Fate has a funny way of throwing curveballs when you least expect them.

You could take a random detour on your morning walk and find a stray puppy that becomes your best friend for the next decade. You could show up to a party you almost skipped and end up meeting your future spouse. These moments might seem like they’re straight from a movie, but they can definitely happen in real life too.

One Threads user asked folks online to share their most “there is absolutely no way this is a real thing that happened to me” stories, and the responses did not disappoint. Scroll down to read some of the wildest experiences people still struggle to believe.

#1

2002. Jon Bon Jovi had to [go to the toilet] in the middle of a concert. I heard him say it to Richie. I yelled out “Go! I’ll sing!” He called me on stage. I sang “Born To Be My Baby” while he left the stage to use the bathroom. A night I’ll never forget and a story I’ll be telling til [my last day].

© Photo: onairmattsneed

#2

When I got married, one of my bridesmaids exchanged divorce papers in the parking lot at my rehearsal dinner with her soon to be ex-husband who was a groomsman.

© Photo: thelaurenkratz

#3

April 30, 2025 I lost my daughter in the second trimester. April 30, 2026 pregnant again and dreading the anniversary but just hit the second trimester. No heartbeat. Same exact day. Marking my 4th loss in 2 years. I cannot believe it happened the same day.

© Photo: keyestomyheart18

#4

I helped a couple deliver their baby on the side of the road, one night.

© Photo: kimberleymccavour

#5

Back in the 90s, a record promoter gave us backstage passes to Céline Dion‘s concert in San Antonio, TX. After the concert, we went backstage for a meet and greet and she said gosh I’m really hungry. Let’s all go to the Riverwalk and eat Mexican food! It was an amazing three hours with an awesome lady!

© Photo: helo_halo_0920

#6

I survived a stroke. I was 32yo.

© Photo: doctordoctor

#7

My OB told me it was fine to walk around 6-7cm dilated for the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy with my 3rd child. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. I gave birth in the back of an ambulance an hour after my first contraction. The EMT’s only knew how to put in an IV, not deliver a baby, and told me I couldn’t have him because we weren’t at the hospital yet. I delivered him completely alone while they sat and watched. And then the ambulance company still tried to send me a $1,200 bill for the 2 mile ride…

© Photo: our1880farmhouse

#8

I met a man on holiday, we chatted and he overheard it was my birthday. He plucked me a rose off a bush and wrapped a boiled egg from his breakfast as a present!
Fast forward a year and I bumped into him again on holiday at a different destination!
We’ve been married nearly 38 years. Fate!

© Photo: bevstrath_

#9

I met an Englishman in a bar in Vegas one night. We talked for a while but he went back to his hotel and I went back to mine without exchanging numbers and that was that.

Until the next night, when I ran into him again at a different bar.

We’ve been together 15 years now, and I live in England with him and our two babies.

© Photo: mustang_sarah

#10

My cheating ex-husband is now a polyamorous lesbian.

© Photo: ashleynicolelindgren

#11

Went to see a band I really liked play at a festival. They didn’t do a ton of press and weren’t in their music videos so I had no clue what they looked like. Some guy came up and started chatting me up. He was cute, but I’m a grump in public. Told him to kick rocks, because I’m just here to see the band play. Show starts shortly after. It was their lead singer. Oopsie daisies.

© Photo: jess.okazaki

#12

I went into a shop by an internationally famous designer. The kind of store you sign a guest book. Items in the shop were their most expensive label. I’m more of an off the rack factory shopping kind of gal. I oohed & ahhhd & the sales person said you know your fabrics & designs. I love gorgeous clothes. Two weeks later a gift card shows up in my mail w/note from the owner/designer. They were in the back & watching me & decided I deserved something from the collection. I was gobsmacked.

© Photo: karinswenson1996

#13

My ex cheated on me at the end of our tumultuous relationship. He immediately started dating her the day I broke up with him. She had just been broken up with as well after many years of being in a relationship. I messaged her ex (who I didn’t personally know but had mutual acquaintances with) to let him know what was going on so he had all the info on the situation. We’re now happily married with two kids. Our exes are also married with kids. Messy situation worked out for everyone.

