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The Scariest Moment Of Your Life (Fortean Or Not)

I lost my eldest son in Mothercare in the Quedam centre in Yeovil once. I was enormously pregnant with his sister and he just vanished. However it wasn't quite so scary because I KNEW he was in the shop somewhere. We eventually found him hiding behind a rack of clothing.He was about sixteen months old, and thought it was the best fun ever.
 
It's so easy to be distracted.
When I was small I remember looking in the window of a jewellery shop and my parents, who had my sister in a pusher, walked off, forgetting me.
When I realised, I was a bit disconcerted, but my Father soon came back.
 
Mr. Banooka said:
Two stories...

May 1998 in Corfu. Myself, friend and his girlfriend hired a motor boat in Agios Stefanos in the north east of the island. We had booked for an hour, so decided that if we travel for 20 mins in one direction around the coast, then turn around to make our way back it would give us a few minutes to muck around in the harbour.

15 minutes into our journey the engine cuts out and we can't get it to start again. We had plenty of fuel, so it wasn't that. Life jackets were put on at this point. We noticed that we were floating towards some rocks, so got out the paddles and managed to push ourselves away. We paddled a bit further away and tried to start the engine again. No luck.

When we paddled further out we didn't realise we had entered another current. Next thing we knew we were floating into the shipping lanes. At this point we started to panic. Luckily, the boat had an emergency kit that contained a flare. My friend set off the flare and a passing powerboat stopped to help. They tried to start the engine for us, to no avail. We told them were we had sailed from, to be told that we had travelled a lot further than the 20 mins sailing south we thought. They tied a rope to the front of our boat and towed us back to Agios Stefanos. The relief when we docked was immense. I was plagued with What If's for months afterwards.

On the way back, we were going so fast that a hatch on the front of the boat came loose, got caught in the wind and smashed my friends girlfriend in the face. I'm convinced if she hadn't had sun glasses on she would have been blinded. Her resulting black eye meant she had to wear sunglasses wherever she went; My friend getting dirty looks as people assumed he had hit her.

However, the sound of Sue shouting "Oy Dickhead, why did you give us a shit boat" to the rental guy, still raises a smile. I thought he was a dead man!


Second story involves my eldest going missing. We were in Florida for holiday in 2017. My eldest would have been about 5 1/2 at the time.
We were visiting Disney Springs for the evening and decide to take a trip on the Amphicars around the lake. My youngest needed the loo so my wife said she would take him whilst I went to get the tickets for the Amphicars.

This is where it all fell apart. I thought that my wife had taken both kids with her to the loo, and she thought that I had taken the eldest with me to get the tickets.

I came out of the shop and waited for my wife to come back from the loo. When she returned we both started to ask where the eldest was! He was nowhere in sight. My wife stayed where we were near the Amphicars whilst I went to look for him. I couldn't find him, so decided the best course of action was to go to security and report him missing whilst my wife stayed in the same vicinity just in case he came back.

Security were fantastic and really helped put my mind at rest. They said that in most cases missing kids turn up between 10 and 15 minutes of being reported missing. After about 12 minutes of my heart beating out of my chest, the eldest wandered in holding the hand of a security guard with a big smile on his face. "I've met a police-man, he's my friend" were his words to me. I promptly filled in some paperwork and took him back to a very relieved mum.

I learned quite a bit about how they deal with missing children at Disney on that day. Whilst they have CCTV all around Disney Springs and the parks, they don't rely on it for missing kids. The CCTV is monitored offsite, so it takes too long to get them involved in immediate searches. What they do is put out a bulletin over the radio to all cast members giving a description of the missing child. The cast members are then tasked with looking for the missing child. This is how our eldest was found. He had decided that he had enough of watching the Amphicars and as me and my wife were going to do our tasks, he had just wandered off. Both of us thinking he had gone with the other parent. He had actually not gone that far, but due to how busy it was there is no way I was going to be able to see him. Fortunately, he had wandered into a shop and had a distinctive T-shirt on. When the alert went over the radio, a cast member spotted him immediately and called over security.


