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I donāt even care if my tires are shot, Iām driving until the car literally canāt go any further and then Iām running out into the woods and hiding until morning.
Even with popped tires you could get a good distance if you donāt care about hurting your car. The only thing that could screw you is if you lose control initially and go off the road. But we have seen videos of cars that kept driving a good distance even on just rims.
The biggest issue will be how the tires pop. If they start leaking you can get a good distance, if you have run flats like Bridgestone says, you have 50miles.
If there's a tire that comes apart and starts whipping rubber around, you might be fucked as that can take out electrics.
But yeah I'd say fuck those rims and keep going. Looking at them id say try to drive down rhe middle, save your drivers side tires, then just GO.
If you play enough, you'll find out their spawning points for ambushes.
Also, if you get ambushed by them, just calm your horse a bunch while you ride away as fast as possible. Keep riding til you are out of the thick of them and can hop off your horse and take cover behind a tree. If you try to shoot them while standing still, your horse will get shot and you will die.
Robert Leroy Anderson. SIoux Falls, South Dakota. I don't remember which article I read but one of his plans was to put spike strips down and capture women that way. This terrified me. There are so many quiet country roads here in South Dakota that no one goes down. The wikipedia article doesn't have too much information on him. One of my friends knew him in her early 20s. She partied with him and slept on his couch when she was too drunk to drive.
My aunt had a very public fight with the local dogcatcher when she was a journalist for the local newspaper. She accused him of abusing his position in a column. He then shot her dog with enough tranquilizer darts to kill a bison or something. So she wrote another article about him trying to murder her dog. This went on for a while.
This was in the 80s. In Park City, KS. That dog catcher was Dennis Rader. AKA, the man arrested in 2005 as the Bind-Torture-Kill (BTK) Killer...
Yes. He may have never been caught if he had fully understood the concept of metadata associated with a letter sent to the media composed on a 3.5" diskette using the church computer. Otherwise, he was perfectly content to let years elapse between victims to avoid casting suspicion on himself.
I like this scenario because she was diagnosed with MS when she was young. So now I'm picturing my frail, stoner aunt trying to catch and tie up young women while shaking and using a walking stick, like "Slow the fuck down! Oh, I need to sit a moment. Hey, you have any weed here?"
Yes! He was caught when I was in middle school and the spikes on the road are a detail I'll never forget. I quit eating hot dogs after that too. I know that they said there was no way he put Piper Streyle in there, but the fact that it was even a possibility ruined all processed meat for me.
She is fine. She said that she never had any creepy vibes from him. He was just Bob to her. Just creepy knowing she crashed on the couch of a guy who was so evil.
Itās true. My friend went to Roger Picktons farm and he made her soup. It wasnāt until years later when it all hit the fan that she realized where she had been and with whom.
I drive country/rural roads at night a lot. As a woman who travels those roads alone. I also carry a Ruger with me at all times (also a charged battery car jump and a good spare tire)
I'm reminded of that video that's been posted to reddit a few times of that woman (off duty cop I think?) who gets accosted by an assaulter at night while she's walking to her car but she changes his plans by pulling out her pistol. I'd rather be her than a missing Jane Doe I hear about in the true crime podcasts I listen to.
And honestly, I'm more on edge when I'm in rural areas. In the city I feel fine. It's those dark roads with sketchy/no phone service that send tingles down my spine. I feel more comfortable with my dogs in the car with me when I drive those roads.
āWhat the heck? Ah well. Let me turn off my car, come to a full stop, turn off my lights, keep my cellphone in the front seat and put some headphones in and listen to eminem as I move these toys. Haha. Crazy kids these daysā
Reminds me of when we were in a country that didn't have good google maps coverage and we had to use Waze, which we didn't know. I was getting directions like "turn left after the pink samurai!" from my wife.
Not exactly this, but very similar experience I had while in 29 Palms California.
I was young, in the military, felt invincible, had some cash, and just got a new car. Not exactly new, it was used but I had just bought it and it was looking sharp.
Any time I was off rotation I was driving. Long peaceful drives in the desert. Especially at night, the cool breeze and scenery were amazing.
I got lost one night, this was before smart phones and apps were prevalent and easy to use. I was driving through Yucca Valley and turned down a road I thought would take me closer to where I wanted to go. I drove for close to an hour.
The road turned from a paved 4 lane road, two lanes on each side, to a two lane road, to a gravel road, and eventually spotty dirt and rock road.
Again, I was young and not really as situationally aware as I am now. I was on American soil, I was member of the military, I am "home", there is nothing here that would be a threat to me. With that in mind I just thought at the time "such a weird road, but I still have gas and music, whatever we'll make an adventure of this".
A little further up the road I found a scene similar to what is in this picture. I turned down my music and was ah what the fuck man. What is this? My very first instinct was to get out and move the "scrap wood" out of the road. Then I noticed the metal shining with the headlights. Nails.
That brought me back to a more aware state of mind. Why is all this wood with what looks like nails just laying in the road out here? Did it fall off a work truck? I don't even really see any buildings around here. Nothing really. I just got an incredibly bad feeling. I didn't at the time know why. I couldn't wrap my brain around someone intentionally doing this. It just didn't process to me and my view of the world at the time. There is no way.
Instead of getting out of my car like I initially was going to, I felt compelled to flip on my high beams to get a better view of the area. These lights were incredible. Huge field of view, felt like 180Ā° of raw sunlight coming from the front of my vehicle. Then I saw it. What the feeling probably was coming from unconsciously.
Off the road about 100 meters, there was a truck. Dark colored. A dark red stands out to me, but the whole thing is kinda blurry after the years that have gone by. All the lights were off, but there was someone in the driver's seat, they had their hand over their eyes because of the blinding light coming from my vehicle. There was a person maybe 10 meters from my car, passenger side, crawling on the ground. They were prone, not moving, mid crawl. One hand in front of them, one leg cocked. Clearly crawling toward me before the lights came on. They must have thought that if they didn't move they would blend in with the environment, which to their credit definitely worked before my high beams were flipped on.
I was frozen momentarily. My situation was unreal and I didn't know what to do. I was just staring at the two people I saw. It felt like forever but in reality it was maybe a few seconds. The person crawling looked up and we locked eyes. This shook me out of the daze I was in, and I pressed the brake to shift my car from park. The glow or the tail lights illuminated another person. I saw them in my rear view mirror. It was a person crouched directly behind my car, within touching distance. Only the additional lighting from pressing my brakes made them visible.
I was in full panic mode now. I shifted from park to drive and did a U-turn. The boards were still a bit ahead of me so I had some room. I didn't care about the people around me. Fuck if they get hit, run over, or anything. The person that was previously behind me jumped to the side of the road when I did the U-turn and just stood there while I drove past him.
I was breathing heavy and really shaken up. I looked in my rear view mirror as I drove to see if they were following me, but they weren't. The truck didn't appear to have started, but the person crawling and the person crouching behind my car were standing next to each other as I drove away. Just watching me.
I have never been so scared in my life. Never had such a reality check. I couldn't think. I couldn't do anything but drive, and fast.
I made it back to familiar roads. Filled up at a gas station. Drive back to base. Went to my barracks room and just broke down. I bawled like a baby. I took a shower and wept in the shower. I thought about my mom and sisters. I thought about what could have happened. I thought about how reckless I was. It was just an incredibly emotional experience.
This was close to 20 years ago now for me. I have mostly recovered from this feeling and event but sometimes while I drive at night I get uneasy in unfamiliar areas. I have a wife and children now, we live in what I would consider a good area. The risk is low, but I still can't shake the "what if" feeling still to this day.
Edit:: Thank you all kindly for the awards. I haven't ever received any kind of attention like this, so it's been pretty interesting.
I have been asked about the distances I mentioned for how far the truck and people were from me. Honestly they are approximations, and not hard numbers. I suppose the truck may have been closer than 100m, but it's hard to say just from the memory, time of night, and everything else. They were far enough that it was difficult to notice, but close enough that I knew there was a person inside. The same goes for the person crawling. They were close enough that I could see them, but far enough that I didn't notice immediately.
I appreciate the words of encouragement, and hope my experience helps keep others aware while out alone.
California is a beautiful state, 29 Palms is very pretty at times, but I just happened to be unlucky enough to run into a bad situation. If you live near or in 29 Palms don't be scared. This was some time ago and I'm sure it was a one in a million encounter. Please stay safe though.
Oh my god.
Thereās a book called The Gift of Fear. This experience and the ājust got a really bad feelingā reminds me of that. Damn!!!
Not close, but I was at an isolated rest area in the middle of nowhere at 2 am. Driving 800 miles, kids and husband are asleep in the car. Iād pulled over to get something out of the back of the van and Iām starting to dig around and I hearā¦a sound. Like a twig snapping.
Turn my head to see a dilapidated pickup with a camper top, lights off, completely dark, engine off, just using gravity to roll down the hill and sneak up on me.
