People Share Stories Of When Listening To Their Guts Saved Their Own Lives (20 Posts)
In my other job as an actor, I have developed a spidey-sense about auditions. I can tell if the production is disorganized, no budget, or, worse, simply super sketch. I credit that sense with keeping me out of harms way and keeping me from wasting my time. So many of my actress friends have stories of very scary, creepy auditions that have taken them to bad places. Not me, thankfully!
We found several stories of people following their gut to keep out of trouble much like I do. Check them out — but be warned, some can be very disturbing.
1. The bridge
“It happened August 1, 2007, around 5:30 p.m., three weeks after my husband and I got married. We were driving to the Mall of America to watch a movie, and were heading toward I-35 West highway. Then, my husband got this feeling it wasn’t a good idea to go that way it was rush hour. So, we took a different route. When we left the movie that night, we turned the radio on. The I-35W bridge had collapsed at 6:05 p.m. We would’ve been on that bridge.”
2. Fire
“I was living about five hours away from my parents and spent Easter with them. My plan was to take Monday off work and drive back that day, but for some reason, I decided to go back on Sunday night. At about 3 a.m. I woke up to a weird noise and hit the touch lamp next to my bed. It made a loud popping sound and turned off. Thinking, Hm, something isn’t right here, I got up and grabbed the bedroom door handle. It was so hot that I immediately pulled my hand back. Once I opened the door, I was met with my entire apartment up in flames. The only ways out of my apartment were through the living room to the front door or through the dining room and kitchen to the back door, and I couldn’t get to either. I used whatever strength I had to shove my headboard away from the window, broke the window out, and just screamed. My landlord was letting a guy illegally live in a storage room. He heard me and ran right down the block to the fire station. They got me out through the window and then put out the fire.
My living room had caught fire from a faulty electric outlet and it spread to the dining room by the time I got up. I was hours away from my family, had no money or ID, lost my cellphone and car keys in the fire, and it was only, like, 4 a.m.”
3. Ran from a robber
“I used to work in TV news and had to go into work at 6 a.m. on Saturdays. I don’t have my own parking where I live, so I had to walk to my car a block away. While I was walking, I suddenly got this feeling like someone was watching me. I looked to my right, across the street, and noticed a tall man walking suddenly disappear behind a tree. I stopped and waited to see if he’d continue moving, but he didn’t. Then, I saw his head pop out, and he looked right at me. I had two options: turn around and go back to my apartment, or run to my car. They were the same distance, so I decided to book it to my car I didn’t want this man to know where I lived.
As soon as I made it to my car, I immediately locked the doors and looked out my driver side window. There he was, staring at me within feet of my car. I called the police. About a week later, he was arrested for robbing a man on that same street.”
4. Murderer in the running group
“When I lived in Hawaii, I was part of a running group that met every Tuesday. One week, a new guy showed up. He was very friendly and all smiles. We had the same pace as we jogged, so we ended up running together for 10–15 minutes and talked. He was nice, but something felt…off. He was almost too nice. We met back up with the rest of the group, hung out, and had some drinks. When I went home with my boyfriend that night, I told him that the new guy seemed weird, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. He continued to show up to run, and everything seemed okay enough. Days later, texts and emails started flying within our running group about him. It turned out that the guy was having an affair, and he had his mistress kill his wife. The crime had already happened before the first time he ran with us, but he wasn’t suspected of being involved in the murder until about a year after it happened.
Search for ‘Michael Walker, Hawaii.’ You can read all about it.”
5. Very stupid lighting
“I took a class on lighting in a theater. One day, I was using a single-person lift to put myself 20 meters above the floor to change one tiny thing on one light. As I raised the lift closer to the light, I had this strange feeling that got progressively worse. When I inspected it, literally every single safety thing that could be wrong on this very heavy light 20 meters above the crossroads of multiple walkways was wrong and about as wrong as it could be. It was a miracle this light hadn’t fallen off and killed someone yet, because it was about to. Whichever idiot had managed to screw it up this badly also managed to touch the power coupling to the crazy hot light. The power coupling was melted and somehow still functional. It was a miracle the entire auditorium hadn’t burned down whenever this idiot did this.
