Trusting your intuition can be a lifesaver, as many online users discovered firsthand. By following their gut feelings, they avoided potential physical danger or emotional hurt in critical situations. Their experiences serve as a valuable reminder for us to have faith in our instincts.
- We had this regular customer who was very weird. I worked in an auto wrecking yard, and he always came in and bought random, off the wall things.
Anywho, me and a new guy load some stuff into the back of this guy’s van. He gets in to leave, and the new guy is standing behind the van next to the building. I say: «Hey, I wouldn’t stand there.» He looks at me puzzled and moves. Sure enough, weird customer puts it in reverse, punches it and backs right through the wall of our office. © Unknown author / Reddit
- I worked at a fast food restaurant and I got an antsy phone call from my dad telling me to come home as soon as possible. There were storms on the way and he was nervous about the timing. I thought he was being paranoid until I got this really uneasy feeling as well. Every nerve in my body was telling me to get home RIGHT NOW.
I pissed off the manager when I left without mopping the floors. I rushed home, and I had barely gotten into the door for two minutes before a tornado hit our house.
Looking back on it, if I didn’t leave when I did, I would’ve been driving along the road the tornado followed, and I probably wouldn’t be here. I got written up at work for leaving without completing my tasks, but a write-up is better than losing my life. © Booner999 / Reddit
- I’m working one morning and my fiancée is off. She texts me around 10 or 11, and she says she had gone out to breakfast with her family, and they bought her flowers and she was having a good morning. I was glad to hear that because she didn’t really get along well with her family. But the more the day went along, the more it all didn’t sound right.
Later that evening, she was acting unusual, and she wouldn’t tell me what was going on, so I checked the cell phone account activity and learned that not only had she been texting and calling this random guy constantly, but she had been repeatedly lying to me. There were so many instances where she hung up with me and immediately called him and had lengthy conversations. I then pointed at the flowers that were sitting on my table in my apartment and asked if they were from him. They were.
That relationship ended right then and there. © andwesway / Reddit
- My dad did something like this while driving. Car load of family, zipping along, as he was prone to doing. Then, just before a blind corner, he slowed right down for no apparent reason. Like, slowed a lot more than necessary. A second or two later, another car comes around the corner on our side of the road.
It would have been a head-on collision had my dad not felt the uncanny urge to ease up. © Unknown author / Reddit
- I was with a large group of friends, including my brother, and we were playing man hunt outside at night. For those who don’t know, man hunt is just like hide and seek, but it’s outside and is a little more complicated.
My brother and his friend decide to go into a snowmobile trailer to hide, and I told them I’ll hide under the trailer. Little did I know, the trailer was balancing on two wheels. As I was under the trailer, I suddenly got the worst feeling that I needed to get out of there. I can’t even describe the feeling, but I got out quick.
Seconds after I got up, they made the trailer unbalanced by getting inside, and it crashed exactly where I just was. There’s no doubt I would’ve died in seconds. I stood there in complete shock because I couldn’t believe I was so close to death. © relatee / Reddit
- My wife and I were renting for a few years when we decided to take the steps to buy our own house. We had enough for a deposit and had a mortgage quote arranged. We went to look at a number of houses and found one that we really liked, so we decided to put our offer in. We were told that this was most likely going to be accepted, but they were going to wait a couple of days before deciding.
That evening I sat in bed reading when I had a horrible feeling that something wasn’t right. The next day, I told my wife that I wasn’t sure about it and convinced her that we needed to retract our offer, so we did.
The next two weeks were a nightmare. Within two days of pulling out of this offer, my wife was made redundant (totally by surprise) and she hadn’t been working at the company long enough to get much of a payout. A week later, our car broke down and was beyond repair. We really struggled for the next year or so and would never have been able to pay off a mortgage.
We are in a much better place now, but we know that if I hadn’t had that moment we would have been screwed. © takemehomeunitedroad / Reddit
- When I 17 years old or so, two of my buddies came to pick me up to get the night started. I got into the back seat of a Geo Storm, and if you remember those, it was a tiny car made of plastic. As soon I sat down, I had a feeling of impending doom rushing over me. I had never felt that feeling before and never felt it since. I immediately asked to be let out with some excuse and said we would catch up later.
I get out, and the feeling quickly fades, so I go on about day. About two hours later I catch up with my other friends and I learn the two that came to pick me up earlier were involved in a major car accident. Both were seriously hurt and in the hospital.
This accident happened about 10 minutes after they tried to pick me up. They both survived. The car did not though, and it was struck in the passenger side rear right were I was sitting. I’m pretty positive by seeing the damage done that I would not have survived. © braketd / Reddit
- I was walking back to my dorm from class and had a gut feeling that I needed to see my friend right away. I walked into his dorm room and found him on the floor seizing. He is fine now, but it was still weird that I just knew something was wrong before I had seen him at all that day. © ASuds_65 / Reddit
- I went to go eat at a restaurant with my toddler, but something said not to eat there. Decided to just go home and make a meal. The restaurant was on the news later because it caught on fire. © Unknown author / Reddit
- When I was a little kid, I stepped outside to walk home from my neighbors two doors over. I smelled what I knew was a bear, which are common where I live. If you’ve ever smelled a black bear, it’s not that different from a skunk, which is what my friend’s mom told me it probably was when I asked her to drive me home even though my house was literally right around the corner. The thing is, a skunk’s smell is strong, but doesn’t travel. A bear’s smell is more permeating
Begrudgingly, she drove me, only to see the bear sitting on my back steps outside the door I would’ve tried to enter my house with. Black bears aren’t that vicious, but my friend’s mom apologized immediately about not believing me. I could’ve walked straight into that thing at the age of 12. © WreckweeM / Reddit
- My grandparents were driving up a steep mountain road behind a logging truck, when my grandmother started having a mild panic attack. She just kept saying, «Something’s not right, pull over. We need to pull over.» So my grandpa did and settled her down.
After a few minutes she was fine and they kept driving. A mile or two up the road, the load of trees had come loose and spilled off the truck. © MicMcKee / Reddit
- Got off the subway at night, there was one other person about half a block behind me on my route home. This is a totally normal thing, has happened thousands of times. Totally normal-looking guy, not even following me closely. I had a bad feeling.
Such a bad feeling that, when I turned the corner on my way home, I broke into a dead sprint and hid behind a dumpster in the shadows partway down the street. By the time he came around the corner, I was well hidden, and could see him from my hiding place. As soon as I saw his reaction to the fact that I wasn’t there, I knew I had been right to hide.
He started looking for me, muttering to himself, he went up and down the street, looked around corners, I hid and held my breath until he was gone. It was terrifying. I am so glad I had that sudden, inexplicable impulse to hide, and listened to it. © MissPredicament / Reddit
These are definitely not the only times people were «saved» by their instincts. We have more stories for you here of people who were right to trust their gut feeling.