Never underestimate the power of intuition. When these people felt something was odd, they trusted their gut feelings—and ended up saving lives. When they didn't, the consequences were disastrous. If you just can't help but feel like something isn't right, listen to the little voice in the back of your mind. It could change everything.
1. The Mugging
I had a strong feeling that I should take my wallet and phone out of my purse. Less than 20 seconds later, I got robbed. The guy pulled me across the sidewalk and took my purse, but all he actually got was a juice box.
2. The Welcome Mat
I woke up suddenly from a deep sleep around 2 a.m. during a winter storm with the sense that something was wrong. I immediately went to look for my senior dog and couldn’t find her anywhere in the house. My roommates had a habit of taking her out and then forgetting about her, shutting the door behind them. I ran to the front of the house and found her lying on the welcome mat, barely breathing and covered in snow.
She had been outside alone for at least five hours. I brought her inside and warmed her up. Thankfully, she was okay, but if she had been left out all night, she could have been seriously hurt or worse. I moved out soon after.
3. Now We’re Cooking With Grease
I was shopping to get ready for my long-distance girlfriend, who was coming to stay with me, and I noticed boxes of baking soda at the store. I thought, “Oh right, it’s smart to keep baking soda in the kitchen in case of a grease fire.” So I picked up a box. The next morning, she was making breakfast while I was in the shower when I heard her shouting for help.
I came out and the stove was on fire. Feeling weirdly prepared, I yelled, “I’ve got this!” I grabbed the baking soda and put the fire out. Always keep baking soda in the kitchen, everyone.
4. Perfect Timing
My aunt once told me a story about my dad, who really doesn’t get along with his sister and is unpleasant most of the time, calling her out of nowhere one night while she was in college. She answered, and he said he didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt like he needed to call and make sure she was okay. She told him she was fine and thanked him for checking in.
What he didn’t know was what she had been keeping to herself.
She never told anyone else besides me, and hopefully a therapist or two, but she was holding a bottle of pills and planning to take all of them right when he called. More than twenty years later, she’s very grateful she chose to keep living.
5. Intrusive Company
My mom had a really frightening experience in the early ’90s. She and her best friend had gone out drinking one night. While they were at the bar, two strangers kept trying to flirt with them, but they mostly just seemed unsettling. The men wouldn’t leave them alone, so they decided to go back to the friend’s place in a trailer park, and my mom stayed over.
A while after they got back, they heard a quiet sound at the door. What happened next still feels terrifying. They looked out the window and saw the same two men from the bar at the front door, quietly trying to break into the trailer—but it got even worse.
My mom’s friend picked up the phone to call 911, and the line was dead.
If I remember right, they grabbed large kitchen knives, pounded on the window, showed the men they were armed, and made it clear they would defend themselves if the men came in. The men ran off, and neither my mom nor her friend slept that night. The next day, they found out the phone wasn’t working because the men had cut the trailer’s phone line before trying to break in.
6. Identification
When I was 20, I worked at a gas station. The law had just changed so that if a customer looked 40 or younger, we had to check their ID if they were buying cigarettes. I was working alone when a woman came in and asked for a pack of Camels. She looked about 45 to me, so I didn’t ask at first. Still, through the whole transaction, I had this strong feeling that it would be a really good idea to check.
So before I took her money, I gave a nervous little laugh and said, “Do you mind if I see your ID really quick? I’m really sorry—you’re obviously old enough, but they recently changed the law about who we have to card.” She looked at me and said, “I’m so glad you asked!” Then she showed me her work ID. She was an inspector. If I hadn’t asked, I could have been detained and fined.
That was the day I learned to trust my gut. Also, I learned I’m terrible at guessing people’s ages. She was 35.
7. A Certain Smell
When I was 15, I smelled burning plastic early one morning at my family’s cottage. I almost rolled over and went back to sleep, but in the end I decided to get up and check it out. Thank goodness I listened to that feeling. A socket on the outside of the building had caught fire, and flames were climbing up the wall. The rest of my family was still asleep, and there wasn’t enough smoke for the alarms to go off.
I ran to get the fire extinguisher, woke my dad, put it in his hands, and pointed him toward the fire. He put it out and called the fire department.
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8. The Creepy Coworker
Years ago, my partner at the time had a coworker who kept inviting us out for drinks. I had never met him, and I couldn’t figure out why he seemed so determined to meet me, especially since I wasn’t even old enough to drink. Eventually he told my ex that we should come over to his place for drinks so I could join in. Around that time, I remember looking through his Facebook and seeing this sketchy-looking guy posing in front of his Honda.
Something about the whole thing made me uneasy. I kept wondering why this guy in his 20s was going so far out of his way to hang out with a 17-year-old girl he knew was already in a relationship. A couple of years later, I found out the awful reason. He was detained on multiple assault charges. They seized several devices that showed he had been abusing children and animals since he was at least 13. And to top it off, he was the son of a well-known local police officer.
9. Canine Interception
In our mid-20s, my husband and I lived in a townhome with no yard in a pretty nice part of town. We knew we’d be buying a house soon, so we decided to get our first puppy. I’m an early riser, but my husband definitely isn’t, so I usually got up around 5 a.m. and took the puppy out to the little patch of grass across the street from our townhome, still inside the complex. I did that for several months without any problems.
Then one morning, while I was outside waiting on the puppy, an old Ford van—beaten up and with no windows—slowly drove by and disappeared behind another building. A few minutes later, just as I was getting ready to cross the street and head back inside, the van came back up the road, stopped right where I was about to cross, and turned off its lights. I waved for them to go ahead of me, and that’s when both doors of the van started to open.
All I remember is seeing someone start to get out, and both the dog and I instantly felt the need to run across the street and get inside as fast as we could. Once we were in, the van sped off and vanished. But it gets even stranger. I went upstairs to wake my husband, only to find out he’d been having a dream that I had been kidnapped. To this day, I won’t go running or walking alone, even on our quiet country roads. And big old vans still make me nervous.
10. Surprise!
One night I stayed up late playing video games and left an unfinished can of soda sitting out. The next morning, I picked it up, held it about an inch from my mouth, and was just about to take a drink. Then I thought, “Wait a second, I don’t even want warm soda,” so I walked over to the sink to pour out what was left.
As I poured it out, a huge cockroach crawled out through the opening in the top of the can. I immediately congratulated myself for that decision.
11. Trip to the Store
When I was around 3 or 4, my parents were building a large house, and the main contractor was always unusually friendly with me. My parents were fairly hands-off, so somehow I ended up alone with him in the unfinished house. I only vaguely remember him, and I still don’t know how long we were alone together. My family would never tell me.
Years later, I found out what really happened. My mom caught him as he was putting me into his truck and pulled me away while yelling at him. He kept insisting he “just wanted to take your daughter to the store for candy.” They never reported him, and I still don’t understand why.
12. Until the Bell
I usually work on my own and often finish 30 to 60 minutes before the end of the day. One day I finished especially early and had plenty to do after work. I was just about to leave when I got a strange feeling, so I stayed. Sure enough, about 10 minutes before I was scheduled to leave, my boss’s boss walked into my otherwise ignored office.
For context, I’m salaried and usually get in early. My direct boss wouldn’t have cared as long as my work was genuinely done. His boss, though, probably would have fired me immediately.
13. Creeper Gauge
I was driving home from my mom’s and stopped at a light next to a gas station when the person in the car beside me said there was something wrong with my tire. I pulled into the gas station, but when I noticed the person follow me in, I got a bad feeling and decided not to get out. Instead, I called my mom on my cell phone, and when the guy pulled up next to me, I just gave him a thumbs-up through the windshield.
Then I drove back to my mom’s house, which I had just left and was only a few minutes away. Once I got there, we checked my tires, and they were completely fine.
14. The Car Thief
When my husband and I were in college, we came home late one night after a long day and had to be up early the next morning. We were both exhausted, and he wanted to leave his backpack and computer in the car since we’d be getting back in it just a few hours later. My gut reaction said absolutely not, so I made him bring both inside.
When we went back out the next morning, his car had been broken into.
15. The Sleeping Bag
I was driving halfway across the country to Austin, Texas, to visit a friend for a week. Before I left, I tossed a sleeping bag into my car just in case. The trip went smoothly, and I didn’t need it until I was driving back home. Then an ice storm moved in, and I ended up having to sleep in my car in a hotel parking lot. Every hotel was full, the roads were getting worse, and I was so tired I probably would have crashed if I kept driving.
It was below 30 degrees outside, and the heat in my car wasn’t working. I put on every piece of clothing I had and slept in that sleeping bag. Without it, I probably would have frozen. It wasn’t comfortable, but I made it through the night. Several people were killed or seriously injured in crashes that same night.
16. The Joker
Whenever I drive to my wife’s grandma’s house, I always play this little joke on my wife and pretend I can’t remember which street to turn on. I’ll either turn one street too soon or “accidentally” pass it and have to loop back around. A few years ago, we had moved across the country and were driving back home to visit family for Christmas.
Grandma said we could stay with her, so when we got into town late that night, I pulled my usual joke and acted like I forgot the street, turning a block early. That’s when I noticed a car had turned with me, and for just a second I thought, “That’s odd. I should watch them.”
So I made another turn—kind of an awkward one since I was basically circling back because of my joke—and the other car made the same turn too. That definitely got my attention. I ended up making a full loop, and the other car followed us the whole way—right up until I completed the circle. Then they turned off and sped away into the night. There was no doubt about it: they had been following us, and they left as soon as they realized I noticed.
I told my wife what had happened, and the next morning she found a news article about another family nearby who had been carjacked that same night. Someone had followed them home, pulled up behind them in their driveway, and pointed a gun at them. If I hadn’t been teasing my wife and made that split-second choice to pay attention to the car behind me, that could have been us.
17. Double Down
I kept the receipt for a campus parking ticket I paid during my freshman year of college. At that school, if you don’t pay within a month, they double the fine. I paid it the same week I got it, tossed the receipt into my bag, and forgot about it. Apparently the person responsible for clearing it didn’t, because about three months later, when I tried to settle my tuition for the semester, I was told I had an unpaid parking ticket on my account—and now it had doubled.
