What frightening experiences have you had?

[hairymouse]

My wife and I had our honeymoon in Ecuador and we were planning to climb a mountain called Tungurahua. We stayed at a small hut well above the snow line for a day and a half to get acclimated and do our climb. After attempting the climb, we walked down and met a big group of schoolchildren on their way up to stay at the hut. We continued on and spent our last night in Quito. The next day we headed to the airport and saw news footage of an avalanche that wiped out the hut and killed many of those children.

[hairymouse]

Back in 1999 I lived in Prague and was suspected of planting a bomb in a hospital to protest joining NATO. The bomb went off and injured several people and I just happened to be walking by the phone booth used to call in the bomb threat. After some intense questioning on the scene, it became obvious that it wasn't me so they let me get on to work. They followed me around for a week or so, then called me in for an interview at the police station with the top level law enforcement people. I was young and dumb at the time so I just showed up, no lawyer or anything, barely even telling my wife where I was going. Luckily, they still thought it wasn't me, but wanted me to look at a photofit drawing from a witness. The witness must have seen me and got confused, because it was a perfect match for me! I told them I had never seen that guy and they let me go home. Didn't even bust me for not having a visa.

[Paddy]

At one time having dinner, I thought there was no bottles of Claret left. Fortunately, I spotted a bottle of Chateau Certan de May Pomerol in the cabinet. [Jacob William Rees-Mogg]

[ladymuck]

At one time having dinner, I thought there was no bottles of Caret left. Fortunately, I spotted a bottle of Chateau Certan de May Pomerol in the cabinet. [Jacob William Rees-Mogg]

Reminds me of the time I was down to just the one bottle of gin in the cupboard.

[xoggoth]

Back in 1999 I lived in Prague and was suspected of planting a bomb in a hospital to protest joining NATO.

I once walked past a burnt down office in South London and was quite curious, as one would be, and stopped to look. Cops came out and started asking questions. Turned out it was a National Front place and they were suspicious because I dressed like a hippy in those days and looked like a lefty who might have done it. Only kept me for about 20 mins fortunately.

I also got stopped by police just for passing a phone box. It was in Blackpool. Somebody had been making threatening phone calls from a phone box near where I was walking.

[mudskipper]

Was in the bathroom with my daughter who was probs about 5 at the time. Suddenly hammering on the front door, and could hear a man shouting and my husband shouting "calm down calm down" - next thing I heard him (the 'visitor') shout "got a gun" and footsteps thundering upstairs. I shoved child in bath and lay on top of her - had no idea what was going on - proper scared and thought we were gonna die.

Turned out my son (about 12) had a mate round who'd brought a BB gun with him - they'd been pointing it out the window, hence the angry visitor.

Child's mother seemed unconcerned when I told her I'd appreciate it if she didn't allow her son to bring firearms into my house.

[OwlHoot]

Tootling along the North Devon Link Road (the A361) a year or two ago, I veered gradually a towards the central white line, and as I was about to correct this, a car zoomed past on the other side, also near the white line, and missed my car by about a foot. It must have been doing at least 120 MPH!

I later found out that some young scallies from Liverpool had been temporarily rehoused in a local town, and they had a hobby of bombing up and down the link road in car races! Glad none of them were overtaking at the time.

Like Xoggoth, as a kid I also had a climbing scare, at the Old Harry rocks near Swanage. After clambering up the steep slope before one reaches the the vertical rocks proper, I learned the hard way that like a cat stuck up a tree, getting back down when the drop is visible in all its horror can be a lot scarier than climbing up.

But I think the scariest was when I was walking on the South Downs one windy autumn day as a teenager, and a rotten water-logged huge oak tree keeled over not 50 feet behind me and landed with a deafing crash, across the path at the spot I had been walking on only ten seconds earlier. It was at least ten feet in diameter, and must have weighed a good 200 tons!

[OwlHoot]

Reminds me of the time I was down to just the one bottle of gin in the cupboard.

God yes, seriously, I also had a gin scare the year before last.

The owner of the house where I was lodging during the week had some bottles of spirits in a kichen cupboard, mostly the usual stuff like vodka, some liqueurs, and a large fancy bottle of gin which she had obviously received as a present.

At some point she had to visit Nicaragua or somewhere similar in Central America for a three month stay as part of her job and I would be left looking after the house - and the spirit cupboard.

So I thought it would be safe to have the odd tipple every now and then, knowing that I could replenish the supplies before she returned (although thinking about it now, she could have caught some ghastly tropical disease and had to return early, which would have been embarrassing!).

After a month or two, the cupboard was practically bare, as I had worked through almost every bottle. I think only the sickly coffee liqueur was left, because even in desperation I couldn't stomach more than a glass or two of that muck!

As the return date approached, I duly bought replacement bottles of everything I had drunk, except for this damned gin, which nobody anywhere seemed to sell! Finally, in desperation I had to order a quart bottle of Sipsmith Lemon Drizzle gin on Amazon, for £40, and it arrived only a day or so before the landlady, and only I managed to get it safely in the drinks cupboard practically as she was walking through the front door!

[GJABS]

I was in Rio de Janeiro some years ago, sat on a bench at one end of Copacabana beach near the fort, when a bloke came and sat down beside me.
"I have a gun - Give me your money!", he exclaimed.
Well I wasn't sure what to do, so I gave it some thought for a second. Looking down at his right-hand, which was in his trouser pocket, the bulge there wasn't quite big enough to be obviously concealing anything other than the smallest of firearms.
So after another pause, I decided to call his bluff. I got up and, without saying anything, walked slowly away.


Six months later I was released from hospital having been treated for multiple gunshot wounds. .. ok that's not true, nothing happened. But some woman started talking to me really angrily in Portuguese (of which I don't understand a word) as I walked away, so someone wasn't happy.

[NotAllThere]

Not to me, but a friend of mine (British) was mistaken for a Serbian gangster on the streets of Basel. Being surrounded by three police officers, including one young nervous officer carrying an automatic weapon did result (once they'd realised their mistake) in a need to do the laundry. And take a shower.

For me, I was 18 years old and cyling home from my shift. As I crossed the town centre, this group of men started running towards me, one swinging a chain around. I found a turn of speed that surprised me!