1. A Good Samaritan
As a bank teller at the drive-thru, I was tasked with handling a stack of cash, about $3,000, which I had set aside for my manager to take to the vault. While performing my usual duties, I accidentally sent the customer withdrawing a few hundred dollars the envelope containing the $3,000 instead. It wasn’t until about 10 transactions later that I realized my mistake. In a panic, I called my manager, but I had no idea which account the transaction was tied to.
Fortunately, the customer returned the money, explaining that he noticed the error and didn’t want to see me get into trouble. He said that he hadn’t seen the money deducted from his account and that he wanted to ensure I wouldn’t be fired for the mistake. This experience left me deeply grateful for his honesty and kindness.
2. Traps in Aisle 4
During my 20s, I worked at Home Depot and once had an unfortunate mishap while walking through the store. I passed by an aisle filled with pallets of doors, and for some reason, I can’t explain, everything came crashing down. The pallets and doors toppled, causing significant damage. The destruction amounted to thousands of dollars in losses. The fact that no one was hurt was a relief, but I still remember this incident and how my careless actions led to so much chaos.
3. Canine Chaos
When I adopted my dog, everything went well at first, and I took her for a walk around the neighborhood. I was careful with her collar, choosing the one that seemed to fit her the best. However, as we walked near a busy road, she became excited and tried to chase the passing cars. In a terrifying moment, she slipped out of her collar and darted into the street, directly in the path of oncoming cars.
Frantically, I ran after her, trying to get her to return to safety, but she kept running away from me, thinking it was a game. My heart was racing as I feared for her life. I realized the only way to get her back was to run in the opposite direction. Luckily, she saw me running and chased me back to the sidewalk, where I scooped her up and hugged her tightly. That moment remains one of the most terrifying of my life, but she is perfectly fine today.
4. Into the Abyss
I’ve been a scuba diver for over 22 years, with more than 3,000 dives under my belt. Most of my dives have been routine, but there was one experience that stands out as particularly dangerous. I was diving in the Komodo Islands with two friends. We were using nitrox, a gas mixture with higher oxygen content, which meant we had to be careful about our depth. If we dove too deep, we risked oxygen toxicity.
During the dive, one of my friends became disoriented due to nitrogen narcosis, which is akin to feeling drunk. As I was trying to help him, we got caught in a downcurrent. Our bubbles were heading straight down, and I quickly realized we were sinking fast. I grabbed my friends, kicked as hard as I could, and managed to get us all to the surface. But we weren’t out of danger yet. The current had pushed us over a mile away from the island, and we were still drifting. Thankfully, another boat saw us in distress and rescued us. Though we all survived, some of my friends experienced PTSD from the event.
5. Gates of Hades
After a high school football game, I invited some friends over for a backyard fire. We had trouble getting the fire started, so someone suggested using gasoline. Unfortunately, as I poured gas onto the fire, the flames traveled up the stream and into the gas can. Panicking, I threw the can into the pool nearby, thinking it would put out the fire. But gas floats on water, and the result was an incredible display of flames shooting up from the pool. Everyone was stunned, and I waited in dread for my mom to come home and discover what had happened.
6. Epic Face Plant
As a child, I thought it would be fun to ride my bike along the edge of a lake. I figured the wood dock would be a safe place to ride. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Within moments, I fell into shallow water, and my bike’s gears got caught on the dock. I crashed face-first into the rocks, and the pain was unimaginable. Half of my face was skinned, and my glasses had punctured around my eye socket. I walked up to my mom, covered in blood, and greeted her with a simple “Hi!” She wasn’t pleased.
7. Lost Gems
While working at a warehouse that specialized in renting out jewelry showcases, I was tasked with unloading a trailer of display cases. As I opened the doors to back the truck into the warehouse, I made a terrible mistake: I ran behind the moving truck. The driver slammed the brakes to avoid hitting me, but the sudden stop caused all of the cases to topple out of the trailer, shattering around me. There were about 22 cases, and they all fell to the concrete floor, causing significant damage. The warehouse manager remained calm, reminding me how lucky I was that I wasn’t crushed by the cases, but the incident still stands as my biggest blunder at work.
8. Urgent Matters
While at the hospital for a kidney checkup, I had an urgent need to use the bathroom. I walked into what I thought was the men’s room, only to realize afterward that I had entered the ladies’ bathroom. I didn’t realize the mistake until I saw a line of women waiting outside. The situation was even more awkward when I noticed a 90-year-old woman at the front of the line. As I left, I felt the stares and embarrassment. I limped out, feeling mortified, and still cringe at the thought of the mistake.
9. Time Out, Ref
At 14 or 15, I coached a soccer team of four-year-olds, drawing on my own experience playing the sport. One day during a water break, I was juggling the soccer ball to entertain the kids. After the break, I kicked the ball out so the children could retrieve it and we could continue playing. Typically, the kids would step aside when I kicked, but on this occasion, one child didn’t. He ran out in front of me just as I kicked the ball, and I accidentally hit him. Thankfully, he was unhurt, laughing, and quickly recovered, but the guilt I felt from the incident stayed with me. I never juggled in front of the kids again, and I eventually stopped coaching.
10. In Tow, In Toe
When I was about seven years old, I was chasing my brother around the house and yanked open the front door. In doing so, I managed to trap my big toe in the door, causing intense pain. The space between my toes tore, and I was left in agony, unable to make a sound. My brother quickly realized something was wrong and rushed to get my parents. After an emergency trip to the hospital, I was stitched up. Without my brother’s quick thinking, the situation could have been far worse, as I was close to losing my toe.
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