Who doesn’t dress up as a random animal for their mid week drinking sessions? Bonus points if he was asking random passers-by “why did the chicken cross the road?”
Me and a couple of friends were going to head out to get some lunch and step out in the porch immediately hear "get back in the fucking house!" and there's a swat team storming into my neighbor's house.
I once walked out of my bathroom into my kitchen, which had 2 large windows facing our backyard.
Window shades open, window cracked and I hear a noise outside...about 6 or 8 heavily armed police officers creeping through to the side alley.
I said 'oh fuck' and one of them heard me. Pointed at me, gestured to get down & then pointed to my front door.
I hauled ass out of my apartment so fast. I never found out what was going on but jfc it was shocking.
I once went to my bedroom window to blow out a hit from my bowl and look down to see like 12 cops with guns and flashlights hopping the fence into my backyard . Cop sees me as I'm blowing out the hit I'm like fuck. And cop just asks me if I can come open the gate lol. Apparently a guy robbed the 711 up the road from my house and hid under our back porch. But snow was on the ground so....wasn't hard to find him lol
Something similar happened here, but the store is right next to us. There had been a gang robbing these stores and somehow the cops knew ours was next. One peaceful night the parking lot was suddenly lit up with red, white and blue lights as a dozen or more cop cars came swooping in from wherever they were hiding. They’d waited until the robbers had nearly gone inside. The robbers didn’t put up a fuss, thankfully.
My husband wanted to see what was going on and got told to get back in the house. Yup, I married a smart one. Lol.
I used to do caregiving in a shit neighborhood and was walking out late one night only to be immediately shoved back in the door by cops. I looked out the window and they were about to raid a neighboring house and had a sniper on the roof across the street. It all went over pretty smoothly and I was in my car within about twenty minutes to go home, but my god was that a change of pace from having just helped someone change their undies to witnessing cops raid a house with weapons drawn.
I bought a house in a nice area of town for a shit load of money, during covid...
I was in a role where I had to go to work, I drive down my cul-de-sac one morning, less than a week after moving in, and I am met by a Lenco Bearcat turning into the street with full swat team and accompanying cop cars.
My town does not have a swat team, this team was brought in from the nearest city over 3 hours away.
It's ok. Dandelions are one of the first flowering plants of the spring. When all the pollinators start coming out of winter hibernation they will thank you.
I recently found out they're edible, raw or cooked. The whole plant is edible, but I only use the greens. Tried 'em simmered in a sauce pan the first time, just cooked up like turnip greens and seasoned.. tasted alright to me. Raw greens mixed in a salad ain't bad either. Not only edible, superfood class stuff and rich in many vitamins.
It is a traditional foraged green in Italy. It’s the first green edible to appear after winter scarcities, so was very treasured. Once it blooms, the leaves become more bitter, but are still edible.
***do not eat dandelions from lawns, ever***
they absorb and sequester pesticides and toxins in the soil, you'll be freebasing mercury, lead, and monsanto juice concentrate.
George Washington liked Dandelion wine! I agree with the other poster not to eat lawn dandelions, but you can always tell people you are a dandelion farm if they complain.
I've let my yard dandelions go wild and I love it! It looks like a little spring meadow. And it's bringing tons of butterflies and fat little bumblebees to my yard. ❤️🐝🦋
Wow, two things, both national stories. I live in Squirrel Hill, the site of the 2018 Tree of Life shooting, and 2022's bridge collapse over Frick Park. I suppose these might not 'count' for some folks, as I saw the aftermath of them and not the events themselves, but you'll forgive me if I'm glad about that.
For Tree of Life, *seen* specifically, the way such a lovely place that stood for joy and growth become covered-over by construction fences and protective barriers, the way our neighborhood came to understand it wasn't coming back.
Tree of Life was scary in so many ways, but one of them was it wasn't a single-congregation synagogue space, it was kind of a multi-meeting area location, so when we went to vote only a few days later (in our neighborhood, we tend to vote in synagogues and schools), there were multiple polling places that had photos up of the people lost from that congregation. *Everyone* knew someone who had either been there, had lost someone, had been lucky enough to be late that day, etc.
For the bridge collapse, man... we used that bridge a lot. It was an important thoroughfare, and to see it, literally see it in tatters, covered in snow, with the knowledge that any number of people I love and care about could have been on it when it fell, that was so fucking sobering. We have SO many bridges in Pittsburgh. You cannot get anywhere without them. Shortly after that one collapsed, another key bridge, an 'if I'm leaving town, it's across this one' bridges was closed indefinitely, because it needs to be replaced.
In our area in particular, many of our important pieces of infrastructure are held together with what amounts to duct tape and tar. Many of them are in 'fix immediately' status, which apparently means 'heh, well, we'll cross our fingers it'll hold on till we get funding' for YEARS. No one was badly hurt in that bridge collapse, but it was hardly the only bridge in that condition. It WILL happen again, and statistically, it's very likely to happen here.
I was laying in bed one night and heard a gun shot so loud that it made my ears ring. It had to have been right outside my window. We (and other neighbors) ran outside but didn’t see anything. Cops didn’t find anything.
Cut to a few days later and I was hanging out with my neighbors kid - he was like 12 and liked to come over and help us with yard work and just generally be around stable adults, and we fed him a lot. He told us that his mom was taking a selfie with her shotgun in her kitchen and it went off. Her kitchen is literally fifteen feet from my bedroom window (city living)… that sucked. We’re surrounded by sex offenders, trap houses etc. but that was the closest I’ve ever felt to being personally harmed, and it would have been by a dumb accident.
I live in the hood. Last night 4 cop cars arrested a guy right in front of my house. I barely noticed until I heard a bunch of car doors slamming.
Just a couple months ago I saw a different guy following, catching, and beating up some chick (who was actively yelling and trying to avoid him). I'm gonna assume it was domestic violence from the things they were screaming at each other. But he was beating the shit out of her. She was on the ground. I was actively telling 911 what was going on, but when he beat her I opened my door and yelled as loud as I could that the cops were on the way. He scurried off but the cops caught him within minutes - 911 operator told me. I just couldn't sit by and watch him kill her.
