People Recount Their “That Could’ve Been Me” Stories

Every once in a while, a situation occurs that seems, as if by some miracle, you were in just the right place at just the right time. For instance, you let someone drive in front of you while you lag behind, only to witness them get pulled over by the police, as part of a random check. Conversely, you may also find yourself on the other end of the luck, like passing up a purchase at a restaurant that would’ve won you a huge prize.

If you’ve ever experienced a moment where it seems like the universe had a plan just for you – down to the most minuscule detail – you’re certainly not alone. Here are some of the best, and strangest, stories about which people thought, “That could’ve been me.” Some of them are pretty hilarious; others will break your heart…

A Huge Wave

When I was 16, I was at a beach in Santa Cruz with my family, and my 10-year-old little brother. My brother started playing with two little girls, who were collecting seashells and stacking them on a giant log near the water line. My brother walked away to find more seashells. A few seconds later, a huge wave rolled in and lifted up the log.

When the tide receded, the log landed on top of one of the little girls’ chest and face, and pinned the second girl down by her arm. My parents aided in the rescue efforts, but the little girl whose face was crushed died the next day in the hospital. That could have been my little brother. Beaches still terrify me. Reddit user: [redacted]

Car Bomb

In 2004, a car bomb exploded in front of the Australian embassy in Jakarta, at 10:30 am. I was working at a language school on the other side of the road, and every morning I did a U-turn at the embassy at that exact time. The previous night, I’d been very tired and was too lazy to fill up on gas.

Having to fill my tank up that morning made me 10 minutes late, which caused me to feel very frustrated at the time. When the bomb detonated, I was about half a kilometer away – my car rocked, debris rained down on my windscreen, and I thought it was an earthquake. My laziness the night before saved my life. Reddit user: Stone-D

Crash

Back in 2012, I was leaving a gas station on my way to school, and let a truck go ahead of me. He was in front of me at a stop light, and when it was our turn to cross the intersection, an SUV ran the red light going about 45 mph. The truck was totaled and the guy was knocked out, and bleeding from his head.

I drive a small car, and it scared me to think that if he’d been hurt that bad, it could have been a million times worse for me. He’s actually still fighting the guy that ran the light in court, because the guy swears he didn’t run the light. I testified for the driver of the truck, and it looks like they are just now settling the lawsuit. Reddit user: pandamayhem

Lightning

I was backpacking, and we were trekking up a mountain. It started to storm and then, out of nowhere, there was lightning. I took off my pack and got away from the trees, because I could tell that the storm was near. The people I was with wouldn’t listen to me, and just sat down under this pine tree to wait out the storm.

I kept trying to tell them to move – that where they were sitting wasn’t at all safe – but they wouldn’t budge. So guess what; lightning arched between the tree and all of the kids beneath it. Fortunately, and miraculously, no one was killed. But boy, am I glad I wasn’t standing where they were. That was completely terrifying. Reddit user: Coldtom

Zodiac Killer

My friend’s mom once had a double date, set up with some friends. This was in the 1970s in California. On the day of the date, she came down with a really bad cold, and decided to cancel with the other couple at the last minute. The other couple decided to go on a picnic together anyway, without my mom’s friend.

That day, that couple was murdered by the Zodiac killer. No joke. They were never seen alive again, and wound up in the news shortly after that. The chances are he might not have attacked all four of them if they had been together, since it would have been a bigger group, but that really sucks for the other couple. Reddit user: slurmfactory

Blue Man Group

A few years ago, I saw Blue Man Group in Boston with my friend, who was a foreign exchange student. My assigned seat was next to the aisle, but we ended up switching seats so he could sit near the aisle, because he was afraid that he might have to get up to go to the bathroom during the show.

The aisle seat number was called up to the stage, and he went backstage, was wrapped in a tarp, hung upside-down, covered in paint, and swung against a canvas while the rest of us watched on the huge video screen. I was so glad that I switched seats with him, and that it wasn’t me up there. Reddit user: keytar_gyro

Free Car

I went to Taco Bell with my mom and a friend. They both got a drink, and my mom offered to buy me one, to go with my order. I said I’d just share their drinks with them, even though I didn’t have to pay for my own stuff, and they probably didn’t want me to share with them anyway.

