Stepping back from the curb right before someone runs a light. Catching a mistake at work right at the last minute. These sorts of “dodged a bullet” situations happen all the time—but rarely do they end up affecting others. Redditors came together to share their unforgettable stories of the times when their narrow miss ended up screwing over someone else entirely.
1. The Switch-Up
In our first year of college, I put in a request to share a dorm room with my best friend. Well, housing messed up and put us in two separate rooms with two other roommates. We talked to one of the guys and he agreed to switch rooms with me—but there was something that none of us knew.
It turns out that my original roommate was a 300-lb tuba player who didn’t shower. I felt bad for the guy who switched with me, but there was nothing I could do about it.
2. The Leftovers
A couple of years ago, I was in San Francisco on Haight Street and went to a Chinese place with a few friends. My friends and I had eyes bigger than our stomachs. We left the place with a huge bag of leftovers.
On the way home we saw a lady in a wheelchair begging for change near the freeway on-ramp. We decided quickly that she needed the food more than us. We gave her the entire bag of food. She seemed genuinely thankful for the food and thanked us profusely.
That night we ALL got incredibly sick from the food. As much as that sucked…all I could imagine was some poor old lady in a wheelchair scrambling to find a bathroom.
3. A Downhill Battle
It was about 10 years ago, My family allowed me to bring two friends with me to Tennessee to go skiing and one day we went to this place where you could rent inner tubes and slide down the side of some mountain slope. So we get to the point where you're handed a tube, I got this super shoddy tube and I just so luckily placed my hand over where it was torn so I could feel the air rushing out. I quickly traded it for another and this girl behind me got the broken tube.
Anyway, I go down the slope and get to the bottom and I look up. What I saw still haunts me. The girl with the broken tube was just stuck in the middle of the slope as some 200-pound man just slams into her knocking her about 15 feet in the air, leading to her ultimately just rolling down the slope without a tube, crying hysterically.
4. A Different Kind Of Draft Dodging
My grandfather was set to be deployed in San Francisco during WWII. A buddy of his had a deployment in France. His friend had a fiancée and family in San Francisco, and begged my grandfather to trade deployments with him.
My grandfather didn't have much going on in his life and didn't really care where he got sent, so he agreed. He wound up in France, where all the action was essentially long over, and they just relaxed and enjoyed an extended vacation near Paris.
He later found out that San Francisco was simply a staging point where they sent men to prepare for the front lines, and heavy duty combat. Whoops.
5. Stick Em Up
I was working at a gas station, and asked one of my co-workers to cover two shifts for me while I went on a short vacation. He said yes—but he had no idea what he was getting into.
On the second day, he got robbed at knifepoint. He got a cut on his face and another on his arm. They weren't bad, but they needed stitches. He quit soon after, as he was too scared to return to work.
Oh yes, I felt very bad about it.
6. Never Forget
This one's not about me, but an old family friend who used to be an NYC firefighter. There was an NYC mayoral primary, and the Firefighters Union was looking for volunteers to canvas for their endorsed Democratic candidate, Alan Hevesi (who, as an aside, eventually got thrown behind bars for corruption).
My family friend decided that it'd be better to be on a street corner handing out fliers/holding signs/whatever on a beautiful September Tuesday than in his Chinatown Manhattan firehouse, so he switched shifts with another guy in the house. The date was September 11, 2001. That guy didn't make it home.
The family friend was driving in from his home in Westchester to start his canvassing shift at about 10 am when he heard the news, and immediately went to the HazMat station in Queens to get his gear. By the time he made it to the site, both towers had fallen.
7. Falling On The Sword
I was coming back from a trip to Japan with a few friends, I had bought a wooden sword from a little gift shop inside Yasukuni shrine, at the time I thought it would fit inside my luggage to take home. Turns out it didn't so I asked a friend if he could put in his suitcase, he said sure. Big mistake.
Flash forward to when we make it back to immigration at SFO, out of the 15 of us, he is the one guy who gets pulled aside for a "random" security screening. He was gone an extra hour because of that wooden sword.
8. The Train Has Left The Station
My friend and I got on the tube together and found that there were no seats. My friend was pregnant so standing would not have been a very good option for her. I asked a man who was sitting if he wouldn't mind giving his seat up for the pregnant woman. The man was more than happy to.
Only then did I notice that the man had no arms. When the train started moving he couldn't hold on and kept falling over.
9. Nickel-And-Dimed
I went through a McDonald's drive-through and was short five cents and the girl waved me through and said it was ok. I went back through the drive-through a week later and the same girl was working, so I gave her a nickel to make up for being short the week before. She had a huge smile and thanked me and went to put the nickel in that automatic change dispenser they have. That’s when disaster struck.
