The Strange Coincidences Archive

When I was entering college, we had an orientation
for all of the freshmen who would be dorming and their parents. There were several sessions, and at the one I went to, my father and I parked in the parking lot and we noticed this car that was parked across two spots. Of course we started making comments to each other about whoever parked it. When we got inside, I ended getting paired up with Gina. We spent the whole orinentation together (as my father and I were leaving, we saw Gina get into the car that was parked askew).

Later that summer, we were given the name and phone
number of our roomates (who were randomly assigned). I noticed my roommate’s name was Gina. When we called each other, we realized that we were the ones paired up with each other at the orientation. As we spoke, I found out that her best friend’s name was Chris (my name’s Christine), she lived in Waterbury, CT (the park around the corner from me that I played at every day growing up was Waterbury Park), she went to Crosby High School, and the last four digits
of her phone number were 1239 (and I grew up at 1239
Crosby Avenue). Pretty freaky, huh?

I was doing time in a drug rehab situated in a beautiful remote valley a few hours drive from Sydney, Australia. Family members were permitted to visit on Saturdays but apart from that it was rare for others to visit. One weekday I started reading a new book that I was fascinated in and began reciting certain passages to the cook as he was preparing dinner. I had not noticed that two women had been standing there listening. On meeting them I discovered they were American air stewards (I cannot recall why they even visited this remote part of the state or even who they knew at the rehab). What blew my mind was discovering that one of the women was the sister of one of the authors of the book I was reading. It was rare to get an Aussie to visit let alone someone from out of the country and it had to be this woman at that time.

This is another one from the drug rehab as submitted above. Its abit long though and is in two parts.

1.Each morning one person had to present a topic they found interesting. It was my turn the next morning and true to my nature I was not prepared. Women had to be in their dorms by 7:30 and were not permitted anywhere near the mens dorm after this time. Lights were out at ten sharp. It was 9:55 and I had 5 minutes to find an article pertaining to my topic of interest – music.

The only problem was that most books were jelously guarded by a guy who had them stashed in his wardrobe. Seeing the desperation on my face the womens supevisor allowed me to break a couple of rules and run down to the mens dorm to find a relevant article but I only had 5 minutes to do it in. I got a shock when he opened his wardrobe. There were books from top to bottom. In desperation I shoved my hand in the wardrobe and went for the lucky dip.

Even before I pulled the book out I knew I had the right one – the sensation I felt right there and then is enough to write a chapter on! The title was “The Realm of Deception” and with that freaky sensation still flowing through me I knew that the contents page would reveal the chapter relevant to my theme and there is was – “Deception in the realm of music”. I sped read the chapter in the morning and gave a pathetic unprepared presentation hoping to get back to the book later and read the chapter more thoroughly. I looked for days and could not find it.

2. After the rehab I moved back to Melbourne (another state of Australia). Nearly two years later I was asked by one of my former lecturers to give a presentation in one of his sociology of music classes. That book sure would have been handy to get some ideas and quotes. About a week before I gave the class I took a trip back to Sydney to visit two friends who had become staff members at the rehab. Invited into their cottage for a coffee there was that elusive book sitting on their kitchen table just waiting for me.

Dear Coincidences website,

I have a coincidence to share with others. It is more of an overwhelming odds situation, but aren’t all coincidences that?

I was sharing a house in Berkeley, California with a few women in the early 90’s. One of my roommates was an activist for the organization, Rainforest Action Network. She often travelled for conferences and meetings, and one week
had the occasion to go to Philadelphia, my home town.

While in Philadelphia, she caught a taxi. The taxi driver started up a friendly conversation with her, inquiring where she was from. When she answered, “Berkeley, California,” the driver replied enthusiastically, “Oh, that’s funny, I have a
daughter in Berkeley, California. She went to UC Berkeley, and is now a video producer.” It didn’t take them long to discover that the taxi driver was my father.

My Dad called me that night to ask me who I thought had been in his cab that day. Originally, I guessed famous people, thinking that was his angle. “Think about who you know that’s close to you, who you see every day, that could be in Philadelphia.” he said. I was totally stumped,
and finally he told me, “your roommate!” He asked me to ask my mathematician friends to find out what the odds of such a thing happening were.

Well I never found out the true odds or how one would arrive at such a conclusion, and my Dad is no longer with us to marvel at this coincidence, but it was one of our all time favorite cab stories as well as famous coincidences in our lives.

There have been other such events in my life in
which certain things appear at just the right time.
Coincidence or is there really a cosmic
correlation? Anyway, I am now interested in
investigating this phenomenon further, and am
interested in others’ stories of marvelous and
uncanny coincidences. Email me at
sheribrenner@home.com if you have a good one
to share. Thanks for this site.

