# 1 Hour of Interesting Reddit Stories

An episode of [Reddit Stories](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1830891511), 29 May 2025, 59 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO3164466972.mp3

What did you all think?

## Transcript

[0:00] What's your messed around and found out story?
[0:02] Story one. When Pokémon Go first game out
[0:06] first week it was rumored that ghost Pokémon could only be
[0:08] found at cemeteries. The biggest one in LA should
[0:11] work. Thought so, drove myself there.
[0:14] As I was driving through there were several funerals taking
[0:16] place and I just thought how morally wrong this was and I
[0:19] shouldn't be doing it. But I pressed on, found a
[0:22] hillside to park with no one around, and got out of the car
[0:25] and started roaming around with my phone.
[0:27] About 20 seconds into looking I heard some # horns blowing and I
[0:30] witnessed half the hillside explode like giant explosions
[0:33] trigger one after another. 100 yards away.
[0:36] A giant wall of dirt and dust almost got me as I jumped back
[0:39] into my car. A few guys in construction
[0:41] outfits came up to a min later asking how I got there.
[0:44] I pointed out the roadway to which they realized they hadn't
[0:47] blocked off. Nothing more was said and I
[0:49] left. Needles to say, messed around
[0:52] looking for ghost Pokémon and almost became one.
[0:55] Story 2 When I was a teenager, I had a serious chip on my
[0:59] shoulder. One day, some guy got in my
[1:01] friend's face and I decided to intervene.
[1:04] Without thinking, I hit him. Back then, I was a wrestler and
[1:08] had the strength to match, so I completely wrecked the kid
[1:10] without much effort. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my
[1:14] shoulder pulling me away from him.
[1:16] I turned around and found myself face to face with his brother.
[1:19] As it turns out, this guy was famous for being on the Olympic
[1:22] wrestling team, and for some reason, probably fueled by
[1:25] adrenaline or stupidity, I swung on him.
[1:28] What happened next humbled me instantly.
[1:30] He caught my arm mid swing, like it was nothing, and just held it
[1:33] there. He looked at me with mild
[1:35] annoyance and tightened his grip ever so slightly.
[1:38] It wasn't painful, but the sheer strength in his hand combined
[1:41] with how effortlessly he restrained me made one thing
[1:44] clear. If he wanted to hurt me, I
[1:46] wouldn't stand a chance. I froze, realizing how badly
[1:49] this could go for me. I apologized right away, saying
[1:53] we'd leave. He just nodded and let us walk
[1:55] away like it wasn't worth his time.
[1:58] That moment stuck with me. It was a quiet, powerful lesson.
[2:02] Sometimes it's better to back down because there are people
[2:05] out there who could utterly wreck you if they wanted to.
[2:07] It's something I've never forgotten.
[2:10] Story 3 was dating girl for about 3 months.
[2:13] She had a big gentle giant of a Newfoundland dog.
[2:16] I got along swell with her dog and so I absolutely thought I
[2:19] could dog sit for her and that she could trust to leave me the
[2:21] dog. She was going to her cousin's
[2:23] funeral which was in another state and would be gone for the
[2:25] weekend. I fed the dog and had seen her
[2:28] walk her dog off the leash and it would be very obedient and
[2:31] never stray far and was generally a slow Walker.
[2:34] Thought I could do the same. The dog ran for me.
[2:37] Thought it was a game of catch. Made me chase it around for
[2:40] about 35 minutes. Finally got the dog back in the
[2:42] house. We had gone for a walk right
[2:44] after she ate, so all that running around made her throw up
[2:46] in my girlfriend's living room. All over her living room carpet.
[2:50] Not only that, it was a rainy week, thus she tracked in a shit
[2:53] ton of mud and Oh my, I never saw the dog drink water before.
[2:57] Jesus knew fees splash water everywhere.
[2:59] It gets worse, the dog was tired and threw all that BS of playing
[3:03] tag outside. I never actually saw the dog
[3:05] poop so by the time I was done cleaning everything the dog had
[3:08] pooped lying down. So I smelt shit yet couldn't
[3:12] find it anywhere. Finally lifted the dog's tail to
[3:15] see it had pooped. Was all over the under part of
[3:17] her tail and off course all over her butt.
[3:19] Took her out back and thought OK I will just give her a quick
[3:22] bath. I am a neat freak and while her
[3:24] paws were still slightly muddy and if I was going to thoroughly
[3:27] wash her tail and her butt, might as well give her a proper
[3:30] bath with a garden hose. This was the worst idea I had.
[3:33] No no idea it takes 6 hours to dry a newfie.
[3:37] What the hell kind of breed is this?
[3:39] The entire time I thought never never again would I ever dog sit
[3:43] any dog ever again no matter how hot a girl is.
[3:47] For you information I love animals.
[3:49] Have 3 cats and two mutts I rescued from the street.
[3:52] But that's today when I am 37. The 22 year old me back then
[3:55] just wasn't ready for that kind of dog care challenge lol.
[4:00] Story 4. When I was about 17 to 18 I met
[4:03] a guy online on a little chat room slash forum type website
[4:07] called Gaia Online. I actually ran an art shop on it
[4:10] and sold art. That's how I ended up getting to
[4:13] know him. Our conversations were fun but I
[4:15] had no intentions of it going anywhere other than flirting.
[4:19] He had other ideas. He was really manipulative and
[4:21] loved to gas like, but I grew up with a manipulative mother so I
[4:24] knew how to defend against it once I spotted it.
[4:27] When he had had enough of my always being defensive and
[4:29] argumentative, he found my address and sent me spiked food
[4:32] and images of my house from Google Maps and told me he knew
[4:35] where I lived. I later learned that how he
[4:38] found out was through someone my sister was friends with whom she
[4:41] communicated regularly. He spun some story how we were
[4:44] trying to meet but wanted to surprise me early so the friend
[4:47] gave him my address. I was so embarrassed and I
[4:50] didn't know how to tell my mom or sister I knew better yet I
[4:53] did it anyway. This guy got me banned from Gaia
[4:56] online by trading me items and then reporting me saying I
[4:59] scammed him. I ceased all contact and removed
[5:03] myself from anything he knew I was involved in, but I was sure
[5:05] I had been careful about not revealing anything personal.
[5:09] I also played Guild Wars 2 back in the day and I got a message
[5:12] from a random player. Turns out it was him, he acted
[5:15] nonchalant and I was absolutely mortified to the point that I
[5:18] stopped eating. He learned of the games I played
[5:21] from that same friend that my sister hung out with and
[5:23] purchased the ones needed to track me down and found out my
[5:26] player name from that friend. When I confronted the friend,
[5:30] they did not believe me and said I was acting like an extreme
[5:33] feminist. This guy also tried to get me
[5:35] banned from GW2, but I had contacted a dev, showed them
[5:39] everything from our past conversations and texts, even
[5:42] unrelated to Guild wars to prove I was being stalked.
[5:44] The guy was banned shortly after and told the friend I'd be
[5:47] contacting the police if they gave it any more information
[5:50] about me or my sister. My sister cut contact after I
[5:53] told her what was going on. Eventually the ex friend
[5:57] contacted me through GW2 saying that I was right all along, that
[6:01] this stalker did it to other girls too and he manipulated
[6:03] their friends into giving them information so he could follow
[6:06] them. Apparently it had gotten way
[6:08] worse with a girl after me. I told him to go talk a long
[6:12] walk off of a short pier and never contact me or my sister
[6:15] again. I didn't tell my mom until after
[6:18] I moved out because the incident with the food was brought up.
[6:21] Story 5 When I was a kid in the 80s, around 10 or 11, I wasn't
[6:26] exactly the coolest looking. I had glasses and braces and
[6:29] straight goofy looking hair. I love sports though, and I was
[6:33] really good at baseball. Needless to say, looking the way
[6:36] I did, I took a lot of shit. One day these two guys, Mike and
[6:40] Mike, invited me to play catch. I thought I was pretty cool
[6:44] because one of them was the principal's son and a popular
[6:46] kid. Other Mike was like hype man,
[6:49] popular by association more or less.
[6:51] So I rode my bike up to the field and we eventually started
[6:54] playing Pickle. They started acting shitty when
[6:56] I continued to get them out as runners.
[6:58] When I eventually queued up to be the runner, it started to get
[7:01] mean. I'd run and instead just tagging
[7:03] me, they'd smack me with their gloves or push me down when I
[7:06] was coming up on the base. The bases were big rocks and at
[7:10] one point they pushed me down on one of them.
[7:12] I started to get angry and was crying a little bit because it
[7:14] really hurt one of my legs when I fell from the push.
