Have you ever walked down the street at night and kept glancing over your shoulder, as if something were following you? That’s your survival instinct kicking in. It may sometimes be unrealistic, but it’s your brain’s way of keeping you alert.
Sometimes, though, it goes beyond that. You might not even be in a dangerous place, yet your gut tells you something isn’t quite right. That’s when you listen — or at least, when you should. The people in today’s story can attest to that. They shared the times their gut instinct told them to leave, and they listened. Only later did they find out why, so here’s what they had to say.
#1
Hiking in a slot canyon and noticing a trickle of water running down the floor of the canyon.
I told my friend to get out and hurry back the way we came. Within an hour the canyon was half full of raging water.
Image source: funnny_things, Aziz Acharki (not the actual photo)
#2
We were walking along a sea wall in Hawaii and while my friends were looking at stuff on the wall, I saw this massive swell starting to come up on us. I panicked and started yelling that we needed to move and they just looked at me like I was stupid until the water started rushing at their feet and calves. So we ran and barely made it onto the shore without getting washed away.
The area behind the sea wall had filled up completely with water within seconds. There had been people in the area looking at tide pools. Thankfully they all made it out ok too. It was really scary.
Image source: omfgsquee, RDNE Stock project (not the actual photo)
#3
I was at a Walgreens and ran into an old friend of mine who I have not seen in a few years. He asks if I wanted to hang out and he could introduce me to some new people. Everything in me told me to leave now, don’t go, leave. A few hours later I see his mugshot on tv, him and his friends had robbed a bank shortly after I saw him in the store.
Image source: InfamousSearch6335, William Fortunato (not the actual photo)
What makes someone turn around because the vibes feel off? And what exactly is a gut feeling? It turns out that psychologists refer to this kind of instinct as “thin-slicing,” a term that describes the brain’s ability to pick up on subtle patterns from brief moments of experience in a fraction of a second.
This means that when something feels off, the brain may pick up on microexpressions, body language, tone of voice, or even unusual details in the surroundings faster than our conscious minds can process them, triggering a reaction to leave.
#4
When we were kids my mom used to take us berry picking in the evenings in the spring just for something to do, my dad worked late and it stayed light out until like 10 so she basically wanted us all out of the house and tired out for bedtime. And also we got a ton of berries to eat, both there and after.
One night we were at this primo blackberry patch and she was all of a sudden like get in the car. My mom is a nice lady but she was an 80’s-90’s mom and never the type to ask twice. So all four of us dropped our buckets and got in the car. I remember when we got home we a) had no buckets of berries at at all, not even one single berry to snack on, and b) my mom’s explanation was fairly vague, like “oh yeah, this man alone came over to me and started asking me too many questions about how many kids I had and who all was with us, so I thought it was about time we leave.” Like even to my eight-year-old ears she was *too* casual about it.
Like twenty-five years later my mom told me she has never had as premonitory a feeling as she did when she met that guy at the blackberry bushes. And by this time she was a RETIRED FEDERAL PROSECUTOR OF 20 YEARS. Her pattern recognition for and exposure to this type of behavior was off the charts, and yet… .
Image source: poolbitch1, Яна Горбунова (not the actual photo)
#5
This was in my early 20s. I was inside a packed bar/nightclub with a bunch of friends. We were bar hopping and stuff. I just got this super odd feeling where it felt like I sobered up almost. I don’t know how to describe the feeling I got. Like everything got much clearer and my ears almost blocked out most sound.
I then heard a voice from a distance saying something to someone in an aggressive manner. No idea what they said but the tone immediately made me want to get out. I immediately told my friends that I’m getting a really weird vibe and we gotta go. And they insisted in staying because we were having a good time. But I was not able to carry on after that.
I was able to finally convince them to leave. The next day, I saw on the local news that a few people got hurt at that bar/nightclub after we left.
Image source: Significant-Rip9690, prostooleh (not the actual photo)
#6
Boat from mainland Thailand to one of the Islands. Female, 22, travelling alone, had run out of money until my sister could wire some to me, so I bought a cheap ticket in the hold. It was only when I sat down on the floor with my backpack chained to my leg (like the seasoned traveller I thought I was), that my eyes slowly acclimatised to dark and I saw I was surrounded by 30 men also sat on the floor of the hold, and staring at me while sniggering and nudging each other. I don’t scare easily – especially not then – but every part of my body was screaming get the f out of here right now. My brain was saying you’ve just paid £6 for this ticket and you can sleep on the boat and tomorrow you’ll have some cash, and if you get off you’ll literally be on the street for the night in a deserted dock town. It took about 2 minutes and one man moving over to me before I jumped up and speed walked off the boat, before walking round all night until I could get my money. Still makes me shudder.
Image source: Common_Gur2347, Son Hoa Nguyen (not the actual photo)
#7
During a Thanksgiving a couple of years ago, I wasn’t feeling well, and my eyes kept watering, plus they felt very heavy. I asked if anyone else felt weird, but everyone kept saying it was fine, so I just opened a window, thinking it might be allergies or something. We were about to finish cooking, but I still felt really weird, and I was low-key having a panic attack. Right around then, some of my family were about to smoke a blunt, and I was like, “No, we need to leave.” Also very rude to do that in someone’s home. So anyway, I threw a fit, and everyone kind of humored me, and some of us went outside while my brother started checking the house. The propane heater was messed up and leaking propane into the house. That’s why my eyes kept watering. I’m so glad they didn’t light anything, and I thank God we didn’t pass away that day.
