Danger is always lurking where you least except it. After reading these 12 crazy stories, you will be questioning how some of these people are still alive!
Sand Weights
“When I was 11, I tied sand weights around my feet and hands to walk on the bottom of my pool. I nearly drowned.”
The Saltwater Crocodiles
“My family went on holiday in Australia when we were kids. It was a hot day and we found a really nice beach a bit off the main road with no one else swimming. My sister and I had great fun splashing around in the waves while our parents sunbathed on the shore. When we were done for the afternoon my Mum and I walked down the beach trying to find some toilets. Instead we found a massive warning sign saying the beach was infested with saltwater crocodiles. We never even saw them but that was probably why the beach was empty. “
The Volcano Hike
“Moonlight hike at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It’s a fairly popular activity to hike where the lava flows, or has flown. It was a new moon. I had my headlamp on, but didn’t want it to be too bright so I changed the color to red. After a mile or so I figured I didn’t even need a headlamp, and turned it off. The walk was beautiful, navigating over the jagged rocks just by feel. You could hear the waves lapping, too. One of the most beautiful places in the world, even at night. The waves kept getting louder. I turned my headlamp back on (to full power), turned around, and noticed that for the last few hundred yards I’d been walking on the edge of a 200-foot cliff.”
The White House Sniper
“I was doing an engineering survey for a building we were planning an addition for. We were scouting locations for an air cooled chiller and a rooftop unit on the roof of this building, which happens to be a block and a half from the White House. I got a call on my cell phone about 5 minutes after going out onto the roof, from the building engineer asking if we were on the roof and also to please get off the roof immediately. We went back inside and downstairs, where we were informed that the secret service was targeting us with sniper rifles, and that we need to inform them whenever we go out there because it has a direct line of sight to the White House. Thanks for the info, dude, maybe let us know that ahead of time!”
The Cone Snail
“While we were diving in Indonesia a friend of mine found a cool looking snail shell. He swam down to it and picked it up, and noticed a small arm protrude from the shell and wave around. Not wanting to bother the animal further, he put it back down. The snail he picked up was a species of cone snail, and the arm can shoot a wetsuit-piercing dart which will paralyze you, then kill you if you haven’t already drowned.”
Riding Outside the Elevator
“When we were kids, we found an elevator key (the kind that goes in the hole in the door to the shaft and enables a person to pull the doors open, regardless of the location of the elevator car). We would open the basement door, get in the shaft, wait for the elevator to come down (there was a 3 foot space you could crouch in) and then hang on some conduit on the bottom (underside) of the car and hang on as it went up. The risk (and the thrilling part of it to us kids) was not knowing what floor the person inside was going to, and not knowing if anyone would be traveling back to the bottom within a short time. If we got stuck on a high floor for too long, someone would press the call button for the basement, or, on the times when two of us would ride the bottom with no one else to help, we would let go with one hand and open the shaft doors for the floor that we were hanging nearest (the floor just below where the elevator was parked. A few times, a resident would be standing in the hall near the elevator and witness the doors open, and two freaked out boys swinging back and forth gaining enough momentum to make the leap out of the shaft and into the hallway. I remember the look of horror on their faces, and the fear that they would know who we were and tell on us. Bear in mind that everything in an elevator shaft is dirty as fuck and if you grabbed the wrong spot, your hand could get covered in grease and make holding on even trickier. Later on, we discovered that on the top of the cars there was a control box that we could operate to make the cars go where we wanted. Also, we found that the top was a neat place to hang out. We basically had a kids fort on top of the car and would hang and play cards and dice and stuff.”
Throwing Knives
“I know there’s a name for this game, but me and the neighbors would stand in the yard with feet shoulder width apart, and throw knives to try to stick it as close to our feet as we could. We were like, 13, but for some reason had no concept of it being dangerous in the slightest. I still have all 10 toes, so it turned out alright I guess.”
Out at sea
“When I was about 10 I went to the beach and decided to see how far out I could paddle sitting on a rubber ring. I got way out past everyone else to the point where I could barely see my parents, and boats had passed in between me and land. Dad had to borrow a kayak and come and get me, but I didn’t realize until I was older how badly that could have gone.”
Blue Lips
“Prescribed Ativan, morphine, and dilaudid. Took too much of each. It felt nice, then I nodded for an unknown amount of time. My ex told me my lips were blue and she thought I had died.”
Looking both ways
“One time I was crossing a major road with 2 lanes in each direction and realized immediately after making it across that I didn’t even glance to see if any traffic was coming.”
A sharp change in altitude
“Finished scuba diving school then went on a plane within 24 hours of my last dive. When the plane took off and started the ascent, I realized the mistake I made and started panicking in my head. Ended up being OK.”
BEES
“My aunt and I were in this touristy beach town walking around when we see a swarm of flies. We stopped, wondering if we should cross the busy street (there wasn’t a crosswalk near us) or if we should just go through the swarm. We decided to run through. They weren’t flies. They were bees.”