Despite the old saying that sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, we tend to disbelieve movie-like stories that people share from their own lives. These things just don’t happen to the average person, we reason, even though it does have to happen to someone.So one netizenasked the internetto tell their stories of experiences that don’t sound real but actually did happen to them. From impossible coincidences to perfect tragedies, people shared their tales. So get comfortable as you scroll through and be sure to upvote your favorites and comment your own experiences below.This post may includeaffiliate links.
Despite the old saying that sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, we tend to disbelieve movie-like stories that people share from their own lives. These things just don’t happen to the average person, we reason, even though it does have to happen to someone.
So one netizenasked the internetto tell their stories of experiences that don’t sound real but actually did happen to them. From impossible coincidences to perfect tragedies, people shared their tales. So get comfortable as you scroll through and be sure to upvote your favorites and comment your own experiences below.
This post may includeaffiliate links.
My grandmother prevented the neighbor boy from kidnapping our next door neighbor.Our house was the bus stop. I woke up sick that morning and didn’t go to school. Grandma was the neighborhood grandma and kept an eye on the kids that were at the stop every morning. She was watching the girl at the corner (she was the only one riding that morning), looked back and she was gone. He was dragging her accross our backyard with a knife to her throat. My grandma ran at him screaming and throwing rocks at him while i called the cops. She won citizen of the year in our city.
Not me but my uncle. He was in Jamaica when his wife who was doing fitness classes, died due to a perforated bowel from a meal at the resort and the authorities drove him to an ATM and told him he’s going to be suspect #1 if he doesn’t pay them and he’ll never have his wife repatriated to the US.He complied and they took him back to the resort, unbeknownst to him, T-Pain was also there and caught wind of the situation and worked magic with his connections to keep my uncle safe and bring my aunt home for a funeral, as well as providing his bodyguard protection to my uncle.To this day, almost two decades later, they will video chat on holidays like Easter to talk and in my view that man is a saint to our family. Anytime he’s in town they’ll meet backstage before one of his concerts and they’ll have a big hug. One time he met his family. I will never forget the kindness this man has shown over DECADES, it’s insaneEdit: sharing a pic of T-Pain hugging my uncle https://i.imgur.com/4wFcqda.jpgEdit2: Yes, that is my Uncle. And I want to call out that in 2007, T-Pain was 23 years old when he did this selfless act. In my opinion that just amplifies the character he holds himself to that you see in his actions throughout his entire life. What an awesome man.
I was visiting London with my grandpa and we were riding in a small public bus. And on this bus there happened to be a dwarf. A young schoolgirl (probably because her mother told her to) approached her and offered up her seat to the woman but she rudely yelled " What, because I’m a dwarf!? I’ve been a dwarf my whole and I’ve managed just fine without any help!" And the poor girl sat down all red in the face.But awhile later at another stop a woman stood up and before exiting, she tapped the dwarf on the shoulder and said " I’ll be getting off now. My seats empty if you’d like to take it.“But just as she started to carry on the woman cut her off and yelled “No! Not because you’re a dwarf! Because you’re a human being deserving of respect! And I must say you were very rude to that poor girl when she was just trying to be nice! And I hope that when you’re getting ready for bed tonight, Snow White kicks in your door and kicks your f*****g a*s!” Then she got off leaving the dwarf standing there wide eyed and slack jawed while the rest of us were sat there just looking at one another.
In 2012 I lifeguarded at a beach in Delaware. I was talking with a lady who was drinking a glass of wine on the beach. While telling her she was not allowed to do that, Dave Grohl walked behind me. I was/am a massive fan and knew he would vacation at this beach, but never assumed I would run into him. In the moment of being absolutely star struck the lady goes “oh you’re a fan of Dave I see?” Barely able to talk I said “yes, he is a reason I got into drumming.” She then said “oh he’s my son, you should go say hi!”I let her drink the wine and I was able to talk to my music idol for a solid 20 minutes. One of the best days of my life.
I broke my humerus while sitting stock still at my computer desk. Bone cancer had eaten through it and it chose that moment to just snap in half. 0/10 do not recommendEdit: just to answer some questions— I did not realize I had cancer at the time! This was how I found out. I had my elbow resting on the arm rest, so I imagine the pressure was what finally did it in. I am okay now, almost 10 years in remission!