Image source: Ohbarbey, https://kaboompics.com/ (not the actual photo)
And in a way, you can quite literally sense danger before you even see or understand it. This is because sensory input, such as sounds, subtle smells, and visual cues, can reach the amygdala, the brain’s threat detector, milliseconds before it reaches other parts of the brain, including the visual or auditory cortex.
So, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you get that sinking feeling in your stomach or even experience sudden nausea because you feel you shouldn’t be in a particular place, it may be your nervous system triggering a stress response that affects your gut.
#8
I for reasons I can’t explain, I knew that me and a friend were about to mugged (street robbery)
It was a very long time ago, when mobile phones were rare.
I was actually on the phone to the police when they attempted to mug me, and the police had already arrived. Problem was I was walking around a lake, with no road access.
The police told me to just chat like I would with a mate, and they would intervene
They got arrested. I was thankful.
But it’s weird how sometimes we just know something isn’t right.
Image source: lllDouglll, Sofía Marquet (not the actual photo)
#9
Dragged my friends out of the swimming pool at our apartment complex in Topeka Kansas when it had just started lightly raining. They were annoyed.
Three minutes later the swimming pool was struck by lightning. It boiled. Blew out my dads amp in our apartment and set off 6 building fire alarms in the surrounding apartment buildings.
I was 11 years old.
Image source: tesseractjane, Vincent Nguyen (not the actual photo)
#10
About 15 years ago I was driving from Delaware to New England with my family in the car. There was some work going on that was messing up the highway thru south jersey, so we stayed on the PA side.
Drove up thru Philly no problems.
get up towards trenton, I wanted to save some time so we got off the highway and the plan was to cut thru downtown to get on 95 and continue on our way… should save an hourish.
here’s the kicker… its was 2am.
There’s no one out, at all. Ghost town.
we stop at a red light… and the blue lights come on behind us. what? wasn’t speeding, I know I stopped at the lights… cuz im still stopped.
Biggest cop I’ve ever seen, like Shaq’s big brother, gets out of the car walks up to my door. I roll the window down.
Doesnt ask what I’m doing litterally asks “what the hell are you doing here?” told him.
He thinks for a minute and tells me that if I turn left at this light, that road will take us to the highway.
and we should speed and run every light we hit between here and there. he’ll call it in so no other cops will stop us.
*blink*
I’m a combat veteran. The tone of his voice.
We hit 80 in downtown trenton.
Image source: W1ULH, Omar Ramadan (not the actual photo)
#11
Me and three friends, in our twenties, at Costa Rica’s capital San José. Part of town called Coca-Cola, not safe it turns out.
We have backpacks and are roaming around searching for our hostel. Turns out it does not exist anymore. At all.
We stand at the abandoned entrance like idiots, looking around. A local lady comes to us and says:
”See those guys over there?”
Points at three people talking on the other side of the street, occasionally glancing at us.
”In 2 minutes, they are about to rob you. You should get a taxi out of here, _now_.”
We did.
Image source: juhanii, Macourt Media (not the actual photo)
Unfortunately, the people on this list aren’t the only ones who have had this experience. Studies on intuitive decision-making suggest that 80% of adults report having a strong gut feeling that later proves correct.
Cognitive psychologist Gary Klein conducted research on experienced professionals, including firefighters, ER doctors, and military veterans. His study suggests that these individuals rely heavily on their gut instincts in high-stakes situations because their brains have built up extensive subconscious libraries of patterns from past experiences, allowing them to recognize situations and make quick decisions.
#12
I was a photographer working with models at the time, and myself and the model found ourselves at what appeared to be an abandoned roadside stand. There was a small enclosed building, covered in dust, and a small stand with random bits and pieces strewn about. Visually interesting so we pulled over and started setting up for our shot.
It’s not even a minute before we just feel off. Not to the point that we rush to our cars but we quietly acknowledge to each other that we should be on guard. And then the feeling shifted so suddenly. The birds stopped chirping and the air felt heavy; I could feel the dread in the back of my throat. Without words, the model and I started back to the car.
Out of nowhere, an older man with white hair emerged from below a hill. We saw him crest the hill and contemplated running the rest of the way to the car but Midwest nice got in the way of reason. We said hi, apologized for stopping, and tried to walk away but he pursued. At that moment, divine intervention saved us.
A woman pulled up in a car and yelled ‘Oh thank goodness I finally found you. Come on, let’s go, your father is on his way to fix your car’.
And without any hesitation, we got into the stranger’s car and drove around for a while until we all deemed it safe to retrieve my car. When we asked her why she stopped, her only explanation was that something was telling her we were in danger and she had to intervene.
Many thanks to that kind woman. Who knows how the story may have turned out without her quick thinking and willingness to stop.
Image source: Chicagonix, Nisha Kohli (not the actual photo)
#13
I was taking a bath. My partner came in to ask me if the lights were flickering at all because he noticed the refrigerator and oven were flickering on and off. I asked him if the lights were flickering in the rest of the apartment, and he said no.
I immediately got out of the bath and told him to grab the cats because there was an electrical fire. We then heard a loud POP! outside – we went out to look and sure enough, a transformer and a power line were enveloped in flames.
