Most people have experienced a moment when they just knew something wasn’t right. We don't always listen to our instincts, but sometimes, those gut feelings must be trusted. As these Redditors learned, acting on your intuition could be the difference between life and death. From terrifying close calls with dangerous strangers to chilling encounters gone wrong, these stories prove that strange "sixth sense" we sometimes feel can save your life.
1. Truck on Truck Violence
I was driving to work one morning at about 2 am. As I was behind this slow 18-wheeler, I was getting a feeling I needed to move. When we came up to a red light, I switched over a lane so that I wouldn’t be behind him anymore. Just about a second later I heard something that sounded like an explosion. It was a tow truck slamming into the back of the 18-wheeler at about 70 mph.
It tore off the two rear axles on the trailer, and most certainly would have smashed my car to pieces.
2. A Different Kind of Drive-By
My now-wife and I did the long-distance thing in college, and I planned on doing my normal routine to visit her, where I would leave Chicago in the morning and get to her in the early afternoon on Friday. Well, I’m closing my store on Thursday night, and get a feeling I should just leave that night. So I said alright and left right away.
A little after lunch on Friday, tornado sirens go off. I don’t think anything of it until I head back home Sunday and drive through a town about a half-hour north of her. It got lit up by the tornado. That’s when I realized. If I had left at my normal time, I would’ve been smack dab in the middle of the tornado.
3. Sometimes a Hot Shower Doesn’t Cure All
One day, I felt a sudden pain in my lungs when I inhaled. I’ve never been stabbed, so I don’t know what it’s like, but the pain should have been equal to it, if not worse. It had happened before, years ago. After some hot water in the shower, the pain was gone. My wife insisted on going to ER. I insisted on hot water. “I feel like we should go and see a doctor,” she said.
When I was examined, I was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism on both lungs. The doctor said “One or two more hours, and you would’ve been gone.” So yeah, I owe my wife one.
4. A Mother’s Intuition
When my mom was pregnant with my older sister, she and her family decided to go hiking in the mountains. On the day of the hike, she suddenly felt weird and uncomfortable. She stayed behind while the rest of her family went for the hike. Her family got lost, and this was long before cellphones. If it wasn't for my mom staying behind, no one would’ve noticed they were gone and so no one would’ve gotten help.
5. Road to Nowhere
I was offered a dream job at almost double my salary in a different city. It was only two hours away, but something told me not to take the job. I had a number of people tell me I would never have another opportunity like this, and my fear of leaving my hometown was holding me back. Two months after I turned it down, that division of the company was sold, and everyone in that department lost their job.
I would have been stuck in a new city with no friends or family nearby, and no job prospects.
6. Raining Down
I don’t know if it was a gut feeling or lucky coincidence, but either way, it was a really, really close call. I decided I should empty the garbage as I left the house for class, which added maybe 10 seconds to my journey as the bin was 10 feet from my front door. I began my walk to school. Just in front of me, some idiot from the third floor flat threw a load of glass out his window, smashing all over the path. If I’d left ten seconds earlier—AKA if I’d left without taking out the garbage—it would’ve rained down on me.
7. Nine Lives
I was tossing my clothes in the dryer and had just shut the dryer door and pressed the button. But then, I got this weird sense. Something just didn't feel right, so I thought maybe I forgot to add dryer sheets. I turn off the dryer, open the door, and out pops my cat like, "Haha you found me!" She was totally oblivious about what was about to happen.
Ever since then I always double-check before turning on an appliance.
8. Dog vs. Bear
I was staying at a friend's house out in the country. He was asleep in another room, I was dozing off with his gigantic pit bull Izzy Bell, a sweet girl. In the middle of the night, I was awoken by sounds outside, like scrambling. Izzy leaps up too, looks at me, then the back door, then growls. My friend at the time had a young daughter, about four or five, so I immediately began to worry about her.
I grab the nearest weapon, a fire poker, and go to open the door as Izzy is beside me seemingly ready for a fight. But it didn't feel right. I instead bar the door the best I could and creep to look out of a window. As I look, I feel myself nearly scream. Right outside is a gigantic bear. So big it could easily rip my head off, and it has a few cubs in tow. I watch as it ambles off.
I am pretty sure that if I had charged out of that door as I originally intended, me and Izzy would not be here today.
9. Sound Travels
I was maybe 12 or 13 at the time. A childhood friend of mine came to the house to ask if I could play. Mom said she had a bad feeling and told me not to go. My friend leaves the house and goes down the hill, doesn't stop at the stop sign, and gets hit by a car. I still remember hearing the car and hearing his scream.
Thankfully, he survived, and is both alive and healthy today. But if momma bear didn't have her instinct, I'd have probably been hit or been in a bad spot.
10. Bad Apples
My mom knew something was wrong with me when I was younger, but when she called the doctor and told them how she felt, they didn't want to see me for another two weeks. My mom went into a blind rage over the phone telling them that she was taking me to get checked whether they liked it or not. We got to the GP, he puts a stethoscope on my back and smells my breath.
