We've all those times when something just didn't feel right. Whether it was walking into a strange place, meeting a new person, or just a moment as simple as brushing your teeth, we tend to have a sixth sense that tells us when we're in danger. Sometimes these feelings amount to nothing, but other times, we wind up being right on the money. These Redditors came together to share stories about their own experiences when a bad feeling turned out to be true. Take a deep breath and read on for these stories about times when gut feelings warned people that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
1. Just in Time to Say Goodbye
My grandma got diagnosed with cancer about a month ago. We caught it late so there wasn't much we could do. She was too old and weak for chemo, so we decided against that. Last Sunday I just had a gut feeling I had to fly out to visit her. So, I did that, got back on Wednesday. She passed away Friday, a few weeks earlier than the prognosis predicted.
I'm really glad I was able to see her one last time.
2. Saved By a Lace
While walking down a street in a Nicaragua, I noticed my shoelaces were getting loose. At which point, I had a 'gut feeling' that I should stop and retie them, to avoid untied shoelace related accidents and injuries. In the 10 seconds I took to tie my sneakers, a bus stop with five people at it, about 10 seconds walk from where I was standing, got laid flat by an out of control bus.
The people that had been waiting for the bus were now under it.
3. At Least They Were Already in a Hospital
I work at a psych hospital. I was in the cafe with an adult unit and the adolescent unit was also there. I had known one of the kids from when she was on the children’s and normally we had a good rapport. I went to say hi and told her I was proud she had been staying out of trouble, and a few of the other girls reacted weirdly to me saying it and the girl looked guilty.
I told the staff on the unit and said they should keep an extra eye on the girls because I had bad vibes about it. The staff kinda brushed me off. It ended up being a fatal mistake. A half-hour later four girls (including the one I knew) literally almost killed the two staff. One of my co-workers got her head bashed in and suffered brain trauma, and the other one was blinded in one eye.
4. What’s the Harm at a Farm?
I had a co-worker who used to go to parties in high school. Several of the parties in her senior year were at some guy’s farm. She went to one and bailed right away, saying it felt weird. The guy who owned the farm was none other than Robert Pickton.
5. Leave the Show with Your Lives
My mom and dad were at some sort of festival when my dad felt some sort of change in the air, like something bad was going to happen. He and my mom got out of there quickly, wouldn't you know it, some drunk dude with a gun started firing at the crowd.
6. A Litter of a Problem
I was suddenly going to the bathroom constantly and had a lot of blood in my urine. I became convinced I had a really serious issue. I went to the doctor, did some tests; they shrugged me off because they were negative. Another doctor, same thing. Finally went to the ER one night because the pain was so bad. They found a cyst on my ovary that was the size of a golf ball.
I had emergency surgery to get it and my right ovary removed and they said everything would get better. My issues were still there a month post-op and I was having a really hard recovery. I knew something else was going on. Told my surgeon and he literally said, “Take Pepto” after I had been dealing with these issues for months.
I insisted something was still wrong. Finally, after begging he sent me to a GI specialist and guess what?? I was diagnosed with severe ulcerative colitis AND a rare liver disease. But no one took me seriously for seven months.
7. Not All Rest is Easy
About six years ago, my sister and her family were visiting. Her daughter—four months old at the time—was napping in the house while the adults were hanging outside. I went into the house to grab something and glanced over at my niece. She was limp and strange-looking, like spaced out. It really freaked me out, so I picked her up, panicking a bit, and handed her to my brother-in-law.
By this time, she was back to normal, so we shrugged it off. I said something like "Oh I forgot how babies look when they sleep." Within 1-2 days, there was an utterly disturbing development. My niece started having 10 seizures a day. What I had witnessed was a seizure. That was the beginning of a multi-year nightmare of seizures, hospital visits, neurological testing, and many different types of anti-seizure meds.
She was diagnosed with a seizure disorder. Thankfully, the docs found meds that worked, her seizures went away, and she was eventually weaned off her medication. She has been seizure-free for four years! Now she is a healthy, beautiful and happy little lady!
8. A Poisonous Branch of the Family Tree
When my aunt introduced me to her second husband, he just gave me the creeps. She came into the marriage with a daughter who was about eight at the time. These were family we would only see maybe a couple of times per year. Every time, something about him gave me the heebies, even as a 14-year-old boy. Something felt really wrong.
Fast forward 6-8 years later, and we learn he was assaulting my female cousin pretty much from the day he became her stepdad. Years of it. Aunt divorced him but he's still around because they had additional kids together. I see him comment on FB posts of the cousin he hurt. I'd love for him to die a slow and painful death, the sooner the better.
9. The Caretaker You Know
I’m a member of a local Facebook group to help moms find babysitters. One of the admins was a mid-20s man who babysat for tons of kids in the area and specialized in caring for nonverbal and autistic children. His posts always gave me (and some other members) a weird vibe but he was loved by this group as a whole.
He was just arrested for assaulting two children and possession of CP. Bail is set at $2 million. It’s estimated that he sat for over 500 children in our area. Who knows how many he abused.
10. Not What I Meant By Date & Dinner
Once at a party, I was about to kiss this girl, but my spider senses tingled. I took a few steps back, and she was like "what the he-" before throwing up. So glad I dodged that bullet.
11. The Byes That Never Were
Years ago, I was staying the night at someone else's house, maybe an hour from where I lived. That night I was so tired, but I couldn't get to sleep. I was super anxious all night, which was very unusual for me, and I just couldn't relax. I came so close to just grabbing my things and driving home in the middle of the night several times, but I convinced myself not to.
Turns out I should have. If I'd gone home that night, I would have had the chance to say goodbye to my dad before he passed away that next morning. I still regret that to this day, and I promised myself that the next time I get a feeling like that I'll listen to it.
12. Lifesaver
I work as an ER nurse and had a patient with a little dizziness, a little nausea and a swollen abdomen. She was fairly bright, able to talk, and nothing seemed too horrific. But she was turning a grim gray color and breathing quickly. Our average wait time today was two hours. I could have put her back in the queue and moved on.
But I had a little dark feeling that there was something sinister happening here. So I called our most senior doctor out of a consultation and asked him to see her. Right now. Ever heard of your abdominal aorta? Enormous blood vessel that can pouch out, suddenly rupture, and make you bleed internally to death in minutes?
It’s called a burst AAA (abdominal aortic aneurysm). You’ve heard of it now. That’s what she had. I’ve never seen one before. But now I have. Within five minutes, she was barely responding. Within ten, her blood pressure had dropped to a barely sustainable level. Within twenty minutes, I was pouring blood into her and eight people were around the bed.
Within an hour, she was on an operating table clinging to life. But because I raised the alarm, and because my team worked their butts off, that woman is still, somehow, alive. Feels good, man.
13. The Wheels of Fate
I was riding my motorcycle with a friend on the back. We were going down a country road behind a truck hauling a bunch of old car tires, when all of a sudden, I decided we shouldn't be there. I slowed way down to let the truck go ahead of us. Just as I did, one of the tires fell off the truck and landed right where we would have been.
14. The Man in Red
Well, I was walking home. It wasn't late and I'm from a pretty safe area, but it was that time of year when it starts to get dark really early so felt kind of ominous. Anyway, I pass this guy in a red sweater and red tracksuit bottoms, and he looks at me funny. Maybe he's high, maybe he's drunk...either way something not quite right about him.
I keep going. Look behind me, he's still there. Cross the road. He crosses with me. As soon as I turn a corner, I sprint to my apartment complex and run into the coded gate and wait. He rocks up a minute later and stares at me through the gate. He just stares at me for a good 10 or so seconds then runs back the way he came.
Shivers.
15. No Party Favors Tonight
Had a friend who said we should go to this party he was invited to by a classmate of his. We ended driving out to it. We noticed the neighborhood was not too pleasant and sketchy. We saw that the house had some lights on in the backyard but seemed kind of quiet for a party. I decided that we should not go since something felt really off.
Friend ended finding out that the classmate that invited him got robbed and threatened when he went to the party. It ended up being a fake party.
16. Man or Monster
I went to a college party, and one of the guys made me feel very uncomfortable. He didn't ever do anything to me, but something seemed off. I kept dumping my shots because getting smashed seemed like a bad idea. I ended up taking a friend and leaving while he told us that we were being lame by not having more of the Grey Goose
He assaulted another girl at the party that night.
