When I was 14
I was cycling with a mate by a river in France. We noticed some bloke carrying a bag and a twin barrel shotgun walking ahead of us.
My mate turned to me and said "I think we should go a different way"
Just as I was about to concur, the man (who was about 15 yards away) turned towards us, pointed to gun in our direction, and fired.
Everything went in slow motion, the bang reached my ears about 3 seconds after I saw it happen, and about 3 seconds after that came the stinging pain...

Luckily for us, he had loaded shot, not wild boar killing rounds, which are the norm round there. The shot mainly hit our bikes, but my mate got a few pellets in the calf, and I got several ricochets to the face, which was nice.

Two hours later the local Gendarmes had taken him down, but only after he changed ammo to wild boar killing rounds and put three men out of action! Turns out he was a local madman who had robbed a bank. Before he was caught he concealed the money in a drain pipe. The money was never found, and he's been in a padded cell ever since :)

Sorry for length and girth, I've been told its hereditary.
(lat297, Tue 30 Nov 2004, 14:13, Reply)