74 People Share Terrifying Close Calls That Could Have Made Them Unsolved Mysteries

In 2012 (I was 21, female) I was on a TrekAmerica trip across the US (having been studying there for a year). We were in Santa Fe and the group all split up to do their own thing and explore.
I ended up in a really quiet little mall and was just window browsing when a vendor inside this store struck up a conversation. He had noticed my necklace which I kept lots of different charms on from different family members and friends. One of them was a cross.
"Hey, I notice your cross! You are a Christian?"
"Ehh, kinda" I say.
"I am Egyptian, but I am a Christian like you. Are you visiting America? Do you like America?"
"Oh yes, I'm visiting but I love it here. I wish I could stay really!"
"You want to stay in America? I can make sure you stay in America." He hands me his business card. "You come back here tomorrow, bring your passport, and I can make sure you stay in America."

I take the business card, nodding politely and back outta there. I get back to my group a while later and retell the story in a "haha, isn't that crazy?" kinda way but our tour leader was quite alarmed. He asked if I still had the business card and I gave it to him and he said he'd make a call to a friend of his who worked for the FBI. To this day I am not sure if he was joking.

Like many other women here, I was told to get into a vehicle (or in this case, hop on some guy’s motorbike). My parents sent me to church, I was 15 and walking by myself, it was literally only a quarter mile walk.

Also, “it’s what she was wearing.” I was wearing baggy slacks and a polo shirt.

I started carrying a knife with me when walking to church. I never told anyone because somehow it feels shameful, not that it was my fault in any way.

Another one was when I was 20 and went to Paris with a group from college. Around 5 am I couldn’t sleep and wanted to smoke a cigarette so I tried to go out front but the doors were locked. The concierge, at first, was hesitant to let me go out because “it’s not safe” (his words). For some reason, he changed his mind and unlocked the door. There was no one else around except for a man I saw standing on the corner across the street (the hotel I was at was a ways back from the corner and a little bit below street level). Probably 30 seconds later I hear footsteps and this guy is coming right at me. I ran back inside and luckily my room wasn’t far. Not sure if anything would have happened but I wasn’t sticking around to find out. Some people I tell that story to think I’m exaggerating but it was scary.

When I was around 12 yrs old I went camping with a friend's family. We spent a lot of time on the beach and hiking.
The morning we were expecting to leave I woke up to something shaking the corner pole of the tent. I was scared but very intrigued and didn't move the shaking happened 1 or two more times while I listened closely.
I am normally a pretty logical and calm person I thought maybe it was a raccoon and after waiting a couple minutes I poke my head out of the tent to investigate.
Along the tree line of our camp there was a grown man and he motioned for me to come over to him. I stared him down to memorize his description and went back into the tent and woke up my friend. Neither her or her mom believed me.

My mother had a job in Boston in the 1980s and one day I had no school for some reason and came in to hang out with her. I was probably in early high school and pretty Independant, so I left her office downtown and wandered around enjoying the city. I liked to play detective, and I had read that if someone is following you, you should dash across the street unexpectedly to confuse them, so I pretended I was being followed and when traffic had stopped for a light, I jaywalked across the street. And I just so happened to see in a car mirror a man who in fact seemed to be following me and looking stunned by my sudden move.

I didn’t believe he was really’following me, though, at first because that’s a weird coincidence: you suddenly decide to shake an imaginary pursuer and it turns out you have a real pursuer? So I forgot about him — until he caught up to me. He tried to convince me to go with him to get paid for helping “wash his car,” which didn’t sound like a good idea even if I hadn’t figured out he was tailing me, so I said “no,” and got the hell out of there and he let me alone.

But it feels like I had a close call.

Stalked by two strangers while sightseeing alone in London, they kept offering me gum. This was in broad daylight in a touristy area, I was in my early twenties.

Have always gone on hikes, runs and bike rides alone, but never felt in danger, even when strange men hit on me or tried to strike up conversations. Except the one time I was 14 and a van of men approached me after a run, but I was able to ditch them.

