I swear, some people's only goal in life is to ruin someone else's day. From miserable family members to despicable strangers, it's hard to keep your faith in humanity when you're stuck dealing with these unbelievable jerks.
1. Bad Blood
My next-door neighbor was a wonderful person. She had a foster daughter for years, and eventually decided to adopt her. What happened next was legal, but horrible.
The biological mother heard about the adoption and decided she suddenly wanted her kid back. After a few parenting classes and drug tests, the courts forcibly removed this little girl from my neighbor and put her back into her biological mother’s care. This woman hadn’t seen her child for over two years and had previous cases with Child Protective Services.
About a month later, the biological mom’s boyfriend took that little girl's life. She was this close to living a wonderful, happy life with my neighbor, then her mother ripped it all away.
2. Big Apple Bonehead
When I was 14, my little brother and I were in New York City visiting relatives. My brother was hard of hearing—he wasn’t deaf, but he rarely reacted to people talking to him unless they made eye contact. We got onto a crowded elevator, and a guy—an adult—walking behind him said, "Excuse me", but my brother didn't hear him. So, then he bellowed, "I SAID GET OUTTA MY WAY," before proceeding to swear.
Everyone was looking at him because an adult swearing at a child is inappropriate, even for New York. The guy made a cheesy smile and said, "Heh...Welcome to New York". But I made sure he'd regret ever treating my brother like that. I looked at him and said, "He is deaf". The guy turned nine shades of white and he was trapped on an elevator for 40-odd floors with 10 people who hated him. It was pretty glorious.
3. Obey Your Commander
My buddy and I were at a movie and these dudes were talking about how they had just gotten out of basic training. They then proceeded to bash the movie, making rude comments out loud and ruining everyone else's experience. My buddy told them, "Pipe down". They flipped him off but obliged. After the movie, we were at the front of the pack, right behind the six or seven guys who were being rude.
My buddy said, "That was really rude, how you were behaving", and one of them—the loudest guy—whipped out his ID and said, "Yeah, well, I'm a Marine, and I fight for your freedoms". All my buddy could do was smirk. He just so happened to be an officer, so he whipped out his ID and said, "I'm a Marine officer, and just because you have the honor of wearing a uniform doesn't give you the right to be a jerk".
Then he made them stand at attention right at the door of the movie theater and apologize to every patron exiting.
4. She Was A Golddigger
A decently attractive woman I used to work with started dating another coworker. He was a kind of dorky-looking guy, but he was super nice, really smart, and—most importantly—had a very high-paying position. Eventually, they got married, and he thought life was perfect. He couldn't have been more wrong. In the first year, he bought her whatever she wanted—a huge new house, a nice sports car.
He even paid for her to get some plastic surgery, including implants. Within 18 months of marriage, it came out that she had been cheating on him with multiple men, including men from work. No one hid it. Over the next several months, as the divorce came and went, she continued to sleep with many coworkers. She even had several open relationships, literally and figuratively.
It was clear she only married the poor guy for his money. On top of that, she needlessly flaunted her infidelity and rubbed his face in all her post-marriage flings. Then one day, the guy didn't show up to work, and no one could get in touch with him. After a few days, his manager called the authorities requesting a wellness check. They found that he had taken his life over the weekend.
5. On The Edge
I was on a trip with this girl and her family to New Hampshire. On the way back, we were going to her cousin's wedding in New Jersey. The girl had turned evil, alienating me the entire time in front of her family. So when we got to the rehearsal dinner, I was on edge. Afterward, everyone went to the hotel bar and another wedding party arrived.
This guy in the other group started harassing people in the group that I was in, to the point that he was ruining the night for both families. Finally, he looked at me and went, "WHAT"?! He didn’t realize I was ready to have it out with someone because of my terrible trip. I immediately started walking toward him with what I can only describe as true rage. It was about to go down.
As I got to about two feet from this guy, I looked at him directly and said, "What is your problem? You are here for a wedding! If you say one more thing to anyone in my party, I swear to God I will beat the living daylights out of you until you can't walk anymore. So turn around and shut up"! The only thing I could see after I said that was fear in his eyes.
The guy immediately turned around and mumbled some nonsense in this wimpy, deflated voice. When I turned around, everyone in my group had this look like I was some sort of hero, and people were giving me high fives. Later that night, I packed up my stuff in the dark, asked the concierge to get me a taxi, and caught a train home, leaving the evil girl alone at the wedding.
6. Cashed Out
$25,000 was lawfully taken from my grandfather, who had Alzheimer’s but wasn’t diagnosed at the time. He couldn’t tell the authorities why he had that much money on him because he had forgotten. It was to buy a new truck. The officers just took the money and left without any charges being filed.
We didn’t find out until a year later when the authorities sent a receipt of the seizure to his house, and we found it when we were cleaning. But it was already too late. There was nothing we could do about it because the department had already spent the money. I'm still furious about it to this day.
7. Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied
My best friend had two kids with his wife, who then left him for her very rich boss. But that was just the start of the nightmare. She and the boss wanted custody of the children. So, they used his wealth to bankrupt my friend in court battles. Every time the court was leaning towards a joint custody ruling, they would introduce some new “evidence” or delaying tactic.
They knew if they just kept dragging it out repeatedly, he would run out of money and give up, which was what happened. As a result, he had very limited access to his own kids, and the access he had was routinely denied or ignored by his ex-wife. Her response was, "What are you going to do about it? You want a battle like last time"?
8. Last Supper
My younger brother was a smart guy. Unfortunately, he had horrible taste in women and would rather be in a bad relationship than be alone. He was dating this little blonde whose only virtues were a pretty face and a willingness to go out with him. My wife and I met the two of them for dinner one night. All of us except his girlfriend ordered steaks.
She just wanted a salad, and while picking at it, she decided to take a few cheap shots at my wife since she is 5'9", lifts weights with me, and wears either a size 10 or 12, depending on who's making the clothes. Since this woman was only 5'2" and wore a size 4 at most, she thought she was justified in saying stuff like, "How can you eat that? Don't you care about your appearance"? She pulled that stunt at the wrong table.
My brother put aside his cutlery and said, "Shut up. I know my sister-in-law, and she's a better woman than you or any other woman I've ever dated. Now finish your salad. It's the last meal you'll ever have at my expense".
9. She Was Seeing Red
I was in the return line at an electronic’s store, and the lady two positions in front of me got called up next. She was trying to return a vacuum cleaner because it wasn't sucking anymore. It looked like it had been used outside to clean a construction site. There were caked-on white patches of dirt all over it, the cord had several knots, and the clear container for dust was packed full, with no room for shaking.
The person told her she just needed to empty it and it would work fine. They also mentioned that they could not take a return on it because the purchase was made seven months earlier. She wasn't having it, not one bit. She took an exaggerated deep breath and started yelling nasty words. Everyone in the line froze and stared at the spectacle.
This was no small woman either. She was about 5'7" and her voice had gone from sweet to rabid in a split second. Her face also turned from white to red in the same amount of time. The poor little girl tending to her took a step back in recoil and fell into the chair behind her. The manager came sprinting out of the office with his hands up, asking her to settle down.
It didn’t work and only made the woman angrier. She then started hitting the counter with one of the vacuum cleaner brush attachments. She called the girl “useless”, the manager a “toad”, and she kept threatening to sue them. This went on for about two minutes and there was a large crowd starting to gather.
She raised the long brush attachment as if she were going to strike the girl and proclaimed, "FINE, IF YOU DON'T WANNA GIVE ME MY MONEY, I’M GONNA"... At that point, I had enough of her disgusting behavior. I wasn't about to watch this woman become aggressive against innocent people. I yelled, "HEY”. She stopped mid-sentence, jerked her head at me, and shot eye daggers at my face.
All I could do was stare at the gobbler on her chin, swinging around as if it were jello. The words that came out were not the ones I'd intended. I said, "PUT THE FORK DOWN"! Her eyes went wider than they already were, which seemed like an odd reaction. Everyone then burst into laughter. Then I realized what I'd said.
I was about to correct myself, but she started stomping toward me with the vacuum rod attachment high above her head. So, I decided to roll with it in the most epic way—I was wearing a red jacket, so I dropped my bag, swung it off, and started acting like a bull-fighting matador. The woman saw me mocking her and just shrieked. She started galloping at me as I swung the thing in circles above her head.
I got about 20 feet away when security confronted her with tasers drawn. They didn't zap her, but the sound of one calmed her down instantly. She immediately went into defensive mode. She was taken into custody, and I had my hand shaken by four or five people, including the manager. I even got a girl’s number out of the ordeal.
10. Fight Or Flight
I'm a pretty mellow guy who travels for a living, and I don’t really let small things get to me. However, a couple of years ago, I was on a flight that was running 30 minutes late. I was already thinking to myself that the connection was going to be tight and it would most likely require me to run or briskly walk for a mile or so through the airport.
I was one of the last passengers to board the plane, and I had to check my bag since there was no more room. The four or five people behind me did the same thing. I worked my way down the aisle, and there was a guy asking people to shift their bags. He was trying to get his oversized bag to fit, and there was no room. He called for the flight attendant, who walked up and said, "Sir, we are out of the room. You will have to check your bag".
That was it for him—he went OFF on her and started yelling, "This airline sucks. I'm a million-mile member. I want your employee number and name", and so on. At that point, I pretty much mentally snapped. I felt horrible for the flight attendant who was just doing her job, and this guy had spent five minutes making an idiot out of himself and burning up time.
People were gawking, cringing, and just hoping he would stop so they could move on. I just yelled, "SHUT UP. SHUT THE HECK UP"! I was shaking with anger. Then, I went off. I said, "Take your bag to the front of the plane, check it in, and stop with this insanity. You are what is wrong with air travel. Your sense of entitlement makes me want to puke. If you are a million-mile flier, you know the rules of flying. You should know how this works".
"Why punish everyone on this flight? You have insulted this lovely young lady, you have made everyone on this plane uncomfortable with your little show, and I'm now another five minutes late for my connection. I want you and your little Napoleon-complex issues to shut up and sit down. Do WE have a problem"? He started spluttering and looking all flustered but didn't say a single word.
Somebody at the back of the plane started clapping. Soon the whole plane was applauding me. I just sat down and waited while everyone clapped, and this guy took a long walk of shame to the front of the plane. The flight attendant thanked me, and so did everyone else. I didn't mean to do it, but I just can't stand people like that. The best part was I had free drinks for the flight, the attendant gave me a stack of free drink cards for my next couple of flights, and one of the passengers gave me a voucher for free WiFi that he had won.
It was very satisfying.
11. I Couldn’t Lay This One To Rest
This woman—a serial suer—was at her best friend's funeral driving in the funeral procession when she suddenly stopped her car. The parents of the recently deceased were in the car behind her and bumped her bumper from behind. The procession was obviously going extremely slow. The woman sued the parents for back and neck injuries and won.
The last postcard we got from this woman was a picture of her dancing it up in Greece. Her family wouldn’t even let her come to visit them on their properties anymore for fear she would fall and sue them. She was a real piece of work.
12. The Customer Is Not Always Right
We were a small business making super specialty products. We almost lost everything for the stupidest reason. We had a customer put down $30K, take delivery of our product, then decide, "I think it will be cheaper just to sue you than to pay you the remaining $30K". I thought this was impossible as we had all the signed paperwork and everything, but three months later, he got to keep our product without paying us.
Due to all the attorney fees which we had to carry and the fact that down payments go to suppliers, my partners and I had to open up our personal bank accounts to keep the company afloat. All of our employees got paid, but we, the owners, had to forego salaries until it was settled.
13. Time To Blow This Taco Stand
I was at a Taco Bell at around 5 am. As anyone could imagine, I was totally trashed and just wanted some tacos. The line was about 50 people long, so I waited a long time to get food. When I was ordering, I realized that my buddy wasn’t right behind me like he had been the whole time, and instead, some Jersey Shore-looking person was. The guy cut in front of many people, and they were all yelling at him to get back.
