“Kid’s Finger Cut Off”: 25 True Stories People Couldn’t Believe Because They Heard It On April 1st

Every year, around the world, on the 1st of April, there's a tradition of pulling some sort of prank on people and ultimately shouting 'April Fools'. This tradition has seen massive jokes like when somebody lit hundreds of tyres in a dormant volcano so people would think it was going to erupt, to radio stations announcing fake news of apocalypses just to frighten listeners and more. But what happens if something true happens on that day but nobody believes you because they think you're pulling their leg? The most interesting stories came out in response to one Redditor asking online, “What real and serious story/event did you believe was a prank (because it's April 1st)?”, and we've shared the best in the gallery below.

#1

Image source: WorkIncognitoWEEEE, Curated Lifestyle My time to shine!!! Back in middle school on April Fools Day, we took a field trip the local ice arena. All of the guys lined up on one end, and wanted to race to the other end. During the race, a few of the guys got tripped up. One kid was down on the ground holding his hand and there seemed to be some blood on the ice. A teacher walked out, and picked something up off of the ice and started walking away. The kid ran up to that teacher and showed him his hand which was now missing a pinky and was screaming in pain. The teacher immediately started scooting off the ice with some urgency. All of us on the outside of the rink thought for sure this kid just pranked the teacher about his finger getting cut off. A few minutes later, he was rushed off to the ER.

#2

Image source: isladesangre, Getty Images My friend turned in her two weeks noticed on April 1. HR didn’t believe her until much later.

#3

Image source: anon, Matthias Cooper My mom has been sober for 9 years, but she announced her sobriety on April 1st. No one believed her. Happy Sober-versary, mom!

#4

Image source: Badloss, RDNE Stock project My long term girlfriend broke up with me on April first. Not only did I initially think it was a joke, but then all my friends thought it was a joke and I went a full week+ of nobody being supportive because they all thought I committed hard to the bit.

#5

Image source: Jordanlf3208, Helena Lopes Our family dog was hit by a car on April 1st. My dad saw it happen and came inside to tell us, I instantly started crying and my brother didn't believe him, my dad kept telling him to stop and to shut up cause he was laughing and saying no way.

#6

Image source: DrDebG, Filip Bunkens Boston. 1997. "We're getting 2 feet of snow Tuesday. You probably won't have class." "Hah. Hah. Hah. April Fools." We got two feet of snow.

#7

Image source: Sapphiretulip32, Anna Shvets When I was 22, I had dropped a mayo jar and jumped hoping to avoid the glass shards, but I landed right on glass and ended up at the ER with stitches. Fast forward, a week and my legs hurts so d**n bad that when I went to my PCP to have my stitches removed I decided to tell her how much pain I was in. She took one look at my leg and sent me to the ER. My husband had to call my Mom on April Fool’s Day to tell her I was being admitted to the hospital with a life threatening DVT and that I would be hospitalized for at least a week. My mom of course didn’t believe him since I was 22, an athlete and very active. She kept telling him that his prank was dumb. My doctor had to call my mom to get her to believe the situation lol.

#8

Image source: Steambunny, Ben Iwara Not a sad story but a few weeks ago I got a letter from my job telling me I was to receive a substantial pay raise, and it would be effective on April 1. I kept thinking this is a seriously messed up prank... got my paycheck a day ago and yeah its not a prank!!

#9

Image source: DP487, Kateryna Hliznitsova When I was in third grade, my dad woke my sister and me up saying our dog finally had her puppies. We woke up all excited only to find out we'd been tricked. Cut to eight hours later, as I'm getting off the bus, my dad comes running out of the house saying the dog had her puppies. "Dad, you already tried that this morning," I said. Turns out he was serious the second time; the dog really did have her puppies. Best April Fool's Day ever.

#10

Image source: Krell47, Getty Images 5 years ago today my wife and I went to an ultrasound where they told us she was carrying twins. We were in shock but at least we could see the ultrasound. The phone calls to our family later that day were a bit tricky.

#11

Image source: invasiveorgan, Kampus Production One April 1st a few years ago my wife woke up ont with Bell's Palsy ( half of her face was partially paralyzed and dropping) due to an infection. It took me way longer than it should have to believe her that she wasn't totally faking it as a prank. I played it off until she cried. Not my proudest moment.

#12

Image source: A_GuyThatDoesStuff, freestocks.org My friend is born on April 1st. He was telling me that when his mom's water broke, his dad didn't actually believe her and thought she just spilt water on the ground.

#13

Image source: dietlemontv, Pavel Danilyuk That my grandmother was dead, because her mother also died on April 1st.