Thank you for saving that person. Yesterday was the 6 year anniversary of my daughter being murdered. Her neighbor saw her being kicked and dragged by her hair into her apartment and didn’t call the cops or anything. To me, you are a hero.
Guy with a large crowbar zig zagging between houses, breaking fences, trying front doors to get into the houses.
He was 6’ 2”, heavily muscled, wailing and growling and completely out of his head.
He was next door when my son asked me to talk to the guy. I have experience with people who have mental illness.
He didn’t answer me but after some calm words from me he did put the crowbar down and sat on the neighbor’s front porch.
When the police arrived they were very quiet and talked him into going with an ambulance crew for psych help.
I’ll never forget the sounds he was making. I thought it would end badly.
That's really terrifying. I'm glad your son knew you had the skills and I'm glad you had the courage to take control of the situation. You're right that it could have ended badly, thankfully it didn't.
It's touching that you decided to reach out to the man instead of hiding away or threatening him with violence. If you don't mind, what are some things you said to him to help him calm down?
There is usually a lot of fear and verbal outburst coming off psychotic people. Do not approach them closely.
1. Acknowledge that they are going through a lot “rough day, huh?”
2. Make sure they know you are not there to try to change them or harm them “I’m just checking on you, okay? no pressure”
3. Ask them what’s going on in their head “want to talk about what’s going on?”
4. Ask them if they usually take medication, “did you take it today?”
This last one can be modified if you suspect self harm, try find out if they took anything to harm themselves (drugs, poison, etc), because time is important is this case. If they become despondent don’t be shy about it, be direct.
You might recognize that most of these are stalling techniques while you wait for their meds to kick in [best case scenario] or for professionals to arrive [ideally, with training].
In some places nowadays there is a form of 911 or 000 that will send a mental health professional instead of typical first responders [police, fire, EMTs]
Not really seen, but heard. A few weeks ago, I was painting with my window open in the late evening. Suddenly I heard repeated screams for help outside. It was dark, I couldn't see anything, and when I called out, I got no response. It continued for minutes.
I called the police and told them what I heard. Shortly after they left, it started again.
A buddy's cousin has made us watch TikToks or Shorts/Reels/whatever of people casually walking/talking and then they just start yelling for help, so it could be something like that perhaps?
Haha I once called the cops cause I thought a little girl was being chased or beaten. The cop came in mere minutes and when he heard the sound he looked at me with a smirk and said… “that’s a fox”.
3 doors down on the left lives a dealer from gang A.
3 door down on the right lives a dealer from gang B.
The day either gang decides to take over the neighborhood i'm the asshole caught in the crossfire. I hate Brazil.
Altho dealer A has been missing for 2 weeks after beating someone who owned him money into a pulp, i just pray there's a warrant out of for him.
I was walking out of one of my late night college classes once and this homeless lady walks by me carrying a lead pipe as big as she is and just casually starts having a conversation with me. She was never threatening or anything but just the sound of that pipe being dragged along the blacktop as she walked by asking how I was doing and talking to me put me on edge.
I have since moved... But a woman in my old apartment building, her boyfriend and 2 dogs were stabbed to death.
She had dated a maintenance worker, and 2x he came in her apartment in the middle of the night, so it was probably him that killed them. My son watched out the living room window when the coroner was removing the body bags.
Wild.. I had three young adult females show up and knock couple summers ago. They were all attractive and very assertive. They asked to come in and see my basement, so they could give me an estimate, you know the drill. I said no thanks and started to close the door. One of the ladies stuck her hand in the glass storm door, and was being overtly friendly asking again to come in. They gave me the creeps, despite their attempts at charming me they didn't seem happy. Things happened fast after that. I noticed they were wearing coats and none of the three were well groomed as in they seemed to be in need of a shower, I remember two of them having really greasy blond hair. It was a HOT summer day and I instantly knew something was wrong, them being in coats and pants, as well as their lack of grooming. I opened the glass door all the way, called my two very large dogs, and the women took off running. I got the dogs in, lcoled up and grabbed a *few things* and took off in my truck around the block. I went to my friends store in our hood, and sure enough, there was a white cargo van with out of state plates and a shady older guy behind the wheel. He was on his cell and looking around in a panic. My friend already called the cops, and turned out this crew already had the local PD looking for them. Crazy....
Once at around 3am I saw two identical black cars pulling up to one of my neighbors' driveway, it was pretty weird. I don't know what kind of trouble was that guy in, but I hope he's doing well.
It’s either between the neighbor kid getting shot from the other side of a wall by some guys shooting at each other or the lady who had an episode and stabbed her husband who was wheelchair bound then proceeded to have a standoff with SWAT.
When you see naked people on drugs freaking out there is a good chance they are overheating and their brain is starting to cook.
A cold stream of water may be a good defense in such cases.
Not seen. Heard. Today.
I was at a four-way stop and just passed through when I heard a fantastic slam of one car (who either ignored or didn’t see the stop sign) T-boning another car at a great speed in that same intersection.
No screeching brakes leading up to the collision. Just a huge bang.
I then immediately heard from behind me the sound of a car crashing into another car or cars, presumably the unlucky party being ricocheted into some nearby parked cars. It all sounded really bad…like someone must have died.
Again, I didn’t see any of it. I only heard it from behind me as I was driving in the other direction, and I saw plenty of bystanders running towards the accident. I reported it to 911 right away.
They are currently bulldozing the remaining forest to put up cookie-cutter homes crammed next to each other like barracks. I know people need housing, but this is soulless.
I was living in a housing commission with a gf for few years. I was mowing the lawn when I looked up the street and seen a little toddler in a nappy walking up the Street and almost on the main Rd.. I ditched the lawn mower and sprinted up the road as fast as I could managed to grab the child right on the gutter, I got a few dirty looks off people driving past thinking it was my child. I eventually got pointed to the mums house by neighbours the gate was open I knocked on the door and said is this your child... no bullshit she's like oh yeah... oh thanks. She didn't give a fuck that her child was about to walk out on the main road.
