25 True Stories Of Strange Coincidences That Had People Freaking Out

Theories and conspiracies about us living in a complex simulation are everywhere. Most of the time, we’re too occupied with daily life to seriously consider the idea. But occasionally, truly strange events make us question our reality. Could there be more going on beneath the surface?

#1

Image source: VintageLetter, Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

My mum started watching a new TV show a couple years back. She was talking with my dad about the show, because it was filmed near where he was living when he was a kid. Dad got interested and wanted to watch it for some nostalgia, when he notices one of the characters is very familiar to him. The guy’s a real shady real estate agent; fakes auctions, commits tax fraud, and sells shoddy houses. He eventually loses his real estate licence and makes his wife get her licence and take over their business until he can get his licence back. Dad then tells us that is exactly what happened to his parents when he was a kid. His dad was real estate agent and lost his licence because he basically did everything the TV character did, and made his wife take over when he was found out. Almost everything about their arc is what happened to my dads parents, and filmed near where he grew up. We’ve always just chalked it up to be a coincidence, because there is no way to prove it

TL;DR My grandparents lives may have been turned into a TV plot.

#2

Image source: ChandraCorby, Peter F. Wolf / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

When my dad died we had a graveside service. One seagull showed up and walked around the gathering in a big circle and then flew away. Only my sister and I saw it. My family always fed old bread to seagulls, and my sister and I felt like it was dad telling us he was okay. But we knew it might be a coincidence. Just a seagull. Fast forward many years later, when our mom passed away. My sister and I were spreading her ashes in places our family had fun together. We joked that mom should send us a sea otter since she collected figurines of them and dad sent us a seagull when he died. We didn’t expect it to actually happen, though, since we had never seen a sea otter in any of the places we were visiting (we had been these places so many times). Finally it was almost dark and we were ready to go home. My sister heard a funny noise in the water and looked down off the ferry dock. SEVEN sea otters frolicking in the water looking up at us! They were amazing. And we laughed so hard because my Norwegian dad was a minimalist and would only send a single seagull, but my mom would absolutely send us every sea otter in the area. :-)

I can’t explain this. All I know is that I felt my parents’ love and the closeness of our family when seeing these things, and I’m so grateful.

#3

Image source: kateluna, Henrik L. / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

I’ve never been much of a believer in the paranormal. All of my friends always had ghost stories to tell around the fire pit, eye-witness accounts of strange occurrences that I’d usually just roll my eyes at. I had stories of my own, but I never told anyone or wanted to believe them myself until one night at my family’s dinner table.

See, for the 13 years that I lived at my parents house before leaving for college, I would see “the black dog” many times. It was never a clear view. I would see him out of the corner of my eye, lingering in the doorway, and when I turned around he would be gone. On days spent sick at home, I would hear nails clicking on the tile in the hallway even though nothing was there. Sometimes, when I was sitting at a desk or kitchen table alone I’d feel soft tickling on my legs, like whiskers or fur softly grazing my skin, and I’d jump up from my seat like I’d been shocked. Tricks. Games. Illusions. Imagination. Excuses were easier than believing, and not believing was easier than feeling like I was going crazy… at least until the topic of ghosts came up at the dinner table.

My mom, being Catholic, believed in the afterlife and considered ghosts real. She had her own scary stories to tell, most about her childhood home in Mexico. My older and younger brother laughed and joked about how ghosts were stupid and they didn’t exist. My father stayed quiet for the conversation, like me, but I knew he had something to say. When my turn came up, I admitted that I had had some strange experiences in our house, but didn’t go into details about what I’d seen and felt. I had never told anyone what I’d experienced, not even my family. We all turned to my father, who is an intelligent and logical man, and he sighed, “I didn’t believe in ghosts, never have… but over the years I’ve come to change my mind. There is a ghost in this house. I know there is. I’ve seen him. He is kind and friendly. I think he just wants to be a part of this family. He is just a little black dog.”.

#4

Image source: saawariya, Hans / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

Around six or seven years ago, a large portion of my neighborhood burned down in the fires that swept through southern california. While helping my friend’s family pick through the rubble of their home for anything that could be salvaged, I saw a speck of white paper in the midst of one of the more blackened areas. I picked it up and read it–the only text on this bit of paper, left over after the rest of the page had burned away, was “from the ashes, new life is born”.

#5

Image source: DeadHorse09, A. C. / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

Posted this before. It’s always met IRL with a lot of “Ooooook buddy” but I will contend it until my deathbed.

