People Who Have Been The Target Of An Assassination Attempt Explain How They Survived
Not all plotted murder attempts are political assassinations like I pictured. A lot of normal people out here are the ones on the hit list.
Moral of the story is, we can't really live a life without pissing off the deranged few that might come after us with a gun. We'd have to stay inside all day eating cold cuts and lacking Vitamin D.
Some Redditors unfortunately did find themselves in the cross hairs. But they made it out, usually because of pure luck.
u/Buttery_Avocado asked, "People who have been the target of murderers/assassins, how did you survive, and why did they target you?"
Murder by Traffic (still murder)
I'm not sure if it counts but a few years ago in high school, there was this guy that used to trouble everyone by taking naked photos of them when they were changing after PE class.
I happened to be one of his targets so I reported him to my teacher and eventually he got suspended for about a month and had to attend counselling sessions.
One day I was at the bus stop waiting for my bus when suddenly I felt a push on my back and I fell onto the road. Luckily for me, the bus driver stopped the bus in time and I survived. However, I fell directly on my arm and it was fractured.
Last I heard, he went to the juvenile centre and no one ever had to see this devil again.
Chosen One
They missed. That's about the only reason.
It was a random act of violence. A man ran up behind me, put a gun to my head and shot. He flinched or I did and he missed by an inch. Blew out my left eardrum and burned my hair behind my ear. He ran off immediately after.
Cops said it was probably a gang initiation thing. I have deafening tinnitus now and horrible anxiety in public.
Random Cars Are Your Friend
About a year ago, I was walking my dog at night when I saw this really beat up old Honda Civic pull up on the other side of the road. I noticed that two similar cars positioned themselves on the roads perpendicular to me both behind and in front of me. I was boxed in.
This kid no older than 19 gets out with 2 other people, and the kid reaches for a gun in his wasitband and makes a beeline towards me. A random car passes and they all scatter. Once the car is gone, they come back and try to do the same thing, but another random car passes again, and they take off. I made the quarter mile run home in about 2 minutes.
My guess is I was the victim of a gang initiation, and they ran away when witnesses saw.
Risky Blind Dates
I was almost murdered. If it wasnt for my manager I would have been.
My sister set me up on a date with her friend. I ended up having to work the weekend so I canceled. The date went out with someone else and afterwards invited him to her apartment. Right before they went inside someone killed them both with a gun. It turned out to be a jealous neighbor of the girl who she was also messing with.
That could have been me if i went on the date and she decided to let me in for tea.
When Everybody Knows the Same Hit Man...
My ex boyfriend hired some guy from Chicago to murder me after I broke up with him for selling drugs to my younger sister. Fortunately, my ex & I both had a mutual friend who found out & had more pull with the attempted assassin (both were polish immigrants). Ex calls me up later and demands $2000 from me because he "didn't get what he paid for", as the hired gun wouldn't give a refund.
Shoulda Rode with Clinton
While it seemed strange at the time, I actually didn't find out about the circumstances until 20 years later. I worked at the White House during the Clinton Administration in an IT capacity, and was traveling on a trip to the Philippines and the APEC conference in Jakarta, Indonesia.
We had flown into Manila late, and hopped on the bus to the hotel with the staff motorcade. Everyone was pretty awake, and we were all BSing on the ride to the hotel. About 45 minutes into the ride, I look out the window of the bus and we are on a narrow road lined by corrugated tin shacks. It really seemed strange at the time since why would the road from the airport to the nice hotels in Manila have to go through this neighborhood? We eventually arrived at the hotel, and it was quickly forgotten.
20 years later, I am watching a series on the History Channel about the United States Secret Service. This one episode was about how the Secret Service coordinates with Intelligence agencies, and talked about on a Clinton trip to Manila where they overheard Al Quaeda was talking about a "Wedding Cake" under the bridge. "Wedding Cake" was a known code word for bomb. Clinton was diverted to the alternate route (and undoubtedly got to the hotel a lot quicker than we did.) It turns out there was indeed a bomb under the bridge on the route to the hotel.
I was obviously not the target, but it was crazy, and many of us could have been collateral damage.
Too Familiar
Does a school shooting count?
I was not in the same part of the school, I evacuated with my class and got home safely a few hours later. Had I been in the wrong place at the wrong time I just as easily could have been one of the victims.
He was and is a deluded, violent, angry, lonely demon who couldn't stand a world where the rest of us weren't dragged into his demented hellpit. No way in hell. Life has recovered more or less to what it was, and twenty two months on, Stoneman Douglas is 0% his world and 100% the world I know our 17 fallen want it to be.