I was riding my bike around my apartment building as a kid. Ran into some bullies from school.Now as a kid I had a problem with shutting up, I had no idea how, so I pissed them off.So I was riding my bike as fast as possible to get away from them (They were also on bikes) when I got something on the ground and went flying.A few things to note1) I was a tiny little girl like 70 pounds tops.2) I was poor, so my bike was used, a bit rusty and most importantly, missing handle bar grips3) the combination of speed, my weight, and whatever I hit, launched me more up than forward.So I hit something, the bike fell on its side, and then I fell on the bike.Felt like it knocked the wind out of me and I knew it had to be bad because one of the bullied pedaled away as fast as possible, the other one helped me home and saying that this doesn’t make us friends on the way. Left our bikes where they were. I didn’t care, my mid section hurt where I landed.Got home and my mom turned to greet me and practically screamed that I was bleeding.I looked down and realized that I was bleeding a lot from my stomach and fainted.I woke up at the hospital later to find out that I had landed on to a bike handle which has impaled me through my mid section about halfway through meMissed my organs just barely and left me with a neat scar and a story no one believes until they see the scar.
3.5 years ago, I had 3 guys try to rob me. I was very fit then and had trained in jiu jitsu and muay thai. In the end, I put two of them in the hospital and all three were arrested. I walked away with really bad bruises and cuts, a concussion, and possible broken ribs. During the fight I got hit with a crow bar. Well, when I went to have my ribs scanned, they ended up finding cancer. Stage 4 of an extremely rare cancer that only about 80 people have. I never had any symptoms and my blood work was excellent. Doctors said I had about 1.5 years to live but I’m still going!
Years ago, I broke my right foot. After 6 weeks in a boot, I was leaving the orthopedist office boot-free. Just me and my own two feet, raw dogging the ground. I was so excited to drive home, now that I was out of that damn boot.And then on the way to the car, I stepped off the curb, rolled my left ankle, and broke it.
there’s a lamb that hates me and goes out of its way to kick only me when i visit my fathers farm.
Slept with a boyfriend for over a year (unprotected) and found out he had hiv. Been tested for twenty years straight and I’m still negative.Edit: woke up to a huge reaction, never expected this. I’m going to answer some things here. Yes he knew and didn’t tell me. His plan was to act like I gave it to him. I thought there was no way I didn’t have it so for several years I was in the mindset that I had contracted it. When I was 18 I started getting tested twice a year and have been negative every test. I don’t think I am Finnish or Nordic I should check that out someday. There are so many horrible things that are in this thread, I’m surprised this was even seen. Thank you for concern everyone.
my 16 year old brother put a cocked and loaded gun to my head when i was 11. the cops came and found an airsoft gun with an orange tip and claimed that was the weapon, despite me denying it all night. i found the real gun a couple months later in a coat closet wrapped up in a scarf. those cops sucked at their job.
I have a tech company, and we are not in the best financial situation. We had a very big contract awaiting signature, well it won’t get signed because the person responsible for the project was one of the 5 casualties from the Titan submarine ….
I was lying on the beach in the sand when I heard a soft thud next to me. I sat up and saw a half eaten peanut butter sandwich lying next to me in the sand. Wondering where it came from, I looked up and saw, to my surprise and horror, a flock of seagulls descending upon me and the sandwich one of them had just dropped. It was a mad frenzy of them fighting me and each other for the sandwich and me fighting them to get away. The whole thing was over in five seconds.
A huge tree branch fell through the roof in my bedroom during a storm and about a minute after that a couple raccoons fell into my room.
Was in a relatively mild car accident. EMS recommended xrays just to be safe. I argued a bit but ended up relenting. Xrays lead to a CT and a kidney cancer diagnosis.Doctor said I would’ve been dead inside a year if it hadn’t been found.
Not mine but a friend’s storyWhen she was about 5 or so she was at CVS with her dad when someone robbed the store. While the robber is pointing a gun and yelling at everyone to get on the ground, her dad, being an Asian man born in Asia, says “Happy Halloween” because he thought it was a costume. This happened in November.
I wrecked my bike in the summer after 7th grade and had to be mercy flighted, broken bones, quite severe concussion…. I forgot 90% of seventh grade and struggled in 8th, but a weird side effect was that I could music. Before I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, couldn’t hear when notes were the same or different, completely tone-deaf, and after the accident I could. I sang in my college choir for four years.
