June 5, 2020 | Melissa Budish

People Share The Most High Risk, Low Reward Thing They've Ever Done


In almost any case, proceeding with a high risk, low reward plan is not ideal, but at least they make for some interesting stories. The tales submitted below are proof of that:

Warning Risk Swimming - Free photo on PixabayPixabay

#1 Stranger Danger

I once followed a young homeless man I just met because he wanted to show me where he was staying. It was nighttime and he invited me down into a dip in the trees. We walked through a dark section of the forest then he showed me some rocks and small caves with a couple of beds set up. Then we left. I literally followed a stranger into the dark woods because of of...curiosity?

people, man, alone, woods, forest, trees, leaves, travelPikist

#2 Not Cool Enough

I once climbed an old truss bridge to get some neat pictures of myself. I climbed under it and sat on the beams beneath the bridge. Then I climbed the very top and hung off the edge of the bridge above several rocks. Once I got done and showed the pictures to my friends, they said they sucked. I should've worn a Spider-Man costume; it would have made the whole ordeal look cooler.

File:NOKESVILLE TRUSS BRIDGE, PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY.JPG - Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons

#3 For A Girl

Taking a year in a program I wasn’t interested in to try and get a girl, who turned me down instantly. I wasn’t looking for a one-time thing, I was lonely and I wanted a companion... We were good friends prior, not so much afterward as stuff got awkward. It was also my second year, so I did get a useless degree I never claimed for my trouble (social science). Decisions made for a girl are always the worst.

Coppia, Giovane, Persone, Ragazzo, Ragazza, BiondaPixabay

#4 Two Decades Later

I had a friend turn down a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins because she met a guy at a local college when we were taking classes there to finish up high school. She decided to go to that college instead. Her and the boy she changed her life for didn't make it through the summer. 17 years after she graduated high school, she's finally, this year, graduated med school.

File:Stetho book.jpg - Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons

#5 An Added Benefit

I had a friend in college who had an incredible crush on a deaf girl who he had shared a class with, so he devoted his time to learning sign language. Probably about seven or eight hours a day, he'd smash knowledge into his brain, but that resulted in him getting behind in class because he was putting off homework to learn a language via brute force.

After four months, he felt confident enough to approach her and asked her on a date. She signed back "Sorry, I'm gay." So now he had this whole skill he had learned. He shifted his major, and now he teaches deaf special ed for a living. When I pined for a girl and spent months obsessing, all I got was a prescription for antidepressants, this dude got a whole career.

Man Selfie Male - Free photo on PixabayPixabay

#6 Scaling A Tower

We got the bright idea to go rappelling off a cell tower at like 3 in the morning. This was not a spur of the moment decision, it was planned. After we were done, we were pulling the rope down and I guess we had left a knot in it? The rope got stuck between the tower's vertical and horizontal supports about 15' out from the ladder we were using. Like it was stuck. At least 50' off the ground.

I wasn't about to leave my $100 climbing rope hanging there so I climbed up... No rope... and walked out on this 15' cross-member balancing with nothing to hold on to. I made it to the vertical support where the rope was caught, kicked it down, and then had to make it back to the ladder. Obviously, I succeeded; but about 30 minutes after I got down, I had the worst stress headache I've ever had in my life. I was puking my head hurt so bad. I think I was 16 or 17 at the time. It wasn't even that fun... a rock face is much better than just hanging in empty space and sliding down the rope.

cell tower, mobile mast, microwave tower, antennaPikist

#7 Balancing Act

I balanced on the top rung of a six-meter ladder.  The downspout on my eavestroughs came off. We were living in those skinny condos at the time with a ground-level garage, second-floor living room, and third-floor bedrooms. The eavestroughs were probably 35+ feet up. I borrowed my father-in-law's extension ladder and it was probably 10ft short. I put it basically vertical against the house (instead of having the bottom further back), stood on the top rung on my tippy toes, and just barely got the downspout back on. So dumb.

