People Share The Strange Events They've Witnessed And Can't Explain

There are a lot of things in this world that simply cannot be explained. From paranormal sightings to unexpected twists of fate, these people share the strange occurrences they've witnessed but have no answers to. Do you believe in the unknown?

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#1 A Weird Match

Have you ever been to a county fair? Have you ever seen the trashy trailer park looking dudes with the bombshell girlfriends? That.  I can't explain that. I see at least three every time I go to one. I got a redneck friend who's a 5/10 with a 9/10 girlfriend. I know exactly how it happens. Country girls typically date country guys, so this narrows the pool. Next, they look for fun, and this narrows it down again because to be fun you typically need money. Thus, the guy with the tooth missing, a crooked nose, droopy-eyes, and a $40k mechanic income in a town of $20k pullers, driving a modded out truck, is able to get himself a girl way out of his league.

#2 Sky Tricks

I was driving home one night, a little under a year ago, and the sky turned completely white for about eight seconds. Mind you, it was completely clear; no clouds or any kind of moisture in the atmosphere or anything. And it wasn't just one spot either, it was the same, uniform, stark white color everywhere, from every direction up to the horizon. But besides the sky, nothing else had changed—everything else on the ground was the same exact shade. It was as if someone had inverted the colors of the sky and only the sky. Then it just... changed back. It didn't dim or fade, it just switched to black. It still messes me up and it actually made me go see a neurologist.

#3 The Green Light

It was 11 p.m. and suddenly all the lights and electronics in my room turned on. Then the lights started glowing super bright... even the street lights started glowing brighter than usual. A few seconds later, everything went dark. Then, the whole sky turned bright green, largely emanating from the electrical substation like 1 k.m. away. It looked like a bright green explosion but totally silent and the sky stayed green for a few seconds. I thought it was terrifying at the time, but years later I think it must've just been some sort of transformer explosion at the substation.

#4 The Vanishing Pole

I once went to Panera Bread with some friends. We got our food and sat down at the table. About halfway through the meal, my friend said: “Did any of you guys notice that pole before?” I looked next to the table and there was a huge floor-to-ceiling black pole literally almost touching me. I swear it was not there when we sat down and at that point, I was freaking out, saying we were in an alternate universe. I got the attention of a woman who worked there and asked her if she’d ever noticed the pole before. She looked at it genuinely baffled and said she hasn’t. I went back a few weeks later and I swear to God it wasn’t there.

#5 An Odd Quirk

For at least 15 years now, I will occasionally—maybe two or three times a month—mistakenly think I see someone I know when walking around. Then, within the next few minutes, I will actually see that person. It's frequent enough that I call it now. I'll be like, "Is that Jon? Nope, not Jon. But I bet I'll see him in the next 10 minutes." And then I do. I don't read into it at all. It's just an odd little quirk in my life.

#6 The Doppleganger

When I worked in retail we used to have a semi-regular customer who looked a bit like Hugh Jackman. Then one day, Hugh Jackman himself came in. It was a busy touristy spot, and it wasn't unusual to have celebrities come in once in a while—except I didn't realize it was Hugh Jackman because I was so used to seeing his doppelgänger.

I even chatted with him briefly and commented that it had been a while since he last came in, which earned me a confused look. When he left, my coworkers told me who I had really been talking to. I should have known since he had an Australian accent and was taller than his lookalike.

#7 Do I Know You?

My whole life, from when I was under the age of 10 to now, in my 40s, people have been recognizing me as someone else. They all think that they know me from somewhere. It happens in every country I lived in, several times a year without fail. Whenever I ask them about it, I get a variation on "I feel like I know you from somewhere." It's odd.

#8 I'm Not Scott

I've had multiple people across multiple geographical areas accidentally refer to me as "Scott." My name is not Scott, nor has it ever been. I've never been mistaken for a different name. When I had longer hair (like 10 years ago), I had a doppelganger at work. I cut my hair, and now I have a completely different doppelganger at work. I like to think I'm the original, though.

Mike McColgan (Dropkick Murphys, Street Dogs) once thought I was a guy he went to high school with. I've never been to Boston, and I'm 10 years younger than he is. I guess that one's not so flattering for me.