I disputed it and probably looked pretty pleased with myself when I reached straight into my bag and pulled out the receipt. Otherwise, I would have had to pay that ticket all over again on top of the increase. Something tells me I wasn’t the first student that had happened to.
18. Homeland Insecurity
When I was 15, I was home alone a lot because both of my parents worked full time and my brother had already left for college. One summer day, I was just relaxing at home when someone suddenly knocked on the front door. I got up, looked through the peephole, and saw two guys standing in the driveway just off the porch.
One of them was wearing a suit, and the other had on sweatpants and a hoodie, facing away from the house like he was keeping watch. I decided to ignore them, figuring they’d leave eventually. I was wrong. They kept knocking, and it got louder and more aggressive every time.
Finally, I called the sheriff’s department and asked for a non-emergency check because they were trespassing. Then, in a very bad moment of judgment, I yelled through the door that I had called. Before I could even process how unwise that was, one of the guys started kicking the front door. I panicked and ran farther into the house. That’s when I realized something even worse: there was a third guy at the back door trying to kick that one in too.
At that point, I called 9-1-1 and started yelling that three men were trying to break into my house. The sheriff’s deputies came and handled it. I’m so glad I trusted my instincts.
19. Skateboarder’s Nightmare
In 2006, I had pain in my leg that lasted for about four months. I kept refusing to get it checked because I was afraid a doctor would tell me to stop skateboarding for a while. I was 15. One day I had a math test I hadn’t studied for, and I used that as my excuse to leave school and go get my leg looked at instead. If I hadn’t done that, I honestly don’t know what would have happened.
That day, I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, which is bone cancer. Eleven years later, I’m still fighting it, but not a day goes by that I don’t think about how lucky I was to go to the hospital when I did. If my leg had broken—my femur was getting weaker by the day—the tumor could have ruptured and spread to my lungs, and there’s no chance I’d be here typing this now.
20. Adult Supervision
Back in high school, my mom, dad, younger brother, and I were grocery shopping at Walmart. A teenage girl who looked about my age came up to us and awkwardly said she thought some suspicious men had been following her around the store. I guess my family seemed approachable, because she asked my dad if he would be willing to walk her to her car.
She looked embarrassed and kept saying she was probably overreacting, but my dad immediately told her that if I ever thought someone was following me, he would never want me walking out alone. My mom, brother, and I stayed with the cart while my dad went with the girl into the parking lot. A few minutes later, they both came back inside, and we could tell something had happened.
It turned out there was an old van parked and idling right next to her car. As soon as the driver and passenger saw that the girl was with my dad, the van sped off. The authorities were called, the girl’s parents came, and my dad and the girl gave statements to the officer. The officer praised her for trusting her instincts and asking my dad to walk her out, because based on what they saw, the story could have ended in a much more frightening way.
21. Always Be Prepared
I went hiking in the middle of the day with a friend and his girlfriend, and I brought flashlights for all of us. The hike ended up taking way longer than we expected, and near the end my friend’s girlfriend sprained her foot. It took us almost three times as long to get back, and by then it was dark and the trail was pretty rocky. Those flashlights absolutely came through for us. I can’t even imagine how long it would have taken if we’d had to feel our way back in the dark.
22. Clairvoyant Boss
It was a normal day at work, the dinner rush was about to start, and I was exhausted. Like usual, I was planning to run to the dollar store for some Red Bull. I asked my manager if he wanted to split the deal since they were 2 for $5. He said no, but right as I got to the door, he told me to wait. I asked what was going on, and he just said I should go later.
He didn’t explain why, and since we usually joked around a lot, I told him to get out of here and started pushing the door open. The moment I did, I heard a sound I can only describe as something shattering. I didn’t know exactly what had happened, just that something had crashed badly. It turned out an SUV had driven straight into the dollar store’s front entrance and smashed into the Red Bull fridge. My manager had irritated me plenty of times before, but I’ll never forget the day he probably saved my life.
23. Yank Rescue
I was leaving a grocery store when I saw a kid about to step into the road. Something just told me to pull him back onto the sidewalk, so I did. Less than a second later, a truck sped past. He couldn’t have been more than 7 years old.
24. Sweeney Todd Lives!
I was on my way to the barbershop, and for some reason, everything felt off. I tried to ignore it, but with every step, that feeling got stronger, like something wasn’t right. So I changed my mind, went to get some food instead, and planned to come back later. While I was eating, I saw police cars and ambulances heading toward the area where I had just been. It turned out there had been a horrible killing there. Ever since then, I’ve trusted my gut.
25. The Flirt
About 10 years ago, when I was married, my wife’s best friend kept flirting with me. I had a really bad feeling about her. One time, when she was being especially pushy, I recorded it on my phone. A few months later, she accused me of saying to her the exact things she had said to me. My wife listened to the recording once, and that completely cleared me and shut the whole thing down. She had been trying to damage my marriage because her own was falling apart.
26. The Meds
I was in college and going through a rough time. About a week earlier, I’d started a new antidepressant, and I was also taking sleep aids because otherwise I just wasn’t sleeping at all.
One night, I was lying in my dorm room after taking the sleep aid when I noticed these weird-shaped spots on my arm... then on my legs... then on my stomach.
“What is happening? Why do I look like a leopard?” my half-asleep brain thought.
I wanted to just roll over and go to sleep, but for some reason the spots really bothered me. So, just to be safe, I got out of bed and went to talk to the RA. I barely remember that part. She took me to the hospital, and thankfully she did. It turned out I was extremely allergic to one of the ingredients in the new medication.
It had taken a few days to build up in my system. By the time we got to the hospital, my throat was closing and I could barely breathe, but because of the sleep aid, it didn’t seem that serious to me. I remember about five doctors and nurses around me. They had oxygen on my face and were rubbing my chest to help me breathe. I got something like seven shots in my hip.
Eventually they let me rest. When I woke up, they made it very clear that if I had stayed in my dorm and gone to sleep, I would not have woken up.
27. Creepy Dad
When I was 10, I went to the beach with my older sister, her friends, and their parents. They had one of those vans that was open in the back with no seats. The other kids were taking turns sitting on the dad’s lap while he let them steer. Then he asked me if I wanted a turn, and every instinct in me said no. Something about him felt deeply wrong. The look in his eyes gave me chills.
Once we got to the beach, I forgot about it and just focused on having fun.
A few months later, my sister’s friends invited her to a sleepover. She refused, and my mom and I couldn’t understand why. We kept encouraging her to go. Then she finally broke down crying and told us that their father had touched her one night.
Right away, the van incident and that awful feeling came back to me. I still wish I had told my mom and sister about my gut reaction before anything happened. Sometimes I still feel guilty about it, even though it was more than 30 years ago.
I don’t remember what happened to the man. I just remember seeing a state vehicle at our house a lot afterward. No one ever talked about it again, and I never asked.
28. Dream Job
I was offered my dream job, with almost double my current salary, in another city. It was only two hours away, but something in me said not to take it.
A lot of people told me I was making a huge mistake, that I’d never get another chance like that, and that I was just scared to leave my hometown.
Two months after I turned it down, that division of the company was sold, and everyone in that department lost their job. If I’d taken it, I would have ended up in a new city with no friends or family nearby and no job.
29. Bear Bag
I was hiking and camping alone. It had been a long day, and I really didn’t feel like dealing with a bear bag—the bag you hang in a tree away from camp to keep your food safe.
I almost skipped it, but then I thought, “You know what, just to be safe, I should do it.”
In the middle of the night, I woke up to the sound of a black bear walking about 30 feet from my hammock and heading straight for the spot where I’d hung my food.
30. Raised By Wolves? Try Saved By One
I used to visit my aunt in Fort Lauderdale, and she had three adorable rescue dogs that had all come from difficult situations. There was Chico, a hilarious Chihuahua; Patrick, a lab mix who absolutely loved me even though he’d come from a very abusive home; and Zach, my grandpa’s favorite—a huge wolf/husky/shepherd mix who was gentle, protective, and loved digging holes under the house and covering his white fur in dirt.
I loved taking them for walks around the neighborhood, usually one at a time. I was probably about 8 years old.
One day, I was walking Zach. He was down in one of those little roadside ditches Florida uses for rainwater when a white utility truck pulled up. The passenger door flew open, and this creepy man said, “Get in,” as he put the truck in park.
I froze.
In less than a second, Zach—who the man hadn’t even seen—came flying out of the ditch like a missile. The guy hadn’t touched me, but Zach was snarling in a way I had never seen before. The man took off so fast I barely had time to understand what had happened.
I will never forget it. At the time, I don’t think I fully understood how serious it was. But when I got back to my aunt’s house and told everyone, they were clearly panicked.
That good dog saved my life. I’ll always be grateful to Zach, that gentle, protective giant.
31. Spidey-Sense
Four of my students won first prize for a project they worked on, and we all got a free trip to London. We had spent the whole day sightseeing and were worn out, so we grabbed some ice cream and sat on a bench in a park to relax. A few minutes later, I noticed a couple walking past us very slowly, just staring. Instantly, my instincts kicked in. Something about them felt off.
The woman walked by and sat on the bench next to ours, and the man sat on a bench across from her. They weren’t talking, just watching each other. That’s when I saw her reaching into her pockets. I jumped up, grabbed my students, and hurried us out of the park. My students were totally confused and wondering what on earth I was doing when suddenly we heard screaming.
It turned out she had gone after another couple walking through the park and tried to rob them. It still really shakes me to think that if I hadn’t gotten my students out of there, we might have been robbed or hurt.
32. In Case Of Emergency
I once had a guest speaker who was inside the World Trade Center when it was hit in 2001. He said he took the stairs down all 74 floors because he didn’t trust the elevators. He had been in a meeting with 55 other people, and he was one of only four who survived. As he was heading down the hall to get out, he turned back and saw everyone else from the meeting crowding into the elevators.
The only people from that meeting who made it out were the ones who took the stairs.
