40. mad__max
This happened to my mom. For reference, we live in one of the most populated cities on the planet, and even though this incident took place 30 or so years ago, it was as true at the time.
In the early 80s, my mom had just arrived in the city from her native village to pursue a college education. She had invited over by her maternal uncle as the education scene in the countryside was not that great during those days. My mom was very much a village belle in those early years in the big city and found the milling crowds of people all around her a little unnerving. Her cousins made it a point to accompany her to her college, especially for the first few days of her stay. Every morning, she’d start on her usual route with a cousin who’d usually carry on towards his workplace after seeing her off. Even though their route passed through several streets bustling with rush hour traffic, this routine helped her cope with the loneliness she felt on moving from her childhood home. A month or so passed without incident.
But this morning was going to be different. They were walking along the city’s arterial road and hadn’t gotten too far from home when a commotion on the other side of the street caught their attention. A shortish, unkempt man was running like he was afraid for his life, glancing back every couple of seconds or so. Sure enough, he was being followed by a group of four or five other men, a couple of them brandishing swords! They made no attempt to conceal their obviously fatal weapons. The man soon ran into a busy intersection, out of breath, and his pursuers gaining fast. The poor guy realised that the game was up, approached a traffic island in the middle of the crossroads, and sat down, head in hands. At this point my mom and cousin uncle were little more than 30-35 feet away.
Everything after this point happened in stunned silence and utter disbelief. On a street among hundreds of onlookers in both pedestrian and vehicular form, the group caught up with the guy and stabbed him – repeatedly – to death. His lifeless body slumped forward from the island and he lay there spreadeagled in a huge pool of his own blood. His assailants escaped down a side street; no one dared stop them.
Mom and her cousin booked it out of there, too stunned to speak to each other or to anyone else. Back home, it took them the best part of the day to calm down and tell the others what had so terrified them. Mom left for her village the next day; this incident had really gotten to her. She says she had nightmares about it for a month or so afterwards. She visibly shook once or twice while telling me all this yesterday.
She never learned who the victim or the culprits were. She doesn’t know if they were ever caught.
41. DoTheTimeWarp
I had a family reunion yesterday so a few family members came to the house. Toward the end of the day, everyone decided to walk to the beach, which is a few minutes away. I was feeling exhausted and decided to stay behind. The kids had been playing outside all day, so the doors were wide open. This sub has made me really cautious of being alone, especially as a female teenager, but it was still light out and I wanted to lie down in peace.
I decided to go to the bathroom right after everyone had left. I had watched the group (which was pretty small, only about 6 people) pass by the window and walk down the street until they were out of view. Then I sat down to pee. As I was zipping my pants up, I heard a knock at the bathroom door. Without thinking, I instinctively replied “One second!”
Then I realized that I was all alone in the house. I heard an unfamiliar man’s voice say “Hurry up.” I started to panic. I stood in complete silence, and he did the same on the other side of the door. He knocked again, then I heard him walk away and go down the wooden stairs outside. I wish I could’ve gotten a good look at him, but I was far too terrified to open the door. I stayed in there for a half an hour until the rest of my family got back.
In case anyone was wondering, there are public bathrooms at the beach, so there was no reason to come back to the house. I’m guessing the guy saw my family leave, thought the house was empty, then checked the bathroom to make sure. I don’t know who he was or what he was thinking, but he found me when I was alone, and that’s enough to creep me out for the next few years.
42. streuthguy1
This happened a few years ago when I first got my driver’s license, I was driving to the country for a friend’s birthday. I’d worked late and had left home for the 4 hour drive by myself at 7 at night since all my friends had left before, but I really wanted to be there so I didn’t mind. The area I was driving through was quiet, sparsely populated farm area, it was known to have a few weirdos around, but nothing serious. Either way, I wasn’t worried when I set off.
I had been driving for ages, just listening to music and zoning out and i’d found myself on a road called Buckets Lane, a 80km stretch of road thats mostly straight and was absolutely empty at this time of night. At some point I took notice of headlights in my rear view mirror, it was the first car i’d seen in a long time, and although it seemed a long way behind me it started to catch me fast. I was driving my twenty year old Ford wagon, and was driving about 110km/h, but this guy was coming up REALLY quick.
Soon after I saw the car, I started to hear the faint noises of intermittent honking that grew louder and louder as he got closer. I’m not sure if this sounds scary, but it was really eerie. He was honking from a huge distance away for no reason, I was alone, I didn’t even have phone reception. It gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I had a strong feeling this person wanted to mess with me. After a while this car finally pulled right up on me, I could see it looked like a black pick up with two people inside, and before I knew it he was tailgating me and still honking repeatedly. I freaked out, I was trying to wave him around me, but he wouldn’t go. I didn’t want to slow down but I couldn’t outrun him, so I was sort of stuck. At this point he started flashing his high beams, which made it really hard to see, and then he started hitting my rear bumper, really smashing it. I was trying to keep my shit together enough to keep my car on the road, but I was dealing with the bumping, the high beams, and the honking that was driving me insane. All this was happening at around 100km/h (60+ mph), and eventually something had to give, I swerved off the road, luckily it was on open field, slammed on the brakes, the car did a full 180 degree turn and I slid backwards into a small ditch. I checked myself quickly, made sure I was all in one piece, the car miraculously wasn’t damaged and I hadn’t really crashed so I was fine. I then looked up to look for the truck. It had kept driving but it was slowing down, and then turned around, drove slowly towards me and started that fucking honking again.
I panicked big time. I put the car in reverse for some reason and slammed down on the accelerator… big mistake- I just dug the car in to the soft grass. The truck was driving in to the field towards me, at this point I realised this person was potentially dangerous, before it could have just been someone playing a stupid prank, but now they had run me off the road, and were coming back, still honking the horn, obviously not coming to see if I was ok.
They pulled up close to me, probably 20 meters off, and were shining their high beams on me so I couldn’t see a thing. I was still trying to reverse out of this ditch like a moron, and finally decided to put it back in drive. By this point the honking had stopped, and someone had stepped out of the drivers door. This person was short and fat but all I could see was their silhouette, and this silhouette was now walking towards my trapped car. I took a few deep breaths, I was shaking and terrified, and slowly eased the pedal. The car was moving but my wheels were spinning and I didn’t know if i’d make it out. The person moved faster now and got up to my door. I locked it in the nick of time when pulled the handle, so he just started knocking on the window. This was fucked, because he didn’t bash on it, he just tapped on it, really calm, and very slowly. I begged my car to move and finally it did, i got some traction and got back on to the road and just floored it.
The honking started again and pretty soon I saw the truck was racing to catch up with me again. FINALLY a car came in the opposite direction, I flagged him down by flashing my high beams and this middle aged woman got out of the car. I was hysterical, but once I stopped, I saw in the distance the lights of the black truck stop, turn around and zoom off in the other direction. Thank god for this woman, she calmed me down and took me to the police station. I gave a statement and everything but I didn’t really see anything but a short fat silhouette and a black truck, so no help there.
No one was ever caught, and the sounds of honking horns still send shivers down my spine.