My aunt needed someone to follow her to a Dodge dealership that was about 45 – an hour from were she lived. My mom volunteered to be the person who followed, and then took her back home. It was my mom and I in our car and my aunt and her 3 daughters in her van. My mom had no idea where this place was so we just had to follow her. This is around ’96 – ’97 so GPS / cell phones weren’t as common, and for whatever reason my mom did not have a map in her car. So after about an hour-1/2 we think we’re lost, so both my aunt and my mom pull over and supposedly figure it out. We kept driving for about another 45 minutes and realized we had no idea were we are going. At this point we stop on the side of the road again and my aunt says we’re going to head back home; my aunt says to follow her since she had a map and a better idea of where to go. So we followed her for about 10 minutes until she took an exit off the highway that we weren’t able to take; pretty much leaving us clueless to where we were or how to get home. This is where it gets weird.

My mom exited he next freeway exit and tried to look for my aunt hoping she had stopped nearby, but we didn’t find her. At this point my mom starts to cry and as a typical 6-7 year old I told her to stop; and then I asked her “Mom, why is abuelito sitting in the front seat?”. Abuelito is spanish for grandfather. My mother’s father died in 1981, and I had never seen him. But I can swear that there he was sitting in the passenger seat saying “No llores hija”, (Don’t cry my daughter) and I told her that. Of course she started to cry even more and told me to stop talking like that. I urged her that I saw him, and he was telling her it would be ok, and that he said to keep going straight. She gathered herself, told me to stop talking about those things, and kept driving straight. As we kept driving the ghost of my grandfather would look back at me and smile, and he would point in directions at stop lights. I told my mom each time he pointed somewhere. She listened to me for about 15 minutes before she finally got incredibly mad. She told me that there was no way I could see her dad, it wasn’t funny anymore. That the only reason she was listening was to teach me a lesson on respecting her and the deceased by proving that I was lying…

After making our way through some random backwoods Texas town via directions that I got from my deceased grandafther we end up on some long and winding road. She kept driving scolding me for playing games. About 15 minutes into the drive we saw a gas station and she got off to put gas and ask for directions. She came back to the car crying even more than before, i mean insane amounts of tears, it was like a mental breakdown. I asked her what was wrong? She said that the attendant at the station knew exactly how to get home from where we were at because his sister lived 4-5 streets over from where our house was. He wrote down all the directions on a piece of receipt paper. I remember telling her “I told you abuelito knew what he was talking about, he loves you mommy”. We found our way back home and just didn’t speak much of it. I don’t know the probability of the gas station attendant knowing the exact area, or the chances we would have stumbled onto that gas station without my whole “episode” but I can attest to that experience changing my entire life. This single instance always comes up in my spiritual journey, and I simply can not and do not want to shake it.

TL;DR Child and mother get lost far away from home. Child sees mother’s dead father’s ghost who gives them directions to a gas station in which the attendant gives specific directions back to their home.

#6

Okay Reddit, due to the OVERWHELMING response to this story I feel I must rewrite is as I was in a hurry when I first wrote it.

Three years ago I was interning at an company that specialized in Green Energy and their mission was to provide electricity to remote villages in Africa. I get assigned to work with a team of engineers, on my way to meetup with them after arriving in Africa I am asked to stop at said address and pickup an utility trailer that is waiting at a local store. I cannot reveal the name or location but its an old store, fairly large with a second floor that was residential, where the man and his family lived. The shop had everything from Product, Food and Medical Supplies to a MASSIVE Junkyard in the back full of Automobiles and Planes.

When I arrive at the store he is working on a outboard motor for a customer, he was very friendly and shook my hand as asked how he could help me, I said I am with X company and we have a utility trailer that I am suppose to pickup and take with my to x village. He asks for identification and I hand him my company ID and Tennessee Drivers License, which in the little holder below the Company ID. When he looks at my name his face went from happy to confused. He said “I have a question, do you have an father, or sibling that you are named after, that also lives or did live in Tennessee”.

Okay at this point every thought I had came to halt and I was dumbfounded, I am named after my dad and he lived in Tennessee all his life and there aren’t too many people with our name either. After a long pause, I said yes, I am named after my dad, how in the hell do you know that? He then said he met a man in the late 70’s that stopped at his store, his name was Jeffrey X____ also and that I resembled him. I said well it couldn’t be the same person, as far as I know my father had never been to Africa, he said no, it was, it was your father, he was in the military and came here to get something from his store.