Then he immediately says "We need to get him to hospital, NOW." It turned out that I had type 1 diabetes, and according to him, if we’d waited another day, I would’ve died. Apparently, my breath smelled like apples, which is a sign of a build-up of ketones in the blood. I was in the severe stages of diabetic ketoacidosis.
11. Fresh to Death
I used to sleep in a basement apartment and one winter I woke up in the middle of the night smelling something odd. I opened the windows, hoped it would dissipate, and didn’t think much of it. Come morning, I still felt really weird. Well, it turns out that snow had blocked the heater exhaust vent and carbon monoxide was feeding into the house.
If I didn’t open my windows, I definitely would be dead.
12. One-Sided Race
I was on a popular trail that goes along the river through several small towns. I was on a fairly barren part of the trail about halfway between two towns—tall grass on one side and river on the other. I see a man running solo in front of me. I am a bit faster, so in time, I pass him. I notice that he’s suddenly keeping pace with me—he’s not falling behind as fast as he should.
Instead, he’s flanking me, just diagonal to me on the riverside. I get a feeling that with one good push, he could have me in the tall grass and there are no witnesses to see what happened. I give another 10 seconds before I start panicking...yeah, this doesn’t feel right. I whip out my phone and dial 9-1-1. I don’t push send, but cup the phone in my hand with the screen facing toward him.
I otherwise kept running at the same pace, pushing myself to the next town. I notice within 30 seconds that I don’t hear him as close anymore. I give it another 30 seconds (counting in my head), then chance a look. He’s gone! I full-on stop to turn around. He’s gone-gone. The trail is flat and straight in both directions as far as the eye can see. Where did he go in the span of a minute? Either the grass or the river...
I can only guess that his reaction validates my feeling that he had bad intentions. This is why I don’t run with headphones when I’m running alone and why I don’t trust anyone when I’m out on the trails.
13. Hop on Pop
My dad was going to fix something on the ceiling of my room and had to go into the attic. He had me sit right below where he was going to work so that I could help him find the correct spot in the attic—but I had to go to the bathroom. I quickly went and when I came back, I couldn’t believe my eyes. My dad had fallen through the ceiling and was sitting in a pile of drywall and insulation in the exact spot where I had been just moments ago.
He ended up being pretty much perfectly fine besides a couple of scratches and bruises, but if I was still sitting there, I probably would have been seriously hurt if not killed, because I was only in elementary school at the time.
14. Sliding Doors
When I was about 23, I was walking down my street at a little after dusk. I saw a van approaching a little ahead, but without any lights on. I didn't think much of it, since it was still early in the evening. Then, the van slowed down and almost started creeping up on me as I approached a part of the sidewalk that was boxed in by a tall fence. That’s when I knew something was up.
For me to keep walking, I'd have to go between the wall and the van. In the little time it took me to walk a couple of steps, as the van was getting close, I noticed that the side door was slowly sliding open. The one thought in my mind was, why isn't the light turning on inside the van? When you open the door of a vehicle, the light should come on inside it. Unless you deliberately switch that off.
So I just took off and ran to the median in between the lanes of traffic. Yes, I ran in front of the van and across the street. I’d rather be roadkill than let whoever was in the van get me. Immediately, the van took off like someone lit it on fire. From a slow crawl to full speed. As I looked after it to check the plates. I noticed it had no plates. And still no lights. I called the police, of course. They sent cars out and didn't find the van.
I never had anything like this happen again and I'm just an ordinary person, so I don't suspect it was targeted. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
15. Thinking Twice as Fast
When I was riding motorcycles full time as a courier, I developed what I can only describe as a completely subconscious autopilot. Thank god for it too, because one day it saved my life. As I moved off from a set of traffic lights, I caught fast movement some distance away in the corner of my eye. There was no conscious decision at all. I performed the most extreme braking maneuver I have ever attempted, the bike stood up on its front wheel, which was then smashed out from under me by the car which ran the red light at speed.
I basically made a barrel roll in place, and got dumped on the ground. No serious injuries, but maybe a bruise or two.
Shutterstock
16. Just Desserts
When I was six, my dad and I parked at the library so he could return a book. He said he'd be quick so he left me in the car with the doors locked, etc. Just as soon as he got out of view, a guy came to the window and asked me to open the door. I rolled down the window a little and he told me that the car lights were on and to let him in to show me how to turn them off.
I don't really know why I didn't listen to him. I told him my dad would be back soon and he'd take care of it then and he kept insisting that I let him in to turn them off, but I wasn't having it. I don't know why. I didn't even realize it was a weird situation until I told my dad like 10 minutes later when we were leaving the parking lot. His reaction was bone-chilling.
He swerved over to the side of the road and asked if I could still see the guy. I said no and we left. Then he got me ice cream because I didn't let a weirdo into the car. At the time, it didn't click. But now that I'm older, I'm so glad I didn't let that guy in.
17. Sometimes Double-Checking Isn’t Enough
One day, my baby was super sick and wheezing, so I took him to urgent care. They prescribed him steroids and a breathing treatment. It seemed pretty normal until I looked at the dosage, which seemed high. The doctor reassured me and said my son was just a big boy, so it was fine. I still felt very uncomfortable about it.
