We have all been there, that gut wrenching feeling telling you don't do it, turn around, or go get help! It's our bodies natural way of reacting to something that isn't quite right and getting your brain to pay close attention to the next step.

lion_vs_tuna asks:

What's your best story about listening to a gut feeling?

These are stories of people who have been at a cross roads and their gut has pulled them through.

Interviewing daycares and met with one woman. Perfectly nice, gorgeous house, had fantastic references, close to our house etc. but....I couldn't shake the bad feeling. Couldn't explain it, but I knew it just wasn't "right". Found out 3 years later she was basically hoarding daycare kids in the basement. 20+ that she just put in playpens for hours at a time. The daycare was shut down and she was charged after one kid was seriously injured.

I was a birthday party princess in college. Dress up as a Disney character, sing some songs, help with cake, paint faces, typical party stuff. I get called to a party that began at 8 PM. Unusual but not unheard of in our industry, a lot of Spanish-speaking families party well into the night. But I pull up down the street (princesses dont drive) and begin walking to the house, dressed as Sleeping Beauty, my "party box" of supplies in hand. But when I saw the house I knew immediately something was wrong. There were no lights on, no cars, no balloons...but against my better judgement I knocked on the door. This super creepy looking guy in his mid-fifties answers, in a dirty tshirt and jeans, and the first thing he says is "The party's around back." I took one look at this guy and booked it as fast as I could while holding a box, wearing a ballgown and being mildly crippled to begin with. I got into my car, locked the doors, floored it to a 7-11 and called my boss. The "party" never called demanding to know where their princess was. No one asked for their deposit back. My boss called police non-emergency but I dont know if anything was ever done. I'm 100% sure there was no "party" in that house.

Long story short: Dad nearly kidnapped by fake customs officers

When he was a young adult, my dad went to Madrid to stay with a friend, there was sudden change and they couldn't pick him up from the train station. He had to sleep rough in the station, after being mistaken for a prostitute twice, two "customs officers" showed up and started showing my dad their badges and telling him to go with them. Already unsure because they weren't in uniform, my dad followed them anyway. They were putting his stuff in the back of an unmarked car and beckoning him to get in, all the time reassuring him and showing their badges, when he saw a police officer walking down the side of the road. Feeling that something was really really wrong he went up to the police officer and asked him to help get his stuff out of the car. The police officer went over to the two men, got the stuff out the car and talked to them and got them to show him their papers. Turns out they were fakes and the officer took Dad back to the police station (after arresting the two men) and allowed him to stay the night there. Dad got back with his friend and we all lived happily ever after!

It happened in the worst way. I was working with a patient who's cancer was in full remission. She looked amazing and was telling me about the trips she and her husband was planning.

Paris, Africa, etc. All the places she couldn't go to because of kids, military, and now cancer, but now, with nothing holding her back she was going to take the world by storm.

It hit me, and it hit me hard. As we where setting up her follow up appointments she asked me if I was ok. I said gas and she laugh me off.

One week later she died in the hospital. Her cancer returned and in record time destroyed her to the point that she was bleeding out internally. They were going though so many bags of blood that the commander of the hospital told them to stop.

I will never forget the look on her face as she dreamt of the future that I knew would never happen and the feeling it gave me.

So my friend and I were walking around at like 2:00 in the morning playing Pokemon Go when it had first came out. It was very quiet and we were just talking to each other when all of a sudden a very loud truck came down the road and drove past us. Then all of a sudden I just got this feeling in my gut that told me to run. I told my friend what I was feeling, and he immediately told me to run. So we ran behind a gas station parking lot and hid behind a dumpster for a second. And sure enough that same truck had turned around at the light and came back to the parking lot and even went behind the store (in their truck) looking for us. They were in and out but, it was still one of the most chilling feelings I've had before

When I was about 9-10 years old I used to water my neighbors plants for her when she was on vacation. Normally my older brother and i went together but the previous day we got into a giant argument turned into water fight while doing the task so my mom decided we would go alone on alternate days for the rest of her trip. Now my neighbor had A LOT of flowers both in front of and I'm back if her house and tiny 10 year old me had to drag a hose between the two. It wasn't an easy task.

I started by dragging the hose from the side yard to the front. I noticed the back sliding screen door was in the center, where I thought it was usually to the side. I shrugged it off and got the hose to the front door. Then, all of the sudden had a gut feeling something was off and I needed to get out of there. I dropped the hose and went back to my house next door (separated by about an acre of heavily wooded area). I told my mom something was off and I was too scared to finish watering. She brushed me off and we went about our day, telling me we could finish the task together later. She thought I was just too tired or lazy to do it all on my own. I told her that it wasn't true and I got a weird feeling over there. But anyways we decided we would return that evening when it cooled off.

When we returned that evening the back window was broken and my neighbors house had been robbed. One of the large flower pots was now knocked over, where it hadn't been that morning. The screen door was now off to the side again. That means the burglars were probably inside while I was outside watering the plants. We were both terrified and called the police of course.

My mom now believes my gut feelings.

I've told this multiple times at this point, but my mom and dad went to visit some friends in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The friends introduced my parents to their daughter and her boyfriend. Well the entire time my parents were visiting my mom kept getting this really bad feeling about the boyfriend. He made her so uncomfortable for some reason that my parents actually ended up leaving early because my mom kept getting such a weird vibe from the guy. Well, a few weeks after their visit the boyfriend killed my parents friends, their daughter and other kid and then himself. Soooo my mom was definitely right.

I was joy riding around with 2 friends in the Shenandoah National Forest. We saw that one road was open which had always been gated so we decided to go down it to explore.

