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Real-life can often be far more gruesome and terrifying than the horror and crime movies we’ve seen and the books we’ve read. And in the real world, the good guys don’t always win, miracles don’t always happen.
Redditor u/relaxito27 asked people to share the scariest things that they’ve witnessed personally, and the stories these internet users shared are not for the faint of heart. They’re raw. They’re real. They’ll take you out of your comfort zone—and not gently.
A small note of warning, dear Pandas: this article isn’t for everyone because the stories here are, frankly, truly terrifying. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, we suggest that you read this Bored Panda article about heartwarming stories instead. For those of you brave enough to scroll down, we’ve got your backs.
Bored Panda wanted to learn about how to come to terms with the fact that life can, at times, be unpredictable and that accidents can happen. So we reached out to Lee Chambers, a Psychologist and Wellbeing Consultant, who was kind enough to answer our questions about traumatic experiences and resilience.
"As human beings, we have a desire for certainty and routine that keeps us feeling safe and able to plan what lies ahead in an organized manner. When unpredictable situations or accidents impact us, it can be traumatic, and we will likely feel a sense of disappointment, frustration, and loss," he explained.
"It is important however that we embrace the fact that the world can be unpredictable and uncertain, and become more tolerant of this being a reality. Understanding that things are sometimes out of our control helps us to accept that not everything goes to plan, and accept when things happen to us that are negative. This acceptance allows us to embrace the change and difference, and manage our expectations so we can become more resilient to the ups and downs that all our lives lead."
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#1
I saw A head on collision between two SUV’s on a remote section of road near Jasper. Approximately 100km from the closet hospital. I was first on the scene, pulled bodies from burning vehicles after breaking windows, my shirt caught on fire pulling people out. I attempted CPR with two other people on 4 of the six people, until they past away in our arms. Their bodies were broken, or CPR was not possible due to severe facial injuries and pneumothorax. One man kept reaching up to me asking me if he was going to die, and telling me he couldn’t breath, but his lungs were obviously perforated, I breathed for him until he passed away. I told him he was loved and was with people who cared for him. The vehicles caught on fire, causing a forest all around us and had to be put out with a helicopter hours later. During the hour that it took for EMS to get to the scene a bear walked through the scene, and we had to constantly scare it away, probably due to the smell of blood. I watched 2 people burn to death because I could not reach them through the fire, I promise I tried to save them. I was covered in blood, body fluids, bone chips, and a tooth stuck in my knee. There was a baby laying face down on the road and it was placed on what I thought was the mom while doing CPR. In the end, the baby and mother were the only ones of all 8 who lived. So many peoples lives were destroyed that day. I still have ptsd from the experience. I often feel like I failed at saving people, but their bodies were so severely damaged. Smells, sounds, textures, were all so vivid that I get flashbacks, I’m emotional writing this. Since then, I have had many horrifying dreams, but the dreams that stand out most are dreams of meeting the people who passed. In the dreams they tell me positive words of encouragement and appreciation, even laughs and jokes about life. It’s weird. Please drive safe, love each other. I tried everything I could do to help, I promise to god I tried.
Edit; I sincerely thank you all for the outpouring of kind, loving and positive thoughts and comments! I am at peace with the events of that day and very happy in life! I’m sincerely not a hero, I was just trying to help where I thought I could. Whenever I think about that day I just think about hugging the loved ones of the people who lost their loved ones. Spread that love around and we will all be hero’s!
If you were involved, or know anyone at the scene, please reach out to me!
Jo Choto 2 years ago
I have experienced everything you talked about, but in two different incidents. It takes a long, long, long time to come to terms with the sensory onslaught and the flashbacks. You don't get over it but you do learn to live with it and put the memories in a safe box. Being able to talk about it is a good sign.
Bored Panda also wanted to know whether hardship always makes a person stronger. According to psychologist Lee, who is the founder of Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing and PhenomGames, growth, after we experience something traumatic, isn't necessarily straightforward, but it can create the conditions for us to become more resilient.
"Post-traumatic growth isn't always simple to explain or utilise, but often the adversity we face can create a precedent for what we can overcome, help us to see what we need to be grateful for, and give us an understanding of the support we do have. A big part of opening the door to grow from our struggles is finding acceptance and taking ownership over what you can control and finding healthy ways to express the negative emotion that comes with challenges that test us," he shared with us.
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#2
My mom called me at midnight asking me to go check on my dad because she was worried about him but didn't say exactly why. I found him drunk in the woods behind the house sitting on a stump with a pistol in his mouth. I spent the next 40 minutes sitting there talking him down. He eventually gave me the gun and went to bed. I'll never get over it.
#3
When I was maybe 7, my cousin and I were playing outside. We went in the front yard and saw my brother in his car with his friend. Their eyes were closed, heads back against the headrests, windows rolled up on a hot summer day. Then they started making these odd jerking movements with their arms and heads. Being kids, my cousin and I thought they were just being silly and messing with us. But when we noticed the drool and that they weren’t responding, we got scared and got my parents.
We didn’t know at the time, but we were watching my brother and his friend overdose. I don’t know what they took, I probably never will. My parents sent us in the house while they took care of the boys. They thankfully survived. But that image of them passed out in the blue, 90s Toyota will stick with me forever.
Lee also opened up about what personally helped him when he had to learn to walk again. "Using journaling and talking about how I felt played a significant part in my recovery when I had to learn to walk again, and gave me the space to grow to become mentally stronger as a result. It is also important to reflect on all the hurdles you've overcome, so you can see what skills and lessons you've learned to apply in the future, and adversity often helps us to see what really matters, and gets us closer to knowing our values and purpose."
#4
I was with my mom at McDonalds. I was about 8 years old. We had just pulled up in the parking lot. A man came out, dragging his son by the collar. The kid was about 13 or 14 years old. He was also crying. The man grabbed the boy by the throat and slammed his head against the wall. I distinctly remember the boy's choked-off screaming. The man pinned him against the wall and hit him with a closed fist.
