Ask Lemmy

Oh my god. My friends and I were doing a road trip around the US when we got lost somewhere crossing the border into southern California. We took some weird back road into the woods looking for a campsite that was on Google (we were roughing it as much as possible to be cheap), but it became super apparent that we took the wrong turn somewhere and we went deeper and deeper into the woods. It started to get dark and at this point my ex and I were like, "Let's just go to a hotel, it's already too dark to camp." My friend, the driver, was convinced we were almost there and the campsites were just around the next corner and wanted to save the money.

At some point, we saw this tree across the road and the only way to keep going forward was into what looked like just a clearing where some rusted out cars were. Immediately my ex and I felt this overwhelming, hair-raising "it's time to go" vibe and we started telling him to turn around. My friend pulled into the clearing saying something like, "No, this might be it, there's cars parked here". We pull into the lot and kinda do a loop, just to put the headlights on the surroundings and see what's all there. Like I said, it's an island of gravel, short, dry grass, and some rusted out cars in the middle of dense, mountainous forest.

My friend is juuuuuuust about to park and gloat about 'finding the campsite' when some feral looking dude comes barreling out of the woods like a cryptid, sprinting at the back of the car. My ex and I start screaming like loons as this dude closes the gap and my friend punches it and starts driving back down the road we came in on. The dude just stood in the road behind us with something metal (I think a pipe) and watched us go in a cloud of dust and taillights.

Absolutely HORRIFYING experience and we still have no idea what the fuck the situation was there.

Being an american around 11 or so years ago. Hasn’t gone away.

was doing a building search of a flooding (from water leak) multi story building and as i was looking around the living room, i felt “time to move to next room” and yeah glad i did. ceiling fell in the living room as i rounded the corner.

2010 Loveparade. First we got told that there would be a different entry, which there wasn't, which meant we needed to walk quite a while. On the way we had a few situations, where people pushed a lot and it's not a nice feeling, when you have a considerable mass and you get pushed easily. We made it to the last big check and we where greeted with a clear view to the tunnel. At this point there weren't big queues visible and it was just a short walk. I said to the 2 friends I was with, that NOW I want to go home. It was not a gut feeling or something, I just knew I don't want to continue and I want to go home. One friend decided to stay, as we where this close and another agreed with me and left with me.

The friend who stayed, did cut his visit shorter, lucky for him. For people who don't know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Parade_disaster It was one of the biggest crowd crushes disasters. 21 dead, 652 injured. It happend in that tunnel, which I looked into and decided to go home. That criminal trial is considered one of the most complex ones of the post war period. In 2020 they dropped the trial. The issue was for these crimes, they only had 10 years and they said due to the limitations of covid, they said they will run out of time.

In the early 2000s, I had just joined the US military right out of high school and found myself stationed in Japan for my first assignment.

I loved Japanese culture and had started a college course on basic Japanese language so I could communicate with the locals and find my way around without getting lost in a foreign country.

One day, one of the civilians in my office was retiring and he chose a fancy hotel in the next city over to host his retirement ceremony. They had a bunch of meeting/party rooms we could host our ceremony in. It was fun, but I'm a bit introverted, so at some point, I stepped out into the grand lobby of the hotel to recover some energy by myself. There was a grand piano in one corner with some petite Japanese lady playing soft music on it. I learned against a large pillar and quietly listened for a bit.

All of a sudden, a meeting room door nearby banged open and some Japanese businessman stormed out on his phone. He was agitated and speaking angrily into his flip phone (smartphones didn't exist yet). He stopped on the other side of the pillar from me and continued his loud discussion.

I had gotten absorbed into some Japanese drama TV shows and had learned to identify the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) slang. This guy was using the same dialect. I got a chill down my spine; it was my first time running into a Yakuza member in real life.

The guy finished his call and turned to leave... and stopped when he saw me standing practically next to him. His anger flared up and he started speaking aggressively at me in Japanese. Probably pissed that I was listening in on his call.

I caught a few words here and there, but my Japanese wasn't good enough for full sentences yet, especially spoken rapidly at me in an angry tone.

When he paused, I said in English, "Um... I'm sorry, I don't understand." I knew how to say it in Japanese, but I didn't want to give him any inkling that I knew Japanese.

His entire demeanor changed. He grinned from ear to ear and said, "Ah! America-jin, ne? Good! Good guy!" He gave me a rough pat on the shoulder and then turned and went back to his meeting room.

I thought he was gonna drag me into the meeting room with his buddies and I'd never be found again, so I was relieved when he smiled and left me be. I went right back to my party and made sure not to go anywhere by myself for the rest of the evening.

any social setting my gut weirdly screams I need to get out of there

In this case, I was the one that caused the gut feeling. For context, I'm a middle aged disheveled-looking dude.

