Seven seriously amazing coincidences shared by our followers

Rajesh Mirchandani investigated coincidences in the Seriously... podcast episode 'What Are the Odds?', so we asked our social media followers what the weirdest coincidence they ever experienced was.

And they did not disappoint.

Here are seven of the most seriously surprising coincidences we received.

"Sitting on the balcony of a cheap hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica, writing a postcard to my pal home in Scotland. A couple at the next table were speaking Slovene, so I got talking to them, in Slovene. They asked where I was from, said Scotland, and said: "I bet I'm the first Scot you've ever met who speaks Slovene."

"No, we had a teacher at uni from Scotland, he spoke Slovene."

"Really? Was his name Paul by any chance?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to sign a postcard to him?""

Submitted by Fergus Smith on Facebook.

A few years ago, being both a beatboxer and a priest, I was invited to take the wedding of two beatboxers in Tampa in Florida.

While I was staying in Tampa, I decided to visit a hip-hop church service. I had visited the same church some years before. On this occasion, prior to the service commencing, the pastor saw me and asked me to do some beatboxing on the platform during the service, which I duly did.

After the service I was just leaving when a guy came up to me. His name was Geoff and he told me that this wasn't his usual church but that a friend of his, that he worked with in McDonalds, would have loved to have seen me beatbox. Geoff, was, a little 'earnest' and he continued to tell me about his friend saying, "He's also British, you might know him?" I nodded politely and tried to make my excuses to leave. Then Geoff continued, "He's an artist. Let me show you some of his pictures on my phone." I was feeling a little awkward but played along and looked at the pictures. They looked very familiar - being distinctive - and it dawned on me that they were by an old friend, with whom I had lost contact some 10 years previously. I replied, "Those are by Ben!" Geoff didn't look surprised that I knew Ben, and Ben was here, in Tampa?

I asked Geoff for Ben's phone number and called him up on a disposable mobile phone I had bought. Ben answered. "Hi it's Gav!" I exclaimed. "Gav who?" Ben asked. "Gav Tyte!" I replied. "But you're calling on a local number?" Ben asked. I then told Ben how I was at a church in Tampa and how his friend Geoff, who worked with him, happened to be visiting the same church, and how he'd approached me, and how he decided to show me Ben's artwork to me on his phone.

By now Ben was in tears.

It turned out that at that very moment, when his phone rang, he was on his knees asking for a sign that God was with him. It turned out Ben was going through a very tough time. We arranged to meet up. I took Ben out for a meal and prayed with him. It really did feel like the whole thing was set up by God.

A coincidence? Maybe. Probably. But it's still the most incredible thing to have happened - for me and for Ben.

Submitted by Gavin Tyte on Facebook.

I went to South Wales with my girlfriend and her two brothers to watch the rugby last Saturday.

On the train journey from Carmarthen (where we were staying over) to Cardiff, we passed through the home town of snooker legend Terry Griffiths. When I mentioned this fact, my girlfriend’s brother announced that he had been a huge fan.

Our journey home on Sunday was a huge detour along the coast to avoid the snow. We called at a Costa in Aberystwyth for a break. And apart from us, the place was empty. Then in walked Terry Griffiths! It was incredible. We chatted to him and he was lovely.

Submitted by Micheal Roberts on Facebook.

In the 1960s we took on a Labrador-type mongrel which kept going missing. This time it had been about five days.

I pushed baby #3 in a pram into town with small brother and sister. In those days you left babe and pram outside the shop. I took the two older children into the shop, upstairs where fabrics were displayed. I was intent on choosing material to make dresses for the babe and her sister.

I was tapped on the shoulder. And I turned around to find the dog behind me on two legs attracting my attention. I have never been able to explain that one. The journey home wasn’t easy with pram, two children, and clutching collar of dog for two miles!

Submitted by Anne Brown on Facebook.

I am a Canadian adoptee. I met my husband in Prague. His family lives in Seattle.

I meet his mother. Then my adoption search turns up the name of my birth father in rural Canada. I tell the details to my mother-in-law. She tells her close friend the paternal family name.

Turns out my mother-in-law’s close friend has been vacationing with my biological father’s family for decades.

Three countries. Millions of people. And the man I married connected me by three degrees to my birth father.

Submitted by Marilyn Mccune on Facebook.

I had been living in Australia and asked a friend to send back my driving licence so I could drive back here in the UK.

When I started flat hunting in Putney, London, I was at a friend's house and saw an advert for a flatmate in the paper and it was just around the corner.

I went round and the guy asked my name - he said I have something for you... He opened his briefcase and there was my driving licence.

He was my friend’s brother. I got the room in his flat!

Submitted by Amanda Churchill on Facebook.

We had to move from our lovely old farmhouse in Suffolk due to work.