Humans might be pretty far removed from our days living among the animals in the wilds (relatively speaking), but that doesn’t mean all of our instincts have faded into the night. We still get the chills, we still sense when things aren’t completely right, and most of us get a spidey sense that tells us when it’s time to leave the party, so to speak.
These 15 people are recalling moments exactly like that, when they knew they needed to leave – and fast.
15. He didn’t know who he was dealing with.
Was in New Orleans interviewing for a job that required driving a company vehicle 10 hours a day that had valuable specialty equipment.
Interview is going great and we get to the part about pay. Guy goes we can offer you 10 an hour. A big smile came over my face and I leaned over to shake his hand. He thought I was agreeing, I was telling him bye.
Popeyes pays around 15 an hour here.
14. I hate every last word of this story.
It was years ago, when I was in 4th grade. My parents used to get into fights all the time, especially when my dad was drinking. They’d start yelling and that would turn into actual fist fights. At this time we were living in a small trailer, and the room I shared with all 3 of my siblings was at one end of the trailer, near the back door.
So my dad comes home drunk, mom is pissed and starts yelling and it escalates from there. Being in a small trailer everything sounds so close and terrifying, and as the oldest of 4 I felt the need to protect my siblings but I didn’t know what to do. After a while my mom starts screaming my name at the top of her lungs and I can still hear my dad screaming too, and I knew that I needed to get myself and my siblings out of there ASAP. I ushered them out of the room, down the hallway, and out the backdoor and told them to head to our aunt’s place, who lived a few trailers down. My mom was still screaming for me and all I knew to do was yell “I got them out Mom we’re leaving!” before also going out the back to my aunt’s. I don’t recall ever being that scared. Cops came, they both went to jail and were both out in a couple days and acted like nothing ever happened.
A few years ago I brought the incident up to my mom. I told her that I thought she was screaming at me to get my siblings out of the house and that’s why I had. She told me she was screaming my name cause she was scared and wanted help and didn’t know who else to call for. I felt so bad cause I didn’t help her, but there’s not really much I could’ve done.
13. That’s an easy decision.
When my manager told me, “Sometimes you need to make a choice between your health and your job.”
12. The image is obviously burned in his brain.
On the NYC subway I watched a grown man pull his pants down and use the support rod in the middle of the train as leverage to take a wicked steamy dump while making aggressive eye contact with me and a few other passengers.
11. They made the right decision.
I pulled into a gas station to fill up my car at 4 am on the way to work. The station was well lit and actually pretty busy, so I didn’t feel unsafe. I pulled up next to a pump, go out, and just when I put the nozzle in I heard someone trying to get my attention.
I turned and it was a guy who had been leaning against the wall of the station when I pulled in. There was a van nearby him. He asked if I could call his girlfriend to come pick him up. I called one number, voice mail box full. He gave me a second number. Mailbox also full. Then he asked if I had jumper cable and if I could give me a jump. I agreed, thinking the van he was nearby was his vehicle. Then, after I agree, he tells me the story of how he got there. According to him, his car had broken down at another gas station up the street. He said it was closed so he couldn’t get any help, so he borrowed a bike from someone and rode it down to this gas station.
Then he went into the gas station to leave the bike there. As soon as he started walking away, my brain started racing and pointing out all the things that didn’t add up about this story. First, all I could imagine in those voice mail boxes were a bunch of people going “your boyfriend is stuck at the gas station.” Then, I thought about how in the hell would he legitimately borrow a bike from someone at a closed gas station in the middle of the night in the middle of winter.
At that point, I decided it was time to get the fuck out of there. Thankfully, I hadn’t pumped any gas yet, so I quickly put it back on the pump, got into my car, and tore out of there.
I actually felt a little bad because what if he actually needed help, but then I reminded myself about him “borrowing a bike” in that situation, how he was trying to get me to a dark, secluded secondary location.
This dude was absolutely trying to rob/murder me.
10. You don’t mess with raccoons.
In the fall I was walking down a trail in the woods during the middle of the day. A raccoon was sitting in the middle of the trail, facing us. Sitting on it’s butt, head kind of lowered, bugs buzzing all around it. It didn’t move at all. It just stared at us. We decided to turn around.
I don’t know what rabies looks like, but that’s not how I want to find out.
