Ever have the feeling that something just isn’t right? Even though we can’t really explain it, we just know that something is off. Many of us have experienced this phenomenon—but unfortunately some have experienced it in a far worse way than others. This is, of course, because some of our spooky feelings turn out to actually be justified. For some inexplicable reason, some people just seem to know when something major is about to go wrong. Here are 42 stories about moments when people somehow could correctly tell that something was not right.
41. Not Walking on Sunshine
I came home to my mom supposedly being out for a walk and my little brother seeming worried that she hadn’t come back yet. I noticed that her keys were hanging up. I just had a sinking feeling that something wasn’t right. Why not take your keys? She hadn’t gone for a walk. She had put on her wedding dress, locked herself in a back room that you can only unlock from the inside, and had taken a whole heaps of pills to kill herself. She survived. This was over 15 years ago but still haunts us.
40. Suspicious Minds
After my mother went to bed each night, my dad would go out to his car beside the driveway & talk on the phone for about 15 minutes. I never heard what he had been saying or who he was talking to, but I felt that something wasn’t right. I outed him. He had been having an affair for about ten years.
39. Off a Cliff
As I climbed out onto a cliff to get a picture of a cave in the middle of a waterfall, something felt weird. I then began sliding down the cliff. I barely caught myself on a fracture in the rock, and eventually got my feet back on solid ground. The next day, my sister had the news on and they found a dead guy under that same cliff. He'd been missing for a few days.
38. Rookie Initiation
We had this regular customer who was very weird indeed. I worked in an auto wrecking yard and he always came in and bought random, off the wall things. Anyway, me and a new guy load some stuff into the back of this guy’s van. He gets in to leave and the new guy is standing behind the van, next to the building.
I say: "Hey, I wouldn't stand there if I were you." New guy looks at me puzzled, but moves anyway. Sure enough, weird customer puts it in reverse and punches the gas. Backs his van right through the wall of our office, right where the new guy had been standing…
37. Physical Reaction
In 2014, when that year's X-Men movie came out, I went to go see it with my best friend. Two thirds of the way through, I felt the most off I've ever felt. Sick, chills, feverish, gut drop, time warped, the works. I peeked at my phone & had dozens of texts, missed calls, & voicemails. My dad had passed away.
36. Father Knows Best
My dad was driving our whole family in the car, zipping along as he was prone to doing. Then, just before a blind corner, he started to slow down for no apparent reason. Like, slowed down a lot more than was really necessary. A second or two later, another car comes speeding around the corner on our side of the road.
It would have been a head-on collision had dad not felt the uncanny urge to ease up.
35. Child Abuser
I’m a member of a local Facebook group to help moms find babysitters. One of the admins was a mid-20s man who babysat for tons of kids in the area, and specialized in caring for nonverbal and autistic children. His posts always gave me a weird vibe that I couldn’t explain, but he was loved by this group as a whole.
He was just arrested for molesting two children. Bail is set at $2 million. It’s estimated that he sat for over 500 children in our area. Who knows how many he abused.
34. Second Opinion
I hadn't been feeling well for a few weeks. I was having shortness of breath despite being pretty athletic and could feel my heart pounding. I saw my doctor, who diagnosed it as anxiety, prescribed some meds, and sent me on my way. But I just...had this feeling. A few days later, I woke up and had trouble walking to the bathroom without losing my breath.
I don't know why it even came to mind but all I could think was, "Something is wrong. This isn't anxiety. I need to go to the ER right away." So I walked myself to the hospital and asked if it was possible I had a blood clot. I was reassured that if it was a clot in my lung, there was no way I could have walked to the hospital. I convinced them to test me anyway annnnnnd it was a pulmonary embolism. Listen to your instincts, friends!
33. Nightmare is an Understatement
Things have been rough lately, but last Wednesday I woke up extremely sick to my stomach and very anxious. I felt like crying the whole day. My best friend's brother called later in the afternoon to tell me that my friend had killed himself the night before. It has been a nightmare ever since.