But But it's So Hard to Get Rid of a Tattoo
Not sure if this counts as I wasn't the intended target, but my dad ran a chapter of a fairly notorious biker gang (notorious enough to get their own episode of "Gangland"). Once my dad left, a guy who never really liked him all that much took his place and insisted that since he was no longer in the gang, he needed to get rid of his tattoo. My dad told him to go pound sand. Surprisingly, that didn't go over particularly well, and he ordered his SUV bombed. We lived in an apartment complex at the time and they blew up the wrong SUV. Thankfully no one was inside either. As far as I know, that was the only attempt on his life, at least as long as I was I've been alive.
How Not to Deal With Unwanted Neighbors
I lived below an insane person, in a shared house. For the record I lived there first. Insane Person wanted the entire house to rent, tried to force me out many ways, making noise, having people creep around and knock on my windows, call the cops on me for no reason etc.
So one day he lit a smouldering fire in the non-functional fireplace (we were told never to use it) and closed his off, forcing the smoke to fill my apartment. We luckily got out, but the hospital said one more hour in there and we would be dead. Me and my husband spent several hours in the hospital on oxygen.
My dad had replaced our smoke detector literally 2 weeks prior to this incident as we discovered it was broken. Since the laundry was in my part of the house, Insane Person could totally have come in and tampered with it but I have no evidence of this.
The funniest part of the whole thing was when I called 911 and the fire trucks showed up at 3 am, Insane Person cussed me out for calling them.
The second funniest part was work tried to get me to come in that day since nobody could cover my shift.
All that effort to rent out a teardown house in a sketchy neighbourhood.
That's Why Ya Pick Up Your Litter, Kids
Not sure If this one counts but... I was born in Iraq at the very start of the war. My parents tried shielding us from the war and death outside but sometimes things just happened the likes of which they had no control over.
I was about 5 years old (I can't remember my exact age but all I can remember is that I was too young to attend elementary school) my mom was getting my siblings ready for school(brushing my sister's hair) and I was sitting on her tailoring bench with a curtain less window behind me. I remember playing around with some pins she had laying around.
My grandma (alive at the time) was watching over me so I do not fall, thus when a pin dropped from my hand to the floor she was quick to tell me to pick it up so no one would step on it. I bend down to pick up the pin an I hear a pop (simmer to the popping sound of a balloon)
I glance back and the window was gone, and all i hear next is my sister scream and start crying.
My mom quickly yelled for all of us to get against the wall and to get away from the window. As We all look around the room to see what happened we see a bullet (as long as a index finger) in the middle of the room (one of my brothers goes over to pick it up but it was too hot to touch).
The next day we go over to the police and all they can do is tell us that it was a sniper bullet and they can't do anything about it.
I assume that a sniper saw me just sitting there in front of a window and took the shot, but it missed me when I bent down to pick up the pin so it went over my head, grazing my sister's arm before stopping on the floor.
James Bond Ain't Got Nothin
I was a photojournalist in an unnamed Central American country doing humanitarian coverage for a college. Suddenly there were riots against the government and officials started shooting people with cameras. My group was chased so I had to change my appearance (I.E. clothes, hat, satchel) and ditch my camera to an in country contact and acted like a normal student to smuggle my SD cards in little slots I cut in my shoes until I got to the US where I took them out and just had them in my pocket so to not arouse suspicion by TSA. 10/10 would do again
An Antidote to Ghosting?
No way to prove it, but had all the lugnuts on my trucks front passenger rim loosened which caused death-wobble so bad I almost crashed in the fast lane of the freeway. Luckily the rim stayed on. I had ghosted this one guy and part of me suspects he came and loosened my lugnuts in retaliation. My boss discovered it being the nice guy he was.
A Horrifying Boyfriend
One night, he seemed bored and started trying to stick his feet in my face. I pushed them away, disgusted, and he... exploded. It was a whole lot of action. He started by trying to choke me. I freed myself by grabbing a cat brush, the kind with the sharp metal points, and pushing it into his chest. He let me go but pushed me to the ground and lifted his air soft rifle and drove it to my head like he was trying to cave in my skull. At the last moment he hesitated. I ran out of the apartment and called the cops. It didn't occur to me until later when I was with a public defender documenting my injuries that he had really wanted to kill me. I had bruising so deep they were black in color, in places I don't even remember him hitting me. He really would have, if something in him hadn't hesitated.
