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“Trust Your Intuition”: 33 Stories Of People Narrowly Avoiding Dangerous Situations
Article created by: Gabija Palšytė
We’ve all experienced the dilemma of being caught between listening to our gut and dismissing it as a typical case of overthinking. So, to unblur these lines, experts determined four criteria for when you should trust your instincts: when it pertains to your health, when you feel like something’s off in a relationship, when you doubt yourself, and, as this list shows, when it concerns your safety.
People on Reddit shared their experiences about how heeding their inner voice saved them from danger. They’ve been spared from potentially fatal attacks, freak accidents, or “wrong place at the wrong time” moments.
If you’ve been in similar situations, feel free to share your story in the comments below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Does that 'I need to go home now' feeling count? It wasn't me, though—it was my mom.
I was about 12, and my mom left to run an errand, leaving me home alone. Not long after she left, the doorbell rang. This was strange because we lived on a hill with only two neighbors, and we were all pretty reclusive. We just didn’t get random visitors. Thanks to some conveniently placed picture frames, I was able to look out without being seen. I saw a young man I didn’t recognize, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, and something about him just felt... off. So I decided to ignore him and hoped he’d leave.
But he didn’t. He hung around and started smoking. Again, we were on an isolated hill, I was alone, and I started to feel really scared. I went and hid, planning to wait for my mom to return. But she’d only just left, had a few errands to run, and I couldn’t reach the phone without him seeing me.
As I was trying to figure out what to do, my mom came home. She rushed inside and asked if I was okay. Apparently, she’d gotten an overwhelming 'go home NOW' feeling, so she hadn’t even made it to her first errand. She turned around right away, found the guy in our yard, and asked what he wanted. He muttered something about looking for someone, and my mom told him to leave. He was acting strangely, which made her nervous.
To this day, I have no idea what he wanted or how my mom knew to come home. But I’m extremely grateful that she did.
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#2
I had pulled up to a three way stop in Indiana. It was early August, and the corn was high, making it hard to see cars at the other two stop signs. I started inching my car out, and clear as day, I heard my Granny say”stop!”
I hit my brake, and a car flew through the intersection without stopping. I would’ve been hit had I not listened to her voice.
She had died two years before this happened.
#3
Not me,but my parents. My parents were in Thailand on their honeymoon on December 25 2004. They were by the beach. My parents say they had a feeling they should advance the tickets a day ahead. 8:00 am on the morning on 2004,they took off and saw the waves come in and destroy the resort they were in.
#4
I lived in the States (Australian) for 7 years. One morning I woke up in a panic with the thought, 'I have to go home NOW' and booked flights.
Managed to get back to Australia 2 weeks later.
1 week later, COVID hit and the riots ensued near my old residence in the U.S.
#5
I can think of many times at parties/clubs/events/ etc where I’ve felt the stare of a guy/group or guys and felt uncomfortable and that gut feeling of being uneasy and scared
Where I’ve been like “we need to leave now”
Not something uncommon when you are a girl.
#6
Not my story but my brother's. When he 20 he was with a friend of his and had just met a girl at a bar. He and the guy followed her into her flat where about 10 minutes later they heard the girl speaking in Spanish. All of my family can speak Spanish so when he heard her say "I got two for you" he quickly grabbed his friend and left. Don't know what she had planned for them but I don't like it.
#7
I was walking home from school alone back in the early 80’s, and noticed a man in a truck was following me. I got a gut feeling to run as fast as I could, which I did. He sped up as well, but I managed to duck behind a big group of bushes.
I watched from the bushes as he slowed down in his truck scanning the bushes to see if, I was in there.
He drove off after about 5 minutes, and later that night my parents had the t.v on and the police were looking for that same man for an attempted kidnapping a few streets away.
#8
Was in a bar on the rooftop deck. Some dudes started getting rowdy near the entrance to the deck. I could see the escalation happening and I told the gal I had been talking to to follow me and we went down the back stairs through the kitchen.
Two things happened that night. First, one of the guys got stabbed... In the head... Like through the top of his skull. Super glad I got out of there when I did. Second, I got laid that night. She thought it was super cool to "escape through the kitchen".
#9
Me and a girlfriend were making out in my car somewhere in downtown. Some empty parking lot at night. I happened to look out the window and see a guy walking up to us in the dark from a distance. I decided not to wait around. As soon as I started the car, he started running towards us. I took off as fast as I could.
#10
Riding with brother in law to help him buy a couch he found on Craigslist.
Pull into a very shady looking apartment complex and notice a few people up front watching us pull in and suddenly calling someone with their cell. Bad body language all around.
Lizard brain says it's an ambush.
Tell BIL and we turn around and leave.
That night on the news there was a shootout because dudes were setting people up to be robbed at the back of the complex.
