The world is full of people who think everything revolves around them. All we can hope is that when karma comes for them, it holds nothing back. Be they women, men, or children, entitled Karens may never learn, but at least we can still laugh at them.
1. She Was Whining For No Reason
This woman and her husband came into our place. Before even sitting down, she's like, "I'm allergic to white wine. Give it to me, and I'm a goner". So, I'm sprinting around, making sure everything's cool in the kitchen for whenever she makes her order. Her guy, meanwhile, gets the special.
Making it clear, I warned her not to touch his plate. Why, you ask? 'Cause it was sprinkled with a sauce made from white wine. I wanted her to, you know, not kick the bucket during dinner. Anyway, out come their orders, and what she does next just stuns me—she helps herself to a hefty forkful of her guy's special. I'm horrified as she just shoves it into her mouth.
As she's munching away, she goes, "What's the harm in one little bite?" I wanted to scream at her. She also had all the servers running circles around her with pointless chit-chat while we're trying to tend to our busy sections. She even called out another customer in the teeny hallway to the restroom, ranting at him for being too loud.
2. Enough, Mom
My mom had a habit of being insanely demanding when we went out to eat. It always turned a pleasant dinner into a nightmare. She'd find something to complain about every time – a fork that wasn't perfectly straight, a dish that didn't have the same level of spiciness as last time, the waitress not addressing her first, her food being a bit cold, or it taking too long to see our server even when we didn't need anything.
The list seemed endless. She would confidently voice each of her grievances to the server and top it off with, "I used to be a waitress, and we never had these issues". It's worth mentioning that she had worked as a part-time waitress in a pizza joint back in the early '90s. Eye-rolling was definitely in order.
3. Tossed Out Of Target
Right after finishing uni, I found myself managing a Starbucks. So one day, we messed up this lady's iced tea order. It was nothing major, could've fixed it in no time. But instead of being chill about it, her reaction was disgusting. Seriously, she chucked the drink across the counter, and then turned to her kid and said in this snotty, hasn't-done-a-day's-work-in-her-life, prim-and-proper housewife tone: "Remember, this is why you gotta finish high school".
Being the boss, I shut down her chance of getting another drink. And then she thought she had the upper hand, bouncing over to get the manager of the Target we were in. Little did she know, I used to work at this Target. Couple of the other customers backed up my version, and she got the boot from the store for sure.
4. She Was A Mutton For Punishment
I used to serve at a country club and this one time, a couple walked in. The lady was in a mood, complaining about the five-minute wait before they even sat down. Right off the bat, she told me the filet mignon is always messed up. I suggested she order something else, but she went for the same thing again.
I gave the cooks a heads up, hoping to avoid drama. But when the steak came and I served it to her, I could tell she was about to LOSE it: She took her butter knife and tapped the steak three times without even tasting it and declared, "This is disgusting". I had to bring her another one, which she ate half of and packed the rest.
Before they left, she insisted on speaking with the manager. She had a field day complaining, got her meal on the house plus a free dessert, and left me a lousy tip.
5. First-Class Pain In The Butt
My family and I, three kids and all, were boarding a flight from Miami to Bolivia. We had just got settled in our seats when a snobby lady and her man walk over, telling us we're sitting in their seats. Being frequent flyers, we got our tickets out pronto to prove the seats are ours.
Despite the proof, they wouldn't take it, so we didn't hand our passes either. My dad walks over, wondering who was messing with his children. "Hey, why are you bothering my kids?" he asks. "They're sitting in our seats, see?" they respond. Dad defends us, "Those are their seats, they know how to read a boarding pass". By now, we've caught the attention of a flight attendant.
The flight attendent does a quick check and it turns out our seats had been double-booked. The couple were mad and wanted their seats now. While the flight attendent goes off to manage the situation, the lady throws a tantrum, trying to shove her bag into the overhead compartment ahead of ours, making a huge fuss. When the flight attendant returns, she says, "Thanks for being patient. It was a double booking, but it looks like we have enough seats in first-class for you. Would you follow me, please?"
Sighing with relief that someone was finally siding with them, they wait to be led to their upgraded seats. But they were in for a big surprise: It's actually us the flight attendant was talking about, "Not you, sir. You three," she gestures to us three kids. "Please join us in first class, we'll take care of you there". The pure shock on their faces as we calmly picked up our stuff and moved to the best seats in the house was priceless.
I mean, the meal wasn't the best and gave me a bit of a headache, but the super cushy seats, warm blankets, and sleep masks definitely made up for it.
6. Film Freak Out
So back in mid-90s, my mom picked up a copy of Clerks from the rental shop at our local Kroger. Little did she know, it was a pretty explicit movie. She was so put-off she went back to the store all riled up the next day. She raised hell at the manager, going on about how it was unacceptable for them to have such a movie at a so-called family movie rental place.
After all the commotion, she was like 'you gotta axe it from your shelves forever.' And the wild part? They actually did it. That was the end of Clerks at our Kroger.
7. Clinging To The Vine
I used to work at this winery where occasionally we'd get a limo loaded with hammered party-goers. We don't allow this kind of crowd because we ain't exactly a pub and don't cater to folks who can't handle their drink. Now and then, when the manager's away from the entrance, these people will try and sneak in. That's when I have to step up and politely tell them they're too inebriated and gotta go.
Well, this one time it was like I'd hit the Karen jackpot. This lady was so stubborn I had to clench my fist to avoid flipping out: "I'm not leaving", she says. I told her calmly that my team wouldn't serve her, so sticking around was just pointless. I said, if she didn't hit the road in five, we'd have a cop escort her out. She didn't take me seriously, so I dialed our standby cop right in front of her.
I gave her a pro tip: "He's on his way. I'd scoot if I were you unless you want a public humiliation". As I was slipping out a side door to note down the limo’s plate, this lady tails me into the back office. What she did next had my blood boiling. She shoves me into a file cabinet and bellows, "WE'RE NOT LEAVING". At this point, her gang re-emerges, hauls her out, and they peel off in their limo.
A minute later, the cop pulls up and I hand over the limo's plate number - hopefully, that gave 'em a jolt. All this fuss for a glass of wine – it's starting to feel routine now, happens three to five times a year at least.
8. Border Brouhaha
My mom is a huge Karen, and she also happens to be completely fluent in Spanish. We were at the Mexico City airport, getting ready to fly to Juarez, and we had a big box filled with plates and stuff my mom had picked up while we were there.
At the check-in counter, the airline employee told her that she needed to have the box securely wrapped. Well, that didn't sit well with my mom. She got pretty offended by it and yelled, "I've never had to do that before! I bring stuff from Mexico City all the time, and I've never had to do that!" Her loud outburst drew some curious looks. A very fair-skinned woman was angrily arguing in perfect Spanish, which was quite intriguing in itself.
Despite her protests, the airline employee insisted that she needed to get the box sealed with tape, and there was an extra charge of about 200 pesos (around $10) for it. Instead of complying, she stormed off, leaving this massive, unidentified box completely unattended – something airport announcements always warn you never to do. My dad and I had already checked in and cleared security while all of this was happening.
My mom joined us at the gate, still quite upset about what she saw as an affront to her dignity. Just as she was finishing her story, karma decided to pay her a visit. Five security officers approached her, each with AR-15s at their sides, and asked her to confirm her name. As soon as she did, they lifted her up and began escorting her away. My dad, who is an attorney, had a bit of a "WTF" moment.
We rushed over to her aid. My dad used his legal skills, and thankfully, she wasn't taken into custody for any terroristic threats. Somehow, we managed to catch our flight, and we also successfully got that box of plates back home. I never miss an opportunity to tease her about it whenever we use those plates.
9. Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes
Back when I was a kid, I never cut my hair, seriously, never. I had this golden mane, and folks always wanted to touch it, which I was cool with as long as they asked. So, once when I was around six, mom dragged me to the grocery store for dinner supplies.
When we were there, mom realized she forgot the bread which was at the other end of the store. She asked me to grab it because I was quick and tiny. Now, mind you, I loved bread, especially baguettes. So, when I spotted them, I forgot all about mom waiting, picked one, and started heading back.
That's when someone yanked my hair so hard, I thought it was going to rip out! I bawled so loud, mom heard me across the store. In utter shock, I turn around to see a kid my age, and his MOM, like his fully-grown mother, tugging at my hair to let the kid touch it. Mom comes barrelling over screaming, telling the woman to release me.
Their argument went something like; mom says, "Let my kid go!" The woman replies, "My kid just wanted to touch her pretty hair". I barge in with, "You pulled my hair, it hurts!" Mom then said, "You should've just asked! That's like assault; I could call the cops!" Then she retorted, "You’re harassing me; I’ll call the cops for harassment!"
At this point, mom clarified, "I'm not harassing you; you grabbed my child. Go ahead, call the police. You're just making it worse for yourself". She was so right, and it was so satisfying. This entitled mom did indeed dial 9-1-1, and each one of us had to share our side of the story. The entitled mom cooked up an elaborate tale of how I had actually agreed for her son to touch my hair and that my mom just started hassling her out of the blue.
Mom, on the other hand, shared the actual series of events. As for me, I was too shaken to provide much information. Anyway, guess what the CCTV footage confirmed? Yup, mom's narrative! Not one to let go, mom decided to press charges against this woman. Consequently, she was sentenced to six months and even received a fine for giving a false statement. Talk about karma!
Sign up to our newsletter.
History’s most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. Making distraction rewarding since 2017.
10. All The Way To The Top
Like, a year back, I was hosting a mini video game tournament at my tiny startup. The waiting list was booked solid, with 16 eager gamers. It was all good until this one nutjob of a dad ruined the fun. We were about to start the games when this dad storms in with his kid. Dad: We're here for the tournament. Me: Ah man, sorry. We're all full. Dad: Well, squeeze us in. Me: Dude, I can't do tha—
Dad: Listen, I can get you canned with a snap. Me: Really? How? Dad: I'm best friends with the CEO of this company. Me: Oh really? Call him up then. I watch him fake a phone call and then hang up. He doesn't know what's about to happen.
Dad: The boss says you're canned. Me: Man, that's hilarious since I'm the boss around here. The stunned look on his face still cracks me up to this day.
11. Karens Gonna Karen
One day I had the chance to help out my hardworking wife by heading over to the grocery store for her. I took along my stepkid—thinking it'd be a good bonding opportunity. Little did we know, we were in for an unforgettable afternoon.
We got through the errands and then hit the grocery store. My four-year-old, a packet of energy, was ahead of me, chattering away to anyone who crossed our path. I was fine with it until he darted off while I was hunting for canned corn. He bumped into an older lady coming from the other end of the aisle.
