20 People Reveal The Horrible Gut Feeling They Had About Something (Or Someone) That Actually Turned Out To Be Dead-On

A creepy, blurry guy reaching out toward the camera
Unsplash / Simon Migaj

Found on Ask Reddit

1.

I was 18 and had just moved into my own apartment. The complex was managed by the owners son and right from the get-go he seemed off to me. Nothing that I could articulate, but I felt uncomfortable around him. Since he was frequently at the complex for one reason or another I kept my door locked and chained whenever I was home and I would literally run away if I saw him outside to avoid talking to him. Well one day I grab the local paper and on the front page is this guys face. He had “fallen in love” with a previous tenant and had harassed her and her boyfriend, and continued to stalk her after she moved away. She was a grade school teacher and he waited outside the school for her, shot and killed her in front of the school kids and then killed himself.

Edit: I found an article about it. I misremembered some details. He did harass a woman who lived at the apartment complex and attacked her boyfriend, but the woman he killed was someone he knew from college. And he died in a shoot out with police, not from suicide.

— 2525369814700

2.

When I was in my early 20s my roommate brought home a new guy she was dating. He had these crazy eyes and just seemed bizarre. He ended up drinking a bottle of Jaegermeister and passed out. She dated him for around 6 months. I moved out shortly after she split with him. Several years later he was in the news. His name was Larry Bright. He is a serial killer in Illinois. Lovely…

— Squirrel-ScoutCookie

3.

I gave birth in November to a baby girl who had a very rare neurological disorder. She hardly moved at all in utero, but when I told my doctors, they all said that every pregnancy/baby is different, etc. (I have a healthy son.) So I tried to put my worries to bed. We had a completely normal pregnancy, totally normal tests. No indication of trouble.

Then she was born. The second she opened her eyes for the first time, I got a horrible, sinking feeling in my gut. There was no “there” there behind her eyes. We were still in the delivery room. There were pictures taken and in every one, I look…wary. Scared.

There were immediate problems. She didn’t latch, she had no reflexes, etc. etc. etc. I shoved all my worries down. She was born a few weeks early. Everyone kept saying, “Bottle feed her and she’ll perk up once she gets closer to her due date.” Every nurse, every doctor, every lactation consultant. We were released from the hospital with a “healthy baby”. Nope, nope, nope. A week later, we were back in the NICU because she was still lethargic. She wasn’t eating. It turns out she was basically braindead the entire time.

I didn’t want to know. But I knew. I knew the moment I looked in her eyes.

— smutsmutsmut

4.

I was at a party once at an apartment complex that’s known for its sketchy tenants. I only knew a few people there so I just stuck with one of my friends. Halfway thru the party a girl(I’ll call her Sally) I met a few months back at a job showed up with two guys who just seemed really shady (pushing drugs, feeding this girl TONS of whiskey even tho she was underaged, no one really knew who invited them). By 11pm Sally was fuuucked up. My friend and I leave to go get beer and come back an hour later. Sally is on the floor in the back room convulsing and foaming at the mouth. Her “friends” she showed up with refuse to allow me to take her to the bath and make her throw up. Chaos insues-I leave. While walking back to my friends apartment I called 911 cause I KNEW something was seriously wrong with her. The EMTs show up and take her to the hospital. Two days later she messages me on FB to tell me the doctors found multiple drugs in her system that she didn’t choose to take. She suspects her friends but isn’t sure. I’m positive it was them.

Six months later a news article is posted. One of the sketchy guys was arrested for running a child trafficking business from a nearby hotel.

So basically the second I saw these dudes show up with my acquaintance Sally I KNEW something was fishy. And I was right. Those guys were shitty people.

— novababyy__

5.

My sister-in-law was a high level exec in a company. She introduced me to her boss, the CEO. At that moment I knew they were having an affair. Nothing outward, strictly intuition. She was married to my wife’s brother, and when I told my wife she said I was nuts. Within months we learned I was right, she divorced, and went on to marry her boss.

— Scrappy_Larue

6.

There was knock on the shared front door, the house was broken into three flats, I was the ground floor. I recognised the guy at the door as the boyfriend of the pretty little Asian woman who lived a couple of floors above us, and he smiled at me and asked if he could come in and wait for her in the hallway.

Nice looking white guy, very upper middle class with a tweed jacket and posh accent. Good manners, winning smile.

My stomach did a flip and I said no and shut the door in his face very abruptly. I had no idea why I reacted as badly as I did because I knew him to say hi to, and I knew he spent the night in the building a lot.

A couple of days later I see her with her face swollen and purple where he had beaten her to a pulp. Apparently she had been in a hospital for a few days. She stopped me in the hallway and said if I ever saw the boyfriend again I was to call the police.

