We've all experienced moments in life when our instinct screams for us to make a break for the exit, or to avoid certain people at all costs. You know, those 'I need to get out of here' moments.
These people share their wild stories of situations they just knew they had to get out of— some of them scarcely believable.
Fair warning, some of these stories contain graphic or disturbing material that aren't for the faint-hearted.
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#25 This Emergency Call Is Right Out Of A Horror Movie
Disclaimer: This story is intensely creepy, involves attempted suicide, and is not for the faint of heart.
While working as a paramedic in 1999, I ran a call where a middle-aged man had called for us to transport him to a mental health facility. The guy was depressed and handed me his suicide note to read that said, " I (his name) would like to apologize for killing these two EMT's found here with me. I know these two and myself will be in a better place." I stopped reading the letter and told him I had forgotten my glasses and couldn't read the letter. I lied and said I needed to run back to my ambulance and get them. My partner was standing at the door as I walked by, and I motioned for him to follow me ASAP. As we walked out and radioed for assistance, we heard a gunshot. When the police arrived we found the guy dead of a single gunshot wound to the chest. The guy was going to kill us and then himself. The suicide note was two pages long. Had I not stopped and falsely walked out to get my glasses, my partner and I would probably not be here today.
#24 A Highly Offensive Sneeze
I landed in Kuwait for work, and while I was waiting in line for a visa the little kid next to me sneezed. While I'm in autopilot mode after a long flight, I said: "bless you." It was at that exact moment I wanted to leave. And in many, many moments after that moment. I was interrogated by Kuwaiti police and had all my belongings searched, just to make sure I wasn't in the country to spread Jesus literature. I wasn't sure if I would ever make it home, but glad I did. I never went back.
#23 This Drunken Encounter Will Make You Cringe
I was really drunk at a dive bar when I decided it was a good idea to go to this older lady's place. We get there and a man is sitting on her sofa. I started to freak out, but the lady acted like nothing out of the ordinary was happening. She told me to go to the bedroom, and I was too drunk and baffled about the whole situation to not do as she said. I opened the door and there was a young girl asleep in the bed, who raised her head and muttered out, "Mom?". The lady heard her and nonchalantly picked the girl up and took her to her own room. Once I was alone in the bedroom again (the lady went back to talk with the man on the sofa), I literally went to the balcony to assess whether I'd survive the five-story drop. After coming to the conclusion that I'd probably never make it back home, even if I survived the fall, I decided I'd just have to sneak out. I got down on the ground and started crawling towards the front door. Once I reached the door, I swung it open and started running as fast as I could. I could vaguely hear her yelling after me but couldn't make out what she's saying. I was so flabbergasted, I went full "Forrest Gump" and just never stopped running.
#22 An Afternoon With An Old Friend Takes A Very Weird Turn
One day, I got a call from an old friend asking if I wanted to hang out. She asked me to pick her up from the mall and take her to a friend's house to chill. We arrived at the house, and a young boy answered the door and let us in. Everything seemed normal until we walked into this guy's room and he was passed out on the floor half naked. My friend nudged him repeatedly until he woke up. Without saying anything this guy got up, grabbed a butane torch and started making a glass meth pipe. I turned to my friend and mouthed "WTF" but her attention was entirely fixated on this guy making a pipe. I suddenly realized she just used me to give her a ride to her dealer's house to get a fix. I got out of there as fast as I could and didn't speak to her for years.
After we reconnected, I asked her if she remembered that day I picked her up from the mall. She said no, and went on to say there were at least two years that she couldn't recall while deep into her addiction.
#21 You Wouldn't Want To Re-Live This Walk Home
I was walking my female roommate home from work at 2 a.m. on a dark back street near Broadway in Seattle. We heard a noise and turned to see some guy running up the street, out from under the trees, and into the pool of streetlight. He was in the middle of the road carrying a 3-inch heavy chain and frantically looking back over his shoulder as he ran past us. At that moment, I realized that whoever he was running from had something scarier than the chain. I grabbed my wide-eyed roommate by the shoulder and made a 90 degree turn at the intersection. I did not want to know what that was all about.