I started telling him to get to the back of the line, but he was just smirking and ignoring me, while my friend—also trashed—was glaring at him over his shoulder. I kept trying to get this dude out of the line when suddenly, he lunged at me. This guy was pretty built, and though I was tall, I wasn’t strong. I knew I had to act fast, and act fast I did—I grabbed the back of his neck, stuck my leg in front of him, and laid him on the ground.
Then, I asked him if he was OK and I helped him up. Security came and asked ME if I was OK and told the guy to get to the back of the line. I got some cheers and my tacos.
14. The Cards Were Stacked Against Him
I worked for a retailer in the UK that sold second-hand games, movies, and tech. We often had customers coming in trying to sell us hot or broken items, and we would refuse to serve them. We had one guy who regularly came in with obviously lifted Blu-ray discs. I took pleasure in constantly refusing to serve him unless he provided proof of purchase.
After a few weeks of trying and failing, he absolutely lost his cool. He decided to take it out on my staff and me. When screaming and threatening us from across the counter didn't garner any sympathy, he decided that playing the race card was his best bet. He appealed to another customer who was being served one station over. The furious tirade that flowed from this other gentleman's mouth was incredible.
After berating the thief for his awful behavior and blatantly lifting goods, he went on to explain why using the color of his skin as an excuse was disgraceful and insulting. After a few minutes, the dodgy customer was shaking and sheepishly left the store to boos and catcalls. The other guy got a full staff discount and a round of applause from the entire store.
15. Facebook Fiasco
A girl in high school had a mad ex-boyfriend decide to post the racy pictures she had sent him on her Facebook page and tag the entire school on the posts. She went to the authorities about it, and they told her that while they could prosecute the guy, but she would also be prosecuted for producing and distributing illicit photographs of a minor (her). They scared her off, and the guy got off scot-free.
16. The Price Paid For An Education
One of my friends owed almost $50K in student loans that he didn’t remember taking out. The reason he didn’t remember taking them out was because his school—which was a for-profit college that had since closed—convinced him to sign a document when he first enrolled—at age 17—which essentially gave them the right to take out loans on his behalf in order to pay his tuition. They used that to ruin his life.
They didn't explain to him what the document was. They just got him to sign it amongst a flurry of paperwork. The school then took out several private loans with an exorbitant interest rate, and my friend just started getting letters out of the blue the year after he graduated. When he was in school, whenever those loans would show up on his student portal, they were just given a code number and classified as "financial aid".
Therefore, he thought he was getting education grants. Apparently, this has happened to a lot of people, but he was told that there's nothing he can do about it, especially since the school had closed. He contacted multiple entities to discuss the issue, and all of them said there was nothing he could do because he signed the contract willingly.
17. Pick On Someone Your Own Size
I was at a party with some friends. A guy who was a year or two younger than me showed up. We never really got along, but I had never done anything to him. Everyone was drinking and having a good time, and this guy showed up in his dad’s truck just looking for a fight. He approached me and started yelling at me and freaking out. He thought he could scare me, but he was so wrong.
I’m a girl, and this huge guy was picking a fight with me. Being the brazen person I was, I walked up to him, grinned, and socked him in the face. I'm not sure if he was shocked or mad, but as my male friends gathered to keep him in line, he got into his truck and drove off.
18. I Had To Lecture Them
I had a cool, older female professor at a community college who could not get any respect from this group of trashy girls. They would constantly talk in class over her. These were not teenagers either—they were women in their late 20s talking back to a 45-year-old professor. One day, we were right in the middle of class, and everyone was getting mad because these four girls wouldn't shut up.
The professor was frustrated but was way too nice to be nasty...so I decided to step up to these jerks. I turned around in the middle of a class of nearly thirty people and said, "Hey, can you guys SHUT UP so the rest of us can hear the lecture"? The whole class turned around and looked at me as if I had just grown a second head. But I could tell they all wanted to pat me on the back.
19. A Chili Reception
I had worked at Chili's for about five years. I had so many experiences with rude people that I lost count, but one was by far the worst. I was waiting tables around graduation time and I had a party of 25 call ahead at about 7 pm, saying they would be arriving in 30 minutes. We set the table up for them and were anticipating their arrival.
They actually showed up about an hour and a half later than they said they would. We had since broken up the big table and seated other smaller parties there. When they arrived, they were angry that their table wasn't ready for them. The really soft-spoken, sweet hostess who was working that night simply explained to them that we thought they had chosen somewhere else to go since they hadn't come sooner. That's when the Karen came out.
The lady who was speaking to the hostess immediately burst out, saying that we should have known that they were still coming. She then said out loud that she knew Chili’s "was a terrible idea," and that we were all terrible at our jobs. Almost in tears, the hostess said that we would set up another table for them in a closed section and that I would take care of them.
These same people would always come in, be rude to everyone, NEVER tip, and constantly complain so they could get free food. When I waited on large parties by myself, I always started everyone with water just because it takes some time to get everyone’s drink order and get it out to them. I figured it was better to at least have some water available while waiting.
As soon as we got them settled in, several started complaining that they didn’t have water and that I was rude not to offer them a different option. I simply explained I would be bringing them whatever they would like and that the water was just to hold them for the time being. Apparently, that wasn't good enough for them. They told me I was an idiot and said, “Get this mess out of my face", referring to the water.
Most of them ordered strawberry lemonade, so I made all of the drinks and brought them out to them. The group then started to complain, “This stuff tastes nasty”. They told me it didn’t taste anything like what it did last time. I told them that we made it by the same measurements every time, but that I would be glad to make a new batch for them.
I went and poured out what we had and made another batch of strawberry lemonade. I took it out to them, and they again complained that it was nasty. I offered to get them something else, and they said, "We just want a waiter that isn't an idiot and knows how to make strawberry lemonade”. I got the manager to explain that we made our strawberry lemonade the same way every time.
They rolled their eyes and told the manager that I was being rude to them. Then, when they started eating their meals, they began to be even more disrespectful to me. They started pouring their drinks out on the floor on purpose, throwing food at me and insulting me right in front of my face. I had a couple of other tables complain that this large party was being extremely loud, which they were.
I went over and asked if they minded being a little quieter as they were disturbing the other tables in the restaurant. One kid then yelled, “OH, YOU THINK I'M TOO LOUD”? They all started being even louder than before, and some tables even got up and left. That was the final straw. I yelled over them and told them they were no longer welcome at our restaurant.
That shut them up. One kid told me that I couldn't do that, and I said, “When you start causing our other good paying customers to leave, I can do what I want, now get out”. They had the nerve to ask for boxes of their food that they hadn't touched because they were too busy being loud. I told them that I couldn’t care less if they wanted their food and that they needed to leave.
My manager and I stood at the door smiling, watching them all walk out. One girl told me that I had ruined her graduation party. I informed her that she had no class and got what she deserved. A few of them stayed and talked to my manager, begging him to allow them back because it was their favorite place to eat. He told them they cost the company money when they came in, and they were never welcomed back.
20. The State Of Mental Health
My ex had a long list of mental health issues. That only made what they did to her even more cruel. In the three years we were together, she tried to take her life twice. Her parents admitted her into a local clinic. She spent three days there. I was so shocked at what qualified as "help". The place was more like glorified babysitting. She came out feeling no better and was then hit with a $15,000 bill.
The $15K covered three days of supervised TV and reading, with a mere two sessions with a psychiatrist to evaluate her. It didn’t include the overnight stay at the hospital and ambulance. After her stay, the doctor prescribed her medication which cost $3,000 for her prescription. We thought the pharmacist had made a mistake. She ended up going to a different doctor, who, thankfully, helped her out.
21. I Was Delivered Some Bad News
I received a phone call one day from my father. He had the most solemn, sad, monotone voice I had ever heard come out of him. I immediately knew something was wrong. He informed me that my grandmother was finally succumbing to her aneurysm, and there wasn't much time left for me to visit her and say my goodbyes. I was delivering pizzas and decided to call into work so I could go see her.
We were way overstaffed for the night, and I called in a few hours before my shift. There was honestly no reason at all why it shouldn't have been a simple, easy, completely justified call-in, especially after I explained to the manager directly what the dire situation happened to be. Much to my dismay, the man terminated me before he hung up on me.
Even worse, when I went in the next day—after seeing my grandmother in a heartbreakingly shriveled and ill state—in order to plead my case—he got in my face and asked, "Yo grandmother dead yet"? in a thug-like manner. I almost lost my cool and hit him, but I didn't. To this day am completely appalled by his actions and lack of empathy.
22. He Got Pee’d Off
My brother and I, who are twins, were in middle school. This kid, Tommy, was being a jerk. In the bathroom, he would walk up behind whoever was using a urinal and tug one of their shoulders back. The victims would be shocked and end up peeing on themselves. My brother had been the victim of Tommy’s nonsense, as had many of us.
One day in the bathroom, Tommy grabbed my brother’s shoulder and jerked it hard. Instead of fighting in the other direction, my brother pulled the ultimate revenge—he turned around and peed all over Tommy. When they went to the principal's office, Tommy got in trouble for his behavior and was sent home to change his clothes. My brother was the hero, as the boys could all once again pee in peace.
23. Wrung Out
When I was in elementary school, I stood up to many kids. I wasn't a loser but I wasn't exactly popular either, and somehow I ended up as the target during this one game of wall ball we were playing. These kids were usually nice to me, but something I did had angered them, and mob mentality won. They were all yelling at me, so I just walked away. About eight of them followed and cornered me.
They started throwing wall balls, basketballs, and softballs at me repeatedly until I was backed up into the corner. At that moment, I had to think on my feet. There was a mop next to me...so I exploded in a rage of fury and picked up the mop. I beat the living daylights out of every one of them. Unfortunately, I was suspended for an entire month and had to go to anger management classes for a year, but nobody messed with me again.
24. He Landed In Debt
I used to work for Qwest, which was bought out by Century Link. A guy bought a no-frills landline for about $10. There was no long distance, no caller ID, nothing. It was just a landline for dial-up internet. He called his ISP from his modem and left it on for an entire month. As it turned out, it was a long-distance number, but he didn't know. He soon realized what a horrible mistake he'd made.
He ended up with a $25K phone bill. He was an average guy working a regular job who had a tiny home. He had worked the extra ten bucks into his budget so that he could have internet. However, after that, he was drowning. He made two payments of $500 to try and take care of his bill, but he would never be able to pay the whole thing. He called me, begging and even crying, for help.
How the system worked was whoever waived anything took a penalty. It didn't matter if it was a mistake or legit; waiving anything gave the employee waiving it a penalty, and it was a sales job. Not to mention, that $25K couldn't be waived by anyone but upper management. I took it to my bosses, but their response was infuriating. Nobody was willing to waive his bill, even though he had already paid a grand towards it.
The fact was that the company wasn't out anything. The infrastructure was already in place. They would have made a profit on just his paying his monthly bill, but they didn’t care. The way the corporation saw it was that he owed the money, and therefore, no matter how it would destroy his life, he had to pay it back. However, that wasn't the main motivation.
The company can write off that loss as a loss, and as such, his defaulting on his debt was more valuable.
25. I Didn’t Bank On This
I used to run a software company. I had a digital agency hire me to work on a banking contract they had and were losing due to their offshore development team. I had no idea this job would ruin me. I went onsite to the bank to save the contract, finish, and deliver the software. It took more than three months to do. Over that time, the agency kept dragging out my invoices, paying small bits and pieces, always saying they would pay tomorrow.
After the contract was done, they declared bankruptcy, didn’t pay me, and bought the rights to trade that bank contract off to the debt collection agency. They then started a new company and using that contract. Since I spent three months working for free, it sank my business, and I had to close it. Meanwhile, the "new" company just kept on like nothing had happened.
