Sometimes all it takes is one single moment to transform a fairly humdrum day into a phenomenal one. We all try our best to make each day a good one, but sometimes chance lends a helping hand and we get lucky. Whether it be something as simple as finding a five-dollar bill or something as grandeur as winning a lottery, we’ve all had at least one notably positive yet seemingly random experience that can only be interpreted as good fortune.
These following people, however, ended up having what can only be categorized as extreme luck. From moments of unlikely prosperity to nearly escaping death, saying these people had good fortune is a bit of an understatement.
Here are 24 people who got incredibly lucky.
1. Ben Carpenter ended up extremely fortunate after he involuntarily was given the ride of a lifetime. Carpenter’s electric wheelchair became lodged in the grille of a semi-trailer when the truck bumped into the side of it. Carpenter was strapped into the wheelchair, which ended up being pushed down a highway for several kilometres at about 80 km/h. Luckily, a pair of undercover police officers happened to witness the event and got the truck to pull over. The wheelchair ended up damaged, but Ben made it out of the incident without a scratch.
2. Australian truck driver Bill Morgan has had a string of good luck that can only be described as extraordinary. Morgan suffered a heart attack after an accident where he was clinically dead for more than 14 minutes. After 12 days in a coma, Morgan miraculously awoke unscathed. Later, he ended up winning a car from a scratch ticket. A local news station interviewed Morgan and had him re-enact his scratching of the ticket on camera where he ended up winning a jackpot worth $170,000.
3. Lena Påhlsson lost her wedding ring, which she had designed herself, back in 1995 after placing it on the counter. She kept her eyes peeled for years but then eventually gave up hope. 16 years later, Påhlsson was gardening and she pulled out a carrot that had grown through the ring and came up with the vegetable.
4. Steve Flaig, a delivery truck driver at Lowe’s, had been searching for his birth mother for years after discovering that she left the adoption records open. However, Flaig later found out that he’d been spelling her last name wrong. Once he entered the right name, he discovered that his birth mother was working at the same Lowe’s as a cashier.
Seattle Times
5. Harrison Odjegba Okene survived for three days in a tugboat that had sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. One was the only one of the 12 team members to survive due to an air pocket that had formed in the engine room. Rescuers were lucky enough to find him before the supply of oxygen completely diminished.
6. Juliane Koepcke was the sole survivor of the LANSA Flight 508 plane crash in 1971 when she was a teenager. The plane crashed during a thunderstorm in the Amazon rainforest. Koepcke not only survived the fall but was able to endure 10 days in the jungle before being rescued by locals.
Disciples of Flight7. A California couple was out walking their dog when they ended up stumbling upon a treasure trove of rare gold coins. The coins were discovered to be extremely rare and dated back to 1847 by experts. The couple ended up auctioning off the collection, which was valued at a whopping $11 million.
8. Three college roommates bought an old sofa from a thrift store for $20 only to discover that there was $40,000 stashed inside of it. For most students, this would be hitting the jackpot, but this trio actually located the previous owner from a deposit slip and returned all of the money.
NPR
9. It’s only natural to feel wary when driving behind a vehicle transporting contents, but most of us have faith that the driver ahead secured their load properly. Unfortunately for this driver, that did not end up being the case for the truck he was following. However, in incredible fortune, he wasn’t driving with a passenger and the loose metal sheet ended up just missing him as it smashed through the windshield. This guy may want to avoid watching any of the Final Destination films.
10. Most people wouldn’t consider getting locked in somewhere a lucky occurrence, but this duo would beg to differ. Two kids ended up getting locked inside of a supermarket overnight and they ended up taking serious advantage of the many food options to get them through until morning. There are certainly worse places to get trapped in.
Instagram / @wot_u_sayin_tho11. Getting into a car crash is not usually ever associated with good luck, but when you were just inches away from being impaled by a rogue axe, you might consider yourself somewhat fortuitous. Had that windshield been any less sturdy, the aftermath would definitely not have had the same photo op.
12. Sometimes you don’t even realize how lucky you were until you witness the aftermath. This person went out after a cyclone hit their hometown only to discover that their car nearly didn’t make it. This sizable three managed to fall in such a way that the car went completely unscathed.
Reddit /u/ Prophylactic-Shock
13. This person accidentally shredded a receipt that they ended up needing. Lucky for them, they ended up finding a strip with the information they needed. Locating the specific strip amongst all of the others is one thing, but having that strip showing the amount they were looking for while still intact is very lucky.
14. Most people aren’t lucky enough to ever find a four-leaf clover, but this person ended up with a whole bouquet. Wherever this person found these, they might want to consider searching around further, maybe they’ll stumble upon a pot of gold. If not, stopping by a casino after might be a good idea.
15. It’s only natural that you’d become less cautious about where you’re stepping when wearing shoes, but flip-flops aren’t the most protective of footwear options. This guy was just inches away from a trip to the hospital, however, he was lucky enough to have this rusty nail just break the skin of his foot.
16. Dropping your car keys down a metal grate comes with a plethora of inconveniences, the first being how you’re going to even get home. Instead of having to struggle with an unbent coat hanger and bubble gum, this person was lucky enough to have their keys land in just the right way.
Pinterest
17. A Tennessee man was helping clean his aunt’s attic after his uncle died when he made one valuable discovery. He found nineteen packs of an unopened old football, baseball, and basketball cards collecting dust. The cards ranged from the 1940s to the 1960s and have been estimated to be worth over $1 million collectively.
18. The fact that this woman decided to cross a ski slope with a skier just inches away from making a jump proves that she’s not a very observant person. However, she is an incredibly lucky one. The fact that this skier’s flip left her completely unscathed and that her ill-timed passing didn’t cause him to wipe out goes against all odds.
19. A piano technician was called in to tune a 110-year-old Broadwood & Sons piano that was donated to a local school. Inside, the technician found over nine hundred gold sovereigns and half sovereigns dating back to 1847. The technician ended up getting to keep half of the coins, which were collectively valued at over $600,000. That’s one job he certainly is happy he did not skip out on.
20. James Keener decided to bring a sculpture that had been a family heirloom to a local convention center to be appraised out of curiosity. Keener assumed that the sculpture would be worth a couple thousand dollars at most. Turns out, the piece was actually created by famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin and is believed to be worth $500,000.
21. A woman in South Carolina picked up a framed print of a painted border collie she found at a local thrift shop. She didn’t think her purchase was of much value because it was a framed print, but when she went to clean the frame, she discovered something else. Wedged between the print and the cardboard backing was an original window card poster for 1930 classic All Quiet on the Western Front, which ended up being worth $20,000.
IMDB
22. Imagine going bird-watching for a specific species, bringing along a guidebook to help identify said species, and then having that birds land directly on the page of its description. It may sound like a highly unlikely coincidence, but that’s exactly what happened to this fortunate bird enthusiast who certainly didn’t have to break out the binoculars.
23. The only thing better than an incredibly lucky moment is having a whole bunch of people witness it. This basketball player undeniably took one leap of faith when he hurled the ball backward, but it ended up being a leap well worth taking as he just instantly bumped himself up to MVP.
24. Usually, last-second getaways like this only happen in big Hollywood blockbusters, but these guys were incredibly lucky that they started moving away from the iceberg when they did. Had they not already been en route out of there, there’s a very high possibility that they would have ended up underwater.
