What is the closest escape you have had from a dangerous situation?

[jo-jo]

We live in black bear country, and the young males come into our yards every Spring looking for food. We are used to it.
However, one year we had a huge nuisance bear who scared me! One time, I was out in our side yard to get the clothes off the line. I noticed one of my tops was on the ground and there was no wind to blow it off. I picked it up and noticed a grass stained, muddy claw mark across the chest!!! Then, I smelled a truly awful smell which I have never smelled before. It was rank. It was coming from behind a huge 50 foot fir tree and scrubs, about 15 feet from me. I quickly got my clothes and scurried to the house. I know it was within feet from me!

You stopped to gather your clothes ?????!!!!!!!

I'd said forget that, I'll buy new ones.

 

[BayouQueen]

I was in a five-car collision on the freeway -- bounced back and forth like a pinball game. I was very surprised to be alive.

 

[loves to dive]

Being the last person in the ocean with a shark approaching and everyone on the beach screaming shark!

We were doing a shark dive in the Bahamas (something we wouldn't do now but were fairly new divers and didn't know better back then) and a smallish shark, about 6 ft. got mad because a larger shark took its food so swam over me and knocked me on my tank with it's nose. We were all knelling in sand with dive masters from the boat all around us with sticks. We were told not to make any sudden moves and to stay still so when it bumped me I just sat there. After we got back on the boat all the dive masters were all around me asking if I was o.k. The one directly behind me said that was the first time he had ever seen that happen and it happened so fast he didn't know how to react. He was so shocked I didn't react and just sat there even when other sharks were swimming over. I told him you told me to sit still so I did. Hubby was doing still underwater photography at the time and had just taken a picture so his camera was cycling and he missed the shot. He went to video after that, you know so he wouldn't miss a shot of me maybe getting eaten.

 

[E&Cmom]

Setting my hair on fire with a bunsen burner in University . Thankfully I had a quick reacting class mate.

 

[LadyDiznee123]

In 2002. Driving on an Expressway on a Rainy night during a visit to Baltimore in a cheap foreign car rental. The car windows began to fog up. ALL of them. I did not know what to do. I could not see to pull over. There was a thin clear line at the bottom of the windshield and I had to lean my head down to still barely see. I knew I was dead. I just kept saying (begging) over and over
"Yah, Please. Yah, Please."
Yah (God)
Finally I saw the heat control and cut it WAY up, and it worked.
Since that time others have told me that all I had to do was roll the windows down. But to be honest I don't know if I did or not, everything from that night is a blur. I panicked. I think I could not even find how to cut on the hazard blinkers.

In retrospect, I think it was a warning that I should not have been traveling to visit the person that I was visiting. It didn't end well, and I think that road scare was a warning / omen of sorts. Later that evening another obstacle arose that kept me and that person apart (not nearly as melodramatic). Now I see that the hand of God was steering me away from that person.

 

[Pooh2]

Got caught in a rip tide.

 

[barkley]

Wow. Just wondering, do you recall what the depth of the snow on the roof was?

don't recall the depth on the roof but the issue was the overall weight-we had experienced a one day record dump of just shy of 20" and it kept coming, and not melting, and freezing solid so you couldn't move it (temps were at -18, yup that's 18 degrees below zero ) within days we had over 40" of solid hard packed ice.

we were fortunate, lots of homes had total collapses-i had a friend whose house width second story deck was sheered off the side of the house (along with much of the exterior structure of the house).

 

[bcla]

We live in black bear country, and the young males come into our yards every Spring looking for food. We are used to it.
However, one year we had a huge nuisance bear who scared me! One time, I was out in our side yard to get the clothes off the line. I noticed one of my tops was on the ground and there was no wind to blow it off. I picked it up and noticed a grass stained, muddy claw mark across the chest!!! Then, I smelled a truly awful smell which I have never smelled before. It was rank. It was coming from behind a huge 50 foot fir tree and scrubs, about 15 feet from me. I quickly got my clothes and scurried to the house. I know it was within feet from me!
Then another time, I got up at dawn and noticed a huge bear in our front yard at the bird feeder. It got down on all fours and started walking to me. I was looking out our front windows which are about 15 feet wide. I don't know if he saw his reflection and thought I was a threat or what. He just kept coming and looking at me with those dead eyes. Well, I now know what I'll do when I;m scared, I'll just stand there and die! I was frozen to the spot just watching that huge beast come closer. I yelled at my husband who was still in bed and he ran to the front door and yelled at it. Thankfully, it turned and lumbered away! He asked why I didn't move, and I said that I couldn't move!!!
Every year we have bears, and it is now spring time and we will see them again. And yes, I love where we live

The American black bear isn't that bad unless it's been food conditioned. I've had several encounters and never once did it seem that there was any risk. Defensive injury resulting in death is extremely uncommon although there are the occasional cases of predatory behavior.

