20 people who have worked in theme parks share their horror stories.

In theory, working a theme park is a fun gig. After all, you get to spend your days surrounded by delicious snacks, water slides, roller-coasters, cuties in swimsuits and costumed characters, what's not to love, right?!Despite the conceptual whimsy of getting paid to hang out at a theme park, the reality is it's a job just like anything else, and that means there are some very, very bad days. In fact, the very aspects that make theme parks fun can also make them incredibly dangerous (hellooo upside-down roller-coasters).It should be noted that most theme parks are incredibly safe 99% of the time, and statistically, riding a rollercoaster is far safer than riding in a car. However, that 1% makes for some pretty brutal stories.In a popular Reddit thread, people who have worked in theme parks shared their horror stories, and I honestly hope they're all doing okay today.1. ledtomadness walked in on a very weird sex scene. Worked at a Six flags as a sound technician, so I spent most of my time backstage with the characters and actors. One time I walked backstage to find a headless Bugs Bunny and Scooby Doo having sex, costumes just unzipped, not off. Not exactly a horror story but definitely scarring. 2. wockawocka88 hopes the injured girl sues. I once worked at a water park as a lifeguard supervisor and it was an everyday thing that someone sh*t or threw up in the pools. We even called it a code brown so we weren't straight up saying "uhhh yeah, another turd in the kiddie pool." Another time we had a rip tide water ride where people could ride body boards like a big wave and while I was talking to another guard I heard the whistle go off like there was an emergency. As I approached, a guard told me that there was a nail in someones foot. I thought he meant someone stubbed their toe and their nail pushed back into their toe but it was an 8 year old girl who had stepped on a 4 inch screw leftover from the maintenance the ride had recently undergone. Right into the heel. As I saw it I got a little light headed but that what I was trained to do so as I picked her up and pulled her out of the water she moved her foot and it started to come out, but it was still in there a good 3 inches. I put a latex glove on it and told her itd be ok as I called for paramedics. Her damn brothers came up and said that she was gonna ruin their time if they had to leave and i had to tell them to get away. When the paramedics came they picked her up to put her on the stretcher and when they did, that good ol latex glove slid off her foot and got hooked on the screw in the foot causing her, what I believed by her screams, excruciating pain. Never found out what happened after that but she should have sued. Big payday. 3. okiewxchaser got threatened by an angry dad. Operated rides for 4 years. 2 moments stand out. The scariest moment I had was when lightning struck a utility pole below me (my position on the ride was about 50ft up) knocking out power to my ride and forcing me and my supervisors to unload the ride in the middle of a lightning storm. The second was a guy who was very upset that I wouldn't let his kid who was a foot under the height requirement ride. I told him no early in the day, but one of my coworkers let the kid ride while I was on break. The family comes up later and the father who was noticeably drunk, jumps two gates and over the tracks to threaten me with a knife. I called security and he ran. 4.AhrmiintheUnseen watched a child learn. I used to work at a small water park where there were some dry rides up the southern end. There was this 8-year old kid just being a little sh*t; pushing in line, climbing up the slide of the playground, knocking other kid's hats off, that sort of bullsh*t. I warn him several times then ask him to leave, but he doesn't. I go and ask my supervisor what to do and he says "Get the scissors". He means to cut his wristband, without which he can't go on any rides. I call him over, and he surprisingly complies, and before he can react, I grab his wrist and cut off his wristband. Naturally, he starts crying like a b*tch. He runs off to get his mum and she comes back about 15 minutes later and comes and talks to me (without her son). She asks why I did what I did, and I explain the situation to her, and how it is standard procedure. She nods and understands, and knows that her son is a demon-child. She leaves, but, lo and behold, 10 minutes later here he comes. He tries to cut in line again and I stop him, and ask him to go back to his mum. His first reaction was to punch me in the balls. Oh shit, no he didn't. My supervisor sees and immediately calls security. Apparently his mum saw too and she comes running. She doesn't say anything to her child, but goes and tells the supervisor to 'scare' him. When security arrives (30 seconds later) they grab the kid, whirl him around and handcuff him. He's sh*tting himself at this point. They grab him and take him off in their golf cart. A few minutes later they return and the kid has obviously been crying, and hard. He jumps out of the cart and runs straight to his mum, who grabs him and walks out. People watching were stunned, but amazingly, and I sh*t you not, some applauded as they went off. Best day of work I had at that place. 