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Sometimes, a thing so improbable happens that you consider not even telling others – there is no way they're going to believe you. However, some facts or stories may sound like they're fiction, but are 100% real.
Like the Great Emu War that had Australian soldiers armed with machine guns against the local emu population that was destroying the crops (the soldiers lost, by the way). Or how about that time when Pepsi had the world's sixth-largest navy? That's how the Soviet Union paid them for their Pepsi syrup – a fleet of old, obsolete ships, submarines, and vodka.
But not only is history sometimes stranger than fiction, people's lives tend to be pretty strange and unexpected, too. The stories from people here prove that. We came across them in an online thread where a netizen asked: "What's something about you that sounds fake, but is 100% true?" And one comm
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#1
I bought a suit once owned by my father at a vintage clothing store 500 miles away from where he lived. He died a few months before I was born. His National Honor Society card was in the jacket pocket. I discovered it the day after I purchased it.
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#2
I’ve had exorcisms performed on me. I grew up in the charismatic church, where they believe every ailment is caused by a demon. I had depression, anxiety, and ADHD, which were supposedly caused by demons. So on more than one occasion they did deliverance sessions to try to cast the demons out of me. Disappointingly, nothing happened. Later in life I found out demons HATE Adderall and Prozac!
#3
I misdialed a friend’s number in the 1980’s but got the person I wanted at the wrong number. She was at her uncles house.
#4
Mosquitoes are afraid of me. I can walk directly into a swarm and they’ll split and fly away. This provides mosquito protection to me and anyone in about 2 feet to any direction. My wife enjoys this super power.
Jan Rosier 15 hours ago
Is it possible to do a complete blood transfusion? I would pay lots for all your blood.
#5
I've discovered two new species of animal.
I am not a scientist. I don't even have a job.
Pedantic Panda 10 hours ago
Seems they discovered 2 new species of sea snail according to the Reddit post.
#6
I slid on ice while driving and hit a tree, totalling the car and giving myself a mild concussion and bruises. The hospital called the next day after reviewing the xrays to tell me I had broken my eye socket. In the follow up appointment with an ENT, I learned that I actually had a cyst that had been eating away at my eye socket. It would have caused blindness if not caught on time.
Sometimes hitting a tree is a miracle?
#7
I had a lobectomy … a right temporal lobectomy… to stop my seizures Its been 20 yrs im still seizures free.
#8
Twice I have hit a pedestrian and both times the police thanked me.
1st one - driving home from University (commuter) someone ran into the road, I slammed on my brakes and guy landed on hood of car, 3 police officers piled on him, handcuff him on my hood and one turns to me and says thank you, you can leave. Get home tell mom, we are watching the news and story on news is about how a bank robber was caught by 3 police officers. No they didn't, I did.
2nd one - driving home from work, get off freeway turn left, turn right at light, turn right onto my street. As I am driving up my street, someone runs out form between parked cars and lands smack on my hood, 2 police officers appear and jump on guy and handcuff him on my car hood. One turns to me and says thanks for your help, you can leave. Next day read in the paper about how they were chasing someone, he got off freeway, tried to drive around behind the Kmart and ran into wall, got out, jumped wall, and was caught by two officers. No they didn't, I did.
#9
Just learned how to ride a bike at 30. Literally last week. It's the proudest moment for me..and i have a phd lmao. Childhood things you achieve as an adult just mean more.
#12
Maya Angelou played wingman to my (now) husband and insisted I go out on a date with him because “if you end up marrying him, you’ll never have to cook a day in your life.” She was correct.
My husband is a professional chef and we met working at a boutique hotel in Santa Monica. He was the head chef, I was a server. Maya was a regular because she was obsessed with his food.
Luke Branwen 13 hours ago
Any famous writer wants to hook me up with some cute lil weirdo? I can cook, too
#13
At my peak I was almost certainly in the top 1% of cherry pickers worldwide, pounds picked per season, and also per day.
Personal record is 2700 pounds in about 8 hours.
#14
When I was younger my brother and I would try to beat super Mario world as fast as possible and use a stop watch to time it. Years later we found the Internet has Speed Run records and learned our times on the unmoded console were between 3rd and 4th for the world.
Laserleader 17 hours ago
With or without warps to end? I used to know the entire sequence of which pipes to take, and I bet I still have the muscle memory to do it.
#15
I was a background rando in both The Vikings and Game of Thrones.
In both cases, my whole "role" was standing in the background, while menacingly sporting long hair and a beard.
There are a pass-by shots with my face in them in several episodes of both shows, since being cold and uncomfortable for hours on end gave me the properly grim "Northern Barbarian" frown.
