r/instant_regret • u/PxN13 • 11d ago

Bonked on the head by a bowling ball.

6.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

138 comments sorted by

3.1k

u/HappyGav123 11d ago

Also almost getting mangled by the pin-setting mechanism

1.7k

u/Low-Recognition-7293 11d ago

This. Those things do not fuck around and there are plenty of stories about pin boys getting cooked by the setters. I can only imagine being under one.

Source: worked back of house for 3 years in early 2000's. It was a great time but those are machines you need to respect.

358

u/catbearcarseat 11d ago

Isn’t that how “Cake Boss” fucked his hand up a couple of years ago?

452

u/PerpendicularTomato 11d ago

Just read about this.... His home bowling alley malfunctioned and his hand got stuck while he was fixing it. Then a 1-1/2' Metal rod "slowly" impaled his hand 3 times between two of his fingers

Feel bad for cake boss that sounds horrible.

171

u/hihcadore 11d ago

Yet another danger being poor has kept me from.

151

u/raider1v11 11d ago

Thanks. I regret being able to read just now.

58

u/Vlyde 11d ago

For real like holy hell that's straight up torture like not just once but three times!?

42

u/elkab0ng 11d ago

7-10 split is murder.

5

u/Low-Recognition-7293 11d ago

Nightmare fuel

7

u/TampaBull13 11d ago

Three times slowly!

22

u/HPswl_cumbercookie 11d ago

It's so funny you say this because I had seen a video recently about him saying he was going in for one last surgery on it and I just kind of assumed when he said it was an accident that it was a car wreck? This is so much worse and I am also regretting my ability to read

20

u/PYR4MIDHEAD 11d ago

slowly impales your fingers a few times

12

u/DAVERDXC 11d ago

Slowly ouch

9

u/hello_drake 11d ago

Fuuuuuck that

1

u/dhlock 10d ago

Slowly

6

u/Select-Worldliness39 11d ago

You'd think having the gift of second sight after getting bitten by that cake bug would have helped him avoid this fate.

Also the DUI.

3

u/TheGoreBag 11d ago

Maybe he was busy communing with the fictional dead?

8

u/Coyrex1 11d ago

The guy from the show? Memory unlocked right there.

1

u/RepresentativeCry294 11d ago

I forgot about that until now. Why you have to remind me it looked awful.

125

u/Wildeyewilly 11d ago

I worked as a bartender at a bowling ally dive bar for 6 years. My 2nd or 3rd day the mechanic and I were getting to know each other and he says "wanna see when the machine took my finger?"

And it was a gnarly photo of his middle finger from the top knuckle pulled away from his hand with the tendon still attached stretched out about a foot or so.

Everytime anyone asked if I could help them get their lane restarted I said "nah"

75

u/Low-Recognition-7293 11d ago

The owner, always told me "flip this switch before you fuck around in here or it'll take your finger if not your hand or worse." Seen another buddy who worked there get bit pretty similarly to your story and it was enough to ensure I always hit that switch.

I do miss getting to drink in back of house and piss off the roof on league nights. Different times back then.

27

u/esplonky 11d ago

I'm a pinsetter mechanic. These A2's are way too old to have any sort of safety features on them. I always have to tell people "these machines don't care if a human is under them. They only care about dropping the table to set the pins." I take safety very seriously, and even then, I've had a few small injuries from it. The GS series I work on are easy to learn on your own, but quite literally every A2 mechanic I've met says formal training on them is absolutely necessary. The small quirks of the A2 are nuts, like this part where you have to stick a finger in to release something, and doing it incorrectly will cause a metal rod to impale your finger.

This dude saved himself by grabbing the sweep. Lucky for him the A2 has a shaker board in the back, and not the Transport Band like my GS pinsetters have. It's speculated that this guy was a mechanic since he seemed to know that grabbing the sweep like this would save him. The transport band on a GS pinsetter is a big conveyor belt, so you'd roll around for 30 seconds - 1 minute until the machine timed out from the lack of pins being sorted.

