Scariest Moment

[scooby0048]

What's the scariest moment you've had in your UPS career? I'm talking sphincter puckering, holy crap moments.

Well, you know my prior life and in that field at one moment, I had the most scariest, calmest, rewarding, and self aware feeling in my life but I'll save that for another time. As for UPS, I had a deer come through the windshield while driving in winter at 70MPH down a 2-lane road. Other cars were approaching heads up and I had zero visibility, zero space other than my own lane to add steering and braking input to keep the vehicle from yawing, and a car on my six. I had to stop the PC before the turn in the road, which was only a few hundred feet ahead. It all worked out, just like my prior life did.

 

[TooTechie]

Well, you know my prior life and in that field at one moment, I had the most scariest, calmest, rewarding, and self aware feeling in my life but I'll save that for another time.

Yeah, in that former life my scariest moment was when a crackwhore came at me with a hammer in close quarters while I was still in training. My FTO drew on her and came damn close to double tapping her.
Most rewarding moment in that life was giving a guy who beat his wife a shiny set of new bracelets. He also may have tripped getting into my cruiser but I forget...

 

[olroadbeech]

pulling over in the middle of the night to walk around the trailers and had a HUGE mountain lion saunter by.

driving thru any white-out is pretty scary..... hold your breath and hope you don't drive off the road until you clear it.

had a pick up truck start sliding toward me in a snowstorm. had to make split second decision to either brake hard, drive off road to avoid , or speed up. I sped up and watched him barely clear my rear trailer.

 

[9.5er]

had a pick up truck start sliding toward me in a snowstorm. had to make split second decision to either brake hard, drive off road to avoid , or speed up. I sped up and watched him barely clear my rear trailer.

Had a similar experience in my personal vehicle once. Guy on other side of interstate lost control and crossed the median. Seemed to happen in slow motion. Was able to speed up and swerve over just enough for him to miss me. He ended up in the woods I ended up turning around and going home. (Was going to lake for the day) Needed new underwear.

 

[Shifting Contents]

I once completed a move in one of the yard mules and when I stepped off the vehicle, I hung my wedding band in the rain drip edge surrounding the cab. My foot was just inches from the ground, but I was stuck and the ring was cutting my finger to the bone. Was finally able to free myself. Ring was bent, finger swole up about 2x and I never wore it on the job again. Lucky I didn't lose it.

This is why a lot of LEOs don't wear wedding bands or purchase rubber ones.

Don't rememeber specifics but there was a guy who was dragged a good while because he was hung up by his wedding band on a veh that was fleeing and eluding from a traffic stop

 

[Shifting Contents]

Well, you know my prior life and in that field at one moment, I had the most scariest, calmest, rewarding, and self aware feeling in my life but I'll save that for another time. As for UPS, I had a deer come through the windshield while driving in winter at 70MPH down a 2-lane road. Other cars were approaching heads up and I had zero visibility, zero space other than my own lane to add steering and braking input to keep the vehicle from yawing, and a car on my six. I had to stop the PC before the turn in the road, which was only a few hundred feet ahead. It all worked out, just like my prior life did.

Yeah, in that former life my scariest moment was when a crackwhore came at me with a hammer in close quarters while I was still in training. My FTO drew on her and came damn close to double tapping her.
Most rewarding moment in that life was giving a guy who beat his wife a shiny set of new bracelets. He also may have tripped getting into my cruiser but I forget...

It's never the guy you have to worry about at a domestic.

It's the women after you handcuff the men.

My scariest moment was a domestic in which my last thought before went down was . . .

"why the hell is this going down in the kitchen?!?!? Not that ing knife you bitch!"

 

[MaceFremonti]

Had a few....

In the early 90s I was given some NDAs for the US District Courthouse in D.C. where all the big drug and murder cases were heard. I had never been in there before and asked my onroad supe where to go. He said just park on C Street and go in the back door.

Me, being young and naive, parked on C Street, ducked under the gate at the rear vehicle entrance, and walked in a door on the side of the building. I never saw the sign that said, "Not a public entrance. US Marshalls ONLY!"

As soon as I was inside I heard, "What the ?!!! STOP RIGHT THERE!" as three Marshalls appeared, all with guns drawn and pointing at me!

Apparently, a big time drug dealer was supposed to be brought in through that door at any second.

 

[MaceFremonti]

Then there was the time I got a P1000 stuck BEHIND a women's dormitory on one of the college campuses in D.C. It was a Friday and rhe last day of the semester for many of the students and some had already headed home.

Thing was UPS was not even allowed IN the dorms. All dorm deliveries and pickups went through the campus post office.

I was 21, single, and dumb. You can figure out what I was doing inside the women's dorms.

The package car had been sitting in mud for the two hours I was inside and had sunk all the way down to the rear bumper.

Seeing that as soon as I walked out of the dorm's back door was quite terrifying in and of itself.

"How am I going to explain this?", I thought.

Luckily, I had become friends with some of the guys in the grounds department and had them push me free with one of their front end loaders.

Haven't talked to the girl since that day either as she went back to Jersey the following week and then transferred to a school somewhere in New York.