My mom immediately called 911 and stepped out of the car to yell at the man, telling him to stop. He called her a bitch and told her to mind her own business. The cops came quickly. They interviewed me and my mom, then the boy and his father.
Then they let the man go home with his boy. The cops said they didn't see anything, so they couldn't prove anything. I remember being frantic, terrified. I begged them to stop the man from driving away. They ignored me, got in their car, and left.
It was the most scared I'd ever been up until that moment, watching the cops drive away and the black pickup with the dad and his son drive away as well. I will never forget that kid or how scared I was seeing him hurt, then seeing people just let him get hurt more.
#5
Ah….well. This happened around 15 years ago. I was visiting El Salvador with my family and long time friend of 30+ years. One day we went to a coast line and thought it was a great place to fish, we could see for miles away and my friend was a well experienced diver+boater. I was feeling really tired that day so I head off to sleep.I wake up and realize I dozed off too long as It’s around 6pm and it’s dark. I look around the house that we rented for the week and realize I’m the only one here. My family or friend isn’t here so I wait one more hour and feel a sense of dread come over me almost Immediately and ran out to where I last saw them. As I run down the street I realize a large group of people are gathering at the coast and find out my kids are stranded near the coastline with people throwing things to them to latch on to. My wife is crying and yelling and I help some other guys pull them to safety. Then I realize that my friend and the boat is gone. I do one last look at the coastline and hear “IM SORRY! I DID MY BEST! IM SORRY!” And I see my friend go down the ocean with the boat flipping over him and drowning him. He swam for 3 hours in rough water with my kids bringing them as close to the coast as he could before succumbing to exhaustion still thinking he didn’t do good enough.
Wouldiwas Shookspeared 2 years ago (edited)
I’m just going to stop reading here I should’ve acknowledged the trigger warning Edit: despite being very distressed I have managed to not relapse!!!!
#6
A job I used to work at, my boss had a heart attack in his office and died in the middle of the shift. The office lights were motion activated so we thought he left to go something as it was dark. I went into the office to get a new radio and there he was, leaned back in his chair with his eyes wide open. Scariest thing I've ever seen
It’s no secret that we have a deep fascination with horror stories—whether real or made up—as human beings. The strange, the bizarre, the chilling all grab our attention and sometimes we feel like we can’t unglue our eyes from the screen. Topics dealing with death, especially, are popular (even if some folks won’t admit to enjoying reading them).
Award-winning editor and writer Doug Murano previously explained to Bored Panda that our fascination with scary stories lies in our deep-seated curiosity. “I suspect that most of us—regardless of our spiritual beliefs—have a longing for something beyond this life. Human beings seem to be pre-programmed with this urge," he told us.
"So much of horror and speculative fiction grapples with death and what happens after we die that I can't help but believe much of our interest in such stories is an expression of a longing for experiences and existences beyond our perceptions," the editor and writer mused.
"Great horror stories thread a precarious needle: They maintain a sense of the truly inexplicable while creating a world and a narrative that provides enough answers to ground the story,” he told us.
#7
I was a skydiving instructor for a couple years.
There was a really cocky kid that went through our program, who was pretty bad at listening, barely tested into the solo jump phase, etc. I didn’t have the authority to kick him out, and regardless, I wasn’t close enough to the situation to know whether or not they were wrong in letting him jump.
His first jump, he had a poor free fall (not uncommon), but not terrible canopy work.
I saw his second jump, where he didn’t follow radio directions under canopy, and turned without looking, such that his parachute wrapped around another student, obstructing that student’s vision and mobility.
At this point, with the first kid hanging by a collapsed canopy wrapped around the second kid (~1000ft off the ground), they are trained to ride it down since neither is moving at a dangerous speed towards the ground. But of course, dingus doesn’t want to follow direction (or the advice given to him over the radio). He cuts away his first parachute, going back into free fall, to allow his reserve to deploy.
Watching from the tower that day, I thought I would witness this kid bounce off the ground. Fortunately, we had some of the best riggers in the country working for us, and the reserve deployed immediately. No sooner had it fully deployed, that kid touched down.
He couldn’t have cut it any closer! Suffice it to say, this kid didn’t get to jump again.
Edit: all students jump with radios, so the kid whose vision was obstructed was able to follow radio instructions to land safely, even though he had to do so without being able to see in front of him.
#8
Saw an old man slip and die at a bus stop in Portland early in the morning when I was a teenager. That was sad, but what really shook me was the way he was picked up by an ambulance, the sidewalk was washed off, and they left. Within 15 minutes people were occupying that space waiting for a bus, and it was like it had never happened.
#9
Two drunk homeless guys were fighting and one got pushed down onto the Miami metrorail tracks with a train visible in the distance. He wasn’t able to stand on his own and nobody was helping. I jumped down and forced him back up as someone else pulled him on to the platform. I made it back up with the only like 20 seconds before the train came.
I was afraid I would be electrocuted or wouldn’t have been able to get him back in time and would’ve had to leave him.
“Over-explanation kills most horror, which is why the shark is scariest when you only see the fin; the alien is most terrifying when it's lurking in the shadows; the killer is most monstrous when he's masked," Doug explained to Bored Panda that if we can see the monster in the scary story, we can start thinking rationally. If it remains shrouded in the shadows, it’s far more terrifying.
Doug added that it’s best to enjoy scary stories in full no matter if they’re fact or fiction. A great story is a great story, regardless of whether it was embellished or completely made up.
#10
My cousin getting attacked by a Rottweiler. We had a neighbor (14) that had a Rottweiler tied up in their backyard. We always thought it was friendly. We would hangout with our neighbor often. This one particular time my neighbor's sister was feeding/playing with the dog. My cousin (8) and his twin brother went over to join her. One of them got on the doghouse and the dog didn't seem to like that, so it latched onto my cousin's thigh. He jumped down and tried to run away but the dog pushed him down and grabbed onto my cousin's head and started thrashing him around. I was in shock. I couldn't move and it took me a few seconds to realize what was going on. It was like watching it happen in slow motion. His head being snatched back and forth and blood everywhere. I snapped out of it when I saw my neighbor run towards them and started punching the dog in the face. He let go and my cousin took off running and screaming that he had a hole on his head. I ran over to him and tried to calm him down. His scalp was hanging off his head. I could see the white of his skull. We lived next to my parent's restaurant and the parking lot was full of customers. I called 911 and the ambulance was there in minutes. He was taken to the hospital and had to have his scalp stapled and stitches on his chest and thigh. He was scared of dogs for the longest after that.
