Any gambler knows to consider the odds before placing a bet. You stand to make more money if you bet on a less-likely outcome. Still, when the odds on outcomes are just too low, even the most money-hungry gambler knows to hold their chips.
These 20 photographs captured moments no experienced gambler would’ve bet on: the odds said they were practically impossible. But put your chips on the table anyway — you’ll be happy you did — because these impossible moments actually happened…
1. The guy on the left summoned an Uber but didn’t expect the driver would be a slimmed-down, mustachioed replica of himself. Don’t worry, guy — maybe someday, you can grow a mustache, too.
2. A passing pigeon pooped a portrait of itself onto a leaf. Whether the photographer was carrying the leaf when the fly-by happened or he was sifting through leaves looking for pigeon-shaped poops was unclear.
3. A hiker trekking through rocky terrain stopped for a moment to replenish his energy. He pulled out a Clif Bar, looked at the wrapper, and noticed the graphic on it perfectly aligned with the mountains in front of him…
4. Two anchorwomen on competing Australian TV stations wore the same outfit on the same day. Viewers wondered if they were actually the same person. Had anyone ever seen them in a room together?
5. After a storm blew through town, it knocked down a few curbside trees, and boy, what tree-mendous luck this car owner had! Unfortunately, their car is probably still stuck there, what with the trees blocking forward and backward movement.
6. A Chinese couple discovered they both took pictures as teenagers at the May Fourth Monument before they knew each other. On closer inspection, they realized you can see the husband posing for his photo in the background of hers!
7. The photographer had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity before them: a chicken crossed the road. Did they ask why? Did they solve the mystery plaguing bad jokes for half a millennium? No. They took a picture.
8. When a fan of the X-Files hung the show’s iconic poster on his wall, he wouldn’t have bet the sunlight would add its own personal touch! If that UFO’s tractor beam doesn’t scream believe then what does?
9. In 2013, an EF-5 tornado ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, destroying over 8,000 buildings in the process. When one volunteer helped clean up after the twister, he found a VHS copy of the Helen Hunt movie Twister.
10. Barely out of med school, the nurse on the left helped deliver a premature baby; then, 28 years later, after that baby went through medical school himself, he ended up as her coworker (with the same amount of hair as the day he was born).
11. Ken went to Homegoods. Coincidentally, he found a doll there, also named Ken, that looked awfully familiar. So he bought it. Afterward, human-Ken had to get a tattoo so all his friends could tell him apart from the doll.
12. You’ve probably seen the game Jenga, where the objective is to pull a block from a wood tower without knocking the structure over. Well, she failed at that…sort of. Call it luck, but she was bailed out from defeat by a well-placed wall.
13. Thanks, Motorola. Because a young, impressionable car saw your advertisement, it thought it would give this fantastic thing called flippin’ a chance. What were the odds it happened right in front of the ad?
14. When this family took a photo on a trip to Rio De Janeiro, the observant stranger on the left — unknown to anyone in the family — ended up sneaking into the frame. Seven years later, without knowing about this photo, he met the girl in blue…and they married!
15. When he went to his doctor’s office, the physician pointed to a poster and said, “you kind of look like that guy on the wall over there.” Sure enough, the patient discovered he was unknowingly the poster child for acid reflux disease.
16. If a rare double rainbow can make you shout with delight, what effect would a super-rare triple banana have on you? The potassium in this thing must’ve been off the charts. No cramps for whoever downed this bad boy.
17. The man below lucked out: he ordered Chinese food and received two — yes, two! — fortune cookies. The fortune in the first read “Love is on the way.” The fortune in the second simply read “Love.” What are the odds?
18. Have you ever seen a car painted a brownish-gold color? Have you ever seen three cars — all painted a brownish-gold color — parked in a row? Have you ever seen three cars, all brownish-gold, parked in a row, in front of a brownish-gold home?
19. When the house featured in the Nickelodeon TV show Drake and Josh went on sale, a fan of the show went to take pictures. She didn’t expect Josh Peck — the actor behind the show’s main character — to show up at the same time!
20. To commemorate great driving, this building put a statue of a bronze boy with a steering wheel right outside. This statue apparently did not inspire great driving, however.
These photos should have been impossible, yet here we are. That’s why you never tell us the odds!
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