Moments you needed a flashlight and didn't have one!

tychoseven

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Jan 13, 2008
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South Bay, CA
Power went out last night at a friend's house; we were making dinner and had to finish the meal outside on the grill. That itself isn't a big deal, but I was cursing myself for not bringing my headlamp as it would have made everything that much easier. I of all people (CPF members notwithstanding) should have known to be prepared!
 

Bobpuvel

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Jul 13, 2008
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212
Location
Buffalo, New York
Where I work, you can go upstairs without actually going out onto the sales floor through a series of small hallways. The only light switch for these halls is at the top of the stairs (perfect for going downstairs). I happened to be headed upstairs and the light switch was off.... I normally don't have my keys on me at work to reduce bulk in my pocket. I definitely regret not choosing to carry them the other day. My current light mounted to my keys is a Fenix E11; Possibly soon replaced by the foursevens preon p0.
 

Lee1959

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Nov 18, 2005
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2,020
Location
Michigan
20+ some odd years ago, I was running wiring for computer routers on a Sunday afternoon all by myself way in the back of the factory I was working at. I was up on a ladder when the power went out. There was no emergenc lighting and no windows so it was pitch black. Climbing down the ladder was the easy part, the worst was moving through the rest of the factory tripping over things and hitting my shins. That was the last time I did not have a flashlight in my pocket. I went out and bought a Solitare that day and a AAA Minimag came along shortly thereafter.
 

allyourblood

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Mar 23, 2005
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37
I have one situation that I'll never forget. About 5 years ago my wife and I were shopping at Target. The power went out completely and with no skylights, the store was literally pitch black 150' from the front doors and beyond. We were shocked to find that none of the staff were prepared for this in the slightest and customers were left fumbling on their own for at least 5 minutes. Several folks who either didn't have a flashlight or phone (or didn't think to use them for light) were rendered completely immobile by the darkness. We used our mobile phones to navigate to the flashlight aisle. I didn't have an EDC flashlight at this point, but I certainly had my knife. We hacked open about 6 flashlight packages, installed batteries and walked around passing them out to nearby customers.

There was zero verbal communication from the store's staff to the customers and the store was eerily quiet. We considered that they were maybe being robbed at the front, or some other bizarre occurrence. Nope, just a power outage. Shockingly, rather than sending employees around with flashlights to help people and guide them out of the store (and heck, maybe avoid some lawsuits in the process), quite literally all of the store's staff, as far as I could tell, were stationed at the front of the store, where there was daylight coming in from the doors. Why? They were all visually ensuring that no one left the premises with merchandise! No safety concerns, no discussion of finding any potentially lingering lost customers, nothing. We dropped the flashlights on the counter (with a clatter) in disgust and left.

Nowadays, I figure I can light up several aisles around me with one light to the point that people can at least see where they're going. :thumbsup:
 

Stress_Test

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Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
1,334
allyourblood, it's a good thing the employees didn't see you opening those light packages. They would've had a fit I'm sure. Never mind customer safety though! :shakehead



A few years ago at work, me and some coworkers were poking around in a basement area, and one of the rooms had the power shut off. It was under renovation and there was a big hole in the false floor where they were rewiring. There was hardly any light coming from the other dim rooms and we could hardly see a thing. I had no light and using my cell phone screen for light was all but useless (we had just come from outside and weren't dark adapted.

Never again!


Incidentally, last week we were in the same underground area again, giving a tour to some out of town contractors. This time I had four lights on me: Quarks in 2AA, 1AA, and 123a size, and a SureFire G2 with an R5 drop in. The power was on in the facility this time, but I was ready nonetheless! :D
 
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chmsam

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Apr 26, 2004
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2,241
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3rd Stone
Many years ago I was working alone and unloading a tractor-trailer full of skids at about 3 a.m. when the power went out. I was almost all the way in the front or "nose" of the trailer. There was some debris behind me and several of the skids in front of me were unstable. As a matter of fact one was ready to tip over. On top of that they were fairly tall and heavy. The emergency lighting didn't make it to the interior of the trailer even at the tail.

It was not a good set of circumstances to be in total darkness even for a few minutes.

I've never been without at least one light since.
 

Quiksilver

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Jul 21, 2010
Messages
472
Doing wiring (audio and cctv) on our half-finished house in the dark, because the next day the workers were going to put the walls/roof on and make it impossible to add wiring.

I had a Fenix LD05 at the time, and sorely missed not having my Fenix LD20. Used three sets of batteries on the LD05, all from my EDC. Worked out great in that regard and got the job done, but I really needed more light. Worst thing was, my LD20 was in a jacket pocket at a different location. Left it behind.

Now I always have two EDC with at least 2 sets of batteries each, unless at the beach or somewhere unlikely to want one.

It also made me realize the importance of having something to Bite on, near the rear of a flashlight. Something like a little band of rubber that you can sink your teeth into while using both hands. I ended up using electrical tape on the back of my LD05 so I could bite on it while using both hands above my head to do the wiring.

Yes a headlamp fits the role, but I didnt have one there at the time.
 

Richub

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Jun 6, 2011
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371
Location
Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Allyourblood's story reveals how selfish some (a lot, actually) people have become...

