They say that truth is stranger than fiction—and sometimes, real-life occurrences are so out there that no one believes they actually happened. These Redditors shared the outlandish stories that left their friends and family shaking their heads in disbelief.
1. Telepathic Teacher
My high school teacher was into spirituality, apparitions, telepathy, etc. One day in class, she said we would play a game. She wrote the name of one of the students on a piece of paper and put it on her desk upside down. She said, “The person whose name is written here will stand up without any hint from me”. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, I was convinced it was me, I stood up. ..I couldn't believe it. Or was it some plot to mess with my head? I never saw the paper, but a bunch of other students did. A few people in class accused me of conspiring with her or that she gave me some sort of sign, but none of that was true.
My name was on the piece of paper. I do not believe in any of this stuff and have wondered for years how it could have happened. Did she know us so well that she could predict who would lose patience or who would imagine their name was written?
2. Taken By Surprise
I was swimming by myself in the Gulf in fairly clear water about 10–15 feet deep. I was about 200–300 yards from shore, and there was no one within 100 yards of me in the water. My parents and sister were on the beach watching me. With how clear and calm the water was, I’d occasionally go under, let out all my air, and just sit on the sandy bottom.
I can open my eyes for short intervals in salt water, so I’d look around for a bit once I settled on the bottom. During one of those drops, I bumped into something.
My blood ran cold. A giant, dark blob took up nearly my entire field of vision when I opened my eyes. At first, I thought it was an alligator, and I was a goner, but it turned out to be an equally startled manatee. I had no idea they could swim that fast.
Most people don’t believe me, but it was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever had.
Flickr, U.S. Geological Survey
3. Dumb Luck
When I was a kid, my family would watch the Texas lottery drawing after the nightly news. I remember sitting there, and for some reason, I started saying numbers, trying to guess what the balls were going to be before they called them out.
I guessed all the numbers correctly before they were announced. My family was freaked out that I did that.
They laughed about it and joked that I would pick numbers for their tickets from then on. I recalled the story at a family get-together years later, and none of them remembered that moment, but I do.
4. Identity Crisis
I had a job interview in a town I had never been to before. I got lost and decided to park my car and walk up to a random stranger, some old man I had never seen before. I asked him where I could find the business I was looking for.
He politely told me where to find it. That’s when things got weird. He then said, “You’re welcome”, and addressed me by my first and last name.
I had never told him my first or last name, just asked for directions. I was dumbfounded, and he just chuckled and walked off into some store.
I have an uncommon name, there's no way you can even guess it.
5. Always On My Mind
In the summer of 1987, I was in a bar in a little village in New York outside the gates of West Point. It was the middle of the week, and it was just me and the bartender.
Willie Nelson walked in, sat down on a barstool, and drank with us for a couple of hours. He was at the very height of his popularity. I had just read his autobiography a few weeks before, and he was my favorite singer. I’m chatty, but I was tongue-tied that day. No one believed me afterward.
I suspect no one believes me today either.
6. Stop The Music!
When I was at university staying in residence, I was putting a CD back in its case when I dropped it. The CD landed, not on the top, not on the shiny bottom, but on its SIDE, then continued to roll towards the open door, whereupon it took a sharp right.
It then continued in a perfectly straight line 40 feet down the corridor, where it finally ended, shiny side down, in a pool of barf someone had thrown up the night before.
7. Great Minds Think Alike
My dad picked me up, and we went about 20 miles out to the countryside.
He was visiting a friend who had a river running through his property. My dad wanted to talk to the guy about fishing. The guy also had a little shop selling knickknacks and ornaments. My dad is one of the stingiest people alive; he never buys anything.
I BEGGED him to let me choose a gift.
He allowed me just one, and I chose a small blue-ish Viking statue. It was half a set, but I definitely wasn’t allowed to buy the female Viking, just the one. What happened next left me in shock.
When I got home, my mom said she had gone for a drive that day with her partner, stopped at a tiny gift shop, and bought a female Viking statue. It was the other half of the set.
8. In Charge Of Saving My Dog
I let my dog outside one night while my husband was at work.
The house we used to rent didn’t have lights in the backyard, so I would shine a flashlight through the living room windows into the yard when he went out. I was standing there watching my dog, and he suddenly stopped and was staring at something.
I whipped the flashlight in the direction he was looking.
