Yahoo Lifestyle 25 Mind-Blowing Coincidences That Defy All Odds But Actually Happened To People
A little while back we wrote a post where Quora users shared mind-blowing coincidences that defy all odds...but actually happened to them.
Well, members of the BuzzFeed Community decided to share their own "How the heck did that happen?!" stories, and they've left me scratching my head, too. Check 'em out below:
1."My family loves playing card games, so I always carry a deck in my purse. While visiting family out of state for a baby shower, I pulled the deck out one evening for a round of games, but somehow, it was short a card (I have no idea when or where it was lost). Since there would be no games, I decided to open the gift I'd ordered and had shipped there. It was something from Etsy, and the girl who had made it included a cute little thank you note on a playing card. Sure enough, it was the eight of spades, the card I needed to make a complete deck again!"
—anonymous
2."My grandfather on my father's side was killed at the end of WWII in East Germany, fighting for the Nazis on the same day that my other grandfather was freed from a Nazi-prisoner's camp in Eastern Europe. That day was April 20, 1945. And 73 years later, on April 20, 2018, my father passed away."
—anonymous
3."I was madly in love with a guy when I was 12, and he was 16. We ended up getting married when I was 17, but when I was 13, I wrote on a dollar bill that I would marry Bill Sharpe, signed my name, and put the date. Ten years into our marriage, I received that dollar bill from a bank teller!"
—anonymous
4."I’m from Tennessee. After college, I traveled solo through East Africa for six weeks. On my first day in Zambia, I took a small boat tour along the Zambezi River. There were only 12 people on this boat, and one looked familiar. Then we realized we had been on the same mock trial team in high school back in Tennessee. Bizarre, small world!"
5."A ring I cared about was stolen in middle school. About 10 years later, in a pizzeria, I was telling a friend the story of how it was stolen and described it. A young woman in the next booth leaned over and told me the 'name of the thief' had gifted her a ring matching the description...and then she GAVE IT BACK! Thank you, my unsung hero."
6."I was waiting at a signal in downtown Los Angeles when I spotted a guy from high school waiting across the street. I didn't cross but waited for him, and he recognized me, too. We chatted at that intersection, catching up on the last 20 years, when a THIRD guy from our high school class saw us and joined in! I was stunned since I used to work in downtown LA for 20 years and often went out to lunch but never met anybody. That prompted me to pursue books on synchronicity, which, surprisingly, is quite common. Weird, weird coincidences happen all the time. Especially if you look for them."
—anonymous
7."I owned a red 1975 Ford Bronco in the early '90s and really loved the car. Unfortunately, I needed money to finish grad school, so I sold it. Fifteen years later, while looking for another car on Craigslist, I decided to look up Broncos just for fun. And there it was...for sale in a town about 30 miles away. Same color, same license plate number, etc. The owner had kept a maintenance log, and when I looked at it, I saw my writing from 15 years earlier. I bought the Bronco back and restored it just before Bronco prices climbed into the stratosphere. Now, it appears in local car shows and has also been included in local and national sales advertisements."
8."I was in Chicago for a conference and got in a taxi to the airport. I talked casually with the driver from Nigeria. He asked where I was from, and I said a small town in West Texas. He said his son goes to university in Odessa. I said, 'So does my son! He's studying petroleum engineering.' He stopped his taxi and said his son did as well. I texted my son, who said they knew each other and were working on a project together that very day!"
—anonymous
9."Growing up, I had this old Disney baby blanket with Mickey and his friends on it as nursery rhyme characters. I took it with me on a trip out of town but lost it in the hotel room. I never saw it again, even after going back to check the hotel. Fast-forward several years later, I randomly searched eBay just to see if I could find something similar...and came across a listing for essentially the same blanket. I checked the pictures for quality, and it had three distinct spots that my blanket had. It was my blanket. I bought it, and it now sits in a drawer. Somehow, it made its way back to me."
—anonymous
10."When I was dating my wife in 1964, we stood under a 300-year-old oak tree in her father's backyard. I happened to have a new 1964 nickel in my pocket and placed it in a small crotch of the tree. Forty years later, in 2004, her father decided to cut the tree down because it was dying. A couple of days after the tree had been removed, I stopped by the house to see my father-in-law and noticed a small pile of debris left over from the cutting, and I decided to take a few pieces home for kindling. You guessed it. One of the pieces I picked up still had that nickel stuck in the crotch. We've been married now for 60 years, and I still carry that nickel with me. It probably will be buried with us."
—anonymous
11."My grandfather was a fruit and vegetable peddler in North Beach in San Francisco. He would stop his truck at different street corners and sell to locals. It was in the '60s, so these were all-cash deals. By the end of the day, he would have a big wad of cash bundled by a rubber band. My aunt walked to church every day and was walking up the avenue when she found a wad of cash bound by a rubber band. There were no cellphones in the '60s, so she made her way to my grandfather's, and sure enough, he had lost his money that day, and my aunt stumbled upon it."
—anonymous
12."About 30 years ago I was at my local gym when I noticed this guy who looked exactly like a friend of mine from high school named Joel. I knew it wasn't Joel, but he looked just like him. I finally went up to the guy, told him he looked exactly like a friend of mine and asked him his name. It was Joel."
—anonymous
13."When I was in fifth grade, I started reading books written by Richard Peck. A couple of years later, I read the biography about him on the book cover and saw he was born in 1934 in Decatur, Illinois. My father was born in 1934 in Decatur, Illinois. I read this to my father, and he said, 'I wonder if Richard Peck is Dick Peck from down the street.' We wrote to him and found out he was. A few years later, I traveled to NYC, met Richard Peck, and had lunch with him."