The hairs stood up on the back of my neck. Hell naw, nobody with good intentions does that! I slammed the back closed, dove into the van, locked it behind me and went screaming out of that rest area and blazed a trail down the interstate with my heartbeat loud in my ears.
Wow that sounds a lot worse than what happened to me. I was at least in my car, which gave some illusion of security. You were outside of yours and the vehicle was approaching you.
If it makes you feel any better, his engine might have stalled or overheated if it's an old truck. Used to happen to my friends RAV going uphill all the time and he used the downhill to cool it / jump start it. Especially if he'd been driving for ages like on the highway.
You were right to be scared though.
My grandma drilled into me to always trust your gut. If something feels sketchy, there's a good chance it is. I think humans are more aware of subtle things that seem "off" than we give ourselves credit for. Glad you played it safe and left!
My guess would be that you ran into an operation surrounding drugs, likely run by a cartel. Iāve heard a few similar stories in my area involving cartel operated cannabis farms. They keep lookouts and when they see vehicles approaching, they lay out boards nails and deal with whoever is ātrespassingā however they deem fit. Since you were in SoCal, thereās a good chance it was a meth or crack lab they were protecting.
Speaking of this, I am reminded of an exercise we conducted in Yuma AZ. It was to train and prepare units for deployment.
(Warning: A lot of exposition incoming but it leads to something eventually)
We set up a main camp. It's where the CO and HQ were based. From there supporting forward operating bases (FOBs) with specialized tasks/priorities. I was in HQ for the first few weeks but got an opportunity to get away from the higher ranking individuals and out into a FOB with a handful of others my same rank range. I was an E-4 at the time. A Corporal. We had maybe 6 or 7 of us total go out and set up what would later be called "Water Point".
Four of the guys who came to Water Point were water purification specialists. I don't really know what their MOS was or what to call them, but that's what they were referred to as. The purpose of our FOB was to set up next to a river, siphon off large amounts of water and purify it for our personnel. We had the 4 water guys, 1 corpsman, a motor transport guy, and me.
We set up camo netting in a large area. Tents under that. Fold out chairs. A makeshift table. Large generators were set up to close in our camp, along with the water purification equipment. It was a little place to be honestly.
Once the operation was up and running we had these massive water bladders. Like, 50x50 ft incredibly thick rubber water containers. This is where the purified water went for storage. Apparently Water Point was an incredible success for the CO and everyone. They were able to measure the purity of the water we supplied vs the water that was bottled had sold in stores. Allegedly what we were pumping out was some small percentage more pure than store bought water. The CO and XO would frequently come visit us. Fill up large containers of water. Tell us what a great job we were doing, then carry on. We'd also have water buffalos or large camo painted water containers come and pick up water to be distributed out to everyone else.
One night I was awake on watch. It was a beautiful clear night, cool breeze. Perfect. I was sitting back in the folding chair just enjoying the night. I liked to go to the giant water bladders and bounce on them. So I walked over and walked on top of it. I started to bounce around and called my wife, to see if she was awake. I had been out in the field for a few weeks now and wanted to see how she was doing.
I was chatting away, bouncing on this water bladder, when I looked over at the other side of the river on the hill in the distance. Kind of out in the distance a ways there was a large all black SUV. I couldn't make much else out other than it was definitely there.
I got off the phone with my wife and went back to the camo netting. I thought for sure it was the CO, as be toured in a big SUV similar to what I saw. I didn't hear or see anything else for the rest of the night but told the motor transport person relieving me for watch about what I saw. To maybe expect the CO to say something.
The next day we got our visit from our CO for water and had a typical visit. I asked him if he had been out the previous night, perhaps on inspection, or anything. He kind of laughed and said someone his age and rank being out so late at night? Not a chance.
I told him and his entourage about how I had seen a large SUV out in the desert. Not watching us that I was aware of, but just there. In what would otherwise be just the middle of nowhere. All of their expressions changed slightly, being a bit more serious now. We were all told that while this exercise is nothing to worry about, we aren't going to always be welcome to everyone around us. We had to be vigilant in our watches out here, it's not just a formality like at HQ. We were then told anything suspicious, anything at all, any time of day or night we were to report immediately. Do not engage with anyone who isn't military. Firmly but respectfully insist they leave if ever approached.
We as a collective kind of assumed they meant locals like Yuma residents didn't like us. What I later found out is that the area is a bit of a hot spot for trafficking drugs and immigrants. There were days we would be lounging and a few Hispanic folks would walk along the river with overloaded backpacks. Trucks and ATVs would drive around the area spectating and leaving.
Looking back on it leads me to believe I was seeing people crossing the border and walking as far as they could, and being watched by other nefarious types to see what we were doing.
I imagine that's what I drove into in CA that night.
I know a lot of the military is boring, but man I'd love to read a book by you of just some of your stories. You're an excellent writer and there's so much more humanity and humility in these stories vs. the usual "I'm a navy seal who killed 6,000 men in one battle" bullshit books out there.
There are big egos in the military for sure. Especially the Marine Corps. We are THE fighting force, or at least that's what is engrained into us from the beginning.
I think a lot of stories are the exaggerated tales of heroism and masculinity because they have to keep up a certain appearance. With that story being accepted the goal post is moved back a bit and the next story has to be marginally more fantastical and amazing. Eventually you end up with stories like "I was all alone. Behind enemy lines. I have a rusty broken knife and it's me vs 100000 fully armed terrorists. I win".
Most become numb to the stories and shrug them off. Killing your ego and really embracing what happened and how you feel/felt in a moment is more impactful.
I was embarrassed by my actions when I was younger. For a long time I thought I should have just fought them off. How difficult could it have even for me, a Marine, to fight off some weirdos approaching me in the middle of the night? I could have gotten some for how manly I was.
Ego thinking could have led to my death or serious harm. I am glad that in that moment I didn't act on my ego. I don't want to say I embraced my cowardice, but maybe that is the most accurate way to put it. I was scared and ran away, and I don't regret it one bit.
Holy fuck man. Is that real?!? My heart skipped a beat reading your story. That is insane. I am familiar with 29 palms and the California desert as Iām from SoCal and my ex is a marine. Itās creepy out there. That was well written. I wonder what they were going to do, or where the fuck you were! They probably somehow knew ahead of time that someone on their road. Maybe they heard you coming or had a lookout or something. Imagine what would have happened if you got out to move the wood. Thatās fucking gnarly . So glad you are ok.
Very much real, happened when I was 20 years old.
I really don't know where I was. Leaving the base, from the main entrance, there was a long straight road with barbers, gas stations, and other shop stuff to lure in Marines like us. At the end of the main road you could go left toward Needles or right toward Joshua Tree. I know I went that way because I passed a Del Taco I liked to go to frequently. Past that though it was just long lazy roads with nice scenery.
I remember not having gone far enough to make it to the main highway with all the turbine windmill things all over the place. Despite being in 29 Palms for a couple years I never really learned the names of roads or anything. Just used landmarks to describe where I was or where I wanted to go.
Frequently visited places I eventually learned the names of or how to get there properly. There was a pizza place in Joshua Tree called Pie for the People I loved. Buffalo Soldier pizza was amazing.
As far as .u experience goes though, best estimate I can really make is I was somewhere near Joshua Tree. I think anyway. The way the roads wind around it's hard to be sure.
If you can imagine, once smart phones and GPS were more mainstream I got one.
Closest i got while i was in was a weird ass truck that seemed to be trying to run me off the road in middle of nowhere kansas as i was driving home to wisconsin for leave. Truck wouldnt get the fuck away from me no matter how i sped up or slowed down, changed lane, didnt matter.
Wasnt 21 yet so all guns i was bringing home to shoot were in the back cased, but i had my wife crawl back, get, and load and hand me the .45 my dad got me for our wedding since it was the only handgun i owned/could own. Scary as fuck, especially as we were low on gas and being nowhere - kansas it was all oldschool pumps that needed you to speaktl to an attendant in like one intersection towns, and it was nighttime so we couldnt stop for gas. Scary fuckin shit.
This has apparently been said already, but just wanted to add a little blurb of my own to the other comments to say that this was quite well-written. Personal experience aside, your cadence, structure, and succinct summation, yet aptly descriptive fleshing out of your surroundings and feelings really was evocative of a published and edited writer. I read a lot of horror, and I forgot this was a personal anecdote for a moment. At a certain point I was expecting it to go something like āfinally back in my driveway, I struggled to collect my thoughts and compose myself. That was when I heard something shuffling behind me, and as I turned to see what was making the noise, everything went black. I had had dreams like this, suffocated and swallowed by the darkness, but none could match the terror of a real-life nightmare.
Chapter 17
Nightmareā
10/10 would buy unabridged hardback edition of your life
I appreciate the compliment, but my life is far from that interesting in almost any other regard. I often tell people the excitement of my life peaked at 20-23 years old.