Now a grizzly bear would be another matter. I was told by a park ranger in Yellowstone that they can be pretty dangerous - especially a sow with cubs. But they generally want to stay away from humans, so I was told make a bit of noise going around corners, even if I was just talking to myself.

 

[Tuffcookie]

We were in Vegas the year of the shooting! We had just gotten off at the monorail station at MGM. As we went down the escalator, to the casino level, we passed some doors that faced Tropicana Ave. There were people pounding frantically at the door to get in. I will always remember the eerie feeling I got when I saw them. Those are not doors that you can enter MGM, so they would have had to go to Las Vegas Blvd and go in there. In a few minutes there was a stampede thru the MGM casino and we spent the night in lock-down. I still have my monorail ticket, time-stamped with the day and time.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

My BF and I about 16 or 17 1970 something
a bowling alley bar
a man who bought us multiple alcoholic drinks
my friend get sick and he conveniently offers us a ride home
yep, we accepted she couldn't drive and I wasn't about to

He was a creep, I told him so, and I still thank god, we never suffered any harm that night.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

I was in a car accident with my 2 cousins, I wasn't driving. Flipped over and landed on roof. I remember closing my eyes feeling the glass going over my face. Had my hands on the roof as we flipped. Some how we all got out without a scratch.

 

[sasywtch]

Traveling down a highway in Kansas with my kindergartener, my best friend and her toddler. The sky turned green, wind picked up and it began hailing. We knew it meant a tornado was in the area and saw cars ahead of us pulled over. So we pulled over to the side of the road and carried the kids out of the car, trying to protect them from the hail. There was a large group of people huddled under the overpass in front of us, so we joined them. The noise was like a freight train as we watched the tornado 🌪 head towards us, then suddenly veered off. Then the silence was deafening. The kids didn’t even cry at first.

We felt happy, relieved and safe until the highway patrol car pulled up. The officers exited the vehicle screaming at us for sheltering under the overpass. That was the exact wrong thing to do, evidently.
But we survived anyway.

They found that out during the May 5 tornado where most of the people killed were hiding under the freeway overpasses because the wind gathers and intensifies under there. They say it's better to lay in the outside in a ditch. Either one is scary to me. My scariest was a tornado during the evening at our house. It was hailing and so dark, you could not see in front of you. Some man who had been driving down the main road (we lived on the corner) stopped and came running to our house. He came inside but to this day, I have no idea what he looked like as you couldn't see anything. We ended up having a tree fall on the side of our house, our a/c unit and back screen door ruined. A neighbors row boat flew into another yard and had a tree sticking up in the middle of it. That was my first tornado.

 

[John VN]

In the late 1950's I was in a row boat with my sister on Lake Hopatcong, NJ in an area where few boats usually went when the silence was broken by a whizzing noise passing my right ear then shortly followed by the unmistakable sound of a gun having been shot some distance away. QUICKLY we rowed back home.

 

[RangerPooh]

Almost hit a cow on Hwy 101 in California while going 65 mph.

I hit a deer going 60 mph when I lived in CA. It was a large buck that I severed in two pieces. It totaled my car and damaged my body.

During a search and rescue training weekend I was playing the victim who had been strapped into a litter and was being carried through the forest back to safety. Suddenly we heard gunshots wiz through the brush and hit nearby trees. Everyone dropped to the ground and scooted backwards down a creek embankment. I was left in the litter out in the open, and with me two coursemates. It was a scary situation until they dragged me over the embankment with them. Quickly working to remove me from the litter. Our instructor was a former NPS LE and headed to find out who was shooting in our direction. Turns out it was squirrel hunters being careless.

 

[HannaBelle]

As a young teen in the 80's, I was babysitting for a neighbor several doors down. My mother insisted that I call her before walking home in the dark, she would come outside and watch me walk home.

I had to walk by our neighbors house to get home. Their deadbeat son and several of his friends were sitting in the bed of his truck drinking. This was not an unusual occurrence, we did not have a neighborly relationship and I typically avoided him. He was probably 18 to 20.

When I walked by on this particular evening, the a holes jumped out of the truck bed, picked me up and carried me off between 2 houses. I was absolutely stunned and did nothing. My mother started screaming. They dropped me and kept running. I ran home.