Cactus McCoy 2 years ago
I really really love dogs. This animal is a danger to each and every creature around it, though. It needed to be put down.
#11
A car accident between a motorcyclist and a car, the cyclist head rolled to the sidewalk near me. Not pretty.
#12
I worked with a lady with dementia. Weird things happened often, but you know, not your house, creepy things happen. But then once, I was sitting on her bed, doing her nails, and she asked. “ Who’s that man?” And pointed to the foot of her bed. I looked, and was prepping my normal response, when I saw an indentation at the edge of the bed, rise like someone just stood up. She followed him with her finger.
"My professional expertise is limited to fiction, but I'll say this: I've seen enough real magic and wonder in the world to make me think twice about whether the supernatural is real—and I think that's a healthy thing. It's perhaps less important to believe any given tale than it is to remain open to experiences while leaving room in your head and in your heart for belief."
#13
Just this past Saturday I hit the local bar to get some carry-out and a growler. I saw a friend outside and chatted for maybe three minutes when another guy took a step, tripped, and face planted hard into a “stepped” area of concrete. In the blink of an eye this guy was within minutes of dying. He began convulsing and vomiting uncontrollably, could not speak, and was bleeding profusely from his head, nose, and ears. He hit so hard that his nose was shattered and his skull split open across his forehead. EMT’s were stunned and got him out of there as fast as possible. The bartender came out and washed more blood and vomit than I’ve ever seen from the pavement with buckets of hot bleach water.
The scariest part was the speed at which this happened. People were standing so close to this guy but he went down so fast and hard that there wasn’t time to react and catch him. The violence of the impact was shocking.
#14
I watched both WTC towers come down from a few blocks away.
Had serious PTSD for about 15 years.
#15
Holding my dads hand and watching him flatline and die after pulling him off the machines.
#16
My husband having a psychotic break from sleep deprivation a few days after we had our first born child.
#17
Me, a 25 year old tram driver, once almost hit a group of teenagers who ignored all warning signs, causing me to hit the emergency brakes and injure 4 of the passengers in my tram, who fell to the floor due to the sudden stop of the tram. Also, i was traumatized for 2 weeks and needed to take off work to go to therapy. I swear, in that moment i saw these kids, i just hit the brakes, closed my eyes and prayed i dont feel an impact. That was by far the scariest thing in my life so far.
WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago
In the Netherlands drivers of any vehicle are almost always liable when they hit a pedestrian. No matter how erratic, disoriented, careless, high or drunk the pedestrian was, in 99,99999% of the cases the driver is held responsible.
#18
Arrived at an accident about 30 seconds after it occurred. A friend of mine was driving and rolled the car, she was thrown clear (no seatbelt - wear them FFS!) and hit a tree.
I found her, did first aid and helped the paramedics lift her onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. Her body stopped functioning about a week later but it's pretty obvious she died there (massive brain trauma), it just took a while for the end.
#19
I haven’t had the most adventurous life, but I remember one time when we were camping, my family was hiking around on this big rock and it starting getting cloudy. My dad and siblings climbed up to the top of the rock but my mom and I decided it was too steep for us. My dad reached up into the air and said he could feel static on his fingers. My little sisters hair starting standing up a little, and my dad was just standing there with my brother, laughing at the staticky feeling he got when he reached up. My mom and I tried to convince him to come down but he wouldn’t. Eventually he ended up getting down and no one was hurt, but I was terrified watching my little sisters hair stand up and my dad not do anything about it. He’s a good dad, but sometimes he can be a moron. He didn’t think the situation was that serious, even with my mom and I freaking out
ioala 2 years ago
For anyone not understanding the severity of this situation - when you can feel the static in the air and when your hair starts to lift up, a lightning is very very likely to strike at you or near you. So GTFO as fast as you can, find shelter, get away from tall structures/trees...
#20
Back in the mid 70’s I worked for a company called TriForm Corp in Gurnee, Illinois. I worked in the machine shop on day shift. I usually went in early so I could have a smoke and a cup of coffee before I started my shift. I worked on a turret lathe mostly. There was a woman who ran that turret lathe on third shift, so I always took over from her. I didn’t know her all that well, just knew that she was pretty and had long silky hair. One morning I heard a scream and then people scrambling, lots of shouting. I ran over to the source of the noise. It was that girl. Her long hair had gotten tangled on the piece of bar stock she had been working with. It grabbed her hair and ripped her scalp off, peeling in from the back of her head the tip of her nose. When I got there it was still spinning around. I’ll never forget that wet slapping sound it made. I hit the emergency stop. Somebody had grabbed towels and stuff and wrapped her head and was trying to keep her calm but she was hysterical. It was bad. Real bad.
Evil Little Thing 2 years ago (edited)
Reasons to tie your hair up. Workplace safety regulations are no joke.
#21
In late May, 2013, i was goin to visit my aunt and uncle, who lived in Moore, Oklahoma, and I got there around the 18th. 2 days later, a tornado warning was sent out, and we saw the clouds get darker as time went on, and then I saw a blockage of cloud touch the ground. I watched as that thing grew and came towards town, with the sirens blaring all round. It was simultaneously the most horrifying yet beautiful thing I had and still have ever seen in my entire life. I stood there for about a minute before I got pulled away and brought down to the storm cellar. When we came back up, all that was left was foundation.
#22
The birth of my first child. Not the delivery but the post stuff. My wife went to use the bathroom and feinted on a nurse. Turns out she had been losing a third of her blood. She was pretty pale. So now I’m a new dad holding this newborn watching them throw bloody pad after pad out. Thankfully she was fine at the end and we have another kid now too. But damn that was rough. I can’t imagine how she felt.