[7:17] I told them that they should stop and at the next time they
[7:20] did that I'd get really mad or something really lame because
[7:23] again, I wasn't exactly a tough guy.
[7:25] They thought it was pretty funny.
[7:27] I probably would have laughed at me too.
[7:30] Sure enough, I queued up to run in.
[7:31] Principal's son pushed me down and I landed on the rock again.
[7:35] Something just snapped. In addition to baseball, I'd
[7:38] also been taking Taekwondo, and it just recently participated in
[7:41] a couple of tournaments. I had that fresh in mind as I
[7:44] got up and proceeded to punch Principal's kid in the stomach.
[7:47] I remember he made this breathless, groaning sound as he
[7:50] doubled over. I kind of froze because I
[7:52] remember being just as surprised as he was that I'd done that.
[7:55] It was long enough for him to recover and he started to come
[7:57] forward to try to tackle me, at which point I backed up and
[8:00] kicked him in the face hard. His head snapped back and he
[8:04] just dropped to the ground yelling and crying.
[8:06] I turned around and saw Hype Man standing there with a surprise
[8:09] look on his face. Principal's son was screaming
[8:12] for him to throw my bike in the street or something idiotic like
[8:15] that, at which point Hype man ran over to our bikes.
[8:18] But instead of doing that he got on his bike and rode away.
[8:21] I got scared because I thought I was going to get in serious
[8:24] trouble from his dad, the principal, and my parents.
[8:27] I remember running over to my bike and riding home as quickly
[8:30] as I could. I was really upset as I told my
[8:32] parents what happened. My mom just hugged me and I
[8:35] remember my dad just kind of smiling not saying anything.
[8:39] The next day I went to school and nothing happened.
[8:41] The principal said hi to me as usual.
[8:43] Maybe I'm misremembering but I'd also swear he gave me a look
[8:47] like good job. He knew I constantly took shit.
[8:50] I ran into principal's son Mike, who had a pretty nasty black
[8:53] eye. As I walked up, I overheard him
[8:56] telling his friends he kicked my ass.
[8:58] I didn't say anything for obvious reasons, but from then
[9:01] on he actually became my friend. Hype man Mike never said
[9:05] anything, and because he was friendly to me, other guys who'd
[9:08] previously been mean at least stopped to a tolerable degree.
[9:11] Story 6. I was at an amusement park on
[9:14] the boardwalk, Ocean City, MD with a friend and I wanted to
[9:18] get up on the Zipper. The Zipper is a ride that has
[9:21] been around forever. The individual cabin, seating 2,
[9:23] are like sacrificial cages with two bars to hang onto for dear
[9:27] life. You move in a circle while
[9:29] spinning in alternate directions is the best way I can describe
[9:32] it. My friend Yvonne said no way.
[9:36] She insisted she would throw up if she did that ride.
[9:39] I advised her that neither of us had eaten anything recently so
[9:42] she has nothing to throw up. I kept twisting her arm.
[9:45] She finally gave in all the time repeatedly saying she's going to
[9:49] vomit. So we're on the ride full stop.
[9:53] I'm laughing and screaming and Yvonne starts vomiting.
[9:57] Here's what happens if you puke while spinning around on the
[9:59] zipper. The puke hits the mesh cage part
[10:02] and then flies back, lands all over you.
[10:05] Hair, face, clothing, everything.
[10:08] I was hollering for the attendant to stop the ride.
[10:10] Of course, that makes him keep going and faster.
[10:14] Finally, when the ride stopped, Yvonne saying I told you so 100
[10:17] times, I jumped off and ran into the ocean with my pocketbook on
[10:21] my shoulder. I had to get all of that vomit
[10:23] off of me. I walked back toward the zipper
[10:26] the attendant was housing off our cage.
[10:29] What's your best? I could have died but didn't.
[10:31] Story story one. The date is April 20th, 2017.
[10:36] I finished working at my near minimum wage grocery store job.
[10:39] And what about life like normal? I got McDonald's with my husband
[10:43] since it was so late. It was around 11:30 or so when I
[10:46] got home and I had to work at 9:30 the next morning.
[10:49] After eating, I stripped down to shower before bed and saw a
[10:53] weird soft bulge in the right side of my groin.
[10:56] There was no pain, but it was large enough to make me go.
[10:59] What the actual hell? I knew it wasn't there before so
[11:02] I contacted a really good friend of mine who is a nurse and asked
[11:05] her for her medical opinion. She told me outright that it may
[11:08] be an inguinal hernia and though it is rare in women, it is more
[11:11] likely to be fatal. Hearing those words I knew I had
[11:14] to go to the local ER and get it looked at.
[11:16] ASAPI remember asking my husband to take me but he thought it
[11:20] wasn't a big deal and I had to impress upon him that I had a
[11:22] bad feeling about it and I would rather be laughed out of the ER
[11:25] then let it go and potentially die in the night.
[11:27] The wait to see a doctor was pretty lengthy.
[11:30] I think I ended up seeing the doctor about 2:00 or 3:00 in the
[11:33] morning and they ultimately agreed with me it was possibly a
[11:36] hernia, but they wanted to do an ultrasound to explore the
[11:39] possibility and unfortunately the ultrasound department was
[11:42] closed for the night. I was instructed to come back
[11:44] around 7:30 or so, do the ultrasound, and re register at
[11:48] the ER. All right, that's cool.
[11:51] During this entire thing I had texted the assistant manager I
[11:54] worked with and said I wasn't coming in for my shift the next
[11:56] day. He said it was cool and not to
[11:58] worry about it. So I went home and slept for a
[12:01] few hours. I called the ultrasound
[12:03] department like the doctor instructed and they were able to
[12:05] get me in for about 9:00 or so to have it done.
[12:08] During the ultrasound the tech looks at me with a bit of a
[12:11] scowl and goes where is it? At some point during the time I
[12:14] went to sleep the bulge disappeared and was not easily
[12:17] seen from the outside. I pointed out where the bulge
[12:19] was while secretly wondering if I was imagining the entire thing
[12:23] and the tech got on with the ultrasound.
[12:25] When I was done. It didn't take long for me to be
[12:27] called to a room in the ER and another doctor appeared and gave
[12:30] it to me straight. The good news was it wasn't an
[12:32] inguinal hernia, but the bad news is that they bulge was from
[12:35] a lot of abnormally swollen lymph nodes.
[12:38] The doctor assured me it was probably some sort of infection
[12:41] and actually said I wouldn't worry too much, it's probably
[12:44] not cancer. He ordered me to go for ACT scan
[12:47] with contrast and I was there until about 2100 hours that
[12:49] night. That was the next time I saw the
[12:52] doctor and when he came in, his face was white as a sheet.
[12:55] He told me that he was going to have to admit me because they're
[12:58] pretty damn sure that I have cancer.
[13:00] The doctor told me a bunch of other doctors would come and
[13:02] talk to me, but after he left, I went to the bathroom and looked
[13:05] in the mirror. Me, Cancer at 26.
[13:09] That was word for word what I said.
[13:11] I won't bore you with the details, but I will share the
[13:14] resulting diagnosis. Stage 3B diffuse large B cell
[13:17] lymphoma. It would go up to stage 4 during
[13:20] my treatments and my medical oncologist impressed upon me
[13:23] that it was extremely lucky that I went to the ER.
[13:25] When I did my radiation oncologist dictation note stated
[13:28] the tumor size of the main site to be irradiated was 25
[13:31] centimeters long. It went from the right inguinal
[13:34] region up to the right ureter of my kidney and there was some
[13:37] genuine concern that if I left it too long I would have gone
[13:39] into kidney failure as well. Because it was a pure fluke.
[13:43] I found it and I had no concrete symptoms that would indicate
[13:45] cancer. Combined with how fast it all
[13:47] came on, not one, not 2, but five different doctors said I
[13:52] would have been dead by the age of 27.
[13:54] One of those 5 was my family doctor.
[13:56] I am 34 years old, menopausal from the treatments, and cured.
[14:00] Now I tell my story wherever I can to impress upon everyone the
[14:04] importance of going to see a doctor when things don't feel
[14:06] right or you have a bad feeling about something.
[14:09] It is better to be laughed out of the doctor's office then go
[14:11] home and potentially end up in a fatal situation.
[14:14] Story 2. I had to talk a guy out of
[14:17] killing me. I was staying with my
[14:19] boyfriend's friend. I found myself suddenly homeless
[14:22] at 19. I had some money but not nearly
[14:24] enough to get a place of my own. My BF trusted this guy who lived
[14:28] with his mom. Since his mom was there, I
[14:31] thought I would be safe. Everything was fine at first.