Somehow the front came off of the dispenser and all the change in it fell out. It was full of change. Change fell out of the drive-through window out into the street. She looked like she was about to cry. I parked my car and got out and helped her pick up what I could.
10. The Never-Ending Journey
My roommate and I were flying to Germany on buddy passes and his priority level was wayyyy higher than mine, I was booted off the flight if he went so he sacrificed himself and got the next flight that was a city over so I could get on this one. So his plane turned out to be an hour late, then they couldn’t take off because of something wrong with an engine, so they sat on the runway for four hours.
By the time they found a new plane the pilots had been on the clock for too long, so they had to wait two hours for new pilots, then the next plane had computer problems that took two hours to fix. Then he finally landed in Germany, but since it was the next town over he had to take a train to the city we were staying in (Frankfurt) and his train was two hours late from electrical issues.
11. What Are The Chances
One holiday season I had procrastinated on purchasing my plane ticket home and the cost of the ticket went through the roof to the point where it was completely unaffordable, determined to make it there, I decided that I would simply take Greyhound.
If you've never taken Greyhound, it's a real delight. I boarded the bus and it was very crowded and there were only a few seats available, most of them next to some pretty surly-looking young men. I approached the first one, "Excuse me, is this seat taken?" "Yeah" the guy nodded. Okay, on to the next. "Excuse me, is this seat taken?" "Yeah" the seconded guy replied as he laughed and look at his friend sitting in the seat in front of him. Okay, now I get it, fair enough. I go to the third guy. Uh, hey look man, this bus is sold out so either I'm sitting here or someone else will be so take your pick.
The third guy moves his backpack off the empty seat and I sit down. That’s when it happens. No sooner do I sit down, but another man boards the bus. He appears to have soiled himself, and then bathed in motor oil and brushed his teeth with a tin of sardines. He walks right up to the first guy and collapses in the seat next to him.
Next up is a woman. She's wearing a muumuu, sweating profusely, and is carrying two armloads of various cheese and meat snacks for the trip. She squeezes into her seat and plasters the second guy up against the window as he tries in vain to avoid having to touch her.
At this point, I stand up to remove my coat and say, "Hey guys, great choices!" giving them both the thumbs up!
12. Say Cheese!
I was working at a photography studio and traded appointments with another photographer. He ended up with two screaming 3- and 4-year-old girls who cried for an hour while their mother and grandmother tried to force them to cooperate. It was 8 AM.
13. What A Thrill Ride
Me, my husband and a couple friends went to an amusement park a few years back. We were waiting in line for a roller coaster, and there was enough room at the end of one of the rides for my husband and I to get on, but not our friends too. So we let the couple in line behind all of us go ahead, so we could all go together on the next one.
We waited a REALLY long time for the next ride...then the attendant told us there was a problem and the ride would be shut down for a while. We left the line to go elsewhere, and saw waaaaaaay up at the top of one of the big hills, the coaster was stuck.
I felt bad for getting that couple stuck on what should have been our ride, but I was glad it wasn't us. They ended up having to walk down the tracks to get off, and I kind of have this…THING about heights.
14. Better Luck Next Time
I paid £150 for Olympic Opening Ceremony tickets, but because these were returned tickets mine was separated from the others in my party, so I was sat by myself. My seat wasn’t bad, at one end of the stadium, slightly at an angle. Lady next to me asks if, being by myself, I minded swapping seats with her husband as he was sat in a different location. I thought “Sure, why not” I went over to him, he looked like he had won the lottery and kept asking if I was sure. I'm not the most observant and his seat looked okay, so yeah, I swapped.
It didn't take long for me to realize why he was so happy. If you saw the Opening Ceremony you may remember a huge tree at one end of the track, it was part of the ceremony. There was a section of seating stupidly placed right behind the tree, it blocked the view quite badly.
I kept looking over to them, they seemed so happy together, I didn't want to spoil their evening by swapping back. But I literally could not see anything with this tree in front of me, the people sat around me seemed to be complaining about it as well.
Eventually, with about 5 minutes before the ceremonies began, I asked the guy next to me if he was by himself—he was. I said fine, I'll get you a better seat. I went over to the couple, the stadium is full by now, so it was kind of awkward. I told them that the tree was bugging me and I'd like to swap back, but if they wanted to sit together they now could as there were now two seats available since I got matey to swap as well.
They looked so heartbroken but both went trudging off to the seats behind the tree. The wife, herself, thought twice about swapping and both looked back forlornly as they found their positions. Matey and I enjoyed a great opening ceremony, he couldn't believe his luck but I felt bad for the couple.
