Life is full of inexplicable events that defy logic, no matter how hard we try to make sense of them.
While some mysteries remain unsolved, lingering as haunting memories, others eventually reveal their secrets, often years later.
In this article, we bring you a collection of astonishing real events that rival even the best mystery thrillers.
When I was 14, there was a quiet boy in my class— he was a true genius. One day, he vanished. The police couldn’t find him. His parents became recluses and barely left the house.
24 years later, I was shocked to see him on TV. Same name and face but older. Turns out he was recruited by the government at a young age due to his exceptional intelligence.
Everything was top secret; his parents knew he wasn’t truly missing, but had to maintain the illusion of his disappearance.
Now, years later, he had left that life behind and was featured in a documentary. My heart skipped when I found out about this, everyone in our town had ended up thinking he was dead and now, just like that, he was on national TV.
One evening, I was getting out of a Rotterdam subway (Blaak) to go to my apartment nearby when I saw an old friend—one I hadn’t seen in person for a few years—heading into the subway. I called out his name, he turned, waved, and made this “Call me” gesture; then the doors closed, and the subway rode off.
Thirty seconds later, my phone rang. It was my friend, who told me he had just seen me get into the (normal) train he used to get home from the bar. Apparently, I had grinned, waved, gestured “Call me!”, the doors shut, and the train drove off.
I lived in Rotterdam. He lived in Enschede. That’s just over 200 km apart (or about 125 miles).
In the summer of 2012, my daughter was 2 years old. I lost two great-uncles that summer, both unexpectedly for different reasons. On both occasions, my daughter specifically acted startled, looked into a corner of the room where nobody was, and commented that there was “a man in the room.”
She did this both times before we got a phone call but after each uncle’s passing. I was with her for one of these incidents, and my mom was with her for the other. I like to think that my great-uncles were stopping in to check on us, but who knows. It’s an unexplained mystery until we know for sure.
My mom had me picking potatoes one day. It was a hugely arduous task. I filled one basket, went to fill the other, and found it already filled.
It was just me; my sister was feeding animals, and my mom and dad were at work.
I was napping shortly after my son was born, and I dreamt that my husband came in and told me my dad had passed away. I woke up suddenly with a bad feeling from it. I tried to shake it off and just lay there for a moment.
A few minutes later, my husband did come into the room and told me my father had a heart attack and died at work. Worst feeling in the world. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
In my sophomore algebra class, a kid named Brian was drawing with his friends on the whiteboard. We were not friends, and we barely talked. He was drawing a dragon, and I was on the other side of the room, halfway listening.
He said, “Instead of fire, I’m going to make him breathe…” and in my head, I thought, “Hmm, it would be cool if he breathed cupcakes.” And then Brian looked at me and said, “Cupcakes.”
We just looked at each other. And he knew. And I knew. It was no coincidence.
I had a habit of tapping my nails on the wall behind me when I was reclined on the couch. One day, something tapped back.
It was very distinctive nail-to-plasterboard taps, sounding almost exactly like a reply to my own tapping. I never really figured out what it could have been, but I’ve stopped tapping, and I haven’t heard it since.
When I was 14, my parents were having renovations done to our house. The construction company ran over schedule, so they put us up in a hotel for a few weeks.
One night, the five of us (myself, my parents, and two siblings) went down to the hotel’s pool and stayed until it closed at 9 pm. We then went to the elevator, and us kids argued over who got to push the button to the fourth floor, where our room was.
Next thing we knew, the elevator doors opened on the seventh floor, and nearly half an hour had passed since we entered the elevator.
My grandpa remarried, and that wife became really sick and was bedridden at home. She was so ill, lost a ton of weight, and looked incredibly frail. She wouldn’t talk much but would say something now and then.
We were sitting there when she said a random name. It was the name of someone she went to grade school with. My grandpa asked, “What?” She repeated the name. He asked, “Why did you say that?” She replied, “I don’t know.”
We found out a few days later that the guy died that night, around that same time.
I was 8 years old. I was awakened in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom.
On my way down the hallway—with the lights off—I faintly saw the vacuum cleaner lying on the floor, so I stepped over it and went into the bathroom. I turned on the light and shut the door. When I finished and opened the bathroom door, the light shone down the hallway… but there was no vacuum cleaner there.
When I was about 13, my dad and I were sitting in the living room reading. Our three-bedroom apartment had one long hallway connecting the master bedroom at one end to the living room at the other. All of a sudden, we heard what sounded like a little kid running.
Then, a 4- to 5-year-old boy came running out from the hallway, giggling, into the living room and straight through the wall. At that moment, my dad looked at me with complete disbelief in his eyes and said, “Did you see that?” I still get shivers thinking about it 25 years later. We were not scared; the kid was giggling like he was playing tag on a playground.
When I was 4 or 5, I had a teddy bear. I took it in the car to a relative’s house (we were spending the night there). I had the bear in the car, in my seat, in full view the entire ride. I got out for a second when we arrived to say hello, and when I went back in the car, the bear was gone.
We got back home two days later and found it on the kitchen table. The house was locked the whole time we were gone, and I was the first one in the kitchen when we got back.
Once at Disneyland when I was in high school, I was in line to get ice cream. The cast member served me and then correctly guessed my middle name and my birthday. There’s no logical explanation for how he knew this information, and it still freaks me out.
It was summer vacation, and my aunt had come to visit. She lives in Alberta, which is a five-day drive from me. We were sitting on my deck talking about her childhood and old babysitters when my aunt told me how she hadn’t seen this lady in years but wondered if she was still alive (my aunt hadn’t been in my province in about 10 years).
Right as she finished her sentence, a newspaper blew through my backyard. I ran over and picked it up; the only page that was there was the obituary, and guess who was in it… the lady who babysat my aunt.
I dropped a crochet needle a few years ago in my living room. My living room doesn’t have much stuff, and there’s linoleum by the front door. I heard that dark crochet needle hit the linoleum.
I searched for almost an hour and couldn’t find it at all. It’s been 3 years, and the living room has gone through some changes, which required moving the furniture. Still haven’t found it.
When I work, I wear headphones a lot. One morning, I reached into my pockets to put them on, and they were gone. I was sure I took them with me and checked every pocket twice; I only have four pockets. Bummed out, I continued working.
A couple of hours later, I reached into my right pocket to get my wallet and pulled out my headphones! I had checked this pocket, and there’s no way I could have missed them. They have a long cord, so they’re a mess when I put them in my pocket—how could I have not felt them? No clue.
