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 10 people who got incredibly lucky.
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 kilometers 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.
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.
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.
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.
Harrison Odjegba Okene survived for three days in a tugboat that had sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Okene 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.
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 into the Amazon rainforest. Koepcke not only survived the fall but was able to endure 10 days in the jungle before being rescued by locals.
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 were dated back to 1847 by experts. The couple ended up auctioning off the collection, which was valued at a whopping $11 million.
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.
It’s only natural to feel weary when driving behind a vehicle transporting contents, but most 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.
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 tree managed to fall in such a way that the car went completely unscathed.
