"What’s an excuse to get out of work that no one can get mad at?"
Any Excuse Is Better Than None
"As a manager as long as you let me know that you aren’t going to be able to work then we’re good."
"If you just don’t show up that’s a different story."- LF_redit
If You Say So Ok GIF by The GrinchGiphySay It, Don't Spray It...
"I got sprayed by a skunk."
"I tried to go to work after showering with Dawn dish soap but my boss told me to go home."
"So I’d say getting sprayed by a skunk."- Sunshine95454
Ultimately, Not A Pleasant Experience For Anyone...
"I worked construction, and two separate instances on two different crews, someone said they sh*t their pants."
"Nobody questioned it and they left."
"I do believe they did sh*t their pants tho so you have to commit."- allornothing26
"'I sh*t my pants'."
"Absolutely, 100%, understand."
"See you tomorrow."- Abadatha
year january GIFGiphyApparently Anything Regarding The Rear End...
“'Butthole is bleeding I can’t make it in'.”
"Not a single person will want to ask questions."
"You’re welcome."- Psychologystudent28
Oddly Impressive In This Day And Age... (Assuming It's True...)
"I called in to work and said I had scurvy."
"A couple hours later an FTD florist delivered a bonzi lemon tree from my boss."- HawkMisfit
Not So Much The What, But The When...
"The excuse doesn't matter it's the frequency."
'You need to be excused a couple of times a year?"
'No big deal."
'You're out every other week?"
'That's an issue."- Im_probably_naked
Netflix Seriously GIF by Stranger ThingsGiphyOr Better Yet, To A Hosptial!
"Me: hey I think I need to head home."
"Boss: Why’s that?
"Me: I think I broke my arm."
"I’m standing in front of my bosses desk with my arm turned completely backwards from the elbow down, was in total shock."- ssandhanitizer
Good Thing They Remembered To Call...
"Last time I called into work, it was a quick call."
“'Can’t make it in. Hit my head. Blood everywhere. Ambulance is on the way'.”
"That one worked pretty well."- bioVOLTAGE
Speechless Isn't Always Good...
"Guy at work phoned in to tell our boss he couldn’t make it in because he didn’t have no clean socks."
"Boss was speechless."- Tankclark1
Nbc GIF by The VoiceGiphyIf Only For Plumbing Issues...
"Diarrhea?"- menki_22
"I used to have a sh*tty office job."
"I once had severe diarrhea and my boss tried to get me to work from the bathroom, at the office."- adventurousorca
In a Post Pandemic World...
“'I’m sick'.”
"You don’t need more detail than that."- too_sexy_for_reddit
"Where I'm at Covid is still a mandatory out until a negative test."-azorianmilk
Test Virus GIF by Magician EdzusGiphyYou Can't Make This Stuff Up...
"Worked on a construction crew at one time with this one colorful character that just couldn't get out of bed and to work on time, but could do the work of two when he was on the job."
"He always had the most entertaining excuses for missing work that no one could be mad at him."
"'Ran over a rabbit and had to return home to put it in the freezer'." "
"'Scored some weed that was so good I forgot what day it was'."
"And the coup de grace...'Woke up with my face in my girlfriend's armpit and was afraid to open my eyes'."- eron6000ad
Family First
"Something wrong with your kid."
"I've honestly thought about making up a kid just so I have an airtight excuse to cut out as often as my parent coworkers do."- Yak-F**ker-5000
In truth, pretty much any excuse could probably work
What's more important, is an air-tight alibi...
Redditor Ali_6950 wanted everyone to fess up and share the reasons why some of us could be considered a trespasser in certain situations.
They asked:
"What’s the reason you have been banned from an establishment such as a shop/bar/restaurant/cafe/etc...?"
I'm banned from a few bars.
I like to dance.
On tables, chairs, bars, people... put on Lady Gaga and I'm out.
Their loss...
The Attire
"Got banned from the mall when I was younger because I wore an inappropriate shirt that I bought in the mall." ~ par337
Giphy"display behavior"
"I once got barred from a pub for burping. No crap, it was in the Conan Doyle pub in Edinburgh, years ago."
"Our small group wasn't being disruptive or anything - my burp wasn't some intentional, obnoxious 'display behavior' intended to unsettle other patrons; it was actually quite discreet, and simply the result of drinking carbonated beverages, with nothing more to it than that."
"But we were sitting near the bar, the barman heard, and we all got thrown out - and for objecting to it, initially thinking it was a bad joke, I got no-crap, full-on barred. Like I say, it wasn't some over-the-top 'eruption' of a belch - it was the same one you'd let loose in front of your own mother, followed by an 'excuse me'."
"I thought at the time that the barman was being a neurotic, over-assertive bell-end, and my own time as a barman in the years since has only served to reinforce that impression." ~ MagicSPA
Poland
"I was doing a history project on Poland, and it was well-known this teacher gave an extra letter grade for bringing in food from the country. A friend from my previous school brought me to a bakery that made Kołacz that his family loved. I ordered one for my class, paying a deposit and specifying the day I was due to present."
"I ran in before school to get my order, and the woman behind the counter (the manager) told me that whoever took my order never sent it; there was no Kołacz in the store. Despite me presenting my invoice and pointing out the date they agreed to have it."
"She refused to refund my deposit on the basis 'we can make you one for tomorrow.' I had to call the credit card company and dispute the charge that way. A few days later, my friend called me and asked why we were both banned from the bakery." ~ Raven4869
Pebbles
"Also a fun story of someone who wasn’t my friend but who I used to run track with. He thought it would be hilarious to put a pebble inside a piece of gum and throw it out the window of the bus on the way to a track meet. Thought it would just stick to the windshield and be a nuisance."
"Ended up shattering part of the windshield because we are in a bus going mf 55 miles per hour. Person followed the bus all the way to the track meet. Cops came. Kid was banned from track, not sure if he was banned from the bus though." ~ Apprehensive-Taro-77
"I figured out that I could take a ball from the game where you shoot the clown's teeth and use it at the skeeball machine.The skeeball machine would count the points but not the ball used, which enabled me to play forever with just one ball and max out the machine. I did it on two skeeball machines before someone noticed and I got banned/kicked out." ~ Papaya_flight
Everyone should be banned from Chuck E.Cheese.
Even Chuck E. until the food is better at least.
Dragged...
"I drunkenly stumbled into the big pyramid of wine glasses that were, for some reason, stacked on the side of the bar... After they all fell and smashed everywhere causing a huge scene I proceeded to tell the bartender that it wasn't me."
"Two seconds later I was in a headlock being dragged outside by a large bouncer." ~ _gnoof
GiphyBus Tales
"Sitting in the bus with the other students in the marching band, waiting for the bus to leave for the football game, apparently the kid beside/behind me (it was like 6-8 years ago) had written the n-word in the condensation in the bus window."
"Boy, was it a fun experience when the band directors were on the bus 2 minutes later yelling for whoever wrote the n-word to come with them." ~ Otafrear
Tag. You're it!
"When I was 12 my favorite thing to do was play laser tag at the one laser tag place in our town. I'd go every Friday night and play for 3 hours or so. There weren't many other regular players, so nobody else was getting better at it like I was."
"After about a year I was just wrecking everyone and the owner ended up banning me from the place because it was driving away customers."
"It really sucked because it was favorite activity and I was just immediately cut off from it. 6 years later I found a place in another city that had other players that played regularly so I was able to start playing again with people at similar skill levels." ~ LeCrushinator
Season Passes...
"I got 'banned' from Six Flags Great Adventure (NJ) several times in the early 90s. Back when I was in high school, season passes like $40 or something, making it a no brainer to buy one if you intended to go at least twice. My friend and I went probably 5-7 days a week since we lived close by."
"We knew the park and its operations better than pretty much anyone who didn't work there, and eventually grew too comfortable with taking shortcuts through employee areas, trying to climb things we shouldn't, bothering other guests, and overall being a bunch of New Jersey Teenagers (aka jerks)."
"Thing is, the only IDs we had on us were our Season Passes, which we always assigned fake names for no preplanned reason. (Summer of 1994 my pass said Oskar Schindler). We eventually got in so much trouble they would take our passes and tell us we were banned for life."
"Well, another $40 at the front gate and boom, back in as Itzhak Stern. They needed at that time to figure out the flaws in their system." ~ Phormicidae
Ooze...
"My longtime barber had oozing pink eye and I merely told him I’d come back the next week. He told me not to come back at all." ~ severalgirlzgalore
GiphyY'all crazy and I LOVE it!
And why would you work with pink eye?!
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I remember a bartender I worked with who got fired for a really crappy reason, like one customer complaint. Honestly the higher ups were not thrilled with him. When they told hm, honey... he threw a small table. BRILLIANT!!
Dimes
toys r us 90s GIFGiphy"When I worked at Babies 'R Us many years ago, a fine young lad wrote on the break room white board, "Forget you witches, hire dimes." For some reason it escaped him that there are cameras pretty much everywhere. Done after maybe three days on the job."
3 Hours
"Many years ago we hired a line cook that had a decent amount of experience. He started on steak night. First steak, undercooked. Refire, undercooked. Third try, undercooked, Fourth try, cow was still mooing when it came off the grill. FOH manager goes to head chef, tells him to kick him off the line, so he does. His new job was to replace me on the sauté station."
