17 Firsthand Accounts Of People Who Survived The Unthinkable

I had a nanny as a child. She had... issues that my parents overlooked because they weren't capable of handling me by themselves for some reason. She would go around calling me her daughter and my father her husband. My mom signed her paychecks tho so she was always respectful to her.

My older siblings remember her being incredibly protective of me, to the point where she wouldn't let them play with me. I remember playing alone a lot despite having three siblings and it makes sense now that that was probably why.

Eventually she got tired of just caring for me and decided to make things permanent. I was maybe 6? Not fully sure but it had to have happened before I turned 8. I remember her packing my favourite clothes and toys and telling me that we were going on a long trip, and to say goodbye to my parents (not in person, just like... in general.) This stood out to me as weird because my parents were the ones who prepped me for trips away.

While they were at work, she took me down the road and to a bus stop. In the bus, she told me to call her "mama" from that point on. We rode for a while but something changed halfway and she decided to turn back.

We bought new bus tickets, went home, and she unpacked my bags. She told me never to tell anyone about the bus ride and I was young enough to take her word for it. I'm almost 100% sure she had been trying to disappear with me and realized late in her plan that she actually had no idea what she was doing.

A friend of mine was kidnapped on his paper route. The kidnappers / robbers wanted his van to commit a robbery. They handcuffed him and put a bag over his head and left him in the back of the van through the robbery. When they were done, they told him to count to 100 before he got up and took off the mask. Pretty crazy.

I wandered off at this little mini golf/amusement park thing. It wasn't very big, so I knew my parents would find me soon enough. I decided to wait next to the only roller coaster there. I thought that since my parents knew how much I liked it, they'd come find me there soon.

Which they did.

First though, a couple employees found me. They were just teenagers themselves and panicked a bit about finding a lost kid.

They were trying to figure out if they should close the ride to take me to the list kid area or if only one of them should walk me over when a nice-looking lady walked up, grabbed my hand and told me to "come along sweetie, let's go to mommy." She had long curly black hair.

When I resisted, she waved off the employees and told me more firmly, 'time to go!"

I bit her and ran back to the fence around the ride. She kept walking towards the exit while the two teen employees tried to figure out what just happened and why my "mom" had left me. They tried to move me towards the lost kid area, but by then I was scared. I refused to go anywhere with anyone but my parents. I knew if I stayed put they'd find me, and I wasn't taking chances with strangers.

I bit the one teenager every time she tried to pick me up. She got bit a lot.

When my parents got there I tried to tell them what happened. My mom was adamant that nothing had happened except I'd misbehaved and behaved terribly in biting. Complete denial of events she wasn't witness to despite the one employee briefly trying to agree with me.

We never went back there though.

That happened a lot. Something significant happens, and my mom just denies such a thing could even be possible. Like trying to tell me I never got two teeth knocked out (and yet I'm still sitting here with two fake teeth). But sometimes she still modifies her behavior around the event.

At 14, I was flying to Japan with a a few other female students for an exchange program. There were 3 chaperones, none of which spoke any Japanese, but I had been taking classes for a couple years. Before we landed, someone approached us and told us to be the last ones off, and someone from the program would come get us. The older male chaperone smiles and said thanks, so we waited.

This guy in a black suit comes and gets us and begins to usher us away. He speaks no English and hasn't once said any of our names or the name of our exchange program, but is smiling and interacting with the idiot male chaperone. I walked up to him and, in Japanese, asked what hotel we would be staying at. "Who are you?" He asked back. When I told him I was the translator, he disappeared almost immediately.

Turns out our driver was waiting at the gates with a sign, just like we were told before we left. I think we all almost got trafficked.

I was kidnapped at gunpoint along with my younger brother and my early-twenties mother when I was in kindergarten. My father (~40 years old) hadn’t taken the divorce well and already had some psychiatric illness, so he forced us all into his truck and drove us from California to Mexico.

At the time my parents told us kids that we were taking a family trip. I remember the drive, shopping in a street market, and being greeted by the flashing lights of police cars when we eventually returned to the states. The police were nice and let us sit in the police car! I remember being excited about that.