My kids made a play date with their friends at a local park. The park is big and has two entrances, but they didn't know where their friends were so I just went to the first entrance I came to. At this entrance there was a playground where only a woman and her two kids were playing - no one else in sight. I drove past them to see if it was my kids' friends (it wasn't), and the woman gave me a weird stare. In hindsight, she probably couldn't see my kids in the back seat - she just saw some rando slow-rolling past the playground. Anyway, I drove around to the other entrance, but no one was there either. So we called up the friends' parents and learned that they were running late and that we should meet at the first entrance with the playground. As soon as I pulled back in to the playground entrance, the woman saw me and gathered up her kids in a panic and ran for her car. I was trying to figure out WTF she was worked up about when it dawned on me. I parked, my kids got out, and when she saw them she calmed down. I'm sure I gave her a heart attack for a minute though.

Was BBQing in backyard at my old house and a strong wind knocked the grill over starting a fire. I tried putting it out, but it spread super fast and eventually got so hot, I had to escape it going through a window because the way back through the back door was totally engulfed. Shit started singing my hair and I was still a good 10 feet away from the fire when I finally said I need to get out of the backyard and hope the FD shows up before it set the house on fire.

I was young and had just moved to a decent sized midwest city by myself. I didn't know anyone so spent a lot of my time exploring by myself. There was a large park in a quiet area of town where it wasn't unusual to be the only person around. I was sitting at the end of a very large rose garden when I noticed a tall skinny guy in a dirty wife beater and jeans standing on the outside of the garden with his dog. Something big like a Rottweiler or pitbull I don't remember exactly. I just remember being super freaked out because he was just standing there looking directly at me.

I got up and started walking back to my car but he started walking parallel to me matching my pace. When I walked faster he did too. I got my phone and keys out and just kept walking as confidently as I could. I was parked a couple minutes away and over time his pace did slow slightly as mine got faster but I knew he was still behind me. I had a habit of unlocking my car several times with the keyfob because the car beep was satisfying. After I did so the white cargo type van parked next to me unlocked and beeped the exact same amount of times mine did.

At this point I as terrified. I backed out and raced out of the park without even looking behind me. I needed to pick up something from one of the neighborhood Walmarts on the way home so I stopped there and headed inside to calm down. The sun was still out and I'm a guy. I was young, short and slender but I still felt like that somehow protected me. I convinced myself I was being crazy and that guy just happened to be leaving the park when I did. I left the store and started walking to my car when I saw him. The white van was parked directly next to my car and he stood there at the back watching me. No dog this time. All I remember thinking is I had to get into my car because it was the only place I had any leverage. I slow motion got in, backed out, and headed back into a neighborhood where I knew I could zig zag my way around different blocks to try to lose him. I spent 10 minutes looking over my shoulder making random turns before I headed back to my apartment.

Never saw him again and to this day I still feel like I'm in a bit of denial about the whole thing. There were plenty of other cars in the parking lot. It was early evening. If he was trying to kidnap me it was a stupid place to do so. Perhaps he saw how scared I was at the park and just wanted to mess with me. Whatever the case I've never been so scared for my own life.

Ignored the Tornado warning, shouldn't have.

If there's one thing that'll get the Lizard Brain going... it's the only time I've ever felt like something deeper was telling my brain that we had to get the fuck out of here.

One time in Hayward, CA my then-girlfriend and I were stalked through town by a tweaker in a big pickup truck, us in an old Mazda 3. All I did was accidentally make eye contact in the parking lot, sort of clocked the gearface and then minded my business but he took umbrage somehow. Probably chased us for a few miles through her old neighbourhood. I even tried a lame little fakeout with my turn signals, but neither that car nor my driving skills were up for a French Connection reenactment and I think he eventually gave up because chasing me was too pathetic. Bet he would have kicked my shit in, if I actually put up a fight.

Trump 2.0 but I can't afford to move.

About 2 weeks ago, packing a few belongings and my cats into a car to evacuate from an impending flood. Didn't know when I would be back home or what condition it would be in when I did.

my little brother was really sick so i wanted to run some soup to him. he was staying with his girlfriends family out in an extremely rural area. it was after dark and i didnt know which house to go to, so i had to pull in to someones driveway to call him. the guy who lived there came out and stared us down until we pulled out, the vibe was incredibly hostile. i was afraid of getting shot or worse, being very queer and having my fiance with me. didnt do that again.

There was a time when I was traveling with my mom we were at a thrift store since she loves to thrift. I was browsing around waiting for her to finish up and I walked into an aisle with one other person in there. If looks could kill, I would've collapsed right then and there from the look that this random person gave me. Ignoring the gaze, I walked by and I heard them mumble underneath their breath calling me a fucker or something. Since I was traveling, I've never seen this person in my life before, but I got a bad feeling that I might've looked like an enemy or something to them. That's when my flight response kicked in and I knew that we needed to leave. And, it might not have been related, but that night, I heard someone in that area took a bullet so I think I might have literally dodged a bullet there.

lets just say, wild boars are really quite a bit larger than you think.