People Are Sharing The Low Probability Events They’ve Experienced That Are Burned Into Their Brains Forever

Everyone has that one thing that happened to them that blew their mind because the chances of it occurring were one in a million. So, I asked the BuzzFeed Community to share their wildest low probability event stories.

Here’s what they said:

“I had both of my fallopian tubes completely and successfully removed, and still got pregnant naturally nine months later.”

“I had an ultrasound to look at the tubes, and there were definitely none in there. It resulted in a healthy baby girl, but nonetheless, it’s impossible!!”

—Anonymous

“My dad and I would play darts a lot, and one day, I decided to see how far I could stand back and sink one in the board. I mean, if I hit the board at all at 25 ft. or so, I was ok. Not only did I hit the board, [but] when I went to inspect my points, I had also impaled a fly flying through the air, to the board.”

—Anonymous

“I had my son on my birthday. When he was 6 months old, I got a tattoo on my forearm to commemorate our shared occasion. Just after he turned 1, I went to a concert, and the stranger seated next to me asked about the tattoo. I explained that it represented me and my son, because we have the same birthday. She excitedly explained that she shares a birthday with her mom.”

“I told her, ‘My son and I are (month and day),’ and her eyes went wide before she screamed, ‘THAT’S OUR BIRTHDAY, TOO!’ My son is 12 now, and remembering this still blows my mind. We think of you every year, birthday buddies!”

—Anonymous

“I was on vacation in LA. Decided to visit the giant Amoeba Records on Hollywood Blvd. I picked out a really random rare ’70s punk record. The cashier checking me out? The lead guitarist of that band. What are the chances out of the million records I could have chosen, I’d pick that one.”

—Anonymous

“Bought my first car at a used car dealership in the town I was going to college. It was a great car for me at the time, since all I really needed was something to get me from point A to point B. When I was cleaning it one day after I’d bought it, I found a piece of paper wedged deep between the seat cushions with my parent’s names on it.”

“Turned out it was the car they’d bought new when I was a baby and had until I was 5. Fifteen years later, I’d bought it at a dealership over 700 miles away from where they’d sold it.”

—torbielillies

“My husband and I were in Italy and met some fellow Americans who were living about 30 miles away from where we grew up in Massachusetts. They met as 30-somethings 10 years ago. When he went to her house for the first time, he saw a picture of her standing with people in a wedding. He recognized the bride and groom and asked how she knew them. The bride was her college roommate. Well, the groom was HIS best friend!”

“The weird part? He was in the picture, too! They were on opposite ends of the group but had been to the same wedding and in the same picture, but never met. The wedding was 27 years previous. They even showed us the picture!”

—kestrelh

“My husband and I were separated, and he got very sick with some weird virus where the inside of his mouth, gums, and tongue were covered in huge blisters, and he couldn’t swallow. He ended up being admitted into the hospital because they couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and he couldn’t eat or drink. The second day he was there, my daughter and I decided to skip work and school because we just needed a mental health day. We ended up watching the Netflix documentary Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99, and toward the very end, they talked about how contaminated the water supply was, and it caused the festival goers to get something called ‘swamp mouth.'”

“ALL the symptoms were EXACTLY THE SAME as what he had going on. I called my son and asked him about what they’d been doing, and come to find out, they’d been at the lake the weekend before. I called my husband immediately and told him to call in his doctor, and guess what? He had swamp mouth. They started treating him immediately, and he was better almost instantly. That was in August of 2022 and the first day I’d taken off all year, and I NEVER watch documentaries that aren’t true crime or about ancient civilizations. The stars just happened to align.”

—selindsey630

“I’ve known two families that live in different parts of Southern California. Each husband had the same first name and were high school history teachers and also cross country coaches. One family had two children. The other family had two children with those same names and a third child who had been adopted. The families were quite surprised to find out about each other (this was once their children were adults).”

—mathworks

“Three out of the four children in my family have the exact same month and day for their birthdate, just different years (Ex. May 3, 1998, May 3, 2001, and May 3, 2008).”

“Also, we were all born earlier than expected, and my mom wasn’t induced, so us three having the same birthday was unplanned.”

—Anonymous

10.

“In 2000, myself and two besties had just checked into our Las Vegas hotel room for a long weekend trip. As I’m flopping on the bed, after my seven-hour drive, my friend asks me for something, and jokingly, I say, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ As I finish my sentence, I flip on the bedside clock radio and ‘What Have You Done for Me Lately’ by Janet Jackson is playing, and the lyric is perfectly on cue.”

“The radio was tuned into a station for whoever had listened to it last, and at the time, the song was almost 15 years old and NOT on regular rotation. It was a stunning coincidence and so funny!”

—Anonymous

11.

