Most days, life feels pretty normal—same routines, same places, same people. But every once in a while, the universe throws something so unexpected our way, it jolts us right out of autopilot.
That’s exactly what happened to these Redditors, who recently shared the most surreal “this can’t be real” moments they’ve ever experienced. From bizarre coincidences to magical landscapes and unbelievable animal encounters, you’ll find them all below. And if you’ve had one of your own, don’t forget to share it in the comments!
#1
It was dangerously freezing temps. I had just gotten off work and was broke, was a dollar short to get on the bus to get home and it was too cold and icy to walk home safely. My rich dad wouldn't send me the dollar I needed for bus fare. No reason, he just didn't want to. I went to the library to warm up and try to figure out what to do. Grabbed a random library book, opened to a random page and there was a folded up dollar bill inside. Not as crazy as some of the other stories here, but I was very grateful. .
Image credits: bob-omb_panic
#2
Delivering pizzas in my 20s and knocked on a door, realized *after* I knocked that I was at the wrong address. We'll call it 9th St SW instead of 9th St NW. So I was exactly on the other side of town from where I needed to be. As the guy opened the door I was about to do my "oh sorry I didn't mean to disturb you, have a nice day" thing I usually do at a wrong address but the guy didn't look confused and was holding money ready to go...
Turns out he ordered pizza and accidentally put his address in wrong. Which means I was ***accidentally*** at the right place... Our two mistakes perfectly cancelled each other out.
To this day I wonder about the actual odds of that happening, it feels like it's way more than one in a million.
Image credits: runswithpaper
#3
I had a lucid dream at 16yo. that I could fly by flapping my arms. I flew around my neighborhood (in the mountains) and noticed a house with a blue roof at the corner of Pine Ridge and Hook Creek road, back in the late 70’s. The dream was so real. I even went looking for the house, found it, but it didn’t have a blue roof. My teleportation fantasy was crushed. Just a dream, but so real.
Five years later I was a crewman on a forest service Helitack crew. We were dispatched to a lightening strike in my neighborhood. I was hanging out the door of the helicopter looking for smoke, when I suddenly had a dejavue (sp?) experience. I recognized the flight pattern from my dream. I freaked because I could predict the helicopters flight. I predicted accurately the next couple of turns…. I gasped as I looked down, because the house had a blue roof. I just got big goose bumps remembering. Weirdest s**t ever.
Image credits: Dirtdancefire
#4
Having a phone call with my moms attending doctor in emergency saying she’s got about 5% chance to live based on the damage COVID did to her lungs. She gave me power of attorney and I had the final say if they had to pull the plug or not.
She f*****g beat those odds and is still healthy to this day *mf fist pump*.
Image credits: Firingblind79
#5
My son and I were riding the train in Chicago. He said , “dad, don’t you have a friend from Chicago, maybe we will see him.”
“I serious doubt it son,Chicago is huge!”
He got on the next stop.
Image credits: middleagethreat
#6
I got a message from a stranger saying, “You saved my life.” Turns out I’d responded kindly to their random forum post a year prior.
Image credits: peachykeen-z
#7
I was born in Lebanon during the war in the 80s, had a best friend which I lost track of because we were always running from b**b shelter to b**b shelter, from city to city. I migrated to Canada in 89 and when I got to college, I met that friend again. We were in the same college in the same city in Canada. I didn't recognize him, but he recognized me because my face never really changed.
It was the perfect example of "the world is too small".
Image credits: BartholomewThePoet
#8
I once hugged a stranger on the street because we started crying at the same time for totally different reasons then we laughed like idiots for 10 minutes straight.
Image credits: xo_dreamyyy
#9
I had an incredible urge to go to my employees house. It was weird and overwhelming; I called my Mom thinking I lost my s**t and she said to trust my gut, so I went. It felt weird, who wants their boss showing up after hours? When I got to his house I heard a faint ‘help me’ coming from inside the house. I kicked the door in, went inside, and the dude had a stroke 24-48 hours prior to my arrival. He was just laying on the floor and would’ve rotted there had I dismissed that crazy urge.
Image credits: ShitIsGettingWeird
#10
Seeing Saturn with my own eyes through my telescope. I cried it was so beautiful. Still really cannot believe it.
Image credits: Crimson_Chim
#11
Had a really down and out moment a few years ago. Just totally broke. Wanted to buy flowers and chocolates for my wife for her birthday. It was about $80.