26. I Wrote My Own Destiny
I was on a teen tour across the country. We were about 40 teenagers on one coach bus going across the USA for 40 days over the summer. I didn't like any of the people, but I was the group clown, and my repertoire of strange voices, faces, and jokes always entertained people. It was nearing the end of the tour, and we had just been in Park City, Utah. At some point during the trip, I found the book Before You Leap in a book store, which is a two-part book.
The first part is the autobiography of Kermit the Frog, and the second part is a guide to life written by the Muppets. So, of course, I bought it on the spot. That day, I was reading it on the bus and enjoying it. One of the girls on the tour came up to me with her two friends and started asking me to do a voice. Normally, I would oblige, but this time, I said, "Sorry, I'm busy right now. Come back later and I'll do it then, okay"?
The girls started insisting more and more, and I just showed them the book and said, "Please, I'm reading a funny book right now. I just want to enjoy it at the moment". The girls still kept insisting. After saying "No" several times, I ignored them. Then, things started to escalate—Not liking this turn of events, the first girl decided to start hitting me repeatedly. It was a minor annoyance, and I ignored it.
Then her friends joined in, but I continued to ignore it. The hits got harder and harder, and I politely told them to stop. They said they wouldn't unless I agreed to do the voice. Then, they started to hurt. I respect women and believe in gender equality. I also think gender equality means women should take the good with the bad and not get any special treatment.
I'm also a believer in self-defense. So I backhanded the girl that started it in the face. Of course, the only person on my side that day was me. The counselors forced me to the front of the bus, where I enjoyed my book in peace.
27. Don’t Disrespect My Mama
My parents, sister, and I went to a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert. After the show, we returned to our hotel across the street from the arena. My dad and sister were walking ahead, and my mom and I were a few paces behind when these three obnoxiously trashed guys started talking to us. Things were fine until they took things too far—they began grabbing my mom’s behind “jokingly”.
Being the classy and awesome woman my mom was, she told them to leave us alone or she'd call the authorities on them. That's when one of the guys stopped in front of us and spat in my mom's face. I lost my marbles. By then, my dad had realized what was happening. He jumped in immediately. As his two friends stood by, we proceeded to beat the daylights out of the guy.
I have no regrets. Don't ever disrespect my mama.
28. Under The Knife
A good friend of mine had trouble keeping work due to his mental illness. He had very mild autism and was fully competent but couldn’t navigate the politics of most jobs. He was on unemployment while between jobs, and he really relied on it. As part of that, he had to attend regular appointments, talk about what interviews he had, etc. One day, he missed an appointment because he was rushed to the hospital.
At the time of the appointment, he was lying on a table having surgery. He called the unemployment office to try and explain the situation—but the person there couldn't care less. They told him that since he hadn't given two days' notice that he was going to miss an appointment, he was cut off for good. Meanwhile, two days earlier, he wasn’t aware of any issues, let alone ones that needed surgery!
29. Highway Robbery!
A buddy of mine had a court case. I showed up for moral support and saw the most prejudiced nonsense I had ever seen. An officer pulled over two young Black guys for no reason. He pulled his piece on them and yelled at them to get out of the car and walk backward toward his. He put them in cuffs in the back of his car. He searched their vehicle and found nothing.
So, he wrote them tickets for walking on the highway. That's what they were in court for. The men explained to the judge, "He FORCED us to walk on the highway! He was armed"! The judge found them guilty. I'm angry just remembering that day, and I'm not even the one who got screwed.
30. One Size Does Not Fit All
I was at The Gap when a rather portly woman berated a cute, petite salesgirl. She was saying how furious she was that nothing fit her and that not every woman was size zero and had no curves like a real woman. She dropped that line several times and continued getting louder and louder. The poor girl she was yelling at looked about ready to cry. I couldn't help but step in and give her a piece of my mind.
So, I leaned over and said, "Not all girls are size zero, but most aren't size 40 either, so it's harder to stock the store for those outliers". I wish I had given her a troll face and danced my way out of the store.
31. In Hot Pursuit
My girlfriend and I were walking through a video arcade in Japan, heading to a large bookstore nearby. I noticed this young guy walking through the place as well. Something about him made him suspicious to me. I watched him from about five meters away, and he walked around the side of one of those photo booth machines, bent down, and looked under the curtain.
There was a group of girls inside. He reached in, grabbed one of their bags, and ran off. It took a second for me to react, but I dropped my bag and took off after him. He had a head start, but he also didn't know a large foreigner was gaining on him quickly. He got outside and into the plaza in front of the book store I was going to.
At that point, he slowed down as he figured he'd made his escape, so I grabbed him from behind and threw him down onto the concrete. He had this look of combined shock and terror. I started screaming at the guy in a mix of Japanese and English when the group of girls whose bag he took showed up. Even though he was a thief and running, I couldn’t do much because I could have been charged with battery.
So, I screamed at him some more, gave the girls their belongings back, and told him to get out of there, and he ran off. The girls were very thankful, and my girlfriend was impressed. I guess everything went about as well as could be expected!
32. Pay Day
I worked for a Porsche racing team, and one of our competitors always had STUPID amounts of luxurious stuff at the track. They basically constructed a hotel everywhere they went so that the owner got a premium experience. We found out this guy was the original payday loan guy. For all intents and purposes, he started it in the US.
As he acquired wealth doing this, many people were getting frustrated that they had to spend $900 to repay a $100 loan. So lawmakers made it against the law to charge the interest rates he was. Instead, he put his company headquarters on a reservation so he could continue doing just that. My co-workers were looking on his website and reading through the terms and fees and found the cheapest way to repay a $100 loan was $960.
As one can imagine, it became near impossible to climb out of debt. The terrible part was that if someone missed or could not make a payment, the company would immediately seize their vehicle and sell it. Thousands of families lost their homes and cars to this guy. Fortunately, he was convicted of racketeering for other shady things in his business. He's behind bars now where he belongs.
33. Cleaned Out
My father had started a cleaning business that was taking off. He would clean carpets and do janitor work in large industrial buildings. One of his biggest clients didn't pay him for a while and ended up owing him upwards of $80K. My father then stopped working for them and kept insisting on getting his money. But he didn't realize who he was dealing with. That became very clear when a guy showed up at his door and pointed a Glock in his face.
Apparently, the building belonged to the mafia. The guy threatened to off my dad if he kept coming after the money he was owed—but he didn't know my dad. My father proceeded to sue him. Of course, the bad guys ended up winning after a lengthy court battle because they had the resources to afford amazing lawyers. My father then had to declare bankruptcy, sell the house, and start from scratch again.
34. Porta Potty Punks
Last summer, I was at this big inner city festival drinking, eating, singing with my friends, and having a great time. I had to go and take a leak. For some stupid reason, the festival organizers had put the porta potties in a dark back alley. It was getting a bit dark out. When I was done, I froze in my tracks—five shady guys stepped out of the shadows as soon as I got on my bike.
They stood in a semi-circle about 15 feet away from me. One of the guys walked up to me and said, "Gimme your wallet and phone, and nobody gets hurt". I had never been in a fight, nor had I ever punched anything in my whole life. As soon as the guy was right next to me, I punched him as hard as I could right in the face, somewhere between the mouth and nose.
He fell over, and I started biking away from there as fast as I could. About five minutes later, when I caught up with my friends, I looked down at my hand and I was shocked—It was fully covered in blood. I even found something that looked like a part of a front tooth wedged between my knuckles. All I could think of was, "What on earth did I just do"?!
35. Third Time’s A Charm
This one kid had been bothering me since the 7th grade. One day, when I was in 12th grade, I made a remark to him under my breath. It was something along the lines of "because you're an idiot," and he heard it. He went into his whole tough guy routine, telling me to say it to his face. I just about had enough of his nonsense at that point. So, I turned around, got within an inch of his face, and yelled, "I SAID, YOU ARE AN IDIOT".
The situation repeated itself two more times, and then he lost interest in me. It felt really good.
36. A Holy Terror
My company cleaned up a church after it flooded. We dried it out, working directly with the insurance company on billing. All the work was complete; their contents were all boxed nicely, cleaned, and returned. The insurance company cut the check to the pastor. The pastor had a check for around $30K sitting in his lap...and suddenly didn’t feel like paying us.
He tried to negotiate, but we wouldn’t accept that, as we had already negotiated with the insurance company. What he said next blew my mind: "I guess I'll just keep the money. What are you going to do, sue a church? We'll make it a PR nightmare".
37. Backroom Blitz
I was working at a very fancy hotel in Europe. There was a big conference going on with all the biggest asset management firms—Wells Fargo, BlackRock, etc. They booked out a whole floor and had backroom meetings. Five to eight important guys from the different companies would sit together in a locked, emptied-out hotel room for 30 minutes and "do business".
Meanwhile, these were all supposed to be competitors. When one meeting was over, they would mix it up again and meet in another room to talk. This was happening in 20 rooms simultaneously for three days. They also had lots of ominous packages delivered to their rooms. Whatever was going on was totally shady.
38. Hit And Run
One day, I was standing outside a bar puffing away with some people. Some car lost control and slammed into another one parked in a parallel space in front of me. The guy tried to speed off, but at that moment, I instinctively went into full gear—I chased him down two blocks where he got held by the traffic at a stoplight. I was able to snap a picture of his license plate on my cell before he got away.
39. TSA Tag Team
I was in line at the airport’s security checkpoint, waiting to go through the metal detectors. Since it was late at night, there was only one line open, but it wasn't too bad since there were only five people in it. I was at the back of the line, and the two people in front of me were an elderly couple who were inexperienced flyers.
They were taking a bit of time getting undressed, taking out their liquids, etc., but I didn't care since I had plenty of time to catch my flight. The line started moving, and the older gentleman scooted his bins up first. Out of nowhere, a middle-aged woman just cut into the space vacated by the older gentleman, separating him from his wife. You can tell that they were startled and a bit flustered.
However, they didn’t say anything because they were already intimidated by the whole checkpoint process. I didn’t have a problem confronting people, so I bravely stepped up to the plate. I tried to get the middle-aged woman’s attention. I said, "Excuse me, Miss", but nothing happened, so I tried again, even louder. I knew I was loud enough since the three TSA agents on the other side and everyone else in line turned around to look at me.
However, the woman continued to play deaf, quickly putting her stuff in the bin and acting like she had done nothing wrong. By then, the older gentleman was at the front of the line, so I figured I'd just drop it. I didn't want to get too worked up since I wanted to sleep on the flight, and at the end of the day, pushing the issue would just delay things for everyone.
I glared at the back of her head as she went through the metal detector, succumbing to my inability to fix things. Suddenly, as she exited the metal detector, a TSA agent stopped her before she could get to her belongings. At that moment, her karma was served—he pointed at the little glass box next to the metal detector, and she let out a loud "Really"?! She complied and entered the box.
A couple of minutes later, I was collecting my stuff on the other side of the checkpoint, and she was still in the box waiting to be searched. After putting on my shoes, an agent came by to collect my used bin. I looked up to say thanks and noticed it was the same guy who had stopped the woman. He broke out in a goofy grin and said under his breath, "Some people are just a bit too eager to get on the same flight as everybody else".
I gave him a big grin of my own, took my suitcase off the belt, and happily proceeded to my terminal.
40. She Hit Us Like A Ton Of Bricks
My dad owned a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere. It was modeled after an old western town in South Dakota. It was built "rustic style" with a lot of dimly lit and uneven areas. Some old lady was shuffling over a brick walkway we had—in the middle of broad daylight—and tripped over her own feet. She sued us and won because the walkway had a few bricks poking up in a few places that were blatantly obvious.
We had to pay out $30,000 because she tripped over her own feet and sprained her ankle. Now, whenever I walk anywhere and see a puddle of water with no "wet floor" sign or a really bad crack in a sidewalk with no marking or tape keeping you away, or any other thing that could remotely cause a fall, I see a $30,000 lawsuit and a gigantic waste of time and money.
