Gut feelings are an unexplainable phenomenon. Somehow, our bodies signal to us that something is wrong, and it usually comes out from out of nowhere. For these people, their decision to listen to their gut feelings helped them escape potentially dire fates:
1. Bowling Strikes
This wasn’t a dangerous situation, but I almost would have preferred wrestling with a bear. It was so embarrassing. Anyway, I took this girl bowling on our second date. I really liked her and hoped things would work out. I was trying to impress her with my bowling game, but I was maybe pushing too hard...Definitely pushing too hard.
When I went in for my next bowl, I ripped my pants accidentally, I also happened to be going commando that night. I bowled a frame or two before noticing. She met the whole family—long John and the twins—that night. I was so embarrassed that I would have preferred being the bowling pin. I got out of that date so fast.
2. Hat’s Off To Mom
I was working for an oilfield company, and we were doing some maintenance on a hydraulic pump jack. I had to be lifted in a basket about twenty feet in the air by the crane I was working on to loosen a couple of nuts so we could remove a part. Once I got up there, I took my hard hat off because it was so hot out. I figured, “Hey, what could possibly drop on my head when I'm higher up than anything around me?”
I loosened the first nut and then thought about how mad my mom would be if something happened, so I put my hard hat back on. When I loosened the last nut, the pump jack torpedoed up because the operator hadn't depressurized it like he said he had. This massive nut flew straight up in the air, and before I could figure out what was happening, it landed square on my hard hat.
I've never experienced anything like it. The force made me drop to my knees. The guy operating the crane saw me drop and immediately lowered the basket to the ground. I walked away with a kink in my neck and a huge dent in my hard hat. I often think about what would have happened if I hadn't put it back on.
3. He Was On My Radar
The moment I met my boyfriend’s best friend, I knew he was bad. My narcissistic ex-husband would gaslight me, and since then, I have had a very sensitive radar for people like that. That radar went off when I met my boyfriend’s friend. I kept it to myself for the longest time because I didn’t want to be annoying. Eventually, I slipped and told my boyfriend what I thought. He had confronted me because his friend said he thought I didn’t like him.
I was, of course, labeled as problematic and that I was the problem and not the friend. I was forced to go hang out with the friend again even after explaining that he made me uncomfortable because he reminded me of my reviling ex. One night when my boyfriend was hanging out with his friend and his girlfriend, my boyfriend overheard him. He was repeatedly saying extremely terrible and gaslighting things to his girlfriend. FINALLY, he saw what I had seen all along and apologized for not believing me.
4. Take The Wheel
I was leaving a bar one night in a sketchy northern Canadian town. Some girls I had met talked me into riding with them to another party, so I got in the back of the car. And then, out of nowhere, about eight more people crammed themselves into this car. Before I could squirm my way out, the driver jumped in and pulled off.
I don’t know what the driver was on but he started driving like a maniac. To make matters worse, the roads were icy. This guy was driving way, way too fast, and swerving all over both sides of the road. So many people had crammed themselves into the car that I couldn't see much. I just closed my eyes and waited for the crash.
5. DVT Almost Ended Me
A couple of weeks into recovering from a fractured hip, I noticed my calf/foot turning red when standing up. A day or so later, it felt like a minor muscle cramp in my calf, and my foot was a little clammy. My mom said I was overthinking it, but I knew something was wrong and went to the ER. I was diagnosed with a DVT, then five days later had a pulmonary embolism.
Had I not gotten it checked out as quickly as I did, the clot could have continued to grow, which would have increased its potential danger. Thankfully, the clot was small, and the damage was minimal all things considered!
6. Creepy Counselor
I had a school counselor who was so helpful; he would move heaven and earth for students. He was really popular, and everyone loved him. He helped me out a great deal, but the man gave me the creeps. He shared his office, so I didn’t usually have to be alone with him, but on the occasions I did, the hairs on my neck would stand up, and I would leave as quickly as possible.
I felt really bad for feeling that way, and for years, I honestly thought I just had issues with men. He hadn’t done anything, there were no rumors about him around school, and no one had a bad word to say. Twenty years later, he was on the local news. He had been a headteacher in a different school and was found guilty of arranging to meet underage children online.
7. Escape From Arabia
I woke up one Friday in a hotel. I was bored and wanted to surf the Internet, but the connection was down. I went to the hotel lobby to see what was happening. When I got down there, I stopped dead in my tracks. It was obvious something bad was happening. A crowd had gathered around the TVs in the lobby, even the hotel staff. On the screens were multiple scenes of chaos.
One employee told me the government had shut down the Internet to test it. The scenes on the TV were the first protests of the Arab spring. It was January 25. Needless to say, I spent my energy over the next few days trying to get out of the country. I was able to leave, but many of the people I was working with weren’t as lucky.
The revolution started in Benghazi less than two weeks later. It was surreal watching Anderson Cooper broadcasting live from the hotel I had just been staying in.
8. Blame It On The Rain
I was casually walking home, and then a drop of water fell on my head. My first thought was, “Is it raining”? However, for some reason, my gut was all like, “Run”! So, naturally, I listened to my gut and ran. As I was doing so, a whole air conditioner came crashing down at the exact spot where I was standing.
9. I Couldn’t Stomach This Bad Feeling
My mom started experiencing excruciating indigestion and heartburn. It got to the point that almost everything she ate disagreed with her. She reassured us that everything was OK. We took her word for it because she had always been proactive with health issues in the past. One night, after a particularly bad episode, I broke down to my fiancé, expressing that I was terrified my mom had cancer. She got tested a month later and was diagnosed with stomach cancer. I had lived with a constant fear that it would rear its ugly head again, and it did.
10. Now That’s Cooking With Fire
I was in a restaurant once when I kind of overreacted to a potentially dangerous situation. The restaurant was using a propane tank to power an outdoor heater. Suddenly, the tank started to catch fire. Seeing a propane tank on fire, my instincts kicked in. I got out of there faster than a racehorse gets out of the gates. I just took off.
The staff calmly turned the tank off and everyone laughed at me for overreacting. Whatever, man, I’m not playing games with propane tanks and fire.
11. Seconds Away From Sepsis
I had a lot of congestion and a wicked cough for like a week, to the point that my ribs hurt. My doctor thought it was just a sinus infection that was draining into my ears and chest. Finally, my pain started to get worse. I figured it was just muscle soreness from all of the coughing I was doing, but something in my gut said to call for an ambulance.
By the time paramedics got to me a couple of minutes later, I was barely able to breathe. One look at their faces and I knew I was in serious trouble. It turned out that I had an abscess in my lung which had ruptured. The accumulated pus and fluid had collapsed my lung, and I was in the first stages of sepsis.
12. My Concerns Weren’t Diddly Squat
I was a realtor and went to see a property for some out-of-state clients. I was just going to take pictures and videos. I had a bit of a weird feeling upstairs, but when I walked around to the backyard and saw a door underneath the stairs, I felt this darkness that almost made me start crying. It looked like a workshop/crawl space, but my gut was saying do not enter. I should have listened.
I went in and the place was trashed, but I couldn't shake this feeling of sadness and "I need to get out." I even checked the doorknob locks to make sure they were turned the right way in case I needed to get out. It turned out the seller's boyfriend had harmed their daughter there two or three years prior. He had fled the state when he was found out and took his own life. When the boyfriend's friends heard that he had passed, they began squatting there. The seller hadn't been able to get them out or had been too afraid to do so.
13. Lost In Translation
I was working at a Hispanic restaurant a while back. I didn’t speak Spanish and I probably should have learned. It was a great experience until…it wasn’t. One night after work, one of my co-workers invited me to drink at their house. It was a pretty chill scene. We were drinking and even started dancing at one point. There was no hint of what came next.
I stepped outside onto the back patio with a friend. When we went back inside, the guy who owned the house was standing there with a knife, yelling at three of my other co-workers. He was blocking the front door and yelling in Spanish, saying that no one was allowed to leave. My friend grabbed me and pleaded with the guy just to let us out since we had no part of what was going on.
The homeowner thought about it and then let us both out. I asked my friend what that whole thing was about. He told me that the guy with the knife accused three of my co-workers of sleeping with his wife. I got in my car and got the heck out of there.
14. Escape From Disaster
I was at a party off campus with a very annoying friend of my then-girlfriend. We were waiting for my girlfriend and another of her friends to show up. The guys hosting the party were sketchy-looking and I had a “get a drink and get out” vibe. I was talking to someone I knew from class and I turned around and saw my wife’s friend, who was fine ten minutes prior, stumbling while some dude was walking her to the basement.
I ran over and told him to get off of my girlfriend and I was suddenly surrounded by three guys, telling me to get lost, and they were all partying downstairs. The guy who I was talking to walked over with some of his friends and I took the opportunity to get her out of the party, called my girlfriend, and told her not to go. We met up at the local Waffle House, and we fed her friend, gave her coffee, and got her to her room.
I later found out another girl wasn’t as lucky. The guys held her in the basement for three days. Even worse, they didn’t do a day in prison, because the girl left town and never came back. I always felt guilty about it, although I still don’t know what I could have done differently.
