40 Firsthand Stories Of Real-Life Mysteries That Make No Sense

Everyone has a few weird, unexplained moments tucked away in the corners of their memory—those strange incidents that still make them pause and think, “What even was that?” When someone on Reddit asked, “What’s one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of your personal life?”, thousands chimed in with tales that range from the amusing and spooky to downright eerie.

#1

Image source: anon, MART PRODUCTION

Where did all of my serotonin go and how do I get it back.

#2

Image source: KingOfTerrible, Polina Kuzovkova

Where did my cat go when it disappeared for a month, then just reappeared like nothing happened?

#3

There’s a fuzzy rope or snake that follows me everywhere. I try and try to catch it but I never can. One time I did catch it and I think it bit me because it hurt and I yelped and mom and dad laughed at me for it.

Also, in the bedroom, there’s a window with another dog in it and he copies me and it’s so frustrating. The a*****e won’t even come into the room, even if I bark at him.

Image source: dog_who_can_type

#4

Image source: miegg, Anastasiia Chepinska

Who the lady that birthed me was. I was found in a dumpster, premature, and had been left to die. I really don’t have any deep urge to find her or anything. A while back I got 23andme, and ended up finding first cousins! The lady who birthed me would have been their aunt.

I reached out to them, and they’re both very nice. However we left it at pleasant hellos and small exchanges about ourselves. See, they have 7 aunts. One of them is her. From what I’ve been told they’re all a happy family, and I may even have half siblings.

But I’ll never know why I couldn’t have been left somewhere safer. To me it’s not worth dragging that skeleton out of the closet or potentially getting someone in legal trouble. I’m glad she’s doing ok.

I grew up in a happy loving family that has my back, so I made out well enough. :).

#5

Image source: anon, Pavel Danilyuk

I was about 10 years old and had a photo of myself with a horse in my wallet. I kept my wallet next to my bed. One day I went into my room and the photo of me was tore into pieces laying on my pillow. I was a sweet and shy girl and that broke my heart.

I never found out who did it or why. I still sometimes think about that moment.

#6

Image source: TippedPug, Kenny Orr

When I was 6 years old I was the only witness to my mother’s murder. It was a school day, but I was sick at watching cartoons. We had a cleaning lady at the house that day. My mother was upstairs sleeping when the doorbell rang. I instantly ran to the door to answer it as my mother came down. Standing outside was a man in a black suit with a breifcase and I s**t you not a fedora. When Mom came to the door (in a bathrobe and little else) he stated that he was a lawyer representing a family member and asked to step inside for a something. I don’t remember everything they talked about, being as young as I was.. but I guess that matters little now. They stood around talking for about 5 minutes while I pestered them. I even remember offering the man a quarter I found in the couch. Soon after the tone of conversation changed and the man pulled out a pistol and pointed it at my mother. She screamed and ducked to the side, with a shot firing. She bolted down the hallway and he gave chase. I heard several more gunshots as I was scooped up by the cleaning woman and hustled to my neighbor’s house. She was screaming call 911 over and over as she burst into their home. As I sit behind their window I saw a black sedan peel off down the street.

The cleaning lady immediately left and from what I am told immediately took her child and left to Mexico. I was the only person to see the man, so I was visited by many officers in the following months during the investigation. They had lots of pictures of men and gave the the whole “he may have grown a beard or changed his haircut” speech everytime they would sit me down to try and identify him. But y’know, I was 6. They never caught him, and to this day I’d really just like to get the story of why.

#7

Image source: Slow_Fever_Blues, Getty Images

My great grandfather’s father went out in the woods with some people near Pittsburgh one day. The others came back. He did not. I wish there were more details, but that’s all that was ever said about it and my greats are long passed.

#8

So about 22 years ago now I was twelve. I lived with my mother (parents divorced when I was 8month because father was a piece of s**t so I never met him). So anyway my grandparents and my aunt and cousins were going on vacation, I didn’t want to go because I wasn’t fond of my cousins. But, my mom insisted I go because I would be alone when she was at work and with the extended family out of town I’d have no one to call if there was trouble.