The next guy in line after us got a drink, and he wound up winning a $40,000 Land Rover from the cup contest. If I had gotten a drink, that cup would have been mine. Instead, I’m still driving my ancient hand-me-down car from my grandma. I keep asking myself, why didn’t I just get that dang drink? Reddit user: CrunkaScrooge

Centennial Park Bombing

In 1996, my family and I were standing in Centennial Park, only a few feet away from where the bomb went off. Luckily, my brother happened to not be feeling well, so we had to leave early. My parents were bummed, because they wanted to stay there for a while, but it was important for them to take care of my brother.

A few minutes later, we were driving through the streets of Atlanta, and saw police and rescue vehicles flying down the street, so we turned on the radio and heard about the bombing. When we finally got home, we turned on the TV to see the news. We could see that it was exactly where we had been standing. So crazy. Reddit user: atlien88

A Faulty Alliance

My great grandfather was serving as a spy in the Australian army, in Papua New Guinea, during World War Two. One night, he was sent out on a reconnaissance mission to go behind the enemy lines. A few hours after he departed to start his mission, the Japanese infiltrated the base, and massacred all the Australian soldiers who were stationed there.

It turned out that the natives – who were sick of the terrible treatment they suffered at the hands of the Australian soldiers – had switched allegiances, and led the Japanese to their location. Australian folklore always tells of a proud and strong relationship between the Australians and the Papua New Guinean people during the war. My grandfather spoke of it just a bit differently. Reddit user: maddenmadman

A Close Call

When I was seven years old, a man attempted to kidnap me outside of my school. I was standing there with one other little boy after everyone had already left. The man told me our mothers weren’t going to be able to get us, and had sent him instead. He leaned over from the driver’s seat and opened the passenger door, trying to grab me.

The boy who was standing with me started to get into the car. Even at that young age, I had a strange feeling that something wasn’t right. At that moment, my mom drove up right behind the man’s truck. He quickly started to drive away, and the other little boy managed to jump out of the moving truck at the last second. Reddit user: Mspersianprincess7

Racing Accident

In 2011, the beginning of my junior year in high school, I had surgery to fix a hole I tore in my shoulder muscle. I had it the Monday before the national championship air races (on a Saturday) in Reno, Nevada, and I lived relatively close. My family usually goes every year, and had box seat tickets. My parents decided I couldn’t go because my meds were too powerful.

So, in the end, we all stayed home. That night on the news, we discovered that one of the racers had lost control and crashed into the box seats, killing I don’t know how many people. If I’d have gone, I’m pretty certain there’s no way a partially-sedated teenager with only one working arm would have survived. Reddit user: azucardaddy

Wrong Seat, Wrong Time

When I was a kid, a friend and his parents took me to an Orioles home game against the Oakland A’s. Our section was pretty empty, so we played around in the seats, running around, and eventually decided to just sit wherever we wanted to. Around the second inning, a man with his wife and kids showed up, and asked us to move out of their seats.

We complied, scooted down a few seats, and continued to watch the game. A couple innings later, Jose Canseco drilled a foul ball right into the man’s chest. He was pretty messed up, and required medical attention. I was sitting in that man’s seat before the family arrived. If they hadn’t come to the game that day, that would have been me. Reddit user: rykerbomb

A Good Day To Call In Sick

My grandpa is an electrician, and once had a job working on the top floors of the World Trade Center back in the early 2000s. You can probably already guess where this story is going. My grandpa is someone who will never call in sick, even if he’s in really bad shape. It’s just not the kind of man he is.

