People Share Their Best 'I Didn't Just Dodge A Bullet But A Tactical Nuke' Experiences
How many stories have you heard about last-minute decisions that change the course of someone's fate?
You make a right turn and not a left and learn the road on the left was on fire?
We survive on pure luck sometimes.
Most of the time we never know it.
But when you do witness it, it gives you some perspective.
RedditorLong-Jeweler-5845wanted everyone to share how their lives at one point were spared. They asked:
"What’s your best 'I didn’t just dodge a bullet, but a tactical nuke' story?"
I've lost count of the amount of nukes I've dodged. Many have to deal with relationships. Obvi...
Gone
Wile E Coyote Wtf GIF by Looney TunesGiphy"I was once the last person to cross a bridge before it fell... looked in my rear view to see what the noise was to see open air where there should've been road... and some white faced people who were just about to cross as well."
Dazzling-Role-1686
Angel
"When I was 14 I went to my best friend's house for her birthday party. A 30 year old guy that worked for their parents asked her to tell me that he wanted to take me out on a date. I said I had a boyfriend. He seemed nice but he started following us everywhere and just standing back staring at us (they had a huge farm)."
"I got nervous and called mom to come get me. Months later we saw his wanted poster at our grocery store. He was serial killer Angel Resendez, the railway killer. Mom didn't believe me until it was on AMW that night and they interviewed my friends foster parents. Then she freaked."
missymaypen
The Bad Guy
"My mom's BFF had a son get out of prison. He was doing tattoos for a living. We lived in a state that still had tattoos illegal at the time, so he and his mom came to our house to give us a tattoo. I was like 18 at the time and I think he was in his early 20s."
"We were told he went to prison because (while he did have a drug problem at the time), he took the fall for someone carrying a f**kton of meth. His mom kept hinting (and eventually outright suggesting) I let him take me on a date. She swore up and down he needed a good influence like me."
"I'll admit, I did feel pressured quite a bit. His mom was one of my favorite people in the world and I felt like i was letting her down. But I was not feeling it. Dude was not attractive at all. Worst of all, he was covered in swastikas (that he claimed was to survive prison). I also found it really creepy that he kept oddly stroking my foot while doing a tattoo several inches above my ankle."
"But, we managed to end the tattoo party with no dates made. Cool. About 3 months later, I'm listening to the news as background noise and I hear her son's name mentioned, police are looking for him. He strangled his girlfriend and all four of her children."
Puzzleheaded_Storm79
On the Fence
"I’ve posted this story before but when I was a young child, I was outside playing with the hose by myself. A man appeared at my fence and asked me to come over. I walked over, he leaned down and picked me up. I started kicking at him and he dropped me almost immediately, then walked away. After that I ran inside, hid in my closet and never told a single person."
"I had almost forgotten about it, or thought I had imagined it until years later when my mom was telling me about how they recently solved a cold case of a man who kidnapped and murdered a girl around my age at the time from our neighborhood and left her body in a field a few miles from our house."
sheddingcat
Bad Woman
"Not me, but my mom - one day, a male coworker of hers asked her on a date. She was friends with him and liked him well enough, but she had a boyfriend at the time so she politely turned him down. he took it like a champ and jokingly said 'ah, you should dump that guy - I'll treat you much better!'"
"Less than a year later, he was arrested for murdering his ex-wife with an axe because she wouldn't let him borrow her car."
clovecloveclove
Well all of you sound like very lucky people so far.
Horrible
Celebrate Black Stars GIF by CAFGiphy"I had a two friends that were going to score some drugs. I almost went with them to get dropped off home on their way back. They were both killed, robbed, and set on fire."
SselluosS3191991
STAY PUT
"I was about 11 and my dad wanted me to come along with him to pick up some furniture about 30 minutes away. I made a huge stink about it, basically being an annoying little male adolescent turd, saying how I wanted to stay at home and play, I'd be really good, it was boring, etc."