Dear sir/madam,

I would like to report a strange coincidence that occurred to me last night (26th August). I was watching television with my wife when the telephone rang. I answered it and a young lady said “Hello Phil, its Jo here”. I have a couple of female friends called Jo but didn’t immediately recognise the voice. She started a conversation about what I had been doing today as she had called earlier in the day and had got no answer. I told her that I had been out most of the day helping to paint a room in a hospice. I was still at this time trying to work out who this girl was when she said ” I don’t think I am going to be able to make it round to see you tonight”. At this point I realised I did not know her as I had made no arrangements for anybody to visit that night. I paused for a moment and said “I’m sorry, who did you say you were again?” She said “Its Jo. Jo Mackenzie”.

Feeling more confused I said “I don’t think I know you”. Then she said

” I am talking to Phil Miller aren’t I ?”

I said ” Yes, you are.”

She then said “Do you live in Gardiner road?”

I said “No, I live in Craigleith, I think you have got the wrong number”.

At this point she made her apologies and hung up. I was intrigued by this and decided to look in the telephone directory under Miller, P. I am ex directory so do not appear in the listings. There under Miller, P was Gardiner road and the telephone number 555 4870. My telephone number is 555 4807.So Jo McKenzie hit a wrong digit and got me instead, a guy called Phil Miller who lives half a mile from another Phil Miller who have almost identical phone numbers. The chances of that must be billions to one.

I am going to write to the other Phil Miller to see if there are any other similarities between us and I will get back to you!!

In 1989 I was having a porch built on the front of
my house. The builder who had won the tender had
just bought a house about 6 miles away and told me
that he’d work on my house in the morning and his in
the afternoon. I agreed so long as it was completed
by 15th July 1989 when I was getting married and
then moving into the house.

About 8 weeks before the wedding he rang me at work
to tell me the following. At his house he’d
discussed with his wife about placing another window
in his lounge to bring more light to the room.

He made the hole with hammer and chisel and placed
debris into a skip. Bricks, rubble and half an old
newspaper were placed into the skip. His wife
brought him a cup of tea whilst by the skip. Whilst
drinking his tea he then just flicked open the half
newspaper (dated 12 Sept 1962) to a random page – to
his surprise his eyes met with a section that
read “Births – congratulations Chris and John on the
birth of your son Robert” – this was me !!! I was
born the day earlier on 11th Sept and my parents had
submitted this news to the paper – I now have two
copies of the paper as it is the only paper my
parents have ever kept!

This makes me wonder how many builders have found my
birth announcement half papers in walls and just not
managed to read the article!

A little over a year ago I walked part of the way home with a middle aged co-worker. Whilst walking along we discussed our respective families. He mentioned that his father had died quite some time ago and went on to lament that his childhood had been unstable because the nature of his father’s profession necessitated a great many household
moves. It seems that his father had been an Anglican priest in the Canadian miliary.

Within approximately eight minutes of this conversation I arrived at my home. When I opened the door I noticed that my husband was talking on the telephone. When he put the phone down he said something to me to the effect that he “didn’t know that guy was a priest.” My husband then explained to me that he had been surprised to learn that the
man to whom he had just then been speaking on the
telephone, although retired for several years, had been a priest and this is the starling part: He had been an Anglican priest in the Canadian military. Two Anglican priests in the Canadian military within minutes of one another – one long since dead and the other yet living.

This is surely a mind-boggling coincidence!

Im a Captain in the Philippine Army. In 1989, while
still a plebe at the Philippine Military Academy, I lost my ID card in a Manila taxi whose plate number I was unable to take note. Remember, Manila is one of the worlds most populous cities with close to 7 million in population.

Two years later, I decided to cut my hair short before going on break. I took a ride on the same taxi. The driver recognized me right away because of my short hair, which matched the photo on my ID card. (which he kept in the taxi all this time)

Two years my father’s godmother was sick in the
hospital. At the time they said she was not going to
survive but this was not the first time it has happened. I tought she was a very strong woman but still I was praying for her every day. One night I was dreaming that the phone rang and I picked it up and my mother told me she has died. About one hour later of the dream the phone rang and it was my
mother to tell me the news that happened like an hour back. I was sad, not afraid of the dream just sad I was not w/ her. She was like my gradma and she was a very strong catholic woman. I traveled to my country and saw her and took as memories some pictures of the Virgin and some of her religious medallions. I dream w/ her almost every month and
the dreams are happy and I see her, I can still feel her when I dream of her. I know she is in heaven resting in peace.

We just viewed the 1985 movie Jagged Edge. In the
movie, the wife was killed with a knife on June 12, 1984. The husband got offf…but at the end of the movie, we learn he did it. Nicole Simpson was murdered June 12, 1994 with a knife…he got off…...