[14:34] Then a friend of mine heard about my situation and wanted to
[14:37] move in as well. I tried to say no because I knew
[14:40] the dude had a thing for her and I knew she would have to share
[14:43] the guest room with me and truthfully I just didn't want
[14:45] that. I mean we would literally be
[14:48] sharing a bed. She went around me to ask the
[14:50] dude if she could move in. I'm not going to blame her for
[14:53] how it all went down in the end, but she threw gasoline on fire.
[14:57] She knew this man liked her and wanted her and she straight up
[15:00] played him. She told him he had a chance so
[15:02] he would let her in. She refused to pay anything like
[15:05] groceries or bills. I've been paying for my own food
[15:08] and gave the mom whatever I could spare.
[15:10] My friend did not. She just kept asking dude to buy
[15:13] her dumb shit like hair dye and a tattoo.
[15:15] I was looking for work and had an interview lined up.
[15:18] She wasn't even trying. Finally the situation exploded.
[15:22] One night the dude was fed up with her leading him on.
[15:26] He got hyped on cocaine and something else, took out his
[15:28] shotgun and shoved it in my face in the kitchen.
[15:31] He was screaming at me about how he was being used by her and let
[15:34] on. He was talking like he thought I
[15:36] could make her be with him. I had to gently and carefully
[15:39] talk him down by telling him we would both leave.
[15:42] So I was once again suddenly homeless with nowhere to go.
[15:45] Once we were gone, he absolutely destroyed everything we hadn't
[15:48] been able to take with us, including my bicycle.
[15:51] I have no idea how he twisted it the way he did, but when I got
[15:54] it back it was unusable. Story three.
[15:58] I was driving to my grandparents house for Christmas my first
[16:00] year into college. While I lived in Pennsylvania
[16:03] for a few years before that. I was unprepared for how bad the
[16:06] roads were in Utah winter. I was about 30 minutes from
[16:09] their house when the snow got really bad.
[16:11] I could see maybe 5 feet in front of me and I was driving my
[16:14] little 1999 Nissan Altima. I was going maybe 30 mph.
[16:19] Definitely should have been going slower, but that's what
[16:21] everyone else was doing so I thought I was OK at the time.
[16:25] I hit a patch of black ice and lot control.
[16:27] I hit the semi to my right twice, once on my passenger
[16:31] headlight and a second time on the passenger tail light before
[16:34] I spun towards the center barrier.
[16:36] Thankfully I was just off the road enough and didn't hit
[16:38] anyone else. I was also very thankful because
[16:41] a man stopped in front of me, my car was facing oncoming traffic
[16:45] and let me sit in his car while I panicked and called my
[16:47] grandparents. Funnily enough this guy and my
[16:50] dad share the same name. It's really not everyday a small
[16:53] car hits a semi and the driver survives.
[16:56] It's probably a bit rare for the car to still be running.
[16:59] That car lasted me another eight months before giving out Story
[17:03] four. I was a young pilot on my way to
[17:05] the training area in a small Cessna by myself to do the usual
[17:08] fun stuff. All of a sudden I had a 90%
[17:11] engine failure. The engine was still running but
[17:14] I couldn't maintain altitude in training for a forced landing,
[17:17] you set up your decent rate so you don't have a wing stall.
[17:20] Done. Next, call the tower with your
[17:23] mayday situation and location. Done.
[17:25] Next, turn off all power and unlatch the door to help with
[17:28] escape after you crash. Done.
[17:30] Pick a forced landing spot, preferably into the wind and
[17:32] away from people and structures. Well here's the hard part.
[17:36] There were power lines and farm fences along with a ton of deep
[17:39] snow. No matter what spot I pick, my
[17:42] gear is going to catch and flip the plane.
[17:44] The only thing really going through my mind while try to
[17:47] choose a possible landing spot was a small aircraft crash that
[17:50] I witnessed right in front of me five years before.
[17:52] I watched helplessly as 2 pilots burned in front of me.
[17:56] I'll never forget their heads burning in that smell.
[17:58] Back to the story, I finally pick a field to possibly die in.
[18:02] My glide descent was perfect and I think I found a spot to wiggle
[18:05] through the power lines I had under a minute or so before my
[18:08] demise. All of a sudden the engine
[18:10] coughed and picked up RPM. Wow. close the doors, turn on
[18:14] the heat and radios. I called the tower.
[18:17] They gave me priority for any runway and I was just above
[18:20] treetop level with no way to climb.
[18:22] The emergency vehicles and fire trucks chased me down the runway
[18:25] on the most perfectly smooth landing you could imagine.
[18:28] It turns out the problem was a maintenance issue with lead
[18:31] fouling in the magnetos. I have gone over everything that
[18:34] happened that day and I'm still convinced that was it for me.
[18:37] Story 5 My first car started on fire and blew up as I was
[18:41] driving. I was passing someone in the
[18:43] fast lane and my dog was buckled in the back seat.
[18:45] I saw the fire come up to my window and I felt it come
[18:48] through my window because my window was down.
[18:51] I immediately put on my panic stopped, unbuckled my dog, put
[18:55] him over my shoulder. He is a 60 lbs German Shepherd
[18:57] mix. I love adrenaline.
[18:59] I used one arm to carry him and use the other arm to get out and
[19:02] got glass in my hand. There was a lady that was behind
[19:05] me that saw it happen and I told her to take my dog Norman, put
[19:08] him in her car and do not let him out.
[19:11] I had to cross back over from my purse that had all of my
[19:13] identification in it and my insurance because my car was on
[19:17] fire and the panic was on. Everyone was stopped and cleared
[19:20] the way for the most part. Some drove around.
[19:23] The second I ran back over to the slow lane and my right foot
[19:26] hit the side of the road. A car going over 90 mph hit my
[19:30] car head on. I'll never forget that noise.
[19:33] If my car had just stalled and didn't catch on fire, I would
[19:36] have been waiting for the road to clear so I could get out and
[19:38] walk over to the side of the road.
[19:40] That man would have killed me. My car was in a literal ball.
[19:44] He claimed he didn't see my car. It was 2200.
[19:48] My panic was on and my car was on fire.
[19:52] Turns out he was drunk. I'm so glad my Norman and I
[19:55] survived that night. Too bad I can't attach a photo.
[19:59] I remember when the firefighters got there he put his hand to his
[20:02] mouth and gave me a hug. I also recall being on the phone
[20:05] with my dad and he was stoic and nonchalant about it.
[20:08] My dad fell to his knees when he saw the car.
[20:10] I've never seen him like that before.
[20:12] It was a lucky night. Story 6.
[20:15] I have a few, but I'll go with the Buried Alive story.
[20:18] So when I was a little kid, about 10 or so, a nearby tract
[20:22] of land was being developed and as they do, they created a large
[20:25] hill with the dirt they had dug up to put the foundations in for
[20:27] the homes that were going to be built.
[20:29] For whatever reason, construction was halted and the
[20:31] project languished for a few years.
[20:33] So one day my friends and I decided we were going to
[20:35] construct an underground Fort in that big hill of dirt which was
[20:38] now being reclaimed by nature. All went well and we built
[20:41] ourselves a pretty cool underground Fort that we had
[20:43] reinforced with scrap lumber and pieces of sheathing that was
[20:46] laying around. One day we decided to expand and
[20:49] add a room to it, and during the process of me digging a tunnel
[20:51] to the spot we wanted to add the room, the whole thing collapsed
[20:54] on top of me. So there I'm getting crushed by
[20:57] the three to four feet of dirt on top of me, I can't breathe at
[20:59] all, I can't scream for help, it's pitch black.
[21:02] And I thought to myself, vailed this is it, I'm going to die, my
[21:06] poor mom, blah blah blah. Next thing I know I feel this
[21:09] piercing pain in my lower back. And my older brother, who knows
[21:12] where he came from because he wasn't there with us that day,
[21:15] had jammed a shovel into me while trying to dig me out.
[21:18] I wasn't buried for more than a minute or so, and other than
[21:20] where my brother shovelled me, I wasn't hurt at all, just a
[21:23] little sore from all that weight that was on top of me.
[21:26] Good times. Story 7 When I was 17, my best
[21:30] friend at the time was in a play for his school.
[21:33] He went to school in essentially the middle of nowhere, at least
[21:36] an hour from my house. He picked me up and brought me
[21:39] up to see the play. On our way home.
[21:41] I told him to go buy a Burger King because I was hungry, so he
[21:44] took a different route home. Down a dark back Rd.