 

[MaceFremonti]

Then there was the time I ran through the middle of a dice game deep in da 'hood.

Same route as the dorm story.

A couple miles south of the campus was a nasty, ghetto, high rise, nightmare of a delivery area. Always ran it as early as I could and as fast as I could. Tons of dark stairways, stairways on the backs of buildings, and stairways full of crackheads. Most of the smaller apartment complexes had steps you had to climb to get to the building's entrance.

I had my nose buried in the original DIAD and not paying attention to where I was walking. I was climbing some steps and walked right through the middle of a group of guys who I thought were just standing around. I didn't even notice the guy rolling or the money. I kicked the dice AND a bunch of $20s, $50s, and $100s off the steps and into the weeds.

When I looked up, saw what I did, and saw who was playing, I thought I was dead for sure.

Again, luckily for me, one of the guys watching the game worked for, you guessed it, the college's grounds department. He stepped in and calmed down what could have turned into a really nasty situation.

I bought that dude some nice liquor the following weekend.

 

[Rain Shield]

Early 90's. Had a full-time sup at the end of a run out belt. No sorter, so the packages just went up the next belt and into a 28 foot pup with loader in the nose. A heavy package full of nuts and bolts slid back down the belt. Sup put hand pressure on the package to help the package grip on the 45% angle belt to the trailer. His hand slipped off the box and got pulled into the curve of the belt.

Dude was screaming bloody murder as his fingers were getting chewed to the bone. We stopped the belt and someone had the bright idea to reverse the belt. Holy cow, he screamed like nothing I had ever heard.

Turned off the power and a mechanic came over with a 5 foot crowbar to bend the nylon cover to get him out.

He was out for about 10 weeks. When he came back he had wires, rubber bands, all kinds of stuff holding his hand in some sort of permanent position to heal.

Over 25 years later I still cringe when I see a run out belt. Supervisor was one of the few good guys. He was never the same and passed away a few years later from a stroke.

He always talked about retirement and what all he was going to do. He never made it.

Miss that guy. He was fair and you knew where he stood. Was not trying to take work from anyone, just saw a situation and triedd to fix it. What should have taken 5 seconds to correct, probably cost him everything.

 

[clean hairy]

Reminds me of a person I know was a private pilot, single engine prop planes.
His home field was a small airporrt, grass for the runway.
Parked the plane (late at night, and only moonlight to work by) was tying it down, and a few feet behind him, he heard a loud MOOO!
He didn't realize he parked the plane right next to the fence where the guy had his cattle.
Scared him outta his wits!

 

[ArcherUTR]

Pulling trailers to Abiline, Tx in the middle of the night. Never been there before. No one was there. Didn't know where to put my trailers, didn't know what to bring back so I grabbed to empty 28 footers and headed back to DFW.

It was a dark, windy, and stormy night. The truck I was driving had a governor that would let it get up to a fairly high speed quickly. So during one of the many times my tractor was accelerating after a deceleration the wind blew hard and the empties I was pulling lost traction and very quickly I was pointing nearly perpendicular to the interstate.

I have no idea how I managed to softly but quickly pull myself back in the direction of the highway without going off of the road. I immediately took the first exit, pulled over and thought about life for about 10 minutes.

No one ever told me about pulling empties on a wet windy night. Now I know. And now I drive brown package trucks.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

pulling over in the middle of the night to walk around the trailers and had a HUGE mountain lion saunter by.

Why do you insist upon making stuff up?

 

[Wally]

She said that she was late.

 

[olroadbeech]

got lost in Oakland and went into a bad neighborhood and had to turn around a set of doubles real tight. thought for sure one of air line came off between dolly and rear trailer so got out to check.

good thing I took my bump bar with me cause 3 homies came towards me and started harassing and asking ( telling ) me to give them money.

I didn't stop moving after I checked lines and told them " its Friday and I haven't been paid and Im broke so sorry."

I got out of there in a hurry.

 

[rod]

I came real close to falling out (off the seat hanging on to the steering wheel for all I was worth) of an old P400 going about 50 mph down a wash board dirt road back before the trucks had seatbelts.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

got lost in Oakland and went into a bad neighborhood and had to turn around a set of doubles real tight. thought for sure one of air line came off between dolly and rear trailer so got out to check.

good thing I took my bump bar with me cause 3 homies came towards me and started harassing and asking ( telling ) me to give them money.

I didn't stop moving after I checked lines and told them " its Friday and I haven't been paid and Im broke so sorry."

I got out of there in a hurry.

BS

 

[TooTechie]

BS

Am I missing something or are you on the rag today Dave?

 

[box_beeyotch]

Knocked on a lady's door at a downtown Row home for a signature on one of the worst blocks in the city. I hear "get the friend off my porch", so I knock again and say ups. Again she replies
"Go away". So this time I turn to walk away and she opens the door wielding a crowbar.

 

[STFXG]

Nearly hit a black bull on the highway on my way back at night. Passing car flashed his brights at me and I started slowing down. Had to swerve to avoid him. Without the heads up from the passing car I would have nailed him at a round 65mph.