Has Your Life Ever Truly Been in Danger?

i woke up once in my apartment at 3 in the morning with a gun to my head and some guy telling me he was going to "waste me" if i moved. they had kicked down the door to my apartment and busted in to rob me. him and probably about 3 others cleaned out my apartment while i was in bed with a gun to my head constantly being told they were going to kill me. "waste him! waste him!" the whole thing lasted about 15 mintues as they took everything of value - tv, stereo, computer, all my cd's, all my records (i just quit collecting vinyl after that)

the guy was really jittery/skitzed (obviously pretty high on something) and i thought he was going to kill me even though i was cooperating. i didnt see my whole life flash before my eyes, but i had a vision of him shooting me in the head and my brains and blood being splattered all over the wall and bed. had visions of the cops telling my parents their kid had been murdered.

being that it was austin and the police here are an absolute joke, they did nothing after comming out and investigating. couldnt even get a detective to talk to me about it afterwards.

 

I caught him completely off guard. He just moved away from me. Luckily for me, he was a shotgun wielding non-violent criminal.

 

This sounds a lot like what happened to my cousin a few months ago here in Houston. He woke up with a knife to his throat, and two guys saying he was going to die. They tied him up, took showers, ate his food, and took everything. They even took his car. After about 3 hours they finally left and he was able to get out the door so someone walking by could untie him. The cops were really no help at all, and did nothing after talking to him for about 15 minutes.

 

No, maybe someday, *fingers crossed*

 

good to know that the APD is just as incompetent as other major cities.

they shouldnt interview you right after something traumatic like that happens. you are still in shock and cant think straight enough to describe what just happened, what they looked like, ect.

by the next day, i was alot calmer and together and i could describe the guy better and what happened, but the police didnt seem to care. some random detective took my statement, but never called me back.

 

LOL

 

Another similar surfing experience (not near death). Same first trip to Mexico (I was 15). My brother and I are out in the line up with about 8 other guys. Someone yells "Outside". Everyone looks to horizon and a very big set is coming in. We all start paddling like crazy to get past the incoming swells. I make it over the first two. The third (and biggest) wave reaches me and I'm paddling straight up the face of an almost vertical wall. As I reach the top, the wave lips and knocks me, holding my board, backwards. I fall through the air straight to the bottom of the wave and land on my back, like a turtle flipped over. I'm stunned. The lip comes crashing down on me. I get sucked over the falls, etc, etc.

Come to think of it, that may have been about the time I learned to relax as I was going through the wash and spin cycle.

 

I've not been very close, but this is the best I've got: When I was 16 or so, my friend and I went to a corvette dealership off I45 to look at the cars through the window, at night. A guy notices us there and comes up, pistol in hand, to rob us. My friend lost some money and his watch. I had nothing to lose (and looked it I'm sure). But, the guy was so nervous and shaky, we were worried he'd pull the trigger by accident. My friend was freaked out; I really wasn't though I don't know why. I didn't want to call the cops because I figured it'd make my mom worry. But, he told his parents who told mine and they never really mentioned it until much later.

 

Two times:

First a friend of mine (probably back in 91-92) was giving some guy **** for screwing over his sister. Guy got ticked, went home got a gun came back, found us. Pointed the gun at my friend and I whipped the guys @ss. Got the gun from the guy (wasn't hard I don't think he wanted to have it) by tackling him over top of his car hood. Adrenaline was really pumping and back in the day I liked to fight anyways, so I didn't think anything about it (when you're 20 you think you are invincible). Funny thing was the guy called me the next day and apologized for having a gun. I never even thought to ask him if it was loaded.

Second time I was with the same friend, probably about the same year (+/- year). I had an old Silverdo pickup and came off from the bridge just hauling @ss (or at least as fast as you could get an '83 Silverado to go) for no real reason. Oh did I mention it was raining We ended up hydro-planing about 40 yards into a gas station. We came to rest about 10 feet away from the pumps. That could have big boom. A few days later we were talkign to one of the area policemen who told us they got a call on a red silverado and he said "I figured it was you guys it was 2am and was about time for you guys to be coming home".

Amazing the stupid crap you do when you were younger that you live to tell about.

 

I've had several dangerous experiences and when I think about it am surprised I'm not dead or paralyzed or something.. knock on wood.

I've surfed a few times and had a similar experience to Jeff, Gifford and FB.

I was surfing in Bali and got a good ride and got off the board about 10 feet from shore in about 3 feet of water. As I was getting my board I got slammed right in the middle of my back by a wave and got tumbled over. As I was rolling in the water my board was still tethered to me and was nailing me in the head. I was being disoriented and in pain under dark water with no sense of up or down. Suddenly I felt oddly calm and just thought to myself, "Well this is it. I'm dead." I don't know how I did it but somehow my feet hit sand and I was out of the water back on shore. I remember not feeling relieved or in shock just still calm and accepting that I hadn't died and after catching my breath went back out.