Less than 10 feet from him was a grizzly bear staring down my dog, with only a flimsy chicken wire fence between them. My mind quickly flashed to our safe upstairs, and I knew I didn’t have enough time to get up there. So, I came up with a ridiculous plan. I ran outside towards the bear, stomping, waving my arms to look big, and blinding the bear with the flashlight.
I yelled in the deepest and loudest voice I could muster, “Go away, bear! Leave him alone! Get out of here”!
The bear was shaken and just darted off into the darkness. I ran down to my dog, scooped him up, threw him inside, and locked the door.
In the same month, someone else in town had their dog killed by a bear when they let them outside at night. I’ve stopped telling people this story because no one believes I would actually charge at a bear, or they think I’m insane, but I love my dog.
9. The Gamble That Paid Off
Years ago, when I was in my mid-20s, a friend asked me to spend Thanksgiving with her in Laughlin, Nevada because she had no one else to hang out with.
Since I was a single guy with no other plans, I made the long drive there. Late one night, I was the total amateur at the dice table and started rolling dice with a really cute girl. I was way outta my league.
I had lots of drinks, was winning big, and was having a great time.
She really knew what she was doing, placing bets I had never even heard of. One thing led to another, and I ended up back in her room. The next morning, we were having breakfast, and she showed me her pictures in Playboy magazine. We said our goodbyes and I never saw her again.
It was the only one-night stand I ever had in my life. I was just your average ordinary-looking guy who had slept with a Playmate. I only told a few people, but they didn't believe me, so I decided to mostly keep it to myself. I don't blame anyone for not believing because it sounds like the most made-up ego-boosting guy story ever.
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10. Sink Or Swim
It was the Fourth of July. I agreed to swim with my younger cousins. They were ecstatic that a “big kid” agreed to swim with them. I jumped into the pool and they immediately all dog-piled on top of me. They were pushing me down in their excitement, and I was trying to get to the surface.
That’s when things got scary. I remember blacking out for a second and then thinking, “I’m not dying in a swimming pool”.
I did the only thing I could think of at the time. I went against my instincts and dove deeper into the deep end and eventually got out from underneath my cousins and pulled myself out of the pool.
My parents, aunts, and uncles were around the pool and didn’t see anything. They insist it didn’t happen because they would have seen it.
11. He Lived To Tell The Tale
It was around 1995. My father and his friend went to buy a 9mm Makarov-styled gun at a flea market. Afterward, they came home to the student flat.
They were preparing to sell something, so my dad hid the 9mm under the bed and went to take a shower. After the shower, he reached under the bed to grab the thing—not realizing he was in grave danger. That was when his friend struck him with a hammer—twice.
The hammer’s head broke off, and his "friend" went for the head to finish off my wounded father. Still fully conscious, my dad grabbed the 9mm and aimed it at him, but with the nerves of steel, he didn’t fire. Instead, my father got in a taxi with a bloody white robe and headed toward the hospital.
He lived to tell the tale.
12. Going In Circles
I was meeting some friends for dinner after work one night. We agreed to meet at a specific time, and as I was leaving work, I made note of the time. I knew I would be arriving late because of my regular commute time, which was around half an hour.
I took my usual route to their place, which was a straight path. 20 minutes went by, and I should almost have been there when I noticed the road was looking a little unfamiliar.
I tried reading street signs and decided to take the next turn I came across.
I followed the road for an extra 10 minutes and ended up on the main road. It was the same road that led from my work to my friend’s place, that I thought I was on. From where I was, my commute time was around 20 minutes. I didn’t make any turns while I was driving, and have no idea how I ended up there. My friends were convinced I probably just drove on auto-pilot or fell asleep at the wheel.
13. Vision Impossible
One time when I was around 10 years old, I woke up in the morning before everyone else in my family and went out into the living room. From the living room, I could see my younger brother— my only sibling—sitting at the dining room table with his back to me. It looked like he was drawing or coloring on a piece of paper.
I asked him something to the effect of, “Good morning, what are you doing”?
He just kept drawing with his back to me. For a split second, I walked past a part of a column that was in between the dining room area and the kitchen. In the short moment that I passed the column and looked at him again from the other side, he was gone.
I felt a chill down my spine. The paper and crayons were still there. I paused for a moment, confused, said his name out loud questioningly, then got spooked and ran to my parents’ bedroom.
