Most unique, amazing, odd thing ever witnessed!
 

In deference to the thread on the main forum titled "An odd fact about those alive when T-206s were released", someone posted a link in that thread to an old episode of the TV show "I've Got a Secret", that had the last living witness to Lincoln's assassination on it. I thought it might make for an interesting thread if people posted the most unique, amazing, or odd things they ever witnessed IN PERSON, so not on TV, the internet, etc. Doesn't have to be sport related, and could be a famous or historical occurrence as well. Let's see who may have the most unusual experience out there. I guess I'll start us off.

Back in the early '80s, was driving on the freeway on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the first week of September, headed for a part-time job. No one on the four lane highway except a small hatchback about 75-100 feet in front of me, one lane to my left, and another car about 100 feet behind me and one lane to my right, in the curb lane. As we are coming up on my exit, the hatchback ahead of me starts to go under an overpass, and on the far side of that overpass I suddenly noticed something falling, and it hits the hatchback right dead on its hood, the car fishtails a little bit, but then keeps going for about 100 yards before pulling over and coming to a stop on the freeway berm. I pulled over and stopped behind the hatchback, as the other car that was following me pulled over and stopped behind me as well. I didn't see anything that had fallen from the overpass bounce off the hatchback, nor could I see inside the hatchback as the entire back window was covered and filled with what looked like clothes. The hatchback just sat there, and no one got out. So the guy behind me, and myself, both got out of our cars and gave each other a true WTF look. So we slowly started walking up on both sides of the hatchback, him on the passenger side, me on the driver's side. I said something like, "Did you see that, it looked someone threw a mannequin off the overpass." He answered that was kind of what he thought, but then asked where was the mannequin, because he didn't see it or anything else bounce or come off the hatchback either. So we slowly went up to the front of the hatchback on either side, until I saw the entire hood was caved in, and the front windshield was blown into the hatchback. It was still sort of attached to the upper left hand corner of the windshield frame, with the blown in part basically wrapped around the driver, who was a young girl still sitting there with both hands on the steering wheel, not saying anything or moving, just staring straight ahead with a 1,000 yard look in her eyes. There was another young girl in the front passenger seat, who had her eyes closed and appeared unconscious, but was still moving around a bit and had blood coming from her nose, ears, and mouth. And sure enough, the entire back of the hatchback was filled from floor to roof with clothes, baskets, and all other kinds of stuff, and now it also had some young guy who was unconscious and jackknifed in the backseat up against all the clothes, with his butt up by the roof, and his head and feet down by the hatchback' floor.

Later on found out the two girls were 18 and on their way with all their stuff to a local nursing college to start their freshman year. And the guy was a 26 year-old who apparently had some mental issues, and had climbed the fence on the far side of the overpass bridge and then fell/jumped off it to land smack dab in the middle of the hood of a hatchback going about 70 MPH, goes through the windshield and right in between the two girls, to end up being stopped by all the clothes that were piled up in the back seat. And some how the girl driving, though in complete and utter shock, had the wherewithal to calmly pull the car over and park it on the freeway berm, despite initially being totally unresponsive and having no idea where she was or what had happened.

Okay, someone top that.

Can't top that. I have just missed being in at least 6 major multi car pile ups.

Here are 2 that happened days apart. Went to St Louis for the Astros series when Clemens was pitching for them. About 10 miles before you get to the stadium on 70 interstate a pickup pulled out in front of me. It is only 3 lanes each way so it was packed. He had a kayak in the back that wasn't tied down. I was like I need to get out from behind. I got in the outside lane and when I got almost beside them the kayak flew out and went through the windshield of the car behind them. HUGE pile up.

Then when leaving St Louis in about the same place.There was no shoulder on the road. There was a big drop off at the edge of the road. I was in the far right lane and something just felt weird and I knew I needed to get out of that lane. Maybe 10 seconds later a car around 100' ahead in that lane dropped its front tire off the edge of the road. When the bumper hit the road it did a 180 and I just missed another HUGE pile up.

Another St Louis story. It was 1999 and the Cubs and Cardinals played each other their last 3 games. I like many others had $800 a piece bleacher seats we purchased when Sammy and Mark were both ahead of breaking the HR record. I was driving down MLK to the stadium. Had a guy going way to fast pull out of the Department of Social Services and t-bone me. Luckily it smashed the front of his car so bad he couldn't drive it away. Rental car company tried to make me pay for their car because the driver that hit me had no insurance, drivers license, and gave the PoPo a fake name.

Oh wow, it is crazy how things seem to happen in bunches sometimes. Seems like you had some sixth sense luckily working for you back then.

