There are 1,440 minutes in every single day and any one of those provides enough time to ruin your life if you make a big enough mistake. We can never know which choices will end up being mistakes until after we make them, so that means we never know when our world is about to come crashing down.

Hopefully, most of us will manage to make it through our lives without ever making a mistake that monumental, but some of us are simply not that lucky. This list contains stories from internet users who witnessed a person ruin their lives in a hurry. We can all probably learn some things to do (or not to do) from these examples!

Sean Leahey/Flickr

---

60. Not So Sharp

A guy from my school went to rob a corner shop at knifepoint.

He pulled up with his pushbike, went into the store and threatened the shop keeper with a knife to give him all the money in the register.

The shop keeper refused and the robber was too scared to do anything so he grabbed a pack of gum and ran out.

Twenty minutes later the robber realized he had left his bike behind in his panic, so he went back to get it.

This was at the same time be police were questioning the shop keeper on the incident. They swiftly arrested him there and then.

Think he got 2 years... for stealing gum at knifepoint

Image by

59. The Price Of Love

A friend got married right after high school. Left for boot camp and deployed soon after. Gave his wife power of attorney. She destroyed his credit and put him $200k in debt in 8 months. They divorced but his CO advised him to just 'give her whatever she wants' to keep her quiet. So now he's also paying alimony.

It sucks because he only joined the military to pay for college. But now he's afraid he won't be able to afford it even with a GI Bill.

Image by Defence-Imagery from Pixabay

58. Disinherited

In less than 5 years, one of my cousins was married twice, to two equally horrible people, and blew through two inheritances. He and his first wife trashed a house my grandmother let them live in for free and got mad when she asked him to pay for repairs. He is now completely alienated from family, including his parents, and disowned.

Image by

57. What Might Have Been

A friend in high school. Was popular, good looking (dude could have been a model) really really smart. Got accepted to an Ivy League school and all he had to do was make sure he passed all his classes and he was in.

Well, the last week of senior year he had a math exam and all he had to do was just show up and write his name on the exam. The teacher had it set up where you get at least a 40% just by writing your name. He just couldn’t get a 0% or else he wouldn’t pass.

The moron decided to skip his exam and go play video games instead. Failed the exam and the class and couldn’t attend the Ivy League school.

He eventually spiraled over the years into drinking and dead-end jobs. It’s been 15 years since high school and last I heard he’s still living at home. He could have gone places in life but decided to play games instead.

Image by

56. Was His Password 'Password'?

I was working in a bank. One day the director fired one of his executives, the whole "empty your desk, you're fired" speech in front of everyone. The director was furious and the guy seemed entirely destroyed.

Then he explains to all that this guy gave his login and password to a friend at another branch. The friend used that login (and others) while doing some kind of credit card fraud. Police arrested her but lacked evidence against the fired guy. So they just fired him on the spot. Obviously, besides losing his job he was also blacklisted from work in banks or finance for the rest of his life.

Image by

55. Whenever You Gamble, Eventually You Lose

I play poker. I once saw a man on my way in betting about 10k all on one roulette spin. He chose red and lost. He looked defeated. Later that night, a guy at our table told us that he heard the guy on the phone crying in the parking lot trying to explain to his wife that he lost all their money. She was screaming and said she want s a divorce.

Gambling problems are sad. People who are hooked genuinely believe the next turn will be the winning turn, and so they go all-in. They believe that if it had been a winning deal, they'd have been foolish for not going all-in and getting that payoff, so they just do it.

Image by

54. The Grass Isn't Always Greener

A friend's father had just retired from a union construction gig and apparently decided he needed more changes in his life, so cheated on his wife of 30-40 years.

Once the divorce hit (only took a couple of months) the new woman decided she didn't really want to be held down in a relationship; they could be FWBs but nothing more. He tried getting back with the ex-wife, who of course said no way, and it caused him to spiral downwards very quickly, start threatening to end his own life, and then spend some time in a mental ward. It happened a few times again over the next few months.