17. Not Good With Rejection, Or Humanity
I worked as a shot girl at a pub. One night, I rejected someone who attempted to get my number. Not unusual and he didn't seem that bothered. The whole exchange wasn't strange to me. In the early hours after the bar closed, I went to leave through the back door into the car park like usual, when I saw the sensor light outside was on. Someone was standing just outside the door.
I felt uneasy so went out the front and asked one of the bouncers to walk me around the back to my car. As we rounded the corner, we spotted this guy lurking outside the door holding his belt like a makeshift garotte. When he saw us, he started screaming that I was a freaking shrew and I should die. He scampered off into the road and never came back.
18. You Nearly Blue Your Life Away
A guy dyed blue came into the motel lobby at 1 am. In and of itself, not terribly unusual. Clubs get out, you see folks with body paint, foam, etc. But he just seemed "off." When he came up to the counter, I took a step back. It was a move that saved my life. Which is why his bowie knife hit my tie and not my neck. Slammed the fire door down, called the cops.
It wasn't difficult for them to find a bright blue guy (who got naked for some reason after I slammed the door) running around in the snow at 1 am.
19. Day Care Don’t
Posted this before...took my two babies to an in-home daycare run by a lovely woman. About nine days in, the woman’s teenage son was home when I picked up my kids. He gave me a super creepy vibe. Pulled the kids from the daycare and placed them elsewhere. Maybe 10 years later that kid offed two people and then went for his own mom.
20. Grandma's Intuition
One afternoon some random guy comes knocking on the front door of my grandma's house. My granny is a practical woman, she has never been to school because she grew up on a farm and was expected to pull her weight, but she is a smart woman. She goes to the door but doesn't open it—it’s a glass door. The 40ish-year-old man is there asking if he can use the phone since his car broke down, but Granny doesn't like the look of this guy.
If he doesn't live here there is no reason for him to be on this road and if he was visiting someone their house or anyone else's house would have been closer since she lives on a dead end. Anyways, she tells him that no he can't use the phone and needs to leave. She backs up and picks up my paw-paw's 410 as she goes. Once he sees the shotgun he hightails it out of there.
About a week later, she saw on the news that he'd been arrested for multiple crimes, including killing multiple people.
21. The Father of All Cries for Help
One night during finals my junior year at university I received a text from my father at 1:30 am. "I love you." My heart sank. My family is not affectionate. My family doesn't say "I love you.” My father does not text me. For some reason, I woke up three minutes after receiving the text while my phone was on silent. I called to see if he was okay. No answer.
I immediately got in my car and tore off to my dad's place. I let myself in and found him in bed with a handful of pills and a loaded pistol on his nightstand. He immediately broke down in tears and I held him for what seemed like an hour. I saved my father's life that night and have always checked in on him since. He's in a much better place now.
22. A Canceled Delivery
One day, about two weeks ago, I woke up and didn’t feel pregnant any more. The next day I went to my doctor. They checked, and there was no more heartbeat.
23. The World’s Worst Funhouse
There was a house near mine that had multiple cartoons on the front wall and cameras over all the gates. I always assumed that it was a daycare center or something, but it turns out it was just a regular house. Sometime later, the police jailed the owner of the house for child abuse. He baited boys from the neighborhood to play his Nintendo 64 and such.
24. Country Road, Take Me Home
I was driving with a friend of mine through a pretty remote forest road. A couple of guys in the middle of nowhere tried flagging us down. I almost stopped for them before an alarm went off in my head and I stepped on the gas. My friend started saying "what the he-..." and at the same time there was a loud pop and a bullet hit the back of the car.
We made it to a police station. Turns out there had been a bunch of people and vehicles going missing in the area that same week.
25. Stand Your Ground
Some dude gets off the bus at the same stop as me. It's about 8 pm and October so it's quite dark out already. He had spoken to me on the bus, one line about nice weather. Anyway, he gets off the bus after me. I cross the road and make a mental note of him walking the opposite way to me. I make sure to watch him walking away. Something in my gut says not to trust him.
To get to my house, I have to walk up a hill with a path alongside a high stone wall. It is secluded. Usually, I listen to music as I walk. I decide not to this time. I'm about halfway up when I get this awful feeling. I take out my phone, dial my mother's number and as I do, I hear fast steps of someone running up behind me.
I know it's the guy before I turn around and, as I do, he is literally running full speed towards me. I look him dead in the eyes, ready to fight for my life. As I do this, my mother answers her phone and I say, "Hi mom." He slows right down to a light jog and says "evening" as he jogs past me. I ask my mom to stay on the line. Her boyfriend comes out to meet me at the top of the hill. The guy is nowhere to be seen.
He was definitely running up behind me to strike me and by turning to face him I'm certain it threw him off.
26. Man’s Best Friend
I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again. It's one of many, but this one stands out. I'm about seven, my neighbors are eight and nine, and we're at a bus stop. Guy in stereotypical white van pulls up and asks if we've seen a dog. He doesn't describe the dog, and the truth is, dogs ran around in our neighborhood. My mother taught me stranger danger since as long as I can remember.
So, one of the boys at the stop, we'll call him Paul: Paul describes a dog and man in van is like, "That's my dog; why don't you get inside the van, we can all go look for him?” Well, I had red flags going off at this point, and said, "No, I have to ask my mother," and as soon as those words left my mouth, he peeled out.
It was only later that I realized I saved us all from child abduction, specifically Paul who was walking toward the van to get in. Teach your kids what to do if this situation happens. Get the license plate, the guy's face, the car type, and what to do if something does happen. If I had known to snag his plates, we might have had a chance at catching him, but I only knew to "say no!”
Another time. I was speeding down a hill and thought, "What if there's a deer around the corner?" So, I slowed down and sure enough, there were three deer in the road. Saved my own life by a random thought.
27. Read, Aim, Fire!
I'm a firefighter. We got called out to a tree fire started by fallen power lines. We pull up in the truck, and I'm trusting that my driver and crew leader are doing their job and have good situational awareness. We get out of the truck, and we've parked next to a set of power lines (not fallen). It's a very windy night and I can see the lines swinging so I voice my concerns to my crew leader who says it'll be fine.
We get out hose out (risk of the tree fire catching onto a house outweighing potential risk of arcing plus the line disconnected when it fell), and I'm on the branch ready to start putting it out with 2 others near me when I get a chill. I look up to see the lines swinging violently and yell "everyone freaking move!” As the three of us sprint and dive out of the way we hear a thwip and crack, and, sure enough, the line we were under came loose and stayed connected to the power pole.
If I hadn't got that chill chances are, we would have had three fried firies.
28. Get Your Own
Not me but my best friend, who was driving to California from Arizona with her two-year-old for work (about 5 months ago). She stopped at a gas station and just got a weird feeling. She normally doesn’t lock her car when she pumps gas, but she decided to do it. During that process, a woman came up to her and started talking all nice and whatnot.
She got an uneasy feeling about it and heard a noise like someone trying to open a door. She turned around and her blood ran cold. The woman’s husband was trying to get into her car to steal her baby. She told him to get the heck away from her car, and the man tried to play it off. She told them to screw off and got in her car to leave.
The couple got in their vehicle and followed her, tried to swerve her off the road and brake check her on the highway for a few miles. She was smart enough to call the cops (this was in Primm, Nevada), and they caught up to her and ended up arresting the couple. They had gotten multiple reports that day of issues like that.
29. Don’t Face Off
There’s been a few times where I hadn’t listened to my gut, but one sticks out where I did. I used to live in a smaller Minnesotan town down near some train tracks and a bike/running path that extends out of town into the woods. One evening, I’m sitting outside on my porch drinking a couple of beers with my buddy. Two dudes walk up on us kind of out of nowhere and immediately something seemed off with them. It’s a college town and drunk people come up onto your porch a lot or randomly just say hello on their way to or from the bars downtown.
But these dudes had a bad vibe to them. I had a little black Louisville slugger lying next to me on the porch, so I grabbed and just held it across my lap. One dude asks us, “You guys got an extra smoke?” Buddy says nope. The other guy comes up real close almost onto the porch and says, “Did you see my face?” I just kept looking forward but not directly at him and just said “Nah man we didn’t see anything.” He said something like “Good... lil punk...” and they both walked away.
Two nights later, I’m sitting in my living room with the same buddy and the local news is on. Two guys arrested for robbing and stabbing a man a couple nights back on the trail down by the train tracks next to where I live. My buddy had looked at their faces coming up and I had seen the dude clear as day that had asked for the smoke. It was those same freaking guys.
