Has something ever happened to you where you sit back and think "what are the odds of that happening?" Astonishing things happen everyday that seem to defy all logic.
Here are a few stories from people who, despite the odds, had improbable things happen to them.
Am I Dead?
A guy with the same name and same birth date as me died. I was doing a job at the law firm where his will was held on the day of the reading. They freaked out and asked me to confirm a bunch of details to make sure I hadn’t died.
High Citrus Fruit
I found a random orange on the street while walking to school, I picked it up and tossed it down a driveway and it landed right up against a car’s back tire. When I was walking home, the car backed out of the driveway and as it drove over the orange it sprayed all over me.
Identity Theft Anyone?
My friends bank account number is the same as her passport number.
Egg Timer
In the middle of making an omelette I answered the door while holding a whole egg. It turned out to be my new neighbor asking if she could borrow an egg. The look of confusion on her face when I produced one on the spot was only matched by my own, she took it and left without saying a word. It was super weird.
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Rear Ended
I ran up the rear end of a taxi twice on the same night. The first time I was going clubbing with mates, he’d locked his brakes and I drove straight up the back side. We exchanged details etc, after the club we were driving back, I thought the cab in front looked familiar, he locked his brakes again, I smashed him again. He gets out and turns white. “YOU! Why? WHYYYY?”
Don’t Tread On Me
I stood on a venomous snake by accident but escaped unhurt because I stood on its head.
Hook, Line and Sinker
After my shift every day I would go to hang up my keys on a hook, but as I entered the room I would toss them over to the board with the hooks, trying to get them to land on the hook. And every day the keys would miss and fall to the floor. I would retrieve them and hang them and sit and do my paperwork.
One day, at the end of my shift, I was a bit later than usual and the supervisors were in the room. Again I tossed my keys and they hooked. All of the supervisors were stunned, but my direct supervisor said, “I bet you couldn’t ever do that again.” I grabbed the keys off the hook, walked over to the door and tossed them again. And again they landed on the hook. And in the two years of working there, that was the only two times they caught.
Frosted Flakes
I won a Frosted Flakes sweepstakes competition about ten years ago. I was a kid and my mom filled out the form that was on the back of the box and sent it in–and I ended up winning an all expenses paid trip to California, a Playstation 2, and a shitload of money amongst other things. I always had thought sweepstakes were a scam and companies never followed through, but it turns out there actually are winners…
Unintended Confrontation
I was teaching ESL in Korea and we went out one night to a local bar that had a monthly open-mic night where a lot of us foreigners would gather. I got chatting with a random white guy at the bar and asked where he was from.
He said, “Ottawa”.
I was like, “No way, I used to live in Ottawa! Where abouts in Ottawa did you live?”
He answered, “Sandy Hill.”
I once again said, “No way! Haha, I had a car stolen that was found there.”
His face goes slack. “…was it an 88 to 91 Honda Civic?”
“…yes…”
“Yeah, I think that was me. Um, let me get your drinks for the night…”
Benevolence
Ok, if this isn’t proof of a benevolent god, I don’t know what is: I was really stoned and making a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich. I had put peanut butter on one slice and Nutella on the other but the plate fell off the table before I could complete the sandwich. Not only did neither piece of bread land tasty-side-down but the slice with Nutella on it hit the ground, flipped in midair and landed perfectly on the peanut butter slice. It was awesome.
Just Wow.
I drove to the park to go running, using my cell phone as GPS. When I was done I put my phone on the top of my car and spent a few minutes stretching. Then I got in my car and drove home. On the way home, driving about 35 with the window down, I took a turn and the cell phone slid off the roof of the car and into my open window, bouncing off my arm and landing in my lap.
Plates
I got pulled over by the police because my car and the car in front of me had the same license plate. I was sitting at lights behind a wee black Vauxhall, with a police car behind me. Next thing I know, the police are asking us both to pull over – we both had the same license plate. Turns out that both cars were registered at the same dealership on the same day. A clerical error had led to both getting the same plate. Months later, we are both sitting at the same traffic light and the police are there to see it.
Bird Poop
A bird pooped on my head while I was riding a bike (and therefore moving quite fast), and literally five minutes later, after I had cleaned up, a bird pooped on my head again.
Omegle
I once had a chat with a random stranger on Omegle video for hours. Parted ways; didn’t want to keep in touch. Bumped into the same person one year later and recognized the person immediately.
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Excitebike!
My brother and I were playing Excitebike 64 in our younger days. There’s a game mode where you climb a super steep cliff. The first time one of us ever reached the top we both unanimously whispered “Mufasa”. It scared the shit out of both of us and I cried out of fear for probably 10 minutes.
Bad Grandpa
When I was at university I would quite often get a taxi ride after a night out from a nice old man nicknamed “grandpa”. He had “grandpa” on his taxi license and had business cards with “grandpa” on them etc. He would always give you cheap rides and come whenever you called. Anyway, four years or so passed without me getting a ride from him, I had heard rumors that he had died which was quite saddening. About a month or so ago a couple mates and I were waiting to get picked up by a taxi when I decided to tell them about the story of “grandpa”. So eventually I finished my story and our taxi arrived, with none other than grandpa at the wheel.