32. Seeking an Explanation
I was with a large group of friends including my brother, and we were playing hide and seek outside at night. My brother and his friend decide to go into a snowmobile trailer to hide, and I told them I’d hide under the trailer. Little did I know, the trailer was balancing on two wheels. As I was hiding under the trailer, I suddenly got the worst feeling.
A feeling that I needed to get out of there right away. I can’t even describe the feeling but I got out quick. Seconds after I got up, they made the trailer unbalanced by getting inside and it crashed exactly where I just was. There’s no doubt it would’ve killed me in seconds. I stood there in complete shock. I couldn’t believe I was so close to death.
31. Till I’m Blue in the Face
My siblings and I were swimming at a neighbor’s house with their kid, while the adults were inside. Randomly, a thought came into my head of "Where’s my sister at?" She easily could’ve gone inside or have walked home across the street, but I felt like I needed to find her ASAP. I got all of us kids to search and we discovered she was at the bottom of the pool, completely blue. She made a complete recovery and is now one of the best parts of my life.
30. Dog Days
I was letting my dog back inside. She walked right past me with no tail wagging or happy smile, walked right through the kitchen without wanting a treat, and went straight to her doggy bed. I knew something wasn't right, and within ten minutes we were in the car to the emergency vet. She had a tumor rupture apparently, and it was clear what needed to be done. Still breaks my heart.
29. Bail On Out of There
I had a coworker who used to go to parties in high school. Several of the parties in her senior year were at some guy’s farm. She went to one and bailed right away saying it felt weird. The guy who owned the farm turned out to be serial killer Robert Pickton.
28. With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?
Came home very late one night. My parents and sister were already asleep. House felt funny. Dogs were barking in a strange way. I looked around and noticed that my stepmother's car was not in the driveway, but her purse was in the kitchen. My dad's wallet was not on its usual place. I then caught someone creeping around in the backyard, and the commotion woke everyone up.
The creeper was one of my sister's friends. Turns out, her friends decided to break in due to the fact that my parents never lock the doors and the dogs all knew them. They planned to steal my dad's cash and credit cards and take my stepmother's car for a joyride. We found the car in the next subdivision. Why was creeper-boy not with his other buddies?
He figured he could zip back over and spend some "quality time" with my sister, and my timing was just about perfect. He ended up ratting on his buddies and getting a reduced sentence. His parents were pissed at me more for injuring their little boy than they were at him for breaking into people's houses and stealing cars.
27. New Rule: Always Pick up the Phone
My mom called me in the middle of the day on a Sunday. I was going to ignore it and just call her back later like I tend to do, but something just didn’t feel right. So, I picked up. She was calling to tell me an emergency squad was working on my brother and I needed to get a hold of my dad right away.
26. You’ve Got a Friend in Me
I was walking back to my dorm from class and had a gut feeling that I needed to see my friend right away. I walked into his dorm room and found him on the floor seizing. He is fine now, but it was still weird that I just knew something was wrong before I had seen him at all that day.
25. Changing the Course of Family History
When I was little, my cousin who lived 30 minutes away was my best friend. Our parents used to meet up at my grandmother’s house every week just so that we could play together. Occasionally, I would go on sleepovers to her house. One weekend when I was staying over with them, it was coming up to bed time and I had a really weird feeling and just wanted to go home.
I was crying hysterically and my uncle eventually brought me home. This year, I found out that my dad had planned on leaving my mother that night, and me crying saying that I wanted "Mammy and Daddy" made him change his mind. My mother doesn't know this, nor do any of my siblings. My dad told me one night while we were out at a bar and he was drunk.
24. Right Place, Right Time
When I was in college, I had a really weird schedule that resulted in me usually taking my dog for her nightly walk around three in the morning. There was a giant parking structure for the college right by its baseball field and I would usually cut through there and let my dog run around on the field, before circling back to my apartment.
One night on the way over, I heard a faint humming in the parking garage, followed by some sort of weird alarm. Being the horror movie victim that I am, I started walking towards the sound—which meant walking down a floor below street level. When I got to the ramp, my dog started to get visibly stressed, whining and sort of bouncing around, looking at me repeatedly.