It was extremely scary to me as I’d been doing extracurriculars in that auditorium for nine years then and I don’t think that light was touched in that entire time. So every one of the thousands of times I had used that path, my life had been in danger. Every other light in the auditorium was perfectly fine.”
6. Everything got quiet
“I was working on a radio system in the local water tower of a pretty remote outback town. It was a beautiful late spring day in October when I got there. But after about two hours, the bird noises stopped. The breeze stopped. I took my equipment out of standby and set it up as a live test, because I had the weirdest feeling I didn’t have time to fully test it. Then I went outside to sit in the car. About 90 seconds later, there was a direct lightning strike on the tower I’d just left it measured at the highest point of 200 Km. It was literally the loudest thing I’d ever heard. Ever.”
7. Thanks, BSC!
“When I was 10 years old, my grandma was watching me and my younger siblings while our parents were out of town. We were eating pancakes in the living room and my siblings were watching cartoons while I was reading the latest Harry Potter book that just came out the day before. My brother asked my grandma for more pancakes and she started to get up. I was engrossed in my book but out of the corner of my eye, I felt like she was taking longer than usual. She tried to get up but her leg wouldn’t move. She tried to pick it up with her hands but one of her hands wouldn’t move. I knew something was wrong and I put down my book. Then, she fell out of her chair onto the floor. I screamed and she tried to tell me that she was fine. That her leg had just fallen asleep and she had tripped. But her voice was coming out all slurred and only half of her face was moving. I recognized signs of a stroke from The Baby-Sitters Club. I ran into the kitchen she had no cellphone back then and called 911. Well, first I called my best friend, the only phone number I could remember, and asked her mom if I need to dial an area code before 911. Then, I called 911.
Meanwhile, my siblings got the handyman who was mowing the backyard to come in and help out. The ambulance arrived and they took her to the hospital, and I don’t remember much else. My best friend’s mom must have somehow gotten hold of my parents because they did eventually show up at the hospital. She was treated so quickly that she made a full recovery and is still alive and in good health almost 20 years later!”
8. CAT!?!?
“I’m a heavy sleeper, and never wake up until my alarm kind of thing. For some reason one night, I just had a weird feeling, so I woke up and got out of bed. I went out to the living room, which is upstairs in our house, and my husband had left the window open. I went to close it and saw my cat hanging off the outside window sill, trying to hold on and panicked! I grabbed her and helped her in. She’s an indoor cat, so we probably would have lost her even if she somehow hadn’t been injured. I still have no idea why I woke up in the first place and went in there!”
9. Knew dad wasn’t ok
“During the first lockdown, I hadn’t seen my dad (who lives alone) for three months but we spoke on the phone every day. One night while I was drifting off to sleep at 2 a.m., I suddenly started feeling overwhelming anxiety. I was sweating and just felt like something was off. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I decided to ring my dad since he’s a night owl and would pick up… But to my surprise, no answer. I woke my partner and told him something was really off and my dad hadn’t answered his phone, which had my anxiety running tenfold at this point. He suggested if he still hadn’t answered the phone in the morning, we would drive over and check on him. Still, I couldn’t shake this feeling so at 3 a.m., my partner and I got in the car and drove 3 hours to my dad’s home. When we arrived at my dad’s house, I walked in to find my dad staring at the wall… He was gray and yellow in color. He was slurring his words and utterly confused about where he was. I immediately called an ambulance. He spent the next four weeks in the hospital with acute kidney failure from undiagnosed end-stage liver cirrhosis.
The doctor told me if I’d arrived at his home a few hours later, I would have been calling an undertaker and not an ambulance. Sometimes anxiety can be a lifesaving gift.”
10. Saved a girl
“I worked as a bouncer in Missouri and at midnight one night, I got sent to Walmart for some things. Driving down Highway 50, I caught a glimpse of a figure on the side of the road ghostly corner of your eye kind of thing. I don’t usually stop for strangers at midnight, but something in my gut made me slam on my brakes for that woman. I pulled over and a young woman approached my passenger door. She was hyperventilating and really freaked out. I couldn’t understand her so I just told her to get in my truck. As we sat there for a moment, she tried to talk. Just then, a van pulled up behind me, still on the side of Highway 50, and a man jumped out and approached the passenger side window that was still down. He started grabbing the girl and cussing me out. In my biggest voice, I calmly explained he needed to back off. She’s wasn’t leaving my truck. I told him, ‘I have no idea what’s going on but I’m taking her wherever she wants to go.’ We talked on the way to the hospital. She was from out of state. Some guys she met through a friend assaulted her and dragged her out to a field. She was beaten until she played dead. She escaped from the back of the van when they stopped for gas.”