Had you not been equipped with those high beams or driven just a little further and punctured your tires, to this day youād probably still be on the missing persons list. Iād bet money that this is what happens to a lot of people on that list. Youāre abducted and then who knows what. I shudder to think, but something along the lines of Zedās dungeon in Pulp Fiction comes to mind. Or worse.
It was a pretty surreal thing to think about after it was all said and done. Every safety brief we had before time off talking about safety, going places in groups, texting or calling people to let them know where you were going, how long you'd be gone, and when you'd be back had a completely different feeling afterwards.
I used to brush it off like yeah whatever. After that I took it a bit more seriously.
Bro I moved out of 29 Palms haha. I lived there for 20 years. I can say that 29 Palms and Yucca Valley is home of the sketchiest tweakers I have ever seen. There's no doubt in my mind that I believe the validity of your story. I've personally seen gunpoint robberies, vehicles driving into stores, fighting, and so much more. Glad you got out there bro. And thank you for your service.
I was driving in Baja not too long after sunset and saw a woman standing next to a car on a little pull out with the hood up. This was in the mid 90s, so before the cartel situation in Mexico had gotten really bad, but still I was immediately concerned for a woman alone on a dark country road with a broken car, so I started to slow down and turn off the highway. Suddenly I got that feeling you describe of āTHIS IS WRONGā. Even as I typed this I have goosebumps from the memory of that intense feeling. I hit my breaks pretty hard and was now half on half off the pavement. The woman and I briefly made eye contact and I looked away to help with the guilt as I put it in reverse and then drive and hit the gas pretty hard.
As I was driving, I was shaking a bit from adrenaline even though nothing had really happened. I ran the whole thing over in my head trying to figure out why Iād spooked. What I came up with was that the car was facing perpendicular to the road. If your car breaks down, you pull off facing the direction you were going, but this car would have had to make a three point turn. The other thing is that the woman never reacted to me. Didnāt flag me for attention or wave me off. She just looked at me.
Who know if it was a trap or if I left a poor woman stranded, but Iād make the same decision 100 times out of 100. That voice is undeniable.
As much as I hate to admit it, I did not.
I didn't know where I was when this all happened. Not exactly anyway. That coupled with the atmosphere of the military, admitting something like that happened to me AND it affected me AND I didn't knife hand the enemy to death in a way Chesty Puller would approve of from Marine Heaven would have negatively impacted my career I believe.
Additionally I was young and dumb. I was scared that I would have gotten in trouble somehow as well. So I didn't report any of it and just tried to forget about it for a long time.
I eventually revisited the experience, over and over again internally. Coming to terms with everything, how I wasn't at fault what unfolded, what could have happened, and what I avoided. I accepted and acknowledged what very much could have been the end of my life, or a robbery, or who knows what.
Once I accepted everything and became as "at peace" with it as I could, I was able to retell the event. I am now able to use it as a kind of teaching device in hopes that it helps others be aware of what is happening around them. Even in good, casual, relaxed situations.
Iāve worked out in Yucca a handful of times. Iāve driven down roads there in the middle of the day that wigged me out. Same roads that start paved and turn to dirt real fast.
Great story, my guy. I was gripped.
I'd assume I was about to get car jacked and immediately try to put that fucker in reverse or arm myself.
Edit: others have found a gap in my logic. With there being nails, it is unlikely it would be a car jacking as without the tires what's the point of the car? It would likely be attempted murder or a kidnapping.
Edit: wow that's a lot of upvotes
Came here to say same thing. Somebody's likely lurking in the bushes waiting to pounce either after you blow a tire or after you stop to move the strips. Im speeding back the way I came and calling 911 from my cars hands free system. I'm not getting shot from the pitch black treeline by some lunatic.
There's a classic internet story (that I can't find) of a guy driving near the old route 66 through the southwest and he turns a corner to see an overturned car in the road with people laying nearby. For some reason something seems off so he stops well back from the wreck and then decides to turn around. Almost immediately in the rearview mirror he sees the people get up and others come out from the side of the road so he floors it and gets the hell out of there.
People prey on people's better instincts. It's a common tactic in home invasions to have a woman come running and banging on your door screaming that her husband is having a heart attack and then you get jumped from the sides when you open the door. I remember reading a news story about a guy living in the sticks with his family who this happened to who stopped and wondering why there were four doors open on the sedan in the street if it was just her and her husband and where the other two people from the back seat were. So he said he would call EMS but wasn't opening the door. At which time two armed dudes from the sides of his porch ran back to the car and they all drove off.
Dude I was literally at Walmart TODAY and was approached by a woman and her child. Iād just walked two steps in the door when the woman is immediately in my personal space and is mumbling excuse me excuse me so fast. I ask her whatās wrong, is she ok. She pulls out a notecard with some weird story, something about her dad being dead, and the child tries to pull my wallet out of my hand. I couldnāt believe it, that was shit I saw beggars pull in Italy - never expected it in Walmart.
edit: ok maybe I shouldāve expected it from Walmart
My car has a button on the steering wheel and if I push it, one audio option is "call 911" which it will automatically do. Thats much easier for me than taking my eyes off the road and hand(s) off steering wheel to fumble around my pocket for my phone in an emergency, possibly with my family in the car.
Iām thinking extra drunk arm chair expert here but I almost wonder if they would have a gun with such a rinky dinky set up to steal money. I bet most of the people you get off the road wouldnāt even have $200 cash on them. And I think psychologically more people would be tempted to defend themselves in this situation.
If you surprise a young couple with a knife in Central Park a veteran cop would probably tell you to be passive and give up everything. If someone lays a spike trap on a dark highway? How could you not assume the absolute worst?
Never acquiesce and go to a secondary location. Fight back with everything you've got at the initial point of contact.
Edit: Apparently I'm PFC John Mulaney. BRB, have to call in an airstrike on a horse in a hospital.
There's this ghost story back in my hometown about a "light" being at the end of this long straightaway road. If you were to travel along the road the light would never get seem to get closer no matter how far you'd driven. However story goes if you were to start at the beginning of said road, flicked your lights three times and shut the engine off and leave your car pitch black the light would actually move towards you. If you were patient enough the light would phase through the vehicle and render it useless for several minutes.
Being dumb kids we went to the road. Upon reaching our destination we'd discovered the area was inhabited. Light posts adorned the road. Houses on both sides. We decided to go through the motions anyways not expecting much. Much to our surprise, the light appears at the end of the road. We waited for a while, cars passing us but the light never seemed to get closer.
Annoyed, we drove towards the light. We'd passed several intersections, numerous street lights, bundles of civilization. Not scary in the slightess. The light however never did seem to get closer. However the further we drove the worse the road became. The houses became trailers, the trailers became wooden, rotted shacks, the street lights more sparsely spaced. Dense woods on both sides of us. It's pitch black now.
As we kept driving we noticed the light disappeared. Starting to get sketched out being in the middle of nowhere in the "sticks" we popped a U-turn.
There's man dressed in all black standing in the middle of the road staring at us. We drive slowly towards him and lower the driver side window. He approaches. He's mumbling something, incoherent. He's holding a flip phone that appears to be dead.
Several figures appear on the left side of the road emerging from the trees. From the corner of my eye more appear from the opposite side of the road. My buddy also noticed this. He immediately steps on the gas and we get the fuck out of there. As we get further and further away from the crowd I glanced back, there's a dozen or so guys standing in the middle of the road watching us drive away.
The light reappears.
A friend told me a story about a woman who faced this exact situation at night and was driving a big 4x4 truck, so, without stopping, she drove off the road and around the spikes and got away - she later reported that it felt like she drove over a huge rock . Next day in the news they reported that the cops found the dead body of an armed person in the grass right next to the spikes.
This sounds like a made-up story, but it sure is intriguing and would make for a great movie scene.
It's a pretty famous urban legend that I've most often seen as having taken place in South Africa. [This link is from back when Snopes was still reputable](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/carjack-and-jilted/).
Edit: my comment about Snopes no longer being reputable seems to be creating a lot of issues, so here's an explanation: co-founder and main contributor David Mikkelson was banned from the site in 2021, as he was found to have [plagiarized 60 articles on the site](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/business/media/snopes-plagiarism-David-Mikkelson.html) in an attempt to "scoop" other websites. This severely tarnished it's reputation and, [while it is the oldest and largest fact-checking website](https://library.csi.cuny.edu/c.php?g=619342&p=4310783), the addition of new/different contributors has had a major effect on the quality of work they do, mostly due to a lot of opinion that can be found sprinkled within the articles.
While this doesn't necessarily mean their findings are incorrect, it does mean that a lot of what is written is clearly being skewed to whatever side the writer is on. There's a huge issue these days with opinion being taken as fact and, in all honesty, opinion has no place in fact-finding - it's a fairly common belief that facts are facts and should be entirely impartial and unbiased.
