What frightened the living daylights out of you this week?

[Carruthers]

I hope nothing did, so this thread won't last very long.

However, earlier this week I got the train into town and boarded right at the front.
I was just about to sit down and noticed that the only other occupant of that section of the carriage was a skinny chap with long, straggly pitch black hair.
He was in a somewhat animated phone conversation.
He suddenly leapt to his feet, charged at me and screamed in my face.
I swiftly took a couple of paces backwards and kept going.

The noise caused the driver to emerge from his compartment and shout at the man distracting his attention from me and he turned back towards his seat.
At that point he gathered up his possessions and left the train and the doors shut swiftly behind him.
As the train moved off the miscreant was still in animated phone conversation and his face was contorted in anger.

When the train arrived at my destination I went and expressed my thanks to the driver for putting in an appearance at the right time.
I can't say that the incident has preoccupied my every waking hour, but I have gone through a lot of 'what if' scenarios.
Mercifully, I wasn't punched or kicked, wasn't hacked to pieces with a machete, nor stabbed with a knife or syringe, so in a sense it's 'all's well that ends well'.

I was soon on my way back and on exiting my home station about an hour after the event, I noticed a British Transport Police vehicle parked outside.
Whether the bloke had continued to cause trouble, I don't know, but the BTP are rarely seen in our locality whereas in London they are a constant presence.

Anyway, a restorative mug of tea soothed one's nerves when I got home.

[glatt]

You never know when you’ll run into a damn nutter.

[Clodfobble]

My son frightened the living daylights out of me the other morning. He woke up a little early, coincidentally about 5 minutes before I get up. Knowing this, he hid on the far side of the fridge in the kitchen, and waited until I was passing right by him (still in the dark) to lean out and say "Hello" right in my ear.

I cried out "Jesus fucking Christ!" and he immediately started apologizing.

[Griff]

I prefer Clods story, random assaults by strangers are not great.

[Flint]

When someone quietly enters a room and I don't know they're there, and then they say something, I just about jump out of my skin. I think I may have developed a healthy case of PTSD.

[BigV]

Twil and I stayed up very late last night watching Outlander on Netflix. Around 230 am, we heard a loud bang from directly above the ceiling, followed by many other loud banging noises like somebody clattering around clumsily in the attic. Which is what I realized it was after a moment's panic. We have unwelcome critters all around (and in) (and under) the house. I've trapped countless rats and even an opossum in the attic once. This one sounded like a chupacabra or a bear or two bears. Then as I got out of bed to get some clothes and shoes on to go upstairs and end its misery, the clattering subsided and I went back to bed (and the show).

This morning I put the now dead rat in the garbage. Poor fucker did suffer for a long, loud minute though.