© Photo: lifewithkelseym

#14

I got locked inside the Roman Colosseum once during the Xmas holidays. The workers must have wanted to get home, they just locked up and left us inside!

© Photo: trisha_anderson

#15

I started getting these terrible headaches so I got an MRI. The tech said something flippant like, this kind of headache could be a brain tumor. I was like 😳 so he walked it back and said that the tumor he was thinking of is rare – like only .07% of all brain tumors.
I have two of these brain tumors. Two.

© Photo: vickicapone

#16

One day my dad dropped off an orphaned calf at my house because he would pass without being fed. He became a beloved pet. I raised him in the back of my duplex until he got big, and when I boarded him at a ranch later, he got accidentally rounded up and sold at auction by a neighboring ranch. The search to find him before slaughter went viral. And we did!
He was returned to me via long-haul trucker, who volunteered. It was on radio stations and I was interviewed by the news about it.

#17

T-boned another driver that slid across the median on the opposite side of the highway doing like 65mph, went partially through the windshield of my bread truck and we both survived somehow.

© Photo: wyattgirlwasted

#18

I coded twice on a Saturday morning, in the ER. They found a specialist who read my EKG and said I needed a pacemaker IMMEDIATELY. They have me on the table, and there’s so much old radiation therapy damage that they cannot do it. A rep from Medtronic peaks in the window of the OR. My doctor asks if he knows how fast we can get a tiny new pacemaker that just implants inside the heart wall. Surgeon has heard of it, but never seen one yet.
The Medtronic rep had three in his briefcase. Done.

#19

My husband at the time kidnapped me and held me captive for over two months in another state. I was like 23 and he wouldn’t let me call my parents to let them know I was OK. It sounds weird and made up when I say it now, it was so long ago.

#20

My family survived a plane crash on a mountain, had to climb down over rock faces, cross a river and hitch hike to a hospital. It was in Maine and no one would stop for a bloody family waving wildly from the side of the road, so our parents hid in the woods and left us kids to look pathetic until someone stopped. It worked.

#21

I dreamed my then 1yo nephew fell down a long flight of stairs. The next day, he ran ahead of me and pushed open a door before I could grab it and he immediately started to tumble down the stairs behind the door. I reached for him and fell myself. Somehow, I went over the top of his head, grabbed him close to me, did a flip in the air and landed us on the bottom of the stairs on my back, with him cuddled to my chest. We were both unharmed. I still don’t understand how it happened.

#22

I ditched a mid term exam in college because of a massive hangover. I showed up for the next class while the professor was handing everyone their results and when she got to me,she was really apologetic because she thought she lost my exam. I hadn’t studied for it, either. I got to take it in her office and she left me alone in there with all my notes. I got a 92.

#23

Traveling solo around Egypt. I got into Aswan late and was booking the tour to Abu Simbel for the next day. Guy wanted me ready at 2am for the trip which was far earlier than I was expecting. Language barrier meant I could not work out why. Turns out, by sheer luck, I was there on the day the sun rises and illuminates the statues. I met people that day who had planned their entire trip years in advance for that moment.

#24

I was in a bar in Vancouver in early 90’s weird creepy guy kept trying to pick up my male friend. I was totally creeped out by the guy. Guy asks if he can come hang out with us. My friend says yes. Guy goes to bathroom & I tell my friend that guy is too creepy so we dash out of bar. A few years later, I’m watching news & Gianni Versace has been shot. Suspect- Guy from the bar Andrew Cunanan.

#25

We went on family vacation to New Zealand when I 10, went scuba diving with a group (20 people) father and daughter (15-16 years old) went down first and the dad was attacked by sharks and passed away. 30 years later I was at a bar in Northern Ireland and the bar offered free bar tab for the craziest story- the daughter stands up and tells that story.

#26

Talked my way out of an armed home invasion. Sometimes depression is a super power

#27

I got into a lift/elevator to go down to the ground floor and when the doors opened, the only person already in it was Keanu Reeves.

#28

I have 2:
The musician Steve Miller taught me how to fill out a baseball scorecard at a Red Sox game when I was like maybe 8.
I got the hell kicked out of me by a pack of kangaroos on vacation in Australian when I was 16.

