What was the scariest thing that happened during your childhood?

Never done one of these before, so here we go:

Two instances in my life were pretty bad.

First one, small town in the middle of a very country area. Our immediate neighbors were fairly close, but then it was miles to the others.

The closest ones, right across our irrigation canal, had been involved with a lot of creepy shit. Namely, the dad (30 something) and grandpa (50 something) had both been arrested for molesting some kids in their church group (the same group who helped the dad get get out since he was pretty high up member, and the grandpa was in charge of the local church). They were notorious in our neighborhood, but 10 or 11 year old me didn't know that, nor did my parents who were forced into being recluses because they werent part of the same church.

Outside the time the grandpa driving down the canal path and suggesting I go swimming without my shorts with him, I didn't really run into him. The dad however.. One day while riding my bike on the path, he came running out screaming at me like I was his kid, even calling me his son's name. I ignored him and kept going. He started chased me down and screaming some stupid bs. I was too scared to listen and just kept fucking riding away as quick as I could.

Eventually turned around and he was gone. Started heading home and saw a truck coming up the road. Guess who? Jumped off my bike and into the canal (which was dry this time of year), and hid in an irrigation gate while he got out, saw my bike, continued yelling about how "I know you're fucking here. Come out and face me like a man" and such. He took my bike and I had to walk 2 miles home in the canal. I was too afraid to go back up on the road in case he was there. Few days later his son was riding my bike. I told my friends and they helped my get it back.

Week later, my father is at the local gas station, which was the closest real store of any type. The dad was in there with the grandpa and the owner of the store. The owner was a friend of my father's. He was walking to the office when he heard them chatting about how the grandpa had just got done with his 5 and 6 year old nephews and how good it was. My father was horrified. Then the dad mentioned me by name and how he almost got me on the canal road. My father lost his mind. I wasn't allowed to leave our property except for school for a few years after that. Didn't stop the grandpa from still driving by really slowly anytime I was outside though.

Second story, same town. Was recess and we had a teacher who would teach the less sociable kids Japanese so we didn't have to go outside especially if we were being bullied. One day she was halfway through a sentence then just stopped and stared. Then all the sudden she just fell over. We all wigged out and ran to get our home room teachers. She was gone by the time EMS got there. She was a great teacher and it was a really hard blow for all of us in the school let alone the kids she "tutored".

/r/AskReddit Thread