Springfield IL - Tornado Wind Damage, March 8, 2009, Victo… | FlickrFlickr

#8 Glitter Bomb

I sent my boss a glitter bomb and I never told anyone who sent it. The whole organization, thousands of people, know it happened, and the boss flipped out when glitter went everywhere. I’ll never tell anyone. A little more background: no one likes this boss. I actually accidentally walked into the boss's office the second after it was open by accident. Glitter everywhere, all over them, a huge pile on their desk, and scattered around the computer, keyboard, their hair, the carpet. They were upset, and I had to stand there and wait for the reaction which was a nuclear meltdown.

glitter, pink, water, shiny, bright, color, texture, light, sparkle, colorful, lovePikist

#9 Ain't No Snitch

I was in the band in high school and I had a friend from middle school that was also involved in athletics at the time. The two of us were outcasts among the greater band nerd population and often got talked down to, which even our instructor would join in on from time to time. At the time, flipping backpacks were popular (taking things out of the backpack, flipping the backpack inside-out, then returning the items to the bag and zipping the bag back up).

One day, when we had a substitute, he had the class watch the typical Mozart movie from the '80s again. I found a mega bag of zip ties and convinced my buddy to help me flip every student's backpack, zip tie the bags closed, and then zip tie the bags into the instrument lockers while everyone watched the movie.

If we got caught and reported, the instructor 100% would have suspended us, so we were on extra edge. Right as we were wrapping up the substitute locked eyes with us from across the room and realized what was going on. We decided to pretend nothing happened and we completed the mission right on time.

The class was very upset as the lights flicked on and they saw what had unfolded. The substitute came back for a class later that year and talked to us saying he had to actively try not to lose his cool when he saw what was going on.

travel bag, travel, adventure, backpack, backpacks, breakPikist

#10 Skipping Class

In my senior year, I figured out that I was legally an adult, so I could literally just leave whenever I wanted. I was an F and D student, but when I started cutting class early, my grades went to Bs and Cs because I had time to settle in at home and get an early start on my homework. I even still had enough time and energy to play games with my friends on Xbox Live.

My hippy teacher I had a few years earlier once said (and he could have gotten fired for this): "Give yourself a break, get your grades up, and skip class every once in a while as a way to treat yourself." It worked, but I don't think he meant to do it once a week.

Home Life Sofa - Free photo on PixabayPixabay

#11 Wobbly Work

Whilst building a house, the second floor had a beam that extended out into nowhere. It needed to be painted with rust protection paint. The floor had not been installed yet and the joists were still going in. To save time, I shimmied out to the end of the beam and started painting. Every breath of wind made the whole thing sway. Just my movements made it wiggle a fair bit. I nearly took a six-meter swan dive to a concrete floor about 12 times. I could have painted it after the floor was in but that would mean laying down drop sheets and lots of messing around. I should have waited. It was a totally stupid thing to do.

File:Second Floor @ Eiffel Tower @ Paris (34851910490).jpgWikimedia Commons

#12 At The Golf Course

I used to dive in ponds at golf courses to collect the lost balls and clean them to sell back to the courses. It's unbelievable just how many snakes, alligators, and leeches live in those things. I made less than minimum wage and had countless close calls with critters. However, the most dangerous creatures on golf courses are old people.

They do not give a heck if you're working. They will absolutely send balls of hard plastic hurdling at your head at 50 mph without a second thought, then get upset when their ball hits your tank or cart. They'll even demand you hand over some of your recovered balls in compensation.

Golf Course Sports Pond - Free photo on PixabayPixabay

#13 Stealing Signs

My friends and I used to target and steal those signs that said: "If you are caught stealing you will be prosecuted." Many illegal things were done and many hundreds of thousands of dollars of stuff were ignored to steal increasingly difficult paper signs. I absolutely love stealing something worth nothing while ignoring something valuable just for the sake of stealing it. I don't know why.