15. My Ex’s Instinct Left Him In A Pickle
I knew in my gut that my dog was in imminent danger. I had been searching for him but couldn’t see him and was talking myself out of trusting my gut. I asked the person I was with at the time, “Do you see Pickles?” He looked in the truck mirror, sputtered, “Coyote,” and we both bailed from the vehicle we were parked in.
I had never run so fast in my life, trying to chase that coyote to get my boy back. However, it was to no avail. When I called my ex to tell him our dog was gone, he told me he had a terrible feeling the day before that something was wrong with Pickles and me. However, he felt weird calling to tell me this, as we had already been separated for almost two years.
16. The Worst Bath Time Ever
I used to work for an agency that helps people with their daily tasks for home healthcare. I had this one client, a man, whose insurance prohibited personal care (like showers). I didn’t question it at first—I just figured that it had something to do with whatever policy he had selected. Turns out, there was a good reason for this prohibition.
He was very upset during my visit when I declined his request for a bath. I felt bad at first. The guy just wanted to be clean—or so I thought—and I couldn’t help him. He quickly became very angry with me and that’s when my sympathy faded. He accused me of all kinds of things and started pacing around the room like he was looking for something.
Between his odd behavior and terrible rage, I slipped out of the house and drove to a safer place. I reported the incident to my employer and later found out that this guy had had similar run-ins with other female caregivers. He had even attacked a woman. Who knows what he was planning that day? Maybe nothing. But I'm glad that I left.
17. A Mistaken Midwife
I had planned to have my second child at a birthing center with a midwife. I started to labor at home, and when it was time, we got to the birthing center. After about four hours of true laboring—pushing and all—they asked to check my cervix because I was not making any progress. They told me my cervix wasn’t all the way dilated. I told them it was time to go to a hospital and request a C-section.
They told me it was fine and my cervix would eventually dilate. I insisted, and they prepared my transfer. At the hospital, I told them that I needed a C-section. They assured me I was fine, and as I was pushing, there was talk amongst themselves about how the baby should be here any minute, and there was no way I was getting a C-section. They were horribly wrong.
No less than twenty minutes later, they couldn’t find the baby’s heartbeat and when they did, its heart rate was dropping rapidly, and mine was suddenly spiking to dangerous levels. The rest was a blur. I was pulled onto a bed and wheeled into the OR. The last thing I remember was my husband being pushed out of the OR and me saying just go; I'm going to be okay.
I woke up to my husband holding our beautiful daughter. If I hadn't gone to the hospital and listened to the midwife instead, my daughter and I might have both lost our lives that night.
18. Meeting Her Didn’t Sit Well With Me
There was a woman who worked in my husband’s office building who fixed up furniture. I had an antique chair in the garage that my husband had offered her that we weren't doing anything with. At the time, she was just picking something up from our home. While we stood in the driveway, I just had a vibe that was completely off. I never predicted how right I was.
Later, I found out he literally gave her a job in his own office so he could control her time and have all her attention. I found out about that a year later when I went into the office, and no one would look me in the eye. She was hiding from me in the ladies' room. She was the woman my husband left my kids and me for.
19. Rev That Engine
This is more of a laughable story. To my embarrassment, my dad really likes to tell this story. I was with my dad at a car shop that his friend owned. He was visiting his friend and had just brought me along. They were working on some old car. I wasn't paying much attention as an eight-year-old. I should have been paying attention. I was in for the surprise of my life.
My dad and his friend sprayed something on the engine of the car they were working on. When they turned the car on and revved the engine, this giant flame shot up for just a second or two. Well, that’s all it took. I ran several yards towards the street. I had seen way too many Hollywood movies to know that a car on fire was not a good thing.
When I looked back, there were like five men including my dad and his friend all standing around laughing hysterically at me.
20. Left In A Panic
When I was eight years old, we had a “special” quiz in school. It was worth a small amount of our grade but the rule was that we only got the points if we took it home, showed our parents, had them sign it, and returned it the next day. We lived a 40-minute drive from school and about halfway there, I started panicking and I didn’t know why.
We were between these two semi trucks, a gasoline tanker, and a cement truck. My mom pulled over so we could talk it out, and then I remembered my quiz! We were going to be early, so we sped home, grabbed the quiz, and headed back to school. As we got about two miles past where my mom had pulled off the road to talk to me, we saw that the cement truck had rear-ended the gas tanker, which then exploded.
The charred remains of both trucks, dozens of emergency vehicles of all kinds, and a huge swath of melted asphalt and burnt grass around the road told the story. Our little 1984-made subcompact would have been sandwiched right in the middle. My mom turned to me and said, “You should trust your panic attacks”.
21. On The Run
One morning when I was in middle school, my dog was barking a storm while in our backyard, around our storage room. My parents told me to go check it out, but I had a feeling something was up, and I didn't want to be late walking to school. Shortly after I got there, the school went into immediate lockdown with everyone sheltering in place.
Apparently, there was a body with a bullet wound found in a car at a nearby park, and the suspect was still at large. Eventually, the shelter in place was lifted, and the school day went on like normal. While walking back home, as I turned the last corner with a block to go to my house, I saw a whole squad of cruisers pulled up around my house.
I frantically sprinted down the block and found my backyard swarming with officers, rummaging through all our boxes and junk from our storage room. The suspect was hiding out in our storage room and was caught after someone reported seeing him jump our fence. Officers were at our house the whole day searching for the firearm. If I had gone over and checked out what the dog was barking at, who knows what would have happened.
22. The Sad Semi
My husband and I were heading out of town when we saw a guy on the side of the highway. He was pacing around under the overpass and something about it seemed suspicious to me. I really didn’t want to drive past the guy. I asked my husband to take the next exit, go on the overpass and re-enter the highway on the other side. I’m so glad he took my advice.
The second we took the exit, the guy jumped right in front of a semi. Needless to say, he did not survive. Turns out, he was just a freshman in college. I don’t know what convinced him to do what he did, but it’s so sad. The semi driver was a 72-year-old man who was just three weeks away from retiring. I can’t imagine what the driver must have gone through.
23. Deep Sea Adventure
My ex and I were snorkeling. We were on holiday and spent most days at the beach snorkeling without incident, but something this day felt...different. We were snorkeling along a rocky area near a drop-off. I had this horrible feeling that we were being watched and felt very uneasy. I signaled my ex to the surface. I told him I felt weird and that we needed to go back to the beach.
He protested because he was having fun, but I was adamant. Lo and behold, we got to the beach, and everyone was standing and pointing to the water. We looked back to see a large bull shark coming close to the shore. Not long after, a helicopter was seen tracking it down the coast. My ex never questioned my intuition again.
24. The Party Was Over
There was this friendly, funny, handsome guy I was mutual friends with in high school. For some reason, I was always uncomfortable around him. It always felt like he gave off Ted Bundy vibes as if he was constantly trying to hide some dark part of him. One of my best friends started flirting with him, and I chose not to say anything about it because I didn’t want to come across as jealous. They never started dating, but a month into them talking, he threw her down a flight of stairs at a party.
25. How To Ditch A Date
When I was 17, I went on a date with a 23-year-old guy. I can’t remember his name for the life of me. It’s probably for the best. I had just gotten out of a horrible relationship and was trying to distract myself. We had dinner and when the waiter brought the check, the guy told me he had forgotten his wallet in his car. He asked me to go with him so he could grab it. That was red flag #1.
I told him it was fine and paid for the meal myself. Afterward, we went into a couple of different shops and he kept asking me questions about my ex-boyfriend. He also mentioned that he had served time but wouldn’t tell me what for. Needless to say, that made me pretty nervous. At that point, for all I knew, he could have been dangerous. Then things really got scary.
At some point, he kept insisting that I go to his car to listen to music. He kept getting increasingly anxious every time I declined. I was so scared. I immediately pretended to have a period emergency so I could get out of there. Luckily, I had parked in a different lot than he did. I still have no idea what his intentions were but man that was terrifying.
26. The Long Walk Home
My sister and I went to the city for our birthday. We stayed in a hotel downtown, and since we were so close, we decided to walk to the bar. We got there and were having a great time, but it was getting late. The last call rolled around, and I decided to get us one more drink each. A man was at the bar and we made conversation. He said he was alone, so I invited him to our table. I'd regret that decision almost immediately.
When we got to our table, another man was standing there talking to my sister. The men claimed to not know each other, stating that they were from completely different states, but they seemed quite chummy. Also, they were quite insistent that they needed to walk us to our hotel room. It hit me, and I knew something wasn't right.
I asked my sister to come to the bathroom with me, and I informed her that I felt something was off, but she just thought I was overreacting. I told her we couldn't walk, we had to get an Uber or Lyft. The last call came, and the staff told us we needed to leave. I asked them to please give us some time because we were trying to get a ride back to the hotel. For whatever reason, I could not get the Uber or Lyft app to work.
The staff told us they'd ask the guys to leave, and we could wait a few minutes, but then we had to go. My sister still thought nothing was wrong. We went to leave and both men were standing by the doors waiting on us. The staff told us we couldn’t stay any longer, but we could go out the back doors, so we did. But we weren't out of danger yet. We began walking down the alley and got to the sidewalk that would lead us back to our hotel, but we'd have to walk under this sketchy and dimly lit bridge.
