If somebody yelled, "fire!" there probably was one.

The Emergency Call

"My dad had to call and say he was going to be late on take your kid to work day, because the guys building a house in the lot next to ours set all the extra supplies on fire at 5am, and he called the fire department because it was a huge fire and the firetrucks were now blocking our driveway. He took a video."

– kingftheeyesores

The Blazing Car

"Couldn't make it to work because someone set his car on fire. Sure enough, it was mentioned in the local paper a day or two later..."

– res30stupid

Accusations of lying are especially hard on those who are grieving.

Proof Was In The Ashes

"Not really sure if this counts but... I worked at a mcdonalds years ago and I called in sick one day because I was having my dog put down, this was my childhood friend I'd had since I was 6. The day after the manager pulls me into the office and gives me a rant about how I need to come up with a better excuse for a sick day. In anger I ended up bringing his ashes into work with me several weeks later with receipts proving dates of attending vets etc."

"Then a good few months after all this, the same manager is moving house and isn't allowed to take her two dogs with her (no pets allowed at the new address) so she let's her friend adopt them who lives on the next street to where she's going to be living then proceeds to take 10 days off 'to say goodbye.' "

"It's been more than a decade but I'm still salty af about this."

– SolaWrex

"Unexcused Absence"

"Had this but when my brother died, took 2 weeks off because of obvious reasons."

"I was on probation at the time and they didn’t believe me, they wanted a death certificate - but where I live those can take some time."

"At the end of my probation I had an exit interview - my dad was able to sit in with me, so he did. He brought my brothers ashes and put them on the table while they tried to say it was an unexcused absence."

– tictactowbar

There are the odd circumstances.

Nature Strikes

"I couldn't go into work for a few days because a tree totalled both vehicles. My boss was pissed because I had requested the day off but was denied. I had to send pictures as proof."

– hotcookin53

The Gamer

"I injured myself badly enough I couldn't go to work for a few days, the night before World of Warcraft was released. Since I'd been talking about it so much, my boss assumed I was lieing to stay home and play it on opening day. Not only was I not lieing, but it meant I was unable to get to the store to pick up my pre-order."

– shontsu

A Birth Anomaly

"One of my guys didn't come into work he said that his unborn triplets had absorbed each other and he had to console his wife that she was gonna have twins not triplets."

– ShItllhappen

Repeat Offender

"I had the same teacher for trig and 2 years later Calc ii. Both times my house got hit by a car right before an exam. The second time she said 'you've already made this excuse" and asked for a police report. I happily obliged and gave her both. Literally could not believe it.'"

– Electronic_Soil5934

Animals are unpredictable.

That is all.

Kitty Bite

"Kid in high school was absent one day because he'd been 'bitten by a cougar.' Yeah, right."

"Turns out, he'd been bitten by a cougar. He thought he wanted a pet cougar, found some place he could buy one, and went over a weekend to pick one out. He was playing with a cute baby cougar, cuddling and wrestling on the ground, just having a great time. Then that cute little baby turned on him, bit down hard on his foot, and sent him to the hospital with numerous deep punctures that needed chunks of Nike shoe pulled out of them. He was on crutches for weeks."

– twothirtysevenam

Kid's Track Record Didn't Help

"Had a kid come into my class one day that was late and he had been a pain in the butt the whole year so I was like 'alright, what is it this time, house burnt down. No no, you went to the forest and got lost, not you used that last time.' He just stood there with a straight face and said, a bear slashed our tires so I had to walk. I looked at him with an as if that happened face and low and behold after school his mum comes up apologising that he was late again and told me that a bear had slashed their car’s tires. She showed me the ring video and everything. I was speechless."

"Edit for those of you complaining that I was mean, this kid was consistently late and rude throughout the whole year and was constantly giving me bs excuses that turned out not to be true. That’s why I was mad and didn’t believe him."

– cryptic_cookies

The next time you hear someone giving a wild excuse, you might want to take it with a grain of salt.

You never know if the person has actually gone through a terrible ordeal.

The truth always comes out eventually, whether it works in the person's favor or not.