15. Lightning Strikes Twice
I used to be an IT intern and we would have to share weekend shifts in the data center. There would be one person there for 12 hours basically all alone with nothing to do. I switched shifts with one of the other interns so I could do something that weekend. Well that day there was a huge storm and they lost power. He had problems with the backup generator and after the UPS ran out the building lost power. I'm not exactly sure how he messed that one up, but the bosses were not happy and he didn't last long after that.
16. Whoops
In ninth grade, our teacher handed back our Algebra test and I had missed two problems on it. I wanted to know what the right answers were so I asked the girl next to me if she got them right. She looks at her test and sees that she did so she tells me what she came up with. Our answers were the same but mine were marked wrong and hers were marked right. We bring our sheets up to the teacher and she re-evaluates our tests.
It turns out that we were both wrong but the teacher just messed up grading the girls' test. She marks them wrong and gives the girl a lower grade. I felt so bad since she was just trying to help me out. But that’s not the worst part.
That would be that I had a huge crush on her so my chances went out the door with this incident.
17. Not My Brother’s Keeper
I was on a 56-hour bus ride. I was sleeping in the middle of the night when a woman began screaming "Stop touching me". The guy beside her tried to feel her up while she was sleeping. The bus driver asked if anyone would switch seats with him, no one was volunteering so I said I would. Only to realize that I just volunteered my brother to sit beside a creep.
18. Buckle Up
During high school, I began volunteering as an EMT and stuck with it for ten years (I actually only just retired a few weeks ago because I'm starting grad school). Early on, before I was qualified to be in charge, I rode a position called "co-pilot:" The ambulance I rode would be comprised of the driver and the officer up front, and I would ride in the back.
When we responded to calls, especially if they were nearby, I often wouldn't take the trouble to buckle my seatbelt and would try to prep equipment and bags so we could get to the patient as quickly as possible. One particular weekend I was riding extra on the ambulance (it wasn't my regular duty, I was just there for fun) and on a whim decided to leave a little early. Two hours later, my ambulance was responding to a call when disaster struck.
Two blocks away from our station got into a really bad accident. The ambulance had the light and had even slowed at the intersection, but they were T-boned by a driver who's pregnant wife was in labor and was racing to the hospital. The ambulance got knocked over and pushed 30' down the road from the impact.
Luckily, no one was injured, the baby was ultimately delivered safely, and the patient they were responding to was not a critical situation. But the equipment in the back was not secured or stored especially well, including the portable O2 bottle, and if I were on that unit I'm sure I would have been severely injured and very possibly wouldn’t have made it.
Afterward (and especially when I was in charge) I adhered firmly to "We're not going anywhere until everyone has their seatbelts on." In recent years, fire departments everywhere have increased efforts to foster a culture of safety, but traffic accidents remain the number one killers of first responders in the US.
19. Taking One For The Team
I traded seats with a guy on a seven-hour flight so I could sit next to my girlfriend. He ended up sitting next to the two most annoying children on the whole plane. I felt bad during the flight but, I hate to say it, really didn't want to have to trade back.
After the flight, while waiting for baggage, I went up to him and said thanks again and sorry about that, I couldn't have foreseen that happening. He said no problem and that he "took one for the team." Nice guy.
20. Mystery Meat
I gave a fellow student explosive stomach problems and physically ruined his appearance before his big speech. I still remember his face.
There was this other guy in our college's required public speaking class who was extremely nervous about this speech he was going to give. Kid had to be just barely 18; definitely a freshman. I had this big break between my former class and the speech class, so I would just hang around the cafeteria finding stuff to do. I noticed him sitting down at a table alone, sweating and reading off note cards. I walked over and offered to buy the guy lunch, thinking I could help him calm down. He accepted.
The special of the day happened to be a meatball sub. His sub made it to the table, mine didn't. I don't remember what I tripped on, but I DO remember my meatball sub falling directly on his suit. It's not as if it simply spilled on his shirt, it's like all his clothing absorbed it. The meatballs had slammed into his suit and rolled down to his pants, enveloping his entire being in saucy goodness.
He didn't even say anything. He sat down in a chair and stared straight ahead. He had gone completely white in the face. I apologized profusely and ran straight off to our bookstore that thankfully sells clothing. I bought him some sweatpants and a sports jacket and ran back.
He was still in the same position. I gave him the clothes, telling him it was the best I could do, and re-apologized all over myself. He went and changed and came back, finished his meal, and it actually looked like he was calm, collected, and ready.
Got to the classroom, he starts his speech, and then it happens. He's halfway on some stupid diagram about how Morse code should be considered a language requirement when he stops literally mid-sentence. He ran to the bathroom. He never came out. The teacher had to give him an F, even though I found out later the sub had apparently given him stomach trouble and made him really sick.
I haven't eaten a meatball sub in six years now.