So I went. After a day or two of sightseeing my grandpa got a phone call. My mother hadn’t showed up for work so our neighbor came to check because the car hadn’t moved. He was able to get in through my bedroom window which my d*****s had left unlocked. There he found my 32 year old mother dead on the couch.

So fast forward a few days we’re all wondering what happened. She’d been feeling bad for years she took tons of ibuprofen a day. So at first we thought maybe accidental o******e. Turned out no d***s in her system. Now she was an RN she had been asking her doctor about why she felt so bad for really as long as I can remember. He said you’re young there’s nothing wrong with you. It’s all psychosomatic.

Anyway we press them about cause of death and the official ruling was natural causes….we were all a bit overwhelmed at the time and we should’ve pressed the matter further because the doctor who did the autopsy was her doctor’s friend and her doctor ended up leaving the state because of malpractice suits.

So tldr my great life mystery is; how did my mother really die.

Image source: Sliippy

#9

Image source: morbidcuriosities, Liam Truong

Who my “pen pal” was as a kid.

When I was about eight years old I started getting little notes in the mail every week or two. They were all stamped and addressed to me, and they all contained little doodles and said very random things such as “I like birthday cake, do you?” or “my favorite flowers are daisies, what are yours?” They were never signed and there was no return address. The handwriting didn’t look like anyone in my family or any of my friends, and every person I asked denied it.

Eventually my parents got visibly uncomfortable with it and would start insisting on examining the letters before I opened them. Pretty soon after that they stopped coming. Been nearly 20 years and still no idea what was up with that.

#10

Image source: isaacattackback, J carter

When my dad passed away, I was dating a girl who I thought would be my endgame. She was, is, beautiful, intelligent, and compatible with me on every level.

Unfortunately, I ended up slowly mentally breaking down over the course of the next six months, developing a rather nasty drinking problem that culminated in me breaking up with her late one night when I was pretty certain I was going to k**l my self.

That was three years ago, and I think I’ve moved on, but there’s a part of me that will always wonder if we could have made it. I loved her like none other, and I just wish that she is happy now, and will continue to be for the rest of her life.

Edit: For those who suggested I reach back out to her, I have on multiple occasions. We haven’t talked for over 2 and a half years, and in my heart of hearts, I know she’s done with all this. I don’t blame her, I was an absolute nightmare to deal with. I appreciate the comments, but sometimes when something is done, it’s best left to be done. Me being in love with her (for god knows how long in my soul) is not sufficient.

#11

Image source: Richard-Hindquarters, Thought Catalog

The amount of wormholes I seem to open on a regular basis. Every pencil I’ve ever dropped is in some alternate universe now.

#12

Image source: ThreeDucksInAManSuit, Alex P

Had a family friend whom i’d known forever. She had been a friend of my parents since over a decade before I was born.

When I was in my late teens she dropped all contact with us for absolutely no reason I can discern. Parents don’t know either. Her brother confirmed that she’s still alive and in the country, she just doesn’t want to talk to us anymore.

#13

Image source: Jacobitey, Andrea Piacquadio

This will probably get lost now.. but I started dating my best friend in university. He was my best friend for years, and we finally got together. He was infatuated for a long time before we got together, I think.

A few months into our relationship I was in a serious road traffic accident: I had brain injury and suffered retrograde and anterograde amnesia (forgot the last 6 months and the following three). Somewhere in there he dumped me. I never knew why, and my other friend had to remind me everyday that he left me because I kept forgetting. But because I kept forgetting, I went stalker-ex on him because I thought we were still together.

To this day, even though I’m blissfully married, I miss my best friend. I wish he knew that I wasn’t a stalking him, I just had no idea he dumped me.

If you’re here Stef.. I miss you bud.

#14

Image source: ModeHopper, cottonbro studio

When we were kids my sister and I had a big box of toy animals. We played with them every day and so knew every single toy in that box. One day my sister stood up from playing and underneath where she’d been sitting was a teeny tiny plastic elephant that we’d never seen before.

The only explanation we could come up with at the time was that she had given birth to it there and then. I still can’t think of a better one.

#15

Image source: Rebuta, Thom Holmes

I met my current partner of 10 years when she texted me because she didn’t know who’s number she had. We had never met before and to this day we have no idea how she got my number. maybe it was a typo?