When I was in elementary school we went on a class trip to one of those old colonial towns to see how life was back then for settlers.During lunch break I went to the bathroom and a man paid me to take pictures of me in the bathroom. I was really excited to get money.Next thing I knew I was in a police car scared out of my mind that I was in trouble. I kept apologizing to the cop while my mom tried to calm me down. I remember crying all night that my principal would hate me because I made the cops come.What an odd memory.
I was working and felt like I broke a rib. It went away but I off handedly mentioned it to my doctor. She was super concerned and ordered a bone scan. It was stage 4 cancer.
I won an art competition with my painting judged while hanging upside down.When I told them, they tried telling me I was wrong till they realised I had painted it. TBH, it was a school competition.
I (15 at the time) was traveling in a foreign country with my sister (26). We stayed at a local hotel. My period came and I got a little bit on the sheets the first night. Housekeeping came and cleaned as usual, nothing mentioned.A few days passed and when we were checking out, they asked to see our passports again. I guess we thought they just needed to double check their guest registry to update it. Once the passports were in his hand the front desk person (male) got really angry with us and began yelling at us for “making mess” in the hotel. At first we had no idea what he was talking about because we are very tidy travelers. He just kept yelling that we “made trouble” for him. He then proceeded to ask housekeeping to bring out the evidence and guess what, they proceeded TO BRING OUT THE UNWASHED SHEETS (wtf?). No idea where they had stored it.A nice young Australian couple witnessed the whole thing. The lady muttered “it’s just a few spots, can’t you just wash it?” He yelled at them to stay out of it and they fell silent. He even asked who made the mess (my sister said she did).15 year old me felt like I had done something criminally wrong. My sister “paid him for the sheets” and got our passports back so we could leave.
I was thrown off a motorcycle on the interstate when I was 22 months old. Yes, MONTHS. My parents thought I was dead because my head was ripped open (skull too) but took me to the hospital anyway.ETA: This happened in the Midwest US on an interstate.
My sister almost got arrested at the White House because she sat down in the line outside to get in. She only did that because her feet hurt.Apparently it’s illegal to sit down at the White House because it’s considered a sit-in protest.She was 12.
I was in a weird love triangle. This was back in like 2007. I was into a girl, but her near-inseparable best friend was into me. I wanted to go out with the girl, but she felt weird going out with me while her best friend kept talking about me, and said I should go out with the best friend first and let her get me out of her system…so I did that. It went ok but no chemistry. Went out with the first girl and there was major chemistry, but still withholding. It became more and more where it was always the two of them coming on outings with me (and sometimes ditching me) until the day they told me they both decided to date each other.
I was cuffed and thrown in the back of a cop car after being accused of stealing cars, while walking through a bowling alley parking lot.I was 12.
My cousin beat my aunt to death then put a towel over her face and sat down and ate dinner. My other cousin had a welfare check and they found him watching tv with her body in the kitchen.Edit: this happened about 10 years ago in Florida. My cousin is mentally unstable. Due to a car accident that happens to him when he was in his teens and has been on medication his whole life and I guess the older he got the worse he got. He was in his late 40’s when he killed my aunt. I guess they got into an argument and he snapped and beat her to death. Then cleaned up and put all the evidence in the attic but left her lying on the kitchen floor with the towel over her face. He’s been in a mental institution ever since.
I was sitting outside on my friend’s patio gazing up at the stars. My friend says “ya know, I’ve never seen a shooting star before.” Almost immediately, a shootong star gleams across the sky as if she commanded it to happen.IS THIS REALITY WTF
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That on Valentine’s Day 2008, my boyfriend cheated on me, but I couldn’t confirm it. Two days later, on the 16th, I came home and he was high AF. Long story short, I caught him in a lie and he admitted to cheating on me. We had been together for 4 years. The next day, on the 17th, his dad was over our house (we lived together) building a fire pit. We rented a house from his dad, and his dad was fixing it up trying to “flip it,” for a quick profit. I was inside packing my s**t because uh, well, he got caught/admitted to cheating on me and I was out. While packing, someone banged on the bedroom window. I ignored it (some friends had spent the night so I thought they were all in the backyard goofing around). A few minutes later another knock and then pounding. I walk through the house to the back door to say to them to stop banging on the door, and I see my boyfriend/soon-to-be ex-boyfriend on the phone, pacing, screaming “Dad!” I look at his Dad, and he laid out on the floor, snoring and unconscious and the people who had stayed over are just standing there in shock. I ask what happened, and he said his dad was sweating a lot, sat down, his arms locked up straight out in front of him, and then he fell back. I monitored him closely, waiting for the ambulance. Then he stopped breathing. I ended up doing CPR on him for over 10 minutes which was literally exhausting. It was working for a while, but then, before the ambulance got there, he exhaled into my mouth and I just remember tasing cigarettes and then he went really limp, his eyes were still open but there was no life behind them. I kept doing CPR because everyone else was there watching and I didn’t want to be the one to announce what I knew had just happened. The ambulance FINALLY arrived, they did the shock paddles on him several times. Nothing. He was pronounced DOA at the hospital, and I did not leave my ex that day. Stayed three more years (wish I hadn’t, but how do you dump someone the day their dad has a heart attack and dies right in front of them).