I filled the prescription and started the breathing treatment but only did a half dose for half the time. I didn't give him any steroids. His hives from the previous antibiotics were not going away, so I took him again the next morning to his pediatrician. The pediatrician basically told me I saved my son's life, because the dosage for both medications were for a 300-pound adult, not a 30-pound baby.
So he put in a complaint about the other doctor and pharmacist—apparently they should've caught it during my consult. I called in and complained as well. Apparently, almost killing a baby is pretty serious. My pediatrician said that the doctor and the lead pharmacist were promptly disciplined and fired.
18. Sleepwalking
In the middle of the night, for no good reason, I left my boyfriend's house and drove home 40 minutes away. He was perplexed but I had "a feeling." As I reached my front door I heard a low crash down the block. No one else heard it or came out. Long story short: I ended up pulling a man out of a burning car before he burned alive. I still have the scars from the burning seatbelt plastic.
Some days I think of it as a coincidence, some days I think it was some kind of intervention.
19. Lightning Strikes Twice
I started having painful period-like cramps, so I made an appointment with my OB-gyn the next day. They immediately gave me an ultrasound and discovered a grapefruit-sized tumor where my ovaries should’ve been. Certain it was cancer, I was in surgery days later. Thankfully all the cancer was encapsulated in the tumor, so no chemo was necessary.
I did have to go on an estrogen patch though. A year later, I was sitting in my bathtub and reached out for a towel. Felt a weird pain in my left breast. All of a sudden, I knew. It was cancer again. I immediately pulled off the estrogen patch and then went in for a mammogram first thing the next morning. A few days later, I was having a bi-lateral mastectomy and reconstruction, which I had insisted on because it was my second cancer diagnosis.
My doc wanted me to have a lumpectomy and radiation, but I insisted that I never again wanted to have to tell my daughters that I had cancer. After my surgery, my tumor was tested and it was determined to be highly recurrent and aggressive. Even though the cancer had not spread into my lymph nodes, I went through 20 rounds of harsh chemo in the hopes it will never, ever come back.
In April, I will celebrate being cancer free for five years!
20. Say Hello To Your Little Friend
I was dropping off something at the bank and on my way to my car I notice there's an SUV with super dark windows next to it. On the surface, no biggie, it's a tiny parking lot, but we're the only two cars. They're parked on my driver's side so I'd have to squeeze in between the two cars to get into mine. It's full daylight on a busy road so I'm cautious, but not upset or actively worried.
Then some guy comes around from the other side of the car and says "Hey, my friend says he knows you" and motions for me to go around to the other side of the car. As in, the side facing an empty road with no way for anyone to see what might happen to me. And I'm noping the heck out, refusing to move, putting my keys between my fingers and forming a fist, ready to run or fight, whatever I have to do.
There's a busy shopping center across the street and if I don't get flattened by traffic I can make it there in about 30 seconds. Just as I'm about to run, I see one of my colleagues walk out from the other side of the car. He felt so bad about scaring me because, as a guy, he never would have had to be as suspicious as I was. I've worked with him 14 years and he still brings it up sometimes.
21. Procrastination, One. Disaster, Zero.
I work as a front line tech at a major telecom company. About 15 years ago we had a big ice storm overnight. A tree brought a pole down along with a main cable. Our construction team had put it back up, and me and a co-worker were re-splicing each end from our lift buckets. About an hour in, my co-worker said, "I don't feel really safe right now for some reason."
I had just about finished my side, so I said, "Sounds good...let's finish it tomorrow," and we left. The next day, I decided to go back on my own and finish up both sides. When I got there, his pole was completely gone and the cable had been ripped off the other pole again. The neighbor said another tree had come down less than 30 minutes after we left and destroyed the pole and cable.
We probably both would have died.
22. Mother Knows Best
I live in rural Connecticut and my mom was driving me down a dark, twisty road to my friend’s house when we came across yellow caution tape strung across the middle of the road. Not “Police line, do not cross” tape, but just tape that said caution, blocking the whole road. It had been clearly ripped and tied back together in some places. My mom just knew something was off. She looked at it for a minute and then gunned it in reverse and got out of there fast.
That same night, some woman had gotten out to examine it and had gotten back in the car to call the police because she found it suspicious, but not suspicious enough to leave before calling 9-1-1. That’s the moment she was grabbed out of her car—but the people who grabbed her didn’t know that she was already on the line with 9-1-1. The police rolled up as the car was driving away with her in the trunk.
They chased them down and she lived, but it was scary. Trust your gut with roadblocks!
23. Sail Away
When I was a kid, my mom had a mental break down and was in full-in psychosis. Of course, I was too young to fully understand what was happening. I just had a gut feeling something was very very wrong with her. So I took my younger sister into the bathroom with me—the only room in our home with a lock—and locked the door. We often played in the tub just by dumping towels and blankets in it (dry) and would pretend it was a boat.
So I did that, but kept the door locked. My mom disappeared. Hours later my grandpa called on the phone. When no one answered, I snuck down stairs and answered it. He said he was coming to pick us up because my mom had gone for a drive. From that point on, we lived with my grandparents while my mom was on an involuntary hold at the mental hospital.