—anonymous
14."My husband and I went bowling with a friend from his old bowling team, and I was impressed with the friend's bowling ball. I liked the color of it and the accuracy his friend played with it. I told him about it, and he said he had had the ball for about 30 years. I said I was going to see about buying one like it. Fast-forward a couple of months, and my husband and I were at a small secondhand store. I browsed for a bit until I noticed a small, older-style bowling bag. I couldn't wait to see what was inside it. As I pulled out the ball, I saw it looked exactly like my husband's friend's ball I liked."
"I couldn't believe it; it was the same ball as his! And then I saw it had a name engraved on it — Margie...my name. I was in shock and too surprised to speak; as I opened a side zipper, I found a pair of bowling shoes my size and my name Margie on them as well...my husband was in utter disbelief; I figured I manifested it into my reality...I still have it, too."
—anonymous
15."My brother and I grew up in rural Alberta, Canada (about 2,500 people), and both moved away upon graduating high school. Years later, my brother was taking a subway in NYC when it came to a stop. As he waited, another subway pulled up to a stop, and he could clearly see the people sitting in it. A guy slowly raised his hand with his middle finger, to which my brother responded with the same gesture. It was a very good friend of ours from high school, who we hadn't seen since we lived in Alberta, and neither knew they'd be there in New York. So funny that's how they saluted each other."
16."My boyfriend and I were moving from Ontario to Alberta. I was flying; he was driving, pulling a trailer with our stuff. Right before he left, for no reason, I picked up five lug nuts and told him to take them with him. He looked at me like I was nuts, then put them in the car. While traveling outside of Thunder Bay, he came across two women stranded in their car because their lug nuts had fallen off. My boyfriend came to their rescue!"
—anonymous
17."In high school, I got into a bad accident and ended up in a wheelchair. I called the guy I was kinda sorta dating the next day, and his mom answered the phone. Turns out that at the same time I had my accident, he had a totally separate accident and was also in a wheelchair. We both needed surgery, and we were both back to normal by the end of the school year."
18."I was a business manager at a university in Wisconsin and mentioned to one of the professors in my college that my daughter lived in Los Angeles. She told me she had a sister living in LA. Later, I visited my daughter in LA, and she was doing cat rescue as a volunteer. She asked me if I wanted to go on a rescue mission with her because a couple had adopted a cat who hated the husband and kept attacking him. While my daughter and her counterpart removed the cat from its bathroom quarantine, I talked to the couple...and discovered the wife was the sister of the professor I knew! How? Los Angeles is huge!"
—anonymous
19."My sister had two Groupons for a zip-lining adventure (each good for two people). My daughter and I were going to join her, but we had trouble rounding up a fourth. I even called a friend I hadn't seen in many years to see if she wanted to join us, but I got no answer. When we got to the zip-lining place, there was another threesome there, and one of them sounded suspiciously like my friend (she had a unique speech pattern). Well, it turns out it was her! And the couple she was with ALSO had two Groupons and couldn't find a fourth."
—anonymous
20."My dad was born on Nov. 26, I was born Dec. 26, my oldest son was born on April 26, my youngest son was born on Aug. 26, my little brother died on my youngest son's birthday (Aug. 26), my three kids' godfather was born on July 26, and I'll retire on this year on Aug. 26."
—anonymous
21."Upon deboarding a flight from Thailand to London's Heathrow Airport, a guy said, 'Go ahead' and let me get off first. I then got a coach, a taxi, and a train and arrived at my small town of under 20,000 people where I went to the taxi rank and a guy said, 'Go ahead...wait a minute. You were on my plane!' Somehow it was the same guy."
22."My dog broke his leg as a puppy, so we took him to the emergency pet clinic. He got a cast, and it healed well. Unfortunately, he broke the same leg years later when our bigger dog ran into him. We went back to the same emergency pet clinic, and the same vet from before was there and again took care of him. The biggest shock came, though, when the vet told us our dog was there five years to the day of the first fracture."
—anonymous
23."After my paternal grandfather died, I helped clean up his room and found some photos. One was of three guys who looked to be in their early 20s. I recognized the middle one as my grandfather because he was holding his violin. On the back of the photo a handwritten note said that it was taken in 1910, and showed my paternal grandfather with his older brother and best friend. The best friend was my maternal grandfather! Both grandfathers weren't married until 1913. Strange that my grandfathers knew each other before they were married and had children who married each other!"
—anonymous
24."I went to Saint Bartholomew's Chapel in Königsee, Germany, when I was 10. A dozen years later, I was walking past the library in Mitcham, England, which I had not been inside for many years. There was a painting exhibition inside, and I was suddenly certain that there would be a painting of the chapel inside. I went inside, and sure enough, the very last painting in the exhibition was of Saint Bartholomew's Chapel."
—anonymous
25."My grandmother gave me a watch for my high school graduation. I wore it every day throughout college and then on a summer trip to Germany. Near the end of the trip, I visited Buchenwald, one of the concentration camps from WWII. At the entrance was a clock tower above the tracks, with the time reading 3:15 — the time the camp was liberated. After getting back home later in the day, I checked the time on my watch, and the battery had completely died; the time was stopped at 3:15."
—anonymous
Have a one-in-a-million story of your own? Share it using this anonymous form or in the comments below and it could be featured in a future BuzzFeed post!