Has $6 in my account.
Sat out side on a bench and got really sad. It was really windy. And like a movie, I was just sitting in this desert town….Something struck me in the face, and “stuck” to me. It was a $100 bill.
Image credits: moebiusgrip
#12
I got a post card in the mail in 2018. It was sent by my parents when they visited China in 1997. I was dumbfounded and thought I was being pranked. It just took a very long time to get delivered.
Image credits: HeadCashier
#13
I’m 30 and on a European vacation with my grandma and every few minutes I cannot believe how fortunate I am to be 30 with a grandma healthy enough to travel.
#14
I was on a trip literally halfway around the world, walking around the city by myself. I popped into a tiny museum. There was only one other person there, another woman about my age. We started chatting. I'm from the US, she was from Australia, and we were in Singapore. She mentioned she'd gone to university in the US. I asked where. Turns out she went to the same small college I had, and at the same time. Got even crazier when it came out she'd been friends with my college roommate and *had been to my apartment*.
It is a small freaking world.
Image credits: Gardengoddess83
#15
Getting a phone call offering me a job I didn’t even remember applying for right when I was about to give up looking. I thought it was a prank at first.
Image credits: KayleeWitherspoon
#16
Went to my GFs family's place for Thanksgiving. Like 30-40 people are there. As the food is finally ready, everyone gathers around, and they bring out a flag, and all start singing the Pledge of Allegiance.
.....legit thought "This is f*****g weird."
....turns out they were pranking me, and they got me good.
Image credits: David_Parker
#17
Honestly? Watching Jan 6th on TV. I kept thinking "how can this be happening in America in 2021?
#18
One spring afternoon on about 2013, there had been tornadoes in Oklahoma in the morning. Being in SW MO I was looking towards to skies for any exciting looking clouds and I think we were under a tornado watch.
The local news had told of one tornado in OK that had destroyed the attics of several homes and lofted material way way up into the atmosphere and was caught in upper level winds, with some pieces of a roofing felt and paper landing here in Springfield, MO.
As I walked down our street about 5 houses away from home I saw something tumbling down out of the increasingly gnarly looking sky. It came down a few yards away and I leaned over into the yard to grab it.
It was a piece of paper about an inch x an inch. A neatly cut piece of a page from some kind of school textbook..
The cut had been through a paragraph so it was only portions of sentences but the words were:
..and causes hot air to rise..
..the formation of tornadoes..
I honestly thought I was losing my mind.
I kept it with me for many years until it disintegrated.
It sounds just as ridiculous every time I retell the story.
Image credits: Bitmush-
#19
Going to spain one year, then going back two years later and staying in the same hotel and seeing the same man both times. i spoke to him and he had just traveled there both times at the same times i did. insane.
Image credits: agressiveberry
#20
Was on random acts of kindness subreddit
a young lady was looking for some love & support because it had been a tough year and her birthday was coming up (it was on 9-11)
once we established i wasn't a serial k****r i dm'd asking where i could send a nice card & gift
she sends me the address
i stop and stare into space for two minutes because i can literally see the building from where i am sitting. it's 2 buildings away from mine!
Image credits: igneousink
#21
Hotel cleaning staff came back to the front desk complaining that they couldn't clean a room due to the alligator in the bathtub. Thought I was misunderstanding something at first.
I wasn't. There was literally a decent sized alligator in the bathtub. (Threeish feet long, which in my mind wasn't big enough to k**l you but absolutely big enough that I didn't want anyone going back in there.)
Turns out he was the animal guy for a magic show.
The *even bigger shock* was that when he came home from the set that day and asked why his room hadn't been cleaned, he told us to our faces that there were no animals in his room now or ever.
Held the line through an increasingly baffling and angry conversation, so certain that even I started to doubt reality itself.
This continued throughout his weeks long stay. Housekeeping resorted to taking pictures of whatever weird a*s exotic animal he had in there and he still denied it. At one point started saying his assistant had been in the room all day so it was perfectly safe, but no one would be there.
He'd be practically foaming at the mouth pissed over it, which was typical, but the bizarre thing was just this repeated insistence that it was perfectly safe, no animals, and then there'd be a f*****g capuchin loose in the room.