They were both completely asleep, and my brother was fast asleep next to them.
He’d had a nightmare and slept with them that night. The way the house was set up, it wouldn’t really have been feasible for him to slip past me, then quickly pretend to be asleep in my parents' room. My parents have never really believed me or thought it was part of a dream, and my brother swears to this day he wasn’t in the dining room that morning.
14. Greetings From Beyond
I was chilling in a windowless room with my aunt's dog, when the shadow of a man with a large belly walked slowly across the wall 3–4 feet away from me towards the door and vanished. I know I wasn't crazy because the dog's head was following it too.
I refused to go back to my aunt's house after that. She said that it was normal and that it was her deceased relatives coming to say hi every now and then.
15. Lost In Space?
I was driving with a friend to another friend’s house. We had driven there several times at night before, but this one time something really weird happened.
We were very aware of the area as my friend’s house was by the beach, beside a road with palm trees. It always took us about 20 minutes to get there. Suddenly, we reached a roundabout we had never seen before.
We were really confused. We drove a few more minutes before turning back and after 45 minutes, we finally saw our friend’s house. We arrived all freaked out about what had happened and to this day we have no explanation.
A few days later we drove again and everything went fine; we made it there in the regular 20 minutes. It was as if we got “lost in space”.
16. Bad News Bear
When I was five years old, I went with my dad, my uncle, and my grandad on a camping trip.
One morning, the family at the neighboring tent lot left out their breakfast on the picnic table and went on a hike. So, a bear came by, jumped on the table, and started eating it. I, being five, tried to go and pet the bear until my dad grabbed me.
I was about 10 feet from it—but that’s not the funniest part.
Eventually, someone came and chased it off, and the bear jumped off the side of a cliff and rode down the side of the mountain like a slide.
17. Rest Stop Reverie
When I was about 12, I fell asleep on a road trip for a while.
Before waking up, I was dreaming we were going into a rest stop that had a nice pond area for walking and a vending machine that had Fruitopia. I woke up, and we were still driving but my dad declared he was taking the next exit. Ten minutes later, it was the exact exit in my dream.
18. The Almighty Dollar
My dog was put down in the summer of 2020. I fell into a deep depression and couldn’t get out. I was getting baked every day and had a minimum of three tall cans after work alone. In February 2021, I had a three-hour-long phone call with an old friend.
We spent a lot of time catching up, and I opened up about the loss of my dog. He too had put his dog down a couple of years prior, so we both started gushing about the pain of processing the grief.
At one point I gave an analogy.
I said, “I just feel empty, like nothing matters. I could be walking down the street, see a $5 bill, and not even stop to pick it up”. My friend agreed. The phone call went on for a little while longer until he had to go. That same evening, I went grocery shopping.
While I was in the grocery store, I started to feel heavy in my chest.
My heart rate started to speed up, and I had to do some deep breathing to avoid a panic attack. Once I calmed down, I finished my grocery shopping, then started walking home.
I’d always walk the same way, but this time I had to pee. I walked to the opposite end of the parking lot to go behind a snow bank. After I was done, I decided to keep walking in that direction to make my way home.
While on that walk, I saw something that left me shocked. It was a $5 bill on the sidewalk. I immediately thought of my conversation earlier that day. So, I picked it up, snapped a pic, and sent it to my friend with a caption that said, look what I found.
My friend replied in disbelief. I took that $5 bill as a sign from my dog telling me to move on. I went home that night and bawled my eyes out until the next day.
My depression wasn’t magically gone, but it was a big turning point. I re-entered therapy the following month, left my meaningless job a couple of months later, entered a new relationship in the fall after being single for five years, and moved into a better apartment at the end of 2021.
I’ve told the story to some people and pretty much everyone thinks I’m exaggerating.
19. The Eye Of The Storm
When I was a kid, I was living in a little house with my mother, my godmother, my little sister, and my godmother's three kids down the street from my grandparents.
I was the oldest kid, and was largely responsible for the other children. One day, there was a bad storm that knocked the power out. So, I got all the other kids to hold hands and walked them down to the grandparents' house, so we were with adults.
Sometime later, my mom and godmother come rushing into the house, crying for help, saying the kids were locked in the house.
They said they could hear the little ones crying for them, but they couldn’t get the door open, and the older kids weren't answering! They were both just sobbing as I came around the corner, trying to figure out what was happening.