33. I Couldn’t Capture What Was Wrong
When I first started dating my ex-boyfriend, I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that he was sending intimate photos to someone else. I told myself I was just being insecure. Two years later, I got a call from his ex-girlfriend. She told me that from the very beginning of our relationship, they had been exchanging pictures. She also sent me screenshots showing him sending intimate photos—while we were still together—to several other girls, and even some guys.
I wasn’t angry at her or at the other people he sent them to. I wasn’t even upset that some of them sent things back. But when I confronted him, he lied over and over, trying to convince me to stay. Eventually, he admitted everything, and I promised myself I would never ignore my gut feeling again.
Piqsels
34. A Shady Character
I was president of a club, and there was a guy who had joined recently who immediately made me uneasy, even though he never actually did anything wrong. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. So I asked my best friend, who’s a pretty big guy, to keep an eye on him during a conference we attended. Most of the club went to a party that night, except me. My friend kept watching the guy for most of the evening and ended up stopping him from touching an unconscious girl.
Since then, I’ve learned to trust my instincts almost every time.
35. Dental Defraud
I kept a receipt from my dentist after they charged me and then postponed the procedure I had already paid for. When I asked for a refund, they changed the whole bill and told me I owed them another $300, even though all they had actually done was a cleaning and some x-rays. I sent both versions of the invoice to my dental insurance company and explained what had happened.
Three weeks later, the insurance company sorted it out with the dentist and I got my refund. Even after trying to cheat me, they still call me regularly asking me to come back. More recently, they changed their name and moved a block down the street, probably to distance themselves from all the negative Yelp reviews. They’re dishonest, plain and simple. I’m so glad I saved that receipt, or I would have ended up as just another one of their many victims.
36. Tough Cook
Last year, on December 1, I had been sleeping for almost a week, trying to fight off what I thought was the flu. When I woke up, I had this strong feeling that something was seriously wrong. I called my parents to tell them, then took a cab to the emergency room. The staff drew blood and ran tests for 8 hours, then discharged me and sent me home.
The next morning, I got a call asking me to come back because they found something in my blood: bacteremia and endocarditis. They started me on penicillin right away, and I stayed on it for two months. But I still felt like something wasn’t right. I went in for a specialized test on December 21, and when I woke up, the doctors told me I needed surgery as soon as possible. They were trying to find a surgical team, and the earliest opening was the 24th.
I went in, and during the operation they discovered I had an ascending aortic aneurysm that had caused an aortic dissection. They were able to repair it. I have a synthetic valve now. But that’s not even the scariest part: I work in a restaurant kitchen, right before the holiday season starts. Usually, cooks just push through and keep working. Most figure they’ll feel better soon.
I was told that if I had done that, I probably wouldn’t have made it to my birthday, and they would have only discovered the aneurysm during an autopsy. That still sends chills down my spine.
37. Defying Evil
I worked overnight for 9-1-1 in downtown Houston. One night, during a break, I went out to sit in my car. While I was there, a homeless man came up and knocked on my window, which wasn’t unusual. He motioned with his fingers for me to roll it down. I can’t explain what came over me, but all at once the hair on my arms stood up and I was hit with the strangest feeling.
It felt like pure fight-or-flight. I didn’t know where it came from, and it didn’t even sound like my normal voice, but I yelled, “No!” while pointing at him. I sat there shaking, but his face stayed burned into my memory. A few days later, on my day off, I was watching the news, and that same homeless man had been detained that morning as the suspect in a horrific case police had been searching on.
There had been a series of strangulations of mostly homeless women downtown. I couldn’t believe it when his mugshot appeared on my TV. I just went cold. I’m so thankful for what I can only describe as intuition, or maybe a guardian angel, warning me that I was in danger.
38. The Station Wagon
I was 15, and my mom dropped me off at McDonald’s to get breakfast while she went across the street to Starbucks. We were at a shopping center in the suburbs, on our way to pick up a new kitten a few hours away. Instead of walking the short distance over to my mom, I sat outside waiting for her to come get me. Teenager logic, I guess.
While I was standing there, a guy in an old station wagon with two kids in the back started talking to me. He asked where I was headed, and I told him the town. He said he was going there too with his kids and asked if I wanted to come along. I told him no, that my mom was across the street, and then he moved closer. My gut was telling me something was wrong. I saw a random woman walk out of Starbucks, pointed to her, and said, “That’s my mom right there.” He panicked and drove off really fast. I still remember those two kids in the backseat. They seemed so off. I still wonder if they were okay.
39. Wear Your Seatbelt
My friends and I used to give another friend a hard time because he never wore his seatbelt while driving. One night, he and another friend drove me home. It was late, and we were all tired, and when they dropped me off I told him, “Put your seatbelt on, you idiot.” The next day, around lunchtime, I got a call that made my blood run cold.
My two friends had been in a car accident. The idiot had fallen asleep while driving my other friend’s car. They hit a parked car, which slammed into the car in front of it and pushed them into a wall. The parked car acted like a ramp, and their car flipped over, sliding about 20 meters upside down. For some reason, he had his seatbelt on for the first time ever, and he wasn’t hurt.
Both of them climbed out of the car without a scratch. If I remember right, my friend in the passenger seat only broke a finger. He definitely learned his lesson—now he always wears his seatbelt, even when he’s in the passenger seat.
40. Final Destination
I was driving back to college on the highway when I saw a flatbed semi coming the other way. It looked like it was carrying railroad ties—basically huge square logs. I remember thinking, “Wow, it would be really bad if one of those fell off.” I kept my eyes on the truck, and you can probably guess what happened next: one of them came loose and started tumbling straight down the middle of my lane.
I’m convinced I wouldn’t have reacted fast enough if I hadn’t just thought about that exact possibility.
41. Bloody Trail
My boyfriend and I got back around 2 a.m. after a night out. We’d both been drinking and were making our way down the hall to the elevator when we noticed drops of something on the floor. The second I realized what it was, I felt my whole body go cold. It was blood—fresh, wet blood. The elevator button and doors were smeared with bloody handprints too.
My boyfriend called the elevator and gently moved me behind him, not knowing what might be inside. Thankfully, there was no one there, just a puddle of blood. The elevator had come down from the fifth floor, so we decided to follow the trail. It led to an apartment door covered with large bloody hand smears. It took everything we had to knock, but I’m so grateful we did.
An elderly man opened the door, and he looked like something out of a horror film, covered in blood from head to toe. His gray sweater was soaked red. His hair was wet. Blood had filled his shoes. We sobered up instantly. I called an ambulance, and it arrived within two minutes. My boyfriend went inside to help the man sit down. There was so much blood—I had never seen anything like it.
We didn’t find out what had happened until we properly met him later. He recognized my boyfriend’s glasses. He had been tipsy, tried to ride his bike home, crashed, and ended up with a serious cut on his head. He also takes heart medication that thins his blood, which is why he lost so much. If we hadn’t rung his doorbell, he likely wouldn’t have survived. He later gave us money and a very expensive bottle of champagne to thank us for checking on him and helping save his life.
42. Photo Evidence
When I was 12, my family and I went to Sam’s Club. Being a stubborn kid, I decided I didn’t want to walk around with them, so I wandered off to look at clothes and books. One employee kept watching me very closely, just staring. I assumed he thought I might steal something, so I smiled at him to show I wasn’t doing anything wrong. He smiled back.
But he kept paying attention to me and eventually asked how old I was. We started talking about my favorite books and video games. I remember feeling uncomfortable, but I couldn’t explain why, because he was being so nice. I even wondered if he was flirting with me, but then told myself that couldn’t be the case because I was a boy. Strange logic, but I was 12.
I honestly thought he was just interested in the games I liked. After a while the conversation died down, and I decided I needed to use the bathroom. I went in, and less than ten seconds later the restroom door opened. The man stood in front of my stall, even though others were empty. I recognized his shoes as the employee’s.
I stood there for a couple of minutes, finished, but confused and starting to get scared. I thought maybe he had followed me because he suspected I was shoplifting. What happened next was disturbing enough that I’ve never forgotten it. He lifted a camera over the stall door and took a picture of me—really quickly, maybe one or two shots—while I just stood there looking up. I still had all my clothes on, so he was simply photographing me in the bathroom.
Then someone else came in, and he immediately went to the sink and started washing his hands as if he had just used the restroom. Then he left. It was incredibly unsettling. I didn’t tell my mom much beyond, “The Sam’s Club guy thinks I’m shoplifting,” and she laughed. It took me years to fully realize what a creep he was.
43. Just In Time
My wife called me while I was at work just to say she had made it home from her night shift and was planning to go to bed. She had worked nights for years and had never called me just to say that before. On top of that, she sounded strangely detached. I asked if she was okay, and she said yes—just very sleepy.
Something about it didn’t feel right, so I told her I was going to leave work and come home. She said I didn’t need to. I said okay... and then left work and hurried home anyway. When I got there, I found a note taped to the garage door. I reached her in time, got her to the ER, and made sure she got the help she needed. That was about five months ago, and she’s doing so much better now.
44. Barking Mad
When I was very obviously pregnant, I made a quick trip to the grocery store one evening. For some reason, I brought my dog with me. She wasn’t large or intimidating—just a sweet, all-black dog with short legs like a corgi. She never growled at anyone. I think I just figured she’d enjoy the car ride, which wasn’t something I usually did on a quick errand.
Anyway, I got my groceries and didn’t notice anything unusual in the store. It was just after dusk when I pushed my cart out to the car. As I walked outside, I noticed a man sitting in the driver’s seat of a car facing mine, one lane over. He looked like he might be waiting for someone, but something about him made me uneasy.
Even now, I can’t tell you exactly what it was. I unlocked the back of my Jeep and started loading in the grocery bags. Then I heard a car door and turned to see that he had gotten out and was asking if I needed help. I said no thank you and kept loading the car, making sure not to turn my back on him.