Image credits: lovebyletters
#22
Texting my mom asking if she wanted me to pick up food for us on my way home from work (i was a huge d**k to her in the morning before i left and felt bad), and having my dad reply 30 mins later "moms gone, she passed. ambulance are here."
she died unexpectedly. here at 9am when i was huffing at her to get out of the bathroom so i could take a shower and go to work, and then dead an hour before my shift ended. i remember walking in a daze and running straight into my boss and just choking. don't remember driving home or what was said when i got there. she was inside under a cloth and all i could see was her feet sticking up. kept thinking this was a joke or a bad dream. she was only 54. i was 23. i hadn't expected to lose a parent at all, much less on a random Tuesday in October. it still feels surreal tbh—her death, planning her funeral, driving up to Toronto to pick up a casket, the entire year after her death.
but the scariest part is that i don't remember what she sounded like or what she looked like anymore. she hated having her picture taken, and i think my way of coping with this sudden trauma was to forget what it was like living with her because my entire childhood and teens and early adulthood just feels like i'm watching a movie about someone else when she was alive. grief is weird and explaining that "this world is ending for me but everyone else is going to work and paying bills" feeling is so strange.
Image credits: kviiilynlev
#23
Was hiking alone in the mountains when a sudden fog rolled in. Complete white-out conditions. As I was trying to figure out my bearings, I heard bells jingling, and out of the mist appeared an old man with a staff leading about 20 goats. He nodded at me without saying a word, walked past, and disappeared into the fog with his goats. The entire encounter lasted maybe 30 seconds.
Image credits: PotentialTurnover335
#24
Watching my childhood bully walk out as a WWE wrestler, and then become the most popular one for a decade.
Like d**n, being a bully pays off apparently.
Image credits: RandandoFernando42
#25
Seeing a moose smack dab in the middle of a river in the city center. Just chillin' whilst the police was just sitting there with pikachu shock faces. Sounds like something that would only appear in a stand-up comedian's show, but no. River moose.
Happened in Vilnius, Lithuania
Funny how the Polish people have Bobr, krv. Now neighbors got Briedis, krv.
Image credits: CliWha5
#26
I walked into a bookstore, picked up a book, and it opened to a page with my full name written inside it. In someone else’s handwriting.
Image credits: bubblebliss2a
#27
I went into my local pub around the corner for a pint before a taking a taxi into the city, went to a random bar and was served by exactly the same barman that had served me in the pub. Turned out he'd served me as his last customer in the pub and then started a shift at the other bar. I thought he had a twin or something. We both found it really funny.
#28
Driving in a white out blizzard (that came out of nowhere) and seeing a vehicle flipping headfirst multiple times headed opposite bound on a stretch of the road that was one lane each way. There was nowhere safe to pull over and check on them either. I had to drive another 3 miles to work to call the sheriff and let them know.
Turns out the driver, her husband and their two toddler passengers were all fine, with just bumps and bruises. They came and ate at my restaurant the next day and while talking it came up they had an accident, we spoke and I said I was the one who called it in. It was surreal.
Image credits: Krillin
#29
My sister and I are 8 years apart (she’s older). When I was in 11th grade, we had to read the great gatsby (she loves the book and movie and even has a tattoo for it). When you get a book from school, you have to write your name in it so if you misplace it, someone should know who it belongs to
Well when I got my copy the start of the unit, I flipped it open and got my sisters copy and saw her name handwritten 8 years later!! So cool!!
#30
Elephants wandering around just outside of my Midwest town. I figure they they must have gotten out of a train car to walk around, but looking over and seeing 4 full grown elephants was surreal!
Image credits: Pale-Independent-604
#31
About 10 years ago, my husband and I made friends with another couple on holiday. They were also from the UK but they lived all the way down south and my husband and I are up north so about 5/6 hours apart. We met on a day trip, got chatting and spent most of the day together - said goodbye at the end of the day and that was that.
A few weeks after we got back home, I started a new job in a car dealership and who were the first people to walk through the door on my first day? The couple from holiday.
Turns out their son attended a university close by and they had come up to visit him but were waiting for him to have a break in lectures so just decided on a whim to come and look at some cars. So many different decisions that had to align to make that car dealership meeting happen - it makes me feel funny if I think about it for too long.
#32
This is a bit long but hopefully worth it.
Where I live, there is a castle just down the road. The Lord of the area still lives there. He’s a bit younger than me and our sons attended the local state primary school together and became friends. I became friends with his dad - he’s a normal bloke, just knows who his ancestors were for 800 years.