9. Never feel bad about it.
I was walking into a store in a strip mall. It was after dark but like your gas station, it was busy and I felt fairly safe. That’s when a guy got my attention. He said his car had broken down on the interstate at this spot about 10 miles outside of town and that he needed a ride back to it. It would’ve been a very dark location and at that point in the evening, there wouldn’t have been much traffic. At first I started going along with it and even got my car keys back out, then my gut took over.
I’ve never had such a strong reaction before, but I got this overpowering feeling that he was trying to get me out into the middle of nowhere so he could rob me. It was so strong that I felt like I’d been given a zap by an electric fence. I did a 180 and told him that sorry, I had somewhere to be and that if he’s in trouble, he should call the police. He started shouting at me about what a bad day he’d had, that his wife was pregnant, and that he just needed one f*cking person to be kind for once, then he stomped away.
I went into the store and was completely fine, then when I got back home, the fear set in. I got the shakes and had a very strong feeling that something bad would’ve happened to me had I gone with him. It was a little difficult to fall asleep that night.
So to the dude who approached me–wherever you are now, if you were legit and in trouble, I’m sorry. I hope you made it to your car, but I don’t feel all that bad about it.
8. A terrible moment.
I gave my ex a ride to his court hearing for hitting my daughter. I pointed out to him inside that there was a sign that said no cellphones and that I would run our phones out to the car and she right back. I felt like my heart was going to break my sternum and I had tunnel vision as I called my sister and told her I needed her and her husband to come with their pick up truck to my house right now because I had a small window to get as much of my daughter’s and my possessions out of my house before he was released from court.
Just as we were wrapping up I saw him running down the street like Usain Bolt right for me. I yelled for them to drop what they had and get in the truck and go. Just as I close my car door he runs up and tries to smash it open. I fumbled with my keys to get the engine started. He then stands in front of my car blocking my path. I dismissed my burning desire to run him over and threw it in reverse and smashed the gas pedal down the block to the next street.
I’d like to say things got better after that. But that was just the beginning of the worst year of my life. Now I’m past all of that and living a better life.
7. Wow. He really loves his aunt.
My friends crazy drunk cousin grabbed a circular saw in attempt to kill me because he thought I said something bad about his aunt.
I left.
6. Nope right out of there.
I was at a ‘marketing recruitment’ presentation in college and this guy started talking about how we would be able to go to Disneyland and buy Ferraris if we just signed up to his exclusive elite program.
We just had to make a small down payment right there in the auditorium, and we shouldn’t talk about it with friends or family because haters online had damaged the company’s reputation.
5. When it hits you, you know.
It was Friday. I was in a room full of 5th graders playing the recorder.
4. I gasped.
I worked in a factory that made large plastic items via a giant industrial oven that heated to 550 degrees F.
At the end of the week I was cleaning said oven and my boss, not knowing i was inside, turned it on. At the sound of hydraulic doors closing i dove out of the oven just as they closed and avoided free cremation.
I got the h*ll out of both that oven and that company pretty quick
3. Bullet dodged.
I was visiting London and just got out of sports bar by myself at 3AM, drunk as shit. I decide to walk from the bar (near Leicester Square) to my hotel (near King’s Cross), despite not knowing exactly where I am or how to get to the hotel.
I start walking in a direction and within a minute I’m walking down a rather wide shopping street when I see two bald guys coming the other way, both pretty much built brick shithouses, and looking like they want to start shit. They hadn’t spotted me yet but one guy suddenly walks to the side of the street and just flat out punches the steel grate in front of a shop entrance as hard as he can.
I pretty much did a straight 180, double timed it back to the bar, and asked the nice bouncers to get me a cab. Cab drops me off in front of the hotel and I go to bed without getting the shit kicked out of me first.
2. Sometimes you just know.
My second from last job. The company owners are arrogant assholes who think workers are scum, the management are always blaming the workers for their mistakes and the workers themselves were always arguing and bickering amongst themselves.
The place was so toxic for people like me who just wanted to do a days work without all the drama.
1. It’s like a horror movie.
I go to school in Poughkeepsie. One time my friends and I were walking along some train tracks by the river on a foggy night (not smart). We could barely see 5 feet ahead but we weren’t afraid because it was a popular hangout spot.
All of a sudden we hear loud barking and a fucking crackhead lunges out of the fog at us, barking like a dog. The fog around him cleared up and we could see more druggies lying under some leaves by the side of the tracks, watching us and laughing.
Never ran so fast or came so close to sh%tting myself in my life.
I hate reading about situations like these, but I hope I would have the same good sense.
Tell us in the comments about the last time something like this happened to you!