5. Commander_Shepard_ watched a teen make his own waterbed. When I was a lifeguard lead manager, this sh*t happened. It was mid July, and it was ~100 degrees outside. Not a cloud in the sky. It was hot for me, wearing a set of khaki shorts and a thick polo shirt. I had the break guards go on water runs as needed, and guards were permitted to rotate by swimming in the pool. This was to keep them happy, and to keep them from dropping like flies in the deathly summer heat. Naturally, the cycles of the day began like any other. We delegated starting spots, and determined the final rotation based on the number of guards who had shown up, which was all of them. For that, I felt lucky. We had lost 35 guards from the staffing pool as a result of laziness and the usual number of kids who had life's events pop up. At our park, we had a slide that was about 60 feet high. This slide had three channeled slides that started off like a pipe, and then became fluted (half of a pipe, no upper half) channels. One pipe, and the most popular, was the one slide that went down at an 80 degree angle. It was completely open. You sat down, and slid down the 60 feet withing two seconds. Quite a thrill really, if not a quick one. Two guards manned the ride, one at the bottom and one at the top, to control the antics of the guests at all times. As midday comes around, I settle into the usual rhythm, occasionally serving as master arbitrator for the minor problems that our guests have. Bored, I begin watching the slides go down. Four people come every 15 seconds, like clockwork, as they should. The technique is flawless on the part of the guards, almost robotic at times. If I were to approach these guards, they would likely be lost in their own world of thoughts and repetitions. At the top, I notice one of the guards turn around as a teenage male prepares to get into the slide. This is a problem. Teenage males are the trolls of the park, their antics a perpetual source of problems for all staff, from the lowliest trash-kids to the upper echelons of management. Then, I see the kid take two steps backwards. I know what he is about to do. He must be stopped, I think. But, alas, what am I to do? I have no way to contact the lifeguard up top. There is no phone, no radio. I blow my whistle twice. The guards nearby look at me, the guard at the top urns around to find the source of my noise, to find me pointing at the kid. Too late. The kid ran and jumped clean off of the slide. Now, up to this point in my life, I had been afraid of things. Getting in trouble at school, failing something miserably. They all made me a tad anxious. A lot of things had made me scared, and a lot of things had made my stomach churn. But nothing, in all of my life, had made this scared until now. Seeing a young man fall to his impending doom and being powerless over it makes you feel terrible. Feeling, by some extension of logic, that you are indirectly responsible for this, makes it even worse. Never, in my life, has my stomach and jaw dropped so fast. To his credit, he assumed the proper position of arms and legs being crossed. But now he was clean in the air, flying like a lead brick. AS he did so, his body turned ever so slightly. It was something he noticed, and fruitlessly tried to correct for. Instead, he fell some distance before hitting inside the flume and chaotically tumbling down the ride. I called the paramedics immediately, and we had to backboard this kid out of the splashdown flume. The kid messed up neck pretty badly, broke his fibula I think. He was carted off in an ambulance and put in a brace the moment we got him out. They said he was fine, he walked again, much to my surprise. Other than that, I heard nothing else from upper management. 6. Salvo623 caught a supervisor in a horrible act. Used to work for a Theme Park back in the 90's called Calaway Park. it was Flintstone's themed park mixed with traditional rides, and all in all was a fun place to work. I had been working there for 3 months when "the incident" happened. There was a supervisor there that literally EVERYONE hated, and she was nicknamed Grunt. You see Grunt was a heavier set woman with a lung condition and whenever she walked or did anything physical she would groan and grunt. She was a very conservative Jehovah's Witness, the reason EVERYONE hated her was because if you were doing anything she considered wrong she would berate you in front of everyone, customers and staff. It was rarely for anything worthy; like goofing off, or taking a smoke behind the rides. it was for things like a bra strap was visible, playing music on rides of anything that was loud or indecent like "the macarena" I shit you not, she even left a poor girl in tears calling her filthy because she left her post to change her tampon. The incident: One evening after the park had closed I walked up the tower to get some extra garbage bags, from above me I heard Grunt, well. . . Grunting. I grabbed my bags and started to head back down the stairs, however as I left Grunt became louder. I headed back upstairs, wondering if she was hurt, but couldn't see here. I unlocked the door to the top of the tower, and saw Grunt and Gordy (not his real name) a