Being his chirpy self, he said “Hi! Me four and me Ryan”. The lady responded: “Well hello there," and suggested we find his parents. I didn't think much of it, assuming she hadn't noticed me. Then she blocked my path twice while I tried to checkout. She refused to believe that I was his dad because, well, he's white, and I'm Mexican. She was insistent that I was up to no good.
She started to freak my son out, despite his trust in me. She tried to persuade him to go away with her and, against all odds, she actually ran away with him in her arms! My son was terrified, the lady was making false promises, and it took me a moment to realize what's going on.
I ran after her yelling and a worker managed to stop her before she could escape. She lied that I was trying to take her grandson. My son was bawling, trying to reach out to me but she wouldn't let him go. A manager arrived, understandably confused. The lady accused me of kidnapping.
I showed him pictures from my phone to prove that he was indeed my son. Yet, the lady, along with two others, maintained that we couldn't be family because of our different ethnicities.
So I called my wife, and while we waited for her to arrive, they started giving their fabricated stories to the officers. As soon as my son saw my wife, he called out to her. My wife went straight to beast mode when she saw the crazy lady holding our son.
She demanded they let him go. The ladies kept peddling the kidnap story. The officer asked my wife who she was. She showed the officer a picture, and the lady finally had to admit that my son was not her grandson.
The women even had the audacity to suggest my wife was in on a kidnapping plot. My wife, not one to hold back, gave them a piece of her mind. Confirming that we were indeed a family put the lid on their ridiculous claims.
My wife and I showed our IDs, as well as family photos, to the officer. They didn't stop there, demanding our detention. The officer finally decided to check the store's CCTV footage and their faces turned white. The footage clearly showed me coming in with my son and the lady grabbing him and running.
The officer asked me if I wanted to press charges. When the lady assumed he was addressing her and said yes, it didn't end well for her. The officer put a stop to her nonsense and asked me again. I said yes. The main woman was charged with attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, providing a false report, and child endangerment. The other two also got done for providing false reports.
Plus, the lady's hands had bruised my son badly, landing her an added charge of child abuse. So there we have it—the mad grocery store fiasco that turned into a legal nightmare for a trio of nosy strangers.
12. A Customized Experience
A customer came to me with a ring, asking about it. I told her it was a sterling silver lotus ring. She proceeded to show me that it didn't fit her by sliding it only halfway down her finger, saying, "See, it doesn't fit". Do I loook like jeweler who can resize rings on the spot? I had to explain that we had just one piece of that design left.
A bit later, the same lady asked if the artist was local. I replied that I wasn't certain about her being from our city, but I could confirm that all the artists in our shop were American. This meant that if she wasn't from our state, she hailed from another one. The lady's response was, "Well, duh. If she's not from here, then she's from somewhere else". It was a bit frustrating, and I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes, as this was the usual response I gave when people asked about local artists. Most folks just wanted to make sure the items were at least made in America, if not locally.
Lastly, she asked me which way her husband had exited, so I simply pointed to the only exit and said, "That's the only way out".
13. Everybody’s Got A Story
This all went down around seven months ago. This time last year, I found out I had stage 2 nose cancer. The tumor was pretty big but hadn't gone anywhere else yet, which was a relief. Still, I had to take some hardcore chemo treatments to shrink it down - and the side effect was major hair loss. Pretty much said goodbye to my hair, brows, and lashes.
Because of the baldness, I opted for a wig. Didn't want to scare folks, considering I'm a tall, hunky guy. One day, post-chemo, I took the bus back home from the hospital. That day, the bus was packed to the brim.
Chemo had kicked my butt that day, so I asked a middle-aged guy if I could take his seat. He was cool about it and gave me his spot. Few stops later, in comes this entitled mom, a total Karen, with her 12-year old kid. She quickly realized there were no seats.
She spotted me, and I had a bad feeling. She came over and demanded I let her kid sit. The conversation went something like this: Her: Hey, can my kid sit down? Me: You mean me? Her: Who else? Me: Uh, I can't because I just came from the hospital...
She cuts me off, says they just came from the hospital too and her boy broke his leg. I look at the boy, he's standing fine next to her, looking all embarrassed. Me: He seems okay, ma'am. Her: My kid DESERVES to sit down.
I said: Listen, lady, I just had chemo and need to rest (I even showed her my bald head by adjusting my wig). But she flipped out and started screaming, calling me all sorts of names. Then she tried to pull me out of my seat! This is where the awesome middle-aged guy steps in.
Middle-aged guy: Will you shut up? Her: Who do you think you're talking to? Him: Calm down or I'll intervene, it's clear this guy has cancer.
Her response: This guy is clearly a criminal. Him: He’s got no eyebrows! This made her angrier, and she actually whacked the dude. The entire bus was stunned, and her kid looked mortified. Then middle-aged guy delivers his line: You're now officially being detained for harassing, assaulting passengers and an officer. Turns out, he's a cop!
She turned pale, and when the bus stopped she tried to bolt but other passengers blocked her, and she ended up with more charges. Few stops later, a patrol car was waiting for her. Her kid apologized to me, but I felt sorry for him instead. The cop asked me if I wanted to press charges and I said yes.
He handled everything over the phone, so I didn't have to go to the station. In the end, she got jailed for a few months with additional community service. I have a great story to tell, and tasted sweet instant karma. I was just on that bus again, after a check-up at the hospital. Happy to report my surgery went well, I was declared cancer-free in November, and my hair is growing back again. No more need for a wig.
14. A Short Wick
I'm working my shift at the candle shop. An elderly lady strolls in, she seems pretty sharp for her age, probably in her 80s. She's fussing over finding the perfect small gift for some dude who did work at her place. I mention to her that we stock some men's skincare and bath stuff.
She rolls her eyes, says it's a strange idea. Cool, I think, "How about a candle?" Seemed like a no-brainer seeing as we're in a candle shop and all. Her reaction made me furious: She goes all grumpy and snarky, "I can't give him a candle. He's not gay!" Like, seriously? I had to bite my tongue so hard, wanting to tell her plenty of our male customers - including my straight-as-an-arrow boyfriend - enjoy our candles!
But, she sticks to her guns, "That's good for him, but I cannot give the man a candle because he's not gay!" At this point, I've had it up to here with her nonsense, so I legit walked away. My manager steps in - she's way more tolerant of such ignorant stuff. Post drama, my manager tells me that the woman ended up buying a notebook with "Slay the day" written across it. Can you believe that?
15. Sole Cost
I used to work at a discount store, kind of like Marshalls or TJ Maxx. A couple of nights before I quit, this woman walks in right before closing. She slides a pair of Michael Kors baby shoes across the counter and asks how much.
I told her, "They’re $27". She lost it and claimed the price was wrong. I calmly repeated, “They're $27. Still interested?” She said she’d take them, but clearly wanted a lower price. I had to break it to her, "We don’t do discounts. Our prices are already cut-rate.”
She was shocked, "$27 for baby shoes?! That’s nuts". Considering her reaction, I figured she’d bail on it. I offered to return them to the shelf for her. She got huffy, saying, “I said I want them!” I stood my ground, “Fine, but they're still $27.”
She didn’t trust me and asked me to check again. So, I swung the computer around to show her. She was stumped, being proved wrong, and demanded my manager. My boss came over, confirmed the price, and walked off.
I thought that'd be it, but nope. The woman wondered aloud, “Why are they so pricey?” I tried to explain, “These are Michael Kors, one of the more expensive brands we have. Anywhere else, they’d be at least $100. You’re getting a sweet deal here.”
She wasn't having it and said, “I just can’t believe you. That’s not the actual price. And to let you know, I work with the Attorney General. It’d be a shame if you lost your job over fibbing about prices.” Still keeping my cool, I said, “I've got no reason to lie to you.” She finally shut up.
She was totally out of line. Like lady, I earn $9 an hour to scan stuff. Why would you think I get a cut of it? If you're after Michael Kors stuff, you gotta cough up Michael Kors style cash. Even at our store, it's a steal.
16. A Giggling Fit
It was almost time to close up shop, and I was sprucing up the self-checkout machines while my boss was refreshing the coin and paper stash. This lady, just under a fresh 50, approached the checkout, standing aimlessly with her nearly empty cart. I kept an eye out to see if she'd head over to the register for aid, but nope; she just kept standing.
Finally, I popped the question, "Need help?" She responded, "No," and remained standing. Then she started chuckling to herself so loudly that it was making onlookers squirm. I kept up my cleaning gig and my boss kept refilling the machines, none of which had any customers. Eventually, the lady called out loudly, probably to anyone that'd listen, blurting out one of the rudest things ever: “Do you want to work or not?”
I sighed out loud, dropped my cleaning gear. But outta nowhere, my boss jumped in, answering with the same energy, "She is working! She's cleaning right now". Then she signaled me to get back to my duty. But the lady cackled again - even louder and more annoyingly - and demanded, "I want a checkout". My boss retorted, "You had your chance. She asked if you needed help, you said no. Now, it's all on you".
The lady threw a fit and demanded to meet the boss. My boss served her with a perfect reply: "You're looking at her". The woman, with no place to hide, had to scan her own items as we watched. And then my boss let out a infectious giggle, mirroring the woman's previous giggle. It was pure gold.
17. Schooled Her
A few years back, just out of college and kinda clueless, I found myself with a house. My mom moved overseas and I inherited the place. I spent one summer painting houses for a job while figuring my life out. The summer after that, I became an EMT, which sometimes left me with a day or two off.
I realized my house needed some paint touch-ups and decided to do it myself. I had all the gear, time and beer, so set out on a Tuesday afternoon to fix up the front door. I took a break to let the primer dry and crack open a beer.
I’m just chilling on the stoop when I see an obviously angry lady with a dog. Upset, but I still make it a point to be nice about her pooch. That was a huge mistake: She loses it and goes off on some crazy rant about me wasting the homeowner’s money by drinking on the job and how I'm what's wrong with the country because I'm an immigrant. I'm actually a local born and raised, and this house itself is my birthplace.
So, I'm standing up now with another beer in hand. Her dog wants to play, she wants to argue. And I'm thinking, "You know what? Let's do this".
Me: “Hello ma'am, is there a problem?”
Her, sounding snarky: “You ought to be working instead of lazing and drinking.”
Me: “Well, I am working. It's just that since I’m doing it myself, I omitted the part where I pay myself.”
She starts taking shots at my financial situation, telling me I lack an education. I’m just humoring her at this point, it’s amusing to see this lady so worked up.
Me: “Actually, this house was my mom's. She gifted it to me when she moved. Oh, and education? I went to an Ivy League college.”
Her, confused: “You went to a crappy community college, no way you could afford this life.”
Me: “My Ivy League shirt disagrees. I was also a university athlete, keeping it up by working on improvements around the house. Also, why the hate for community college?”
She’s seeing stars at this point, gets nasty and spits on me. I tell her adios, I'm done with her.
