Weird stuff
 

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...m/breakingnews

Has anybody here ever had their life seriously threatened?

I have, and sometimes just turn a deaf ear to it.

It does scare one and make one a little jumpy right after. If you hear a bang, you'll jump or hit the floor. People around you will look at you strange.

I've been hit intentionally by cars, had guns pulled, knives and had other threats.

Yes I have and it was one of the more rattling and jarring experiences of my life.

One that I pray never happens to anyone. I was jumped by a couple of hoodlums a good 2-3 years back and even though I was able to defend myself, the experience shook me up for quite a while.

I have...

A mugger pulled a gun once. I ran away... Very fast... I was speedy back in the day. I wasn't timing but I'll be that's as close to breaking the 4 minute mile as I have ever come. I was ok while "in the moment" but went into a fit of dry heaves and a panic attack when I got back to the house.

I've only had someone verbally threaten to kill me once (at least only once that I took seriously). When the big moment came that this "gang" was going to beat the life out of me it didn't really happen... I was in the Army. When the guys came into my barracks I was saying my evening prayers. I knew they had walked in but a couple of my buddies were standing in their way and (get this) one of them had his iron plugged in and hot. They said something about how I might get my ass kicked but that they'd know serious pain in the process...

They left and were deployed in the morning (hence the need to kill me that night). I never really thougt about it much but the whole plugged in iron as a defense cracks me up.

It was all over before I said "Amen."

What did you do that made fellow men in uniform want to kill you?

Honestly, I have no idea. I think it was a gang related thing. I must have said something to somebody and they felt the need to make an example. I'm really a smart-ass and was much more of a smart ass back in the day.

You get some really colorful characters in the army. Some bring all of their background with them and it makes life dificult. I've met racists, gang members, homophobes, you name it...

I remember coming out of a pizza parlor standing on cement bumper. The guy in the truck saw me and thought it was funny to knock be off with his truck.

After he knocked to the ground, he jumped me and started trying to bash my brains in. Lucky for me, my friends stopped him. I never understood the random act of violence.

I remember a gun while tracting.

Being hit by cars out of hatred.

Pure hatred to harm another is something that still perplexes me and makes me doubt the human race.

While on the way home from the mission we had a 4 hour layover at JFK. There were four of us - 3 who were natives of Utah and the 4th was a native of NYC - a Bronx Italian named Pesci - whose family had moved to Mapleton while he was on the mission. (I'll tell that story another time)

Anyway, we wandered a bit in the airport and at one of the darker gates, we were approached by three black youths. One of them pulled a box cutter from his pocket and demanded that we relinquish our wallets and anything else of value.

Elder Cook, from Bountiful, immediately complied, but before he could give his wallet to the guy, Elder Pesci slapped his hand and in a rather irritated tone said "What the hell are you doing? Don't you know you never, under any circumstance, do anything that a moolie tells you to do?"

We kind of stood there a little shocked. Pesci then grabbed the box cutter from the guy, grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and said "you and your friends have about zero time to get out of here before I kick your asses all the way back to whatever little wuss neighborhood you're from."

They believed him and turned and ran.

when i was a teller, i had a gun put in my face asking for the money in my drawer. i'm still pissed about it.

To be honest I have never really been in any of the situations that you all have been in. I don't know if it's my size, my look, my attitude, or simply my company but I have never had anyone call me out or try anything to me. It's always good to have some polys on your side. I have had on occasion people try and start things with friends. But I intervened and stopped anything from escalating each time pretty quickly.

The only time where I did feel somewhat intimidated was in Tijuana where I was almost jumped by about 20 marines at Club Safari. Long story short this drunk marine is all over my girl in the club. I tell him that she's with me. He steps off and is cool about it for the moment. 15 minutes later when I am alone with two other friends in the bar off the dance floor this marine and all of his pals circle us. The Mexican bartenders jumped over the bar with bats and everything. I was clutching a chair. It was ugly and I feared more for my friends than for myself. I just figured if I was going down I was going to take a few with me first. After some talking and empty threats things were settled over peace drinks and the fact that the marines were too scared to do anything because they weren't supposed to be at the club anyway. I wasn't scared in the moment like someone else said. It wasn't until I was walking back across the border and we met a guy who's eye was hanging out of its socket after being beat up in another club for no apparent reason that the reality of what could have happened sunk in.

That was the last time I went to TJ.

I was also robbed when I was a bank teller, though the gun never came out of his pants. They eventually caught him.