Being the 80's we never spoke of it again and I am 100% sure mother did not tell my father.

 

[disneyseniors]

The American black bear isn't that bad unless it's been food conditioned. I've had several encounters and never once did it seem that there was any risk. Defensive injury resulting in death is extremely uncommon although there are the occasional cases of predatory behavior.

Now a grizzly bear would be another matter. I was told by a park ranger in Yellowstone that they can be pretty dangerous - especially a sow with cubs. But they generally want to stay away from humans, so I was told make a bit of noise going around corners, even if I was just talking to myself.

Yes, you are right. Like I said, every Spring the young males who have been kicked out come through our yard looking for food. They hit the bird feeders, so we take them down for up to 2 weeks.
But there are exceptions. We have been unlucky to have 2 nuisance bears recently. One is legendary around here and is Huge and is not scared at all. The other one, I think, was hiding behind the brush and trees when I attempted to take the clothes down. And boy, do they stink. I never smelled anything that bad or like it. We have really thick foilage here. If you go into the woods/brush area a few feet and turn around, you can get lost. It's that thick. I'm used to a woods that you can see through.

 

[disneyseniors]

You stopped to gather your clothes ?????!!!!!!!

I'd said forget that, I'll buy new ones.

Yes, it was dumb, but I had the tshirt in my hand that I picked up. You could plainly see the claw marks on it! I started to take more down (dumb) but only grabbed one and got out of there. Why? I don't know. I guess my mind doesn't work too good when in that kind of situation. I left the other clothes on the line and went out later with my husband in tow, LOL. I felt something watching me in that thick brush and trees, It was really scary. we live in bear country and out in the country. Only one acre of our land is cleared and the rest is thick forest. I edited the original post to clarify about the clothes, as it was unclear.

 

[bcla]

Yes, you are right. Like I said, every Spring the young males who have been kicked out come through our yard looking for food. They hit the bird feeders, so we take them down for up to 2 weeks.
But there are exceptions. We have been unlucky to have 2 nuisance bears recently. One is legendary around here and is Huge and is not scared at all. The other one, I think, was hiding behind the brush and trees when I attempted to take the clothes down. And boy, do they stink. I never smelled anything that bad or like it. We have really thick foilage here. If you go into the woods/brush area a few feet and turn around, you can get lost. It's that thick. I'm used to a woods that you can see through.

At least these days we have devices that we can use to track when we're lost. I could program a map on a smart phone and with GPS it can at least show if I'm going the right way. But I've been lost before where I had to use a map and a compass. I'm not really that good with it, but I matched a lake to the position on a map and pointed myself in the right direction.

As for black bears - usually they don't like human confrontation. All one really needs to do is throw stuff at them and they almost always run. Not just throw stuff near them but try to hit them. I saw a documentary once on Anchorage, Alaska and their attempts to deal with bears that were going into trash on collection day. Two employees were there just to haze the bears and try to decondition them. It was hilarious where one literally got ran up to within five feet and then grabbed the trash can that the bear had raided and just flung it at the bear where it just took off. Not sure what they had (maybe bear spray too) but I think they were trained to do that even with grizzly bears. Apparently grizzly bears going dumpster diving aren't terribly defensive.

I saw a campground bear that probably was food conditioned. A bunch of us tried making noise and it wasn't phased since it already scored food. But a park ranger meant business and it just took off. I guess it respected the uniform, or at least it remembered the weapons that park rangers had (and that visitors couldn't have) like paintball guns and beanbag rounds. Maybe rubber shotgun slugs. But later I tried to understand what I could have done. I had a case of bottled water and it probably would have left if I had just hit it a couple of times.

 

[jo-jo]

Yes, it was dumb, but I had the tshirt in my hand that I picked up. You could plainly see the claw marks on it! I started to take more down (dumb) but only grabbed one and got out of there. Why? I don't know. I guess my mind doesn't work too good when in that kind of situation. I left the other clothes on the line and went out later with my husband in tow, LOL. I felt something watching me in that thick brush and trees, It was really scary. we live in bear country and out in the country. Only one acre of our land is cleared and the rest is thick forest. I edited the original post to clarify about the clothes, as it was unclear.

In my mind, you had 4 lines of clothes, took them all down, then moved. I think the word "gather" make is sound like you were there for several mins. Not just grab and run.

 

[disneyseniors]

In my mind, you had 4 lines of clothes, took them all down, then moved. I think the word "gather" make is sound like you were there for several mins. Not just grab and run.

LOL, only one line with about 4 or 5 tops on it It was dumb to take one down, but I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that a bear was so close to me!