[21:46] I realized I hadn't texted my mom that I was on my way home
[21:50] and the last thing I remember is getting on my knees in the
[21:52] passenger seat to try and reach my phone and my bag in the back
[21:55] seat. My memory picks back up in the
[21:57] embankment with him crying in the driver's seat.
[22:00] He wasn't paying attention, had gone off the road a little bit
[22:03] and overcorrected the car hit a telephone pole and rolled down
[22:06] the embankment. By the time we had stopped
[22:08] moving, we were facing the opposite direction.
[22:11] He had a car Jack in the back seat that got thrown out the
[22:13] back passenger window roughly 6 inches from where my head was.
[22:17] Well would have been. The force that threw the car
[22:20] Jack also threw me into the windshield.
[22:22] I broke it with my back on the next roll.
[22:24] I came down onto the gear shift with my chest.
[22:27] He said I was unconscious. I just remember waking up on the
[22:30] floor of the passenger seat with my head in the seat.
[22:33] A friend of his wasn't too far behind us.
[22:35] He saw the car in the ditch and pulled over and came running
[22:38] down the way we had landed. A tree was keeping my door shut
[22:41] so I couldn't get out. My friend went up to the side of
[22:44] the road to call 911 on his buddy's phone.
[22:47] His was Mia while his friend pulled me out of the shattered
[22:50] passenger window and carried slash dragged me up the
[22:52] embankment to sit on the side of the road.
[22:54] Once I sat down, everything hurt.
[22:57] EMS showed up, assessed the situation, and told me I should
[23:00] have gone through that windshield.
[23:02] They're not sure why I didn't. I did not get my Burger King and
[23:05] my mom did not get a text from me.
[23:07] Instead, she got a phone call from EMS and I got 36 hours in
[23:11] the hospital. A broken T12 vertebrae, A
[23:14] sternum that's now in roughly 15 pieces, and a lot of cuts and
[23:17] bruises. Thank whatever God there is that
[23:20] I didn't go through that windshield and thank fuck his
[23:22] friend was there. Billy, if you ever find this,
[23:25] thank you for being in the right place at the right time, and
[23:27] thank you for pulling me out of that car.
[23:30] What's your worst date story? Story 1.
[23:34] Back when Tinder first came out, I matched with and started
[23:37] talking to a girl who was in my same city in Florida.
[23:40] She and I agreed to meet at a restaurant I've been to a few
[23:42] times before. We had talked about it being her
[23:45] and me, but when she arrived she was dragging a kid with her
[23:48] which she had never mentioned she had, let alone bringing him.
[23:51] She sits down and almost immediately gets on her phone to
[23:53] largely ignore me and her kid. I tried striking up a
[23:57] conversation but it was clear she was not here for me at all.
[24:00] So her kid and I started coloring on placemats, drawing
[24:04] cartoon character and things like that.
[24:06] Food arrives, we all eat, and then she asks if she can order
[24:10] another entree. I had no intention of paying for
[24:12] her food at this point so I said sure.
[24:15] I get up to use the bathroom and go see the waiter about the
[24:18] check. I pay for my food and the kids
[24:20] meal 'cause he and I were having a pretty good time drawing
[24:23] Minecraft characters. I stuck her with both her
[24:25] entrees and her drinks and then bailed and blocked her on
[24:28] everything. Top five worst date for me.
[24:31] Story 2. I almost messed up even managing
[24:34] to go on the date by getting super drunk the night before
[24:37] with some friends and sending her a completely unintelligible
[24:39] series of texts that I had no recollection of sending to her.
[24:43] I woke up about lunchtime the next day and she had been trying
[24:46] to call me as we were meant to be meeting at 2:00.
[24:48] I rang her straight back and apologized profusely.
[24:51] She was actually super cool about it, said we'd all been
[24:54] there and if I still wanted to meet her she was on her way into
[24:56] town. Amazing.
[24:58] What a great person, giving me a chance even though I've been an
[25:01] absolute nightmare. Best behavior today.
[25:04] You'll suffer through the hangover as punishment and make
[25:06] the effort she deserves. Had a shower, changed and necked
[25:10] a couple of ibuprofen for the hangover and hopped on the bus
[25:12] into town. These were a brand of ibuprofen
[25:15] I'd not taken before, however, and on the bus to town I started
[25:18] getting quite hot. Probably just the hangover
[25:20] sweats, right? I feel kind of itchy too, on my
[25:23] chest. Maybe it's just from drying a
[25:25] bit aggressively in my rush. Get to the bar and meet her.
[25:28] You OK? You look a bit red, she says.
[25:31] Yeah, sorry Ben. In a bit of a rush, I reply, my
[25:34] voice scratchier than I remember it being.
[25:36] Less than 10 minutes of conversation later in, my lips
[25:39] and eyelids feel like they've begun swelling up.
[25:41] I go to the toilets to discover that under my shirt, my entire
[25:44] torso is covered in blotches. Had to cut the date short and
[25:48] run to the pharmacy to buy some antihistamines.
[25:50] I had been at the bar for 12 minutes.
[25:52] We had been speaking for three months.
[25:54] I never spoke to her again. Genuinely think my parting words
[25:58] where I think there's something wrong with me.
[26:00] I still stand by those words. Story 3.
[26:03] He had told me prior to the date he was a widower.
[26:06] Once I arrived at the restaurant he told me he was saving me a
[26:09] parking spot by standing in it. I asked him not to as I think
[26:14] it's a jerk move and told him I'd already parked.
[26:17] Who wants to start a date pissing off other people who are
[26:19] trying to park? And yes he said someone yelled
[26:22] at him while he did it so he wanted me to make it worthwhile
[26:25] by changing my spot. Dear God.
[26:28] As soon as we were seated he said well let me show you some
[26:31] recent vacation pics and spent like 10 minutes explaining all
[26:34] his vacation pics to me. They were all him alone in the
[26:37] wilderness in different spots with the same dead eyed stare.
[26:41] Then I mentioned my divorce and he made this big production of
[26:44] how I must be so frustrated that he hadn't told me how his wife
[26:47] died. I said no that's fine for now.
[26:51] Then he says in case you don't believe me and shoves his phone
[26:54] on my face he was showing me his wife's death certificate in case
[26:59] I don't believe what that it was suicide.
[27:02] Why would I doubt it? Had there been some questions
[27:05] about his involvement? Why did he have his wife's death
[27:08] certificate at the ready like that?
[27:11] I changed the subject, realizing there's no way I'd go out with
[27:14] him again, but he seems very intense so I was wary of
[27:17] upsetting him. He held up a plastic trash bag
[27:20] that was stuffed with plates of food.
[27:22] Cake, cobbler pie. My neighbor brought me some food
[27:25] so I thought I'd share it with you.
[27:27] At this point I know there is no way I dare to eat whatever he
[27:30] brought. He doesn't seem stable.
[27:33] It was awkward to be at a restaurant with a massive trash
[27:36] bag of desserts next to me. As I'm trying to wrap up our
[27:39] Olive Garden date. He started planning our next
[27:41] date. He wanted to cook for me at his
[27:44] place. I said, oh, I wouldn't be
[27:46] comfortable going to your house on a second date.
[27:48] I'm sorry, he says unprompted. Oh don't worry about it.
[27:53] If I get too excited, I know to be a gentleman and go in the
[27:55] bathroom and handle it myself so we can go on with it.
[27:58] Our evening, the waitress quickly brought our check over,
[28:02] probably because he hadn't said this quietly.
[28:05] I made it to my car and that was that.
[28:07] Yes, I think he killed his wife. Story 4 got catfished, for
[28:12] starters. She was heavier than in her
[28:14] massively airbrushed photos, but still a pretty person.
[28:17] It was just sad to see her feeling the need to lie.
[28:20] Didn't acknowledge it on her side.
[28:22] I didn't feel the need to on mine.
[28:24] She nursed a drink for a couple of hours despite my offer to buy
[28:27] her another. Hard to talk to unless she was
[28:30] complaining about her dad's mistreatment of her and the
[28:32] favoritism of her older sister. The abuse boiled down to there
[28:36] never being food in the house. Oh, my gosh.
[28:38] I say, that's terrible. So there isn't anything there
[28:41] for you to eat? No.
[28:43] The freezers are full of vegetables and other things.
[28:46] Oh, so there is food then. Yeah, but I can't eat any of it.
[28:51] I see. So you're not allowed to eat it?
[28:54] No, I just don't like vegetables and things that my sister likes
[28:57] and my dad never buys me the things I want.