#11
Was in Oaxaca, Mexico during the protests/violence that occurred. One day my dad and I were in the central plaza. It's mid-afternoon and about to rain and he's on the phone with my mom. I look around and realize we're alone. Nobody is in the plaza. We're a couple of Americans and also the only people there.
I tell my dad to get off the phone we meed to go. He waves me off. I tell him to turn around and look. He realizes were alone, hangs up and we need to go.
20 minutes later the local resistance takeover of tv and radio stations in the city started.
#12
At a big college party. Talking to a guy. He leaned in and whispered, “things are about to get r**e-y.” I laughed to defuse the situation. Then I politely excused myself, found my friend and we immediately left.
#13
I woke up to the smell of burnt rubber and it turned out to be that my garage was on fire. I woke up everybody in the house (9 people including a baby) and we got the hell out of there. Luckily the fire didn't make it into the house and we had it covered by insurance but it was scary as hell.
#14
I was at a party and saw some girls rushing out of the house. I was drunk and got freaked out and left. While sitting in my car attempting to sober up, i hear screaming and gun shots from inside the house and book it down the street for a couple blocks until someone came and picked me up.
#15
A few instances from mountain climbing/backpacking:
On the summit of Mt. Adams, a 12,500 foot (dormant) volcano in Washington state. The wind suddenly picked up ***very*** strongly as we were packing up lunch and about to descend. We looked up and saw what I can only describe as two horizontal tornadoes sucking up loose snow from around us. We basically ran/fell down the 50-foot snow slope from the small summit to a larger plateau below as the vortices descended to where we were just a minute before. We booked it across the plateau to the main slope, and then did a glissade (controlled sitting descent using an ice axe for rudder/brake) down a 3,000 vertical foot snow field in 15 minutes (it took us four hours to climb up the same snow field).
On a 13,000+ foot ridge in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in Sequoia National Park. Light puffy clouds in the morning quickly built up to thunderstorms as we crossed the pass to get to the camp for that night. We could actually feel and smell the static electricity in the air as lightning began to strike. Again, descended as fast as humanly possible.
#16
Several years ago, 6 of my friends and I were out of state for a wedding. We rented an Air BnB for the group. Immediately after getting there we learned that the guy who rented out his house had a roommate who was almost never home, but happened to be there for the first time in weeks, and didn't realize the house was going to be occupied. The owner insisted that he spoke with him and he was planning to pack up and stay at his girlfriends so we could have the home to ourselves as planned. Sure enough, he was gone that afternoon.
We went out that night and came home intoxicated, as 20-something's do from time to time. One of our guy friends came up from the basement looking shocked. Apparently the roommate was back..and based on him being asleep..it was clear he planned to stay.
We quieted down and rearranged where we'd all planned to sleep. But this was only the beginning.
The next morning we were woken up by excruciatingly loud death metal blaring from the common living area/dining room upstairs. Two of the people who'd slept in the living room came down immediately and told us we needed to pack our s**t and get out FAST. We didn't ask many questions. Just sort of grabbed all our stuff, tries to clean up, and piled into an uber XL to head to the closest hotel.
Apparently before the music started earlier that morning they woke up to a bunch of clank/banging only to open their eyes and see this dude sitting at the table cleaning a shot gun and a hand gun.
Needless to say..i don't think he wanted us in his house.
#17
Driving a friend home after a group dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. We pull into friend’s apartment and I notice a car following us. They pull in the apartment and park beside us. We sit a coupe of minutes just talking when I realize the guy in the next car who is alone still hasn’t got out. I told my friend something didn’t feel right. We back out and the car follows us. I knew a bunch of back road and hit those quick enough to lose the guy. One he was gone I took my friend back home and watched her go in safely.
#18
Alabama.
My wife (we were engaged at the time) and I were considering moving there because her dad had his business there and was offering to provide us lodging and jobs to come work for him.
He's a great guy, but we stayed with his at-the-time business partner who turned out to be a virulent, vocal, unapologetic racist who was also quick to yell at his wife. He also looked like a d**n ogre, which didn't help. Between him, the food (still scarred by the memory of a Chinese buffet outside of the Muscle Shoals/Florence region...) and the general feel of the place, we both just looked at each other on the second night and agreed we couldn't do it. We packed our bags that night, and the next morning she feigned illness and we took off as fast as we could. It meant giving up the prospect of easy work and affordable housing, but it was worth it.
#19
I was driving home from my shift as a bartender and needed to stop for gas. I'm filling up and I notice there's a sedan parked over at the diesel pumps. Lights off, but clearly two guys sitting in the car. When my car finished filling up I went into the store, hoping these guys would leave.
I asked the guy behind the counter how long they'd been there, and he hadn't even noticed them. I stayed until another guy pulled up to the pumps and walked in, but they were still there when I left.