Again, the What-ifs plagued me for months.
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Disney are great with missing kids. The In House GP lost the Teenager (well, when she was about 4) in Disneyland Paris as he let go off her hand to pick up a park map and she just wandered off behind another man whom she obviously thought was Daddy. Myself, our boys and our firiends were on a ride at the time, so IHGP had to do the panicking all by himself. It became a family joke of what is the Teenager wearing as he'd told the security people she had on pink shorts and a white T-shirt - which had been the previous day's outfit. He eventually spotted her walking across the front plaza with another member of staff, being taken to the Lost children's room; she'd remembered that she should look for someone with a name badge on and was a bit put out at having to go back to Daddy rather than hanging out on her own at Disney for a while!
 
catseye said:
I lost my eldest son in Mothercare in the Quedam centre in Yeovil once. I was enormously pregnant with his sister and he just vanished. However it wasn't quite so scary because I KNEW he was in the shop somewhere. We eventually found him hiding behind a rack of clothing.He was about sixteen months old, and thought it was the best fun ever.
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This is why it's a good job I never had children. I would have made sure that they were attached to me by those leading string things until they were 18 years old. Which is probably not healthy for either party.
 
Sogna said:
This is why it's a good job I never had children. I would have made sure that they were attached to me by those leading string things until they were 18 years old. Which is probably not healthy for either party.
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That son did have reins. I just hadn't got them on that day! I tried using them on his sister and she would just throw herself onto the ground and lie there, so I used them as a kind of carry-handle for her.
 
Walking down a side street in the older parts of Kathmandu city at the start of the day in January 2012 - and there's a buffalo loose, getting very stroppy at the possible idea of being made into momos. Guess it escaped from a pen somewhere, or was being led by a halter and was startled by something - this is the kind of city where folks keep cattle in their back garden. Mr J, having the classic Nepalese approach to Health & Safety issues, takes time to snap a photo.

We watch at a distance as it tosses some poor guy's street table up in the air on its horns and headbutts a few shop shutters. While it's distracted on the far side we (me, Mr J and assorted Kathmandu pedestrians) attempt a bypass up the street but then it turns around again and heads in our direction.

We all leg it backwards and into a shop that had just opened up for the day and the shopkeeper rams down the metal shutter - then follows a very scary few minutes of loud bangs as the buffalo keeps smacking its angry self into the shutter head-first. I am now wondering ... exactly how sharp are the horns of a full grown, peed off Asian water buffalo?

Luckily the Kathmandu police turn up with jeeps and batons and herd the buffalo into a corner somewhere, and shout through the shutter that it's safe to come out. Then we went to get some breakfast!

KTM F (122).JPG
 
We lost the eldest son and daughter on the beach in Dorset well remember the utter and total dread and fear that produced.Then they let me run up and down the beach shouting and hollering their names the little s**ts before they walked up to me
 
This summer. Expecting my third son home for the weekend. Around tea time I got a text from him asking if we could pick him up in town at the station and I said your dad's about to get tea out, so can you get a bus? About half an hour later a call comes and it's from his phone so I answer, thinking it's him. It was a stranger on the train platform saying my kid had just had a seizure.

Utterly out of the blue as he was so happy and his life was coming together for him, everything falling into place.

Also, he is (was) the most physically fit of my kids and never a day's illness in his life apart from kid lurgs. He went to the gym 6 days a week. He doesn't drink, smoke, (or take steroids) - watches what he eats.

What was a mundane evening looking forward to seeing him and doing stuff next day, turned into a terrifying nightmare. (I'm still having awful dreams, 6 months on, every night). We had to rush into town and then sat in a hospital corridor for several hours - they wouldn't tell us anything about him or what had happened or where he was, just the time he'd been admitted. Eventually they let us see him and we didn't leave his side til they let us take him home. He's had to give up his flat and probably will have to give up his job as he's exhausted. Has had all the scans now and whilst we still have no answers, at least it's not like those early weeks when we thought it might be a brain tumour or summat (it's not - he appears to have some brain damage but nobody knows how or why).

"Out of the blue" doesn't cover it. His life and our's has utterly changed and it just started like that, out of nowhere. But the second I took that call on my phone from his phone - and a stranger's voice was at the other end of the line saying my kid was being loaded into an ambulance - just the scariest thing ever.
 
Bad Bungle said:
Way past midnight 35 years ago I was facing-down a crowd of unknown intent. I'd picked up a 3 foot scaffold pole to guard the entrance to a Staff and Family campsite when I heard them coming, then dropped it as too provocative. Came down to a scary who-blinks-first situation with 100 of them and one of me. Arms folded, wearing a small laminated badge and the look on my face that said 'I hadn't slept in 2 days, had a dump in 3 days and have no time for you children !! ' was a surprisingly effective deterrent.
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I had something slightly similar happen when I was in McDonalds in Lichfield in the mid 90's. I'd gone there with a then girlfriend and her two cousins.