I delivered newspapers to the same business complex at about 5:00-5:30 am each morning. At around 1:30 am the I-5 Bandit had entered the business and was doing evil to two women. I had no idea their bodies were inside.

I was about 13 (F) and was walking to our local grocery store to get candy. i was leaving our apartment complex and a man in a yellow beat up Toyota drove slowly past me (coming from my front side) and looked at me in a way that gave me the chills. i left the complex and was walking along the main road when the man drove up behind me, slowly, but kept going. i saw him turn around and come back towards me. after he passed, i ducked down a side road and hid behind a bush. i saw him drive very slowly by again, obviously looking for me. i honestly believe he would have tried to grab me at that point. after he passed, i started running as fast as i could to the store. i saw him turn around and was driving towards me again. before he could turn around and approach me from behind again, i made it to the store. i hid in the restroom and called my dad from a very old cellphone that was about the size of a small novel. he came and got me and took me safely back home. i feel very lucky that nothing happened, my gut tells me that man was up to no good.

When I was in college my parents moved to a town that I'd only visited a few times. It was in the early 1980's, so no cell phones.

I took my mom one morning to work so I could have the car that day. After I dropped her off, I stopped at a convenience store. As I came out, two young guys where coming in. One of them grabbed my arm, the other one said something about me being pretty.

I said F you and gave them a middle finger before I got in my mom's car. As I backed out, I noticed they didn't go in the store but jumped in their truck.

They followed me, tried to run me off the road. I went past my parents house. It was a two lane winding road, no where to stop. I just kept driving. They zoomed up on my bumper and honked down on the horn. I just kept driving.

Thankfully, they gave up and turned around. I had no idea where I was, but just knew I had to keep driving. I finally stopped and couldn't stop crying.

A few years ago I rented a space in an old church next to a museum. My face and figure don’t match my age. On a hot day with my doors open and in and out of the building a van pulled up. A man got out. He said, ive got this old map I want to show you. It’s in my van. I was like no, private property go away. CREEEEPY.

I had a similar experience walking home in the evening on an icy road. I tried looking up any crimes in the area from that time but not much came up. All I remember is that it was a red truck and he was in his 40s-50s. Wanted to give me a ride home and followed me all the way back.

My Mom grew up in a small town and was 11-12 in the late 60’s. She was riding her bike with friends and a man tried to get her into a car with him. She told him no and when he persisted she yelled at him to “GET LOST” and sped away on her bike. Considering my Grandpa taught all the neighborhood kids how to swear I’m really not surprised that’s how she responded.

Background: I grew up in a small town that was about 3 miles at it's widest. I love walking to this day and I walked pretty much anywhere I needed to go. According to all our family friends, this was incredibly weird behavior and every walk was littered with people asking me if I needed a lift. I was constantly explaining that, no, I didn't need a ride because I was deliberately walking.

Actual story: shortly after moving to college, I go for a walk at the break of dawn. Very typical behavior for me before I got my insomnia under wraps. Then this construction worker pulls up in a giant black pickup and is like "hey you need a ride?"

At first I don't think anything of it because I've been asked this so many times. I explain that I'm walking on purpose, but thank you. And he just keeps insisting that he take me "wherever I'm going." By this point, I feel hesitant about explaining that I'm not actually going anywhere. I don't want him to think that no one is waiting for me, but I also just moved and only know about a cantina and a grocery store, so I can't really lie. Instead I just reiterate the point (over and over and over) that I'm just trying to get a walk in before class and hoping that registers to him that someone will miss me if I don't show up. I get louder and louder as I argue with him and eventually this scared him off.

I think he realized I was just gonna keep yelling at him from the sidewalk until he left or I got someone's attention. I have probably walked hundreds of miles in that neighborhood and if he ever saw me again, he kept going. If I'd been a fully-fledged adult at the time, though, I'd have recorded his license plate and called the cops. I don't even like the cops, but that guy was fully trying to kidnap me.

I did so many foolish and careless things when I was young I’m surprised I’m still here.