#29

I went on a several-days-long date with a hella famous multiple-Oscar-winning film director, in his private airplane.

#30

I married a man I’d never met or even seen…we met at our wedding reception after the papers were signed.

#31

In the early nineties I was in Wessex recording studios in London where my bands album was being mixed. I was strumming and singing through a new song I’d written when 3 American ladies and a man appeared at the door. Suddenly they joined in singing beautiful 3 part harmonies along with me then left. I asked the man who they were and he said “Sister Sledge”. I was gobsmacked.

#32

A guy I only knew vaguely (aka drunkly) from a grad school acquaintance’s party left his Facebook open a few days later & his roommates thought it would be funny to send me a DM asking to get together. We’ve now been married 18 years.

#33

I went to college in western NY, and one summer I decided to stay out there and work on campus. They paired me up with another college kid. After a month or so we found out we were first blood cousins. His father and my father were estranged brothers. We were the only two kids doing that job, far from our homes. Incredible odds.

#34

I, a Seattleite, flew to NYC for a wedding. Spent the day visiting family but my husband wanted a drink in Brooklyn before bed. Stopped into a random bar and ran into my best friend from 8th grade. We were in 8th grade in 1986 in the Netherlands.

#35

I ended up behind a stolen Fed Ex truck with an employee in the back. The thief took off and I decided it was a good day to pass away and the chase began. Called the police during the run down Memorial drive. He was caught with K9 unit on foot in the end. Employee was banged up but okay. Victims Unit in Tulsa County called to thank me for helping in the pursuit.

© Photo: heatherstewartsutherland

#36

I saw the first public demo of a hyperlink and my boss and I said “who the hell is going to use that?”

#37

When i was 4, my parents were going out on a date – but they had to give me my eye drops first. My dad grabbed the eyedrops from the cupboard, my mom administered them, only they werent eyedrops — it was superglue (apparently the bottles look the same?)
My parents discovered very quickly what had happened as i couldnt open my eyes. Called 911. I was ambulanced to the airport where they had to cut off all my eyelashes and pry my eyes open.

#38

Yesterday. First time. Age 55. My Dad walked me down the aisle

© Photo: nurseonastick

#39

I got into a car accident not to far from my apartment when my brakes failed and I rear ended another car. I went to traffic court to ensure I wouldn’t get points and the other driver showed up and said “she said her brakes failed but I just think she’s an irresponsible driver”. One month later I started a fieldwork internship in the hospital and guess who was my clinical supervisor?

#40

I had a customer from the bar I worked at, follow me on vacation to Cuba (we are Canadian). I think he thought I’d be flattered? I was not.

#41

I stood right here with the camera guy

© Photo: jonan_barbarian

#42

In 2022 I met a cute British guy on an airplane and had the most insane connection.
This is us now!

© Photo: meggymeza

#43

I was chosen out of thousands of girls in a nationwide casting call to play Michael Douglas’ daughter in Fatal Attraction, thus launching my acting career!

#44

I sat next to Flavor Flav on an airplane back in 1999 through Europe and no joke we talked all 2 hours. I tried to be really normal and chill. At end of flight we all stood up and he pointed to back of plane and said “There’s Terminator X!”. I heard so many stories about his Flav’s life and non-celebrity details. It was really interesting.

#45

I went to the doctor after a long hospital stay and suddenly felt very weak. An extremely tall man in Nordic garb and 1 leg entered the building, saw me struggling and helped me to the office where I immediately went into cardiac arrest. I asked the dr a couple days later who was the man who helped me? No one. No one brought me into the office. The 6ft 6 man dressed as an elf with 1 leg did not exist. Now I know what my guardian angel looks like.

#46

Not me but my daughter. Late 30’s, single, working in Chiang Mai. Meets a guy from LA on holiday in a back packing bar there. Few days later have drinks in Bangkok. A few days later on the same plane from China to LA. Same row. He switched seats to sit by her. After daughter’s conference in Las Vegas, she flew through LA. Hike and dinner. She went back to Thailand. Pandemic happens. Call Americans home. She quarantined with him in LA. Fell in love. Now married, two kids, and they live in Paris.