#9 Strange Coincidences

When I was younger, I’d guess which color sweater Mr. Rodgers all put on all the time. Years later, out of all the Simpsons or Rugrats episodes that existed, I could guess which episode it’d be before it came on. In 2011, I was walking down my street in Boston and though,t “I wonder where Adam Sandler has been.” I looked up and there was Adam Sandler, walking toward me with his kids.

I just said, “Hey Adam, what’s up?” He said, “How ya doin’ buddy?” So I went across from my apartment to get pizza thinking, “I wonder if I’ll see him around again.” I came out after lunch and there he was, walking back toward me. I didn’t ask for a picture because he was with his kids. I just gawked at him like a moron as he passed me again. Nowadays I’ll be thinking about somebody and they’ll text me in that instance. Weird stuff.

#10 Ghost Legos

Ghost legos. I was a kid playing with legos and noticed a few were in the bucket that didn’t look like mine. The plastic was faded and older, so they were definitely of a different generation. I would build spaceships all day, then when I went to bed and woke up the next morning, there’d be holes in the spaceships where the old bricks would be.

Being a seven-year-old, my biggest concern was all the air getting out and my crew suffocating before they went to battle, so I’d quickly pull them apart and put new bricks in where the old ones were. Now that I think about it, that always stuck with me as odd.

#11 The White Figure

My dad and I both witnessed a white figure fly across our backyard in 1999. It didn't have arms or legs or a face, it was basically like a sheet and it flew across the yard at superhuman speed. When we saw it, we both looked at each other and tried to make sense of it. We still talk about it today. I don't believe in ghosts, but I can't explain what this was. It looked like a ghost, if you believe in that.

#12 The Singing Bottle

Years ago, my dad’s uncle passed away. Years before that, the uncle got my parents a fancy bottle from Mexico and it’s been on the front room display shelf with a bunch of other dust-covered sculptures and glasswork for at least 12 years. It’s out of reach and untouched (no one in my immediate family drinks).

On the day of his passing, I was in the front room reading and my dad was doing his taxes. We got a phone call with the bad news. My dad continued his taxes while letting me know his uncle passed in a few short words. Not 30 seconds later, and the bottle started playing music. This was odd to me because I thought it was just a bottle, so I asked.

“Do we have a music box?” My dad continued his taxes and told me the bottle had a music box built-in, and that was the only reason he kept it. I clarified: “Did you wind it recently?” And he just kept filing, saying “Nope.” I was ready to leave it at that but he said, “I imagine uncle David wanted to say goodbye one last time.” That was the only time it has made a noise as long as I’ve been alive. Of all days and times. I never knew what to make of it. It just made me uncomfortable.

#13 Teacher Description

I had a friend in high school who I stopped speaking to when she transferred in Grade 10. Two years later, I had a dream that I visited her new school and sat at the back of her math class with her. In the dream, her teacher was tall, brunette with curly hair, and wearing glasses.

The next day, I got a message on Facebook from said friend, which is completely out of blue because we hadn't spoken in months. She asked me how I was doing and I told her about my dream. She freaked out and told me that she sits at the back of her math class, and her teacher fit the description I gave her from my dream perfectly.

#14 The Traveling Fair

This is actually the weirdest thing, and call me crazy if you'd like. I went to a fair one time, and for some reason, my friends weren't with me, I can't recall why. I noticed there were surprisingly few people there and an abnormal amount of clowns, but I didn't think anything of it. I got on some ride, then one of those spiral cut potatoes. I took off after, went home, then slept.

The next morning, my friend called me and asked where I was last night because my group of friends had a hangout and no one could get a hold of me nor did I reply. I told them I went to the fair and he asked, "What fair?" I couldn't remember where it was. I just said the fair in town. He laughed and said something to the extent of, "Yeah, whatever." I still have no idea where the heck I went that night.

#15 Reading Crows

I came out of a store one day and turned the corner to see a crow trying to read a paperback novel on a park bench. He was perched on the bench, turning pages with his beak. When he noticed me staring, he hopped away like I caught him red-handed, and took flight a moment later. I ended up getting a tattoo of a crow reading a book because the incident left such an impression on me. No one really seems to believe me, but dude, corvids are freaking smart. I figure it was either imitating a person, or trying to harvest the pages for a nest, but either way, strange experience.