41. They Left Us With An Axel To Grind
I sold car parts. I was a very small player in a relatively niche market that contained a couple of other small players and two big players. One of the big players collapsed, owing a lot of people money. It was very unfortunate, but it happens. Administrators were called in, and the owner issued an emotional message on Facebook, saying how sorry he was, that there was a sickness in the family, etc., but not to worry.
He said the business had $400K in new stock on the shelf, and the administrators would sort it all out. But it was all a lie. It turned out that he knew he was about to fold. He continued taking people's money, even though he had zero intention or capability of supplying them. He transferred the secondhand parts side of the business into a new company that his father opened under the same name at the same address.
The new business also scored the website. He somehow worked out a deal with the administrators whereby the $400K in new stock was purchased by the new company for only $14.5K because the new business would not give the administrators access to the website to identify any of the specialty parts. Everyone he owed money to were going to get pennies on the dollar.
42. Trash Talk
I was outside on the street, and there was a girl with her boy. She whipped out a pack, handed him one, took the last one herself, and threw the empty pack on the ground when she was standing one foot from a trash can in plain sight. Seeing her do that made my blood boil. I looked at the pack on the ground and then back up at her.
She looked at me, and I said, "You realize there's a trash can right there". She said, "Oh yeah, thanks" in the most thankless way and then threw it away.
43. A Stone’s Throw
When I was in elementary school, the three biggest jerks harassed me for being a little bit smarter, quieter, and gentler than the rest. They would constantly call me names, push me against walls, break my lunchbox, laugh at my clothes, and even throw glass and stones at me. This pretty much went on for about three years until, at some point, I reached my breaking point.
When I made my way home during lunch break one day, they decided to throw stones at me again and they hit me in the head. I cried and ran home. However, the crying quickly turned into anger, and the anger turned into rage. I felt every muscle of my body tense and tingle, thinking about what they had been doing to me all those years. I had enough.
I left home a little bit earlier and waited for them outside school. One of them—the biggest one of the three—turned up earlier than the others. He seemed surprised that I slowly walked toward him instead of walking away. When I stood in front of him, he tried to speak, but before he mustered out a word, my fist impacted his jaw, and he dropped to the floor.
At that point, his friends and the rest of my classmates showed up. I pulled him back up, left him dazed and confused for a few seconds, and gave him another jab. This time I wasn't going to help him upright, and I decided the parking lot needed some sweeping. So, I took my antics to the next level—I grabbed his collar and dragged him across the lot for 20 seconds. He started crying.
His face was bleeding, his clothes were ripped, and he had a sad, beat-up puppy look. He started running away towards his aunt's house nearby. I chased him for a couple of meters, but I decided he had enough. Our teacher had also witnessed the beating but decided not to intervene. When class started, he called both of us together. I thought I was in deep trouble, but the look of approval on his face was priceless.
I finally did what he was hoping I would do. From that point on, nobody ever did anything to me again.
44. Wild Abandon
I was waiting for a group of friends at a housing complex known for its crime when three teenagers surrounded me outside a building and demanded I give them whatever was in my pockets. Naturally, I refused. One kid put his hand up to my chest, and I stated, "Touching me would be a very poor decision to make right now".
I was nervous, but having taken martial arts for some years, I was taught to act crazy when confronted. The kid looked a little surprised, and just then, I felt one accomplice try to sneak into my pants pocket. That was a big mistake on his part—I instinctively stopped him by grabbing his wrist. I spun him around, picked him up, and tossed him at a concrete post.
I one-shot the first kid unconscious while his friend ran away. Then, I heard clapping. My friends had come off the elevator just in time to see all this through the glass doors. I later learned those kids had been doing this to people for weeks, and it seemed to stop after that day.
45. These Girls Got Schooled
When I was in college, my friends and I were sitting at a table, and behind us, there was a kid sitting by himself. I will admit, he looked pompous—popped collar, gelled hair, super tan, etc. A group of kids sitting in the same area had been loudly making fun of his general fashion sense. Eventually, one of the girls got up, walked over, and proclaimed loudly, "I'm sorry, but I have to help you out because you look like a total dweeb". She then put his collar down.
The kid sat there in disbelief as she walked away, and his eyes started welling up. I was pretty infuriated to see that, and I knew I had to shut her down. I walked over to her table and, in the most conversational tone I could muster, I said, "Oh hey! Do you know that guy"? She said she didn't, so I began scolding her. I said, "So you just thought it would be appropriate to demean a complete stranger in public to look like a cool kid in front of all of your friends?
“I hope you feel better and that you all got a good laugh at his expense. Maybe next time you can pause to reflect before you're a total moron". I then walked over to the table and invited the kid to sit with my friends and me. It turned out he had just transferred to the college and he didn't know anyone.
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46. Out Of My Domain
I worked for an internet hosting company, and my customers have gotten letters from iDNS saying their DNS would soon expire and that they would need to pay to get the DNS renewed. The letter is worded carefully to potentially indicate that it is a solicitation but is structured and worded to look like a renewal notice bill.
They would charge you to renew and transfer your domain name. You would pay them, and they wouldn’t do anything for you unless you completed the process. Otherwise, they would just keep your money to renew a domain they would never renew. They would charge $80 for two years, which was OUTRAGEOUS! Several of my customers reported them to the FTC.
47. A Case Of Self-Defense
My brother was shot by his best friend of 15 years four times with a 12-gauge after they had been hanging out and drinking for hours. Because his friend claimed he asked him to leave and he wouldn't, he was able to claim self-defense since my brother refusing to leave then made him a burglar. My brother was unarmed, and no scuffle took place.
Not only that, but the supposed best friend was having an affair with my brother’s fiancé. He walked free because of misused self-defense rights.
48. Keep Calm And Carry-On
I was flying and I'd been having a pretty terrible day. Most people on flights don’t stow their carry-on bags properly. They often throw them in sideways, taking up the most space. In the compartment above my row, some jerk had thrown his bag in sideways, so I flipped it into the proper position. I was reaching for my bag when this guy stood up and yelled at me, “HEY! Don’t touch my bag”!
At that point, I had reached my limit. I stared him directly in the eye and sternly said, “The compartments are made to carry bags lengthwise. When you put your bag in sidewise like an idiot, I can’t fit my bag. So sit down and chill out”! I must have looked pretty crazy, and my language caught him and everyone else off guard. He slowly sat down. I threw my bag in and sat down for the five-hour flight home. No one around me said a word.
49. Bus-ted!
I was riding the bus one day, and a large, unpleasant-looking guy got on the bus. He started complaining to the bus driver about being 10 minutes late. It was winter, and the roads were terrible. He was complaining for at least five minutes. It looked like the bus driver was getting stressed out trying to drive and listen to the idiot go on and on.
I was sitting here watching this, about to say something, when this little old lady—about 80 years old, 100 pounds, and five feet tall—got up, and walked over to the man. Her next move shook everyone on the bus—she just screamed at the top of her lungs, "WOULD YOU SIT DOWN AND SHUT YOUR MOUTH"? The man had nothing to say. He sat down as if he'd just been scolded in preschool.
50. Happy Father’s Day
I had a friend who was married for years. They had two kids, one with a disability. Having children can be difficult on a marriage, but having a child with a disability can be even more stressful. They were making it work and fixing up their house. Everything seemed to be going well, then one Father’s Day, she told him she was leaving him and taking the children.
She broke the news to him out of nowhere...in a Father’s Day card. I couldn’t think of a more horrible thing to do to someone. And yet, there was absolutely nothing he could do.
51. The Government Couldn’t Care Less
I was the registered care provider for both of my parents for twenty years, since I was 14. Eventually, both of them passed. We lived in a council property, which was UK government housing. A week after my father passed, I was given 28 days to vacate the house I had lived in my entire life. The government was under absolutely no obligation to rehouse me, and the extent of the help they could offer was the number of homeless shelter charities.
When my mom passed, I attempted to update the tenancy to my name, but my dad took ill before I could file the paperwork. I was told I needed to file different paperwork to account for his illness. The fact that I had lived here for my entire life meant nothing. All because I had the nerve to care for my parents but not list myself as a tenant.
52. Payback Time
In high school, our AP Economics teacher was also one of the sponsors for our senior class. One morning, she started her class with "the importance of being responsible". She told the story of a senior girl who claimed to have paid her senior dues due that day but could not show a receipt. Therefore, she was not allowed to attend prom that week.
The teacher verbally lambasted this girl's character, calling her a liar and telling us that her tears wouldn’t change the situation. Meanwhile, she never admitted fault for her record-keeping, nor did she give the student any benefit of the doubt. When I found out who the girl was, I went ballistic. She was a friend of mine who worked to take care of her family because they didn't have much money.
Unlike what the teacher said, she was one of the most responsible people in our class! There was NO possible way that she didn't pay her dues. Down the hall, I could feel my friend's tears, knowing she had saved enough to buy her dress the previous weekend and had finalized her plans. Our classroom rallied behind me, pleading with our teacher to give her a break, even if it was her fault.
But the teacher was relentless and said, "Sorry, rules are rules. I can't just let anyone who claimed to pay their dues waltz into prom, now can I"? I got angry as the argument continued for a few minutes, and our teacher became jovial in her steadfastness. Just when I was about to say something that would jeopardize my own graduation, I realized that weeks before, I had put my checkbook in my bookbag to pay for my dues!
I dug into my bookbag, found it, and wrote a check for the amount. It wasn't much, and I had been working a lot to save for my car. While the rest of the class carried on with the argument, I stood up and walked to the teacher's desk. She became angry and said. "You need to get back to your seat, or I will write you up for insubordination"! I said loudly, "Here, this should cover it".
The room went silent. I stood firm, although my voice began to quake. I told her, "I am not leaving until you accept this check and I receive my receipt. This girl deserves to go to prom like everyone else, and I will NOT stand idly by and watch this happen to one of my friends". She looked at me and back at the check.
With fury, she took out her book and wrote my receipt while saying snidely, "Well, I applaud you for your heroism, but she won't always have someone to bail her out when the time comes". I responded, "She will as long as she is my friend”. With that, I took the receipt back to my desk. I wanted to tell her where she could stick it, but I had already done enough.
I saw the girl moments later when class let out and was greeted with a huge hug and tears rolling down her cheek.
53. Time To Put An End To It All
I was the smallest kid in my class I got picked on at school. In fifth grade, there was a group of five kids who pretty much tormented me at recess every day. One day, I decided it would end, so I didn't go to homeroom. Instead, I hid until just before everyone went to their first class. I then waited outside the class of one of the kids, and as soon as I saw him, I made a daring move—I jumped him.
I had him on the ground, on his knees, and I was just hammering my fist into the side of his head. After about five good shots, I ran, hid again, and waited until the first class was over to get the next one. I managed to mark three of them before a teacher managed to grab me. I got suspended for a week, but my parents didn't care; they knew what it was all about.
I never had another problem right on through high school. Long after high school, I ran into a former classmate. He let me in on a surprising development—my former bullies were warning upperclassmen in high school not to mess with me. It turned out that I had quite the reputation of being a psycho and never knew it.
54. A Christmas Miracle
About two days before Christmas, I stopped at the local supermarket to pick up some drinks. It was lightly snowing, and I was in a great mood walking through the parking lot. I had no work for a couple of days and no big family event that year; just a few days to relax and unwind. The parking lot was packed, and I had to park about as far away as possible to get a space.
I was approaching the front of the store when I saw an old woman in a giant barge of a Cadillac making a long, slow turn into the parking lot lane like she was navigating a Sherman tank through an alleyway. She was preparing to turn into one of the handicapped spaces when a black Escalade whipped into it almost out of thin air. Out stepped a middle-aged man who was clearly not disabled.
The old woman came to a crawl as she passed by, and for reasons I’ll never know, I knocked on her window and said, “Hang on a sec, I’ll ask this guy to move”. I jogged over to him and said, “Hey, do you think you could move your car? I think this lady really needs that space”. Well, you’d have thought I just asked the guy for a kidney or a home loan with the look he gave me. He was absolutely fuming.