Apparently he also didn't realize she's entitled to at least half of his pension, and the lawyers are forcing him to sell the house to give her half. He's been trying to sabotage the sale the entire time, but basically he's screwed.

Image by

53. Answering The Bell

The first semester of college. This guy always said he enjoyed getting into bar fights. He was smart and was in good very good shape. One Monday he fails to show up to class. We tried calling him for weeks until his sister answers his phone and tells us that he was in a fight and is now in the hospital. We don't get too many details and lose contact. A year later a see him in a wheelchair.

I asked about him a couple of years ago and I was told he was doing fine and was happy but still... if you like to fight how about amateur boxing or something like that?

Image by

52. Riding Dirty

A guy I no longer associate with once took a long road trip to smoke up and do all the substances he could. He and friends were driving a car cross country with enough stuff on them to get a couple of years in prison.

As they were leaving a pot friendly state, their car broke down right around the corner from a police station. A police officer came to help them out, saw a bunch of pale, scared teenagers, and proceeded to search the vehicle.

All of them got arrested right on the spot. I heard this from a friend of mine and I don't know the details as I don't hang out with that guy anymore, but I think his parents disowned him because this was like the last straw. He had gotten in trouble before because of his partying but driving across the country Fear and Loathing style has to be the stupidest thing to ruin your life with.

Image by

51. Check The Tapes

Back in high school, a friend of mine was dating a guy a few years older than her (she was 16 at the time and he was 18). The guy decides that he has no direction in life so he decided to join the military to give him some structure and discipline. They decide to break up as he is about to leave for basic... training then she finds out she's pregnant.

He decided to do the honorable thing and marry her both to take care of her -- plus if he's sent to live on a base, he'll get more money and better housing if he's married. She drops out of high school to have the kid while he's at basic and joins him at the base when he gets stationed.

Less than 2 years later, she's cleaning the house and finds a videotape. So she pops it in the VCR to see what's on it -- lo and behold, it's a tape of her husband with another woman... in their bed at the base.

The last time I talked to her was right after she found this out, and she was back home, 18 years old with a 2-year-old, no job and no high school diploma, in the middle of a divorce.

Image by

50. Preacher Without A Flock

Dropping out of high school.

This cousin came from “that” branch of the family tree, a few low-level con artists... can’t even remember what all the scams were that this guy was involved in, but that’s apparently how he figured he’d support himself.

I think the weirdest one was hearing that he’d started his own church. He basically became a street preacher. “Rev. Kenny.” In a small town. I don’t know that he ever drew any followers. Didn’t last with that.

Now that I think about it, it’s hard to figure out what he would’ve ended up doing with a high school diploma. Maybe it’s just as well.

Image by Ale Hidalgo from Pixabay

49. The Feds Bring Down The Hammer

One day while I was at work, the FBI came barging in and grabbed one of my co-workers. Apparently she'd been going to dark areas with a computer, like our delivery department after they closed for the day, using other employee's ID numbers to log in and then activating handfuls of gift and prepaid credit cards to their max limit. She stole about ten thousand dollars worth from her colleagues and somehow thought she would never get caught.

Image by

48. Like Father, Unlike Son

So I went to school with this cop's kid. He was always a total jerk to everybody and mixed with a bad crowd.

Well, one day in high school this kid comes in and sits down. sunglasses indoors, arms crossed. He was acting weird, so we're all just looking him up and down. He keeps repeating, "Guys, I'm so smoked up right now. "

Though the teacher was out of the class, there was no shortage of suck-ups and teacher's pets. As it goes, somebody rats him out and he gets pulled out into the hallway, escorted out of the high school in cuffs. To make matters worse, the cop car was in front of the school, allowing pretty much everybody to see this happen, allowing the obligatory Snapchats, etc. He ended up with a PI and possession charge.

This actually led into a full investigation, where the police pretty much dragged down a handful of students who were his party buddies. Even further, this happened in a fairly small town with a population of hardly 2k people. You can bet a cop's son being arrested in school became some hot drama.

