Most of the time, we give people the benefit of the doubt. After all, everybody makes mistakes, or gets nervous and does something stupid, and we try to offer them the same courtesy and kindness we’d want for ourselves. But sometimes, we witness an event that we can’t come back from. An action, or phrase, or secret that is so disturbingly revealing, we lose all respect for someone in an instant.
1. In Bed With The Enemy
Oh man. A co-worker was crying in the kitchen at work because she was so afraid of our boss, who would fly off the handle and be a complete jerk. Like, he'd start screaming and yelling and then progress to really quiet intimidating threats. I tried to be supportive. I told her it was going to be okay and she didn't have to put up with this.
I asked her to come with me to HR and I'd stay with her while she filed a complaint. Her response was to get really angry at me and snap at me. She said something like, "I would never do that!" Then stormed out. I remember thinking: "People like you are why people like him get away with being like this at work. You enable it because you're a coward."
Afterward, I thought maybe I'd been too harsh on her—I figured she was just scared and had been so cowed by him that she was basically acting like a battered wife. My initial judgment proved correct, however, because as time went on, three senior managers in different departments (my boss's equals) complained about his behavior, as well as at least four other junior employees in other departments.
His behavior towards me eventually got so bad that I had to file a formal complaint, too—threatening me in person and by email or phone on the weekends, shouting in my face, then being extremely touchy-feely, inviting me to go on non-work trips with him as his "PA.” The worst rollercoaster ever. One minute all over me, the next minute accusing me of being a work-shy witch.
So HR asked my sniveling co-worker to come in to confirm that she had witnessed his behavior towards me. Not even towards herself, because they knew all about it, but she had point-blank refused to say anything even when asked BY HR. She looked at me, looked at the HR director, and said, "I've never seen that. I'm not saying…she's lying or anything. I've just never seen that." One of the senior management started referring to her as Eva Braun after that.
She chose to actively support and enable a person who was making everyone's lives miserable, and because she wouldn't confirm what he was doing, he got away with it. Over time, he realized she was the only one who was under his thumb, so he eased up on her and she became his "pet." She used to intentionally tell him untrue things she knew would send him into a rage at other people, just to make sure his temper was directed at anyone but her.
So my initial writing-off of her ended up being justified. Any time I think of her, I just feel such contempt.
2. Who’s The Boss?
At my previous job, my boss would only hire her friends—except me, I was the only exception. One of my co-workers called off one day because she had a miscarriage. My boss messaged her, apparently being a supportive friend, but all while talking trash about the entire situation openly to other co-workers. She made miscarriage jokes and called her a liar.
She offered to drive her to the doctor, telling her it was to make sure she was okay, but telling us it was to "figure out what the heck was wrong with her that her body kept aborting babies." She was saying all of this while customers were in the store, and could easily hear. Customers that could have had a miscarriage, who could have been hurt by what she was saying.
The entire situation was messed up. It ended by her getting so angry that the girl never showed up for work that she took $100 and blamed it on her. The girl quit because she couldn't pay that money back to keep her job, and the boss got $100. There were actually so many more situations that made me lose every bit of respect for her and then some. She's just an awful human being.
3. Once A Mooch, Always A Mooch
At college in London, I had a car and my friend didn't. He also didn’t have a driving license, so I regularly drove to the other side of the city to pick him up or drop him off. I never once asked for gas money and would have rejected the offer if he made it. He was my friend, end of story. Well, one night a group of us were out in town and decided to go watch a film.
I called him up, told him to get over and I'd pick up an extra ticket to make sure he could make it. When he arrived he took the ticket, then casually said, "Get the money from Bob, he owes me." I'd spent my last ten dollars on that ticket. So when everyone decided to go to McDonald's, I couldn't afford to eat. Then they decided to go to a bar, and he asked me what I wanted to drink.
I asked for coke. He came back holding two. Thinking one was for me, I reached for it and he looked at me at said, "In your dreams" and walked past. Didn't have much to do with him after that.
4. Some People’s Parents…
My boyfriend's brother and his wife. She has a bad case of baby fever but can't conceive and has had several miscarriages. That sucks, totally. But the way she handles it is awful. There have been two instances where she wants a puppy to calm her yearning, so she gets her husband to get her a puppy. A few months later, she gets pregnant and lo and behold, they can't keep the dog anymore because "we're having a baby."
Then, instead of taking the dog to the shelter, they abandon it in someone's backyard. My boyfriend confronted his brother about it but he just shrugged it off and said "he had no choice." Yes, you did, you just decided to be a jerk. A couple weeks later, she miscarries. Then they get ANOTHER dog after that because she's depressed.