He then goes on to tell me that my dad offered to help the man work on his car, after they fixed it the man tried to give my dad some money but he insisted that the man keep it. The man then asks my dad to join him and his family for dinner, it was they least he could do, they eat and during the conversation the mans son overheard my dad talking about a guitar that he had with him. The little boy wanted to see the guitar and for my dad to play it so my dad brings it inside and start to play, the boy was very fascinated with it and told his father he wanted to learn to play someday. Well after dinner my dad has to leave, when he is about to walk out he handed the boy the guitar and told him that he could have it if he promised to practice everyday and one day he would try to return to hear him play it.

I am overwhelmed at the emotions I am feeling is insane, the man invites me to dinner as he did my father, I accept and go upstairs where the man hands me a guitar case and said this is the guitar. He said that guitar changed the course of his sons life, I said where is your son now? He said that he moved out and went to college for music and now lives in another town and teaches guitar for an living, along with some other instruments. We start to eat and he asked my about my father, how he was these days, I then had to tell him that he passed away when I was a still a child. We both started crying and he picked the guitar up and said this is why you came here today, nothing else explains such an phenomenon, your fathers spirit lives within this guitar, it was meant for you to show up here. We ate and I when finished the man asks if I knew how to play, I said I know only one song in its entirety, he requested I play it before I leave. I start to play and his wife and him started crying, they said that it was the last song my dad played before giving the guitar to the mans son and leaving….

Dedicated to my father, I only knew you for a short time but to this day it amazes me at how many hearts you’ve touched, even long after your gone. I love you and hope to see you someday.

Image source: anon

#7

Image source: krogers1337

So on a regular basis, street lights will go out right as I pass under them. I could be on foot, in my car, or on bike and they will just click off… Creepy as heck sometimes…

Come to think of it the street light right outside my old bedroom window used to constantly flicker on and off…

Why?

#8

Image source: thewhitedog, Brett Jordan / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

I’ve had a few. Found a pic on my hard drive of a girl I had dated briefly a couple of years earlier when I lived on the west coast, I look at it then close it not thinking anything more of it. The next day I get a friend request from her on Facebook, and I find out she was going to be coming to the city the next day.

Another time I was high as balls in my apartment with my girl. It’s an amazing time. I am in love, in my first NYC apartment which we shared. So happy, feeling connected, at flow, things were just clicking into place all over. I’m feeling filled up by it,this weird feeling of strong connection to… I dunno, life I suppose. I get up to go to the bathroom, without even thinking I say out loud “Aaand my dad texts me” and snap my fingers.

Just then my phone goes off, it’s a text from dad, a man who I hardly speak to and who until that point had texted me maybe once before in my life. Girlfriend and I share a long moment of W*F. I have no idea how to explain this.

#9

Six years ago, because of my drinking, I’d been homeless for about 8 months. I’d been at a shelter for a few weeks and one day, as I walked from the library back to the shelter for dinner, I decided I couldn’t take anymore. I was ready to k**l myself.
That prior August my mother had passed away, so on the street that evening I said to her, “I can’t take it anymore, mom. Help me.”
Back at the shelter, after dinner, us bums waited for showers and bedtime. That evening the shelter had more residents than usual and many of them needed clean socks or underwear, etc. On this night, it wasn’t scheduled, but the shelter opened the basement where they kept donated clothes. I didn’t need anything, but I was bored, so I went downstairs.
I browsed the racks and didn’t find anything to my liking so I headed for the stairs. That’s where I found ‘LeMutt’.
‘LeMutt’ is a toy, a little stuffed dog, and I’d had one when I was a kid. In fact, I clearly remembered my mother and I in the store, 20+ years ago, buying him. I was in 3rd grade then.
I asked a volunteer if he knew where the dog came from. He shook his head.
This was, and still is, a men’s homeless shelter. People were not dropping-off stuffed animals for the junkies and drunks.
I don’t know where the dog came from, but I kept him. Still got him.
Anyway, my life is much better, and different, today. I’m set to graduate with a BFA next month. Life is really, really good.
Thanks, Mom. I love you.

Image source: euphonious_munk

#10

Image source: anon, 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

I worked at a library for a very long time, and in an effort to not lose my soul, I collected stuff I found in books. My favorite discovery was a hilarious postcard between two friends. I immediately thought, “I’d like to met these people”. I kept it next to my computer for a few years.

After a few years passes, I’m going through my papers and find a postcard from my girlfriend that I don’t recognize. It takes me a few minutes to understand that I’m reading the postcard I’d put aside years earlier, between someone who was now my girlfriend and another person I’d come to know as a friend. It was probably the weirdest event in a series of events that defied probability regarding a ton of surreal linking events in our lives.

TLDR: I stumbled into a relationship with someone whose mysterious postcard ended up in my collection without directly pursuing it.