30. A Hole in the Wall, Where They Can See it All
I woke up at 3 am once sitting upright in bed. I felt on alert and my heart raced when I saw that my cat was on alert too, wide awake by my feet with his ears perked up. But I didn’t see or hear anything weird. Something didn’t feel right, and I couldn’t relax. So, I got up and went to the kitchen. Turned on some lights and ate food even though I wasn’t that hungry. Eventually went back to bed.
We discovered the next morning that someone had stopped while in the process of using some kind of tool to silently cut a big hole in the glass window in the living room. They were trying to break in. Right next to the bedroom. I think the lights I turned on scared them away. We had three long years of issues with our neighbors.
They repeatedly came into our property and were pissed that we put up a nine-foot fence to keep them out. This attempted break-in happened right after the fence went up and two days before they all moved out. Glad those pieces of trash are long gone.
31. Never Too Young to Be On Edge
At age five, I was almost abducted by strangers at the park who had a bunch of toys on a blanket and tried to lure me into their motor home. I looked back to my dad, who was talking to his friend maybe 100 yards away. I got a “tummy ache” when one of them tried to coax me by reaching for my arm to lead me away, and I screamed and ran like hell back to my dad.
Years later, I found out those same people had abducted other kids who weren’t so lucky. Never ignored a gut feeling since. FYI, trust me, once my Dad got over the shock, he let me have it for not only wandering off but speaking to complete strangers. I talked to my mom a bit about it today. and she told me my dad broke down and blamed himself.
Positive outlook on this though, guys, this is just one instance (scary as it may be) where my gut led me in the right direction and my instinct for danger is now uncanny. I truly believe everything happens for a reason. I trusted my instincts and it kept me safe still does.
32. First Isn’t The Worst
When I was in middle school and around 14 years old, I was returning home. I live like five minutes away from my school, and I noticed there was a man following me. He wasn’t looking at me; he was looking at his phone. He wore a cap, so I wasn’t able to see his face fully. And he gave off this weird vibe. I reached my apartment building, and the guy was still behind me.
I know mostly everyone who lives in my neighborhood and I couldn’t recall him. Last moment. I decided I wasn’t going to go inside the hallway; I turned around and went to a store where I waited for my mom to come. A few weeks after, there were some news about an 11-year-old girl from my school who was assaulted in the building right behind mine two days after the incident.
The guy they caught looked a lot like the guy who had followed me and given the time frame and the proximity there’s a high chance that it was him.
33. Not Every Shared Experience is a Great One
I am a petite woman and was 19 at the time. I had a late shift that ended at 10 pm. Hit the grocery before my walk home (about 10 blocks). I’ve got arms full of groceries and notice a car drive past me in the opposite direction. Heard it pull a U-turn behind me and park. I tell myself, "probably just getting home from work too," but then I hear footsteps behind me.
I turn around and it’s a man in his 30s, I’d guess. He doesn’t say anything but stops walking when I stopped walking. I keep walking, bit faster now and I can hear him speed up too. I turn around again and say, "Hey man, what’s up?" He says nothing. I turn around and keep walking, almost at a mini-jog pace and I hear him speed up too.
I was about four blocks away from home. The adrenaline kicked in, I dropped my bags and booked it. I made it home, told my boyfriend what was happening. As he goes outside to find the guy, dude drives by in his car. Right past my house. We call the cops, give them a description and the operator tells us they’ve had other calls about the same guy.
Really hoping he never actually caught someone. Really hoping he wound up in jail. Really happy I listened to my gut.
34. Play Your Own Doctor
The first time was three weeks after getting my gall bladder out. I felt terrible; I still had a drain in my stomach. I called my sister and said I’m afraid I'll be dead tomorrow. I went to the emergency room and turns out the surgeon had nicked my liver and I was bleeding internally. It turned into a blood blister on my liver, and if it popped, I would have bled to death.
Second time, I had been feeling like someone was squeezing around my chest for months. I passed out one morning, went to the hospital and they found a tumor between my heart and lungs. Turned out to be cancer. A couple surgeries and chemo and I've been in remission for almost five years.
35. Take Her Breath Away
My daughter was a year and a half at the time. She had a cold, but bedtime went off without a hitch. I woke up in the middle of the night that night, really uncomfortable and anxious. Something was off and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I got up, had a midnight snack, tried to calm my nerves. I decided to check on my kids, who shared a room, before trying to go back to sleep.
I get in there and immediately I hear a light sound coming from her crib—wheezing. It was so quiet, there was no way to hear it outside of the room. I got her up and saw that her breathing was fast and labored. I took her to the hospital, where she ended up with an overnight stay, oxygen, and nebulizer treatments because her oxygen had dipped.
She was diagnosed with Reactive Airway Disease due to the cold (which triggered the asthma attack).
36. Out of Your Age Group
I was in Turkey for vacation when I was about 7 or 8 years old, and I made friends with some other tourists but also some locals, all around the age range of 8-16. These two local guys were about 16, and at one point during the late afternoon they asked if I wanted to go with them to go-kart outside of the hotel area, and I agreed.
Approximately 30 seconds of walking along with them, I got the most chilling feeling I've ever had in my life. All the hairs on my skin rose up and I had this super uneasy feeling deep in my gut. It actually felt like some supernatural force was beckoning me to dip. I turned on my heels and sprinted so fast to get back to the hotel. I didn't even look back. When I returned, my mother asked where I had been. I made up a lie.
Oddly enough, I was quite fond of those guys before this happened. But, thinking about this in retrospect, why would two local 16-year-olds have any genuine interest in go-karting with a young eight-year-old tourist? I feel like I may have dodged a bullet. We may never know.
37. Missed a Hot Departure
Not me, but when my mum was a teenager on November 18, 1987, she was going to London to visit a friend. It was around 7:20 pm and she decided she was going to take a taxi instead of going by tube because it didn't feel right (King's Cross tube station). Ten minutes later, the whole station caught on fire, and 30 out of the 40 people died.
If she had decided to take the tube, she would likely have died.
38. Happy to Be a Moving Target
Was at a party in a rough neighborhood (I made a lot of poor choices as a teen.) I'm vaguely aware of an argument going on somewhere else in the house. I couldn't put a finger on it, but the tension was rising. I decided it was time to go. I grabbed my friends and left. Not ten minutes after we left, someone pulled a gun and fired a few rounds.
Some random girl was hit (non-fatally). Anyway, someone stole someone else's blow. So, the guy left, came back with a gun. Threatened some people, then lost control of the situation and shot some poor girl.
39. Beats the Ambulance
I stood up and had a quick Matrix-like wave (just like how the walls flex in the move). I turned to the closest person and asked for a ride to the emergency room. Honestly, it felt like a little head rush or lightheadedness that I've had a hundred times before. If I would have brushed it off as such, I would be dead. My lungs were at 30% capacity as I was drowning from fluids and had absolutely no other symptoms than the brief lightheaded feeling. Also, I had been feeling a bit down and hadn't eaten.
The more I analyzed the situation, I have no idea why I asked a stranger for a ride to the hospital.
40. A Walk Up the Stairs is Good For Everyone’s Health
I work in a mental health hospital—there's a set of communal stairs, a lift, and some locked staff stairs. I was working on the top floor that night, and my gut told me to use the locked stairs. More of an inconvenience than the lift...I went through the last door and found the patient who lived closest to that door hanging in their room. They were only there about 1-2 minutes, so I managed to call for help and get them down before they died. What a close call.
41. What’s Up Pussycat?
Was hiking by myself (real smart). I get this feeling that something wasn't right, but I normally act on that feeling. That day, however, I ignored it. Went to a lookout, turned around and headed back. About the same place as I got the feeling, I noticed cougar tracks cross mine in the snow. They followed mine for a few meters and then went to a bit of shrub that overlooked both where I was now, and the lookout.
I immediately left and avoided going anywhere near something that would give a cougar cover. Occasionally behind me, I would notice a small rustle in the bushes and trees or some snow falling off a disturbed branch.
42. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Biggest Hazard of All?
I used up sleep with a large, heavy mirror on the wall above my bed. It weighed 50-60 lbs. One night, I had the urge to take it down, fearing it'd fall on me and shatter. As soon as I took it off the wall, the two mason anchors holding it crumbled and fell to the floor.
43. Two’s Company, Three is a Felony
My fiancé worked with this guy who had this weird crush on him. He always called him randomly to hang out, which wasn't a problem, but he just made me uncomfortable. If we ran into him at the store, he'd tag along and completely ignore me. He'd give me dirty looks and I would tell my fiancé I didn't like him. He once called him 10 times one day when we had a date night.
