Most insanely unlikely UNlucky (BAD luck) chance coincidence you or anyone close to you has ever experienced

In My Humble Opinion
1

This topic is not about insanely unlikely misfortunes- as in, being diagnosed with an extremely rare disease, or just happening to be at a McDonald’s right before a fire breaks out there, or getting seriously hurt by a drunk driver (which happens to people every day, but is unlikely to happen to any given person)- this topic is not about bad experiences that are statistically rare.

This topic is about chance coincidences you or someone close to you have experienced that were bad and very unlikely but in a meaningful coincidental manner.

Here’s my example: today I was at a huge public library in Manhattan, and I needed to know what time it was, so I glanced closely at a computer screen right near me, and it turned out the computer was being used by a random guy who had threatened me at this library like 2 and a half weeks ago, and he lashed out. Of all the hundreds of people in this library, scores of them using computers on different floors, on one day at one time, this was a really weird but BAD coincidence.

2

I bought a new car a month ago for subsequent delivery. The day before the new one arrived I was driving my old one when it was struck from behind, totalling it. And totalling the nearly new car that hit me. This was Sunday & Monday earlier this week.

New cars are common. Car crashes are common. The coincidental timing was uncommon. And in one sense fortuitous not bad. I’d be much less sanguine had the new one been destroyed instead.

Nobody got hurt but a lot of nice machinery was wrecked.

3

A similar story: a friend was driving with her dog in the car. The car in front of her suddenly braked unexpectedly. She braked too, but not as hard as she should have because she didn’t want to throw her dog into the dash, so she hit the other car’s rear end. She and the other driver stopped and got out. She saw that his car was a very nice sports car; I think she said it was a Ferrari. She said, “that’s a nice car”. He glumly replied, “yeah”. She asked him how long he’d had it. He said, “I bought it today.”

4

The previous two stories remind me of something that happened to my grandfather. It’s kind of a good-news-bad-news thing but my grandfather said the bad outweighed the good.

Back in the mid 80s, he went and bought a new car (a Toyota Celica 4wd as I recall). He drove it directly from the dealer lot to his insurance agent, where he had pre-scheduled an appointment. Parked outside the building, went up to the third-floor office, met the agent, got the paperwork sorted.

They were sitting in the agent’s office, looking outside, making small talk — specifically, discussing the weather, because as it happened, there was a major wind storm forecast, and the gusts were starting to pick up.

Then they heard a loud noise, and they watched as the insurance company’s own rooftop sign blew over, crashed down, and landed on my grandfather’s car, totalling it.

The good news is that the paperwork had been signed literally minutes before, so the insurance company was on the hook (and probably would have been anyway, because it was their own piece of the building that had failed and destroyed the car).

The bad news is that the car had been a special order, my grandfather had already sold his previous car, and he had to wait another couple of weeks, using a crappy loaner, until his replacement car came in. He had planned to use the car to take a ski trip, but that had to be cancelled. So, a little good news, but a lot of bad news.

The insane coincidence part, obviously, is that the car was wrecked in the lot of the insurance company by the company’s own falling sign immediately after the company agreed to cover it.

5

I know someone who had a close family member have a heart attack and subsequently die a few days later. While they were up with family before the death, their dog died back home. And then a few days later, one of their close friends who was preparing to come to the funeral in support of my friend also died. That’s an unlikely cluster of deaths all at once.

I mean, none of the three were in great health, but nor was it expected that they’d all up and die within the span of a week either.

6

Which threw the dog into the dash even harder.

Avoid the collision first, people. Then when that’s in the bag, consider passenger comfort AKA “the internal collision”. Not the other way around.

7

Continuing the car crash theme… In college, I was in a small car accident. I was on my way to the insurance agent to have the car looked at, and someone ran a red light, hitting me. (The other driver swore she had a turn arrow. The cop finished taking her statement and walked over to me. First thing he said was not to worry, because there was no turn signal at that intersection.)

It was fun explaining the details to the insurance company.

Off topic, because this was actually good luck:
I was sideswiped in a really strange accident one year, a week or so before I was buying a new car. I already had an estimate from CarMax on the old one. I spoke to my insurance company, and they gave me something like $1500 for repair. I specifically asked if I had to repair it since I was about to sell it, and they said it didn’t wasn’t necessary. I went back to CarMax and asked them to re-appraise, and if repairing it was worth it. The value dropped by about $500, and they told me not to do a repair. So I came out about $1000 ahead.

8

I made $10K the last time I totalled a car and oughta do the same or better on this one. Not skill or skullduggery; just blind luck.

9

I used to work for the NHS as a Fleet Manager. The “fleet” was a mixture of trucks, cars, vans and three ambulances. The ambulances were not the ones with lights and sirens but were used to collect people with handicaps to take them to day centres.

These vehicles were specially converted Ford Transit vans and one of them was involved in a relatively minor accident one morning. One of the passengers was injured and an emergency ambulance (also a Ford Transit conversion) was called to take her to hospital.

On the way to the hospital, the emergency ambulance was involved in a collision with yet another Ford Transit and the casualty had to be transferred to another ambulance.

I visited the casualty the following morning as she had been kept in overnight. Her only injury from the two collisions was a slightly sprained wrist.

10

One time in DC, I was running to catch the Metro, I got in just before the doors closed and sat down in the closest available seat. Right next to my ex girlfriend shortly after a very bad breakup. We got off at the same stop and were in fact going to the same destination.

11

When someone with the same first and last name declared bankruptcy, TransUnion decided we were the same person, and merged our financial reports.

12

I once drove 100 miles away to visit a local native America casino, only to encounter somebody there who I had a restraining order against three months ago and had to get out of there ASAP before they saw me.

And it wasn’t the closest native American casino either, we both had to pass another one on the way there, have no idea why they chose that casino out of all of them (they weren’t the gambling type when I knew them and they didn’t have a car)