Image source: AlexHasFeet, Markus Spiske (not the actual photo)
#14
My work crew were eating at a restaurant and I looked out the window and saw the sky was green and black. I told everyone that we needed to go…. NOW. Everybody made it out but my partner and I because we caught a red light. That’s when the tornado touched down.
Image source: SocialRevenge, Jang Raw (not the actual photo)
#15
It was 2002, we were in a town in South Carolina for a funeral. All package stores and gas stations stopped selling alcohol at 19:00 on Saturday and no alcohol until Monday. Members only bars were the only places to get a drink. We walked in the closest club to our destination. Rock music blared from the jukebox. We could here laughing as we walked in. We saw a couple dancing. Not our vibe but whatever. When we walked in all the patrons turned around and looked at us with a weird disdain. “Let me get a beer.” My friend asked, as we started noticing we were not in good company. “It’s members only.” The barkeep said. “OK, how much is membership?” My friend asked. “Your life ain’t worth it boy. You’ll be a member of that wall with the deer head.” A patron belted with anger. My friend ignored him. “Any bars around for us,” my friend retorted looking at the barkeep. “I suggest y’all be leaving.”
We were chaperone to the door by 3 guys and the guys in the parking lot were looking anxious. We ended up buying bootleg from some big hispanic man in a gas station parking lot. Funny enough the barkeep was at the funeral.
Image source: genesisnemesis911, Tatiana Castrillon (not the actual photo)
#16
I was a window cleaner in NewYork during the late 90’s and early 2000’s. It was September 11, 2001 and I was cleaning a window towards the top of the world trade center. I got this weird feeling that If I didn’t finish the job quickly I’d regret it. I packed up and left before the job was done only to find out as I was taking the elevator down that a plane had struck the building. I barely made it out before the towers fell.
Image source: growmoolah, Getty Images (not the actual photo)
#17
Swimming off Sandy point, West end of St. Croix with some very trusting friends visiting from the states, in semi deep water where the turquoise azure waters turn to darker hues of blue, like 30-40 ft depths…my friends were following me, trusting me, and as I scoured the waters up ahead I noticed fish, lots and lots of reef fish, hurriedly swimming in our direction and something immediately clicked in my mind to look out for something much bigger that must be chasing them. Sure enough, beyond the steady stream of escaping fish and off in the distance, I see 2 long, dark shapes making their way towards us. They were 2 large oceanic white tip sharks. I knew these as dangerous sharks. the very rare few cases of fatal shark attacks in the US Virgin Islands have been from these, most recently in January of this year off a West end St. Croix beach where a visiting tourist was fatally bitten. My friends never saw them but I did. I swam back to them & told them “we must go now.” They were spooked, tried to ask questions but I just said “follow me, NOW!”
We made a beeline for the shore which was a good 75-100yards+ away. We had snorkel masks but did not have fins so we were slow and splashy. I stayed behind or next to them and made sure my friends were headed to shore before me. I’ve never been so grateful to make it back to land as I was that day. I still think of that from Time to time and the spookiness of it never fades.
Image source: megafari, Rockwell branding agency (not the actual photo)
Many stories that show the power of gut feelings, beyond animals instinctively responding to their surroundings in nature, appear throughout history. In 2004, when the Indian Ocean tsunami caused massive casualties along the coasts of several countries, the Indigenous Onge and Jarawa tribes on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands reportedly suffered very few losses.
And it may have been thanks to their instincts. Reports suggest that they noticed subtle environmental signs, such as unusual bird calls, strange ocean currents, and changes in animal behavior. By paying attention to these signs, they then fled to higher ground before the tsunami waves reached the islands.
#18
This was a few weeks ago. I was doing a short work placement in Banff, Canada. I’d brought my bike and had taken to biking the townsite and trails after work in the evening. One evening I’m biking the road by Vermillion lakes. One other group of cyclists goes past the other way early on and after that I’m alone. It’s starting to get dark but I have a light. Take some photos of the first and second lake, stop for a drink, and keep cycling.
You can hear the main highway not too far away for a while then the road takes a bit of a turn away between the second and third lake and it gets quiet. This is nice. Trees on either side, quiet evening, nice and peaceful, and suddenly every instinct in me starts screaming “turn around and crank it”.
I proceed another 5 or so second, and vaguely feel like i hear something in the trees.
Turn around, and switch the bike into top gear back towards the townsite. Glance back over my shoulder a few dozen meters later. Oh look, there’s a *BEAR* on the road.
Nope, nope, nopity, nope.
I learned that it was possible to hit 30kmph on an 8 speed bike when you’re motivated enough (yes, I’m aware that I wouldn’t have been able to outrun him/her even at that speed, but was the best chance I had).
Image source: darth_henning, Uriel Grillo (not the actual photo)
#19
I was a kid, playing at the park with a friend. Construction dude leaning on his bulldozer watching us, gave us the creeps. We decided to run into the woods behind us, and he jumped in his bulldozer to drive around to the other side of the woods. We waited until he was in a spot he couldn’t see us and booked it home as fast as our little legs could carry us. Never told our parents, never saw him again. Avoided that park for a long time.