21. Mistakes Were Made
I had a friend who worked at a furniture store and would get an employee discount of 50%. I was moving and needed a couch, so he offered to buy it using his discount. He asked for my credit card, which I provided, then proceeded to buy the furniture at a discount with my card. His manager asks why it's being run on my card, and fires my friend.
I did think it was weird that he asked for my card, thinking it would be cleaner if I just paid him back, but since he was the one that asked for it I figured either the policy was ok with that, or that the name on the CC wouldn't blatantly be right there, and that he would know better...oops.
22. It’s All Yours
This kid I knew ran and jumped into the passenger seat even though a friend of mine had called it. My friend was a super nice guy and let him have it and sat in the back seat. No one had any idea just what the innocent switch would cost them.
The car lost control around a corner and my friend got crushed between a tree and the car and didn’t make it. Sucks hard. The poor kid who took the front seat looked like a ghost at the memorial service.
23. The Unintentional Grinch
When I was a kid, my neighbors paid me to feed their dogs and collect their mail while on vacation. Every day I dutifully collected the mail and placed it in a brown paper bag in our laundry room. Two days before they were set to return, Dad was taking out the trash. He has bad eyes (retrolental fibroplasia), saw the bag, thought it was trash, and took it out with the rest of the garbage.
The worst part was that it was around the holidays, so there were several (quite valuable) Christmas gifts in the bag. Of course, he apologized profusely and paid them for the estimated value of the gifts, and the neighbors were incredibly understanding, but I still felt sick about it for a solid month. To this day, just thinking about it makes me cringe.
24. Cover Me
I can't think of a time when I've put someone in a bad situation. However, there was a time when I was put in the bad situation. I used to deliver pizza at this restaurant and worked with a guy who was in a band. His band would play shows almost every Friday, but he'd never request off. He'd just forget and try to call someone to cover the day of. Anyway, I got that call one day and said I'd cover for him. Since it was on about an hour's notice, I got to work and told my manager I'd just stay for the busy time (about 5-8 pm) and leave after that. He was cool with it, so I worked until about 8:30 that night and left.
Shortly after I leave, disaster strikes. The owner of the restaurant comes in, sees that I left early, freaks out, calls me up and fires me. I had worked there for 6 years and essentially got fired for coming in when I didn't have to and helping the company. What happened to the guy I covered for? He still works there. This was about three years ago. Yep.
25. Bus-ted
A man and I were waiting for the same bus to get home. He asks me if I know when the bus will arrive, and I tell him, though the bus seemed to be running a few minutes late. The bus we were looking for is barreling down the highway as a different bus is pulling into the transit center. I say "Hey, there it is," as our bus approaches. I board, take my seat, and notice that the man was not on the same bus as me. He boarded the other bus that had pulled in.
26. Pizza Peril
Back in 1995, while a student at UF, I delivered pizza for 5 Star Pizza in downtown Gainesville. I got to work one summer day around 5 pm, still very sunny out.
We had the standard first in first out for who got the next delivery. There was only one order to be delivered. It was close by, one block north of a major right, right across the street from the college campus.
I thought I was next up since I didn’t see anyone else logged in before me. I bagged things up and was almost out the door when this other driver—a long-haired skinny hippie type that maybe weighed 140 soaking wet—comes out from the back. He had been there first but I didn’t see him and he hadn’t logged in. So I gave up the run figuring it’s no big deal, they’ll be more soon enough.
He didn’t come back and a couple of hours later we get a call from the authorities. That’s when I found out the disturbing truth. Apparently, he was jumped by six males in their late teens/early 20s. They broke both his cheekbones, nose, jaw, some teeth, and wound up having to have facial reconstructive surgery.
When I saw him again two months later, he said they took his money as an afterthought. They just wanted to beat the snot outta someone.
27. The Price You Pay For Altruism
I needed somebody to follow me to the mechanic shop. My car was riding dirty and I was worried it might break down on the way. As I was taking a right onto the freeway, my buddy didn't stop so he could stay right behind me and he got pulled over by a Highway Patrolman. He got a $175 ticket. I paid for half.
28. Winner Winner Burger Dinner
In the 80s in Oxford, my dad felt sorry for a homeless guy begging for food so decided to take him for a meal at the nearby Wimpy’s. The guy was incredibly grateful and over his burger and shake let loose the tale of his life. Apparently it was full-on tragic. Wife left him, took the kids and the dog, he got dependent on the demon drink. He lost his job, then his house, all his money, this guy was at rock bottom.
But here was this stranger, my dad, buying him a meal, listening to his story—the homeless guy was pathetically grateful. My dad left early with an apology—the guy still eating—he had to get a train to Durham. Full of pride at the good deed he'd done, he had just left Stevenage when he made a chilling realization.
He had forgotten to pay the bill at Wimpy’s, leaving the tab firmly in the hands of the penniless tramp. My dad says he has never felt guiltier in his life.
