"It Has To Be Under 1% Chance": 30 People Share The Craziest Stories That Actually Happened To Them

I was abducted when I was 15. My “best friend” helped the pimps (who she was working for) help sell me.
I had a pimp, named Goldie, beat the s**t out of me the first night and then made me go out on the streets. He followed me every time I was picked up to make sure I didn’t run away. I finally found a opportunity, and ran away with a couple of bucks in my pocket. Another pimp helped me escape. When I finally made it home, my parents were so happy. The rest of the world, not so much.
Kids at school found out and I was labeled a wh*re forever. This was 30 years ago, and I just had a girl I went to HS with message me on Facebook to tell me that I have to always remember I’m nothing but a cheap hooker. This was after she saw my name in a mutual friends post. I informed her I work with social workers and police officers who try and help victims of trafficking. That the shame spiral for these poor girls leads to all rate mortality at an alarming speed. That my partner and best friends know what happened to me.
I used to let it shape me. I used to think I was just an ex hooker so no one would ever love me or want me. That I wasn’t supposed to be happy or ever have a good job. Or that I would lose it all if anyone ever found out.
I’m only in my 40s now but I’m wise enough to have figured out all of my fears were just from PTSD. I do deserve happiness and a good life. I’m not an ex hooker- I was a kid and a victim.
Kids - if anyone tells you that you aren’t s**t, please remember you are AWESOME. And if your situation is s**t, I promise you. It can get better. Hugs from an Oregon mamma.

Edit : thanks so much everyone! Holy smokes I woke up to so much support and so many great messages and comments. You guys made my whole week.

I had a beater car in college. It was an ancient Plymouth, made mostly out of duct tape and rust.

I had all of my college books in it. Just kept them there. Easier for studying. Go out to my car and grab what I need. Engineering books, too. So super super expensive.

Someone stole my car out of my driveway with all my books in it.

Police report, all that. No joy. I was heartbroken. How in the world could I do my homework? How could I continue the semester? I was totally f****d.

My mom offered to take me to school that day. I was just ruined. I had no hope. No idea how I would get by.

And on an on-ramp on the way to school, **there she sat**. I just happened to notice her as we were driving by!

The old girl chose *that exact moment to throw her transmission*. When the thief was out joyriding it around and tried to get on the freeway. And I just happened to notice it sitting there.

All my books were still in it.

You just don't get that kind of loyalty with a car anymore. She sacrificed herself in just the right spot so I'd see her and get my books back. I'll always love that car. Godspeed, you old boat.

In 2013 I received a notice from my college that my low GPA from the previous semester made me ineligible for financial aid the following semester. It was my last term in grad school and the college was threatening to drop me from all classes if I didn't pay tuition within 72 hours. I went to drown my sorrows at a bar later that night and I met a stranger and we started talking. I told her my story and she offered to pay my tuition. I told her I didn't accept loans from strangers but she said it was a gift. Turns out she was a very wealthy CEO and that night she wrote me a check for $2,500. I paid my tuition, finished school, and we still keep in touch.

When I was a teen in the '80s, I got to meet and briefly hang out with an idol of mine. He was (and still is) an extremely famous rock star. He was very nice but a bit twitchy and very high-energy. Cocaine is a Hell of a drug.

At the end of my little visit, I asked if I could have a photo with him. He said "let's take a bunch!" So I handed my camera to an assistant and he took a few nice normal pictures. As I'm reaching to take back my camera I hear "ONE MORE!" from behind me, and the dude jumps on my back and assistant snaps the photo. Keep in mind that I was a 14-year-old girl at the time, Mr. Rock Star weighed probably 200 pounds, and I was caught completely off guard. It's a miracle that I kept my feet under me and didn't get injured, but I got the most hilarious photo ever!

Fast forward about 35 years, and I by some miracle had occasion to meet him again. I was standing around with some other people waiting, he came in and started shaking hands. When he got to me, he shook my hand, looked me straight in the eye, and said "Hey there Gorilla! How's your back these days?" I was literally shocked speechless. This man, who has been fighting drug and alcohol addiction for most of his life, remembered a 15 minute chat/photo-op with a nervous teenager several decades ago, remembered my name and his little prank, and recognized me in middle age.

What a great guy. I'm still his biggest fan.

My dad wrote a book a very long time ago, and signed the copy that he gave to his in-laws. Years after he had died I loaned the signed copy to a guy I was dating. We stopped seeing each other and he never gave it back.

Years later I decided I wanted a copy of my dad’s book even though it wouldn’t be *my* signed copy so I ordered it used on Amazon. The book that arrived is the signed one I’d loaned out. Turns out he had sold it to a used bookstore, and I just happened to order from them.

Was going to see a concert with some friends. Printed my ticket at home. This was before mobile tickets were ubiquitous. We all decided to meet at a bar about a mile from the venue, then walk over after a few drinks.