#47

My husband’s aunt fell into his grandmother’s open grave, onto the casket, and shattering it.

#48

Adam Sandler came up to me and said hey while I was working security in a music store in the 90s. I didn’t know it was him until a coworker pointed it out after he left.

#49

I fell in love with the bassist of my favorite band and he also fell in love with me and now we’re married and I live in Switzerland with him.

#50

I once told Claire Danes to get out of my way (the words were “Excuse me” but the tone translated differently) so I could hurry to make sure Claire Danes arrived safely at her speaking venue.
(That’s the short version of the story.)
She politely stepped aside, I never managed to apologize, and I have lived with that rough twine of guilt and shame for over a decade.

#51

I was at hard rock Hotel in Orlando and it was late at night. I had to meet a senior executive from our company he was flying in really late. There was some shady looking guy that kept hanging around the front desk. I was alone and he scared the hell out of me. Turns out it was Stephen Van Zandt!

#52

I met my husband on an elevator. Just the two of us, I was staring at his bag of corn chips cause the smell filled the small space. He wordlessly offered me one from the bag, and then the elevator doors opened on my floor. When I got off I heard a voice in my head that said “you’re going to marry that man”. 3 months later I ran into him in the hospital cafeteria (we were both graduate students at the medical school), and started dating soon after. Been married for >35 years!

#53

Riyadh. 1990. I had bathed my toddler and went in for a shower after sitting her in the sunroom with her dolls.
Desert Storm ongoing!!!
While I was in the shower incoming scud sirens blared. I run out, pick up my baby, rush to the “safe room”. My baby keeps chatting away addressing an older person! I ask who she is chatting with. She tells me my mom had come to play with her dolls when I was in the bathroom. She says “Grandma says all will be OK”!
My mother had passed 2 years before!!!!!!!!!

#54

A man flew 13 hours to take me on a date.

#55

We were taking the Amtrak auto train from DC to Florida for a family vacation. I went to use the bathroom while everyone was sleeping (normal for me to be awake, I work nights) The door got stuck in the locked position. I was trapped inside a train bathroom from midnight until we arrived shortly after 8am. 8. Hours. In. A. Train. Bathroom.

#56

My dad got married & had a daughter. They divorced when the daughter was a teen. My parents met, dated, got engaged & had me. They lived in separate states. Just after I was born, my dad had an affair & got another woman pregnant. He secretly married her while still engaged to my mom & in a long distance relationship. He also managed to have another affair & get another woman pregnant WHILE still married & engaged. He has six kids w/ four women (maybe more we don’t know of!).

#57

In a recording studio on the South side of Chicago and I was sampling an o jays record and Kenny gamble heard me from down the hall and he walked in my room pointed at my turntable and said “hey that’s MY record.”

#58

Maybe not as crazy as the other stories but in 2006, I went to a Jeffree Star concert when he was just a Myspace celebrity. He invited me on the stage and asked me to hold his jacket. When my friends and I left, we took the jacket and when we got home, Jeffree Star was writing threats to me on his myspace bulletins lol.

#59

Being trapped in multiple elevators. The third time it happened, I wasn’t even scared. I was just like “this is my life now.” 😂 I still take elevators, I just won’t do more than like 4 stories cause I’m not testing life THAT hard lol.

#60

ASAP Rocky randomly sat next to me on a public bench in NYC two weeks ago and asked me how my night had been, I think I looked kinda sad because I was just sitting there contemplating so he asked to be nice lol. He’s super kind and also very Harlem.

#61

One time (early 90s) the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court called me directly and I thought it was my friend, Joe, because why on earth would the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme call me? I kept saying, “Joe cut it out!” Finally, after the third or fourth iteration, I realized it really was the CJ of the TSC. I still can’t believe that happened. (Turns out he was appointing me to a bar committee – no big deal.)

#62

I have a couple but I had those sliding doors on my closet in an apartment I was renting. One fell off and when I went to put it back on the track I got a splinter. I removed the splinter but it never healed correctly. If ended up turning into a finger tumor. I had to go see a wound specialist for months to get it taken care of. They used to burn and scrap layers of it, without and numbing medicine, then eventually removed it fully. I have pictures but it’s kind of gross.