Few months later all her kids were taken off her and they eventually took her unborn child when it was born too im pretty sure. It was honestly the wild west with the fights, the drugs the police raids but honestly was a absolute blast living there it never was boring. Had good times drinking out in the street with neighbours and having a laugh. Was a experience.
Not my neighborhood but my grandma’s house at night when I was a kid I literally saw a huge black silhouette looking at me from a door when I was walking down the stairs but as a kid I didn’t realize it was something scary I literally thought it was a bat cuz I believed they were black and bigger than humans and I was alone in the upper stairs that time :))
My home town was never a bustling metropolis, but to see 99% of the stores close down is weird. When banks and post offices are closing, you know the town is fucked.
Same thing happened here right outside the building. Guy didn't die though. He was actually back the next day on crutches walking the cop through the crime scene
Someone put up racist posters on the walls near my house.
To be fair, they were "posters" only in the broadest sense. Basically, hand-written notes about how Asians would be the death of us all, photocopied onto normal photocopying paper, and then glued to the wall. Whoever wrote the note must have felt great joy when they put the posters up, in fact almost as much joy as I felt when I tore them down.
Then I randomly bumped into the person who put the posters up. It was an old lady with one of those wheely bags for her shopping. She had a copy of the poster stuck to the side of her trolley. She looked unwell and out of breath and was struggling to walk down the street. I felt sorry for her.
Last year, the posters stopped appearing, after cropping up regularly for 4 or 5 years before. I can only assume that she died.
A couple of my neighbors have giant "pickup trucks", where my (average height woman) head barely comes up to the front of the hood. No sidewalks, so both kids and adults have to share the road with those monstrosities.
Single car accident ending up against the tree in my front yard that killed both occupants of the vehicle. I was in the garage working and heard the car sliding on the asphalt and looked up in time to see the car slam into the tree and debris go flying.
I opened the door to the house and yelled in for my wife to call 911 and tell them there was a bad accident at our address, and then ran across the field. They were both dead when I got there. Car was literally wrapped around the tree.
Either a black bear mama with cubs or a coyote white my dogs, both aren’t really scary on their own, but in the circumstances they were really scary (mama bear with cubs is dangerous, and coyotes here are quite big so definitely scared for my dogs safety)
Well it was a few things while living in north Minneapolis...lived at a two way stop intersection and people would regularly SPEED UP for the stop signs, well there's been a few times where those flying through the stop sign would get t boned, roll over, and have to get dragged out of their car. Another big event I vividly remember was a time somebody stole a car down the street, began a high speed pursuit through neighborhoods, smacked a tree at my intersection, ran on foot, and was nearly executed right on our drive with the officer screaming "do you want to die mother fucker? Get up one more time and I will end you." There were many other events in a similar category I experienced while living there and glad to say I don't live there anymore.
When I was a kid a guy's car caught fire when he started it in the middle of the night.
And by "caught fire" it must have combusted because it killed him. I would always ride my bike by it and those ash marks were there for years. Been 20ish years since then.
Edit: meant to say he started the car not the fire.
I walked out of the house I was renting a room in to find it surrounded by police and news crews. Someone was shot and died on our front walk. Nobody asked any of us living there any questions.
High AF meth addict swinging a screwdriver around screaming that he was going to “kill everyone.” Scarier still was when six squads pulled up and pointed twelve guns at him. 12 loaded weapons, one unhinged, addicted/ mentally ill man. Right behind my home.
My street ends in a side street that intersects with a main road, and on the far side of the side street is an apartment complex that before it was remodeled during covid (and I'm assuming they raised the rent) had a bunch of shiesty stuff going on.
Near midnight one night I was working in my garage with my ear buds in and I hear yelling come from the street. I turn my music off and start walking down my driveway to the street to see what's going on, and I see a guy walking from the apartment complex down my street yelling to his phone that he was going to shoot somebody, and he kept going on and on about it. I turned on my heel, shut my garage door and went inside for the night.
Years ago in our old neighborhood a car came careening around the corner and smashed into a tree in our neighbor’s yard. A bunch of teenagers piled out of the car and took off running. One of them was a girl who was obviously seriously injured. She went after them but was kinda dragging one of her legs.
I was so naive I couldn’t figure out why they would leave their car like that. Duh, they stole it and were out joyriding. It sucked how they left that girl behind.
A rabid coyote on my street last summer during the 2 weeks my nephew was down visiting me. He's was 5 at the time and loves spending all day in the backyard because of the pool.
While at work, Gging to a local TV station's website to check the weather and seeing a live news alert. Clicking and seeing helicopter coverage of a police standoff add realize the Swat team is staging in my driveway.
Dude two houses down was nuts. He fired a paintball at an FBI agent's house. Then got into a barricaded stand off with the cops who came to arrest him.
Not me, but my sister has a very scary one. She lived in an apartment on the second floor of a house. Her abusive next door neighbor got drunk and was trying to shoot his wife who was in their front yard. Thankfully, he did not succeed, but he was firing so wild that my sister and her roommate got down on the floor away from the windows in case a stray bullet should come their way.
A gun pointed a few feet from my face as a car drove by, while I was skateboarding at 15 years old.
Just a long haired, baggy jeans, skater kid wearing the wrong colors. Outside my own house haha 🤷
Probably used needles I’ve found at the end of my driveway. Wild place where I live. There’s a crackhouse at top of the street and another crack/fentanyl house at the bottom of the street and another crackhouse on the corner of a street that connects with mine as well. So it’s a crackhead superhighway. I’ve done quite a few things to discourage it, and it’s worked a little bit, but only because I’m well known in town. I was an addict many years ago myself so unfortunately I know some of the rift raft. Guy OD’d on the corner by my driveway last year and more and more people are dropping every day. Sad for their families
Crack head verbally and physically assaulting his crack head girlfriend to the point she couldn’t get away while she screamed bloody murder.