Well eventually, he left us alone and we hadn't heard from him for a good four months. That's when we found out the dark truth. We saw on the news the other day that he was arrested for stabbing a guy 12 times over some disagreement.
44. Unwanted Guest
When I was in college, I went to a restaurant with family. This was during Spring Break; we were on vacation at Smokey Mountains in TN and had just stopped to eat dinner. Shortly after we were seated, I noticed a guy sitting by the front (where the waiters had a table with menus), and I had a bad gut feeling about this guy.
He was facing us, and I noticed him glancing at us every now and then. A while later, I noticed a waiter bringing him a box of food, but he stayed and just sat there, expressionless, and looking at us sometimes. Anyway, I decided to keep an eye on him. The service was really slow, and we ended up staying for about two hours. It was odd that this guy also stayed because he got his food much earlier.
Finally, we left the restaurant, and as we walked to the door, he got up and exited at the same time. Then I noticed him getting into the car right next to ours—he was driving a large SUV or truck with tinted windows—and he started following us! I told my father, who was driving, and he made several U-turns to be sure.
Yep, this guy was following us. So, my father turned onto a busy road, and after a few turns, we lost the guy. It was very strange and scary—I have no idea why he'd want to follow us. But my gut feeling alerted me and maybe we got out of a bad situation.
45. If the Shoe Fits, Call the Cops
I was clubbing and felt something was wrong—I realized one of my friends was missing. I looked in the club, then outside, and saw her barefoot in the car park with glass in her feet being dragged off by a stranger to his car. I started screaming and making a scene for people to realize what was happening; the guy drove off and I spent four hours with my friend in the hospital getting a broken bottle out of her feet.
46. Eye of the Tiger, Thrill of Your Gut
I was visiting the area my family was from in India. We were just about done with the visit and called some "auto-rickshaws" or tuk-tuks as some people know them because those are the only things available there. We get our baggage and get loaded up. It's about 9 PM, which for that place is basically ghost town time. As we ride out, we pass rice fields illuminated only by the glowing moon.
I feel like we're being watched by something not quite human. I tell the driver to drive faster. Note that rickshaws are open on both sides, they don't have doors per se. As soon as we take two steep turns, we hear a growl. Turning back, we see an honest to god freaking tiger standing there. If we had been a second late, which we would have been if I hadn't told them to drive faster—the tiger would have knocked us into the rice fields and who knows what would have happened.
The interesting part is I had not seen or heard anything; it was pure intuition.
47. You Can’t Sting Me
I worked in an industry where kickbacks to customers were not uncommon. Bribery is a very grey area with the law. There's a fine line between thanking a buyer with something like game tickets and enticing them with things much more valuable. Whether you're dealing with a private company or government-related is also a big difference.
One day, I took a call from a potential customer who said that he had been dealing with a competitor who went out of business. He wanted to place a very large order, for which I would have received thousands in commission—but right up front, he asked what was in it for him. He made it clear he wanted cash directly to him, that his employer could not know about.
My gut told me he was bad news and not to oblige him, and I didn't. I was certain he was out to screw us in some way, so I even went a step further and told him that what he proposed was illegal, and we want no part of it. If somebody was recording me, I wanted to be clear as a bell. Sure enough, that phone call stopped a government sting operation in its tracks.
Several companies were raided, and many individuals arrested in its wake. Many had fallen for it because their greed got the better of them. This was back in the 80s and 90s when a lot of industries and companies were doing very bad things with only occasional repercussions, like this one.
48. Not Every Elder Is Worth Respecting
I went to a private Christian high school; one of my teachers gave off a bit of a creepy vibe. I pointed this out to my mom, and she told me to respect my elders. A couple of years later, he was in the news after being arrested. He was a camp counselor at some Christian summer camp and a kid woke up to him assaulting them.
49. Blessed by the Belt
This past Sunday, actually. I was with 2 friends of mine going on a drive to a Magic the Gathering tournament, and it was raining to all hell. The friend that was driving is a habitually reckless driver but just in this case, he took precautions and slowed down to a safe 60 mph on the expressway. I should say that just that morning I had a discussion with my mother about how fast and heavy a car needs to be to hydroplane.
So, we are driving down the expressway, me sitting behind the passenger seat, when I realize I'm not wearing my seatbelt. I clip it in and make the joke "good thing I put my seat belt on before we hydr-" and then we spun out and ended up totaling his car. Messed up my hip and back and my bag nearly gave me a concussion when it hit me upside the head.
50. I’ll Pencil You In For Survival
So, when I was about 8-9 years old, I was coming from school later than usual, and right before I came to my house, I decided to go to a nearby store instead to buy a new package of pencils. (I used to like drawing back then). Returning from the store, walking in the courtyard, I saw from afar two people coming out of the house I live in, and they did not look friendly at all.
As you probably guessed it, our house was robbed, and sadly, I couldn't remember the intruders' faces. To this day I wonder, what would have happened if I have not decided to buy those freaking pencils...
51. Not So Cuddly A Plan
I tell this story a lot. An old friend and I used to cut through a construction site a lot to get to the lake we'd skip rocks on. We did it like weekly for a year and a half. One day, I just felt an intense urge to go the other way. I said we should just go the long way today friend. He asked why. I didn't really have a reason, I just felt uncomfortable.
Long story short, he called me a wuss and we walked up on a family of bears.
Wikimedia Commons
52. “Aunt” You Gonna Pay Me Back?
When my uncle married this woman that he had only recently started dating. I had a bad feeling about her from the get-go, although I tried to be supportive of him. Even her kids seemed too quiet and detached from our family. Turns out she was stealing his money and racking up huge amounts of credit card debt.
53. A Sweet One, And a Not-So-Sweet One…
Both good. My daughter met a nice young man her freshman year of college. They were both super shy and he was only 17. Hardly saying hi to each other. I followed my gut feelings and told him to ask her out. I told her to accept. He's about to become my son in law, years later. They never looked at anyone else again.
Second. I'm involved with hiring in my management role in healthcare. Give me five minutes of casual conversation and I can call a hire better than any behavioral interview technique. One prospective hire interviewed well, got an offer. Stopped at my desk for introduction, visited for a few. I told the admin team I didn't want her.
They went ahead—had to after conditional offer. Turns out she was on the adult abuse registry—twice! No job for her.
54. Time for a Detour
The first month I was a student at college, I was bored and lonely and decided to walk to my best friend's house across town at midnight. It was a walk I'd made several times with no issues, but this time when I got to the edge of the campus parking lots, I had a gut feeling hit me that I needed to go back to my dorm, NOW. I did, and the next morning a campus alert went out through email that around 12:30 that morning, a student had been attacked in the parking lot I would've passed through.
55. War Never Changes
Iraq in 2006. We were going to be inserted for 48hrs. It was 2200 and past curfew. As we snake our way in our armored trucks down from a main avenue and just before my truck makes the left, a man smoking a cigarette and I lock eyes, he flicks the cigarette in my trucks general direction and walks away from our convoy. I leaned towards the center of the truck to look out the front windows and say "Stuff’s about to go down."
The first two IEDs and shots were fired within seconds of me saying that. The ambush lasted for what seemed like hours, but it was only a few minutes.
56. Ride Home Alive
When I was 19, I was walking home at midnight from a tram stop and I got the feeling I should pretend I was on the phone. A minute after doing so, a car pulls up next to me on the empty road. It's four guys all leering at me, the one in the passenger side starts saying things like, "how about we take you for a good time," and his tone is predatory.
I try to keep it cool because I didn't want to look frightened to encourage them that I am prey, so I start telling my "friend" there's a group of guys in a car harassing me and describing the car. I hear the driver say to his mate something about my conversation on the phone and then they take off. I ran home faster than Usain Bolt with 000 now ready on my phone should they change their mind and come back.
A couple of months later, I hear on the news that in my area there was a group picking up girls and assaulting them. The description matched the car and the guys in it that followed me that night. I had the sense after my encounter to tell my work what happened and refuse to do night shifts anymore unless they paid for my taxi home.
I shudder to think what may have happened if I hadn't pretended to be on the phone that night.
57. The Kid Gloves Are Over
I was like six years old and in the backyard of my best friend/neighbor's, swimming in a three-foot play pool thing. She went inside to ask for something and right as she left, a guy on a motorcycle drove down the alley and stopped. The fence was a small chain link fence, so he definitely saw me and stopped. And I could see him clearly, like 20 years later it's still so vivid.
He pulled out some gloves and put them on, which is the last thing I saw him doing as I got out and ran through their garage out the front, and inside my house next door terrified. He drove around the front down the street slowly and about 10 minutes later, shot two kids at the park at the end of my street.