29. The Picky Eater
I breastfed my eldest son. Once, when he was five months old, my husband and I wanted to go out to a ball. So my sister offered to babysit him. When I asked what she was going to do, she told me just to get some formula and bottles, and I'd be right.
So, that's what I did. We went out, had a wonderful night, and my husband won the prize for best dressed.
Now, this was in the days before cell phones were widespread in Australia. I come home six hours after leaving and find out the kid wouldn't take the bottle, and has been screaming non-stop for five of the hours we'd been out. I apologized profusely. The poor thing. She was really cool about it though. Never imposed on her again to babysit—I figure she'd done her tour of duty.
30. The Worst Game Of “Would You Rather” Ever
I was taking the bus home from the city to my house (about 40 minutes) and it was EXTREMELY bright outside from the sun. My bus finally came right on the dot at 5:37 PM. But there was something that I didn’t know.
This bus was actually the 260, and NOT the 250 I was supposed to be getting on. However, the bus route is exactly the same, except for the exit it takes on the freeway, which all looks the same to me as a 15-year-old. When it exited the freeway, I knew where I was, but I knew this wasn't where I was supposed to be going. I ask the guy next to me if this was the 250, he says no, this is the 260.
At this point, I'm just like ugh, and quickly head to the front of the bus to ask the driver where the nearest transit center or park ride he was heading to was. He tells me he isn't going near one and suggests I get off here and grab this other bus, so I do.
I notice a Pump It Up—one of those kids' rec centers—across the street, which I recognized because I had driven by it before. Now I'm sitting here an hour away from my home, and I start to panic. I try to calm myself and check my phone, and call my friend who lives in the area, to see if he can tell me a bus I could take to get home.
He picks up right away and I explain my situation, he then tells me some good news. "Ayyyy man we're down at the marina you should come join us mannn, it's a party doooood, not too far from where you're at too". But I'm a bit scared so I ask him if he could just pick me up, and he's like "Ugh fine, hold tight I'll be there in a bit." Big mistake.
So I head over to the Pump It Up and chill there for a bit, but then one of the chicks working there, who were all really nice and let me hang out in the lobby, says that the bus out there goes right to where I want to go to get to the marina. So I call my friend back and try to let him know I don't need a ride anymore. But what's this, my phone’s battery is about to die.
Now at this point, I'm just like ugh how am I going to contact him? One of the girls working there, again, really great people, lets me borrow her phone so I can message him on Facebook, and hope he sees it in time.
So I get on the bus, and then get off at a transit center and mosey on over to the marina. I get there all excited, look around—but I don’t like what I find. I don't see any of my buddies, so I keep on looking around as there's a lot of people there. After about 10 minutes I realize no one I know is there. I walk for another 20 minutes to the local library and ask the librarian if I can call my mom because my phone died and I need a ride home.
Now at this point, I'm sitting out there on the library steps at 8 pm, feeling like a total loser, abandoned by his friends. I use the library Wi-Fi to check my Facebook messages. I notice there's an option to check the locations of where a mobile message on Facebook was sent, as I accidentally clicked on it when going through my messages.
I click on it, and make an irritating realization. I see it was sent from a marina, but not the marina I was at. Turns out they were at the OTHER major marina in the area, across the city, that we hadn't hung out at for like two years. I had gone to the other major marina where we almost always meet up. Now I'm practically fuming and in my head I'm like "WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL ME THIS".
When I get home I send him a long nasty message on Facebook (we're really good friends so I knew it wouldn't be too extreme to call him out like that). He replies and tells me, dude, let me explain what happened to me, and all your anger shall disappear. That’s when I find out the real story. My day was nothing compared to his.
He tells me "I was nearly at Pump It Up and I was waiting at a really long, drawn-out red light. Do you remember how I got my wisdom teeth out the other day? Yeah well I have to take this medication for it. A medication that realllllyyyy loosens up the plumbing and renders any control of them, useless. Now this was a very, very ill-timed light, and unfortunately I didn't make it. I tried to hold it, but it broke through”.
The story continued: “Fortunately I had my bathing suit with me, and turned into the gas station nearby and put that on. I got home and was going to throw them out, happy to be done with this horrific incident, when my mom stopped me and said "Oh no, I paid 20 bucks for these shorts. You're cleaning them out."
Suddenly walking like a loser on the beach and awkwardly looking around only to not find anyone I knew, then waiting for my mom at the library at 8 o'clock at night, didn't feel too bad.