Have our drinks and some food and head to the venue. When we get there, I suddenly realize I don't have my ticket on me. Panicked, I run back to the bar. Check my car in the parking lot, nothing. Head inside the bar, check the table we were at, look everywhere. No ticket.

Bummed and dejected, I leave the bar and begin to trek back to the venue to let my friends know I can't go with them. While I was waiting at a crosswalk, the wind blows a bit, and with it, a sheet of paper floats past me and comes to a stop on the sidewalk.

I reach down, pick it up, and it's my goddamn printed ticket. One of the best days of my life.

Taking a beautiful Saturday morning ride home on my motorcycle. Mini van pulled out in front of me. Totalled motorcycle and van. Hospital did a scan of my head. Come to find out I had brain cancer that we caught very early. Which may have saved my life.

I (American) was visiting the UK for the first time. I got to my hostel and started chatting with the Australian guy in the bed above mine. When I mention where I’m from, he says there’s a famous restaurant there he really loves and goes to with his family every time they visit. Turns out it was a place I used to work. He says “Hey I have a picture of our server from the last time I was there, maybe it’s someone you know.” It was me.

My husband and I went to a Tom Petty concert at the last minute only being able to get tickets for the cheap seats. Right before the concert starts somebody approaches us and says ‘do you want to get bumped up’ and I said sure because there can’t be any worse seats than this and he says ‘ I am with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and these are front row seats’. He hands them to me and disappears. My husband and I looked at each other, walk to the front section security guard, showed him our tickets and he walked us to front row center seats and we enjoyed a really great concert.

I’m a medic and firefighter. We once had a call for something normal, like chest pain or something, I can’t remember. The caller said he was in his barn/garage, which isn’t weird really around here.

Anyway we pull up on scene and something just felt off. No idea why but something just told me in my gut that something was wrong.

I decided to do a 360 around the building before we went through the door at the front that was clearly the entrance. I walk around and come to a window on the side of the building and look in.

There was a shotgun rigged to the door. The guy had set a booby trap for us. And he had hung himself as well.

We kicked in this plexiglass type material on the side of the building and entered that way. Guy was dead. Nothing we could do about it at that point.

I would have been the first through that door. No idea why I didn’t just walk through it that day.

Edit: I’ll try to answer some of the questions here.

No idea why the guy did what he did, but my hypothesis in situations like this and mass shootings and the like is angry suicide.

The reason I made entry before police were present was because they were more than 30 minutes away and if the guy wasn’t dead I would have attempted to revive him. I assessed the scene and made a risk/reward decision and decided it was safe enough for me to enter from the side of the building.

I’m not religious and I think it was just training and experience that made me double check the scene. Something looked off to me at the time but I can’t even point out what it was. I’ve been in emergency services for about 15 years and this is just one story of weird s**t that has happened in that time.

And thanks to everyone for saying kind things about me still being here. I’m glad I’m here too.

I was walking through the woods with my boyfriend in high school and we found some papers scattered everywhere. They were really old and gross but we were like "oh what if it's the DB Cooper briefcase" or something and picked up a sheet to see what it was and it WAS A HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT I COMPLETED AND TURNED IN DURING THE 4TH GRADE.

Nothing could have prepared me to see my own name in my own childhood handwriting in the middle of the woods lol

I moved away from my hometown when I was 20. I started working for a company that had several locations around the city. One day I just happened to be walking past one of the locations that I didn't work at because I was going to an eye appointment. Right as I was walking by, a guy I knew from that other location walks out the door and tells me that my mom is on the phone. She was desperately trying to get in touch with me because my grandfather had died. She knew the name of the company I worked for but didn't know which location I worked at, so she got an operator to connect her with one of the locations at random. The guy I knew said he was on the phone with her and was just starting to explain that I didn't work at that location when he looked out the window and saw me walking by.

Our guitarist was late to band practice so we decided to go to the mall and pick up our drummer's pre-ordered copy of GTA4. We decided we were hungry but we were ultra broke so we went to Wendy's. We happened to be talking about quad core processors (brand new tech) and how the rumors we heard was that they were prone to crashing. This old guy behind us interrupts us and tells us he finds them to be quite stable. We talk computers with him a bit and he says he'd be interested in hiring us for an infusion of youth into his company. He gave us his card and told him we appreciated the offer.

We look him and his company up later and he's a legit billionaire. Private jet billionaire. We apply and the interview was basically a formality because he met us in the lobby and said he was going to tell them to push us through.

I went from blockbuster to a corporate job as a software tester due to a series of coincidences.

Me, my husband & 2 young kids decide to go to a Six Flags park on a Saturday. I picked out everyone clothes for the day, but my husband decided to wear a different shirt, an ugly green polo. I hated the shirt and acted pissy all the way to the park during the two hour drive.
We arrive and got in line to get admission tickets then a stranger walks up and asks us if we want to get in free as he had season passes and it was some kind of "bring a friend" type of promo day.
We thanked him for saving us admission costs and asked him "why did you choose us out of all he people here?".
It was because my husbands shirt color was the same color of his favorite sport team.
My husband laughed about it all day.