On September 11, 2001, my grandma convinced him that he needed to stay home from work, because he had a really bad cold. Though he was resistant to the idea at first, he ultimately decided to listen to his wife’s advice, and called in sick to work. Good job grandma – you saved my grandpa’s life that day. Reddit user: HotTubToilet

Helmet Hole

My co-worker was in the Air Force, and was helping to welcome back some soldiers from Afghanistan at a base in London. One guy came out with this dazed look in his eyes. He started talking to him, and the guy just looked at him, and then handed him his helmet. He tried to give it back, but the guy said he never wanted to see it again.

When he got back to his room, my co-worker took a closer look at the helmet. It had a hole right through the forehead area. Later, he talked to the guy some more, and it turned out that one morning, he wasn’t able to put the helmet on; it just wouldn’t budge. The next thing he knew, his team was being shot at, and a bullet went right through where his forehead should have been. Reddit user: Frankfusion

A Slow Race

I ran in the Boston Marathon last year. It was my 14th time running the marathon, and I recorded a pretty fast time, considering. My normal marathon time would have had me crossing the finish line right when the bombs went off, but I happened to be three months pregnant at the time, so I was a little slower than usual.

My doctor told me I could run, but that I had to slow down a bit for the sake of the baby. So I took my time during the race, and I was stopped by security a half-mile before the finish line, where I learned that the bombs had gone off. I’m very grateful to my baby for slowing me down. Reddit user: ohgoogliebear

Nickelback Saved My Life

One day I was at a stop light in the left lane, about to turn onto the highway, when a Nickelback song came on the radio. Now I absolutely hate Nickelback, and so I looked down to change the station to something that sounded less like nails scraping on a chalkboard. I was still looking down when the light changed to green.

The guy next to me, however, went ahead. He drove forward, and was immediately t-boned by a truck, which had run a red light on the access road. The truck was going 70 mph, and that guy didn’t make it. If I’d have gone when the light changed, it would have been me the truck hit. Nickelback saved my life. Reddit user: dark_knight92

An Encounter With The Enemy

At the end of World War II, my grandfather had just been liberated from Auschwitz by Soviet forces. He was extremely hungry after months of almost complete starvation, so he went to search abandoned train cars for food. Inside one of the cars, he found a Nazi officer in hiding. The Nazi put his Luger to my grandfather’s head the moment he opened the doors.

My grandpa looked him right in the eye, and speaking as calmly as he could in German, said, “It’s not worth it.” The Nazi officer listened to him and, by some miracle, spared his life that day. My grandpa lived another 70 years, and passed away at the age of 90, only 20 days ago. Rest in peace, Abe. Reddit user: lone_drone

Modeling For A Serial Killer

One day, my mom was shopping at a Texas mall. A man approached her talking about modeling, and asked if she’d be interested in doing a photo shoot for him. Now, my mom was a knock-out in the ’70s and ’80s, but she has one snaggletooth. This doesn’t take away from how pretty she is, but a modeling recruiter once told her that no one would want to take pictures of a girl with imperfect teeth.

She told the man that her teeth weren’t up to par with modeling standards, and declined. The guy kept pressuring her, eventually got slightly aggressive, and started to follow her out to the parking lot. Luckily, my mom found another guy nearby, who she grabbed, and had him walk her to her vehicle. She later found out the guy who was trying to recruit her was Ted Bundy. Reddit user: [redacted]

Captain Underpants

This was a while back. I was at my local library for the unveiling of the new Captain Underpants book. They had activities there for the kids, and I found myself thrust into a circle of kids who were sitting down. We were supposed to pass around this diaper until the music stopped. Whoever had the diaper last would have to open it.

So the diaper went around and as soon as I had it in my hands, the music stopped. I didn’t want to open it, fearing whatever was inside, so I quickly handed it to some curly-haired kid next to me. He opened it, and inside was a whoopee cushion. I gave up possibly the coolest thing my elementary-school self could possibly have come in contact with. I was pissed. Reddit user: Shaboops

Hurricane Approaching

A woman I know was in Louisiana on the day Hurricane Katrina hit. She was visiting, and was planning to fly out that day. She was offered two flight options. One left early, but had a 10-minute layover, so she’d be running to her next gate. The other left two hours later, and had a 45 minute layover, which would give her plenty of time to make her connection.