He pointed to the license plate on his SUV and said, “Those are handicapped plates, buddy. I can park there if I want to". I motioned to the lady to wait just another minute. I got really close to the guy and said as menacingly as I could manage: “You’re going to move that car, or when you go into that store, I’m gonna hop in my Sentra and smash into it until it looks like something out of Mad Max”.
I don’t think he knew what I meant, but a constipated look crossed his face, and then he rolled his eyes. “Calm down. I’ll move the car. Merry Christmas”. I replied, “You too, buddy". I ran into the lady inside the store, and she repeatedly offered to pay for my stuff. She wouldn’t take no for an answer, and as we walked out, she asked for my address.
A few days later, I got a very nice Christmas card from her and her husband, who was a disabled veteran. He wrote almost two pages of thanks and how incidents like this made him hopeful for the future. I don’t consider myself a brave person, but I can’t deny that the whole event made me feel pretty cool, even if it was rather mundane.
55. The Gambler
A company I used to work for went bust because the owner drank heavily and gambled all the money away. He came in one Monday morning and told everybody to pack up their personal stuff and leave. I had given my notice a couple of months earlier and actually received my vacation pay and final paycheck. However, nobody else got a dime.
Meanwhile, my boss took all the money left in the company and ran. His employees lost everything, and he made out like a bandit.
56. No Rest For The Wicked
I was a nurse. I walked into a hospice patient's room full of family arguing about inheritances and the will, right over their ailing relative. One of the visitors called me back into the room. What they asked me made my blood boil. They wanted to know if there was any way to speed the "process" along. She asked if "things" would go faster if they put a magnet over the patient's pacemaker in an effort to deactivate the device.
She went on to explain that they were from out of town, had bought tickets to a live show, and were worried about missing it. Basically, it was taking too long for their family member to pass, and it was ruining their evening. All of this was within the earshot of my super sweet patient.
57. Don’t Have A Cow!
In high school, I wasn't popular, but I was known. I didn't hang out with any particular group, but I got along well with the teachers, which allowed me to get away with some extra privileges. I also chatted quite a bit with my bus driver, which meant that my friends and I in the back of the bus didn't get in trouble for doing stupid, harmless things.
A guy on the bus regularly threw random insults my way, but I just ignored them. They were pretty immature, stupid insults. One day, my girlfriend was riding the bus home with me, and he started insulting me again. I ignored it, so he started in on her, calling her a farm animal. I told her to ignore it and that I would deal with it later. He continued throughout the ride making farm animals sound like, "Moooooo", etc.
He had no idea what was coming to him. We got to my stop, and as the gentleman I was, I let her walk in front of me. As soon as I reached his seat, I grabbed his shirt, slammed him up against his window, got close to his face, and said, "You wanna talk trash now? Why aren't you talking"? He stayed quiet. I slammed him again, released him, and walked off the bus, saying, "Sorry about that", to the bus driver.
She simply smiled and said to have a nice day. It was the talk for a few days, and he didn't say anything to me again.
58. I Was Fighting Mad
I was out drinking with a couple of buddies and I saw a group of five guys beating the life out of some guy lying on the ground. This was right across the street from where we exited the bar. I was shocked, but I knew I had to stop them. I started to jog across the street, screaming at them, "YOU WANT A FAIR FIGHT, LET'S GO"! and they all ran away. It angered me that no one paid attention to a guy getting beaten on such a busy street.
I can't stand unfair fights.
59. I Got Hangry
One day at lunch, this kid decided to snag my lunch bag right before me. As he was dumping the contents all over the table, he proclaimed, "Hey, what's for lunch today”? I had already dealt with some similar antics from him and I really wasn't pleased this time around. I got out of my chair and shoved him right to the ground. He got all teary-eyed and asked what my problem was. I told him, "I'm hungry. Don't ever touch my lunch again”.
60. They Showed Their True Colors
I was in a restaurant. A gentle old man of color couldn’t see very well and was taking some time deciding, so they told him to go to the back of the line. When he tried to order, they tried to throw him out for cutting the line. He didn't understand and thought he needed to pay, so he put his card down. Meanwhile, the cashier began a discriminatory rant toward him. She then came around, GRABBED HIM, took him outside, then called the authorities.
He tried to get his debit card back from the cashier, slipped and fell, and was tased by the officers as he attempted to get up. I told the manager what happened and the authorities, but they still took him in for "resisting arrest". I testified in the lawsuit against the cashier, manager, and officers. The old man received over $120K from the business but none from the officers or the city. It STILL gets my blood boiling.
61. Hospital Horror
A friend of mine had an ectopic pregnancy. Her insurance only allowed her to go to a Catholic hospital without having to pay a substantial out-of-network fee. That decision immediately came back to haunt her. Instead of giving her methotrexate, which would induce miscarriage, save her life, and protect her fertility, they maimed her by removing her fallopian tube, permanently altering her fertility.
They called the previous method an "indirect abortion". This was standard policy in Catholic hospitals. She has been unable to get pregnant in the years since.
62. He Was A Jerk To The Max
Back in the early '90s, my friends and I started a small consulting company. Like any small company, we had to struggle to drum up business. We finally lucked into a relationship with a large computer reseller. They were often difficult to deal with, but since they paid all of our salaries, we had to suck it up and smile. Our primary contact at the place was a complete jerk.
He would belittle people, yell, and outright lie. He once dragged one of his inside sales reps into his office and called the main vendor she repped. He tore her down, telling the vendor she was "stupid" and "didn't know anything". The woman fled his office in tears. When a plan of his went south, he would simply deny ever giving the instructions.
Anticipating that, a sales exec prepared a brilliant plan—he saved his voicemail. When this guy started to lie, the guy leaned over, punched up his voice mail, and played back the message. With a straight face, the guy said, "You misunderstood me". After a few years, I left the company I helped start. A few months later, I was in a computer store, and I spotted the jerk.
I started to walk the other way, but he saw me and came over with a big grin on his face and his hand out for a shake. I stared at his hand, then looked up at him and said, "You know, I don't work for the company anymore, so I don't have to pretend I like you, you arrogant jerk". To this day, I still savor the look of utter shock on his face as I walked away.
63. Turning The Tables
In middle school, there was a kid named Tommy who was just mean. He was kind of dense, not good-looking, and he liked to be a jerk to people for no reason. I only saw him a couple of times a week in math class, but we were assigned seats that were close to one another. So, he felt compelled to pick on me. For the most part, I brushed it off, but the kid had a friend or two that looked up to him, and I guess he felt like hot stuff for belittling others.
One day, I came to class, and Tommy was already there with his buddies, looking ready to be a jerk for the day. I then set my plan in motion. I just smiled and said, "Hi, Tommy! How are you doing today"? He was taken aback by the question and mumbled, "Uhh...Fine". He Didn't say much else to me that day. In the next class, I brought some dessert I hadn’t opened.
I walked in, greeted him, and said, "Hey Tommy, I couldn't finish my lunch. Do you want this dessert, or should I give it to somebody else"? He said, "Uhh no, I'll take it". After that, he stopped being mean. I don’t know what he was like in his other classes, but I never saw him be a jerk again.
64. This Party Crasher Got Clipped
This kid I went to college with—who nobody liked—somehow showed up at my birthday party. This guy was desperate for attention, good or bad. I wasn’t happy to see him but I was making small talk. He asked me what I was up to. I told him I was working in communications for a union, and he said, "Oh, so you're on the lowest rung of a corrupt organization? Well, as long as you feel good about yourself".
I made a face and walked off, not wanting to cause a scene. Later, a couple of my female friends sat next to me and told me that this guy had been grabbing them. I went up to him and said, "Hey, you need to stop grabbing people that don't want to get grabbed". He delivered the single nastiest possible reply, "No, they liked it. They were asking for it". I curled my fist in anger.
At that point, I got in his face and told him that nobody invited him, and he needed to stop being a moron immediately. He didn't make his way out the door until the boyfriend of one of the victims smacked him in the face.
65. Scrooged!
There was this restaurant owner my parents knew. He owned a pretty fancy restaurant, and around Christmas time, he started selling gift cards. They were basically $20 gift cards that bought you $40 worth of food. He ended up selling an insane amount of these gift cards...and then closed the restaurant two days later. It was evil, ingenious, and he got off scot-free.
66. Severance Day
I worked at a small, privately owned chain of stores. The owner decided to buy a factory that made products for his stores which his wife now ran. After a few years, they only wanted to manufacture and leave the retail side. If they had closed, they would have had to pay some staff severance packages costing a fair amount of money.
They decided to consolidate the bookkeepers to the manufacturing site, and the stores stopped paying the manufacturing company. After a year of that, they went to the courts and declared the stores bankrupt as they owed the manufacturing company a significant amount. Some of the staff had worked there for more than 15 years and found out they had been disowned with no severance.
The owners were real jerks. They could have foregone a single luxury vacation and given those staff what they morally owed them.
67. They Left A Bad Taste In Town
A popular local family-owned restaurant drove all the nearby competition right out of business. Then, one day about a month before Christmas, it was gone. The sign was down, and the doors were locked. The staff had no idea until they got to the door to start their shifts for the day. The owners were interviewed and explained that they were getting older and couldn't keep running the place.
They said they didn't have any management staff that could take over for them. A month went by without any kind of sale sign. Everyone was wondering how long it would take before some sales signs went up and a corporate joint like Red Lobster would come in. A couple of months later, a new sign saying “Bernie’s” went up.
It was the exact same food served in the exact same format, with a new coat of "formal" style on top to justify a doubled price tag. The whole town was convinced it was the exact same owners. Most of the town didn’t care that the price was higher. They were angry the owners screwed 50 hard-working employees.
68. Parking Enforcement
I was driving around looking for parking and I saw a guy getting into his car right next to me. I asked him if he was leaving, and he said he was. I pulled into the driveway in front of him so as not to block the traffic on this busy road. When he pulled out, some idiot swerved into the spot from behind. I got out of my car and walked up to him. I said, "Excuse me, but you just took my spot. You obviously had to see me sitting there with my blinker on. So please, move your car".
I am 5'10", about 170lbs, and he was easily 6'2", 200+ lbs. He turned to me and said, "Sorry, but there are no rules for getting parking. You lose. Get lost, kid”, and he started to walk away. I said, "Fine, keep walking. I can't wait until you leave". He took another few steps and then turned around and said, "I'm not moving my car, so you can just leave".
I said, "I am no longer waiting for you to move your car. I am waiting for you to leave your car alone". He turned red, walked up to me, and said, "Get out of here”. I don't know what came over me at that moment...but I moved my face right up to his, stared at him straight in the eye, and perfectly calmly said, "I'm not leaving until you leave, either in your car or on foot".
My heart was racing like crazy. Right then, he pulled back. I knew he had lost, and I had full confidence. He walked over to the railing, leaned against it, started doing something on his phone, and said, "I'm not leaving until you do". I said, "Fine, I have all night", and got back into my car, opened my book, and started reading it. He screamed at me, "Get out of here", but I ignored him and kept reading.
He was late for something and eventually jumped back into his car, yelled at me, and drove off. I was going to park my car there. However, some little old lady pulled up and said, "Excuse me, but are you taking this spot"? I said, "No, you can have it". I was a little afraid that the guy might come and trash her car, but it was a very different color than mine, so I convinced myself she was safe.
69. Teen Trouble
In elementary school, I was walking home with a pair of friends through the high-school parking lot. There was a group of teens sitting around together. As we walked past them, one of them got up and uttered some chilling words: "Hey. Run away from me". My friends ran a bit and called, "What are you doing"?! One person talking to us was at least twice my height.
He turned to me and said, "You'd better run along with your friends," and started walking towards me. I replied, "Or what? I dare you to hit me". I waited for him to sit back down before I walked away. If my friends hadn't been there to get help if things went wrong, I probably would have run away as he told me to.