Image source: Purple-flying-dog, Daniel Neves Cotta (not the actual photo)
#20
I once made friends with a colleague, and we used to sometimes go to the beach. We had similar backgrounds in common, and had a bunch of mutual friends. Once I was at the beach with him doing nothing much and an extremely clear voice in my head said ‘he’s going to hurt you’. It was out of nowhere, I was in no danger at the time, and sometimes I get anxiety and random cognitive noise so I disregarded it. He did in fact go on to become physically intimidating, and eventually stalked me. I will never ignore brief, clear, matter of fact types of thoughts like this again – they are intuition.
Image source: meringuin, Lizzy Honey (not the actual photo)
#21
I was a teen working at a pizza place. I was sent outside to clean the windows when I noticed a very cliche white van sitting a few parking spots over in front of the physical therapy place next door no big deal but the dude was staring at me.
I kept an eye on him as he got on the phone and not too long later another van this time being burgundy pulled up too but right behind me. Both men got out of their vehicles and walked towards the door and I got a prickle feeling on the back of my neck.
I set down the window cleaning stuff and high tailed it into the shop. My manager took their order while I hung out in the back They got one small 10 inch pizza then left separately in different directions. I found this super strange for several reasons. One small pizza isn’t enough to share for two grown men. Why did they meet up just to leave in two different directions?
Everytime I tell people this they say it was probably fine and I’m being dramatic but I really feel like I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t go inside.
Image source: Rude-Badger-1085, Jorge Romero (not the actual photo)
But Gavin de Becker has also called out humans for not listening to their instincts more often. The researcher argues that humans are the only species that will actively ignore their gut feelings just to avoid being rude or creating an awkward situation. At the same time, he praises moments when “our primitive brain overrides our politeness.” So maybe we should all return to our default settings a little more often.
But tell us about your own experiences, Pandas. Have you ever been in a situation where your body seemed to know instinctively that you needed to fight or flee? What happened, and how did you realize it was time to leave? Tell us all about it!
#22
Me and my friend were fishing along the river bank one time, nothing was biting so we decided to head over to the bridge to cross the river and try the other side. As we were climbing the stairs up to the bridge a man was coming down, I had a vibe immediately and I looked back as he passed and I watched him hit the bottom of the staircase and immediately turn around and come back towards us. I told my friend and we picked up the pace and made our way to the other side of the river with more people, still determined to fish. After fishing for a few minutes I spotted the man crossing the bridge back towards us. Thats when we decided that we needed to leave. Not sure if he was really following us, but both my friend and I have been robbed and we were in a rough end of town so we didn’t want to mess around.
Image source: slurmdrinker3000, Thanh Luu (not the actual photo)
#23
Not sure if this one really counts because I only had seconds to process that decision, but:
I was at a farm (south Florida) flagging the surface water and wetland boundaries. I was inside this vegetated area that was surrounded on three sides by a large farm ditch. Well, where you tie the flag material is where the surveyors will later come along and get that data point, so you need to be as accurate as possible.
So I’m tying flags to vegetation right at the edge of this ditch. I looked down and I saw this weird bowl-shape in the ground by the water. So I squatted down to look at it, because it looked like some farm hand took a shovel and just kind of scooped out a bowl. And I was thinking to myself “why would someone dig right here?”
Then I looked to my right and saw a mound of dirt. It was at that moment I realized it was an alligator nest and I needed to get out of there. About 1 second later the momma alligator came right out of the water at me(from about 3 feet away). And I managed to leap backwards and then further backed myself behind some bushes. That was probably the closest I had been to being gone.
Image source: AdunfromAD, Deb Hayes (not the actual photo)
#24
I have two instances of this happening:
1. When my family first moved to the UK, we used to go rambling in the countryside. The last time we ever went on a big walk like that, we wandered into what we found out was a cow pasture. I remember the minute we saw the bulls in the corner starting to move toward us before coming at us full tilt, my dad turned to me and said “you’d better run fast because I’m not coming back for you.” We legged it to the other side and got out thankfully, but the air practically stood still while it was happening.
2. My extended family and I took a trip to Tunisia and pretty much as soon as we got off the bus, we were snatched up by a man offering us a traditional tea experience. We followed him innocently enough at first, and he gave is turkish tea and then set off on selling us his very expensive rugs. I remember my uncle turning to us like “we need to get out of here now”. Fortunately my aunt and uncle were wealthy and could placate him by buying one of his rugs and he let us go, but things got very hostile very quickly while they were haggling. It kind of felt like a hostage situation where he would not let us leave until we paid him an exorbitant amount.
Image source: WDTHTDWA-BITCH, Mark Stebnicki (not the actual photo)
#25
Strongest intuitive gut feeling I’ve ever had was walking home around 1am after working late at university.
I was walking down the dark path leading from the building to the street, which was surrounded by trees, and looked to my left to see a guy just standing there staring at me. I instantly felt sick, and started sprinting down through the trees toward the street.
He followed me across the street and into the gas station shop I ran into, and left when he saw me using the phone. Police later used the CCTV footage to identify him, and called to tell me he was a known predator. THANKS INTUITION!
Image source: ndplume333, Murun. E (not the actual photo)
#26
I was walking with my pregnant GF and our 2 year old in a secluded part of the city and we were passing by two homeless guys. One said something to the other that I did not hear and the other one replied “No, they have a kid with them.” I noped out of there as fast as we could.
