Ever had a gut feeling that just nagged at you? Did it ever turn out to be spot on?
So it’s not particularly surprising that the question was asked on redd… “What’s your greatest most satisfying “I f*cking called it” moment?”
Yeah, these are fun…
11. His Name Was Charles
“Back in the early ’90s, I was in my early twenties and, as people in their early twenties often do, I spent a lot of late nights at my local Denny’s hanging out with friends and drinking cheap coffee.
The late-night wait staff was pretty small, so my friends and I wound up getting to know them pretty well — socializing with them as well. Some of them would hook us up with free fries or sodas and every now and again if things were slow, they’d sit at our booth with us.
One of the people who would hang out with us was named Charles.
Charles was an older guy in his 50s who was very nice to my friends and me, but he was a little… creepy. He would never get overt about it, but he definitely embraced the whole ‘creepy uncle’ persona. He’d tell the girls in my group how pretty they were, and how he wished he was still young, that sort of thing.
The guy was a little weird, but he was a nice guy to us.
All the same, I remember telling people, ‘Charles has a secret. He’s in his fifties, slinging coffee at an all-night restaurant, but he comes off as educated and sort of worldly. He talks about traveling and living well — I don’t know what it is, but Charles is damaged. I bet he killed somebody or something.’ I was convinced that the ‘nice guy’ bit was a cover for something dark.
UH, YEAH…
So as my group got older, people came and went, some of us fell out with others, some of us got real jobs and couldn’t stay up until 4 am at a Denny’s, and we eventually stopped hanging out there.
Never really gave Charles much thought after that, for YEARS.
Then I saw Charles on the news.
Turns out Charles was Charles Rothenberg. In what I understand was originally intended to be a murder-suicide, he doused his son David in kerosene, and lit him on fire.
David survived, but was horribly scarred for the rest of his life. Charles continued to get into criminal trouble, and was ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison as a result of California’s ‘Three Strikes’ law.
He’s still in prison today, but in the late ’90s he changed his name to ‘Charley Charles,’ because sure, why not.
When his son was 19, he visited Charles in prison, apparently reading a prepared statement to him:
‘Charles, you are not my father. You are an impostor. Parents don’t hinder their children from experiencing a normal childhood. I wish that you could experience the trauma and pain that I have gone through.’
Afterward, David told the press, ‘He wanted me to know that he loved me. The last thing I said was, “No you don’t.” And I walked out.’
In a somewhat bizarre turn, David later legally changed his own name to ‘Dave Dave,’ mirroring the ‘Charley Charles’ name his father adopted. I have no idea if this is coincidental somehow, but the irony is not lost on me, that’s for sure.
Unfortunately Dave Dave himself passed away last year, at the age of 42 — his ongoing medical issues, which were the result of his burn injuries, eventually killed him.
So, yeah. I called it — Charles was harboring something dark when he was getting free fries for my friends and telling the girls how pretty they were. I just had no idea HOW dark.”
10. Totally Called It!
“In high school, my best friend’s little sister (16 at the time) brought home her new 18 year old boyfriend from work to meet the family. I was over at the time and talked to him for a while because we were the same age. After meeting him, I realized something was off. I got the impression that 1) He was much older than claiming 2) had been in jail.
I wound up saying something to my friend, who told his parents and sister.
Long story short, the family fre*ked out on me for spreading rumors that weren’t true, telling me to mind my own business, etc…
Two years later, the sister comes home from a date with him in tears. He finally came out and admitted to her that 1) He was 30, not the now 20 he was saying 2) He had spent 2 years in prison, but refused to say for what.
I was very quick to point out to the family how I called this years earlier and was basically shamed out of their house.”
9. Always Get A Second Opinion!
“My husband is super medically fragile – he’s had cancer twice and a bone marrow transplant in the last 9 years.