But he kept walking toward me, saying, “Are you sure? I can help.” I kept saying no, but he kept coming. By that point, I was trying to see if anyone else was around, and even though the lot was full of cars, nobody else was outside. He was almost at the back of my Jeep when my sweet dog, in what felt like an instant, jumped from the front passenger seat, climbed over the back seat, and stood on the rear bumper with her teeth bared, growling at him.
Even though it probably lasted only a split second, it felt like he was deciding whether my short little dog was actually a threat. Then he raised his hands, said, “Never mind,” and walked back to his car. I drove home without any trouble, told my husband what happened, and gave my dog plenty of treats and cuddles.
The logical part of me says maybe it was nothing, but what if my dog hadn’t been there? He had clearly ignored my repeated no-thank-yous. It still unsettles me, even 15 years later.
45. An Electric Feeling
When my science teacher was a teenager, she and her friend were standing near the lights at a pedestrian crossing. Everything was calm, but out of nowhere she had a strong gut feeling that they both needed to move. They stepped just a couple of meters away, and in the next moment one car hit another, which then crashed into a utility pole. The pole fell and exploded exactly where they had been standing only seconds earlier.
That instinct to move saved both of their lives.
46. There's A Bad Co-Worker Then There's This
A delivery driver I used to work with once pointed a gun at my head while I was bending down to grab something from a cooler. I had made a joke about him, and when I stood back up, I felt the gun against my temple. He started laughing, and I awkwardly laughed too, quickly got him his order, and waited for him to leave. After that, I went home, called my boss, and refused to come back until he was fired.
A few years later, he was involved in a terrible crime in which he killed his ex-wife and then himself.
47. A Fuzzy Black Sock
One night, I was about to put a new load of laundry into the washing machine in the dark when I noticed what looked like a big sock still sitting inside. I reached my hand halfway in, then suddenly pulled it back. I remember thinking, “That’s weird, I don’t usually leave things in the washer.”
I’m so glad I stopped. I turned on the light, and there was a bat sitting in there.
I never touched it. I just got it into some Tupperware, carried it outside, and left the container open with a bag of Doritos nearby. By morning, it was gone.
48. Bad Feeling
I used to work with a guy who loved to party. He seemed pretty fun at work, so when he mentioned that a band I liked was playing at a small country bar outside of town, I agreed to go with him. We had a great time, and I ended up really drunk. He kept bringing me drinks all night, which at the time felt exciting since I was only 19.
When we got back into town, he parked behind a bar that was known for checking IDs closely. He said he’d be right back. By then, I felt awful, but not just regular drunk-awful. It felt different. I got out of the car and somehow made my way to my usual bar across the street. One of the regulars saw me and later told me I clearly didn’t look right.
He got my friend’s number from the phone book and called him to come get me. The last thing I remember is the guy I came with showing up and trying to take me home, but the man helping me refused to let him. He left pretty quickly after that. I don’t remember anything else until I woke up the next day on my friend’s couch, feeling like I’d been run over.
I’m pretty sure the first guy had slipped something into my drink, and my instincts kicked in before he could do anything else. After that, I avoided him at work completely. On the bright side, the man who helped me at the bar ended up becoming one of my closest friends.
49. Sixth Sense
My boyfriend and I were visiting friends in Phoenix for a week. The women were relaxing by the pool while the men were outside grilling. At one point, my boyfriend suddenly went still, then told me to get dressed because we needed to leave immediately. I wanted to complain, but something told me not to.
We drove straight through to San Antonio, all the way to his parents’ very rural house. This was before cell phones, and they didn’t even have a landline nearby. Just seconds before we arrived, his little sister had jumped off a rain barrel and landed on a metal spike that went through her foot and up into her leg. His dad was at work, so there was no car there. She was bleeding badly, and his mother had only just found her.
I still don’t know what made him react like that back in Phoenix, but things could have turned out much worse if we hadn’t shown up exactly when we did.
50. For Good Measure
When I was 10, I was taking violin lessons from an instructor at my local music shop. Something about him gave me a horrible feeling, even though he never did anything obviously wrong. Every time I looked at him, especially at his hands, I felt sick to my stomach. After four lessons, I told my parents I had a terrible feeling about him and never wanted to go back.
Thankfully, they listened and never made me see him again. A few years later, we found out the awful truth. I had every reason to be scared. He was arrested for assaulting several students. I still have no idea how I knew something was wrong. He never said or did anything to me, but I could feel it.
51. The Spare
I was getting ready for a road trip, and we packed everything into the trunk. Then it hit me that I hadn’t checked the air in the spare tire. I really didn’t want to unpack and repack everything, so I thought, “What are the chances? We’ve had this car for years, never had a flat, and probably won’t get one now.” But then I changed my mind and thought, “Forget it,” and tossed in the floor pump I use for my bike, just in case.
Sure enough, I got a flat in the middle of nowhere. The spare didn’t have enough air to drive on, and that floor pump saved me. Now it goes on every trip.
52. The Phone A Friend Lifeline
When I was 13, I had just gotten off the school bus and still had a bit of a walk home. As I got near the corner of my street, a man in a dark blue car pulled up and asked where I was going. I said I was heading home. Then he slowed his car way down to match my walking pace and asked if I wanted a ride. I said no thanks, I was almost home.
But he kept asking where I lived and whether I wanted a ride. Luckily, I had a phone, so I pulled out my Nokia and pretended to call my mom, even though she probably wouldn’t have answered and I was nearly home anyway. The guy saw what I was doing and sped off immediately. After that, I started carrying pepper spray.
53. The Email
I was offered a job in Europe, with a promised bonus worth X% of my salary, paid twice a year. But when the official offer came through, there was no mention of the bonus. When I asked about it, I was told, “Don’t worry, it’s in this email with my official company signature.” I saved that email, just to be safe.
After I moved, the first time bonuses were due, I was told I had to be with the company for 90 days before I could get one. I was annoyed, but it seemed reasonable enough. Then at the second bonus period, they said the company hadn’t had a good year and no one would be getting bonuses. That was even more frustrating, but if the company was struggling, there wasn’t much I could do. This was in 2008, by the way.
The next year, the company announced things had improved and they would be paying the previous bonus period as well as the current one. The problem was, I had literally handed in my resignation that same day. When I asked whether I’d still get the bonus from the earlier period, they said, “Are you serious? You just quit.”
So I called a lawyer. I found the email from the beginning of the story, gave it to her, and she said it was an easy case. She went after both bonus payments from the first year and both from the current year, even though one of them hadn’t even happened yet. Company headquarters called me to try to get me to back off, and I told them to speak to my lawyer.
A week later, at my new job, the lawyer let me know they had paid all four bonus payments. She also got them to cover her legal fees, so it cost me nothing. I’m very glad I saved that email. Protect yourself, and don’t let people push you around.
54. Baring It All
A few years ago, I went for an easy jog in my quiet suburban neighborhood around dusk. At one point, I made eye contact with a man about 25 feet off the trail who wasn’t wearing any clothes. Then he started running toward me. My immediate response was to run straight into the middle of a busy road, wave down a car, jump in, and beg a complete stranger to drive me home.
I called 9-1-1, and later found out the man had been caught asking a 13-year-old girl if he could get her pregnant.
55. Head Bump
The next day, I got a call that completely shocked me. The doctor said I needed an MRI because they had found a tumor in my brain. If they hadn’t caught it then, I would have lost my vision, and by that point it would have been too late to do much about it.
56. Lead Away
When I was about three years old, I was outside playing in our front yard with my older brother. My mom came out to check on us, and I was gone. She asked my brother where I was, and he said I had gone to the library, which was only a block away. So my mom walked to the side of the house and saw a couple walking off while holding my hands. They were heading in the opposite direction from the library. She panicked.
My mom ran up, punched the man in the face, and started yelling at them. They took off running.
57. Near Miss
I worked for a rent-to-own furniture store between my junior and senior year of college. I’m 6'3" and 280 pounds, so I was well suited for lifting. The other delivery guy had previously worked as a prison guard, so he was pretty solidly built too. About 95% of the job was delivering furniture. But since rent-to-own depends on people making payments, you also deal with customers who fall behind.
If they got too far behind, we had to go pick the furniture back up. Most people were actually relieved, because it meant the manager would stop calling them. Others preferred to disappear. We tracked people across town, to other towns, and even one person who had moved across the country. I still have no idea how the manager and corporate office managed that.
One day, after finishing a delivery, we were told to check on an address. Supposedly a woman and her boyfriend were eight months behind and kept moving to avoid us. The place was out in the country, but that wasn’t unusual where we lived. We found it at the end of a half-mile driveway leading to a trailer.
There was a truck in the yard with the doors open, the hood up, and the lights on, like someone had been working on it very recently. We also noticed the front door of the trailer was standing wide open, which seemed strange in 95-degree heat. But there was absolutely no one around. Then, on the picnic table just outside the door, we spotted a fairly new box of shotgun shells. It was open, and a few were missing.
We had pulled up and gotten out of the truck, but neither of us said a word. We just looked at each other, got back in, and drove straight to the store. We both had that strong feeling that something was very wrong. A couple of months later, after I had quit and gone back to college, I saw that the woman and her boyfriend had been arrested for their role in illegal activity. Were they dangerous enough to shoot at us? Maybe.
58. A Friend Indeed
Last New Year’s, I went out with my best friend and was having drinks with her friends when I realized I was out of cigarettes. I stepped out to buy a pack and ended up talking to a homeless man for a while. When I came back near the entrance of the bar, my friend was outside, said something rude to me for no clear reason, and walked off. I was confused, so I figured I should take a short walk, let her cool down, and then try to find out what was wrong.
I was about to head down the street, but something told me to turn left instead. I walked behind the bar and then around the side, where I saw a girl lying on the sidewalk while people just passed by. As I got closer to help, I realized it was my friend, and she was unconscious. She was probably drugged while I was out buying cigarettes, and I don’t know what might have happened if I hadn’t decided to go that way.