#16

When I was in middle school someone doorbell ditched me a gift bag of gift cards. We saw the car drive away and it was didnt look like anyone we knew. There were about $200 in gift cards for me. Coming from a family of 7 that was in a cult (meaning 10% of our income went to the church) $200 was a huge gift. I remember going to Mervyns and buying brand new clothes and shoes when I usually had to buy from the thrift store. I still wonder to this day about who it was that gave me that gift.

Image source: monzanita

#17

Image source: Calm_Canary, ttarasiuk

I was at a baseball game and went in the washroom. A guy was leaving one of the stalls and said, “don’t go in that one, people are such animals!”
I went in the next one over, and while I was doing my thing, somebody went in the other one and screamed, “Jesus Christ what the f**k?!?”
I wrestled with the idea of looking but decided against it, and now I’ll never know.

#18

Image source: AkumaBengoshi, Gustavo Fring

When we did blood typing back in high school biology, mine was not an option given my parents’ blood types. Mine has since been confirmed by red cross when donating, and my parents types were from reliable sources. I’m either a freak of nature, got swapped at birth, or that wasn’t my dad.

#19

Image source: onekrazykat, Roberto Nickson

What happened to Sherry. Sherry was a friend of mine twenty odd years ago. She moved to another state to live with a man she met online (back when this was a complete oddity). We stayed in touch for a few years, then she dropped off the face of the earth. From what I can tell no one has heard from her in about fifteen years.

#20

When I was six I was on a family holiday in Gran Canaria. It being the early 90’s I of course got a hair braid, of many colours! Glitter string, bright greens and reds, very tacky but I loved it!

Went to sleep that night, gone next morning.

Didn’t unravel, there was not a single thread in my bed, nor in the bins, hair wasn’t shorter in that part, it wasn’t cut off as a joke by my brothers.

If it was taken out I like to think I’d have woken up to someone pulling at my hair?

Asked my parents twenty years later ” if you took it out just say it, it’s been bothering me for years!”

Both absolutely deny it.

Same with my brothers.

In my head it was magic string and the lady who put it in was a witch who called her string back but yeah, that’s my child imagination travelled into my late twenties.

Image source: JohnCleesesMustache

#21

Image source: anon, Jo Naylor

My roommate was gone for the weekend, and I was sleeping in, when his family somehow broke in to our apartment.

I always lock the door with the chain is the thing, so even if they had a key they shouldn’t have been able to get in, but they did. His Mom popped into my room, apologized, and then disappeared. When I got up later they were gone, but the door still had the chain locked on it.

I have absolutely no clue how they got in. I know they were there and I didn’t hallucinate the whole thing because they left some groceries for him.

My only theory is they crawled in through the balcony, but it just seems so farfetched.

#22

Image source: moltomezzoforte, Valeriia Miller

My parents hosted two small church potlucks at our house twice, a few years apart in two different places, hundreds of miles apart with two entirely different groups of people.

The first time, everyone left and the next day my mom discovered someone cut a perfect 1.5” by 1.5” square out of the middle of one of her shirts in her room.

Few years later at the next event, someone cut a perfect square of similar size out of a sentimental baby bib that was kept at the bottom of a drawer in the kitchen with other special linens.

No one knows who it could’ve possibly
been. Both groups of people were fairly small, and were close family friends.

Edit: We eventually narrowed it down to two suspects, one for each event, but my parents never asked them or tried to find out. We just stopped inviting them and if they did come, we locked the bedroom doors and kept an eye out.

#23

When i was a kid I could sleep through anything I was a rock hard sleeper. Then at 14 I woke up to a family member trying to m****t me. Since then I sleep restlessly. With one eye open. What bugs me is idk how many times or what else he did to me while I was sleeping, because I was such a hard sleeper I could of slept through it.. . It’s a horrid feeling not knowing and has bothered me ever since.

Image source: isingtomyducky

#24

When 9/11 happened my Dad got a call. He talked on the phone for about 30 minutes, and then had to go. He was gone for three day, if my memory serves me right. He can’t say anything about it until 2026.