"First order he gets is for a side of asparagus, so he puts the asparagus into the hot pan, and adds enough oil to deep fry them. Well, he goes to turn them, oil escapes, hits the fire, and started a fire. He went to grab water, and if not for my head chef stealing the cup, we might have had a bigger fire. Just like that, gone. Turns out all his previous jobs were not real places, but his supervisors were just friends who lied. Total time of employment: three hours."
Out by 11...
"I was intern at a startup out of college along with three other interns. One guy was set up at a computer kinda out of the way and apparently that was the greenlight he needed to look up some porn. Anyone who's ever been an intern will tell you that someone is usually coming over to ask you for something or if you need help and sure enough, the dude was caught looking at porn by our boss. He was walked out around 11 AM so he managed a solid two hours of porno before getting caught."
90 Minutes
"New guy, hired as quality control inspector after a lot of vetting. Job site was aluminum extrusions factory - lots of hot, sharp, and heavy things that can crush your hands and slice you up, not to mention all the moving parts. Shows up first day on the job reeking of beer. "I was just celebrating my new job with my friends before work!" Refused the booze blow test at a nearby hospital. Paperwork completed and fired after 90 minutes by the supervisor and HR."
Rude
rude kim kardashian GIF by RealityTVGIFsGiphy"It was a family owned business and she said something insensitive about the owner's recently deceased daughter."
Yeah, you have to be careful who you're talking smack around. That is lesson number one, especially if you're not solid in the lay of the land. And restaurants are always on a rolling employment. Let's continue.
Crazy
Angry Stanley Kubrick GIFGiphy"It was his second week. The guy came to work drunk af, picked the emergency axe and trashed the place with it. He got instantly fired and processed in court shortly after."
- Bonguri
Thief
"I worked in maintenance at a beach resort. One of the housekeepers managed to get her delinquent son a job as a "runner"... someone who would collect the dirty laundry after the housekeepers stripped the beds. She was actually worried when he started working because I guess he had a bad track record with other jobs. About three days after he started working, his mother confronted him about his new expensive-looking athletic shoes and a gold chain around his neck."
"He just shot back something about having a job now which didn't make sense because he hadn't even been paid yet. Anyway, about the same time there were a couple of reports at the front desk by guests who were missing large sums of money. A police report was made and people were questioned. So after only about four days this kid was fired and went to jail for stealing from guest rooms."
Out the Door...
"New person joins company. On her first morning she wrote an email to her manager how grateful she was to be with the company, how she looked forward to working for us, and on and on. She also wrote an email to her friend about how she'd got a cushy gig and would scam them for as much training as possible for the first couple of months and then leave. Apart from the general lack of wisdom of saying this on the company email system, when writing such contradictory emails it is vitally important to put the right addressee on the right email. Walked out the door after 2.5 hrs."
- pmc666
At Baggage Claim
"We had a guy start in London on a Monday as large contingent left for a a conference in Seattle later that week. I met him at Heathrow with his badge and laptop on his first morning and boarded the flight with him. Longish story, but he ended up slapping a member of the flight crew because she wouldn't let him sit in business class. I called HR when we landed and fired him in baggage claim. We paid for him to fly back to the UK next day."
Awkward...
Jesse Pinkman Reaction GIF by Breaking BadGiphySex the bosses daughters - yes daughters - the night he was hired. The real twist is that one of those daughters is now his wife and his former boss, his mother in law. So I guess he got the last laugh, and a lot of awkward family dinners."
"You mean don't do this?"
"I used to train new hires at a warehouse. We have a floor for robots to zoom around on, full of merchandise and cold spite. Only certified technicians may set foot on that floor. The rest of us? Instant termination if we do it. We stress this frequently throughout orientation."
"I'm training a group of new hires at a work station. It's their first night. Not even lunch yet. One of our managers comes over to introduce himself. One guy, who has already been copping an attitude, asks him about stepping on the floor. Manager reiterates what we all told everyone: Do it, and you're fired."
"Guy: "You mean don't do this?" (puts one foot on the floor)"
"And away he goes. I heard the rest of the new trainees laughing over how stupid he was. He was even whining about it the whole time his termination was being processed. I'm just glad I didn't get stuck training that snotty, dimwitted little pain in the @ss for two days."
People Explain Which Expensive Purchases Paid For Itself In The Long Run | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Call Center Crazy
"A number of years back I worked at an inbound call center that also had an upsell side to it. A new guy fresh out of training was bragging about how he did over 10 x the monthly goal in his first week alone. Didn't see him the following week and heard he was laid off because he was upgrading everyone's plans who called in to the highest costing plan without their consent or informing them. About a week or two later I got a text from him asking if I could be his reference for a new call center job he got. He somehow got a hold of a bunch of our numbers and just spammed everyone asking for a reference."
BLIIIITZED!!
"Hired my roommate to work at a gas station I was assistant manager for. Shows up 2 hours late to replace me, and I could have gotten drunk from his breath. He went out after his construction job and got bliiiiitzed. Was mad at me for firing him. 16 hour shift that day and he treated me like trash till we moved. Is zero minutes a duration? LOL"
- crumps2
How Fluid...
True Stories Omg GIFGiphy"I saw this guy in interview with our boss, he was hired for 3 minutes then he peed in his desk for no reason."
Wrong Email
"Our CEO rarely sent all-company messages unless there was great news or some major event/holiday/emergency etc. One day he sends an email reminding everyone something about an extra day off everyone earned hitting a major deadline and how and when to use it."
"New woman in accounting - looked like a nice 50 something Dallas church lady, hits the reply-all and writes "I suppose we all should bow down to Mr. Generosity for the measly day off." Meanwhile she never worked on the project or was affected by long hours."
"When she realized what she did, the other finance people in her area heard a gasp come from her desk and without saying a word to anyone, she picked up her purse, took a box, added her personal items, and walked out the door to her car never to be seen again."
Talk to the Hand
"15 minutes. Working at the wharfs where we had to unload shipping containers with forklifts; new bloke starts work who claims to be a wiz at operating forklifts. First container and he drives in too fast while another worker is opening the container door. I'm not the foreman but I have a go at him about him and tell him to pull his head in. He walks off the job muttering under his breath 'Nobody talks to me like that'."
Like a Zombie
"Call centre worker, new beginner came in hungover as crap on the 1st day of the job. Within 2 hours of their shift, they struggled to look at a computer for more than 10 minutes, couldn't form a coherent sentence, walked away from the desk without a word only to just full on faceplant in the floor of the office. I'm sure the actual termination took longer, but it was obvious they lost their job the moment they walked in like a zombie."
"this job isn't for me"
"I worked at a bill collection firm in the early 90's (don't judge me). A guy started working there, went through the 2 days of training , then started working. After about an hour, he got up and left. Didn't say "I quit." Didn't say "this job isn't for me." Didn't say "forget you." He just got up to go to the bathroom, went through the front door and drove away. It took the managers a few hours to figure out that this guy got the job with a fake name, and erased his own debt on the computer."
- M_Looka
You're Out!
I Got This Credit GIF by HustlersGiphy"Briefly worked as a doorman at a strip club. Had to eject two brand new strippers for lifting wallets from the guys."
Safety First
"Guy drove a forklift into a fire hydrant, in front of a safety rep for the company. His supervisor was called over, and he immediately tells the supervisor that he won't pass a pee test, as he used his only bottle of clean pee earlier that day when he hired in. Everybody standing there immediately burst into laughter, which continued as security (also laughing) escorted him off site. Even the supervisor was all smiles... just gave him a pat on the back and wished him the best of luck. It was wild."
Oh my. People really are something else. This should be a reality show, crazy people getting fired. Now that is a mess I'd watch.
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Ha-Ha!
im right told you so GIF by DeRay DavisGiphyOne of the kids says the answer to the final puzzle out loud, rest of his family says,"No, that can't be right,"
They ask for a clue, they figure it out, and i walk in to celebrate with them, and the kid is basically screaming, "I TOLD YOU SO."
Cheater
Dude brought a set of lockpicks, solved the room in 5 minutes.
Hehehehehehe. I can just imagine: "this is the lockpicking lawyer, and today i'm trying out this escape room. they used this really poor masterlock, so i'm just gonna this wood splinter to open it, and yep, we got it open. okay folks, that's all i have for you today."
$20 Now
I don't work in one but probably the family we were with kept telling their 8 year old son to shut up when he brought up certain things not looking right. Turned out he figured out 2 of the puzzles and demanded 20 bucks and an apology from his dad.
Why are you going to bring your kid to that if you aren't even going to let him play? Deserved both, in my opinion.
Going Up!
fan think GIFGiphyDon't work in one but last time I was there, we were advised that the ceiling was not the route out. Apparently a group of guys the previous night removed a ceiling tile and tried to crawl up through it...
Birded....
The funniest thing I've ever seen was when I was hosting a group of school children that couldn't have been older than 8 years old each. This little girl just looks into the camera in the corner of the room and stares right at it, and it almost looks like she's looking right at me. Suddenly she slowly raises her right hand and just FLIPS ME THE BIRD... I was so stunned but immediately burst out laughing with my coworker that had seen it as well. The look on her face made it even better. It's like she knew we'd see it lol.
Bad Exit
Stereotypical "I don't work there" disclaimer. I saw a couple break up once. The guy was being really snappy at the girl for seemingly little things and she started snapping back. The guy ended up cussing at her, turned to storm off and tripped over a piece of equipment on the ground.