We drove probably 10 miles down this road which seemed to be surprisingly well traveled considering its gate is locked 99% of the time. The road dead ended and we got out to look around.

It was obvious some one had been there with fresh tire tracks around, the ground was pretty disturbed as well. The three of us split up to look around more, I came across a fire pit with a few make shift benches, it was obvious the fire had just been quickly snuffed out. I started to get that gut feeling. Then I noticed next to the fire pit a stick drove into the ground, on top of the stick rested a lit cigarette. At this point my stomach had pretty much dropped out of my a**hole. I even drew my pistol and started to quickly, but not in a panicked way make my way back to the truck. It seemed to me that someone was hiding from us.

I get back to the vehicle and my two friends had also drawn their pistols and we didn't even need to say anything to each other, we all felt the same thing, which was a need to GTFO of that hollow as fast as possible. We haven't been back since.

Turns out a short time later a man went missing in that same general area, to this day he has never been found despite many search attempts, name is Robert Fitzgerald. I think some people were hiding out there, maybe making meth, maybe running from the law. I've also heard a very similar story from another redditor who confirmed it happened in the same area and same time frame.

This is my grandfather's story when he was in the navy back in ww2.

He was on ship at a base doing some grunt work (it's been years since me or my dad heard the story so some details are lost), and all of a sudden he decided to he needed to get off the ship. So he made his way off, I forget if he had to make an excuse or something. But not even 2 minutes after he got off, the ship explodes.

An aerial attack hit the base. From the Japanese. My grandfather loved through pearl harbor purely because of a gut feeling. Thanks pop pop.

May I do a not listening to my gut feeling? 2 months before my marriage I had the most gut wrenching feeling that I should not marry the woman I was about to. 8 months later we divorced. I was so i stupid

Really didn't feel like going out for a drink after work with friends, but something told me to go. Met my husband that night in the bar, we've been married 24 years.

I've told this story before, but it was when my gut told me to not stop and help a woman in distress, and to keep driving. She turned out to be a ploy for a group of people who attack people and steal cars from those who pull over to help.

It's a creepy feeling.

It was like someone was telling me to stand in my kitchen. I had everything I needed to leave for work, but this feeling of forgetting something was so strong I just stood there. After I checked for everything again, I took a step towards the door and it was like someone was yelling at me to stop, so I stood for 10 more second. And then the feeling went away, like a gate was lifted and I could pass.

Got in my car and did my normal drive. Hit some heavier than normal traffic before coming across a 5 car pile up. One car was turned 180, others were smashed and everyone was standing around on their phones. Had I left like I wanted to, I would have been it. I knew it, too and just said out loud, "thank you."

I was walking on the sidewalk of a busy street. As I approached a streetlight where there was also a trash can, I got this weird feeling and decided to veer my path away from the street and toward the shops. After I passed the trash can, a car jumped the curb and smashed into the streetlight/trash can.

Can't explain it. Just felt like I needed to get away from that one area and a moment after I moved, a car crashed there. I totally would have been hit by it had I not moved away.

I always had gut feelings that my gf was lying to me but she'd make feel like I was the one who was lying. Turns out, my gut was right all along.

I'm a recovered drug addict and party girl. For two years of my life, almost everyday was focused on going to parties and getting drunk and high. I would go to random parties and take random drugs just to achieve this.

One Saturday, a good friend calls to invite me to a party at his brand new house. It was going to be a good party, with a bunch of my friends, and lots of substances to partake in. For some reason though, my brain told me to sit this party out. It was probably the first Saturday, in over a year, that I had chosen to stay in.

Woke up the next morning and found out that some of my friends, including the one who had invited me, had gotten into a huge fight. One of the guys pulled a gun out, chased the others through the house, and shot two guys: one in the stomach and one in the face.

Literally dodged a bullet there.

happened a few months ago on my way home from work. It was almost 12am and here in small town, USA the streets were virtually empty. Saw a woman and a child on the side of the road and she was trying to get my attention so I slowed down to ask her what was wrong but only cracked my window and kept my doors locked. Something seemed off almost immediately. I offered to call the police and she started getting very flustered and just kept asking if I would get out to help her and eventually I just said sorry and left. Out of pure curiosity (and a bit of stupidity) I decided to circle around and pull off to observe from a distance and felt the most intense fear of my life when I realized there was a man on the other side of the car and that he had probably been there the entire time just waiting for me to get out of my car. I got away from there as fast as I could. This also doubles as my biggest story of regret because I did not call the cops and I have no clue why. I guess I was terrified and just wanted to get the hell away from there but a few days later another woman about my age disappeared from the area and I will always be convinced that I encountered the kidnappers just days prior and if I had contacted the police instead of doing nothing then she would be safe right now.

Was hanging out with some friends at their apartment with my boyfriend when I was 17. Got a terrible feeling and just wanted to go home. Begged my boyfriend to come home with me, but he said I was a party pooper. He wanted me to stay. I couldn't shake it though and just wanted to leave. I had this bit of anxiety balled up in my tummy for no reason.

I went home, felt better, went to sleep. 6 am I get a phone call, it's my boyfriend. There had been a murder right outside their front door, they were all being detained by the police. The nice seeming neighbor lady went and shot her twin sister.

Worked at the World Trade Center and woke up on 9/11 with the feeling not to go to work that day. Didn't go, thank God.

A few years ago my roommate and I were at her university library studying late at night, we had intended on staying all thru the night (it was open 24/7) but she suddenly got the urge to go home. A half hr to an hour later there was a shooting at the library we were at, no one died thankfully! but still very scary