I don't even know how it started but a couple of teenagers upset one of the cousins or it happened the other round. Either way, a large crowd of at least 40 of them were gathering outside and pointing us out through the window so I was getting more than nervous. I spotted a mop inside and was considering removing the head from it so we might stand a chance of leaving when (Sarah) bolstered me with "You won't need that? .. we're in Lichfield .. they're all pussies!." ... so I marched outside, fronted it out and it somehow worked. I said something like "Which one of you wants to go first!?" .. and no one did .. I wouldn't have stood a chance if they'd have realised I was bluffing. We were Burton on Trent which was rougher than Lichfield, I wouldn't have had the balls to try that blag if Sarah hadn't said that. No one got hurt, the teens moved out of the way respectfully so she could push her pram through ..

... and I might be the Father of that boy but that's for another thread sometime.
 
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Swifty said:
I had something slightly similar happen when I was in McDonalds in Lichfield in the mid 90's. I'd gone there with a then girlfriend and her two cousins.

I don't even know how it started but a couple of teenagers upset one of the cousins or it happened the other round. Either way, a large crowd of at least 40 of them were gathering outside and pointing us out through the window so I was getting more than nervous. I spotted a mop inside and was considering removing the head from it so we might stand a chance of leaving when (Sarah) bolstered me with "You won't need that? .. we're in Lichfield .. they're all pussies!." ... so I marched outside, fronted it out and it somehow worked. I said something like "Which one of you wants to go first!?" .. and no one did .. I wouldn't have stood a chance if they'd have realised I was bluffing. We were Burton on Trent which was rougher than Lichfield, I wouldn't have had the balls to try that blag if Sarah hadn't said that. No one got hurt, the teens moved out of the was respectfully so she could push her pram through ..

... and I might be the Father of that boy but that's for another thread sometime.
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This has just reminded me of something- I was in Northern Israel when Hezbollah started sending rockets over from Lebanon (as they were wont to do).
A guy from London stood there with a sweeping brush thrust forwards and shouting at them ''Come on then, I'll have you!''.
 
I felt a bit reluctant posting this, but don't know why.

Early November 1992. I’d just ended a short stint in the Army in the September and went back to live with my parents for a while, while I could find a job and somewhere else to live. .

I was in the habit each morning of putting on my old regiment’s sweatshirt, and a pair of shorts and going for a run at a local park. I’d walk the mile to the park, run around it a few times then walk back home again. I have to say that I fully knew this was a security threat at that time, and I should not be advertising myself as either a serving or ex British soldier.

One day after a run, I was walking home along a quiet residential back street, when I noticed two men leaning up against a parked car ahead of me – probably around 50 yards away. They were staring at me as I was walking towards them, which made me feel a little uncomfortable. Both were quite large men with longish hair and beards, and the closer I got to them the more intimidating they seemed to become.

Around 20 yards away from them , I decided that I didn’t like the look of these men and decided to cross the street so I wouldn’t have to walk directly past them. As I walked past them on the other side of the street, I heard one of them say to the other one in a strong Belfast accent “take off the safety catch”.

As soon as I heard those words I bolted and sprinted to the top of the back street, and onto a main road and didn’t look back. I must have covered the one mile to the local cop shop in a time that Roger Bannister would have been proud of lol.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the authorities investigated, and I got a phone call to say that intel has come back to say there were no sleeper cells operating in the area, and in all probability the two men were just local navvies taking the piss.
 
I was wondering why paranormal stuff isn't as scary as some mundane stuff - and realised, I think because it's normally over before you can process it so by the time you might be scared, you're actually thinking "Did that really just happen?" Plenty of time to be scared about it later of course, but in the moment - maybe not so bad. Compared to stuff like something happening to your kid, or losing them in a crowded place when they're little, or whatever which goes on long enough to be truly "scary".

Years ago I was walking through Leeds before 9AM and went under some scaffolding and this massive spanner thing - huge thing - just fell off the scaffolding and only just missed me. No doubt I'd have been dead if it had landed on my head or summat. Probably my closest call, and yet - not scary in itself at the time it happened because it took a second or so. And by the time I realised what had happened, the danger had passed... So I wasn't actually scared when it happened just afterwards when I realised what had happened.
 
Escaping from Kyiv last March at the start of Russia's invasion ... by car.

Russian forces had invaded from Belarus and the area around Kyiv was swarming with Russian tanks, helicopters and very trigger happy nervous Russian soldiers. Some of you may remember the 40KM long Russian convoy that was heading towards Kyiv and which, at that time had not yet been destroyed.