Get the Loot
I was in the room, not a worker, but I was part of a work outing with programmers. There was a puzzle that required a password for a computer to get files off of a thumb drive. A coworker booted the Linux box as a default user and loaded the drive there.
The Gregothy....
scared shock GIF by Skit GuysGiphyHad a couple of guys do a great little pantomime with the alien skeleton which involved confronting it about one of the clues, getting kicked in the gut for their troubles and dropping to the ground, and putting the alien in a chair facing the corner for a time out as punishment.
I think they forgive it, because after they finished the room they were very upset to leave "Gregothy" behind.
Where to Begin....
Finally, something I can comment on. Long time lurker, made an account to respond.
I've worked for 2 different companies and have done 100+ rooms personally. 1 place was a mom and pop escape room company, the other was a Haunted House, Both have their own interesting stories. In the haunted house I got put in blood and makeup and we work INSIDE the rooms with guests. So we see everything in person (someone still watches cameras, but we give clues in person rather than a computer).
- I've been flashed for a clue by a guidance counselor
- I've seen more PDA than you'd ever care for
- I've seen people pee in rooms
- I've watched someone poop themselves (and smelt it) after I scared them in a room
- I've seen people get nailed by spring loaded doors that open when they triggered them
- I've had groups ask me to roast them as I give clues (of course)
- So much dancing
- So many people being mean to each other
- so many break ups
That witty joke you make or pun was made by every single group, every sing hour, every single day. No Im not laughing with you.
Oh Butter....
poop GIFGiphyHad a woman get trapped in the room and ended up defecating in a prop butter churner which also had the key in it.
Kids are REALLY good....
I worked in one for about a year, and this was surprisingly commonplace (like, virtually every parent/kid group that came in had this happen). I have a few theories.
What I learned was that kids around 9-12 are usually REALLY good at a lot of things in escape rooms because they are comfortable with failing and moving on. Escape room puzzles are usually designed so that you have to do a bit of experimenting before you crack it. Like, you look at a puzzle and will think you know what you are supposed to do, but then once you start doing it you realize there was more too it than you thought.
Kids are REALLY good at this because they are used to trying things, failing, and then trying something else. "What if we have to re-arrange the letters? That didn't work. Okay, what if we have to read it a certain way?" Kids know they don't know everything, and are willing to hypothesize, test, and re-focus after learning why their hypothesis was proven incorrect.
Conversely, it turns out people (and in particular men) over 40 years old are REAAAAAAALLY bad at this. They get stuck in their ways, and once they are locked in on a solution they ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT let go of it.... for anything. In my escape room, I played a character in the room with the people, and would drop hints if people were doing bad (we weren't on overly competitive one, so we would kind of gauge whether people wanted a 'pure' experience or a 'just for fun' one).
I can't count number of times I had a dad doing something completely, 100% wrong, leading me to walk over and say "Hmm, I don't think that is it, maybe there is something else in the room that would help", only for them to look up, do a quick glance around the room, and go RIGHT BACK TO WHAT THEY WERE DOING. Like, I'm not going to lie to you. I know the answer. But no, they think that they've cracked it, and they are going to keep on trying until the time is up.
You Right.
My brother insisted he was right. He's the youngest out of all of us, still in middle school, and he kept saying how to do one of the riddles. We all disagreed. Finally we gave up and asked for a hint. All it said was "he's right".
You're Free!
free freedom GIFGiphyIn every escape room I've ever been to they have made it really clear you are not actually locked in and can leave whenever you want. Otherwise I would have been right there with you about being stuck in a room with a recently broken up couple.
LOCK IT DOWN!
Don't work at one, I was a participant in this story & the employees told me it was the most hilarious thing they've seen so far. My boyfriend & I did an escape room back in January this year. Children's asylum themed, & very well done! We opened a secret door in the back of a closet using an electromagnet. It took two people touching a metal lead on the wall on opposite sides of the room.
It lead to another tiny room only big enough for one person to be in & on hands & knees only. Well somehow my idiot of a boyfriend shut the door, LOCKING it behind him in a pitch black room. I couldn't touch both metal leads on the walls to make it open, so I had to just yell & wave my hands until the employee noticed me & came in with the 'key' to let my boyfriend out. I still won't let him live that one down.
A Stream of Water
I have experience with industrial automation and design locks for the owner of an escape room.
When the owner approached me and said he wanted to try something very different, I came up with the idea of pouring water in to a 55 gallon drum. At the bottom of the drum would be the trigger for the lock -- a water sensor. I didn't know how practical that would be but the owner loved it and worked it in to a story about a prohibition-era speakeasy. At least one bottle of water, provided at an earlier in the room, would need to be poured in to a still -- unlocking the door.
Apparently that worked well until a small group of frat boys came in and slammed the water down because they thought It was free. When they finally figured out that they had to pour water in to the still, one of them unzipped and peed in to it instead. The water sensor was triggered, opening the door.
After that, the owner said he didn't want to use water sensors anymore and asked if I wanted to take them back.
Cure & Blitzkreig
I worked at an escape room from October 2019- March 2020 before the pandemic, and I have a couple of stories.
The company i worked for had 3 rooms you could play, and i was trained in 2 of the rooms. One was called The Cure and one was called Blitzkrieg. The way we ran things at the company was that instead of watching through cameras and communicating via walkie talkies, each room had a character that went along with the theme of the room as a way to be more interactive and engaging.
So in The Cure you have 1 hour to find the cure for a sick girl (ironic given 2020, huh?) and the room is very science-y themed and so are the puzzles. One of the puzzles requires VERY BASIC math skills (literally just the MDAS of PEMDAS AND you get a calculator) but it's lengthy so it can get a little confusing sometimes. ANYWAYS there was a very average family that came in, nobody super bright but not necessarily dumb people either.
Just average. However the dad kept trying to solve the math problem, and after what seemed like the millionth time getting the wrong answer, he turned to his wife and says "I'm an engineer, you think i should be able to get a simple math problem right!" And it just baffled me that this man who is supposedly an engineer couldn't solve the simple problem when middle schoolers come in and solve it no problem all the time.
In Blitzkrieg, it's WWII bunker themed and so it's very dark and the players get flashlights. (+10 for atmosphere amirite?) At the very end of the game you have to "disarm" a bomb to escape and every other puzzle throughout the game leads to the code you need. It's been awhile and i can no longer remember the code (not that i should have pisted it anyhow) so let's pretend it was 1564. A family was at the very very end of the game with mere seconds (less than 10 and counting) and they were trying EVERY combination of 1564 they had except 1564... 5164... 6451... 4561... And so on. It wasn't until the clock had ONE second left they got it right and got out. The energy was very tense and so everyone was laughing their a**es off when they got out.
Dirty Talk
Not an employee but:
There was one my group did where you attended a dinner party for the king. Well, the king killed someone, and you had to solve the murder. However, when you heard him coming you had to run back to the table otherwise, he would get suspicious.
Anywhoo: So many times he would ask a question such as: "Where does though come from?" My group would answer "on the Oregon Trail, one of us has dysentery, so careful! You might get it to!" One time he got in one of the girls face (an act), and she simply said "careful! I haven't had an orgasm in months, and your sexiness might cause my vagina to explode!"
I don't know how, but he kept a straight face the whole time until the very end. When we solved the murder, we all had to escape the castle. The actor yells at one of the guys who was still sitting at the table: "What have you done peasant? Where did the women go?" He simply shrugs and says, "why bother? They all want to have sex with each other, so I'd rather stay here and have dinner with you."
He literally busted out laughing, and told us all how we made his night by being a bunch of weird people.
Door Opened
I worked at one a few years ago. One time we had a local summer camp rent out all our rooms for a day. The kids (all high schoolers) were actually doing pretty good. One of our rooms had a computer monitor with clues on it, but I noticed in the middle of the game that the computer had gotten into a weird mode and wasn't showing what it was supposed to. It was an easy fix, so I paused their time and went to fix it. As soon as I opened the door, they all started screaming bloody murder and bumping into each other trying to run away from me. Their chaperones thought it was hilarious.
Back to the 80's....
like a virgin madonna GIFGiphyA story as a person in the room. I went with my mom and her friend.
They were both visiting me and it was a great activity in a historic building down town. The room was 80s video rental themed and there was a lot of going back and forth between rooms. My mom's friend had to be talked into going by her adult children and within a few minutes of play this lady went from a bit uninterested to balls-to-the-wall committed. Sprinting for clues. Screaming. Really great for the energy.
Thank god it was just us.
Things that were not clues were clearly marked. We got out successfully and walked outside to 4-5 fire trucks along the curb. We all notice and wonder what happened. My mom's friend says she wants to go back inside and find out. My mom and I think nothing of it. At home she told us what really happened.
Turns out that while my mom's friend was in the other room alone that she had touched everything she could including smashing her fingers in from the side of the plastic cover of a fire alarm, shoving down the alarm to engage it, even though it was clearly marked as a real alarm. She was just so focused on finding puzzles and clues she realized too late what it was she just clicked.
The idea that she shoved her fingers under the cover, from the side of it rather than activate it as it is intended by pulling up the plastic, with such a feverish intensity... I just couldn't believe it.
On Camera
My friend worked in an escape room and his manager was cool about letting me view the security camera tapes with him. I have a great one.
Essentially, this woman read a letter that said, "Discover the clue outside of the box". She must have thought about it literally and compared that to the room and ripped up the drywall after bashing it in with a Candlestick and started ripping out the electrical wires.