My godmother's mother was like, "What do you mean, the kids have been here since the power went out”. My mother and godmother are still really unsettled by this memory 25 years later.
20. If Pigs Could Fly
There was a toy pig an old couple gave to me and my roommates.
Sometimes we would throw it at each other. One day, it disappeared. I knew we had thrown it in the corner of my bedroom, but it was gone. A few days later, we found it on the top shelf in the kitchen. I was the only one who could reach that high.
Over the next month or two, that toy pig would keep disappearing and reappearing in random places.
We all blamed it on each other—until one day it disappeared from the front room again. My friends and I had all gone to the store. When we came back, it was on the sidewalk in front of our house.
After I left, one of my roommates threw it away because he thought it was haunted.
21. A Visit To The North Pole
I was shopping at a thrift store with my three little ones, and we went to a Chinese place after. This kind couple was talking to us, and they told us about their neighbor’s house and how they decorated it inside and out for Christmas. I got the address and directions from them and set off for it.
We found the house lit up, and parked, and were greeted by an older man outside who said to give him a minute to see if Santa was home.
We waited on the porch, and Mrs. Clause came out and got us. My older children, who were four and two, were given candy canes and a tour of the house.
Every room had a theme and multiple Christmas trees. There were dolls and trains and decorations in every square inch of the massive place—they must have spent thousands.
I didn’t have a camera with me that day, and our phones didn’t have a camera back then, so I have no proof it happened, except for the hazy memories of my oldest. My hubby thought I had lost my mind when I got home and told him.
22. A Long Way From Home
When I was a first grader, the principal let me walk to my grandparents' house because it was 7 PM and no one had come for me. When my mom finally came and she couldn't find me at the kindergarten doors like before, so she went to my grandparents' to look for me.
However, by the time I got there, there was no one home, so I walked about 6 km (4 miles) to our apartment complex. Meanwhile, my mom had gone back to the school.
Since there was no one home, again, I decided, "I know the way to mom's workplace", and walked 15 km (9 miles) to the mall complex where my mom worked as a dental assistant. What happened on the way there was seriously disturbing.
His mom came out and used an early cell phone to call the landline at my grandmother's where she happened to finally be again. They had an Amber Alert out for me, and apparently, I'm the reason the elementary schools in my area don't let kids out for any reason until a guardian picks them up now.
I am now employed by that school board as a teacher.
23. Bobbing For Breaths
When we were kids, we were at my uncle’s vacation home. I was in the swimming pool, on an inflatable boat with floaters around my arms, playing. At some point, I was like, “I don’t need the floaters anymore”, so I removed them. I was playing in the boat, and then it flipped over, and I fell into the water underneath the boat so nobody could really see me.
I wasn’t drowning because my dad taught me never to be afraid of water and if something like that happened, I should take the air I can, empty my lungs underwater, touch the bottom of the pool, push up, and get more air until I can reach the edge. At the same time, my younger brother, who was four years old, and had long, beautiful curly blonde hair, was having a story of his own.
He found a lighter on a table and was playing with it, and at some point, his hair caught on fire. In a panic, my uncle grabbed him, and because he was next to the pool, threw him in the water, and jumped to pick him up.
When he got out of the water with my brother in his arms, my mom asked where I was. He turned around, saw the boat flipped, and every couple of seconds, my head was bumping into it, so he knew where I was. Nobody believed this story, and it’s my favorite memory of my uncle.
24. Starstruck
I live in Canada.
I walked into a hotel elevator years ago and when I saw who was in it, my jaw dropped. It was Brad freaking Pitt and a bodyguard. I said, "Oh", and started to back out. Pitt said, "Hey don't worry, come on in", and smiled warmly. I looked nervous, so he offered a handshake and said, “Hi, I'm Brad". I shook his hand and introduced myself, and he asked how my day was.
I asked about him and when it came to my floor, and I got off, he said, “Pleasure to meet you, Amber".
25. Under The Spell Of Santeria
One side of my family is into Santeria, and they were having a party for Santa Barbara which they did every year. It was like a friends and family BBQ thing where, at some point, the side who’s into that stuff will do “rituals” while the other side who’s pretty skeptical of it, just did party things. The ritual part started, and my dad began making fun of it.