Last I heard he was working part-time retain and hasn't been able to get into any colleges. He ruined his entire future.

Image by

47. Are You Trying To Fail?

I'm a grad student and TA for some classes at my university. Last year there was a guy who was taking the online 101 course in our department (for the second time). He had was supposed to graduate in a week and had a job lined up for the following month, but he had an F in the online class. The instructor (my officemate) was WAY more generous than I would have been and she gave this kid the chance to redo all of the old homework before final grades had to be submitted. He still failed.

Image by

46. An Honest Man Turns Bad

I had a friend whose life was pretty tough. He's a good guy, but he doesn't always make the best decisions - lots of drugs and shenanigans in his youth. Smoking messed up his health and working primarily in construction/labor messed up his body pretty badly by 40. He by that time also had 3 kids, one of whom has autism and special needs. He loved the crap out of those kids.

He was always struggling to support his family, though, so he was always working his day job and then running around in the evenings/nights being a dealer that did deliveries (back when it was still illegal where we lived).

Well, eventually a botched vasectomy leading to a hernia, and then a COPD diagnosis came down on him, and making a living got even harder. I guess that's just when he gave up. It was the weirdest thing.

One day I'm at work, and I look out the front window of my little office and I see the street flooded with cops. They're surrounding the bank across the street. Someone robbed the place, and I was seeing the aftermath -- it was a little town, nothing like that should ever have happened.

A day later I'm telling my buddy, "Hey, I saw a bank robbery yesterday" and he says, "You didn't hear? That was F." (F obviously being the guy referenced above.) He'd thrown together a fake bomb, put it in a backpack, and he robbed the place. He was on the lam for two days before he turned himself in.

I never got a fully straight story, but evidently his plan was to rob the place, maybe try to stash some of the take while he was still out, say goodbye to his family, and then spend the rest of his life in prison (which is why he specifically made a fake bomb, so he'd get in extra trouble).

He figured that if he went to prison, his health would no longer be a burden on his family and maybe they could move on and be happy.

Image by Ichigo121212 from Pixabay

45. Just Take The Ticket

Initially, this woman was pulled over for speeding, which isn't all that bad, just a traffic citation.

Then the officers noticed she was tipsy. Still not terrible as it was a misdemeanor DUI, but you still end up spending the night in the tank.

As she's being arrested, she resists and during the struggle, she kicks one deputy in the face which ended up blinding him in one eye because she happened to be wearing high-heels.

She went from a simple speeding ticket to a DUI to felony assault in the space of about 30 minutes.

Raymond Wald/Flickr

44. Listen To The Safe Parent

I was doing some skiing with buddies. We’re at the top and I overhear a little girl (10-12) in blue ski pants and a white puffy coat complaining about her helmet being uncomfortable. Dad comes over and adjusts it, but the girl continues to complain. They make a plan: dad and brother start to go one way, and the girl stays with her mom. I hear clear as day from dad, “The helmet stays on or you stay in the lodge.” As soon as the father is out of sight, her mother tells her just to go toss it in her bag and that mom will deal with dad later.

The day goes on. We ski, wreck, get soaked, have fun. It’s sometime towards dinner and we’re at the bottom of the hill planning on one more run before we grab a bite to eat. The sun is low, it’s cloudy, the lights are starting to turn on. There’s an ear-piercing scream as a young girl in blue pants and a white puffy jacket comes hurtling out of control through the flat, slamming head-first into a cement anchor for the lift line.

The sound was sickening. The whole crowd seemed to drop silent as she hit with a sick wet thud. Someone behind me puked. I do not know if she made it, but I know she didn’t move again while ski patrol loaded her onto a board with a neck brace.

Pixabay

43. Mission Accomplished, Life Ruined

A freshman at my university posted an anonymous threat on YikYak about a month after he started.

The threat was something like: "No one go to X building tomorrow at 7 PM tomorrow, you've been warned." He gets arrested that night or the next morning and gets a 10-year sentence for terroristic threats. He wasn't even serious; he thought it was a joke or didn't want to go to a quiz/test that day (I guess he didn't go, so mission sort of accomplished?).