You're not alone though in having multiple incidents happening all together like that. About 3-1/2 - 4 weeks before my incident above occurred, I stopped by an older co-worker's house on a Saturday afternoon, and was talking to him while standing next to his van, outside in his driveway. He suddenly reaches his hand out to brace it against the van, and I look and see his eyes kind of roll back into his head, and hear him say "Oh my God!" as he collapses. I catch him before he hits the ground, while screaming for his wife to call 9-1-1. Tried giving him CPR for what seemed like an eternity before the paramedics got there, but didn't matter, he literally died in my arms from a heart attack. He was only 52.

Then after witnessing the kid jump off an overpass a few weeks later, I kept thinking how it was always said that things happen in threes, and I was freaking out over the next six months waiting for a third accident /death to occur. The guy I saw jump and hit the car was actually still alive after the incident. I later heard he died a couple days after from internal injuries, but never regained consciousness. Talk about a Summer from hell.......

Keeping in car accidents and groups of accidents.

I have spent most of my life in a rural area with a lot of deer. If you do a lot of night driving chances are you have hit one here. I remember bragging in my early 20s I had never hit a deer. then I hit 4 or 5 in one year and have not hit another one in the last 30 years.

Gee Ben, seems you and I may be the only two members to have witnessed such odd and outrageous incidents. This thread seems to have fallen flatter than a pancake!

I have seen a lot of outrageous stuff but it is way past appropriate to post on a card forum.

Staying in the car theme. Ever notice when you get in a good wreck everyone wakes up about the same time?

Personally, I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, rather than screaming in fear like his passengers.

https://c.tenor.com/h9Bng6LlxkUAAAAC...ear-fozzie.gif

I was at John Wayne Gacy's execution.

Now there's one for the books. How did you ever end up there, since that is something you intentionally planned to attend, and not just a random happening, like Ben and I experienced?

That is heavy!

I hear you. I have other crazy things I've seen and experienced as well, and also not necessarily Net54 appropriate. We'll see if others choose to weigh in.

I love that saying and use it regularly.

Used to do the "take these":D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEavqjHWOv0

Well I was young......late teens I believe, maybe 20....and pretty sure we heard it on the radio, and were like we got nothing to do let's go check it out.

So we drove about 45 minutes......and when we got to the main road leading into the prison....it was crazy. The atmosphere that is. Almost like tailgating at a sporting event. Music playing, people partying. Signs, oh lots of signs.....and for both sides. Those for the death penalty and for those against.

There was no violence though. Just party-ers, and I guess you call them protestors.

And it approached midnight, or maybe it was to happen at 11pm, but as the time neared. The nuns etc were praying, and the partiers, and if you had ever been to a White Sox game in the 80's and 90's you knew there song "nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey hey goodbye"......well that's what the partiers were singing that.....and doing a countdown like it was New Year's Eve.

A couple odd ones.

Didn't see the actual accident, but some of the aftermath.
Near my grandmothers house, like the end of her street, a car ended up on someones front porch.
The strange part, is they'd left a bar right at the end of the street. They had maybe 200ft to speed up, hit the curb, clear a 6-8 ft embankment pass between two big trees and land on the porch without leaving any tire marks on the embankment. And the angle to get between the trees didn't really leave any room for a 70's car unless it went through sideways and got back to horizontal before getting to the porch. I still can't figure out how they could have done it.


And a fun one.

I never bought the "it was a reflection off a bird" explanantion for a frw UFOs until I saw it myself.
Heading north-ish on 128, near the old woburn trade center. and there's a light, very bright coming the other way parallel to the highway about 50-75 feet up. Totally bizarre sight. And as I got closer the angle changed and it was.... a starling. Reflecting the sun very well in the late afternoon light.

Those are cool, especially the car accident you described. I've always found and believed truth generally is stranger than fiction!

That is very true.

One time in college, everyone went home for the weekend, must have been a holiday weekend. So I was pretty much the only one in the dorm.

So headed over to the Liquor Store, bought a 30 Pack of Little Kings - them little bottles, but loved that beer.

So I throw on I believe the 7th game of the playoffs between I think the Islanders & Capitals, it was in the late 1980's and I'm wasted watching a triple overtime game. If you appreciate playoff hockey, which is always tremendous, or was in the 80's and 90's I should say.

Remember the Red Wings Avalanche games, tremendous.

Back to the story. So I'm watching this great game, drinking Little Kings, and I flip a coin, pretty sure a Quarter. And God as my witness the coin lands on it's side.

I've never seen that before or since. And no one was there to see it.

Just Googled it, here it was.....so it was over Easter weekend.

and it was 4 OTs...damn...

If the Bills - Chiefs game this weekend was the best football game ever, this was the best hockey game ever....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhKZ1IjbzIw

That is cool, never seen a coin do that.