She’d almost settled on the later one, as she didn’t think she’d be able to make her connecting flight with only ten minutes to get from gate to gate. But eventually, she picked the one that left early, and it turned out to be the last plane out of that airport. The rest were cancelled, and everyone scheduled to fly out on them was stranded. Reddit user: PHASERStoFAB

Not A Great Parking Spot

My car was parked in the same spot for three days straight, right near my house. After three days of it sitting there, I drove to a store to pick up a few groceries, and came back less than an hour later to find my spot had been taken. I was quite annoyed about it, as I felt like that was kind of my spot.

Eventually, I found another spot a few blocks away from where I lived, and parked my car there. The next day, I went to my car to go somewhere, and saw that a giant tree had fallen over into the spot where I had been parked for days, completely crushing the car that was currently parked there. Reddit user: moonablaze

Wear Your Seatbelt

When I was younger, my dad and I were driving along on the highway. While we were crossing an intersection, someone decided to run a stop sign, and drive right in front of our car. We had no time to stop because we were only about twenty or so feet away from the intersection, so we wound up t-boning his car.

Not even a minute before the crash, I was sitting in the passenger seat without my seatbelt buckled. My dad saw this, and told me to put it on. If I hadn’t put the seatbelt on, I probably would’ve flown through the window, and quite possibly died. But since I put the seatbelt on, I got away with some minor whiplash, and that was all. Reddit user: AwesomeAlchemist

Don’t Miss Your Train

This one time, when I was living in Chicago, I had plans to meet my then-boyfriend to go out for tacos. I was heading up the stairs to the train platform as the train was boarding passengers. I was pretty certain that I was already too late, and would just have to wait for the next train to come along.

Somehow or other, the conductor saw me and held the train. I later found out that, a few minutes after the train left, a man armed with a sawed-off shotgun robbed people on the platform. For a few weeks afterwards, every time I missed a light or a train, I wondered if something like that could happen to me. Reddit user: bethlookner

The Road Less Travelled

I was getting off a bridge in Pittsburgh and had two lanes to choose from. The left lane had a car in it. The right lane had none. The traffic light was red so I had to choose what lane to be in. I normally would have chosen the right lane, so I could hurry up at the green light and get around the guy.

I was feeling like a nice guy that day, and decided to just take my time, so I stayed in the left lane behind the other car. During that red light, a car drove through that right lane at over 80 mph and ended up crashing and killing the man in the car. I saw the car go up in a cloud of smoke. Reddit user: Jelly0394

Almost A Pancake

A couple of years ago, I went skydiving with a friend and his family. It was the first time for all of us, so we had to jump in tandem (with an instructor strapped to our backs). I was terrified, but I did it anyway, as I knew that they did this all the time, and I believed nothing would go wrong.

A week or so later, one of our instructors had a malfunction in both of the parachutes while jumping in tandem. I didn’t get a full story of what exactly went wrong, but either way, the instructor and his jumper both died. My dad kind of joked about it with me, and told me I was almost a pancake. Reddit user: kevinbradford

A Good Time To Get Off The Train

I was on the train on my way to a friend’s house, and I had to transfer to a different line at a station downtown. I wasn’t paying attention, and accidentally missed my stop. So I got off at the next one, and decided to just walk back to the stop I should have gotten off at, because they weren’t that far apart.

As I approached the train station, I noticed there were a bunch of cops and other people standing outside. It turned out something had happened with one of the trains, and the cars started filling up with smoke. A bunch of people had to be taken to the hospital because of it, and they temporarily closed the station. It was the train line I was trying to transfer to. Reddit user: -eDgAR-

Tina Fey

I did a Disney World internship, driving for the Kilimanjaro Safari. One morning, I was in line to get my first truck of the day, and I was talking to this little girl on the truck in front of me while I was on the ground. Her mom turned around, and I saw that it was Tina Fey, my celebrity idol.