#16 Animal Testing

When I was in India, I was hanging outside of my hotel and there was a huge crow trying to get the wrapper off a mini candy bar. I thought it was pretty weird that a crow had found an entire unwrapped chocolate bar, but I got up, walked over and opened the wrapper.

I expected the crow to take off, but it just chilled, waiting to see what I was going to do. The crow took off with the bar when I dropped it in front of him. About a minute or two later, the crow came back and very pointedly dropped a live fish in front of me. It was either as a thank you or he wanted to see what I'd do with the fish.

#17 Learned Behavior

I've seen crows do crazy things. They mimic human actions but the weird part is how they seem to try and understand the action too. There was one story about the crow that saw people paying a kiosk for food. It saw paper being handed over and food being received. He started picking up paper scraps and dropping them on the counter, then eventually, he started pinching banknotes out of people's hands to give to the kiosk.

#18 Vanishing Noises

When I was about 10 years old, we lived at my grandparents' house for about a year. My grandpa uses hearing aids and usually has the TV volume really loud. His favorite things to watch are westerns. One night, I woke up because he was watching TV too loudly. I remember hearing glasses clanking, people chatting and faint music. At the time, I pictured it to be saloon in a western film, so I starting heading downstairs to ask him to turn it down.

I got downstairs, crossed the family room and kitchen and headed down the short hallway that led to the TV room. As soon as I entered the TV room, the noises all fell silent. I was really tired and confused. I quickly went upstairs to my room and woke up my sister, but she just brushed it off and told me to let her sleep. When I think about it now it creeps me out, but at the time I was just tired and confused.

#19 The Haunted Nintendo

We had just gotten a Super Nintendo, and my brother and I were playing a file together. I woke up on a Saturday and he was not in his bed (we shared a room). It was still super early, so everyone else was asleep, but I heard the TV on and music from the game. As I rounded the corner, I could hear him pressing buttons and I got upset that he was continuing our file without me.

When I looked into the room, the TV turned off... it was an old CRT so it has a very specific sound when powering down. He was not anywhere, and the TV wasn't warm at all. Confused, I went back to the bedroom and he was tangled up in his blankets fast asleep. There's no way I couldn't have seen him there, and no way he could have snuck past me.

#20 Old Lady Stalker

Some old lady at the mall asked if I was Drake from Drake and Josh. I said no and went to a Cracker Barrel across town later that night. She walked in and made awkward eye contact with me throughout my meal. The hairs on my arm were standing straight up at that moment. I think she was following me. Super awkward and super nerve-wracking.

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#21 Running Into Matt

My boyfriend and I started noticing the same guy at all the local places we hung out at. We saw him so many times we introduced ourselves. His name was Matt, just like my boyfriend's. He said it was weird how often he saw us as well and mentioned a place we hadn’t even noticed seeing him.

It's been a year and a half and we have seen him 20 more times but at even weirder places. I got a new job, and he works at the building right next door so I've run into him twice outside our buildings. We drove an hour out of town and saw him at the restaurant we stopped at. We drove an hour in the other direction and saw him there. It's a running joke now. We have even met several of his friends due to running into him so much. It's become so common we joke that we saw other Matt that day and it doesn't even freak any of us out at this point.

#22 False Awakening

I get this all the time. Apparently, mirrors are a common way to tell that you're dreaming because they're super messed up in dreams. I usually realize I'm dreaming when I try to turn on a light and it doesn't work, though. That's when it usually turns into a nightmare.

There's something in the darkness and it's after me. My ears start ringing and it keeps getting louder and louder. My whole body starts to tingle and I get this sensation that I can only explain as feeling like my soul is being ripped out of my body. Like I'm moving in opposing directions at the same time.

#23 The Flying Windbreaker

This happened when I was around 10. I had just gotten home after playing outside all day. I laid down next to our wall heater and took my windbreaker off. As I laid there, I was playing with the arm opening, just stretching it open and close... in the middle of doing it, I swear to God the jacket just quickly slid towards the wall as if someone threw it. I immediately got up and slept in between my mom and dad. I still get goosebumps and still can't explain it.