My sister said if we ran, we could make it to the hotel. I told her no, because we didn't know where the men were. I spotted a night-shift city worker. We approached him and I explained the situation. We were still trying to get a ride, but it still wasn’t working. As we stood there with the city worker, the two men came walking around the corner together, and they headed straight for us.
The man that I was talking to at the bar got in my face and said, "What's wrong? You didn't want us to walk you"? I already had my pepper spray in hand, aiming. I told him, "Get away from us". He repeated the same questions while he stepped closer. I told him again with my finger on the trigger of the pepper spray and a loud, stern voice to "GET OUT OF MY FACE AND AWAY FROM MY SISTER".
They both walked away while glaring at us. We continued to stand with the city worker while we tried to get a ride, but it still wouldn't work. A group of officers came strolling down the sidewalk. I asked them to walk us, and they did all the way to the hotel. I'm very thankful for them and that I didn't leave my pepper spray. There's no telling what could've happened.
27. Almost Gone
I lived in a small town where kids of all ages would walk to school, my son included. One morning, as I watched my son walk to school out the window, I had the feeling that I should take him. I brushed it off as being paranoid. Not long after, I got a call from the authorities that someone had tried to get my son into their van as he was walking. He ran and told one of the teachers at school. When I found out, I broke down and wasn't OK for the longest time. I still hate myself for not listening to my gut.
28. I Have To Go Potty
When I was in high school, I went to a party in a recently abandoned house on the outskirts of town. There were a lot of people I knew there, but also a lot of shady folks I was unfamiliar with. Things started out pretty chill—that is, as chill as things can be with a bunch of partying teenagers. As the night went on, people started destroying things; I guess because the place was abandoned.
I left when someone threw a toilet out of an upstairs window. I found out later that officers showed up. Several people ran from them through a nearby cornfield but the officers caught them anyway. A friend of mine ran right into a barbed wire fence and ended up in the hospital. I, on the other hand, was safely at home.
29. Mishap At The Mall
I had a rare day off work and decided to get some Christmas shopping done. It was late November and the mall near me was having some really good sales. But as I was driving there, I started having this weird anxious feeling. The closer I got, the more anxious and uneasy I felt. So, instead of going right to the mall, I stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a drink and snack.
I couldn’t shake the anxiety, so I sat in the parking lot for a bit while I ate and drank. I opened up the news on my phone and the first thing that popped up was a shooting at the mall I was headed to. I went straight home, and did all of my Christmas shopping online that year.
30. Starbucks Saved Me
It started snowing pretty heavily, and I was still a relatively new driver in the snow. Cars were zooming past me on the highway, and I felt as if I should get off the road, get a Starbucks, and come back in 45 mins when the weather would be better. As soon as I pulled off the road, I felt better. When I came back an hour later, the highway was a wreck. Semi-trucks were turned over in the snow, cars had spun out onto the side, and there were crashes everywhere.
31. Too Little, Too Late
I was driving in the middle of winter in Iowa—that means snow and ice galore. I saw this dude behind me, clearly speeding in dangerous conditions. The next thing I knew, he started fishtailing all over the road while gaining speed. My instincts kicked in, but it was too late—things were about to get disastrous.
Eventually, he came up right on my rear. I tried to move over to let him speed through, but it was too late. My gut feeling had been right, I just acted too late. He lost complete traction as he was passing me, nicked the side of my car, and sent me spinning out. I flew right into a snowplow.
32. Going The Bear Minimum
I was in the Army, and working a late night in November; it was maybe past 9 PM. The road I would take back was a back road, which was fine to drive during the day, but there were zero streetlights, so I only had headlights to see the road. It was also a heavily wooded area. I told myself to drive below the speed limit in case a deer might pop out.
Right when I had the instinct, a bear cub ran right across the road. If I had been maintaining speed, I'd have hit the thing. Perhaps the cub would have gotten injured, but where there's a cub, there's bound to be its mother.
33. I Wasn’t Trippin’
A couple of coworkers/friends started dating and moved in together. They decided to move out of town together. I was with a friend, and we happened to swing by and say hello and goodbye to them when they were packing. In the few minutes I was over, I got extremely bad vibes without having a clear or specific reason why.
I told myself that the danger I sensed was just in my tripping mind at the time. After all, I had known them both together as a couple for over a year, and they seemed very happy. If only I had said something, I maybe could have stopped him. Two years later, they split up, and she made it clear to her friends that he had become emotionally and physically harmful.
34. Lurking In The Shadows
I had a situation one night in downtown Minneapolis. I went to a bus station late at night and when I got there, the bus driver was on his break; just chilling in the bus. There was some dude just standing around in the shadows nearby. I thought it was no big deal at first; I told myself he was waiting for the bus like I was.
I leaned up against the wall waiting for the driver to turn the lights on and signal that the bus was in service. While I was there, I noticed the weirdo lurking in the shadows looking my way occasionally. I didn't love that, but I ignored it. Then out of nowhere, things went from zero to one hundred real fast.
The guy from the shadows just started sprinting towards me. I tossed my phone in my pocket and braced myself for a fight. But the guy just ran past me as if I wasn’t even there. The bus driver watched the whole thing go down and a second later, he opened up the door and said, "Hey man, maybe you should just wait in here." I was like, yup.
35. Better Dread Ted
My gal pal and I were about 15–16 years old in 1975. We were at a rural county fair in WA State when a well-dressed man in his 30s came up to ask us to help him get his VW out of a ditch about a mile down the road. It didn’t make much sense that a man of that age would ask young girls when male officers and guys older than us were all over.
So, we told him to get lost and went to tell an officer this guy was asking this of us teenagers. When I was 21, I went to work for the same county’s Sheriff’s Department, and I saw that man’s picture posted everywhere. That man was Ted Bundy.
36. Phone Home!
When my ex’s dad was younger and away with the Merchant Navy, he and a few of the lads were out at a pub when he suddenly got an overwhelming urge to call home. This was in the days before mobile phones, and there were no public phones readily available. He tried to brush it off, but he just felt the urge getting stronger and stronger.
Eventually, he ended up walking about a mile or so to the nearest phone to call his mom. When she picked up, she said she was so relieved he had called, as his best friend Gary had passed suddenly in the last few days and his funeral was to be held in the coming days. If he hadn’t got that feeling that night, he wouldn’t have been able to make it home in time.
37. Waiting For The Crash
I was in Springfield once. I decided to get in a car and head over to a party with a bunch of people who had obviously been drinking…including the driver. At one point, he started driving so recklessly...all I could do was hope the impact would be swift and painless. He decided to cruise the main strip, squealing the tires and drifting.
Obviously, this guy wasn’t too smart. He was pulling all of these stunts right in front of a squad car. Before that moment, I never thought I would be so relieved to hear sirens...but I certainly feel that those officers who pulled us over saved my life. The officers booked everyone else in the car and took them into the station.
I received a stern lecture about my choice of friends. The officers gave me the keys to the car to take home and told me to have a good night.
38. Saved By A Second Opinion
I had my gallbladder removed, and I didn’t feel quite right afterward. I was told I was overreacting to normal pain at the hospital, but I was still uneasy and went to another afterward, against my surgeon’s recommendation. I ended up having an extra bile duct that wasn’t closed and was emptying into my abdomen. I was admitted for a while while they fixed it and then dealt with pancreatic issues that popped up from the damage.
39. A Bad Feeling Was Bubbling Up In Me
I worked at a youth treatment center. A girl who had bipolar disorder asked to take a bath. My team lead said yes, but I had a terrible feeling based on her presentation when she asked. This girl was absolutely off the charts. After 20 minutes of her being in the bath, I was sick with unease that she was hurting herself in the tub. So much so that I had been pacing around the unit.
I talked to the team lead, who was female, to go and check on her, as I’m a male. First, she asked me to knock and check, which I did, but she was so quiet and faint I could barely hear a sound. She came down to check on her, and I prepared myself to run to the phone to call for help. It turned out that she had cut herself and had bled out ALL over the bathroom. It was terrible.
40. Always Tip Your Delivery Guy
When I was in high school, I delivered pizzas for a very small shop in my town. The town itself was so small that the addresses didn’t even show up on the internet. I had more than a few dicey encounters running pizzas, but this one, in particular, gave the creeps. This one guy called in with his order and I took it down no problem. Then he gave me the directions to get to his place.
He led me a mile down some dirt road into the middle of the woods. I had gone to some creepy places before, but this place was different. I immediately freaked out. I pulled up to what looked like a burned-down trailer and the guy was just standing on his porch with a giant bird on his shoulder.
I swallowed my stomach and gave the guy his pizza. He started flipping dollar bills in his hand, counting them one-by-one while staring into my soul. Then, he was like, “Do you wanna pet my bird?" I politely told him no and he cursed at me. He didn't even tip me. What a jerk.
41. Rocketing Away From Doom
In high school, we had an unhealthy preoccupation with making small explosives from model rocket engine powder. In this case, we used a spent CO2 cartridge packed full of the powder, with a short mortar fuse, stuffed inside a crab trap buoy—a monument to terrible decisions. I held the device as it was lit, intending to throw it, but the fuse burned out.