58. Girl Talk
I used to work in a big city as a medical emergency responder/dispatcher. One night, I arrive for my shift and like one hour later, I get this call. A man calling for his wife who was choking on food, and who suddenly started to "feel better" during the call, which made him change his mind and say he didn't need an ambulance anymore.
I could've stopped the call there, cancel it or rank it as low priority. But I had this feeling, and when the man asked me if I wanted to speak to her, I said yes. "Ma'am, this is the emergency services, are you sure that you don't need help of any kind?" No answer. "Would need the services of the police?" "Maybe." So, I ask. "Is the guy beside you dangerous?" "Yes."
Man, the rush of adrenaline I got. I made her go to safety and then she told me all about how he had been beating her for a long time, how she had no way to get out of this, that she was choking while eating because of the stress of being beside him...I worked with the police and they went on the scene, probably preventing the woman from being beaten up again.
Always trust your instinct.
59. A Big Sibling is the Best Lifeguard
My siblings and I were swimming at a neighbor’s house with their kid, but the adults were inside. Randomly, a thought came into my head: "Where’s my sister at?" She easily could’ve gone inside or have walked across the street and be home, but I felt like I needed to find her ASAP. I got all of us kids to search when we noticed she was at the bottom of the pool, completely blue.
She made a complete recovery and is one of the best parts of my life. One brother got her out, one sprinted home across the street to get my mom, and I called 9-1-1 to get paramedics. We are very lucky and grateful we got a happy ending, but not everyone does.
60. Listen to Cinderella
My father started publicly dating a woman shortly after my mother died (I later learned she's likely the woman he'd been having an affair with before she died). I liked her. One evening, my father took me to one side and asked how I'd feel about him asking her to marry him. I got an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach and felt nauseated.
I told my father I didn't want him to, and he asked why as he thought I liked her. I explained that I did like her but had a bad feeling and he said, “That's just a feeling, they don't mean anything.” He already had the ring and proposed straight away. I got really excited about the engagement, the wedding, moving to a new house, and my impending little sister.
After the wedding, she changed. After my half-sister was born, she became unstable. She abused me, my full sister (my mother's child), and later my half-sister (her own child). He only left her when my doctor told him something was clearly going on with her that was affecting my health (she was putting a substance that I'm intolerant to in my food and my father wouldn't believe me and would force me to eat whatever she made, however, I couldn't get a doctor alone without her to tell them) and my maternal grandmother told him if he didn't leave her, she'd go for custody.
He accused me of lying for the entire time leading up to that and has never asked me about any of my attempts to get help since.
61. When You’re the Responsible Adult
About 15 years ago, I left work early, like really early, for no real reason. I got home and all these kids were standing near my door (apartment complex next to a pond) and they were all staring at me and not saying anything. I went inside and dropped my bag. It wouldn’t stop weighing on me how weird it was, so I went back outside.
I spoke to them asking what was going on and one kid meekly asked if I could help his friend. A kid I didn't see was sitting on a curb surrounded by all the rest. They had all jumped the fence next to the pond, except he slipped and impaled the flesh of his inner thigh and got stuck, the kids helped pick him up off of it, but he was just sitting there bleeding everywhere with a bunch of meat hanging out.
I got him treated and ambulance on the way, he came back a few weeks later with his family to thank me, said I saved his leg. There were 6-7 kids who all just followed me with their eyes without any sound (no talking, no shuffling, no kid sounds) as I walked down the sidewalk, that’s what freaked me out. The kid in question was sitting on a curb in between them facing away so I didn’t notice him.
When I asked what was going on, they parted like the Red Sea. He was in shock and asked me if he needed help and then lifted the leg of his shorts. Everyone was eerily calm about the whole thing. However, once lights and sirens came, they scattered to the four winds. The railing was made of 1/2” steel tubing. The top had a horizontal runner about eight inches from the top of the picket.
Each picket was four inches apart and the tops of each picket were pinched together flat then the edges were folded in, creating a spear but without any barbs. This created a place to put your foot to hop the fence, provided you didn’t slip. So luckily it was smooth in and smooth out. What’s horrifying, and I never thought of until now, is the way that he had to fall to impale his thigh means he hung there with all his weight on it.
Jesus.
62. Father Doesn’t Always Know Best
The first friend who reached out to me in high school invited me to a sleepover. Eventually, it became a weekly occurrence. Met her stepdad and instantly my stomach was unsettled. He was weird, tried too hard to seem cool/strong/useful, and stuck around us when we set up the sleeping bags in the living room and hung out. I kind of understood why he lingered the first night, but the lingering continued throughout the couple of years I stayed over.
I told my mum I thought he was weird and suspicious and she told me never judge a book by its cover. One day I found out that my friend had been continuously assaulted by him for years and had told her to bring friends over so he would leave her alone (yet her mother admitted it was so he could groom the friends). He was physically aggressive with me one day, and I never went back.
Took a month or so but I couldn't take it and gathered as much evidence that I could (things that used to mean nothing were suddenly glaringly obvious that something was wrong) and went to police. It was something I never really wanted to be true, but it had happened before (same sort of "something is very wrong here" situation has happened to me a few other times with similar or same results) and I just knew that I couldn't be wrong, but I did question myself along the way.
63. Clear as Glass
I was at my grandparents' for a gathering. Me and some of the other older kids were playing catch or tag in the front yard, I can't exactly remember, doesn't matter. The younger kids were playing in the backyard, doing whatever the heck kids do. While playing, I could SWEAR I heard a crying/wailing/screaming sound, but it was very quiet and distant.
It was one of the most horrific screams I've ever heard, but I asked the others and they didn't hear a thing, and all insisted it was nothing. I don't know why but felt absolutely dreadful and terrified, yet everything was fine, so I decided to go check it out. I run into the backyard and it turns out my little sister (4-5 years at the time) was bleeding severely—she was covered in blood and trying to crawl towards the house, I swear it was out of a damn horror movie, looking back I can't believe this actually happened.
Long story short, my little cousin (7-8 yrs at the time) decided it was a good idea to play "catch" with some broken glass he found in the backyard and ended up cutting her jaw very deeply. Kids are dumb.
64. When the Monsters Aren’t Under the Bed
When my mother started dating her second husband. The moment I saw him, I knew something wasn't right, but being a kid, I had no idea what. Fast forward to their wedding. From the moment they were married, he turned into a physically and emotionally abusive piece of trash. Luckily after a while, my mother got up the courage to kick him out.
She got a restraining order and a divorce. I only realized a few years ago that there was something else up with him as well. He would come into my room at least once every day (as far as I know, only when I was awake). He'd sit on my bed and try to talk to me with a creepy smile on his face. His hand would be on my leg, and he'd get closer and closer to me as his hand got higher and higher. Then he'd get to about my knee, suddenly stand up and walk out.
I only told my family about that a few years ago, and I'll never forget the horror on their faces. As far as I'm aware, he didn't do anything to me other than what I said above. But who knows. A year or so after my mother kicked him out, he beat a guy half to death with a pool cue. Never saw the inside of a cell.
65. Now That’s Good Housekeeping
I used to clean vacant houses for a living. One day I was working at a house near the end of a dead-end street. There were maybe six or seven houses on one side of the street before an intersection with a stoplight, so it was a pretty heavy traffic area. I was cleaning out the property just fine when my Spidey-Sense went off the charts.
I was inside the house, but I pretty much dropped everything, got in my car and started to drive outta there. On the corner, I saw a weird-looking guy and had a nasty feeling about him. When I got home it was all over the news. About 15 minutes after I'd left, he'd shot and killed someone.
Told my boss that I wasn't going to go back to that property. He understood.
66. The Sharp Part of Town
Four students of mine won the first prize for a project they did, and we all got a free trip to London. We had spent the day sightseeing and were exhausted, so we got an ice-cream and sat on a bench in a park to relax. A couple of minutes later, I notice this couple walk by slowly, staring at us. My spidey-senses go mental.
I do not like these people for some reason. She walks by and sits on the bench next to ours, and he sits on the bench across from hers. They aren’t talking, just looking at each other. And that is when I notice her reaching into her pockets. I jump up, grab my students and run out of the park. My poor students are confused and wondering what the heck is wrong with me, when all of a sudden, we hear screaming.
It turns out the woman stabbed another couple walking through the park, trying to rob them. It scares the ever-loving heck out of me, knowing had I not gotten my students out of there, we would have been stabbed and robbed.