59. Crummy Co-worker
I was with a coworker who had lied to me about inviting me to a family party. When I got there, it was just the two of us, and we ended up going to a bar. I rolled my eyes and figured I could just get through it. He knew the owner and got me drinks, even though I was only 20 at the time and he was at least ten years older. I started secretly pouring the drinks out whenever he was distracted at the pool table because I didn’t want to be tipsy while dealing with him. Looking back, that choice probably saved me from something awful.
I told him I wanted to go home, but he talked me into driving him home first. I followed the directions he gave me and ended up pulling into the parking lot of a hookah bar instead. Then he started getting aggressive and trying to kiss me. I kept pushing him away. I was still trying to stay polite but firm, telling him to stop. That’s when I noticed a group of men gathering around my car, talking to my coworker in another language. He opened my car door, got out, and then grabbed me by the hair, trying to pull me out while the others stood nearby.
Luckily, I had locked my door as soon as I noticed the other men. I had also already put the car in reverse. So when he grabbed my hair, I took my foot off the brake and the car started rolling backward, which made him let go. It was terrifying. I told our boss the next day, and my coworker quit when the boss confronted him.
60. The Rollercoaster
I’m scared of roller coasters, mostly because of heights, and the two usually go together. My friends and I went to a theme park and rode a roller coaster that was in the dark and went underground. I went on it once, sitting in the back, and surprisingly really liked it. When we got back to the station, there was no line because it was the end of the day, so they asked if we wanted one last ride before closing.
Something in my gut told me not to go again, so even though my friends kept pushing me, I stayed behind with the bags. When they got off the ride, they looked completely shaken. About three-quarters of the way through, there’s a big drop and then the ride speeds up. Right before that happened, the safety bar on my friend’s seat in the back had come up. Apparently, the others had to hold onto her and try to force the bar back down for the rest of the ride.
61. Illuminating
When I was 10, something really unsettling happened at my house. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling really thirsty. It was around 1 a.m., and the whole house was dark. I got out of bed and went downstairs for a drink. By chance, my mom had just gotten up to do the same thing, so we both headed to the kitchen for some water.
As soon as we got there, a car suddenly pulled into our driveway and a man got out. My mom and I stood in the kitchen watching him as he started walking quickly and purposefully toward our door. He was a large, heavyset man wearing a hoodie and black gloves. Just before he reached the door, my mom turned on the light. Since the house had been completely dark, he hadn’t seen us, but we could see him clearly.
The second the light came on, he froze, looked straight at us, then ran back to his car and sped out of the driveway as fast as he could. We never saw him again. I still don’t know if he was trying to break in or what he planned to do, but I had nightmares about it for weeks. I was terrified.
62. Hide and Squat
I was at my uncle’s house in the countryside with my sister, and we were playing hide-and-seek. My uncle had gone out to buy food for us. I was hiding downstairs in this strange closet-attic space I had found. After a while, I heard a faint banging sound and got a little nervous. Then I convinced myself it was probably just a rat or something and stayed where I was.
A little later, I heard someone snore, then groan. I immediately got out and ran to my sister. We both sat by the door crying until my uncle came home. He laughed it off, and we felt better at the time, but looking back, we had every reason to be scared. Ten years later, when my uncle tried to sell the house, a dead old man was found there. Not long after, we learned the truth.
He had been secretly living there for almost a decade, and in a notebook he had written about plans to kill my uncle and take the house for himself. I honestly think that might have happened if he hadn’t died first.
63. A Drink at the Club
I usually go to the club with my husband. One night he was out of town, but some friends said they’d be there, so I went anyway. The club itself had always felt safe, but the area around it had its rough moments. There were a lot of bars and clubs packed into one small area, so there were always intoxicated people and sketchy strangers around. I parked on the street about two blocks away.
My block was dark, but the next one was brightly lit because of a large hotel. So it was basically a straight walk from my car to the club, except for one darker stretch. The moment I walked into the club, I felt like something was wrong, though I couldn’t explain why. First, none of my friends showed up, so I was alone. Then the whole atmosphere felt off. One man kept trying to buy me a drink, and I kept saying no.
He was so persistent that I finally said I’d take a water, since it would come in a sealed bottle. But when he came back, he handed me a drink in the kind of glass mixed drinks usually come in. The second he gave it to me, he disappeared and I never saw him again that night. The “water” went straight down the bathroom sink. Every instinct in me was telling me to leave, so I did.
I walked out of the club, and the moment I crossed the street, a voice in my head seemed to say, “You made a mistake. Get your keys out and be ready.” By then I was fully panicking. And when I got to my car, I found out my instincts had been right. Just as I opened the driver’s door, another car pulled up and stopped directly behind mine.
I locked my doors and started backing out. In my rearview mirror, I saw part of a man’s body jump out and move toward my passenger side. I was already pulling away, but I could still see his tense arm and clenched fist just outside my passenger window. As I drove down the highway in the most intense silence I’ve ever felt, I kept trying to understand what had just happened.
It took me a while to piece it together, but I think the man in the club may have been drugging drinks, and the person in the car was there to grab women leaving alone. The more I think about it, the more it feels like some kind of trafficking setup. If I had been even two seconds slower, I don’t want to think about how that night might have ended.
64. Jungle Silence
I was in the Amazon at the end of a three-month solo trip through Latin America. Before leaving, I wanted to take one last walk through the jungle, so I left the lodge around 8 a.m. and headed toward a small river nearby. At one point, I stopped and closed my eyes to listen. The jungle was incredibly loud—crickets, birds, insects, all of it. But almost right away, I got a strange feeling and suddenly felt deeply uneasy, which was odd because until then I’d only felt calm and happy.
When I opened my eyes, I realized everything had gone completely silent, which was definitely not normal and not something I had experienced in other rain forests. It was eerie. I immediately felt like I needed to leave, and fast. When I got back to the lodge, I told the tour guide what had happened, and he said the jungle usually only goes quiet when a large predator is nearby. That was more than enough for me.
65. The Negotiator
When my cousin was about 18 or 19, she and her friends went out partying a lot. In my country, you can legally start drinking at 16 or 18, so most teenagers start going to clubs pretty young. Back then, hitchhiking was also still common, and a lot of teenagers used it to get home or into the city since very few had cars.
One night, my cousin and her friend were trying to get home after going out, and a middle-aged man picked them up. At first he seemed friendly enough, and they made small talk as they drove. But then everything changed. Without warning, he turned onto a remote road leading into the woods. He locked the car doors, and his whole demeanor shifted. The friendly act disappeared, and he became tense, silent, and focused.
My cousin’s friend started crying quietly, but my cousin stayed calm and started talking to him. She told him about her family—her parents, her brother, her sister—and then asked if he had a family too. When he said he had a wife and two children, she asked for their names, their ages, what school they went to, and what they liked to do, all while he kept driving deeper into the woods.
Something about that must have reached him, because after a few minutes he suddenly stopped the car and broke down crying. He said things were bad at home, his marriage was falling apart, and he was afraid of losing his kids. My cousin comforted him while he cried and let him talk.
Eventually, he started the car again, turned around, and drove them home, apologizing the whole way. They got out when he reached my cousin’s street, and as he drove off, she saw him place a knife on the passenger seat that he had been hiding beside him the entire time. They never hitchhiked again.
66. Irish Roads
I took my very first solo vacation at 24, to Ireland. When I arrived, I was exhausted from the flight and totally confused by the rental car process since I’d never rented a car before. I accidentally paid way too much for the full-coverage insurance package. Once I got to where I was staying, I called my dad to ask why it had cost so much.
He called the rental company, sorted it out, and told me that the next day I could drive back to the airport and get a refund by switching to a less expensive insurance plan. But at the last minute, I realized I’d never driven in another country—let alone on the opposite side of the road—so I decided to keep the insurance.
About halfway through the trip, I made a really stupid mistake, hit another car, and completely totaled my rental. I didn’t have to pay anything.
Pixabay
67. Wear Your Helmet
When I was 19, I used to ride with a local fixed-gear bike group. I was young, not thinking very clearly, and barely had enough money to get started with the hobby in the first place. My boyfriend at the time—now my husband—bought me a brand-new helmet and lights because it wasn’t something I could afford yet, but I really wanted to ride.
We got into an argument about something I don’t even remember now, but I clearly remember this part. Me yelling, “UGH, I’M GOING FOR A RIDE!” Him yelling back, “FINE! YOU BETTER WEAR YOUR HELMET!” Frustrated, I shouted, “OKAY!” I took my usual route downtown, which meant a few miles on an expressway and through an industrial area.
It was close to sunset, and I was about a mile from where I was headed. A car crossed two solid lines and turned directly into me. I remember holding onto the hood for about 15 to 20 feet before being thrown off, then opening my eyes a few seconds later while lying in the dirt. My vision was blurry, but I saw them stop, back up, and drive away.
Long story short—and after one very expensive ambulance ride—my bike was found another 20 feet from where I landed, my gauge earring had been ripped out, my bike was bent in several places, and my helmet had four big cracks in it. I kept both the helmet and the bike as reminders of how lucky I was. I married my boyfriend a few years later. Best argument I ever lost; it saved my life.
68. Gear Up
I’m a dedicated motorcyclist and a big believer in wearing proper gear. I had a friend who didn’t care much about protective gear and always said it was too hot in the summer to bother with it. After a few years of riding without any, I finally convinced him to at least get gloves and a helmet. I had no idea how important that timing would be.
Less than an hour after he bought the helmet and gloves, someone turned left right in front of him and he went down. He managed to slow down before the crash, but he still flew over the hood of a Camry at around 30 mph and landed hands-first and face-first on the asphalt. He ended up with a bad cut on his leg and some serious road rash on his arms and legs, but his hands and head were completely protected.
The bike was totaled, and insurance paid for it, along with the helmet and gloves. Once he had recovered enough to ride again, he asked me to help him pick out a full riding suit. I wear full leathers and a high-end carbon fiber helmet when I’m touring. For local rides, I use Kevlar-lined riding jeans. I won’t get on a bike with anything less than that.
69. Hey, Deer
I used to drive around country roads whenever I felt stressed or sad, just to get away and listen to music. One evening, my best friend was with me, and we were on a gravel road with a huge hill. We were driving toward the sunset, but it was winter, and it was getting dark quickly. As the car started down the hill, I had this sudden thought: “My high beams should be on.” So I switched them on. That’s when I saw them.