#11

Here’s one that happened to my mom, not me:

My mom (Karen) was meeting up with her boss/good friend (Angelo) in the Houston airport. She was expecting a call from him when she got a call from a number she didn’t recognize. She answered the call and said,

K- “Angelo?”
A- “Karen?”
K- “Hi, I just got off the plane”
A- “Ok, I’m by baggage claim”

So my mom walks down to baggage claim and she doesn’t see him. So she calls back the number and a man close by who she’s never seen before answers.

It turns out that there were two Angelos, both looking for Karens. Imposter Angelo accidentally dialed the wrong number and by chance called my mom (Real Karen) who just happened to be in the same airport. The real Angelo was still in the parking lot. My mom then waited around just so she could meet the other Karen who turned out to be the guys sister.

How’s that for coincidence?

Image source: FixtheFernback757

#12

This didn’t happen to me, but it happened to my ex. He was at a singles tennis tournament as a kid and he was reading the roster. According to the sheet, he was playing himself. Turns out, his opponent had the same very uncommon first name, middle initial, and last name. Years passed, and someone shouted his name in a grocery store and he turned around… so did his tennis opponent.

Image source: ehspress

#13

I was walking through the woods one day, and I stumbled across a graveyard from the 1800’s 1900’s. I was just walking through and the first one that I saw was a little boy who died on the same day that I was born. The crazy part was that he and I had the same first and middle name.

Image source: Kamelot4211

#14

Image source: DogsBlimpsShootCloth, why kei / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

When I was in 7th grade I had a serious crush on a girl. One day her mom was driving a bunch of us somewhere and everyone was talking and making jokes. I can’t remember the exact conversation, but I had a moment of silence where it was my chance to make everyone laugh. I made a super lame joke that brought silence. My moment to impress was ruined.

Come 10 years later. I am driving a car with the kids of family friends. In the same seat in the back sits a kid that reminds me of me, and there is a girl in the front seat he likes. The EXACT conversation (something about not enough of us to do something) starts progressing. I look into the rear view mirror at the kid and was thinking “don’t say we will multiply. Don’t say we will multiply!” (Seriously wish I remember exactly what the conversation was). I was going to intervene before he said it but BAM he drops the same lame joke I did 10 years before. And it seriously had no context or comical value at all.

I was in awe like I was psychic (a useless one apparently). I’m assuming he did not get the girl either.

#15

For over 25 years I had been seeing a bike locked up for the day on various corners close to my workplace, and I always wondered whose it was because it was the same as mine and it was a rare model — I never used to see any others. Finally one Friday afternoon I was riding home and passed a lady riding that bike, and I took the opportunity to chat to her while stopped at the lights. I said it was great to finally learn whose bike that was after all that time, and she said it was odd that I should run into her today of all days because she had just bought a new bike, and this bike was going to be retired to her country place that very weekend — it was her very last day riding it in the city, and after 25 years of spotting the bike, that was my last chance to finally meet the rider, and that was the day I ran into her.

Image source: gliese946

#16

This may get buried but just wanted to share . I was raised by my grandmother. The day she died I was going to the place after receiving news, an old lady looking so similar to her flagged down my vehicle asking if I could drop her a little distance on the way. After dropping her off I stopped by the side of the road and cried a river. I like to think it was my grand mother who wanted to see me for one last time.

Image source: anon

#17

After my great-aunt Lynn passed away, my other great-aunt Cynthia was walking home in the rain. Obviously she was pretty sad. She said, “Lynn, show me some proof that you’re still here.”

My aunt Lynn collected these rare things called Indian medicine bags. Somehow, Cynthia found one on the ground in the rain. Inside there were six paper dolls- four girls and two guys. One of the girls was wearing pants.

The coincidence? In her family, there are four sisters and two brothers. Aunt Lynn always wore pants.

Image source: Sarcasm_and_stuff

#18

Image source: Mr_Monster, EyeEm / freepik (not the actual photo)

When I was eight years old a man walked up behind me, called my name and said, “You won’t remember me, but we are proud of you. We are watching you. Be good now. You are important.”

I ran inside the barber shop to my mom and told her. She went outside, but there was no one there. Ever since then I’ve felt like I’m being watched, but that I’m destined for something special. Epic troll possibly, but inspiring none the less.