Orange Toss
I threw an orange at this bully’s bike as he rode away and it bounced once, so perfectly, that it dislodged his chain and the bike abruptly stopped and he was thrown off. He stood up a bloody, crying mess, but oh boy, I was a hero.
Small World
Whilst on honeymoon I bumped into my best friend from high school…in Venice, Italy… hadn’t seen him for 14 years. He lives in Australia. I live in England…
Universal Studios
This has got to be unlikely: I was on holiday at Universal Studios, Florida with my brother-in-law Nick (we’re both Brits) when a random family rush over, start hugging and kissing him and speaking Spanish. Nick was very confused… until he heard them call him Chris. It turns out the family are Peruvian and live NEXT DOOR to Nick’s identical twin Chris, who moved out to Peru four years earlier. I’d love someone to calculate the odds of that.
Gatorade
I once went to get a Gatorade out of a vending machine after PE. I put all of my money in, 1.50$, and out came a Gatorade bottle with a shirt in it. It sucked because I was thirsty and you can’t drink a shirt.
But How?
Irish guy here. A few years ago my mates and I met a bunch of girls in a bar one night whilst on a working holiday in Ocean City, Maryland. Great night had by all. Fast forward 12 months, walked into a random bar in Cairns, Australia and yep, bumped into the exact same girls.
Exlax
Was working a wine banquet back in college on a nice sunny afternoon in a wide open field with no trees. Pretty much everyone was gone and we were wrapping up after a long day. I yawned and the only bird for miles peeped right in my mouth as he flew by.
That and the brain aneurysm that I had about a 1/25000 chance of surviving, but I’m still here, looking for that bird. I’ve been saving a bottle of Exlax just for him.
Toasty
I dropped my toast once and it landed butter side up.
Surprise
One time I ate a Kit-Kat and it was all chocolate.
Dial Tones
Picked up the phone to call someone only to hear them talking while I dialed their number. They had called me at that exact moment. Was weird.
SNL
I won tickets to see SNL the exact weekend I was going to the East Coast to visit my dad. If you don’t know how SNL tickets work, you register for their raffle in August, and then they email you two weeks prior to the show you got selected to. Also, you have to be 16 or older to attend the show, and that’s exactly how old I turned that year.
I’ve never felt luckier.
Guess the Card
One time in college, I played a game with this girl called, “Guess the Card.” She promised to have sex with the winner if they were able to get the card right.
Not only did I get it right the first time, but when she challenged me with, _”Double or Nothing,” _I got it right again.
However, I did not get sex and I still feel cheated. : (
Benched
Once when I was on the bench during a football game, and I was drinking from a water bottle. For no reason, everyone was looking at me, and I took a swig, then flung it towards the holder which was on the floor about 10m away. It did a perfect backflip then landed in the only spare space on the holder. Everyone looked back at me amazed and I just shrugged my shoulders and turned away.
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Food Fight
29. We had a food fight in high school where I threw a chicken nugget that flew across the whole cafeteria and hit this girl’s soda can just as she was taking a drink.
Stingray
Once when I was surfing I stepped on a stingray’s head and managed to jump out of range just before he whipped his stinger forward to hit me. I felt like Spider-Man the whole day.
“A daughter named Marina”
I’m from Brazil. My first girlfriend and I were walking by our school on the last night that AFS had a booth there. I wasn’t interested in being an exchange student, but signed up anyway with the last $15 in my wallet just because the year-long orientations were supposed to be fun. We always said that if we ever had a daughter, we’d name her Marina (not an uncommon name in Brazil).
I ended up coming to Minnesota and she went to Belgium. She had to learn the language, so I picked up a handful of words in Dutch from her. I became friends with an exchange student from Holland who went to a different high school but was on the same AFS chapter, so we were always at the same parties and events. I even went to a musical she was in. When I was saying goodbye to my school counselor, just before I left the U.S., she was drinking coffee from a mug that had “MusicTech” on it. I’m a musician, so I asked her what that was. She said she’d been meaning to tell me about it, and was glad that I asked. It was a college in Minneapolis. I checked it out a week later and fell in love with the place.
I went back to Brazil for a year and a half and came back to MN for college. This is where the coincidences begin… A few of my friends were graduating from high school shortly after I moved back, so I went to their graduation. Sitting behind me was a man wearing a MusicTech shirt. I introduced myself, he was Jack McNally – co-founder and then-president of the college. His son was in the graduating class. In college, I started dating a singer whose best friend in high school was the same girl I knew from Holland. They were in that musical together. We broke up a few months later but are still friends. A girl in my studio class started cussing in Dutch when she couldn’t some lyrics right. She had been an exchange student in Holland years before. I recognized what she was saying… which was odd, so we became friends because of that. A couple years later, she asked me to join her band and we started dating. She had a little daughter named Marina. We eventually got married but the marriage didn’t work out.
It kinda feels like this long, complicated string of seemingly unrelated events and heartaches was woven just so I could get to a daughter named Marina.