#63

I was driving a group of friends to the airport for a trip to a thespian convention the summer after we graduated from high school, and when we got there one of the students who was supposed to have gone didn’t show up. The drama teacher had paid for the trip so she asked if I wanted to go. I got on the plane with nothing except my wallet and my glasses. It was my first time on a plane. Had a blast.

#64

I have a recent story. I think I might be jinxed. The past two years I have had so much bad luck, big thing and small things happening all the time. And the timing has always been the worst.
Because of all of the things happening, my financial situation has been very bad.
So in the beginning of the summer I took an extra job at a restaurant to get some stability.
5! Days before my first monthly paycheck the restaurant burned in a fire…
(luckily nobody got hurt)

#65

Invited to a New Year’s group trip to Vegas by a couple we had recently met and that seemed pretty well off, only to find out at the end of the trip that two of the people in the group were Michael Jackson ‘s youngest and oldest brother! My ex amd I got married on that trip, so they also attended our wedding.

#66

I had a long conversation with the now king of Denmark at an Olympics athlete party in Greece. My mom and I helped Viggo Mortensen start his rental car at the Copenhagen airport (it was when keyless ignition was still brand new.) My husband and I spent three months camping in 5 countries in Southern Africa. At one campground in Namibia, we had a leopard living in a tree, a hippo took a nap in a bush, and a family of elephants surrounded our vehicle one night.

#67

I encountered a North Korean spy masquerading as a Chinese exchange student while I was hanging out at Polish-themed restaurant in a random city in the centre of Poland.

#68

Had to go to Congress and get a law passed to bury my grandmother at Arlington National Cemetery.

© Photo: millerlawmd

#69

My life is boring but my dream dog was born 2 days after my last pup passed and on my dad’s birthday 10 years after he passed.

Or how I almost never get injured and somehow ended up with 8 nails in my foot.

© Photo: xxcanderxx

#70

Ex-husband and I were SUPER into Friday Night Lights way back when it first aired.
In one episode, a ref makes a totally unfair call, then Coach rightly gets in his face. It was so egregious, Ex was still like “I’m still pissed about that call haha!” the next day.
Fast forward, we divorced (amicably!) and soon after, I met this cute guy, an actor.
Bad Ref and I have been married 16 years, and we all still laugh about it.

#71

My dad mysteriously got hurt at work and fell into a coma. There was an investigation on what happened, and it was ongoing in the news.

#72

As a naive 23 yr old flight attendant got involved with a married pilot 20 yrs older than me. We had an on-again-off-again affair which culminated in him leaving his wife for me. 3 weeks later he dumped me. Via fax. Sent to the front desk of the hotel I was at overnight. The desk clerk brought it to me in the hotel bar where I was having dinner with my crew.

#73

When I met my dad for the first time. He abandoned me; and when I was 18,my mom said she wanted me to meet him, so we took a flight. When I had them both in the same room with me, it felt unreal and odd, exactly like the phrase you wrote. It was like having the missing piece finally. Sadly, I discovered he was a loser and he just didn’t want the duty of been a father but I’m glad I met him, since it allowed to close that chapter.

#74

Instead of a honeymoon, I was riding in an ambulance with my husband of like 2 hours. Following morning he had brain surgery.

#75

My mom and dad were married at the hotel the Buffalo Bills were staying at and she danced with cookie gilcrist and jack kemp THEN when I got married at the Marriott NFLers were in town for the Jim
Kelly and Dan Marino quarterback contest in which they all came to my wedding and I have pics with them and Refrigerator Perry and Andre Reed. Just so ironic that both me and my parents had them at our wedding!!

#76

Met a girl in Austria in 1998. We traveled around Germany for a couple days, exchanged addresses & never heard from her again. She had an unforgettable laugh. In 2023 I was in Australia getting on a boat to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef & I heard that laugh again. She looked very different but I called out her name & she turned around. Turns out she was on that boat & in the same hotel in the room next door. We now travel the world together.

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