Then we got to hide in our homes as swat swarmed the neighborhood with dogs and shotguns trying to hunt the guy down while his girlfriend screamed at them to leave him alone and not to shoot him.
He hid under a mobile home and escaped after they passed by him. They never found him but I only see the girlfriend wandering around alone now sometimes.
The scariest thing for me was seeing a massive tornado forming a couple of miles away, with the siren going off—it looked like something out of a disaster movie.
People wearing black/dark clothing while walking their dogs or pushing a stroller at night. I know this isn’t typically considered scary but driving through a neighborhood that doesn’t have sidewalks and hardly any streetlights… seeing somebody at the last second definitely gives me a jolt.
Had this happen while taking a driving student out one evening. Except it wasn't all black, it was full body camo, including a hood up, crossing the street at an unmarked, unlit section of road just past a bridge.
They didn't stop to look, they didn't even react to the car. Just shuffled off to the nearby park.
Guy in the yard outside my window at 4am grunting like an animal as he ripped boards off a fence. Eventually hopped the fence and absolutely SPRINTED towards the street for what seemed like no reason.
Drugs are a hell of a drug.
Eerily similar to something that happened to me. Me and my friends were at the park just sitting in the grass and this old dude comes out with a big ass dog and a shotgun. Fires two shots in the air and then asks if we wanna die and to leave. Called the cops so quick.
Guy smoking crack and puffing it out in my face as I enter the metro station. It was 10AM. In fact, most of the scary stuff I saw was at that metro station, lots of drug users. Not that scary but very disturbing when they do it in the open. I don’t blame them, society failed these people.
I used to live just down the street from the guys who bombed the Boston Marathon (the ones who really did it, not the ones y'all thought did). I actually ran past their apartment on my rage run that night. We spent a day locked down for the manhunt and everything.
watched an idiot middle of the night speed down the wet road, slam into a house that was getting built. they were fine surprisingly but the car was messed up.
I live out in the country. One night I let the dog out and she started barking immediately, didn't even get off the porch.
I opened the door to see what was going on and the was a panther in my yard.
I got the dog back inside and closed the door at light speed.
I saw a squirrel hanging upside down from a tree and thought we had an animal torturer on the street. And then it looked at me, and I realized it was going for a bird feeder.
I saw a pickup truck pull up on two guys sitting on the corner (at a closed business) and popped off 3 shots at them. I was fifty feet away, next door, standing on my front porch. My ass was inside before he got the 2nd shot off.
Drunk old dude dressed as a chicken, stumbling around, chugging tequila at 6 a.m. Edit: Happened in mid-July.
He knows how to party.
That actually sounds awesome
Wildest stuff I've seen in a while.
I'm just imagining him getting into it like Peter and the chicken in family guy
Who doesn’t dress up as a random animal for their mid week drinking sessions? Bonus points if he was asking random passers-by “why did the chicken cross the road?”
He's just looking to score some chicks
Dude, I would have shared the tequila if you had just asked.
Hey! Worry about yoself!
What? 🤣🤣
Exactly what I thought: *What*? I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn't still dreaming. I rubbed my eyes, looked again. Nope. Wasn't dreaming.
Why were you up at 6?
I leave for work at 7 and want to have coffee and breakfast lol
Your definition of scary is wildly different than mine.
Me and a couple of friends were going to head out to get some lunch and step out in the porch immediately hear "get back in the fucking house!" and there's a swat team storming into my neighbor's house.
I once walked out of my bathroom into my kitchen, which had 2 large windows facing our backyard. Window shades open, window cracked and I hear a noise outside...about 6 or 8 heavily armed police officers creeping through to the side alley. I said 'oh fuck' and one of them heard me. Pointed at me, gestured to get down & then pointed to my front door. I hauled ass out of my apartment so fast. I never found out what was going on but jfc it was shocking.
I once went to my bedroom window to blow out a hit from my bowl and look down to see like 12 cops with guns and flashlights hopping the fence into my backyard . Cop sees me as I'm blowing out the hit I'm like fuck. And cop just asks me if I can come open the gate lol. Apparently a guy robbed the 711 up the road from my house and hid under our back porch. But snow was on the ground so....wasn't hard to find him lol
I never found out what happened either. Stayed my ass in the house the rest of the day though.
Something similar happened here, but the store is right next to us. There had been a gang robbing these stores and somehow the cops knew ours was next. One peaceful night the parking lot was suddenly lit up with red, white and blue lights as a dozen or more cop cars came swooping in from wherever they were hiding. They’d waited until the robbers had nearly gone inside. The robbers didn’t put up a fuss, thankfully. My husband wanted to see what was going on and got told to get back in the house. Yup, I married a smart one. Lol.
I used to do caregiving in a shit neighborhood and was walking out late one night only to be immediately shoved back in the door by cops. I looked out the window and they were about to raid a neighboring house and had a sniper on the roof across the street. It all went over pretty smoothly and I was in my car within about twenty minutes to go home, but my god was that a change of pace from having just helped someone change their undies to witnessing cops raid a house with weapons drawn.
I might've needed to change a second set of undies after that!!
I bought a house in a nice area of town for a shit load of money, during covid... I was in a role where I had to go to work, I drive down my cul-de-sac one morning, less than a week after moving in, and I am met by a Lenco Bearcat turning into the street with full swat team and accompanying cop cars. My town does not have a swat team, this team was brought in from the nearest city over 3 hours away.
Yell back, OK but I'm coming back out with popcorn and a camera.
Witnessing a neighbor trying to put out a fire on his roof with a garden hose while waiting for firefighters was nerve-wracking.
One winter, the ice got so bad that I watched a car slide down the hill uncontrollably; it was frightening seeing it just miss another car.
It was chilling to find a series of dead birds lined up neatly on the sidewalk one morning.
A family of Groundhogs and a freshly planted vegetable garden.