At the bottom of the very steep hill, six deer were standing in the road. I slammed on the brakes, and the car skidded sideways to a stop about four feet from them. Those deer didn’t even flinch—they just stared into the passenger side window while my best friend pointed at them and said, “Hey, deer.” The car was fine, we were fine, and the deer were fine too. I don’t drive around like that anymore.
70. The Hudson River Pilot
I used to work as a banner tow pilot, and I was often assigned to fly banners over the New York City area, especially around the Hudson River. I’d pick them up at an airport in New Jersey and head over from there. Normally, if you have engine trouble, there are at least a few places where you might be able to land—but over the NYC metro area, those options get very limited.
Because of that, I came up with what I called a “trail of breadcrumbs”: a series of specific places where I could try to land if I ever lost the engine. On the one-year anniversary of the Miracle on the Hudson—Captain Sullenberger and all that—I was assigned to fly a banner over a boat on the river carrying some of the crew and passengers from that flight.
On my way there, my engine failed while I was less than 1,000 feet above the ground. I was dropping fast and had to find somewhere to land immediately. Thankfully, the best spot I had picked out ahead of time was just off to my left—a landfill on Staten Island—and I managed to land the plane right on top of it.
71. The Perfect House
We were house hunting a while back and found one in a great location. It would have been the perfect size for us, and it didn’t seem to need much work beyond new carpet, aside from a few updates I wanted to do, like painting and replacing the oil furnace. But I had this nagging feeling about it, and my husband felt the same way.
As much as we loved the house, something just felt off about it. I even had the silly thought that it might be haunted or something. In the end, we decided to pass. I kept wondering if we’d made a mistake until a few months later, when the house had a major electrical fire. The entire house and everything in it was destroyed, and the family living there barely made it out alive.
72. Baby Insurance
My mother’s co-worker once urged her to get the best insurance possible while she was pregnant. The co-worker had children who were deprived of oxygen at birth, and she told my mom that once the kids reached five years old and seemed healthy, she could always lower the coverage then. It wasn’t easy, since both of my parents were in college, working, and raising my brother, so they were trying to save money wherever they could.
As it turned out, I was born with a birth defect that required a transplant before I turned five. Before the doctor even explained to my mom what was wrong, after I’d been rushed away by ambulance, they asked if she had insurance. She was able to say yes, the very best plan. Even with the top-level care I received, many children in my situation didn’t survive, so I almost certainly wouldn’t have either without that coverage. I’m turning 30 next year.
Thanks, random woman I’ve never met.
73. The Security Guard
One time I was heading out for drinks in San Francisco with some friends. We liked going to this dive bar in the Tenderloin, which could be a pretty rough area. I had just bought a new car and was nervous about parking it there, but all my friends insisted it would probably be fine. It turns out they were very wrong.
We parked on the street about two blocks from the bar when a homeless man walked up to me and said, “Man, you don’t want to park that new car here. Somebody’s going to smash your windows and steal your stereo. Your sunglasses, too.” On impulse, I said, “Yeah, but we’re running late. Want to keep an eye on it for me?” He paused, then said, “Like a security guard? Yeah, man, I’ll watch your car. You got $10?”
My friends looked confused and started suggesting we just move on, but I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I gave him $10. I told him, “Here’s $10. Keep an eye on it, and if it’s still in good shape when I get back, I’ll give you another $10.” He laughed and said, “$20? All I have to do is sit here?” I told him, “And make sure nobody smashes the window. There’s nothing inside anyway, it’s new.”
He said, “I got you, man. I got you.” So we went inside, had drinks, and enjoyed the night. By the time we left, most of us were pretty drunk except for my friend Mary, who was our designated driver. I handed her my keys and we headed back down the block. As we walked, we started noticing shattered glass by almost every parking space. Someone had gone through the area breaking windows and stealing from cars.
I got that awful sinking feeling in my stomach. I was already bracing myself to pay a few hundred dollars to replace the window in a car I had only owned for a week. But when we got to the spot, my car was completely fine. The homeless man was wrapped in a sleeping bag nearby, and when he saw me he shouted, “Hey! You’re back! You won’t believe what I did for you! Look at this!”
Then he showed me a huge bruise on his face and pulled off his gloves to reveal scraped-up knuckles. I asked what had happened. He said, “Some guy came around smashing windows and taking stuff. He got to your car and I said, ‘Skip that one. That’s my responsibility.’ Then he turned around with this big brick in his hand, and I jumped him from behind. He hit me in the head with the brick, but I got him good. I changed his mind. He was all messed up and ran off down the block.”
My friends and I just stared at him in disbelief. My car was untouched. I reached for another $10, but realized I didn’t have any cash left. I thanked him and told him to wait a second while I got more money. I went into the corner store to use the ATM, and while I was there I noticed they had a bottle of Wild Turkey. So I bought that too. I gave him the $10 and the bottle and thanked him again for watching the car.
You would have thought he had just won the lottery. He started yelling with excitement, then kicked at a pile of blankets beside him and I realized there was a woman sleeping there. He shouted, “Wake up, look what I got!” She rubbed her eyes, looked at us, then at him, then at the bottle.
Without saying a word, she reached for it. He handed it over, still cheering like it was the best day of his life.
74. Doesn’t Hold Water
One night I stopped at a rest stop on Highway 280 toward San Francisco. At the time, I didn’t really realize rest stops could be sketchy, so I had no problem getting out to use the bathroom. When I came back to my car, I was sitting there trying to send a text when a man suddenly appeared outside my window.
I cracked the door slightly, and he said, “Your car is leaking water.” Already annoyed, I just said, “I know,” and shut the door. I wasn’t worried, since I had been running the AC earlier that evening. I went back to texting, and about five minutes later I heard a car door slam. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the same man walking toward my car again.
At that point, I decided I’d had enough. I started the car and began backing out, and that’s when I noticed there wasn’t a single drop of water on the ground under my car. That instantly made me feel even more uneasy. As I drove out of the rest stop, I watched him in the rearview mirror. He just stood there in the middle of the lot, staring as I left.
75. Reaching Out For Help
I was driving through a popular city park with a friend, trying to find a specific trail. We pulled into a parking lot and started turning around when a man standing at the trunk of his car suddenly ran up to the passenger side of mine, waving his arms in a panic. My first thought was that maybe his car had broken down, he needed help, or something was wrong with my car.
I locked the doors and cracked the window just enough to hear him. But as he got closer, I immediately felt uneasy. Something about him just seemed wrong. He smiled and asked if we had ever been to a certain local store. Then he offered us candy and told us to come look at something in the back of his car. I should mention, I was around 21 at the time, not a child.
At that point I was already accelerating to get out of there, and as we pulled away, another man came down the hill holding a huge stick and also tried to flag us down. I sped off and saw the two of them talking as I drove away. On the road out, we passed a woman jogging toward the same area where we had just had that deeply creepy encounter, so I pulled over and told her to turn around.
I still think about that, because I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if I had let her run straight into a potentially dangerous situation. I have no idea what those men intended, whether they wanted to abduct someone, hurt someone, or something else entirely, but I’m very glad we got out of there. I haven’t gone back to that park since.
76. Close Second
I worked with a woman who casually told a story about someone nearly kidnapping her little sister. One day, she went outside to call her sister, who was about six, back into the house and saw her climbing into the open door of a car at the end of the driveway. My coworker screamed, and the car sped off without her sister. Such a terrifying close call.
77. Translation Please
Some people I knew in high school were out bar hopping. They were all underage and heading to a bar about 45 minutes away. Out of nowhere, one of them got a really bad feeling and started to panic. His friends laughed at him and wouldn’t let him out of the car, but it got so intense that they finally dropped him off in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. He used a payphone and called a cab to get home.
The next morning, he found out his friends had been in a car crash, clearly caused by impaired driving. Most of them died, and one survived with a severe brain injury. His life was saved because he listened to that gut feeling. He still struggles with survivor’s guilt sometimes.
78. The Missed Train
A few years ago, I was going to university in Brussels. I always took the train to get there. One morning, I woke up and felt awful. For context, I had already been dealing with a bad Crohn’s flare for weeks. But this felt different. I guess it was my gut instinct. So instead of forcing myself through it like I usually did, I decided to stay home for once.
It was the only day I ever missed university. That was the day the terror attack happened on the train I usually took to school.
79. The Other Side
I got divorced 11 years ago from a very difficult woman when my son was only seven. Once I got my life back on track, I tried to have him visit me as often as possible. Unfortunately, because of work, I had to live in another state. Every time I tried to make plans to fly him out to see me or to visit him myself, she came up with some excuse—a medical issue, a school event, an emergency—anything to keep him from spending time with me.
Sometimes she would even flat-out tell me no. She knew I lived far away and couldn’t just show up, and that gave her control. After the ninth or tenth time, I told myself, “Just in case, I should keep records of all this.” Thank goodness I trusted that instinct. I saved every text message and every email between us.
Over the years, my son started to resent me because he thought I didn’t want to see him. He became more distant, and I couldn’t explain what was really happening. By the time he was 15 or 16, he stopped talking to me altogether because he believed his depression came from me not wanting to be in his life. I couldn’t get through to him, so I sent him an email apologizing and giving him space.
Last year, I finally managed to reconnect with him and convinced him to let me come see him and have him spend the summer with me. I had the legal right to do that, and I told him he needed to tell his mother that he wanted to spend the summer with me. She tried to make excuses again, but he stood firm and told her it was his decision.
She wanted to look like the reasonable one, so she finally agreed. I drove 1,100 miles to pick him up and bring him back to my state. I cleared everything with child services, his mother, his grandparents—everyone was informed and okay with it. The plan was to fly him back two months later, a week before school started again.
During the drive, he told me how angry he was that I hadn’t been part of his life and that he believed I didn’t want to see him. It was a hard conversation, but I let him say everything he needed to say. I wanted to understand exactly where he was emotionally. So that night, when we stopped at a hotel, I took out my laptop and told him I needed to show him something.