67. Don’t Trust a Damsel in Distress
I used to pick up hitchhikers in the 1980s and early 90s. I was into Jesus and wanted to do good deeds. One day, I saw two women who looked rough hitchhiking on the side of I-295 in Jacksonville, Florida. Based on their appearance, I thought they were leaving an abusive situation or something. I pulled over to pick them up.
As they walked up to my van, they exchanged creepy looks, sort of a “are we gonna do this?” expression. I got bad vibes and made a split-second decision. I drove off right as they were reaching for my door. I felt bad later and beat myself up for it. What if they really needed help? A few days later, I saw sketches of them on the news.
It was Aileen Wuornos (the woman from the movie Monster) and her girlfriend. The guy who picked them up after I drove off was killed and dumped in a swamp. Trust your gut!
68. Use Your Head
There is such a thing as a feeling of "impending doom" when your body is like, “Yo, you are about to die." It is a real thing. I had not been feeling well, and all of a sudden, I sat up and had a distinct feeling of "You are going to die soon if you don't do something." I drove myself to the ER and on the way was getting chest pains.
I went in, told them, and they took me to the back. After some tests, there were a lot of people around me injecting me with a lot of different stuff. Turns out I had a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in my lung) which at any second could have gone to my brain and killed me then and there. The doctors said if I had left it any longer, I would have been dead.
Thanks, brain!
69. An Offer You Should Refuse
I love my stepsister to pieces, but she is way too trusting with people she doesn’t know well. About ten years ago, she was living with a couple of roommates who became her “best friends.” She would tell me stories about them (over the phone, we lived in different cities) and I would just think, “Jesus Christ, these girls are messes.”
She could hear the weariness in my voice after telling me stories about their troubled lives and how “They’re really good people who have just been through a lot!!!” I didn’t buy it. I can’t think of all the stories because it’s been too long, but they were always really sketchy. Cut to my stepsister inheriting $20k from a deceased relative.
She was young and super excited about it and I knew she probably didn’t keep the new money a secret. About one freaking week later, one of her roommates calls her panicking, saying that this guy who she’s been talking to online kidnapped her and was holding her for ransom. A $15k ransom. And she called my stepsister for the ransom.
Not her parents. Her freaking roommate. She calls me, freaking out because she didn’t know what to do. I asked her if she had told her roommate about the money. Of course, she did. Move out, sis. Gtfo. Those little girls who are really good people but have just been through a lot...yeah they’re liars. She reluctantly followed my advice and thankfully didn’t try to make a deal with them.
I told her to call the police. If I remember correctly, she didn’t. She still worries me sometimes.
70. That What You Get for Being a Bag Lady
I was walking home and a woman approached me to ask for directions. I told her how to get where she wanted to go, but she didn't walk that way. Instead walked beside me and kept pace with me. This made me incredibly uncomfortable, so I said, "Have a nice day" and doubled my speed. Not running, but outpacing her significantly.
A moment later, I heard running footsteps. I must have instinctively gripped my purse strap, because I held onto it as she ran by and tried to snatch it. We ended up tussling for a moment. I shouted very loudly "Help! She's stealing my purse!" Neighbors came outside, causing her to run away. She did not get my purse.
71. Take a Sharp Turn at Nopesville
I pulled into a gas station around 8-9 PM that wasn’t in a ghost town or anything, but it was insanely dark due to the time of year. As I pull towards one of the pumps, I see this dude slowly pacing near the entrance of the convenience store, and we make eye contact. I quickly pulled the car to another pump towards one of the entrances to the gas station, trying to be safer but thinking I’m probably just being paranoid.
Once I sit there for a minute and decide to put my car in park, he quickly rushes over to me. By the time I’m back in drive and peel out through the entrance into an oncoming lane (luckily no traffic), I saw him pulling out what looked like a large knife out of his jacket...I’m glad I didn’t disregard my gut that night, that's for sure.
72. Watching The Ones Who Do Not Smile
I was at a party when I was in college when two older dudes showed up. The place was packed and most people were drunk. I noticed something was a bit off about them. They never smiled and weren’t really talking to anyone. Finally, someone accused them of feeling around in their back pocket and it turned out they were lifting wallets from drunk college kids.
But it gets worse. Once confronted, one of the guys stabbed the kid in the stomach with a smallish knife. They left slowly and were never caught. It was pretty surreal. The kid who got stabbed turned out fine.
73. Send Him to the Doghouse
When I laid eyes on my sister's then-boyfriend, I instantly hated him. I then noticed one of our dogs acted out of character around him, which made me hate him even more. We found out a year later the boyfriend had been beating my sister regularly.
74. A Maternal Instinct Holds Water
Not me but one of my best friends growing up, her mom told me this story: They had just bought this house that had a built-in swimming pool. My friend had a little brother, who was under the age of two at the time. Everyone was taking a nap but unbeknownst to the rest of the house, the two-year-old had woken up and decided to go outside on their deck.
I guess the mom woke up and had this terrible feeling come over her. Without hesitation, she quickly checked on her children. Panic set in when she couldn’t find the two-year-old. She found him face down in the pool. He did survive the whole ordeal. If she hadn't felt that gut feeling to wake up, that little boy wouldn't be here today.
75. Precious Last Moments
When I was doing my PhD, I got offered the chance to go to the Central European University summer school program to do a course that would have been extremely valuable. I even got offered a full scholarship to do the course, and free accommodation, etc. A really amazing deal. Two weeks before I was supposed to leave, I said to my boyfriend at the time "Something is telling me I shouldn't go."
I was like, what the heck brain, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. But the "don't go" feeling kept getting stronger. So I withdrew from the course, feeling stupid for doing it. The day after I was scheduled to leave, my perfectly healthy mom got sick. A week later she was in a coma, a week later we had to turn off life support. Her funeral was a week after that.
I would have been away in her last waking moments.
76. A Disturbance in the Force
In high school, I came home early one Friday evening to find that my house just felt off. It’s so hard to describe, but the feeling I got walking into my living room just immediately had me on alert and didn’t feel right. I walked into the kitchen to find a half-eaten burger from McDonald's, which I found strange. Called out to my parents, got no response. Called them on their cell, got no answer.
30 minutes later, my brother called to tell me that my dad had a heart attack and to get to the hospital. Thankfully it turned out okay, but my gut quite literally knew something bad had happened the moment I stepped in the front door.
77. Sparing The Other Passengers
I got to the airport early and got something to eat at the restaurant, boarded the plane, everyone is on, and I suddenly get a feeling of panic. Nothing else, just panic. I was used to traveling most of the month, back and forth every week, so no problems flying, but in this case, I had to get off that plane. I grabbed my stuff, ran past the flight attendant and said don't wait for me, I will get another flight and sat down trying to calm down.
The announcement comes over the speaker that they are looking for me, my flight is leaving. It leaves. I watch the flight start to take off. This was in Detroit. Then it happened. The worst cramps I ever had, ran to the bathroom. Food poisoning from the restaurant. I would have been on a two hour flight stinking up the plane while ejecting the contents of my stomach from both ends.
I am sure the entire passenger compartment thanks me, though they do not know.
78. Trusting The Spidey Sense In The Rain
It was 1:30 am and raining, I was riding my motorcycle down a four-lane road with two lanes in each direction and a middle turn lane. I saw a car approaching a stop sign, perpendicular to me, in the parking lot of a bar and thought to myself "He's going to turn left in front of me." I was going 45mph, let off the throttle, and about 200 to 250 feet from him, he did exactly what I thought he was going to do.
I grabbed my front and rear brakes, back tire locked up and kicked out to the left. I had maybe 40 to 50 feet in which I would either high-side in front of the car and likely be ran over, slam into the driver door or rear driver door or jump off to the right in a tuck and roll fashion. I jumped and my motorcycle slammed into the rear driver side of his car.
I had a couple of scratches, bruises, and a sore tailbone. But I wasn't run over or hanging out in his back seat through the glass window. Thank God for spidey senses.
79. So Much for To Serve and Protect
When I was a student in middle school, a kid in my class had a dad who was a police officer. He came to our class when we were in sixth grade as a parent/job thing. He wore a bulletproof vest and invited all the kids who wanted to go poke it or whatever. Not too weird, but seemed a little off to me, so I stayed in my seat.
Two years later, by the time we were in eighth grade, he was a resource officer for the local public junior high, a different school than his son and I went to. Well, while his son and I were in eighth grade, friend's cop dad was grooming another eighth-grader at his school. By the time cop's son, the girl the cop was grooming, and I were in 10th grade, the cop was caught climbing into the girl's window by her father.