The whole room shut down and Emergency Services had to be called to unlock the door to let them out. Funniest and stupidest thing I had ever seen.
I Got It
I was a player in one where every puzzle gave you a digit for the combination to the exit. The lock they had on the door was one of those really crappy ones that you can kinda feel out when a number snaps into the right place. Took me about 3 minutes to get it open, much to the surprise of my teammates and the staff.
Within the Walls
I don't work in a escape room but I did one recently, When we finished there was a booming voice that freaked us all out and we all screamed even the boys, And the voice said 'leave now or forever be locked in these walls' and we all sprinted out which was awkward cause the room was tiny. I feel like the person running it was dying of laughter after we screamed.
The Message
Not an employee but I went to an escape room with my company as part of a team building exercise. We were all split into teams and I got put onto the same team as my company's CEO. Also the place had a no photography rule that they explained to us at the start.
We got into the room and started getting to work on the puzzles when the CEO whips out his phone and starts taking pictures of us puzzle solving for the company's photo albums.
The employees flashed a message onto the room's TV screen telling him to stop taking pictures. He put it away for a while but eventually whips it out again. "Stop taking pictures" the screen flashed again so we got him to put it away once more.
We got back to work when a few moments later he again started taking more pictures. This time an employee physically walked into the room to warn him to stop it with the pictures. You'd expect he would learn from this. You'd be wrong.
We managed to break out of the first room and into a second room with the next set of puzzles when, once again, he pulls out his phone to take more pictures. This time two employees walked in, turned on all the lights, and stopped everyone mid puzzle solving. They had him hand over his phone to them and they went through and deleted every single picture off the phone while warning him that if he tried it again then they were banning us.
So that is how our company CEO almost got us banned from an escape room.
giggle laughing GIFMy victims are made aware of this before they enter the room. They know I have cameras on them & I can communicate with them. The deal is, if they want a clue, I want something in return. Naturally, I have to keep it pretty tame, but there's just something about making a group of grown men twirl like ballerinas for as long as I like that really gets me in the giggly places....
The Brat Boys
Context: We get idiots who are there to speed run and self congratulate themselves all the damn time. We call them frat boys because they are the biggest offenders. They rarely listen to or obey the rules. Half the time they just kick in doors or windows to impress their skanky arm candy plus ones. We always tell them they were disqualified but they don't give a crap, they reached the end and they won. They're usually too busy making out or high-fiving afterwords to even hear us when we tell them they broke the rules and lost. We try to bill them for damages but I can tell you exactly how often that works.
Anyhow one such foolish frat boy tried to kick in a locked door and failed. I put it there as a red herring, anticipating this behavior. I reconfigured the room to have another solution but the door was the most obvious. So the douche goes to break down the door and breaks his foot on the third attempt. I'd barricaded the other side with an iron bar. His rolling around and threatening to sue us (no case at all) while his buddies laughed at him was a memory I cherish.
Hearing Steps
Oh man, so many funny stories (game designer & game master here).
Most of my favorites are when players are SO confident in something so wrong. Once we had a simon-says game where you hear a cat meow so you press the button under the cat.
Well one family spent about 20 minutes of their 1-hour game time meowing at everything to see if it did something.
Another group of teens heard footsteps in the background music of the room (pirate them) so they all started screaming, ran to the first room and hid until eventually a game master had to go ask them what happened.
Breaking Metal
mad the rock GIFGiphyWe had metal tables and this one guy literally broke the lock open on the table in 5 minutes, when he actually did it I freaking died.
Break it... pay for it...
Damage deposit my friends. You get a pending charge of whatever several hundred dollars your damage deposit is on your credit card or you don't get to do the room. Don't break anything and it comes back to you. Break something and the company keeps the money.
Right on me....
Not really to funny but in sixth grade we had a Halloween one and i was part of scaring them once they unlocked one door and what happened was a child like a 5 year old came in by him self and peed on me. It wasn't to funny for me it was a gag for my friends though.
Lessons
I only worked there a week but two parents brought in their homeschooled son, and said it counted as a that weeks math lesson. Ya know, since solving the puzzle takes logical thinking.
Suspicions.
I don't work in an escape room but me and few friends tried one once then one them proceeded to force nearly all puzzles (guessing numbers on locks, managed to get an envelope from a locked box without opening the box, and ignored all the clues) he didn't actually break anything but I am seriously surprised the one person that owns the puzzle didn't stop him.
I have suspicions he already knew all the answers though.
devil satan GIFThe theme was getting a contract back from the devil (Faustian deal kind of thing). When the timer ran out the speakers suddenly BLARED music, I think it was Sympathy for the Devil, and the owner kicked open the door and stormed in theatrically.
Everyone else froze but I fully dropped to the floor and rolled under a desk. Got a good laugh from everyone including the owner.
Flying High
Another funny story (for you; dear reader, not for me) was when a couple booked a late night game but were high as a kite. The girl greened out and ran outside and started puking everywhere. Seemed okay after so we let her back in the room. Turned out she had puked on her shoes, so dragged it all through our lobby and hallways, and then just puked again in the room anyways. We kindly asked them to leave and charged them a cleaning fee.
The Jewels
Didn't work in one but my younger cousin had a birthday party in one, I went and it was mostly girls from her sophomore class one of them read a clue that said something along the lines of "The passkey to clue three is in the place you store jewelry" cue a jewelry box being on the table and it has a layer of felt in the bottom not attached this one girl, not seeing that the strip of paper with the password on it had been removed proceeds to hold the piece of felt to the light and tells us she can see the numbers and begins reading them off to us all in the room.
It was just a piece of felt no numbers what so ever.
LOCKDOWN
Don't work in one, but at when i did a thing in a room. So basically the room was in a Prison setting, and it started with getting handcuffs on and put into a cell, they cuffed our hand in front of us so we still could use them easily. But no i thought that would be too easy for me and decided that i should step over the handcuffs so that my hands would behind my back.
I quickly noticed that that wasn't the smartest decision and tried to put them back in front of me, but somehow i only could step with 1 leg over my arms and was stuck with my cuffed hand between my legs. Needles to say we didn't escape the room.
"the game masters"
Don't work in one but the "game masters" told us how they couldn't help but laugh at our group. It was a horror themed escape room and it was pretty dimly lit. Mind you, I had to take 3 shots prior to have the guts to do this one.
There were two floors and a bunch of rooms throughout. On the first floor, there was a gate that was locked from the other side; we weren't sure if it actually led to anything or if it was just a prop for the room.
The upper level, there was a portion that had a slide leading down to pitch black God knows what. So the two guys in our group decided to brave it out and go down the slide while the rest of us faint of heart females stayed upstairs. We had no idea where the slide led to or what was going to be down there considering there were animatronics and things falling from the ceiling in the other rooms.
They slide down to the first floor, we ran downstairs expecting screams or something but all we heard was confusion. They commented saying the slide was fun but they couldn't see anything because the room was pitch black, and then after some scuffling and movement. Apparently they climbed up the slide because there was no other way out and ended up on the second floor again so they could try and scare us even more. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could complete the puzzle because we couldn't figure out what that other room was for.
The "game master" comes in to explain the puzzle. Turns out after you go down the slide, all you had to do was feel around for the barrel lock which would've opened the gate on the first floor. They also told us how they were watching the video cameras. Apparently they couldn't really see much in that room either so all they could do was listen. They heard nothing and couldn't tell what was going on until they saw them pop out of the slide in the other room. The "game masters" realized they climbed the slide and the camera room must've been close by because I swear I could hear them roaring with laughter.
SUCCESS!!!
It wasn't really me who was working on it, but my little brother kept flipping over tables and looking at the bar codes saying OH THIS IS A CLUE LOOK, it was really funny.
Look for the Bat signal....
For this room we were investigators trying to catch a criminal who was a spoof of Batman's Riddler who was last seen in a subway, of course it's a trap and he's not there but a bomb is and we have to escape before the bomb goes off
At the end of the escape room this box has the key to get out and beat the room but above the key is a large box with LOTS of fake (uncut) keys with a big red button above it.
We all tell this one guy to NOT push the button as we all knew what would happen............
He pushed the button and the key we needed and the fake keys fell to the ground like we all said would happen
We still found the key and got out with decent time left despite the needle in a haystack we to search through.
HACKED AWAY!
This guy got so freaked out he started hacked at the walls with the fake axe we had in there for decoration.
Open Sesame....
house GIFGiphysomeone hit the doors and they opened.
The ones i've been in don't actually lock the door, or there's a switch right next to it that will unlock it in an emergency. Its a big safety risk to actually lock someone in a room.
It's LIT!
I went to my friend's birthday at and escape room with my brother. he had just gotten some sick light up shoes and in the escape room there was one of those things where you all hold hands from one handle to the other and complete an electric current. we did this and my brother's shoes lit up and for some reason we lost it. it was way funnier if you were actually there.
10 Fools
the three stooges GIF by IFCGiphyBuddy of mine worked at an escape room. He texted me this video recording the security cam screen showing this family that had 5 minutes left and were stumbling all over each other. Imagine the 3 stooges, but 10 people.
Going Crazy
My friends look at a bunch of letters, I was trying to point out maybe we can rearrange them... We were LITERALLY 98% of the way there.... And my one dumb butt lying friend goes "maybe if we correspond them to numbers we can figure it out" and they all listened to him, then the guys let us out, mind you were were like, 14 at most... And he goes "if you rearrange them properly they give you the 4 digit code you needed to enter into the lock pick and get out" I went crazy to say the least. xD
Scribbles....