special needs worker naked. Gordy was fingering her, and had his other thumb in her ass. She was moaning and grinding her big wookie bush all matted and wet up, and down this kids fingers. I screamed what the f*ck!!!??? They both looked up at my in horror and surprise, Gordy started crying immediately while Grunt did her best to conceal herself. I stood in silence not knowing what to do. eventually I made my way to the Management office explained the situation, and the cops were called. I know Grunt went to prison but not for how long. Calaway handled the situation really well with tact, and Gordy did come back for the next summer. I however quit, not being able to look at the big tower everyday as I came into work. TL:DR Caught a beast of a Supervisor getting fingered by a special needs worker Update: Since there are a lot of questions about why she went to prison here is the reason: She was convicted of Sexual Assault, sexual exploitation, and I think one other. "Gordy" didn't have the mental age of someone over 18 (actually he wasn't even that old when it happened) He cant, legally give consent since he cannot understand everything that goes into having sex or the consequences of sex also called informed consent, plus she was in a position of authority over him, another big no no. 7. longbeachguy watched a guy paralyze himself. I worked at Raging Waters in San Dimas, Ca for a few summers in high school/college. Great job: walking distance from home, got to work on my tan, hot and cold running chicks. Anyway, this was the summer of 1987--I was just about 17. I was on lifeguard duty at the top of Drop Out (Drop Out was our huge slide that went up about 70 or so feet and slide straight down--no twists or turns--just straight down into a shallow slip of water. I'm doing my thing: telling people to lie down and cross their arms across their chest so I could gently nudge them over the edge. It didn't take much for me to slide them over--literally a slight tug was all it took. Mid-shift, out of nowhere, a group of 20-somethings get to the front of the line--must have been about four guys--maybe a girl, too. The one alpha guy of the pack tells me, "Hey, let me slide myself off." And before I could say anything (I was told by lawyers that witnesses heard me yell at him to "Get down"), he hoists himself up on top of the horizontal platform of the slide (where one's supposed to lay down so I can slide them down) and takes a f*cking running hop over the ledge. I think what he was trying to do was a cannon ball and land with his back against the slide--that's my theory. Like they say when something bad happens, everything was in slow-motion. The guy got lots of air, I don't think he realized that the drop is almost 90 degrees down. In mid-air, he tried to self-correct his jump--his arms and legs wildly trying to feel for anything to grab on to. It never happened. Thinking about it as I write this, it was sort of like Wile E. Coyote when he runs off a cliff and for a split second or two, he hangs there in the air realizing he's f*cked. Somehow, he free-fell between both slides (Drop Out has two identically slides about 2 feet apart) and hit every iron crossbar that held up the seven-story deck. Here's a video of the ride I found on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5fOdE5VjfA Those aqua-green cross-beams above the point of the drop on each slide weren't there in '87. If they were, the guy never could have jumped. So the guy falls 70 feet, hitting pretty much ever steel girder on the way down. He lands at the base of the slide with just about every bone in his body broken--compound fractures everywhere. He ended up in a wheelchair for the rest of his life and settled for about a tenth of what he tried to sue for--yep, the a*shole tried to sue the park and me. Luckily, there were dozens of witnesses who saw and heard me yelling at the guy to get off the slide. It was also passed along to be by one of the managers later that he was royally loaded out out his mind. Lots of near drownings and lost bikini tops at that job, but this Drop Out story is the one everyone wanted to hear that summer. 8. ilovegarybusey got the last laugh. The worst thing that's happened is a guy spitting in my face and starting to film me with his phone while screaming at me that he was going to sue the company I work for because I confronted him when he tried to trip one of my performers during a Halloween event. He was drunk. He was arrested. We all laughed at his mug shot the next day. 9. tweetattom was threatened for doing their job. I don't know if these count as "horror stories" as there's no injury or gore involved, but here's a couple things that happened to me while interfacing with the theme park going public. I was managing a few ride photo booths and I was in one of them talking to an employee when a guy looked at our prices, picked out the package of four photos for $20, and said "$20 for one photo? That's unfair to families." I told him that the price was $20 for 4, and if he'd like a single photo, it was $10. He got very close to my face and growled "Are you getting smart with me?" I told him no, tried to walk him through the different prices, and he kept saying "Are you getting smart with me?" Finally I just walked away round to the back of the booth to check on some stock, during which point he told my employee that if he saw me again, I was getting punched in the face. TL;DR: Guy wanted to punch me in the face for telling him the prices. 