A couple of months later, they for some reason can't take care of it anymore, so they abandon it at my boyfriend's parents’ house and the woman still has the nerve to call it her "baby." She is not your baby, you decided to abandon her for whatever crazy reason and then you still get another dog. This dog they've kept the longest, but now they're talking about giving it up again because he "poops and pees everywhere."
Then house train it, you idiots. She always pines that she wants a baby, but I honestly hope they never do because they are just selfish people.
5. Spoiled Brat 101
A college girl I worked with at a restaurant on campus bragged about how she told off a manager who politely asked her to order at a restaurant downtown where she was studying and not buying anything. She literally told him that the whole town is her library and the only reason he had a job was because of students like her, since this was a college town.
She said she was going to college to do something meaningful with her life and make a difference so she wouldn't end up as a sad restaurant manager like himself. I was so stunned I couldn't say anything. I have never heard anything more bratty and self-entitled in my life.
6. Over It
My boyfriend threw me a surprise birthday party for my 21st birthday and invited all my friends. This included one who lived six hours away. She ended up coming, which was great at first, but I quickly regretted it. She wanted to make the whole night about her. For example, she kept telling everyone I shouldn’t drink because I get too messed up.
She also kept complaining about how much she missed her 50-year-old fiancé—she kept including his age in order to also mention how much more mature she was than all of us, even though we’re the same age as her. She also said it was rude that my boyfriend’s roommate didn’t offer his room to her to stay in because his bed was larger.
Even the next day when we got brunch, she kept complaining about how much she missed her fiancé, and said that I should just get a box to-go so she can take me home and go home herself. She managed to annoy a lot of people that night, but especially me. We had been friends for about three years, but that night really made me look at our so-called friendship in a brand new light.
7. Woman Down
My friend Tiffany slept with her married "best friend" Clayton when his wife was pregnant with Tiffany’s future godchild. Clayton then left his wife and infant child for Tiffany, and soon they had a baby of their own. That all happened in a year. It was the trashiest thing I've ever personally witnessed, and I noped out of that friendship fast.
She contacted me recently to see if I was, in her words, “ready to be friends again.” I replied: "I did not set our friendship aside lightly. I threw it away with great force."
8. Nice Girls Finish Last
One of my closest friends and I trained to run a half marathon. Unfortunately, she had some issues and she didn't train as much as me because of an injury. Now, it was understood that while we trained together, we would run our own pace at the actual race. In other words, I would not hold back for her and do my best while still cheering her on when she finished.
So we start off together and at just over halfway she needed to walk, so I kept running. It was about a two-mile race, out and back. She decided to meet up with me as I was returning from the out and back, cutting off about two miles of her race. But then she pulls the most diabolical move: she proceeds to kick it in the end, “beating” me by pretending she ran the whole thing. Needless to say, our race buddy days were over that day.
9. What About Bob
When I was in grad school, I went into a competitive but very social lab. One postdoc in particular went out of his way to make me feel welcome and became a good friend of mine. He let me stay with him while I was looking for an apartment, showed me around to the good lunch places, and let me tag along to some social events. This is a big deal to a new PhD student at the bottom of the social ladder in a big new place that can be pretty lonely.
It was great to have one good friend. One Friday, I stopped by his office to see if he wanted to hang out that night, and just generally see what was going on. He said that he was going out with a fellow postdoc, let's call him Bob, and some other folks in the lab. Then he said the sentence that ruined everything. Chuckling, he added, "But you can't come, Bob doesn't like women."
He just laughed in that nudge-and-wink, "You know what I mean, some people are just like that" way. Everyone else in the lab was a man, and invited, but I was the only one not allowed to go out with them. I couldn't believe that he wouldn't stand up for me at least a little bit in that situation. Many other times after that, he was sweet as pie with me to my face and I later found out he had said bad things about me.
I'm not even sure what he said about Bob was true (though he was sort of a piece of work). We remained friendly, but I no longer respected him. For what it's worth, later in my career I met a nice colleague who had worked with "Bob" at another institution. I did not tell him my Bob story, but upon hearing I knew Bob, my new colleague volunteered that Bob did, indeed, have major problems with women that had lead to two separate incidents involving female students.
10. Classic Deflection
This friend was and still is a big projector. She would pick a person from our friend group and project an insecurity onto them, and when she couldn't get the group to turn on them, she would whine and moan about what bad friends we were. This either lasted a month or was permanent, depending on her mood. It had little to no sense who she projected onto for what.
For example, she accused this guy who's never been in a relationship of being unfaithful. A week later, the boyfriend she was dating blocks her on social media and we learn that she cheated. She projected her fat insecurity onto me, even though I am underweight and one of the skinnier ones in the group. As you can guess, she is overweight, though not even by much.
11. False Friends
This friend Orion bailed last minute on our student house for second year. One of the other guys already had, and Orion knew it, but still waited until after half of us had paid the holding fees to tell us. To be fair, Orion had genuine reason to do so, but the way he went about it was just a massive "screw you" to all of us, and it took him weeks before he actually explained the reason to us.
