25 Stories Of When Luck Or A Gut Instinct Saved Someone’s Life

There are moments when we seem to escape potential danger through sheer dumb luck, or perhaps it’s our gut instinct stepping in to save us. It may so happen that you feel inexplicably compelled to leave a situation or place, only to have something completely unexpected occur there just seconds later that could have otherwise caused you grievous harm.  People online were recently recalling such incidents where they got out of dodge just in time and saved themselves by a hair’s breadth. We’ve put together a list of the top favourite “I’m glad I left when I did” stories found on AskReddit & Quora and shared them in the gallery below.  

#1

Image source: aging-rhino, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) Worked as an associate for a small 4-partner, 5 associate law firm that was the go-to divorce firm for very wealthy clients. Really shady billing practices (like seeing my actual billable time doubled and tripled on client invoices) and cut-throat office atmosphere led me to look elsewhere. The week after I left, the firm and each attorney billing on a particular file (including me) was sued for malpractice and fraud with a demand of $50MM. After I turned over my accurate time pre-bill records to the plaintiff firm in discovery, the plaintiffs dismissed me from the case. The firm did not survive the $15MM settlement.

#2

Image source: JOEYMAMI2015, Curated Lifestyle/unsplash (not the actual photo) Left my a*****e ex only to have him shoot his gf, 7 years afterwards. She survived but omfg what a nightmare of a situation. He's incarcerated for the next 9 to 30 years.

#3

Image source: Lowkeythatsme, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) I was walking down from the parking lot down to square lake in Stillwater Minnesota when my wife yelled for me to stop because I forgot to grab the swim bag I start walking back and right where I would have been walking a huge 100+ foot tree uprooted and fell right where I was walking. It would have certainly k**led me instantly.

#4

Image source: pkbab5, Greg Johnson/unsplash (not the actual photo) In fourth grade I went to aftercare after school every day, while my parents were at work. One day, while I was at aftercare, there was a report of bad weather coming and a chance of tornados. My mom called my next door neighbor and asked if she would be willing to go pick me up from the school, as it would take my mom too long to get there. My neighbor said of course and came and picked me up. As soon as we got back to their house a few minutes later, the wind started picking up, the front door blew open, the dogs started panicking, and I hid in the closet with my neighbor's kids. Within a few minutes it was all over. The tornado went right through my school and completely levelled it. Luckily there were some painters who were also at the school at the time, and they helped the rest of the afterschool kids. I had friends who were airborne but were saved by the painters hanging onto them. That tornado k**led 21 people. Thankfully, the kids at the school survived.

#5

Image source: Don Wallace, Kevin Andre/unsplash (not the actual photo) In the summer of 1974 I was 19 years old. I ran with a group of friends that loved the outdoors . Especially anything’s to do with boats or water. We would spend weekends camping at various lakes , fishing, water skiing and partying. Good times. A few of us had taken up tubing Down different irrigation canals for fun. One weekend my Friend Randy and his girlfriend Rose invited myself and several friends to tube down a canal next to interstate 15 in Draper Utah . Just as I was leaving to meet them on Saturday morning my friend Brad called and invited me to come with him to Los Angeles for a few days, he was leaving in an hour or so. I was torn but at the last minute I chose L. A. . I had a crush on brads cousin an she would be there. when we got back to Salt Lake city four days later I found out that everyone in the canal group had Drowned except for one. Apparently construction had been done on the Canal, and they had diverted the water to a pipe that flowed under interstate 15 into the Jordan River. The walls of the canal for the last 50 yards had been solid concrete and no one could get out .they were sucked into the pipe and their bodies were found on the other side of I 15 along with two dogs. One person managed to get out by grabbing A cable that was hanging down the concrete wall. The funerals were so horribly sad, these were my friends. And it’s haunted me forever That had Brad not called me, or called 10 minutes later ,I would have been with them .

#6

Image source: VIP3445, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) In 2013 I was with some friends at the Boston marathon. The marathon is a long circuit but many like to congregate at the end. I was a teenager at the time and my friends and I decided we wanted to go to the finish line. I told my Mom that’s what we were doing and she stayed closer to our home and let us head that way. On our way there we decided we wanted to go to our favorite arcade/gaming spot instead (they had like Xbox360’s setup everywhere it was a cool spot). We arrived at our gaming center and my friend shows us his phone that the finish line had just gotten bombed. My Mom called me freaking out wondering if I was there. She was beyond relieved to hear we had made the detour. Not sure who was looking out for me that day but man I’m glad I left when I did.