10. TubbytheIDD is so glad the kid survived. Worked at King's Island on a ride called Diamondback. One day the train came back and this kid (~10 or 12 years old) was completely unconscious. He was slumped over in his seat being held up by his mother. (For those of you who don't know. The seats on Diamondback are lap bars, so this kid was literally like folded in half slumped over. Also, the ride is smooth as silk, so he didn't hit his head or anything.) Anyway, we immediately call 911 (inside the park, any park telephones route to the park's first aid station when you call 911)meanwhile all we can legally do as teens who weren't medically trained was offer a subpar first aid kit (2 gauze pads, a box of band aids, and some other misc items) and water. I had to stand there completely helpless watching his parents try to wake him up. They said he passed out while going up the first hill (230 feet) and they had to hold him up to keep from flopping around throughout the entire ride. When the first aid cart got there, they lifted him off the seat and onto a stretcher and wheeled him off the ride, and he regained consciousness near the entrance of the ride. My area supervisor asked us all if we were okay to keep working and said if we needed to we can all go home. It was terrifying. I thought the kid was dead and the moment I saw him slumped in his seat is still etched in my mind. That memory isn't the worst part though. Standing there, legally unable to do anything even if I knew how, while the mother was crying, just trying to get a response while the father tried to keep it together for the boy's sister, is the most haunting memory I have and I think it will be for a while. 11. lil-praying-mantis's cousin had a deeply traumatizing work day. My cousin had a summer job at a really run-down theme park. It was probably awesome in the 50's... but not so much anymore. One day one of her coworkers dove in front of a roller coaster for no reason. Suicide right next to innocent children. Everyone said he was a normal person, but clearly fucking not. Edit: Let me also add the time that... hmm let me just save time and post this article from the place's Wikipedia page. Literally so many accidents that it has it's own recognition. Also my bad, he died the next day from it. The roller coaster wasn't fast enough to kill him. 12. italianstallion2 doesn't want to relive that day. I worked as a lifeguard for a while at a water park. The wooden building behind the wave pool caught on fire one day (probably because of an employee smoking in there). The park had to be evacuated and people were passing out in the parking lot left and right since it was about 100 degrees outside. The building burned down, along with all of the ride tubes that were stored in there. It was one of the worst days I've ever had to work. 13. Obvious_Moose worked in a maze from hell. I worked for the halloween events for a theme park in my area (won't say the name, but it might be on the border between two states). I got kicked in the face and almost broke my nose. I was given a break for as long as it took for my nose to stop bleeding, and that counted as my only break for the evening (we got under 30 minutes of break time for a 8 hour shift). Another guy actually got fired because he had a migraine and had to go to the first aid area until it was over. It took something like two hours, and they fired him for it. We were also the "maze" closest to the only place that served alcohol in the park, so we had to deal with drunk a*sholes and sh*tty kids fairly often. Someone choked a girl working in the maze. The maze almost burned down a few times because assholes decided that a dried corn maze was a good place to smoke a f*cking cigarette. I had a lot of fun most of the time, but I had to deal with a bunch of stupid shit on a nightly basis. 14. LipstickSingularity was traumatized by the wave pool. Worked at a Paramount Park several years back as a lifeguard. The grossest part is that the giant wave pool is not drained/refilled all summer. By the end of the summer, when the wave pool was turned off at the end of the night, you could see sunscreen oil slicks on the surface and all of the band-aids and hair ties would settle into a giant disgusting mass. A few times I saw guards go in after money, but I can assure you it wasn't worth it. After the waterpark closed, I filled in on Rides duty. One time I filled in as a height-checker because the girl who did it before me had her arm broken by a psycho dad who tried to take her wristbands (which were used to indicate kids' height) from her for his kid who was too short to ride safely. 