A few years ago, he had surgery on his wrist and I had a gut feeling he was brewing an infection despite being on antibiotics. His surgeon’s office saw him and switched the antibiotics. I contacted the cancer center because I just knew it was going to become more. They blew me off and punted back to the surgeon’s office.
I knew this was beyond the surgeon’s scope.
I pitched a tantrum fit and pretty much told them they were going to see them and I wasn’t accepting no for an answer. The triage phone nurse was condescending and telling me it was probably nothing and could wait. We got to the clinic and the nurse there started looking around the incision site. She told me that she believed my gut and pushed to admit him.
The CT showed a huge infection that landed him in the hospital for a week on potent IV antibiotics with another surgery to clean out the site.”
8. Super Creep
“When I was in sixth grade, I became friends with a couple other girls in my neighborhood. We each had completely different backgrounds, but we just clicked. For years, we three did all the things good friends do. The only thing I, personally, didn’t like was to stay over at the house of one of these girls, I’ll call her Brianna. I’d sleep over at the other girl’s house, they could sleep at mine, but I always came up with an excuse not to stay at Brianna’s.
She started to get her feelings hurt but I ignored it.
Then when we were all about 16 we all sat around drinking, like teenagers do. We got into a little debate about who is better friends with who, and I was somehow accused of not ‘liking’ Brianna as much as the other friend because I wouldn’t spend much time at her house. Since I had zero filter at that moment, I blurted out, ‘Brianna. It isn’t you. It’s your dad. He’s a child predator, I can tell just by looking at him.’
As soon as I said it, everything changed. I apologized, that didn’t work of course. Both of my best girlfriends dumped me that day. I still had a solid best friend, but I had to get myself a new group for sure. Also, they started bullying me a bit, but I just took it because of the horrible thing I said about Brianna’s dad. I felt super guilty.
Three years later, I was out of high school, living with my best friend who was still friends with Brianna.
I got home from class and there was Brianna sitting on the living room couch. It was SO uncomfortable. I decided to try to apologize again. ‘Hey, I know you are probably sick of hearing this, but I am so very sorry for what I said about your dad, Brianna. Please forgive me, I still don’t know why I’d say such a thing.’
She sort of chuckled and said, ‘It’s no big deal, he assaulted all of us.’
I never questioned my intuition again, because I called it the second I saw that creep.”
7. Bridal Woes
“Remember the Runaway Bride? Not the movie, the actual woman?
Well, there was a woman who was ‘kidnapped’ before her wedding (maybe a couple days before, if I’m not mistaken), and the whole world started looking for her. If I remember correctly, she was able to make a phone call to her family and she told them she was kidnapped by some ‘Mexicans.’ As soon as she said that, I knew she was lying. Whenever people specify a race when explaining a crime, my ears perk up, but I understand why she did it.
People will believe it.
Either way, my girlfriend at the time got so mad at me saying, ‘You always think you know it all! This woman was kidnapped and all you can do is think of something to be right about! Have some compassion.’
Couple days later, guess who shows up?
Apparently she didn’t wanna get married and decided to get ‘kidnapped’ rather than call it off. Luckily the state made her pay back all the money they spent to search for her, but of course, no jail time.
I never said ‘I told you so’ to my girlfriend, but I know she was waiting for it by how she was acting, didn’t speak much, acted aloof.
So we never spoke of it after.”
6. Live That Single Life!
“The first paramour my mom met was this guy from a city about an hour and a half drive from us on a less than reputable dating site. Soon she started dating him and promptly gave him a key to her house. DUMB, right? So she’s my mom and I respect her, but at the same time, I want to keep her safe. I meet the guy and can instantly tell there’s something not quite right about him. He was nice to me but he seemed unnaturally shy and would rarely make eye contact with me.
And he would always try to buy my affection. As they continued to date, my mom would get mad at me for being cold to him. And of course I couldn’t articulate why I felt the way I did. Fast forward about a year, they are married. She finds out he has been sneaking out in the middle of the night to meet women. She divorced him and he knocked up some woman half his age.