He tried to “join” by smoking with that group but was being disrespectful about it. When he finished his stogie, his whole demeanor changed, and he started talking weirdly and demanding food like he was possessed. He started going through all the food and even grabbed a whole pineapple and started eating it without peeling or anything.
His whole face started to get messed up, and the group started praying and doing their ritual stuff to get the “spirit” to go away. My dad then “came back” and his face was normal. He doesn’t remember anything and believes he just fainted. When people tell him what happened, he doesn’t believe it and just thinks everyone’s just pranking him.
Everyone that I tell that story thinks I’m full of beans, but I saw it. And quite frankly, it wasn’t the only weird thing that happened at one of those parties, but the most shocking that I’ve ever witnessed. I had nightmares about it for months afterward.
26. It Rocked Me To The Core
I had a dream that someone was throwing rocks from a building and one hit me on the head and took me out. The following day, I went to work and decided to see if there was a shortcut. I had never been in the direction I was about to take.
I completely missed a sign saying the road was closed, went around a corner, and rocks were being thrown from a rooftop. I looked up and saw one coming straight for me. I got out of there pronto. I will never forget it.
Freepik, cookie_studio
27. All Shook Up
One summer when I was a teenager, I went to visit the family that babysat me when I was growing up.
I spent a month with them out in California, living on a Christian foundation that I’m not certain exists any longer. It was beautiful, and the scent of jasmine hung in the air memorably. Throughout the month, we tried to hit up as many tourist things as we could.
We went to the beach, shopping, In-N-Out Burger, Mann’s Theatre, Disneyland, the Glendale Galleria, etc. The last weekend I was there, we went to Universal Studios. I remember we took a tram ride for a park tour and saw the Psycho house on the lot. Afterward, we did the infamous earthquake ride.
While we were in line, the mom said, “I wish we could have a real earthquake while you’re here, just a little one, so you could see what it’s like”. Big mistake.
The next morning at 4:57 AM, I woke up and my bed felt like it was rolling all around the room as if someone put wheels on it.
I don’t remember being scared, just wildly confused. It was an earthquake, alright—the Landers earthquake that was a 7.3 magnitude. A few hours later, that previous day’s wish didn’t disappoint. The Big Bear earthquake occurred with a magnitude of 6.5.
I remember hearing a news anchor say that it was the first time in recorded history that such large earthquakes had happened on separate fault lines on the same day.
I don’t know if that was true or not, but it stuck with me. No one back home, aside from family, believed this story, but it happened. My mom was really freaked out and glad that I was coming home soon. It was all a wild coincidence.
28. Happy Landing
One time as a kid, I was standing by the edge of a cliff over my dad’s garage. I had been climbing it with a friend, and the edge was pretty slippery. Because of that, I accidentally slipped and fell. It was probably six or seven meters (20–22 feet) down to the ground. On the ground, there was this singular plank that had been placed to rest between two tables.
I fell five or six meters (16–20 feet), landed with my rear on the plank, and bounced down to the ground feet first. It didn't hurt one bit. I don't know how I got so lucky.
29. Right On Target
I was at Target. This location had three parking lot floors and three floors inside—the main ground floor, the middle floor, and the roof floor. I had parked my car on the second floor, right next to a blue Subaru Forester.
I went inside and did a little shopping for a couple of things. I finished paying and took the elevator to the second floor.
I got to the spot where I had parked, and my car wasn't there. Instead, there was a white Mini Cooper—but that’s not the weird part. The blue Subaru Forester I had parked next to was still there, right next to the parking space I clearly remember parking in.
I started thinking to myself for a few seconds, and decided to take the stairs to the third floor, thinking that perhaps I had misread the sign and parked there.
I looked around, and I didn't see my car anywhere! I went back to the stairs, and I walked down with my bags back to the second floor because I could’ve sworn I had parked right there. At that point, I didn’t know if I was losing my mind or if my car had been taken. I looked around again to where the blue Forester was, and there it was—my red Sentra parked right where I had left it.
I honestly have no answers as to what could have happened, but to this day I make sure I park on the ground level as close to other cars as possible to prevent my car from vanishing or me entering different dimensions.
None of my relatives believe me, and I’m too afraid to tell my friends about this because they’ll think I’m really starting to go cuckoo.
30. Wheel Of Fortune
I was preparing to leave on a solo road trip. Two nights before, I had this strong feeling I needed to go down to the parking garage and look at my car, specifically at my tires.