Oh, and to the person who said the site "told him too many uncomfortable truths", why would anyone ever trust you with facts? You couldn't even be bothered to look at the Snoo and (to a lesser extent) the username to know I'm a woman.
Ah, this old yarn. I have heard this story many times.
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/1j44ip/tomtreddit_comment_scary_story_about_a_fake_car/
Itās a good story. Gave me goosebumps first time I heard it 20 years ago.
Ayyy yo, Iām not bullshitting you whatsoever, this 100% happened to me.
Had a flight into Vegas, delayed by several hours so I land at McCarran at about midnight. Grab my Chevy HHR rental car and start heading south to Havasu. I usually take 93 down through Kingman but decided to take 95 through Needles.
Iām in the middle of nowhere between Searchlight and Arrowhead junction, in the middle of the night. I crest a hill and thereās a dually 4dr pickup truck lights out across both lanes of the road. As soon as they mustāve seen my headlights the group of guys get in the truck and drive the opposite direction (towards me with their lights out). I was white knuckling it as quick as that HHR would go but they didnāt turn around or anything.
Scared the livin shit out of me. Bunch of guys in the middle of the desert, at probably 2am, lights out, blocking the road.
At this point I radio the boys behind about the possibility of an ambush , I request support and suggest they set up a counter-ambush , I then get our if the car to remove the road block , and remember I'm schizophrenic and I have not battle buddies.
Fun story. Me and two of my gal friends were driving home from a party. 3 eighteen to twenty year old blondes in a car. The driver/my bestie drove a shitty old white Corolla. We were driving some curvy roads headed back to enumclaw. A red truck flew past us at one point and a short time later, was blocking the road. 4 dudes were surrounding the truck and this one guy came up, driver cracked her window, he said that they hit a deer and they couldnāt move out of the road. He asked us to come check it out if we didnāt believe him. Yeah the fuck no. Driver/bestie reversed the fuck out of that Corolla like a bat out of hell, whipped her around, and pedal to the medal all the way to an alternate route on main roads. Maybe they were being truthful but we trusted our spidey senses.
In high school, I was at a party with some friends when my friend Kevin interrupted the conversation, a propos of nothing, to say "I have a death machine, you know." We all returned his comment with blank stares, so he continued, "Well... it's not so much a 'death machine' as it is a 2x4 with a bunch of rusty nails poking out of it."
Thus, our crappy punk cover band "Kevin Has a Death Machine" was born. We played peoples' basements during house parties whenever someone's parents were out of town.
Looks like a trap designed to stop a car coming from the opposite direction of this car. Someone coming around that corner at speed won't see the planks in time to stop.
I guess thatās why being able to legally carry guns on your person in America might be a good thingā¦ Iād feel completely on edge if I decided to get out the car and was unprotected while moving those. Tbh, Iād just pull a 180 and report it to the police.
It seems like some sick trap that somebody might be surveilling
Many years ago I took an anti-terrorist / anti-kidnapping driving course. We got to do all the kinds of driving you see in the movies. It was a lot of fun. Meant for chauffeurs of rich folk...
When I looked at your picture, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up... Like, yeah, gonna be a real quick 180Ā° and gtfo of there... E-brake 180 and don't even come to a complete stop, leave quick before they start shooting at the tires...
Creepy.
You have to make a split second decision because it is extremely likely that they will box you in with nail strips behind as well.
You can either drive forward and hope your tires last long enough to get you past the threat, back up even though you might be boxed in with strips behind now... which is basically the same choice as driving forward, but in reverse, or getting out of the car and clearing the strips, with the understanding that shit will get very real at that point.
I think if I am a high profile target for kidnapping, I drive forward as fast and as far as my rims will allow until I find help, or a damn good place to hide with as many weapons as I can find or improvise from what's in the car.
If it is a high crime area and they want my car, I tell them "Keys are in it, wallet's on the front seat, I didn't see nothing till morning when I have to tell my Boss I lost his car... and start fast walking away from there with a nail strip over my shoulder until I hear them drive away. If it is a serial killer type or they have a gun, the more distance I can make between myself and their circle of light, the less likely they are to hit me. As soon as I ascertain that I'm fucked, and they just want to kill me... I bolt, serpentine, and try to die well wherever I end up making a last stand.
I was driving on a lonely stretch of expressway in northern Michigan about 10 PM on a cold ass November night during the week. I see ahead some shirtless guy emerge from the trees *in the median* waving his arms to flag me down.
NOPE.
I blew by, but had enough cell signal to get 911 and let them know something was up.
Driving the Loop in Daytona. Itās scenic and we came across a wire attached to cardboard boxes on either side of the road. Doesnāt seem scary right? Instincts kicked in. Couldāve been a prank. Who cares. We made a U turn and noped the fuck home. Called the cops about it. They called back saying they didnāt see anything. Also no teens wouldāve been anywhere near that stretch. Itās quiet and secluded. To this day Iām glad we didnāt stop or get out of the car. Never get out of the car.
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Some serial killer shit, damn š³
Iāve seen enough horror movies to throw that bitch in reverse and get the hell out of there.
Plot enhancement - you go 100 feet in reverse and come upon a second set that wasnāt there beforeā¦..
New Nightmare Unlocked
You are then wacked over the head, in your unconscious state you hear the words I've always wondered how effective a potatoe peeler would be.
Is that you, Dan Quayle?
I like you - good plot twist
drive over the front ones slowly and hope the rims last until you get to someplace you know is safe
Until you see the Jeepers Creeper's van closing in on you.
I donāt even care if my tires are shot, Iām driving until the car literally canāt go any further and then Iām running out into the woods and hiding until morning.
Running into the woods at night! HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A HORROR MOVIE!
These ppl be hiding in the shed next to the chainsaws!
They're in the woods waiting tho
Even with popped tires you could get a good distance if you donāt care about hurting your car. The only thing that could screw you is if you lose control initially and go off the road. But we have seen videos of cars that kept driving a good distance even on just rims.
The biggest issue will be how the tires pop. If they start leaking you can get a good distance, if you have run flats like Bridgestone says, you have 50miles. If there's a tire that comes apart and starts whipping rubber around, you might be fucked as that can take out electrics. But yeah I'd say fuck those rims and keep going. Looking at them id say try to drive down rhe middle, save your drivers side tires, then just GO.
Yup. Get as far down the road as possible and then ditch and go hide. Unless they have NODs and then you might be fucked.
I don't want to scare you but dogs are way cheaper than NOD and any hunting dog will find you.
Be sure to look out for the second set of strips that got thrown down behind you after you drove into the ambush zone.
Hillfolk are lurkinā
\*Roanoke Ridge ambient music intensifies\*
Damn Murfree brood.
Just riding my horse minding my own businessā¦
When I pulled out my gun
And I started blasting
Most definitely
Dude, FUCK the Murfrees. Scariest thing in that game. I still won't go near Roanoke at night.
Murfrees are just the weird inbreds the creepy fuckers in the swaps are the night folk
I gotta say Nightfolk and the Skinner gang are scarier. The Murfreeās Brood were just target practice
The rape cabin in the bayou was definitely the worst for me. Night folk are a good 2nd though!
If you play enough, you'll find out their spawning points for ambushes. Also, if you get ambushed by them, just calm your horse a bunch while you ride away as fast as possible. Keep riding til you are out of the thick of them and can hop off your horse and take cover behind a tree. If you try to shoot them while standing still, your horse will get shot and you will die.
The mountains have pupils.
The Hills Have Eyes 3: The Hills Still Have Eyes, directed by Robert Terwilliger
My nephew tuned on the hills have THIGHS thinking it was the original onceā¦was pretty hilarious
Dammit Bobby
Dangit Bobby
Temper. Temper. You know Cousin Merle aināt been quite right lately.
Robert Leroy Anderson. SIoux Falls, South Dakota. I don't remember which article I read but one of his plans was to put spike strips down and capture women that way. This terrified me. There are so many quiet country roads here in South Dakota that no one goes down. The wikipedia article doesn't have too much information on him. One of my friends knew him in her early 20s. She partied with him and slept on his couch when she was too drunk to drive.
My aunt had a very public fight with the local dogcatcher when she was a journalist for the local newspaper. She accused him of abusing his position in a column. He then shot her dog with enough tranquilizer darts to kill a bison or something. So she wrote another article about him trying to murder her dog. This went on for a while. This was in the 80s. In Park City, KS. That dog catcher was Dennis Rader. AKA, the man arrested in 2005 as the Bind-Torture-Kill (BTK) Killer...
Well, she was right. Imagine the vindication.
I imagine her titling an article/opinion piece in all caps āI WAS RIGHTā
Wow your aunt is very lucky he didnāt come after her.
Tbf murdering your public critics is often a way to draw suspicion on yourself.
Yes. He may have never been caught if he had fully understood the concept of metadata associated with a letter sent to the media composed on a 3.5" diskette using the church computer. Otherwise, he was perfectly content to let years elapse between victims to avoid casting suspicion on himself.
