Moving Day
I was helping my company move equipment from our old office space to our new location. It required me to park my car in a very small alley in the downtown area of Chicago—the Loop, for those who know.
The security officer told me that he would watch on the camera to see when I got there so that he could open up the big gate for the service entry.
The gate was about 30 feet wide and 20 feet tall, and it was one of those roll-up types. I parked, got out of my car, and looked up at camera. He must’ve been watching, because the gate started opening up right away.
I was going to duck under it once it got to about 4 feet high, but had a momentary gut feeling to not do that.
As soon as I took a step backward instead of going forward, the axle broke on one end and the entire 60 feet squared of steel gate came crashing down.
If I had gone under the gate, I would’ve been crushed. In my panic, I scrambled backward to the alley wall opposite of the gate, and missed falling down a 4-foot window well by just a couple of inches.
The security guard was amazed and incredibly relieved that I was alright.