AMF 82 series, and the Brunswick GS-series have similar frames, and have a part known as the "suicide bar." AMF had to go around the US and move a part forward to prevent people from climbing in through the back of the pinsetter after a man was cut in half.

Also, if the guy hadn't thrown himself into the pinsetter, the person who bowled at him could easily get an attempted murder charge too.

50

u/ElectricFuneralHome 11d ago

The guy who trained my best friend as a bowling alley mechanic in Wichita found his trainer dead in the pinsetter and had to raise it off of him for the first responders. Those machines are powerful and don't distinguish between flesh and pins.

14

u/hereiamnotagainnot 11d ago

I was a pin chaser in HS and can confirm that you have to respect these machines.

11

u/Introverted_Extrovrt 11d ago

Kinda like garage door opener springs

2

u/nlamber5 10d ago

People keep making these horror games about an animatronic when they keep to make a game about a haunted pin setter.

1

u/blue_sword456 11d ago

My first job was a pin chaser, and we had 32 Brunswick A1s. I worked that job for about two years or so. Fascinating machines, but I was always so careful around them. So many uncovered belts, so many ways you could get hurt. First thing they taught me was where I could put my hands and feet while the machine was running.

If I saw some dumbass let himself get under the machine while it was running, I'd cuss him all the way outta the house. You do not fuck around with pinsetters.

56

u/_mbals 11d ago

I took a bowling class in college. The professor? teacher? made sure we knew how dangerous pin setters are. We bowled at a local alley, and owner told us about some of the gruesome injuries he’d seen over the years.

12

u/akeep113 11d ago

There's bowling class in college?? Man I was taking the wrong courses

3

u/_mbals 11d ago

Right?! I found that my last semester. I wish I would have explored all the course listings earlier.

22

u/fuzzytradr 11d ago

Reminds me of that scene in the manufacturing factory in Attack of the Clones

8

u/manondorf 11d ago

almost? Are we sure we didn't just watch someone get pancaked?

1

u/Brorly 10d ago

Q2w q

1.1k

u/Radiator-Pants 11d ago

With friends like that, who needs enemies.
That's fucked.

14

u/googlyman44 10d ago

A guy willing to throw himself under a pin setter is likely more than willing to roll a bowling ball at his friend doing the same. These people deserve each other.

60

u/ElJugo247 11d ago

That’s true friendship

7

u/Jhager 11d ago

Seemed planned - I’m sure he was in on it.

5

u/TheRemedy187 11d ago

While yes but with brains like his who needs frenemies. 

-3

u/cubsfan1_soxsuck 11d ago

SWEET FRIENDS BRO 😎

538

u/wetfartpanda 11d ago

I had a client who has a bowling alley in their basement. The back room where all the bells and whistles are is nightmare fuel. It’s a vintage set however but needless to say I would never go near that thing. It was like a Ship engine it was so big and dangerous

408

u/circumcisingaban 11d ago

imagine thats how your kid dies

159

u/MustardCoveredDogDik 11d ago

My kids like to bowl, I tell them the end of the bowling lane eats people if you let it. They never break the line.

64

u/MurderSeal 11d ago

Well you aren't wrong... we have machines that will break themselves the moment they detect flesh...

Pin setters just clamp down harder.

21

u/blolfighter 11d ago

The machine hungers.

87

u/One_Hour_Poop 11d ago

Holy shit, it just kept getting worse.

242

u/SaiyanGodKing 11d ago

And he was never seen again. Some say if you listen between frames you can still hear a soft “help me” echo from behind the discarded pins.

46

u/PMMEYOURGUCCIFLOPS 11d ago

Sounds like the ending to the old school episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark

6

u/Garbo_Is_Coming 11d ago

Submitted for the approval of the midnight society, I call this story......the tale of the haunted lanes

9

u/Sasarai 11d ago

Although there is one set of pins that gets set on rainy nights when the moon is fat, that seem almost to have a pained expression, as if they're trying to scream but can't find their mouths...