We had to drive through that trying to keep to dirt tracks, forests and so on as the Russians were shelling the main roads out of Kyiv along which the people trying to escape were travelling.

It took 14 hours to get to L'viv but for the first 4 hours out of Kyiv I was convinced we were going to die.

Once we left the main battle area the feeling of doom persisted as well.

We made it to the main motorway between Kyiv and L'viv and started driving along that.

It is a wide 6 lane road, 3 lanes each way and a central reservation and it is usually very busy.

On that day, at one point, we travelled for more than 30 minutes and did not see another vehicle in any direction at all.

Imagine driving down a country's main motorway when you are the only vehicle for mile after mile. It was like one of those dystopian movie sets about what happens if the humans are all gone and you are the only person left.

I was mighty relieved to reach the first Ukrainian military control point and even then we had to get out of the car with our hands on our head and stand there for a few minutes while our identity and nationality was established before being allowed to proceed.

So not really a scary moment ... more like a terrifying 4 hours!
 
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catseye said:
That son did have reins. I just hadn't got them on that day! I tried using them on his sister and she would just throw herself onto the ground and lie there, so I used them as a kind of carry-handle for her.
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You'll remember that after the murder of James Bulger, sales of toddler-reins unsurprisingly went through the roof.
 
XBergMann said:
Escaping from Kyiv last March at the start of Russia's invasion ... by car.

Russian forces had invaded from Belarus and the area around Kyiv was swarming with Russian tanks, helicopters and very trigger happy nervous Russian soldiers. Some of you may remember the 40KM long Russian convoy that was heading towards Kyiv and which, at that time had not yet been destroyed.

We had to drive through that trying to keep to dirt tracks, forests and so on as the Russians were shelling the main roads out of Kyiv along which the people trying to escape were travelling.

It took 14 hours to get to L'viv but for the first 4 hours out of Kyiv I was convinced we were going to die.

Once we left the main battle area the feeling of doom persisted as well.

We made it to the main motorway between Kyiv and L'viv and started driving along that.

It is a wide 6 lane road, 3 each lanes each way and a central reservation and it is usually very busy.

On that day, at one point, we travelled for more than 30 minutes and did not see another vehicle in any direction at all.

Imagine driving down a country's main motorway when you are the only vehicle for mile after mile. It was like one of those dystopian movie sets about what happens if the humans are all gone and you are the only person left.

I was mighty relieved to reach the first Ukrainian military control point and even then we had to get out of the car with our hands on our head and stand there for a few minutes while our identity and nationality was established before being allowed to proceed.

So not really a scary moment ... more like a terrifying 4 hours!
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Crazy. I remember you writing about that here at the time it had just happened. I hope I never have to experience anything like that. I found out yesterday that someone from my home town is in Ukraine fighting right now (see the Cromer thread in chat). He was ex forces but this is now the third time he's gone there to fight. Rather him than me. He's a Scotsman who doesn't like bullies.
 
Last year my wife's youngest ran over to our house, she lives next door across the drive. In a blind panic she said her son was not in the house, he was 6.

In a panic we all went into the streets whilst she stayed behind. It was dark outside.

Eventually she texted us. He was hiding behind the Christmas tree
 
Spudrick68 said:
Last year my wife's youngest ran over to our house, she lives next door across the drive. In a blind panic she said her son was not in the house, he was 6.

In a panic we all went into the streets whilst she stayed behind. It was dark outside.

Eventually she texted us. He was hiding behind the Christmas tree
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If that had been a kid of mine, Santa would NOT be visiting. :mad:
 
I think it's just the utter relief you feel when you find a missing child.
I've probably posted before about the time my oldest, then about 3 went missing . I called and visited all the neighbours, one of whom drove me around the local streets.
I rang the police as a child had been found at the bottom a cliff that was in the papers and one had been kidnapped.
Then for some reason I went into the spare room and she was asleep under the bed, she who never slept during the day.
Sheer relief, then having to cancel the police search.
 
The bomb shelter used in the event of the aforementioned Hezbollah attacks.

For some reason I have no photos of the actual room, only the stairwell and the roof- me on Christmas day - (good view of Western Galilee from there).

We just used to turn the tv up to drown out the noise when the rockets came over;
Shelter.jpg
Shelter2.jpg
 
Iris said:
I think it's just the utter relief you feel when you find a missing child.
I've probably posted before about the time my oldest, then about 3 went missing . I called and visited all the neighbours, one of whom drove me around the local streets.
I rang the police as a child had been found at the bottom a cliff that was in the papers and one had been kidnapped.
Then for some reason I went into the spare room and she was asleep under the bed, she who never slept during the day.
Sheer relief, then having to cancel the police search.
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My son was ten years oder than that when he disappeared one 'dark and stormy night' (yes really). His dad was abroad at the time so I was on my own and he and his brother had the most enormous row which ended when he ran off into the night.