Apparently, she'd driven a few hours away and called him to tell him she’d hurt us and left us in the woods. She had hallucinated all of this, but didn't know the difference. He called the police and we got picked up. I didn't find out the whole story until I was much older. I just knew deep in my stomach something wasn't right with my mom and I had to protect my sister.
24. Giving Vans a Bad Name
I was out walking with my son, daughter, and ex-husband. Me and the ex get along well and occasionally do things as a family still. On this night there was a little festival down the street from his place. So the kids and I had driven over to his house, parked there and walked up to the festival. The walk back was dark, and my son was running ahead a lot. I didn't think much of it.
My ex and I were chatting about things, and I noticed a van drive past us twice. I figured he was just lost as the festival blocked off a road. But then he circled back two more times. By this time, I had called both my kids back and was holding their hands. The van parked up on the corner of the street we were about to head down.
I walked with the kids and my ex approached the van. As he walked up the van sped off. It kept me up nights later thinking if the van had been around earlier when my son was running ahead. I'm not at all a fit lady. If whoever was in the van decides to jump out and grab my son, I wouldn't have been able to get to him in time. Really freaked me out.
I did get a plate and make and model, so I reported it to the police.
25. Peer Pressure
My husband is a state trooper and has always said the wreck that sticks with him the most was a group of four 17-18-year-olds in a car speeding on the freeway. One of the kids was screaming and begging the driver to let him out. The driver pulled over and let him out as he and the other two passengers made fun of him for being a “wimp” and not wanting to have “fun.”
A couple of miles later, tragedy struck. The driver flew off an overpass, went over the guard rail, and onto the freeway below, killing him and the other two passengers instantly and ejecting one out of the car. Luckily there was no one below that they fell onto. My husband always remembers that kid who demanded to get out and how terrified and shaken he was when he discovered what happened.
He was able to explain that he was in the car with them just minutes prior and would have been dead had he not been a “wimp.”
26. Staredown
I get really bad vibes from the car park at my work—it's a giant, poorly lit multi-story structure and I've seen enough horror films to know I shouldn't be taking it lightly. Whenever I get in, I pay attention to the floors people call the lift to so I can keep an eye on where they're going. One time a guy got in the elevator in front of me and pressed six, while I was parked on eight.
He didn't get out at six and was still in the lift as I got to my floor. I leave, he doesn't...so I guess he's remembered he's on another floor, but just before I get to the dark area with all the cars, I turned back. This guy had waited about 30 seconds—therefore held the lift to wait—and silently followed me. I just stopped and stared him down.
He had a deer-in-the-headlights look and turned straight back to the lift. I don’t know if it saved my life or what, but I’m glad I shook him off.
27. Green Light Don’t Go
I had just left my apartment complex and was heading to a friend's place. I pulled out of my driveway and up to the traffic light and stopped. I was in the left turn lane, the light was red. It was late out and there weren’t many people on the road. I watched as the light went yellow, and then red for through traffic. One guy ran the tail end of the yellow, like usual.
When the light goes green, I have an arrow blinking for me to turn left. I looked both ways and there was no one around, but I just didn't go. I can't explain what happened other than something inside me said "don’t go" so I sat there staring at the green light. A couple of seconds later, a car came screaming through the red light, through the intersection, probably doing about 100km/hour in the lane I would have been turning in to.
They were going so fast their vehicle had a bounce to it. If I had turned my car would have been destroyed, and me along with it. I sat there through the whole next light cycle and then turned, pulled over and called my sister. It was a ghostly feeling. I am a light jumper, I look both ways but I am impatient, and I can't explain what stopped me from going the second that light went green, but I'm glad it did.
28. They Only Come Out at Night…And Sometimes in the Morning
About 10 years ago, I had a job that started at 6 am on the weekends. I didn’t drive and would take the light rail, which was a 15-minute walk from my house. One dark morning, I saw a person up ahead of me a few blocks away. I usually see homeless people on my walk to the light rail and most are harmless just trying to collect cans for the deposit or asking for change, but this guy just felt off.
I could tell from blocks away that there was something wrong about him, so I crossed the street and grabbed my phone from my backpack. I still had to go to work and this road was the only way to the light rail. Suddenly, I hear a “bubububump!” I look over my shoulder and it was him running toward me with his trousers down. That sound was the sound of his shoes hitting the pavement as he ran toward me.
I took off running, screamed, “I’m calling 9-1-1,” and held my phone to my ear. He must have saw and took it seriously because he ran the opposite direction that I ran. I did call 9-1-1, but they wanted me to wait there for the cop and I was like “Heck no!” I said it was because I didn’t want to be late for work, but I was terrified of him finding me.
I will never forget the sound of his shoes hitting the pavement.
29. Coming Through
I was taking my mom to a follow up appointment from back surgery the month before. The freeway was closed due to a car accident and life flight was called to transport the people injured in the accident. The highway patrol was funnelling everyone off of the freeway to the right side exit. I had the strongest feeling we needed to move to the left farthest lane, so I did.
No more than a minute after I moved over, a garbage truck came barreling down the freeway and crashed into the car that was in front of us in the other lane. The truck was going so fast that it lifted the front end of the truck and landed on top of the car. We were in a tiny sports car that would have crumpled like a tin can under the weight of a garbage truck and definitely would’ve killed my mom and me in a second.