I knew it would hurt, but he needed to know how much I had cared and how hard his mother had made it for me to be with him. I showed him every message and email where she lied or made excuses to stop visits. I also showed him the legal documents from when I hired a lawyer and tried to get custody, and how much resistance she created.
I showed him our communication and how cruel she could be to me. But that wasn’t even the worst part. I also showed him tweets from his now-stepdad mocking him and saying he didn’t like him. He saw a side of his family life he had never known existed.
Right away, his attitude toward me changed. We spent the whole summer together and had an incredible time rebuilding our relationship. He saw the stable, responsible life I had built, and the work I put in to support myself. He also started to realize that life in the small town where he lived was limiting, and that some of the people around him weren’t healthy for him.
That entire summer, he had no depressive episodes, and he even chose to stop taking his medication. He began to see that what he had been feeling might have been tied a lot to his environment. As a thank-you for coming to spend the summer with me, I canceled his flight home, gave him my old pickup truck as an early 18th birthday gift, and drove it back with him to his home state at the end of the summer.
He graduates from high school this year and will be moving here for college. Thank goodness I saved all those messages.
80. The Fast Lane
There’s a really fun road in Germany where you can drive about 50 or 60 clicks through smooth, tight curves and rolling hills. I go there often just to relax. That day, a crop—maybe wheat—had grown tall, so I couldn’t see around the bends very well. Still, I knew the road and stayed in my lane. I was driving fast and enjoying myself.
About halfway through, I heard a voice in my head, as clearly as if someone were sitting beside me, saying, “You need to slow down.” It startled me, and I hit the brakes right away. Two seconds later, I came around a turn and found myself facing the back end of a huge truck moving slowly and taking up both lanes. I barely stopped in time. Those extra two seconds probably saved my car, and I’m pretty sure they saved my life too.
81. A Daughter’s Intuition
We had all started walking around the development when, about 50 to 75 meters from the house, my mother said, “I’m going back to check on Dad.” I went with her, and I almost witnessed my grandfather die. He was sitting in his chair, conscious but unable to move or speak, just staring at my mother with wide, bulging eyes. She called 9-1-1 once, then called again when she felt they were taking too long.
The ambulance arrived and got him onto a stretcher, but it was too wide to fit through the door. We ended up tearing off the door frame to get him out. Because he stayed conscious, he actually remembered the ride to the hospital. Later, he told us he heard the driver, or someone else, say, “There’s no chance this guy survives.” I was around six years old at the time. More than a decade later, he’s still alive today.
At my mother’s funeral, part of my grandfather’s speech was about how, without her quick actions, he never would have had those final years with her. For that, he said he would be forever grateful.
82. An Eye for an Eye
At work, when I’m busy, it’s really easy to convince myself to do something quickly without putting on my safety glasses. But there’s always a voice in my head telling me to wear them. I stopped grinding what I was working on, got my glasses, came back, and then a chunk flew up and cracked the right lens.
Instinct: 1, bad luck: 0.
83. Unsung Hero
I went down to the local creek with my friend when we were about 10 years old. Then the local creepy teenager showed up, clearly out of it. Right away, I knew this was bad. He muttered something under his breath, and I gave my friend that look that said, “We need to leave.” I’ll never forget what happened next. He stepped closer to us just as another guy, older and probably twice his size, ran up and pulled him away.
He told us to go home and not come back. Later, the creepy guy was involved in a robbery that turned violent. I still feel so thankful that the other guy was there.
84. Icy Scandinavian Roads
Back in 2011, my dad and I were driving across the country for New Year’s Eve. Suddenly, he went quiet, started breathing slowly and steadily, and told me to look up the road. He was so calm and focused. I looked up and saw a car spinning in the middle of the freeway, picking up speed and knocking cars off the road.
This was in Scandinavia in winter, and the roads were basically ice. I can only imagine that driver just hoping for a miracle. My dad then accelerated toward the spinning car, which at the time didn’t even strike me as strange. He was so calm that I stayed calm too. The car hit us on my dad’s side, but half a second earlier he had turned slightly to the right, just enough for the impact to push us off the road and safely into a snowbank.
Later, I realized that a lamppost on the same side had crushed the back-right side of our car, barely missing the angle that would have hit me. Years afterward, I understood why my dad sped up. Getting hit by that car wasn’t a matter of if, but when. If he hadn’t accelerated, that lamppost would have killed me.
85. An Alarming Thought
When I was 6, my brother, who was 8, and I would go to my grandma’s house while our mom worked late. One day, I randomly started thinking about fire alarms. I have no idea why, but once the thought got into my head, I couldn’t let it go. I have ADHD, and when something grabs my attention, even something as simple as fire alarms, it can take over my whole mind.
I asked my grandma about hers, and she said she hadn’t tested them in a while. Just for fun, she checked them, and sure enough, the batteries were really old. She replaced them and made sure everything worked. The very next morning, her house caught fire while she was asleep. If the alarms hadn’t gone off, she would have been trapped in her second-floor room with no phone and no way to call for help. She most likely would not have survived. Ever since then, I always make sure the smoke alarms in my house are working.
86. Bad Party Vibes
I went to a bar in my hometown with a few friends, and afterward we were all supposed to head to a house party. From the moment I got invited, I was completely up for going. But halfway through the night, I got this strong feeling that I really shouldn’t go. I told my best friend I didn’t think she should go either, but she insisted because there were supposedly some cute guys there. I couldn’t shake the feeling that we needed to stay away, but she convinced me to at least start heading there.
As soon as we got in my car, that bad feeling got even stronger. I grew up around cars and drive a stick shift, while my best friend knows nothing about them, so I purposely ground the gears, jerked the car around, and made it stall like something was seriously wrong. Then I spent about 15 or 20 minutes pretending to fix a problem that didn’t actually exist. While I was doing that, police cars, fire trucks, and then an ambulance sped right past us.
After I finally “fixed” the car, I told my friend I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to go anymore. She agreed and said the car trouble had ruined her mood anyway, so we went back to my place and watched movies. About an hour later, one of our friends called and told us what had happened. The woman hosting the party had apparently been cheating on her husband while he was deployed. He came home unexpectedly to surprise her and found her in bed with one of his friends. He pulled out a gun and started shooting at both of them while everyone else ran out of the house.
87. Kids Know More Than They Let on
My mom told me this story the other day, and it honestly gave me chills. When my oldest sister was little, maybe around three years old, she asked my aunt, who was pregnant at the time, to pick her up. My mom told her, “She can’t pick you up right now, honey, she has a baby in her tummy.” And then my sister said, very matter-of-factly, “That baby is dead.”
My mom said it completely freaked her out, but my aunt and grandma didn’t think much of it. They told her not to worry, that she was just a toddler and had no idea what she was talking about.
But the next day, my aunt went in for a routine pregnancy checkup, and the doctor found that the baby no longer had a heartbeat. It still gives me the creeps just thinking about it.
88. Snowed In
My neighbor hardly ever went out, and he always parked his car in the exact same spot, right where I could see it from my bedroom window. One week there was a snowstorm that just kept going, and by the fourth day I was sitting in bed watching TV when I noticed his car hadn’t moved at all. The snow had built up around it, and the drifts were completely untouched.
I got this uneasy feeling that something was wrong, but I told myself I was probably just overthinking it. Then, in the middle of the night, I woke up and saw EMTs carrying his body out of the house. His kidneys had failed, and he hadn’t been physically able to get help during those last few days, so he was trapped at home alone. It still makes me feel sick when I think about it.
89. The Carpet Sellers
A few years ago, when I was 19 and studying abroad in Europe, a friend and I decided to take a trip to Turkey. It was the first time we had really traveled on our own without a group, and one evening we were walking around the square near the Blue Mosque. During the day it had felt very safe, so we thought it would be nice to see the city lit up at night too. While we were there, we kept getting approached by shop owners trying to sell us things.
Eventually most of them gave up, but as we were heading back to our hotel, a younger guy came up to us. He said he had a shop nearby and pointed toward a corner where there were a bunch of souvenirs, including carpets. I grew up around handmade woven carpets that my parents had brought back from trips to the Middle East and Asia, so I thought buying one might make a nice gift. We followed him, but when we reached what we thought was his shop, he told us not that one, but another one around the corner.
We looked around and did see a carpet shop there, so we kept following him. I started to feel a little uneasy, though nothing too intense at first. But once we stepped inside, I saw there were around 13 to 15 other men in the shop. They started showing us carpets and talking to us, and I got more and more uncomfortable. My friend seemed totally relaxed, so we followed them farther into another part of the store.
Now, being offered tea in Turkey is pretty normal, so that part alone wasn’t strange. But these men were surrounding us and insisting that we come downstairs to the basement to have tea with them. I kept saying no, but they kept guiding us toward the stairs. By the time we got there, my friend had already started walking down. My whole body went cold, my heart was racing, and I felt this intense wave of fear unlike anything I’d ever experienced. All I could think about was how we would get out if something happened.
So I pulled out my phone, froze for a second, and then said, “We have to leave right now. My mom just texted asking why we aren’t back at the hotel yet because the map shows we’re still here. We’re supposed to FaceTime with them in ten minutes.” The men looked at each other and told us we had plenty of time for tea before that. I kept insisting that my parents were already worried, that they could see we weren’t at the hotel, and that they might even contact the embassy if we didn’t leave soon.
They still blocked the stairs for a bit. I told them we’d come back in the morning because I still wanted a carpet, but that we had to go immediately. After some convincing, they finally moved enough for us to get to the door. One of them followed us back toward the square, still urging us to return, but of course we never did.
I have no idea whether they meant us any harm or whether it was all harmless and I was just panicking, but I have never felt that level of fear before or since. Maybe nothing would have happened. Maybe I was being paranoid. But I do know it was not a situation I ever wanted to be in again. When we got back to the hotel, my friend admitted she had been scared too, but she thought I seemed calm, so she just went along with it.
