Boy Scouts stories — May 2026

• Xyz

Former Scouts, share your horror stories-things that happened to you-while you were in the Scouts.

Reply: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scouts/s/KwnUf9x8ge

Long post warning

This isn't really a horror story but I am mentioning it nonetheless because this made me leave Scouts.

I was a Sea Scout and later a regular Scout (Here in my country there's Scouts, Sea Scouts, Guides and probably a couple more) for 2-3 years. I have some amazing friends and memories. But my view of Scouts has been tarnished by my last night at Sea Scouts.

It was shaping up to be just like any other night. The only indication of something out of the ordinary was a text from the leader asking us to bring shoes that could get wet, torches and water bottles and notepads...remember this for later. We got there at the normal time and again, nothing seemed amiss. We had parade and right after the leader told us something. You see normally, we would do a warm-up game on the beach to kick off the night. But he said there was not enough time. It raised an eyebrow or two but again, nothing seemed amiss.

So we start walking down the beach without being told where we are going. We all scattered out. May I remind it was pitch-black and all it would have taken to get one of us kidnapped at this point was some guy to come and snatch one of the stragglers. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

Around an hour later, we reached our destination. A groyne (If you don't know what a groyne is, it is basically a pier like structure placed on beaches to prevent beach erosion). Where I am, the 2 groynes we have double as storm drainage pipes. Only now are we told what where doing here. We're going in to a storm pipe that's covered in barnacles, moss and is known to have be inhabited by eels and sharks . At 7 o'clock at night with the tide coming in above waist height in the water. What could possibly go wrong?

I initially thought my leader was joking, but he wasn't. And before we know it, we're walking in. The way the drainage system on our groyne works is there is a large tank where storm water is stored. This beneath the Esplanade. This is leads to a pipe running down the length of the groyne till about the halfway mark on it. There, they lead into a small box area, which then leads to three more pipes that lead straight out to the ocean. We had entered through the middle pipe of those three pipes from the ocean. Oh, did I mention a high tide, which at the time the tide was coming in, these pipes are submerged? We reached the small box area I mentioned before. The larger pipe was covered by a valve that looked like a vault door. During storms, this opens, allowing water to flow through where we were standing. Above the box area is a drain. This gave us a clear view of the sky as it was placed in the area people can walk on the groyne on (Like a pier). It also gave anyone above a clear view into the little box area. That night there was woman on the groyne and she either saw and/or heard us inside. "What the fuck are you guys doing down in there?!" we suddenly heard.

Although the phrasing could have been better to a bunch of scouts (Including one that was religious), I do get what this woman was getting at. We shouldn't have been in there, especially at that time of night. Our leader told woman to not use that language and said that we where scouts. That was the end of that. So we walked through box area and back into the right pipe (The left one was ironically blocked by sand). We started to walk out back towards the point where we came in (The ocean). When we came out, I saw the main reason I made this post. One of the girls had cut her arm. Badly. We walked back to our little building and settled. The girl was sent home due to her injury. Idk what happened to her after that but I guess that she earned at Tetanus shot given the conditions she had cut herself in. We all went home shortly after we got back. Apparently, the reason we had gone in was, and this a quote "To explore the community inside". That was reason number many why we should have gone in there. I moved to a different Scout troop a couple weeks after this but it ruined Scouts for me and I eventually left.

This isn't the worst thing could happen in Scouts. Far from it. But it does need mentioning. This wasn't isolated. At my last camp I did in scouts, the supervision was so lax, one of the boys made a flamethrower. And started lighting grassfires with it. With two gas canisters in close proximity. That camp I didn't finish because I was sent home with a second degree steam burn. Although it can mostly be summed up to my own stupidity, it was partly the leaders fault for not telling us how to safely complete the action I was doing. Putting out a campfire with water should be simple. Put it the water on the fire, and goes out. Well we where never told until after I was burnt a tiny detail. If you dump the whole bucket on fire, It turns to steam and can burn you. Why this minor detail wasn't mentioned in advance is beyond me but, it wasn't and spent several weeks recovering.

I know this sounded a bit whiny, and as I said I am not acting like this is the worst thing that can happen in Scouts, but wanted to point out a problem that, although this probably doesn't apply to many Scout groups, but in some cases, supervision by leaders is either sub-par or even negligent. And in the storm drain case, some activities seem like risk assessments were either not completed or rushed. After I left I tried to get these things behind me and continue with Scouts, but I couldn't and, as I said, I eventually left. I hope that people see this and avoid these sort of things from happening to others. I have a word of advice to and Scout or leader planning an activities. If the activity goes wrong, will your actions hold up to scrutiny. If it is dangerous, either don't do it or give parents and the people carrying it out forewarning of what you are doing, why and what could happen if things go wrong and ways it will be prevented.
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