My manager told me not to hire my best candidate for a job because she was female.
Because an adult didn’t believe me that something was wrong I almost had my leg amputated at the age of 14.
My mom found out my dad filed for divorce five minutes before my birthday dinner started when I was turning eighteen. Mans waited last second because he didn’t want to pay child support 😂My mom was cooking my birthday dinner and I was down the road at a friends house celebrating before I went home. Mom went to get the mail and found a letter from an attorney saying he found out my dad filed and wanted to be her lawyer.Mom peeled down the block in the minivan and pulled over to the side of the road where my friends and I were outside and announced it to me.Dad came home five minutes later to just me and no mom. He was like hey time to celebrate! With a bunch of presents and stuff. It was so awkward
I shat my pants in a carnival ride (the bullet) whilst wearing cargo shorts and diarrhea was slung out of the leg of my shorts and rained down on the unsuspecting patrons below. Shut down the entire area. Nobody got funnel cakes. My dad made me ride in the back of the truck home without bottoms on and I don’t like wearing undies.Edit:To add more context, I was 14 at the time and was raised in rural Alabama. The carnival coming to town was a whole city wide ordeal in my 1A high school. Less than 50 in my graduating class for reference. I was the “s**t slinger” for years, and some people in my friend group still bring it up. I’m 31 now.Similar s****y situation while hunting and wearing coveralls while leaning back against a tree in the “invisible chair” position doing my business. It partially landed in my coverall bibb on the back, and smeared up my back as I put them on. Had to ride in the back in 20 degree weather. Not fun either.
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Right after getting my tumor removed and my tonsils taken out, a couple days later I notice I’m swallowing a lot more than normal, go to the bathroom and just start spitting blood. And not like little drops, I mean I help my mouth open over the sink and it was just a constant stream.Went to urgent care, coughed up a blood clot about the size of a baseball, blood in my stomach-The scabs from surgery opened. So now I’m terrified of eating or drinking red foods that would show up when I spit or such.I’m not normally queasy about blood, but I think the fact it was my own and it was a lot was concerning
Many years ago, I was walking my pug early in the morning. Sun wasn’t quite up yet. I was walking him along a main road. Across the busy road was a junkyard with rotties in it guarding it. All of the sudden I hear heavy breathing and look and a rottie got loose somehow and was full on galloping toward us across the busy road. Just as I was going into “I’m protecting my pug, I’m taking this hit mode”…. a car comes along and full force hits the dog. Maybe 40 mph because the driver most likely didn’t see him since it was mostly dark out still. The dog flew 3/4 of the way down the block. Cops came, driver stopped. Dog wasn’t dead but I’m assuming it died eventually.It’s such a wild story to me when I’m telling people, but I’m so thankful that car accidentally stopped us from being attacked.
I met Pearl Bailey on a dirt road in Oklahoma and she asked me for directions. Apparently had an old friend in the area
a friend (joe) introduced me to his best friend (matt) back in high school. I married his friend (matt). Matt committed suicide less than a year after we married. 5 years later i’m married to the original friend (joe) and pregnant with our first.edit for clarification
One time when I was a kid, I was laying in a sunbeam on the floor on a lazy Sunday.So my dog came up and peed on my face.
I got stranded at 18000 feet on a 20,000+ mountain due to weather. Nobody except the person with me knew where I was and had no emergency beacon or communication device. No other people on the mountain. Had to wait it out until next morning to hike back down to safety. That’s the short story. Do not recommend.