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#20 No Help In This Neighborhood Crime
When I was nine or so there was a drive-by shooting in my neighborhood one night. We all laid on the floor for a while before my step-dad called the police. They said they would come by in the morning.
#19 Not Who You Want To Meet At A Bar
One night my friends and I were getting drunk on Sixth Street in Austin, Texas, and these three guys came up to us and just started chatting. They had a bottle of champagne that they shared with us. Everything was cool until they noticed my back tattoo and asked what it was. I showed them the big skull tattoo on my back, which somehow started a chain effect of these random guys taking their shirts off. This was the moment I realized we were drinking with the wrong dudes. They all had some kind of Nazi symbol tattoed on them. One with the SS lightning bolt, others with the swastika. I excused myself to the bathroom and right after texted my friends to leave the bar.
#18 The Worst Suggestion In The History Of Marriage
My husband asked me to move into the guest room so his mistress could move in and they could try being together. I'd pay rent, and if it didn't work out with her we could resume our marriage. I had to get outta there!
#17 A Terrifying Dinner Interruption
I was eating at an Italian restaurant in Trolley Square Mall when a guy entered the mall and began shooting people. Waitresses told us that there was an exit from the kitchen so we all booked it out the back. From the look on the cooks' faces when a restaurant's worth of people stormed their kitchen, all I could imagine them thinking was, "Gee, our cooking can't be that bad."
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#16 A Walk Home Takes A Bad Turn
Me and my significant other were walking back to the car after a night out. I was sober, but he was quite drunk. A guy ran across the road calling to us, got to us and asked us for some money for a cab. He started telling us how he lost his money and needed some cash. We were both facing him, but for some reason I looked behind us. Our backs were to an alley, and as I happened to hold my gaze, I saw someone take a step towards us, freeze, and then crouch back into the shadows. I thought I was seeing stuff, but I could definitely see a shoe just sitting there so someone was there. I turned back to the guy and said no and pulled my partner onwards. The guy started shouting nonesense after us. I looked behind me and the guy was looking down the alley, shook his head, and went across the road again. Then he stood where he was when he called us. We'd just been caught in a mugging trap. Thanks goodness I was sober enough to look around and notice things. If he'd caught a drunk couple they'd never have noticed.
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#15 A Scene Straight From "Get Out"
A few years ago I decided to try out WWOOFing, which is World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It's basically a work exchange thing, and a really cool and inexpensive way to travel. Well, the farm I went to was a large compound that ended up being a legitimate cult. I was dumb and didn't do my research before I went. I was supposed to be there for two weeks, but I lasted five days. The breaking point was when a woman I befriended pretended to hug me and whispered in my ear, "don't trust anybody". That was my biggest "I need to get out of here" moment.
#14 A Whole New Definition Of A Bad Date
I was on a third date with this guy. During the night he was obviously trying to get me drunk (while he was totally sober), forgot my name, and kept trying to kiss me without my permission. I tried to play it cool and let him walk me to the subway station, but he got me in a compromised area and started messing with me. I knocked him over and ran like crazy.
#13 Not Your Typical House Party
I walked into what I thought was a typical high school house party, although I didn't know whose house it was. There was no flooring inside the house, just baseboards, and the walls were covered in holes. I walked into the kitchen and saw a very large, bald Russian man sitting at the kitchen table, shotgun resting up against the wall behind him. I had a moment where I just thought to myself "is no one else seeing this?" since everyone at this house just seemed to be partying like you'd expect. I promptly got out of there.
#12 Definitely Not What You Would Want To Hear On Vacation
#11 Why Exploring Abandoned Buildings Never Ends Well
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#10 A Close Call For An Undercover Soldier
When I was an undercover soldier in Northern Ireland, I was sat in a car with another guy outside a location near Londonderry. A man walking his dog approached. It was a nice day, and so I had the window down. My mate and I were just generally talking but were quiet as the guy approached so as not to give our accents away. As he walked passed he said, "They know who you are, best you move on". The "they" being the Provos. I said thanks, started the car, made sure I could reach my gun bag, and drove on.
