• Sentient Loom@sh.itjust.works
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    28 days ago

    I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of the beer store, playing a game on my phone, procrastinating on my mission to buy beer.

    I had locked the door from pure paranoia (I’m just a paranoid guy).

    A guy on the sidewalk stepped onto the parking lot and walked toward my car. I thought little of it, but I noticed. He got closer and closer, and then he grabbed the handle and tried to open the driver-side door.

    It was locked so he casually kept walking like everything was normal.

    It was broad daylight. I still have no idea what he would have done if the door had been unlocked. But I was sitting and in the more vulnerable position.

    • reversebananimals@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      I had a similar experience. I was maybe 17, driving alone at night to choir practice. Stopped at a red light on an empty street and a guy walked straight up to my car and tried to open the passenger door. It was locked and thankfully the light turned green a second later. I peeled out.

      Human beings are FUCKED.

    • Thavron@lemmy.ca
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      27 days ago

      But I was sitting and in the more vulnerable position.

      His crotch would’ve been very much within punching reach though

  • Lettuce eat lettuce
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    28 days ago

    When my brother and I were pretty young, my dad once left us in the car to run in fast and grab something from a grocery store. (I know, bad, but this was several decades ago. It was more normal back then.)

    While he was gone, an older man came up to our car and started aggressively trying to unlock the door.

    My brother and I froze in fear and just watched as he kept trying to unlock the door. We had unbuckled ourselves to play while my dad was inside, so we were on the floor.

    We both just shrunk down into the floor and hid silently, not knowing what to do.

    After probably 30 seconds, he put his hands up over his eyes and looked in the car window, then made a frustrated sound and quickly left.

    Once our dad came back a few minutes later, my brother and I told him what happened. We were pretty freaked out.

    He said the man was probably just confused because he was elderly and thought it was his car. I think that makes sense, but as little kids alone, it was still really scary.

    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
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      28 days ago

      my dad once left us in the car to run in fast and grab something from a grocery store. (I know, bad

      Is this bad? Where? My parents often left us in the car, it’s totally normal here in Denmark.

      • Lettuce eat lettuce
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        28 days ago

        I’m in the US and we lived in a medium-sized city at the time, so a higher level of danger than in many other developed countries.

        • SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net
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          27 days ago

          It’s a bit flexible nowadays because a lot of cars will let you leave the a/c on while you walk away with the keys.

      • VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world
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        27 days ago

        The main thing I’d be concerned about is if it’s hot. I always wait in a car if someone is going into a shop or something like that as I’m lazy as fuck and can’t be arsed walking around.

  • ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠@midwest.social
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    28 days ago

    A stranger trying to grab me by the back of my neck as I rode past on my bicycle. He got ahold of my hoodie but didn’t have a good grip. I got away and pedalled like hell.

  • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    While I was working downtown one summer, I stopped off in a CVS in the center of the main part of the city to buy some water.

    On my way into the store I walked past a homeless black man. He had on a thigh-length coat with a hoodie under it, jeans, and boots that were half laced. The cornea of one eye was milky, presumably damaged at some point and probably blind or nearly so.

    I grabbed my water and went to the back of the line, a few feet from that homeless guy. He got a look at me and said with a giant smile “Hi Death_Equity!” like greeting an old friend. I said “Hey man.” hiding how surprised I was and he walked away. I was too caught off guard to find out who he was, I was reeling that he knew my name. I have no idea who he was, but he somehow knew my name. I didn’t have a name tag on, nobody else was in the store with me that could have said my name, I didn’t have a credit card out that he could have read. He either was a voodoo priest who gave his eye for sight beyond sight, or he is someone who knew me and I did not know or recognize him.

    When I got back to the truck, I told my coworker about it and was fairly freaked out about this random half-blind homeless guy that knew me by name.

    I have spent hours since trying to figure out who that man was to me. I feel horrible knowing that he must have been someone I knew and have forgotten about him as society has. Maybe I went to school with him as a kid? Maybe I met him through work before he was homeless? I wish I knew, but he surprised the fuck out of me.