Melina Sampaio Manfrinatti/Flickr

42. Foolish Entrepreneur

Went to a rave with some friends the summer after high school. One of my friends was approached by a guy selling an illegal substance, and my friend bought like 10 pills off of him. Ever the entrepreneur, he immediately turned around and tried to sell them to someone else. The first person he asked happened to be an undercover cop.

Matthew Spong/Flickr

41. Two Lives Ruined Over Frustration

A guy from my high school had a baby girl in his early 20s. The baby was still an infant and wouldn't stop crying. He tried rocking her, but it wasn't working and he got frustrated. I don't know the specifics of what happened, but the baby finally stopped crying, instead becoming unresponsive.

He took her to the hospital and they found that she had Shaken Baby Syndrome and the baby later passed away. He lied to police and the doctors about having anything to do with it initially but later admitted to shaking the baby when he was frustrated. Was found guilty of neglect that resulted in the death of a dependent. Thirty years in jail.

Pixabay

40. Don't You Dare

My sister's boyfriend was dared to rob a gas station with a BB gun. He's now doing eight years for armed robbery. The kicker is they offered him a plea deal that would have given him four years jail and then probation and he said no.

Pixabay

39. Don't Be A Bully

A kid I operated on my first year of residency was from a smaller a community. He had just signed a full basketball scholarship at one of the big-10 schools. Very promising athlete, had a high likelihood of going pro according to some scouting websites, but he was a bully.

One of the kids he bullied started carrying a steel baseball bat. One day this bully, as a prank, had a plastic gun, and tried to fake rob the kid.

The kid swung the bat and nailed the guy in the neck, full force. Major burst fractures at C4, C5, and C6. Lots of inflammation and a few other things, so we gave steroids and took him to the OR. It didn't look as severe on the CT, but we saw he had a major spinal cord trans-section.

Now he's a vent-dependent quadriplegic.

Mike Baird/Flickr

38. A Wonderful Father Figure

I was at my first job as a teen I (was a hostess at a restaurant). I was hanging out at the cashier's desk chatting when one of the servers announces that she's met this amazing new guy and she thinks he's the one and he's such a good influence on her young daughter, etc. The next day she comes in looking like she was hit by a train and announces she and this guy stayed up all night doing illegal substances. What was weird is she acted so casual about it, like she had just cheated on a diet. She still insisted he was going to be a great stepdad, though.

Pixabay

37. Sliding Into Ruin

In first grade, I was at the first Tiger Cub meeting for kids and parents interested in Cub Scouts. The parents were hearing all the boring details about dues and fundraising, etc. We were playing tag or dodgeball, and one of the kids falls on the gym floor and slides quite a ways.

We all thought that was pretty fun, so we all start running and then falling on our stomachs to see how far we slide on the gym floor. One kid was way to close to the wall and slid head first into the wall pretty hard. His parents left with him and went to the emergency room. He suffered permanent brain damage.

Clyde/Flickr

36. Fighting Over Nothing

Was a bouncer. Have seen guys get in fights and usually did not intervene if they occur off the property.

Saw two guys one night get into a stupid brawl over nonsense and one of them hit the ground.

Buddy never woke up.

This kid went from not having any major problems in the world to becoming a felon convicted of manslaughter.

By far the fastest way I have seen someone mess up their life.

Huub Zeeman/Flickr

35. Wrong Words, Wrong Time

I work at a nursing home. Patient was getting on a nurse's nerves so she said aloud she'd "give the old coot the wrong meds and laugh while he codes." The patient had a sudden code and died the same day. Went from a hateful and insensitive remark that would be a write up to a formal police investigation for murder.

Pixabay

34. Falling Star

This football star in high school was a first-string on varsity freshman year. He was already being scouted by sophomore year for major D1 colleges.

At the end of junior year he was pulling some dumb pranks, messed up his shoulder, and ended his football career.