This is where it goes off the rails. She pulls my shirt, I brush her off lightly, and she starts rolling around on my lawn. Her dog meanwhile, is chill, just happy for some excitement.
Neighbors hear her howling, and I fill them in on the ludicrous story and borrow their phone to call the police since mine's charging.
Once the cops arrive, crazy lady starts spinning a wild story of me assaulting her with a bat...while I'm painting my house. The cops are having a laugh, they know her by name, and cuff her for trespassing and throwing a fit. I spend some time with her dog until her husband shows up, takes the dog and apologizes for his soon-to-be ex-wife's outburst.
I haven't seen her since but I made good friends with her now ex-husband and her dog. Happy ending, I guess?
18. In a Rude Mood Tonight
I was waiting in line with my girls at this club for like 20 minutes when this random chick waltzes up and pretends she knows one of my friends, just so she could get our spot in line. Whatever, it's cold and it's night, girl power and all that stuff. But man, she was a real piece of work! Didn't bother introducing herself to the rest of us and totally ignored me when I tried to chat. Then she starts subtly edging me out of our circle with just her body language, making it awkward for me to talk with my friends.
When the bouncer finally says a couple of people can head inside, we tell him we're rolling in together. But this chick! She just cuts in front of us, whips out her ID, and strolls right in. We ended up freezing our butts off out there for another 15 minutes. I was floored when my friend finally admitted that this was the first time that girl had ever even spoken to her.
19. One Per Person
I was on this Megabus headed from DC to NY recently and there was this family with a bunch of kiddos trying to snag the remaining seats. There was an empty one, but this chick wouldn't let them take it because she wanted to sleep on it. They were speechless for a second. Finally, the mom was like, "Yeah, no, that ain't gonna fly". They ended up having to drag the bus driver to the back.
This gal says the same thing to the driver, who's like, "Yeah, no, that's not how we roll here". So, one of the kids gets the seat next to her. I mean, did she really think she was gonna get away with that?
20. Not-So-Hot Mom
Back in the summer of 2008, I was in Chicago for orientation. It was scorching hot and humid. My mom was having some health issues, so when we heard about a shortcut for people with disabilities or strollers to escape the sun faster, we rushed to find it.
We got stuck around this quirky fountain of a guy hugging a fish that spit water non-stop. Surreal, but cool enough. Then I saw this tiny kid standing on their own, tiptoeing on the sizzling black stone around the fountain. Their mom was too busy on her phone to notice.
It was so hot you could see heatwaves rising from everything. Even the tiniest bit of color reflected light like a mirror. The kid seemed too young to say "It's hot", but the whining and crying said it all. Every time the kid got a bit loud, the mom would hush her and continue on her phone.
Everyone around was giving this woman the stink eye over her obliviousness. I got pissed, "Really? No one's gonna speak up?" I decided I wouldn't wait till it was my turn. I strolled over to the fountain pretending to be fascinated, touched the stone, and yelped, "Ah! Jesus, it's burning!".
I barely touched it, but it was enough for the mom next to me to scoop up her baby. She touched the stone herself, yanked her hand back, and muttered something like "Oh my god". Some real discovery there, yes, rocks get hot in summer. After that, I just went back to my place in line. That was it.
21. All Decked Out
So, my dad bought a new townhouse. It was a foreclosure because the previous owners had been booted for not keeping up with their mortgage and HOA dues. The previous summer, all the HOA members got brand new decks and patios installed but had to pay for them in monthly payments for the next three years alongside their usual HOA fees.
There was this one rule though - you couldn't leave the place until you'd fully paid for your deck. Anyway, since this place was a foreclosure, the HOA told my dad he didn't have to worry about paying off the deck. Dad thought, “Awesome, a freebie,” and signed off, thinking that was that.
That turned out to be a massive mistake: After moving in, my dad started getting bills from the HOA for the deck, which he supposedly "wasn't responsible for". He took his dispute straight to the board. Despite having written proof that he didn't have to pay for the deck, they went against him. Poor dad had to cough up to settle the remaining balance in the end.
22. Pool Pigs
My father-in-law lived in a condo where there was a pool for everyone. But the older folks weren't big on sharing, so they made a ton of wild rules. Things like each person gets just one guest, and there were certain hours where only residents could swim. It was so strict, my father-in-law couldn't even take his two grandkids swimming at the same time because it was over the guest limit.
Even with all these rules, the pool was hardly ever used. Turns out, people were just breaking the rules. So the residents decided to create a new rule - if someone got caught not following the pool rules, they'd shut down the pool for a week. They'd even name and shame the rule-breaker by posting their name and rule they broke right on the community bulletin board.
23. They Tried To Rock The Boat
When we first got here, some guy came over not really to say hello, but to give us a heads up that we couldn't park our boat in our yard. My wife told him that wasn't in the rules, but he was like, "I made the rules, I should know". She nudged him to check those rules out again. Things went quiet for a few months, thought we were all good—man, was I wrong. Next thing we know, our yearly fee comes in the mail and there's a note saying we're breaking rules and that we'd said we were gonna tweak our garage to squeeze the boat in, which we never did.
They put forward the idea of giving us a deadline and voting on adding boats to their no-no list, which already had stuff like campers, RVs, and trailers. We bought this place with the idea of getting a separate garage put in, but to stick to their design specs, that'd set us back a whopping $90g's. The funny part? Our next-door neighbor, who's been here longer than us, has a boat chilling in their driveway too.
24. A Watery Chuckle
I'm working at this tiny corner shop in a massive, bustling airport. If it's not about our high prices, then it's something else - I hear it all. Even though we always try to make a buck while not ripping people off, we've gotta pay a $14k monthly rent just to be here. One day, an elderly lady steps in and throws down a $5.15 - pricy - bottle of water at the counter.
Oh boy, I thought, here it comes. And sure enough, she opens her mouth: “You know what's funny?” I took the bait—and soon regretted it. “This water’s only $2.50 at another airport.” I just blinked at her for a good 10 seconds before managing a confused, “I don't get the joke.”
She fires some choice words at me, but still hands over the dough for the water before storming out. Honestly, it was the highlight of my day.
25. Not Quite Black Or White
Just a few months after I moved into my new place, I got a letter from the boss of my Home Owners Association. They were threatening to slap me with a $200 fine cause my mailbox wasn't black. I was confused cause my mailbox was definitely black. I called them up and they kept insisting it wasn't. They even told me it was up to me to prove it was black!
So, I took a picture, emailed it to them, and waited. Over a month later, still no reply, but I got another letter saying they were gonna give me an extra week before they hit me with the fine. I was really mad at this point. So I called them up again and asked what the heck was going on.
Finally, they explained that my "neighbors" thought my mailbox looked too old and beat-up. They wanted it painted or replaced cause it wasn't black enough. So, I painted it. Then, a few months later, I found out that the HOA was supposed to replace the mailbox. I called them, asking why they were gonna fine me when they were supposed to replace it. They said they didn't have any open work orders for my mailbox and that if it needed fixing up, I should've told them. Not their job to check.
26. Queen Of The Karens
Back in the day, I worked at one of those bulk warehouse club stores. My main gig was gathering up shopping carts from the parking lot, a job that had its ups and downs. On one hand, I got plenty of exercise, enjoyed the outdoors, and didn't have to interact much with the "members" (we weren't supposed to call them customers).
But there was a catch. The company I worked for had a bit of a reputation for being stingy, which often left me handling the cart duties solo. "Big deal," you might say. "You collected carts? Try dealing with MY job!" Well, fair enough, but this is my story, so bear with me. Anyway, the reason working solo could be a drag was that this store had not just one kind of cart, not even two, but a handful. We had your regular carts, the kiddie-carts that looked like cars, electric scooters (which weren't meant for outside but ended up there quite a bit), and the bulky, hard-to-control flatbeds.
On top of all that, I was the go-to guy for helping folks load up their purchases into their vehicles because the greeters, cashiers, and managers were usually tied up. You can imagine that one person can't be in multiple places at once. On some of our busier days, it became quite a challenge to keep enough carts in the vestibule.
That's where our story begins.
There I was, working hard like a diligent worker bee, struggling to keep up with the flood of people coming in for their bulk shopping. Suddenly, I got a call on the radio from the manager. Manager: "[sktchh] We need you to help some members load their purchases. [sktchh]" Me: "Well, I'd love to, but I'm barely keeping up out here as it is..".
Manager: "[sktchh] Just do it. You can spare a couple of minutes to help out. [sktchh]" Ron Howard voice - "He couldn't". So, I decided to play it safe and help the customers load their stuff. It turned into a 20-minute ordeal as one person after another needed assistance. Eventually, I returned to the vestibule to find it almost empty, save for one row of carts that was partially gone, and... the Karen.
I won't bore you with a description; we all know what a Karen looks like. She was the quintessential one. And there she stood, tapping her foot rapidly, enough to make a metal drummer envious. You could collect the disdain in her gaze. Karen: "Where are the big flat ones?" I was momentarily taken aback. Me: "I'm sorry?"
Karen: "Ugh. Mexicans..". Just to clarify, I'm very much a white guy. Karen: "WHERE. ARE. THE. FLAT ONES". Me: "Oh, you mean the flatbeds. I'm sorry, but I was helping some other members load their purchases, and I haven't had a chance to—" Karen: "OH MY GOD, I don't care about your excuses. You have ONE JOB, and a TRAINED. MONKEY. Could do it!"
I simply wanted to get her out of my face, so I didn't argue. Me: "Sorry, ma'am. I'll fetch one from the parking lot for you..". Karen: "You'd better..". I ventured back out to the lot, and what did I find? A whole line of flatbeds extending from the corral, hogging several parking spaces. I maneuvered them all into the vestibule, where she was waiting impatiently, grumbling about me wasting her precious time.
I separated one flatbed and brought it over. Me: "I apologize for the wait, ma'am". She shot me a venomous glare. Karen: "Hmmph. Unbelievable..". And with that, she marched into the store, off to be someone else's problem. I shook my head and got back to doing my actual job. Little did I know that I'd encounter her again.
About 15 minutes later, as I was returning another line of carts, I saw her pushing her flatbed to her Miata, chattering away on her cell phone about "stupid people" (probably referring to me). And what was the big, important purchase she had needed a flatbed for? A cake. Not even a huge cake, just a small, round one.
I watched as she continued to gripe about how I nearly ruined her precious baby's birthday party... With her phone still clutched in those manicured claws of hers, she attempted to pick up the cake with one hand. The plastic topper popped off, and the cake went splat all over her undoubtedly expensive designer outfit.