[29:00] She then proceeds to talk about kebabs for what felt like
[29:03] another hour or so in an attempt to guilt me into buying her one.
[29:06] I asked whether she had money or not.
[29:08] Turns out she just de facto knew that the nearest ATM only has 20
[29:12] LB notes and she only had 15 or so quid left in her account.
[29:16] Don't they accept card at the kebab shop?
[29:18] Yeah, maybe. I did not buy her a Bab.
[29:22] Weird date, hope she didn't starve to death.
[29:25] Her ex-boyfriend later reached out to me via Facebook and asked
[29:28] me what the date was like. Bearing in mind I'd never met
[29:31] this guy and wasn't in any of the same social school or work
[29:34] circles as him or his ex, I had to presume she made a fake
[29:37] account in order to get some sort of dating feedback.
[29:40] Very odd. Hope she's doing better now as
[29:42] this was like a decade ago. At the very least they should
[29:46] definitely be accepting card payments or her local takeaways
[29:48] by now. Story 5.
[29:51] I was 17 and a Co worker who I didn't know really well asked me
[29:54] out. I didn't like him but my mom
[29:56] pressured me to go because I didn't really date.
[29:59] He said we were going to get food and watch a movie so I
[30:02] didn't eat. I was also super nervous about
[30:04] going. 5:00 PM he picks me up and says that the movie isn't
[30:08] starting yet so let's go to bass pro shops.
[30:11] I was confused but also a total doormat at this time so I didn't
[30:15] say anything. As we're getting out of his car
[30:18] he straps on a gun belt, an empty gun belt and he starts
[30:22] walking towards the base pro shop.
[30:25] No idea why he wanted to wear an empty holster into the store.
[30:28] But then we're walking around and I'm uncomfortable about all
[30:31] the taxidermy animals and he laughs at me.
[30:34] Then we walk to the pistol section and he's like do you
[30:36] like guns? I was honest and said I'd use
[30:39] them but not particularly as I had trauma around them.
[30:43] He then tries to convince me to go in for half seas on a him and
[30:46] her pistol set. Like matching guns for us?
[30:49] Absolutely not. Finally, it's time for the
[30:52] movie. I'm starving at this point, but
[30:54] he says he's not hungry. I say well let's get some
[30:57] popcorn at least. And he says no and he just walks
[31:00] to the theatre room. Find out then that the movie is
[31:03] the live action Lion King and the room is full of children.
[31:06] He tried to lean over for a kiss a few times and I would lean
[31:09] away. At one point there's a moment
[31:11] where the hyenas make a sudden appearance with loud music and I
[31:14] yelped trauma with loud noises and I kid you not him and a
[31:18] bunch of kids laughed at me. Movies over eventually and I'm
[31:22] like OK food and then home and he says he's not hungry but he
[31:26] has food at his house. It's almost 10:00 PM by this
[31:30] point. Again I'm young and terrified
[31:33] and can't speak up for myself so I eventually agree but told him
[31:36] I will not be going inside. We get to his house and instead
[31:40] of going in and getting me food he sits in his front yard and
[31:43] starts telling me his entire life story.
[31:46] Here I find out he's actually 24 and not 18 like he told my mom.
[31:50] And then he starts crying and I'm all for men showing their
[31:53] emotions but I barely knew this man.
[31:55] It's dark in his front yard in a shady part of Apache Junction
[31:59] and he's full on sobbing about his life.
[32:01] I was trying to figure out how to walk home from where I was
[32:04] and told him it was midnight and we both had to be at work early
[32:07] so maybe he should Take Me Home. He stops crying and he drives me
[32:11] back to my apartment. As I'm getting out he tries to
[32:15] kiss me again and I dodge it. He says good night and he's
[32:18] hungry so he's going to go grab McDonald's bye and drives off.
[32:23] I avoided him like the plague after that and he sent me a text
[32:26] a couple weeks later asking if we could take a picture to put
[32:29] on his mom's fireplace Mantel. I was moved to a separate
[32:33] department after that, thank goodness, and blocked him.
[32:36] What's the most unbelievable story that's happened to you?
[32:40] Story 1 A few years ago I was having a crisis and decided to
[32:43] end my life. I drove over an hour to do it at
[32:46] the top of a mountain, a beautiful hiking spot that I
[32:49] have very fond memories of. The drive up the mountain to the
[32:52] trailhead is very long and winding, so it took a moment to
[32:54] get up to the spot I wanted. As I'm driving up this mountain,
[32:58] out of nowhere, the sky opens up like a severe raining sideways
[33:02] thunderstorm straight out of a movie.
[33:04] It felt so theatrical and dramatic, I couldn't help but
[33:07] appreciate the timing. When I finally arrive at the
[33:10] trailhead, the storm subsides and I get out of my car and just
[33:13] sit for a moment, reflecting as I'm getting up for my final
[33:16] trail walk. BOOM, lightning strikes.
[33:19] And I mean like 15 feet away from me.
[33:22] It was nuts. I'd never been so close to an
[33:24] actual lightning bolt. My ears were ringing, vision
[33:27] spotty. I wasn't actually hit, but it
[33:29] felt like a flash bang or something.
[33:31] I just started laughing. What a wild, unexpected, and
[33:36] unlikely thing I just got to witness.
[33:38] I walked the trail after my heart rate calmed down and just
[33:41] enjoyed the scenery for a while. I decided the lightning strike
[33:44] was too cool a story not to share, so I drove back down the
[33:47] mountain to get cell service and called my sister.
[33:50] Suppose this isn't a wholly unbelievable story, just a lucky
[33:53] confluence of events. It sure felt unbelievable at the
[33:56] time. I'm not a religious person at
[33:58] all, but damn if that storm didn't feel like the universe
[34:01] trying to steer me back down that mountain.
[34:03] Story 2. I got arrested once for this
[34:06] drug slash gun case. Weren't even my drugs, trust me.
[34:10] We were partying that week and we would have used them already
[34:12] if we knew they were there. Wasn't my gun and anyway it was
[34:15] illegal gun. I did have my own pants on that
[34:18] day. And there was this prosecutor
[34:20] who already hated me. I made fun of her husband's tie
[34:22] once though. He made fun of my hair first.
[34:25] So she was ranting and raving about me being a menace and how
[34:28] she was going to put me in prison for 10 years.
[34:31] But this was around a time when body cams were starting to be
[34:33] more common. So the cops in my case had
[34:36] filmed themselves discussing performing an illegal search.
[34:39] And my lawyer was all, excuse me, judge can't help but notice
[34:42] the illegal search. And the judge was like, oh,
[34:45] yeah, it heck, in his case, dismissed with prejudice.
[34:49] And then soon after this, the prosecutor accosted my mother in
[34:52] a restaurant restroom and was all I'm going to get him.
[34:54] I'm going to get your son and he's going to prison for
[34:56] something, anything. And my mom was like, have a nice
[35:00] lunch. But then the prosecutor was
[35:02] exposed for having an affair and the guy's tie game was no
[35:05] better. And the local conservative
[35:07] population said, gasp, you can't do that in the open.
[35:10] And they voted her out of office.
[35:12] I laughed for days. And so here I am, not in prison
[35:15] for something slash anything. Story 3.
[35:18] It was April 1981. I left Calgary to hitch hike
[35:22] with two male friends. I was 15.
[35:25] They were 16 and 18. We were picked up in Golden by
[35:29] two, maybe 3 boys in a car. They were baked and started
[35:33] stunting through the mountains. We asked them to let us out and
[35:36] ended up stranded in the ditch all night.
[35:39] We were freezing in the morning. We couldn't get a ride together.
[35:43] I was in a light spring jacket. I couldn't take the cold anymore
[35:46] so I told the boys I was going to get a ride on my own.
[35:49] We agreed to meet in Kamloops. I put out my thumb as a little
[35:53] blonde girl. I was in a truck within a few
[35:55] minutes. The driver was nice enough, but
[35:58] when we got close to Kamloops he said he was going to drive me
[36:01] straight to Vancouver. I had my dad's hunting knife and
[36:04] I took it out, but not in a convincing way by any means.
[36:08] The driver rolled his eyes and kicked me out of the truck about
[36:11] a mile short of Kamloops. I started walking toward
[36:14] Kamloops. It was still very early in the
[36:16] day, not much traffic. This was many years ago and I
[36:20] don't think about the details very often as it was a difficult
[36:23] time. I walked on the shoulder for a
[36:25] while and saw a white pickup coming towards me heading in the
[36:28] other direction. He burned AU turn and came up
[36:31] behind me and he leaned over and rolled down the passenger window
[36:35] and offered me a ride. I said no, I was meeting my
[36:38] friends and he told me he saw two kids on the other side of
[36:41] town on the highway and offered to take me there.