A few weeks later, Orion was drinking and in a bad mood, and we got into an argument. He dragged one of our other friends, a very nice girl who always went out of her way to help you out, into it, and started being incredibly harsh to her. Basically, he was venting a load of garbage to her. Being a jerk to me was fine, I'd earned it, but saying stuff her was totally unnecessary. In the end, I was very, very glad we weren't stuck living with him for a year.
He always blamed others for not being happy and twisted everything to make us the bad guys. He also called us all pathetic idiots for actually enjoying our time at university, just because he wasn't. I know his behavior was a sign of him having stuff going on, and I won't go into details, but we really did do our best to support him. But we each had a limit to how many times he would throw it back in our faces before we gave up trying.
12. Sibling Rivalry
I spent years helping my sister with her bills, things like $150 for car insurance and $120 for phone bills. Buying tires for her car, or paying to get the car out after she had it repossessed—that happened three times. Besides that, countless money on baby food, milk, diapers, clothes, car seats for her son, and spending every day I had off work babysitting her son.
I mean thousands of dollars. Anyway, after all that, she couldn't drive me to work one time after my car broke down. It wasn't missing work that mattered, it was the way she reacted when I asked. She sneered and said, "Why would I do that?” It was very disappointing but I learned that no matter how much you do for people, they will always be who they are. Now I spend my time and money on myself.
13. Hung Out To Dry
I knew a guy my freshmen year of college. He was an aspiring musician and was very depressed about his recent ex-girlfriend. He would frequently complain that women only like stupid muscular guys and he never got laid because of that. I would go to my hometown almost every weekend and sometimes I would come back to hear about how he got laid, but then he would just complain a few days later about how he never got laid.
Finally toward the end of the second semester, this guy had a girl up for the weekend when I was away. He and the girl hit it off and they ended up sleeping together a few times that night. The girl liked him and suggested that they maybe start talking and possibly go on a date. He tells, "this isn't going past right now," and the girl becomes noticeably bummed out, so he asks my other friends if they can drive her home.
At this point, it’s 2:00 am and she lived another state over. My friends said no initially, but he said they could drop her at a halfway point so they agreed. They drop her off at a McDonald’s at about 4 am and head back. He tells my friends that her dad or friend will be there to get her soon. I come back on Monday and he tells me in private the whole story.
Then he gets to the part about the McDonald’s and he admits that there was nobody coming for her and that he lied to my other two friends in order to "get rid of her." Worst part is that he's LAUGHING as he says all this and expected me to laugh too. Couldn't be in the same room with him after that.
14. When The Cat’s Away…
A couple years after my mom passed, my dad kind of randomly told me I was lucky I was born. I knew my mom had a couple miscarriages between my older sister and me, so that’s what I thought he meant. I’ve never been so wrong in my life. My dad proceeds to brag about how mom had caught him cheating with some hair dresser.
He said, "She would just come over every lunch break and we'd drive out in the desert and get it on.” I lost a lot of respect that day.
15. An Open And Shut Case
My friend and I were renting a house. The landlord was kind of a jerk, but his handyman was a nice guy and we'd invite him in for a drink sometimes. So one day, he tells us that the landlord often would unlock and wander around in his rental properties when the tenants weren't there. Totally illegal! He didn't mess with anything, he just wanted to see that the tenants weren't trashing his property.
We were outraged and wondered if he'd done it at our place. The handyman laughed. "Oh yeah, the day after you moved all your stuff in! Good thing you left your dogs there for the day..." One was 90 pounds, the other 120 pounds—friendly, but very protective. "They didn't bark at all when we pulled up. He unlocked the door and they were just standing there, staring at him. He backed up so fast he fell on his butt! Then he ran for the car. I don't mind dogs, so I went over and closed the door. He never tried that again."
Apparently a year earlier, he walked into another property and found the tenant holding a shotgun aimed directly at his chest. He turned around and left without saying a word. Never went in there again either, I'd bet.
16. For The Dogs
My mom and aunt never got along well, but regardless they made the effort of spending time together so that me and my cousins could get along. While it was nice, it was a ticking time bomb for a full out argument, which happened probably about seven or so years ago. It was over an arranged payment between them for gas used for our grandparents’ holiday caravan.
After that, they couldn't stand the sight of each other, to the point where I was invited for my aunt's second wedding and I was explicitly told my mom wasn't invited. However, despite her arguments with my mom, my aunt wanted to remain in contact with me and I still liked her as an aunt…at first. What made me lose respect for her was the horrific behavior of this second husband, and how she just went along with whatever he did.