Brimming with white-hot rage, she locked eyes with me. Karen: "YOU! GET ME ANOTHER CAKE! NOW!" Me: "I'm terribly sorry, ma'am. My job is gathering carts, and they won't collect themselves". I walked away, a big grin on my face as her howls faded into the distance. I've had my fair share of unpleasant customer encounters, but this one... it really took the cake,
27. A Light At The End Of The Tunnel
I'm 28, and about a year ago I went totally blind. It's crazy how fast life can change. As a teen, I went to Mississippi to help repair the hurricane damage with my youth group and caught Histoplasmosis. Long story short, this nasty fungus made its way to my eyes over ten years and ended up making me blind.
At first, I was super scared to go out in public. I felt like people were always gawking at me, plus I was like a newbie in the blind world. My husband asks me one day to go deposit a check at the bank via Uber. Being super nervous, I decided to face my fear.
Out of nowhere, my husband reminds me we're out of some staple groceries. A Wal-Mart grocery was right across from the bank, so I thought, why not? I'm blind, after all, got to learn how to shop solo sometime. I was maneuvering around the store with my cane and sub-par echolocation skills, right, not looking for much, so didn't need a trolley or anything.
Then boom, my cane hits something soft – it's a lady and her kid. I thought I'd accidentally hit some poor fella's leg, and I'm like "Shoot, I'm sorry—" Next thing I know, the mom goes ballistic, screaming about how I hit her son. "HEY! You just hit my son!!"
Me, feeling guilty, tries apologizing, "I'm so sorry, ma'am, I didn't see him there". Then she starts yelling even louder, "HOW COULD YOU NOT SEE HIM, HE'S CLEARLY RIGHT HERE!!" But here's the thing, I’m totally blind but I don't wear sunglasses, so it was confusing for her.
I understand that, blindness is a spectrum. So, I calmly told her, "Ma'am, I'm blind, I can't see anything, let alone your son". What she then asks, though, real stupid. "If you're blind, why aren't you wearing big sunglasses?" I patiently explained those shades cost like 200 bucks, which I can't afford, and aren't necessary indoors anyways.
To my amazement, she then accuses me of faking my blindness. Then something truly insane happens: Right then, her brat of a kid grabs my $100 cane, making me helpless. To put it in perspective, it's like suddenly ending up in pitch-black while shopping.
Panicked and feeling helpless, I pleaded to get my back cane. But to my utter shock, she replied, "No, my son deserves to play with it more". As she was leaving, I could hear my cane banging against stuff, which got me crying. Blind and terrified, I tripped over into a display, making a scene.
Just when I was at my lowest, curled up crying, a savior appeared. A guy, let's call him AG for Awesome Guy, comforted me and sprinted off to snatch my cane back. I could hear him yelling and a crash. After a little while, he's back, handing me my cane, helping me up, and even picking up my dropped stuff.
Grateful, I thanked him profusely and he just brushed it off, saying some people are monsters. This amazing guy turned my nightmare of a day around, even helping me wrap up shopping and leave. As we're exiting, we could hear the entitled lady thrashing about, complaining about AG grabbing the cane and her kid being flung into a cart.
It was a horrifying experience to lose my sight mid-shopping but you know what, that day I learned there are people willing to stand up for me. It was terrifying but also uplifting, I guess that's how life rolls!
28. Season For Change
The HOA sent us a bunch of aggressive and angry notices, insisting that we get rid of the dead tree in our front yard. They claimed it was an eyesore because it had shed all its leaves. The funny part? They sent us these notices in November, which is, well, fall—a time when perfectly healthy trees naturally lose their leaves. We decided to play dumb and acted as if we didn't know which tree they were referring to until spring rolled around, and the tree miraculously came back to life.
29. Cool It!
Back in the day when I was a kid, my room was one of the two front rooms in our home, making it the scorching hotspot in summer and an icebox in winter. My dad wasn't a fan of air conditioning, so we all depended on fans for cooling. However, when one blazing summer came and the fans were no match for the heat, my room became a furnace, making me absolutely miserable. Seeing my plight, my dad decided to install an AC unit in the old window. Sadly, the joy was short-lived.
The neighborhood association, the HOA, were quick to order us to take down the newly installed AC unit. They claimed it was an eyesore, ruining the scenery. My folks did try to argue that it was for their kid, but the association didn't budge. So, there was no other choice but to remove it. But here's what really ticked us off – a bloke living just a few doors down had a home identical to ours with an AC unit fitted in the same window, but the HOA seemed to have nothing against him.
30. They Are All This Together
I work at a health food store. We only sell goods with natural ingredients, no nasty artificial stuff or high-fructose corn syrup. We've even had to ditch some bestsellers because they sneak in not-so-good ingredients.
Our store tends to attract quite a varied crowd, including some pretty eccentric characters. One of these year-round regulars is a guy I'll call Mr. Q.
I first knew about Mr. Q when I was overseeing checkouts and dealing with suppliers. He was engaged in deep conversation with Melissa, my colleague. The words "QAnon" caught my attention. Turns out, he was all about insane conspiracy theories and he was using his chat with Melissa as an open mic. I decided to save her from this one-sided conversation.
I sneak off and call Melissa to the loading dock where she could have a breather. The store manager saw me and I just told him, "Melissa's got a crazy". He just laughed. So, that was our first encounter with Mr. Q.
Now fast-forward to the pandemic. We had a mask policy where you needed to wear one unless you claimed to have a 'condition'. This annoyed us because of all the fibbers. Predictably, Mr. Q was one of these guys. He kept mostly quiet until as he was leaving, he turned on a dime and loudly declared the whole pandemic as a hoax. We just shook our heads and watched him leave.
Then came the big finale. We had changed our policy to "masks, no exceptions". Some folks were not happy about this, throwing tantrums about legality and threatening lawsuits. We had grown thick skin dealing with these folks. That's when Mr. Q made his entrance again.
Here's how this went down: I see Mr. Q, maskless. I go up to him and casually ask, "Need a mask?" He says he has a condition. I say, “Sorry, but you need a mask to shop here. We can do your shopping for you and bring it to your car.” Mr. Q wasn't having any of it and started a right's violation rant.
Things took a turn when Mr. Q started coughing on me and Aaron, my colleague. We immediately told him to leave, but Mr. Q just used it as a chance to go on about how we're poisoning our customers.
While he's chanting about conspiracy theories, I called the authorities. Seeing this, Mr. Q abandons his cart and leaves. Aaron films him as he starts yelling about all sorts of random stuff in the parking lot.
Eventually, he leaves before the cops come. Since he didn't buy anything, we didn't have any info to pass on to them. But with the video proof, our general manager bans Mr. Q. If he comes back, we get to call the cops and he gets arrested.
So far, he's been smart and hasn't showed up again.
31. Misplaced Anger
Yesterday, my older brother rang me up and said mom lost her baby. Wasn't a shocker since she's hitting 40 and all. But I've got a guilty secret. I actually felt pretty damn relieved about the whole thing—now my siblings won't have their lives messed up with another baby in an already cash-strapped home.
My sister wouldn't have to give up her inheritance so they could afford to have a new kid. My bro told me mom's been weeping buckets, and despite feeling a bit bad for her, I was also kind of glad to hear about the whole baby ordeal. Kind of felt like we just swerved a catastrophe. My brother said I should move back in, to be there for mom.
Sorry bro, but no can do. Got college reopening, plus I'm honestly fed up with all the family drama. I did say I'd go see mom though, mainly out of decency. So, later that day, I hopped over to my folk's crib. Baked mom her favorite choco-chip muffins. Got a welcome from little sis who said mom's been having a duvet day.
After a quick hello to my old man, I went to their bedroom. Mom was propped up on the bed. I said I was sorry and put the muffins on her nightstand. Her reaction was intense. She lobbed the muffins at me, blaming ME for the loss of her baby. Apparently, my lack of sensitivity stressed her out, leading to her miscarriage.
She even claimed I was probably glad her baby was gone (she got me there, but I didn't tell her). She called me a witch, said I brought this on her. She was yelling so loud, everyone came running in. She chased me out. I hugged my sibs before I went. Dad told me mom was right—I'd been cruel and caused her to miscarry.
I shot back saying that was full of nonsense and pointed out the obvious—old age was more likely the culprit. Then I left. I've absolutely had it with my parents and their nonsense. Here's hoping there won't be any more baby news.
32. Ride On!
My parents' neighborhood is chock full of doctors. One of them had about six kids. The youngest one had serious autism and couldn't talk. He was around five or six and was super into his tricycle. He used to spend hours biking around their big driveway. His mom, generally a housewife, would keep an eye on him. Both she and her husband started worrying he might bike onto the street while they're not looking.
To prevent this, they got some orange construction netting. They used it to block the end of the driveway when the kid was outside and would remove it once they were done. I always thought it was a smart way to keep him safe. But some families in the neighborhood were annoyed by it, called it an "eyesore". A meeting was set up, which turned out to be a disaster.
People started criticizing how these parents were looking after their son. They said the net made the neighborhood seem "uncultured". Nobody suggested any alternative though. The parents were so mad that they decided to move within a month. They shifted to some country-style place where their son could bike all day long.
33. The Covenant
After moving into our new house, I quickly learned our neighborhood's HOA was a pain in the neck. My neighbour across the road told me he got slapped with a warning for leaving his recycle bin out a little too long. Proof? A photo of him hauling it back to his garage. To add to it, I had to have their stamp of approval just to put up a new fence.
I met with the HOA rep, a sweet lady, who said my fence idea was in line with the HOA rules. However, the only thing left was the need for their "inspector" to sign off on it. But when Mr. Inspector arrived, he was totally confused about what I wanted to do. Despite explaining the fence I had in mind, he acted like it was unheard of.
Frustrated, I walked him out and pointed to a house just two doors down with the exact fence I'd described. The guy scoffed and walked over, only to see that I wasn't bluffing. As he scratched his head, he said they prefer to keep fence styles consistent in the neighbourhood. I pretty much told him I didn't give a hoot about that. I was sticking to what's allowed in the HOA rules.
Bowled a googly, the old man had nothing to say. Not long after, I got a letter saying my new fence plan was a go.
34. Limits Are For Other People
This whole thing went down when Walmart started its pick-up service. At our store, we didn't have a personal shopper thing yet. Then, out of nowhere, my customer service manager (CSM) pops the question, asking if I want to play personal shopper for this one lady.
In the middle of a transaction, my co-worker's there like, "C'mon, say yes, for the love of God, say yes". Me, being 19 and still pretty green around the gills, figured it couldn't be worse than dealing with Christmas crowd grumps. Plus, I wanted to keep my co-worker happy, so I was like, "Uh, sure".
So, here's the scoop: this woman, Audrey - that’s what I’ll call her because she reminded me of that cartoon whiner, Little Audrey - had only $85 to her name. My CSM tells me, keep her shopping around that budget, and off I went.
First red flag - Audrey bee-lines it to the Christmas discount junk in the garden center. Now, this woman’s got to be pushing 65, so I figured she knows her limits. Man, was I so, so wrong. She starts grabbing all these Christmas-themed perfume sets, slippers with foot massagers, even three light-up lawn decorations.
