12 People Who Came Home Early and Walked Into a Netflix Drama

Coming home early after a short trip, a work day, or a long time, are meant to be a breath of fresh air. What you don’t expect is for the air to be knocked out of you when you see what awaits you behind your door. The people in this article experienced just that. From unexpected ’guests’ to questionable situations — they were quite surprised, and some of them, in the best way possible.

1. Goblin mode

My boyfriend came home early and caught me off guard. He had left for work as usual, but barely half an hour later, he returned after remembering the rent check. When he walked in, he saw me finishing off a 2-litre soda, straight from the bottle, queso dripping down my shirt; and just giving strong goblin energy. Definitely not the version of me he’s seen before. To top it off, the male voice he heard on the other side of the door was of a YouTube video. © Rosecello / Reddit

2. Well surprise! Surprise?

Today I came home early from work to surprise my wife.... who was surprising me. I walked in quietly, and I saw her in the kitchen, with flour and cake mix on her forehead and tapestries, birthday cups, flowers, and gifts around the table. She was making a cake, for a surprise party. My surprise birthday.

My mouth dropped and I quietly walked backwards to the door, exiting quietly and waiting till 7:30 to come back home. My wife would be so sad, and she was working so hard. So, within a time frame of about 3 and a half hours, I practiced my “oh my, I’m so surprised face”

When I came home, she yelled “Surprise!” And I did a very bad surprise face, hugged her and we had a movie marathon.

This secret will never come out. © mylo_account1-07 / Reddit

3. Just a father

I walked in one day and my two older children (12 and 10) were crying and my wife was on the phone to 911 in full panic mode screaming. My 6 month old baby boy was lying on the floor solid blue. I instantly knew he was not breathing. I picked him up by his feet and slapped him on his back. Nothing. I shoved my finger down his throat and felt something solid, pushed it and a penny fell out of his mouth. I did CPR and he immediately started breathing and crying. Threw everyone in the car and rushed to the nearest ER. They checked him out and he was fine. I had planned to make a stop on the way home and something told me to go straight home. Good thing I did. That baby is now 41, has 4 kids and a great life. I’m so thankful I went straight home that day. He tells me I’m his hero. But I say no, just a father. © Fred Patterson / Quora

4. You ruined it

My wife and I had both been working from home but recently I started to go to the office. Today, I came back a little earlier than my usual time because I wasn’t feeling so well. When I opened the door to our house, her reaction felt a little odd to me — like she was surprised to see me, but not happy surprised. Felt a little weird, but I shrugged it off.

Sometime later I just happened to pick her phone up for some other work, and as I touched on the search bar, it opened up her search history. And there it was, her most recent search at the top — “how do I surprise my husband when he gets back from office”. I didn’t mention it to her, neither did she of course, but turned out I ruined her surprise by coming early, hence the reaction. © sau_dard / Reddit

5. Love lost and gained

I got home one day and found out my wife had left me. The next day, I got home from work and found 75 of my friends in my house cooking dinner and having a party in my honor. They wanted me to know I was loved. © Carl F Price / Quora

6. Invited him early

I had an awful pregnancy, extreme all day nausea that never went away. I jokingly wished for my son to come out early to “end my misery”. I guess he heard me and made his entrance at 26 weeks. I have never felt more guilty about anything else in my life. Thankfully everything turned out okay, he is perfectly healthy. It really triggers me when people say they wish their baby would come early, gosh they have nooo idea. I wouldn’t wish this life on my worst enemy. © Additional_Ad7032 / Reddit

7. The surprise call

I was on a video call with my girlfriend and we were talking about our plans for me coming home on the weekend and the entire time I was trying not to tell her about my changed flight. I’ve missed home and everyone a lot. We made our plans and whatnot and I went on to bed to get enough sleep for “work the next day.” I got the flight no bother and spent a couple of hours home getting ready to surprise my girlfriend.

I knew she was planning on catching up on coursework, but I knew I’d either let it slip that I was home or that she’d be annoyed with me if she found out later, so I rang her during what would’ve been my lunch hour to make sure she was going to be home then called round to her house. As soon as she saw me at the door she sprinted down the hall to find the keys and when she opened the door practically jumped onto me and nearly made me fall over a few times.