I checked the news the next morning and there was a robbery at a gas station nearby around the time I was going home. I don't know if it was those same guys trying to take down another place, but they were giving me bad vibes.
#20
Some friends and I were on a road trip through California. It got late, so we decided to just pull over and sleep on the side of the road. Before we turned in, we thought we would sit on the ground and eat a little dinner. In the dark behind me I heard a noise and LEAPT into the car. Everybody laughed at me reacting the way I did. It took me a minute or two to even realize what the noise was I had reacted to. It was a rattlesnake rattle. I reacted automatically without any concious thought.
#21
Was in Paris November 2015 on Vacation. My girlfriend and I were in a small pub having a drink before heading back to the hotel. Most of the pub was watching the soccer game and we weren’t really paying attention.
All of a sudden we noticed the whole pub went quiet, and we saw the news on the TV about the terror attacks. The bartender could speak English and said to us “Are you tourists? You need to get back to your hotel NOW”. We thankfully were close enough to run back and we basically hid there with the blinds closed and lights off watching it happen on TV, terrified because we had no idea how far the attacks were going to spread.
The scariest part is that had briefly considered getting tickets to the EoDM concert that night, had we gone who knows what could have happened.
#22
I was working nights when I was younger and was deep asleep when my brother ran into my room yelling we gotta go now!
I panic wake up and just run out the door, get in the car with him and my dad still trying to get my senses about me. We’re driving and my dad turns on the radio and there’s a tornado hitting our town. We didn’t have a storm shelter so we were rushing to my moms work.
The meteorologist comes over the radio saying it’s going to hit these cross streets any minute. We’re literally sitting at a stop sign at those cross streets.
My brother and I start panicking for my dad to just floor it like we gotta go now!
We thankfully just missed it but between being woke up and finally realizing what was going on in that moment I was terrified.
#23
At 10th grade our teacher had the subject coordinator or vice principal or principal to have a regular inspection of how she handles her classes.. so this usually means we and the teacher would have to do something out of the ordinary unlike simply in the classroom and have discussions on the lessons. This is Science so, we had to have a lesson with chemicals. To the lab we go. Yay...
Like the usual at first, safty and everything. Lesson starts.. yada yada. This is where I had the "We need to leave now!" moment: she brought some chemicals in.. sulfuric acid and a base which I forgot.
These were the things that bothered me
1. She put the sulfuric acid first in the beaker.. a lot of it. The only other beaker aside from the one holding sulfuric acid.
2. She had forgotten to wear her googles onto her eyes and left it on her head as there was an intoduction to the lesson at first
3. I remembered that some acid / base combinations react violently on some specifications
4. There was no water near around her
5. As she put in the base on the beaker it reacted slow at first but I notice it to start making smoke 5 minutes in.. note that she also put a bit more of it han she should.
While everyone was amazed at the sudden pop of colorful smoke or something, I was watching the beaker closely and gut instinct said that I had to leave the room no matter what. (note I was in front so I am really close) I cannot say that I have to go to the bathroom to leave and I cannot disturb her while she discuss infront as someone at the back (principal of the school) is observing. I ran out of the lab. 10 seconds in and then.. BOOM! Like a gun shoot.
They had to leave the lab and some of those in front had to wash off the sulfuric acid off with water in the rest rooms and at the back of the lab with clean running water. The teacher however suffered some damage to here eyes.. luckily enough none of the sulfuric acid went to here eyes, but some glass shards did.. she was sent to the hospital after she was washed.
I got famous tho.. the guy who run.
Edit: TL;DR
I ran out of an exploding chemical reaction from a lab presentation back at 10th grade. Teacher got her eyes hurt.
#24
Latinamerican here.
I was with a coworker who wanted to become a youtuber, in a park that is very famous due to the apparition of *"La Llorona"* in that park's lake, we were videorecording some s****y videos of him talking about the legends of La Llorona and stuff, notice that it was very late in the night, even for latinamerican standards, we arrived to the park near to 2 am, seeking something paranormal to occur.
And it did.
I swear that at **3:30** am every single dog from that park started running away from the lake, and I'm talking about 10-15 dogs.
It was poop town inside my pants.
We leave that park soon after that.
#25
Was in Chicago, got off a train station and a homeless guy came up to myself and my friend. He said he was really depressed, wanted to k**l himself and wanted a hug. Had no idea what to do, but then he put his arms around our necks and put us all into a hug.
I couldn’t get out of the hug. I tried to leave. His arm was wrapped around my neck tightly. Eventually he asked us to come with him to the shops, I asked him if he wanted us to buy him something. He said no, he had the money.
We walk with him towards the shop, so uncomfortable. He had a duffel bag and said he’d pay, but he just wanted us to go with him to the shop.
Once we were outside the shop, I told my friend let’s get out of here. He started going into his bag and that’s when we legged it. I had no idea what he was going to grab, he could have been harmless but the fact that we couldn’t leave his hug earlier remains with me.