It bothered me so much I finally went down. I was drawn directly to the front passenger tire, where I found a bulge on the side wall. The next morning, I took my car to the dealership and had the tire replaced. They told me that if I had attempted to drive on the tire, there was a strong possibility it could have burst.
I have been haunted by that ever since.
31. Bridge Over Troubled Water
In 1994, I was in traffic on a bridge that was being rebuilt. I was heading to my second job and thought I had properly timed the lane getting replaced. I got it all wrong, and the traffic backed up for miles in both directions.
A gigantic crane picked up cement sections, swung them around, and lowered them into place. A worker stood on the slabs held tightly to the support cables, and hand gestured directions to the crane operator. What I saw next was horrific.
At some point, the crane shook viciously, and the man on the slab fell to the cement below.
He didn't move. By the time the worker's lifeless body was removed, I was hours late. I had no cell phone back then. By the time I got to work, I was immediately summoned and reprimanded. I told them what I saw. Since I worked in radio news, I figured the powers that be would be glad I inadvertently witnessed a story.
I was ordered to find another way to work or find another job.
32. Chatty Catty
Long ago, I had a cat who was probably the coolest cat my mother ever owned. I must have been about 17 at the time. His name was Scar. I swore to my wife—then girlfriend—that the cat could say our names to let him in the house. She never believed me; she just thought I was trying to say an unbelievable thing to impress her.
Then, the day came when her parents allowed her to stay over at my house. We were lying in my bed, and I heard the cat come up on the back deck. I said, "Quiet. You might hear him say my name". When he would speak our names, he didn't sound like a cat.
He sounded like some weird alien creature. It was quite creepy. He came to the window, and sure enough, the cat said my name to let him in.
My wife said, "OMG, don't let him in! I'm scared"! It creeped her out so much she just clung to me the rest of the night and didn't sleep.
She was not so loving to my cat the next day either like she usually was. People still don't believe me to this day even though my wife will say, "I didn't believe him either"!
33. When Lightning Strikes
When I was 6 years old, I was visiting my aunt’s very large property in Arizona. It was basically farmland, and she had built a large practice arena for her horses in the middle of a large pecan grove.
Being an idiot kid, one of my favorite things to do was to try and walk the perimeter rails—like a tightrope—without falling. After about 10 minutes, it started to rain. That’s when it happened.
At some point there was a flash and a loud noise that was ABRUPTLY cut off, followed by me waking up a few feet away with my ears ringing.
I looked up, and the fence had a portion of blackened, twisted metal. I ran inside and found my mother and aunt and yelled, “Hey guys I think I got struck by lightning”! They replied, “That’s nice honey”. They didn’t believe me at all. They found the damaged fence later and chalked it up to something else.
34. Mowed Over By What I Saw
One warm July evening, I was waiting outside my house for my girlfriend to pick me up once she got off work. I saw our town lush passed out on a riding lawn mower with Christmas lights wrapped around him and a light-up reindeer blinking on the front of the mower.
I live on a long street and just stood in disbelief while his limp, passed-out body just drove right past my house.
35. Feeling The Pain
Before I was stationed at this duty station with this guy, the rumor mill had informed me that he had filed an incident report stating that he had walked in front of a dish that was powered, and that he felt “a wave pass through his body”. We made jokes about it.
Then on one scorcher of a day, this guy was on leave, but the rest of us were all working outside putting away equipment.
I had this weird feeling and I told everyone, “I felt a piece of metal pass through my body”. Later, I found out the devastating truth.
Ten minutes after, the Sergeant checked on us and said there was a shop meeting and for us to finish up. When we were all in the office, we were told that the guy had shot himself and there was grief counseling for those that needed it.
I just looked over at my coworker and was horrified.
36. It Was The Ducking Truth!
When I was a kid, I was taking a shower once and kept hearing a duck underneath my feet. Afterward, I told my dad, and he said it was just the tub squeaking. A few weeks or so later, there was a literal duck in our kitchen while no one else was home.
So, I just opened the door and watched it leave. I was about 10 at the time, and to this day, no one will believe me.
37. Kindergarten Cruelty
My kindergarten teacher would always tell my parents that I was the bottom of the barrel and that I would never succeed.
But she got even more cruel. She found out my parents smoked at the time and told me—a kindergartener—that they would die from doing so. Every time I tell someone else, they don't believe me that a kindergarten teacher would say that.