He gets invited to a lot of stuff and was invited to take part in a local regatta - in a rowing race. There would be him, the invitee and he needed 2 more rowers - it was a paired relay. He asked me if I would do it. I said I would - but explained that I sail but don’t really row. That was fine, it was just for fun.
Another rower was found. We were to row the first leg together. The other rower and I only met on the evening of the race and it wasn’t until we were on the water that I realised he was taking this seriously. Bless him, he soon had to temper his expectations when he saw how bad I was. He made no fuss at the change in approach but coached me along - we came in last for the changeover. It turned out that this guy was a gold medalist in the British rowing championships…
The second leg didn’t go any better - our other pair were also very amateur and we were competing with - obviously enough - seasoned rowers. We were last, by a long way.
We stayed for the presentation of cups. The Lord Mayor of the town was presenting these. By chance, his wife had previously been my teaching assistant…and, there was a cup for the first boat that entered from a local town (not the town where the regatta was). There was only one boat from there - us.
So, there I was. With a Lord of the realm, a British gold medalist and a local historian. Being presented with a cup (despite coming dead last) by the wife of the Lord Mayor, who had previously been my teaching assistant. For rowing - my first time in about 20 years. Not my usual day.
#33
Doing a puzzle, picking up a piece looking for where it should go - I drop the piece and lose track of it. Couldn't find it anywhere, then I realised it fell into the exact right place. No chance of that ever happening again in my life.
#34
I always check copies of Harry Potter to see if they’re rare.
Just a habit, obviously the odds of finding a rare one are so low….
Until I actually did.
Goosebumps. Sold for just over 6k.
Image credits: hrrymcdngh
#35
I boarded a plane for Greece and had the entire front row of the center aisle bulkhead all to myself. The flight attendant served up a surprisingly delicious Greek meal with a glass of wine. I was having a moment of 'Life Is Good' euphoria I'll never forget. The trip was better than the flight by far, but all the good surprises on the flight were so unexpected!
#36
I once ran into my childhood neighbor halfway across the world—in a random alley in Tokyo.
#37
I got on a bus in the wrong city, going the wrong direction, and still ended up exactly where I needed to be.
#38
On a beautiful almost autumn Tuesday morning, I was driving my bf at the time to work. We used to love to drive with the radio off and would just talk. We started to see people pulled over on the side of the expressway looking sick. Not just one car, but multiple cars were pulling over. I felt my hair raise at the back of my neck and pulled over. Turning on the radio, I heard the DJ sobbing on air. That is when I learned about the planes hitting the towers. That is when I realized my bf would probably be called to duty. That is when I realized my best friend worked in the second tower. That is the day my life changed and I can remember how surreal it all felt for the next few weeks. It was like walking around in a haze of grief, disbelief, pain, and compassion for everyone.
#39
I once dropped a plate and it bounced perfectly upright… twice… then stayed standing.
Image credits: -hsportychic
#40
One time, I saw a woman on the street drop her phone — and five different people around her all reached down at the exact same time like a perfectly choreographed scene. It didn’t feel real.
#41
11 years ago, a guy, literally only a few steps away from me, jumped in front of a incoming train. I will never forget that scene. Poor Soul😢.
#42
Late twenties, maybe early thirties i was struggling with my marriage and asked my sister to bring me a bible for a bit of comfort.
She went to her church where they have plenty to give out and brought one to me.
It was mine from when i was 13, complete with my own name in my writing.
#43
Laughing at funny name ideas (I think the name was Assus Blastus) while doing deliveries for work, then stopping at a customer's house, handing over their food, only for the mother to address her daughter as "Blastus" or something that sounded oddly similar.
Legit thought I was having a stroke. Genuinely still not sure I heard her right lmao.
#44
I wasn't even looking up when I was in the passenger seat of a head-on collision. All I know is a big bang happened and when I looked up it was a red metal wall on fire. I look to the right of me and it's open street and there's debris all over the road. Still none of this makes sense. I have no idea where I am and why is blood pouring out of my face and into my hands? I am looking trying to figure out what the burning red wall was for. Then I look to my right again and a young blonde lady is screaming into a phone. I'm still trying to figure out why is there a red wall?! Then I see a fireman and he manhandled me a lot, I am jostled around and asked a bunch of questions, something about my age. I'm loaded onto a gurney and as I'm wheeled away I see the whole smashed car and suddenly I realized I was in an accident and the red wall was the hood of the car smashed up vertically and the battery was on fire.