File:CCTVRetailStore.jpgWikimedia Commons

#14 See Ya Later

A few years ago, I had a business trip to Italy that required some driving around for the day. I planned on renting an SUV for about €150 euros and when I got to the desk, they asked if I wanted to upgrade. They had a BMW i8 that would only cost me €100 more, so I went for it. We got on to an open stretch of motorway and my colleague asked how fast the car could go. It turns out 250 km/h is the answer. A few weeks after the trip, I received a court summons and I decided I'll just never go to Italy again.

File:BMW i8 by Japan specification.jpgWikimedia Commons

#15 Expensive Showers

My friends and I used to break into expensive-looking houses and use their showers. This was in the late '90s when ridiculous showers were in vogue and we wanted to know if they were actually any good (for the most part, they were not). We never stole anything (well, except water). We brought our own towels and toiletries. We were very careful about who we "hit" and made sure they had set schedules and no children or pets. The reward was a bad shower. We risked jail time.

Perfection by Millennium Luxury Coaches | New & Pre-Owned Pr… | FlickrFlickr

#16 Life Lesson

I decided to see how fast I could get up to a nearby neighborhood road. Driving my mother's car no less. I got up to 80 mph in around 6 seconds I think, and by the time I realized I should be slowing down, the tires were screeching as I tried to stay on the road. It was a mostly straight neighborhood road (35 mph) that curved near the end leading to a four-way stop. I got up to 80 right where the road began to curve, and as I was turning I was going so fast that I went over into the other lane, just a foot or two from going up over the curb.

I slowed down and brought the car to a stop at the intersection. My family member sitting in the passenger seat looked over at me as if he had just breathed the life right out of himself. I was 19 at the time and got my license that same summer. My passenger was 16. I've never had such a powerful moment of instant regret after that day. I didn't feel cool at all. I could've killed a pedestrian, a child, or myself and my family member.

That was the day I truly learned that I could lose my life, and have respected all traffic laws since (well, to a reasonable extent). I'm only glad that we came out completely unharmed.

e93f40ae7e6a76ee9530190ca8f250284cdb257eSnappy Goat

#17 Never Again

One night, I was driving some people home after a party. For some godforsaken reason, I thought I should drive. I wasn't wasted or anything; definitely still in control and within legal limits, but my passengers sure as heck weren't and I was impressionable. We drove down a fairly big, straight road which is usually limited at 100 km/h.

This one, however, was limited at 50 km/h. It didn't make sense to me because it was straight, so I just floored it at the behest of the others in the car. We were going some 160 km/h and then I saw the curve. It wasn't a slight bend in the road you could take with that speed. It was a full-blown 90° turn. I slammed the brakes and took the turn like a freaking race car driver with 80-ish and came to a complete stop right after. The car just stood there for a good two minutes and it was dead freaking silent. I ain't doing that ever again.

light, road, bridge, car, night, driving, city, darkness, lane, infrastructurePxhere

#18 Quick Conversion

I once went on a heater at the Luxor in Vegas. When it was over, I had turned $60 into $78k and change. I was tipsy with excitement. It was 8 a.m. on a Saturday. On the way to the cage (shadowed by three guys), I spied an empty blackjack table. I walked over to it and asked one of the floor guys with me if I could bet it all in one hand. (The table had a $5k limit.) He nodded. AA. I had no money to split! After two hits, we ended up pushing on a 17 and I avoided what would have been the most stupid, embarrassing thing I have ever done.

File:Las Vegas Luxor 04.jpg - Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons

#19 No Baldies

I moved across the country (California to Massachusetts) because I saw my high school crush on a dating site. I put up a profile on the dating site and sent her a brief message. She changed her profile to express disinterest in bald men, so I never contacted her again. She never knew who I was. Turns out, she won't date bald men under any circumstances.