Epic goalie
When I was 12 we used to play soccer every day at school during lunch time. One day when it was my turn to be goalie I was so bored (because I was goalie) I was kicking a ball around with some younger kids who were playing soccer beside our game. I looked over and saw the other team running towards my goal and one of them took a shot. I had the ball I was playing with with the other kids and just kicked it as hard and as fast as I could back at my own goal. It hit the other ball and deflected it away from the goal. This was pretty amazing because I was at least 20 yards away and normally couldn’t hit the side of a barn. I felt like a boss. The other team weren’t at all happy.
The bouncing pebble
One day I was walking home from grade school with my buddy Mike and i saw a pebble. I thought it would be fun to kick it, so I did using my right foot. I didn’t see the pebble go anywhere so I thought i missed it and kept on walking.
The pebble bounced up and hit the top of my left shoe (I didn’t notice) then bounced from my left shoe onto my right shoe. every step i took was timed perfectly for this pebble to bounce back and forth on my shoes! i walked about twenty steps before mike was like, “Dude! How are you doing that?” I asked what he meant and when i looked down i saw the pebble just as it landed onto my right foot.
I spent the next week trying to replicate this, but it has never happened since.
The power of the jawas
I was a kid watching the movie _Star Wars _series on TV when a thunderstorm started. i was the only one at home and even though I knew to turn everything off during thunderstorms, I was too engrossed in the movie.
I jumped out of my skin when I was watching the jawa electrocute R2-D2 and a lightning bolt hit the TV antenna outside the picture window, blowing the TV’s power outlet across the room.
Funny thing is that I was so into the movie that I half imposed the crash of the lightning and flash of electricity to the jawas weapon and stared at the dead TV for some time.
Where everybody knows your name
A few years ago I was on the city bus on my way to a friend’s or the mall or something like that, and I was sitting near the front across from a guy who caught my eye for some reason. It wasn’t because he was attractive or unique in any way, he was probably 30 years older than me and just had one of those faces, I suppose. Anyway, some guy near us was being rude to the driver and when he got off we both exchanged one of those, “Wow that guy was the worst and we both know it,” kind of looks and then had a small bit of conversation.
When I got off at my stop he told me to “have a good day, honey,” or something like that, and I went about my business and thought absolutely nothing of it. Interactions like that happened to me daily on the bus.
I took the bus home that night and was preparing to help my brother and my mom pack up our house and prepare to move furniture to our new place the next day. I walked through my front door and saw my family and a few of their friends standing in a circle drinking beer, and all of the sudden I notice that guy I met on the bus, like, five hours ago standing in my living room.
My mom and my brother had just met him, like, 30 minutes prior. He was recruited to help us by one of my mom’s friends who knew him somehow. It was surreal. He was a nice guy, knew how to carry a couch.
When Mother Nature’s out to get you
Well, once I was at the beach where all the kids in my school and rival schools go to (I live on an island caribbean) and was just throwing rocks into the ocean, The one time I pick up a sharp rock and throw It, mother nature decides to be rude and make the biggest gust of wind carry my sharp little pebble STRAIGHT into the face of the biggest bully ever who goes to the rival of our school (she has a group of men and women who all sit in a circle and talk bad about everyone). (Did I mention they had knives? So, there is a group of 20+ people and the rock hits her IN THE FACE. I just made up my mind and cheesed it. I ran to the nearest car and just spent the next 30 minutes under a Prius. My dignity was hurt enough.
Catching up with a criminal
When I was about 14 years old, i lived in an apartment building on the fifth floor. One warm summer day at around 2 or 3 p.m. I’m sitting by the window, when I hear tires screeching and immediately look outside the window. A cab had ran the red light at high speed, slammed on the brakes, and lost control. The car swerved and crashed head on into a store and went inside the store entirely. Being that this happened in New York during rush hour i was pretty sure some people were hit.
As I call my brother in shock to come and take a look, he points out a man walking out with his on his head in some sort of shock. As he is walking from the front towards the back of the car he begins to pick up speed, followed by a full blown sprint of death. We were amazed that no one in the crowd of hundreds of people noticed. Turns out that was the driver.
Fast forward two years later. My family decides to go on a vacation trip to Dominican Republic. During the last night of our vacation I decided to hang out with this girl at a different hotel. I had informed my father in case I turned out missing. My father being cool and all winked at me and gave me the go since the girl’s parents were friends with my parents. As I am heading back to my parents at around 9 p.m., the cab goes off route and I noticed we were going through a very dark gravel road. I noticed his eyes beaming on me through his rear view mirror and my heart starts pounding. He then says in a low voice. “You’re not from here are you? You’re American.” I freak out and I am 100% sure I’m going to be kidnapped since this is popular in our country. For some reason he seemed angered and ready to do some type of crime. I reply, “Yes I am, but my parents were born here.” He then says, “Oh, I used to live there,” and asks me where exactly I’m from over there. I give him details in hopes of him having something in common so that he would have mercy. He then tells me, “A couple of years ago I had an accident in that area and I left the country. I ended up waking up inside of a store.” I couldn’t believe it. He then asks me what was the outcome since he fled because he was drunk while he was driving. I respond in shock/anger, “You killed four people, one of them was a little old lady (my neighbor) who was on her way to see her new born grandson for the first time.”