[36:44] I asked what they looked like. He said 2 girls but of course I
[36:47] knew he was lying because I was the first of my group to get a
[36:50] ride. I said no thanks and picked up
[36:52] my pace. He rolled along beside me and
[36:55] reached over and opened the passenger door.
[36:58] There was a new white rope on the seat.
[37:00] I did a hard 45° turn and started walking to the Bush.
[37:04] He had to jump out of the truck to follow and he left the driver
[37:07] door wide open, lights and radio on.
[37:10] I made better time over the rocks than him.
[37:12] I saw him stumble once. I hit a trail somewhere away
[37:15] from, but parallel to the road he got up from stumbling.
[37:19] His truck was running and open so he ran back to the truck to
[37:22] follow me. I was lucky, I was on the other
[37:25] side of emerging lane now and there was a Blvd. preventing him
[37:28] from pulling alongside me and getting close.
[37:31] There was truck stop at the end of the trail.
[37:33] By the time I got there he was already pulling into the parking
[37:36] lot. I entered the restaurant and
[37:39] there were only two people inside.
[37:40] Two teenagers working the cash in the kitchen.
[37:43] I saw the stalker coming up the steps of the restaurant.
[37:47] He was pissed. I took one look at the kids
[37:49] running the place and this burly guy in a Hunter's jacket.
[37:53] I knew he would just grab me and go.
[37:55] Just before he opened the front door to the restaurant, I locked
[37:58] the door. I turned the lock for the
[38:00] deadbolt on the steel framed glass entry door.
[38:03] He just stared at me for a second.
[38:05] He was really angry. He started talking to the boys
[38:09] who worked there, demanding they open the door.
[38:11] Then he started yelling and hitting the door.
[38:13] Luckily, or they may have caved into his request.
[38:17] He got so furious, made so much noise, then went quiet.
[38:21] He started walking away, but not to his truck.
[38:24] I looked at the boy near the kitchen and said lock the back
[38:27] door. He did.
[38:29] Pretty soon we hear kicking and screaming back there.
[38:32] The man, who I since learned was named Clifford Olson, then came
[38:36] to the front door to talk to the boys again.
[38:38] One of them picked up the phone to call the cops and when Olson
[38:41] saw that he split. I talked the boy into putting
[38:44] down the phone and pulled my own escape.
[38:46] I'm very regretful of that last part.
[38:48] Another girl was savagely stabbed as his next victim.
[38:51] I think. The following day I met up with
[38:54] my friends and we made it to Vancouver.
[38:56] I was caught soon after and returned home.
[38:59] Dave and Bam bam, If you're reading this, I hope you are
[39:02] well. Story 4.
[39:04] I'll try and make a Long story short.
[39:06] My father passed away in 1995 and was buried in a small town
[39:10] in Illinois. I had to fly home before they
[39:12] had set his stone so I had no pictures of his grave.
[39:15] A friend in my town was going to Illinois to visit her family
[39:18] over the holidays and was driving right by the town where
[39:20] my dad was buried, so I asked her to stop there and take a pic
[39:23] of it. This is a very small town with a
[39:26] small Catholic cemetery so I had made her a map of where he was
[39:29] so it would be easier for her to find him.
[39:31] The day after her trip she called me completely freaked out
[39:34] and this is what she said. I got to the cemetery and
[39:37] realized I couldn't find your map.
[39:39] I was bummed because I really wanted to do this for you but
[39:41] there were several inches of snow on all the stones and I
[39:44] couldn't see anything so I tried scraping off some of the stones
[39:47] hoping to find your family name or something but it wasn't
[39:49] working. Finally I decided I had to just
[39:52] give up and I turned to leave and I noticed a stone down
[39:54] towards the bottom of the hill with no snow on it, the only
[39:57] stone with no snow. I walked down there and my hair
[40:00] was standing on and I was so freaked out.
[40:03] It was your dad's stone and the granite was still partially wet.
[40:06] I almost wouldn't have believed her, but she took pics as she
[40:09] got closer to it and you can see it exactly as she described it
[40:12] with no footprints near it or any other stones uncovered.
[40:15] I started laughing when she first told me.
[40:17] My dad and I used to road trip all the time when I was a kid.
[40:20] Long trips where we'd use maps. My dad taught me how to read
[40:24] maps so I could be the navigator.
[40:26] He thought it was important to know how to read a map.
[40:28] It would be just like my dad to get impatient with my friend
[40:31] because she forgot the map. I don't know if there's some
[40:34] logical explanation, but I hope it was him telling me hello and
[40:37] maybe I'll see him again someday.
[40:39] Story 5. I live in an old church
[40:41] surrounded by a graveyard. One night at like 11:00 PM we
[40:45] heard loud screaming outside and caught a man trying to dig up
[40:48] his dead grandmother. He was on drugs and was
[40:51] arrested. We thought that was the end of
[40:53] it but apparently he stalked us for months.
[40:56] On February 29th he broke into our home and tried to kill us,
[40:59] but lucky for us we weren't there so he settled for
[41:03] destroying everything. I literally mean everything.
[41:06] Furniture, artwork, appliances, family heirlooms, you name it.
[41:10] It looked like a bomb had gone off.
[41:13] Even things my son made me as a kid all gone.
[41:16] He smashed 125 years old stained glass, ripped the stage apart,
[41:20] smashed all the windows of any cars outside.
[41:23] It was insane the level of violence and destruction.
[41:26] He tried to start a fire that failed and sprayed a fire
[41:29] extinguisher all over the house. I'd give you know this or not,
[41:32] but that stuff eats away its surfaces.
[41:34] Lots of things couldn't be repaired at all because they
[41:37] were chemically burned and destroyed.
[41:39] He was arrested while still at my house, throwing bricks
[41:42] through windows. We were on the news three days
[41:45] later. Two more people broke in and
[41:47] stole almost anything we had left of value.
[41:49] They ran off before police got them.
[41:52] We decided to shut off all the lights and wait, and sure
[41:54] enough, these two tried coming back in.
[41:56] My fiance chased them through the woods.
[41:59] Sheer adrenaline, I suppose. It took police over an hour to
[42:02] show back up. My own victim case manager kept
[42:05] treating me poorly, describing the first guy as nonviolent and
[42:09] dismissing most of what I had to say.
[42:11] This guy had a rap sheet a mile long, all violent charges.
[42:14] Over the months he was stalking us.
[42:16] The police knew because they had to keep running him off but
[42:19] nobody thought to tell us. He was supposed to be jailed
[42:21] multiple times but just kept being let go.
[42:24] He plead insanity and is currently in a mental health
[42:26] facility where they are trying to make him fit to stand trial.
[42:30] The grand jury sides with us but are only charging him for
[42:32] damages from $1000 to $7000 when he did almost $100,000 worth of
[42:37] damage. Then the satanic panic started.
[42:40] Because we live in a church and have some spooky decor, locals
[42:43] were convinced we were devil worshippers.
[42:46] I've heard the rumors before but dismissed them because it was
[42:48] honestly just silly. Honestly, the stories were
[42:51] silly. We apparently had a satanic
[42:53] effigy erected, but it was a scarecrow because the birds kept
[42:56] eating all my son's strawberries from his garden.
[42:59] There was an airy red glow at 3:00 AM which was just a night
[43:02] light because I'm scared of the dark.
[43:04] Silly shit like that. I believe this might be why my
[43:07] victim advocate was so dismissive and rude to me.
[43:09] Honestly. Locals started a smear campaign
[43:12] against me spreading lies. Lots of people were saying we
[43:15] deserved what happened because of the type of people we are.
[43:18] Rumors started spreading about us being a drug house as well.
[43:22] To note, none of us do or have ever done or sold drugs.
[43:25] None of us have a bad history, but rather we're actually really
[43:28] nice people. We donate, help others,
[43:31] etcetera. TBH we're wholesome AF.
[43:34] I'm an artist, not some kingpin. My mother had set up a GoFundMe
[43:38] to help offset the cost of everything lost and people were
[43:41] making it their personal mission to try and have it shut down.
[43:44] His family started verbally abusing me and strangers started
[43:47] stalking and harassing me online and in person.
[43:50] People started to try and get into my home more and more to
[43:52] see for themselves what was going on.
[43:55] My fiance and best friend both lost their jobs because they
[43:58] called off several times to rush to my aid.
[44:00] After everything. I have to sleep with a gun by my
[44:03] head now. I had to pull my son out of
[44:05] school and move him and all the animals into my fiance's house
[44:08] where I now stay 90% of the time as well.