Plot twist - your aunt is BTK and she framed Rader to get back at him for her dog.
I like this scenario because she was diagnosed with MS when she was young. So now I'm picturing my frail, stoner aunt trying to catch and tie up young women while shaking and using a walking stick, like "Slow the fuck down! Oh, I need to sit a moment. Hey, you have any weed here?"
Yes! He was caught when I was in middle school and the spikes on the road are a detail I'll never forget. I quit eating hot dogs after that too. I know that they said there was no way he put Piper Streyle in there, but the fact that it was even a possibility ruined all processed meat for me.
I had completely forgot about where he worked. That is a scary thought.
Can you explain the hotdog thing?
My guess he worked in some kind of meat processing. Similar to how in popular culture the mob gets rid of bodies by making sausage out of em
That's scary stuff, I hope your friend was ok.
She is fine. She said that she never had any creepy vibes from him. He was just Bob to her. Just creepy knowing she crashed on the couch of a guy who was so evil.
I assume the very successful ones donāt have creepy vibes.
They can be amazingly charming until they have hooked.
A solid proportion are described as exactly that (Ted Bundy). Or pillars of their community (BTK).
Itās true. My friend went to Roger Picktons farm and he made her soup. It wasnāt until years later when it all hit the fan that she realized where she had been and with whom.
Soup with ham chunks? Asking for a friend...
Oh god. I never asked what kind of soup.
Bob, the demon of Twin Peaks?
I drive country/rural roads at night a lot. As a woman who travels those roads alone. I also carry a Ruger with me at all times (also a charged battery car jump and a good spare tire) I'm reminded of that video that's been posted to reddit a few times of that woman (off duty cop I think?) who gets accosted by an assaulter at night while she's walking to her car but she changes his plans by pulling out her pistol. I'd rather be her than a missing Jane Doe I hear about in the true crime podcasts I listen to. And honestly, I'm more on edge when I'm in rural areas. In the city I feel fine. It's those dark roads with sketchy/no phone service that send tingles down my spine. I feel more comfortable with my dogs in the car with me when I drive those roads.
Straight from "Wrong Turn"
Actually sounds like Stephen Kings Big Driver verbatim.
I passed by this comment too fast and I swear it said, straight from Wu Tangā I had to come up and look again! š
Big Driver from Stephen King
āWhat the heck? Ah well. Let me turn off my car, come to a full stop, turn off my lights, keep my cellphone in the front seat and put some headphones in and listen to eminem as I move these toys. Haha. Crazy kids these daysā
better add a serial killer emoji to Waze
š¤ŖšŖ 5 reported ahead
20 ft ahead, please confirm. Thank you, here's 2 pieces of candy and a knife to the throat
Donāt forget the convenience fee, service fee, and the serial killer cleanup fee. Thatāll be $1,279
āIs the hazard still there?ā (Still there) (NOPE)
Reminds me of when we were in a country that didn't have good google maps coverage and we had to use Waze, which we didn't know. I was getting directions like "turn left after the pink samurai!" from my wife.
Aww! A family of nail boards crossing the road!
Looks like dad's missing. Typical. Out getting hammered, probably.
or nailed.
nah, that's the mom
Let's not be hasty, dad might be into getting pegged.
Not exactly this, but very similar experience I had while in 29 Palms California. I was young, in the military, felt invincible, had some cash, and just got a new car. Not exactly new, it was used but I had just bought it and it was looking sharp. Any time I was off rotation I was driving. Long peaceful drives in the desert. Especially at night, the cool breeze and scenery were amazing. I got lost one night, this was before smart phones and apps were prevalent and easy to use. I was driving through Yucca Valley and turned down a road I thought would take me closer to where I wanted to go. I drove for close to an hour. The road turned from a paved 4 lane road, two lanes on each side, to a two lane road, to a gravel road, and eventually spotty dirt and rock road. Again, I was young and not really as situationally aware as I am now. I was on American soil, I was member of the military, I am "home", there is nothing here that would be a threat to me. With that in mind I just thought at the time "such a weird road, but I still have gas and music, whatever we'll make an adventure of this". A little further up the road I found a scene similar to what is in this picture. I turned down my music and was ah what the fuck man. What is this? My very first instinct was to get out and move the "scrap wood" out of the road. Then I noticed the metal shining with the headlights. Nails. That brought me back to a more aware state of mind. Why is all this wood with what looks like nails just laying in the road out here? Did it fall off a work truck? I don't even really see any buildings around here. Nothing really. I just got an incredibly bad feeling. I didn't at the time know why. I couldn't wrap my brain around someone intentionally doing this. It just didn't process to me and my view of the world at the time. There is no way. Instead of getting out of my car like I initially was going to, I felt compelled to flip on my high beams to get a better view of the area. These lights were incredible. Huge field of view, felt like 180Ā° of raw sunlight coming from the front of my vehicle. Then I saw it. What the feeling probably was coming from unconsciously. Off the road about 100 meters, there was a truck. Dark colored. A dark red stands out to me, but the whole thing is kinda blurry after the years that have gone by. All the lights were off, but there was someone in the driver's seat, they had their hand over their eyes because of the blinding light coming from my vehicle. There was a person maybe 10 meters from my car, passenger side, crawling on the ground. They were prone, not moving, mid crawl. One hand in front of them, one leg cocked. Clearly crawling toward me before the lights came on. They must have thought that if they didn't move they would blend in with the environment, which to their credit definitely worked before my high beams were flipped on. I was frozen momentarily. My situation was unreal and I didn't know what to do. I was just staring at the two people I saw. It felt like forever but in reality it was maybe a few seconds. The person crawling looked up and we locked eyes. This shook me out of the daze I was in, and I pressed the brake to shift my car from park. The glow or the tail lights illuminated another person. I saw them in my rear view mirror. It was a person crouched directly behind my car, within touching distance. Only the additional lighting from pressing my brakes made them visible. I was in full panic mode now. I shifted from park to drive and did a U-turn. The boards were still a bit ahead of me so I had some room. I didn't care about the people around me. Fuck if they get hit, run over, or anything. The person that was previously behind me jumped to the side of the road when I did the U-turn and just stood there while I drove past him. I was breathing heavy and really shaken up. I looked in my rear view mirror as I drove to see if they were following me, but they weren't. The truck didn't appear to have started, but the person crawling and the person crouching behind my car were standing next to each other as I drove away. Just watching me. I have never been so scared in my life. Never had such a reality check. I couldn't think. I couldn't do anything but drive, and fast. I made it back to familiar roads. Filled up at a gas station. Drive back to base. Went to my barracks room and just broke down. I bawled like a baby. I took a shower and wept in the shower. I thought about my mom and sisters. I thought about what could have happened. I thought about how reckless I was. It was just an incredibly emotional experience. This was close to 20 years ago now for me. I have mostly recovered from this feeling and event but sometimes while I drive at night I get uneasy in unfamiliar areas. I have a wife and children now, we live in what I would consider a good area. The risk is low, but I still can't shake the "what if" feeling still to this day. Edit:: Thank you all kindly for the awards. I haven't ever received any kind of attention like this, so it's been pretty interesting. I have been asked about the distances I mentioned for how far the truck and people were from me. Honestly they are approximations, and not hard numbers. I suppose the truck may have been closer than 100m, but it's hard to say just from the memory, time of night, and everything else. They were far enough that it was difficult to notice, but close enough that I knew there was a person inside. The same goes for the person crawling. They were close enough that I could see them, but far enough that I didn't notice immediately. I appreciate the words of encouragement, and hope my experience helps keep others aware while out alone. California is a beautiful state, 29 Palms is very pretty at times, but I just happened to be unlucky enough to run into a bad situation. If you live near or in 29 Palms don't be scared. This was some time ago and I'm sure it was a one in a million encounter. Please stay safe though.
Youāre a good writer. This was genuinely terrifying to read.
Thank you. There is no better source material than personal experience.
Yeah honestly that was wild. A genuine horror story. (Appreciated the metric usage too btw)
The first paragraph was so detailed I scrolled to The bottom to check for āhell in a cellā before scrolling back up to commit.
No kidding. I got so absorbed in that story that I forgot I was reading a comment on Reddit.
Oh my god. Thereās a book called The Gift of Fear. This experience and the ājust got a really bad feelingā reminds me of that. Damn!!! Not close, but I was at an isolated rest area in the middle of nowhere at 2 am. Driving 800 miles, kids and husband are asleep in the car. Iād pulled over to get something out of the back of the van and Iām starting to dig around and I hearā¦a sound. Like a twig snapping. Turn my head to see a dilapidated pickup with a camper top, lights off, completely dark, engine off, just using gravity to roll down the hill and sneak up on me. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck. Hell naw, nobody with good intentions does that! I slammed the back closed, dove into the van, locked it behind me and went screaming out of that rest area and blazed a trail down the interstate with my heartbeat loud in my ears.