"He finally got fed up and stormed out and told me to STAY PUT and he'd back soon. About an hour later, he comes home in a police car, pretty shaken up, and just reached over and hugged me hard. Turns out that he was driving down the highway and traffic got busy ahead, and this semi truck in the lane over tried to stop too late and jack-knifed."
"When it was coming to a stop from swerving all over the road, it fell over on the passenger side of the car, right where I would have been if I had gone along with him. The car was totaled (obviously), with the entire passenger side crushed down flat. Actually, he was lucky HE made it out alive. He never made another big deal about me coming along if I really said I didn't want to go."
bbergman1
Bomb Day
"I went to Boston U and lived less than a mile from the finish line of the Boston Marathon. In 2013, my friends and I had decided that we were going to walk down to the finish line to see the end of the race, after a 'light' 9am drink as is tradition for college students on marathon Monday. We got way too drunk and decided to go to McDonald's instead. Quite literally dodged a bomb."
RAWdangers
gunning for me...
"I was bullied pretty badly in middle school by this one kid. Before I could finish 7th grade, my parents and I moved to another state. On my last day in middle school, the kid who bullied me was unusually nice to me. Found out after my last day in middle school in that town that my bully beat a teacher with a metal baseball bat."
"Apparently he was gunning for me, and got frustrated that I didn't show up and decided to just take it out on a teacher. Last I heard, he went to Juvie for that."
YoureInMyWaySir
The End
Bbc Three Comedy GIF by BBCGiphy"My dad's story but basically he was trying to hitchhike back to his house when some kids (visibly drunk) pulled over to pick him up. Whenever he would reach for the handle they would drive off until they eventually just sped off down the road, went airborne over the next hill and crashed the car. They all died."
medkitjohnson
Run Dad
"My father told me this story. As a young child he was approached by a man who wanted some change to make a phone call. My father gave the guy some money and the guy said it was too much and that he wanted to give my father some change."
"My father got in the car with him so that they could go and get some change. While driving something seemed off so my father jumped out of the car at a stop sign and ran away. He didn’t think about it again until he saw they guy on TV years later. It was John Wayne Gacy."
mattibbals
The Walk Home
"I was a young teen, walking home from school. A man in a parked convertible called out to me for directions to a road close by, in the direction I was walking. He offered me a ride but I told him I lived right there and started walking up to the nearest house."
"He took off in the opposite direction. Later found out that a guy in a convertible was running girls on bicycles off the road and assaulting them. It may not have been a nuke, but it scared me enough to never hitchhike in a time when it was common."
GeeWhiskers
The Way he Looks...
"In my sophomore year of high school this guy sat behind me, he was a year older. He would look at me in this certain way. It was almost like interest but it was different. Couldn't put my finger on it. I caught myself a few times wishing he'd ask me out. Found out later he'd been torturing his little sisters and my younger sister for over a decade in some horrific ways."
"He'd assaulted several of his gfs and even tried to kidnap one. My best guess for the weird looks is I resemble my sister (who was his favorite victim) just enough and was even closer in age to him that it piqued his interest. Unknowingly had a slight interest in a child abuser/kidnapper. Shout out to social anxiety for dodging that one."
boklenhle
sold as ecstasy...
"I used to go to raves and take ecstasy when I was 19-20, in the late 90s. One weekend my friends went to a rave and I had to stay home to watch my little sister. About a dozen people in my friend group went, and ended up buying paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA) sold as ecstasy. Half a dozen had seizures or convulsions and ended up in the hospital. At least one person I am still in touch with has severe kidney issues as an adult as a result."
throwaway1f3s4vc
Breckinridge
"Was snowboarding in Breckinridge when I lost control on some ice and smoked a tree, I broke my femur in half and the surgeon said if it would’ve broke a centimeter to the left it would’ve ruptured my femoral artery and I probably would’ve bled to death internally before ski patrol got to me."
jg23101
Shipping Out
"Not me but my Sailor Great Grandfather shipped out of Pearl Harbor on I believe sometime between December 3rd and 6th 1941, just a day or few before the attack that left 2400 people dead (2000 of which were Sailors)."