11. Ice skating
“I was taking my little cousins ice skating around Christmas. I was young and in college, so I didn’t feel like a very experienced driver yet. I was at a light about to make a left turn, but something told me not to pull all the way out, even though the light was green. On instinct, I glanced to my left. This huge SUV barreled through the red light. If I had trusted the light instead of my gut, that car would have plowed into my back seat, where three children under 10 years old were sitting. I always glance left at intersections now.”
12. Guy was following me
“One day, I was in a parking garage across the street from a courthouse after filing a document. I got off the elevator where I think my car is parked and it’s nowhere to be found. I wandered around, pushing my car keys and listening for a beep. After about a minute, I noticed a guy walking around too. He didn’t appear to be following me but I kept an eye on him. There was no one else on that level except him and me, and he was giving me the creeps. Finally, I determined my car must not be on that level, got in the elevator, and went down a floor. I got off the elevator and kept an eye out for a second. The guy didn’t appear so I brushed off my feelings as paranoia. I started walking around, pushing my car keys again. Then as I turn the corner, there’s the guy again. This time, I know he’s following me. Again, we were alone on the level. I head for the elevators and notice he’s heading that way too. He’s on pace to cut me off and I start to panic. Just then, the elevator doors opened and two guys in suits walked out. I run up to them and said, ‘There you guys are! I’ve been looking for you all over this level and the one above. Where the hell did you guys park?’ and I laugh. The guys looked at me weird but to their credit, they didn’t even blink and one of them responded with, ‘Oh, sorry, we’re on this level but we brought Tom’s car instead of mine and I forgot to tell you. We’re parked over here.’ And they led me away.
As we walked away, I saw the guy who’d been following me stop, stare, then leave down the stairs beside the elevator. Once he’s gone, I tell the guys what had happened and they helped me find my car. It was on the first level. I just never got close enough to hear it beep. To this day, I know that guy was just waiting for me to find my car so he could do something nefarious. I avoid parking garages at all costs now. If I’m forced to park in one, I take a picture of where I park so I don’t get lost anymore. And now I always carry pepper spray on my keychain.”
13. Sharks in the water
“My cousins and I went surfing one morning at a busy beach. After a few waves, I got this really eerie feeling. The waves were crap, so we were just hanging out on our boards. The feeling turned into a pit in my stomach. A few minutes later, my cousin got smacked by a shark tail we saw the fin come up out of the water as it left. Ten years later, I was surfing at a different beach with my cousin and son. I got that same terrible feeling again. I told my cousin, and he immediately said, ‘Let’s get out.’ When we went to walk our boards up to the car, another surfer got bit by a shark. I haven’t surfed since.”
14. Brother nearly kidnapped
“My brother was walking home when he was about 7 or 8 when a man pulled up, demanding to take my brother to the hospital he was limping since he previously had foot surgery. The man was starting to push my brother into the car when our neighbor, whose kids we used to play with, suspected something was up. She yelled at the man and took my brother inside her house. The police didn’t catch the guy but years later, the guy and his car matched the description of the man who kidnapped Steven Stayner a short time later, which was a famous incident in our parts. Life could have been very different if our neighbor hadn’t been paying attention.”
15. Baby stopped breathing
“A few weeks ago, my baby woke up in the night. I settled him but instead of going back to bed like normal, I sat outside his room waiting for him to settle. I thought he wasn’t settled because the movement icon on the monitor was flashing. It also flashes if the cot is empty of a breathing creature. I poked my head in, thinking, Why is he moving so much? Except it was silent in his room. The voice in my head sounded. Something was not right. I went to put my hand on his back and found he wasn’t breathing. I managed to get him back but I think I had a tiny stroke from the fear. I’ve never been more terrified. If I’d gone back to bed, my baby would not have woken up the next morning. I am grateful for mom instincts and I listen to them hard-core now. I don’t give a royal shit if people think I’m paranoid. My gut saved my boy.”