The next thing I remember was coming home to dead pets (I think just two mice, but still). Then being upset that I had missed picture day in school when I saw the other kids receiving their photos. I’m not sure how long we were in Mexico but maybe that’ll help set the time frame.

I’m not sure what would have happened if my father hadn’t decided to take us back.

I was kidnapped way before my memories formed so this is all from my parents and the police report.

Basically, a lady in the nursing ward decided to give me a "spicy adoption" by hiding me in some sheets and taking me out of the hospital. She was tracked down a few days later and I was handed back to my parents.

She didnt mistreat me, aparently I was a healthy normal child and she even bought the expensive stuff in order to take care of me.

I got to meet her in my teens, I asked her "why me" and it was because my family hadn't done the paperwork for me correctly so I was easier to slip out and potentially give her more time to dissapear with me.

If you got more questions, feel free to reply to the message and I'll answer em.

Edit: forgot to mention, this was in 1998. I got to meet her when I was 17 in 2015.

My grandmother's brother was kidnapped and held for ransom. He's a successful businessman, was held at gunpoint in the parking lot of his office building. Was in the papers and everything (and the photo they used coincidentally had my dad in the background. His claim to fame).

It was a month before the kidnappers even made contact with the family to make their demands. These guys were pros, they've done this before and did their research. They knew exactly how much he was worth. It was really tough for us.

From his accounts, they never physically harmed him, but he was kept in a dark room the entire time and fed sandwiches. Even got him his medication. Prayer and thinking of his family were the only things that got him through those three months.

In the end, they caught the guy on top of the operation and they let him go. To say he was traumatized is an understatement, I've never seen a person so broken before. Couldn't even crack a smile.

What's insane is that another local businessman has just recently been kidnapped as well.

Me and my sister were living with my mom ( who had no business being a mother). I really missed my dad. We had a family member in the hospital. My dad came up to visit. He told mt mom that he was gonna take me and my sister to the snack bar. We went to the snack bar and straight out the doors to his car. I asked where we ere going. My sister told me that we were going to live with dad now. He drove 90 miles to his house in a bout 45 minutes. It was literally one oof the happiest days in my life.

I wasn't in a dangerous situation so idk if this counts. I believe I was around 5.
My dad was divorcing my mom who was a raging alcoholic, compulsive liar and very mentally ill.
So one day she took me to this large home where different women with kids stayed at, I believe it was in some kind of park or forest. I remember I asked my mom if "daddy would join us, or if he knew we would be gone". Of course she lied and said "yes he knows, and he doesn't mind."
I have no idea how long we stayed there, I don't remember if it was fun or not. But one day my grandma (on my mom's side) came and took me back to my father. I remember I was crying a lot because I wanted to stay with mom. My grandma didn't dare to get confronted by my dad so she dropped me off and sped off. I remember the look in my dad's eyes as I just knocked on the door and he saw me just being there. I don't remember what happened after honestly. But it's still an odd story.

I wasn't kidnapped, but almost. I grew up in a really bad neighborhood. I was walking home one night when I was 12, alone. These two guys in a car called out to me holding a map and looked totally confused. I figured they needed directions and I was taught to be helpful. I got close enough to hear, which meant close enough to be grabbed. The dude started trying to pull me through the window. I freaked out. I could see duct tape and rope in the back seat and knew if I didn't get away I'd be dead. I swung my fist as hard as any 12 year old girl possibly could, made contact, heard a crunch sound and was immediately let go of. I broke the dudes nose. I ran as fast as I could for almost 20 minutes, hiding in bushes and under people's porches just in case. I never told anyone because I was ashamed I let myself get in that situation in the first place. In hindsight I would have found a pay phone (didn't have a cell phone at 12) and called the police or told my parents. At least I got a punch in!

Not me my cousin (12 years old at the time) whom I love the most...

Someone from his football circle told him he's going to eat some free food (his favorite one) and they paid for his food and then mixed something in his tea and instantly took him in a bus and paid for his ticket (bus is going almost 600KM away) and managed to convince him for a quick trip with them...