#14

Image source: tenpercentofnothing, Conan O'Brien Mitch Hedberg’s death was announced on April 1st even though he passed on March 29th and I thought he was pranking his fans. RIP, man.

#15

Image source: anon, Serg Alesenko This just happened today. My aunt texted me and a bunch of others in a group chat and sent us a photo of a little girl, saying she was officially a grandma because her son just learned he had a three year old daughter. "You almost had me there" I responded soon after. She insisted it was true, but I knew she was joking. The others were eating it up though, remarking on how cute she was. Good prank too, because the girl kinda looks like him, but Photoshop exists and my cousin is pretty crafty. Nope. It's true, apparently. She texted me privately and said she forgot it was April Fool's Day. They just met the girl nine days ago! She sent me photographic proof of them together. Holy s**t!

#16

Image source: dirkdastardly, Alexander Mils My dad called to tell me he had just won the Reader’s Digest sweepstakes. Two months later we were all in the company headquarters watching my parents accept a comically oversized novelty check for the first installment (it paid out over 30 years).

#17

Image source: atfguitar123, cottonbro studio My brother got mugged quite a few years ago. When my friends told me, I thought for sure it was an April Fools joke. Then my brother walked into the room and he had a black eye. Turns out it wasn't a joke.

#18

Image source: YoungDiscord, Nataliya Vaitkevich Today at work our internet connection broke down. Initially I thought it was a prank but in retrospect I doubt a large company would cut off an entire floor of employees from work for 1.5 hours especially considering we're the IT helpdesk.

#19

Image source: Potato3s, Ivana Cajina One of my old, super cynical coworkers is well known for “vague-booking” or writing cryptic Facebook statuses and not responding to inquiring comments. She casually posted on April Fool’s day a status along the lines of “already tired of being pregnant”. The comments were 100% “oh yeah right, you’re not pregnant” and she was PISSED that nobody believed her, even when she was reassuring them it was true. Popped that baby right out a few months later.

#20

Image source: anon, Elegant Images My 17 year old friend telling me she got engaged while she was visiting overseas. We were still in high school. Kept saying “I’m not falling for it it’s April fools I’m not falling for it” even though she showed the ring. Didn’t believe until she showed me the 1000 pictures of the engagement.

#21

Image source: anon, RDNE Stock project I didn't just hear the story but I've called my parents from jail on April 1st after I got arrested. Didn't make this any easier..

#22

Image source: Baroness-Awesome, Rhodi Lopez When I was 15 my brothers best friend stopped by on March 31 because he was headed to the other side of the state for a few weeks. We hung out and he went home. The next morning people were ringing our phone off the hook, when I answered they said our friend was dead, I said April fools and hung up, this went on for a couple hours until finally someone knocked on the door and had us turn on the news, the friends house was on the news and they were saying our friend was in fact dead. Three years later his mother won her case against the local police office. They m******d her son in his sleep....... His room mate was a d**g dealer, when they raided the house they claimed they entered his room and he pulled a gun on them and they shot him. The autopsy report showed 6 bullets in his back, one in his calf and one in the back of his head. We are not sure why they shot a sleeping man but he did have a gun but it was fully loaded with one still in the chamber. Edit: the police statement said he was facing them and shot first, they stated they shot him in the chest, four head and leg. The autopsy proved this to be a lie. He was no angel but he would not have drawn his gun on police officers. In our neighborhood this means death and he knew this. The gun was found and photographed under his pillow not in his hand. This combined with the autopsy is what won his mother the case against KCPD.

#23

Image source: rllyuncomfy, freestocks Obligatory "not me but..." So my mom's birthday is April 1st and on her 40th birthday all of her friends threw her a surprise party at a very nice restaurant. About halfway through dinner my mom and dad stand up to make an announcement -- she was pregnant! No one believed them but nineteen years later here I am!

#24

Image source: ZekeD, cottonbro studio A friend of mine announced she was divorcing her husband on April 1st.

#25

Image source: Eagle555557, Artyom Kulakov I used to work in a deli in a grocery store. We were right next to the bakery and I got to know the people over there pretty well. There was this guy, we'll call him Ben. Ben had a lot of tattoos and played guitar in a band and was a pretty chill dude overall. I came into work on April first and one of my friends told me that Ben was in a car accident last night and had passed away. I thought no way, he was totally the type of person to make a joke like that on April fool's day, but it turned out to be true. It was really surreal that he was just gone. He was only 23 years old. My favorite memory of him was one night he was closing and didn't have much to do. They had two burnt loaves of bread, so he pulled the insides out and cut them to fit around his feet. He walked over to us and said, "look guys, I made loafers!" He was a great guy.