“During a raffle at my local bar, I was offered the honor of picking the ticket for the grand prize: a TV. I picked my own ticket. People were pissed, they thought it was fixed, but it was totally legit.”

—Anonymous

12.

“When I was in high school, I was having a dream one night that my grandma had passed away. It was somehow my fault, but no one was mad at me. In the dream, my whole extended family was at the brunch that usually follows funerals, and I saw her behind everyone waving for help. No one else could see her, though, so I was trying to get to her through all the people and was getting upset because I wasn’t moving fast enough.”

“Then in real life, I was abruptly woken up from this dream by the house phone ringing at, like, 1 a.m. My parents and siblings were sleeping, too, so the answering machine picked up. It was my grandpa, and he was crying while saying, ‘She won’t wake up! She won’t wake up, please call me back!’ I think my mom picked up at that point. Anyway, turns out my grandma had a serious medical event and had been inches from death. Thankfully, she recovered and went on to live another couple decades. All that in real life while I was having that dream is some INSANELY COINCIDENTAL TIMING! Not sure of the odds, but I’d say this is pretty rare!”

—BriCheese

13.

“One time, I went into a McDonald’s and ordered a coffee (in Australia), and on the screen, it asked me if I wanted to enter to win free coffee for a year, and I was like, sure because that will never happen to me.”

“A few months later, I got an email saying I won free coffee for a year and was one in five others who won it. To this day, it is the greatest thing I’ve ever won, and when I tell people, they can’t believe I actually won something that you never hear anyone winning.”

—Anonymous

14.

“I was shopping at a grocery store, and they announced a lottery over the intercom. All you had to do was find a random numbered sticker on the floor around the store and step on it. If that number was chosen, you won. I stepped on the number right next to me, and it was called. I won a cake!”

—Anonymous

15.

“I’m from a small town in Saskatchewan of about 500 people. Went to Vegas with my family one year, and who is our waitress at the hotel? A girl from our town who we, of course, knew. Odds of that happening must be crazy low.”

—Rita

16.

“My aunt kept her married name for 15 years after divorcing her first husband. She thought it would be easier to have the same last name as her kids while they were in school. After they were grown, she decided to go back to her maiden name.”

“Less than a year after changing her name back, she started dating a guy who coincidentally had the same not-super-common last name as her first husband. Now they’re married, and she took his name, so she’s back to having the same name as her kids and grandkids.”

—Anonymous

17.

“I was on a fairly popular dating show about people with disabilities, and the weirdest place I’ve been recognized was in Australia by my date’s parents. I was on the ferry back from Manly to Sydney and got talking to this English couple. I said where I was from, what I was doing in Sydney, etc., and the woman says that they don’t live far from where I am.”

“She then asked if I know someone named Ross; I say no and leave it at that, thinking she’s being generic. I asked her more questions later, like where he was from and the last name, and ended it with, ‘You’re his parents, aren’t you?’ Yep. Eighteen thousand miles away from home on the first day of a six-week trip, and I still can’t go out without being recognized.”

—hobbitgirl96

18.

“My first car accident, I was rear ended by a lady driving a red corvette. A year later to the day, I made a last-minute decision to drive an alternate route home from school which happened to pass through the intersection of my accident to avoid traffic. I got t-boned by a red corvette. I now avoid that intersection on the anniversary of my accidents.”

—Anonymous

19.

“My bff and I, who are from Philly, were in Rome on vacation and booked a tour of the Colosseum last minute. While we were waiting for the rest of the group to arrive, we heard someone shouting the Eagles chant. Random, but we figured someone in the crowd was maybe wearing a jersey and was being an obnoxious tourist.”

“Turns out that our tour group had 15 people in it. Thirteen of us were Philly/South Jersey. All of us had randomly booked the tour that day, and we all lived about 20 minutes from each other.”

—blackberri35

20.

“I have anaphylactic allergic reactions to bee stings, so every week I would get shots of diluted bee venom in the hopes I would become less allergic to them.”

“You have to wait 30 minutes at the doctor to make sure you don’t have an allergic reaction, and during those 30 minutes, post-shot, I was stung by an actual bee in the doctor’s office. Like winning a really shitty lottery, but I didn’t have an anaphylactic reaction to it!”

—abbeyontour

21.

“I was waiting outside for a lift when I felt something hit the side of my face. It took a few seconds, and then I could feel a moth inside my ear canal. He took a direct route into my ear.”

“I went to campus security which was next door. They thought I was tripping. The cherry on the cake was looking up and seeing 15 nurses and doctors wetting themselves with laughter. Needless to say, I never wear my hair up to allow direct access anymore.”

—Anonymous

Now I’m curious — what’s the low probability event that you’ve experienced that blew your mind? Let us know in the comments. Or, if you’d like to remain anonymous, use this Google form. Your response may be used in an upcoming BuzzFeed Community post.