Image source: Ok-Alps4101, Timur Weber (not the actual photo)
#27
Went paddleboarding alone in FL bayou. Had full body panic anxiety about sharks. Ignored it. Headed back towards my house and I passed a neighbors house. I start hearing people on a dock talking about how they’ve been chumming the water. Two massive (bigger than my board) bull sharks pull up under me in very shallow water and start to follow me. My paddleboard is wooden and much smaller/less stable than the big buoyant plastic ones. I raced home and moved to the desert shortly after
😂 Every time I went to the beach in the months after that I would see a shark. Hadn’t seen one my whole life in FL until that dang summer.
Image source: Any_Presentation4716, Trarete (not the actual photo)
#28
I got in an argument with my wife one night and figured I’d go for a ride on my motorcycle to clear my head.
About 3 miles down the road, I got a strong “go home!” feeling, that I initially ignored.
About 4 miles down the road, I get a strong “don’t go any further” feeling, and somehow my front tire went flat (what!!), so I pulled in to a gas station to air it up. Then, as I’m about to pull out of the gas station, my motorcycle falls down underneath me (it was dark and there was a patch of gravel that I stopped at).
I pick the bike up, then right as I’m about to pull out onto the road, and fire truck zooms past in front of me with the lights all lit up.
I did not go any further. I took myself straight back home.
Image source: StaizeH, Jonathan Cooper (not the actual photo)
#29
I was invited to a friend’s pool party at her mom’s house. It was supposed to be adults only, no kids, bring friends and family. The only warning I got from my friend was that her family was “toxic”.
I show up, they’re making tacos, music and alcohol are flowing. I feel good, welcome even. Then I start hearing quiet, side conversations; along the lines of “that girl over there? She’s married to XYZ. Some people don’t like her because of ABC.” I listen and nod, not really sure what to do with the gossip.
At one point we’re all playing a game in the pool. One of the cousins (male, my age, idk who he’s married to, IF he is…literally just a guy on my team) and I high five. I start hearing my friends mom talking about ME, in Spanish, a language I understand. They say I’m flirting with him, I have no shame, I’m doing it right under his wife’s nose.
I look at them and ask are they talking about me. With a saccharine grin, her mom and other woman say, “no :) of course not” and laugh to themselves.
I take one glance around the pool. Literally everyone is so tense; some people look at me like I’m the joke. Some look sad. Some look suspicious. I hear this voice in my head, “it’s not safe here, you need to leave.” I tell my friend to meet me in the kitchen.
I get my stuff and tell her my gut is telling me I need to go. She understands, and apologized for her family.
Two days later, we’re at work and I ask her how the rest of the party went. She tells me her stepfather had invited his ex-wife to the party. And they were caught kissing in one of the rooms. It broke her moms heart. Pissed off the men in the family. A fight had broken out and the cops were called.
Much later, like the next year, I saw her mom again for my friends bday dinner. She had stayed with the stepdad. I never let it slip that I knew about the fight but I felt super smug all that happened. That’s what you get for starting stuff. And I never felt bad for listening to my gut.
Image source: omgtessyfarts, vii wolves (not the actual photo)
#30
Me and my ex girlfriend once smelt fireworks when on the attic of my home with the door closed. Checking the origin of the smell we realised it did not came from outside. We both realised and instinctively felt this was much more serious than we could have predicted and dropped what we were doing to check it out. At that point the whole of the first floor was already on fire. We got seperated for I tried to check if I could put out the fire but that moment was long gone. We made a separate narrow escape and both only ended up with burned hair. Nothing serious.
As a bonus ‘I need to act… Now’: when we got out of the house I realised our cats were trapped for I blocked the cat entrance for cleaning. I ran to the back and removed the blocking stuff. All cats came out unharmed but extremely scared.
Image source: sebastiaanvv, Memet Öz (not the actual photo)
#31
I was a 15y girl. I had just moved to a new state and was hanging out with a guy from the neighborhood one Friday. We ended up at an apartment complex. The whole place was one big party. I somehow ended up in an apartment that had beer packaging for wallpaper. I was the only girl and the youngest person there by at least 5 years. It was midnight, I got separated from the guy I was with and couldn’t find him. It was the late 1980’s , no cell phones.
All the sudden something triggered my fight or flight response and I knew I had to get out of there immediately. I went to the front of the complex where the washeteria was, found a pay phone, and called my step dad to come get me. I didn’t even know where I was but luckily he did. Found out later two people passed away there that night and a girl was hurt.
Image source: Fragrant-Half-7854
#32
2009, Middle of the night, Chicago, we were about to cross a bridge and noticed two people standing in the middle of the bridge, felt like they could have been waiting for someone, it wasnt super threatening but it made me really uneasy and I went the other way.
Image source: Parasitoid
#33
I was stalked by a mountain lion in Arizona. Couldn’t really ‘leave’ as we were hiking in the middle of nowhere. When we couldn’t see the mountain lion anymore, we didn’t feel any better. It was terrifying.