My friend said, “Maybe we should relight it”. I said forget it as I threw it as hard and as far as I possibly could. The styrofoam buoy landed some distance away, bounced once, and exploded with what sounded like a giant blast. There wasn’t a piece of that buoy left larger than a crumb, and the blast radius was wide. If I’d held on to that thing, the best-case scenario is that I wouldn’t have a right hand. Given the proximity to my face, it would likely have been much, much worse.
42. The Universe Was Trying To Alert Us
My grandpa was hospitalized after having a tumor removed. There was an incident where he managed to call my grandma in complete distress, asking to go home. It was dismissed as some sort of delirium due to some meds he was on or something like that. He didn't have access to his phone after that. One night, my mom’s cell phone just wouldn't stop ringing.
It was not a call kind of ringing, but rather it kept giving loud alerts of the battery running low, even though it was plugged in and charging, and the battery wasn't low. It woke up my mom multiple times that night. She just had a terrible feeling that something was wrong and the phone acting weird definitely wasn't helping. In the morning, we learned that my grandfather had passed that night.
43. Ante Up And All In
I was in Thailand back in 2010. We were hopping around the southern islands after a full moon party. My friend and I were talking to two girls who invited us to play poker. We went and sat down with two German guys (who were also obviously tourists) and two burly Thai guys. The Thai guys had tons of tattoos and looked pretty tough, but we began to play anyway.
The buy-in was $10. We lost some pots, won some pots, and overall, it was a happy experience. The Thai guys beat us for the most part, but I managed to claw my chips back up to about eight dollars. At one point, my friend was starting to look tired, so I gave him a nod, thanked the guys for the game, and prepared to leave.
I was about to cash out my pot when things took a turn for the worse. As I was taking my pot, the Thai guys dropped a machete on the table. They made it pretty clear that we could leave but the money had to stay. My friend, myself, and the two German guys were like, “Yeah, keep the money. We. Are. Outta. Here.”
On the way back, the girls caught up with us and apologized. We weren’t buying their little act this time. They were clearly in on the take. Lesson learned: if pretty girls ask you to play a game, it's for nefarious reasons.
44. A Keen Eye For Danger
I had two one-and-a-half-year-old cats as well as a six-month-old. I was giving my three cats supervised outside time. It was just before noon on a sunny day, which was a nice break from the fog we normally had. The cats were chasing butterflies, chattering at birds, eating cat grass, and getting buzzed on the catnip I grew for them. I was relaxing in my patio chair reading a book when suddenly I got the sense that something was amiss.
I looked up from my book and, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a flash of red and dark brown in a blurred reflection on the window of my sunroom. I just knew something was about to happen if I didn't act. I quickly called for my older cats to go inside, which they did.
Then, I looked over to the little one who was rolling around on a patch of warm cement just soaking up all the sun.
I walked over and stood above it when suddenly a red-tailed hawk had just circled around the corner of the house and was coming in hot. The hawk, having realized I moved and was now guarding the kitten, quickly aborted its attempt to snatch up the meal it so desired. Had my gut instinct not alerted me to the danger, my older cats and I would have surely been grieving over a much different story.
45. It Was The End Of The Road
The night before my fiancé was going to leave on a road trip with her dad to go see family back east, she asked me if I was mad at her for going. I'd had a bad feeling about the whole thing but couldn't really say why. It was just a feeling. She would be gone for about three weeks. I told her it was okay, that I just didn't want to miss her. I should have listened to my gut.
About two thousand miles into their trip, at an intersection in Illinois, an intoxicated driver in a truck plowed through her car and three others, killing her and crippling her dad. She was 29 years old. They were about 250 miles from their destination. My world shattered. I had a bad feeling that I couldn't put my finger on. If I had asked her to stay, she would have. We were going to finally get married and start our family when she got back. It haunts me every minute of every day. It's been almost five years.
46. Let’s Not Rock & Roll
When I was in high school in the early 1980s, I saw a lot of heavy metal bands. I had a friend who could always get us backstage access after the concerts. After one of our favorite bands played, we went backstage. I thought it was going to a pretty cool experience, meeting the band members. It was definitely an experience I’ll remember, but it was anything but cool.
At one point, the lead singer of the band said, out of nowhere: "Okay. All the girls take off your clothes or get out." I got out. The rest of the girls stayed.
47. Field Trip Fail
In third grade, my class took a late springtime field trip to a famous museum on the East Coast. We all went outside to grab our lunches from the bus and eat on the concrete stairs that led to the entrance of the museum. I wasn't very hungry and finished early. The student-teacher ratio was high, so we weren't well chaperoned.
As others continued to eat their lunch, I decided to look around and kept walking until I found the side of the museum. It led to an empty alley. I looked for no more than two seconds before deciding to turn around. As soon as I did, my eyes met those of a man in his early 30s who was walking toward me. His eyes shifted, and I immediately started running back toward the group, shouting my teacher’s name, who was not even in sight.
The man immediately turned around and speed-walked back into the crowd of passersby on the sidewalk. I believe the man thought I was going to continue into the alley, upon which time he most likely would have attempted to abduct me. He seemed very surprised that I immediately sensed danger. I have little doubt that I would have gone missing if I had decided to continue exploring that alley.
48. Things Took A Bad Turn
I had just bought a brand new CAT tourniquet for emergency use and kept it on the molle of the big medical bag I keep in my truck. The next morning, when I got to work at the pipeline, I thought to myself, I should really carry this because you never know. However, I decided I would buy another to carry at work and leave the other one in my truck.
Right after lunch break, we went back to where we were working next to a busy street. A flashing sign got knocked over, so my laborer climbed over the barrier to pick it up. As he was bending down, a car ran a stop sign and ripped his entire left leg off. The belt I was wearing couldn't stop the bleeding, and he bled out within a couple of minutes. The CAT tourniquet I carry around now has his initials on it.
49. Get The Keys, Get The Keys, Get The Keys
I was leaving for work at 5:30 am once. It was still dark out and pretty spooky. I locked the inside door handle and walked out, pulling the door closed behind me so that I would have to get my keys in my bag to get back in. As I turned around to walk off the porch and head to my car, my life flashed before my eyes—I saw four men jump out of a van. They started running towards me at a full sprint. The street was otherwise empty.
My heart was pounding in my chest. I felt totally panicked as I started digging in my big, messy purse for my keys to unlock the door and get back to the safety of my house. The whole time, I was just thinking that these guys were going to grab me, shove me in the van, and do who knows what to me. My mind was just racing as these guys got nearer and nearer.
I was able to get back in my house before they made it to me. I was so frightened. Turns out, they were immigration officers. They were looking for someone who used to live in our house. Apparently, charging the front door is standard practice for them if they think the suspect will run!
50. Flipping Out
We were coming home from a big trip. Our friends were in one car, my dad in another, and my mom, sisters, and me in the last car. I was 17 and learning how to drive. I was supposed to be driving to get some experience, but my mom decided last minute she would drive. I was a little mad, but she said she had a feeling. We were in our little convoy about to get on the highway when all of a sudden, our friend’s car went flying into the shoulder.
Mom and I were worried they blew a tire. Then suddenly, my dad’s car ran off into the shoulder. Then, we finally saw it: Before my mom and I could question why, a semi-truck was mid-flip and coming right at us. My mom, being the ninja she is, put the car in reverse and started driving BACKWARDS. The truck flipped again and landed on its side and was sliding toward us.
My mom had to slam on the brakes to avoid oncoming traffic. The truck slid to a stop 15 feet away from the car. Our friends and my dad were safe, and they rushed to the truck to help the driver and his wife. The driver had taken the turn too fast. His load got ahead of him, and he lost control. The wife was bleeding from a minor cut on her head, but luckily, no one was seriously hurt.
51. A Day At The Races
My friends and I were playing a lottery game called Daily Derby, where you pick three horses and a race time. If you get the first, second, and third horses as well as the race time, you win the jackpot. I had stopped playing our ticket months before, but as I was driving home, I got this overwhelming urge to pull over and play the ticket. It was out of nowhere.
So, I pulled into a CVS parking lot, got out of my car with the ticket slip, but stopped myself. I said out loud, "Why are you wasting $42?!?" I then put the ticket back into my car and locked it. I stopped again and knew I needed to play it, so I got it out again. I also had a powerful feeling that I needed to play it twice, but I didn't. The three horses came up that night, but I missed the race time. It honestly didn't feel real.
I won $1,000. I wonder what would have happened if I had played that slip twice.
52. Position Available, Apply Within
I used to live in France by myself. I was struggling to make ends meet, but thankfully, I was able to get a tutoring job. This man wanted me to teach his young daughter. On the first session, he drove me home and spent the entire time asking whether or not I had a boyfriend, where I was living, and whether or not I lived alone.
The second session was even creepier. He wanted to give me a tour of his house. I noticed that he made a habit of standing in the doorway when we went into a room so that I couldn’t get out—unless I wanted to jump out of a window. That didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Once we got to the second floor, I grabbed his daughter close so nothing would happen.
After that horrifying “tour,” I tried to quit, but he guilted me into coming three more times. Every time I went back, I got so anxious beforehand that I just wanted to puke. He offered me a ride home each time, but I told him no—that one ride with him was enough for a lifetime, thank you. Instead, I took the two-hour-long bus ride back home.
Finally, I mustered up the courage to break off the arrangement completely. I knew something bad was going to happen to me if I kept going there. I confirmed my suspicions with a few other young English-speaking women I knew. He was trying to recruit his second wife.