    • voracitude@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      I understand being too freaked out to ask how he knew you, plus probably not wanting the interaction and having to get back to work, but like… damn. I know I’d have asked, I’d be too curious not to and I’d feel bad for blanking him if we did know each other. My partner hates that I engage with randoms like that though, so maybe I’m too blase about it?

  • proctonaut@lemmy.world
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    27 days ago

    I was sitting in my pickup outside my apartment listening to the radio and some guy just…got in. I asked “can I help you?” and the look on his face when he realized his mistake was priceless. In his defense Lyft had just started in my area and there was only one other vehicle that looked like mine in that part of the city.

    • Hazzia@discuss.tchncs.de
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      27 days ago

      Similar but different:

      I was leaving a facility and went to get in my car in the parking lot. Unlocked it, it went beep beep, and I got it. Then I realized something was off. This isn’t my sweatshirt, this isn’t my drink! This… isn’t my car! It’s the same make, model, and color, and some cosmic bullshit luck had it set to the same frequency as my keyfob!!

      I quickly got out and got into my car 2 spaces down that was hidden behind a truck, just in time to see the actual owners of the other car come out of the facility and get in.

      I bought a lotto ticket that day and lost.

    • VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      Something similar happened to me and my brother maybe 15 to 20 years ago. Our parents were in the shop and we were sat in the car waiting but the car had tinted windows in the back. Some guy gets into the car not realizing that there was anybody in it and when he does he apologizes and says that he mistook our parents car for his own as they were the same make/model or something.

      • proctonaut@lemmy.world
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        27 days ago

        I’ve done that. Even though to myself “who put this apple here?” as I sat down in the passenger seat.

        • DNOS
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          26 days ago

          I have done that too thought it was my mothers car which came to take me home I opened the trunk put my bags in closed it walk all the way around hop in to realize

        • DNOS
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          26 days ago

          I have done that too thought it was my mothers car which came to take me home I opened the trunk put my bags in closed it walk all the way around hop in to realize there wasn’t my mother at the wheel … That dude face … Priceless … Mine probably too… Apologized took the bags and went hearing my mother laughing for the rest of the trip se was parked right in front she saw everything…

        • DNOS
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          26 days ago

          I have done that too thought it was my mothers car which came to take me home I opened the trunk put my bags in closed it walk all the way around hop in to realize there wasn’t my mother at the wheel … That dude face … Priceless … Mine probably too… Apologized took the bags and went hearing my mother laughing for the rest of the trip se was parked right in front she saw everything…

        • DNOS
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          26 days ago

          I have done that too thought it was my mothers car which came to take me home I opened the trunk put my bags in closed it walk all the way around hop in to realize there wasn’t my mother at the wheel … That dude face … Priceless … Mine probably too… Apologized took the bags and went hearing my mother laughing for the rest of the trip se was parked right in front she saw everything…

    • DNOS
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      26 days ago

      I have done that too thought it was my mothers car which came to take me home I opened the trunk put my bags in closed it walk all the way around hop in to realize there wasn’t my mother at the wheel … That dude face … Priceless … Mine probably too… Apologized took the bags and went hearing my mother laughing for the rest of the trip se was parked right in front she saw everything…

    • ClassifiedPancake@discuss.tchncs.de
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      27 days ago

      I don’t know the whole situation but reading this it could be he just happened to go the same way and maybe whistled because he wanted to make himself noticed by animals. But it sure seems creepy!

  • happybadger [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    27 days ago

    A patient came into the ER for chest pain. He was uncomfortable and a bit anxious but otherwise normal. The guy was a military officer and very athletic. I go in to draw his blood and get some background information, we’re chatting as I get my supplies ready, and as I’m putting the needle in his arm he says “you’re from the government.” in a very cold voice. I look up and his face has completely changed. He’s furious and looks like a cornered animal. Before I can ask “what?”, he screams it again and rips the needle out of his arm. He kicked me backward and then stood up while screaming “you’re from the government” repeatedly. I get to my feet and he charges, easily twice my size and probably trained to kill. I run to the far end of the ward, he keeps running after me, and the only thing that saved me was having my paramedic boots on. I managed to get one good kick with the steel toe into his shin and brought him down after which I got him into a restraint position and the doc sedated him. I had never seen psychosis suddenly come on like that from a completely neurotypical presentation. A switch flipped mid-conversation and he was determined to kill me without any ability to perceive pain or limit the strength of his muscles. I broke his leg and he was unaffected, still trying to get up and attack me again.