 

1. air hose got caught on reef while diving. Dive buddy untagled me.
2. Regulator stopped providing air on dive, got stuck, had to get air from buddy.
3. Face to face with alligator with open jaws. I ran one way. It ran the other.

 

yes..but i've told the story more than once here before.

 

In the late 80's when I was a cop, I worked security at an apartment complex off Hwy. 6. As I was about to head to the beach with my buddies, the leasing agent told me that her boyfriend had locked her out of her apt. and wouldn't let her in. I stuffed my .357 magnum in the back pocket of my shorts and went over with my badge displayed on my shirt. I knocked on the door, he opened it and immediately hit me in my face. The blow was so hard that it knocked me to ground and sent my gun flying to the corner of the room. Without thinking I got up and attacked the guy, swinging with all my might and finally hitting him so hard until one of his teeth lodged into my fist. In my rage I hadn't realized that I knocked him to the corner where my gun was, we ran towards the gun at the same time and instead or reaching for my gun I tried to kick his hand, if I had missed he would have surely grabbed the gun and shot me. I shoved the gun away and tried to beat this guy into a coma, luckily the agent had been screaming so loud until other residents showed up and pulled me off him.


One more...

A few years ago I was doing stand-up at a hip-hop club in Toronto. A heckler started yelling at me and I began ripping him a new a-hole and embarrassed him in front of his friends. About 20 minutes into the set I saw him walk through the door and acknowledged it with another crushing heckle line to him. He started to rush the stage and club security grabbed him.

After the show I found out that he had gone to jail because he was rushing to the stage with a gun in his hand.

 

I can think of 4 times but I don't think any of these were really "life was in danger" but more like "could have seriously gotten hurt" things (definitely not like some of the stories, especially ima's and jo mama's).

1) I was going to MTSU as an undergrad and one Sunday night, I was driving back from my home town to Murfreesboro. There was construction work on the Interstate (I-24) at that time and you could only drive in 1 lane. I finally get to the exit (it was 22 miles of driving, so not long driving) and I see what looks like shrapnel from a traffic cone in the middle of the exit ramp. Well, I stupidly ran over it with my Ford Escort and heard a really loud noise. I stopped the car and inspected it, but found nothing wrong. When I started the car, I noticed I could not shift down at all (2nd, 4th, and reverse). Later took it to some cheapo junkyard guy and he told me that my linkage had been bent. He did some stuff but didn't really fix it. My parents finally found out and wanted me to take it to the local Ford place to have it looked at. They put it up on a rack and showed me the actual hole from where the object struck it. It was like 3 inches from the gas tank or line. I still remember one of the mechanics, a real crusty old dude, saying "Just think, a couple of more inches and you could have had some major problems. You are very lucky." So, theoretically I could have had blown up if hitting that object went a little further on down from my car.

2) Another time I was driving on the Interstate to MTSU and I was concentrating on the road (still in the Escort). All of the sudden, I see this object come flying at my windshield. It was a red-tailed hawk. For some reason, he thought he saw something on my windshield he wanted to eat. Thankfully, he avoided hitting it at the last second and flew off, but if he had crashed through the windshield, I probably would have wrecked my car (was doing about 70) and been in some trouble.

3) Still yet another time driving, this time coming home from MTSU - it was in February, a little over 10 years ago, and I hit black ice (in the Escort). I spun out but was going to be okay until I saw a semi bearing down on my ass. I literally thought I was going to die at that moment. I panicked and slammed on my brakes. I still remember doing about 3 360's and eventually going off into the median of the Interstate. I was very lucky that I went off into the median instead of the shoulder as it meant not hitting any trees. Also, I was lucky that this part of the Interstate had a median that was grassy and somewhat downhill and not concrete. Incredibly, my car was alright and I was too, although very shaken. Fortunately, some people I knew from playing church league softball saw me as they were coming back from Nashville and gave me a ride home. Later, my dad and me went out there and he got my car out of the median.

4) I have told this story here on the BBS - but a little over a year ago, I broke up a dog fight between my dog, Jake, and my idiot neighbors' THREE dogs. Granted 2 of them are Jack Russell terriers (my most hated breed of dog ever), but the 3rd one was a mutt that was a lab mix and about 70 to 90 pounds. I still remember instinctively going in to get Jake and not worrying about anything happening to me - I was only concerned about him. It wasn't until after I got bitten by one of the Jack Russell's and had a chance to digest the whole situation, that I had realized how dangerous of a situation that was. I guess I had adrenaline flowing through me.