Stoppa Home Page, Dating Online, Datazione, Iphone AppPixabay

#20 A Haunted Number

I broke into an abandoned mental hospital while tipsy with a bunch of people I mostly didn't even like in college. Technically, I got something out of it—a door number from one of the rooms, which I promptly became terrified would somehow make me haunted and I passed it off to someone else at the first opportunity.  It was in the area of Marlboro, NJ. I don't remember the name of the place; I wasn't from the area and was tagging along with a group that was.

scary, hallway, ruins, abandoned, dark, corridor, old, empty, creepy, shadows, insane asylumPikist

#21 McDonald's Craving

During an all-nighter study session with my college roommate, we decided we wanted to get some McDonald’s. It was around 1 a.m., so we left all of our stuff in a common study room (laptops and all) and got in my car. It was pitch black, super foggy with my lights on, and also raining to top it all off. I couldn’t see more than a foot in front of my car so we were driving 10vmph down the highway on no sleep. After less than 5 terrifying minutes, we decided the cheeseburgers weren’t worth it and went home. Essentially high risk, no reward.

File:2015-04-01 20 51 23 McDonald's restaurant at night on Idaho Street  (Interstate 80 Business) in Elko, Nevada.JPG - Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons

#22 Check The Basement

I was a free intern for a flower shop. One day, there was a shady person walking in the store basement. Somebody said he stole something from the shop and fled to the basement. The shop was in an apartment building, street level, and the basement led all over the building. So they said to me a 16-year-old girl to go to the basement and check the situation out. Well, I was young and dumb and went. Thank god I found no one.

A flower shop display section with variety of flowers and plants on the table during the day timePikrepo

#23 The Pushover

I got hit by a car and broke two bones in my wrist. I was on my bike and the girl who hit me was a new driver. I didn't feel like messing up her record over a small mistake and making her insurance rates skyrocket. I didn't know what was messed up initially, but I just didn't want to make it worse for her. I was barely hit, I basically just fell straight sideways on my wrist. Granted, if my bike was busted, I probably would have gone after her, because that was how I got to school and around everywhere.

File:Bicycle-car accident.jpg - Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons

#24 Forever Scarred

My husband was knocked off his bicycle by a motorist only a 5-minute drive from our house. The motorist made a turn and didn’t see my husband’s bike. Because he only had a couple of scratches and is, in general, a pretty laid back guy, he didn’t take the motorist’s details (the guy did at least stop to see if he was okay). Turns out, it gave him a long-standing rotator cuff injury that 15 years later still bugs him. I’m still cross about it!

Incidente, Fracassato, Danno, BiciclettaPixabay

#25 Halloween Ban

I've talked about this before, but Halloween costumes were banned at my high school because of some idiots like 10 years before that dressed up and used it as an excuse to hide their faces while they vandalized the school.

In my senior year, more than half of the class decided that we would still dress up and march into the school together in the morning. We all knew we would be punished right away, but it didn't matter. I stayed up all night making a suit of armor out of metallic duct tape and cardboard, along with a broomstick horse to ride.

The next day we all gathered in the parking and waited for everyone to show up. People went all out and there were a lot of amazing costumes, and after about 20 minutes of waiting we started our march in. The deans had learned of our plan and were waiting for us right as we entered. They started pulling people aside in groups and taking student IDs to hand out Saturday detentions.

We got to be in costume for all of about 30 minutes before they made us change and gave us our detentions. Except for a few people that wore costumes that couldn't be changed out of, like my buddy Dave that was a Ghostbuster and had nothing under his jumpsuit, those people got an in-school suspension for the day along with the detentions.

Ghostbusters Logo Ecto-1 - Free photo on PixabayPixabay

#26 Taking The Fall

I was working as a chef in a gourmet bar and restaurant, and I’d become somewhat of a teacher's pet in the form of my manager's favorite employee because I was never late, covered shifts, etc. (not for his sake, I wanted more money). The new guy started and he was just awful. He only got two weeks into the job before almost being sacked but I wanted to teach him the ways.