I started to worry at this point, but pressed on. When I got down the ramp, I looked around and saw a small golf cart behind it. This golf cart was on and running, which was producing the humming noise, but with no driver. I walked over to it, and behind it was a tipped over bucket with trash scattered around.
Before I could really wonder what was going on, I heard the alarm sound again—only this time I recognized it. I went a little further around to the elevators and found a man unconscious inside one, blocking the door, which was repeatedly try to close but couldn’t. The alarm was coming from the elevator. At this point, my dog was going nuts.
I quickly called 911 and an ambulance arrived shortly after. I had to hang around for awhile and explain what happened to the cops. The stressful part was not finding out if he was okay until several days later. I called the campus police station and they said they couldn’t share his specific medical situation, but told me he was okay and would likely return to work at some point.
I’m guessing he had a heart attack but I’ll never know for sure. I never saw him again.
23. First and Last Day on the Job
I used to clean vacant houses for a living. One day, I was working at a house near the end of a dead end street. There were maybe six or seven houses on the one side of the street before an intersection with a stoplight, so it was a pretty heavy traffic area. I was cleaning out the property just fine when my Spidey-Sense suddenly went off the charts.
I was inside the house but I pretty much dropped everything, got in my car, and started to drive outta there. On the corner, I saw a weird looking guy and had a nasty feeling about him. When I got home, it was all over the news—that guy was wanted for being a cop killer, making the start of his career right on that street corner about 15 minutes after I hoofed it.
I told my boss that I wasn't going to go back to that property. He understood.
22. Off the Road Again
I was driving home late one evening and I had the strongest feeling that something was wrong. At the time, this meant that I took the long way home because I thought my subconscious knew there'd be some speed traps on the turnpike. Next morning, it turns out a drunk driver had caused a huge multi-car accident in the exact stretch of road I would've been driving on. The driver and two others were killed, and another 5+ people were injured. I'm not a superstitious person by any stretch, but this is always something that's made me wonder.
21. A Horrible Event
I once went to an event with an ex and I was in a bit of a crappy mood all day for various reasons. The whole time, I felt like something really bad had happened to someone close or that a generally bad thing happened. The next day, I learnt that just a few hours before I went to the event, a classmate of mine washed up on the beach.
20. Friends in Low Places
My buddy used to stupidly sell various narcotics to just about anybody he met. I was getting a ride from him once and he asked if we could take a detour to make a quick sell. I said sure, so we went to meet some random guy in the middle of a casino parking lot. We sit there for an hour waiting for the guy to show up.
I was getting impatient and, at the same, time starting to get an uneasy feeling. Then the guy shows up and the feeling gets even worse. The guy was obviously an undercover cop, and I could tell right off the bat. Right when I was about to tell my friend we needed to get out of there, the guy drops the act and pulls out his gun.
A swat team surrounded us. I was 18 years old at the time and they were making jokes about “straight outta high school to the pen.” Luckily, I was released when they realized I was just along for the ride and was not a drug dealer myself. I never heard from my buddy again though. I’m assuming he did some time.
19. I’m Having a Reaction to This One
About ten years ago, my mom said she had a really tiring day. When she was going upstairs, she said “Goodbye” instead of “Goodnight” and it just really sat wrong with me. I checked on her a little later and she wasn’t waking up, so we called 911. Turned out she had taken a bottle of pills. I was terrified I was going to end up alone with my horrible stepdad. When paramedics arrived, they asked him if she had any allergies and he said no, and it still frustrates me that I had to be the one who told them about her allergies.
18. Farewell Grandma
I woke up one morning with a sinking, panicky feeling. I knew my grandmother was going to die, I just couldn’t get anyone to believe me. I was young, so I lost it in the school lobby, screaming at my mom that I couldn’t go to class because my nana was going to die. Everyone assured me that she was stable and that I should go to class anyway. She died that afternoon.
17. From Creep to Criminal
When I was about 12-14, I babysat for a couple with two kids and the dad always gave me the creeps. 15 years later, my mom called me and said he was going to prison for abusing the daughter repeatedly over a long period of time. I wonder if it had started yet when I was babysitting them. It is just so sad to think about what happened to that poor cute little girl I babysat.