I give her a heads up, letting her know she's already blown past her budget, easily hitting $150. She doesn’t believe me until we tally up the cost, tax and all. Only then does she put back a few items before we head out to the rest of the store.
She tells me she needs batteries for her landline phone – yeah, she was old-school. Long story short, she tried to save money by over-spending on $30 rechargeable batteries. By this point, I'm realizing my break's way overdue, and this whole ordeal's taking much longer than I ever expected.
Rather than wind things up though, Audrey decides it’s time for grocery shopping. So I follow her, keep reminding her about her $85 limit and her cart is still filling up. Despite my best efforts, she insists on heading to the checkout.
You'd think Audrey would face reality looking at the checkout total, right? Well, she didn’t. Instead, she prefers to play a never-ending game of item shuffle, trying to scrape as much off her hefty bill as possible. It was exhausting and my frustration was hitting the roof.
Makes you wonder why my CSM wasn’t upfront about this job. All the same, the checkout guy and I try to get her to prune down her bill some more, but Audrey was having none of it. Things got ugly when she started asking others in the line for money, all to buy some non-essential items – and they almost fell for it, until the cashier stepped in.
Nearing the end of it all, she had whittled down her bill to $120 – still over-budget! And when this kind customer behind us offers her $10, I figured she could drop that tacky yard ornament she's been clinging onto, and we’d finally wrap this up. But nope.
Fed up, I just decided to buy that darn ornament myself and hand it to her. As desperate as I was, the cashier advised me not to risk my job, but I couldn't care less. So I bought the ornament and handed it over to Audrey, explaining that I didn't have a yard anyway.
Finally, the saga ended with my CSM banning Audrey and letting me take it easy for the rest of my shift. In retrospect, it was stressful but sort of a happy ending since I didn't lose my job. I learned a pretty important lesson though - you don't always get what you want!
35. Child’s Play
My company had a stall at a local fair and we hired a few temps to help out. Their jobs were to pass out flyers and get people to come over to our booth. On the day of the fair, after all the setup, I briefed them on their duties.
Out of all the temps, this one lady was late. She said she'd be only 15 minutes behind, but ended up being an hour late. Not being able to wait, I got everyone else started. When she finally showed up, she brought her young child with her, which was a no-no given the job.
Her: My husband couldn't watch the kid, so I brought her. Me: You can't work with your child. Her: That's your problem. Find someone to take care of her. One of my coworkers said he could look after her child during his downtime.
I thought, cool, why not. Colleague: I'll entertain her, feed her, let her watch the shows and play games. But you gotta pay me. Me: Fine, I'll cover the kid's costs. Not yours. Colleague (smiling): Deal! I was shocked, but he assured me it was all good—he had a devious plan.
As soon as the lady got to work, my coworker took her kid on a full tour of the fair. The kiddo got to eat whatever she wanted, watch shows, and win plenty of prizes. All of these were free with my coworker’s staff pass, so he only had to pay for the kid.
When the fair was wrapping up, the lady argued to be paid fully even though she was late. She blamed it on her kid and other excuses, saying I wouldn't understand because I don't have children. She also claimed that she should be fully paid just because she's a mom.
Seeing this, my boss stepped in. He said he was pleased with our sales and that he supported her. He assured her she would be paid her full hours. Instead of showing gratitude, she smugly said, "Finally someone gets it".
Let's just say her victory was short-lived. Her child had spent nearly $100 at the fair — and given her hourly rate, she actually only earned $20 that day. My coworker kept track of everything (including receipts and photos).
She was furious, but couldn't argue thanks to all the evidence and her kid backing up the story of the day’s fun. All she could say was "I'M NOT PAYING FOR THIS!!" before snatching her kid and stomping off. We're excited for payday when we hand her that $20 paycheck.
36. Fun For The Whole Family
A few years back when I was 17, I used to spend my summers working in my grandpa's diner. This cozy little spot is based in our family home, smack in the bottom level of a tiny village house. My great-grandma and grandma would whip up the meals while my great-grandpa and grandpa looked after the guests.
The diner may not be huge – it can fit about eight 4-seater tables indoors, with a couple more outside if it's sunny – but it sure is busy. Because it functions as a neighborhood bar too, it's usually packed to the brim with villagers, mainly retirees, who kick back with some drinks and card games.
The diner's been around since 1941, started by my great-grandparents, so it's a seasoned favorite among the locals. My great-grandparents were pretty well-loved figures, and despite our out-of-the-way location, we'd have groups of tourists popping by every week during summer.
Since we were bilingual, my brother and I were in charge of the foreign customers. We were open almost all day, although the kitchen would only prepare food during lunch and dinner hours. We served a fixed menu – a starter, two main courses, dessert, and a choice of cider or water.
One afternoon after lunch hours, while everyone was winding down with coffee or beer, and my grandparents were eating their own meals, a loud and irritated woman arrived. She wanted a table, and complained about the lack of road signs that got them lost, adding her kid was hungry.
Even though our kitchen was technically closed, my grandma decided to make an exception. I explained this to the woman, who was upset that my grandparents were having their meal. I figured she was just hangry and proceeded to fill them in on our one-menu situation.
As they got settled and started on their bread, we faced our first issue – the Wi-Fi. Despite explaining our weak connection was reserved for staff use, the parents started arguing, insisting that as paying customers they should be given access. Meanwhile, the kid started making a ruckus, running around and hollering.
Things escalated when my great-grandpa came over to ask the woman to control her child. Instead, she insulted him, while the father warned him off. Everyone was in a state of shock, staring at these obnoxious customers.
Hesitant, I told my great-grandpa the rude things they just said. He kept his cool though, instead asking two cops dining with us to escort this unpleasant family out. Despite our warnings, they only took us seriously when they saw the police plaques.
They finally left, only for the cops to discover they'd illegally parked right in front of our garage. Talk about adding insult to injury, they got slapped with a ticket on the spot. And that was the end of that eventful day.
37. Something’s Fishy
I've got a food allergy with fish and seafood. I mean, it's not life-threatening, but it makes me pretty sick after I eat it. My symptoms? Throwing up, stomach pain, killer headaches, and if I eat enough, small red welts on my arms. My mom, she never believed me when I was a kid.
She'd make me eat fish or seafood to "test" if I was truly allergic and then ignore my discomfort. One day, during a big dinner party, she made me the center of attention. I was about nine years old at the time and I was seriously tired of my mom using food to make me sick.
She handed me a plate with a fish cutlet on it. I saw my opportunity to stand up for myself. I piped up, saying, "I can't eat that, I'm allergic to fish". Her reply? "No, you're not. Eat it". I tried again, "I am allergic! I'll throw up!" She wasn't going to back down though, especially not in front of guests.
She grabbed the cutlet and made me take a bite, all while saying "EAT". I did. Fast forward about ten minutes. I walk over to my mom and tug on her outfit. I say, "I don't feel well—" and then I puke. It was all over her and the fancy carpet, right in front of everyone.
My mom is often seen as kind, friendly, and extremely religious, so she couldn't do anything but play the sympathetic mom while all the guests were watching. She sent me off to bed to rest.
Needless to say, that was the last time she made me eat fish or seafood.
38. Adults Only
I went to this adults-only wedding for a friend from work. The church where they said their vows was tiny, so the main crowd was family and besties. But the party afterward? Massive. 250 people in this super fancy hotel ballroom, no place for kids. It screamed high-dollar with crystal glasses, posh tablecloths, and so on.
Half an hour into the party, there was this huge commotion that got everyone's attention. Cue the hectic mom having a shouting match with the wedding planner. Being as curious as a cat, I moved closer to suss it out. Turns out, Madame Uninvited had brought her four little ones to the adult party, despite a big old 'Adults Only' stamp on the invite.
The mom was adamant her kids were angels, saying they weren't going to cause any trouble. It was like 7.30pm... Regardless, the wedding planner was having none of it, saying kids weren't allowed and she had to go. In a desperate move, the mom turned to the bride, hoping for some sympathy.
So, the bride listened, told her in a sugary voice "OK, you can come in, but your kids can't". Mom completely lost it, ranting about being invited, childcare problems, and whatnot. Three of the groom's buddies had to escort her and her brood to the exit.
39. Our HOA President Was Trash
We accidentally left our garbage can out because we were away on a trip. Our neighbor was supposed to move it back for us but forgot, which resulted in a not-so-friendly letter from the HOA president. However, karma seemed to work its magic just one week later.
While we were taking our dog for a walk around the neighborhood, we stumbled upon the same HOA president passed out behind the wheel of his car, which was running, right in front of his garage. Naturally, we didn't want him to suffer from possible carbon monoxide poisoning, so we promptly called the authorities. They ended up giving him a DUI.
40. The Grass Is Always Greener
During a significant drought when watering was prohibited by law, our Homeowners Association (HOA) decided to take drastic measures to keep all lawns looking lush and green. They hired a company that used spray paint to make the grass appear healthier than it actually was. To cover the cost of this, the HOA required all homeowners to contribute additional funds beyond our regular maintenance fees.
This decision stirred quite a bit of controversy, but it got even worse. Many residents were concerned about the potential health risks for their pets and children due to the spray paint. Unfortunately, the individuals on our HOA board seemed more interested in exerting their authority and protecting cats than addressing these concerns.
Despite being reassured that the spray was safe for both kids and dogs, the first family to have their lawn treated encountered some strict guidelines, such as avoiding any contact with the grass for 48 hours and seeking medical attention if the grass was ingested.
This family's concerns prompted them to notify everyone in the community, including physically visiting their neighbor who was about to get his lawn treated. In response, all residents refused to allow the treatment on their lawns, arguing that the HOA's decision couldn't override their right to refuse the service.
In retaliation, the HOA threatened to impose outrageous fines, some exceeding $10,000, on those who didn't comply with the mandatory lawn treatment. The HOA board had been able to maintain its authority for a while because they held meetings during working hours, taking advantage of their retired status.
However, at the next meeting, residents turned out in force. The HOA board insisted that their position was unassailable and that everyone simply had to accept it. But what they didn't anticipate was that nearly all residents under the age of 90 were young professionals, including around a dozen lawyers with various specialties.
Within minutes, someone pointed out that our bylaws allowed for the recall and election of a new board if a special quorum was reached. A quorum typically required four members, but if more than 40% of residents attended a meeting, they could force a vote to recall the board and select new officers. And so, we did just that. The entire board was recalled, and new officers were elected.
To ensure more transparency and resident involvement, we moved HOA meetings to weekends and amended the bylaws to make everyone in the HOA a member of a committee, granting each person a greater say in important decisions.