Anyway, one day he carelessly left a cloth on an open flame during prep in the morning of Valentine’s Day (our biggest revenue generator), and the fire spread through about aa fourth of the kitchen, including the stock, the microwaves, the cooker, and the veg prep area. And for some stupid reason, I said it was my fault when the manager was on the warpath, thinking the new guy would be saved and I’d just take a humongous bollocking for being stupid and all would be fine eventually... Nope. I got sacked. He threw me out. To this day, I will never ever understand why I put my neck into that guillotine of fire.

File:Chef Pam is working on her dish in "The Table" restaurant.pngWikimedia Commons

#27 A Cozier Experience

Sneaking into my parents' room at night while they were sleeping to use the en suite as it was more comfortable than the shared bathroom. It took ages as I slowly opened the door and crept across the room too. All for a cozier experience. Thinking back now, that was madness. When I did get caught eventually, my dad screamed what are you doing here at this hour and when the answer was to use THAT bathroom instead of the other bathroom, he just about lost his mind.

Large Executive Inner City Apartment - Apartments for Rent in Wellington,  Wellington, New ZealandAirbnb

#28 The Lock Picker

In my freshman year of high school, I went to Spanish class and the door wasn't open, so I waited outside for the teacher to come back from her lunch break as she was not inside. It took her a while, and while I waited, a bunch of my other classmates was waiting too. I was friends with a couple of people in that class and I thought it would be funny to jokingly try to open the lock on the door with a bobby pin.

So I tried and I stuck the bobby pin in the lock. Giggles and whatever. Well by the time the teacher showed up a couple of minutes later and tried to unlock the door, it wouldn’t open. She was like: “ Huh, that's weird, it was fine this morning.” Keep in mind this high school was pretty strict and they had cameras everywhere. So I was freaking out internally. The teacher decided to send me, of all people, to the office to ask for someone to open the door. The worst couple minutes of my life praying that my friends didn’t say anything.

metal, close, lighting, door, security, product, front door, electronics, jack, lock, input, door lock, door handle, door knob, locks to, capping, glass door, blocking, close toPxhere

#29 Almost International

I was stationed at GTMO (I worked exterior security, nothing in the facility itself) and it's actually a pretty laid back place to work. Anywho, there are a bunch of different beaches we could swim at we thought it would be fun to swim down around the fences and snap some pictures on the Cuban side. Turns out, they really didn't like that.

They didn't approach us but there was an announcement made that doing such was highly illegal. They shut down the adjoining beaches and they demanded we come forward. We never did and they never figured it out... but yeah, we basically risked an international incident for a couple of pictures. Stupidest thing I've ever done.

beach, sea, ocean, villa, summer, vacation, web, swimming pool, holiday, bay, property, cuba, resort, estate, caribbean, palm trees, tropics, arecales, palm family, cayococoPxhere

#30 Asbestos Adventure

I slept in a tent at an abandoned asbestos mine. I was able to see some of the asbestos all over the ground. The view wasn’t bad in the morning though. I think most asbestos-related issues don’t show for ~30 years. I don’t know if it is 30 years, to be honest. I can’t be bothered looking it up, so I won’t know if I’m safe or going to end up with lung damage.

File:Abandoned Asbestos Mine (248800405).jpeg - Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons

#31 Brownie Points

I've done over 10 years of illegal graffiti. So freaking stupid. It's been the only constant in my life for a decade; I'm an expert in a stupid hobby. I've been arrested multiple times and beat-up multiple times. I went against the status quo of earning my stripes and accepting disrespect from the older generation. This made me far more enemies than friends.

I'm not even a hardcore graffiti writer, I'm mediocre at best. I just stayed a purist and didn't transition to legal stuff (legal graffiti is a contradiction and is looked down on by illegal artists). I made it into my late twenties and I'm not a failure at life... Actually, I came out better than most of the guys I've painted with over the years. I work in a completely different field now with mediocre qualifications. Now I'm considered an expert or veteran, but the only people that look up to me are 16-year-old degenerates. Not worth it. It gets girls though.

