real life

Eight people describe the one creepy experience they just cannot explain.

1. “When I rang the number, it wasn’t the man from the ad on the phone.”

 Reddit user bigdog6286 got back in touch with an old friend by a pure twist of fate. “I bought a old arcade game from a guy on Craigslist. He notified me to call him and pick it up the weekend. When I called the number, it wasn’t him on the phone, it was my best friend from high school,” he writes.
“We talked for an hour and said we wouldn’t lose track of each other again. After the call I wondered what happened to the Craigslist guys number,m and how I got my best friends number instead. I decided to go back to work where I originally wrote down the number. It was still my best friends number from high school… I have kept in touch with my best friend ever since.”

2. A hospital called to tell a man his brother had died. Twenty minutes later, they called him again.

An anonymous Reddit user relates a truly tragic coincidence that happened while he was at work.

“My co-worker gets a phone call from a hospital in New York that his brother Robert Lastname had died. It was somewhat expected as he had been in the hospital for a few weeks with some serious complications. The guy tells everyone in the office and  takes the rest of the day to start making arrangements,” they write.

“As he’s walking out the door, maybe 25 minutes later, the phone rings for him. It’s the hospital. He picks up and they tell him “We’re sorry to call you to let you know that Robert Lastname has died”. He says, “Yeah, I know, you called me a half hour ago.” They said, “Sir, it just happened a few minutes ago, that’s not possible”. He’s says “I’m telling you, I got a call a half hour ago, I’ve already called my wife and brother to tell them and started to make arrangements.” They have a bit of an argument about it, as the hospital is telling him it just happened a few minutes ago.”

"The man I saw sitting on the couch wasn't my father".

"He finally says, "Give me the hospital number so I can call and figure out what's going on". She starts to give him the number and the area code is Florida. Turns out, his father, Robert Lastname Sr, died unexpectedly, 25 minutes after his oldest son, a thousand miles away. Father never found out his son died. Guy I work with had to plan two funerals."

3. "I feared I would never see him again. He ended up dying that night."

PardonedTurkey writes on a Reddit thread that after he lost his grandfather, he felt his presence in the most unexpected way.

"I was 13 years old when my grandfather, who also happened to be my favorite person, was diagnosed with cancer. My family planned a huge 64th birthday party for him, knowing it would be his last. I decided to learn his favorite song - Meditation from Thais by Jules Massenet - on violin and perform it at his birthday party. The whole event was so sad when it finally rolled around, and I barely managed to finish the song when, from the stage, I saw my grandpa bawling and couldn't help crying too."

"My family lived about a three hour drive from my grandpa, so we were able to see him regularly, but not as much as we would have liked to. I woke up one morning on my summer break and just couldn't stop thinking about him. I was so anxious at the thought of never seeing him again. I called my father at work, which he told us to only do in emergency situations, and which I had never done. I told him we had to go see grandpa, and surprisingly, he agreed. He took the rest of the day off and we drove the three hours to see him. He ended up dying that night."

"Six years later, on the anniversary of his death, I was flying from Central Wisconsin to Detroit, MI and had a brief layover in Minneapolis. I arrived at my gate, and sat by the window, which overlooked Fort Snelling National Cemetery, where my grandfather was laid to rest. As soon as I sat down, the Meditation from Thais began playing through the sound system. I still chalk everything up to coincidence, but it was the first time that coincidences felt so meaningful."

4. "I ran to my house and when I come back, there is another driver in the taxi."

Reddit user sasepro took an ordinary, everyday taxi ride, but soon discovered there'd been a glitch in the Matrix.

After taking the cab home, "I tell him to wait outside so I can pay him because I didn't have money on me," they write.  "I run to my house and when I come back, there is another driver in the taxi."

"The first guy was a dude with a beard and the second driver was a muscular bald guy."

LISTEN: Apparently, women are more into horoscopes than men. The Mamamia Out Loud team discuss. Post continues after. 

5. "A man's voice answered my mother. Our whole family heard it".

