Hmmm, there are a couple:
In terms of the one that was that sounds the most made up:
1) I used to travel up north to aboriginal reserves alot of work, and in the dead of the night (like 3am), I get a wrap on the door of the motel. I opened it to find a guy with a shotgun, who promptly points the barrel at my chest and says that I have until the end of the day to get out. The reason why is part of a much longer story, but the coles note version is that I was there to investigate environmental toxins from the local landfill, which was being caused by a local mining company who was illegally disposing of untreated hazardous waste.
My recommendation was to shut the mine down (I had given a presentation to their band council), and I was going to make a formal report to the federal government. However, the band leaders were receiving bribes/kickbacks from the mining company, and didn't want their cash cow to disappear. I got a visit from the native "mob" (which is a very real thing), and got chased out of town. What's actually kind of sad is that I wasn't going to leave and told my superior what happened - I said that I was willing to take a stand if the government (federal) was willing to intervene and expose the corruption. Nobody cared, and I eventually quit the project knowing the system was broken from top to bottom
2) In these same travels, I was warned on FOUR separate occasions (in different parts of the country, with different aboriginal communities), about not walking alone at night because of Wendigos (sort of like the Canadian version of a Werewolf - flesh eating monster). First time I laughed, second time I chuckled, third time I was like "WTF?", and on the fourth time I never left my room alone again at night. Sometimes I would be in these super remote locations (a research outpost in the North West Territories), and I would hear wolves/coyotes howling in the middle of the night. After hearing so many stories about Wendigos, I was legitimately terrified.
3) Got stabbed trying to buy a bag of cotton candy (I've told this story on here before)
4) A well intentioned drug dealer once gave me fentanyl laced tab of "valium" to help me sleep. I suffer/suffered from terrible insomnia, and I was at a conference, but had forgotten my normal sleeping pills (Imovane and Remeron). Since I knew some people in the area, I was connected to a local pusher in the hopes of just getting something to get me through the next couple of days. I had to present at the conference, so functioning on no sleep was going to be awful. His bright idea was to give me fake valium (and not tell me) because he knew that the people who used it would nod off. Thank goodness I have a high tolerance for sedatives/opiates, because I knew something was really wrong within 30min of taking it.... the irony being that I didn't actually get any sleep, because I was too afraid to go to bed (I sat in a cold shower).
There is alot more. Despite being a nerdy, introverted scientist, I have lead a pretty strange life at times. Something about spending alot of time on the road that leads you down some weird paths (literal and figurative)