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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/Chicken_Of_The_Year on 2026-02-24 15:57:47+00:00.
This was some years ago when I was 17. I had a summer job in an amusement park in Norway. That day I was in charge of the "log flume"/ "water ride". It had huge fake logs that people sit inside, they float around and at the end there is a huge drop down a fake mountain. It results in a huge splash at the end.
It was my favorite attraction to work at. Spesially at hot and sunny summer days. As a teen I enjoyed the never ending supply of the happy wet t-skirt girls getting out of the logs.
Anyway. This day at 18:00 we closed. My job was to check that the ride was empty, clean up, and shut down everything before I got home.
Finally at 18:00. I could stop the line of people and start the shut down prosess. I was in a hurry because I was going to a party together with some of my colleagues and two of the girls i met that day.
So I start turning everything off. Pumps off. Conveyor off. The whole ride goes silent. Water still, no movement. Good. I grab my backpack and start walking away to get home.
Then for some reason I turn around for one last look.
In the distance I see one single log:
It is completely still. Parked right at the very top of the big vertical drop, tipping on the edge. Normally the water would push it over. But since I shut everything off, there was no current to move it. So it just stayed there. Inside is a full family. Mom, dad, two kids. They are waving at me. Not happy waving. More like, "hello?? we are still here!?" waving.
I just stood there for two seconds thinking: this is how I accidentally create international news.
I sprint back, turn everything on again, trying to act calm. The log finally tips over and they go down the waterfall like nothing happened. The dad gives me a thumbs up at the bottom. He has no idea how close he was to spending the whole night in a log on top of a fake mountain..
TL;dr: Closed the log flume too fast to go to a party and accidentally left a family stuck at the top of the waterfall.