30. Predator and Prey
One day in elementary school, I was walking home alone and this beat-up white pick-up truck drove by me real slowly. The driver was a middle aged man that was kind of eyeing me. He drove a little further before turning into a driveway and turning around to drive my way again. At that point, I wasn’t convinced of anything other than that he needed to be watched.
He drove past me again and was 100% sizing me up or something, just looking at me like I was prey. I could see in his eyes that he was making decisions, and not just looking at me like a neighborhood kid. I turned my head to watch him pull into another tiny side street behind me. That’s when I knew for sure. I started running as fast as I could.
I didn’t see him again, so I think my sprinting away must have deterred him as it was still daylight in a populated neighborhood. It always stuck with me, and luckily I’ll never know if my gut actually saved me or not.
31. Missed the Bus—And Something Else
I went to go catch my bus and saw it about to pull out from the stop. If I’d run, I could’ve made it. But something told me to wait for the next one, so I did, and I caught the next bus half an hour later. Now, I usually sit at the back of the bus on the driver’s side. A little way into the journey, traffic was slowing, and we got to the cause of it. A truck had crashed into the bus I had missed, right into the back on the driver’s side. Had I caught that bus, I wouldn't be here. It still gives me chills after six years.
32. Strangers With Trailers
I was at the mall with my friends, all of us around 12 years old. It was 8 pm, and my mom was on her way to pick me up. We were all chilling together until each of our parents got here to get us. As we’re standing by a store near one of the side entrances, a man comes up to us. He’s about 30-ish, wearing huge glasses, and carrying a clipboard.
The man says, “Hey guys, do you want to watch some movie trailers and answer surveys about them? I’ll pay you each five dollars per trailer.” Naturally, my friends are all for it. The thing is, my heart dropped as soon as I heard him speak. As they’re all saying yes, the man nods and then points to the side entrance. It’s pitch black outside, and that entrance leads to the back parking lot of the mall, which is always deserted.
Then, he says: “We can do it over there.” My friends start to follow the man as he walks toward the glass doors, and I’m trailing behind them. Then, as we get close enough for me to kind of see what’s outside, I notice a van parked right outside the entrance. The headlights are on, the car is running. The back doors seem to be open.
Every part of my being screams “NO! DON’T GO!” I stop in my tracks, and loudly say, “Guys, my mom is here to pick us all up, I don’t think we have time for it.” The man freezes and keeps his eyes trained on the doors, and I can see his jaw clenching tightly. My friends look at me with confusion, and I try to give them the most terrified expression of warning that I can.
Thankfully they get the message, and say bye to the guy. The man refused to turn to look at us, and simply began to walk outside of the mall. As we’re walking away, I turn and look behind me one last time. The van, and the man, were gone.
33. Thirst for Life
I think I was 10 or 11, and I was reorganizing my room, moving books and stuff around. I had been working on it all day and during the process I moved a book shelf on top of a dresser to give me more space and loaded it up with two encyclopedia sets and a bunch of other books. I ended up moving my bed parallel to the dresser and passed out from working on my room all day.
I woke up a little while after four AM and was contemplating getting a glass of water and moving my bed, because it didn't look safe under the bookshelf. I finally got out of my bed and walked towards the door, maybe two or three steps and that’s when it happened. The 1994 Northridge earthquake hit. The bookshelf instantly fell on my bed where I had just been laying down.
34. The Longest Run
I was 13. The bus would take me home from school in 15 minutes, but I liked taking the one-hour walk home. While walking on a main road, a van pulled over some 100 feet away from me. It wasn't a family van, it was one of those utility, boxy-looking ones. The van door was open and a man was waving at me with both of his arms. I was too far away to hear what he was saying.
Usually, I love to help people, but something told me to keep walking. So I kept walking. I look back five minutes later and this guy is walking behind me. Relaxed pace. I'm not worried, but I walk a little faster. I look back maybe two or three minutes later and he's still walking, but closer, and waving his arms again. So I start jogging a little. Now he's jogging. Then I start running as fast as a I can, not stopping to look back.
At one point, I turned onto the next street and couldn't see him anymore. I was so cold with fear, out of breath, waiting for the intersection light to change. The light changed and I went back to walking, but I was out of breath. Five minutes later, I look back and I can’t believe my eyes. He's still following me. So I ran the last two minutes to my building, even though I didn't want him to see where I lived.
I ran into the building lobby, looked through the glass doors. He wasn't there. I pushed the elevator button, and went back to the glass door and saw him on the street far away, still walking. I've always tried to make sense of what he was going to do. This was a busy suburban area. Was he going to just stab me and run away? What did he want with me in particular? Did he just leave his van behind to get towed?
So many questions. So, so weird.
35. Voices in my Head
After a party many years ago, I was driving home at like four in the morning with my friend passed out in the passenger seat. I was driving fast down a steep hill that's like a half-mile long, at least. I was on autopilot, as I drive down that street every day. Suddenly, about a half a block from a major intersection, which I had a green light for, I heard a voice in my head.