So then she meets this guy, on the SAME SITE.
I met him and he seemed nice enough. Way more personable and outgoing but something still seemed off about this guy. He told my mom he was 52. Also, he told her he was in the Navy and was a SEAL. Obviously I was skeptical because SEALs don’t have to brag about being SEALs and he really didn’t seem the personality. Fortunately for me, one of my best friends’ step-dad was a legitimate Navy SEAL. I asked my mom’s boyfriend some details about it (when he served, his BUD/S class, etc.).
My friend’s step-dad has access to BUD/S class records and this dude is nowhere to be found. Told my mom and called the dude out on it, he folded and admitted he was in the Navy but lied about being a SEAL to impress the both of us. Not only that, but I get on this court records website the courts in our area use and find out he is not 52, but 60!
Mom is currently doing just fine living the single life.”
5. Sketchy AF
“After breaking up with my first girlfriend, she rebounded with a very sketchy dude at her work. Within a month, he was living with her and she had become a completely different person. I tried warning her she was being gaslit and manipulated. Her friends tried. But the dude had his teeth sunk in too deep and she was not listening to any of us.
After 6 months, he dropped the act and made up an elaborate story about his mother (who he had previously said died of cancer) having F*ked her death and being alive in California.
So he left for a week at which point he stopped all contact with my ex. She panicked and came to me saying she was worried. And within days, his entire construction fell like a house of cards, and it became clear he wasn’t coming back. He had gotten what he needed. My ex was devastated. I always did have a bad feeling about him.”
4. This Is A Rollercoaster Ride
“A few years ago, a friend of mine had gotten caught up in the ‘letgo’ app (like ebay and tinder had a baby). He found a crazy good deal on an Audi and wanted to check it out. I was apprehensive about the low price and how it was advertised in a lower income community. He told me not to worry and invited me to come along to check it out.
My friend was texting the seller throughout the day trying to make this deal happen.
He, his girlfriend, and I went to the seller’s house to check out this car. We couldn’t see the car anywhere and figured it was in a garage or something. We arrive at the house of the seller and we’re greeted by a young guy (early 20s) dressed in laid back, lazy day on the couch, bum-around the house basketball shorts and t shirt. At this moment, I knew something was up.
We hop out of our car and the seller leads us to the back yard of this little suburban house with no garage, but a shed – ALMOST wide enough to fit a car…
The seller says that the car is in the shed and his brother has the key. He begins to walk up the steps to the back door and from around the corner of the house pops out a thin guy with a hoodie and a ski mask on. His right hand is hidden behind the lining of his hoodie but is posturing that he has a weapon and is ready to shoot.
We all freeze.
Not because we’re paralyzed with fear, but because the absurdity of the moment.
It’s 2:30 in the afternoon on a bright sunny day in a modest suburb in everyday America, and here we are getting robbed.
I look at the seller and see the weakest surprised face I’ve ever seen. It was clear to me that this was a set up and we bit the hook. But luckily for us, these two guys were the laziest fishermen in the state.
We didn’t move an inch, we stood calmly and silently thinking the same thought: ‘If he actuality has a weapon, then we can panic.’
We stood there for a few seconds waiting for the ski mask to engage us and make his move, but he just stood there at the corner of the house! After about 30 seconds of silence, the ski mask dipped back behind the house and I urged us to leave. We pile back into our car and head back home.
Now, this should be a near miss story, and you all are waiting for the ‘I called it!’
You see, on the car ride home, my friend was trying to get back in touch with the seller!
He didn’t believe that the whole situation was a set up, and that we got out of it untouched because of the ineptitude of those guys. He kept texting him and told us to pull over at a gas station so he could try to get this Audi.
I sat and argued with him for literally 58 minutes, explaining that this car, this price, this seller, all of it, was a lie to try and rob us. I said, ‘We got lucky and avoided getting robbed or hurt or killed and now you want to go back and put the SAME HOOK IN YOUR LIP!?’