Fluffy Griffin 2 years ago
After I gave birth to my firstborn, I heard the doctor say "where is this bleeding coming from". I was so weak and exhausted, I thought I was going to die and my thoughts were "Well dang, husband is going to be pissed. He's not going to be happy taking care of a baby by himself". I was so exhausted I didn't really care about myself, at least in death I could finally rest. NOTE: I wasn't actually dying or close to death, it was a minor bleed. 😅
#23
I saw someone slip and fall from the top of Half Dome in Yosemite. I'm a first responder and have seen bad things but I have control for the most part in those situations. Watching someone tumbling to their death and knowing nothing can be done was hard. Certainly didn't help my fear of heights either.
#24
As a kid I found a camera in my parent's bedroom an innocently decided to see what photos were on there.
Kids. DO NOT LOOK.
WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago (edited)
Neat, a documentary on how you were created. Pity it wasn't a video. [ Edit, I see my comment whooshed over a lot of heads. ]
#25
A wildfire. People don't understand the noise, heat and speed of a modern wildfire. I have been managing wildfire risk for a long time and nothing compares to first hand witness of literal hellscape on earth. Watching one grow miles over minutes with resources surrounding on all sides making no attempt to manage gives a feeling of helplessness that lingers in the soul. Stay safe everyone.
#26
Waking up in the middle of the night to my wife’s screaming and seeing my then 6mo son’s face so severely swollen that he was unrecognizable due to a then unknown allergy and struggling to breath
Nathan Pogorzala 2 years ago
Serendipitously awakening and deciding to check on my then 1 year old daughter and seeing her having a seizure for the very first time. It is not as bad some of these stories, but her little face during it will haunt me for life.
#27
A few months back I was driving on the highway and a truck hauling a bunch of lumber almost went off the shoulder, swerved into my lane coming right for me, then swerved back into their lane and tipped over and went into the ditch. I pulled over and puked because I was so scared. A guy behind me went and helped the driver out and called ems and everything, everyone was alright but it was very frightening.
April Stephens 2 years ago
😱 Excuse me while I go turn in my driver's license. I am just going to stay home forever.
#28
I saw a person fall out of the back of a pickup going 65mph. He hit the ground, and rolled, then stood up. His baseball cap did not fall off. The truck he was in did not stop.
I almost ran over him as he fell into my lane. It was clear he was in a little shock so I walked him over to the side of the road and called 911. He had a mild case of road rash (it was summer so short sleeves) I can't imagine what happened when the people got to their house and someone said "Where's Bill ??"
#29
Having my fiancée overdose in my arms (thankfully we r both sober now and doing well)
#30
Being carjacked and having my uncle kidnapped while being held at gun point as an 8th y/o
#31
Mine is a bit silly, and honestly might not be the scariest thing in my life, but I felt like some of the heavier comments could use a funnier scary moment to offset them. While hiking in Japan I came across a troop of snow monkeys, and one bore it's fangs and started chasing me (probably because I wasn't thinking and made eye contact, which they see as a sign of aggression). He chased me for several minutes, and I am pretty sure I felt it swiping at my pant legs. I just had this vision in my head of it climbing me like a tree and biting my face or neck.
I told my parents this story when I was showing off pictures from my trip, and the first picture I stopped on didn't have a lot in it for reference. My mom sat and listened to this story in horror, until I went to the next slide, where you can clearly see that snow monkeys stand no more than 2 feet tall. I think she was picturing something Chimpanzee size.
#32
Someone being murdered infront of me, gang drive by shooting on my front yard. That it I guess when I was 12 and a large group of people tried to kill this guy on our front yard, we got him inside and they tried to get into the house to kill him and my family. My dad handed me a knife and told me "whatever happens, whichever comes in. You fight for your life." The cops didn't pick up the phone when we called over and over and we had to call a friend to call for us. I was fully prepared to kill whoever I had to to survive that night
#33
Dead body whose skin was literally moving because of all the maggots under it. Freaky af.
#34
I was working at a chemical plant and saw a guy in fork truck make a turn too fast. He wasn't wearing his seat belt and the top of the cage landed on his head. I froze for a moment, it was so horrifying. I then ran over and killed the ignition. Some other workers came and we lifted the cage up high enough to pull him out, but it was obviously too late. I can still his blood running down a nearby drain.
HarriMissesScotland 2 years ago
Halloween night, still at work, dressed as the Grim Reaper. A pregnant friend called and ask me to get her husband to cancel class because there was a family emergency. I asked if was the baby, and she said that her BIL had been killed at work when his forklift flipped on top of him. I sent security to go get him. At first he thought I was playing a trick on him, then realized I wouldn't do that. There I am, sobbing, and wishing my costume would disappear. I had to tell him about his brother, while dressed as death. It was devastating. When he returned to work, we hugged and cried, and cried.
#35
Worked at a funeral home for 2 years. Worked an old man's wife's funeral and thought nothing of it. About 9 months later we get a call that the removal guys were bringing back a really nasty call. Head upstairs and they come out of the elevator and the removal guys had masks on (precovid summer of 2019) sprayed with air freshener. We opened the body bag and it was the old man of the wife that had been buried 9 months prior.
He died and was not found for almost 2 weeks in his house. He was black/blue/purple/green you name it. The worst smell I have ever smelled in my life. I had to remove his watch and personal belongings off of him and help put him in the cooler. They ended up cremating him. The gore and decay in that bag was scary to see as we could all end up like that after dying if no one finds us. That or the fact that all of us will decay like that underground unless we are cremated. Hit a note in my brain that day.
#36
I saw one of my best friends wreck his motorcycle right in front of me while we ere out riding. A guy in a Jeep Liberty pulled out to make a left hand turn right in front of us. I was riding tandem behind my pal so I had plenty of time and space to see things unfold and avoid a collision. My buddy, who didn't wear any gear, crashed in to the side of the car slamming his head against the hood. This was several years ago. My buddy lived through the ordeal and I had PTSD in a bad way. But it was terrifying watching someone I've known for over 20 years crash like that.