70. Homeless Bound
I had a good friend who moved in with her great aunt and uncle to nurse them while they were battling cancer. She was 22, worked full time, and looked after them in the evenings and overnight. She did that for almost two years before they passed. The aunt and uncle changed their will and gave their house to my friend. It was worth about $90,000. It was a wonderful gift—and it destroyed her life.
The executor of the will was also a lawyer. On "behalf" of the aunt and uncle, the lawyer sued my friend for supposedly taking advantage of these poor sick people and conning them into a will change. As executor AND attorney, the lawyer got executor fees, legal fees, and court costs paid out of the estate. He just sued until the money was gone and then dropped it. My friend got nothing.
71. You Gotta Fight For Your Rights
My mom's friend was a real estate agent and lived with her significant other for six years. They had put money into a house together and were fixing it up. My mom's friend developed brain cancer, and the SO decided she wanted out of the house they had built and wanted it sold immediately. My mom's friend was dealing with the payments for her treatment but did not want to sell.
The SO said that because she owned a larger percentage of the property, she had every right to sell. Doing so would have kicked my mom’s friend out on the street after she left the hospital. An arbitrator had to be brought in—and that's when things got cruel. The SO tried to claim that they were not, in fact, a couple and just business partners. It was crushing for my mom's friend because she really loved that woman. Her cancer metastasized and moved to her lungs. Things were looking pretty grim, but she somehow survived and continued fighting for the rights to the house.
72. In-Flight Fool
I was flying in bad weather. We landed in Denver, and air traffic was backed up in the sky and on the runway because of it. Our plane had to wait on the ground for a gate. I knew by the time we landed that I would miss my connection, so I was resigned to being stuck there, at least overnight. We were waiting for a gate when a woman a couple of rows in front of me started raging about it.
She'd been drinking and started complaining that since the airline was being difficult by making us wait, we should all get free drinks. She demanded the drink cart be brought out. She was ranting and being an idiot about it and about how she just wanted to get home and crawl into bed. I'd had quite enough of her tomfoolery. I stood up and said, "Hey lady, you live here"? She said, “Yeah, what of it”?
I said, "A lot of us don't. A lot of us aren't just waiting to go home. We're trying to get to connecting flights that we're going to miss now because of this storm. So shut your piehole about not being able to get off the plane at home because at least you're not looking at sleeping on the floor of the airport tonight". There were cheers, and on the way out, I got the wink and thumbs up from the flight attendants.
73. The Great Defender
In one of my classes in high school, there was a kid who was socially awkward and had a disability of some sort. One of the football players thought it was funny to mess with him constantly, and one day, he took it way too far. He kept making fun of this kid for not being able to get a girlfriend, and he told him he was never going to know what it was like to kiss a girl.
The boy was almost crying when the football player got up to get a laptop from the cabinet. When he walked past my desk, I got up and threw him down into the desk right next to me. The teacher started freaking out and asked what had happened. I didn’t even get a chance to speak when the whole class started defending me for standing up for the boy. I did not get in trouble, and the kid stopped messing with him.
74. Loan Crusher
My dad knew a guy who would occasionally rent out some of the offices in the same building he worked in. He would create companies and employ a load of teenagers straight out of high school as proof that he had people working for him and paid them peanuts. He would then request a loan from the government, fire all his "workers," and close down the company, making off with tens of thousands of dollars. When he passed, my dad told me that most people’s reactions were: “Good"!
75. Monster Ram
My uncle rammed into a woman and her husband at 70 mph. The girl lost her life, and the husband was severely injured. By all accounts, he should have been sentenced to 20 years, but he took a plea bargain and got out in three months. He is in his 40s, and all he does all day is mooch off of his parents and generally just make a nuisance of himself.
76. DNA Did Him In
A friend of mine was in a visitation/custody battle with his daughter’s mother when her lawyer suddenly requested a DNA test. This was strange because they had both been living together for over two years, raising the child, and she had never mentioned any concerns over his paternity. It was pretty obvious he was the dad, too, as the kid looked exactly like him.
The court then forced him to pay for the DNA test for both of them. He took it immediately, but the mother did not, and her attorney helped her drag her heels for so long that it allowed her to establish residence in another state. Then my friend had to drive nine hours to see his kid because of a DNA test he never asked for—that he paid for—and that she intentionally ignored.
77. Bite This
I was outside a local bar I frequented with a buddy of mine. An obese but muscular man, twice our combined size, started hassling him. He was all up in my friend’s face trying to get him to fight. We were both confused about what provoked this, but it quickly became apparent that it escalated beyond control. The guy’s counterpart, also concerned, attempted to pry his morbid companion away.
When it became evident that my friend may have to defend himself, I gave him some game-changing advice. I told him, "If he gets a hold on you, you take your thumbs and dig them, as hard as you can, into his eyes. Then, bite his nose off". Upon hearing that, the guy went bananas and veered toward me. I informed him it would be in his best interest if he left me be. He backed away with a glimmer of fear in his eyes.
78. She Got Wrecked
I was at the post office when a woman backed into me in the parking lot, hitting my car on the passenger side as I drove past. I was going about 5 mph through the parking lot, looking for open space. The lot was tiny, and there was no real way to speed through this place. At first, I thought I had hit someone else. But then, I stopped, got out, and realized a car had hit me.
There was a large dent in the passenger side of my car. The other driver was a middle-aged woman in a Saab of some sort. Her next move caught me totally off-guard—she came out of her car and immediately started yelling at me, telling me I was going too fast through the lot and that I should watch where I was going. She said she was tired of dealing with "students taking over the town" and how "my mommy and daddy probably bought me my car".
I drove an old Taurus with almost 200K miles on it that I had paid for myself, so her comment made no sense. I asked her for her registration, and she wouldn't give it to me. Then, she snatched my registration and license out of my hand, threw them on the ground, and the wind blew them across the lot. She started to go towards her car and yelled at me to move mine, which was blocking her.
At that moment, I freaked out. I got up in her face, yelling awful things at her. I was so mad I was shaking. I guess I freaked her out because she went and got my registration off the ground and gave me hers. A few days later, her insurance company gave me a check for about $1000. I wouldn't have even filed a claim if she had been polite.
79. I Lost My Header
I was a skinny, awkward kid in ninth grade and I had been picked on for most of my life up to that point. I was in gym class, and this little guy who had picked on me since 6th grade booted a soccer ball right at my face. He kicked it so hard that I started to cry. I was sure it was an accident, but my crying made him say, "Stop crying you baby, or I’ll punch you in the face". That's when I lost it—I just started pounding on him.
I kept hitting him until the teacher pulled me off. The teacher knew I got picked on a lot and saw that my face had a huge red mark where the ball had hit me. The teacher told the other kid to get up and stop being a baby. After that, I didn't get picked on for a while and, eventually, filled out my scrawny little frame.
80. Up In Smoke
One of my dad's friends sold his business to a larger chain for a good bit of money. He was planning to use the proceeds from the sale to retire and was supposed to be paid out over five years. Not long after the sale, the buyer declared bankruptcy, got to keep my dad's friend’s business, building, etc., and write off the debt. They then reopened the old business under a different name, and my dad's friend had to go back to work since his retirement went up in smoke.
81. Pension Headache
My ex-husband married a woman who conveniently forgot to tell him he was her sixth or seventh husband. Many of the men were on a pension retirement plan that required a notary to change the beneficiary. She talked him into marriage without a prenup and ended up on his house title and his pension. He liquidated a 401K to get her off the house.
However, she was still on his pension and at least four others. She almost snagged husband number eight, but someone sent him a stack of her marriage and divorce records from the local courthouse. That lucky guy bailed on her before it was too late.
82. Say What You Mean
I was on a commuter train, reading a book. I was vaguely aware of a woman standing in the exit area of the train and a guy walking through the train, past the exit, and the woman. I heard the woman say something, but I couldn't tell what it was. Then, I suddenly heard the guy yell, in a mildly-to-moderately inebriated voice, “WHAT? WHAT DID YOU CALL ME”?
I got up, and this 6-foot-tall trashed guy was staring down at the skinny woman, who suddenly looked like she realized she had made a mistake. As I walked over, she said, "Uh, I, I, I…I'm sorry, I didn't mean", and he just got madder. He yelled, "If you didn't MEAN it, why did you say it"? Neither of them had noticed me at all.
I wasn’t big, and my martial arts training was 15 years prior, but I figured I could take a beating better than she could. So from about 10 feet away, I said, "Hey, dude, haven't you ever said anything you didn't really mean? I sure have. Got me fired from a job a couple of years ago". When I started talking, he turned to me and opened his mouth to say something, but instead, he let me finish.
Unexpectedly, this turned out to be precisely the right thing to say. He immediately stood down and even apologized to the woman. When the train security guy got there, we were sitting in facing seats and exchanging stories about how we'd gotten in trouble for saying something we didn't mean.
83. She Had A Latte Nerve
I was working at Starbucks when this yuppie woman walked in. The second I saw her, I knew she was going to try to mess up the day of the next service worker she interacted with. I took her order, and she was snappy and glared at me. I passed her over to the girl making drinks, who was 16. It was her first day and her first job ever. She made the woman's latte a little too heavy, and the woman proceeded to LAY into her.
I slid over and said, "Here, why don't I help out here? It's her first day". The woman continued to yell about how she didn’t care if it was her first day. She kept at it until I looked out the corner of my eye and the girl's bottom lip started quivering. She was about to burst into tears. So, I gave the woman her drink, and she said, "This better be right this time because I'm not having you make it again".
Smiling, I said, "That's fine because I'm not going to make it again". She replied, "What did you just say to me"?! I told her, "You heard what I said. You're just about to make a girl cry on her first day of work over a latte. That makes you a pretty terrible human being and someone I don't ever want in this store again. Take your drink, and don't ever come back. You're banned from this store. Come back, and I'll have you arrested".
Her eyes widened. She demanded to see the manager. I looked her straight in the eye and said, "I am the manager. Now get out". She stormed off in a huff, with the whole store looking at her like she was trash. The girl sniffled a bit and started to brighten up. She said, "I didn't know you were the manager". I told her, "I'm not. I've only been here a week".
84. This Distracted Driver Got Dissed
When I was in San Francisco, I witnessed a girl riding a bike get hit by someone driving a car and talking on their cell phone. The car was going slow, braking for a stop sign, but it did not entirely stop. The girl on the bike fell over, then she got up, walked her bike over to the driver's side, stuck her head in the window, and screamed at the driver, "GET OFF YOUR PHONE"!
The driver looked shocked. The girl simply walked off with her bike, pounding the car's roof with her fist as she walked away.
85. All Worked Up
I was helping my boyfriend with his business in his country. He had a nice shop, and sometimes, when he was busy, I would stay there for a few hours. If I'd known what was coming, I'd have gotten the heck out of there. The immigration inspectors showed up, and I got busted. They were rude and wouldn’t listen to anything. My boyfriend nor I couldn’t convince them that I wasn’t an undocumented worker.
They packed me up and took me to an actual prison 120km away from the city they “caught” me in. It was my first time in that country. I was a legitimate tourist with a return ticket, and I never intended to disobey the law and work in a country I didn’t even like. I had my departure scheduled. Nevertheless, they held me for a week with others who had worked without permission for YEARS.
The authorities distorted my testimony. Luckily, my boyfriend did everything to get me out of trouble and hired an attorney who exposed the wrong protocol. Despite the fact I was released and permitted to leave the country on the day I had planned, I got a black mark on my passport and couldn’t get in for the next year. My boyfriend (now husband) and I saw each other only four times throughout that year.
86. Badge Of Dishonor
A fairly large used car dealer where I lived got caught swapping the badges on some of the cars they sold. They would take a base model car with the lower trim package, scrape the badge off, and replace it with the badge for the deluxe trim. They would then sell the vehicle for an extra few thousand bucks. They got indicted on charges, the two lots closed, all the employees were laid off, and all the cars were taken to a storage lot.