Football was all this guy had for a future. He didn’t have a plan B.

juicyrai/Flickr

33. One DWI Later...

Hardworking Spanish immigrant supporting his sick mother, six-figure salary as a broker, drove a Mercedes and had money to blow. Got hit with a DWI... license revoked, job lost, and I supervised him for $12 an hour after the dust settled.

Pixabay

32. Chewed Up

Last year, a kid in my school was caught chewing gum in class, but he denied it so the teacher checked his bag for gum. The teacher found a ton of illegal substances that he was selling to other students. He got expelled and his parents have sent him to live with his grandparents in Africa for the rest of high school.

Hernan Pinera/Flickr

31. Brainless Robber

This kid I know, his cousin gave him a gun over the holidays as a present. So this dummy ordered pizza with his friends and instead of paying they robbed the delivery guy. Again, this is after they gave the address and name for the order. So now, because he just turned 18, he's being tried as an adult and faces like 10 years or more for being stupid.

Bart E/Flickr

30. Helmets Should Not Be Optional

Not wearing a helmet when doing BMX tricks.

He was doing a grind down a handrail and went over the outside of the rail from about 15 stairs up and landed on his head. Now he can't speak correctly, can't focus, and he gets mad easily and often.

Willian Soares/Flickr

29. True Story Of Young Love

A guy in the same grade as me from high school got accepted to a great college on a full ride scholarship playing football (not going to specify which one, but they're in the top five right now). He gave it up because his at-the-time girlfriend with no future didn't want him to go off to college without her. They broke up not even a year later.

Leo Hidalgo/Flickr

28. Unexpected Punishment For Soda Thief

I was eating lunch in downtown Athens, Georgia on game day. If you know SEC football, you know how crazy it can get.

A tipsy freshman sorority sister comes in, orders her food, and asks for a water cup. Then she goes over to the soda machine and proceeds to go put soda into the water cup. The manager saw and would have none of her apologies or pleading. He called the cops. Cop comes, girl takes a breathalyzer, the cop finds her fake ID and flask. On go the cuffs and off she goes in a police car. All within 10 minutes, and all over a $1 soda. Tough break for a dumb 18-year-old.

Yuwen Momon/Flickr

27. Not Very Impressive

I work at nightclubs around the New England area. I’ve seen a lot of fights, but the only time I’ve seen someone die was when this tipsy guy tried to impress some girls when the club got out. He hopped over a trash barrel, landed on his neck, and died on the spot.

Neil Moralee/Flickr

26. Overly Roughhousing

Growing up, I was best friends with two brothers. They always roughhoused and what not, no big deal. Both of them are in the bed of a truck and start pushing each other and one pushed the other off the bed of the truck. His brother is pretty much fully paralyzed now and has no movement from his neck down. It was crazy just messing around caused that.

Gerry Dincher/Flickr

25. Not Worth Winning

I worked in surveillance at a casino. Many staff were partying together for one guy's birthday, which is normal enough. But the next day, one of the bartenders was still partying hard and had to be asked to leave.

A moment later, I got a call from the pit boss. He told me the bartender was on the roof and I was to summon the police to have him removed. While I was on that call, I received another call to make sure that an ambulance was standing by, as the man had jumped from the 40' peak of the roof to the pavement below, shattering all the bones around and below his waist.

I found out after the fact that he'd been on a cocktail of illegal substances and was on the roof to claim a $20 wager that he wouldn't jump. I saw him years later, still wheelchair-bound.

Clint Bradford/Flickr

24. Prediction Proved True

A guy I went to school with, we'll call him Jake, had a full ride to a great college football program. He was one of the best athletes I've ever seen.

Went to a party and someone told him he'd screw it up just like his brother did (his brother did screw up a full ride, to a lesser school though). Jake didn't take kindly to this, and smashed an empty bottle over the guy's head, causing serious damage.

Lost his full ride, stayed around my hometown, and died two years later in a motorcycle accident.

Matthew Hester/Flickr

23. Fast & Foolish

A dude I went to high school with was always pretty into cars -- liked the Fast & Furious films, used to go to drifting events, etc. He ended up becoming a mechanic once he left high-school. Seemed like the dream job for him.