I’m guessing I subconsciously picked up on some non-verbal cue from when I saw them together.

— ketodietclub

7.

Years ago I was in another state due to a family member being hospitalized. The hospital was very close to a sketchy run down area and my family and I had stopped to get gas. This guy in a hoodie walks up while I’m pumping gas looking kinda out of it and hits me up for coffee money. I had a very bad feeling about him, and so not wanting to piss him off I carefully gave him a bit of change I had in my pocket, explaining I wasn’t carrying any cash on me, all the while watching him and all around to make sure I could scoot/do something if necessary. He thanked me and went on his way. A few days later and back home I saw his face on the news, he was arrested for killing a bunch of women and ditching the bodies in the nearby abandoned houses.

— EsplainingThings

8.

This guy was a kindergarten teacher at my school. Everyone loved him! He was great with the kids, and his whole room was covered in spongebob stuff; everyone wanted their kid in his class. He was close with a lot of parents (and therefore their kids) outside of the classroom. This might sound a bit odd, but it’s not where I’m from. Despite all this, this guy made me sick just looking at him. I would get really anxious around him, and when my friends said “let’s go talk to Mr. X” I would make some excuse to stay away from him. I never could really figure out why I felt like this. Anyway, eventually he moved away with his wife, much to everyone’s dismay. Probably ten years later, it came out he had been arrested for possession of child porn, and had also been in some of said pictures. It was really horrible for my whole community. I’m glad I felt off about him though and stayed away.

— lm197

9.

My sister had a boyfriend 10 years older than her. I didn’t have a problem with the age gap, even though the fact that he had his first child when my sister was 13 kinda weirded me out. Age doesn’t matter as much when you’re adults, right?

They weren’t dating long, but she intentionally got pregnant 6 months into the relationship. I was really excited to meet him during a family trip, seeing as he’s the father of my niece. Upon meeting him I got a strange vibe from him, and found myself anxious at the idea of being alone with him. He didn’t do or say anything strange though, and generally seemed like a nice guy. Still, when it was just me and him I felt incredibly tense, like he would try to rape me at any moment.

I stayed at my sisters place for a few days, then went home in the next province over.

He added me on Facebook, and then I got a message saying he thought I was super cute and he wanted to get together. He literally tried to cheat on my sister with me. He tried to cheat on my sister who was 6 months pregnant! I didn’t reply, I just screencapped the message and sent it to my sister and my Mom, asking my mom to look out for my sister since her boyfriend is a puddle of grease.

After some issues, my sister is now a single mother.

— lordsamethstarr

10.

There was actually a girl I grew up with who was loosely a part of my greater social circle who always kinda creeped me out. I’d actually brought this up with some closer (male) friends and they seemed to agree.

If you asked me to say why I really can’t even explain it. She was a bit ditzy but very friendly and just overall nice, never said a bad thing about anyone or found herself in any drama but it was just like she was almost missing some human component.

Anyways, we lost touch after high school, but a few years after that she had a kid and a few years after that she got sent to prison for years for basically doing that Munchausen by Proxy thing. She was poisoning her kid and the doctors caught on I guess. Luckily the kid lived and is with the Father who by all measures is a decent guy.

I’ve told this story before and it’s really frustrating because I really can’t articulate anything specific about her that gave me the creeps, but there it is.

— GeraldoSemPavor

11.

So, playing designated driver. I’m at a stop light, when it turns green, my gut says “nope, we are cool right here”. So three drunks in the back, and one up front, all explaining that I should have let them drive. What the green light means. How to operate the long vertical pedal, etc. All very helpful. Just as I shrug and shake it off, a black camaro with it’s lights off shoots through the red light, loses control and crashes into a telephone pole. Would have T-boned me 100%.

The drunks are all in awe of my psychic power, then the Camaro, flames shooting out from under the crushed hood, backed up and drove off. Super surreal.

— Taodragons

12.

So while I was in welding school there was an older fella around 50ish. Anyways every morning we’d all meet up in class go over book stuff and then out to the shop to practice our skill. As the semester went on all of us students would talk and visit. Except this one guy. Every morning I would be like, “hey man how’s it going?” And he’d always ignore any attempts to be social. Eventually I joked to one of my buddies about how he might be a serial killer or something. Fast forward 6 months and I’m getting alerts about this guy being hunted down by the police and to report anything. Come to find out he had a woman he kidnapped living in a tiny ply wood box. Eventually the police found him but not before he killed her older son. Terribly sad story.

— Mrbeardgravy

13.