Image source: PipetheHarp
#34
When I was a kid, there was a park near my house that me and my buddies would always hang out at. One day, me and my friend were playing basketball there. I was maybe 10 years old and he was around 12-13. We were the only ones at this park until one guy pulled up to play basketball. He seemed pretty normal, nothing felt off about him. His friend came soon after. He just seemed like a creepy loser. I could tell there wasn’t much going for him even as a kid. They were probably 25-30 and I remember one of them had a on a safety vest. At some point, we all started chatting. I remember him being super interested in everything I was saying, and he was kinda joking around with us. A little later, I pulled out a pocket knife to show them (ig I thought that was cool) and in a joking tone he said “that little knife ain’t nothing, I’ll show you what I got in my car”. He was serious tho. I remember having to say I didn’t feel like looking. Later on, he was saying how I’m funny and sometime he’s gonna take me to party in a town nearby. I just felt really off and my friend seemed oblivious. Soon after I wanted to leave so I said to my friend and him that I have to be back soon so we have to go. The guy then offered to give me and my friend a ride home. I remember getting an adrenaline rush and thinking oh this guy probably wants to kidnap me. My friend said sure and I was like “no it’s fine”. He asked if I was sure and I said “yeah it’s not that far, we can walk”. So we ended up walking away and nothing more happened.
Maybe I over played this situation in my head, but I’m 21 now and I wouldn’t imagine offering a ride to some random 10 year old at a park. This guy did that while pushing 30. I just know something was off about that. I didn’t put much thought into it at the time but later on I wonder what would’ve happened if I took his offer.
Image source: NorthSafety3916
#35
My friend and I were on our dinner break( we worked at a bar,), so we went and sat in my car. It was parked in a pretty rough area of town. We had the windows down, having a smoke and a chat, when I noticed this guy walking past. He looked a bit rough and kept staring at us as he walked by. Then he disappeared behind some bushes.
Straight away, I got a really bad feeling. Something just didn’t feel right. I told my friend we needed to leave. I started reversing out of the parallel parking spot, trying not to hit the gutter with my front wheel. As I backed up, I heard a loud bang and thought I’d hit something.
I looked up and saw the same guy jump out from behind the bushes and start running towards the car, yelling. I immediately put my foot down and drove off. When I looked back, I realised there was another guy behind my car as well. It looked like they had been trying to box us in or set something up.
We got out of there safely, but it was one of those moments where trusting my instincts probably saved us from a really bad situation.
Image source: Formal-Captain-1907
#36
I was a teen in the car with other crazy teens and the driver was being reckless. I decided to have me and a friend get dropped off early and legit right after that they got in a terrible car crash.
Image source: gg_oujia
#37
During the flood of a river in my back yard, a shipping container form upstream that people use to store things floated by my back deck and smashed into the tree 15 feet away from my 1000 gallon propane tank.
I have never had the “I need to get out of here” feeling more than that 30 seconds.
Image source: j_eremy
#38
Not scary but scary to me looking back if I didn’t listen. I was supposed to go boating with my sister for the 4th of July. Last second I felt like I shouldn’t go so I didn’t and I stayed home while my mom went out. An hour after my mom left I heard my elderly cat screaming and went in and knew something was wrong and called my mom crying. She came home and he passed away in our arms that night. Had I not been home he would have died alone and we only would have known when someone got home and found him.
Image source: Vivid_Motor_2341
#39
I was driving from MA down to GA and stopped off an exit to go the bathroom and let my dog out. Parked at a Burger King or similar I think, there wasn’t much off the exits as you her further south and had my dog on leash in grass in front of my car. Suddenly got this insane urge or push telling me I wasn’t safe and I needed to get in the car.. I grabbed my dog and threw her into the car and sat down by the time I shut the door and hit the locks a man was standing there grabbing my door handle. I stared straight ahead but could see him gesturing in a way like “what? Aw come on.. open up” it was terrifying. All I could think was if I was unaware or 2 seconds later could he have pulled a gun and forced me into the car with him? I drove away and he sort of slowly walked behind my car following me out of the lot. It was terrifying. I’ve never felt that way before- it truly felt like some higher power was watching over me in that moment to save me.
Image source: frogbront12
#40
I was alone in the woods walking my dog (who luckily has very protective instincts). We came across a well kept man pushing a stroller. My dog doesn’t love strange men, and is uneasy around things being pushed. So he asked if he could pet my dog and I politely said she’s a bit aggressive. I looked down in his stroller to see his baby and it was a doll. An adult man, who presented well with a baby doll and no children in sight. Every instinct in my body said run, but luckily my dog wouldn’t unlock eyes with the guy as we slowly walked away.
Image source: MadLove1348
#41
Was at a rave in a warehouse where the wooden floor was packed wall to wall with dancing people and bending about two inches up and down with the beat. Told my crew we needed to leave and they came with me.
It didn’t collapse, thankfully. Never seen anything like that before or since.
Image source: an_older_meme
#42
LOL, sitting on a bench at the zoo. It was the end of the day, wife, myself and two toddlers needed to sit before walking to the train station. Some kids started acting up on the bench right across from us. Told the wife it was time to go, picked up the kids and just started walking. She was pissed all the way to the train station and when we got back to where we were staying. Next morning, the photo of the sheet covered 16 year old was on the front page of the newspaper. Teenagers got in a beef and one started spraying bullets. Happened with 15 minutes of when we left.
Image source: the_NightBoss
#43
When our doula walked through our front door, heard one contraction from my wife in active labour, and mouthed to me “we need to go”. Not super scary but definitely got the heart rate up.
Image source: MidnightRunner909
#44
I was in the woods hunting in my state. I’d been out most the day just having a good time, hadn’t shot anything yet but I just like being out in nature so I wasn’t even mad about that.
I’d been walking around and suddenly I realized that there was no sound, no birds, no insects, no squirrels, ect. This is incredibly odd if you’ve spent a lot of time in the woods you know they shouldn’t be that silent.