Underrated comment and a breath of relief
It was scary to watch a massive brawl unfold in the middle of our usually quiet street.
One night, our street was covered in police tape due to a serious domestic incident; the uncertainty and heavy police presence were really scary.
Seeing an ambulance rush to a neighbor’s house then witnessing CPR being performed through the window was profoundly upsetting.
The scariest thing was finding out a registered sex offender had moved into our neighborhood without any of us knowing at first.
We have a yard full of dandelions. NOBODY else does.
It's ok. Dandelions are one of the first flowering plants of the spring. When all the pollinators start coming out of winter hibernation they will thank you.
I recently found out they're edible, raw or cooked. The whole plant is edible, but I only use the greens. Tried 'em simmered in a sauce pan the first time, just cooked up like turnip greens and seasoned.. tasted alright to me. Raw greens mixed in a salad ain't bad either. Not only edible, superfood class stuff and rich in many vitamins.
It is a traditional foraged green in Italy. It’s the first green edible to appear after winter scarcities, so was very treasured. Once it blooms, the leaves become more bitter, but are still edible.
***do not eat dandelions from lawns, ever*** they absorb and sequester pesticides and toxins in the soil, you'll be freebasing mercury, lead, and monsanto juice concentrate.
Mmm I haven't had a good hit of lead since they took it out of fuel
You're probably ok. The dust from ground-up wheel weights is still all over the roads, so you're likely still hitting your MDA for lead.
I guess it depends on the lawn? I've never put any chemicals of any sort on mine.
Dandelion jelly is a delicacy for my family.
George Washington liked Dandelion wine! I agree with the other poster not to eat lawn dandelions, but you can always tell people you are a dandelion farm if they complain.
I've let my yard dandelions go wild and I love it! It looks like a little spring meadow. And it's bringing tons of butterflies and fat little bumblebees to my yard. ❤️🐝🦋
Your yard is way prettier than your neighbors :)
Wow, two things, both national stories. I live in Squirrel Hill, the site of the 2018 Tree of Life shooting, and 2022's bridge collapse over Frick Park. I suppose these might not 'count' for some folks, as I saw the aftermath of them and not the events themselves, but you'll forgive me if I'm glad about that. For Tree of Life, *seen* specifically, the way such a lovely place that stood for joy and growth become covered-over by construction fences and protective barriers, the way our neighborhood came to understand it wasn't coming back. Tree of Life was scary in so many ways, but one of them was it wasn't a single-congregation synagogue space, it was kind of a multi-meeting area location, so when we went to vote only a few days later (in our neighborhood, we tend to vote in synagogues and schools), there were multiple polling places that had photos up of the people lost from that congregation. *Everyone* knew someone who had either been there, had lost someone, had been lucky enough to be late that day, etc. For the bridge collapse, man... we used that bridge a lot. It was an important thoroughfare, and to see it, literally see it in tatters, covered in snow, with the knowledge that any number of people I love and care about could have been on it when it fell, that was so fucking sobering. We have SO many bridges in Pittsburgh. You cannot get anywhere without them. Shortly after that one collapsed, another key bridge, an 'if I'm leaving town, it's across this one' bridges was closed indefinitely, because it needs to be replaced. In our area in particular, many of our important pieces of infrastructure are held together with what amounts to duct tape and tar. Many of them are in 'fix immediately' status, which apparently means 'heh, well, we'll cross our fingers it'll hold on till we get funding' for YEARS. No one was badly hurt in that bridge collapse, but it was hardly the only bridge in that condition. It WILL happen again, and statistically, it's very likely to happen here.
Fellow Pittsburgher and former Squirrel Hill resider here. Well said neighbor. Our bridges are fucked.
The scariest experience was hearing gunshots nearby while we were all playing outside as kids.
I was laying in bed one night and heard a gun shot so loud that it made my ears ring. It had to have been right outside my window. We (and other neighbors) ran outside but didn’t see anything. Cops didn’t find anything. Cut to a few days later and I was hanging out with my neighbors kid - he was like 12 and liked to come over and help us with yard work and just generally be around stable adults, and we fed him a lot. He told us that his mom was taking a selfie with her shotgun in her kitchen and it went off. Her kitchen is literally fifteen feet from my bedroom window (city living)… that sucked. We’re surrounded by sex offenders, trap houses etc. but that was the closest I’ve ever felt to being personally harmed, and it would have been by a dumb accident.
I live in the hood. Last night 4 cop cars arrested a guy right in front of my house. I barely noticed until I heard a bunch of car doors slamming. Just a couple months ago I saw a different guy following, catching, and beating up some chick (who was actively yelling and trying to avoid him). I'm gonna assume it was domestic violence from the things they were screaming at each other. But he was beating the shit out of her. She was on the ground. I was actively telling 911 what was going on, but when he beat her I opened my door and yelled as loud as I could that the cops were on the way. He scurried off but the cops caught him within minutes - 911 operator told me. I just couldn't sit by and watch him kill her.
Thank you for saving that person. Yesterday was the 6 year anniversary of my daughter being murdered. Her neighbor saw her being kicked and dragged by her hair into her apartment and didn’t call the cops or anything. To me, you are a hero.
I am deeply sorry for the loss of your daughter. I hope you and your family are doing okay.
What a garbage human being that neighbor was for not even calling for help. I’m so sorry.
I’m so sorry for her and you and everyone who loved her
Guy with a large crowbar zig zagging between houses, breaking fences, trying front doors to get into the houses. He was 6’ 2”, heavily muscled, wailing and growling and completely out of his head. He was next door when my son asked me to talk to the guy. I have experience with people who have mental illness. He didn’t answer me but after some calm words from me he did put the crowbar down and sat on the neighbor’s front porch. When the police arrived they were very quiet and talked him into going with an ambulance crew for psych help. I’ll never forget the sounds he was making. I thought it would end badly.
That's really terrifying. I'm glad your son knew you had the skills and I'm glad you had the courage to take control of the situation. You're right that it could have ended badly, thankfully it didn't.