Randomest_Redditor
"Wow! Mine was on a POW ship headed to coal mines outside Hiroshima iirc, when American bombers sunk the ship. Lost his brother and a lot of other pows below decks but got picked up by a US ship instead of going to Hiroshima."
ElkShot5082
Stay Single
"Female coworker hooked me up with her hot friend, who liked me for some reason but was too scared to say so. We talked on the phone quite a bit for a few days, had a hangout time at her place one evening (nothing sexual, just getting to know each other), then her ex found out she was starting to see someone and begged her to go back with him. She did, and I didn't really care, because it was all so new."
"Found out a short time later, that they'd broken up because she found out he was cheating on her, and she retaliated by trying to run him over, as he ran into his apartment to get away from her. She'd crashed through his living room, gotten out, tried to fight him, got arrested/jailed, etc. This all happened mere weeks before she'd set her sights on me."
"After reading about what happened--via the internet, after searching for her hame (this was prior to Google)--I was so glad he'd begged her to go back with him. I eventually asked my coworker wtf, and she just shrugged and said, 'she thought you were cute, so I was trying to help."
Sumpm
Killing Days
"A friend of mine dated an ex cop who was an a**hole and ate all of her child’s food. He was later found to have cut up two women and dumped them on the side of the highway in suit cases. Luckily she broke up with him before his killing days."
TealTemptress
Nearly Smeared
"Not me, but my dad. When he was younger, he used to sell motorcycles for a living, and rode them frequently as well, never wearing a helmet. One day, he decides to wear a helmet for whatever reason. That day, a car t-bones him, he goes flying from his motorcycle and skids across the road. His helmet got sanded down from the impact and subsequent skid on the road. Despite having major back, shoulder, and hip problems to this day, without that helmet, he probably would have ended up as a red smear on the road."
SwipeRight4Wholesome
You never know when the Universe is saving you. So just be grateful.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Everyday we live, is another day we've survived, and death isn't the only thing we frequently sidestep.
I have lost track of the amount of times my heart has almost gotten me into trouble.
If I had been able to be with the people I thought I wanted in the past, I'd be in a mental ward right about now.
Dodging a bullet doesn't even begin to cover it.
Redditor Not-an-Ocelot wanted to hear about the times that have made people give some extra thanks by asking:
"What's the biggest bullet you've ever dodged?"
Life is a field of landmines and we're just whimsically shuffling along. We have to be really. There is no way to always be prepared for everything at every second.
That's why we should always do the simple part well... pay attention. Heed the red flags, throw down the white when necessary.
Allow some folks to explain.
Pay Attention
I was a teen driver not paying attention at an intersection at the crest of a hill with low visibility when the light turned green.
GiphyThe car behind me honked and just as I was about to go a truck barrelled through the red light on the perpendicular road at decidedly ludicrous speed. If I had been paying attention and gone when the light turned green, I very likely would have been T-boned to death. Closest call I've ever had.
A Passed Mandate
This one just materialized yesterday, actually.
About a year ago at my job I was offered to switch from my current team where I was established for a few years, had seniority, etc. for a new department that just started to kick it off, write processes, basically start from square 1.
A lot more work for the same amount of pay. I figured forget it and went.
Yesterday they announced that they just closed the physical HQ office for my old department, and everyone in that entire part of the company would have to either move to one of 14 random states (that we cant pick, its chosen basically by a roulette wheel for where you're going) to a local office, or they're going to be fired on June 22.
Thankfully since I'm part of the new department, I wasn't included in that mandate. Phew.
Too Many Idiots
I took my wife to an indoor shooting range in 2014. I had been at this range many times, and safety was always their top priority.
They made you sit through a safety video, take a quiz, and get a temporary certification before they allowed you onto the range.
Place got really busy and their safety policy became less stringent as time went on.
I noticed that the lane next to us had 3 people in it (already a violation).
Two big guys and one tiny woman probably her in 20's. They were handing her various firearms and laughing when she couldn't handle the recoil (big violation there, and incredibly irresponsible).
This girl was muzzle-sweeping everyone (another huge violation).
I got a bad feeling, told my wife to pack it up because we were leaving.
