Nothing makes a person feel more alive than narrowly escaping death, especially if it was due to a thrilling display of reflexes and quick thinking. But then you have the people who escaped their doom via pure accident, incompetence or irresponsibility. Their stories are amazing, even if they're not all that inspirational.

5 Thwarting a Serial Killer by Getting Home Late

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On April 28, 1979, Anna Williams went out dancing with friends. A 63-year-old woman staying out late with her friends is not news, despite what nursing home newsletters try to tell you. Also not news ... the fact that she stayed out later than usual.

But ...

The Near Miss:

... there was someone waiting for Anna. That person was waiting in her home. That person was the goddamned BTK Killer.

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Seen here looking like your math teacher.

That's the alias of Dennis Rader, who gave himself the name BTK (it stood for "bind, torture, kill"). He was a serial killer who was active from 1974 to 1991, murdering 10 people (he wasn't caught until 2005). This was 1979, right in the heart of his rampage, and Rader stalked Anna Williams for months. Finally, while she was out, he broke in, cut the phone lines, picked out a few souvenirs to take home for his collection and waited.

And waited. And waited.

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"It's like she doesn't even want to be murdered."

When Williams got home, she found that her house had been broken into, and that her phones were dead. She looked through the house to find ... there was no one there.

Rader had gotten tired of waiting and just left.

Two months later, Williams got a letter from BTK that included a poem called "Oh Anna Why Didn't You Appear?" Because chicks dig poems, especially ones about how you planned to brutally murder them.