I can still feel his arm around my neck.
#26
Stopped at a burger king for lunch with a couple friends when the cops showed up because someone threatened to shoot someone. The supposed gunman left right before we walked in.
We left the burger king and just as we crossed the street, we heard gunshots coming from the place and ran for a couple blocks.
#27
I was on a tour at the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North Korea and South Korea, back in 2010.
We were about to enter the Joint Security Area (JSA), where the actual border is. If you've seen newscasts showing light blue houses separating the two Koreas, that's the JSA.
Our last stop before entering the JSA was a gift shop. As we shuffled off the tour bus, a bunch of US military personnel came out of nowhere, holding their weapons, and ordered us to get back on the bus as quickly as possible.
Our tour bus made a bee-line out of the DMZ. It was clear that we won't be going closer to the border.
After a brief stop at another point of interest (in a safer area), our tour bus high-tailed it back to Seoul. We left so quickly that we still had our UN-issued "visitor" badges with us. We returned them to the tour guide, who exchanged them for our waiver forms – they were never submitted to the US military because of what happened.
I still have that form today. It basically says "we're not responsible if you get shot by the North Koreans or the Chinese People's Liberation Army" (it hadn't been updated for a while).
So... what happened?
2 months before our tour, there was a South Korean naval ship that was mysteriously torpedoed near the inter-Korean maritime border.
South Korea wanted to blame North Korea, who denied involvement. So an investigation was launched. On the day of our tour, South Korea called a press conference to formally accuse North Korea of the sinking. Nobody seemed to know that was going to happen.
That press conference happened at the same time that we were at the DMZ. So we were immediately ordered away to avoid possible retaliation by the North Koreans – a tour group would be easy pickings.
I don't know what the odds are for something like this. But I will forever have that story to tell – and can claim to have been ordered off a military base by soldiers near North Korea.
#28
Went to see a friend out of town and had never been to her place. Had another friend who said he knew which apt. it was so we followed him up. We get to "our friends" place and walk in. I immediately notice the decor isn't matching up (my friend being in her 20s at the time wouldn't have a dusty place with obviously old furniture) and then it hit me. The smell, it punched my senses and I immediately said it smelled like a decomposing body (No I had not smelled one before but the smell was so sour and bad that was just my best verbal description). My friends notice the smell and agree we fd up and went into the wrong apartment. Our friend laughed when we got to her apartment. A week later she messaged me, they were removing the body of a person who died and was smelling up the building a few floors down, the exact one we wandered into.
#29
Oh yeah the time when me and my friends were in an abandoned farm house and then there random unexplainable screams coming from the basement. Fun times.
#30
When some guy came into Waffle House looking for a piece of paper that the waitress accidentally threw away. The guy said he was going home to get his gun that was under his mattress and come back to Waffle House. My friend and I got our checks immediately, paid and left. We were not hanging around!
#31
During high school gym class I had a run in with a much bigger guy who was basically the class bully. He was bossing me around and I snapped back at him, causing him to go after me, ultimately choking me against a tree while the teacher was away.
Skip forward to the following summer break. I'd since apologised to the guy in person as he was not the kind of enemy I needed. One day I was on my bike heading to a local field to hang out with my friends, when I ran into the very same guy also on his bike heading the opposite way. We briefly stopped and had an awkward greeting. He asked where I was headed and (naively) I told him. He seemed friendly enough at the time so I was thinking we'd buried the hatchet.
An hour or so later I was hanging out at this field with my friends and in the distance I saw a group of about 20 other kids coming onto the field, all on bikes. I saw that leading them was the guy. Instantly my stomach dropped as I realised he was going to jump me (that happened a lot at the time with that group of people).
Luckily I was a distance off and amongst some trees so I very quickly got on my bike, said bye to my friends and booked it home. Can't be sure, but I'm 90% sure I avoided getting the s**t kicked out of me that day.
#32
As a kid, the torch from the Beijing Olympics was being run through an area near where we lived. We went to a viewing spot where they were holding a barbecue, so there were a lot of people gathered there.
Now it’s important to remember that China was under a lot of scrutiny for human rights a**se. As such, there were a number of pro-China supporters who had brought flags and such to the viewing. The whole thing had a bit of a tense atmosphere, but so far nothing bad happened.
Then, shortly before the torch was due to arrive, a bus-load of anti-China demonstrators rocked up. They started silently walking out holding signs condemning the abuse. And the pro-China crowd absolutely lost it. There was a barricade separating the two groups, and we were between the barricade and the pro-China crowd. I distinctly remember a group of them running towards the barricade throwing water bottles and such, oblivious to the fact that they were about to trample a kid.
My folks and I ran and left the area, watching the torch in a less crowded spot down the road.
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