After 6-7 hours He woke up in an empty bus parked on local bus stand with somehow opened doors (he was not visible to driver when they parked IDK how)

He was scared, left the bus it's December cold midnight and he don't know what actually happened, 2 hours later he was sitting on public bench on that very bus station...

He told us he was shivering with cold, so he started knocking on the doors of nearby rooms (people living near bus stands) but nobody bothered...

Spent 3-4 worst hours of his life on that bench while his parents gone mad finding him everywhere back home, He was the only SON and it's 2004

Next early Morning, a bus driver noticed this kid crying continuously and thank God decided to help...He asked for his home number but he don't remember anything even don't know his address but just the city name...

The driver took him for city visit, fed him and when he started feeling better then asked for landline number again (phones were not common here) and finally 5th 6th number worked and he was home next day...

It was worst exeprience in his life which he used to say even "Kidnappers can give you food and place to live which 90% of strangers won't do".

When I was about 7 I rode my bike to a burger place for my family dinner, I was super excited because I never was allowed to do it before. When I came out the bag was kind of big and I was having trouble riding the bike, a man leaned out of a pickup truck and said hey little girl I can give you a ride we can throw your bike in the back, there was another man with him and I remember they had big grins on their faces, for a second I thought, hmm that would be nice, and then I could hear my moms voice in my head saying don’t ever get in a car with a stranger, I got really scared and jumped on my bike and took off, I always wonder what would have happened to me.

I don't know if I was actually kidnapped or just held hostage. It wasn't even a whole day.

But a person pulled a knife out and backed me into laundry room and kept me there.

When I was 12 somebody took me from a target parking lot and put me in their trunk. Somebody saw and started driving after us. The guy stopped and ran away when he realized that people saw him he stopped and I got out.

I wasn't exactly kidnapped but rather lured under false pretences into this guys house where he locked me in and held me against my will for around 10 hours, not only was there a substantial amount of blood all over a sliding half open wardrobe door upstairs and all over a bed which was a scary sight but also this guy had bad schizophrenia and kept switching from one personality to the other, one was sad, upset lonely and depressed, another was full of rage and wanting to control.. I survived by gaining his trust and telling him exactly what I thought he wanted to hear, I told him that I needed to go home to get a change of clothes and a few other bits and then I was coming straight back as I'd fallen in love with him and wanted to make plans with him, I even asked him what alcohol he wanted me to bring back for him and eventually he let me go, needless to say I never returned, I flagged down the nearest car which happened to be a taxi and after making sure I was ok he took me safely home thank goodness.

Not kidnapped, but almost. When I was 15 we just moved to a different country 2500km from where I am originally from. I was already fluent in the new language but we had been here for about a month when my parents, my little sister (11 at the time) and I went to town to sort out mobiles, internet, etc... My parents left us at a bar (I had been babysitting my sister since I was 10 and I am actually super responsible, which is what I think saved us) when suddenly this old man came up to us (he was around 60 for sure) and he started asking me questions like where are your parents, when are they coming back, etc… and I would just lie and make things up like o right around the corner, they will be back in no time (knowing it could take an hour) so eventually he started asking more personal questions like how old we were, where we were from, etc… and I kept lying just so he wouldn’t be able to find us after this. Eventually he asked me if I liked cherries (they´re one of my fave fruits) and I said yes, I loved cherries. He told me he had huge trees at home and if we went with him we could have as many as we wanted. I just kept saying no as my parents would need to know where we went and he said that we would come back before they did. After 20 minutes of going back and forth my parents finally came back. We ran out of there and never went back.

Kind of late to the party on this one but here I go anyway. My story is a potential kidnapping or mugging I do not know which one it would have been. One night me and my girlfriend are heading back to her place (where I left my car). she pulls up to the side of my car I get out and some of the things we bought that day into my trunk as I do this this man had been walking up behind me on the sidewalk but I didn't think much of it when I got out of the car cuz I thought it was just some pedestrian when I was done with putting the things away I made it back to her car and locked the door when I looked back at him he makes a complete u-turn and starts peacefully walking away in other direction. Me and my girlfriend spend the rest of the night trying to make out what could have happened and whether if we should call the police. In the end I'm just thankful that she stayed parked there and had not pulled into her driveway like she usually does.