- "Station all personnel by the doors in case somebody steals something!" (Understandable action, nothing wrong here.)
- "But what to do with the customers in the back who can't see anything?"
- "Eff them, our merchandise is worth more than those people!"

Nauseating, to say the least. :mad:
 

Monocrom

Flashaholic
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Aug 27, 2006
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19,768
Location
NYC
Thankfully, never left in a situation where I was literally in the dark without a light.
 

allyourblood

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Mar 23, 2005
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37
Incidentally, last week we were in the same underground area again, giving a tour to some out of town contractors. This time I had four lights on me: Quarks in 2AA, 1AA, and 123a size, and a SureFire G2 with an R5 drop in. The power was on in the facility this time, but I was ready nonetheless! :D

Nice! That's how I feel now, too!

Allyourblood's story reveals how selfish some (a lot, actually) people have become...

- "Station all personnel by the doors in case somebody steals something!" (Understandable action, nothing wrong here.)
- "But what to do with the customers in the back who can't see anything?"
- "Eff them, our merchandise is worth more than those people!"

Nauseating, to say the least. :mad:

I agree completely. Certainly you want to prevent people from making off with merchandise, but at the expense of customer safety (which had the potential to cost many orders above any amount of theft)? It was quite an eye-opener.

I like reading these stories. It makes me feel better about my own occasional under-prepared moments. :crackup:
 

Richub

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Jun 6, 2011
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371
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Eindhoven, the Netherlands
I just remembered the one time I was in the basement of a large warehouse when the power failed. This was some 10 years ago, before I became a flashaholic. ;)
After a short while my eyes got adapted to the near darkness (there were one or two very small emergency lights) and I was able to move around safely.

I'm lucky to have very good night vision, and was surprised at the amount of people in there that still didn't see anything at all.
Some people even panicked, but within minutes two security officers came down the stairs with Maglites to guide everybody out. Compare this to Allyourblood's story... :green:

This was the first time I actually realized how good my night vision is compared to a lot of other people. I'm lucky to have this night vision. :) And this kept me from buying flashlights for years, 90% of the time my night vision still allowed me to get around in the dark.

Nothing beats a decent flashlight though... ;)
 

motocoder

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Jul 22, 2012
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Pacific Northwest (USA)
A couple of times a month: In my garage, which is very poorly lit even in the day (with garage door down), there is one of those plastic stand-up cabinets in which I have stored a few things. I always go there not remembering that I need a flashlight to see anything inside the cabinet. It's one reason that I joined this forum - so I can get a nice small EDC light so that doesn't happen anymore :)
 

jacksmith

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Jun 18, 2012
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thank god that situation never happend to me and wont for i just bought one flashlight and before that I havn't got one.:laughing:
 

fiberguy

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Feb 23, 2012
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My cousin lost his wedding ring....AT HIS WEDDING RECEPTION!! Crawling around on the floor looking, digging through trash cans in bathrooms...all with my stupid cell flashlight. This was about 3 weeks before I found CPF and became an addict. This will never ever happen again. I carry a cool little pocket rocket wherever I go.
 

allyourblood

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Mar 23, 2005
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My cousin lost his wedding ring....AT HIS WEDDING RECEPTION!! Crawling around on the floor looking, digging through trash cans in bathrooms...all with my stupid cell flashlight. This was about 3 weeks before I found CPF and became an addict. This will never ever happen again. I carry a cool little pocket rocket wherever I go.

Wait -- did you find it?!
 

fiberguy

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Feb 23, 2012
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188
Wait -- did you find it?!

It was found in the trash can in the bathroom. He's a younger guy and never wore a ring before. After he washed his hands he was drying them and slipped the ring right off in the paper towel. It was the 3rd person to search the restroom trash can who actually found it (I dug through trash for him and somehow missed it). Aaaand, my cousin was sober. huh. Stuff happens?

At least it was found though!
 

RBWNY

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Mar 10, 2011
Messages
374
This past spring I was in one of the bathrooms at work...in a stall (alone) :whistle:... luckilly, I was preparing to exit when I heard someone open the main door...then another small noise...then the lights went out! COMPLETE DARKNESS! Nothing for the eyes to adjust to. Normally, I have one of my edc's in my pocket. That day, nothing. Since nobody re-entered the room...there I was :shakehead. Needless to say, I was forced to fumble my way through the room and find the door AND the light switch.

(don't recall if i had my cell phone on me or not)
 

Richub

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Jun 6, 2011
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Eindhoven, the Netherlands
I've done that myself a few times at work...:whistle: Just a result of being used to turn off the light automatically at home.

Nowadays I always leave the main light on at work places. This got me a complaint from a colleague once, so the next time we weer both in that bathroom I just turned the light off. :devil:
He emitted a shout and a curse, to which I replied he was the one asking me to always turn the light off. I just left him in the dark for a minute, turned the light on again, and never had complaints about leaving the light on again. ;)
 

MattC16

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Jul 25, 2012
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I was on vacation in a rented house, it was 11.30 pm completely dark, it was a cloudy night giving no natural light. Suddenly the power went out and the whole town was plunged into darkness. My fired ran up to his room and pulled out a 300 lumen flash light and was talking about how great it was and all that (Actually it was pretty poor) I had to make do with a crappy wind up one that was in the cupboard.

I just wished I had my TK70 with me, then I would have owned everyone. :grin2:
 
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