Panda Kicki 7 hours ago
I was a extra in a Swedish kids show, viking age episode. We where in Birka viking village, each family got a house, me and the kids was cooking viking food, playing around, doing crafts, while they filmed. They had wonderful, very authentic looking shots. Also a couple of directed scenes, but most was just a bunch of viking nerds goofing around.
#16
I'm a twin, and we both have scars from separate accidents on the same part of our bodies. I was sliced and he was impailed. Both were deep wounds and required going to the ER for lots of stiches. These events occurred about 15 years apart.
#17
When I was 12 years old I pitched a perfect game playing for my little league team. 18 batters faced, 18 strike outs. I didnt even know what a perfect game was, I thought I had a no hitter going.
After final strike out everyone came and jumped on me, and told me what I did. They didn't mention it during game to not jynx it. Ended up with a nice trophy, local media attention, and got to be in Sports Illistrated for Kids. Turns out, one had never happened in my state for my age range that they could find. I tell people now they dont believe me, until I show them the trophy in my man cave. Fun time.
Lila Allen 5 hours ago
That's kind of cool. I hope he has a framed copy of that Sports Illustrated
#18
I messaged a girl randomly on Facebook thinking she was someone I talked to when I was in my early teens. All I remembered about that person was her name and that she lived in some other state. This person had the same name and was also from another state. It turned out she wasn’t the right person but it just so happened she had just moved to the other state to mine. That was five years ago, we got married in August.
Zig Zag Wanderer 16 hours ago
So. She actually WAS the right person, just not who you were looking for!
#19
I am a diagnosed sociopath. They call it something else now, but about 1% of the population has Anti Social Personality Disorder. Sociopaths aren’t just people who lack empathy because we’re evil. Our brains are wired differently. You can see it in an MRI scan.
While sociopaths are overrepresented among violent criminals, it’s still a spectrum and plenty of us live ordinary lives. Please don’t use “sociopath” as an insult, we can’t change the way we are. .
Daisydaisy 14 hours ago
I watched a fascinating talk by a sociopath on YouTube yesterday, a very impressive and intelligent woman. It's a brain quirk and they deserve as much compassion as everyone else - really opened my eyes.
#20
I have been diagnosed by a psychologist with an extremely strange form of hyperthymesia. I cannot forget information relating to a human. Names, dates, addresses, faces, entire conversations verbatim, feelings, they do not fade or leave my memory. Ever. This only applies to real people. (Fictional people just don't trigger it for some reason) In other subjects my memory is rather mediocre. It started when I was 4, and I can recall anything related to a person ever since with perfect recollection.
#21
I live in a country of only 17 million people.
I once made a stupid animation video, put it on YouTube and somehow it got more than a million views.
A few years later I made an album with two other guys. One of my songs somehow got more than a million streams on Spotify.
We also did a TV gig with that band. More than a million people have watched that.
Most of the people I know have no idea.
#22
While I was in high school my father and I flew across the Bering Strait in our Cessna. We were the first Americans to enter Soviet air space in 40 years. We followed the Lend Lease route used in WWII. All very official. It had taken a year to plan and get clearance.
#23
I didn’t know I was pregnant until 6 days before my son was born. He was full term.
Sunday - @ home test confirms
Monday - ER says I’m only 2 mo along according to blood test
Tuesday- called OBs all day, found appt for Thursday
Wednesday - bugging out
Thursday - OB nurse says ~5-6 mo look wise, OB does exam says “HA no like 34 weeks, can you come tomorrow for ultrasound?”
Friday - ultrasound tech going off crazy “THIS BABY HUGE, OH IT COMIN! Y’all probably got about 3 weeks
Saturday - Go into labor, son arrives on 9/23/23 @ 23:23:45, 5lb 6oz and 23.75” long
I was living on an unfinished bus with no running amenities, just a hose outside and an electrical cord through a window. Fully renovating the interior of a rental from studs from about 6 months pregnant, all essentially alone. His dad left me hanging so much. Doing side work of all types (I was on a roof the month prior replacing framing and roofing after a tree guy messed up the garage roof) replacing floors, building custom cabinets, and working full time teaching carpentry to juvenile detention residents in max security detainment.
I’m going to buy a house in a few months and we’re doing so great now! Got a promotion and been able to lay off side work as much.
#24
I've had my pants sucked off in a tornado, at the same time fractured my neck.
Edit: Lost one shoe, but somehow, the other one was still on. So once I eventually got up, I had to walk around downtown with 1 shoe and no pants. Walking over all of the debri, it was... bad. It's amazing that I didn't step on anything or have any bad falls with all the walking I had to do.