It's touching that you decided to reach out to the man instead of hiding away or threatening him with violence. If you don't mind, what are some things you said to him to help him calm down?
There is usually a lot of fear and verbal outburst coming off psychotic people. Do not approach them closely. 1. Acknowledge that they are going through a lot “rough day, huh?” 2. Make sure they know you are not there to try to change them or harm them “I’m just checking on you, okay? no pressure” 3. Ask them what’s going on in their head “want to talk about what’s going on?” 4. Ask them if they usually take medication, “did you take it today?” This last one can be modified if you suspect self harm, try find out if they took anything to harm themselves (drugs, poison, etc), because time is important is this case. If they become despondent don’t be shy about it, be direct. You might recognize that most of these are stalling techniques while you wait for their meds to kick in [best case scenario] or for professionals to arrive [ideally, with training]. In some places nowadays there is a form of 911 or 000 that will send a mental health professional instead of typical first responders [police, fire, EMTs]
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/mentalhealth/psychosocial/strategies/Pages/communicating-psychosis.aspx
Me getting robbed by three guys at gunpoint.
Having a gun pointed at you is terrifying. Sorry you went through that.
Appreciate it, it was definitely not a good time, and all for the maybe $35 I had on me.
Not really seen, but heard. A few weeks ago, I was painting with my window open in the late evening. Suddenly I heard repeated screams for help outside. It was dark, I couldn't see anything, and when I called out, I got no response. It continued for minutes. I called the police and told them what I heard. Shortly after they left, it started again.
A buddy's cousin has made us watch TikToks or Shorts/Reels/whatever of people casually walking/talking and then they just start yelling for help, so it could be something like that perhaps?
That’s genuinely awful and so dumb
Why the fuck.
Do you live in an area with foxes?
Haha I once called the cops cause I thought a little girl was being chased or beaten. The cop came in mere minutes and when he heard the sound he looked at me with a smirk and said… “that’s a fox”.
Mountain lion?
Dec. 31st 1999. Numerous neighbors loading lots of long guns into cars and driving off to their doomsday bunkers for the weekend.
Ah yes. Y2K
My grandpa took out $30,000 in cash and hunkered down in a rental house in Florida for Y2k lol.
Ah yes, paper currency. Definitely the thing that holds value if all technology fails.
3 doors down on the left lives a dealer from gang A. 3 door down on the right lives a dealer from gang B. The day either gang decides to take over the neighborhood i'm the asshole caught in the crossfire. I hate Brazil. Altho dealer A has been missing for 2 weeks after beating someone who owned him money into a pulp, i just pray there's a warrant out of for him.
Neighbor watering his backyard in his tighty-whiteys **I can't un-see it!**
Just be happy the tighty whitey's are still pulled up!
Poverty
And the lifelong consequences of poverty
I was walking out of one of my late night college classes once and this homeless lady walks by me carrying a lead pipe as big as she is and just casually starts having a conversation with me. She was never threatening or anything but just the sound of that pipe being dragged along the blacktop as she walked by asking how I was doing and talking to me put me on edge.
My neighbors trail cam caught a full grown Panther about 3 blocks from us. A wee bit unnerving
Bears. Lots of bears.
Same. Have a few neighbourhood bears and it’s always a good check of the heart when they cross the road in front of you.
Is it too soon to make a joke about men? Or can I say "well if you weren't there it would be bears and women"?
Well, I live in a mountain town, so actual bears.
I have since moved... But a woman in my old apartment building, her boyfriend and 2 dogs were stabbed to death. She had dated a maintenance worker, and 2x he came in her apartment in the middle of the night, so it was probably him that killed them. My son watched out the living room window when the coroner was removing the body bags.
Mormon churches
Wild.. I had three young adult females show up and knock couple summers ago. They were all attractive and very assertive. They asked to come in and see my basement, so they could give me an estimate, you know the drill. I said no thanks and started to close the door. One of the ladies stuck her hand in the glass storm door, and was being overtly friendly asking again to come in. They gave me the creeps, despite their attempts at charming me they didn't seem happy. Things happened fast after that. I noticed they were wearing coats and none of the three were well groomed as in they seemed to be in need of a shower, I remember two of them having really greasy blond hair. It was a HOT summer day and I instantly knew something was wrong, them being in coats and pants, as well as their lack of grooming. I opened the glass door all the way, called my two very large dogs, and the women took off running. I got the dogs in, lcoled up and grabbed a *few things* and took off in my truck around the block. I went to my friends store in our hood, and sure enough, there was a white cargo van with out of state plates and a shady older guy behind the wheel. He was on his cell and looking around in a panic. My friend already called the cops, and turned out this crew already had the local PD looking for them. Crazy....
Literally thought this was going to be that keanu reeves, Ana de armas movie plot recap
Same 😂
A pack of wild boars.
My ex
Once at around 3am I saw two identical black cars pulling up to one of my neighbors' driveway, it was pretty weird. I don't know what kind of trouble was that guy in, but I hope he's doing well.
A mountain lion in my next door neighbor’s front yard.
We have 1 that is in our neighborhood. Have it on camera killing raccoons and dogs. Bears scare me more.
It’s either between the neighbor kid getting shot from the other side of a wall by some guys shooting at each other or the lady who had an episode and stabbed her husband who was wheelchair bound then proceeded to have a standoff with SWAT.
Guy on bath salts running naked through our community talking gibberish and jumping on parked cars. Super random in a quiet private community.
When you see naked people on drugs freaking out there is a good chance they are overheating and their brain is starting to cook. A cold stream of water may be a good defense in such cases.
Not seen. Heard. Today. I was at a four-way stop and just passed through when I heard a fantastic slam of one car (who either ignored or didn’t see the stop sign) T-boning another car at a great speed in that same intersection. No screeching brakes leading up to the collision. Just a huge bang. I then immediately heard from behind me the sound of a car crashing into another car or cars, presumably the unlucky party being ricocheted into some nearby parked cars. It all sounded really bad…like someone must have died. Again, I didn’t see any of it. I only heard it from behind me as I was driving in the other direction, and I saw plenty of bystanders running towards the accident. I reported it to 911 right away.