A few months later, the dealer re-opened with the same vehicles and the same employees but under a different name. It was then "owned" by the wives of the former owners since their dealer’s licenses were revoked.
87. On The Prowl
I was a dispatcher, and we had an officer who would stalk the bars to ticket people for driving while drinking. After somebody left, he would follow them. If they didn't swerve or something, he would bust them in their driveway when they got home. He used to brag about how he had more busts than any other officer and more than the entire Sheriff’s department combined. He also was the last one to go into a dangerous situation or do actual police work.
88. What A Deke!
I was at the prom afterparty getting my drink on and I was feeling pretty tipsy. I noticed the captain of my hockey team was hitting on this girl, who was the college-aged sister of the girl throwing the party. I knew he was kind of a moron to girls but I thought nothing of it. As the party began to wind down, I noticed them getting into an argument.
I saw her slap him, but what he did next was even more startling. He lifted her off the ground a small amount and he moved her across the floor like an NHL lineman pushing a shopping cart. He then smashed her into the wall. I sprung up from my seat and asked him what he thought he was doing. He responded by putting out his blunt on my left hand, which was on the girl’s shoulder. I punched him in the face.
I broke his jawbone and knocked three of his teeth out. He couldn't play hockey the next season, and the girl was very appreciative.
89. Move It Or Lose It!
I lived in a city, so when I moved to a new apartment, I had to get parking permits for the moving truck and movers. Just as my truck pulled up, some guy cut the truck off and started to run into a sandwich shop. I yelled to him, and he said, "Call the authorities"! I had their number in my phone's memory and said, "Sounds like a plan". He hesitated, started to walk toward the store, then turned around and yelled at me.
He gave me the finger, but ultimately when the 6’6" mover came over and said, "You have to move, or I will move you", the guy got the point.
90. Like Mother, Like Son
I was with my friends on the school playground after hours when I was ten years old. Some kid was being a jerk. He had been tormenting another kid for half an hour, and it finally got to the point where this guy had pulled the kid's pants down and was calling all around the playground, trying his best to embarrass the poor victim. Something inside me snapped.
I ran across the playground and plowed into this kid, knocking him up against a steel bar, telling him he was a jerk while giving the other kid a chance to pull his pants up and make his escape. The jerk ran across the street, back home, and called his mom. His mom came over. This full-grown woman berated me—a ten-year-old kid—for a good minute or two, but I stood firm. I simply told her that what her son did was wrong, and I wasn't going to stand for it.
She walked away and dragged her spawn with her.
91. Justice Was Served
I was in a crowded bar. A guy blatantly cut the line and I called him out. He was rude to me and all of the other people he had cut in front of. He scoffed at my callout, but I would end up having the last laugh. The bartender overheard, and every person—including people who had lined up after he cut—got served before him. I understand there are no "set" lines in bars, but this guy had barged through a line of people who were clearly waiting to be served.
92. Taken
A good friend of mine lost her husband to a car accident. She was then told she could not have custody of his children—who she raised as her own for over ten years—simply because she was just their stepmother and not their biological mother. She fought hard to keep custody of them, and the kids even said they wanted to stay with her, but nope. The court ruled that they were better off with their "real family," so this family took them, and she was told that she would probably never see them again. She took her life not long after that.
93. A Slip Of The Disk
A previous employer used the information I disclosed on a new-hire physical against me on day two of my employment. I had a slipped disk, and although I generally avoided lifting anything beyond 20lbs if I didn’t have to, it didn’t mean I couldn’t. Lifting was not a primary portion of the job, yet she fired me. She said she would hire me back after providing proof from an MD, even though my chiropractor had set the restriction.
I provided proof, and yet nothing. She called my chiropractor, attempting to obtain medical information, none of which she had asked me permission for or was given any authorization to do. Then, my ex-boss even denied I was an employee there at all when I applied for unemployment.
94. Messed Up!
When I was 14 and first starting to like girls, some cute girl was talking to me online. I got her number, and we talked every night for about a month. I eventually asked her out. She started giggling and said, "That's so sweet". Shortly after, her friend saw me in school and told me it was all a joke. She got her friend to do all that just to mess with me. I’ve had trust issues ever since.
95. Karma To The Rescue
My ex-girlfriend was talking/flirting with this guy she met on an app while living with me without me knowing. She told me she didn’t know if she wanted to be with me. She went to visit her mom across the country to “get some space” and ended up meeting that guy she was talking to on the app. She even invited him over to her mom’s house.
I found out by going onto her live video on the app and saw the guy in the video. I confronted her about it, and she told me she wanted to take a “break” and left me at OUR apartment after being together for four years. I ended up moving out of that apartment. A year later, she had his kid, they broke up, he moved to a different state, and she ended up struggling. I hope karma isn’t done with her.
96. Pool Stranger
When I was about 14, I used to go swimming with my girlfriends every weekend. These guys started following us, asking us out even though we'd told them we weren't interested. They were older and bigger than us, and they started making us uncomfortable, but we tried to ignore them. Ultimately, they decided to grab me and my friend’s behinds. That was bad enough, but their insolence didn't end there.
We decided the best action would be to tell a lifeguard, so we started making our way to the pool steps. One of the guys thought it would be OK to swim underwater and try and grab me between the legs. Then, he came out of the water, looked back, and smiled at me. I just saw red. Despite being a couple of years younger and way smaller, something snapped.
I waded over and punched him in the face. I doubt it hurt, but the shock and the added embarrassment of everyone staring at him were enough. I thought I would be in trouble, as that was pretty out of character for me, but my dad said he had never been prouder.
97. Think Again
I was walking home from work down a busy main road. I wasn’t paying attention too much, and a guy dressed all in black was standing in my way. I went to move around him and he blocked me. He grabbed me by the collar and said, "Give me your wallet". I was a bit taken aback and said, "What"? He tightened his grip and said, "Give me some money now". Little did he know exactly who he was messing with.
"Over my dead body, sir", came out of my mouth. I had no fear in my eyes. Clearly, I was not going to back down without a fight. He just stood there, looked at me stunned, pushed me out of the way, and ran off. It was the most surreal experience of my life. I have no idea why I said that to him.
98. Rent Packing
A neighbor got evicted for not paying her rent for one month...while she was in a coma in the hospital. The apartment had a very strict policy that you had to pay by the fifth of the month. If the company didn't receive payment by the 13th, including fees, they would start the eviction process by having lawyers draw up the papers. Then, if everything, including any lawyer fees, wasn't paid by the 17th, documents were submitted to the court, and you were out.
99. Reunification Gone Wrong
I used to be involved in a local nonprofit that placed newborns and infants taken from their mothers into foster homes with families qualified to adopt. "Family reunification" was always the goal in dependency court, but 75% of the time, the birth mother's demons were too strong, and she would lose parental rights. The baby would then get adopted by the foster parents.
Twenty-five percent of the time, the mom was able to overcome addiction and get her baby back. It was crushing for the foster parents, but understandable that if the mom was stable, she should be able to raise her own child. Sometimes the story didn't end there. Sometimes things took a dark turn. One of our couples raised a baby girl from two days old.
After four years of court hearings, rotating social workers, supervised visits, and family therapy with the child and birth mom, the court eventually decided to reunify the birth mom and the child permanently. But that wasn't even the worst part. Unfortunately, she was removed again from her birth mom's custody within a year, but our foster parents couldn't get her back.
She ended up in a foster home with strangers who mistreated her so horrifically that she lost her life within months of placement. It was terrible watching it play out—yet it was totally constitutional. Everyone who works in dependency has a story like this. The real lawful evil is how badly we, as a society, treat the most vulnerable people in our population, over and over.
100. A House Divided
My uncle did some carpentry work for my sister and her partner. He botched the whole lot because when the building inspectors came, they instantly had to condemn the building until the work was done properly. This forced my sister’s partner to sell his house at an insanely reduced price because of the state it was in—condemned.
He nearly made my sister and her partner homeless—but that was just the beginning. His defense was that they asked him to do “what would be the cheapest quick fix until they had enough money to renovate to how they wanted it". They signed the contract, so he had no legitimate fallout for what he did. He also had the nerve to charge them more than he quoted because the job was “tricky".
He still got paid because he took liberties with their lack of knowledge. Then, he decided to do some “renovations” to a house that my mom and aunt co-owned. He ripped down all the walls that weren’t load bearing, removed the ENTIRE floor, so nothing but the concrete footings remained, and removed the kitchen and the stairs. The house was not in any habitable state.
Nine months later, he proceeded to invoice my mom for work he had done, despite not being asked to, nor them agreeing to use him for the work. After a few back and forth e-mails, my aunt decided to start proper proceedings to reclaim the £11,000 in lost rent and owed wages for the work. Both my aunt and uncle KNEW my mom couldn’t afford the fees since she was living rent-free in a house I owned because she had just lost her full-time job.
My mom went to a lawyer. The attorney told her that because they had invoices proving what was owed, my mom only had about a 20% chance of winning a constitutional battle despite being in the right. So, not only did my mom lose her job and house, she lost her ONLY RETIREMENT SECURITY as she was forced to sign over her half of the house for payment.
101. Dr Doom
A doctor, who was inebriated at the time, botched a routine surgery on an infant. The consequences were devastating. The child became a complete vegetable and was dependent on family and public benefits. The hospital’s insurance and high-brow attorneys destroyed any chance of the family—who were immigrants—from receiving anything substantial.
The mother was slowly working herself to oblivion, the dad had lost everything, and their other children suffered like no children I have ever known. The doctor went to rehab and was then back practicing like nothing happened.
102. That’s What Big Brothers Are For
When I was in the fifth grade, a lady grabbed my brother who was in the third grade by the neck. She picked him up and threw him three to four feet against the lockers. She was mad because he had pushed her child out of the way when her kid cut in line in front of him at the water fountain. I couldn't believe it. I just started going off on her.
I was calling her every name I could think of while following her out the door. I wasn’t using your standard fifth-grade insults. My dad was a Marine, and I was saying all the stuff I wasn’t supposed to have heard from him that I amassed over the years. I followed her and her kid out the front door and got to the circle where buses pulled in to pick up the kids.
Then, she turned around and came at me like she was trying to destroy me. There were no teachers around. They were all inside, trying to find out what was going on. It was just her and me, and I could see in her eyes that she was really going to hurt me. She grabbed me by the shoulders, picked me up, and shook me as hard as she could the whole time I was screaming.
Then I heard car breaks, and my mom football tackled her and beat the bejesus out of her. My mom had layers upon layers of that lady’s skin caked under her nails and bruised knuckles from punching her so hard. That night, I got ice cream for trying to protect my brother and was sent to bed early for saying the words I shouldn’t have.
103. She Really Doesn’t Believe In Long-Distance
We were living together at the time. I received a great job offer on the West Coast—we were on the East Coast at the time—so I called her to talk about it. Her reaction made my blood run cold. She changed the locks, sold my stuff, wrote a nasty letter to my mother, and contacted the company to tell them why they shouldn't hire me.
I took the job and moved anyway. She kept contacting the HR department. She moved to the same area about three months later. Every once in a while I would see her car in the office parking lot. It finally stopped when I sued her. Well, technically, it didn't stop until she dragged it all the way out to depositions and her lawyer finally had an opportunity to see the other half of the story.
The whole process took about two years before receiving a check from her.
104. Sharing Isn’t Caring
Okay, so, this happened a few years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday and to be honest, still can't understand what my sister was thinking. A little backstory: My sister and I had to share EVERYTHING as kids. Not to mention I was forced to be her and our younger brother's "second mother", but that’s a story for another time. For some of my childhood, I was happy to share things with my sister.
Sweets, snacks, toys—the normal kid things. There are four years between us, I'm the oldest and as you can probably guess, when I reached my teen years I wanted my own things and to spend time alone. Nope. She wanted me to do everything with her. I could barely spend ten minutes in the bathroom before she would start banging on the door.