Well, turns out he got a bit too into it, had modified himself a Toyota Supra to nearly triple the stock BHP. He picked his girlfriend up one day from university, decided to show off what it could do, thrashed it down a country road and ended up wrapping it around a tree.

This guy survived, but she was killed on impact. He went down on a whole litany of charges, from manslaughter to some of the stuff on his car being illegal.

He was always a pretty chill dude, massively into his cars, had a secure job, a girlfriend, and he lost it all because he was showing off.

Pixabay

22. One Easy Mistake

One of my parents' college friends eventually got into BASE jumping.

He and his friend were doing a wingsuit jump off a cliff in Norway and at some point on the ascent up the cliff one of his closing pins came undone. His buddy reclosed it for him, but he misrouted the bridle, so when he pitched, it tied itself in a knot rather than open the container.

Ten seconds of carelessness and this guy killed his friend. In front of his wife.

Pixabay

21. Napping Into Ruin

A guy I was in the army with fell asleep in his tank while on overwatch. He was 12 years in. Soon to be E7. Had no life or interest outside of the army. He got chaptered out over falling asleep. Not saying he didn't deserve it. But it messed up his entire life in one fell swoop.

j. botter/Flickr

20. Choosing To Sign It All Away

Before I get into this, you gotta understand what our high school waivers are. Some people here aren't built for college, so we have career classes here (carpentry, electrical, engineering, graphic arts, culinary arts, etc). If you take these classes you basically become an apprentice in those fields and you can choose not to take the language and art classes necessary for college. The newfound class period openings are replaced with your career class, and you leave the waivers classes.

So in high school, there was this 10/10 girl who was stunning and absolutely brilliant. She had a full ride to whatever school she wanted literally anywhere, and she chose to be a surgeon. She got into an argument in my Spanish class, and threw a huge tantrum.

Out of sheer spite, she went down to the guidance office and signed the waiver. In about five minutes she threw away more money (like $300,000) and future than anyone else had had at the school in years.

Pixabay

19. One Accident, Two Lives

I had a buddy who was the nicest guy in high school. He was the type of guy to give you his coat in the pouring rain and think nothing of it. He was an athlete (cross country runner) and a marine after graduating.

A little while ago, he was out partying, got behind the wheel, and hit an old man crossing the street. The old man died and my buddy is serving a sentence for it. He had everything going for him and then he killed a man. How to mess up two lives with one dumb decision.

Rian Castillo/Flickr

18. Head Not Hard Enough

Best friend's little brother was long boarding to class one day, didn't have a helmet, steep hill, and hit a patch of gravel. Slammed his head and didn't make it. They had to pull the plug.

Meredith Bell/Flickr

17. A Single Slur

Was in the navy, and a 2nd Class Petty Officer (E5) asked our chief (E7) what kind of cake was his favorite. He said swirl or something, and the 2nd Class turned around and said out-loud "What an (n-word)!" (The chief was black.)

Went from being a well-qualified individual to having no job and living in his mom's basement.

Pixabay

16. Not The Witness He Wanted

I work in CCTV surveillance at a nightclub. A member of door security called up on the radio to tell me that there's a member of the public who is rather tipsy and he isn't going to let him in. He just wanted a camera on him in case the person was abusive.

Anyway, man walks over and appears to be talking to the security guy when all of a sudden the security guy just punches him in the face and knocks him out instantly. Turns out the guy who was punched died as a result. Chaos ensues as people then try to fight with the bouncer and there's basically a street brawl.

I had to shout for police over the radio and they attended and arrested the bouncer who I think was sent to jail.

Moral of the story is don't get CCTV to watch you if you're going to kill someone.

ollis picture/Flickr

15. The Internet Is Forever

My friend posted some stupid comments that a college kid would say without thinking. This website called Canary Mission literally went through all of his social media and found anything they could about subjects like Israel or Pakistan and posted his full name, all his social media, his college, and all his pictures saying he was pro-terrorism and he was a racist anti-semitic radical.