#24 The Woman In Blue

My ex-boyfriend and I were in Idaho vacationing with his parents and grandparents on a lake lot that they rent every summer. We were sleeping in bed and I woke up freaking out because I saw an old lady wearing what appeared to be a blue night gown. When I quickly went to put my glasses on, the figure disappeared. The next morning (keep in mind our first interaction with the family was at this point), his grandma asked: “Was anyone in my room last night? Who has a blue nightgown?" Let’s just say I didn’t sleep in that room for the remainder of the trip.

#25 Weird Cemetery

I was in a graveyard with friends once and saw this really cool gravestone. I went back two days later by myself. After almost two hours of looking, I couldn't find it. It wasn't even a big cemetery, and I remembered it was on one of three short paths going down a slope. I even had a picture on my phone! I felt like an idiot... Yeah, cemeteries are weird.

#26 Truly Unidentified

One time, as I was driving home from work, I turned onto the street where I live on and noticed what seemed to be more street lights than I remember being there. I didn't think much of it at all at first, but something in me made me do a double-take. I noticed that the three "additional street lights" were not street lights at all, but lights lined up perfectly in the sky in the distance.

Literally, as soon as I noticed this, the lights in the sky began moving slowly, getting closer together. Eventually, they were close enough and formed a triangle. Mind you, at this point, I had managed to park my car in my driveway and I was standing there staring at them. My parents, who are fairly religious, tend not to believe in aliens, UFOs or anything of the sort, so I decided to run inside and get them so they could see for themselves.

We went back outside. The lights were still hovering, moving slowly in a triangle. No sound was being made by them. They did this for a few more seconds and all of a sudden, one of them sped off super quickly.  The remaining two continued moving slowly in the sky for a few more seconds then they literally just vanished. Poof, the lights were just gone. I'm not saying it was aliens, but yeah, those really were unidentified flying objects. To this day, we have no idea what they might possibly be.

#27 Mysterious Orbs

When I lived in MA, I was hanging outside with my buddy on a community golf course and we saw three orbs slowly come over the horizon, about halfway through the sky. They all shifted and formed a triangle. The formation held for awhile with no movement and then illuminated purple on all edges of the triangle, while the center stayed dark. The orbs then dispersed and slowly went back over the horizon. I had a few more similar experiences over the course of that month. I’m still scratching my head!

#28 Stuck In The Mud

I had a dream when I was a teenager. We lived on the hillside overlooking the city. I was standing on our terrace just watching the world die. Water covered most of the city. What wasn't drowned was burning, pillars of smoke covered the horizon. But oddly enough it was serene. You couldn't hear screaming or chaos, just tinders snapping like a campfire along the shore. It smelled like the sea too.

Then I looked to my right, and there was my dad. To his right, was my paternal grandmother. They both just smiled a sad smile which made me realize that I couldn't move. We were stuck standing in mud. I woke up after that. After breakfast, I didn't say anything until my dad and I were the only ones left at the table. I asked him if he had a dream last night. He described the exact same thing and he said he saw me too. Later on that day, my dad, who had checked in with my grandmother, said that she had the exact same dream.

#29 Imaginary Savior

I grew up in a town that had a "haunted railroad bridge." It was a common hangout place and one day one thing led to another and I ended up getting hit by a train. When I came back to consciousness, there was a girl who helped me up and called my friends over to call an ambulance and walk me to the street. Everyone there that day swears up and down that there were only three of us there, all guys, and no girl helped me up.

To increase the weird factor, I still see this girl when I am half-awake or while I'm waiting to fall asleep after taking sleeping pills. I've learned to accept her as some sort of unexplained head-trauma hallucination. She's cool though, we can have two-way conversations and sometimes she gives me good insights (which I assume are just things I've already figured out in my subconscious somewhere).

#30 Psychic Abilities

#31 Crystal Clear Memory

When I was a child, I saw what looked like a golf ball of neon blue light pass in the night sky from my bedroom. It must have been the size of the moon. There was no real tail. I can still recall the trajectory each time I look out of the window. It is a crystal clear memory. I know I wasn’t dreaming because I called my parents into my room immediately. They still remember it to this day. The memory is so concrete in my mind, it is unlike any other childhood memory, and I was just five or so.