That tells me there’s a large predator around, and I probably need to go because my current loadout was likely just going to tick it off, so I start to head back and while I was doing that I kept hearing sounds behind me.
I turned and there was a man about 15 feet from me, just following me. My spider sense just started shouting at me so I put my hand on the pistol at my side and told him to beat it. He stared at me for a moment, but before I could say it again he nods once and walks away into the brush.
I just couldn’t shake the feeling there wasn’t something right about him. I like to view the woods as my home, but that day I was the most frightened in them that I’d ever been.
Image source: hoffet
#45
When I was 13, I took a few kids I babysat trick or treating in our neighborhood. There was a medium sized hill on one of the main streets in the neighborhood, and I remember feeling really uneasy as we started climbing. There was a guy in blue coveralls standing next to an unmarked white van just over the top. I whispered to the kids not to make eye contact and to keep going. Usually they would argue with me, but they must have sensed the same thing that I did because those eyes stayed on the ground. As we walked past, he called out that he had candy from the company he worked for and asked if we wanted to come over to get some. I remember thinking that it was really fishy to hand out Halloween candy from your workplace in an unmarked van. He then started walking towards us, and I screamed at the kids to start running back towards my house. He got in the van and tried to follow us, but quickly backed off when he realized that there were multiple groups on the street. It still scares me to think about what would have happened if one of the kids had decided to go for the candy or if that guy had decided to just grab one of us.
Image source: am710
#46
We were on holiday in the Philippines, staying at a quiet hotel, which had a bunch of huts around a swimming pool so each of the rooms we isolated, it was dark with not many other guests around (if any at all).
We had been lazy sods and ordered food from the hotel bar to take back to the room, and were taking the empty dishes back to the restaurant and I saw up ahead, in shadows, someone stood loading bullets into a revolver.
I turned immediately 180 and walked back to the room, grabbing my girlfriend who was loudly asking what was wrong – I was whispering there is a guy loading a gun – get back to the room.
We sat in the dark, with the door secured, and waited for the police to arrive.
It ended up being the moronic security guard loading his gun while bored – but I didn’t want to just assume the best.
Image source: Enviousdeath
#47
My boyfriend came to visit me in college, and we rented a cheap hotel room so we wouldn’t bother my roommate for the weekend. We got in, and i had just the most overwhelming sense of dread and impending doom. Could not relax. Something in me said we were not safe there. After about 10 minutes, I don’t remember which of us said it, but one of us was like “hey does something feel extremely off about this?” And we were both like oh thank GOD you feel the same. We packed our stuff back up so fast and I was literally shaking. I have strong intuition and I was scared out of my mind but couldn’t tell you exactly why.
Image source: celestialspook
#48
I grew up in a very small town in Western New York. I hitchhiked a lot. Never had any problems. One night I was hitching home and a red pick up stopped. As I approached the passenger door, the driver leaned forward in his seat and looked at me. I was overcome with the most awful sense of dread I had ever known. I jumped back from the truck, then jumped over the ditch onto somebody’s lawn just to get farther away. The truck took off and I walked the rest of the way home. I never hitchhiked again.
Image source: Hiraeth1968
#49
FL, 2013, walking along a busy road at night to the package store. I always wore a hoody if I went out late, even in hot weather, was always paranoid about attention, especially from the guys that frequented the bus stop. I cross one road the same time some guy was crossing and something in my gut twisted. I started walking faster and he also sped up. Ducked into the collection of stores and he did too. Finally stopped in front of a mattress store with its doors open, don’t know how it was still open but I was so glad it was. Guy stops next to me and says, “you were walking real fast.” I curtly said, “Yup.” He goes, “Did I scare you?” And I just stared down at my phone, ready to go into the store. He laughed and kept going.
Maybe not the scariest but everything in me screamed to not keep walking with him behind me.
Image source: Distinct-Ad-2290
#50
I was walking home with my kids from their school and passed a terrifying man. He was coming out from an alley behind a local business where they often had cars parked that somebody would work on. (The business was a rug store.) He was in his 50s, was dressed very sharply in what seemed like expensive clothes: a black turtleneck sweater and what I remember as very nice army green pants. His haircut was sharp. Behind him were two very shiny, black mercedes sedans with dark tinted windows. He looked like maybe he was an officer in the Russian military or in organized crime. A few months later we learned he was the father of the Tsarnaevs, the Boston marathon attackers. I’ve never been so immediately terrified of a person ever. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. He was in front of me for maybe 2 seconds, not even looking at us, and I wanted to get as far away as possible. I told my parter about him that night. They showed him on the news a lot after the incident, confirmed he worked on cars in that location, which is how we found out who he was. On the news he was always shown looking rumpled and run down. We have always wondered about him and his role.
Image source: LuxInTenebrisLove
#51
I was gonna go hang out with a buddy of mine at a Walmart and just chill. We had had the plans for a few hours when around 9 or so I called him up and was like yo uh you just want to play cod because I don’t feel like leaving. And we find out that around the time we would have met up there a mass shooting happened there.
Image source: AKsuperslay
#52
Camping in BC and I thought I heard something. I couldn’t get back to sleep. Just me and a buddy, but I convinced him to have coffee in the truck(raining). We had an early day fishing planned, and it was close, so no real step back being awake 20 mins early.
When we were in the truck, quiet and still due to the roenvious 3 days of camping and hiking.