I rushed out after him and so did his brother but we couldn't find him in the garden or the garage and then thought he must have snuck back while we were outside. So we systematically checked everywhere in our large three storey house. Nowhere to be found so I frantically rang a friend to come and mind his brother and stay in the house should he return while her husband drove me around town looking for him.

I'd got it into my head that he'd gone to the beach and would fall asleep and get drowned when the tide came in! You know how the worse case scenario plays in your head! Anyway after searching for a while with no joy I decided to go back to the house and ring the police (pre mobile phone days).

They came out but only made me feel worse as they suggested that he might well have got on the train and be half way to Shrewsbury by then! Anyway off they went leaving me to get more and more worried and willing him to walk through the door!! Which he didn't.

After a bit my friend said 'are you sure you've checked the garage surely he wouldn't have been silly enought to rush out with no coat in this weather'. Yes I was sure but we checked again. Not there ............... oh hang on ........ what's that noise?

There he was curled up fast asleep on the floor in the back of the car!!! He'd been there all the time. sigh

Talk about feel stupid having to ring the police to tell them!

Anyway telling this story to another friend the next day and she admitted that once her teenage son had also disappeared in similar circumstances. She'd also called the police and searched the town. ... He was discovered hours later in the understairs cwtch where he'd been all the time hidden by all the stuff you keep in such places!
 
Sollywos said:
My son was ten years oder than that when he disappeared one 'dark and stormy night' (yes really). His dad was abroad at the time so I was on my own and he and his brother had the most enormous row which ended when he ran off into the night.

I rushed out after him and so did his brother but we couldn't find him in the garden or the garage and then thought he must have snuck back while we were outside. So we systematically checked everywhere in our large three storey house. Nowhere to be found so I frantically rang a friend to come and mind his brother and stay in the house should he return while her husband drove me around town looking for him.

I'd got it into my head that he'd gone to the beach and would fall asleep and get drowned when the tide came in! You know how the worse case scenario plays in your head! Anyway after searching for a while with no joy I decided to go back to the house and ring the police (pre mobile phone days).

They came out but only made me feel worse as they suggested that he might well have got on the train and be half way to Shrewsbury by then! Anyway off they went leaving me to get more and more worried and willing him to walk through the door!! Which he didn't.

After a bit my friend said 'are you sure you've checked the garage surely he wouldn't have been silly enought to rush out with no coat in this weather'. Yes I was sure but we checked again. Not there ............... oh hang on ........ what's that noise?

There he was curled up fast asleep on the floor in the back of the car!!! He'd been there all the time. sigh

Talk about feel stupid having to ring the police to tell them!

Anyway telling this story to another friend the next day and she admitted that once her teenage son had also disappeared in similar circumstances. She'd also called the police and searched the town. ... He was discovered hours later in the understairs cwtch where he'd been all the time hidden by all the stuff you keep in such places!
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I was about ten when I scared my Mum. We hadn't had a row, I had a friend stopping over and he'd said "Let's go fishing tomorrow morning!" ..

Behind my parent's house were fields and then a canal so we got up at about six in the morning and soon we were there fishing. An elderly couple walked up to us and the wife said "Are your names ****** and *****?" .. "Yes?" .. "You'd better go straight home now. You're Mother's worried sick and she's called the police."

We hightailed it back across the fields, climbed the slope to my back garden and my parents were standing there. My Mum burst into tears then I burst into tears because I was only ten and my Mum was crying. It hadn't occurred to either of us to tell her we were going. I'm still friends with the other lad to this day.
 
I hid in bedroom closet and fell asleep when I was 12 or 13.

I had a cousin, my age, who when he was staying at our place (with my brother) would harass me (snapping my bra, kissing me when I was asleep in bed, yes that kind). He lived a ways away, so in summer, he would stay at ours for a week. So I would never really sleep and one day, I just hid in the closet behind all of mine and my sisters' toys. I didn't intend to fall asleep, but hoped that once he went to bed, I could also.

I woke when my parents found me. Nothing was said (you didn't in those days), but they must have thought something as,after that night, when he was staying for the week the following years, I was visiting with his sisters at their home for the week.

Don't know if my parents were frightened, or, maybe my sisters knew where I was. I have no idea how long they looked for me.
 
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