It said these exact words: "You may want to slow down, because if you don't, you might lose your life." It was weird, because that's not really what my tone of voice of style of speaking is like. Anyway, I slowed down, and as I was entering the intersection, a car blew the red light at about 50-60mph, right in front of me. It was so close that I nearly threw up. I started shaking and punching my friend, yelling how I just saved our lives, He just groaned and went back to sleep. Jerk.
36. Depend on the Kindness of Strangers
I was at a party for my boyfriend’s father but I had a headache that wasn't going away. I had been drinking, but I wasn't drunk. I was just feeling terrible. So I made my excuses and left to walk home alone, as I didn't want to ruin his night with his dad. It was a ten-minute walk, if that, from the pub to our house and it wasn't properly dark yet.
I walked down the street and passed a man sitting on a wall drinking a beer. A minute after I passed, I heard the bottle smash and then footsteps a little while back. Nothing unusual, it was a main road and there was another pub further along but my gut was screaming that something was wrong. I hurriedly walked back to the pub and stopped outside to ask the smokers for a light and a chat as I smoked.
That’s when I saw him pass me, and then stare at me from across the street for an uncomfortable amount of time. With my heart pounding, I asked a bouncer working the doors if he could order me a taxi. A few weeks later, while in the town center, I saw a mugshot of the same dude. He was wanted for assault.
37. The Gatekeeper
I was helping my company move equipment from our old office space to our new location. It required me to park my car in a very small alley in the downtown area of Chicago—the Loop, for those who know. The security officer told me that he would watch on the camera to see when I got there so that he could open up the big gate for the service entry.
The gate was about 30 feet wide and 20 feet tall, and it was one of those rollup types. I parked, got out of my car, and looked up at camera. He must’ve been watching, because the gate started opening up right away. I was going to duck under it once it got to about 4 feet high, but had a momentary gut feeling to not do that.
As soon as I took a step backward instead of going forward, the axle broke on one end and the entire 60 feet squared of steel gate came crashing down. If I had gone under the gate, I would’ve been crushed. In my panic, I scrambled backward to the alley wall opposite of the gate, and missed falling down a 4-foot window well by just a couple inches.
The security guard was amazed and incredibly relieved that I was alright.
38. Jeepers Creepers
I was walking back home from my grandmother's house when a car pulled up beside me. As I kept walking, the car slowly followed. When I looked into the car, there was a man in his 30s or 40s who had the evilest grin on his face. His face has never left my mind. As he was slowly coming toward me, his eyes not leaving me, I screamed out HELP and ran until I saw someone who let me into their house.
The man didn’t leave until we called the police. When they came, they searched his car and found handcuffs, a blindfold, and a big container with two holes poked in the top.
39. Lesson Learned
One day, I was driving away from my parents’ house. When I was about two miles down the road I got this really freaked out feeling, reached over, and pulled on my shoulder belt. I rarely wore it back then. Another mile down the road, my car started to drift a little bit. I made what I thought was a minor steering correction and felt the car jerk and hop towards oncoming traffic.
I corrected again, hit the brakes, and my car felt like it hopped from one side of the lane to the other, plunged off the road, and plowed into a telephone pole. I was completely unharmed, though the car was totalled. My parents had it towed home, and my dad found that a bolt had sheered off in the steering column.
I still have a chunk of that telephone pole over 20 years later. It helps remind me to always listen to my instincts. And to always wear my seatbelt.
40. Don’t Date and Drive
I was on a date—he didn’t know where I lived or anything. I was always paranoid about that. But things had gone well, and my car was cold. So he offered for us both to sit in his while mine heated up, as he had a remote starter. I said sure. Besides, he had the cutest dog too. No one with a cute dog could be that bad, right?
Well, I sat down in his car and we close the doors. That’s when alarm bells went off in my head. The door was locked. I went to open the door because I was freaking out—it didn’t open. It also had a manual switch that could have been used, but it was broken. He told me that I would need a screwdriver to get it unlocked.
We were talking about things like religion, and when I told him I prayed, he told his dog it was a sign from God. He says they were gonna have to keep me. Then, he looks in the back seat. I look in the rear view mirror and see rope back there. He jokingly talks about kidnapping me a few times and goes to put the car into reverse.
I laugh right along with him, while praying silently. Something tells me to go along with this. So I tell him he doesn’t have to kidnap me to keep me. He also continues to make jokes about tying me up and keeping me locked up in his basement. That nobody would ever know and then I would never be able to leave him.
I go on a gut instinct. I tell this guy that I know I shouldn’t be saying this, and it’s only a first date—but something just feels really right with him. He puts the car back into park. Looks at me. “Really?” I go on this tangent about how I know it’s way too soon to know if there’s a connection, and didn’t want to tell him, for risk of freaking him out.
I told him I was really bummed I was going out of town for the weekend because that meant there would be no chance of seeing him when I got back. I keep going and say I had to be getting home, as my friend was expecting me over tonight so we could leave super early in the morning. I’m having so much fun I don’t want to leave. But I would like a real hug before I got in my car. You know the kind—one that requires standing and not being in a vehicle.