File:A Bundle of Graffiti on a Wall - panoramio.jpg - Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons

#32 Prom Night

Taking an ex to high school prom because we were “friends.” I paid for the ride, the dinner, and the tickets (because it was my prom). We got to the event and they ignored me, wouldn’t dance with me, wouldn’t talk to me (they told me point blank that they would not), and told their friend group to ostracize me once we arrived. So much for being friends, I guess they were planning on this for a while.

I was floored and went dancing with a Colombian friend of mine who was a fantastic dancer and we had a great time. I found ex in the hallway crying because they were so embarrassed that I had “abandoned” my date and went and danced with “not so nice word for a promiscuous woman.” They refused to acknowledge their own hypocrisy and cruelty. I truly thought we were good before this night. I never talked to them again.

birthday, slippers, dress, dancing, years, party, prom dress, quinceanera dress, fashion, shoesPikist

#33 Committing To Character

In primary school, I was involved in a whodunnit-type forensics course for one semester. At the end of the course, after we'd solved the crime, we did a "trial" to present our evidence and convict the criminal. I played the part of the criminal. I wound up missing half the trial because I thought "going on the run" was in character, and the door was right there. The "police" in the trial had to bring me back in at least twice. Luckily the teacher had a sense of humor and rolled with it, rather than declaring me a disruption to the class.

File:Nuclear Forensics (02813670) (14581982626).jpg - Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons

#34 Teenage Dirtbag

In my junior year, my GPA dropped to a 1.5. I had to go to summer school. I actually had good grades when I tried but I always failed due to absences or just not doing the work. My main focus was on my social life and partying. I was a teenage dirtbag plain and simple and it didn't serve me one freaking bit.

I wish I would have made my parents proud and received accolades and good marks, but at least I did graduate which was a surprise to everyone. You are on the right path. College is the time to really experience life anyway, you actually have freedom as an adult then!

graduation, college, graduate, university, school, education, student, degree, academic, success, capPikist

#35 Prank Gone Wrong

My friends and I were at a boarding school and we thought it would be a fun prank to remove the wheels from our principal's car and then leave a treasure map with riddles and stuff for every wheel. Later on in class, he called over the speakers: "To those who stole my wheels. You've got 15 minutes to return them and put them back in my car, or you're kicked out of the school. We got the wheels back on and told everyone about it. A week later, nobody even remembered that we were almost kicked out.

No wheels on my wagonGeograph

#36 Illegal Graffiti

Lots and lots of illegal graffiti. For about three years it was all I cared about. Hanging off ledges and bridges, climbing up the sides of buildings, being on roofs, hiding under trains, being in dangerous places by myself at 3 a.m., abandoned buildings, squatter houses, rough neighborhoods. Not to mention the risk of criminal prosecution. Paint doesn't just fall into your lap either—one year, I spent $5,000 on spray paint on top of getting it any other ways I could. And for what? Just to put some paint on a wall or train and take a photo of it.

graffiti, art, painted, walls, urban, artistic, public, grunge, expression, creativePikist

#37 Little Army Men

One time, in 5th or 6th grade, my friend and I decided to steal the little rubber separators between the metal keys of our school’s xylophones. We took all of them because we could use them as little “army men." The next day, we got called to the music teacher’s office and got told how much damage we did. I don’t really remember what happened after that but I think we returned our “army men.” Not long after we got in trouble for bringing our YuGiOh cards to school in crown royal pouches.

File:Xylophone at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music (13433338634).jpgWikimedia Commons

#38 The Five-Finger Rapids

I went sliding down rapids with my friends one time. I don’t know how to swim. It was a few years ago four guys on a road trip in Northern Ontario. We took our canoes and managed to find a set of rapids called “The Five-Finger Rapids.” It was basically five different streams ending up in a pool. We decided it would be fun to jump in and end up at the pool because it was something a person told us people do at these rapids on our way up.