Image source: firenight2772

#25

Image source: happinessinthedark, Panda Paper Roll

Once my flatmates and I bought a jumbo pack of like six rolls of kitchen paper, popped it on top of the fridge, and the next day the entire thing had vanished. Even when we totally emptied and cleaned the whole house to move out (including moving the fridge out to clean underneath and behind it), it never showed up. I find it deeply disturbing that the two most likely possibilities we came up with were:

1. A six-pack of kitchen roll somehow fluttered halfway across the room to land in the bin, where all four of us failed to notice it all week
2. The estate agent crept in in the middle of the night, stole it without touching anything else, and left congratulating himself on a successful heist

Like, I get that one of my flatmates probably just brought it all up to their room and lived in luxury for the rest of the year, but honestly, not knowing which of those pricks has failed to own up to it for the last three years is like a constant shadow over our relationship.

#26

I’m crossing the street to go home, and everything turns blue, like a blue lens over a camera, and time basically stops. All I hear is a female voice saying “Stop! Don’t move!” And everything returns to normal, while I’m still standing there in shock. A box truck flies past me at 60 miles per hour. Had that not happened, I would have been hit and killed on the spot. I don’t know what f*****g happened, nor do I know how.

Image source: Tehsyr

#27

Image source: caca_milis_, 可猜 查

On the night bus home after a night out, I struck up conversation with this guy. Turns out we had loads in common, lived nearby and he was really cute. As we got to his stop I said something like “would it be creepy of me to ask for your number?” he burst out laughing and said he wanted to ask me, but didn’t wanna be “that guy”, so we swapped numbers.

We went on a date after that and it’s one of the best dates I’ve been on, we laughed from beginning to end.

The following weekend there was a music festival that we were both going to. Death Cab For Cutie were playing at it and it was going to the first time seeing them live for both of us, so we agreed to meet up to watch Death Cab together.

The morning of the festival, he messaged me saying he couldn’t wait for Death Cab & he was looking forward to seeing me. We had a bit of a back-and-forth and agreed that I’d let him know once I got to the venue.

I got to the stage where Death Cab were playing, found an easily identifiable spot for him to find me and messaged him where I was… No response. About 10 minutes before they were due to go on, I gave him a call. No answer.

About a week after I told my sister about it, she said he’d probably lost his phone and didn’t have my number memorised, so I sent a final “Hey, it’s caca_milis_ hope you enjoyed the weekend” kinda message, no response.

I’d LOVE to know what happened in the 2 hours between “looking forward to seeing you” and standing me up.

#28

Growing up, my bedroom was on the second floor of a two-story farmhouse.

I was big into Matchbox cars and Hot Wheels. I had a huge bucket of them, and loved playing with them.

At least once or twice, I inadvertently dropped a car down the heat vent. In an attempt to retrieve it, I traced the heat vent to the basement, where the duct turned 90 degrees and ran about 30 feet to the furnace.

There was no access panel anywhere in that length of ductwork, so I was never able to retrieve my car(s).

We moved out of that house when I was around 14 years old, back in the early 1990s. I still wonder whether they are still in that duct, and how I could possibly talk the current homeowners into somehow letting me cut my way into their ductwork to finally retrieve my beloved cars.

Image source: Cessnateur

#29

Image source: imahntr, Strange Happenings

The last homicide I worked as an investigator is still unsolved. 2, 20 something girls m******d in their car in the driveway of an abandoned house. No suspects. No arrests. It’s been 3 years.

Edit: also, I lost my first anniversary gift from my wife at the scene (Benchmade pocketknife). I drive by there often and still wonder if my knife is sealed up in evidence somewhere….

#30

Image source: Swazzoo, Caleb Woods

I was out camping one time in southern France with my family. We’re from the Netherlands. After setting up the tent, checking out the area and everything my parents start cooking and I got some time off for myself. I was 15 or something, and just bought a new phone from my first job.

I was sitting in my own secluded little area playing some animal crossing, when suddenly my phone rang. I pick up and hear nothing, just some breathing. So I’m like “Hello, who’s this?”. And then I hear a small girl slightly sobbing, asking me “Do you know where my mommy is?”. The kid couldn’t have been older than 10. I got caught by surprise by that question so I just answered back with “what??”.

Then the phone hung up and nothing else followed after that.