As soon as we started walking away, BANG, that girl had fired a round right where my wife was standing just a few seconds prior
I told the range officers that they needed to get in there and do something about those idiots, and that we weren't coming back
I have only been to a range a few times since that happened, and now I don't even go at all. Too many idiots.
buzz CRACK buzz...
I was out kayaking on a lake and several bullets whizzed by me. There was a distinct buzz CRACK buzz sound as it went by. I think some people were just out plinking in their back yard, adjacent to the lake, and didn't think a backstop was necessary.
This also happened to me a few weeks later when I was paddling on a small stream. Bullets whizzed by above the bank, just over my head.
I don't think anyone knew I was there either time. Regardless, when you go out and shoot stuff, make sure there's a backstop, ffs. Also, I don't know how big the bullets were, so I'm unsure which was the biggest bullet dodged.
Well that was a lot to digest and ponder. And also... I may need a Xanax.
But we can stay positive, everyone of those people lived to tell the tale.
Personally, I don't think there is a number high enough to count how many car accidents I and many others have avoided.
Thank you Jesus. Prayer seems to have gone a long way for these people.
Flight 103
I was booked on Pan Am flight 103 which went down over Locherbie Scotland. I didn't have a premonition or anything supernatural. I just decided to cancel my seat.
Didn't think anything of it until the plane went down and my mother had written down my flight plan and reminded me. This was back in the day when you could cancel without a penalty up to a couple of days in advance.
On any given day, we make decisions (for no concrete reason really, like... I just chose not to go that day) and we come to learn it was a good decision.
I try not to evaluate my decision because I don't want to affect my future decisions by second guessing or trying to 'work the odds'. This is only one example of times that I dodged a significant bullet. (I wrote a different post, but erased it before I hit save).
Zapped
I was subletting an apartment in college and got zapped by the electric stove.
Gave notice immediately and moved out with very clear reasons why I was moving out.
The building burnt a few weeks later.
GiphyKatrina
2005, my friend and I evacuated New Orleans 2 days before Hurricane Katrina and drove to Mississippi with the little money we had. We were trying to decided on where to stay for the night and it was between a mid range hotel or the really cheap motel.
Decided to spend a little more for the hotel. During the night the eye of the storm came through Mississippi and flattened the roof of the motel we decided against.
Delete Tinder
I matched with a guy on Tinder who played for the Atlanta Falcons.
He was really charming and seemed nice. He asked me to fly down to Atlantic City for Memorial Day weekend, said he would pay for everything (airfare, hotel, food, etc.) but I had never met him before and he refused to give me his phone number.
I was uncomfortable flying to meet a stranger so I told him no. Two weeks later he was on the news for kicking (and killing) his girlfriend's dog.
Life lesson #3005... try not to become an episode of Dateline NBC.
And being on local news isn't always fun either.
Granted disaster and horror is going to happen but let's do all the avoiding possible.
Being the one to walk away is always best—take it from experience.
A Yamaha Pancake
Physically? A bus. I grew up in Bermuda, and since it is such a small island cars are limited to one per family, and everyone drives mopeds. I was driving into town, and came up to a red light behind a bus.
As is tradition, I scooted around the bus to be in the front of the line of traffic. Literally 2 seconds later a second bus smashed into the back of the first bus at like 30 mph.
I would have been pancaked. Without question, 100% dead. I just sat on the side of the road for a bit and thought about my mortality.
My only other Bermuda bus based encounter was driving home from my first job in the rain. An oncoming bus in the opposite lane went through a massive puddle and sent what looked like a tidal wave of water right at me. It literally picked me and my little yamaha v 50 right up and swept us off the road onto some grass.
D-I-V-O-R-C-E
My ex.
He got engaged right after me and proceeded to cheat on her the entire time until she broke up with him.
GiphyOh man, after reading all of that it's a wonder anyone lives to be a senior citizen and now we've got Covid.
Be careful out there my peeps.
Stay vigilant and wash your hands.
Just don't wash them in a shady gas station restroom in darkly lit areas.
A little red flag to think about.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.