My friend once told me there was writing on the walls as part of the design. There was also a whiteboard in the room and markers in case the group needed to take notes. The players, without asking, thought they were allowed to write on the wall using the given markers. The comments were apparently funny enough that he just let it happen. But he had to create a note for future players not to do it.
Knockout
the office comedy GIFGiphySome dude punched a whole in the secret door, then forcefully pulled off a covering for the button that would lead to the exit. Done in 10 minutes since the first 9 they spent actually trying.
The 'Click'
a Cruise last year, my brother picked the bloody lock and we won the escape room, we thought we couldn't as we were so living the puzzle with 2 mins left. Then 'click' followed by the sound of the box containing the key to signify we won was in opened.
Edit: it was a number lock.
Take it Off
I one had a group of drunk guys go in and they ran through their allotted hints pretty quickly. They asked for another hint and we said over the speakers that they were out of hints.
One of the guys threatened to start taking off his clothes until we gave another hint.
EDIT: For everyone asking, we didn't even have to give him the extra hint. His friends chilled him out and ended up finding the next clue pretty shortly after that.
"We were about to go..."
When I was 15, a friend and I went for a lot of walks around town (small town, around 5-6k people). We were going to the cyber cafe in town to meet a few friends and we often took different streets to get places, just to keep it interesting.
We were about to go to Main Street off one of the side streets and a man on a bicycle approached us. He got off his bike, and asked us a couple small talk questions. Something didn't seem right about him, he was probably mid 40s. We both kept inching away but didn't want to come off as too rude, so we answered about the weather or traffic. Then he paused and we said we had to go, and he said (and I'll never forget it) "You look so young, I don't want to get in trouble, but I need to touch someone. I just need to touch you. You should come with me." And he started rambling.
I just felt terror, couldn't even speak. I grabbed my friends hand and turned. We sprinted the rest of the way to the cafe and as soon as we were inside we asked to use the phone. I called my mom to pick us up while my friend told the worker what happened and what the guy looked like. A month later I got my first cell phone.
"About two months ago..."
flame thrower fire GIFGiphyAbout two months ago I'd stayed up past my usual bed time and as soon as I got in bed I smelled something odd and was hearing some inconsistent banging and clattering from downstairs. I don't live in a great neighborhood so none of this was unusual but I got out of bed to check anyway and saw flames licking up the side of the building. Yelled at my wife to get out of bed and threw on some clothes and we high-tailed it out. Our building has a shared wall with the next and that one had an apartment on the ground floor fully engulfed by the time we made it outside, ended up condemning the whole building. I was the first one to call 911. Have been jerking myself awake in the night pretty consistently since then.
"He was probably..."
Was in Mexico City with family including two daughters. Grabbed a cab on the street around 10:00 pm to take us back to the hotel. I was somewhat familiar with the area since we had been there four or five days already. Cabbie totally passes the hotel district and starts heading away from the part of town we were in. Streets were getting more and more residential. I demanded that he pull over and we GTFO and walked back to the hotel, probably 3 or 4 miles.
He was probably just padding the fare, but I was not going to take a chance on being kidnapped so we flew.
"Called ahead..."
Grocery shopping with my grandma, she's tired (normal for her) but she's getting a bit slower and dragging her leg more than usual. At the checkout counter I saw her face was a little droopy and I said we are leaving now and going to ER. They gave her a bottle of water for the car ride which she ended up choking on and vomiting up all the water. Called ahead to ER so they were ready and they took care of her ASAP, she was having a stroke and they were able to help her quick enough so that she didn't have any long lasting issues.
"I was in college..."
I was in college when I had my first solo apartment. This guy across the hall would come over, or invite me over, and we'd hang out a few times. However, I would not call him a friend.
One night he asks me to loan him some money. In addition to not wanting to loan him money, I don't really have any, so he proceeds to ask for a ride to see his girlfriend because she has some money for him. I agree.
We arrive at her apartment and a small party is going on. When we walked into the party everyone immediately shuts up and stares at us. He runs off to find his "girlfriend," who I find out is his ex-girlfriend. It is awkward because I'm kind of this guy's friend by association, and I'm getting lots of angry stares. He gets into an argument with her and we are basically thrown out of this place.
He then asks if I can take him to another part of town. He owes another guy some money and needs to go talk to him. We proceed to an unfamiliar part of town, and he instructs me to park in a fairly isolated spot. He explains that he doesn't want the other guy to see my car...BECAUSE HE MIGHT TAKE IT. He owes this guy money for gambling or drugs or something else bad, and he is way behind on his payments. I left him and spent the rest of my time in that apartment avoiding him.
"I always wonder..."
I was ten years old and my aunt had a small 100 acre farm that was also used as a livery yard for horses.
I had a pony called Toffee. We often had kids come in our fields from the neighboring park. They would antagonize the livestock and horses, set dogs on the sheep, set fire to hay and just generally cause stress and damage.
We were told to stay away and ignore them and tell an adult if we saw them. The police often did nothing as the kids would escape onto the park and the council refused for us to close off the public foot paths through the fields, it was a true misery.
I went to catch my pony from the field and saw he was sweaty and wide eyed. I don't think he understood for a moment that he was safe with me from this frightened look he gave me. I realized suddenly there were six people in the copse of our field. I was suddenly frightened and tried to encourage Toffee to come with me quickly.
Initially the boys ran, I believe when they saw how small I was and that I was no threat the group made way back towards me, the field was five acres and this all occurred in one of the corners.
In a panic I went to grab my pony but he was scared of them and backed away. One of the boys shouted "if you touch that horse I'm going to get you."
Toffee in that moment charged briefly toward them, I don't know if it was fight not flight kicking in or he sensed my terror but it was enough to scatter the boys. I started to turn and bolt as fast as my legs could carry me toward the gate. One of the boys chased after me. I obviously screamed for my life and felt his hand briefly run over my hair before he fell over. I sprang the gate and ran down the drive to the barn where my aunt and mom were.
I always wonder about if I had not run in that moment or Toffee not charged at them if I'd be alive. The field was far away from safety, my parents would leave me for hours alone at the farm. There was a forest and stream as well so my small body could easily have been hidden...
If any are curious, I still have Toffee about thirteen years later. He's 27 and a very old grumpy pony. I'll keep him till he departs the world, he has given so much joy for the little he gave and he might have saved me had he not taken off when he did.
"I decided to hit the exit..."
About a decade ago, I was driving my Miata with a friend to a track about 4 hours from home. We left after dinner the night before so we could wake up there and get an early start. About an hour from our destination, 11pm a crazy summer storm hit...heavy rain, high wind gusts, lots of debris. I told my buddy that early 90s windshield wipers couldn't keep up, I couldn't see, and I just felt like I was white knuckling the steering wheel.
I decided to hit the exit, we'd get some late night food at a Waffle House and wait out the storm. We sat down and I had a TV in sight and I was casually watching. Almost immediately, a weather map came up and showed a tornado pass right over where we would've been a few minutes later had I not exited.
"It was all empty..."
walking men GIF by South Park GiphyVisiting Kowloon in Hong Kong, I ended up walking all day until my feet were killing me. It got dark outside and I was tired, so I decided to drop by a decent looking bar for a drink and a moment to rest my feet.
It was all empty except a group of serious looking local men in suits. They kept leering at me the whole time, the most awkward beer I ever had. None of them said a word, but I got the message: "You're not supposed to be here, gwailo."
"Some friends and I..."
In college, there was a big rock/cliff at the top of a hill that everybody used to climb. It had lights pointing at it to light it up at night.
Some friends and I decided to climb up to the top at night. It was a nice evening but there was a chance of rain. So we get to the top and I see lightning in the distance. I count the time between lightning and thunder... 15 seconds.
I tell my friends: Hey that storm is coming our way, and I'm guessing we have 15-20 min before it gets here. It took some convincing for them to agree that even though I was being a negative-nancy we would head back down. Getting down took about 15 minutes.
Just before we got to the cars, lightning hit the rock and blew out all the lights.
"Felt the energy..."
Woodstock 99. Felt the energy of the grossly over packed crowd, the building rage, and looked my friends and said we need to go. They stayed, I left. Shortly after fired and riots started and my friends lost everything they had with them. Tents, clothes, food, everything. When you have 300k people shoulder to shoulder in 104 degree humidity and charge $4 for a bottle if water and have half as many bathrooms as needed, you're gonna have a bad time.
"The After Party..."
Was 15/16 at a house party with my good friend, another girl.
There were some gatecrashers who turned up (which weren't unusual at London house parties) but these guys were older, and there was just a vibe. A girl I vaguely knew, was very drunk and being surrounded by them and I asked her if she was ok and she told me to "Screw off, I'm fine."
I looked at my friend and said to her "I'm gonna call my mom and dad to come get me do you want a lift?" (My parents were always amazing and said to me that if I was at a party or out and for ANY reason didn't want to be where I was I could call them and they would come and get me).
My parents turned up, coats on over pajamas and took us both home. Apparently half an hour after we left, someone was stabbed, and lots of stuff was stolen and people beaten up and held up at knifepoint.
I had such a feel in the air that I've hardly felt before or since and KNEW we needed to not be there.
"10 seconds away..."