Neighbors have 2 kids… they were 6 yr old girl and 4 yr old boy at the time. The wife’s brother took care of the kids whole both parents worked. The brother gave off a creepy vibe, and I wouldn’t let my daughter (she was 8 or 9 at the time) go inside their house when the wife’s brother was there alone with the kids.

The husband comes home one day yo find him performing oral sex on the little girl. Husband beats his ass out into the yard and is arrested. He’s still in jail a few years later, but I still won’t let my kid into their house.

— sking44306-4

14.

My ex. She would constantly tell me things that seemed like they could be true with just enough details to make them believable, but were also just a little bit exaggerated so it made her seem like her role in the story was more important or more unique. It always felt a little off but she always had the benefit of plausible deniability on her side.

Example: One morning I was waking up for work and she told me there was a huge screaming match at the neighbors house where the two parents were fighting and making a scene. Her role in it was that she took their kids elsewhere while it was going on to keep them out of harm’s way. The police were called and the man was escorted off to jail. Since I hadn’t heard any of this going on she just told me “Yeah, you were out like a rock.” which was quite possible. But it was all a fabrication just for her to have a story that made her seem interesting and important.

Turns out she was a pathological liar and almost none of those things were true at all. My gut knew, but my brain reasoned the sense out of me.

— MarinertheRaccoon

15.

My best friend’s family was visiting. Best Friend and her dad had asked to see the new fossils I’d added to my collection, so I went upstairs to get them. (Her dad was allergic to my guinea pig, who lived in my room.)

As I turned the corner I noticed my younger brother, who I call “Shawn” online, was wearing his pajamas. It was barely 9 pm. Shawn NEVER went to bed that early.

I asked him why he’d changed. Shawn told me that he felt really sick, and Dad had told him to go to bed and see if he felt better in the morning.

Shawn didn’t look that sick. But something just felt off. I asked if Mom knew Shawn didn’t feel good. He said no, he’d just talked to Dad. That wasn’t okay. And not because Mom would’ve been upset if nobody told her Shawn didn’t feel good. It felt more serious than that. Mom HAD to know Shawn was sick.

I started to flip out, and snapped at Shawn that he should NEVER trust Dad’s medical advice. Dad just tells people to sleep earlier and exercise more. Shawn needed to tell Mom, NOW.

Shawn very clearly thought I was over-reacting. (Heck, I thought I might be over reacting.) But he went downstairs and told Mom he didn’t feel good. First thing Mom did (as per usual) was check him for rashes. He had a red streak running from his thumb up to his armpit.

Shawn had severe blood poisoning. We found out later from the hospital he was four hours away from death.

If I hadn’t had such a strong feeling that Shawn HAD to tell Mom he didn’t feel good, he wouldn’t be alive today. He’d have died in his sleep that night.

— _Green_Kyanite_

16.

When I was about 3 or 4 years old I was playing in the yard in a bikini. Like the cutesy little kid ones with ruffles and I remember I was sticking my belly out really far because I thought it was cool that I could see my belly in my bathing suit. An adult male family member was over visiting and I remember feeling like someone was looking at me. So I turned around and noticed that he was watching me. I remember feeling scared and I sucked my belly in and started looking for my mom. The man said, “oh you have such a cute little tummy!” And I just remember feeling absolutely panicked in a way I had never felt before. I never told my mom but as I was growing up that family member would invite some of the kids over for sleepovers with his adopted son but my mother would never allow me to go. She always told him that I needed to up for some activity early in the morning or that I was up late the night before and needed to sleep. I also never forgot that panicked feeling and NEVER would allow myself to be alone with him. If he walked into a room I was in I would make an excuse to leave and then go stick like glue next to my mother. As you can probably assume, that man was indicted on federal charges of possession of child pornography, distribution of child porn, sexual assault, rape, statutory rape, etc. My mom and I talked about it later and she said that she never had any concrete reasons to not trust him but she just felt compelled to listen to her gut in this instance. That was honestly one of the most important lessons she taught me. Sometimes your “gut” picks up things that your conscious doesn’t but those instincts are there for a reason. My mom also called my cell phone seconds after I wrecked my car miles away from her because she got this strong auditory hallucination of me yelling “MOM!” She’s a witch.

— Kegelexorcist

17.

My parents like to help people who honestly don’t deserve the opportunity. You can’t save people from themselves. They hired this farm hand who I knew was shady as shit the first time I ever laid eyes on him. He had just gotten out of jail and was a Meth addict. They gave this guy free range over their farm truck, their tools and all of their farm equipment. My (step)dad was dying of cancer at the time and the farm hand promised he would maintain the farm after my dad was gone. Tools and equipment had been disappearing for a few months before my dad’s death but afterwards, it was at a rapid pace. The day we called him out, my husband went through a few boxes my dad had us inventory before his death. A lot was missing, silver coins, pocket watch and other valuables. When the farm hand returned to the farm, he proudly exclaimed that the chainsaw had mysteriously vanished from the bed of the farm truck while he was at the gas station. When we confronted him about the missing items, he admitted that he took them to “protect” them. His mother called us to tell us she whatever he didn’t pawn underneath her house. Good riddance, he was a POS. It takes a special kind of evil to steal from the dead.