#7

Image source: sausagesfestivity, Huy Phan/pexels (not the actual photo) There was a drive by shooting downtown Toronto where I live. Two gangs just started shooting at each other. Broad daylight, thousands of people around again like I said it’s downtown Toronto. I walked past this dessert restaurant and to the bus stop then seconds later I said nah I want that Nutella crepe. I turned around and went and got it. 2 mins later I heard gun shot and then everyone took cover as gangs shooting was just going off. Anywho finally cops came, took care of the scene etc. later on I realized it was the exact same bus spot where I was standing at the bus stop and contemplated if I should get the Nutella crepe. A by stander young girl got a stray bullet and died of her injuries. That same spot was where I was standing waiting for the bus. The Nutella crepe saved my life. Was on the news and everything. I did go to the girls media event at the scene. Still shook.

#8

Image source: Abiding_Dude_WV, nakleyka/freepik (not the actual photo) In a coal mine in WV having lunch one day dust kept falling on me where I was sitting. Then a little water started hitting me. It's not really that uncommon in a mine obviously. Finally some dust got on my sandwich and I stood up and walked about 30 feet to a more favorable spot and like 30 seconds later the area I was in completely collapsed. Basically right in front of me. Dropped the dang sandwich in my retreat (which sucked, but it was dirty anyways). I'm not for certain that I would have been k **led, but it's likely, and it definitely would have sucked regardless. Not wanting to give up on lunch probably saved my life. That was the only cave-in event I ever saw underground in 4 years of mining and it was almost on my head.

#9

Image source: LumpyWelds, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) I was a little kid in South Florida. I was in the swimming pool by myself since the weather was getting kind of dark. Eventually, I got out and walked about 10 ft and then.. BOOOOM... Water everywhere. Lightning had struck the pool.

#10

Image source: MastiffOnyx, Erik Mclean/unsplash (not the actual photo) Working new construction in Killeen TX, been eating lunch at Luby's all week. The last day, decided to forgo lunch and just finish out the job. On the way out of town, Luby's is roped off, cops everywhere a pickup truck sitting thru the wall at the booth we used all week. 4 hrs later, found out we had missed being in Luby's when someone crashed into the building and went on a rampage shooting everyone he saw. If we had lunched that day, we would have been the 1st to die as he crashed thru the wall.

#11

Image source: TopAd1052, cottonbro studio/pexels (not the actual photo) Tried,begged,did everything to try n keep marriage with 1st wife. She wldnt cuz she didn't want to hurt her affair partner 's feeling! I ended up finding n married the most wonderful person I ever met. Been happy for 40yrs. My ex became a very bitter woman who made his new husband miserable their whole life. The guy was my best friend at time of affair by the way. Talk about dodging a bullet.

#12

Image source: Kevin D. Aslan, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) A stampede. I’ve lived in Shanghai for 7 years now, and there is one golden rule: do not go on the Bund to watch the fireworks for Chinese New Year’s. Do NOT. Well, one year a friend REALLY wanted to go, and don’t ask me how, but I found myself dragged along. We made it to the start of the street and were immediately pressed into bits by people on all sides. It was intensely packed, and we hadn’t even made it ten meters. And I mean ‘sausages in airtight wrapping’ packed - it made the subway feel like a walk in an empty forest. Needless to say, yours truly made a firm point of leaving - now, immediately - and his friend hung his head sadly and followed. A few hours later, we heard the news. There had been a stampede on the Bund. 36 people died, 49 were injured. Over 300,000 people showed up for the fireworks (which is basically the size of the population of my hometown, Nice), on ONE SINGLE STREET. It was a disaster waiting to happen. Why was there a stampede though? Well, reports vary. But… …there was that one restaurant on the rooftops that had the fun idea of throwing down 100 dollar bills to the crowd. Needless to say, people went absolutely crazy, and in such a tight environment, push came to shove and then turned to outright panic. The worst part? They weren’t even real bills. Damn was I happy we didn’t go see that show.