This is forever displayed on public domain in hopes of ruining any possibility he may have looking for a job. This was recent and he deleted any social media related to him. He tried making another one but they updated it once they found it.

Easiest way to ruin your life and career is just a few posts on the internet and someone who takes it too seriously.

Pixabay

14. Buying For Kids

This guy bought some kids (14-15) adult beverages. They went to the lake and got tipsy, four went swimming, three came out.

It isn't over yet, but he's under investigation for involuntary/negligent manslaughter. The other day he was "stressed" and walked outta work. So now he's jobless, about to be homeless, and probably going to jail.

Guillermo A. Duran/Flickr

13. Fool Got Stung

While living in Okinawa with the Marines, my unit had a new guy transfer in. Five days after being on the island, he was being escorted back to his room by the MPs. One of the gunnys from my section came up with him and told me (I was on duty) to find someone else to place on permanent duty for his barracks room and that he was only allowed to go to the laundry room and first-floor gym.

Later that night, he was escorted to the brig when he was deemed a risk to the base-housing families. Turns out he snuck off base alone, got a taxi, and tried to have relations with a supposed 12-year-old who was actually an NCIS agent running a sting operation. Last I heard of him, he was demoted to private and awaiting sentencing, still in the brig in Japan.

Nathan Rupert/Flickr

12. Lost The Lottery

Fastest way was most definitely a co-worker thinking he had won the lottery, walking around the office telling everyone "screw you!" Half Baked-style. He told the boss what a jerk he was, and that he had relations with the boss's teenage daughter (she was 17, he was 30); told another co-worker that he hoped she got cancer from all the smoke breaks she took; told a particularly lazy employee that he was the best of the bunch but that wasn't saying much and that he should quit too because McDonald's was hiring. Then he climbed on a desk, urinated into a trashcan, and left.

It was a gag lottery ticket that I got for him as a prank.

Robert Couse-Baker/Flickr

11. One Elbow Wrong

I had a buddy that was getting put into the back of a cop car. He was getting an underage drinking ticket. Not too big of a deal, it was a $200 fine and off your record in a few years.

Then he elbowed the cop in the jaw and made him fall to the ground.

That screwed up his entire life.

AJ Schroetlin/Flickr

10. Ruined Voyeur

Med student got kicked out of medical school for posting pictures of colleagues on not-so-reputable sites. He would stalk them and take pictures of them in public.

Now he will never become a physician.

Martin de Witte/Flickr

9. Diving In The Shallow End

My high school buddy was a brilliant varsity soccer player. Had a stellar future in store for him in the form of college and a career.

End of senior soccer season he throws a party to celebrate. Gets (presumably) tipsy and dives into his pool from his roof. Injured his neck/spine/something like that. He became paralyzed. Couldn’t afford school due to hospital bills. Now he lives at home with his parents, unable to do much for himself.

Keith Walbolt/Flickr

8. Sneak Attacker

I was on a grand jury for this.

A guy in his early 20s was partying in a bar. He walked outside to go home and saw his buddy arguing with somebody in the parking lot; not fighting, just yelling. I guess he thought it was a good idea to sneak up behind the the other guy and punch him on the side of his head. The guy died right there from one punch, not from hitting the pavement. The kid on trial got two years in prison. He had been on track to be a firefighter -- now it's all gone.

Doug Sparks/Flickr

7. Instant Facial Deconstruction

A guy a couple of years ahead of me in high school once put a lit M-80 (firecracker) in his mouth. From what I was told, it was a macho thing and he was supposed to spit it out. But his lip was a slightly-wet-sticky mess and it stuck. Bang.

I would see him in high school, wearing essentially a doctor's mask over his face. He also had a tracheotomy (or something similar).

Zhu/Flickr

6. Just Distracted

I had a client who was involved in a wreck in his 20s. We’ll call my client “Frank.”

Frank was driving and had dropped something and bent down to get it. He drifted ever so slightly over the line, but enough to clip an oncoming vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle died, and Frank was critically injured.