Paul Davis 2 years ago
Having ridden motorcycles, I'm always really irritated with motorcyclists who love to speed, make unpredictable maneuvers, and tailgate, and then complain when someone makes a left or right turn across them or something. Well yes that has been long documented, many drivers subconsciously don't see motorcyclists as a threat so fail to avoid them -- or you're so unpredictable they don't have time to understand how to avoid you. So drive motorbikes cautiously, not like an immortal idiot. I've just seen so many thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies on motorcycles it's hard to feel sorry for them most of the time.
#37
I hit a priest who was riding a bicycle with my car. I remember his head breaking my windshield and thinking he was dead but luckily he had a helmet on and did not get very injured except for a few bruises. I was a teenager and this was the late 1990s.
#38
I was diving in the Florida keys on a very popular reef, was in about 30ft of water just kind of exploring. I came around this one corner of the reef and about 10ft from me was the biggest bull shark I have ever seen, and it was just coming towards me. This thing was at least 9-10ft long. I’ve never pulled my dive knife out faster from my ankle. Thankfully it just went on it’s way and swam right past me. I did run my hand along it as it swam by which was awesome.
#39
9/12/2001
I drove into DC after it happened, and the major highway (Route 50) leading in was void of all cars... literally ALL cars except mine. In leiu of cars, there was a storm of trash and debris blowing around. It was like driving through the hosts of paper bags and other trash that usually gets displaced by all the cars constantly driving the highway every second of every day forever... except on 9/12/2001.
Bill cipher 2 years ago
My dad used to work at the Pentagon and he's shown us the memorial poster for the people who died in the corridor where the plane crashed.
#40
Person with mental illness having a violent psychotic breakdown.
What do you think ?
Jo Choto 2 years ago
I'm trying to decide what was the most scary. I've seen people die through burning, shooting, electrocution, disease and car crashes. It's really gruesome. But then I realized that while those were horrible, horrible situations, I wasn't necessarily scared. When I encountered a shark in shallow water swimming towards me with its mouth slightly open, that's the most scared I have ever been. So scared, I froze. I was snorkelling, so I could see this thing under the water clear as day with my mask on, and I literally couldn't move. I watched how its teeth moved independently of its jaws, something I didn't know was possible until that very moment. That was over 40 years ago, and I still have a real problem going in any natural body of water, even if it's a pond in the middle of Europe, where there can't possibly be sharks. My brain says there are always, always sharks now.
Mad Mar 2 years ago
Was walking down the block to cut through the backs of some houses to a main road. All the houses on the block backed up to an empty lot used for church parking or us riding bikes as kids. So I get to the cut through an see a Halloween dummy up in a tree. I got to the store and came back and it was still there. Blondish red hair an big eyes and flannel shirt. Jeans and no shoes just socks. Tongue out. Rope around the neck. I got home an told my dad. He went down the street but didn't come back for a while. Heard some sirens in the lot behind the house. Could barely see that end as we were on the same side of the road to look in the back lot. Turns out the kid down the road hung himself and my dad took a look and went to the parents then they called cops and ems. He was introverted and it being the end of the 70s just ended it. But I can see him clearly in my mind.
Jacob Nunez 2 years ago
I had to skip all of this. The visualization, the sounds, the feelings, the scents. It was too much.
Emma Moody 2 years ago
I specifically remember swimming with my team at the pool one day maybe two years ago and the lifeguards told us to get out because some 13 year old kid on another team had not come up. They told us to leave the building as they did CPR on him. We stood outside waiting as a ambulance came and took him away. Apparently he died in the hospital. Whenever I think of it it just reminds me of how fragile life is...
bryguy 2 years ago
This didn't happen to me but my uncle when I was 5 years old. He was a train engineer and one day his train came up on a group of teenagers playing chicken. It was one of the boys 13th birthday. That boy was playing chicken and didn't jump up in time. The train cut him in pieces as his friends watched. That was the last day my uncle ever drove a train and he's been extremely introverted ever since. I haven't even seen him in 20 + years, he never leaves home anymore.
OpalTheRainwing 2 years ago
For me I was sitting on the couch on my then moms bosses house for thanksgiving and my sister was playing with his desert dog I look up at watch like it was in slow motion the dog look up at my sister and aimed for her face particularity her eye. Suddenly I hear MYSLEF scream and my moms boss grab the dog and throwing it outside he knew what to do in this situation because the company he owned was first aid and CPR so he ran and got his first aid kit and compressed her cheek and put a bandaid on it. It was and still is the scariest moment of my life he rushed to the hospital to find out it didn’t go to farm but It did puncture her cheek a little bit. I was in hysterics while we where driving but she is fine now.
Robyn Rob 2 years ago
For any new or future parents. No one tells you how hard it is. I had no family to help and my baby had colic for a year straight. It’s ok to put baby in a crib and take a shower. They don’t die from crying. You may feel like you made a big mistake and have dreams about running away. Hang in there. Talk to a doctor if it gets too stressful. My kid is seventeen now and well adjusted, happy. But I remember those days running on no sleep and crying my eyes out. Don’t believe the social media depictions of parenthood. It’s really hard.
HarriMissesScotland 2 years ago
Working at an amusement park that was expanding. I was backstage and noticed that a crane was getting too close to a power line. The next minute, a man literally flew from the crane, landing on a steel beam next to me. The electrical charge was so powerful that it knocked his clothes and shoes off. Logically, I knew he was dead, but I ran into wardrobe, grabbing fabric to cover him because shock victims need to be kept warm. I was reprimanded by Irvin Feld for wasting brand-new costuming material. I despised that man.
Paula Marowsky 2 years ago (edited)
It was not so scary to see, but to hear. My mother hung herself in her house and I found her. I was 37 weeks pregnant, so i was huge. I went inside the house and saw a little wet patch, I first thought it was my kitten had an accident. Then I lift my eyes and saw her hunging by the stairs. I ran to the kitchen and grab a pair of scissors and go upstairs to cut the sheet arround her neck, but it was to thight, so I cut above the knot. Then I realized that bed sheet was my unborn child's linens I was sawing just the night before. But it was not as scary as the freaking gruesome sound of her body falling down the stairs, it was the worst. Cheked her pulse, found nothing and called the police. It has been over a decade, but I can still hear that awfull and gruesome sound. And still see the scratches she made in the stairs wall behind my eyelids. Never used white bed sheets any more.