16. One With Interest
My wife and I were renting for a few years when we decided to take the steps to buy our own house. We had enough for a deposit and had a mortgage quote arranged. We went to look at a number of houses and found one that we really liked. We decided to put our offer in. We were told that this was most likely going to be accepted, but they were going to wait a couple of days before deciding.
That evening, I sat in bed reading when I had a horrible feeling that something wasn’t right. The next day, I told my wife that I wasn’t sure about it and convinced her that we needed to retract our offer, so we did. The next two weeks were a nightmare. Within two days of pulling out of this offer, my wife was laid off suddenly and she hadn’t been working at the company long enough to get much of a payout.
A week later, our car broke down and was beyond repair. We really struggled for the next year or so and would never have been able to pay off a mortgage. We are in a much better place now—but if I hadn’t had that weird moment, who knows where we would be today.
15. A Pool Party to Never Forget
I was six years old and in the backyard of my best friend, swimming in a three foot play pool thing. She went inside to ask for something and right as she left, a guy on a motorcycle drove down the alley and stopped. The fence was a small chain link fence, so he definitely saw me and stopped. And I could see him clearly. 20 years later, it's still perfectly vivid. He pulled out some gloves and put them on.
That was the last thing I saw him doing as I got out, ran through the garage out the front, and barged inside my house next door, completely terrified. He drove around the front down the street slowly and about ten minutes later, shot two kids at the park at the end of my street.
14. Bad Blood
One night while I was home alone, I was feeling oddly anxious for a few hours. Every sound I heard seemed suspicious. Later, while trying to sleep, I look out my window and see someone just standing on the sidewalk in front of our house. It's likely that he was there for a while. Just after I notice him, he comes up to the door and starts knocking, which freaks out my dog and makes him start barking, which he normally doesn't do when people come to the door.
In a panic, I start heading out of the back of the house while calling my parents. At first, they don't really believe it's an issue, but I insist that it's not normal. They rush home and my dad confirms my suspicions that it was my sister's abusive ex-husband. My dad took care of things and sent him on his way.
13. How Did You Know?
I came home from university and the next day my mother says, “let's sit down, I have to tell you something.” For some reason, I just said “Do you have cancer?”
She did.
12. Cashing in on Air Mile Rewards
I’m already a nervous flyer. One time, I was taking a flight from Phoenix to Vegas. Suddenly, the engines started up and all the hairs on the back of my neck instantly stood up. I could swear that the engine on my side of the plane sounded funny. Just as we started to taxi, the engine blew up. Flames and thick black smoke started coming out of it. They shut down the engines and had us disembark. They offered us an alternate flight. I walked as fast as I could to the rental car counter.
11. Late Night Breaking News
I was home alone and my cousin called me at 11 pm. I was too tired to pick up and thought I’d call him back tomorrow. I went to lay in bed and after a couple of seconds, I had a weird feeling about the call I didn't answer and I called him back. He told me that my grandmother passed away.
10. Tea for One
I was boiling the kettle to make tea and suddenly thought, "What would I do if my kettle broke? I don't have a spare..." I was instantly freaked out because it felt like it wasn't my thought. That's the only way I can describe it. Several hours later, when I was making tea again, a blue spark suddenly flew out of the kettle and it died. I had to buy a new one the next day.
9. Plans Extinguished
I was heading to go eat at a restaurant with my toddler, but something just told me not to eat there. I decided to go home and make a meal instead. The restaurant was on the news later because it caught on fire that night.
8. Tragically Right to Be Worried
My mom called me when I was out with a friend. She told me my brother didn't come home last night. She was very worried, even though this is not the weirdest thing for a 21-year-old. I went straight home, and we both felt like something bad had happened. At home, his phone was on the couch in the living room so we couldn't contact him. We called the police and after a week of investigation, his body was found drowned in a nearby lake. I miss him every day.