My friend argued that even a chance at a car at this low a price was worth it. ‘If I can arrange for this deal to happen somewhere in public, then I can get this car!’ He texted something to that effect to the seller and didn’t get a response. My friend started the car back up and we went home.
Later that evening, I was with my family watching the local news, and who should pop on screen? A mugshot of the guy who was ‘selling an Audi.’
He was caught by the police later that day for trying the exact same trick! I sent my friend a screen shot of the mugshot with the message:
‘Look, it’s your boy!'”
3. Preggers
“In Canada, we have a holiday called Family Day in February. In 2008, my wife was dealing with a sick family member out of town, and had come back for a visit.
We were trying to have a child at the time. Well, with our crazy schedules, we had one chance and it was on Family Day.
The moment we were done, I jumped up, gave her the double thumbs up (first time in my life) and said, ‘Bam! You’re pregnant.
Twin girls, red hair.’ Turns out I got everything right except the hair, her Italian genes beat me in that one.
I win for our entire marriage with that prediction.”
2. Lost And Never Found
“In college, I went to a theme park with my boyfriend, right before I moved away to California. He has really bad eyesight and had just gotten brand new glasses, I believe they were very expensive. As we’re going up the stairs in line for a roller coaster, I said, ‘Hey, why don’t you give me your glasses and I’ll stick them in my purse.’
He said, ‘Nah, it’ll be fine.’
And I said, ‘Are you sure? You’re making an expensive bet where if you win you just get to keep what you already have.’
And he said, ‘The forward momentum of the roller coaster will keep them on my face.’ So I thought, he’s an adult, whatever.
Literally first drop of the roller coaster I hear him yell over the roar of the wind, ‘DO YOU HAVE MY GLASSES???’ so we spent the next hour walking around the base of the roller coaster looking for them and leaving a report at the lost and found booth.
I then had to drive us home in his SUV, which I had never driven before, because I did not want him navigating blind.”
1. Blame Canada!
“When I was 19, my girlfriend and I, along with another friend of ours, took a road trip up to Toronto to visit a friend of ours who lived there during the summer. It was my first time leaving the United States since I came here when I was 3 years old, so I was excited.
We were there to see our friend but we had also heard that in Toronto they have these ‘novelty ID’ shops where you could get a F*ke ID from a U.S.
state. She was starting college in a few months, and I would be joining her the next semester, so we wanted to have F*ke IDs to be able to buy for ourselves.
We went into the city one day and found one of these shops. It was pretty crazy, they had a whole book of sample IDs featuring every state and also some other random novelty IDs. We heard from someone that Michigan was the one that looked the realest, so we made ours from there.
We paid them they gave us a form where we basically filled in all the info except an address. I told my girlfriend to make sure she got the year right, since she could be absent-minded sometimes and she said, ‘Yeah, yeah I got it, make sure you got your’s right.’
They took a picture for the ID and then handed me a Michigan State hoodie. Part of the cost included a second form of ID, in this case a college ID, and by wearing the hoodie it gave the illusion that the pictures were taken on different days.
After a short wait we had our two IDs and were set to be able to buy back in the US.
We get in the car and are about to drive back to our friend’s house. I ask my girlfriend to see her ID because I wanted to see if her address was the same as mine or if they used random ones. As I’m looking at her ID I notice that the year on hers is wrong. I told her, ‘Babe, you got the year wrong. This says you’re 20, not 21.’
She laughed and said, no it doesn’t, and grabbed the ID from me. She stared at the ID for a few seconds and then her smile turned into a scowl. She didn’t say another word for the rest of the ride back and I was trying so hard to hold back my laughter because I knew something like that was gonna happen.”
Got a moment or situation like this that you totally called? Ever get that nagging, gut feeling?
Well, you know what to do, right?
Share your story in the comments!