I thought it was a joke!

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understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

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I was a pro footballer for Rangers FC. In June 1980 I was sold to Brighton for £440k, I put my house on the market. After a couple of days I got a call from a gentleman with a very polite accent asking if he could come and see my house. He then said his nane was Brighton. I even asked him to spell it and then was firmly of the belief it was one of my Rangers teammates taking the mickey. He asked if he could come the next night to view the property. I was offhand by now, even a bit cheeky and said "why don't you just come along whenever you like" He went off the phone and I told my wife what had happened and we discussed which colleague it might have been. The next night there was a knock on my door and there stood a middle aged gentleman in a trillby hat. He introduced himself as Tom Brighton. I apologised for my behaviour the previous evening but explained the circumstances. He wasn't a football fan, didn't know who I was but accepted my apology. He bought my house. So I went to BRIGHTON and sold my house to someone called BRIGHTON - COINCIDENCE
Total votes: 1295
Date submitted:Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:21:22 +0000Coincidence ID:3315

Comments

Josephine Smith (not verified)

Fri, 13/01/2012 - 11:28am

My father died when I was in my early twenties and for several years after his death I felt his loss greatly. I moved from Scotland to Cambridge to take up a new job and I had to find accommodation quickly. I looked at several places, none of which seemed right, but eventually I settled on one house because the guy who was advertising the property seemed kind & friendly. When I moved into the house I discovered that one of my new housemates had the same name as my father. I always felt safe in that house and my two housemates were lovely. Coincidentally, I was reading through some of the 'coincidence stories' here and I chose only one to read further by pressing the 'read more' button. I laughed out loud when I reached the end of this man's coincidence story (about names) - his full name was the same as my father's. (I have a very common surname, so perhaps it's not so unusual in my case to come across others with the same surname (but not Christian names) - and the guy in the houseshare had the same Christian and middle name as my father.) Josephine Smith

johnqqq

Thu, 27/06/2013 - 11:24am

I was curious as to your name and a little bit more about you so I put into google "Rangers player sold to Brighton". The first result was a man named Tom Brighton. What are the chancees?