Walked about a quarter mile with the neck fracture, didn't know how injured I was till I got to a hospital
I went to the spot a week later once I could walk around again. My pants were still there really mangled up in some debri
#25
Once I was cutting sod in the middle of a baseball field… and got hit by a car.
#26
Bullied constantly throughout high-school as a morbidly obese girl. Staff knew. Spent 7 weeks first semester of senior year in the hospital because I got violently ill (stress from school) came back with doctor/hospital notes - given ISS. Teachers didnt provide work in ISS because it was 'hopeless' and I wouldn't pass regardless. Was told I'd have to repeat senior year. Dropped out. Went and got my GED. Found out I got an Honors GED (didn't know that was even a thing) and offered a full scholarship to the community college where I took the GED because of my grades. Lost all the weight naturally and most of the kids that terrorized me in high school are fat, balding, on their third marriage or became a priest 😂.
#27
I once won a costume contest that I didn’t enter. The kicker? I wasn’t wearing a costume.
I was wearing Jeans and a zip up hoodie. It was at work.
I did not realize until after the contest that the Batman hoodie had little bat ears and a mask on the hood, so HR thought I was dressed up.
I won Funniest Costume, so there were other winners as well.
I don’t really remember too many of the other costumes, but one guy in my department dressed up as Baymax from Big Hero 6.
#28
I worked in a bank in South Africa and had to set up for the board meeting - I used the chairman’s elevator to get there quickly - doors opened and there was the chairman and Nelson Mandela.
Pandemonium 48 minutes ago
I saw Desmond Tutu in the Atlanta airport. He saw me and was thoroughly unimpressed.
#29
I chased down a drunk driver and forced her to pull over, and got someone on the sidewalk to call the police. It was in Manhattan, at night. I was riding a three speed Mary Poppins style bicycle.
Tucker Cahooter 18 hours ago
Installed fear in the driver by ringing that little bicycle bell over and over
#30
I both failed out of college and graduated with honors.
#31
I'm in double digits for the amount of staircases I've fallen down, not like a trip, broken a few bones.
#32
There was a short time when I was the youngest person in the world.
#33
Way less exciting than most of these comments but worked for a small business and made profesional hula hoops. I manufactured plus shipped more than 30 pro hula hoops a day and I can’t even keep a hoop up more than a second. I didn’t even learn tricks until I left.
#34
I once embezzled a clients money(I had a bad debt with bookies and was going to be shorter as they were gonna take my kneecaps) I asked a friend to place the money on a horse for me, as I was well known around the courses, she bet the wrong horse, it won, we paid off the debt and I put the money back in my customer’s account, they never knew and we got married and had a wonderful life together till she sadly passed away, I have never gambled again since that day.
Zig Zag Wanderer 16 hours ago (edited)
That's an amazing story! I'm sorry for your loss, though.
#35
My best friend from 3rd grade moved to Texas and I thought I'd never see him again. I was in Missouri and this was pre-Internet.
We bumped into each other when we were 20, in St Peter's Square surrounded by thousands of other tourists.
We instantly recognized each other.
Laserleader 5 hours ago (edited)
Husband's best friend went into the marines. Hadn't heard from him in 15 years assumed he died, found him at a local mall. Had been in town for a year and was about to move the next week, but stayed because he found us.
#36
Ive been licked by a lion, gored by a goat, and sat on by a seal on the sea floor.
#37
Used to be a gogo dancer. Lived out of my jeep for 2 years and made money by spinning fire on the beach.
#38
I got cancer twice. Both completely unrelated to each other within a 10 year span. Beat it Both times.
#40
I once was invited to the bridge of the Disney Magic cruise ship and turned the ships wheel while in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. So I’ve technically driven a car, truck, airplane, and cruise ship. .
Laserleader 6 hours ago
Cars, various buses, trolly, float plane, yacht, and various motorcycles/carts. Vehicles are fun.
#41
I once failed every single class in high school and had to repeat the year. Somehow got into a good university with my story of failing high school. Got good grades from college and grad school. Got a good job at a top tech company. Became a tech fellow in the company and also a part time teaching professor at a top university.
Laserleader 6 hours ago
As an employer, I honestly dont care what your grade was, only that you survived and learned how to be trained. That is why people hire this guy, he failed and redoubled.
#42
For several years of my life I was unable to speak if I turned my head to the left.
#43
I have an obscure qualification that would allow me to manually calculate plane tickets if the power went out in an airport. .
Tucker Cahooter 18 hours ago
I assume OP means calculating the cost of plane tickets? In which case I have that qualification too, it's called a random number generator
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