Unfortunately, when I was around 15, my siblings and I were taken into foster care. We were separated from our brother which was difficult for both of us and for a while I didn't mind my sister wanting to spend all her time with me. Shortly after my 16th birthday I wanted to have my own space and things that are, well, mine.
She would argue with me over not sharing MY stuff and of course, typical sibling fights and yelling happened almost every other day. We sort of grew out of our sibling squabbles over the years but she kinda developed a "the-world-owes-me" attitude which drove me crazy. I did my best to hold in my frustrations but I'm human and sometimes…I kinda snapped.
A couple of years after my daughter was born, my sister and I weren't really talking much because of her selfish attitude towards me spending most of my time and income on my daughter. During one of the times we were on good terms, she was over for the weekend and everything was okay. Until a conversation lead to her telling me she was going to take my daughter for a week because she wanted to spend time with her because it was "her turn".
I said, "Not gonna happen. She is MY daughter, not a doll or pet we share”. She gets mad and starts yelling. I told her to leave and she argues how "she had parental rights" and "social services will force me to allow her to take my daughter whenever she wants". I laughed, told her to get out and don't come back. Honestly, I don't know if she seriously thought that it was her right to have my daughter.
105. Leave It Well Enough Alone
For the past few months, I've suspected that my upstairs neighbor has been taking some of my mail. I buy a lot of things online like books and craft supplies and every now and then there's been small things that were meant to arrive on a certain day that never did. One day, I caught her wandering around my front door. When I asked her what she was doing she said "Oh, I was looking for something I think I dropped into your yard”.
I got surveillance cameras installed a while ago, which were not noticeable to my neighbors. The camera that's pointed at my front door isn't visible from the driveway. So here comes the trap. I purchased a few postage boxes to set up for her. The first one was a glitter bomb. I set up the box to make sure she would get glitter to the face as soon as she opened it.
I packed it to make it look like a postage parcel, then sat it at my front door. 20 minutes later I saw her walking to my front door. She looked around then picked up the box and walked away. My only regret is that I didn't get to see her reaction when she got a face full of glitter. I haven't noticed any other mail going missing after that, but she will regret it if she does it again.
106. The Bad Husband
I lost respect for this friend when it came out that he was cheating on his disabled and housebound wife. But that was just the beginning of the nightmare. She managed the finances and managed the electronic toll-road bill that showed he was in the wrong state when he was said he was at work. When she confronted him, he denied it until she then pulled out the phone bill with his texts and calls to a number in the general area of the state he had been in.
He then divorced her and tried to screw her out of her share of his Navy pension and insurance. They were married for longer than his time in the service (25 years) and was she entitled to half of it. He went out of his way to hurt her. She passed less than a year later in a nursing home while he was moving in with a completely different woman than the one he originally cheated on his wife with.
Real classy guy. He showed up to the first wife’s funeral with #2. He also claimed to go out "whaling" while in the Navy—he and his fellow sailors would apparently search out and bed the largest lady they could while on shore leave. The winner who took home the biggest got bragging rights until the next round of leave. Horrific.
107. Family Fakery
My sister was a compulsive liar, among many other things. Growing up, kids would stop by our house to see our new puppies—we didn't have any. When my friend had a baby, my sister took photos and told people at school it was hers. She told people we don't speak because she needed a kidney transplant, and I refused to offer her mine—she didn’t need one.
She also told my mom she had won the “Best Undercover Cop of the Year” award and got a trophy. She sent my mom a photo, which my mom posted on Facebook. It was the World Cup Trophy! The list goes on. But I'll never look at her the same after her latest lie. She worked for a company and left after telling them that she had an incurable disease. She told them the doctors had ordered her to be on bed rest.
Then, she let fellow employees at another company throw a party for her because they FOUND a cure for this incurable disease.
108. You Used To Have A Friend In Me
My crazy ex-roommate and I got along so horribly during the time when we were living together. She'd let strangers sleep in my bed when I wasn't there, swipe my makeup, and whine that I wasn't home often enough, even though I still fully paid my half of rent and bills while working full time and going to school. Plus, It was none of her business where I chose to spend my own personal time.
It got so bad between us that I very reasonably asked if I could find someone to replace me in the lease, with the landlord's permission. We had been best friends before living together, and so when she said that she "didn't want to live with anyone else but me", and that she "couldn't afford the place without me" I trusted her and didn't press the issue.
I decided to just grit my teeth and make it through the remaining six months of the one year lease. This was a huge mistake. A month or so had passed, and I suddenly get a phone call from her, saying that her mom "got us out of the lease" (umm, excuse me?) and that I have to have my stuff out of the apartment by that coming Monday.
It was Friday night, and I had to work full shifts on Saturday and Sunday. So, I cashed in my favors with all my friends and got my stuff out somehow in record time. The best part? When I was getting my stuff out, I found a receipt (right on the counter, mind you) stating that she had spent over $1,000 on EYELASH IMPLANTS. Yes, I kid you not.
The whole time she'd been telling me she couldn't afford to float the place on her own, she was spending money on freaking eyelashes! The amount she had spent was more than enough to have paid our rent for a full three months, seeing as it was a cheap rathole. It's now four, nearly five years later, and we still haven't spoken again a single time after I called her out on the eyelash thing.
This, after having been best friends for years before living together. Living together taught me that she was a rude, vain thief who let strangers sleep in my bed, lied, and tricked me into spending a bunch of my own time and money on trying to help her when she was only trying to take advantage of me all along. I should have broken that lease after the first serious infraction on her part and never let it get to this point.
Friends, take a warning from me. Don’t overlook things you know are wrong. It won’t pay off in the long term.
47. Best Buds No More
This guy at work started at the same time I did and we become buds. We hang out, play some Xbox, the whole nine yards. We worked together for two and a half years at this store and eventually were the two most senior associates.
A promotion comes up to become a Director's Assistant and basically get an automatic pay-rate bump plus full-time. We are both interviewed, and we agreed that we would put our best foot forward and not hold any regrets.
The dude beat me out in the end, and I congratulated him on his victory. He acts a little off but tells me it was a close run, and he knew I was a good candidate. Then I discovered his brutal betrayal. A week after the promotion, the store director calls me in for a serious sit-down.
He says, "I hear you have been cheating the time clock, possibly stealing, and giving discounts to friends". I deny, deny, deny that and ask for proof, or I was going to sue. I’m given a "forced three days off" while it is investigated by corporate.
I’m called in a week after suspension for a sit-down with the big shot. They apologized and promoted me to the DA position. They tell me that my buddy was caught on tape several times stealing, his electronic journal showed consistent unwarranted discounts, and other activities—even though he had “tipped” them off to my supposed activities.
When they confronted him, he broke down, apologized, and returned some stuff he planned to swipe after his shift. This jerk tried to frame me to get ahead.
48. Meet The Monsters-In-Law
My in-laws. You hear tales of people with terrible in-laws, but I have been living it for 18 years now. This year above all others, they were at their absolute worst behavior. Aside from complaining about every single restaurant, store, park, or place where we took them, they also ruined my daughter’s 17th birthday.
They felt that they would take her around to places they wanted to go, all while telling my daughter that her hair looks like garbage because she's dyed it too many times, and that she is too skinny and in need of a hearty meal.
My daughter tried to show them places, things, and eateries that were special to her, and the in-laws told her how awful all of those things were, that the service was bad, the food terrible, the location awful, and that they would never go back to those places.
My daughter told me that they would complain about me and my wife as well, saying how they saw us both as failures and that they were hoping that they could “rescue” my daughter by paying for her to go to a college of their choosing.
It was the worst possible week, ruined the entire holiday, and the only good present that they gave was that they left and went home on the 26th.
50. Sharing Isn’t Caring
Okay, so, this happened a few years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday and to be honest, still can't understand what my sister was thinking. A little backstory: My sister and I had to share EVERYTHING as kids. Not to mention I was forced to be her and our younger brother's "second mother", but that’s a story for another time. For some of my childhood, I was happy to share things with my sister.
Sweets, snacks, toys—the normal kid things. There are four years between us, I'm the oldest and as you can probably guess, when I reached my teen years I wanted my own things and to spend time alone. Nope. She wanted me to do everything with her. I could barely spend ten minutes in the bathroom before she would start banging on the door.
Unfortunately, when I was around 15, my siblings and I were taken into foster care. We were separated from our brother which was difficult for both of us and for a while I didn't mind my sister wanting to spend all her time with me. Shortly after my 16th birthday I wanted to have my own space and things that are, well, mine.
She would argue with me over not sharing MY stuff and of course, typical sibling fights and yelling happened almost every other day. We sort of grew out of our sibling squabbles over the years but she kinda developed a "the-world-owes-me" attitude which drove me crazy. I did my best to hold in my frustrations but I'm human and sometimes…I kinda snapped.
A couple of years after my daughter was born, my sister and I weren't really talking much because of her selfish attitude towards me spending most of my time and income on my daughter. During one of the times we were on good terms, she was over for the weekend and everything was okay. Until a conversation lead to her telling me she was going to take my daughter for a week because she wanted to spend time with her because it was "her turn."
I said, "Not gonna happen. She is MY daughter, not a doll or pet we share”. She gets mad and starts yelling. I told her to leave and she argues how "she had parental rights" and "social services will force me to allow her to take my daughter whenever she wants". I laughed, told her to get out and don't come back. Honestly, I don't know if she seriously thought that it was her right to have my daughter.
49. On My Father’s Grave
My worst teacher asked me, “Didn’t your father ever teach you how to act?” I had to inform him that my father had died four years earlier. Two weeks later, my step-dad comes to pick me up for an appointment saying he’s here to pick up his child. When the teacher was over the phone with the office, he asked, “You mean the deceased father is here for pick up?”
All through high school, that teacher just kept doubling down and never showed remorse for what he had said. He would chase me into other classrooms because I had a hat on and I needed to take it off. This gave me motivation to become the compassionate, empathetic, and awesome teacher that I am today. My kids always get the benefit of the doubt and I respect them.
77. Sleepover
He has a longtime friend of his (who happened to be female) who was staying the night. She was sleeping in the basement bedroom and we were upstairs. Well, he slipped out of bed in the middle of the night and woke me up. When he noticed, he told me he had to go to the bathroom. I guess I already had my suspicions, because I lay there and listened to him walk down the hall, then past the bathroom, and down the stairs. So, I followed. And caught him in the basement getting ready to have sex with her. Oh. I was not a happy puppy. Was stupid and tried to salvage our engagement, but I wasn't "fun anymore" and he left.
105. Hotel Havoc
I used to work as a front desk agent at a boutique hotel. A guy who was obviously very full of himself came in with an online reservation that he had booked at a shockingly cheap nightly rate. He proceeded to give me a hard time about EVERYTHING, from telling me he shouldn't have to give me his credit card info since he had prepaid his reservation, to telling me "Um yeah, I'm pretty sure I can find the elevators, I'm not stupid."
He was just being an all-around jerk. About 10 minutes after checking him in, he came down and demanded that we give him a bigger room with a king bed and a view, even though he had booked a standard queen bed online. I complied, as we had extra king beds available. 10 minutes later, he came down again to complain about the size of the room.
He told me, "I'm only going to give you one more chance to make me happy," and asked for the general manager. After much arguing between him and my manager, we ended up giving him our nicest suite AND free parking since we had "Given him trouble." He got all this for a way cheaper rate, like $40 per night! Oh, but he outdid himself.
Get this: He informed us shortly after the ordeal, while on his way out to dinner, that he was not even going to be in the room for the majority of his stay, as he was visiting friends and would be staying at their home. What the heck! So I made it my personal mission to make his life a living nightmare from that point on.
I reset his room keys every time I saw him leave the hotel—which was quite frequently, 3-4 times a day. It was particularly funny when he came back tired from a night out and had to come all the way down to the front desk to get his keys fixed. Needless to say, he was very frustrated by the end of his stay. I doubt he'll be staying with us again.