7. Last Minute Cancelation
This happened in 2010. We have this annual water festival thing and our family and family friend bought tickets for a stand for the whole event. On the last day, the family friend suddenly had to cancel. We decided not to go altogether. The stand was bombed that day. So many died. We could've too.
6. Love Thy Neighbor
As a teenager, I used to help an elderly neighbor maintain her home. She was a sweet person and lived there with her cat, Tompkins. I'd go over to visit once in a while and hear stories from Miss Laney's past. Then I noticed that her customary nighttime lights weren't coming on in her living room or kitchen for several days in a row. So I went over to check, and found her dead on the kitchen floor, with Tompkins keeping watch and looking bewildered. My parents and I found a good home for Tompkins and helped with the funeral arrangements.
5. Day Care Blues
I worked at a daycare. One of the mothers gave me the heebie-jeebies. She would show up randomly and be like “my baaaaaaby, i neeeed my baaaaby.” Like, moms love their kids and miss them, but her obsession with her daughter really made me feel weird.
She ended up killing her daughter so that she could be an angel. It really messed me up when I found out.
4. All in the Family
It was Christmas 2002. I was home from my freshman year of college. The vibe in the house had been really strange and tense since I got back. On Christmas morning, my mom gives my dad a really heartfelt, personalized present. My dad gives my mom an expensive but generic-looking bracelet with some diamonds in it. She starts openly weeping. Something was definitely not right. He told us he was leaving the next day and moved out immediately, into the house of the coworker he had been sleeping with. It was not a good time for my family.
3. Last Words
My brother and dad lived in a different state, and my brother was in the hospital recovering from an accident. My first weird feeling was when I was booking the flight to see him and I was considering cancellation insurance. "What if something happens to my dad and I have to fly out sooner?" I shrugged it off. My dad was doing fine.
Two weeks later, my brother tells me that my dad was visiting and went home early because he had evidently caught something and wasn't feeling well. I got a really bad feeling and called him. It went to voicemail. He did say he was going to bed early and it was about bedtime for him. I said I heard he wasn't feeling well and wanted to check in, and that I really really loved him.
I felt weird, but my dad would've been royally PISSED if I called 911 to his house because he was under the weather and decided to sleep it off. I decided to wait until the morning. Morning comes. Nothing. My brother sent his friend over. No answer. Friend goes inside the house. My dad had passed away. I wish I had called, it just didn't SEEM that serious and I have a penchant for overreacting.
The last thing he told my brother was, "I'll be fine, I'm just going to bed." The thing that got me was the voicemail. I looked through his messages. Mine was read. If nothing else, I know he listened to that voicemail. One of the last things he heard was me telling him I loved him.
2. But We Just Met!
At a family reunion, I met my uncle's new wife for the first time. When I first saw her face, a very cold feeling ran through me. A "don't get to know her, she won't be here long" thought ran through my head at the same time. This 12-year-old's reaction must've been weird, as she, her husband, and my father looked at me like "WTH dude." Guess my poker face was weak. Two months later, she died due to a traveling blood clot from her hip surgery. It was really unfortunate. My uncle was crushed, as you'd imagine.
1. Lifesaver
I work as an ER nurse and had a patient with a little dizziness, a little nausea and a swollen abdomen. She was fairly bright, able to talk, and nothing seemed too horrific. But she was turning a grim gray color and breathing quickly. Our average wait time today was two hours. I could have put her back in the queue and moved on.
But I had a little dark feeling that there was something sinister happening here. So I called our most senior doctor out of a consultation and asked him to see her. Right now. Ever heard of your abdominal aorta? Enormous blood vessel that can pouch out, suddenly rupture, and make you bleed internally to death in minutes?
It’s called a burst AAA (abdominal aortic aneurysm). You’ve heard of it now. That’s what she had. I’ve never seen one before. But now I have. Within five minutes, she was barely responding. Within ten, her blood pressure had dropped to a barely sustainable level. Within twenty minutes, I was pouring blood into her and eight people were around the bed.
Within an hour, she was on an operating table clinging to life. But because I raised the alarm, and because my team worked their butts off, that woman is still, somehow, alive. Feels good, man.
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