Lia Joseph 2 years ago
In 2019, I was picking up a friend on College St in Toronto. A 20something woman was pushing a stroller on the sidewalk, she stopped and ran across the street. A streetcar came rolling by opposite side and slammed right into the stroller. The baby was cut in half by the steel wheels and the mom was just standing there screaming. Even now when my gf wants me to pick her up from work I always tell her to meet me at the mall. Still can't look at that street the same
Sayla Vee 2 years ago
In the late '60s I was traveling home from college on a Greyhound bus that stopped on the highway somewhere on I80 in New Jersey and I woke up to a bright flickering light through the window. There was a burning car in the right lane with two people still in the front seat and a semi on its side across all three lanes.
Tonk Terrier 2 years ago
Once saw a young woman with a small child in a car pull away early from a red and a concrete truck run the opposite late orange light smash straight over the top of the car. Barely even slowed down. Suddenly people everywhere trying to pull the kid out of the car which was basically in 2 parts. What was left of the woman got hosed off the road when the rescue fire guys arrived. Nasty. I always take that extra second at lights now.
Maxximus Prime 2 years ago
I saw someone jump off a half constructed building when i was about 3 or 4. I didn't see the body but it scared me like heck. When i got older I realized what really happened. I still have nightmares about it years later
TheDivineMsM 2 years ago
I was about 6-7 years old at Disney World. It was evening and my family and I were getting ready to get on one of the ferry boats to take us to another part of the park. A woman who was working on the boat slipped into the water as the boat was pulling away. As the boat pulled away it logged the woman between a wall and the side of the boat and started crushing her in the water. I'll never forget it for as long as I live. I never knew what happened to her. I also witnessed my neighbors house getting broken into and robbed one day when I was young. And then witnessing the affects that a nervous breakdown had on myself a few years ago- all scary things
Walking On Sunshine 2 years ago
I watched my husband die in front of me. I will never recover.
DC 2 years ago
I saew my Grandma die. On her own will, aged 91 and at the edge of needing permanent care. I even took the pills out the blister because her hands were too weak. I, somehow, don't feel anything about this ... not even like no guilt, but ... like, it was her, repeatedly over multiple years, told wish that in case she don't want no more and needs help, she'll get help. From me, among others. She didn't want to die alone, also. It's like ... everything went just as one would wish it to. It was, like, ok...
Ezalibeth 2 years ago
I have some bad luck with car accidents. Since I was a kid. Often whenever I am the driver or a passenger i witnessed road accident happening or so "fresh" that I could see the bodies. Ten years after I get license my best friend got one too - she invited me for her first one day road trip, on our way I was telling her and her father some of the creepiest accidents I saw, her father replied that through his whole life he saw no more than two - she none. On our way back a motorcycle was speeding and passing all the cars, one minute later we had stop hard. I go and check what happened and of course motorcyclist hit another car and was lying dead on the road (Others were already helping) I come back and they decided to see it too. After they come back she was so terrified she couldn't drive any more. My friend learned a lesson that day how dangerous roads can be and I again proof my bad luck:(
Mindghost 2 years ago (edited)
When i was 16 years old and worked in a office, a unknown co-worker entered the room. With him came some kind of darkness, like in a cartoon where they have a black cloud over the head, as well as a strange pressure which set in. Another co-worker started talking to him and then i knew who he was. His 2 sons (16 and 13 y.o.) were in the news about a week ago. They drove together on a roller, were hit by a train and didn't survive. He lost his two sons. The grief and depression was visible somehow. I never saw him again.
Spikey boi 2 years ago
I didn't see it, It's a story from my old math teacher, my 6th grade math teacher told us a story after a tornado drill, (probably as a warning) she used to work as a kindergarden teacher, there was an actual tornado. On the way to the designated room they were to go to, one of the kindergarders looked out a nearby window where his house was in veiw. He saw the tornado destroy his home. Luckily his parents were at work, but still. The kid must have been traumatized.
Carol Emory 2 years ago
I lived in Washington State most of my life. One thing about the Northwest is the number of bridges over deep ravines. One woman that worked in our office was gone for a few days. We thought she was sick until our boss informed us that she was driving home through rush hour traffic only to witness a woman pull her yellow jeep to the side of the road and run to the railing of the bridge. She knew what she was doing and tried to stop her, but was just getting out of her car when she saw the woman disappear over the railing of the bridge. The ravine was at least 250 feet deep.
Emmie Jensen 2 years ago
I couldn't even make it through the first ten, these are described so visibly I almost threw from a couple. It makes me sick to think hat people had to not only witness this but there were also real people who were the direct victims of situations like these.
Tobias the Tiger 2 years ago
It's less horrific than some of the things posted about here, but still pretty bad in my opinion: around a year ago, one of my stepsisters began having a rather serious mental breakdown, while her mom kept yelling at her to shut up or she'll send her to a mental hospital/call the police, instead of showing any sympathy to her whatsoever or giving her space. I only had to hear this from where I was downstairs to be completely horrified.
CR Harvey 2 years ago (edited)
I was eight or nine when my youngest brother attacked me with a double bitted axe. Parents did nothing to help. I disarmed him out of sheer terror and was beaten by my parents for upsetting and hurting my brother. Later that night decided I would kill him if I had to. He's still alive and a psychopath. I still have nightmares, scars and flashbacks.
Marnie 2 years ago
Scariest thing I ever saw was my Dad laying on the kitchen floor, with his legs still "walking" while he was laying there because he didn't realize he wasn't upright. He was speaking in word salad and didn't know who anyone was. Six weeks before that, he had beat me in a game of table tennis. He had Parkinson's with Lewy-body dementia (the same as Robin Williams). Within 2-3 weeks, he had forgotten everyone for the most part. Worst is that he forgot how to swallow. I spent one afternoon dragging gobs of food that was just lingering in the back of his mouth. He forgot how to walk and talk the last few days. Last thing I heard him say that was intelligible was he hoped his friends would came and take him to a baseball game.