No illegal substances were involved, but Frank was still convicted of felony manslaughter and spent 10 or so years in prison.

Chris Yarzab/Flickr

5. Should've Listened To The Professor

When I graduated from my Masters program, our professor jokingly said on the last day of classes: “Just don’t get arrested before graduation!” So one night, in the week before graduation, our cohort all went out to some bars. Most of us either walked home if we lived close, or took an Uber or Lyft.

But Evidently one of the girls in our group decided she could drive home tipsy, and ended up driving into the side of a convenience store and then blacking out. She was arrested and charged with a DUI and reckless endangerment. She couldn’t get her teaching license after that so her degree is useless now.

jason shcultz/Flickr

4. Moral Of The Story

Last summer, I was driving with my dad around 9 PM. There was this old Jeep with its left turning signal on in the other lane, heading southbound, waiting for us to go so they could turn.

All of a sudden -- boom! A car flies into the intersection towards the Jeep, swerves, flips up onto its top, and rolls over twice into a ditch on the side of the road.

I pulled over, and my dad and I both jumped out of the car to go see if we could help.

The car burst into flames.

Now frantic, I call 911. As I look into the wreck of this car, I saw a teenager trying to break the windshield with a stick. He was screaming. My dad went and tried to break the windshield too, so he could escape.

At this point, all of the trees around the car were catching fire. My dad and I both sensed that this car could explode at any moment.

We climbed out the ditch because we were afraid for our own lives. There was nothing else we could do.

The fire department took their sweet time arriving and putting the fire out. The person in the car was long gone at that point and they don't even try to get him out.

So how did this all happen? Remember the guy with the stick who was trying to break the windshield? He was speeding and playing on his phone. He didn't see the Jeep until the last second, tried to swerve to avoid it, and ended up dead.

Jason Bolonski/Flickr

3. Smart Kid, Stupid Joke

Our high school Valedictorian was the smartest kid I knew. He was an introvert, but he had the answer to every question known to man in class. One month before graduation, he was bragging about Ivy League schools that had accepted him and debating which one he should choose. Three weeks before graduation, someone found a note he had written that fell out of his bag. It was a "hit list" of students that he hated and he wished were dead.

Within 48 hours, he was suspended from school, not allowed to attend graduation, and we heard the Ivy League schools all dropped him. All I remember was him getting handcuffed in class and him screaming that it was a joke. Ten years later and I heard he lives with his mom and works at BestBuy.

bark/Flickr

2. Too Heavy For Cake

I used to work a grocery store bakery.

The new assistant manager of the bakery comes in and immediately "adjusts the workflow to be more efficient," AKA dumps all his work on the already enormously busy evening workers. He also complains about the quality of everyone's work and craps on everyone under him constantly, seemingly just because he can. He especially has a bone to pick with me because I listen to the wrong talk radio station or something, and he goes to extra lengths to insult me openly and leave me tons of extra work.

One day shortly before close, he leaves the bakery with an empty cake box. He comes back with it full and taped up neatly. He leaves it on the counter saying he needs to hit the bathroom, so I pick it up... and it's heavy as heck. No way that's a cake. So I phone the acting manager and report theft. They checked the cameras and sure enough, he had filled the box with expensive steaks.

The company pressed charges and prosecuted him to the fullest extent possible. They were big on making examples at that point to curb the high levels of employee theft. He got absolutely screwed and was unemployable overnight. Sold his house, lost his wife... don't know what happened after that but I bet it wasn't good.

Dan Ox/Flickr

1. Signs Are There For A Reason

My cousin went swimming in a river with his friends as a senior in high school. They were jumping off a bridge that had an explicit NO DIVING sign. He, of course, dove off and hit his skull on some rocks. Fractured his skull and broke a few vertebrae. Years later he is alive but is paralyzed from the neck down. He needs a caretaker 24/7 and so much money has been invested in his healthcare, PT, transportation, etc. Crazy to think that one bad decision as an 18-year-old can do so much damage.

Eric/Flickr