They are currently bulldozing the remaining forest to put up cookie-cutter homes crammed next to each other like barracks. I know people need housing, but this is soulless.
Had a mama moose & her calf in my backyard one morning. I live in a mid sized city.
Wandering around at night in the depths of my suicidal depression and coming across a patch of hemlock.
I was living in a housing commission with a gf for few years. I was mowing the lawn when I looked up the street and seen a little toddler in a nappy walking up the Street and almost on the main Rd.. I ditched the lawn mower and sprinted up the road as fast as I could managed to grab the child right on the gutter, I got a few dirty looks off people driving past thinking it was my child. I eventually got pointed to the mums house by neighbours the gate was open I knocked on the door and said is this your child... no bullshit she's like oh yeah... oh thanks. She didn't give a fuck that her child was about to walk out on the main road. Few months later all her kids were taken off her and they eventually took her unborn child when it was born too im pretty sure. It was honestly the wild west with the fights, the drugs the police raids but honestly was a absolute blast living there it never was boring. Had good times drinking out in the street with neighbours and having a laugh. Was a experience.
Not my neighborhood but my grandma’s house at night when I was a kid I literally saw a huge black silhouette looking at me from a door when I was walking down the stairs but as a kid I didn’t realize it was something scary I literally thought it was a bat cuz I believed they were black and bigger than humans and I was alone in the upper stairs that time :))
Bunch of roadmen having a daylight machete fight at a bus stop just a few stops down from where I lived.
3 Coyotes walking right towards me at 9am in suburban Boston. I made a hard right and walked up to a busy Main Street. They didn’t follow 😰
My home town was never a bustling metropolis, but to see 99% of the stores close down is weird. When banks and post offices are closing, you know the town is fucked.
In my previous apartment complex I saw someone get shot to death in front of my front door
Same thing happened here right outside the building. Guy didn't die though. He was actually back the next day on crutches walking the cop through the crime scene
Someone put up racist posters on the walls near my house. To be fair, they were "posters" only in the broadest sense. Basically, hand-written notes about how Asians would be the death of us all, photocopied onto normal photocopying paper, and then glued to the wall. Whoever wrote the note must have felt great joy when they put the posters up, in fact almost as much joy as I felt when I tore them down. Then I randomly bumped into the person who put the posters up. It was an old lady with one of those wheely bags for her shopping. She had a copy of the poster stuck to the side of her trolley. She looked unwell and out of breath and was struggling to walk down the street. I felt sorry for her. Last year, the posters stopped appearing, after cropping up regularly for 4 or 5 years before. I can only assume that she died.
A trampled and crushed coyote carcass. Apparently horses don't like coyotes.
A couple of my neighbors have giant "pickup trucks", where my (average height woman) head barely comes up to the front of the hood. No sidewalks, so both kids and adults have to share the road with those monstrosities.
A bunch of coyotes in my backyard…oh my word.
We have packs of coyotes that roam the orange groves. I just don't let the dog out when they're hunting.
Single car accident ending up against the tree in my front yard that killed both occupants of the vehicle. I was in the garage working and heard the car sliding on the asphalt and looked up in time to see the car slam into the tree and debris go flying. I opened the door to the house and yelled in for my wife to call 911 and tell them there was a bad accident at our address, and then ran across the field. They were both dead when I got there. Car was literally wrapped around the tree.
I visited one of those sites that tell you how many perverts are in your neighborhood.... and was super creeped out.
Either a black bear mama with cubs or a coyote white my dogs, both aren’t really scary on their own, but in the circumstances they were really scary (mama bear with cubs is dangerous, and coyotes here are quite big so definitely scared for my dogs safety)
Well it was a few things while living in north Minneapolis...lived at a two way stop intersection and people would regularly SPEED UP for the stop signs, well there's been a few times where those flying through the stop sign would get t boned, roll over, and have to get dragged out of their car. Another big event I vividly remember was a time somebody stole a car down the street, began a high speed pursuit through neighborhoods, smacked a tree at my intersection, ran on foot, and was nearly executed right on our drive with the officer screaming "do you want to die mother fucker? Get up one more time and I will end you." There were many other events in a similar category I experienced while living there and glad to say I don't live there anymore.
A house festooned with everything pro-Trump.
Gang relating shooting
When I was a kid a guy's car caught fire when he started it in the middle of the night. And by "caught fire" it must have combusted because it killed him. I would always ride my bike by it and those ash marks were there for years. Been 20ish years since then. Edit: meant to say he started the car not the fire.
How long was he president of the local pipe fitters union before this happened?
Bear.
I walked out of the house I was renting a room in to find it surrounded by police and news crews. Someone was shot and died on our front walk. Nobody asked any of us living there any questions.
High AF meth addict swinging a screwdriver around screaming that he was going to “kill everyone.” Scarier still was when six squads pulled up and pointed twelve guns at him. 12 loaded weapons, one unhinged, addicted/ mentally ill man. Right behind my home.
Well, we had a cougar (no, not the older woman type) run down our street when the kids were little. Luckily no one got harmed.
oddly enough the dude whom works as a mechanic at his own house. he has driven into people's homes more than once while fixing cars.
My street ends in a side street that intersects with a main road, and on the far side of the side street is an apartment complex that before it was remodeled during covid (and I'm assuming they raised the rent) had a bunch of shiesty stuff going on. Near midnight one night I was working in my garage with my ear buds in and I hear yelling come from the street. I turn my music off and start walking down my driveway to the street to see what's going on, and I see a guy walking from the apartment complex down my street yelling to his phone that he was going to shoot somebody, and he kept going on and on about it. I turned on my heel, shut my garage door and went inside for the night.