Like none of it made sense at all until I saw the whole car. .
Image credits: LuvinMyThuderGut
#45
In 2010 or 2011 my wife and I were driving back from a pro tennis tournament in Miami back home to Lakeland (between Tampa and Orlando.)
The tournament ended late so we decided to make the 4 our trip starting at about midnight. We were taking rural route 27 which goes through a lot of small towns that are notorious for speed traps. The speed limit back then went from 55 down to 35 right as you entered each town. My radar detector would go off right at the speed limit sign for about 75% of the towns we went trough, it was ridiculous.
At one town (I don't remember which) there was only one light which turned yellow right as I approached it. I would have had to speed to beat the red light but I was suspicious and sure enough got hit with radar. It was weird because there was NO other traffic to trigger the light. I looked around and found the cop parked around one of the buildings close by.
So I'm sitting at the red light and waiting for it to turn yellow the other way... and it never did. It went from green to red, and then green my way.
The F*****G COP was controlling the light!! I thought that it turning yellow initially was just a bit too perfect timing, and then it skipping yellow the other way confirmed it.
I'm pretty sure most folks I've told this story to don't quite believe me.
#46
When a cop knocked on my door and said my mom was dead, she got hit by a car walking home from work. At first I thought it was a joke then I think I fell on the ground for a bit couldn’t breathe. Then they gave me info while I was shaking. The one investigator gave me his jacket which was really nice of him. Then I didn’t know how to act or what to do. I was the first to know so I had to call everyone when I couldn’t even form a sentence myself. It happened at 3 am too. So no one even answered the phone until the next morning. I think I didn’t sleep until like 3 days later. With a bunch of help from my friend Xanax bars.
#47
I dreamt of a very specific conversation with a stranger… and then had it word-for-word the next day.
#48
Watching the doctor do the brain death tests on my 41 year old sister after she had a spontaneous brain bleed thanksgiving morning.
She had huge beautiful blue eyes and watching them pry her eyelids open and moving her head to see if they would move, but just staying locked forward was haunting.
#49
Opened my neighbors locker in high school. The second I touched that dial lock I knew the combination and entered it in correctly first time. Freaked out and slammed the door shut when I saw girl stuff in it. Went back to mine and input MY code fine. I tried to remember her code just to see if I could and it was a complete blank. Weird.
#50
I matched with my ex on a dating app while still dating them. We were both “testing” each other.
Image credits: -espiritsiren
#51
I saw a log truck lose it's load when it took an off ramp too fast, just as I was coming up the main road. It was super surreal, like it was happening in slow motion; the log bunk just started lean halfway down the ramp, before tilting completely sideways. Luckily, there was a large enough gap of sloped grass that people had plenty of warning to stop or speed up. As far as I recall, there were no damages other than the truck.
#52
I once found a random key in my jacket pocket… and it opened an old locked box I’d never opened.
#53
My 5-year-old daughter was in a parade with her dance school. When it was time to take a group photo, she stood next to my biological half sister (I'm adopted), also 5 years old. I knew it was a possibility, but to see it was truly bizarre.
#54
Seeing the full eclipse. I honestly thought someone was projecting an image into the sky, then my mind clicked that it was real and it became the most stunning and amazing experience ever. .
#55
Waking up from a major abdominal surgery with FOUR 4" wide by 4" deep open holes in my abdomen.
I almost lost my mind every time I got a glimpse of them...
#56
When I showed up to a “performance” and my fiancé was proposing to me
It felt insane that he got the timing perfectly correct so that I didn’t “catch” him before I was meant to understand
It was a lot of moving parts, and he pulled it off!
#57
Watching my house burn at 2 am.
#58
Recently, I walked out of work, look to my left and Norman Reedus of all people was rolling a joint. I was the only one who seemed to notice.
#59
The other day the lady in front of me at Walmart paid for her $94 grocery bill exclusively with $1 bills.
#60
Actually, two moments... with the same person.
1.) I wrote on Twitter how much I loved her first book and that I borrowed it multiple times from the library. She then wrote me a DM and asked for my address because she wanted to give me the book as a present. And she did. With a hand-written message.
2.) I am currently reading her new book and googled something she wrote about. I couldn't find anything about it and decided to contact her on Bluesky - that was yesterday. (She wrote about a certain rapper being in jail because of p*dophilic crimes.) Turns out she confused two rappers. And she thanked me a ton because printing of the second edition will start tomorrow.