#9 A Definite Sign You Should Breakup
When my ex stabbed me in the thigh with a three-pronged Cutco carving fork while I was playfully flirting with her in the kitchen.
#8 This Hitchhiker's Story Could've Ended So Badly
I was hitchhiking after doing a section of river kayaking. An older guy pulled over and didn't say much. I'm a younger male, 6'3. Pretty big, so I wasn't too worried. I let him know I just needed to go about seven miles and he nodded for me to get in. It was a pretty nice classic car. I tried making some small talk, with no luck. I let him know when as my stop approached. He proceeded to start speeding up. I got a really bad feeling and start being much more urgent. Eventually I threatened to crash the car if he didn't pull over a mile or so after my stop. He slammed on the breaks, not to a complete stop. I hopped out and was able to keep my footing. I picked up a rock and immediately got off the road. He stopped and revved his engine a bit, but then kept going.
#7 The Situation You Pray You Never Find Yourself In
I was at the terrorist attack in Stockholm. Now, I was right below where it happened, but I heard and smelled it. Police came running down, screaming at us to run for our lives, screaming "get away, run, terrorists!" and I can safely say I didn't even think. My brain clicked into survival mode and I just ran. I didn't see my boyfriend or the people around me or anything.
#6 A Tourist's Bike Ride Came To An Abrupt End
I was backpacking in Laos. I decided to rent a motorbike and head off exploring the back country and jungle on my own. I had driven about an hour along an interesting dirt road, through the jungle, when I came to a clearing. There were a few shacks set up and one man dressed in traditional Laos dress holding an assault rifle. We looked at eachother for about 10 seconds, then he pointed back the way I came with the rifle. I've never turned a bike around so fast. I've got no idea what was going on there but it was near the golden triangle so I know a lot of opium gets trafficked through there.
#5 A New Meaning To Bad Neighbors
So, I was a missionary in a particularly bad part of El Salvador. We lived in the upstairs of a one room apartment and would walk all over the city. Well one night, we had a gang of guys throwing glass and rocks through our windows and at our door, telling us they we're going to murder us. Rocks turned to a gun shot or two and the police finally came and we were "retrieved" and moved to a new location. Turns out we were living in a complex full of 18th Street gang members and we were walking, every day, into MS13 gang territory. They thought we were spying.
#4 Definitely Not The Happiest Place On Earth
Right now. Sixteen family members at Disney. I can't do all the crying kids.
#3 One Club You Don't Want To Join
It was at a widows and widowers support group. A few months earlier, I had lost my husband of 22 years after a long battle with cancer. The social part was fine, then the "sharing" part started. One woman's husband had been gone for over 10 years, but she was crying her eyes out like it had happened yesterday. Another group of women were making quilts out of their dead spouses' clothes. I felt so bad for all of them and thought at the time, "Oh my God, is this what life is going to be like from here on out?" All of a sudden I swear I heard my husband say, "You need to get out of here! I don't want you to be this miserable and sad!" I got up and left shortly after and needless to say I never went back.
#2 This Firefighter Faced Intense Floods
I'm a volunteer firefighter and one night I was sleeping at my firehall, because flooding had cut me off from the only road back to my house. I was woken up at 3:30 a.m. by the night shift crews who were keeping watch on the flood waters. The river was still rising and was within 6 inches of breaching the berm, and would obliterate the town if it did. We got out of dodge, having already evacuated the residents the night before.
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#1 Family's Drama Almost Turned Deadly
Messed up family. My dad once threw his wedding ring out of the truck on the highway, and because of that my mom had a mild heart attack in the ditch on the side of the road afterwards. I called 911 and they rushed to the scene and we got my moms nitroglycerin pill shoved down her throat. Police got there and an ambulance. My mom denied any assistance. Long story short, I end up putting my parents in the backseat of the truck, and me and my sister in the front and drove us eight hours home. After that day, I said screw you guys as soon as I'm out of high school I'm gone. Many more stories, but that's when I knew I had no choice.