16. Dad was “off”
“My apartment doesn’t have laundry, so I do laundry at my dad’s. One day I texted him and asked if it was OK to come over. He hadn’t responded in a couple hours, longer than if he had been taking a nap. Normally, I probably would have just let it go, but a strong feeling told me to go anyway and just apologize if I woke him up or something. When I got there, he wasn’t well. He was out of his mind, as if he had a stroke or Alzheimer’s. I called 911 and my sister. Dad spent a week in the hospital. He had a severe bladder and kidney infection that turned into sepsis, which sent toxins into his brain to the point that he was delirious, incoherent, and had to be restrained. He’s OK now and taking better care of his health, but the doctors said he would have died that day if I hadn’t gone over there. I trust my instincts a lot more now.”
17. Babysitting
“I was 15 years old and babysitting four younger cousins. I was watching TV in the living room when there was a knock at the door. It was late. I knew it was odd. I approached the door with a ‘Hello?’ A male answered and asked if someone random was there. I said no. They then said, “Can you open the door? I need a light for a cigarette.’ I replied no again. I walked back into the living room and saw two faces trying to look down the side of the curtains. Then they started knocking again. I walked into the kitchen to arm myself. As I walked in there, there was already someone half inside and another behind him. I went into protective mode thinking I wouldn’t let them get to the children, so I picked up a large knife off the bench. I charged toward them and they stumbled and ran off. I was shaking but picked up my cellphone, while the other two were still knocking on the front door. I called the police and explained I had four children in the house and there were four people trying to break in. They told me to remain calm and go somewhere safe with the children, like a bathroom I could lock until the police arrived.
I shut the back entrance and returned to the front. I looked out the side of the window and the men were standing there menacingly at the bottom while I was on the phone. The police came with helicopters and police dogs, but the men were never caught.”
18. Knew mom was in trouble
“My mom and I have fought like a cat and a dog since I was 4. We are the same person basically and still love each other dearly. One morning, we fought before I went to school. I screamed that I hated her before slamming my dad’s car door and him taking me to school. While driving there, he told me an old adage: Never leave a conversation mad because if you die, the person’s last memory of you would be you saying you hated them. Or if they die, my last memory of them would be me hating them. I broke into a panic attack and told my dad he needed to call my mom immediately. He had left his phone at home so he told me to go to the front office and ask to call my mom when we got to the school. The office tried my mom’s personal phone voicemail, voicemail again. Told me to go to class and if she calls, they will call me to the office. I had a horrible feeling in my stomach at that point and yelled at them to call the school she teaches at. At first they refused, but I broke into a screaming/crying panic that I needed to speak to my mom right away. They did it finally and told me she isn’t required to arrive for another hour; though usually she came early to help out at school and hadn’t shown up yet. That was strange for my mom.
She works in a school in the inner city. Teachers had been harmed walking to and from their cars. Her school sent the resource officer for some reason and they found her. My mom had been mugged, was unconscious, and bleeding. She would’ve been there for another hour or until she regained consciousness, if she did.”
19. My friend saved me
“I was helping a very close friend of mine back from the bar because he was too drunk to walk. When we got back to his apartment, he started to make a move on me. I dodged him, and he burned me with the cigarette he was holding. I was petrified. He started pulling me toward his room. Suddenly, my phone started ringing. I was getting a call from a friend I hadn’t spoken to in almost a year. I answered, and immediately said, ‘Your brother is in the hospital? I’ll be there as soon as I can!’ That’s how I got myself out of that situation.
I called my friend back. He said he had gotten this sudden gut feeling that I was in trouble, and he needed to call me right away.”
20. The guy who was giving us a ride totaled his car
“In high school, I was at a party with my friend. Randomly at about 11 p.m. I started to feel really sick to my stomach. I told my friend that I want to go home and she said okay. We had another friend who was our ride, but something in my gut told me to call my brother and ask him to come pick us up. The next day, we found out the guy who was going to drive us home had been drinking and got into an accident. He totaled his car. The whole passenger side of the car was gone. If we had gotten a ride with him, we would have died.”