I managed to stutter out a few sentences before the person assigned to her truck got on. My assigned truck was the next one. If I had clocked in maybe 15 seconds earlier, I would’ve been on that truck with Tina Fey. Every time I think about it, I get upset. Now, writing about it, I’m getting upset yet again. Reddit user: DorothyGaleEsq

Gmail Before It Was Gmail

I once owned Gmail. No, I don’t mean that I worked for Google and started Gmail. Several years back, I founded a website that provided email services. It let me pick my own domain name, and I wasn’t very creative back then, so I just used my first initial and added the word “mail”. It wasn’t taken, so I went with it.

It didn’t end up being too popular. Five family members and I had @gmail.com email addresses. I have no doubts that had I kept it, Google would have gone another way, or maybe they would have paid me thousands of bucks for the rights. But I wound up giving it up. However, at least I can say I once owned Gmail. Reddit user: Sgthouse

The Perfect Moment To Be Forgetful

This happened to my mother when she was pregnant with me. She told me that around 20 years ago, when terrorism was less controlled and more widespread in Israel, she was crossing the street to go to the bus stop, when she realized that she’d forgotten her bag in the restaurant where she’d just eaten. So she went back to get it.

By the time she arrived back at the bus stop, she had just missed her bus by around 20 seconds. While she was running, trying to catch the bus, it exploded right in front of her eyes on the road, because of a suicide bombing. There were barely any survivors. My mom’s crappy memory is the reason I’m alive today. Reddit user: plsdontrapeme

A Life-Saving Car Crash

I was hitch-hiking one time when I was younger. I got in a car with a guy, and had a bad feeling about it right away. He asked, “How far did you think you were going?”, and I said, “I’m just heading to the next exit.” He then said, “You won’t make it,” and my Rambo instincts kicked in. I grabbed the wheel and drove us into a guard rail.

I climbed out of the window and ran into the woods, hid for about two hours, then ventured back out onto the interstate and caught another ride. I was watching the news later, and saw the car I’d been in smashed against the rail with cops all around it. They’d found a body in the trunk. It would’ve been me if I hadn’t wrecked his car. Reddit user: cjselph

A Missed Opportunity

It was the late 90s in San Francisco, and I was working at a software company. I had decent stock options as part of my compensation package with the company, as I guess everyone did back then. We had a small team from another company called Octane Software working out of our office – about five people in all at the time.

They offered me a job, complete with stock options. But I didn’t take the offer, because for some reason they wouldn’t tell me what they were really doing at the company, and I thought it sounded kind of sketchy. This company was sold a year later for two billion dollars. I could have been employee number six. Reddit user: scstraus

Immature Teenagers

Back in the ’90s, I worked in a convenience store. One day, my manager promoted me to a higher position in the company, so I got to hire a replacement. A few months later, the guy I hired had his head blown off by a group of teenagers who bought a shotgun for $42 cash, and had no idea what they were doing.

He was my age, so I had to call my friends and relatives to tell them that the radio reports about a 31-year-old clerk who’d been killed weren’t about me. But it could’ve easily been me if I hadn’t been promoted and I’d still had his job. He was a really funny, nice guy. It’s such a shame that happened. Reddit user: kthulhu666

Titanic

My great-grandma and grandpa were almost passengers on the Titanic. My great-grandfather was trying to secure spots for his whole family on board the ship, but he could only afford to buy four tickets, and they were a family of five. He just didn’t have any more money, and couldn’t afford to buy tickets for the whole family to travel together.

He said to my great-grandma, “Go on without me. I’ll take the next ship when I can.” My great-grandma said, “No. We either go as a family, or we don’t go at all.” Imagine if they had gone without him. He would’ve been devastated when he heard the news. Luckily, it didn’t happen, and they lived long, prosperous lives together. Reddit user: [redacted]

Tsunami

This story isn’t about me, but rather it’s about my cousin. He was in Penang, Malaysia in 2004. For those of you who pay reasonably close attention to natural disasters in the news, you probably know where this is going already. My cousin was by the beach playing, and his family was in the hotel next to the beach, eating lunch.