53. That Nothing Was Something
I started showing symptoms of having serious health problems—passing out, seizures, etc. I went to a neurologist who sent me to one single MRI and deemed the mass in my brain to be “nothing”. My gut told me to not trust it, so I went to my doctor and asked for a second opinion. I was sent to a neurosurgeon who put me through a bunch of tests and procedures.
I found out that not only was it a brain tumor, but it was turning into something dangerous. It had the same mutation cells found only in cancer and in the big brain cancer that has a low survival rate. My gut feeling gave me a chance.
54. I Was Not Being A Hypochondriac
I was a dynamic leader in my profession for over 20 years. Throughout one summer, I knew something with me wasn’t right. I didn’t have any pain or anything I could put my finger on, but I started doubting myself more than usual. I kept seeking quiet spaces and getting a little more emotional than usual when thanking staff for their hard work.
I said to my wife that something didn’t feel right. I bought a blood oxygen monitor, and we started carrying aspirin everywhere. I even told trusted staff at work that I was a bit concerned but with no physical symptoms. I even laughed at myself for acting like a hypochondriac. I had not taken any sick leave in 30 years. That fall, I had a brain hemorrhage that led to a stroke.
It was caused by high blood pressure. The scans showed a golf ball-sized “dead zone” in my head where the blood from the bleed hadn’t cleared seven months later. The worst thing was that I had gone to the doctor the day before to tell them things didn’t feel right. According to my stats, by right, I should no longer be alive.
55. That’s Not My Resume
After I graduated from college, I finally landed an interview with a guy who was starting his own company. The economy was circling the toilet, so I was happy for any opportunity that came my way. When I went in for the interview, however, I quickly noticed that this wasn’t a good situation. I would have been better off flipping burgers.
When I entered the interview room, he doubled locked the door behind me. It was a small office in a strip mall so it was already sketchy enough. I immediately started to panic when I realized that no one else was there. He invited me to sit down. Just two questions into the interview and things started to get really creepy.
He tried to put his hand up my skirt—I was wearing a business skirt suit. I got up, ran, and thankfully, I was able to open the locks and get the heck out of there before he could go any further. My mom accompanied me to every interview after that for a while.
56. A Double Scoop Of Danger
I was playing at my friend’s house when all of a sudden, a car pulled up. It was his dad, who was not allowed to see either of his sons and was not in the picture. He asked us, “Do y’all wanna get some ice cream”? I hesitated and said no and that I should ask my dad first. I went home right then. The next day, I didn’t see my friend, or the next day after that. Then the news got out.
The dad abducted both of his sons and took them to Brazil. It took months to get them back, as Brazil wouldn’t extradite them. Once the dad was back in the US, he ended up taking his own life. I didn’t see the oldest son until years later when we were doing driver’s ed together. I don’t know if something would’ve happened to me, but I’m glad I trusted my gut and went home.
57. I Had A Sixth Sense
I met a dude named Six and instantly knew he would play a role in my life; I just wasn't sure how. Our chance meeting turned into a friendship. He moved in and slept on my couch. On the surface, things were great—we had so much fun together, and he was incredibly helpful to my healing as I had been widowed a year before. However, there would be times that I would suddenly feel scared of him, as if I was in the devil's presence or something.
There was seemingly no reason at all for me to feel that way as he wasn't doing or saying anything wrong. I always talked myself out of believing my gut and ignored the warnings. They could have prevented the nightmare of my life. Six months into our relationship, he broke my leg and held me captive for two days until I escaped. A neighbor came and blasted him in the chest, hip and leg. He survived but ended up getting sentenced to 12 years in prison.
58. The Horrible Hitchhiker
I was driving to work one night and I came across this lady whose car had broken down. I decided to help her out..but never again. She said she lived close by and didn't have any family to pick her up, so I offered to drive her home. That's when she told me she needed to stop by the bank. I figured that it would be my good deed for the day, so I agreed to help her. I drove her to the bank so she could get $20 out to buy groceries.
She seemed down on her luck and I knew what that was like, so I gave her $20 out of my own pocket. She said she had another stop to make. It seemed like she was using me as a taxi. She wanted me to drive her to her friend’s place so she could tell her that her rent would be late. At that point, it was becoming a hassle and I was risking being late for work. I couldn’t risk my livelihood for a stranger.
After I got to the neighborhood where her friend lived, I became very worried. It was a sketchy area. I told her I only had time to drop her off at her house or at her friend’s house, but it was up to her as they were both close. She started screaming at me; demanding I do whatever she asked me to. That was it. Beggars can’t be choosers.
I stopped the car, looked at her straight in the eyes, and said: "You take your things and you get out of my car right now." She tried to leave without taking her stuff so I would be forced to wait for her. I said, "If you don't take your things, I will literally drive away with them." She grabbed her stuff and got out, then I sped away.
59. Running The Red
I was a teenager and first learning how to drive. I was at an intersection where a lot of accidents happen. For some reason, one day, even though the light turned green, I hesitated for just a bit longer than normal before proceeding into the intersection. Sure enough, about three seconds later, someone going way over the speed limit ran the red light for the intersection.
I'm almost positive I would've been a goner due to being T-boned super hard, as their timing would've been right on target to have collided, head-on, with my driver's side door in my small sedan.
60. The Signs Were All There
When I was in my early twenties, my best friend and I hung out for the day. He lived far away, so it was a treat to see him again. We drove around in his new car and saw some other friends, yet, I noticed something was off about him. His driving scared me when it never had before. He wasn't the kind of guy to talk about his feelings, but he opened up briefly that night about his divorce.
I was too blind to see warning signs. All I could only think about was my upcoming trip. Before my return flight, I got a call from his mom. He was drinking and driving. He crashed into the bottom of a bridge, sat unconscious in a fire until he was "rescued," and was unconscious in the hospital with major burns on more than 80% of his body. I was in pre-med biology, so I knew enough to be certain this wasn't something he would recover from.
I flew back and got to be in the room with him. I was angry at myself because I knew something was wrong, and I didn't care enough to help. I only cared about my trip and felt I wasn't around when he needed someone. He was buried with full Navy honors, some coins for his missions, and the heaviest coffin they could have had us carry.
61. Night Moves
I was walking home from the gym in Seattle once. I always used to walk by this weird house with blankets over the windows. There was also this fenced-in yard, packed with old busted RV's and garbage. On that particular night, there was some random old dude with a long white beard standing in front of the house in a bathrobe.
I had never seen anyone in front of the house before. Then, all of a sudden, the weirdest thing happened—I heard what sounded like a small car pulling up to a stoplight. When I looked over, it wasn’t a small car at all. In fact, several squad cars had rolled up with their and lights off. I don't even know how they managed to move so quietly. They were like squad car ninjas.
I saw a few officers approaching the house and the old man. They were completely silent and moved in a raid formation or something. They were obviously conducting some major operation and I was caught right in the middle of it. One of them made eye contact with me and signaled for me to go in a different direction.
They didn’t have to ask me twice. I was out of there. About a month later, I learned that the city had torn down that house. I have no idea what happened that night...and I'm glad I didn't have to find out.
62. Ditching The Dog
I had just got back home from fishing with the pup all day and realized I needed some stuff to make dinner. I got the dog ready to go again and then thought, "I better just leave you here so you can see Mom when she gets home", and I let him back in the house. Five minutes down the highway, I had a guy pull out in front of me while I was doing 60 mph.
He absolutely demolished my truck. I poked a hole in the windshield with my head, bent the steering column up into the dash with my chest, and broke my knee on the lower dash. My dog would have for sure been ejected; I'm glad he wasn't there!
63. February Feeling
When I was pregnant with my son, my now ex-husband used to go out of town for work. We were worried about me going into labor while he was away and not making it for the birth. So, we talked to my doctor about inducing me so that we could plan his birth. While we were waiting for her to grab her calendar, I told my husband that there was something about the 16th that I hadn’t been able to get out of my head.
So, we scheduled the induction for February 16th at 5 AM. I woke up around 1:30 that morning with the most awful pain. At 3 AM, I still couldn’t time the pain, but I knew I had to go and go now! I was in labor and didn't have to be induced after all. My doctor couldn’t believe it. My son came into this world all on his own on February 16th. I just knew there was something about that day.
64. It’s Ssssso Nice To Make Your Acquaintance
I was nine or so when I had a total nightmare encounter. I was about to go wading in a creek when I noticed a snake in the water. I don’t like snakes, but it was just a little snake, maybe a foot long. It was just hanging out, mostly vertical with its tail in some mud and reeds and stuff, and its nostrils sticking out of the water.
I thought, okay, no big deal; I just won't wade where the snake was hanging out. So, I moved downstream about five feet or so...and guess what? There were two more little snakes, hanging out right where I wanted to put my bare feet. That's when I realized—I had unknowingly infiltrated a snake den.
65. A Feeling From My Ex
Years ago, I was in between houses. I had a new place lined up but it wouldn’t be ready for about six weeks. My little sister lived in the area, so I decided to crash on her couch. My ex and I had been broken up for about six months at that point. It was a decently amicable breakup; we were still in the same friend group and got along.