I was waiting for an Uber on the outskirts of Atlanta with a couple friends around 10pm. We were just shooting the crap after leaving a nearby restaurant and talking about what bar to go to. A disheveled older man walked up a few feet behind one of my friends and struck a weird pose for 2-3 minutes while looking in our direction, and there was no one else around. Then he walked off without saying a word. He came back a few minutes later and sat down on the sidewalk about 5 feet away from us. At this point I'm just wondering if he wants something from us, because there was absolutely no other reason to plop down that close to us on an empty sidewalk. Then a small sedan pulls in a nearby parking lot, parking behind some bushes in the spot closest to us and consequently furthest from any of the shops in that lot. I only noticed because I happened to be facing that direction, but then saw 6 guys pile out of the sedan and immediately cross the street directly towards us. I realized there were not any shops or restaurants still open nearby. It suddenly occurred to me that the strange dude might have been sizing us up when he was watching us earlier, and he came back to "mark" us. We were all dressed nice with smartphones out and watches visible, basically the fanciest stuff we had for a night out. Right as I started to speak up that we should head back towards other people, our uber pulled up to the curb. As we drove away, I watched those 6 guys talking in a circle where we had just been standing, and then they crossed the street again and got back in their car. I'll never have a definitive answer, but I'm pretty sure we were 10 seconds away from some unfortunate shenanigans.
"Hit the Gas..."
Speeding Get Away GIF by Zella DayGiphyA couple of friends and I were outside a house party talking. I noticed out of the corner of my eye something dart behind some bushes towards the end of the block - maybe four houses down? It was dark out so it was hard to tell. We stood there a bit long and I swore I saw something again move to a tree a little closer. This wasn't the best neighborhood (heck my whole hometown isn't the safest) and I knew a couple people at the party were involved in some stuff so I don't know if that entered my mind or what, but I got immediate goosebumps. I said "let's go- NOW". A couple of my friends looked at me weird, but later one told me they knew by the look on my face something was up. I apparently look possessed. I had my keys so we ran to my car and got in. I didn't even let anyone get their seatbelts on - I just hit the gas. Based on the news stories less than probably 5 minutes later a group of people shot up the house we were at - the others standing outside were severely injured or killed. Turns out a couple guys at the party were thought to have killed someone's family member and it was a revenge thing. This was over 20 years ago and I still get nervous if I'm standing around outside - especially if it's dark.
"The Girl & The Doll..."
New years eve in Moscow. I (dark haired brown man) was drinking with my SO (blonde white woman) in a bar getting friendly with some locals who tried their best to speak English. So friendly that one of them gave us a matryoshka doll that he was going to give to his mother later that night.
They seemed a little too friendly, and maybe they just were, but at one point I went to order more drinks and the bartender (who had been watching and serving us) gave me a stern look and said, "you should leave... now".
I found this a little strange and unexpected so naturally tried to question what he meant, but his face was drop dead serious. He looked at the friendly group, then at my GF, then to me and repeated his words.
I didn't really want to take any chances in Russia and wanted to see another bar anyway, so I grabbed my girl, the doll and promptly left.
"Up in the Air..."
Sknyliv airshow catastrophe.
I was 5ish at a time, so it's my dad's story more than mine. You can google the details, but long story short, my dad saw the plane jolt in the air, and he realized that something went wrong and started running and yelling at everyone else to run. I was sitting on his shoulders, so he just took off with me. The plane crashed into the crowd killing 77 people, 35 or so children among them. Not us.
"Light it Up..."
electric black and white GIFGiphyI work as an engineer in a data center cooling plant. We're responsible for basically everything in the building- mechanical, electrical, hvac, plumbing.
So the engineer I'm relieving tells me there's an odd sound coming from the Con Ed vaults- this is where these huge transformers are that step down from 26,000 volts or so to a voltage the building can actually use- we are not allowed in those vaults, they're locked and only Con Ed has they key.
So he leaves, and I take a walk by the vaults- I had never actually heard electricity arcing through the air before, but I knew I was hearing it then.
I called Con Ed's emergency line and told them to get out there ASAP- a crew of two guys show up, they seem calm and disinterested in the elevator on the way up- "it's probably just a contact chattering" they said.
We get off the elevator and start heading down the hall- the sound was WAY louder now, we weren't even near the vaults and there was no mistaking it. Both guys stopped dead in their tracks and kind of hunkered down. I saw the color drain from them.
Wasted no time getting back in that elevator. If you've never seen video of a large transformer explosion, go check YouTube. These transformers are not like the ones you see up on utility poles, they're as big as a couple of trucks stacked on top of each other. Anyone on the floor when one of them cooked off would be gone, and we have 8 of them.
"In the Basement..."
When I was a paramedic I was in a basement taking care of a shooting victim. The fire department had not arrived yet the cop, having cleared the basement, was not with me at the time and my partner was in the ambulance getting some equipment I needed. As I was kneeling down working on my patient with 100% Focus I felt a hard steel object placed on the back of my head. It was a shotgun. The shooter apparently was still in the basement and I was alone with him. He told me he shot this guy for a reason and gave me an opportunity to leave. I left.
"I was 11, my sister was 10..."
I've wrote about this before... I was in a mall in Indonesia & 2 tourists seemed to be having problems communicating with the cashier at a bookstore, so I helped translate.
The wanted to buy me drinks to thank me. Told them it's not necessary & I have to get back to my mom soon. They told me to meet them for dinner. Told them I have to have dinner at home. They told me to sneak out & meet them after dinner. At this point, a bookstore staff noticed something was wrong and went up to question them.
My sister & I dashed off while they were distracted.
Continued wandering around the mall & realized they were following us. To see if we were just paranoid, we ducked into a lingerie store since we figured 2 men won't usually need to go lingerie shopping together. They followed us in.
Ran so quickly back to the jewelry store our mom was at. The store had intimidating security guards & I guess that stopped those guys.
I was 11, my sister was 10.
"The Top Floor..."
At a party when I was about 19. I was on the top floor with my friend and he mentioned to me that he and the guy in the corner had been in a pretty nasty fight about a year ago.
That guy is giving us some eyes and staring us down. My friend said not to worry, but I did not like the vibe this guy was giving. I saw the guy talk to his friend and send him out of the room.
I told my buddy, nope we are leaving now. Much to his protest, as there was a girl he liked at this party. I practically ran down the stairs, grabbed our other friend by the hood of his sweatshirt and ran to the car.
As we are backing out of this long country driveway, I see the guy, his buddy and 4 or 5 more of them run out of the house with baseball bats and they chased us down the driveway.
So damn glad we got out of there when we did.
"Trenches..."
My father's story:
1999, 3 adult males entered our family store in July wearing heavy trench coats. They spread out through the store and my father caught a glimpse of a gun under their coats. He called the police and while waiting for a call back, my mother grabbed the children and ran out the back door. Once we got a call back, an employee answered the phone and asked who called the police. The men ran out of the store, went down 2 doors, robbed the laundry mat, and killed the clerk.
"the bad guy..."
Driving to Disney with hubs and 2 little kids (4 and 5). Stopped at a gas station in Tifton, GA at about 10pm. Wander in a little bleary eyed with the 2 kids looking for the bathroom. Clerk looks at me funny and points. While I'm in there I hear "She's got 2 babies with her man. Just let them pee and go". I grab both kids and walk straight back to the car with only a small head nod to the clerk. Hubs was done pumping gas and about to go in himself. I yelled for everyone to get in the car, I would explain later. As soon as we pulled out I called 911. The operator told me they were already on route and to vacate the scene, took my info and wished us a fun trip. Walked into a gas station robbery with two little kids, peed and left with no issues. Bad gas wasn't that bad of a guy and let us go.
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"The Lion is Awake Tonight..."
the hershey company lion GIFGiphyI was on a date with a girl hiking a trail system that I knew like the back of my hand, something felt weird but I shook it. We went in around sunset, we were going to swim in one of the deep pools in the creek. Maybe 2 miles into the trail I get the feeling again, and she's talking her head off, but i was just listening to everything around me. I told her to stop talking, and she looked at me very concerned, i just put my finger to my lips and listened. I heard something familiar but i couldn't place it. We never stopped walking. We came to the Arroyo just before the creek pool, and I heard it again, by this time I knew. I told her we were going to walk to the clearing where the Arroyo was at and turn around. She told me she heard something weird. As we came to the clearing we stood there like statues, dead silent. Her nails cut my arm from gripping it so hard. Then around 15 feet from us, the biggest mountain lion I've ever seen crossed the clearing with 2 of its young. She looked at us, and as our eyes met... my soul left my body. And I felt her grip tighten around my arm even tighter. She stopped and so did her babies. I'm guessing she sized us up...and then just kept going. The babies kept turning around looking at us, but ultimately they just slowly crossed the top of the hill and that was that. We turned around and told everyone we saw on the way in that there was 3 mountain lions on the trail, they all turned around and left. That was the first time I was ever scared out in nature. I didn't have a handgun on me, I had been there a hundred times. She told me the sound she heard was a deep purring, and that was what I kept hearing also, I just hadn't put it together.
"being 15..."