Singers Can Be Ego-Heavy
Was in a band with a singer who wanted a coke empire. He said if me or the drummer mentioned this to anyone, he would just have to do a little "wet work". I didn't know about his threat until after I distanced myself and very easily could have had my head blown off in my sleep by a paranoid coke head
This Guy's Uncle Must Be a Loose Cannon
Not sure if attempted murder, well probably, guy ran me over while I was on a bike because I was texting with his girlfriend, I didn't even know they had a relationship. Dumb me didn't call the cops and let my uncle handle it, wish I just pressed charges.
An Nasty Divorce
A guy I know was going through a nasty divorce. It was not going well for him. He was set to lose custody and the house. Well I guess his wife wanted it all, because she hired (or asked I'm not sure) her brother to kill him. The brother attacked him with an axe in the lobby of his building. The axe actually connected, but he lived.
A Lethal Swirly
This was in Elementary school, surprisingly. A new student had moved into town, and had attended my elementary school. Let's call him Patrick.
I later asked the teacher is could use the bathroom. There was a policy where two people at a time may use the bathroom, and of course, Patrick decided he would be that second person. I later went into a stall to do my business, while he used a urinal. After cleaning up, I'm opening the urinal doors when he begins to force into the stall doors so he can bust them open. Then with full force, he just props open the door and rushes me with full force, smashing the small toilet to pieces. He begins to proceed to drown me in the toilet water, and cut my face with the leftover shards of the toilet. I manage to wrangle through his grasp and run immediately into my classroom and to inform what Patrick had done. He was later suspended, and was counseled. He wasn't allowed to walk in the hallways alone without an adult.
Some people like sweets, some people like alcohol, some people are willing to spend extra money a month just to have full access to all 14 seasons of their favorite obscure Canadian detective show.
You don't judge us, we won't judge you.
Reddit was asked:
"What is a guilty pleasure for you ?"
...and ... like ... we honestly feel kind of bonded in non-shame over this stuff.
Because it's all just SO GOOOOOOOOD!
It's Britney ...
"Playing Britney Spears’ music on 11 when I’m in the car all by myself. Especially 'Work Bitch' when I’m on the way to work an extra shift."
-nancydrew1224
"Toxic is an undeniably fantastic song."
-TheBrontosaurus
"It's such a weird mix of elements. Obviously you have Britney's pop singing, but it also mixes harsh strings with synth electro and a lot of rock elements. It blurs several genres together, and accordingly fits well next to other genres of music."
-Nambot
Those Golden Arches
"McDonald’s"
"I regret my choice right after finishing my meal. But not enough to prevent me from going back the next week lol"
-Candidmirror12
"Why did you say the word? I've been clean for three months straight!"
-realfoodman
"Yep."
"I get a craving 2-3 times a year. Same damned order every time. Large #1 value meal with a coke and a cheeseburger."
"I love their little chopped onions"
"Did you know that the Coke syrup formula for McDonald’s is different than what you get at home or other restaurants? It’s actually sweeter per McDonald’s request and specifications"
-mlgbt1985
Can't Run
"The Tremors anthology. Bad B-rated horror but god DAMN do I love me some graboids."
-BolognaIsNotAHat
"The first movie is legitimately excellent. The rest are stupid syfy level movies that are still a ton of fun."
-Taynt42
"The second one is also not terrible. Felt like a well measured escalation. The 3rd one on, though... SMH."
-Hotarg
"You ever have something be so bad that it loops itself back around into being awesome? That's this."
- [Reddit]
Perfect Mood Lifter
"Watching kid shows or disney movies even though I'm an adult."
-BanGinGDreams
"Phineas and Ferb."
"I honestly love to cruise the country side with my biker group, smoke half a pack, get home crack a beer and see what Phineas and Ferb did today."
"I'm a 28 year old man."
-Tiger_In_Maine
"Cartoons are good for the soul. Visually pleasing to watch. Good stories. Usually have some safe humor. Always end on a feel good tone. The perfect mood lifter when you're feeling down."
-GingerJayPear
Go Go Power Rangers
"Power rangers lore."
"I'm 28, can't get myself to sit through the kids shows anymore. But man did I love the series growing up and like keeping up with the new stories and seeing how it's going."
"My significant other would pretty much leave me if she found out how much I'm still addicted to keeping up with a show that I should have dropped 20 years ago."
-PN-DUBS
"Full stop, check out the comics. They were made for people that watched it as children and are adults now and they are honestly nothing short of incredible between the art and storylines. They do some really rad stuff."