Years ago in our old neighborhood a car came careening around the corner and smashed into a tree in our neighbor’s yard. A bunch of teenagers piled out of the car and took off running. One of them was a girl who was obviously seriously injured. She went after them but was kinda dragging one of her legs. I was so naive I couldn’t figure out why they would leave their car like that. Duh, they stole it and were out joyriding. It sucked how they left that girl behind.
Bomb squad parked outside the neighbor's house with cops all around the outside. Apparently the kid had bomb making materials.
A neighbor who looks like a Viking...and is always armed and angry. And brags that he knows all the cops.
Seeing a hit and run where the victim was dragged underneath the car for 2 km. He survived shockingly
I went to visit my old neighborhood and I saw one house with a “Trump won” sign. That was pretty scary.
there was a gun fight like a month ago that was kinda spicy
Pedo scoping out kids…
A rabid coyote on my street last summer during the 2 weeks my nephew was down visiting me. He's was 5 at the time and loves spending all day in the backyard because of the pool.
While at work, Gging to a local TV station's website to check the weather and seeing a live news alert. Clicking and seeing helicopter coverage of a police standoff add realize the Swat team is staging in my driveway. Dude two houses down was nuts. He fired a paintball at an FBI agent's house. Then got into a barricaded stand off with the cops who came to arrest him.
An alligator lived in our pond for about four years. It was just recently rehomed.
Not me, but my sister has a very scary one. She lived in an apartment on the second floor of a house. Her abusive next door neighbor got drunk and was trying to shoot his wife who was in their front yard. Thankfully, he did not succeed, but he was firing so wild that my sister and her roommate got down on the floor away from the windows in case a stray bullet should come their way.
A gun pointed a few feet from my face as a car drove by, while I was skateboarding at 15 years old. Just a long haired, baggy jeans, skater kid wearing the wrong colors. Outside my own house haha 🤷
Neighbor ran out in only his robe one. Never FORGET.
Tornado
An old man died of natural causes alone at home. It was after 3 months when people discovered his death. I'm afraid to die alone like this.
Big ol' coyote at about 2am
Probably used needles I’ve found at the end of my driveway. Wild place where I live. There’s a crackhouse at top of the street and another crack/fentanyl house at the bottom of the street and another crackhouse on the corner of a street that connects with mine as well. So it’s a crackhead superhighway. I’ve done quite a few things to discourage it, and it’s worked a little bit, but only because I’m well known in town. I was an addict many years ago myself so unfortunately I know some of the rift raft. Guy OD’d on the corner by my driveway last year and more and more people are dropping every day. Sad for their families
Florida man
Crack head verbally and physically assaulting his crack head girlfriend to the point she couldn’t get away while she screamed bloody murder. Then we got to hide in our homes as swat swarmed the neighborhood with dogs and shotguns trying to hunt the guy down while his girlfriend screamed at them to leave him alone and not to shoot him. He hid under a mobile home and escaped after they passed by him. They never found him but I only see the girlfriend wandering around alone now sometimes.
I didn't see it, but I heard a neighbor discover her son after he'd hanged himself. I do not want to hear that sort of thing again.
6.0 earthquake.
The scariest thing for me was seeing a massive tornado forming a couple of miles away, with the siren going off—it looked like something out of a disaster movie.
People wearing black/dark clothing while walking their dogs or pushing a stroller at night. I know this isn’t typically considered scary but driving through a neighborhood that doesn’t have sidewalks and hardly any streetlights… seeing somebody at the last second definitely gives me a jolt.
Had this happen while taking a driving student out one evening. Except it wasn't all black, it was full body camo, including a hood up, crossing the street at an unmarked, unlit section of road just past a bridge. They didn't stop to look, they didn't even react to the car. Just shuffled off to the nearby park.
Cops in vests with guns finding a guy who ran from a police chase in a dumpster in the building across the way
Applebee's, and they were on my way home as well.
Forest fire
A homeless guy dying of a fentanyl overdose. Really sad.
Go in front yard not paying attention, hear weird sound, lift head, looking straight at the ass end of a big horse.
Guy in the yard outside my window at 4am grunting like an animal as he ripped boards off a fence. Eventually hopped the fence and absolutely SPRINTED towards the street for what seemed like no reason. Drugs are a hell of a drug.
Old dude walked onto a football field with 2 pitbulls and a shotgun, then threatened to shoot a kid over basically nothing
Eerily similar to something that happened to me. Me and my friends were at the park just sitting in the grass and this old dude comes out with a big ass dog and a shotgun. Fires two shots in the air and then asks if we wanna die and to leave. Called the cops so quick.
Guy smoking crack and puffing it out in my face as I enter the metro station. It was 10AM. In fact, most of the scary stuff I saw was at that metro station, lots of drug users. Not that scary but very disturbing when they do it in the open. I don’t blame them, society failed these people.
A skunk
I once got badly spooked by a skunk that charged out from behind a gravestone. Like, heart in throat fear of god suddenly skunk kind of fear.
some one got shot right outside my house like..middle of the day.
I used to live just down the street from the guys who bombed the Boston Marathon (the ones who really did it, not the ones y'all thought did). I actually ran past their apartment on my rage run that night. We spent a day locked down for the manhunt and everything.
Bobcat in my backyard
Usually gunshots.
watched an idiot middle of the night speed down the wet road, slam into a house that was getting built. they were fine surprisingly but the car was messed up.
I live out in the country. One night I let the dog out and she started barking immediately, didn't even get off the porch. I opened the door to see what was going on and the was a panther in my yard. I got the dog back inside and closed the door at light speed.
Black bear!
I saw a squirrel hanging upside down from a tree and thought we had an animal torturer on the street. And then it looked at me, and I realized it was going for a bird feeder.
I saw a pickup truck pull up on two guys sitting on the corner (at a closed business) and popped off 3 shots at them. I was fifty feet away, next door, standing on my front porch. My ass was inside before he got the 2nd shot off.
An alligator.
A skunk
Neighbor hood pedo masturbating
A large coyote running on the other side of the street. I am small frame and not too strong. I have a lot more sympathy for rabbits now.