It turns out, this cop started grooming this girl when she was in eighth grade and at the school he was resource officer for, and by the time she was in 10th grade, he had been assaulting with her. As far as I know, he's still in jail, nine years later. His son later went into the Marines and seems to have a good life, at least.
11/12 year old me had a weird feeling about this cop, even though I went to school with his son and went to church with him, saw him all the time at the junior high, because at the time, my mom worked there and I'd see him when I was at the junior high with my mom. I'd see this guy at least once a week. Gave me the creeps.
80. Don’t Lose That Sixth Sense
I was walking home when I suddenly had this gut feeling, "I will be mugged.” I should've listened. I kept walking. When I got to the corner, two guys jumped me. They started delivering some punches and man, I’m no Rocky. My shirt was devastated, my nose was bleeding, my glasses flew like three meters away. My gut didn't exactly help, but at least I saw it coming?
81. Furr Real Friends and Consequences
My parents’ cat LOVES me. Loves to sniff and lick my feet, play with me from his window perch and generally be an adorable goofy little badass. So last week when we all went out to dinner and back to their house for drinks, the cat didn’t come out to greet me. It was odd. He was under the bed and refusing to come out...which was unusual, but we had our first thunderstorm of the season and he's only two so we chalked it up to being freaked out and left him there.
90 minutes later my "THIS ISN'T RIGHT" instinct is ringing like a mental fire alarm so I went to check on him, and he still wouldn’t come out or move...and he didn’t seem to recognize me. $1,000 in emergency vet bills at 3 AM and we find out he had broken his femur very badly, needed another couple thousand dollars' worth of surgery and would likely have been in pain for the rest of his life and had bladder complications that would have needed frequent catheterization.
We think he must have snagged a nail jumping down from his window perch, which was about five feet high and hung there or landed poorly. I've never seen my stoic 6'4" dad cry harder than when they made the decision that it was cruel to keep him alive and that if they loved him, they should put him down. Our entire family is heartbroken.
I've never regretted being right about anything this much in my entire life.
82. Head of Miseducation
Our middle school vice principal was loved by everyone in the school, except for me. I was always creeped out by him. When I was in eighth grade, he was found hooking up a previous student of his, who was only 16 at the time. He had a wife and kids when this all went down.
83. That’s Not Butterflies in Your Stomach
I woke up from a nap with this horrible stomach pain. I called my mom and she told me to just take an antacid, but I just felt that it was something very wrong. I went to urgent care, who immediately sent me to the ER. Turns out it was my gallbladder and I had to have surgery.
84. Rock(et) and Roll
Went to see fireworks one time. As I was watching, I got a bad feeling, being as close as I was, and I wondered how many people have died from fireworks. Not even 30 seconds later, one of the launch pipes for the fireworks tipped or something. All I remember was fireworks launching and exploding right in my direction, and one of the firework tails whizzing right past my head, then me running away like mad.
85. Sometimes You Can Judge a Book By His Cover
A dude named Jeth. He spoke in this really specific way. I can't describe it—all I can say is that is just sounded wrong. He always gave me bad vibes when I was around him, and he ended up being a "nice guy" and got stalker-level obsessed with the girl I was dating.
86. A Criminal Record Would Be the Real Party Pooper
At a party in college. Two thoughts occurred at the same time... 1) "Wow there's a lot of people here!" and 2) "A lot of these girls look really young..." So, I got the heck out. Found out later party was busted, and several people who were there ended up in jail for a variety of things.
87. Don’t Drink and Jerk
I went out for beers with some friends. A guy at the bar kept staring at my female friend. Didn’t think anything of it initially, thought maybe he’s just into her. Then, alarm bells start ringing in my head for some reason. Minutes later, he went to my friend and I saw him try to slip something in her drink while she was talking to another friend of ours.
Good thing I was watching told him to screw off with that roofie crap. He tried to punch me, but missed. Bouncer saw; he got kicked out.
88. Just Say No, Mmmkay
At a research institute, I walked into a mouse procedure/surgery room for a quick moment to grab something and leave. After walking out I felt, well to be honest, like I was a little high. There were three other people in that room, including two undergraduates, so I got worried and went back inside to check things out.
When I got back inside I asked if they were feeling ok, one of the undergrads turned to me and said she was fine, but was flushed and looked a little out of it. So I went around to all the isoflurane chambers (it's an odorless volatile liquid that KOs mammals at low doses and kills them at higher) looking for leaks. Sure enough, the gasket at the bottom of one of the chambers had failed and it was leaking out and immediately boiling into a gas, and filling the room.
I told them their isoflurane was leaking, and the postdoc told me they were fine and that he uses that machine all the time. He also pointed out that the isoflurane was in an air curtained biosafety cabinet and so even with the leak, they were protected. I called him an idiot because a biosafety cabinet recirculates air and doesn't evacuate it like a fume hood—which is what he should have been using.
So I ignored him, propped open the door, and ordered the undergrads to get out of the room. I then went to their lab manager and told her what I had found. Their lab manager came down like the wrath of God.
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89. A Bad Gut Feeling Is A Rational Deduction From An Observation
Got off the subway at night, there was one other person about half a block behind me on my route home. This is a totally normal thing, has happened thousands of times. Totally normal-looking dude, not even following me closely. I had a bad feeling. Such a bad feeling that, when I turned the corner on my way home, I broke into a dead sprint and hid behind a dumpster in the shadows partway down the street.
By the time he came around the corner, I was well hidden and could see him from my hiding place. As soon as I saw his reaction to the fact that I wasn't there, I knew I had been right to hide. He started LOOKING FOR ME, muttering to himself, he went up and down the street, looked around corners, I hid and held my breath until he was gone. It was terrifying.
I am so glad I had that sudden, inexplicable impulse to hide, and listened to it.
90. Uncle Comes Home
A guy came to the door one day, looking for my mom. I was probably 13 at the time. Immediately, I had most of my body behind the door, ready to shut it. I just had this awful feeling about him. He said he hadn't seen her in a long time, and that he was just coming from church and was in the neighborhood. Ok, so this guy is trying to communicate that he's a good person, and that and his weird smile just made me trust him less.
I told him my mom was napping. She wasn't. She was at work. So, he left a note for her with his name and number on it. I took it & closed & locked the door. Then I looked at the note & immediately recognized the name. It was my uncle. I hadn't seen him since I was 5, when he went to jail for murdering my aunt and cousin.
91. Bad Feeling About Mom
Several years ago on Thanksgiving, my mom was becoming extremely overwhelmed. The holidays have never been a great success in my family and my parents had issues communicating which led to a lot of stressful and tense dinners, and if it wasn't them it was someone else starting a fire. Well, this year was especially bad.
My mom had been cooking for hours to get ready to head over to my cousin's house. My dad was yelling about how we spend too much money on the holidays. It got to a point where my mom told me and my brothers to leave for the party ahead of them. We didn't get far from the house until a really bad feeling started sinking in my stomach. I knew my brothers felt something too. I said, "Can we go back?" And my older brother turned around immediately.
When we got there my father was gone, he had left out of anger and my mom yelled at him to leave. My mother was in her bed, lying still with an empty bottle of sleeping pills beside her. She was still conscious when we came in but started shaking and was falling asleep. We called 911. I later learned that the pills she had taken would have only put her to sleep for a long time, not actually kill her but clearly, it was her intent. She has/had severe depression and after this, she got some real help.
92. Nick of Time
I was at a bar in October of 2013 or 2014, if I recall. Anywho, I lived in a particularly rough neighborhood at the time, and I was enjoying a few drinks. I had this horrible feeling of uneasiness looming in the back of my mind, so I told my buddies I'm turning in for the night. They called me the following morning and informed me that the bar had gotten shot up and like three people were injured.
It was about two hours after I left.
93. Not Trusting Those Other Kids
My friend asked me for a ride home. I told him I wasn't going his way and he was like "okay, I'll catch a ride with those people." I wasn't a huge fan of the people he was going to go home with, so I said screw it and gave him a ride. Turns out the kids who were going to take him home decided to speed down a windy, wooded road near his house at 80mph.
They hit something and flipped the car multiple times. They all lived, but barely. The EMTs said that if they were bigger kids (they were all scrawny and under 5'10") they would've been crushed. My friend who almost went with them is 6'2". He absolutely would've died that day.