InfectedVoice 2 years ago
Found my friend hanging from his attic hatch would be mine, never seen anything really gory or messed up like this on real life, I was at a gig once and a dude dislocated his shoulder and then started swinging his floppy dead arm around at everyone, that was pretty scary in a f****d up sort of way.
Monica Pryts 2 years ago
I wish I could forget some of the things I've seen through my job, like a firefighter telling a woman her father didn't make it out of the burning house; having to read extremely detailed court reports about horrific crimes like rape and child porn; and seeing people break down while testifying in court.
Xavier_M_P 2 years ago
I saved the same person from overdosing twice. 1 year later, she hung herself in jail.
Jo Choto 2 years ago
I'm trying to decide what was the most scary. I've seen people die through burning, shooting, electrocution, disease and car crashes. It's really gruesome. But then I realized that while those were horrible, horrible situations, I wasn't necessarily scared. When I encountered a shark in shallow water swimming towards me with its mouth slightly open, that's the most scared I have ever been. So scared, I froze. I was snorkelling, so I could see this thing under the water clear as day with my mask on, and I literally couldn't move. I watched how its teeth moved independently of its jaws, something I didn't know was possible until that very moment. That was over 40 years ago, and I still have a real problem going in any natural body of water, even if it's a pond in the middle of Europe, where there can't possibly be sharks. My brain says there are always, always sharks now.
Mad Mar 2 years ago
Was walking down the block to cut through the backs of some houses to a main road. All the houses on the block backed up to an empty lot used for church parking or us riding bikes as kids. So I get to the cut through an see a Halloween dummy up in a tree. I got to the store and came back and it was still there. Blondish red hair an big eyes and flannel shirt. Jeans and no shoes just socks. Tongue out. Rope around the neck. I got home an told my dad. He went down the street but didn't come back for a while. Heard some sirens in the lot behind the house. Could barely see that end as we were on the same side of the road to look in the back lot. Turns out the kid down the road hung himself and my dad took a look and went to the parents then they called cops and ems. He was introverted and it being the end of the 70s just ended it. But I can see him clearly in my mind.
Jacob Nunez 2 years ago
I had to skip all of this. The visualization, the sounds, the feelings, the scents. It was too much.
Emma Moody 2 years ago
I specifically remember swimming with my team at the pool one day maybe two years ago and the lifeguards told us to get out because some 13 year old kid on another team had not come up. They told us to leave the building as they did CPR on him. We stood outside waiting as a ambulance came and took him away. Apparently he died in the hospital. Whenever I think of it it just reminds me of how fragile life is...
bryguy 2 years ago
This didn't happen to me but my uncle when I was 5 years old. He was a train engineer and one day his train came up on a group of teenagers playing chicken. It was one of the boys 13th birthday. That boy was playing chicken and didn't jump up in time. The train cut him in pieces as his friends watched. That was the last day my uncle ever drove a train and he's been extremely introverted ever since. I haven't even seen him in 20 + years, he never leaves home anymore.
OpalTheRainwing 2 years ago
For me I was sitting on the couch on my then moms bosses house for thanksgiving and my sister was playing with his desert dog I look up at watch like it was in slow motion the dog look up at my sister and aimed for her face particularity her eye. Suddenly I hear MYSLEF scream and my moms boss grab the dog and throwing it outside he knew what to do in this situation because the company he owned was first aid and CPR so he ran and got his first aid kit and compressed her cheek and put a bandaid on it. It was and still is the scariest moment of my life he rushed to the hospital to find out it didn’t go to farm but It did puncture her cheek a little bit. I was in hysterics while we where driving but she is fine now.
Robyn Rob 2 years ago
For any new or future parents. No one tells you how hard it is. I had no family to help and my baby had colic for a year straight. It’s ok to put baby in a crib and take a shower. They don’t die from crying. You may feel like you made a big mistake and have dreams about running away. Hang in there. Talk to a doctor if it gets too stressful. My kid is seventeen now and well adjusted, happy. But I remember those days running on no sleep and crying my eyes out. Don’t believe the social media depictions of parenthood. It’s really hard.
HarriMissesScotland 2 years ago
Working at an amusement park that was expanding. I was backstage and noticed that a crane was getting too close to a power line. The next minute, a man literally flew from the crane, landing on a steel beam next to me. The electrical charge was so powerful that it knocked his clothes and shoes off. Logically, I knew he was dead, but I ran into wardrobe, grabbing fabric to cover him because shock victims need to be kept warm. I was reprimanded by Irvin Feld for wasting brand-new costuming material. I despised that man.
Paula Marowsky 2 years ago (edited)
It was not so scary to see, but to hear. My mother hung herself in her house and I found her. I was 37 weeks pregnant, so i was huge. I went inside the house and saw a little wet patch, I first thought it was my kitten had an accident. Then I lift my eyes and saw her hunging by the stairs. I ran to the kitchen and grab a pair of scissors and go upstairs to cut the sheet arround her neck, but it was to thight, so I cut above the knot. Then I realized that bed sheet was my unborn child's linens I was sawing just the night before. But it was not as scary as the freaking gruesome sound of her body falling down the stairs, it was the worst. Cheked her pulse, found nothing and called the police. It has been over a decade, but I can still hear that awfull and gruesome sound. And still see the scratches she made in the stairs wall behind my eyelids. Never used white bed sheets any more.
Lia Joseph 2 years ago
In 2019, I was picking up a friend on College St in Toronto. A 20something woman was pushing a stroller on the sidewalk, she stopped and ran across the street. A streetcar came rolling by opposite side and slammed right into the stroller. The baby was cut in half by the steel wheels and the mom was just standing there screaming. Even now when my gf wants me to pick her up from work I always tell her to meet me at the mall. Still can't look at that street the same
Sayla Vee 2 years ago
In the late '60s I was traveling home from college on a Greyhound bus that stopped on the highway somewhere on I80 in New Jersey and I woke up to a bright flickering light through the window. There was a burning car in the right lane with two people still in the front seat and a semi on its side across all three lanes.