One night my ex called me up crying, saying she had a feeling something bad was going to happen and asked me to please come spend the night with her. So, at like midnight on a weekday, I got in my car and drove over to calm her down and spend the night. The next morning, I drove back over to my little sister's house and found there were cruisers all up and down the street.
Some idiot had gone cruising, randomly blasting at people's houses. My sister was fine; her room was in the back of the house. However, the couch I stayed on backed up against the front wall, right next to the front door. Sure enough, there were three bullet holes in the couch. Knowing how I like to sleep, I think all three of them would have hit me.
66. Curious Cat
My cat was a homebody who would go into our fenced yard to do his business when he was not feeling the litter box and was always inside by nightfall. One day, I noticed him inside around noon and began to get worried around 6 PM. I literally felt it in my gut, like a cramp that wouldn't let go. I walked around the neighborhood and walked the forest line next to our house, but no cat.
By nighttime, I was on the verge of panic, and my family thought I was just being dramatic. I sat on the couch, trying not to cry, but I felt like something terrible had happened to him. Around 8 PM, I heard the cat door in my bedroom flop. I went to check, and he was sprawled on my bed, bloodied from several scratches, and his tail was broken in two places.
He was in awful shape and lethargic. He also had urinary crystals that had completely blocked him. I had to call and beg all the local vets to get someone to see him. He wouldn’t have made it without immediate treatment.
67. Just Like Herding Sheep
I live on a cattle farm, so dangerous situations are always just around the corner. One time, my dad, granddad, and I had to move a bull into another pen so that we could give him medicine for his injured leg. To do this, we spread out in a fan with big rattles on sticks to make noise and get him to go in the direction we wanted.
When we got to the open gate, the bull looked at it and decided there must be a better way to go. He turned and faced us, poised for a showdown. We made noise to get him to turn around and he considered us for a moment. Finally, he started freaking out. He wasn’t going inside of any pen, he decided.
He turned to face me directly and then lunged at me. I found my inner track star at that moment and climbed the fence to safety. Needless to say, we left him alone after that.
68. Dealing With Captain Sketch
Years ago, I had a dealer who would always ask where I lived. The dude was a bit off, so I avoided specifics when replying. One afternoon, my roommate went along with me, and everything went smoothly until we were about to get into the car. Captain Sketch asked him where we lived, and my roommate blurted out the building and apartment number.
About eight hours later, we were watching The X-Files, and the doorknob started to jiggle. Next thing we knew, we were holding the dealer guy and his buddy until they listened for a bit, and we were sure they understood what was going to happen if they tried that again.
69. We Were Almost Met With An Early Withdrawl
My husband and I were leaving a Christmas party and had to stop at the bank machine to pick up cash for the babysitter. When we pulled in, the parking lot was empty. The dark lot behind the bank had a single car in it with two people in the car with the lights out. I didn’t see the car because I was in the passenger seat, but my stomach sank as we pulled in. My husband said he would only be a second, and he would leave the truck running.
He got out, and as soon as he entered the building, the car behind the bank came flying into the front lot and backed in so that their driver side door was inches away from my husband's door, with not enough space for him to get in the truck. My heart started pounding. I popped my head up, pulled out my phone, and started calling my husband. The guy had his door open and was reaching for the truck door when he saw me.
I think he thought the truck was empty. He saw my husband walking fast towards their car—my husband was a big guy, and they were scrawny little guys—so he jumped back in their car and pulled between my husband and our truck. The passenger had a .22 on his lap, and the window was down. As my husband started running towards their car, they sped off. He later said he knew he should never have pulled in there. A week later, a guy was carjacked in the exact same spot.
70. Timber!
I was digging a trench along the side of my yard once. It was during a massive flood and I wanted to get the water moving again. I was going to be the one doing the moving, though. As I was digging, I heard a loud series of cracking noises behind me. When I turned around, I gasped—I saw the branches of a large oak tree starting to give way.
When the cracking got louder and the branches began to actually fall off, I sprinted out toward the street. Twigs whipped my body all over before I was safely away.
71. The Ride Of His Life
My cousin was about to leave a party with two other dudes. He opened the car door, and all of a sudden, he decided against it, and he walked back into the house. The two dudes waited for a beat, then left. On their way home, the driver lost control of the car and crashed head-on into a tree. One lost his life on the spot, and the other at the hospital. The car ended up in three major pieces, none of which look like they could occupy a person.
72. I Was Sensing A Glitch
I received an alert from our storage system that “admin” had a failed login attempt. As I was the only one who would log in to it, it wigged me out. So, I started investigating. I asked my boss, who was the only other person who had the password, and he said he didn’t do it. However, he also said not to worry about it, as someone in the company probably just made a mistake.
So, I moved on. That was a huge mistake. Three days later, we got hit with the most significant, most sophisticated ransomware strike I had ever seen or heard of. It took our whole company down for a week, made all of the IT’s lives a nightmare for a LONG time, and cost the company several million dollars overall. Had I done more checking and gone in and changed the passwords, chances are much of it would have been avoided, or at least would have been easier to recover from.
73. The Payday Payload
I was working at a call center, trying to sell cell phone plans. I wasn’t making a salary or hourly wage. It a total commission-based paid scheme. As if that wasn’t bad enough, my manager was a real piece of work. After a couple of months, the floor manager pulled me aside and buttered me up real nice before he put me right into the toaster oven and burned me.
He said something along the lines of, “You aren’t the best salesperson we have, but you also know how to use the software better than anyone else around here. We have a new group of staff just coming out of training and I’d like you to spend a couple of weeks with them, showing them how to use the computer programs as you do.”
Being young and naïve, it seemed like a good opportunity for me to do something different. My younger self never got a pay agreement in writing. All I had was the word of my manager that he’d give me what I was earning on average, plus 25%. After two weeks, payday rolled around and I didn’t get a single cent. I made no sales and therefore made nothing.
The amount of time that elapsed between me getting that “paycheck” and me storming out the door, never to return, was no longer than 90 seconds. I literally just grabbed my backpack from my desk and walked off into the sunset.
74. Buckle Up!
I used to hate wearing seat belts in the passenger seat. One day I was with my friend helping him with a few errands, and he asked me if I wanted to tag along for a drive. I told him no I didn’t feel like it, but he managed to convince me by saying we won't go too far and we would be back in an hour. I guess because I was feeling off, I wore a seat belt. After ten minutes, my friend got distracted and almost ran over someone and swerved hard. We hit a wall, and I'm pretty sure I would have flown through the windshield if I didn't wear a seatbelt that day.
75. Frozen With Fear
I had a long-term substitute teacher in 8th grade. This sub was a white-haired, longish-bearded, very kind, and funny guy. The whole school loved him and affectionately called him Santa Claus. I used to get very bad bloody noses, often causing me to leave class. One of those times, he found me sitting on one of the tables in the communal study area with a wad of Kleenex, waiting for my nose to stop bleeding.
He chatted me up and told me that often bloody noses are from a specific blood vessel on the forehead and if you press it hard for a while, it stops the bleeding. Instead of letting me do it, he reached out and pressed my forehead with his thumb. I instantly got a gross feeling in my stomach. Still, I brushed it off and assumed this was a friendly teacher just trying to help me.
I was too young to understand that he was testing my boundaries to see if he could touch me. He eventually got me into a one-on-one tutoring situation where he continued to get closer and closer to me. I vividly remember him "showing me how to do an equation" by leaning over me. The way he was leaning over me, I was trapped.
I remember him brushing the hair off my shoulder and saying, "Makes you feel a little uncomfortable like I am making you feel right now." I froze. I didn't understand what was happening. All I knew was that something was weird, and I didn't know how to act. He then abruptly ended the tutoring session and, the next day, told me he thought I had progressed enough in my studies and I didn't need the tutoring anymore. I genuinely believe that my freezing up scared him a bit. I trust that gut feeling now.
76. Our Neighbors, Ourselves
I was living at a pretty upscale apartment complex. The ground level units were these really nice town-home-style units. This one guy moved into one. He was kind of odd, but I figured he must have been at least somewhat sane because those were the expensive units. Turns out, you actually can’t actually tell that much about someone from where they live.
On warm days, this guy would walk around shirtless in the complex’s park. It was weird, but nothing alarming. But then he started pasting Bible verses to his window. Now, I’m not saying liking the Bible is an issue, but that was a red flag. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he started writing in charcoal over the Bible verses.
One night, I took my dogs for a walk. It was during an evening when my dogs weren’t sleeping much and needed to walk at all kinds of ungodly hours of the morning. I went down to the open park in front of the expensive townhome units. There were lots of bushes and trees down there that my dogs liked to play around in.
Suddenly, one of my dogs got low and started growling. When I looked in the direction my dog was growling, my whole body froze. I noticed that there were boots in the bushes. I looked around and saw a dozen figures in black tactical gear and masks. They were virtually invisible. I froze in a moment of total panic. It was like seeing ghosts.
One of them put their finger to their mouth to signal to me to remain silent. I got the hint and noped right on out of there. Right as I got to the entrance of my apartment, I saw them take a battering ram to the door and drag the Bible verse guy out of his apartment. The unit smelled horrible (I inspected it later) and management had left it as it was for months.
Eventually, a nice couple moved in. I asked the building management what happened, but they gave me the “You don’t want to know,” look. I moved out.
