Went hiking one day and did a bit of unplanned (unwise) climbing with no ropes or harness.?ÿ Got about 30 feet up before I even realized it.?ÿ About 1/4" of grip surface on the face of the rock most places. Got tired, couldn't go up or down.?ÿ Decided to exert my willpower and just hang on.?ÿ I did, and the fingers let go anyway.?ÿ Figured I'd be better off falling forward instead of backward, so I spun around as I started to fall.?ÿ My best friend was standing below, watching me climb.?ÿ In the fraction of a second I had to plan my descent, I decided to try to land between him and a boulder sticking up out of the bare ground just a few inches.?ÿ He was a big guy, and stuck his hands out and broke my fall.?ÿ My wallet in my rear pocket hit the boulder, and we all walked out, with only a little sore bum, and a tiny chunk out of his hand where the speed lace on my boot grabbed him as I zinged by.?ÿ New nickname "Falling Rocks"!
Old Native story of the prodigal son, named Falling Rocks, is what led to the posting of "Watch Out For Falling Rocks" all over the Rockies.
Here's one for you guys... Not something I talk about often...
In 1980, I was 9 years old when I was kidnapped and tortured by a child serial killer. He killed three other little girls.
This guy was very clever and crafty.
The monster that kidnapped me was stalking different elementary schools in my area. He had not hit my school yet. By coincidence, a few weeks prior, my mom and I were going to the grocery store where the detectives had a booth set up looking for the other missing girls. And they wouldn't let me see. But they asked my mom if she had seen anything. Then my mom came over and told me don't you ever F***ing go with anybody!! This guy's killing these kids!
This monster...He had a family. He used that as his technique. He would stalk the school grounds and the classrooms to see what kids went into what classrooms. So, he knew my classroom number.
I got out of school late that day because I got in trouble in class. So, the gates were closed, and I had to walk around the long way. He saw me and started following me in his car. And then he offered me a ride because he wanted help to find his "daughter" who was also running late.
My teacher felt horrible for keeping me after school that day.
I trusted another parent. BIG mistake. As soon as he got me in the car it was all over. He was going to kill me, but I was nice to him and I became "human" to him. As much as he tortured me and assaulted me sexually, I still was nice. I think I got into his conscience.
I just kept worrying about my mom. She was a single mom. I was all she had.
And, as I cried, I told him I would not be mad at him or his daughter if she was the girl in my classroom.
I asked him what would he do if another dad did this to his daughter? He got angry and upset and said he would kill them.
Then he told me that HE couldn??t stop...
Because I kept asking him why was he doing this? And did he REALLY have a daughter, etc...
He would hit or choke me or grab my hair and shove me down on his ***** when I would ask questions, but then he would answer them.
I mean as soon as I got in the car and he did what he did to me, I knew it was him. The guy on TV. The guy the detectives were looking for.
Plus, I saw the rope and the blue tarp on the backseat floor of his car.
He was strangling the little girls, rolling them up in a tarp, tying it up with rope and then dumping them down a hill. When he drove to that exact place, that "hill", and stopped the car, I knew I was next. But, after sexually assaulting me and torturing me, he started the car back up and we drove away. Weirdly enough I can still go to that hill that day. I remember EXACTLY where it is.
My mom said I had nine lives...and that there were Angels around me.
When he let me go, he told me count to 10 And then run. If I didn't do that he would come back, and he WOULD kill me AND my mom! **** that!! As soon as he drove away, I hauled ass. I ran to the corner where a shopping center was. And then I ran to the nearest store which was a liquor store. Ironically it was next to the supermarket that my mom and I had been at a few weeks prior where the detectives were.
?ÿI ran into this liquor store with a white shirt full of blood, semen, saliva, snot from my nose, my hair a total tangled mess, and torn clothes.
I told the liquor store cashier that I had been raped and beat. (At the time I was 9 years old, so I thought what he did to me was rape. Turns out it wasn't because my body cavity was too small and he could not get it in... He just did "other" things.)
The liquor store people started crying and took me to the back of the store. And then they called the police. Then they called my aunt. My aunt was there in 10 minutes. Normally took a 30-minute drive. In my entire life I never seen my aunt cry too much, but that time she was hysterical. She wouldn't let go of me.
The police came and they took me to the police station. My mom knew something was up when they told her to bring me a change of clothes. They would not let me see my mom until 5-6 hours later.
At the police station they had to "examine me". They wanted any kind of evidence that was on me. (blood, semen, saliva, fibers, hairs, anything.) They kept my clothes and underwear. My mother must of been a basket case when they asked her to bring me a change of clothes and underwear!!
It was VERY traumatic. Being re-exposed, having to undress, again, and be examined, etc...after just going through an assault IS humiliating. I was taught as a child to keep private parts, private. Fortunately, I had a very kind, loving, sympathetic nurse who explained everything to me beforehand, and shed a tear or two along with me. I think the detectives in that case also did.
I can tell you I was never SO HAPPIER to see my mom after that. I had to wait 5-6 hours to see her, but when I did, I burst into tears. So did she.?ÿ
People have asked how long he kept me. It was only a few hours. He usually only kept a kid for a few hours and then when he was ??done? with them, he strangled them and dumped them. The detectives thought it was because if he really did have a wife and kid, he had to get home for dinner or something. I kind of remember him mentioning something about having to be home at a certain time.
People have asked if I remember what he looked like. Absolutely. You NEVER forget a face like that!! I remember the blue jeans. ?ÿ
Like I said I was the only living witness... So I was a plethora of information for the detectives.
Before I was kidnapped, everyone thought the man was Hispanic. I said no he's a white dude and drives a white car.
All of that time they were looking for the wrong person completely. TO this day I do not know if he has ever been found. :/
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The theme of this thread is Luck.?ÿ But you didn't have any luck.?ÿ You had the smarts to work on his conscience and you saved yourself.
Smarts or luck I??m thankful you??re here to tell the story. ?ÿApparently you??ve always been amazing.
Not really close calls but my former PC where I worked in Kansas was ALWAYS setting me (I was the Iman) in precarious locations. I spent many days in the middle of intersections, on the shoulder of major highways, near railroad tracks, on the edge of a cliff overlooking a quarry...etc.
We traversed across a pasture once and most of my turn points were in the middle of cow pies. Lol
In about 1985 I was on a three-man crew for a utility company. We were looking for centerline monuments in a very busy local arterial street. We were walking along a raised median with me in the middle, PC in front. We were sort of yelling over traffic noise and I turned my head to hear the guy behind me as we approached a left turn pocket, which I didn't see. I stepped off the median and started falling to my right into traffic (45-55 mph). Fortunately, the guy behind me was 6' 4", 275 lbs and had hands like catcher's mitts. He saw me going down and reached out to grab the back of my vest and plucked me out of the air before I hit the ground, where I surely would have been seriously injured, or worse. I paid much more attention in the roadway after that. A higher power intervened that day. Or at least my friend, Garry Weldon, did.