Basically, my aunt marries up the social class if you know what I mean, and her current husband is incredibly upper class. Like as a result of marrying him, she was able to retire from teaching at age 47. But it's to the point where she excuses some shady behavior, which honestly makes me refuse to call him my uncle. Let me explain.
When they had their first child together, they were worried about my cousin's dog Millie, who admittedly was quite aggressive, so they had to do something about her. Well, my aunt's husband wanted to put her down. Keep in mind that my aunt and cousins had Millie for about since years, since she was a puppy. My grandpa, who absolutely adores dogs, said that he and my grandma were willing to take in Millie.
They had experience with handling her from dog-sitting while my aunt and cousins were away. The last of my grandparents' dogs ha passed from old age the year before, so they were quite possibly the perfect people to handle Millie. However all my grandparents asked was that my aunt and uncle hold on to Millie for a week, because my grandparents were currently in Turkey on holiday to visit other family.
My aunt and her husband had been keeping Millie in a separate part of their house for about a month already so another week wasn't a problem, and they agreed to wait. The very next morning, however, my aunt's husband had booked an appointment with the vets that he knew, and he with his three sons had Millie put down despite the fact that my grandparents said they would look after her.
My grandpa was absolutely heartbroken and furious, but my aunt kept siding with her husband over how they needed to do it because it was too difficult to look after Millie, even though she had already been doing it for five years and she was always an aggressive dog. This was the last straw for a lot us, and none of us really talk to them anymore.
17. A Tough One To Wrestle With
I was my friend’s house. Because his 13-year-old son would not stop hanging on him, this “friend” put the boy in a sleeper hold until he passed out. The dad didn’t think anyone saw him do it until I pulled him aside and called him on it. Then he told me it wasn’t that big of a deal and to just stay out of his parenting style.
I called out to my wife, said I can no longer associate with him, and we left. I explained to her what he did, and later the guy’s wife called us asking why we’d left abruptly. Long story short, they are now divorced and he’s not allowed anywhere near his three sons.
18. To Each Their Own
I once told my grandfather that he was wrong for mistreating a child. He then launched into this long-winded, misogynistic, victim-blaming diatribe, telling me in no uncertain terms that I’m the bad guy and I deserve all the traumas I’ve endured because I don’t know my place. I waited for him to finish, and then I asked him why the truth about his behavior upset him to the point that he felt the need to verbally crucify me. His reply made my jaw drop.
His response, verbatim: “The truth doesn’t matter. What matters is what I believe.”
19. Fools Rush In
I had just found out my husband had an affair, and we had separated for a short time. It was mentally and emotionally breaking for me, obviously. A guy friend of mine I had known forever found out about what happened and texted me to see if I was doing ok. He didn’t even wait for an answer—instead, I got a very intimate picture and a “wanna make out sometime?” from him.
It’s been four years and I can’t even look at his profile picture without being furious.
20. Forever Alone
I had a friend in college who we all knew was headed down a bad path. He struggled with girls and was an all-around awkward guy, but still nonetheless respectful and a nice guy. So I thought. First warning, which should have been the last, is when I discovered he and two other guys had been blackmailing another female friend of mine.
They had taken her phone, broken into it, and copied over her intimate photos. Now they were demanding she give them more or they would publish the ones they had. I got them caught, and this guy personally apologized to me and said his hand was forced and that he felt terrible. I don’t know why, but I believed him. This would come back to haunt me.
A couple of years later, a massive leak of intimate photos were published and shared from another girl we knew. This guy wasn’t involved this time directly…but he did keep all the downloads and started selling and re-sharing them. A bunch of friends and I later discovered that he keeps a couple of external hard drives filled to the brim with blackmail like this, most of it from girls we know.
The worst of all was that around this time, he waited until a fellow friend was asleep to break into his cell phone and take his girlfriend’s intimate photos. After that we put our boundaries up and left him alone. Now it turns out my friends have been inviting him again to parties. I now refuse to go anywhere he is going to be. Screw this guy, I hope he stays single forever.
21. A High Price Of Admission
My best friend was cheating on her husband and told me about it. However, our husbands were best friends too, and she begged me not to tell my husband. I told her that I would be telling him and of course she made me feel like the bad guy, but our relationship isn’t built on lies and secrets. I told him the very next day, and he informed her that she needed to tell her man soon or he would.
She told him a couple of weeks later, and our friendships haven’t been the same. I’ve basically resigned to knowing that we won’t be friends again. Her and her husband are trying to work things out so I don’t know if my husband will be able to salvage the friendship either. It was really disheartening because we were all really close.
But there’s no way I am going to put my marriage in jeopardy to save your dirty little secret. And I don’t think I can be friends with someone who would expect that of me.
22. First Prize In Douchebaggery
Several years ago, a group of friends and I went to this Anime Convention. At some point, we decide to go watch the cosplay contest. We all get seats and I am next to the couple in our group, both of whom I was friends with. One of the contestants was a girl in a beautiful Princess Minimoon cosplay. Admittedly though, the girl was kind of heavyset, though I didn't think it detracted from her cosplay.
