THE
KEY
Californian Williard Lovell locked herself out of her house.
She spent 10 minutes trying to find a way in when the postman
handed her a letter from her brother. In it was the spare key
he had taken back to Washington after a visit.
TWO
LAURAS
In June 2001, 10-year-old Laura Buxton of Burton, Staffs,
was at a party where she wrote her name and address on a luggage
label, attached it to a helium balloon and released it into the
sky. It floated 140 miles until finally coming to rest in the
garden of another 10-year-old Laura Buxton, in Pewsey, Wilts.
The girls got in touch and became friends, upon which they found
each had fair hair, owned a black Labrador, guinea pig and rabbit.
SHARED
FORE-TUNES
A stray golf ball hit a man on a course in Stockport, Cheshire,
in September 2001. Ten days later his wife was hit by a ball at
the same spot...struck by the same golfer.
SISTERS'
GRAVE ERROR
Sisters Doris Jean Hall and Sheila Wentworth both decided
to drop in on each other for a surprise visit. As they were travelling
in opposite directions on the rural American highway, Alabama
25, their identical jeeps collided and both were killed.
WHEELIE
SPOOKY
Film star James Dean died aged 24 in 1955 when he crashed
his Porsche Spyder sports car. The car was taken to a garage,
where it fell on a mechanic, breaking his leg. The engine was
sold to a doctor who put it in his racing car, crashed and died.
In the same race a car using the drive shaft from Dean's car crashed.
The driver also died. When the car's shell was put on display,
the showroom burned down. When it was exhibited again in Sacramento
it fell off the stand on to a visitor, breaking his hip.
FROZEN
IN TIME
Novelis Anne Parrish was excited to find a copy of Jack Frost
And Other Stories on a secondhand bookstall in Paris. It was her
favourite book at her Colorado Springs nursery, but she'd not
seen a copy since she was a child. She showed it to her husband
who opened it. He found the inscription: "Anne Parrish, 209
N Weber Street, Colorado Springs".
LOVER'S
LEAP
After finding her husband had been unfaithful, Vera Czermak,
of Prague, threw herself from her third floor balcony. By chance
she landed on her husband who was walking directly below. It killed
him while she escaped injury.
TWO
LITTLE BIRDIES
A golfer watched his perfect drive collide mid-flight with
a ball hit by another player from the opposite direction. Astounded
by the coincidence, both players met and introduced themselves
- they were both called Kevin O'Brien.
STRANGERS
ON THE SHORE
As John Peskett flicked through his wife's childhood holiday
snaps, a couple in the background caught his eye - his parents.
John and his wife Shirley, then strangers and both 10, had been
on the same beach on holiday at Minehead in Somerset in 1963 -
11 years before they first began dating.
DOUBLE
HITCH
While hitchhiking in New Zealand in 1994 Nick Witty exchanged
addresses with a man who gave him a lift. Two years later a friend
got a lift from the same man while in New Zealand. He said: "Last
time I picked up an Englishman was two years ago." He pulled
Nick's address from the glove compartment.
DEATH
TAKES HOLIDAY
IN
1946 Mildred West, an obituary writer on New York's Alton Evening
Telegraph, took a week's holiday. During her absence, and for
the first time in the newspaper's history, there were no deaths
recorded in Alton (pop 32,000). Normally they average 10 a week.
BRIDGE
TOO FAR
Richard Besinger was run over and killed while walking in
the middle of a bridge in California in 1957. Two years later
his son Hiram was killed on the same bridge when a timber truck
overturned on him. Six years after that, his 14-year-old great-grandson
David Whisler was mowed down there by a car.
KIMONO
BURNED DOWN TOKYO
A kimono successively owned by three teenage girls, each of
whom died before they had a chance to wear it, was so unlucky
it was cremated by a priest in 1657. But as it burned, a wind
fanned the flames and started a blaze. The fire destroyed three-quarters
of Tokyo, levelling 300 temples, 500 palaces, 9,000 shops, 61
bridges, and killing 100,000 people.
WRONG
TRACK
In August 1995 Lisa Potter was walking with her mother when
they came to the Moots Lane railway crossing in Essex. Lisa's
father had been killed there 11 years previously and her mother
refused to walk any further. Lisa decided it was time her mother
overcame her superstition and tried to encourage her across. But
as she stood on the crossing a train suddenly appeared and hit
Lisa, killing her instantly.
WHERE
THERE'S MUCK
Barbara Hutton, accidentally flushed her antique bracelet
down the toilet. Months later Barbara, from Woodley, Berks, was
in a jewellers' when a man brought in her bracelet to be valued.
He had found it while working in a sewer.
MY
NUMBER'S UP
A Man called Todd was at the Australian Rules football Grand
Final in 1990 where spectators were tearing up pages from telephone
books and tossing them into the air whenever a point was scored.
A shredded strip landed on Todd's lap. Just as he was about to
brush it away he noticed he was looking at his own name, address
and phone number.
Excerpt
from the book Beyond
Coincidence by Martin Plimmer and Brian King