#31

Image source: luckycem80, Omar Lopez

Serious answer…I’m adopted. I’ve always wanted to know who my dad is. Moms name on birth certificate. No father listed.

#32

Why don’t I have any memories before the age of 8? What happened to me that my brain evidently tried so hard to block out? If someone did something bad to me, is it someone who is still in my life?

Image source: anotherknockoffcrow

#33

I once saw a cashier at my local supermarket, that looked oddly like me. I had a strong, nagging feeling that I somehow knew him fairly well, but I ignored it.

That was until I went to pay and he looked at me, squinted his eyes and asked me if we knew each other. I told him that I felt the same and we just sorta stood there, staring at each other, trying to figure out what the f**k was happening. Same build, hair, glasses, age… We ended up agreeing that we had no clue, I paid and went on with my life…

Never saw him again, even though I visited that specific supermarket multiple times afterwards…

Spooky, weird, wholesome. It still baffles me to this day.

Image source: anon

#34

Image source: rustbelt84, Getty Images

In my 35 years ive never known my dad to fart. not even once.

hes also now allergic to dairy, as of the last 10 years. i surmise hes actually backed up with farts and has fart blood poisoning. but im no doctor.

#35

Back in elementary school someone managed to s**t next to the toilet. That story spread like a wildfire trough the school. Everyone wondered who could possibly do that and even our teachers told us why that’s disgusting and so on. After 1 or 2 weeks it happened again, but this time his “work” was lying in front of the toilet cabin, so everyone could see it from the hallway when the door was open. Even more rumors and stories were spread and after a week or so our headmistress came to every class and explained that if the responsible kid wouldn’t admit s******g next to the toilet, they would send it to the police to do a DNA test to find out who that was.

But nothing happened after that, i guess he eventually got scared and told our teachers the truth, without anyone else knowing.

Image source: TraFFi-

#36

Image source: hiccup90, A. C.

What the hell did I see briefly peeking out of my neighbor’s master bedroom when I was little? Thing had no face and it retracted just as fast as it had popped out. This was back in the 90’s, btw.

#37

Image source: Badjib, Yassir Abbas

TL:DR. One night while moon gazing I was approached by an unidentified creature, had a 15 minute stand off with it while pointing my gun at it and yelling (couldn’t tell what it was, didn’t want to shoot someone’s dog or cow or anything), eventually it elected to charge me and I fired 9 shots at about 8 feet. Called the game warden and him along with a few sheriffs showed up, looked around to find the animal and make sure it wasn’t suffering. Found one bullet in a fence post, didn’t find the other 8, found tracks leading up to where I said the thing was, but they weren’t clear (game warden suspected a dog, or coyote but the tracks were larger than typical dog/coyote tracks). There was no blood, and no sign of where the animal went. So what the hell did I shoot? And what kind of animal survives 8 .40cal shots to the face/chest?!

#38

These answers make my comment look weird, but I’d really like to know what happened to our sleeping bag in Norway… We were camping on a mountain and while packing up in the morning my gf put our packed sleeping bags outside of the tent together with our other stuff like my camera and gopro. After finishing up we noticed one sleeping bag was missing. We weren’t too far from a ledge that went straight down, but for the sleeping bag to have rolled there and fallen it would’ve had to turn itself around and make enough speed to reach the ledge. We also looked over the edge and didn’t see the bright blue and yellow colours of the sleeping bag. We asked a group of campers not too far from us if they saw anyone take a sleeping bag, but they didn’t see anyone. Also, my camera and gopro were still there, so I suppose no one tried to steal anything… up until today the mountain guides haven’t found a sleeping bag that fits the description yet.

Image source: 5GodsDown

#39

How I got a negative 57% on my project in elementary school.

Image source: ray753

#40

I don’t know who my grandfather is. The man who I have been calling (or rather, “had been”, as he passed away last year) “granddad” all my life isn’t a blood-relative. It’s never been an issue, everyone in the family knows, and when he married my grandmother, he adopted her children, they too took on his surname.
Alas, my grandmother also passed away a few years ago, so simply put, I will never know who my real grandfather is. But at the same time, it doesn’t matter to me; Blood or not, the man I called “granddad” for all my life is still and will always be my granddad.

Image source: neohylanmay