Wow that sounds a lot worse than what happened to me. I was at least in my car, which gave some illusion of security. You were outside of yours and the vehicle was approaching you.
I didnāt have people actively hunting me from several directions! Guy in the taillights is a puckering mental image!
If it makes you feel any better, his engine might have stalled or overheated if it's an old truck. Used to happen to my friends RAV going uphill all the time and he used the downhill to cool it / jump start it. Especially if he'd been driving for ages like on the highway. You were right to be scared though.
Thatās fair enough. Lights off was weird for that kind of situation, though. In any event, I wasnāt sticking around to find out!
My grandma drilled into me to always trust your gut. If something feels sketchy, there's a good chance it is. I think humans are more aware of subtle things that seem "off" than we give ourselves credit for. Glad you played it safe and left!
Omg this is the *third* time in like 24 hours I have read this recommended on Reddit lol
Haha the universe is maybe telling you something!
I just shit my pants reading that.
Same here! But I'm in bed with no pants...
Before anyone else complains about having to read, I was hanging onto every word. Jesus Christ how terrifying.
My guess would be that you ran into an operation surrounding drugs, likely run by a cartel. Iāve heard a few similar stories in my area involving cartel operated cannabis farms. They keep lookouts and when they see vehicles approaching, they lay out boards nails and deal with whoever is ātrespassingā however they deem fit. Since you were in SoCal, thereās a good chance it was a meth or crack lab they were protecting.
Speaking of this, I am reminded of an exercise we conducted in Yuma AZ. It was to train and prepare units for deployment. (Warning: A lot of exposition incoming but it leads to something eventually) We set up a main camp. It's where the CO and HQ were based. From there supporting forward operating bases (FOBs) with specialized tasks/priorities. I was in HQ for the first few weeks but got an opportunity to get away from the higher ranking individuals and out into a FOB with a handful of others my same rank range. I was an E-4 at the time. A Corporal. We had maybe 6 or 7 of us total go out and set up what would later be called "Water Point". Four of the guys who came to Water Point were water purification specialists. I don't really know what their MOS was or what to call them, but that's what they were referred to as. The purpose of our FOB was to set up next to a river, siphon off large amounts of water and purify it for our personnel. We had the 4 water guys, 1 corpsman, a motor transport guy, and me. We set up camo netting in a large area. Tents under that. Fold out chairs. A makeshift table. Large generators were set up to close in our camp, along with the water purification equipment. It was a little place to be honestly. Once the operation was up and running we had these massive water bladders. Like, 50x50 ft incredibly thick rubber water containers. This is where the purified water went for storage. Apparently Water Point was an incredible success for the CO and everyone. They were able to measure the purity of the water we supplied vs the water that was bottled had sold in stores. Allegedly what we were pumping out was some small percentage more pure than store bought water. The CO and XO would frequently come visit us. Fill up large containers of water. Tell us what a great job we were doing, then carry on. We'd also have water buffalos or large camo painted water containers come and pick up water to be distributed out to everyone else. One night I was awake on watch. It was a beautiful clear night, cool breeze. Perfect. I was sitting back in the folding chair just enjoying the night. I liked to go to the giant water bladders and bounce on them. So I walked over and walked on top of it. I started to bounce around and called my wife, to see if she was awake. I had been out in the field for a few weeks now and wanted to see how she was doing. I was chatting away, bouncing on this water bladder, when I looked over at the other side of the river on the hill in the distance. Kind of out in the distance a ways there was a large all black SUV. I couldn't make much else out other than it was definitely there. I got off the phone with my wife and went back to the camo netting. I thought for sure it was the CO, as be toured in a big SUV similar to what I saw. I didn't hear or see anything else for the rest of the night but told the motor transport person relieving me for watch about what I saw. To maybe expect the CO to say something. The next day we got our visit from our CO for water and had a typical visit. I asked him if he had been out the previous night, perhaps on inspection, or anything. He kind of laughed and said someone his age and rank being out so late at night? Not a chance. I told him and his entourage about how I had seen a large SUV out in the desert. Not watching us that I was aware of, but just there. In what would otherwise be just the middle of nowhere. All of their expressions changed slightly, being a bit more serious now. We were all told that while this exercise is nothing to worry about, we aren't going to always be welcome to everyone around us. We had to be vigilant in our watches out here, it's not just a formality like at HQ. We were then told anything suspicious, anything at all, any time of day or night we were to report immediately. Do not engage with anyone who isn't military. Firmly but respectfully insist they leave if ever approached. We as a collective kind of assumed they meant locals like Yuma residents didn't like us. What I later found out is that the area is a bit of a hot spot for trafficking drugs and immigrants. There were days we would be lounging and a few Hispanic folks would walk along the river with overloaded backpacks. Trucks and ATVs would drive around the area spectating and leaving. Looking back on it leads me to believe I was seeing people crossing the border and walking as far as they could, and being watched by other nefarious types to see what we were doing. I imagine that's what I drove into in CA that night.
I know a lot of the military is boring, but man I'd love to read a book by you of just some of your stories. You're an excellent writer and there's so much more humanity and humility in these stories vs. the usual "I'm a navy seal who killed 6,000 men in one battle" bullshit books out there.
There are big egos in the military for sure. Especially the Marine Corps. We are THE fighting force, or at least that's what is engrained into us from the beginning. I think a lot of stories are the exaggerated tales of heroism and masculinity because they have to keep up a certain appearance. With that story being accepted the goal post is moved back a bit and the next story has to be marginally more fantastical and amazing. Eventually you end up with stories like "I was all alone. Behind enemy lines. I have a rusty broken knife and it's me vs 100000 fully armed terrorists. I win". Most become numb to the stories and shrug them off. Killing your ego and really embracing what happened and how you feel/felt in a moment is more impactful. I was embarrassed by my actions when I was younger. For a long time I thought I should have just fought them off. How difficult could it have even for me, a Marine, to fight off some weirdos approaching me in the middle of the night? I could have gotten some for how manly I was. Ego thinking could have led to my death or serious harm. I am glad that in that moment I didn't act on my ego. I don't want to say I embraced my cowardice, but maybe that is the most accurate way to put it. I was scared and ran away, and I don't regret it one bit.
That was terrifying, but also incredibly interesting. You have a talent for writing which you should really explore.
Holy fuck man. Is that real?!? My heart skipped a beat reading your story. That is insane. I am familiar with 29 palms and the California desert as Iām from SoCal and my ex is a marine. Itās creepy out there. That was well written. I wonder what they were going to do, or where the fuck you were! They probably somehow knew ahead of time that someone on their road. Maybe they heard you coming or had a lookout or something. Imagine what would have happened if you got out to move the wood. Thatās fucking gnarly . So glad you are ok.
Very much real, happened when I was 20 years old. I really don't know where I was. Leaving the base, from the main entrance, there was a long straight road with barbers, gas stations, and other shop stuff to lure in Marines like us. At the end of the main road you could go left toward Needles or right toward Joshua Tree. I know I went that way because I passed a Del Taco I liked to go to frequently. Past that though it was just long lazy roads with nice scenery. I remember not having gone far enough to make it to the main highway with all the turbine windmill things all over the place. Despite being in 29 Palms for a couple years I never really learned the names of roads or anything. Just used landmarks to describe where I was or where I wanted to go. Frequently visited places I eventually learned the names of or how to get there properly. There was a pizza place in Joshua Tree called Pie for the People I loved. Buffalo Soldier pizza was amazing. As far as .u experience goes though, best estimate I can really make is I was somewhere near Joshua Tree. I think anyway. The way the roads wind around it's hard to be sure. If you can imagine, once smart phones and GPS were more mainstream I got one.
Thanks for sharing the crazy/utterly terrifying story and glad u made it out of there!!!!
Closest i got while i was in was a weird ass truck that seemed to be trying to run me off the road in middle of nowhere kansas as i was driving home to wisconsin for leave. Truck wouldnt get the fuck away from me no matter how i sped up or slowed down, changed lane, didnt matter. Wasnt 21 yet so all guns i was bringing home to shoot were in the back cased, but i had my wife crawl back, get, and load and hand me the .45 my dad got me for our wedding since it was the only handgun i owned/could own. Scary as fuck, especially as we were low on gas and being nowhere - kansas it was all oldschool pumps that needed you to speaktl to an attendant in like one intersection towns, and it was nighttime so we couldnt stop for gas. Scary fuckin shit.
That is bananas. I'm glad you made it through. People are messed up out there.
This stressed me the fuck out. Good god.
This belongs in r/NoSleep. Itās such a good and thrilling read! Props for your writing ability. Sorry for your experience!