So he makes me promise that I’ll hear from him when I get back. Absolutely. He wanted a kiss if it wasn’t too soon, and me to be his girlfriend. Yep dude—whatever you want. My internal alarms are going off and I’m kind of terrified right now. The car door unlocks! We get our hug, I kiss him, and try to appear pleasant. Of course I had to tell his dog goodbye, so he rolls down the window for me to give the good boy pets.
Guess what I see. Trash bags and an axe on the floor. I get in my car, wave goodbye, and get the heck out of there.
41. Moms Always Know
When I was in fourth grade, I had a headache before school. Of course, me being a kid, I asked my mom to stay home that day. She, having a weird feeling about that day, said yes and I went back to sleep. She felt that something was off and when I came to her about staying home, she said yes, just in case she was right. It was the best decision she ever made.
That morning at school during breakfast, an older women ran her car into the school’s wall next to the lunch room, killing my best friend. He was eating breakfast and if I had gone to school I would have been eating with him at that table. The school was so certain that I was under the bricks and the lady’s car that they called my mom confirming my whereabouts.
My mom and I thank her gut feeling almost at least once a month for saving my life that day.
42. Quick Thinking Saves Lives
I was walking out of a grocery store when I saw this kid about to cross the road. Something came over me and I yanked him back onto the sidewalk. Not even a second later a truck came flying past. He was only around seven or eight years old.
43. Kill Em With Kindness
I have a story of what happens when you don’t listen to your gut—or at least, you listen to it a bit late. That day, my gut said “Don’t get into the car with this person you’ve just met.” I didn’t listen. He legit kidnapped me and drove me to a forest and tried to drag me out. My gut said to calm down and be nice to him. I basically talked my way out of the situation by being kind and stroking his ego.
I was able to convince him that he didn’t need to do this and that I’d be “his,” but he needed to let me go because my friend was waiting for me. She knew I was getting a ride and that if I didn’t show up soon, maybe we couldn’t “be together.” This guy was crazy but it worked and he drove me to where my friend was waiting. The entire time, I had to keep reassuring him that I wasn’t mad and that I was happy “he chose me”—gag.
Anyway, I got out safe and unharmed except for some bruises from when I first tried to fight him off. He spent a year in jail after that, and ended up going to jail for another crime right afterward.
44. The Watcher
I used to date a girl who I would go see every night after I got off work, when I worked until midnight. After meeting, I would stay at her house until about one or two AM. Sometimes as I left her house, she would follow me in her car and stop at a nearby all-night grocery store. I always begged her not to go alone, but she always said she'd be fine.
Sometimes I would wait in the parking lot until she came back out and then we'd go our separate ways. Sometimes I wouldn't. One time I felt ill so as we left she said, "Just go straight home, I'll be fine, I always am." For some reason, I felt like that was the night I needed to be there, so I stayed, but I didn’t tell her. She thought I went straight home.
I was in the parking lot as she pulled in but she didn't see me. As she walked in, a shady looking dude was walking out. She ignored him but he looked back at her about three or four times. Then he gets to his truck and another guy is in there and they talk through the window for a minute looking back at the store a couple times. The second guy gets out of the truck, gets something out of the back of it then they both head back into the store.
I couldn't be sure they were going to do anything but I was not about to take a chance, so I go into the store too. I see them going past every aisle and then motion to each other like "there she is." So, I walk a bit faster to catch up. I turn into the aisle just as they are approaching her. They are looking at each other. From behind I yell "Hey!" They both turn, and so does my girlfriend.
I brush by them and give them a look and say "Hey guys." They nod awkwardly as my girlfriend says to me "What are you doing here?” I kiss her and make up some story about wanting to buy aspirin. The two guys leave. I never told my girlfriend that story, I don't know why. I don’t know what they were up to, but it wasn’t good.
45. Stranger Danger
I was maybe six years old and playing with a friend at the playground. An older man came and asked us if we would like to play at his private playground. I remembered my mum telling me to not interact with strangers, so I declined. I was sure as a kid that he had a private playground and was actually kind of mad at myself for not saying yes.
Years later, I was 25 and walked home alone from a club, being tipsy. That’s when it struck me. Suddenly, I remember this man from my childhood and it occurred to me what that really was. I see in the corner of my eye two guys behind me, one leaning on the wall, the other one just nodding and walking out of my perspective. Got chills like crazy.
All of the sudden, this dude locks me in his arms, trying to touch me. I said no, he didn’t stop. No one was around. So I said let’s just walk, because I was convinced that the other guy was just waiting as well. We walked, he held me super close to him. I asked him for his jacket because I thought I could run if he has to mess with his zipper.
He just grinned at me, held me even tighter and didn’t say a word. So I felt that I was running out of time, and there was still no other pedestrian in sight. So I relaxed my body on purpose while walking. He sensed it, stopped holding me so tight. I focused for 30 seconds and right at the moment when he looked back, I punched him as hard as I could on the side of his jaw.
He fell to the ground and I ran.
46. Ditching Danger
I was driving a friend home late at night when I was around 21. She lived in a pretty rural area outside of St. Louis, MO and about a quarter mile from her house was an old abandoned farm and farm house. I always thought of this place as non-threatening as she told me she and her two sisters would go there as kids and they found an attic full of cool things, including a trunk of vintage woman’s clothing and old love letters. It was like something out of a movie.