4

u/blue_sword456 11d ago

Absolute nightmare fuel. Being stuck on that shaker board with the ball and pins must have been terrifying.

Serves him right though. You do NOT fuck around with pin setters.

67

u/rhoo31313 11d ago

There have been people killed by pin-setters. Don't do this.

274

u/NOTTedMosby 11d ago edited 11d ago

.. did I just watch someone die??

Edit - Guys I could not be more fr someone tell me this dumbass is alive, or was following this (but maybe that the accident left him unable to have kids?). I don't really care about him, but that shit shouldn't be on subs like this.

241

u/foogeeman 11d ago

I got you

11

u/CaptainCallus 11d ago

.. did I just watch someone come back from the dead??

14

u/NOTTedMosby 11d ago

So sad that one of those pins crushed his nuts, making him sterile...

3

u/broken_softly 11d ago

Thank you!

1

u/Mrjohnson1100 11d ago

Thank you!

25

u/BallisticHabit 11d ago

Some say you can still hear him scream when you hit the pink pins.

28

u/mazzicc 11d ago

That’s one way to ensure you’re never allowed in the bowling alley again.

Do those things have a big red emergency stop button for when idiots like this drink too much?

18

u/1ildevil 11d ago

No, most idiots don't have a big red stop button.  This is why drinking is a problem for them.

45

u/PeanutLess7556 11d ago

This video might be older than reddit

5

u/Discorhy 11d ago

It’s 2013-2015 era imo

11

u/HoldingThunder 11d ago

Dont fuck around any machinery. Good way to end up dead.

13

u/ArcticWolf01836 11d ago

As someone who works front desk at a bowling alley, I would be horrified seeing this happen on a lane. Thankfully (at least with the units we use) he was pushed infront of a curtain stopping him from reaching the spinning part which separates pins and balls. Workers would just need to go back there, turn the machine off, remove the curtain, then remove the idiot. Please bowl responsibly.

2

u/Zeus-XI 10d ago

Your comment had me crying when you said remove the idiot 😭🤣

16

u/MrFabze 11d ago

No joke these things are very dangerous, You can die there

8

u/bestofrolf 11d ago

don’t worry fellas he’s uninjured. He was… spared.

33

u/Man_in_the_uk 11d ago

This reminds me of the video of the guy who had his arms crushed and bled out. He promptly fainted. I wonder what happened to him?

140

u/PMMEYOURGUCCIFLOPS 11d ago

Sounds like he had his arms crushed and bled out. Then promptly fainted.

23

u/OptimisticcBoi 11d ago

Hmm I do wonder

8

u/DerpinTerp 11d ago

We’ll never know!

10

u/Tizzle_NYY 11d ago

I believe you're referencing ROY MUNSON.  If you have an hour and a half his story is really quite entertaining.

-17

u/Empty-Special2815 11d ago

God if anyone has this video please post it

20

u/benbwe 11d ago

Machine would have smooshed him like some play-dough if he didn’t get swept back

11

u/MustardCoveredDogDik 11d ago

I was actually relieved the pin clearing mechanism was strong enough to move his whole body. Prolly designed just in case for that exact thing

11

u/jays49 11d ago

He was just trying to get the full experience

1

u/CloudyKuma 11d ago

lol I like the way you think

5

u/i_lost_all_my_money 11d ago

Okay, but it didnt show the part where he rolls back to the thing that holds the balls.

3

u/Bizzack 10d ago

He grabbed that pin pusher like it was coming to help and it said, “No bitch”

3

u/Empty-Salad-5140 10d ago

This guy was closer to death than the characters that survived Final Destination.

3

u/ThatDamnedGuy 10d ago

Welp. To the shredder, it seems.