[44:10] We were contacted well before this break in by a major TV show
[44:14] that wanted us to participate in their show.
[44:17] I can't give much detail away about that because I signed an
[44:19] NDA and it hasn't aired yet. After the damage, they weren't
[44:23] sure they could even use us anymore because of continuity.
[44:26] We would have to clean and repair and restage the house as
[44:28] best we could to still participate.
[44:30] Participating could have been the difference between us having
[44:33] a safe home and not, but I digress.
[44:35] They forgot to contact us when they notified the other
[44:37] participants. So in the end we had nine days
[44:40] notice for filming. We had to get to work and fast.
[44:43] Over those nine days, I slept for less than three nights.
[44:47] We were cleaning right up until cameras were there.
[44:49] Legitimately, I was on my third day awake and then slept for
[44:52] less than two hours before I was awake and cameras were in my
[44:55] face. In the end, the outcome wasn't
[44:58] in our favor and we did not win the help that was dangled in
[45:00] front of us. I wish I could explain that
[45:02] better but I'm simply not allowed.
[45:04] My fiance actually broke ribs during this cleanup and I lost
[45:07] feeling in my right hand for two months.
[45:10] It was brutal and in the end we have nothing to show for it.
[45:13] We had to sign a form saying the network isn't to blame if they
[45:16] humiliate us to the point of wanting to self harm.
[45:18] My studio was also in my home, and as such I haven't actually
[45:22] been able to work all year. Bills are piling up and I'm
[45:24] about to lose a whole lot more. My mental state is wack.
[45:28] I haven't been able to even hang out with my closet friends,
[45:30] instead shutting myself off and ignoring the world.
[45:33] My grief was heir to the world, with places like Yahoo News and
[45:37] Petapixel running the story. I cried on live TV and hundreds
[45:41] of people saw personal videos of me walking through my home and
[45:43] experiencing the devastation for the first time.
[45:46] Hey Reddit, what's you're the one who got away?
[45:48] Story story 1. We're friends and dated for half
[45:52] a year before I ended up moving overseas.
[45:55] Always kept in touch and we ended up back together some 7 to
[45:58] 8 years later. To my great surprise and joy,
[46:01] for unknown reasons was not properly diagnosed.
[46:04] For years and years she had a pattern of randomly spiraling
[46:07] into self-destructive behavior and destroying her own life
[46:10] again and again in a woe is me sort of vibe where any outsider
[46:13] would want to scoop up this damsel in distress.
[46:16] Only I knew how slash why her situations were what they were
[46:19] so I couldn't fall for it and be her white knight.
[46:21] In between these episodes. She was the best friend slash
[46:24] partner slash lover I could have ever wanted, heck still do if
[46:28] I'm being honest. But she needed someone to be
[46:31] there to suffer alongside her swings.
[46:33] If her life was a boat, I'd be trying to fix the leaks while
[46:36] she kept swinging A pickaxe into the hall.
[46:38] She required someone to climb into he hole with her, not
[46:41] someone who would just try to lift her out.
[46:43] And that was 100% not me. I've self sacrificed enough in
[46:47] the past to appease past relationships and this person
[46:50] knows all about it. We were very open about our want
[46:52] Slash needs. Anywho, to make a Long story
[46:55] short, eventually COVID restrictions died down.
[46:58] I moved back overseas. She even followed after me on
[47:02] her own. But almost upon arrival she fell
[47:04] into her usual pattern. It hurt but I had to tell her
[47:07] what needed to be said. Slash heard we'd never date
[47:09] because she was too unstable and can't reliably care for herself.
[47:13] And so she went on one date with a guy from Europe.
[47:16] Ended up leaving the country to visit and stay with this, what I
[47:19] would have called a stranger. Eventually married so she could
[47:23] stay in his country and is now expecting a child.
[47:26] In all that time she finally had a diagnosis for her problems to
[47:29] respect her privacy and not share her info.
[47:32] It's a genetic issue so not something she'll ever be able to
[47:34] escape from, but hopefully knowing why she has those urges
[47:38] will help her recognize the signs and overcome them easier.
[47:41] So that's my the one who got away.
[47:44] It's a tough pill to swallow at times knowing it was 100% my
[47:47] choice to turn her away, but it was the right choice for myself.
[47:51] God I wish things could have worked out better, but she has
[47:54] her own life now, I have mine, and neither of us could live the
[47:58] life we have now if we were together.
[48:00] It's for the best. Story 2.
[48:02] He was so charming in high school.
[48:05] His friend group was entirely girls who were in love with him.
[48:08] They were jealous because he hung out with me more.
[48:11] I was his best friend, but he was always touchy and flirty and
[48:14] I was so in love with him. He was perfect for me and my
[48:17] best friend, but he openly talked about other girls with
[48:20] clearer skin at the larger chests.
[48:23] Everyone thought that he secretly loved me.
[48:26] He always said that he wasn't interested despite the
[48:28] appearance to everybody including myself.
[48:31] I denied any feelings for him because I didn't want to ruin
[48:34] the friendship. But I always wondered if he
[48:36] thought the same, that I didn't love him but he loved me.
[48:40] We eventually parted when he want to go stay with his father
[48:43] one year and chose not to come back to stay with his mom again
[48:46] the following year. He used to alternate.
[48:49] I longed for him for years. I married someone that I didn't
[48:52] really love because I was never going to love someone else other
[48:55] than him. Eventually, about a decade
[48:58] later, I ran into him at a bar. I had a partner and he was
[49:02] dancing with old friends from high school, making out with
[49:05] whomever would kiss him, and smoking cigarettes.
[49:07] I was a bit repulsed but still in love.
[49:10] I confessed to having loved him back then to see what he would
[49:13] say. I would have left my partner in
[49:15] a heartbeat. He seemed shocked and said that
[49:18] he had no idea. Fast forward another decade and
[49:21] I'm married to someone that I do love and I'm totally over him.
[49:25] Repulsed by my memory of the kissing random people, but a
[49:28] mutual friend tries to get us all together to hang out like
[49:31] old times. This friend and he and his wife
[49:34] all go out to a club. He didn't dance with his wife at
[49:37] all, but seemed to be hitting on other people.
[49:40] According to my friend. We all go out to dinner
[49:43] afterward, Him, his delightful wife, my friend, myself and my
[49:47] spouse. It was weird and boring.
[49:50] It was OK to catch up, but I could have been treating my
[49:53] hemorrhoids instead. Everything made sense when we
[49:56] parted, though. He had this Southern boy charm
[49:59] about him, and he called me sweetheart in our parting.
[50:01] It struck me oddly, and I ignored it.
[50:04] And then he repeated it, like to make sure that I had heard him
[50:08] call me sweetheart, and I realized that he'd known all
[50:11] along how I felt, really liked the attention.
[50:14] Through dinner, he made small jabs at his wife, who, again,
[50:18] was charming. I don't know if he wanted to
[50:20] hook up with me in reality, or if he was just hoping for the
[50:23] same reaction that I used to have.
[50:26] My friend and I agreed that if he isn't already cheating on his
[50:29] wife, he will. Story 3.
[50:31] Fell in love, got engaged 2 years in a long distance
[50:35] relationship. We visited each other.
[50:37] I could handle the distance, she could not.
[50:40] She started seeing a Co worker while we were still engaged.
[50:43] She broke up with me after their third date, the same time she
[50:46] told me she was seeing someone else.
[50:48] All while still saying she loved me and was still going with the
[50:50] engagement. We kept in touch.
[50:53] I couldn't let go. Eventually she married that guy
[50:56] so I moved on. I met the woman I would marry,
[50:58] beautiful, kind and everything I could ever ask for and we had a
[51:02] son. Some years later ex fiance got a
[51:05] divorce, told me she made a huge mistake leaving me.
[51:08] The guy she married never grew up.
[51:10] He pulled them into massive credit debt and he wouldn't
[51:12] work. Expected to just live off her
[51:14] dime. I still loved her but I had my
[51:17] own life now. In the end I turned out to be
[51:20] the one that got away and my wife is the one who claimed me.
[51:23] Not only did she claim me, she is absolutely the person I love
[51:27] most in this world and I couldn't ask for anyone better
[51:29] to spend my life with. My ex also found someone amazing
[51:33] not too long after and that makes me happy.
[51:36] She's an amazing person who hurt me once but still amazing.
[51:39] Story four. Met her in university, fell
[51:43] crazy in love with her. She matched my goofy energy, was
[51:46] amazingly beautiful, loved me more than anything.