I was 15 at the time. I took about 10 of my little cousins with me to the park. Three of my older cousins (but still younger than me or the same age) came with me to help. As I approached the park there was a man and two other kids there. He came up to me and started talking to me. I tried to give him the hint that I didn't wanna talk but he kept going. I asked him "oh did you bring your kids with you" he nodded and kept talking. Then asked me weird questions like "are you married?" "are those your kids?" "how old are you?" I lied about my name and age and tried to walk away. Then he said "I like you wanna sit with me and talk." I said I had something important to tell my family first and I'd join him after. I smiled and went up to one of my older cousins and said "pretend everything is okay but we need to leave now." She nodded and I watched as the two kids left without the man. So we started walking home again and I made sure he didn't follow or watch where we went. I later found out that he had picked up one of my little cousins and put him down again and one of my cousins saw but she froze and didn't say anything to me. Luckily one of us saw him walk into a house and so we called the police.
"Thank God..."
thank god relief GIF by Red Table TalkGiphyShowed up to a party, some people were outside fighting, my GF at the time and I decided to leave. Not long after that some guys that were a part of the fist fight came back with more and a shooting occurred.
It's finna go down...."
I was at a club and a guy pulled up and parked next to us as we were getting out to head in. The guy then proceeded to reach in the back of his SUV and pull out a shotgun. He looked over at us and told us "It's finna go down." We got back in our vehicle and noped out.
"The Handgun..."
Went to friends house that I had slept over at a couple times already. He left the room and noticed something under his pillow. Lifted it to find a handgun (we were 12). I stupidly even pick it up to see if it was plastic, confirming that it is metal and reasonably heavy. I grab my crap and tell him I need to leave, but he stops and tells me it's a BB gun he spray painted black. I stayed, but these days I question the truth of that situation.
"Do you feel that?"
Girls camp, my last year. Me and a small group of girls wanted to climb to the top of this big hill that has a beautiful lookout above the trees and clear view of the sky. It was a new moon and zero light pollution. We grabbed our flashlights and got on the trail. About 3/4 of the way up, the two girls leading us stopped dead in their tracks at the same time. One whispered to the other "Do you feel that?" I was right behind them and heard what they said. I looked up and around. I didn't see anything but something in the air made the hair on my neck stand on end. It was just too... quiet. I started to feel very vulnerable and scared. One of the girls in front turned and said "We need to go back. Don't run." One girl asked why not run and they said so you don't trip. Valid reason but I don't believe it was the real reason she said it.
"The Wolves..."
wolves GIF by STORKSGiphyMy friends and I all pre teen boys were walking around the neighborhood. A white van with a mountainscape mural with wolves howling at moon kept slowly following us. Eventually we caught on after a few blocks and started to get anxious. We didn't run, but slowly walked up to a random door (very family centric neighborhood) and then started loudly knocking. The van pealed off never to be seen again.
"The College Weekend..."
I was home from college for a holiday weekend. A college friend was from the same town and he was home too. We were looking for something to do on Saturday night and heard that an old friend was having a party, so we decided to stop by.
This old friend had developed new friends while we were gone - neo-Nazi skinheads. They had visible tattoos of Nazi symbols. Did I mention that the friend I brought is definitely not a white guy? We got the hell out of there pretty quick.
"Coffee & Donuts..."
My friends and I stopped at a 7-11 around midnight in a sketchy neighborhood, we'd taken a wrong turn and were trying to find our way back to the highway. Two police officers were getting coffee and donuts.
A group of local youths came in, kind of roughly messing with each other. The police officers looked at them, looked at us, looked at each other and power-walked out of the store.
My friends and I decided not to complete our snack food purchases and made to leave - and then one of the youths yelled to his friends that we'd called him a racial epithet, when we hadn't even spoken to them. I'm glad my car started on the first try, and glad no one was coming the other way as I ran a couple stop signs.
"away from home...."
I left my hometown for a few years after enlisting and when I came home to visit, an old friend text me and invited me to a party and I thought it would be cool to catch up. The party was fine until some random guys show up that were way older than anyone else there, idk who invited them but they got into a fight with another friend of mine, and my friend is a pretty big guy so he won that fight, and the girl who owned the house kicked everyone out that was involved. I decided to leave and saw my friend standing in the front yard. He said the guys went to their car and peeled off so I told him he should leave and I would give him a ride home but he said he already had someone coming to pick him up. Turns out these guys were gang members and they came back with guns, popped the trunk and shot and killed my friend right there in the front yard because he had beat them up. They ended up getting arrested and charged with murder though.
"The Black Market..."
In China, on a school trip. Wandering around night-market stalls of fried bugs and bull testicles, in a group of 10 or so high-school age kids. A 50-60ish y.o. Chinese man engages us in conversation, claiming to be the curator of a local art gallery. Do we want to check out some paintings? Sure, we were bored and had lost our appetite pretty quickly anyhow. Well we get to the 'gallery' which was a semi-rundown 5x5m building. The Chinese man talks to us from the doorway, inviting us in to see the paintings which are downstairs. The building is in the middle of a large paved courtyard, right next to a popular tourist destination. It's safe, right? Peering through the doorway, no artwork or obvious function to the building is visible. An entrance lamp is broken with its glass scattered over the doorway, and inside shoddy steps lead to a dank unlit basement. One of us interrupts Chinese man's sweet talking (come down, see painting) to grill him on the broken glass. "Don't worry, many paintings. Beautiful" "No, tell me why there's broken glass". At this point we're all exchanging glances, when I get the urge to break our collective stupor by yelling "CHEEEESE ITTTT!" As a group we turn tail into a sprint, covering a hundred yards or so before we slow down to laugh and crack jokes about kidnapping and organ black markets. Glad it was the best memory from my trip and not the last one.
"Yeah, trust your guts, guys...."
Late afternoon in the summer, I'm waiting in the bus station near my house, most businesses are closed, not a lot of cars in the street. Guy passes in front of me, he passes again two minutes later watching me suspiciously, alarms start to go in my head screaming to me that I need to leave and get the hell off here, but I ignore it since the bus will come in ten minutes. Third time he passes he charges to me. I freeze for some seconds then start punching and kicking him, I manage to get away and the rest is history.
Yeah, trust your guts, guys.
"The Heifer..."
Walking Cow GIF by Mercy For AnimalsGiphyWhen me (11) and my mom were feeding some cows we had bought with some other people. There was supposed to be 8 but when we walked into the field they were being held at, there was only seven. Suddenly a massive black heifer emerged from some bushes ca 50 meters away from us and just started BOLTING towards us, swinging its head wildly. I literally said to my mom "I think we need to leave now." But the bewildered bovine would easily have sprinted us down and trampled us to death, so my mom stepped towards it, spreading her arms out wide and screaming bloody Murder. It sounded like somebody had kicked a bull in the testicles, and it luckily was intimidating enough to make the cow stop and lumber away.
"that was the guy...."
So I was waiting at the train station to pick up a friend of mine. I was early so I decided to stand in the sun right outside of the station. A guy with a bicycle walked up to me asking in broken English if I knew how late the train would arrive. After I answered the question he stayed around and starting talking to me.
Now I know that's not weird at all but the things he asked and the way he acted and looked just gave me a creepy vibe. Eventually he asked if I would walk with him while he dropped his bicycle of. I didn't want to because the place to store bicycles at this station is very secluded and to be honest I didn't want to be alone with this guy. So I noped out and walked into the station.
He started yelling at me. Calling me names but at that moment the train came in and it got very busy. So he left.
A few months later I read this article in the local paper about a girl being attacked at the station. They had put a drawing of a guy next to the article as he was not yet caught. It was the same guy. To this day I'm very happy I didn't go with him.
Edit: changed my special way of spelling bicycle to the correct way.
"Not today Cows!"
I was hiking with 2 friends and we were crossing through some big farms. One of the fenced of areas had a herd of cows in it. They had like 20 calves and 150 cows.
As we were walking through, they slowly ganged up on us from behind and literally encircled us, facing inwards while standing next to each other. I think they surrounded us by like 300 degrees before we realized what was happening and freaking ran like hell the last 50m to the edge of the fenced area. I think the opening between the two ends of the open circle was like 20m and they were like 20m away from us.
That was pretty insane tbh, I will never forget it. I learned to differentiate between the behavior of 1 creature opposed to a herd. It blew my mind how they all worked together in silence. I have never experienced fear physically like in that moment.
When we hopped the fence they followed us to the edge. There was one black bull in particular who didn't seem to like we got away. I always assumed he was the leader.
"Quick Thinking..."
Hero Help GIF by HollyoaksGiphyWhen I was about 16, I went to visit my grandmother at her place. The smell of natural gas was intense, even though Nana didn't seem to notice it much.
She was groggy - sort of half-asleep - not her usual responsive self. So I made her get out of the house at once and opened the windows and doors.
I called Dad and he reported it to the gas company, who sent inspectors right away. They shut off the gas (valve in the street) immediately and sent a repair crew to fix a leaking joint in the gas supply pipe.
The inspector said that if I hadn't acted then and there, the probability was great that there would soon have been an explosion.
"time to go honey..."
The owner of a Mexican restaurant threw two young farm workers at the bar out to the parking lot, they were drunk as monkeys and proceeded to try to fight but mostly just leaned on each other, all in front of the picture window while the place is full of people. Then one runs to his trucks and burns rubber outta there. I said "time to go honey" she says "What?" "Those A-holes aren't done and I'm not going to be here when the shooting starts" We left, it did not long after.
Edit: if you want eat authentic, go where the farmworkers eat. My SO speaks Spanish, these guys had been escalating the bullshit for a while, their blood was way up. I threw three twenties on the table and got on outta there.
