In Russia’s Kemerovo Region (2,000 miles east of Moscow) two lads aged 15 and 20 ventured into the taiga forest to pick wild garlic. However, even for locals, getting lost in the area is no rarity - and the friends found themselves in a bit of a pickle when they journeyed too far off the beaten track.
To make things worse, mobile phone signal in the forest isn’t great, so calling for help wasn’t an option. But events really took a turn when darkness fell and the boys ran into a bear - so they hurriedly climbed up a tree in panic.
But as the old saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining, and to the pair’s surprise they found that their phones caught some signal from the top of the tree. They managed to report their approximate location to the emergency services before their batteries died.
By the morning boys were rescued, and lived to tell the tale.
Read more: How to tame a bear: One Russian family’s experience