On the bright side, my parents quit because of that incident.
38. The Sweetest Thing
I was walking to a U2 concert venue at a football stadium with my daughter. We got to the south side of the stadium, and there were tall chain-link fences surrounding the field. All of a sudden, a black SUV drove up, and as we were all alone, a window rolled down.
Out popped Bono and he said, “Hello ladies”, and waved. I am a huge fan, and I was speechless!
39. Got To Go!
I was in a residential neighborhood looking for a place to pee as I felt moments away from bursting open like a rotting whale. I'm quite shy, so I made sure to go into the bushes behind a house.
When I turned around, there was a dog in the garden, just looking at me through the fence, which I didn't mind. After all, dogs pee in front of us, so fair game, I guess.
Then all of a sudden, the door swung open, and somebody came at me, shining a flashlight in my face, gesturing wildly, and yelling at me with the worst impression of James Earl Jones I ever heard.
I was as embarrassed for them as I was for myself, being caught peeing. Needless to say, I booked it out of there.
Freepik, wayhomestudio
40. Seeing Double
I saw my doppelgänger when I was 17. She was exiting a Target, and I was entering. We made eye contact, and both of us just stopped moving completely.
We were identical down to the clothes we were wearing—same band T-shirt, same color Converse, bangs swooped to the same side. We stared for about a minute before we both rushed off in different directions.
It was eerie. My sister joked that I was seeing things, but about two weeks later, she texted me asking why I didn’t stop when she called my name while she was out with friends. I was at work, so I think she saw my doppelgänger too.
41. Fighting For My Life
I almost lost my life at the skating rink when I was nine.
I was having an asthma attack and didn’t have my inhaler. No one cared, and I had to fight to breathe and stay alert. People still think that’s just a random dramatic story I made up or exaggerated, but it’s not. I never felt so alone in a room full of people.
I just stared at the whole time; one woman was eating and watching me like it was a show and she was a mother, too.
42. Ripe For The Taking
Our family was trying to raise $5,000 to send to an orphanage in Eastern Europe. We decided to have a yard sale and were gathering things we didn’t use from around our house. I had bought an upside-down tomato planter at a thrift store several years back and had never even taken it out of the box.
I wanted to make sure all the pieces were intact, so I opened it to check it out. I couldn’t believe what I found.
There were twenty crisp $100 bills tucked into a crevice. I was in disbelief, and the bills were so crisp they looked fake.
I took them to the grocery store, and they told me they were real. I called all of the thrift stores that I had shopped at over the last few years to ask if anybody had inquired about the tomato planter or the money, but no one had.
43. He Was The Big Cheese
I met a famous musician in a McDonald’s but had no idea who he was. He said he was a singer, but I assumed he was just a tourist or someone passing through. I told him, “Cool man, hope you make it big”. Later that evening, a date took me to a concert at a cozy but nice venue and there was the guy on stage with all these fans going wild.
He pointed at me and gave me this look like, “Haha, now you know”.
44. We Weren’t Twisting The Truth
My fourth-grade teacher wouldn’t let our class go downstairs during a real tornado warning. The siren went off, and all of our peers went down while we watched. If we said anything, she’d yell at us to be quiet. After what seemed like forever, she called the office only to be informed that the siren was real and we had to go downstairs.
We were on the second floor, and the protocol was to go down to the first floor into a second-grade classroom.
An entire class of fourth graders was missing, and no one thought to check where we were. She should’ve been charged with child endangerment, and they should’ve reported that something was wrong. Many of us told our parents, but they didn’t believe us. My mother still doesn’t believe me; she was more upset at my teacher for not knowing my name late in the year than her literally risking my life.
45. A Wild Night Out
My friend had an idea to go to this girl’s house and when there were 40 mph winds, it was -2 degrees and snowing. We walked about a mile and a half.
We were sitting in her room when she said, “My two brothers that are 20 and 21 are awake and my dad…they will probably kill y’all”. We were 13 at the time, so I was scared. All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door. Her brother said, “You alright, who’s in there”?
My friend and I jumped out the window.
I was way more athletic than he was, so I jumped a fence, but he kept running down the street. As I jumped the fence, my phone fell out of my pocket into the snow. I kept going, jumping about seven more fences, and stayed in an old lady’s backyard. She was awake with her window blinds wide open.