"Casing the Joint..."
My friend and I, both females, met up our first time back home from college. It was a surprisingly nice day outside in the middle of winter so we decided to get lunch and eat outside. We found a park that had no one there and were sitting at a picnic table catching up when I see a scruffy looking guy in a large work van with no rear windows pull into the parking lot. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to him at first but I noticed he was moving around the outside of the van for a bit and he kept looking our way. He finally walked down the sidewalk toward us and passed by our picnic table and walked around the backside of the restroom building to look down the hill on the other side of it. Very obviously casing out the place.
He walked back to his van and me and my friend were discussing what we were going to do while I watched him open up the back of the van and start digging around it. He made a call on his cell phone and a few minutes later another male pulled up in a different car. He got out and started talking to the first guy, who not very discreetly pointed our direction. They immediately started walking toward us and my friend and I scooped what was left of lunch and fast walked out of the place while keeping an eye on them. One of the times in my life I could literally feel the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. It could have been nothing, but even now I feel pretty certain that they had something planned and I am glad we left.
"I'll buy how I wish!"
My friend invited me to a "seminar". Everyone were dressed in white shirt and black pant with black shoes. I was odd one out in here. For some weird reason, they were praising founder as if he was some kind of god. When I went in to the auditorium, they were showing how these 17 year olds were earning Rs. 200,000 in a month (which is heckuva lot in India, translated to about $3500) with their own bikes, cars and shit like that. Then it dawned upon me that this is eerily similar to one of the biggest scam in that used similar business model about 7 years ago at the time. I really wanted to move out ASAP. My brainwashed friend was sitting a few row behind me (all of those involved in this marketing were required to do so for weird reason). It was cringy at best and exploitative at worst. Never caught up with him ever since.
That friend of mine wasn't really bad person or anything. He didn't even force me to buy the product or anything. May be due to the fact that I studied in different city. The product seemed really good from outside but the method of selling really looked like one for MLM. There was another person in that group who was from my school (didn't know him in any way) who forced one of my family friend (went to same school) to buy that product. He then resorted to swearing and abused her online for not buying the product. I'm not sure if it is a full fledged MLM because the participants weren't forced to buy product in bulk. Probably because all of them were students. I don't recall the name of the company, so Idk how is that company still doing.
"no, that's my husband."
Met this cute girl at a party. Spent the whole night dancing a flirting. Offered to drive her home and she agreed. We were making out in the car in front of her house when another car pulls up with their headlights beaming at us. I ask if that's a neighbor and if we're blocking their driveway? She replies "no, that's my husband."
Husband's car door opens and I noped the hell out of there. Dropped her straight back at the party and never saw her again.
Her excuse was that they were separated and he shouldn't have a problem with it. I sure wasn't sticking around to find out
Edit: Holy crap that's a lot of upvotes! I've thoroughly enjoyed hearing everyone's similar stories. Thank you all.
Grand Forks, ND April 17th 1997.
I had spent the morning in the shadow of a 12' wall of sandbags that I was helping to build up to a River Level of 49'.
Around 2pm I went back to my apartment to eat before heading into work, and I turned on the Radio to try and catch the flood forecast. They announced that the river was currently at 48' 6" and rising at a rate of half an inch per hour. For weeks the NWS kept repeating the crest would be 49 feet in early May. Now they had changed the forecast! They were now saying the crest would be 49' 6" in the first week of May.
I immediately began packing, and loaded up everything I would need for several weeks before going into work. I worked at a convenience store and I made sure to fill my gas tank before I began my shift. Before my shift was over the evacuation announcements had begun, and we were swamped with lines of cars fueling up to leave the city. 36 hours later on Saturday morning I was among the massive line of cars in the largest pre-Katrina flood evacuation in the U.S.. I didn't get back to my apartment for months.
The "We" in my "We need to leave now" moment was the entire city.
"The Hale-Bop..."
comet GIFGiphyI've told this story before but it's been awhile, and may just get buried, but here goes.
I was out in the country late at night taking some long exposure photographs of the Hale-Bopp comet as it approached the sun (which was marvelous by the way). I had driven out of town and just picked a dark, empty farmers field to setup. Nice and dark.
I'm out there for a couple hours when I get this massive feeling of "I need to leave now." I pack up my camera, tripod and lawn chair, throw it all in my car, get in and start the car. When the lights of the car come on I see the wolf that was sitting 20 feet from where I was positioned, just sitting there staring at me! I've never gotten bigger chills in my life.
"The Bad Buff Guys..."
So, I was at work at a retail store and this guy with two massive buff guys came in to the store to interrogate me about my cousin (who is on many drugs and probably owes them money) so they started to to tell me to stop lying to them about me not knowing about my cousin, for more backstory in 5" 2 female and I'm not muscular at all. So I went to find my manager for help but she wasn't in the store because she was on her lunch break so I had to hide in the work bathrooms out the back until my manager found me. It was quiet terrifying and I don't even talk to my cousin because he is a terrible human being.
"Nearly Swept Away..."
Once, while I was in High School, word got around about a party to be had at an old abandoned barn in the middle of nowhere. With little else to do, my best friend and I drove out there it see what was what. We got there, and the place is crawling with kids in various states of inebriation. Cars parked all over the place. We saw this was a bad scene, and noped out of there. On the way back to the city, we passed a bunch of cop cars hauling butt in the other direction. We missed getting swept up in the raid by about three minutes. Was a minor scandal next Monday, as several student athletes were caught, and lost their eligibility.
"Air on Fire..."
I was in a tiny room inside of a big room where there was a lot of servers. And you know, servers rooms need to have air conditioners so I was always so cold. One day, I started to feel the air warming, I didn't care so I kept doing my things. The air became warmer and warmer and I said "something's happened": for unknown reasons, the air conditioners had stopped. I ran to the door because I thought servers were going to burn instantly, but when I touched the knob... It was burning, I almost couldn't open it.
The servers were making a horrible sound, the heat was unbearable, I was sweating a lot. Before I went out of the servers room, I turned on the air conditioners and I ran away to tell people of the enterprise what happened. Finally, nothing happened, because I turned on the air conditioners, but if I hadn't done it I would have died because if servers set on fire those things that put out fires (I don't know the name, I'm not English) would have left me without oxygen (they are automatic). We still don't know what happened with the air conditioners.
"Saved"
tornado GIFGiphyWe were sitting on the sand at the beach, talking and having drinks. I looked up at the sky behind my friends and saw this huge, dark, ominous cloud mass moving towards us.
I got up and said "guys, we have to leave NOW. Huge thunderstorm coming right at us. We have about 5 minutes!"
We managed to reach the car but had to sit in it for a good hour while the wind and rain ravaged everything around us - trees were left bare, benches were upturned, trash cans were dragged for half a mile. The beach club tents were blown away and some people were seriously injured when stuff fell on them. It was all over the news that evening.
My friends still talk about how I "saved" them that day - most people didn't move from where they were sitting, even though we tried to warn them.
"HOOPS..."
We were playing hoops in a bad neighborhood. At some point one of the guys we were playing with got real nasty "white boys leave now. We ain't messing with you you need to leave." Real aggressive etc.
I had noticed a black BMW circling around the playground but nothing much else.
All his friends started insulting us and pushing us etc. Which was weird we were playing with them every week end. I had given free tutoring classes to one of their brothers.
We left. Pissed. That was a damn good playground. And it felt special to play with the thugs, us being nerdy boys.
Well 15 mins after we left the black BMW shot at them. Multiple casualties, etc.
Edit: my timeline is a bit mixed up. Since I had started giving tutoring classes, etc. it was 15 years ago or so, not 20 years ago. I am old but not that old. Sorry but I wont correct my other comments mentioning the timeline.
"Pretty Big Rocks..."
Whilst driving on the highway, I stumbled upon some pretty big rocks in the middle of the road (luckily I had my high-beams on), and I had to come to a full-stop in the middle of the highway. There wasn't an embankment anywhere near me and this wasn't a rocky area so I was initially puzzled as to where the rocks had come from, then I noticed a guy in my rear-view mirror coming out of the bushes. It was at this exact moment where I was like 'we need to leave, now!'. I threw my car into reverse and gunned it... nearly drove over the guy in the road behind me; did a j-turn and drove in the opposite direction on travel on the highway until I found an offramp.
This was about 11pm at night on a segment of the highway which is notorious for hi-jackers. Turns out that the hi-jackers place massive rocks in the road at night and when you drive head-long into the rocks and get out of your car to inspect the damage, they then pop out of the bushes and rob you at gun-point, and drive off with your car if it is still driveable. Luckily I wasn't a victim that night. God only knows what they would have done to my GF.
"Not Without my Dog..."
Well Done Applause GIF by MOODMANGiphyI got home at 3am after a night with the boys. I notice an out of place workers van before turning into my main street but didn't think much of it. I decided to walk my dog because we usually do it nightly off leash. As I'm walking down the cross street I see another random car in the middle of the street under a street light. No head lights on but car is on. I didn't think much of it until I made a right to loop the block and go back home.
As soon I turned I see that initial white van and I see that other car start to move and drive right behind me, still with no headlights on. And that was the moment I knew I needed to get out of there. I kinda blacked out and was in survival mode. I picked up my dog and ran as fast as I could down the street. I never looked back. I was scared they were following me home but by the time realized what just happened I was almost home. I never walk my dog late at night now.