Given, I did have a life jacket on and one of my friends was an experienced swimmer (he told me he was a level away from a lifeguards certificate), but it was still stupid dangerous now that I look back. We literally took crashing streams of water into a pool with massive rocks as borders. I could have crashed and broken my skull but oh well was still a good memory. FYI everyone survived.

File:Five Finger Rapids Yukon River 110808-1.jpg - Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons

#39 Wannabe Instagrammer

While camping on my own in North Queensland, Australia, I once set up my camera and tripod on the viewing platform of a lookout overlooking a waterfall and tropical rainforest. Being a wannabe Instagrammer and wearing flip-flops, I then set my camera’s timer to ten seconds, jumped over the safety barrier, sprinted over extremely rocky terrain, stopping myself from running before quickly sitting on the edge of an “instant death” style cliff face and waited a few seconds for the camera to go “click.”

Once I reached relative safety after stupidly risking my life, I casually stepped off a rock on my way to view the photo and twisted my ankle (while in flip-flops...). Being on my own, I had to pack up my camera gear while in excruciating pain, my ankle swelling up like a balloon. I got all Bear Grills on myself, turned my tripod into a walking stick, and limped and hopped my way back down the trail for about an hour, finally making it back to my campsite where I began soothing my throbbing ankle by performing first-aid on myself.

While chilling with some ice on my elevated ankle, I decided to check what was surely an amazing photo that would be my pride and joy for years to come, only to realize that I was wearing my green and brown t-shirt that blended into the background so you couldn’t even see me in the shot anyway. I will try and dig up the photo.

man, water, waterfall, adventure, male, guy, jumping, extreme sport, caucasian, sports, swinging, water feature, canyoningPxhere

#40 Workout Punishment

While in the Army, I took a piece of cherry pie during dinner chow, covered it under two slices of bread, and ate it before eating any of my actual food. One of the guys in my platoon saw me but never said anything. If the drill sergeants would have caught me they would have made me (and my platoon) pay with a round of 200 (push-ups, sit-ups, burpees) and most likely mountain climbers unit a few of us threw up. It was the first thing I ate with sugar in two and a half months and it was DELICIOUS! Especially since I never got caught!

Cake Cherry Pie Bake - Free photo on PixabayPixabay

#41  Burned Down

Back in 2000 or 2001, right after my mom passed away, my brother I moved in with my dad and "his family" into a new house. Not even a month after we moved into our house, it burnt down. They said it was an electrical fire, but anyway I pulled my dad's (now deceased) wife's granddaughter out of the house, and not once did I ever get so much as a thank you from my dad's wife, the girl's mom or anyone in that family. And I haven't a doubt in my mind that had I not pulled the kid out of the house she probably wouldn't have gotten out alive. I was 13 or 14 at the time, and yeah it's safe to say that at the time, I was dealing with a lot.

backyard, fire, cemetery, tombstone, flames, house fire, house burnsPxhere

#42 Harboring A Fugitive

Hiding my abusive boyfriend from the cops. I ended up breaking up with him afterward and going to jail for a day (I was super lucky, harboring a fugitive is a felony, folks). I risked having a permanent felony on my record for a dude without a job who regularly verbally abused me. Without a doubt the stupidest thing I’ve ever done because I thought I loved him and wanted to be with him forever.

sadness, tears, crying, sorrow, no joy, depression, upset, not in the mood, sad, girl, womanPikist

#43 Chinese Fire Drill

I was about 15 and riding in the back of the car being driven by my sister with some friends of mine there as well. I got this bright idea to impress everyone by doing a "Chinese fire drill" (When you get out of the car at a red light and everyone runs a lap around it with the option of returning to your original seat or someone else's but you have to do another lap if yours is taken).