I have a misdemeanor on my adult record for skiing out of bounds.
I got banned from Canada for a year.
You know those big Fun Slides you ride down on the rug/carpet thing? When i was 8 the worker giving the push accidentally stood on my carpet and I went flying down all three parts and bumps of the slide on my back and arms. Ended up blistering and bubbling all over my hands and arms. Worst skin burns of my life and almost passed out. Next day on boardwalk, seagull crapped on my head.
I was sitting on a sidewalk, heard some little pop noises like a squirrel was dropping nuts from a tree or something. Then a huge tree branch fell on top of my friends and ME. I was basically stuck under it, my friends were able to get out and had to lift it off of me
I was once on a date and he got up to go to the toilet, after 10 minutes I started to worry if he had left so I sent him a text and he replied asking me to come to the toilet. I found it strange but decided to go to the toilet, when I went in I was hit with a smell that I had never experienced. He then told me that he had food poisoning and he had sh*t his pants and been sick all over himself (This was only our second date). I then had to ring his mother and she had to come and drop off some new pants for him and had to take him home. We had already ordered food so I had to pay because he had to leave, he never rang me back after that.
When I was around 11 or 12, I woke up in the middle of the night with a pretty strong pain in my head, but got back to sleep pretty quickly afterwards. When I got up that morning, I had dried blood on my hand (where I felt my head), and a big cut across my forehead and eyebrow. Didn’t own any cats at the time (if it happened now, my cat would deffo be the prime suspect lol), didn’t have any random posters over my bed… I really can’t think of any logical cause. Spooked me out pretty badly but nothing unexplainable or scary has ever happened since.
2 weeks ago I dropped a grill propane tank on my foot. Yesterday I had my whole big toe amputated .
I was gassed and robbed on a train going through Serbia in the winter of 1996 when we were at war with them. All they got was a 20£ note.
I won a bicycle out of honeycomb cereal when I was a kid. My dad’s response when I showed him the little piece of paper with the word ‘Karate’ on it: “You little s**t.”. Handlebars broke off while I was in the air on a jump, wiped out when I landed, but luckily no scars.I woke up once when I was a kid, went into the bathroom, and had an alligator in there. No, it wasn’t Florida. My dad had got a couple caiman’s the day before and one got out. He was (for a while) a herpetologist and we traveled around Texas fairs with a 40' logging trailer filled with snakes and lizards. He was outside dressed like Steve Irwin (this was years before the legendary Mr. Irwin) getting people to go inside, while I gave tours. Fun stuff. I also had to help pull a 23' reticulated python off him at one point, and help him recapture an 18' king cobra we had. I guess most of the cool stories in my life revolve around my dad, who was just an epic man, who did everything every little kid wants to be when they grow up, and died a broken man due to alcohol and lost love :(
They didn’t catch my son at birth.
My father passed away when he and my mother were visiting another country. There was a national holiday going on (in that country), so we could not transport his body back to the US for another week. For that same holiday reason, my mother could not book a trip back home in-country - I had to make the plans from the US. This was before the internet, so I had to go to the airport and make the arrangements in person, since it involved multiple airlines and special circumstances, and the US embassy helped. I had his death certificate faxed to me, and it was all in a language I couldn’t understand.
Nearly almost certainly died in a parasailing accident when I was young. Was up there with my mum. There was others out doing the same thing and our ropes nearly got tangled. I vividly remember my mum panicking before being a total badass and steering us out of a disaster.
My wife had a miscarriage right after our wedding. Spent wedding night in the ER.
When I was 9 I tripped over a log playing tag in the dark and fell into the middle of a small bonfire we had goin in the yard after grandmas funeral. I had both my knees and hands directly in the coals and it took me a few seconds to realize where I had fallen. Felt a sharp pain in one of my hands and got up and walked out. Only my left hand got burnt black the rest of me was totally fine. Healed up good, now I just have a tiny scar with a little black dot embedded in it. Luckily my nerves were seared so it wasn’t even very painful and the subsequent blisters that covered my hand after all the black was scraped off just kept reforming until the skin healedWe were poor so my parents didn’t take me to the doctor or even bandage it or nothing so it was a small miracle it healed so well
A stripper once told me I reminded her of her son.
I was in a movie with Halle Berry.
Survived two plane crashes (both were DeHavillands)
I was briefly kidnapped in Malaysia
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