Your story reminded me of High School story. A friend and I were getting a buzz on in his parents basement watching TV. We are talking and laughing and all of a sudden a 1 foot lightning bolt appeared and made the lightning boom. It was about 15 foot in front of us. It didn't start from anything and never hit anything, just in the middle of the room. We went dead silent and gave each other a weird look. After a little silence he said did you see that as both of us was in disbelief.

That is crazy! But are you sure you weren't so smashed that you were really prone on the ground and laying on your side, so that when you looked at the coin actually laying flat on the ground from your angle, it looked like it was standing on edge! :D

Just kidding! LOL Great story.

Very recent weirdness.

The world seems determined to hand me nearly worthless collectibles, maybe it's my destiny?

In fall, was moving some leaves, and found a 1920's? maybe older small vaseline bottle. chipped, and not worth much complete. But it was in the leaves on the sidewalk, had been there a while, and had spent some time at least partly buried.
It "could" have rolled out of my lawn and off the 10" tall curb somehow, but it was right next to the gate, a high traffic area with no washouts.

despite being from the 1880s out neighborhood just isn't the sort of place people walk along with droppable antique bottles.


Then a couple weeks ago, I go to pick up my daughter from school. Right near where I usually stand and wait I see something with that "look and see what I am" look about it. And..... It's a 2 year old HS football ticket stub from the next town over. And it's been there a couple days from the look of it which puts it having been there before trash day when it maybe could have blown out of a barrel being dumped.


I sort of can't wait/dread what the next thing will be.
And yes, I've kept them both. the bottle is cool, and ..... maybe I'm being equipped for some bizarro zomie apocalypse or something.

That is very odd and weird, but also really cool.

Similar story
 

I spun my racket before a tennis match to see who serves and it stopped dead on its side! And I spun it hard too..... kind of like that Twilight Zone episode where the quarter landed on its side!

We used to live in a house located near the top of a hill. Because of its location we had a perfect view of a large area of the city from the backyard. One day I was outside pushing my toddler daughter in a swing on the back patio. All of a sudden there was a loud explosion up in the sky. I looked up and there was a fireball and giant puff of black smoke and I thought, "Why would they be shooting off fireworks during the day?" It was only March and around 5 pm. Suddenly I noticed a wing of a plane spinning in the air near the black smoke and saw another plane heading toward the ground in a corkscrew spin which I watched most of the way to the ground. I stood there in disbelief and then ran inside to tell my wife what I had just witnessed. Later I found out both of the planes were small Cessnas and one had been heading toward landing at our local airport and the other had been descending. Our local airport doesn't have active control and apparently the pilots never saw each other and had a violent collision. There were two people in one plane and a single pilot in the other. Unfortunately, all three were killed in the collision. Ironically, the plane I saw crash into the ground landed on the old condo complex I used to rent and spread wreckage across an 8 block area. Luckily no one on the ground was killed.

Wow David, that one ranks up there. It is miracle even more people weren't hurt or killed.

I seem to remember one of the announcers had his necktie around his head, Rambo-style, in the fifth intermission. I watched the whole game. It was classic.

I watched the Challenger explode from the playground of my elementary school in DeLeon Springs, FL. Back then it was common for us to go out and watch launches. Not after that one (which just commemorated 35 years a few days ago).

Oh wow! I remember being in a bar/restaurant with some people from work and seeing it on TV. That was surreal, can't imagine what that must have looked/felt like in person.

I watched the Challenger explosion as a junior in HS. After the fact they put a lot of TVs in our lunch room and everyone was excused from class to go watch it.

I was building a new school building at the edge of town when the Payne Stewart plane flew over us fairly low. It crashed about 70 miles north of us.

I was flying from MSP to AMS. Half way over the northern Atlantic the inside of the plane went black and everything stopped working. You could have heard a pin hit the carpet. Luckily the plane itself stayed flying but the inside electronics never worked correctly on the remaining 4 hours of the flight. That was scary AF.

I saw earthquake lights shortly (maybe a minute) before the 1989 Loma Prieta (World Series) earthquake. Then I saw earthquake lights again (at night) during 2014 Napa earthquake.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_light

To the original OP I also saw the Lincoln assassination video and man was that something else. Couldn’t believe it. Sadly I have never seen anything as crazy as what you saw.

Yes, that video was unreal.

As for my unique experience, I can still remember seeing that guy hitting the car. Being on the far side of the overpass, there's no way he could have seen the car to time his jump to hit it. The odds for what I saw happen are beyond my comprehension. And don't feel sad about not ever seeing something like that. Seeing freak accidents and people getting hurt and dying is not something I would wish on anyone.