31. Double Whammy
My mom was working at a craft store, as a cashier. It was getting late, and after a long shift she had to go to the bathroom. There were hardly any customers in the store, so she got her friend to cover for her. On her way back from the bathroom, she sees some guy in a ski-mask run up to her friend with a knife. Everybody was freaking out in the store, and the guy made off with a bunch of money. Luckily, her friend sustained no wounds. However, shortly thereafter, she passed out and hit her head pretty hard.
32. The Freshman Fake-Out
First week on campus freshman year, I was walking out of a first-year seminar and ended up talking with a moderately cute girl on the way out. Once we were outside, she said she got turned around easily and asked if I could point her to North campus (I go to Ohio State, so it's one of the biggest campuses in the country and extremely easy to get very lost, mostly only your first week though). I lived on North too, but instead of being cool and asking if I could walk her to her dorm, I just pointed her North.
I got a call just as she was walking off and stopped for a minute to talk. During that minute I realized I’d made a huge mistake. I was also turned around and had pointed her South, with South campus being a somewhat shady area to be walking around in after 10. She was too far to catch up to. I just walked back to my dorm.
Two weeks later I talked to her again, she wasn't too angry, but said she was trying to decide if I was mistaken as well or just a jerk. Regardless, I found out we lived in the same dorm.
33. On To The Next One
I was engaged to a woman who I had gone to college with, who seemed totally normal in the three years that we had been living together before I proposed. But after we got engaged, she started to expect me to pay for everything for her, like meals, shopping trips, etc.
We'd always split bills for things we shared and had separate finances, but she started telling me that 'this was how it was going to be when we're a married couple' and that because we'd start sharing finances, I should start paying for her now.
I had to break up with her for a few different reasons, but at the time, I was still upset that I lost the person who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Well, it’s for the best, because she moved so quickly onto someone else and they later became engaged and actually got married. Now he can pay her bills, not me.
34. It’s Lonely At The Top
I was at a fair a couple months ago, and I was waiting in line with my friends for the Ferris wheel. When we were at the very front of the line, we saw some crying children behind us (I don't know why they were crying). We let them go in front of us, and they got on the last seat on the ride. I’ll never forget what happened next.
As soon as they got up to the top, the Ferris wheel broke down. Everyone was stuck on it for the next hour. I felt so bad.
35. What We’ve Got Here Is A Failure To Communicate
My grandfather was a Marine who served in Vietnam. He was supposed to take a plane to a different base he was supposed to be at, but the end of the runway had a huge mountain right there. Fearful that the plane would hit the mountain and explode, he refused to board.
Unfortunately the plane did hit the mountain and blew up. Not a single person survived. No one knew that he hadn’t been on the plane. A week later, he went to a store to get bed sheets.
The guy there turned white as a ghost thinking that the man in front of him was a ghost—he’d just happened to have read his obituary!
36. Road Raging
I was driving on the highway, passing people and being passed like normal. I pass this one guy and then go back into the right lane once I'm a safe distance ahead. Then I switch on the cruise control. Problem is, I didn't switch on the cruise control. I drop 15 mph before I notice my mistake and the guy behind me rightfully gets angry.
We continue driving, we both pass each other a few times over the next hour or so like normal. But at this point he is so sick of me that absolutely guns it up to 90 mph just to get as far away from me as he can. I can’t believe what I saw next.
Four minutes later I pass him again but this time he is pulled over by a cop on the side of the highway. If you're reading this, I'm sorry I got you a ticket.
37. A Slip Of The Pen
Once in a class, me and a friend were playing a stupid game where we weren't allowed to touch a specific pen. So we would use paper, other pens, etc to push the pen across the table to make the other person touch it. The pen eventually fell and I asked a girl close to where it landed if she could pick it up for me.
She reached down and as she starts to pick it up toward me, I say quickly "don't hand it to me, just set it on the table." She picked up the wrong pen. The one she picked up had broken and ink was all over her hand. Obviously she assumed the whole thing was a prank by me to make her get ink all over her hand.
38. Come On And Take A Free Ride
I got flown down to New Orleans to compete in Tales of the Cocktail. Flight, hotel and some expenses were taken care of. When I landed, I met up with someone from my home city who offered me a seat in her ride. As we're walking to baggage claim, she points off to the side and says "Is that you?" it's a driver holding a sign with my first initial and my last name.
I thank the girl for the offer and hop in the car. The driver goes to confirm my destination which was different than I was originally told, so I call up my contact. I thank her for the car and ask her if my accommodations have changed. She says, "We didn't arrange a car for you..."
That’s when I enacted my devious plan. I roll with it, have the driver take me to my hotel, and ask her if everything, including tip, has been taken care of. She tells me that it has been and I slip her a $20 figuring she's only a few minutes away from receiving an angry phone call.
39. Missed Connection
I was invited to a party where a girl tried to give me a lap dance. After she was done she told me to meet her in the bathroom. The girl wasn't my type, and I was dating someone, so I sent my friend instead.