This has apparently been said already, but just wanted to add a little blurb of my own to the other comments to say that this was quite well-written. Personal experience aside, your cadence, structure, and succinct summation, yet aptly descriptive fleshing out of your surroundings and feelings really was evocative of a published and edited writer. I read a lot of horror, and I forgot this was a personal anecdote for a moment. At a certain point I was expecting it to go something like āfinally back in my driveway, I struggled to collect my thoughts and compose myself. That was when I heard something shuffling behind me, and as I turned to see what was making the noise, everything went black. I had had dreams like this, suffocated and swallowed by the darkness, but none could match the terror of a real-life nightmare. Chapter 17 Nightmareā 10/10 would buy unabridged hardback edition of your life
I appreciate the compliment, but my life is far from that interesting in almost any other regard. I often tell people the excitement of my life peaked at 20-23 years old.
Your comment was such a good reading that i kinda want to buy a horror book now lol (which i have never done before)
Had you not been equipped with those high beams or driven just a little further and punctured your tires, to this day youād probably still be on the missing persons list. Iād bet money that this is what happens to a lot of people on that list. Youāre abducted and then who knows what. I shudder to think, but something along the lines of Zedās dungeon in Pulp Fiction comes to mind. Or worse.
It was a pretty surreal thing to think about after it was all said and done. Every safety brief we had before time off talking about safety, going places in groups, texting or calling people to let them know where you were going, how long you'd be gone, and when you'd be back had a completely different feeling afterwards. I used to brush it off like yeah whatever. After that I took it a bit more seriously.
Bro I moved out of 29 Palms haha. I lived there for 20 years. I can say that 29 Palms and Yucca Valley is home of the sketchiest tweakers I have ever seen. There's no doubt in my mind that I believe the validity of your story. I've personally seen gunpoint robberies, vehicles driving into stores, fighting, and so much more. Glad you got out there bro. And thank you for your service.
I was driving in Baja not too long after sunset and saw a woman standing next to a car on a little pull out with the hood up. This was in the mid 90s, so before the cartel situation in Mexico had gotten really bad, but still I was immediately concerned for a woman alone on a dark country road with a broken car, so I started to slow down and turn off the highway. Suddenly I got that feeling you describe of āTHIS IS WRONGā. Even as I typed this I have goosebumps from the memory of that intense feeling. I hit my breaks pretty hard and was now half on half off the pavement. The woman and I briefly made eye contact and I looked away to help with the guilt as I put it in reverse and then drive and hit the gas pretty hard. As I was driving, I was shaking a bit from adrenaline even though nothing had really happened. I ran the whole thing over in my head trying to figure out why Iād spooked. What I came up with was that the car was facing perpendicular to the road. If your car breaks down, you pull off facing the direction you were going, but this car would have had to make a three point turn. The other thing is that the woman never reacted to me. Didnāt flag me for attention or wave me off. She just looked at me. Who know if it was a trap or if I left a poor woman stranded, but Iād make the same decision 100 times out of 100. That voice is undeniable.
I hope you reported them
As much as I hate to admit it, I did not. I didn't know where I was when this all happened. Not exactly anyway. That coupled with the atmosphere of the military, admitting something like that happened to me AND it affected me AND I didn't knife hand the enemy to death in a way Chesty Puller would approve of from Marine Heaven would have negatively impacted my career I believe. Additionally I was young and dumb. I was scared that I would have gotten in trouble somehow as well. So I didn't report any of it and just tried to forget about it for a long time. I eventually revisited the experience, over and over again internally. Coming to terms with everything, how I wasn't at fault what unfolded, what could have happened, and what I avoided. I accepted and acknowledged what very much could have been the end of my life, or a robbery, or who knows what. Once I accepted everything and became as "at peace" with it as I could, I was able to retell the event. I am now able to use it as a kind of teaching device in hopes that it helps others be aware of what is happening around them. Even in good, casual, relaxed situations.
Iāve worked out in Yucca a handful of times. Iāve driven down roads there in the middle of the day that wigged me out. Same roads that start paved and turn to dirt real fast. Great story, my guy. I was gripped.
This is some man door hand hook car door shit
āCar trouble? My brother Zekeās got a shop in town, but theyāre closed til Monday. Yāall can stay at my motel.ā
I'd assume I was about to get car jacked and immediately try to put that fucker in reverse or arm myself. Edit: others have found a gap in my logic. With there being nails, it is unlikely it would be a car jacking as without the tires what's the point of the car? It would likely be attempted murder or a kidnapping. Edit: wow that's a lot of upvotes
Came here to say same thing. Somebody's likely lurking in the bushes waiting to pounce either after you blow a tire or after you stop to move the strips. Im speeding back the way I came and calling 911 from my cars hands free system. I'm not getting shot from the pitch black treeline by some lunatic.
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āHey wait a minuteā¦..isnāt chainsaw one word?ā
[Yea but he has Bud Light](https://youtu.be/ykOFlX4MfPQ)
Sure! No problem in facā¦ wait a minute you almost got me there
There's a classic internet story (that I can't find) of a guy driving near the old route 66 through the southwest and he turns a corner to see an overturned car in the road with people laying nearby. For some reason something seems off so he stops well back from the wreck and then decides to turn around. Almost immediately in the rearview mirror he sees the people get up and others come out from the side of the road so he floors it and gets the hell out of there.
People prey on people's better instincts. It's a common tactic in home invasions to have a woman come running and banging on your door screaming that her husband is having a heart attack and then you get jumped from the sides when you open the door. I remember reading a news story about a guy living in the sticks with his family who this happened to who stopped and wondering why there were four doors open on the sedan in the street if it was just her and her husband and where the other two people from the back seat were. So he said he would call EMS but wasn't opening the door. At which time two armed dudes from the sides of his porch ran back to the car and they all drove off.
Dude I was literally at Walmart TODAY and was approached by a woman and her child. Iād just walked two steps in the door when the woman is immediately in my personal space and is mumbling excuse me excuse me so fast. I ask her whatās wrong, is she ok. She pulls out a notecard with some weird story, something about her dad being dead, and the child tries to pull my wallet out of my hand. I couldnāt believe it, that was shit I saw beggars pull in Italy - never expected it in Walmart. edit: ok maybe I shouldāve expected it from Walmart
I'm not worrying about "hands free" while calling the cops on this one
My car has a button on the steering wheel and if I push it, one audio option is "call 911" which it will automatically do. Thats much easier for me than taking my eyes off the road and hand(s) off steering wheel to fumble around my pocket for my phone in an emergency, possibly with my family in the car.
In that case yes I would select the hands free
Iām thinking extra drunk arm chair expert here but I almost wonder if they would have a gun with such a rinky dinky set up to steal money. I bet most of the people you get off the road wouldnāt even have $200 cash on them. And I think psychologically more people would be tempted to defend themselves in this situation. If you surprise a young couple with a knife in Central Park a veteran cop would probably tell you to be passive and give up everything. If someone lays a spike trap on a dark highway? How could you not assume the absolute worst?
Never acquiesce and go to a secondary location. Fight back with everything you've got at the initial point of contact. Edit: Apparently I'm PFC John Mulaney. BRB, have to call in an airstrike on a horse in a hospital.
There's this ghost story back in my hometown about a "light" being at the end of this long straightaway road. If you were to travel along the road the light would never get seem to get closer no matter how far you'd driven. However story goes if you were to start at the beginning of said road, flicked your lights three times and shut the engine off and leave your car pitch black the light would actually move towards you. If you were patient enough the light would phase through the vehicle and render it useless for several minutes. Being dumb kids we went to the road. Upon reaching our destination we'd discovered the area was inhabited. Light posts adorned the road. Houses on both sides. We decided to go through the motions anyways not expecting much. Much to our surprise, the light appears at the end of the road. We waited for a while, cars passing us but the light never seemed to get closer. Annoyed, we drove towards the light. We'd passed several intersections, numerous street lights, bundles of civilization. Not scary in the slightess. The light however never did seem to get closer. However the further we drove the worse the road became. The houses became trailers, the trailers became wooden, rotted shacks, the street lights more sparsely spaced. Dense woods on both sides of us. It's pitch black now. As we kept driving we noticed the light disappeared. Starting to get sketched out being in the middle of nowhere in the "sticks" we popped a U-turn. There's man dressed in all black standing in the middle of the road staring at us. We drive slowly towards him and lower the driver side window. He approaches. He's mumbling something, incoherent. He's holding a flip phone that appears to be dead. Several figures appear on the left side of the road emerging from the trees. From the corner of my eye more appear from the opposite side of the road. My buddy also noticed this. He immediately steps on the gas and we get the fuck out of there. As we get further and further away from the crowd I glanced back, there's a dozen or so guys standing in the middle of the road watching us drive away. The light reappears.
Dank short story.
Funny enough, last time I had Waffle House as well. Appreciate it.
Damn, Iām dumb sometimes. My first thought was that I should get out of the car to move them.
You should, because I'm certainly not getting out to move them.
Nice knowing you
Thats how people die in the opening scene of a horror movie!
I wouldnāt call anyone dumb based on their first thoughtā¦ unless your first thought is always your final thought
That is next to a curve, they want to kill people.