I forgot that my parents were also going to the same place and didn't bother to look around to make sure the coast was clear. It was not—my parents were in the car directly behind us. Also, I was the only one to actually do the CFD... Everyone else thought I was joking.

the-gang-1339276_1280.jpgPixabay

#44 Scissor Stealer

I stole every single pair of scissors I could find in my high school over the course of two years. It started as a joke about how my French teacher kept forgetting things, so I would say every week: "Is it okay if I take a pair of scissors because I don't have any?" And she would always respond, "Okay."  I cleaned out the French class then moved onto history, then English, then every one of my classes until none of them had scissors. That was around fifty pairs. Then they all got new ones before I cleaned those out too. This went on until I had around 200 pairs and my parents couldn't ignore my ever-growing pile of scissors when they caught me. My high school never found out.

art supplies, brushes, rulers, scissors, paintbrush, supplies, education, creativity, craft, colorful, artisticPikist

#45 Five-Finger Discount

My friend and I used to shoplift from a grocery store that was walking distance from our high school. We didn't even need any of the stuff we stole, it was always stupid stuff like rubber bands or gum. One time, my friend even stole a thing of raw salmon.

My friend and I were leaving the store once and the manager stopped us. I, thank god, didn't have anything on me, but my friend had two Monsters and padlock under his shirt. The guy asked us to empty our pockets, so I did, while my friend just sort of sat there awkwardly. After a pause that felt like years, the manager let us go. On our way, out my friend and I shared a knowing look of "this was a bad idea" and never did that again.

fruit, flower, city, shop, store, food, vendor, produce, vegetable, color, market, marketplace, shopping, groceries, tomato, public space, supermarket, grocery store, hypermarket, sense, human settlement, convenience store, greengrocer, super marketPxhere

#46 A Near Miss

For the LSAT (standardized test for law school in the US), they always had a section of the test that was experimental and your score on that section didn’t count. While taking the test I guessed a certain section was experimental and basically screwed around for the time period we had for that section. I still scored a respectable grade, went to law school, and am drowning in debt.

writing, pencil, drawing, text, handwriting, document, testing, test, sat, act, answers, exam, mcat, lsat, gre, testing sheet, paper sheetPxhere

#47 Chair Hunters

One of the items tasked for my pledge class to get before my initiation week was 32 identical chairs (one for each of us). Being the broke college kids we were, we drove around looking for chairs. We ended up going to a church and telling these poor kids “Father Mike” told us we could borrow them. I still feel awful about it, but if that’s the worse thing I’ve done in my life I guess I’m okay.

chairs, circle, support group, meeting, furniture, table, chair, structure, product design, flooring, angle, floor, productPxhere

#48 How To Lose A Door

My dramatic four-year-old self was having NONE of my mom telling me “no.” Naturally, my mom sent me to my room. I marched up the stairs, slammed my door, and heard no reaction, so I opened my door and slammed it again, which by this point my mom had silently made her way up the stairs. In a rage, I opened my door to slam it a third time, but instead, when it flung open, I was face-to-face with my fuming mother. She started walking into the room and I was backpedaling at the same pace not breaking eye contact. Suffice to say I lost my door for a week and never slammed a door again.

door contemporary within wall architecture roomPixabay

#49 What A Prick

I retrieved a flat football from an island in the middle of a lake when I was a kid. The lake was neck deep and filled with weeds and branches and took forever to get across... and it stank! My best friend's older brother got the ball off me and kicked it right back into the lake! I've still not forgiven that prick!

File:CFL football.jpg - Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons

#50 Office Pranks

I work in an office with low cube walls. The guy that sat next to me got up to go to the bathroom. When he was gone, I plugged a receiver for a wireless mouse into his computer. At the time, most of us used a corded mouse. When he started working again, I peeked over the cube wall and started opening up programs with the wireless mouse. At one point, he threw his hands in the air freaking out as I was opening emails and launching programs. This was a low risk and a huge payoff. Highly recommend!

desk, product, computer desk, desktop computer, personal computer, technology, computer keyboard, electronic device, office, laptop, furniture, computer, hand, screen, table, software engineering, display device, computer monitor, multimedia, netbook, gadgetPxhere


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