-ForSafeKeeping220
Digging
"Picking my nose. I know it’s a bad habit but it’s nostalgic"
-VictoryIsMudkipz
"Kinda same it's not just gross but I also feel like it makes my nostrils bigger so I feel even more guilty 😭"
-getawaycar7H13
"There are two kinds of people in the world. People who pick their nose and liars"
-energy_falcon
Terribly Delicious
"Bad coffee."
"Like you go to a chrome-plated diner by the interstate and the coffee is made of cheap, stale grounds that has been on the hot plate or 3 hours. Something about it is super nostalgic."
-MutantOverlord
"Hell yes. I'll get like 5 refills on that tiny ass cup, tyvm"
-stoncils_
"Just terrible enough to want another cup."
-caseyd1020
Later
"Procrastinating….I hate myself for it"
-Usual-Difference9135
"I was going to comment the same but figured it could wait."
-C0rnD0g1
"I usually have two or three things on the go at once. So when I feel like procrastinating, I switch to one of the other things. My job has become literally me always procrastinating."
-StGir1
T.Swift
"I, on some occasions, belt out Taylor Swift’s 'Our Song' when I’m alone"
-nenolpunk
"I do it too but with 'The Story of Us' "
-SoonlyXo
"Taylor Swift's old songs are the best songs"
-AwesomeSpindleberry
"It’s this or 'Teardrops on My Guitar' because wow. Hit me in my teen feels."
"Who is Drew? I don't know, but I’ll sing about them regardless"
-nenolpunk
Hipster ASMR
"Before I discovered ASMR, I used to secretly watch videos of makeup tutorials because they made me feel relaxed. I'm a guy who's never worn make up in my life."
-SXOSXO
"I'm a man in my 30s. I love the cosplay tutorials from Alyson Tabbitha."
-amadeus2490
"Literally same!!! I watch NikkieTutorials or Naomi Jon! Like I personally don’t wear make up but I love the art behind it"
-patzzxd
So tell us, what's your pleasure? And do you HONESTLY feel guilty about it?
Go ahead and talk about it in the comments, I've got a certain Canadian Detective to check up on.
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Love or money?
An age old question.
Ideally, you wouldn't have to decide between the two.
In a perfect world, you would be able to find the true love of your life and be incredibly wealthy all at once.
But, as the saying goes, you can't have everything.
Though if faced with having to choose between the two, people might have a different idea of what the obvious answer would be.
Redditor lulinghayaw was curious how people would decide when faced with this decision, leading them to ask:
"Genuine, true love or 5 million dollars? Why?"
My love is worth more than that.
"True love because my true love is 5 trillion dollars."- ImOnARush.
Freedom to do what you love.
"I'm gonna be really honest, I'd choose 5 million dollars."
"Having that much money means financial stability."
"It means not having to work for money - that wouldn't mean not working ever again, but doing a job you really love even if it doesn't pay well."
"I would be able to study without worrying about burdening my parents."
"I could achieve my dream of getting multiple degrees."
"Money isn't just money, it's opportunities."
"Without having to worry about money, I could focus on improving myself in every way - getting healthier, studying more, having a stable routine, reading a lot, overall becoming the best version of myself."
"I'll have plenty of time to find true love, improve relationships with friends and family and everything else."- lux_blue.
Money over love any day- no matter the amount.
"5 dollars."- SpaZzzmanian_Devil.
"SHOW ME THE MONEY."- _starvingartist.
How much is true love worth.
"Money."
"Love can't pay my bills."- LiteLit.
Money can't buy happiness.
"True love."
"Moneys cool and all, but I'd much rather be in a loving relationship."- WhiskersCleveland.
But money can buy a lot of other things...
"5 mil, I’ll wipe my tears with hundreds."- Weary_Gate7941.
True love...with a rich partner.
"Genuine true love."
"It didn't say my partner and I would be poor."- moonIightbaby.
"The greatest thing, you'll ever learn..."
"True love."
"I have been alone all my life."
"I’ve always had toxic friends because i told myself i deserved it, i told myself 'at least they want to be friends with me'."
"I have a narcissistic mother and a dad that isn’t emotionally there because of his own trauma."
"I have a sister that flat out ignores me when I talk and my other siblings are too young for me to have the kind of bond that i need right now."
"I have an amazing best friend but it’s different than having someone that loves me and i love back."
"If you had asked me a month ago i would’ve said 5 million."
"I would’ve been lying."
"If you had asked a year ago I would’ve said 5 million and I would’ve been telling the truth. true love is priceless."
"I’ll be winning 4 million on the lottery tho."- 76543210987654321.
Some might say being truly, madly in love feels like having five million dollars.
While others might feel that having five million dollars feels even better than being in love.
Others might simply strive for a little bit of each.
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It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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