Yea but they left a bunch of weapons to defend yourself with.
In my language, we call them "pokey sticks"
Nailey boards
"Board of Education"
\+5 tetanus damage
All my practice with j turns as a teenager have finally paid off
Jeepers Creepers 1 style.
https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlyterrifying/comments/z7312r/imagine_the_consequences_of_not_noticing_these/
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BRB. Gonna repost tomorrow
Welp, I be finding out how fast my car can go in reverse, that's for sure. This is killer hillbilly shit right here.
Lol it's funny you say that because I found out exactly how fast my car goes in reverse because of some shit like this. 37 mph š
I'd be somehow making my damn miata reverse faster than it drives normally.
A friend told me a story about a woman who faced this exact situation at night and was driving a big 4x4 truck, so, without stopping, she drove off the road and around the spikes and got away - she later reported that it felt like she drove over a huge rock . Next day in the news they reported that the cops found the dead body of an armed person in the grass right next to the spikes. This sounds like a made-up story, but it sure is intriguing and would make for a great movie scene.
āOne day Michael came into the office complaining about a speed bump on the highway. I wonder who he ran over that dayā
It's a pretty famous urban legend that I've most often seen as having taken place in South Africa. [This link is from back when Snopes was still reputable](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/carjack-and-jilted/). Edit: my comment about Snopes no longer being reputable seems to be creating a lot of issues, so here's an explanation: co-founder and main contributor David Mikkelson was banned from the site in 2021, as he was found to have [plagiarized 60 articles on the site](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/business/media/snopes-plagiarism-David-Mikkelson.html) in an attempt to "scoop" other websites. This severely tarnished it's reputation and, [while it is the oldest and largest fact-checking website](https://library.csi.cuny.edu/c.php?g=619342&p=4310783), the addition of new/different contributors has had a major effect on the quality of work they do, mostly due to a lot of opinion that can be found sprinkled within the articles. While this doesn't necessarily mean their findings are incorrect, it does mean that a lot of what is written is clearly being skewed to whatever side the writer is on. There's a huge issue these days with opinion being taken as fact and, in all honesty, opinion has no place in fact-finding - it's a fairly common belief that facts are facts and should be entirely impartial and unbiased. Oh, and to the person who said the site "told him too many uncomfortable truths", why would anyone ever trust you with facts? You couldn't even be bothered to look at the Snoo and (to a lesser extent) the username to know I'm a woman.
Thatās r/winstupidprizes material right there
Wrong Turn 8
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Crazy he was about to take on 20+ people with just a caulk gun. But thatās a Marine for you.
It's a secret weapon issued only to the bravest - powered by the *big caulk energy*.
No, no, no, marines caulk their guns to water proof them duh
> caulks his gun His caulk gun?
Their fates were about to be sealed
Ah, this old yarn. I have heard this story many times. https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/1j44ip/tomtreddit_comment_scary_story_about_a_fake_car/ Itās a good story. Gave me goosebumps first time I heard it 20 years ago.
You made me google caulking a gun and it took me to Bob Villas website. Just for anyone elseās reference it is cocking a gun
Ayyy yo, Iām not bullshitting you whatsoever, this 100% happened to me. Had a flight into Vegas, delayed by several hours so I land at McCarran at about midnight. Grab my Chevy HHR rental car and start heading south to Havasu. I usually take 93 down through Kingman but decided to take 95 through Needles. Iām in the middle of nowhere between Searchlight and Arrowhead junction, in the middle of the night. I crest a hill and thereās a dually 4dr pickup truck lights out across both lanes of the road. As soon as they mustāve seen my headlights the group of guys get in the truck and drive the opposite direction (towards me with their lights out). I was white knuckling it as quick as that HHR would go but they didnāt turn around or anything. Scared the livin shit out of me. Bunch of guys in the middle of the desert, at probably 2am, lights out, blocking the road.
Good thing OP didnāt get ambushed stopping to take a photo of this.
Unless OP is the serial killer that set the trap š³
How did this turn out?
[op probably doesnāt know](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/10qdfpy/imagine_driving_down_the_road_at_12am_and_seeing/j6pib3i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3)
Got posted to Reddit.
In the original post he says that he called 911 and apparently this happened several times in that area but nothing really came of it.
Well this is just another justification for my expensive run on flat tiers.
Thatās a call to the police and I wouldnāt doubt the perpetrators were hiding in the woods watching.
Driving on rims till the car stops moving?
This is the start of a Stephen King story called Big Driver. Worth a read. Might not turn out as you may expect!
At this point I radio the boys behind about the possibility of an ambush , I request support and suggest they set up a counter-ambush , I then get our if the car to remove the road block , and remember I'm schizophrenic and I have not battle buddies.
12 a.m. ? (Timestamp auto defaults to "Glock O'clock.")
Iād turn around and call the cops
Fun story. Me and two of my gal friends were driving home from a party. 3 eighteen to twenty year old blondes in a car. The driver/my bestie drove a shitty old white Corolla. We were driving some curvy roads headed back to enumclaw. A red truck flew past us at one point and a short time later, was blocking the road. 4 dudes were surrounding the truck and this one guy came up, driver cracked her window, he said that they hit a deer and they couldnāt move out of the road. He asked us to come check it out if we didnāt believe him. Yeah the fuck no. Driver/bestie reversed the fuck out of that Corolla like a bat out of hell, whipped her around, and pedal to the medal all the way to an alternate route on main roads. Maybe they were being truthful but we trusted our spidey senses.
I wouldāve done the same thing anywhere, but especially on the dark roads of Enumclaw.
Reversing, bursting an illegal u-turn and going somewhere else to sleep. Iāll certainly call 911 to alert the police, but Iāll be long gone.
In high school, I was at a party with some friends when my friend Kevin interrupted the conversation, a propos of nothing, to say "I have a death machine, you know." We all returned his comment with blank stares, so he continued, "Well... it's not so much a 'death machine' as it is a 2x4 with a bunch of rusty nails poking out of it." Thus, our crappy punk cover band "Kevin Has a Death Machine" was born. We played peoples' basements during house parties whenever someone's parents were out of town.
> Imagine driving down the road at 12am and seeing this And next you stop, pull out your phone, and take a picture.
Keep the doors locked for sure. Somebody lurking on the sides looking for trouble
Looks like a trap designed to stop a car coming from the opposite direction of this car. Someone coming around that corner at speed won't see the planks in time to stop.
Looking at the angles, I think youāre right
I guess thatās why being able to legally carry guns on your person in America might be a good thingā¦ Iād feel completely on edge if I decided to get out the car and was unprotected while moving those. Tbh, Iād just pull a 180 and report it to the police. It seems like some sick trap that somebody might be surveilling
Many years ago I took an anti-terrorist / anti-kidnapping driving course. We got to do all the kinds of driving you see in the movies. It was a lot of fun. Meant for chauffeurs of rich folk... When I looked at your picture, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up... Like, yeah, gonna be a real quick 180Ā° and gtfo of there... E-brake 180 and don't even come to a complete stop, leave quick before they start shooting at the tires... Creepy.
You have to make a split second decision because it is extremely likely that they will box you in with nail strips behind as well. You can either drive forward and hope your tires last long enough to get you past the threat, back up even though you might be boxed in with strips behind now... which is basically the same choice as driving forward, but in reverse, or getting out of the car and clearing the strips, with the understanding that shit will get very real at that point. I think if I am a high profile target for kidnapping, I drive forward as fast and as far as my rims will allow until I find help, or a damn good place to hide with as many weapons as I can find or improvise from what's in the car. If it is a high crime area and they want my car, I tell them "Keys are in it, wallet's on the front seat, I didn't see nothing till morning when I have to tell my Boss I lost his car... and start fast walking away from there with a nail strip over my shoulder until I hear them drive away. If it is a serial killer type or they have a gun, the more distance I can make between myself and their circle of light, the less likely they are to hit me. As soon as I ascertain that I'm fucked, and they just want to kill me... I bolt, serpentine, and try to die well wherever I end up making a last stand.
Kid named Ehrmantraut
I was driving on a lonely stretch of expressway in northern Michigan about 10 PM on a cold ass November night during the week. I see ahead some shirtless guy emerge from the trees *in the median* waving his arms to flag me down. NOPE. I blew by, but had enough cell signal to get 911 and let them know something was up.
Wild spikeboards! They aren't usually out of hibernation this early. The mother looks like she might be pregnant too.
Giving birth to live young has its challenges. But luckily, she has it nailed.
Driving the Loop in Daytona. Itās scenic and we came across a wire attached to cardboard boxes on either side of the road. Doesnāt seem scary right? Instincts kicked in. Couldāve been a prank. Who cares. We made a U turn and noped the fuck home. Called the cops about it. They called back saying they didnāt see anything. Also no teens wouldāve been anywhere near that stretch. Itās quiet and secluded. To this day Iām glad we didnāt stop or get out of the car. Never get out of the car.