Anyway, I’m driving her home and it’s a hot, humid Missouri summer so we have the windows open. We are also singing at the top of our lungs. We pass the abandoned farm and I drop her off at her house. I wait long enough to see she makes it inside and I head back out the way I came. I’m driving along and I get to where the farm is. I see two things in the middle of the road, but I can’t tell what they are.
My danger meter goes off. I had just driven this road and there was nothing there. That’s when I put the windows up and made sure the doors were locked. I got closer and realized the items are two car batteries, spaced out in the road in such a way that I would have to get out and move them to drive on the road. I immediately knew I wasn’t getting out of the car.
I picked the side of the road that had the more shallow ditch and I gunned it. I was driving a little SUV and remember feeling the car run over branches and things in the ditch, but I just gunned it and got out of there. All the way home, I felt creeped out and kept checking my rear view mirror. I called my friend the next morning and told her what had happened and we both agreed it was weird.
Shortly after that, I moved to another state and didn’t think much of it after that. Fast forward to a couple of years later when I was back visiting my hometown. I randomly ran into my old friend and she ran up to me with wide eyes and grabbed my arms. She asked me if I remembered what I told her that night. I said yes and she proceeded to tell me a story that made my blood run cold.
Not too long after the night with the car batteries in the road had happened, her family was awakened in the middle of the night to someone pounding on their sliding glass door. Her dad went to check and saw two naked, injured women. He let them in and immediately called 9-1-1. They had been abducted from St. Louis City, about 40 minutes away, by two men and brought to the old abandoned farmhouse where the men had attacked them.
The women somehow managed to get free and ran like heck to the only light they could see—the light over my friend’s garage. They both survived, but the men who grabbed them were never caught. There was evidence the men had been going there for a while. My friend was convinced they had put the batteries in the road to get me to stop.
I’m just really glad my gut told me not to get out of my car.
47. Trust Your Gut
A few years ago, I was at a bar with a couple of friends. All was good, we were drinking and having fun. All of sudden, we heard this discussion taking place just a couple of tables away from us. Two guys decided to have a shouting/threat match. I stopped everything to pay attention to them. My friends were making fun of me, saying I was gossipy. One of the guys in the discussion got up and left.
Immediately after he left, I told my friends we had to go. Right away. I was adamant. They didn't get why I was being weird, but we’d been friends forever, so they reluctantly agreed. We went to a different bar in a different neighborhood, but I couldn't take my mind off of those two guys. The next day, I turned on the news and I couldn’t believe my eyes.
There was a report about a bar fight. Apparently, the guy who got up went home, grabbed a gun and came back for a drive by. He mowed down four people in the process. My grandpa taught me to never ignore my gut, and I couldn't be happier to have listened.
48. The Nose Knows
I was like eight when my parents took me and my younger brother to stay the night at my paternal grandparents' house because they were in the middle of divorcing. They lived in a farmhouse that was connected to a barn with machinery, gasoline tanks, and hay on the ground floor and furnished rooms on the floor above that. The room we were supposed to stay in was in that barn.
As soon as we went into the guest room, I was overwhelmed by panic and felt really dizzy. I turned around and just said that we will not sleep in that room, and we spent the night on the couch in the living room instead. Later that night, a gas leak in the barn ignited. The entire barn exploded, including the guest rooms on its top floor.
Maybe I had that weird feeling because the gas had leaked into the room already, but no one else felt anything. I'm sure I would be dead if I hadn't noticed it
49. Early Learner
When I was in middle school, I got into a local college’s summer program where kids study advanced subjects. The day was over before my mom's work day, so I would take the light rail to the library or sometimes the local community center. Anyway, it was my first time ever really being on my own in a city or in public in general.
My parents got me my first cell phone because of all this. They didn't make me scared but I was prepared about how to stay safe. I sort of did the same thing everyday; get off my stop, go get a burger, and then go to one place or the other, making sure not to talk to strangers and all that. A couple of times, I noticed a man walking behind me. He'd also go the same burger place that I went to.
He never tried to talk to me or do anything like that, but after the fourth time I noticed, I called my mom and she told me people are just going about their day, on a schedule like I am, so it could just be a coincidence. Well, one day I decided to eat inside the burger place instead of take it to go, and I saw him walking outside and straight toward the way I would normally go.
Before he got out of the parking lot, he started looking around, like he was looking for someone or something. I went to the restroom, called my mom, and told her to get me. I didn't go that way ever again after that, took a new route. About a week or so later, a chilling story came on the news about a girl who had gone missing. The video footage was from the same strip center as the burger place.
The suspect was the man who had been following me.
50. Speed Demon
When I was 18, I was on a back road with some friends. A girl I didn't know was driving really fast. Now, I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie, and I have always enjoyed a calculated risk in the name of a good time, but I just had a terrible feeling this time. I told her to either slow the heck down or let me out. I literally had to start screaming at her before she listened and slowed down.
A week later, a friend told me a story that made my blood run cold. She had crashed on that same stretch of road at 90mph, killing herself and the three passengers of her car.
Sources: Reddit,
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