77. Merging Maniac
I was driving on a highway and had a bad feeling about the car next to me. I just felt like they were going to try to merge when I was next to them, even though they gave no indication of doing so and had been driving normally up until that point. A few minutes later, they merged without a signal, but since I was wary of them, I was able to slam on my brakes and avoided being hit.
78. Take A Hike
As a teen, I sprained my ankle quite a few times. When I was an adult, my newlywed husband wanted me to go on a hike. I felt like it was a bad idea because I was prone to spraining my ankle, but my husband really wanted me to go, so we did. Sure enough, at the farthest point of the trail, I took a fall and hurt my ankle. I had no choice but to walk all the way back on it.
The pain was so severe that after a few days, we thought it was broken. However, a freak blizzard prevented us from getting to the ER. When I finally got it X-rayed, there was no break, just a very, very bad sprain. It actually would have been better recovery-wise if I had broken my ankle. It took almost two years to be pain-free from that injury. I don't go on hikes anymore.
79. Cry-Cry-Chrysler
I was doing some urban exploring with some friends at the old Packard Plant in Detroit. We were hanging out for a while on the top floor, playing our guitars when all of a sudden, I heard this loud sound of glass smashing from afar. It actually sounded like a whole pane of glass had shattered, it was so loud.
I walked over and looked down through the dilapidated floorboards to this "courtyard" down below. There were a few guys down there, smashing up a very nice Chrysler 300 with baseball bats. They did not see or hear us, but I imagine if they had, things would have gone a lot differently. I ran back over to my friends and said, "Don't make a sound. We have to go."
We made it out fine. The Chrysler didn’t. That’s Detroit for you.
80. Bed And Brake Fast
I was driving on a freeway and an SUV pulling a trailer with a king mattress got on and cut me off to get around a slow car. I instantly had a Final Destination moment flash and backed off. A car got mad that I slowed down and was tailgating me angrily. It was super windy, and I saw the mattress start to flap. I put my hazards on to warn the jerk behind me, but he decided to race fast around me and flip me off.
While flipping me off, the mattress flew up about 30 feet in the air and landed right in the middle of the road. I have a tiny car and would probably be gone if I didn't back off far enough AND I saved the jerk’s life. We both calmly swerved onto the shoulders on both sides since we had enough space to be able to react.
81. Instant Impression
One of my friends started dating this guy, and the instant I met him, I had this really weird, bad feeling about him. I have no idea why. He seemed pretty normal, and we hadn't even really talked yet, just introduced ourselves. I'm a guy, and the feeling was based on nothing. I didn't know how to tell her I didn't like her new boyfriend, so I ignored it, hoping it was just a random feeling and not real.
A month or two later, they broke up because apparently, he started becoming reviling. Luckily she got out of there as soon as it started and is now happily married to a guy I didn't get bad vibes from. I've never really had such an instant feeling like that before or since, especially one that turned out to be true.
82. Fireworks Plus Forest, Equals…
I was at a high school party once. It was out in a field behind the host's house. All was going well until some guy brought fireworks. I was young and naïve, but even I knew that teenagers and fireworks don’t mix. To make matters worse, it had been a super dry season. The writing was on the walls for me—this was going to get bad and fast.
I didn’t wait around to see what would happen and instead headed straight home. I heard the next day that almost two whole acres went up in flames. Fire crews paid the host and his folks a visit. I can’t imagine they were happy.
83. I Was Almost Bus-ted
When I lived in Toronto, I was about to cross Dufferin. I'd only looked to my right, not my left. I took a step onto the street when I felt this feeling like I needed to go back onto the sidewalk immediately. I took a step back onto the sidewalk and about a foot off the street. Suddenly, a city bus hurtled past my face at what felt like super speed.
84. A Mother’s Intuition
I told my mom I was going to a football game and then camping with some friends. She begged me not to go and even had my sisters ask me not to go. I went. I told her she was worrying for nothing and I would be home before I had to go to work the next morning. My dad wouldn’t have let me go, so I just told her to lie and tell him I was sleeping at my sister's house.
My dad woke up in the morning and told my mom, “Your son didn’t come home to sleep.” She told him I was at my sister’s but said she felt terrible lying, so she ended up telling him the truth about where I was. They went to work. The authorities showed up at their job to tell them I had been airlifted to a hospital two hours away. I got into a wreck that morning as they were headed to work.
85. Mommy Issues
This happened to me back in Russia when I was 14. I decided, foolishly, that it was a good idea to walk home alone from a party at two in the morning. I was walking in a rural area (we had a summer home outside of Moscow, literally the middle of nowhere) and suddenly, a car pulled up next to me. The guy driving the car, who looked to be in his 30s, asked me if I needed a ride.
I should have known better than to accept a ride from a stranger, but being young and dumb, I said "Sure," and got into his car. As he pulled up to the gates of our dacha community, he stopped and asked me if I wanted to come with him to a party with his friends. Right then, my heart skipped a beat.
I looked at the car door to look for an escape plan and I saw that the door handle was missing from the inside. At that point, I felt my heart beating in my stomach. I said, "No, sorry. My mom is waiting for me." All of a sudden he said, "Well, the mother is a sacred thing. You better go."
He got out, walked around the car, and let me out. It was the last time that I hiked alone. I got insanely lucky that nothing bad happened.
86. Remembering September 11th
On September 11, 2001, I was almost put on Flight 93. I was flying out of Boston the day before to Los Angeles, but the flight was overbooked. They tried to put me on Flight 93 for the next day—September 11. It would have meant staying at my dad's house for the night, and it was the next direct flight. I've been on that flight route many times between Boston and LAX, but I oddly decided to take a flight to the south that would have connected me to LA.
By the time we got to the airport, we missed the connection and were told to stay the night. At that point, I got into a screaming match with the airline. Something in my chest said if I didn't fly out that night, I'd be trapped. They put me on a flight to Vegas, and it was up to me to get to LAX. I got to Vegas, and caught the last direct flight home to LA. I woke up the next day to a new world. I had 20 voicemail messages on my phone from people worried I perished in the crash.
87. Kitty Concerns
We found an injured cat in the middle of a bridge in the city and took her to a vet. She had extensive injuries, probably from having been under the hood of a car as it was started. She needed to have all the skin around her tail and back legs removed. The vet offered to take her off our hands, but we were worried she would be euthanized, so we paid for the surgery.
She seemed to be recovering well for a couple of weeks. She was such a sweet cat and very quickly took to following us around the house. But I started to notice that she wasn't pooping or eating, so I took her to the vet again. I had been worried that her wound was healing her rear shut. However, I didn't want to try to tell the vet how to do her job, and she didn't come to that conclusion on her own.
She gave us pain meds, and we left. The next day the cat started suffering quite a lot, and we rushed her to the ER. She had, in fact, not been able to pass stools. She was also severely hydrated, but the vet tech hadn’t triaged her correctly. By the time they saw us, the surgeon on hand had gone. We weren't given any choice but to euthanize her. I will never hesitate to "tell somebody how to do their job" again. She could still be with us. She deserved to still be with us.
88. I Think I’m Turning Japanese
I went to Japan for a solo vacation some time ago. I was a hopeless tourist and I lost my sense of direction while wandering around Shibuya at like three in the morning. I gave up my exploration and decided that I needed to find a train station. Out of nowhere, some creepy dude popped up and offered to bring me to it. I later realized that I was being way too trusting when I accepted the guy’s offer. Things got real scary, real quick.
Instead of taking me to the station, however, he took me in the complete opposite direction and we ended up at a hotel. The next thing I knew, he started spouting some pathetic pickup lines and talking about how he had fallen in love with me. When he said he wanted to spend the night with me, I was like, “Nope. Bye.”
I ended up taking a taxi instead.
89. I Couldn’t Capture What Was Wrong
When I first started dating my ex-boyfriend, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was sending racy photos to someone else. I brushed it off as just being insecure. Two years later, I got a call from his ex-girlfriend. She explained to me that since the start of our relationship, they had been exchanging pics. She also sent me screenshots of him sending racy photos—while we were still together—to a bunch of other girls, even guys.
I wasn’t mad at her or any of the other people that he sent them to. I wasn’t even angry that some of them sent stuff back. Of course, when I confronted him about this, he lied through his teeth, trying to get me to stay. He eventually caved and told me everything, and I will never ignore a gut feeling again.
Piqsels
90. Punt The Produce And Split
I was tasked by my mother to get groceries from a shop. It was about three to four blocks down from where I was. About 15 feet near the shop, I saw my best friend's father's vehicle—he was a law enforcement officer. I knew from experience that sometimes bad things happen when the force uses private-owned vehicles, and my gut instinct told me to leave immediately.
I ditched getting the groceries and started walking back home; I heard firing from the distance. Later that day, the local news reported that the very shop I was going to was getting burglarized. Officers intervened, hit four of the five suspects and shrapnel injured three pedestrians.
91. A Whirlwind Adventure
As a young teenager (maybe 13 years old), I went camping in the backcountry. I was with my summer camp friends in the midwestern United States. On the second to the last night of the trip, we started seeing Mammatus clouds and the sky turned green. Being the good midwestern kids that we were, we knew what those signs meant. A mean storm was on its way.