I found a nice rock to sit on, and I sat there for about an hour.
She also had a shed in her backyard, so I moved slowly over to it, sat there, and laid down for five more hours. I had no idea what time it was or how long it’s been. I didn’t think I was going to survive. I ended up with hypothermia and pneumonia.
I never snuck out again.
46. Heal Thyself
When I was young, I had hot oil spill over the whole right-hand side of my body. It burned the daylights out of me. I was blind in one eye and covered in patches for weeks. One day my mom took me to the hospital to get my dressings changed, and the doctor told her I would likely have to have plastic surgery and skin grafts as it wasn't healing.
When he went to change my dressings, there was not a single mark on me. I had completely healed, and my eyesight was normal. No one believes the story, so I just don't tell it anymore.
47. Weathering The Storm
When I was 15, I had a kitten I named Storm.
She was a rescue. I cared for her, but after a month or so, she fell ill. We were poor and had no money for a vet. I nursed her back to health in the best way I could, but after three days, her health collapsed. I knew she wasn’t going to make it, and I stayed by her side, whispering, "It's okay", repeatedly. I was hugging her when I felt her twitch for one last time.
I cried and cried. My dad tried to calm me down, but he eventually let me be, saying that he'll be in the other room if I needed him. I don't know how long I wailed and screamed while hugging my lifeless cat. Emotions started to mix in my head and then nothing.
I'm not sure if I passed out or what, but I woke up in my bed and it was morning.
My mom was preparing breakfast and greeted me cheerfully. I wasn't in the mood for it. I asked, "Where's Storm"? Her reply knocked me off my feet.
I learned it was Saturday again. The coming Sunday was when Storm started showing symptoms. I told my parents this, how Storm eventually died, and how I "went back", and they did not believe me. But this time, I was prepared for what would happen. Eventually, Storm did fall sick just like I envisioned.
Except this time, I did my best to take her to the vet. I borrowed money from my uncle and Storm was given proper care.
She survived the day she was supposed to pass, and she got better. However, a week after her supposed death day, she fell ill again.
Sadly, this time was different. It all happened so fast. In less than 24 hours, she passed—in my arms—again—the same way I first lost her. I tried my best to make what happened to happen again, but I never got back again. To this day I've only told my wife this.
48. Caught In The Nick Of Time
When I was 15 years old, I was babysitting for my parent's friends. I was looking after this little girl. We were watching some kids' movies in the living room. This little girl was full of energy, so she was jumping on the couch during the movie.
I thought it would be better to let her spend her energy then, so bedtime would be easier.
I sat next to her during the movie just in case she stumbled or fell. Everything was going fine until the moment I decided to get up to go to the bathroom.
When I shifted my weight getting up, I double jumped her trampoline style, so she got much more air. The couch was right next to a staircase going into the basement. The railing was just behind us, leading to a 15–20 feet drop right to the bottom of the basement stairs.
She got thrown right over the railing head first into the drop.
I threw myself at her and caught her ankle at the last second. I pulled her back onto the couch and sat her down, asking her if she was okay. She just smiled at me and continued to watch the movie, seemingly unfazed by the fact that she almost bit it.
She probably didn't realize the danger she was in at that moment. Sometimes I still think about what would have happened if I hadn't caught her.
49. Get A Lick Of This
I was waiting to get the tube on the London Underground. One had just pulled up, but we decided it was too busy, and we waited for the next one.
There was a woman who kept staring at me with intense eye contact. She got on the crowded train and continued to stare. She turned to face the man next to her, whose back was turned. I could never have predicted what she did next.
She then, unbeknownst to him, licked his giant afro while maintaining eye contact with me.
The doors closed and the tube went away. People think it's too random to be true, but the memory is burnt into my brain.
50. Hands Off!
I was camping and woke up to something pressing in on the tent down by my feet. I watched as the pressing shook the whole side of the tent and moved up from my feet to my hip.
That’s when I made a disturbing realization. Whatever was pushing in on me was a human hand; I could clearly see the fingers outlined. I immediately took stock of everyone in my tent and all present and accounted for.
I jumped up out of my cot.
I was the only one who saw it. Everyone else told me to go back to bed saying it was just a deer or something. I spent a good hour trying to convince myself I hadn’t seen a hand.
Sources: Reddit,