Well, what comes out of the woods and walks by our truck? A pack of wolves. Like 7 or 8. Some big wolves among them, a couple regular sized but there was two huge wolves.
Either way, we drove about 40 minutes to another spot, not the one the wolves were heading towards(assumed den that way, we went a different way).
Image source: Glittering-Regret196
#53
Not a gut feeling, more like a thank god there was intervention…
When I was in high school I ran away from home. I lived on Long Island and my plan was to run away to New York City. After messing around for a few days I decided I was going to get to the LIRR and head in. On the way, a teacher spotted me and even though I could have ran away from them, I decided I was caught and just went back home with them. I did not go to school that day. Instead, I sat on my couch watching footage of the twin towers collapsing.
Image source: Calm-Carry-2285
#54
When I was younger, around 10 or 11- I lived across the street from a school that was old and still had a bell tower.
In our driveway was a fairly large “shop” think detached garage that can hold maybe 4 cars comfortably.
Well it had a massive white sliding wooden door on it.
I was taking the trash out one night and had to walk across the driveway to the trash cans. As soon as I got outside I had an uneasy feeling. Like when you think something’s going to grab your feet under the bed. I ended up running across the driveway and dumping the trash and running back. As I ran back I SWORE I saw a laser on that white wall.
I told my mom, she didn’t really believe me but called the police anyways.
Come to find out there was two twenty something’s in the bell tower on substances … with a weapon. Apparently they had taken some shots at people’s cars driving by already but the police couldn’t find them. Apparently me telling them I saw the laser gave them a frame of reference to where they were so they could find them.
Image source: Embarrassed-Site3242
#55
When I opened the door of an old outhouse and saw blankets and old clothes on the floor of it and they squirmed.
Image source: evergrain344
#56
New Years Eve, Catholic Church celebration. Everyone is drunk , and me realizing, I would be driving home with drunks in the road. I got a very unsettling feeling, and we left.
Image source: Rubberbangirl66
#57
A block off of the main tourist street in some Mexican beach town. Asked around for things that were probably best left alone. Sudden, drastic vibe shift. Stood up and bounced mid sentence.
Image source: Final-Fun8500
#58
My brother and I were living in Shanghai in 1996, and it was one of their big holidays, like our July 4th. We took the subway down to the Bund (area next to the river) which was full of people celebrating. We saw these people play fighting with these blow up toys, like hammers, swords, etc. My brother and I buy one each and start play fighting with people (mostly little kids who were psyched they we foreigners were playing with them) as we walk towards the river. We get there and continue play fighting, but the kids are getting bigger. Teens. Then young adults. Then all of them together. We found ourselves encircled by about 50 people with play swords, with another 100 or more behind them watching. My brother and I are back to back moving in a circle around as we look at these faces with evil smiles on them. I’ve never been jumped before, but I knew it was about to happen. I turn to my brother and whisper “run!” and I use my considerable mass to plow a hole through them and we ran for the subway station to get back home, not stopping until we were on the train. Scariest/funniest thing that’s ever happened to me.
Image source: XScottMorrisseyX
#59
Spring break in Texas many years ago. The whole house was sleeping in besides me and one friend. We thought we’d be nice and walk to a little market a few blocks away to get groceries for breakfast. No cars along the street, no one inside, not even a cashier. I said we needed to leave immediately. Friend complained but i practically ran back to the condo. Heard police sirens maybe 10 minutes later. Found out via local news that night that the store had been robbed at gun point that morning, about 10 minutes before we got there. To think the robber could have still been in the vicinity when we were walking there chills me. I always trust my intuition.
Image source: depresso_james
#60
Kind of the opposite but me, my best friend, and her gf did a road trip from California to Zion to camp. We were driving home in the middle of the night and it was super icy at one point. We were driving super slow because there were no other cars around. All the sudden, a car comes up behind us and zooms around us. A few minutes later, our gps tells us to suddenly make a right turn. It ended up bringing us up someone’s driveway. We left when we realized and kept on the same road. The car that went around us had had its front end crushed by a boulder just a couple minutes down the road. It might have been us if we were going a little faster and hadn’t been led up the driveway.
Image source: Directionkr
#61
Was in an abandoned house as a kid and we lit a fire in the fireplace in on of the rooms.
It got very smokey in there, so we decided to leave.
Open the door to the hallway and it is thick with smoke. We got out fast.
Turned out some other little scoundrels had set the house on fire not knowing we were inside.
The fire brigade were surprised to see us!!
Image source: Waste_Locksmith_4299
#62
When I was younger, I was at the gym with my mom. I decided to hang out in the pool for a bit. A guy comes, early forties we will say, I was about… 17? Sure. Me and the guy started talking some. Then it got personal… theeeen it got creepy. I had a bad feeling then, got out of the pool, dried off and went to mom. Told her what happened and how it made me sick and we left.
A few months later that guy was on our news station for heinous crimes.
Image source: Necro-Feel-Ya6900
#63
Working in a residential house fire with attic extension that started in the basement. Crews working in the basement got a knock on it but it burned through a gas line right under us (unbeknownst to us). In all my gear I was still getting hotter and hotter with flames in the attic above us. Grabbed my captain and said we need to back out. Withing 10 seconds of backing out the entire house lit off with flames shooting out the door we just escaped from
That is a scare I will never forget and the feeling of getting cooked….
Image source: Important-One-8395
Follow Us
