Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Finding a friend and realising they are a relative

A few years ago my brother started work for a company in Northern Ireland (we are Northern Irish). My brother often talked about a friend who he had made in work called Frank. Frank was older than my brother, roughly between my parents and my brothers age. During the following summer My sister and I took my Grand Mother on a holiday driving round parts of Northern Ireland she had not been to since she was a child. This involved going to see old relatives and friends who my granny, who didn't drive her self, had not seen in many years.

Finding objects in the environment.

On at least 11 separate occassions I have found objects I knew to be there, all of them ancient artifacts, simply by knowing they would be there. I didn't know exactly what they would be except they would be artifacts. EX. While driving down the road I became aware of something in the river a mile or so away, I told the person I was with there was an artifact over there and left the freeway, traveled down a service road, parked and told this person it was right over there.

David Perry

On May 17th 2003 I went to the cup final at the Milleniun Stadium my seat was in the Arsenal area ticket was row 17 seat no 4. That evening we went to the city centre for a meal. On the pavement I noticed a cup final ticket stub and picked it up. The row and seat number looked familiar. Returning to my hotel later I compared the two ticket stubs and to my amazement the ticket stub I had found was row 17 seat 4 in the Southampton area. I have just had a shudder writing this I still find it so spookey. I still have the tickets.

just called to say hi

Hungover and nostalgic one saturday morning I decided to call my best friend from childhood out of the blue- we'd been completely out of contact for at least 5 years, and only rarely in touch for 10. Her number was still the same, and we had a nice long catch-up chat. After nearly an hour, she said "aren't you going to wish me a happy birthday then?!" Subconscious memory, "psychic connection" or... random coincidence??!

meeting people you know in the Street.

I have the strange ability to meet people I know in the street almost anywhere by complete chance. The strangest being when I meet a person who lived in the same university residence as I did as 1st year undergraduates in St Andrews in the street in New York City at about 10.30pm. I had a particularly bright yellow back pack and she had a bright blue hoodie - we recognised each other right away even in a crowd!

Magic Birthday

The date of my birthday each year (since 2000), adds up to how old I'll be on that day. So e.g. I was 14 on 7/7/0 and 21 on 7/7/7, and I'll be 30 on 7/7/16 etc. And 7 is a lucky number :)

Coincidence within your website?

I started reading the stories on your website. I got to the sixth listed one about a 'train of events' by Stephen Senn (I might have stopped at about 10 stories so wouldn't have read it if it had come further down). I used to go to the same school in the Alpine village where Stephen's parents taught. I also went like him to a West of England university (Bristol) but 6 years later. I also used to come back by train at the end of term like him to where my parents lived in Switzerland - this was a few stops before the one Stephen got off. Is this all a coincidence?

money exchange

Tonight I found 13 dollars in cash on the ground as I was entering a restaurant. When I went to pay for my meal my bank card was missing. I frantically searched for it in my purse and pockets. As it turns out it was on the ground in the same location the cash was. 13 is an unlucky number. I was anxious to find the owner of the money but could not. Not sure what to do with it now.

same name and description

I was talking with a workmate today (11 Feb 2013) and he said he found a place to live sharing with a roommate. He said his name was Ken and to his surprise was oriental with a buzz cut because he said he sounded white on the phone. I got home later that night and there was nothing on tv, so my wife suggested watching netflix. I| decided on "This Means War" starring Reese Witherspoon. Within about the first 15 minutes, Reese runs into her old boyfriend who is now attached and she plays up the fact that she is attached too and his name is Ken.

Sahara

Some years ago we were on holiday in Tunisia and went on a trip to the Sahara desert which included an overnight stay in a hotel. For the evening meal we sat beside a mother and teenage daughter and started to chat. It turned out that the daughter went to the University of the town we live in and studied biochemistry and her course lecturer was our next door neighbour!!

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