— did_it_right

18.

Guy I used to work with was constantly offering to give me driving lessons out in the countryside. We got along at work well enough and he said he thought it was weird that I was an adult who couldn’t drive (I was like 18, so not that weird but weird for the Midwest US).

I had a weird gut feeling. I’ve had them before and they had never steered me wrong. I turned him down repeatedly. He ends up asking my other coworker to go out with him instead, just for a friendly drive.

He raped her. My gut is never wrong. Except about eating extra tacos.

— CerobiSteppe

19.

Ages ago, i was maybe 9 years old, we were on our way home from the local pool when a massive summer storm started. I’m talking full on garbage bins flying through the air and literally feeling how the wind was moving our car a bit to the left. So we enter this tunnel and i suddenly scream “STOP” of the top of my lungs. My mother slows down and asks me confused about what’s going on. I – now crying – beg her to stop the car and wait the storm out. She tells me that she can’t just stop the car in the middle of the street in a tunnel and promises me to drive slow and carefully. Just as we were able to see the end of the tunnel a small tree falls onto the street… followed by a gigantic 300kg Rock.

That Stone would have hit and squished us. It even left a bump in the road.

I have absolutely no idea what gave me the feeling, but i am very glad that it was there.

— KonfettiTante

20.

Few weeks before graduation, visiting my best friend at her school. We were outside some dumpy college bar and this tall, good looking, athletic guy starts talking to us. Right off the bat I hate him. I just have this awful feeling about him immediately. Something about him is slimy, dishonest, trying too hard. My friend, who’s seeing someone else at the time, nevertheless seems charmed. I have a terrible habit of being quick to judge strangers, so she probably didn’t think twice about my bad mouthing after he walked off. And anyway, graduation is a few weeks away, we’ll never see this guy again.

Fast forward a year, my friend moved to my city and we share a house together. It had been our plan since childhood. Things were great. Eventually, her relationship ends, and literally within a week, the guy from the college bar, let’s call him Chad, sends her flowers and a cookie cake, just being a “nice guy” after her break up. I think this is creepy and overreaching, and chock full of ulterior motives, and I tell her as much, but she thinks it’s sweet, and they eventually begin to date, though he lives 4 hours away. I try to get to know Chad when he comes to visit, but he’s aloof, kind of “too cool” for me, and not really interested in anything other than my friend. He stays over a lot and does weird things like show up with his whole family (again, from 4 hours away) unannounced.

Friend doesn’t want to hear my concerns about Chad. She thinks I’m judgmental and trying to control her dating life (maybe I was, but I couldn’t stand this man). Our lease ends, Chad moves to town to live with my friend, she and I don’t hang out as much, and never see each other unless Chad is around. When I called and invited her to my birthday dinner, she insisted that Chad come too, and when I told her I didn’t want that (it’s it’s not like Chad would have even enjoyed an all girls dinner on MY birthday), all lines of communication broke down. It was very clear she chose him over our friendship, and I gave up trying to be involved.

My friend and I didn’t speak. For over a year, she and Chad lived a few blocks from me and I never saw either of them. I would drive by their house once in a while to make sure everything seemed ok, but I could never tell. She worked 4 jobs, pulling crazy hours, while Chad worked part time (if at all). From what I know he spent most of his time fishing on a boat that my friend tried to convince me that he had bought, not her. She slowly withdrew from all social circles that weren’t directly related to him. Deleted most social media. It made me sick and I worried all the time about her. I knew he was controlling who she saw, what she did, who her friends were, not to mention taking advantage of her finances, and it made me sick to think he was abusing her in other ways.

After a few years… she left. He had continually threatened to beat her and she finally had had enough. It was hard, and I still feel a lot of guilt for not having tried harder to make her see what I saw about Chad, or at least to maintain communication, but luckily, over the last year or so, we have been able to rekindle our friendship, which started when we were kids, and I’ve been able to be there for her when she needs me. I’m just so happy it didn’t last for longer, as they were continually talking of getting married.

I fucking hate that guy.

— lemonscott Thought Catalog Logo Mark

Callie is a writer, editor, and publisher at Thought Catalog. Her debut book, ‘The Words We Left Behind,’ was released in January 2024.

Keep up with Callie on Instagram, Twitter and calliebyrnes.com

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