This was early seventies when I was about 1 year old. My parents went on a camping trip in New Hampshire, got to the site late, and had to set up everything in the dark. My parents put me in this German-made baby leash thing and wrapped it around their arms, because I would "sleep crawl" and there was no crib.

The next morning my father awoke to tugging on his wrist. He finds me dangling by the leash straight over a several hundred foot shear cliff. They had set up the tent not knowing how close they were to the side.

If it hadn't been for a little leather strap attached to a harness around me, I would have plummeted to my death without making a sound that night and no one would have known for hours. It was possible they wouldn't have found my body because the valley below had coyotes at the time.

I opened my wallet to show my friends I had no monies, and a moth flew out of it.

Edit: I first related this incident 9 years ago, and it got ~500 karma. 3 years ago it was ~4000.

I think maybe all need a laugh more as time moves on.

I was visiting the Statue of Liberty with my family. Accidentally bumped into a woman. When I turned around to apologize I realized it was the exchange student we had hosted a decade before. What a coincidence that we were visiting NYC from TN and she was visiting from Denmark at the same time, we both decided to visit the Statue of Liberty at the same time, and I just so happened to clumsily run into her. It’s a small world

I was working a front desk job at a small office in a strip mall. A car pulled up, went over the curb, through the window, and hit the desk as I was sitting there.

I had an ear infection that was misdiagnosed for years, from when I was about 25-33. During that timeline, it spread out of my ear canal and into the surrounding bone. Then, due to an atypical born formation in my skull that would have otherwise been asymptomatic, the infection traveled up my skull and into my cranial cavity, unbeknownst to me.

The symptoms I experienced were only in my ear, where I felt fluid and pressure. I finally demanded that an ent place a tube to try to clear out the infection.

The tube drained for about three weeks, and finally the ent I had gone to panicked and misdiagnosed me with a cerebrospinal fluid leak. He rushed me to the ER without even testing the fluid, and he intended to cut my skull open to look for a cerebrospinal fluid leak that didn't exist. I was in the ER on a table with the doctors running preop antibiotics when I got a call from a friend of the family who is a doctor. He had been speaking to his doctor friends, and they all agreed I needed to get the f**k out of there. They didn't believe there was a csf leak at all. I told the team of doctors who had assembled to operate on me that I was leaving, and they were pissed. They all shot me condescending and angry looks as I left.

I got a call two days later from the ent telling me that they got the analysis of the fluid back, and it wasn't cerebrospinal fluid. I was in shock. They were going to slice my head open on a fishing expedition for a csf leak that didn't exist. He didn't apologize or anything. I hung up the phone and never talked to him again.

Eventually, the team of neurosurgeons my friend knew diagnosed me with a runaway ear infection. One told me that I have "the most unique looking skull he'd ever seen." Some compliment.

One showed me a CT of my skull. "See this black spot inside your skull? That's air. That's not supposed to be there, and it means there is a channel from the outside world to inside your skull. That's very bad. Do you ever fly? [I responded that yes, I fly all the time. For work, for pleasure, all the time.] Well, stop that immediately. This is very dangerous. Every time you've flown over the last several years, you've been rolling a die. It's possible that, when the cabin pressurized, this air pocket would expand and create a midline shift in your brain and you'd die immediately."

So, after a sh*tload more scans, they took me in for an 8 hour surgery. They removed all of the infected bone in my skull, a piece that ran about 2" x 6". In its place, they put a titanium mesh implant to hold my skull together. The recovery was the weirdest and most disorienting experience. When I turned my head, I could feel the plate shifting, and my skull was no longer a full circle, so it wasn't structurally sound, so it too kinda shifted.

But the bone healed over the implant, and now you'd never know that any of this happened, except for a barely noticeable scar behind my left ear.

Thank God I had that friend to tell me to bolt from that emergency room.

When I was a kid, my sister was terrified of thunderstorms. One afternoon, a storm rolls through. We were doing homework at the kitchen table together, and my sister started getting scared. She got under the table, just in case. My mom tried to coax her out, to which my sister replied "What if we get struck by lightning?"

My mom, exasperated, replies, "We are *not* going to get struck by lightning."

And the moment her sentence ended, there was a loud crack and lightning struck our house.

It hit halfway up our stairs, where it reaches a landing and curves back on itself. There was a window at that spot and the entire windowsill was black, as were the bottom 6 panels of the blinds. No damage whatsoever to the tall pine tree directly outside the window.

Knocked out our phones and security system. The wiring had to be replaced completely. Power was totally fine though.

And I had a cool, yet unbelievable, story the next day about why I didn't finish my homework.