A recent post on the r/AskReddit is seeking everyone’s most terrifying moments that had them saying “we need to leave, now.” From people escaping wars and political strife to fleeing from nature hazards to sensing danger from sketchy folks claiming to need help, a lot of Redditors seem to have narrowly escaped serious harm or an early death.
If there’s one thing to learn from this thread, it’s that you should trust your own instincts. If there’s a second thing to learn, it’s that if you hear a growl out in the wilderness or see other people running in terror, get those legs pumping all the way back to civilization. Also, sometimes the only way out is to crowd surf.
The top 10 ‘book it’ experiences on Reddit:
1. Getting out of Iran in early 1979.
“January 1979, Iran. I’m 9 years old,” writes u/ErrorOpposite9314. “My mom is a low-level diplomat. She comes home from work and says, ‘We have 90 minutes to get to the airport to get out of the country.’”
“She knew the shah’s family was getting on a plane and that the overthrow of the government was days if not hours away. We got on the cargo plane with one suitcase between the four of us and maybe $500. Sure enough, next day was the overthrow and lots of people were killed or executed.”
2. The forest fire that canceled the camping trip.
“Was part of a wilderness/camping trip as a kid with counselors in the mountains,” says u/notesm. “We had just set up camp when all of a sudden people from higher up were fleeing down and everyone was in a panic. There was a forest fire rapidly descending down towards us. The counselors basically threw what they could back in the vans and wrangled up ~15 kids and got us out.”
3. The potential kidnapping attempt.
“I was out on a run, and I noticed this old woman (probably 60-70) sitting on the curb,” recounts u/vanilla_cannoli. “She waved me down and so I ran over to her. She needed help getting up but as we were talking I just got this feeling in my gut that something was off.”
“I felt really horrible abandoning an older woman who claimed to need help, but I couldn’t shake that feeling so I apologized for not being able to help and ran off. I looked back just a few seconds later, and this dude in a black truck pulls up to her and she gets up and gets in no problem. I probably broke a PR I ran home so fast.”
4. A possible armed robbery called on account of nerves.
“This was a hole in the wall restaurant,” said u/Jumpy_Presence_7029. “Two guys came in acting suspicious. They kept looking over at our table. We were the only ones there other than the two people working. One kept feeling around his pocket.”
“The one guy was very, very nervous. He went outside and threw up. After a little while, his… Partner?… Went out and seemed to be trying to talk him into going back in, but he wouldn’t. The partner came back in by himself for a while but eventually left without ordering anything.”
“My mom was on alert and was telling us 4 kids to get up NOW and leave, which is what I think prompted the guys to leave.”
5. Crowd surfing to avoid getting crushed by an angry mosh pit.
“I was at an outdoor music festival as a teen, in the heat of summer, with a delay in the set up of the next band,” says u/butytho92. “We were in the middle of the crowd and the energy was becoming very tense.”
“By the time the preshow music started, the crowd began to sway involuntarily from assholes pushing from the back. … I will never forget the 6’5″ punk with a red Mohawk that saw our trouble and shouted ‘THE ONLY WAY OUT IS UP’ and offered us his laced hands for us to take a step as he tossed us up to crowd surf out.”
6. Narrowly avoiding getting caught up in a bank robbery.
“Years back, I was walking into a bank,” recalls u/SMRogo. “As I pushed on the door, I locked eyes with a teller inside. She was looking at me shaking her head ‘no’. I then saw a person with a gun was robbing the place. I quickly backed up, ran to my car, and called 911.”
“Someone may have sh*t in my pants. Not sure who, though.”
7. An ominous growl on the hiking trail.
“Hiking in the mountains, sun was setting, and we heard this low, guttural growl that just vibrated through the trees,” u/damnbebe wrote. “No idea what it was, but the hair on my neck stood up, and we booked it down that trail faster than I thought possible. Felt like something was hunting us, and it wasn’t friendly.”
8. The “taxi” accident in Mexico.
“Driving in Mexico, north of Monterey,” says u/jenenator. “I was in a big suburban and suddenly feel this bump from behind. Look over to see a ‘taxi’ with two guys in the front. They were waving for me to pull over. I noticed there was no back-seat. I immediately thought ‘nope, not pulling over to end robbed, raped and shot in the desert.’ I floored it and left them behind.”
9. The call of the mountain lion.
“I was staying at a road house in the Avenue of the Giants,” claims u/AajBahutKhushHogaTum. “The roadhouse had an attached bar and restaurant and the locals were talking about possible mountain lions in that area.”
“Early Next morning, I drove a few miles north, stretched , and set out for my run. A few yards down, I heard what could be described as a child wailing. In the complete silence of the predawn, the sound was horrifying. I have never run faster in my life to my car.”
10. Escaping Ukraine in 2022.
“I’m from Kyiv, Ukraine. February 24th, 2022,” u/Crafty-Photograph-18 said. “My parents wake me up at night, and the first thing I hear is ‘pack up, the russians are already here’.
“We expected them attacking, but we didn’t expect them to get to Kyiv in a single night, which was only possible because they launched this attack from Belarus. After a few seconds of horror, an adrenaline rush had followed. I barely remember anything that happened that day or the following 5 or 7 days that we were on a bus to the Polish border.”
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