Post your most horrifying, eerie, or disturbing life experiences.

[Dirk Diggler]

7miles told a scary tale awhile back describing an eerie "liminal space" tale, which involves being alone in giant spaces meant for many people. It raised a lot goosebumps. Let's continue on with other members sharing a true crime or possible para-normal experience or just something that plain freaked you out. I'll start.....

[Wallythacker]

What a great idea for a topic! This place is so full of diverse life experiences! I bet in terms of hair raising things that's happened to members will be very, very cool, eclectic and downright Twilight Zone stuff.

Isn't it cool that this forum feels, to me anyhow, like good friends getting together after work on a Friday and shooting the chit? Ah, if it weren't for the distances meet ups here would be a blast.

If I ever get super rich I'll organize an all expenses shindig for us, somewhere like Hawaii or something. Maybe I'll rent out Daytona for weekend!

[Dirk Diggler]

When I was 25, I lived behind and worked at Lenox mall, a popular big city mall located in Buckhead, which is a popular neighborhood of Atlanta filled with high end shopping, restaurants and the like. This was around 2005 and I was waiting tables at a fancy restaurant located in the mall. It was very convenient because my apartment was located right behind the mall and the MARTA train station. I walked to work everyday, stupidly wearing an obvious waiters uniform, declaring to the world I possibly had a lot of money on me in the forms of tips.

One night after a long 12 hr double shift, I left work still wearing my white dinner coat that all servers had to wear, it was a fancy steakhouse. Usually I'd just stuff it in my backpack while walking home but I didn't.

I walked thru the empty mall, thru the dark parking lot, and past the MARTA train station to a small little path off Lenox road that led to a security gate with a coded metal button punch lock, these are relatively rare to find these days as everything is digital, but how it worked was I pressed in my code and the gate would unlock, allowing me to walk to my apartment. Well that particular night it was giving me fits and wouldn't unlock.

After about 5 minutes of messing with it, I was about to give up and call my roommate, when I felt a cold hard gun pressed harshly into the back of my neck.

"You know what the #uck this is." A quiet but menacing voice whispered in my ear. I knew the routine, as I had just moved back to Atlanta from Savannah GA, a quaint but high crime tourist town.

I immediately and without looking at my assailants face, reached in my back pocket and pulled out a fat wallet filled with cash.

"There's over $400 in there, just take man."

[Dirk Diggler]

He didn't say a word. All I heard was a hard wet noise on the back of my skull. I actually heard before I felt, being pistol whipped. It tore a jagged red line on the back of my scalp. Now, this didn't knock me out like you see a lot in the movies but I knew I had to act like it did. So I crumbled onto the gate and closed my eyes. I was hoping the mugger would see I was unconscious and not a threat to report what he looked like or physically challenge him.

He rewarded me by pressing the muzzle of his handgun into my temple and pulling the trigger.

Click, click, click. His gun was jammed and he couldn't figure out how to unjam it.

Now I know what you are thinking, "Why didn't you try and fight for the gun if you knew he was trying to take your life?"

Crippling fear and shock, is my only answer. I was paralyzed, I couldn't move for those 5 seconds, I just couldn't. All could was feel the hot blood pouring from my scalp from the back of my head. I'll never forget that feeling, of oblivion putting its hand on my shoulder and squeezing.

[Dirk Diggler]

After what felt like a lifetime but actually a few seconds of listening to the mugger curse and fidget with his gun, he took off.

I layed there listening for a minute to hear if he was truly gone. Judging the situation to be over I got up walked to the dark and lonely street and looked in the direction I thought he ran.

Street lights and darkness was all I saw. He had vanished.
I called 911 asking for an ambulance but instead got sent a squad car, that showed up almost 30 minutes later. By this time I could feel my wound start to congealed blood so I wasn't going to bleed to death even though the human scalp is very vascular.

The cop asked me if I saw my assailant and I replied "I didn't see him. He went north up Lenox road. Where's the EMT?" After that I'll never forget the APD officers tone. "So you called to report a robbery but have no idea what he looked like?" As if I was wasting his time. He then quickly said the ambulance would get there when it gets there and that I could file a police report but it wouldn't do me much good.

He flashed his light on the back of my skull "That looks a lot worse than it actually is. You sure you want an EMT?"

I said at this point I didn't care and that I just wanted to go home, pointing at my building that was 50 yards away. After a few more follow up questions, he took my statement and left. I went home, showered, not realizing this dream like trance I was in was shock.

I woke up the next morning with the biggest scab of my life on the back of my scalp. Just another day in paradise.

[Fummins]

Holy crap! You made $400/night in tips?

[Dirk Diggler]

Holy crap! You made $400/night in tips?

Not in one night, no.

[Fummins]

Not in one night, no.

Oh...Well, that's still a crazy story. I couldn't imagine having to go through that chit!

[Dirk Diggler]

Oh...Well, that's still a crazy story. I couldn't imagine having to go through that chit!

What about you? Anything scary ever happen to you?

[Dirk Diggler]

Not like that, craziest thing I recall was when I was 16 or 17 we used to hang out at a friends older half brothers place. Something was always going on. He was some drug dealer aparently. One day he was screaming at someone on the phone, told us to get off the couch and pull out a loaded sawed off shotgun from under the cushions we were sitting on then walked out the door with it. That was neat. The guy ended up going to jail for unrelated reasons and was in a halfway house last time I saw him 20 some years ago.

I saw a ton of crazy stuff working at the wrecker for 14 years lol

Lately the only thing I worry about it getting eaten by a bear on overnight trips in a tent. I'm usually the only one that doesn't have a gun.

I was about to say, I'm surprised you never had a run in with bears or wolves with all the camping you do.