My aunt – his mom – told him to come up and eat more food, but he refused, and kept playing. Eventually he gave in, and went into the hotel to join his family. Just a few minutes later, the tsunami swept in, destroying the entire beach. He and the rest of his family were all at a safe enough distance in the hotel. Reddit user: handma1d

Cashing Out At McDonald’s

Years ago, I was waiting in line at a McDonald’s to redeem a peel-off coupon for a free small order of French fries. A young guy, maybe 19 or 20, was ahead of me. He seemed like he could hardly contain himself. He got to the counter, handed them his coupon, and said, “I think I won.” The girl at the counter got wide-eyed, and said, “I think I need to get the manager.”

The manager showed up, saw the ticket, and said, “You can’t redeem this here. You have to go to our office” (somewhere I don’t remember). He gave the kid more details, and the kid went off, practically dancing. I was next, and asked what he won. The manager laughed and said, “Half a million dollars!” To which I could only reply, “I’ll have a small fry, please.” Reddit user: Rank2

A Dodged Sublet 

I once applied for a sublet in Brooklyn. I kept rescheduling with the guy who was supposed to show me the apartment, because I kept getting stuck late at work, and I never wound up meeting with him at all. I found a different place that was the same price with fewer roommates, and so I took that one instead.

I found out about six months later that the original sublet (which had housed four or five people) had been raided by an angry “friend”. He’d shot and killed two of the roommates, and then turned the gun on himself, on the roof. Two of the other subletters heard the shots, and hid under their beds until it was over. Reddit user: isthataburger

Survived Thanks To Ice Cream 

I was deployed to the green zone in Iraq back in 2004 – 2005. Our chow hall was in one of Saddam’s old palaces – I believe it was the presidential palace. A few of my co-workers had discovered a contracting office in the building that had telephones which didn’t require calling cards, and let us call the states for free.

One evening we were eating dinner, and we planned on using the phones to call home. I decided that we should get ice cream before we went back to the contracting office. As we ate our ice cream, it sounded like a door slammed shut somewhere in the distance.

We finished eating and walked towards the office, when a man stopped us and said we couldn’t go in there. A rocket had come in, but didn’t detonate. It ripped through a man in the contracting office as he was talking to his family. I will never turn down ice cream. Reddit user: Pauljr84

Slow Down, Lady

I was driving on a dark, winding road with a car full of friends one night. A car came up behind us, and started to tailgate me. After slowing and searching for a turnout, I finally found one down the road a little, and pulled over. The car behind me accelerated violently past and proceeded to run into a log in the middle of the road, not 100 feet from where I stopped.

The front of the car was destroyed, and the airbags had deployed. My friends and I helped the drunken woman, who’d been driving, push the car to the side of the road, and I gave her a ride home. She called me the next day and told me that her car was totaled, then thanked me for the ride. Reddit user: RBCsavage

Good Thing I Wasn’t Walking Around

Some kid in the small town where I went to college broke into an apartment one night, and killed the elderly couple who were living there. He didn’t even know them. He just broke into a random apartment, and then decided to kill everyone inside. The apartment complex where it happened was right down the street from where I was living.

He just as easily could have walked an extra few minutes and decided to kill me. He was quoted as saying that he walked down the street a few days later with a baseball bat, and planned to kill anyone he saw. Luckily, he didn’t see anyone, but I walked around a lot by myself at night at the time. Reddit user: [redacted]

Careful In The Streets

When I was seven, I met this person who was three years older than me at a school fair, and we became friends very quickly. At the end of the day, he invited me to come play soccer at his house the next day. I accepted, but the next day I felt ill, and my parents went to his house to say I wouldn’t be coming.

I went to school the following Monday. In the morning, we heard the news that this boy had been run over by a drunk driver while trying to recover a soccer ball in the road. He later died in the hospital. I could’ve been there as another victim, or I could’ve been scarred for life by seeing someone die. Reddit user: alexdsfan1