Long story short: the two of them hooked up in the bathroom and the girl of his dreams, who was also at the party, found out and never spoke to him again. It turns out that, after five years of knowing him, she started to have feelings for him and this whole situation ruined everything. Oops.
40. Bad Timing
My uncle works for Wells Fargo and was supposed to go on a business trip that would take him to their office in NYC, but he came down with the flu the week of the trip and asked a co-worker to go in his place. Well…their office was in the World Trade Center and the trip took place in September 2001.
His co-worker didn’t make it home. I'm glad my uncle's okay, but my entire family feels bad about it. My uncle went to therapy for a while and did everything he could to support and comfort the man's widow, who is a lovely person and never blamed my uncle for what happened.
41. Suzy The Savior
This very timid-looking mother called a flight attendant over to me and her to have her ask me to switch seats with her son who was two rows up. I had the luxurious aisle seat, and the son had the very awful middle seat, but I said I would switch. I move all my stuff only to make an unpleasant discovery. I find a huge guy has taken the aisle seat. It's a full flight and boarding has finished. I squeeze my way into the middle seat and force my armrests down, only to have the Huge guy inform me that cannot happen due to his size.
During our flight a stewardess came over to our aisle and says to the man that in the future he has to purchase two seats. She sees me in my uncomfortable state and tells me she has something to show me. She takes me to the back of the plane to hang out with the other stewardesses for the remainder of the flight. They had an extra fold-down seat for me. If you are reading this, thank you Suzy the stewardess.
42. Mother Doesn’t Know Best
At Wal-Mart back in '99, my mom took me to buy a new game for the N64. I was determined to buy Star Wars Episode 1: Racer. Apparently there was another kid who had the same idea. When we got there, there was only one copy left. I luckily got the game, and the kid wasn't too happy. His mom said, "It's okay, we'll just get you this one instead."
The game she picked out? Superman 64—famously one of the worst video games of all time.
43. The Circle Of Life
My ex cheated on me and after I dumped her, she got together with that guy. They had three kids before he dumped her too. Now, she’s dating some poor middle-aged dude and she sticks the kids with him. I almost feel bad for him—and then I remember I left her for a reason.
44. Close Call
When I was 20, I decided at the last minute not to go out with my best friend, her boyfriend, and my boyfriend who were also best friends. I just didn’t feel like it. I got a call at 2 AM that they crashed and the car wrapped around a telephone pole. They told my boyfriend that if he had been sitting on the other side of the car, he’d be dead. That’s where I would’ve been sitting.
45. Thanks For Your Consideration
I interviewed for a job that I wanted desperately in August 2019. After the initial phone interview, I went in for an in-person interview at 4 PM on a Wednesday. I had a rejection in my inbox by 8 PM and was completely gutted. I don’t know who got the job, but 2020 happened, and they laid off 60% of their staff and will probably go under. I'm thankful for that rejection every day.
46. From Cologne To Stink
I was traveling by plane from Cologne, Germany to JFK after spring break. Coincidentally, there also was a large group of kids traveling on the same flight, some of whom were delayed. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against them, but this literally was the worst flight I have ever experienced.
The first seat I had was next to a friend of mine who was happy to sit next to someone she knew, considering how large the plane was, but I also knew at the time that she had a "thing" for a friend of mine, so when he offered to switch with me to sit next to her, I obliged. Worst mistake ever.
I had to sit next to two kids for the entire 9-hour flight, and both of them soiled themselves in the beginning and middle of the flight. They never went to the restroom once. The smell that lingered in the air around me was so horrid, my eyes were tearing up the entire flight.
The one to my left, who was about 18 or 19, stared at me the entire flight and kept screaming at me in random gibberish. Again, I have nothing against them, but I still had an awful time and I couldn't even sleep because of the screaming.
47. Ready To Pop
Back in the late 90s I was seeing a guy who lived about two hours away. So I would take a Greyhound bus to spend the weekends with him. Well this trip there were tons of people going so they broke it into two busloads.
I was early in line to get on the bus, but decided to wait and let some of the older people behind me in line go first. So I ended up on the second bus. Well about halfway there we see the first bus go off the road to a gas station at some random point and we lost track of it from there.
Once we got to the station, we found out what had really happened to the bus.
There had been a very pregnant girl on the first bus who couldn't fit in the bathroom stall. She begged the driver to stop at a gas station because she HAD to go. He refused. So she returned to her seat and simply couldn't hold it any longer. She soiled herself.
That's when the driver finally decided to pull off to a gas station. There was an RN on the bus who helped her clean up. I felt so bad for her and the other passengers. I couldn't believe that driver wouldn't make an exception for a woman who looked ready to pop at any moment.