15. nightofgrim got their fill of poop. My first job out of high school was at a theme park. Nothing crazy, just a lot of poop. Kids would poop on rides, adults would poop on rides, it was a daily poop fest. At the time I was under 18 so it was always awesome when it happened because I had to shut the ride down and call in for cleanup instead of doing it myself. Diarrhea on a roller coaster is not fun for anyone on the ride. 16. Oysterchild has heard of the beak collision. Never had a lot of horror stories, as a lot was quite safe. But before I worked there, a woman went on Stealth (very fast and very high) and it hit a bird mid flight, and part of it's beak went into her arm. But apart from that, the constant sick. 17. duckstuff has true horror stories. Well I Worked at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and I have two stories: First Story (WTF): I was working as a ride operator on the Big Bad Wolf (now torn down). It was a slow day for us so my area manager had me move from my current position to help out the area staff (cleans the park) in a busier part. I didn't mind because most of the time you just walk around and take in the sights. I also like to keep it clean and the park is usually pretty damn clean. I then got a radio call to come to the men's bathroom at the German Festhaus. Now usually this would mean there is an over flow in the trash or some toilet paper on the ground FROM INCONSIDERATE NESTERS (you know who you are!). Well i walked in and instantly realized something was wrong. The smell.... Oh My God the smell. It was so thick I could taste it. I walked past the open stalls and still nothing could be seen but the smell got stronger. The last stall was in sight and it was the handicap stall.l I went to the door and opened it..... inside.... was what looked like a caveman painting of horses and arrows but drawn in human feces. It was everywhere....literally everywhere. I immediately went to a couple of stalls over and threw up. I then radioed in that the men's bathroom was a big nope from me and put an out of order sign on it..... not touching that literal sh*t Picasso that was going on in there. Story 2 (Sad): This is a sad story and one that has managed to stick with me for a long time. I was on break. The park was hot like 94 degrees out with the humidity squeezing my neck. The park was packed with walking room no better than rush hour traffic. My friend was a park medic who only has been working for about four months... lets call her Shelly. Well we were talking and an alarm came in over the radio stating a guest has past out next to her child. She immediately left our conversation and took off running. The next time I saw her I was clocking out and she was walking to her cry crying. I asked her what was wrong and she let the water works go. Shelly looked up and told me what really happened. An old lady came to the park with her grandaughter. The grandmother was waiting on a bench while her daughter played in a splash zone. The grandmother collapses and the daughter runs over just as the woman starts bleeding from her eyes, nose, mouth, and fingernails. Shelly is there moments later as a manager was buy her side in panic. Shelly immediately starts trying to check her vitals as the girl grabs her arm and begs her not to let her grandma die. The grandmother died shortly after. Shelly quit that day. 18. Trebor417 watched pigeon heartbreak unfold. One time I saw a pigeon get obliterated by someone's face one one of those pendulum rides that spin and swing, it landed just in front of me, in the queue, and it's claw grabbed the air in its last motion as a trickle of blood ran off the edge of the ride and into the water underneath. the worst part was when it's little pigeon lover was looking out sadly from their nest which they'd decided to make in the triangular 'legs' of the ride. 19. T-Money2187 is lucky to be alive. We were walking around the amusement park (wasn't open) in Mosul, Iraq looking for a mortar team that was reported to be in the area and a sniper took a couple of shots at us. Does that count? 20. SeasonalManagement has dealt with some serious theme park drama. Having worked in Rides at an amusement park for 8 years I have plenty of stories, but very few sound good without context. I'll take a swing at 2... There was a supervisor that worked under me, he was awful. Totally regret promoting him. He was passionate about the park but wasn't able to handle his role. Long story short he got demoted and then the night before we opened the following he sent me this text. That was funny. The next story was the only true time I was scared while at work. We had a ride breakdown, surprisingly normal, however the train was stuck in such a way that we were unable to reach two rows of the train. It just so happened that in one of those rows was a lady that was having a severe panic or asthma attack (Our First Aid team took over when she got off) and wouldn't/couldn't calm down or get her breathing under control. Luckily mom was near by and had an inhaler. The ride was a flying coaster so the guests were laying on their backs while stuck and I was able to toss the inhaler and land it right on her chest. Between Mom, First Aid personnel, and myself we were able to get her calmed down while we wait for maintenance to pull the train into place. I whole ordeal only took 10-15 minutes but it felt like an hour. People stuck on rides always seem to think their lives are in danger when in reality they're safer in the seat than I am standing on the catwalk next to them. But this woman was the only time I felt someone was in real danger and it scared the shit out of me.