I got back home a couple of hours later and waited for my dad to get home from work. He almost jumped as well and gave me a big hug, and we’ve planned to go out for lunch tomorrow.
© Cyanide_R******* / Reddit

8. Nursery delivery

Three years ago, I came home to a porch full of delivery boxes—some of them pretty big.

Boxes on the porch weren’t unusual. My wife’s an Amazon regular. But these weren’t the plain cardboard kind. They were printed—like you’d see in a store. That was the first red flag.

The second was what they said: nursery furniture. A crib. A dresser. A rocking chair.

My first thought: “Is this her way of telling me she’s pregnant again?”
Half a second later: “We can’t afford another kid.”

Then the worst thought hit me: “Oh no... my teenage daughter?”

Cue five seconds of mini panic—confirmed by a spike on my Fitbit—until I checked the address.

Not ours.

The boxes were meant for a house one street over. We get their mail about once a week—same house number, similar street name. This time, we got their whole delivery.

After calming down, I grabbed my hand truck, rolled everything over, and congratulated the neighbor—turns out it was for a new grandchild. © Matthew Bates / Quora

9. The strange woman at the door

I hadn’t seen him in nearly a year. I got into town early, stopped by his place, and rang the bell with my heart racing.
A woman answered.
I blinked. She blinked.
Then she smiled and said, “You must be the famous girlfriend! I’m his mom!”
Apparently, he had flown her out that week as a surprise for me.
We ended up surprising each other at the same time. Now she texts me more than he does.

10. Mom locked out

I was five months pregnant at the time. I always got home earlier than my husband. For reasons unknown, the garage door opener wouldn’t work and, for the life of me, I couldn’t find any house keys in my purse! Discouragement comes very quickly when pregnant, so do tears. I sat on the front step feeling exceedingly sorry for my increasingly chubby self who had to sit and wait 2 hours for my husband to return home. No cell phones yet...naturally.

A window? I sat up a little straighter and clung to that possibility as I circumnavigated the house. Aha! The microscopic bathroom window was open at least an inch. It was fairly high off the ground, so I grabbed the least unstable patio chair we had and shoved it against the brick wall with vastly more confidence than the chair deserved. With no small amount of effort, I opened the window so there was just enough space for “both of us” to slide through.

Three months later (Steve was born prematurely) he sleeps comfortably in his bassinet.

All I can say is I’m glad Candid Camera wasn’t lurking behind a tree that day or any other video camera. I was certainly a sight to behold inching my enlarged body through that small space. © Kathy Pennell / Quora

11. The home remedy

So today I left work after like an hour or two because I had major stomach discomfort which led to diarrhea and nausea. And an overall feeling of malaise. I thought I could push through but after an hour or two I was like ain’t no way I could do this a whole shift, it’s getting worse. So I went to my manager and was like sorry but I gotta go home. Horrible timing too cause it was a holiday here which doesn’t look the best for me.

But as soon as I went to my car then went home I instantly felt better. Like I was like basically cured. I still felt a little nauseous sure but I was good enough to work again. And now I’m just like that was weird. Normally I wouldn’t care to miss work but I need the money right now so it feels like I just wasted a day for no reason. © QTDR8459 / Reddit

12. The kids did it again.

This morning, I left my preteen daughters home alone and texted their dad to check on them until I get back later in the afternoon. After about 40 minutes of him not responding, I rushed back home. As I pulled up, I saw my neighbors standing around my house with buckets and mops. Confused, I walked closer to my house only to find water running out my front door. I get inside, trudging through the ankle length river in my dining room and discover my daughters trying to get the water out. A neighbor explained that one of them had accidentally broken a pipe and flooded the entire house. They’d called for help, and thankfully, the plumber had already stopped the water.

It’s dark right now and my neighbors are still all here, helping wring water out of our belongings.

Receiving a gift is great, but giving one has its own perks. Check out people who were on the other end of the surprise.