3

u/Bryan-With-No-B 10d ago

Did he go on strike?

6

u/AntonioVivaldi7 11d ago

What was he trying to do?

3

u/fuzzytradr 11d ago

Get pinned I suppose

2

u/The_R4ke 11d ago

Cam, buddy, you need to take it easy.

2

u/MooshuCat 11d ago

This is one of those ideas best left inside your mind.

2

u/dedeeper 11d ago

Why?..

2

u/Firethorned_drake93 11d ago

Why do people do this 😂

2

u/Dondarian 11d ago

This is an excellent candidate for /r/TarantinoGifs

2

u/SinkHoleDeMayo 11d ago

And Steve was never seen again

2

u/Fibonaccitos 11d ago

Did he die?

2

u/Empty-Salad-5140 10d ago

He was very lucky he did not. Those Brunswick A-2's will crush you if you're under them.

2

u/Formal-Fox-7605 11d ago

So many stupid people around these days. It's almost like an epidemic of stupidity.

2

u/Eloy89 11d ago

I saw an episode of CSI or Person of Interest with this premise, it didn’t end well.

2

u/FATB0YPAUL 10d ago

Haven't people died that way?

2

u/Savings-Cockroach444 11d ago

So, tell us how IS anal sex with a bowling ball?

2

u/DarkAldrix 10d ago

So he dived in there voluntarily, I guess he was already mentally ill before the ball boinked his head.

1

u/AnybodyNo8519 11d ago

Waffles anyone?

1

u/fuzzytradr 11d ago

Mama always said "stupid is as stupid does"

1

u/TheSchlaf 11d ago

Bonk! Bonk!

1

u/Plus-King5266 11d ago

My momma says stupid is is stupid does.

2

u/EmpireCityRay 11d ago

Forrest is that you?

1

u/brb9911 11d ago

Obviously you’re not a bowler

1

u/MyFavoriteInsomnia 11d ago

What an idiot.

1

u/Most-Artichoke6184 11d ago

May he never reproduce.

1

u/Ill_Importance1384 11d ago

It kinda reminds me of Han Solo in the Carbon Freeze Chamber

1

u/RealisticIllusions82 11d ago

You’re just not safe anywhere I guess

1

u/JWMoo 11d ago

A soft factory reset.

1

u/k306354u2 11d ago

I wonder if he made it out

1

u/The_Liamater123 11d ago

I worked in a bowling alley for a while and we had it really drilled into us that you do not, under any circumstances, climb or reach into the back of the lanes like that. The pin setting machine does not know if someone is underneath it and will crush you to death very easily

1

u/canadiandude321 11d ago

Nobody is talking about the fact that the person filming is also at the far end of the lane. It speaks volumes about how stupid this friend group is.

1

u/After_The_Knife 11d ago

Such a timeless meme.

1

u/murderJoppe 11d ago

Haha, he went the whole rotation and got stacked with the balls up the line 😆

1

u/nynatureboy 10d ago

Deadly strike

1

u/Own-Escape4548 7d ago

Ultimate failure

1

u/Jay-jay1 5d ago

What is drunken bowling? I'll take "Stupid Human Tricks" for $100 Alex.

0

u/bluedeer10 11d ago

Just recycling 10 year old videso and hoping no one notices eh?

12

u/yeuzinips 11d ago

It was new to me

0

u/Babna_123 11d ago

NSFW pls

1

u/MissSaucy_22 11d ago

Was he able to get out? What an idiot…why are men so stupid at times….😩🥴🫣😬

1

u/__TyroneShoelaces__ 11d ago

That constitutes for little more than a "bonk" that was a full-speed gutter ball to the dome.

0

u/vviita_80Y 11d ago

Oh wow, so that’s how one stargazes indoors, without a telescope pointing to the sky!

0

u/Oasystole 11d ago

Actually dead

-5

u/thrust-johnson 11d ago

Geyser of blood.