“Someone had watched me come and go from my apartment and was outside, just feet away on the other side of the front door. I froze.”

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"He had a huge flashlight, but there were no other lights on as I had turned my lights off when I turned off my car. He walked kind of weirdly towards my car, and for some reason, the hairs on my arms started standing up, and something kept telling me danger. I couldn’t understand why, because this was a policeman, and I didn’t do anything wrong, so why was I getting scary vibes? The cop got to my window and acted all friendly. He asked where I was going. I told him I was going home from work. I still had my work uniform on, so he had to know it was the truth. He asked me to step out of the car as he wanted to check if I was drunk. 

This was getting weird. Something kept telling me not to get out of the car. There was no way he thought I was drunk, as I don’t drink, and I had been driving carefully and was in my work uniform. I don’t know where my brain got so smart, but I said: 'What station do you work out of? My dad is a police captain.' He stopped cold. He said, 'Your Dad is a cop?' I told him yes and asked him again which station he worked at and what his name was. This was all long before cell phones. I don’t know why, but every part of my body was in terror mode and said not to get out of the car. The policeman froze and said, 'Well, never mind. I will let you go this time with a warning.' He ran back to his police car and left. 

I sat there a minute, trying to stop shaking and wondering where I'd come up with such a good lie. My dad was a rancher, and not a cop, and I had no idea where that came from, except I felt like I was in danger and didn’t want to get out of the car. A few months later, there was a headline in the newspaper about finally catching a guy in our town who was a cop but would chase down women alone on lonely highways when he was off duty and rape and kill them. They had no idea that the serial killer was actually a cop but it all made sense how he had been doing it when I saw the photo of the guy who had stopped me that night."

"Then they’d beat me up, tell me if I told anyone, they’d kill my parents, and I’d have to live with them. I got fed up and fought back. When I was in my twenties, the eldest attacked me, and I fought back. I told myself if I die, at least I’ll go out fighting. He had grabbed me by my throat, choking me, and slammed my head into the window and walls. I was loud enough that someone finally heard."

"Of course, the manager was fired immediately, but here’s the really amazing part. The next week, I went into another store, and the same thing happened. I hadn’t even discovered any theft, but the manager came at me with a pistol as soon as I entered the area behind the counter, saying he was going to kill me. Had to use a pay phone in the lobby to call my boss. After that, my boss asked me to become the auditor for all 100+ stores in Southern California. I didn’t say no, but within 6six months, I found a new job with a different company. Didn’t think I would continue to be lucky to live. Also opened my eyes to how much dishonesty there is in the world."

"My body immediately bolted awake because I realized someone was, in fact, walking up and down the stairs right outside. Someone was on the little porch that led up to the entrance. Someone had watched me come and go from my apartment and was outside, just feet away on the other side of the front door. I froze, but had the presence of mind to tell myself I needed to fight like hell. Because there was only one door in and one door out. I couldn't use my cellphone because the reception was terrible. It was a college town in the middle of a cornfield. But by the grace of God, the person didn't do anything. They just left. To my relief. It did snow that night. And when I woke up the next morning, there were footprints in the snow on the stairs leading up to my apartment. This was back in the 2010s, so doorbell cameras weren't commonplace."

"He finally gave up once we were outside in the courtyard. I was bleeding out and naked and ended up collapsing in the foyer of the building next door. I woke up in the hospital a couple of days later with multiple knife wounds, two bullets in me, and my right arm and hand paralyzed. The police showed up a few hours later and took a video statement from me. My security camera had caught almost all the action in HD, full color, infrared-enhanced detail. Somehow, the prosecution couldn't find me living in the same apartment, so I couldn't testify. So, he only got eight years instead of 20-something, convicted of GBH assault instead of attempted murder. I have only 20% functionality in my right arm and hand, and chronic pain from extensive nerve damage. It turned out he was on a lot of something, had a psychotic break, and had been planning to kill me for a while. I still do not know to this day. I have since moved out, as the apartment was condemned after flooding in the aftermath due to mold. He gets released in a few years, and I hope what he did haunts him for the rest of his life. I, for one, have moved on and am living my life free and without regret."