41. Hardly A Stroke Of Genius
My homeowners association suddenly demanded that I paint my trim immediately. They even threatened me with a $100 monthly fine if I didn't comply. The only problem was that this happened in January, and I resided near Chicago. While I was purchasing paint, the salesperson kept warning me that it wouldn't dry and would likely freeze and peel off within six months. However, I had plans to sell the property in the spring, so I didn't mind. I went ahead and painted the trim even though it was a chilly 7°F outside.
42. Flooded With Complaints
I went on a long weekend trip, leaving on a Thursday after work. Unfortunately, my water heater decided to burst late Friday afternoon, causing my entire townhouse to flood. When my neighbor returned home from work and saw the water flowing from under my garage, he realized I wasn't there. He tried to find my phone number but couldn't, so he contacted the HOA to get in touch with me.
The lady who answered the call mentioned that it was "after business hours," precisely 5:01 at that point, and told him the issue would have to wait until Monday. Not wanting to delay any further, my considerate neighbor decided to call the non-emergency line, and they promptly came to shut off the water from the street. When I returned home on Sunday morning, I was absolutely shocked. My entire house had suffered damage — I could even see my attic from the basement.
After a major panic and a frantic call to my insurance company, we initiated the repair process. I needed to have a dumpster placed in my driveway and a moving pod to clear out what was left of my furniture while they started to dry out the house. That's when the HOA paid me a visit. They were unhappy with how "unsightly" my home had become and demanded that I remove these items from my driveway.
In response, I essentially told them to take their complaints and shove them. As a bit of sweet revenge, I stopped paying their fees. They couldn't fine me since I was moving in less than five months and their rules required a waiting period of six months. I've learned my lesson and won't be buying another home with an HOA in the future.
43. Get A Whiff Of This
When we first moved into our place, we received approval to build a fence. The HOA had given us the green light for cedar-treated pine materials. However, one of our neighbors wasn't happy with our choice and decided to report it to the HOA. Soon after, we received an email from the HOA president, expressing concerns about the type of wood we used. To verify if it was indeed not cedar, he swung by our place and gave it a quick sniff test.
44. Micro-Managing Morons
Our HOA decided to hire a management company to handle everyday operations. This meant someone would roam around taking pictures of minor infractions and sending notices to homeowners. I found myself in frequent disagreements over trivial matters. The problem was, these infractions had no real consequences as our bylaws didn't permit fines. Then, an idea emerged: imposing fines to enforce compliance.
This is when I made a bid for and secured the position of vice president on the board. Another frustrated individual ran for a position and won too. Although we couldn't dissolve the HOA, we devised a clever plan to cripple its operations. By not attending board meetings, we ensured they could never reach a quorum to conduct any business, and as a result, they were left paralyzed.
45. Newlywed Nightmare
My husband and I were moving into our first apartment in South Florida in early August. On moving day, we noticed an HOA letter stating that someone needed to be present in our unit while workers fixed the central cooling unit. It seemed manageable since I could occasionally work from home.
However, things took an unexpected turn. After two days, they informed us that the project was more extensive than they initially thought. They were replacing the piping for all 22 units in our complex. Unfortunately, our bedroom closet contained one of the access points to the roof, which the workers needed to use. This went on for the entire month of August, with workers on the roof from 1 to 14 hours a day, turning the first month of our marriage into an unexpected repair marathon.
46. A Case Of Mistaken Identity
So, my partner and I were living in a rented townhouse. The community had a dumpster under video surveillance to catch anyone not playing by the HOA's trash rules. One day, our landlord rings us with the news that the HOA slapped us with a $250 fine for breaking those rules.
We couldn't figure out what we had tossed that we weren't supposed to. So we hit up the HOA trying to get a look at the video. But, it was like banging our heads against a wall. Every time we called, they'd pass us off to some other person who would just hang up, or they'd just decide to change their working hours so nobody was there to take our calls, or they'd give us the "we'll show you the video tomorrow" run-around.
After about two weeks of this nonsense, my partner finally got to see the video while I was at work. I shot him a text to find out what it showed, and he told me it was some middle-aged Asian lady chucking out a bunch of furniture. Turns out, it was the landlord's wife making the mess.
47. Burn Baby, Burn
I had these stupid evergreen bushes around my house, and we finally got fed up and pulled them out. We were wracking our brains over whether to burn them on the spot or haul them to a burn pile about 10 miles away. Eventually, I figured - why not just light 'em up here? We had this open space by the house, about the size of a single plot.
We cleared the area, set up the bushes, and thought it was smart to crack open the garden hose just in case things got out of hand. Then it hit me, I need a burn permit. Printed one, dashed off to the fire station, got it signed, and trudged back home. With the permit on my steps, it was "go" time. But these bushes, they were still kinda fresh so they weren't burning well, apart from the initial ignition. I knew I needed something to get the fire going.
I ran off to snag some bargain-bin lighter fluid from the drugstore. When I got back, my friend's freaking out - someone from the HOA stopped by and was giving us grief about the fire. Said he didn't give a toss and was calling the fire department. That's when the unmistakable sound of fire trucks filled the air. The HOA guy showed up again, probably to watch the drama unfold. But when the fire truck turned up, there was no drama to be had. They saw we were doing everything by the book. They chilled out, turned off the sirens, even gave us a friendly wave. Mr. HOA didn't stick around after that, just took off.
48. It Was A Matter Of Record
My folks have always been military, meaning every four years we'd pack up and move. We mostly lived on base, up until we swapped Georgia for Michigan. We moved into a decent neighborhood, which was kinda like a second-tier version of a proper posh neighborhood that was right close by. There weren't really any signs delineating our side of the neigbhorood, but you could just tell we were the less fancy bit thanks to the plot sizes and how all the neighbors acted.
Then my folks decided to upgrade. They didn't know what they were getting us into. They moved us right around the corner into a neighborhood where it was either you're a lake person...or you're the enemy. The board of this posh place had some pretty clear ideas about making everything look park-like and started making some new rules that mucked with my folks' plans.
The big issue was that my parents wanted a swimming pool and fence and this new set of rules wasn't having any of that crap. Worse still, the rules hadn't even been properly set in stone but the board still started bitching about our plans.
Then enters my mom, the lawyer. When they tried to tell us to stop all work, she wasn't letting that fly. They even said they were prepared to knock the fence down themselves, but my folks weren’t fazed.
The board wouldn't budge. In Michigan, you need a fence around your pool for safety reasons. The lake lot dwellers didn’t feel the same. My parents even offered to put up a particularly lovely fence, but the board still said nope. They just had beef with fences and thought they could dictate everything. Some other homeowners faced the same issues and even lost sales because the board wouldn’t let them put up fences.
So my parents came up with a plan. They started building this fancy, white vinyl fence, and even the pool gear was being delivered when we got this ridiculous "stop work" notice. The board had even hired a lawyer and set up a meeting in some swanky restaurant.
Dad wasn’t about to deal with that and asked Mom and I to go. I turn up in my casual wear to this showdown, everyone else all suited and booted. Bunch of old dudes, sitting there waiting. Mom arrives, takes her seat, and they start whining about how they’d had to rope in this lawyer. Then hit us with the bombshell that we'd have to foot the bill.
Mom cut them short and asked why they thought they could enforce these rules. Everyone looked at the lawyer, who stuttered, "Um, we took a vote.” Mom hit back with hard facts. She whipped out their rules and let them in on a little secret. They'd screwed up their vote big time.
The room was suddenly silent as they tried to find evidence in their own paperwork. Seizing the perfect moment, Mom explained how they hadn't gotten enough votes at all and that they hadn't followed through on changing the official rules. Then she slammed them for trying to railroad her without even knowing the rules they themselves made. "No way am I paying for this or your lawyer," she said. And then we left.
As we were leaving, they tried to hand her the invoice for the lawyer. She outright ignored it. That moment right there was when I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. Show people like that just who they're messing with, just like my mom did.
49. On The Edge
This woman came into the store today and demanded I get a manager for her. She had a fit about some items not having a price tag while others did. She started grilling me about how stuff gets priced, but I was running self-checkout today. I didn't recognize her, so I fibbed a bit and told her I wasn't involved with stocking.
Once the boss showed up, she just let loose with one complaint after another. Even while talking with him at the counter, she made a huge deal, waving her arms around and arguing that the counter edges were too sharp. She acted all relieved that she didn't hurt herself or else she would've called the health department. I'm cleaning off that counter at least 200 times a day.
Trust me, nothing about it is sharp. If there was, I would've been the first to flip out about it. All of us at this job are on high alert for stuff like sharp cart edges that could lead to a lawsuit, especially in these crazy times.
The manager handled it like a champ but the rest of us spent our shift giggling about her melodramatic complaints. We couldn't believe her claim that random stuff like color choices were ticking time bombs. It was just plain nuts.
50. Make Way
I work at a grocery store, and Tuesday's when we switch the weekly specials. It's a tedious job I took up when I got promoted because it's not everybody's cup of tea.
One Tuesday, I was busy replacing the specials when I started getting frustrated. The whole thing could be done way faster if the store was closed, but they wanted folks to see me amidst 10 piles of stuff.
Almost done, I was cornered in the aisle, hoping this would signal to shoppers to avoid my way. Suddenly, a lady approaches. I knew right away she was going to cause some trouble.
I try to avoid interactions with customers because our store caters to rich folks and they don't like talking to sweaty guys like me. When she kept coming, I knew she'd either try squeezing past or, worst-case scenario, step on my pile.
I quickly move everything, looking up annoyed. That stared seemed to tick her off. She went passed, apologized in a condescending way. I just accepted her "sorry" silently, and got back to work.
She didn’t take kindly to my silence. It seemed like not acknowledging her "apology" and staring up was enough to make her go ballistic. She berated me for not being cheerful. Then she ended her rant with a line that never fails to tick me off: “I do not think you should be working here if that is going to be your attitude.”
She made these comments visibly looking down on me. I stayed quiet and continued with my work. What’s the worst that could happen? I can’t please everyone after all. She then queued up for checkout, continually complaining about me from only 10 feet away. To put a stop to her scene, I calmly asked her to quit it and boy, it was like I flipped a switch on her.
Suddenly, she was recording me and throwing loaded questions at me, trying to instigate a reaction. I was more of a fool and asked her to stop recording which only escalated the situation. She then threatened to get me fired. At this point, I was just trying to get her out of the store.
But instead of leaving like a normal person, she sat at the checkout counter, recording, looking for an excuse to make a production out of it. I kept my cool throughout and kept asking her to leave if she was going to keep it up.
This resulted in a stare-down. I insisted on her leaving first. When she wouldn't, I threatened to call the cops. Typically, the idea of an official involvement would make a person rethink their actions, but she was calling my bluff.
I wasn't really going to call the cops because what would I say? "There's this crazy lady yelling and recording me"? The entire situation would've been blown out of proportion. When she didn’t back down, I retreated to inform my manager about it.