They thought otherwise. The entire time she was on stage, the two of them went on and on about how awful she was, how fat she was, how she didn't deserve to be there. It got annoying really quick. But it was about to go from annoying to insufferable. See, Minimoon ends up getting 1st in her category. I was happy for her, but I couldn't celebrate for long because by God, did it set the two of them off.
For the rest of the convention, any chance they could, they would talk about the Minimoon and how stupid the judging was. And, no, not once did they bring up the craftsmanship of the cosplay, only her size. It took some time, but I've since distanced myself from the two of them. Major red flags that day that I could never go back from.
23. There Can Only Be One
This girl was my closest friend back then. She slept around a lot, and that was just fine by me…until she started going behind my back to sleep with the guys she knew I had crushes on. She even went as far as finding a guy I met on a dating app, flirting with him, and sleeping with him the night before I was supposed to go on a date with him.
When I confronted her about it, she admitted she saw me as "competition" when it came to men and dating.
24. Daddy’s Little Girl
Loudly, and without caution, my “friend” was complaining about his ex within earshot of his seven-year-old daughter. He was calling the mother all these names and going into explicit detail on why he not only dislikes her, but also actively hates her, and how he wishes he could hurt her. It was all bluster and posturing, because this guy is a wimp.
The look on the poor girl's face as he railed about how much he hated her mother, someone that she obviously loves and looks up to, was heartbreaking. I'm a divorced dad, and the son of divorcees, and the one absolute rule that I've had since the day my daughter was born is to under no circumstances speak ill of the other parent. Your drama and hurt feelings are not shared by your child.
They have no need to hear the hurtful things you're saying about the other person, and it only harms the kid. After a few minutes of listening to this man-baby whine about his poor daughter's mother, I mentioned that he should tone it down in front of her. His response was to ratchet it up a notch, since "she already knows all this."
I couldn't believe that he didn't see the damage he was actively inflicting on the poor girl, and since that day, I've had zero respect for him as a person or parent.
25. Rotten Eggs
Some of my friends do really awful things. I've lost all respect for at least three of them because of their actions. I'm not saying I'm perfect and I understand that we're teenagers but it's just not cool what they do. It all started fairly harmless but has progressed to straight up vandalism. First, they would go out and take political yard signs. Harmless, right?
Then, during Christmastime, they would go take Christmas decorations, put them in other people's yards, make the reindeer hump, break the decorations, etc. I think they slashed some inflatable decorations that are several hundred dollars too. Recently, they've been going around town and smashing random people's mailboxes, knocking the box off the post and/or ripping the post out of the ground.
Why? Because they're teenagers running around town at 3 in the morning. The other night I actually went to hang out with them for the first time in a long time. I mean, I've hung out with them but I hadn't spent the night at one of their houses in a while. So anyway, they all get loaded and decide they want to go to get fast food at 2 am.
They want me to drive them and I say, "No, I'm tired, it's 20degrees outside, and I don't feel like leaving." So everyone leaves except me and my other friend that didn't want to go. We chill and play Xbox until they get back at 3:45. Apparently, those jerks went and ate and then went mailbox bashing. They went to one of their dad's houses and smashed his mailbox because the kid doesn't like his dad after getting a divorce with his mom.
Then they went and were gonna tip a porta-potty until someone on the inside was like "Stop dude, dude stopstopstop!" Some poor homeless guy was spending the night in it. I'm just glad they had the decency to leave him alone and not tip it. One of the guys, who does that stuff with them all the time, wasn't there that night but told them they should've tipped it anyway because it would've been funny.
After that, they saw a PT Cruiser parked, and they had a grand idea. They went and slashed the tires because it's a "PT Loser." They also only slashed three of the tires because they claim that insurance won't cover it if only three are slashed. I don't think the insurance thing is true but it's still an awful motive on their part. I don't think I can ever hang out with them again.
I wanted to just beat the living daylights out of each of them when they got back and told us the story. I am contemplating actually telling them that I think they're pieces of trash. At the same time, I'm sad because they're my only friends. Luckily, I'll be in a better college than all of them next year (we're in high school). I can't stop thinking about what they did and I don't even want to talk to them anymore. They come from good homes but they're just bad people.
26. Upping The Anti
This one friend was a complete jerk at a poker game. It was just a small group of friends trying to have a good time and some newbie poker players willing to give it a try. This one guy just has to show off and act like he’s an OG poker player. Condescending, talking trash, tipping people like it’s a real game. It was a $25 buy-in, bruh. I’m talking to you, Jim.