#13

Image source: Michele Palmer, Hardik Pandya/unsplash (not the actual photo) When I worked in Manhattan, I'd walk the same way to the train every night. I crossed 41st street between Lexington and 3rd at the same spot on the street. I always crossed about 3/4 of the block ( not on the corner) because cars turning right towards 3rd were unlikely to see or stop for pedestrians crossing the street. When I arrived home from work, I saw that there was a huge gas explosion by my work. It was so big that it created a sinkhole that swallowed up a truck. That sink hole was the exact path I crossed every night and the explosion happened about 15 minutes after I crossed. In addition, people in the area were hit with shrapnel. Phew! that was a close one.

#14

Image source: Elena Ledoux, pch.vector/freepik (not the actual photo) One time I was looking for a job and saw an ad for an interpreter. It was in the Middle East and a person had to speak English, Russian, and Uzbek. It sounded dangerous, but there were assurances that there would be full protection by US military and local security forces, it was on base, and it was basically very safe. The most interesting thing was the salary. It was in excess of $150,000 plus all expenses paid. At that time I was barely making probably $30,000 a year. So, it was very tempting. I seriously considered it and may have even started the application process, but stopped at the last minute. A few months later I was watching the news and they were showing the report about a t**rorist act at the same location which I considered. And two interpreters died. The news footage just showed the ground and a bunch of magazines strewn around, covered in blood. The eerie thing is, those were the exact type of magazines that I read - it’s one of my very few guilty pleasures. It was a very unsettling feeling.

#15

Image source:  Medindie Victoria, Mick Haupt/unsplash (not the actual photo) I was near Boise City, Oklahoma. My sister left her phone at a rest stop. We went back to get it. We again drove to where we were going, to find the road with fallen trees and houses destroyed. A tornado had happened, in the 20 minutes it took us to go get her phone. I'm lucky my sister is so unorganized.

#16

Image source: Julia Marinozzi, Jeff Kingma/unsplash (not the actual photo) In October 2016, an excavator in Portland, Oregon, dug on the wrong side of the street, causing a natural gas explosion. Several people were injured, including three firefighters. There was a cafe/bagel shop in the building, and often I’d go in there and grab something before work. Even if I didn’t, I would walk right by there to get to my bus. I lived a block away from the explosion. That day, I was in a training at work and got there not long before the explosion. Shortly after I arrived, my coworker who was also in the training had to take an emergency phone call. It was his wife; she worked in the building and, thankfully, they’d been evacuated due to a suspected gas leak. Moments later, the building exploded, causing the destruction you see above. Apparently the blast shook my apartment building and shattered windows in the building and others nearby. I’m glad I left for work earlier than usual that morning. I’m glad everyone left the building when they did.

#17

Image source: jackietea123, Kyle Smith/unsplash (not the actual photo) I went to church camp when i was in 9th grade... i was not religious... i just wanted the camp experience. This church camp was psychotic.... and not what i was used to, being that I wasn't really raised in church. My friend and I realized that this place just wasn't really for us and that we wanted to go home about 3 days in. We proceeded to talk to our camp counselors about wanting to use the phone to call our parents. It was a simple request... and even hinted that we were really homesick, and wanted to go home. They said okay... but in reality skirted around the issue over and over and over again... and just ignored our request... it felt like we were being held hostage. We could not for the life of us use the phone to call our parents, no matter how many times we asked. Finally we found a random camp lady we didnt know and asked her. She said yes and took us to a pay phone. while the phone was ringing... our psycho cabin leader saw and ran across the camp screaming bloody m**der and yelling at my friend to get off the phone... as if she was doing something COMPLETELY illegal. She was yelling, flailing her arms, causing a scene, and SPRINTING to my friend who was on the phone. My friends mom finally answered and she said as fast as she could "Mom!!! please come and get us please... we want to go home i have to go bye." and hung up. after the call and our cabin leader made it to us... she pulled us aside to convince us to stay with love bombing. I felt SO uncomfortable and knew this situation was weird. LUCKILLY her mom came to get us that day, and forced them to release me to her as well.... and they did. Her cousins were still at this camp. and they had to finish it out. They said on the last day... they brought each camper INDIVIDUALLY up into this tree house and told them that if they didn't believe everything they were telling them, that they would go to hell etc. This was only a quick synopsis of what happened at this weird a*s camp.... but I am soooo glad we left when we did... it was one of the worst experiences ever and i am so glad i had my friend with me.