[51:49] I didn't know what I had and thought it was common.
[51:52] I broke her hard time and time again, scared that I would be
[51:55] missing out on the dating part of my life.
[51:57] Literally the day I realized she was the one was when she started
[52:00] dating someone new. I figured once it fizzled out, I
[52:03] would get her back. We dated for three years, then
[52:05] worked together for five. About three years into that, she
[52:09] told me she was marrying him. I asked her if she was sure he
[52:12] was the one. She said yes.
[52:14] When she left my lab, I broke down crying.
[52:17] I still think about her every day and it is 15 years later.
[52:20] I have dated lots of quality people, but there was just
[52:23] something about her that I never found with anybody else.
[52:26] Every time we spoke, even if it was for four hours, I was always
[52:29] exciting and fun with her. The world was a kaleidoscope of
[52:32] possibilities. She has four kids now and we
[52:35] talk about once every few years. Since the wedding comment I have
[52:39] respected their relationship completely and don't flirt or
[52:41] anything. It is nice to hear from her
[52:43] every so often. The only bittersweet part of it
[52:46] is I never wanted a family and she wanted a big one.
[52:49] If she was with me, I know it might have not been the life she
[52:52] wanted. Story 5 childhood friends I met
[52:56] her when she was in 4th grade and I was in fifth grade.
[52:58] I was staying at my dad and stepmoms that weekend and my
[53:01] step sister had a sleepover with her new friend.
[53:04] That new friend and I ended up staying up all night talking.
[53:07] She always would come over for a sleepover on the every other
[53:10] weekend when my dad had visitation.
[53:12] This was late 90s so eventually we started chatting every day on
[53:15] either ICQ or AIM. I would say we were best
[53:19] friends, but always with a hint of more.
[53:21] It started progressing to closer to dating by the time I was in
[53:24] 8th grade, but she moved away that year.
[53:26] We still talked all the time, and her new town wasn't too far
[53:29] away so we still saw each other on occasion.
[53:33] She moved again to a town farther away, and as she entered
[53:36] high school, she was becoming more religious whereas I was
[53:38] going the opposite direction. So when she was a freshman in
[53:41] high school, she messaged me basically asking about our
[53:44] future together even though we never officially dated.
[53:47] She wanted to know if I was committed to marrying her and if
[53:49] I was a good Christian man, so to speak.
[53:52] I basically said no, that I didn't want to commit to
[53:54] marriage while a high school sophomore and that religion
[53:57] wasn't very important to me. She slowly cut off contact after
[54:01] that, but in the spring of that school year she messaged me
[54:04] again to say a student two years older than her asked her to
[54:06] junior prom. She told me if I had changed my
[54:09] mind she would turn the offer down.
[54:11] I thought she was being silly and told her she didn't need to
[54:13] ask me. So she said yes to that guy's
[54:16] school dance date offer and they've been together ever
[54:18] since, well over 20 years now. I fell out of touch with her
[54:21] soon after she went to that dance.
[54:23] Other than a few messages on FB like 15 years ago, I don't have
[54:27] social media anymore besides Reddit, but I would check her
[54:29] profile every once in a while until about 2019 or so.
[54:33] I always got the feeling their marriage was a little too
[54:35] traditional where she seemed to make career and dream sacrifices
[54:38] to support him and their kids, but maybe that's how she liked
[54:41] it. I've been happily married myself
[54:43] for over a decade, so I wouldn't say I made the wrong choice, but
[54:46] my life would be completely different had I answered
[54:49] differently back in 10th grade, and I sometimes do wonder how
[54:52] that life would have gone. Just as a thought experiment
[54:54] Story 6. We met on a tropical island.
[54:58] Literally we were interning together there during Graduate
[55:01] School, both in similar disciplines but from different
[55:04] uni's. We were two of four, two men and
[55:07] two women. I roomed with the other woman
[55:09] and he was with the other man. We would meet at our office for
[55:12] the internship and it was absolutely electric how we got
[55:15] along. He was this beautiful southern
[55:17] boy with a drawl and foppish brown hair.
[55:20] He would run shirtless in the wet heat and come to my
[55:22] apartment demanding water and we would talk, talk and talk.
[55:26] He taught me how to swim and we would all walk to the fish
[55:29] market and buy parrotfish to grill with chilled asahis.
[55:32] We would find office projects that needed two people to
[55:35] accomplish and would choose each other.
[55:37] Ah, this is getting painful to type.
[55:40] We holidayed during the internship on a deserted island
[55:43] with another friend we brought along for propriety.
[55:46] How can I tell you how magical that summer was?
[55:48] We read each other our poetry, We sort each other out in
[55:51] crowded rooms. We ate coconut crabs on rice
[55:54] with jamoy sauce with our fingers.
[55:56] He challenged me intellectually. I fell asleep on his shoulder on
[56:00] a beach under stars I had never seen before and will never see
[56:03] since. He was always in a relationship
[56:05] with an absolutely lovely woman. I looked her up.
[56:09] She's petite, blonde and perfect.
[56:11] We never crossed any limits, ever.
[56:14] Not even slightly. But I know there was something
[56:17] when we hugged that evening before he caught a flight off
[56:19] island, he didn't let go and said he wasn't done.
[56:22] When I tried to disengage, we hugged for at least 2 heart
[56:25] stopping minutes. I think the thing that came of
[56:28] this summer for me was the undeniable longing for a true
[56:31] beautiful love. I had had three relationships
[56:34] until then that had damaged my faith in love and and truly
[56:37] believed that I was too broken to want that anymore.
[56:40] Meaning this man convinced me otherwise.
[56:43] I am now married to someone I truly love and have a lovely
[56:46] boy. We do have our ups and downs but
[56:48] our relationship is a Konsuki 1. He is married to.
[56:52] We slowly lost touch but I think of him sometimes.
[56:56] Story 7. We dated in junior year of high
[56:59] school and it was honestly amazing.
[57:02] I fell deeply in love with her and she with me.
[57:05] She was strong willed and never shrunk away from voicing her
[57:07] opinion. This often had her at odds with
[57:10] my friend group at the time, which is what led to the issue.
[57:13] To better understand this, it helps for context that I was
[57:16] raised in a very manipulative and psychologically abusive
[57:19] environment. My mother would often use
[57:21] passive aggression and guilt as a weapon to keep me and my
[57:23] siblings in line with her ideal family dynamic.
[57:26] From the photos on the walls to the weekly attendance in church,
[57:29] as long as everything looked perfect from the outside, it
[57:32] didn't matter how screwed up things were behind the scenes.
[57:35] What our friends thought of us was everything, and by this
[57:37] point in my life it had become a part of my identity.
[57:40] Wear a mask and pretend because it looked better to the outside
[57:43] world. I struggled briefly with the
[57:45] conflicting feelings of how I was raised to believe I should
[57:48] behave versus my love for a young woman I could see a
[57:50] different kind of future with. I ultimately caved and settled
[57:53] on the former, gradually pulling away more and more until
[57:56] whatever we had fizzled out and we both went our separate ways.
[57:59] I let the one thing I chose for myself at the time slip through
[58:02] my fingers in favor of a group that I believed at the time
[58:05] would think less of me if I hadn't.
[58:07] I did some soul searching and got some good guidance from some
[58:10] very candid people in the years following high school.
[58:12] I realized the mistakes I made, did my fair share of beating
[58:16] myself up over them, and decided that I wasn't going to act a
[58:18] certain way or do certain things just because it's what someone
[58:21] else expects. I and my one who got away have
[58:24] both moved on since each other. I'm happily married to a woman I
[58:27] love just as deeply. We have a child and a good life
[58:30] together. She has been in a steady, long
[58:32] term relationship with a man who makes her feel loved and
[58:35] accepted. We both moved far away from
[58:37] home, each for our own reasons. Despite how great things are
[58:41] now, I'm nonetheless drawn in by the occasional stray thought.
[58:44] What if I wasn't so weak willed back then?
[58:47] What if I'd chosen love instead of friends that I don't even
[58:49] talk to anymore? What if I did X differently?
[58:53] It's a deep and dangerous rabbit hole and I try to avoid it
[58:56] whenever I can. It helps that she and I live
[58:59] half a country apart and don't really talk, but a scent, a
[59:02] certain experience, or a way someone talks or acts will
[59:05] trigger a memory of when the old relationship was good and I have
[59:08] to wrangle my brain away from its overactive hoop jumping.
[59:11] I wouldn't want to change the life I have now or sacrifice a
[59:13] thing in it for any reason. Sometimes a younger, Dumber me
[59:17] just needs to be reminded of that.

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