There was no immediate rain or hail when the clouds formed, but we knew it would only be a matter of time. We were able to find semi-solid shelter just before the storm hit. When we got out of the backcountry, we found out that the storm had been even worse than we imagined. Three major tornados had touched down had gotten as close as half a kilometer to our original campsite.
92. Swamp Thing
I went to visit family in Florida. As soon as I got there, my dad introduced me to a twenty-something-year-old girl he had been hanging out with and her two babies. They were supposedly just friends. I immediately felt physically unwell the second I laid eyes on her. My dad had a history of attracting bad friends and partners.
I didn’t want to cause any drama by telling him how strongly I felt, so I packed up my stuff and found a different place to stay for my vacation. They were friends for a couple of years, but he ended up meeting and marrying someone, and their friendship fizzled out. A couple of years later, she was taken into custody, went to trial, and received a life sentence. When I heard why, my blood ran cold.
She had offed her fiancé, rolled him up in a comforter, and dumped him in the swamp. She then lived in his house and collected his retirement until she was caught. I had always assumed she was after my dad’s retirement when she was hanging out with him.
93. I Was A Shoo-In For Doom
My first boyfriend and I lived in a medium-ish town in the Midwest, and I was a painfully shy girl. I was head over heels for him. He had a thing for red stilettos, and I wanted to impress him, and bought a pair. He loved them, and I wore them to a lot of places. One particular weekend, we were supposed to go on one of our picnics, but I just wasn’t feeling it; something felt really off.
He was a bit older than me, and I worshiped the ground he walked on, but not that Friday. The more he begged me to go to one of our picnics, the more I refused. My stomach was in knots, and finally, I vomited on our porch, where we were arguing, and he left. Over the next week, people discovered a random red stiletto floating in the river and then a body was fished out. When I learned the truth, I wanted to be sick.
My boyfriend had another girl on the side, and he killed her sometime that weekend. They apparently did the same “picnics” that we did. I could have been in that girl’s place.
94. Skeleton Crew
I was waiting for my bus at a station. It was two in the morning in Minneapolis. A security guard outside told me to stay within the camera zone. That should have been warning enough for me to know that I wasn’t in a safe area. I sat down anyway and waited. It was pretty much alone except for a couple of junkies in another part of the station.
Suddenly this guy came in and walks right up to me. When I looked up at him, I got chills up my spine. He was wearing a black hoodie and a skeleton mask. He stood right in front of me and didn't say a word. He just stared at me from behind his mask, being a total creep. When he started to walk away, I bolted out of there. I ran down the street and luckily found a 24-7 convenience store to seek refuge in.
95. Speed Demon
When I was a teenager, I was riding in the car with some friends. The driver was speeding a little and acting like an idiot in general. We stopped so he could switch out a CD. I had a bad feeling he was going to wreck the car eventually, and someone would lose their life or get hurt badly. I almost got out of the car, but I didn’t. It nearly cost me my life.
We ended up getting into a wreck fewer than 20 minutes later. I came close to severing an artery in my neck when we crashed. Everyone else's injuries were fairly minor, including the driver’s. His reckless actions caused the accident. I wish I would have trusted my gut instinct.
96. Avoiding A College Catastrophe
I had my younger brother visit me in college. We had somewhat of a party house, so we were all having fun playing drinking games. We all passed out late at night after some rounds. I went to my bedroom and my brother fell asleep on the couch. The rest of the partiers were sleeping on couches, on the floor, and in empty bedrooms. I passed out around 1 AM when all of a sudden I woke up.
It was about 3 AM, and I looked around wondering what woke me up. Usually, I’d turn over, and fall back asleep in seconds, but this felt weird. I was wide awake, looking around my dark room, and something was definitely off. I got up and opened the door, slipping out into the living room to investigate. There was nothing unusual. But I knew there had to be a reason.
I stepped into the living room and saw my brother sleeping on his back on the couch, head cocked up nestled over the arm of the couch. I looked around for a sec; there was nothing odd about the front door and nothing out the windows. Then, mere moments after entering that room, my brother started gurgling, dry heaving, and began to vomit.
I rushed over to him, turning him over onto his side, making sure it was all coming out onto the floor. I shook him awake, cleaned him up, assured him it was fine, and waited for him to fall back asleep. I cleaned up the floor and couch and then proceeded to sit and watch him for the rest of the night. That was the night I trusted my gut, and I’m glad I didn’t go back to bed.
97. Party Crasher
Every once in a while, you get that gut instinct telling you something is up. I was at a party and at one point, I got that tingling feeling. I knew I was in danger. I finally just decided to leave with a few friends to chill at my place. A few hours later, I got a phone call from another friend asking me if I was OK. When I asked what happened, my blood ran cold.
Apparently, the house where the party was held belonged to a guy who was affiliated with some gangs. Some thugs tried to crash the party and when the host tried to kick them out, they started fighting people. The whole thing devolved into a giant brawl and a few people ended up in the hospital. The authorities ended up shutting down the party.
Meanwhile, I was at home playing video games with a couple of friends. Sometimes your gut's right.
98. Snowed In
My neighbor, who didn't leave to go out much, always parked his car in the same spot. It was right in view of my bedroom window. A snowstorm was going on all week, and on the fourth day of the storm, I was sitting in bed watching TV. I looked out the window and saw his car had not moved all week. The snow had piled up, and the drifts were pristine.
I got that icky feeling that something was wrong, but I figured I was being paranoid. I woke up in the middle of the night to his body being carried out by EMTs. His kidneys had failed, and he was incapable of seeking help in his last few days, so he was stuck in his house alone. It still makes me sick thinking about it.
99. A Lesson In Intuition
Back in 2010, I was supposed to attend a swimming lesson since it was the first lesson at the institute that day. Also, my mom was supposed to go to work as usual. I, for some reason, got a feeling of dread and decided to laze around the entire day and stayed home. My mom wasn't feeling well, so she didn't go to work either. It was on the 29th of March and we lived in Russia.
Just a couple of hours later, my worried aunt called us to say that there were explosions on the Moscow subway. Two female Islamist radicals blew themselves up along with a lot of people on Park Kultury and Lubyanka stations. The pool I was supposed to be at was at Park Kultury, and I would've arrived there right around the time the devices went off.
100. I Had A Weird Feeling Calling Out To Me
When I was around 15, my dad was working in a different state with a friend of his for some extra income. I remember one night, I woke up out of a deep sleep, and everything in my body was telling me, “Call your dad now.” So, I did, even though it was around 2 AM. He didn’t answer. I put my phone down, and when I was slowly starting to wake up, I tried to convince myself he was probably asleep, and I was just being weird.
However, the feeling wouldn’t go away. Something that I couldn’t explain was begging me to keep trying, so I did. By the fifth time, my stomach was so tied up in knots I thought I was going to puke, but then he picked up, and the first words out of his mouth were, “Christ honey, can you hear me?” I said, “Yes,” and told him I was worried about him, and asked if he was okay.
He said, “No, not really, but I need to call you back.” He hung up before I could say another word. That’s when the real panic started. I went and woke my mom up. I told her, “I think something happened to dad.” My dad finally called back and told us how he and his friend gravely misjudged how sharp a turn was. They had both just climbed back up a small ravine.
They were walking all over the place, trying to get a signal to call for help, when my call came through. Both were pretty banged up, but, luckily, nothing life-threatening. They spent a couple of days in the hospital before my dad decided he’d had enough and took a bus back home. My dad still talks about how when he heard the tires leave the road and saw the tops of the trees rushing up towards the windshield—he thought they were goners.
Getting to hear my voice on the phone was the most beautiful thing he’d ever heard in his life. My mom still doesn’t understand how I knew to call him, and neither do I. Fortunately, I’ve never had another experience like that again, and, to be honest, I don’t really want to. I told my mom that whatever it was that woke me up—I hope it picks someone else next time.
101. The Bus Stop Blues
A co-worker of mine had a close call once. She was getting off of the bus one night in Scarborough, Ontario when some guy stepped out from behind the bus shelter. He started calling for her to wait up for him, and at some point, he ran right up to her. At that moment, she screamed "I don't know you!" and ran into a convenience store to seek help from strangers.
The guy hung around outside for a few minutes, then walked over to a vehicle and drove off. She waited for a neighbor in her apartment complex to walk her home. She later filed a report about the incident and learned that she had narrowly escaped Paul Bernardo. If you don’t know who that is, look him up.
102. Cause For Celebration
My girlfriend and I had returned to our hotel room from a long night out bar hopping, searching for a place to celebrate NYE the next night. My girlfriend was completely trashed. She wanted to take a shower before going to bed, and I sat on the edge of the bed, laid back, and fell asleep. If I’m plastered, once I'm asleep, I will not be waking up for the next four hours minimum, however, this night was different.
I was RIPPED awake out of nowhere with a horrible feeling in my gut. Something was VERY WRONG. I immediately ran to the bathroom, where I saw the tub overflowing and my ex with her lips and nose floating millimeters above the surface of the water in the tub. Her foot and leg had stopped the drain, so I immediately grabbed her up. She was barely conscious; I dried her off and put her to bed. If I hadn't grabbed her up, I'm certain she would have drowned.
Sources: , , , , , ,