#32 A Visit From Uncle

I woke up with sleep paralysis with the understanding that my uncle died. I got a phone call around 4 a.m. from my mom telling me my uncle was on his death bed and that I should swing by in the morning. I'm pretty sure it was just his body on the bed, breathing on automatic, and that he left hours back. Still, it was a pretty weird experience.

#33 Congruent Dreaming

When my sister died unexpectedly at 17 years old, it was so hard on my family that we all spent the night in the living room of my parents' house together. That night, I had the most real and vivid dream I have ever had: my sister was sitting on a rock in the middle of an open field of yellow grass, she grabbed my hand and said: "Everything is going to be okay." I woke up, and both the dogs were whining. The smoke detector started beeping as if the battery was dead but only five times, and then my mother bolted awake. She had had the very same dream.

#34 Scary Timing

My mentor was fighting a losing battle with cancer but managing. One day, he had a "bad day," and went to the hospital for a check-up. Usually, he would get a pain shot and get released. That day, he spent the night. I woke up at a very specific time, something like 2:37 a.m., suddenly wide awake with a strange feeling. Eventually, I went back to sleep. The next day, we got the news that he had passed. At his funeral eulogy, they mentioned his time of death, 2:37 a.m.

#35 Sixth Sense

My grandma and I were really close. One day, I woke up with the feeling that something was off about the world, but I couldn't explain what it was. Not too long after I woke up, I heard the phone ring and a thought randomly popped into my head saying, "Your grandma is dead." She was in great health and still lived on her own, so it was so weird and grim. Five minutes later, my dad called all of us downstairs and told us that our grandma passed. It was almost like a sixth sense and to this day, I'm creeped out by it.

#36 The Sad Howl

I was alerted by my dog. My grandmother—whom I adored—was on her deathbed in Mexico when we lived in Illinois. I didn’t have the money to go see her so I was getting updates about her condition on a regular basis from my mom who was at her side. At the time, we owned a big, yellow, lab that lived indoors. We’d had him for about four years or so. At two in the morning, he howled out of the blue. This is a dog who had never, ever howled before. It was a long, low, sad, howl and I knew it was my grandma saying goodbye to me. At 6 a.m., my mom called me to tell me she had just passed away. My dog never howled again.

#37 A Freaking Fairy

When I was about 12, I was playing outside on a really windy day and a blue flying thing the size of a water bottle zoomed into my yard. It got caught in some spider web in a bush. Its wings were clear so it wasn't a bird, but the thing was huge and weird if it was a bug. It was freaking the heck out tangled in the web and branches. It was thrashing so fast I couldn't get a good look at it and I just kept staring at it in disbelief because I couldn't stop thinking, "That's a freaking fairy." I went over and tried to detach it from the web and it broke free.

#38 Shivers Down My Spine

I was sitting in my college dorm room once when the temperature suddenly started dropping like crazy. I turned the heat up as high as it would go, but it just kept getting colder. I took out my winter clothes and started putting them on. This was like in late September and early October in New York, so it wasn't cold outside at all.

I was just about to go ask for maintenance when my roommate got back from hockey practice and asked why there were so many police cars and ambulances outside. I had no idea. Later that night, we were informed that a girl who lived in the dorms had died. Everyone who I've told about this says that I felt her death. I was in that same room for 3 years and that was the only time I ever had problems with the temperature.

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#39 The Impossible

I heard the word "impossible" whispered into my ear one night when visiting my parents. I had just turned off lights to go to sleep but I wasn't tired or delirious. No TV or devices were on and it was point-blank range into my ear. I have absolutely no explanation for how it happened and it hasn't happened since.

#40 The Premonition

Sitting next to a friend at a campout and canoe trip, I said: "I just feel like I need to move... like I shouldn't be sitting here." He didn't move, so I laughed a little at myself and kept sitting there. A couple of minutes later, my brain pinged me again and I was like, "You know what, I'm just gonna move." As soon as I stood up, a ball of fire from a flow arts performer on the other side of the camp landed exactly where I was sitting.

#41 Synchronized Dolphins

I was on a boat, trolling for yellowtail amidst a school of dolphin about four miles off of San Diego (dolphin are too smart to take lures and they aren't shy near small boats, but they feed on the same bait schools as yellowtail and tuna, so it's strategic to follow them). As if cued, all 75 dolphins simultaneously stopped jumping and disappeared into the depths for about 30 seconds.