48. Smile!
My brother covered my shift at the pool we lifeguarded at while I was at freshman orientation for college. He was helping the manager change the large CO2 tanks for the filtration system and when he pulled on the safety cap to tilt the tank the cap popped off and he essentially punched himself in the mouth with a couple pound piece of metal...broke all four front teeth. Top and bottom. He spat shards of teeth out into his hand and the manager had to drive him to the emergency room. I felt so bad.
49. Spice Roulette
A co-worker and I ordered a delivery of Indian food after a successful business trip. There was a homeless man that perched outside the hotel we were staying at and we'd seen him frequently on smoke breaks. He would wait until a large crowd was entering and beeline to the lobby bathrooms to freshen up. Seemed like an all-around nice guy, just must've had a tough break.
Anyway, when the food arrived, we both saw the look on his face across the street and promptly opened the bags to give him some naan and "whatever was in that top container". They were all those plastic takeaway Tupperware things so we couldn't tell.
Wrapping this up, when we ordered the food, we were just asking for things that had cool names, and when we got to one item, they asked us how spicy we'd like it. We answered, "As spicy as you can make it." Nothing in our meal was spicy when we ate, and we didn't see him the next day. I can only assume what happened and hope he was okay.
50. Left Holding The Baby
My ex-husband and I started talking about having kids. Well at the time I was on that horrible birth control called Yaz. Remember the class action? Long story short, it made things a little difficult getting pregnant.
Fast forward to a few months later and I make a devastating discovery. I find some girl’s panties in our apartment. Moved out and started the divorce. Sure enough, he knocked up his girlfriend and ditched her when their kid was only a year old. The guy was such a loser—really dodged a big bullet with that one.
51. I’d Hit The Ceiling
One winter there was a huge, freak snowstorm so the hospital I work at rented out a nice hotel within walking distance to ensure there would be enough staff the next day. I put my name down for a room before my dad let me know that he would pick me up and drop me off in his big ol' truck. I gave my spot to a co-worker I barely knew—this cutie little energetic blonde college student.
She was extremely thankful she didn't have to drive back to her dorm several miles away. The next day she looks kind of grouchy and disheveled and informs me that the ceiling caved in on her in the middle of the night OVER her bed and she got an icy, insulation and drywall soup bath.
52. Don’t Be Shellfish
I was booked onto a totally full flight early one morning after working a double shift, and it was a long one—five hours. When I got off the plane, I’d have to go straight to a wedding. I ended up seated next to a woman and a toddler. She seemed nice enough, but the kid was already a little restless and since I was so exhausted, I wondered if I’d get a chance to catch up on my sleep at all.
That’s when a man came up to me—the kid’s dad—and asked if we could switch seats so he could be with his family. Phew. He pointed up the aisle at another seat, next to an older couple who looked set up to read quietly for the whole flight. I tried to not show too much enthusiasm as I said yes and cleared out.
I was right—the restless toddler did make some noise during take-off. I eventually had a long, refreshing nap. Then I got up to use the washroom, and when I passed by the dad in my old seat, I smelled something awful.
Then I noticed he looked absolutely miserable. The overhead bin above what used to be my seat was dripping on him. And it wasn’t just water.
It turned out that someone had carried on a box full of frozen shrimp, and it had started melting, and smelling, and dripping onto the seat. I felt terrible for the guy—but also, incredibly relieved it wasn’t me.
53. Room Service
For a full year, my college roommate secretly slept with my boyfriend while I was at class. I routinely took more than a full course load and was in math and science classes or study groups every morning. One day, I walked in to see a horrifying sight. They were just fully in the act after I came back early from a cancelled class.
I moved out. I was more angry at her than heartbroken. I also lost most of my friends through the breakup, and they stuck together for a good while. Fast forward five years later. Those two throw a crazy expensive engagement party at the guy's parents' beach house, which was attended by some still-mutual friends who told me everything.
At the party, she caught him sleeping with one of the waitresses from the catering company in a bathroom. They still got married. I feel a little bad for her despite the karma balance. She feels like she can't do better than being with a cheater.
Unsplash
54. Duck!
I was working a double on Black Friday at a store in a strip mall. On my break, I ran over to the Qdoba a few shops down and got in line. The guy in front of me turned and recognized me; I had rung him out a few hours prior, and he asked if I was done. I said no, I was working midnight-noon, and he told me to cut in front of him, he had three kids in the car plus his wife and himself that he was ordering for and didn't want me to waste more time in line. So I said thank you very much and we traded places.
There was now a woman standing behind him holding a baby. Not two minutes after we changed spots in line, this baby projectile vomited all over this nice man's back, and the woman just muttered an apology before rushing off.
That could have been me, nine hours into a (Black Friday) shift with a few more to go.
