I worked at Lowes. I didn't know anything about anything in the electrical department yet that's where they put me without any training."
Eattherich187
Not training people is not just a Lowes thing.
There are too many unqualified people doing too many things.
Switcharoo
Drag Race What GIF by TAZOGiphy"Can confirm it's an unwritten policy for deli departments in Coles Supermarkets to change the written expiry dates on their tickets so they can sell out-of-code products at full price."
A Little Sunshine
"I worked at a call center for the billing department of a major internet and cable service provider. We were authorized to give up to $90 credit per customer on their bill but only as a last resort. Always remember to be nice to all customer service workers. You never know just how much they can help with a friendly attitude."
Axel_Dunce
"Former call center employee here. Highly accurate. Use your manners, and well fix your issue. Anything else, just makes us want to take longer, and you won't get a credit. Just because we are authorized, doesn't mean you'll get the credit for being an a**hat. haha. I've been verbally abused a few times for asking them not to swear at me. Lol."
Ok-Ad-7247
LELU
"I worked for a major telco company for many years in something called a ‘LELU’ which stands for Law Enforcement Liaison Unit. This 'unit' is pretty self-explanatory, but it essentially is a team who worked directly with the police/FEDS to monitor people's information for things such as obtaining communications history of call logs, SMS loss, etc."
"However, most importantly, the software we used, we as agents could directly see all your SMS texts, including MMS and their explicit imagery of whatever you were sending. This would include sexting, naked images, family photos, and everything. There were instances where people abused this position by stalking or 'monitoring' their SO’s comings and going’s."
MidniteMischief
Cookies!!
"I worked at a cafe chain called 'The Cookie Man,' 95% of their cookies arrived in cardboard boxes layered with bubble wrap. The last 5% arrived as pre-made dough that we would bake on-site to make the place smell like fresh cookies."
"I also worked at a cupcake shop. It's literally just packet mix that you add eggs and oil to before baking/piping pre-made icing onto. Don't waste your money on these places, 90% of these chain shops are the same and most are severely underpaying their workers (this is for Australia btw). Just purchase some packet mix from the supermarket and call it a day."
Frequent-Selection91
Look in the Back
"I was a Store Manager for a very large grocery chain and I can tell you that 95% of the time when customers complain to the manager, we may be professional and show empathy, and even resolve the problem."
"But then we usually just make fun of or talk crap about the person who complained to the other employees. And when a customer is really rude when we go 'look in the back' for something, we legit just stand around and talk to other employees, and make zero effort to look for the item."
A_Womans_Thoughts
From the Box
Kaitlin Olson Brunch GIF by The MickGiphy"I once worked at 'the area's premiere day spa'; the mimosas were made with Sunny D and not real orange juice, and the wines came out of a box."
SailorVenus23
Sunny D and champagne?!?!
What in the name of Lucifer?
Who does that?!
Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.