My manager suggested I go out there and calm the situation down. So, I did. I apologized, hoping to defuse the situation. She calmed down a bit and even disclosed she was an "investigator". I asked her who for, but she brushed me off and threatened me with a call to corporate to complain about me harassing her because she was an immigrant (even though I'm one too). She promised I'd be jobless in 24 hours.
I just remained silent and let her vent. Sometimes people need to have their say, so they’ll leave. On her way out, she noticed I was watching her and came back saying I can't watch because I might "attack" her in the parking lot.
She then threatened me with retaliation if I went outside. She finally left and I called my boss, crying out of frustration and told her how it went down. My boss assured me that she was just nuts and promised to back me up if things escalated.
51. Showering The Troubles Away
I manage a truck stop a few days a week and work as a cashier on others. We've got fast food, showers, and a huge parking lot. Today, like many days, the drama centered on showers. This trucker dropped his wet towels on the counter after my cashier told him to put them in the bin, then tossed his key onto the pile.
"Please put the towels in the bin," my cashier reminded him. "Oh, so you guys don't have to touch them," the driver said. I said, "Yes, rules have changed due to the pandemic," even though we've always done it this way.
When asked which shower he used, the guy lifted up his key, his finger hiding the number. As the cashier tried to grab it, he lifted it higher, which started to bug me. His behaviour was just extra.
I told him he was making things hard. And that's when this man decided to lose his mind: He was all up in my face, threatening to slap me. I told him to get out, which made him puff up like he was going to hit me but instead, he threatened my family. That’s when I took out my phone to start recording.
My boss walked in, heard the tail end of our argument. Stepped in when the guy got too close. The guy started yelling at him, my boss shut that down real quick. The guy finally simmered down, and they went outside. My boss told him the same things I had and banned him.
Fast forward to the end of my shift—a repeat of the earlier shower saga. This time, we're holding a guy's keys because he didn't bring back the towels. "I wasn't told to," the driver argued. The cashier corrected him, he didn't care, he had a cab waiting.
He got angry when I told him to return the towels. He started arguing with me, my cashier, and the night manager who had just clocked in. Then, surprise move, he called the cops.
Spoiler - he wasn't bluffing. Like the earlier guy, I started recording this guy too. And he also threatened me. Cops came, he mouthed off to them, got told to back off.
One cop asked about our policy, we explained. The driver said he just wanted his shower and keys because he had a cab waiting. Sweet victory moment - the cop escorted him to fetch the towels. He got his keys and shower receipt and was told not to return.
The cop made sure he understood - "You heard him say you're not welcome here. If you come back, we'll charge you with trespassing".
I left a note about the drama for my boss and went home. If the guy hadn't acted out, we would've returned his things. But he chose to be petty.
My boss surprised me today. He took a stand when a guy threatened us. He might not approve of how long the second thing carried on, but that's retail. Sometimes you have to stand your ground.
52. Hung Out To Dry
My friend's Homeowners Association was off the charts. They legit hired surveyors just to figure out his clothesline was an inch higher than his fence, and slapped him with a hefty fine for crossing their "no-building-over-the-fence" rule. You won't believe it, but these HOA folks had people going around with rulers, measuring the grass length, and telling folks to mow their lawns.
53. Lawn Jerk
When I was young, my dad's appendix burst and he had to stay in the hospital for nearly a month. Most of the time, my mom stayed with him while my siblings and I shuffled between our grandparents' and our friends' homes. Around a week or so into my dad's hospitalization, we received a warning from the neighborhood association. Apparently, our lawn was too overgrown and they'd fine us if it wasn't trimmed right away.
My mom contacted the head of the association to explain what had happened, but her response was basically, "You can just hire a local lawn service if you don't have the time to do it yourself".
54. Grand Theft Grandma
I'm currently pregnant, and it's my first kid. My mom and stepdad have been nothing but nasty to my partner and me all this time. They have the nerve to say we're gonna be rough-around-the-edges parents because we're not hitched yet. They even had a yelling fit at my partner for "getting their precious girl pregnant" even though it was planned! They just wouldn't lay off on the phone, every dang day, and sometimes even showed up at his workplace.
They tried to wheedle him into dumping me so I'd have no choice but to move back in with them. The crap they pulled only got worse, so I decided it was time to nip it in the bud. Already, having a kid is a pressure cooker situation, and having them stir the pot didn't help one bit. My partner and I had our share of family drama over the past years, and welcoming our baby is a pretty big deal for us.
If my folks can't play nice with my partner, they ain't seeing our baby. So I drafted a pretty clear-cut email to my mom explaining why she's getting the snip from my life and wouldn't be laying eyes on her grandkid. To top it off, I let the cat out of the bag that post-birth, we'd be high-tailing it cross country to be near other family members.
It ain't just a snip, we're going full ghost. My mom’s reaction gave me the chills. She heads over to our place at 11 pm, hollering outside about how it's her grandbaby and she had the right to be involved. I told her to buzz off, and she eventually skedaddled. After that, she’d randomly text me over time about techie issues with her Wi-Fi or whatever.
Small stuff like that didn't tick me off, so I'd send her the necessary info. My cousin had a virtual baby shower and accidentally sent the invite to my mom's place, so mom dropped it off at my place. We managed to keep things pretty kosher from there, though I was firm on our boundaries, with no changes whatsoever.
She knew the deal. Then she hits me with this video today that made my stomach drop. She went and refurnished her spare room into a nursery—the works, crib, changing station, a bunch of newborn clothes, toy box, stroller, a seat for her car, and more. There she is, tearing up in the video going "I can't believe my baby is coming soon, this is where she'll sleep, where I'll get to change her diapers, these will be her toys".
Is she insane!? HER baby?? Spending the nights at HER place?? No way! So I ring her up and double down that we're still moving cross-country and she's not getting any slice of time with the baby. You know what she says? "Oh okay, we'll see about that!" For real, what part of "you will have no contact with this baby" is she not getting, or does she thing we're just going to forget about this when the baby arrives?
Is she thinking of stealing her from us? I'm literally speechless.
55. If You Know, You Know
I'm back from college for the summer, and my folks want me to sort out a job to get some experience under my belt. Just to clarify though, I ain't stick-thin, nor am I on the heavy side. I'm 5'6" and about 140-145 lbs, most of it hanging around my hips and thighs.
I must admit, I did put on some weight in my first year at college – from around 120 lbs to where I am now. Anyway, once my finals wrapped up, my dad gets a call from his pal who owns a business. They need some girls to man the phones and do general office stuff. Perfect, I thought, so I put on a nice dress, printed my resume and set off.
When I got there, the receptionists were really welcoming, asked me to fill out an application form. Just keep in mind that where we live, in the south, they sometimes prefer a 'pretty-faced' girl for jobs like this – not the best, I know, but I needed this gig. Just as I’m filling out my application, in walks a mother and her teenage daughter.
The mom's here about the job and wants her daughter to apply. The receptionists explain the application process and the mother-daughter duo comes to sit next to me. The mom asks if I'm applying for the same position and gives a smug huff when I confirm it. I let that slide and continue with my application.
Later, the mom approaches the desk again. She asks whether her daughter really needs to fill out the application, and when told that this is standard procedure, demands to see the boss. The receptionists explain that he's busy and can't see any visitors just yet. The mom insists that the boss needs to see her 'aspiring model' daughter because her daughter's the face the boss would want behind the counter.
The receptionists are skeptical. This isn't a beauty pageant, who cares how the applicants look? But the mom leans in and snidely suggests that the boss wouldn’t want "a chusband girl" behind the desk. Meanwhile, her daughter casts smug glances as she fills out her form.
This catches the attention of the other receptionist and me. This second receptionist, a larger woman, asks the mom whether she knows the boss well enough to know his preference for a skinny receptionist. The mom confirms that she indeed knows the boss well, as they were classmates in high school.
Suddenly, the second receptionist reveals that she's the boss’s wife and has been working behind the desk for 15 years. She's offended by the mother’s remark and asks them to wait outside while the daughter filled out her application. Mom and daughter huff out, application in tow.
The two awesome receptionists assure me that they will put in a good word for me with the boss. Fingers crossed, I might still get this job.
56. In The Dog House
I'm a 20-year-old woman who's been grooming dogs professionally for close to five years now. In this line of work, your rep, the quality of your work, and how good you are at juggling your time, all matter big time.
So yesterday, we had this girl scheduled to come in at 10 in the morning to audition for a grooming gig. She seemed promising – mid-twenties, with experience grooming at other spots.
Well, guess what? She didn't waltz in until half past four. No heads up or anything. Her excuse? A salon appointment and some unexpected friend-time out of town, complete with manicures. She had the nerve to ask if she could start grooming right away. My answer was a straight no. When she pressed, I may have come off as a bit harsh, but I plainly told her we weren't interested, and she need not bother with a rescheduled try-out.
After she left, I got back to finishing up my pending dogs for the day. But later on, I heard she had left crying and felt kinda guilty. Then, the drama took another turn when her entitled mom showed up the next morning.
Mom was adamant we give her late-comer daughter another shot. I stood my ground, explaining that her serious tardiness simply wouldn't cut it in our business. Mom shot back with “She was with friends. You should understand at your age”.
My reply? “Not when there's a job interview on the line. And she didn't even bother calling.” By this point, I was fed up. I still had five dogs to get through. She was all, “There was no reason to make her cry!” I told her we'd have to agree to disagree and got back on the job. However, she stayed a while, insisting we give her daughter another chance. As the chief dog groomer, I shut it down. Finally, she left, telling us her daughter was better off without us anyway.
57. Holy Roller
So, I'm back from college for the summer, and my folks want me to sort out a job to get some experience under my belt. Just to clarify though, I ain't stick-thin, nor am I on the heavy side. I'm 5'6" and about 140-145 lbs, most of it hanging around my hips and thighs.
I must admit, I did put on some weight in my first year at college – from around 120 lbs to where I am now. Anyway, once my finals wrapped up, my dad gets a call from his pal who owns a business. They need some girls to man the phones and do general office stuff. Perfect, I thought, so I put on a nice dress, printed my resume and set off.
When I got there, the receptionists were really welcoming, asked me to fill out an application form. Just keep in mind that where we live, in the south, they sometimes prefer a 'pretty-faced' girl for jobs like this – not the best, I know, but I needed this gig. Just as I’m filling out my application, in walks a mother and her teenage daughter.
The mom's here about the job and wants her daughter to apply. The receptionists explain the application process and the mother-daughter duo comes to sit next to me. The mom asks if I'm applying for the same position and gives a smug huff when I confirm it. I let that slide and continue with my application.
Later, the mom approaches the desk again. She asks whether her daughter really needs to fill out the application, and when told that this is standard procedure, demands to see the boss. The receptionists explain that he's busy and can't see any visitors just yet. The mom insists that the boss needs to see her 'aspiring model' daughter because her daughter's the face the boss would want behind the counter.