#19

This didn’t happen to me, it happened to my uncle.
He was on holiday, climbing a mountain in France, and whilst he was on his way up, he ran into an elderly couple and got talking. They were Irish, as is my uncle, so he asked where he was from. My uncle told him the name of the village he was born in (he now lives in England). It’s a small village with a population of around 100, the sort of place that nobody would have heard of unless they had lived there. As it turned out, the old man *had* lived there. My uncle was impressed, and asked if the old man knew his mother. He did. He was an old boyfriend of my uncle’s Mother. These two met on a mountain in France, 600 miles from home.

Another, similar story; my mum’s a nurse, and always asks her patients where they’re from. One old man (a different one from the first story) says that he was from Scarriff, a small town in central Ireland with a population of around 800. He said that he came over in the late 40s/early 50s to build roads; the same time that my mum’s dad came over from Scarriff to build roads. They were good friends and they knew each other up until the day my Granddad died.

tldr; All Irish people know each other.

Image source: ehsteve23

#20

Image source: KeithStoneALWAYS, Laura Barry / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

On the tenth anniversery of my Uncle passing away from cancer, a grandfather clock which was in his old house stopped on the exact time of his death.

#21

Image source: ThisAverageGuy, Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

#22

Image source: umiman, Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

A few years ago I was dorming at a place called HUB mall at the University of Alberta. I lived on the top floor (4th) with all the other 4 room apartments.

One night I was coming home from work (I worked graveyard shift) doing security at the student union building and I entered the ground floor to hear someone in high heels walking above me. I never really caught sight of the person, just that I could hear the person walking up.

I go upstairs as well and I assume that was just a girl coming back from a party or whatever (which would be incredibly odd given that this was the guys’ side) but it’s not really my place to judge. However, when I reach my apartment door I heard the other person still going up. Then I heard a door above me open and shut followed by a locking sound like someone locking a deadbolt.

At this point I got a bit intrigued. I knew I lived on the highest floor and above me was the roof. So I went up the remaining flight of stairs to sate my curiousity and sure enough, it was just the roof hatch covered in dust and locked with a big bar.

I never figured out what that was, whether it was some kind of auditory hallucination or a play on my senses, but I’ll always remember it.

#23

Image source: GNARTILLERY, Ivana Cajina / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

Before I can tell the story I have to note that my mother and I are big believers in spiritualism/connections with lost loved ones which helps explain why this situation is so interesting. My grandmother died around 5 years ago pretty abruptly due to an infection from the hospital she was being treated at and it hit my family really hard since it was so unexpected. The first interesting coincidence of her death was the fact that both my mom and I were listening the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby while both of us were in completely separate places at the time of my grandmother’s death. (not too interesting but it is a song about an elderly woman) Fast forward a few years and one day we were having a conversation about my grandmother and reminiscing about what a coincidence it was that we were both listening to that song when she died. A few minutes after we ended the conversation my mom received a phone call on her cell. My mom opened her crappy flip phone to see who was calling and sure enough the caller ID showed my grandmother’s old cell phone number that had been disconnected since her death. My mom answered the phone with only static at the other end. While I am a firm believer in the paranormal I have no real evidence to support my beliefs which makes this a pretty awesome coincidence.

#24

It was nearing Christmas and one day when I came home from school my mother asked me to guess who we got a Christmas card from. Without hesitation I said, “From the people who ran the little motel on our summer trip to Michigan.” She was speechless. I was right and I was speechless too.

Image source: windy444

On my 12th birthday I was on the way to the bike shop to get a new bike, I was with my dad, his girlfriend and my brother. We was still about 10 minutes away from the town center, so no where near the bike shop.

Some random, old, creepy looking guy came up to us, looked down at me and said; “**You buying a bike?**” I looked at my dad, confused and kinda scared.

We told him that we were on our way to buy a bike. He then started going on about how I *MUST* get a helmet and wear it *ALL* the time! We was a little freaked out but we just assumed he was a weirdo and just forgot about it.

A few hours later I was riding through the park on my new bike and I fell off. I didn’t fall very hard and landed on grass so it was cool. As I went to get up brush myself off, I looked up and he was just standing there, looking disappointed and shaking his head. He thing shook his index finger at me and said; “**I told you to wear a helmet.**”

At this point I’ terrified and rode as fast as I could home!

What is even weirder though is the fact that I have moved about 40-50 miles away since then and I still see him every once in a while. I don’t believe in guardian angels but it just creeps me out.

#25

When we were kids a group of us used to hang around near a small stream. One night we were there I got a really bad feeling, and told my friends I was going home. I begged them to come with me, but only one did. I practically legged it up the hill from the stream, I was so afraid.
The next day I found out the girls that stayed got beaten by a girl gang less than fifteen minutes after I and our friend had left.

Still freaks me how I knew to get outa there.

Image source: IslaSorna