90. How Can We Help?
A few years ago, I was halfway through a 12-hour drive by myself, taking all of my college apartment stuff back to my parents’ house. My car was packed way too full with boxes, a bike, a keyboard, and all kinds of other things. I was getting low on gas, so I stopped at a station in the middle of nowhere in Georgia. The sun was starting to set, and the station was empty, sitting just off a main road that crossed the highway. A few cars passed by now and then, but otherwise it was a very quiet place.
While I was pumping gas, this thin, rough-looking guy walked up and started mumbling something about the time. I told him what time it was and tried to be polite, but honestly I could barely understand anything he said. The whole time, he kept circling my car and commenting on all my stuff, though I couldn’t make out most of his words. I made an excuse to go inside the convenience store, which I needed to do anyway because my bike was rattling around and I wanted to buy a bungee cord to secure it better.
When I went inside and started looking for one, I noticed the same man had come into the store too, and now he was talking to the woman working behind the counter. I found the cord, went up to pay, and she started making small talk about how full my car was and whether I was moving. Then she asked about the cord, and I explained that I wanted to tighten down the bike.
That’s when she told me I should drive my car behind the gas station and “they” would help me tie it down properly. The way she said “they” made it pretty clear that she and the man knew each other, which I had already started to suspect. My car was parked right outside the window in full view of the road, but she was suggesting I move it to the back of the building, where nobody would be able to see us, just so they could “help” me. There was no reason they couldn’t have done that out front in the normal gas area.
At that point, every alarm bell in my head was going off. I thanked her, said I’d be fine, and then walked quickly back to my car. The second I got inside, I locked the doors. As I drove away, I looked through the store window and saw the woman and the man talking very animatedly and pointing toward my car as I left. Maybe I was reading too much into the situation. Maybe they were harmless. But that kind of offer felt way too suspicious to ignore.
91. The Tropical Storm
A tropical storm moved through my city a few months ago, and we were expecting strong wind gusts and a lot of rain. Our parking lot isn’t big enough for both staff and clients, so many of us have to park on the street, which is lined with large, old trees. When I arrived that morning, with the storm due later that day, I parked in my usual spot down the block.
Before I turned off the car, though, I noticed that this spot was directly across the street from one of the biggest trees on the block. I thought, “You know what, just to be safe,” and put the car in reverse, backing up about ten feet so I’d be out of the direct path if anything came down. That afternoon, while the wind was howling and the rain was pouring, we heard a huge thud from down the street.
I went to check, and the same tree I’d been parked across from had fallen into the road, missing my car by about eight feet. At that moment, I was very glad I’d decided to be cautious—the car parked directly across from where I’d originally been was completely wrecked. The roof was crushed, the windows were blown out, and it was basically destroyed.
92. Lifesaver
I work as an ER nurse, and one day I had a patient who came in with some dizziness, some nausea, and a swollen abdomen. She was alert, talking, and at first nothing seemed especially alarming. But her skin was turning a grim gray color, and she was breathing fast. Our average wait time that day was two hours. I could have put her back in the queue and gone on to the next patient.
But I had this uneasy feeling that something seriously wrong was happening. So I pulled our most senior doctor out of a consultation and asked him to see her immediately. Ever heard of your abdominal aorta? It’s a huge blood vessel that can bulge outward, suddenly rupture, and cause massive internal bleeding within minutes.
It’s called a ruptured AAA, or abdominal aortic aneurysm. I’d never seen one before, but that’s what she had. Within five minutes, she was barely responsive. Within ten, her blood pressure had dropped to a barely survivable level. Within twenty minutes, I was transfusing blood into her while eight people worked around the bed.
Within an hour, she was on the operating table, barely hanging on. But because I sounded the alarm, and because my team worked incredibly hard, that woman is somehow still alive. That felt really good.
93. The Padlock
After enlisting in the Army, recruits get a list of everything they need to bring to boot camp. One item on that list was a padlock. During processing—the several days before actual training begins—recruits are issued their gear, including duffel bags, and told to put everything they brought with them into the bag. After finally getting all my stuff packed, I was left holding just the padlock.
I had no idea what else to do with it, but I noticed that if I closed my duffel bag a certain way, I could latch the lock through the hook. Then we got to the training unit and climbed off the transport trucks while a few hundred drill sergeants shouted at us to line up, which we did, with our duffel bags in front of us. The drill sergeants then started checking whether the bags were locked, and if they weren’t, they grabbed them by the bottom and swung them around, dumping everything onto the ground.
Everyone in the whole company had their belongings thrown out except me and one other guy, because locking my duffel bag was the one thing I’d thought to do. Putting the padlock in my pocket wasn’t an option, because they had been very clear that no civilian items were allowed in our uniform pockets.
94. The Nutty Server
I was working as an expediter at a restaurant. It was extremely busy, and I was trying to get food runners lined up. I was just about to send out an order of dim sum when I looked at the ticket again and saw a note that said, “No peanuts on the tempura tofu.” I had noticed it earlier and made sure no peanuts were added. Another server was about to take it to the table, but I stopped him and told him to wait and get the actual server for that table.
We were slammed, and he was annoyed, but I had a bad feeling. He went to get the server who had taken the order. When that server came back, he was clearly frustrated, and I asked him, “Does your ‘no peanuts’ customer just dislike peanuts, or are they allergic?” He replied, “He’s very allergic, that’s why I wrote no peanuts on the ticket.” He was clearly irritated. I told him, “The tempura tofu is fried in peanut oil.”
I hadn’t realized the head chef was standing behind me and had heard everything. The server didn’t know we used only peanut oil. It was a nice upscale Asian fusion restaurant. Needless to say, the chef tore into him. I was just moments away from sending that plate out too, and it could have gone very, very badly.
95. Tsunami Dreams
Ever since my sister was five years old, she had been obsessed with tsunamis. Every night before bed, she would ask my dad if there was going to be a tsunami that night—we lived right on the beach. Six years later, while our family was on vacation in Samoa, an earthquake hit around 6 a.m. It was a low, dull rumble, but it lasted for more than a minute.
Everyone at the resort woke up and came outside for a few minutes, then started heading back to bed. But my sister, because she had spent years thinking about tsunamis, ran down to look at the water and saw the sea pulling back. She immediately told everyone what was happening and made sure we all took shelter behind the cliff near the resort. She ended up saving a lot of lives that day, including mine.
96. Anxiety Strikes
A couple of months after my 10th birthday, we took a family trip to visit my dad’s side of the family, who lived one state away. At the time, my mom was about six months pregnant with my little brother. We got to our hotel around 2:00 p.m., and by 3:00 we decided we should make the most of the day and go to the aquarium. I got completely dressed and ready to leave, and then all of a sudden I was hit with this overwhelming sense of dread.
At that age, I had never felt anything like it before. It was pure anxiety. But I knew, I absolutely knew, that if we just waited five minutes, I would be okay. I tried telling my mom, but she wouldn’t hear it. I even tried stalling by begging. No luck. I got hustled out of the hotel and into the car. We pulled out of the parking lot and were hit from the side so hard that we spun around into oncoming traffic. As soon as we all realized we were okay, I thought, yep, that was it. I’ve never let my parents forget it.
Pixabay
97. Bad Thoughts
My dad left for work, got a strange feeling, and turned around to go back home. When he walked in, he found a nightmare. Everyone in the house was unconscious. He had to drag or carry each person outside one at a time and call for an ambulance. It turned out my mom and her entire family had severe carbon monoxide poisoning. Because he listened to his instincts, they all survived.
98. Some Devastatingly Flawed Logic
I worked at a daycare. One of the mothers always gave me a really uneasy feeling. She would show up at random and say things like, “my baaaaby, I neeeed my baaaaby.” Of course moms love and miss their kids, but the way she fixated on her daughter felt deeply unsettling to me. I should have trusted my instincts about her. It turned out she was in a very bad mental state.
Tragically, she later took her daughter’s life because she believed it would make her an “angel.” It affected me deeply when I found out, and I still regret not doing anything.
99. Tragically Right to Be Worried
My mom called me while I was out with a friend. She said my brother hadn’t come home the night before. She was very worried, even though that kind of thing wasn’t completely unusual for a 21-year-old. I went straight home, and both of us had the same feeling that something terrible had happened. When I got there, his phone was sitting on the couch in the living room, so we had no way to reach him. We called the authorities, and after a week of searching, his body was found drowned in a nearby lake. I miss him every day.
100. He Made You An Offer You Can Refuse
It was the mid-1990s. I had traveled to northern New Jersey with a friend from college. It was his hometown. We planned to visit New York City and see a former roommate who had graduated the year before. I’ll call him Friend 2. Apparently, after college, Friend 2 had quietly gotten involved with some low-level organized crime figures.
We knew a little about it, but we were not involved ourselves. He invited us to an associate’s house before going out later that night. We declined. It wasn’t our scene. In fact, both of us had applied to law school. I planned to go into federal law enforcement after that. We wanted nothing to do with that world and tried to keep our distance.
The next day, we tried to reach Friend 2 for a casual lunch before leaving town, but he never answered. Two days later, local authorities found his body, along with two others, at the same house he had invited us to. Everything happened during the gathering he had asked us to attend. If we had said yes, it could have been us too.
I knew those guys were trouble.
101. Swamp Thing
I went to visit family in Florida, and as soon as I arrived, my dad introduced me to a woman in her twenties he’d been spending time with and her two babies. He said they were just friends. The moment I saw her, I felt instantly sick. My dad had a long history of getting involved with the wrong friends and partners.
I didn’t want to start any conflict by telling him how strongly I felt, so I packed my things and found somewhere else to stay for the rest of my trip. They stayed friends for a couple of years, but eventually he met someone else, got married, and that friendship faded. Then, a few years later, she was arrested, went to trial, and was sentenced to life in prison. When I found out why, I was horrified.
She had killed her fiancé, wrapped his body in a comforter, and left him in the swamp. After that, she kept living in his house and collecting his retirement benefits until she was caught. Back when she was spending time with my dad, I’d always suspected she was after his retirement too.