27. Wrong Move
I had this friend in middle school named Gavin. He seemed to be a good guy, and pretty cool. But then I got the news that he beat up the autistic kid who was also my friend at the time. No one had any respect for him after that, and the autistic kid didn't even do anything to him in the first place. In fact, one of my friends said Gavin was just doing it to impress a girl. Gavin and I are no longer close.
28. The Milk Of Human Kindness
A girl I went to primary school with 10 years earlier was due to be popping out her fifth child. She’d never had a job and her husband was a trash human but had a decent job as a butcher in town. Anyway, one day I heard she was having a hard time putting food on the table. So I did a little donation from the pub I was managing. It was a bunch of tinned foods, a tray full of bacon, lamb chops, steak, chicken legs, sausages and rissoles.
Plus two-dozen eggs and two loads of bread as well as a bucket of apples, strawberries, and mangoes. I took it round to her…and her reaction made me want to punch her in the face. She just complained that she had chickens so doesn’t want eggs, that she doesn’t like lamb or beef so why did I give her that, and the tin foods were the “commercial” brand not the expensive ones.
Probably the one that stung the most was when, referring to the fresh fruit, she said disdainfully that her family didn’t “eat stuff from trees” and so she would have to use it to feed the chickens. How I kept my cool and didn’t snatch everything back and take it to the next town’s homeless shelter, I don’t know. Last time I help her out.
29. Good Riddance To Bad Rubbish
My roommate slept with my friend, and when he decided he didn’t want to hook up with her anymore or pursue a relationship, she lied and told everyone he gave her an STD. He took a full STD test and came back 100% clean. I later got in another fight with this same roommate because I was sick of her always making excuses for driving after drinking.
When I tried to explain to her that the consequences can affect the lives of other people and not just her own, her response was unbelievable: she said “I just doesn’t really care that much.” I told her she needed to take some accountability or move out. She moved.
30. Won’t Somebody Think Of The Children?
I was a kid in girl scouts during the cookie season almost 20 years ago now. My troop did rather well selling cookies and we were supposed to get different prizes for reaching various numbers of boxes sold. Once all the money and checks were collected, my troop leader took it all for herself (a bit more than $5,000) and vanished. No one got any of their cookies or prizes.
She was discovered some time later at an electronics store and detained.
31. Much Harm, Much Foul
My ex-friend got pregnant shortly after we graduated high school. During this time, she invited me to a party, and when I got there she was so gone from drinking that I nearly lost my mind. I remember telling her, "I can't believe you're drinking while you're pregnant, what the actual heck is wrong with you?" I then turned around and left. End of respect, end of friendship.
32. Teacher’s Pet
One time I had a high school teacher who was actually really kind and respectful. She never shouted or was impatient with her students. I had her every Wednesday, and I always looked forward to her lessons. I would be walking to school with my friends and them I'd be like, "Yes! I have Mrs. S today!" They would always respond with, "Ah. You mean the fat one?"
At that point, I realized they couldn't care less about her personality, only her looks. It explained why they always dated the popular girls that I've always hated and who had seemed arrogant beyond belief but looked good. Anyways, I kind of started to zone them out a bit. I’m glad I did—five years later, and they all fell in with a bad crowd.
33. I Ain’t Saying She’s A Gold-Digger
A woman I used to be friends with robbed 25k out of her terminally ill ex-husbands bank account before their divorce. She then got her son to assault the ex so that she could claim self defense and sue him when he fought back. This poor guy didn't win the case or get a dime of his money back. The worst part is, before the divorce he had already given her 25k and paid her way through college.
He wanted to make sure she was taken care of. She dropped out less than a month after.
34. Not Meant To Be
I was interested in a guy, and his family would camp at a campground near my house. One weekend they were camping and he walked over and we took my new dog Rosie for a walk. While on the walk, she got spooked by something and refused to move. The way he reacted made me never see him the same way again. He took the leash and pulled on her hard enough to make her yelp.
I only finished the hangout because I didn’t know about boundaries or how to deal with it. I never saw him in person again after that, and definitely lost all romantic interest in him. And this was before he interrupted me by putting his hand over my mouth, and also before he told me my mom looked mannish. (Two different instances, same day.) So yeah. Hurt my dog and you can screw off forever.
Rosie was okay, and no damage was done. She was a large black lab and lived a good life. We had to put her down this past October. She was about 10 years old.
35. Spinning In Their Grave
My former friend’s parent passed away. The funeral was planned as soon as possible, since that's how funerals are, but my friend already had plans to go on vacation. So, yep, they went on vacation while the rest of the family buried their parent. At the time, that irked me, but okay, sure, vacations are expensive. Except, then came the kicker.
Throughout the funeral, they kept posting social media vacation photos that showed them partying with the rest of their friends. They had a good relationship with that parent, too. It just showed me how we have different priorities in life. Namely, I don’t want to be a jerk.