Immediate, unnerving quiet followed. With great fanfare, they all suddenly burst out of the water in a near-perfect row about a football field wide, and for a while, synchronized jumps ahead of our boat. Then they were gone. Showing off for my dad and I? Normal behavior? Who knows, but it was awesome.

#42 Evil Trolls

When I was 10 or 11 I had a horrible and very realistic dream that I was being chased by these little demon troll-like creatures around my house. At the end of my dream, I ran into the bathroom but before I shut the door one of the demons scratched from the bottom of my neck to my tailbone. I woke up in the hallway outside of the bathroom with three distinct claw-marks across my back. I still don't know what it was or what really happened.

#43 Green Power Ranger

When I was around 6 or 7, I was waiting in line for a game at a neighborhood party. This young boy about my age walked up to me, handed me a green Power Ranger action figure, and said "I'm sorry," then walked off. I still to this day have no idea what that was about, and I still have the action figure. It's pretty cool, you push a button on his back and his head flips around so he's no longer wearing a mask.

#44 In Complete Unison

My mother passed away in 2008. When she finally passed and "gave up the ghost," my two brothers and I were all holding onto her and doing our best to comfort her. At the foot of the bed both my dog, and her dog, both Jack Russells, were both very still and staring at her. When she finally passed, both dogs' heads went up and over to the corner ceiling. They were in complete unison as they watched something go up and out of that bedroom. I'm not a religious person, but I find comfort in what I saw that afternoon.

#45 A Flash Of Light

I was out walking around the neighborhood late at night with a friend one night. We would occasionally look up to the sky in awe of the stars. I saw a fast-moving light like a meteor, but slower, although much faster than an airplane. Then, it made two sharp 90° turns. First to the right, then to the left, then it disappeared. My friend and I both stopped and said, "Did you see that?" to each other. This was in the late '80s and I can still picture it like it was yesterday.

#46 Creepy Mannequins

Driving from Cancun to Merida at night. About 10 years ago. In the middle of the road, there was a huge pothole, so I swerved to avoid it. About 200 meters ahead, I noticed a car had its hazard lights on. It was parked on the side of the road so I decided to stop and check to see if they needed help. I thought it might have been a flat tire.

I parked, approached the car and as I got closer I saw what appeared to be two passengers in the back. There was no one in the driver seat and those two figures I had seen were mannequins with wigs and faces drawn with a marker or something. Just weird. I still can't rationalize the whole event.

#47 Seeing People

As a child, back in my home country, I used to sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and talk to three persons near the foyer of our house. Two men and a woman, in their mid-20s or early 30s. Every once in awhile I would wake up in the middle of the night, walk to the foyer and talk with these three. I still remember how they were positioned, always the same. But I don't remember the conversations or their nature.

Only in my mid or late teens did I begin to question who those three were. I would ask my parents sometimes and they would say there was no one else in the house but us, our maid and my uncle who lived in the attic (big house). And I am certain I never saw my uncle or our maid among the three. I am 29 now and I still sometimes think about it.

#48 Celestial Objects

One night way up in the mountain of British Columbia, I was camped with some friends on a rock outcropping. We were sitting around talking when all of a sudden a big bright light came shooting in. Then it suddenly shot off in a different direction. It was pretty far out, and I would have thought it was a meteor if it hadn't changed directions so suddenly. Most people had their backs to it, but one other person did see it.

#49 Life Is A Book

I visited a daycare to pick up a niece. I saw a little girl about five reading one of those thick-cardboard-paged kiddie books where every page is a letter. She stops what she's doing, and tells me, "Everybody's life is a book." I smile and one of those dumb cute things you tell little girls to be nice, I don't even remember what. She looked me right in the eye, and said, "I read your book. It got really sad. Be nice to people, before you can't." And then she put the book down and walks away.

#50 The Teleporting Lid

I lost the lid of my bottle of oil about a month ago. I remember it falling down, but in the time it took me to splash some oil in the frypan, I had forgotten where the lid was dropped. I looked everywhere I could think of, but couldn’t find it. Then a couple of weeks later, I came home from work to find the lid sitting in plain sight by the kitchen sink. I live alone.

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