"As the brightness faded, I opened my eyes a little bit. I started to see, but could only make out silhouettes of people and animals there to meet me. I then moved backward, and I was upright as I reentered my body. Before I was all the way back into my body, I saw my husband sitting back away from me. The look on his face wasn’t sad. It looked like an 'I’m in trouble' look, and it was like the wheels were turning to figure out how to get out of trouble. As I completely reattached to my body, he could see that I was alive again and looked relieved that he wasn’t going to be in trouble. His only concern was for himself. I escaped from him within the year."

I am in a corner with no way to escape as he starts to move towards me. Just as he was about to lunge at me, two bouncers tackled him. Immediately after that, a huge fight broke out between several race teams and the bouncers.

The club had extra security, and the police arrived quickly, so things were back under control within a few minutes. We later found out that whenever the racers were in town, bar fights were expected. I feel extremely lucky that I didn’t die that night."

—Anonymous, male, Albuquerque, New Mexico

"I moved 200 miles away, and he wanted to finish the job by killing us all. We were not safe until he died. This happened in 1975."

"I remember being sure I was about to die as he fired more shots at me. I was very surprised that it wasn't panicky; it was just like "Oh, I guess this is it."

Turns out it was a plot to rob me, the pizza was ordered, and the guys were stationed down the road to intercept me. They knew who I was and that I would recognize them, as I had delivered a few orders to them before. The guy wasn't wearing anything to cover his identity, which leads me to believe that he would have shot and killed me if he had made it inside my car.

By the next morning, they had all been arrested. The shooter was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He later appealed that sentence because a word was wrong in the jury instructions. He won the appeal and was sentenced to 10 years, and was released in November 2010 after five years. The remaining five years were to be served on parole/probation. He was arrested twice for parole/probation violation when he was only a couple of months away from total freedom. I laughed."

"Meanwhile, my dad, who was in the house, finally came downstairs to check in on what was happening (mind you, this all happened VERY fast, and my dad has a habit of zoning out when my mom gets in her episodes.) He ended up pulling her off the door, and my sister and I ran out of the house and jumped in our van. He drove around the corner and turned off the lights, and we all ducked down in our seats to hide and stayed there until my dad saw her drive our other car off."

"I swear to God, before I knew what was happening or could process/register, she had the scissors out of the knife block in her hand, and she was still coming towards me, scissor points directed at me. I screamed bloody murder. My brother came rushing out of his room (right off the kitchen) as she started swinging them down at my throat. He caught her hand, maybe two inches away from my skin, and she was coming at me with enough force that there was still some forward momentum for him to counter. If he had not been there, they would have been buried in my throat."

To this day, she doesn’t understand why I have nothing to do with her, and the closest thing I’ve ever received to an apology was 'I’m sorry you’re not over that.'"

"Eventually, my dad had convinced him there was money in the basement that my mom had hidden, and I ran out the front door (it was a single-level house). My mom was on the phone with the police from a neighbor's house. What was scariest was that we were in a pretty rural area that had turkey hunting in the woods behind us. I heard a shot from the woods and assumed it was my brother murdering my dad. I had lived in a lot of fear up until that point anyway because my brother was generally violent and scary.

Took me a long time to be healthy again. I'm kind of a small person, but I still managed to lose a ton of weight and haven't been able to sleep well since. It's been almost 13 years. My parents wouldn't let me tell the truth on the police report, so I didn't write anything out or sign anything. My brother wonders now why I can't look at him or why he couldn't hug me on my wedding day."

"The guy is waiting for his shot to run, but then he casually walks away. I call the cops, they come, they catch the dude, and they RELEASE him because he didn't actually hurt me. I quit my job the next week and never attended court with him."

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.