#18

Image source: O Saha, pazemin/freepik (not the actual photo) I avoided a terror attack because I ditched class. I go to Stuyvesant High School and have my last period free, meaning class ends at around 2:50 for me. By the time I go to my locker downstairs and see my friends it’s around 3. I leave at the first exit from the bridge that connects to the entrance of the school, sit down on a slab of concrete and wait for a text from my friend to see if she got on the bus before walking towards the bus stop (the seats are usually taken, which is why I sit on the concrete). It’s Halloween 2017 and I’m decked out in my handmade Cosmo and Wanda outfit, which came out absolutely awesome fyi. It was the last day for AMC’s $5 movie ticket deal, and my friend and I planned on making the most of the deal so we decided to miss our last two classes so we could go movie hopping. We left school at around 2:10 and walked to the train station, our bookbags filled to the brim with candy and snacks. We’re on the train when my phone starts ringing, and it’s from a friend who always texts me rather than call. I answer and am bombarded with questions asking if I’m okay, if I got hurt, if I’m still at school. Confused, I told her that yeah, I’m okay, but what are you on about? “You don’t know?” “Know what?” “There was a shooting near Stuy…” My heart dropped into my stomach but I still thought she was kidding. She explained to me how she heard about it and I realized by the tone of her voice that she was serious. I hung up and texted all of my friends that I knew were at school, asking them if they were safe. I looked up what happened and saw that a truck struck several people, and the driver got out with a gun and started shooting. I looked at a picture of where the incident happened and I went numb. The exact corner I stand at every day at 3:00, waiting for my friend's text. And that’s exactly where I would’ve been at the time the shooting happened only if I didn’t ditch class to go to the movies. Edit: Thank you guys for all the upvotes! For anyone wondering, my friends are all okay and safe, nobody from our school was harmed that day!

#19

Image source:  Debbie Cain, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) I was in my apartment. It was 10PM. For some reason, I was tired and went to bed. Twenty minutes later, a huge BOOM! woke me up. I turned on the light and saw the air was full of something like smoke, but it wasn't smoke. It was drywall dust. A drunk driver had driven straight into my kitchen. Normally, I would have been raiding the fridge.

#20

Image source: Yacacaw, Kelly Sikkema/unsplash (not the actual photo) The week after we moved house, we heared from our former neighbour that shots were fired on the playground next to our former home, cause of a drugdeal gone wrong. No not in the USA, but in the Netherlands!

#21

Image source: suprunkn0wn, Curated Lifestyle/unsplash (not the actual photo) Having to leave my high school friend group because of one “friend” who would always leave me out, went through months of depression not having friends, I went out by myself one day, it was nice, and I started to spend time with myself for the first time ever and I made the best memories of my life, that one friend who was the reason I left is in a downward spiral and confusion what his life is now and I’m glad I wasn’t around for that.

#22

Image source: semproniusptarmigan, cottonbro studio/pexels (not the actual photo) My husband and I separated one week before I found out that his brother was arrested for m**der but first the police picked up and arrested my husband because his brother was using his ID. Glad I had nothing to do with them.

#23

Image source: Regalzack, Barnaby/unsplash (not the actual photo) I used to work at Guitar Center in Clackamas(Portland), almost had lunch in the Clackamas Town Center food court, went somewhere else instead and avoided the mass shooting event in the food court. Coincidentally I sold the shooter a bass a month or two prior to the shooting.

#24

Image source: Maria H, Robert Nagy/pexels (not the actual photo) I went to a small 3 aisle grocery store 10–15 minutes before closing to grab a couple things quick one night. The place was empty except for a couple other people milling around. I took note of them since we were alone together in the silent store and they were moving slowly. It felt eery, but whatever - right? Get in - get out - nothing to overthink. The place was closing soon and I didn't want to be there as employees tried to lock up. In fact, one employee locked the entry door behind me as I walked in the place. Get this - I woke up the next morning to news the place had been robbed at gunpoint at closing time by people in the store. Yep. I was apparently there with the perpetrators and after leaving…it happened. Money was taken, but no one was shot in the store. …shook me up for a while.

#25

Image source: Highjay710, Jack/unsplash (not the actual photo) I once left a party early because I wasn’t feeling it, just tired and off. Found out the next day that cops showed up an hour later, someone got arrested, and a bunch of people got citations. Total chaos. I was home in pajamas eating chips. No regrets.