36. You’re On Your Own
My dad moved across the state in the final months of my senior year of high school and told me to sell the house on my own. My mom had already moved a few months earlier, but she and I sat down and thoroughly talked it through before she made the commitment and I gave her my blessing. My dad just told me "I've got a job interview three hours away. If I get the job, I'm moving there and you're going to sell the house."
He got the job and left. I sold the house and now have no trust in my father. I fail to see how what he did isn't considered child abandonment.
37. Too Cool For School
I was hanging out with a kid who was pretty cool, but he was never prepared for class in the morning. He would always ask this quiet kid for a pencil, paper, and help with homework. One day, the kid didn’t have any extra pencils, and the “cool” kid went off on him. He was pretty scary to witness him yelling and screaming, but eventually we calmed him down.
We figured that maybe the cool kid just had a bad day, but the next day he basically admitted that he was just using the quiet kid to get free things. The principal then responded by giving the cool kid detention every day if he didn’t have all his supplies for classes every day. He quickly got expelled after he racked up like, 20 detentions in two weeks from what I heard.
38. Taking You For A Ride
This former friend of mine is very cheap. Like, she won’t even throw a few pieces of fries away, because she doesn’t like to waste food. I really respected that at the time, because I’m not super duper careful with money. She rode her junk bike around, and one day, it broke to the point of no return. I had some bikes around that I sort of fixed, so I sold her one of them for $50.
It caused some issues, and I tried to fix it, but didn’t work out. I obviously felt bad. Eventually, she asked for the money back. I apologized and gave her the $50. A few days later, I asked for the bike back so I could fix it and sell it online or something. She said, “Well, this bike is not worth $50 and it caused so many troubles. I’m not gonna give you the bike back.”
I said “What the heck? That’s not how this works. Either give me $50 or the bike.” She said, “I’ll have my mechanic friend to look at it and offer a fair value for this bike. I need the bike, but it’s not worth $50.” I knew that she was cheap, but I didn’t know that she was that “cheap.”
39. Holier Than Thou
When our 26-day-old daughter passed, my wife and I hunkered down and quit showing up to church for a while. A friend from there finally touched base with me months later, and I asked him why no one had come looking for us or tried to help after the funeral. He said, "I've known people who have had miscarriages before, and it didn't take this long to get over it. When are you going to get over it?"
This conversation was almost six years ago and my blood still boils when I think about these words. Since the loss of our daughter we've been blessed with three fantastic little children. No, we aren't "over it," but our new normal is a happy one with moments of sadness. Just remember to use kind words. You never know what people are going through.
40. Grow A Pair
My manager is spineless, and he constantly contradicts me if I (rightly) tell a customer we can’t do something because of store policy, all because he’s scared of saying no. As in: "I want to return this gift card, it doesn't work." "We can't do that, unfortunately. We do not do returns on gift cards because we can not verify the balance. If there is an issue with the gift card, you need to contact Visa and have them solve the issue."
My computer system is even set up so that if you try to return the card like you are supposed to with a regular item, it'll tell you to screw off. So, the customer asks for my manager…and my manager just gives her the value of the card plus the fee by returning it as a "Non-taxable Item."
The reason it's policy is because 9 times out of 10, this is a customer scam and they want to double dip. They used the card and they want to see if they can get the cash they just spent back again. And of course the customer came back two more times and asked to return the card again and again. In total she got $615 because my manager is such an idiot and so scared of getting negative reviews.
41. Read Em And Weep
I once had a friend, someone I considered a good friend, randomly message my then-girlfriend asking if we were still together. I thought he was just checking up on me, making sure it was a good relationship because when she said “yes,” he said “good.” Fast forward now, about two weeks after we break up, he messages her again, saying the same thing.
He proceeds to try to “console” her and literally that night tries to flirt with her and sends her a shirtless picture. He does this many, many times for the next few months without her reciprocating in any way, not knowing that she and I were still very close and she was telling me everything. But it gets creepier than that. He also had a girlfriend at the time, except he was trying to convince my ex that they had broken up.
I've lost all respect for him and I'll never give it back.
42. Daddy Issues
My father, who has a temper, was recently angry and called me up while I was at a friend’s house about my schooling for an update. I told him I'm doing well, and have the same good progress as usual. So instead, he blows up on me about not having a job and says that I should have one if I'm in school. As I'm on the phone with him, I hear his car screeching up to my friend’s driveway.
On our way home, I try to have a civil conversation with him, but he only can reply with "Shut the heck up, go screw yourself you piece of trash.” I tried to calm him down and explain to him that our previous deal was I’d get a job as soon as I’m out of school, but he wouldn't listen. I was angry then, but unlike him I kept my cool.