Tonk Terrier 2 years ago
Once saw a young woman with a small child in a car pull away early from a red and a concrete truck run the opposite late orange light smash straight over the top of the car. Barely even slowed down. Suddenly people everywhere trying to pull the kid out of the car which was basically in 2 parts. What was left of the woman got hosed off the road when the rescue fire guys arrived. Nasty. I always take that extra second at lights now.
Maxximus Prime 2 years ago
I saw someone jump off a half constructed building when i was about 3 or 4. I didn't see the body but it scared me like heck. When i got older I realized what really happened. I still have nightmares about it years later
TheDivineMsM 2 years ago
I was about 6-7 years old at Disney World. It was evening and my family and I were getting ready to get on one of the ferry boats to take us to another part of the park. A woman who was working on the boat slipped into the water as the boat was pulling away. As the boat pulled away it logged the woman between a wall and the side of the boat and started crushing her in the water. I'll never forget it for as long as I live. I never knew what happened to her. I also witnessed my neighbors house getting broken into and robbed one day when I was young. And then witnessing the affects that a nervous breakdown had on myself a few years ago- all scary things
Walking On Sunshine 2 years ago
I watched my husband die in front of me. I will never recover.
DC 2 years ago
I saew my Grandma die. On her own will, aged 91 and at the edge of needing permanent care. I even took the pills out the blister because her hands were too weak. I, somehow, don't feel anything about this ... not even like no guilt, but ... like, it was her, repeatedly over multiple years, told wish that in case she don't want no more and needs help, she'll get help. From me, among others. She didn't want to die alone, also. It's like ... everything went just as one would wish it to. It was, like, ok...
Ezalibeth 2 years ago
I have some bad luck with car accidents. Since I was a kid. Often whenever I am the driver or a passenger i witnessed road accident happening or so "fresh" that I could see the bodies. Ten years after I get license my best friend got one too - she invited me for her first one day road trip, on our way I was telling her and her father some of the creepiest accidents I saw, her father replied that through his whole life he saw no more than two - she none. On our way back a motorcycle was speeding and passing all the cars, one minute later we had stop hard. I go and check what happened and of course motorcyclist hit another car and was lying dead on the road (Others were already helping) I come back and they decided to see it too. After they come back she was so terrified she couldn't drive any more. My friend learned a lesson that day how dangerous roads can be and I again proof my bad luck:(
Mindghost 2 years ago (edited)
When i was 16 years old and worked in a office, a unknown co-worker entered the room. With him came some kind of darkness, like in a cartoon where they have a black cloud over the head, as well as a strange pressure which set in. Another co-worker started talking to him and then i knew who he was. His 2 sons (16 and 13 y.o.) were in the news about a week ago. They drove together on a roller, were hit by a train and didn't survive. He lost his two sons. The grief and depression was visible somehow. I never saw him again.
Spikey boi 2 years ago
I didn't see it, It's a story from my old math teacher, my 6th grade math teacher told us a story after a tornado drill, (probably as a warning) she used to work as a kindergarden teacher, there was an actual tornado. On the way to the designated room they were to go to, one of the kindergarders looked out a nearby window where his house was in veiw. He saw the tornado destroy his home. Luckily his parents were at work, but still. The kid must have been traumatized.
Carol Emory 2 years ago
I lived in Washington State most of my life. One thing about the Northwest is the number of bridges over deep ravines. One woman that worked in our office was gone for a few days. We thought she was sick until our boss informed us that she was driving home through rush hour traffic only to witness a woman pull her yellow jeep to the side of the road and run to the railing of the bridge. She knew what she was doing and tried to stop her, but was just getting out of her car when she saw the woman disappear over the railing of the bridge. The ravine was at least 250 feet deep.
Emmie Jensen 2 years ago
I couldn't even make it through the first ten, these are described so visibly I almost threw from a couple. It makes me sick to think hat people had to not only witness this but there were also real people who were the direct victims of situations like these.
Tobias the Tiger 2 years ago
It's less horrific than some of the things posted about here, but still pretty bad in my opinion: around a year ago, one of my stepsisters began having a rather serious mental breakdown, while her mom kept yelling at her to shut up or she'll send her to a mental hospital/call the police, instead of showing any sympathy to her whatsoever or giving her space. I only had to hear this from where I was downstairs to be completely horrified.
CR Harvey 2 years ago (edited)
I was eight or nine when my youngest brother attacked me with a double bitted axe. Parents did nothing to help. I disarmed him out of sheer terror and was beaten by my parents for upsetting and hurting my brother. Later that night decided I would kill him if I had to. He's still alive and a psychopath. I still have nightmares, scars and flashbacks.
Marnie 2 years ago
Scariest thing I ever saw was my Dad laying on the kitchen floor, with his legs still "walking" while he was laying there because he didn't realize he wasn't upright. He was speaking in word salad and didn't know who anyone was. Six weeks before that, he had beat me in a game of table tennis. He had Parkinson's with Lewy-body dementia (the same as Robin Williams). Within 2-3 weeks, he had forgotten everyone for the most part. Worst is that he forgot how to swallow. I spent one afternoon dragging gobs of food that was just lingering in the back of his mouth. He forgot how to walk and talk the last few days. Last thing I heard him say that was intelligible was he hoped his friends would came and take him to a baseball game.
InfectedVoice 2 years ago
Found my friend hanging from his attic hatch would be mine, never seen anything really gory or messed up like this on real life, I was at a gig once and a dude dislocated his shoulder and then started swinging his floppy dead arm around at everyone, that was pretty scary in a f****d up sort of way.
Monica Pryts 2 years ago
I wish I could forget some of the things I've seen through my job, like a firefighter telling a woman her father didn't make it out of the burning house; having to read extremely detailed court reports about horrific crimes like rape and child porn; and seeing people break down while testifying in court.
Xavier_M_P 2 years ago
I saved the same person from overdosing twice. 1 year later, she hung herself in jail.
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