Earthbonesandblood was on a family vacation when something truly chilling happened - a disembodied voice joined in a family conversation.

They write: "When I was a kid, my parents loaded my brothers and I up for a drive to North Carolina. It was about a five hour drive and it was getting late. My brothers and I are all about asleep and my folks are in the front talking about some wedding they went to in the 1980s."

"They're talking about this wedding and my mum just couldn't seem to remember the name of some guy that was there. She was like, "What was his name again? Was it John?" Out of nowhere a man's voice responded clear as day " His name was Bill". I remember shooting up from my seat, as did my brothers."

"Dad swerved our Toyota Previa to the side of the road so quick. He flung open the trunk trying to make sense of it all. You could even see into the back from the middle seats, but that voice was just so clear. He still had to check."

"Scared the shit out of my brothers and I. Someone was in on that conversation. Still one of the weirdest things my family encountered and can't explain."

6. "The man I saw sitting on the couch wasn't my father".

Reddit user  ZayYarHtun thought that the figure he saw sitting downstairs was his dad. He was very wrong.

"I live in a condominium, and we own two apartments, on the 7th and 8th floor. The only way to move in between them is to step out of the apartment you're in and take the elevator or the staircase to the other one," he explains.

"One night, we ran out of ice cream upstairs and my mum told me to go get some from the freezer in the downstairs apartment. I grabbed the keys and ran down there. When I walked into the pitch dark, I realized that someone was sitting on the sofa. I flipped on the light switch and saw my dad, just sitting there. It was kinda weird, but I just went to get the ice-cream and asked if he had a key to lock up. No answer."

"Everyone told me that he'd been there all this time. I told them it wasn't possible because I just saw him downstairs. No one believed me. Now I never go down there alone."

7. "They were in the same street, on the same day, at the exact same time I was there".

A horrific experience turned into a bizarre coincidence for Reddit user magicsonar.

"One night, we ran out of ice-cream upstairs, so my mum told me to go get some from the freezer in the apartment downstairs. I grabbed the keys and went down there. As I walked into the pitch dark, I realized that someone was sitting on the sofa. I flipped on the light switch to see my dad just sitting there. It was kinda weird, but I just went to get the ice-cream and asked if he had a key to lock up. No answer. I shrugged and went back upstairs. My dad was sitting there eating dinner."

"I freaked out and asked how the heck did he get up here so fast. Everyone told me that he'd been there all this time. I told them it wasn't possible because I just saw him downstairs. No one believed me. Now I never go down there alone."

"I was once mugged by four guys on one of the main shopping streets of Nairobi, Kenya. One of the guys had me in a choke hold and just before I was about to pass out, they dropped me and ran. At the time I didn't know why," they write.

"Twelve months later, I was sitting on a beach on an island in Thailand. There I met a British couple who did business in Kenya. We started talking about how dangerous it was getting for foreigners. They described an incident the year before, during which they turned a corner and saw a white guy being mugged."

"They said a shopkeeper rescued him by hitting one of the muggers over the head with a bat. They were in the same street, on the same day, at the exact same time I was there. It was me who they witnessed being mugged. What are the odds of randomly meeting them on a beach in Thailand a year later?"

8. "Who's the old lady visiting you?"

Redidt user quiltr thought her mum had some company over. She did, but not the flesh and blood kind.

They write: "My mother's house has a back door that goes directly from the back porch into the kitchen. The door has a large glass window in it that is uncovered. One day, I was going over to her house, and when I pulled up in the back, I very clearly saw a white-haired, elderly lady standing in the window of that door, smiling."

"I assumed she was someone visiting my mother. I looked down to grab my purse and keys, and when I looked back up, she was gone. But I didn't think anything of it. I got out of the car and walked to the back door, looking in the front driveway as I went, to see if there was an unfamiliar car there, but it was empty.

"When I walked inside, my mother came from the front of the house back to the kitchen and I asked her who was visiting. She looked at me like I was crazy and said no one was there. I KNOW what I saw. I even remember the color of her blouse."

*Entries have been edited for clarity and/or length.