I then said, "Can you please treat me with a little more respect, like a person? I just want to have a discussion, not an argument, and find a solution." He looks me and says. "I'm treating you like my goddarn son. You are not a person to me so you need to shut the heck up and listen to me." Well, that was the last straw for me.
It happened last month and I'm still trying to forgive him. We haven't talked about it and I doubt he knows he lost all my respect, but we don't talk anymore. I know if I ever try to talk to him about anything he just gets mad, so I only say the occasional “hello” when I go home to sleep.
43. Keep Away For The Kids
My brother-in-law purposefully caused a huge scene while introducing his new girlfriend in front of his ex and his kids the day before Christmas. His logic being that if his ex got mad and withheld custody the next day on Christmas, he would use it against her in court. So yep, he ruined his kids’ Christmas in order to screw his ex and look good in court to pay less money.
His logic was if she wasn't going to adhere to the agreement on custody then he shouldn't have to pay as much.
44. For Your Eyes Only
I’m a girl, and I instantly lose respect for someone when they show me their boyfriend’s intimate photos—this actually happens a lot. I’ve had multiple friends do this in the past without me asking for it, and even after I’ve said point-blank “I don’t want to see that,” they’ll just casually still show me pictures the guy has sent them in confidence.
It’s just icky to me, and also makes me wonder if the photos I’ve sent guys have been casually shown to their friends in the same way.
45. Low Blow
One day, a member of the team I supervise ranted about my leadership to me while I was actively trying to support them in dealing with a difficult client. She ended said rant with a shrug and saying snidely, “I guess I should just chalk it up to your age.” I reminded her that I was her boss, and that if she had the gall to say that to her supervisor, could I trust what she was saying to clients and colleagues?
That seemed to get my point across. I will continue to treat her equitably and professionally through the end of her contract, but I no longer respect her.
46. Hit Em Where It Hurts
I have a prosthetic eye. When my dad and I were discussing the way Trump mocked a reporter with disabilities, he said that it was fair game because the guy was asking stupid questions. So I asked, “if you didn’t know me and we disagreed, would you immediately bring up my eye?” And he said “Yeah, of course.” All respect for him was gone and I’ll never look at him the same.
47. OK, Boomer
My whole life, my mother taught us to accept everyone, love everyone, and treat everyone the same regardless of differences. Then one day I set up my brother, who is white, with one of my friends, who is Black. Well, my mom called me and what she had to say completely floored me. She reamed me out about how “inappropriate” it was. She still says some pretty outrageous stuff, but it doesn't floor me as much anymore. I'm just used to it now. Ugh.
48. Home Away From Home
My son’s friend used to spend weekends and nearly his entire summers at our house. One weekend, the boy was staying over with us when he had a terrible toothache. He was crying and just rocking back and forth, writhing in pain. We looked at the tooth, and what I glimpsed nearly made me vomit. It was completely rotten and broken.
We tried to reach the parents, but couldn’t get a hold of them, so we just did the best we could to comfort him. When we took him back to his home, we told the parents about it and they admitted they had known about it for a while, but they couldn’t afford the dentist. In darn near the same breath, they proceeded to show us the new flat-screen TV and surround sound they had just bought for $700.
The boy continued to suffer in that home (in many ways we didn’t even know about until later) for a couple years when finally my wife and I called CPS. We were so afraid of making things worse. We were also pretty certain that they would know exactly who made the complaint and it would jeopardize our being able to give him any reprieve if they cut us off from having contact with him.
When we finally made the call, it went exactly as we had feared. The agency wouldn’t give us any details of the contact, but the boy’s parents cut us off completely. My son saw him at school and that would be the only way we could communicate with him. One night several months later, he showed up at our door. Turns out he ran away.
Officers came, and he tried to explain the difficulties he was having in the home, which at this point we found out had turned into physical beatings. The officer took him back anyway. The next morning, the mother came to our house with the boy and told us to keep him. So, we went through a big process and got guardianship of him.
Ever since, he has been in our home. He is treated like our own son, and the first thing we did was go to a dentist. I’m not one to wish ill on anyone no matter what they’ve done, but I hope those people burn.
49. 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.
50. Monster-In-Law
A family member of mine recently found out she had gotten Zika, and she was six months pregnant. After trying to get pregnant for years with no luck, she had given up hope of ever having a baby, but by some miracle she was able to conceive. When she told her mother-in-law the news about the Zika, that horrible woman said to her, "I should have known this would happen when I first met you and saw the way you were dressed."
Yes, this broad really did imply that because she wore short-shorts and tank tops, she wasn't a worthy mother. The poor girl was devastated and blamed herself for getting Zika even though no one knew it was in the area at that time. Still, she decided that she would carry the baby to term. He was born two weeks ago. No microcephaly. No health issues of any kind. Also, and this is the real kicker, he tested negative for exposure to Zika.
Sources: Reddit,