94. Right Place, Right Time
When I was in university I was walking home from the bars in the Byward Market in Ottawa, with my roommate at the time. It was about 2:30 am and we were looking forward to getting home and ordering some pizza when we came across two guys and a girl who looked like she was out of it. Initially, we didn't think anything about it because it was a pretty common sight on a Friday, but as we walked behind them for a few minutes we noticed how badly out of it she was.
One of the guys was essentially carrying her, and her clutch was loosely dangling from her limp wrist. Our street came up, but instead of turning down it, we decided to see what was going on. The guys explained that she was one of their girlfriends and had too much to drink so they were taking her home. We asked them a few more questions: what bar they were at, where she lived, if she was an Ottawa University student, etc.
They gave pretty convincing answers, but all the same, they seemed really uncomfortable and wanted us to go away. During the conversation, the guy holding his “girlfriend” shifted her position to get a better grip, which caused her arm to dangle down and drop her clutch. Before they could move, my roommate grabbed the clutch and took out her ID.
My roommate then asked if they knew her first and last name along with her birthday. This is where things changed. The other guy got really aggressive and confrontational while the other went silent. They didn't know her name or birthday. I then pulled out my phone and called the police. The guy dropped her and they took off running.
We waited with her for about 10 minutes until the police and EMS got there. We gave a statement but did not have much to go on other than their descriptions. Police told us they suspected she had been dosed, and that she was lucky we happened to be walking behind her. Pretty scary stuff.
95. Knowing What Is Best For Your Daughter
My oldest daughter (30-something) stopped by my work one day and introduced her new boyfriend. He seemed a little off to me, but I decided it was just "guy dating my daughter" and let it go. Later, he met my wife and I, and she told me later that he seemed off to her, too. She has pretty good instincts about people, so we decided to investigate him a bit.
When we typed his name into Google, the results were utterly chilling. The first result was a mugshot from a couple of years ago. The third was an active warrant. More searching resulted in finding three warrants from different counties, an extensive record (check deception, theft, driving while suspended, driving after a lifetime suspension, and driving while a habitual traffic offender), and a brand-new marriage license for him and my daughter.
They were going to get married later that week. We, of course, told her about him, but she insisted that he'd already told her about all of that and had "taken care of it." We emailed links to her roommate, who showed her, but she didn't have any luck talking her out of the relationship. They were in love, and everything would work out OK in the end.
We sent in an anonymous tip, and he was arrested the next day at her apartment. My daughter then found out that he'd been lying to her about pretty much everything. He had entangled her in a business he was trying to start that mostly involved her financing things for him, because his credit was trash due to records for bounced checks and theft. She's still working to untangle herself from that.
He is still in jail, and, according to her lawyer, will be for at least two years depending on what happens in two other counties.
96. Expertise
Airline pilot here—warning, do not continue reading if flying makes you uneasy. One day we loaded up passengers and cargo and everything and we were ready to taxi. I noticed that the nose of the airplane seemed to be higher than usual while we were sitting on the ground. I told my first officer about it and he agreed.
We double-checked the weight and balance and everything seemed to be right. I decided to just taxi out towards the runway and see if the wheel struts would go back to their normal positions during taxi. Still felt weird to me. Something wasn't right. I told ground control we needed to go back to the gate. I called Ops and told them we're headed back because I think something isn't right with the weight and balance.
After we get back, I ask them to check how much ballast we have in the aircraft. It's verified on my sheet as 500lbs., but I have a feeling. Turns out, yep, they forgot to put it in the plane. So had we taken off, the center of gravity would have been out of whack—way past limits. It could have resulted in an airplane that was impossible to control.
Just like that 747 that took off and had the load slide to the back. That was a day that I was really pleased that I had so much experience flying to give me that feeling & that feeling could very well have saved my life along with others.
97. Have Heart, Not a Heart Attack
I came back to work after a week off for Christmas vacation and immediately noticed something was off with my friend. I had no clue what it was, but I just knew was something was wrong with him, but I couldn't explain what it was. I kept asking him if he was alright, but he kept saying everything was fine. On the second day, he came up to me and asked me how to do something that I know he knew how to do; I had trained him on how to do it.
I became very concerned at this point. The third day was New Year’s Eve, so we only had a half-day and he was working on a spreadsheet. The end of the day came around and I took one look at it and I could have printed it out and called it modern art, that's how horrifying it looked. I called the boss over and he pulled him off of it which caused my friend to break down and start crying because he couldn't understand that he had done anything wrong.
I was moving to a new place over our day and a half off, so I simply told him that something was wrong with him and he needed to get some help. We came back in for one day on Friday and my friend wasn't there. I learned that he was in the hospital because of a heart attack. Later on, we learned that during the days leading up he was suffering from mini-strokes and that all of my constant nagging about if he was alright ultimately led to him thinking that maybe there is something wrong with him.
So, he called a taxi to take him to the ER on New Year’s Eve where they immediately recognized that he was having a heart attack. A doctor later told him that if he had not gone to the ER when he did, he would not have woken up if he'd gone to sleep that night. Because of this, my friend says that I saved his life through the power of our friendship.
98. Some Devastatingly Flawed Logic
I worked at a daycare. One of the mothers gave me the heebie jeebies. She would show up randomly and be like "my baaaaaaby, I neeeed my baaaaby." Like, moms love their kids and miss them, but her obsession with her daughter really made me feel weird. She ended up killing her daughter so that she could be an angel. It really messed me up when I found out.
99. Tragically Right to Be Worried
My mom called me when I was out with a friend. She told me my brother didn't come home last night. She was very worried, even though this is not the weirdest thing for a 21-year-old. I went straight home, and we both felt like something bad had happened. At home, his phone was on the couch in the living room so we couldn't contact him.
We called the police and after a week of investigation, his body was found drowned in a nearby lake. I miss him every day.
100. Threat On The Docks
A former co-worker, Jason, told me this story. Jason was working at a dock in China and unloaded shipping containers from huge international cargo ships. A typhoon had just passed, and many of the inbound ships had been delayed for days due to the extreme weather. Once the weather cleared, there was a backlog of ships waiting to be docked and unloaded.
To make matters worse, a tropical depression had just been upgraded to a tropical storm and was expected to make landfall within 48 hours. It was organized chaos as the dock workers frantically tried to unload three times the volume of shipping containers in half the time. Jason was a Senior Cargo Agent, and his job was to verify that the information on the offloaded shipping containers matched the information on the manifest, and to visually inspect shipping containers for damage.
A cargo agent had to sign off on all cargo before an unloaded ship could disembark. As there were a limited number of spaces for ships to dock, it was crucial that the cargo agents verify the unloaded shipments as quickly as possible so that another ship could dock immediately. Everyone at the dock had walkie-talkies (hand-held portable two-way radios), and Jason heard Dock Manager 1 going absolutely crazy because an unloaded ship had been waiting in the dock for nearly two hours, and no cargo agent had verified their delivery.
Jason radioed Cargo Agent 1 assigned to that area, but there was no answer. He then radioed Cargo Agent 2, and still received no response. He then radioed the next closest Senior Cargo Agent 1 and asked him to drop everything and verify the cargo immediately. After thirty minutes, Dock Manager 2 radioed that the ship was STILL docked.
Jason then radioed Senior Cargo Agent 1 who he had sent over there and did not receive a response. He then radioed Dock Manager 1 who had been screaming into the radio and again received no response. Jason was now the only Senior Cargo Agent in the area, and it now fell to him to verify the unloaded shipment and get the delayed ship out of port ASAP.
As he got into his truck to drive over, a nagging feeling of dread kept telling him not to go. He ignored the feeling and drove there anyway, all the while trying and failing to radio anyone else in the area. When he arrived at the unloading zone, he couldn't bring himself to get out of the truck, and later said that it felt as if he was being physically pushed back into his seat.
Jason then picked up his radio with a shaking hand and broadcast, "Unknown threat near unloading section four. All workers evacuate immediately. This is not a drill." And just like that, a multi-billion dollar port was shut down. A HazMat team was soon dispatched and found that a shipping container damaged in transit had been carrying a heavier-than-air type of inert gas.
The gas leaked and displaced the air, then became trapped between several rows of closely stacked shipping containers. Every person that approached immediately lost consciousness. Five people were found dead near the damaged container, and Jason was later fired because he did not actually have the authority to shut down the port.
Jason filed the Chinese equivalent of a wrongful termination lawsuit, but was strongly encouraged to settle, or else the Chinese government might find him partially responsible for the workers' deaths. As a white foreigner in China, this was a very real possibility, and he ended up settling for a modest amount. Jason still blames himself for the death of Senior Cargo Agent 1 and gave the settlement amount to the man's widow.
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