      • happybadger [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        27 days ago

        Pretty much. What got me is that he was an aviation officer with a pretty high rank. They have extremely strict entry requirements, regular psychological screenings, constant checks by flight surgeons. He was around 20 years beyond when a lot of psychiatric illnesses start presenting and as far as I know we never established an etiology for it. The only trigger I could ever think of was the needle piercing him but until that moment he showed absolutely no anxiety about the blood draw and I thoroughly explained why we were drawing two separate chest panels over the next few hours. One moment he fully understood what was happening and was discussing it, the next it was chaos. After really fine-tuning my sense of shit about to kick off from that line of work, I had zero indication anything was off about the situation.

        • radiofreeval [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          27 days ago

          Most mental illnesses disqualify you from flying so many pilots never seek help under any circumstances as they want to keep flying. The phrase between pilots is “the three most important people in your life are your doctor, your priest and your areomedical examiner. It is critical to ensure they never meet”. Or could be a product of trying to hide illness for a while so he could keep his job and pride.

  • Pandantic@midwest.social
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    28 days ago

    I was out in the garden when a dude waked by. One of us waved, I don’t remember which, and the other waved back, sort of neighborly one hand up for a second wave. By the time he crosses the bush, he has turned back to cross my (luckily fairly large) yard, walking towards me. I run inside, and lock the door and yell at my SO to come downstairs there was a scary man at the door. SO confronts the man while I hide. Dude makes up a story about how someone yelled at him from our balcony, and he thought it was his friend. SO says he doesn’t believe him, and he better not show his face around here again if he wants to make it home alive.

      • Kanzar@sh.itjust.works
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        28 days ago

        Sometimes there’s just something that seems wrong. Why did the man turn back? Why did he then claim someone had called out to him? The OP felt something was off and acted on it.

      • constantokra@lemmy.one
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        28 days ago

        Different places right? Where I live you’re as like to get shot as not for approaching someone’s house on foot at night without announcing who you are and why you’re there.

        Someone came stealthily up to our gate late at night once when my partner was alone in the side yard. Dog ran him off when he tried to open the gate, but I don’t like to think what might have happened if he wasn’t out with her. There is literally zero chance he was there for any legitimate reason and she was clearly visible in a light at the back of the property.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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    27 days ago

    Probably being run off the road and attacked with a knife because I wouldn’t/couldn’t get out of the way of some methed out asshole.

    My old car had a gas shut-off if enough big bumps happened.

    I was doing 5 over the limit and a dude comes up behind me, honking and going batshit.

    The road was a curvy country road with no real way to pull off safely. Too curvy to put my ass on the line speeding up more. So I just waved him around and slowed slightly on a slightly less curved section.

    Dude revs up, then starts to jerk into the side of my car.

    I brake hard and steer as best as possible to what little shoulder exists.

    Passenger side is barely hanging on the edge of a five foot drop, and of course the bump slipping off the paved section hard set off the gas shutoff.

    Fine, whatever. The switch to cut it back on is in the fucking rear hatch area.

    So I drag my sasquatch ass out out the car to go hit it.

    Dude comes screeching back from the other direction. Brakes hard, practically jumps out of the car, pulls a shitty switchblade and comes at me.

    Shit went down. I have one small scar, he was worse off. I used to tell the whole story, but people are fucking idiots, and I’m too old for internet bullshit.

      • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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        27 days ago

        Shoot, share it anyway. That’s what it’s all about, people just sharing themselves and maybe getting a chance to walk that mile in the other person’s shoes :)

        • Hazzia@discuss.tchncs.de
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          26 days ago

          Well okay then:

          It wasn’t really alarming at the time because I was a stupid child, but I may have almost gotten kidnapped. One day in the 90’s when I was maybe 4 or 5 years old, my family all went grocery shopping at Target one day and I somehow got separated from them and started wandering around looking for them (hadn’t learned “stay in place” yet). Some nice lady offered to help me look for them, took my hand, and after wandering for a bit, said “maybe your parents are out in the parking lot!” So, she took me outside and we were walking to the end of the lot when I did, in fact, spot my parents. Turns out they had completely forgotten/not realized I wasn’t with them because they were loading groceries and getting ready to leave.

          When I say “my family” went to Target, ot was my parents and older brother, so by no means a Home Alone situation. Really I’m more alarmed at them than the lady for having left their youngest child in Target.

  • zephorah@lemm.ee
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    28 days ago

    I’m guessing the nurse community probably has some outlandish stories to tell here.

    • philpo@feddit.de
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      27 days ago

      Not a nurse but a paramedic. Does getting a gun pulled on me by a crackhead count?

      Or a guy furiously masturbating in the back of my ambulance?

  • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.gg
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    27 days ago

    I was on a hiking trail … I could see at least 50 meters/yards back.

    I stopped and took a couple pictures of some deer super close to the trail. Looked back, then kept walking… Nobody there.

    A matter of moments later, I hear footsteps behind me. I had headphones on but I wasn’t playing my music very loud. I take a quick glance back, the guy is wearing a grey T-shirt, a blue ball cap, blue jeans, and white sneakers. Literally the most generic outfit you can possibly have and he’s looking at the ground so I can’t see his face.

    I decided to call my friend who’s always home on my phone. He picks up and I just start some BS conversation. Probably 15 seconds later, the dude vanished just as quickly as he’d come.

    I don’t know if he was just a really fast walker and my situational awareness was way off that day, but it did freak me out.

        • DNOS
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          26 days ago

          Hey man aren’t you gonna tell us ? Tease and dash ? What a person… 😉

            • DNOS
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              25 days ago

              Hey man I don’t get if you like more to write stories or to brag about your adventures anyway what about that other story I would love to hear it … Seems like your adventures have drugs in common “almost” never had those seems like preatty wild adventures seems to come out are them worth ? What’s your favorite combo ?

                • DNOS
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                  25 days ago

                  Man that’s wild, anyway I think that everyone should be loved, from her parents saying to leave her alone wasn’t that great of a move … Maybe you could have helped her out … Thanks for the tips 😉by

            • DNOS
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              25 days ago

              Hey man I don’t get if you like more to write stories or to brag about your adventures anyway what about that other story I would love to hear it … Seems like your adventures have drugs in common “almost” never had those seems like preatty wild adventures seems to come out are them worth ? What’s your favorite combo ?

            • DNOS
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              25 days ago

              Hey man I don’t get if you like more to write stories or to brag about your adventures anyway what about that other story I would love to hear it … Seems like your adventures have drugs in common “almost” never had those seems like preatty wild adventures seems to come out are them worth ? What’s your favorite combo ?

            • DNOS
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              25 days ago

              Hey man I don’t get if you like more to write stories or to brag about your adventures anyway what about that other story I would love to hear it … Seems like your adventures have drugs in common “almost” never had those seems like preatty wild adventures seems to come out are them worth ? What’s your favorite combo ?

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    28 days ago

    Getting mugged/pickpocketed and having my phone stolen - I was in a foreign country, didn’t speak the language well and lost a lot of precious pictures that I didn’t have time to backup (Google was being a fucking removed and prioritizing storing some long videos I’d tried to mark as excluded from backup). It felt violating, especially for how cheap my phone was.

  • caboose2006@lemmy.ca
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    27 days ago

    A guy in a rugby jersey, with the build of a rugby player, grabbed me by the shoulders and shouted in my face “I don’t care if I die tonight!” And headbutted me right in the forehead After I told him I didn’t have a cigarette. Luckily I was with 6 friends, they took care of it.