The receptionists are skeptical. This isn't a beauty pageant, who cares how the applicants look? But the mom leans in and snidely suggests that the boss wouldn’t want "a chusband girl" behind the desk. Meanwhile, her daughter casts smug glances as she fills out her form.
This catches the attention of the other receptionist and me. This second receptionist, a larger woman, asks the mom whether she knows the boss well enough to know his preference for a skinny receptionist. The mom confirms that she indeed knows the boss well, as they were classmates in high school.
Suddenly, the second receptionist reveals that she's the boss’s wife and has been working behind the desk for 15 years. She's offended by the mother’s remark and asks them to wait outside while the daughter filled out her application. Mom and daughter huff out, application in tow.
The two awesome receptionists assure me that they will put in a good word for me with the boss. Fingers crossed, I might still get this job!
58. The Fake HOA
Our neighborhood had this pretend Homeowners Association (HOA) that started as a cute little neighbor thing. The fees weren't much, and we used the cash for road upkeep, spring clean-ups, and a Summer BBQ. But then a housewife with too much time on her hands took over as president. That’s when the whole thing went down the drain. Suddenly, there were elections and meetings and, big surprise, she jacked up the HOA fees by 200%.
She wanted fancy new street signs, upgraded roads, and a neighborhood entrance gate. Our place was the first one here, built back in the 1940s. We had no shared spots like a park or pool or trails--zip, nada, zilch. I was done and decided to stop paying and ignore this silly HOA club. But she called because I was "late" on my fees.
I calmly clarified that our neighborhood didn’t even have an official HOA, which was why we bought the house in the first place. She argued that we use the roads, which I agreed to. Her comeback was, “Well, then pony up for using my roads". My reply was simple, “I already pay for that. Ever heard of property tax?” and asked her to lose my number.
59. Powered Up
One Saturday afternoon, there was a huge power surge and then an outage that affected all of downtown. Unfortunately, our store wasn't notified about it. Believe it , there was absolutely NO empathy from the customers that day. They began complaining about the lack of a backup generator, even though it was beyond the employees' control.
We had one working register for cash transactions only, as the card reader was down, and the conveyor belts wouldn't move. Despite repeatedly explaining this, some customers seemed to miss the memo, asking questions like, "Can't I use my bank card?" To make matters interesting, there was one gentleman who kept yelling, "Time to get out the pencils and paper!" as if we should instantly know the price of every item in the store.
Finally, we managed to get everyone out, locked the doors, and took a much-needed 30-minute break. Just when we thought we could relax, the power came back on, and people started knocking on the door. Our manager explained that the systems needed time to reboot, but some customers couldn't wait five more minutes and insisted on shopping during that time.
60. Here We Go Around The Counter
I had a customer with items scattered on the counter, just staring at me as I approached to ring them up. After I started the checkout process, the customer suddenly left, wandering around the store. When he returned to the counter moments later, I asked if he was ready to complete the purchase, but he remained silent and went back to browsing.
After some time, the customer impatiently stood at the register and sourly asked for assistance, saying, "Can I get some help over here? I'm ready to cash out." I did my best to maintain professionalism and began ringing up his items. Then, he claimed to always receive a 10% discount, despite our rewards system consistently offering only a 5% discount for the past 10 years. I had never seen this customer before. Needless to say, I did not provide the claimed discount.
61. Not A Know-it-all
A customer walked in just 10 minutes before we were set to close for the day. She spent the time leading up to closing browsing through jeans, getting help from one of our newer staff members. This employee was hired about six months ago during the holiday season, but he was only scheduled for one shift a week.
As closing time approached, I let my coworker know that it was time to wrap things up, and he informed the customer that she would need to bring her selected items to the cash register to complete her purchase.
However, the customer continued browsing despite our closing announcement. It was then that my coworker finally spoke up. He mentioned that the customer was being super rude, raising his voice and demanding assistance.
When the customer finally made his way to the cash register, he expressed frustration about not finding the jeans he wanted. He also criticized my coworker for being hired, claiming that he knew nothing. It's important to note that my coworker typically works in our shoe department and isn't well-versed in casual wear.
The customer requested that we call another store to check for his size, but this was five minutes after our closing time, so no one picked up the phone. The cashier informed him of this, and the customer then asked to speak to the manager, as if that would make a difference.
Since I'm the shift leader, I had to step in as the acting manager. I turned to the customer and inquired about his needs, and he began to complain about how we should hire more experienced staff. Firstly, I don't handle the hiring process, and secondly, this employee was just starting out; he was barely 16 and one of the most courteous and eager-to-please workers we have.
I was on the verge of losing my patience with the customer and told him not to speak like that to my employees. To be honest, I can't recall everything I said next, as I was quite upset, but my cashier stepped in to defuse the situation. Perhaps I reacted strongly, but my coworker is like a little brother to us in the store, and I felt protective of him.
62. Meet Ugly
I'm a 17-year-old guy, and I work at a Segway tour company. It's a pretty cool job because I get to ride Segways around the city, chat with people, and actually get paid for it. So, a couple of days ago, we had a tour booked, and I showed up about 20 minutes early to answer emails and get everything ready. The group arrives, a mother and her daughter, and that's when things take an interesting turn.
I start by checking them in. Me: "Alright, I have some waivers for you to sign. How old are you?" Daughter: "Uh, I'm 16." Me: "Great, then you don't need to sign a waiver." I ask this because if kids are younger than 18, their parents sign the waivers for them. However, the mom only heard the first part, not when I said her daughter didn't need to sign a waiver, so she thought I was just asking about her daughter's age. This misunderstanding probably triggered the whole chain of events.
We kick off the tour, and as I'm sharing my spiel, the mom keeps interrupting me, wanting to tell me things about her daughter and see if we're compatible. Me: "...and this non-profit organization opened in—" Mom: "Are you in college?" Me: "No, I'm a junior in high school." I'm usually pretty open with information about myself during tours because it helps keep people relaxed and often leads to conversations when there's a lull. It also can boost tips.
Mom: "Oh, my daughter is also a junior, and she's an artist." These interruptions keep happening throughout the tour, and every time, the daughter gets increasingly embarrassed. My own mom tends to share random tidbits about me with mall attendants, so I understand what the girl is going through, and I feel her embarrassment.
At the end of the tour, I tell them they have 15 minutes to explore the town on their own before returning to the Segway place. I go back to get things set up for their return. They eventually arrive (pun intended), and I take their Segways to start charging them. Mom: "So, what do you think of my daughter?" Me: "Excuse me, what?"
Mom: "I noticed you were checking her out during the tour. Are you going to ask her out?" Daughter: "Mom, stop!" Me: "Um, ma'am, I just recently got out of a relationship, and I'm really not looking for anything right now."
Mom: "What?!?!" Me: "Huh?" Mom: "Is my daughter not good enough for you!?" Me: "No, that's not it. I just mentioned that I just got out of a relationship." Then things took a very bizarre turn.
Mom: "You are going to date my daughter, and that's final!" Me: "You can't tell me what to do. I'm not your kid, and if I don't want to date your daughter, I don't have to! Besides, you haven't even asked her if she wants to date me." Daughter: "Yeah, I don't want to date him." Me: "SEE?!?" Mom: "I'm going to call your boss and tell him about your terrible customer service! You're never going to work here again!"
Me: (pulling out my phone) "Alright, you want to call him and explain this situation? How you're trying to force me to date your daughter and get me fired for saying no?" Then it seemed like the absurdity of the situation finally hit her, and her face shifted from pure rage to mild confusion. Mom: "Wait, maybe I don't want to—" Me: "No, let's call him. (Start to go through my contacts and press my boss's name). Let's have this conversation."
Mom: "I don't think that's a good idea—" (Phone starts ringing) Mom: "Daughter, let's go!" She rushes out the door, and the daughter turns to me, saying, "I'm sorry," and follows her mom. I hang up the phone before my boss answers and start cleaning the Segways.
63. Surf’s Up
I work as a surf instructor at a beachside surf school. One day, after finishing my final class, I was pretty soaked from being in the water and covered in wet sand. I was eager to get out of my wet gear and maybe take a swim before heading home. I was in the surf shack where I work, along with three of my co-workers – let's call them Sam, Joe, and Mick.
Sam, who actually has a gender-neutral name in real life, had just texted that my boyfriend was about five minutes away. Since I had already completed my part of the closing tasks, I decided to leave the guys to finish up while I went to the changing area to get out of my wetsuit.
I had managed to get down to my tankini when I heard a loud, nasal, American-accented voice. Someone was demanding assistance. Since my colleagues were busy, I quickly pulled on my skirt and went to see what the commotion was about.
The woman who had called for help didn't fit the typical "Karen" stereotype. She had long hair, a tan, was dressed in a bikini, and wore a large beach hat with a sarong around her waist. Her daughter, who looked to be around 10-12 years old, was with her and seemed like a miniature version of her mom. The daughter remained quiet during this encounter, so I couldn't tell if she had a similar attitude.
I asked the woman how I could assist her, to which she responded by telling me to put some clothes on. My tankini was showing about the same amount of skin as a one-piece swimsuit, except for a strip of exposed skin at my waist. Although the neckline was a bit low, she was wearing a bikini, revealing much more skin than I was. It's worth noting that we were in a surf shack by the beach.
In my best customer service mode, I apologized and asked Sam to pass me my shirt. He tossed my tank top to me, and I put it on, asking if that was better. The woman still seemed unhappy and wondered if someone else could assist her.
I explained that my co-workers were busy closing up, but I could help with her request. I began discussing class availability, scheduling, prices, and requirements with her. While I was explaining, I used hand gestures and leaned over the counter to point out information on the sign-up sheet.
The woman interrupted me, expressing concern about my attire. Keep in mind that this was during the summer, in the midst of a heatwave, at the beach. I pointed out that I didn't have an extra shirt and that I was appropriately dressed for the weather. Everything essential was covered, and she was wearing even less than I was.
Sam, wearing a T-shirt and denim shorts, overheard our conversation and recognized my tone of voice, which indicated I was nearing my limit. He decided to step in and help. Sam introduced himself and offered to assist the woman.
The woman was surprised to find out that Sam was a guy. She had assumed he was a girl. Sam humorously apologized for not meeting her expectations. The woman then complained that it was inappropriate for me to be dressed as I was with a young man around. Sam pointed out that we were at the beach, where people often wore minimal clothing.
The woman was persistent, claiming it was inappropriate. Sam reminded her that he wasn't working, but I was. At this point, I chimed in, mentioning that we were at a surf school on the beach.
Mick and Joe, who were both wearing board shorts and flip-flops, and no shirts, heard the conversation's tone and decided to intervene, just in case. Mick came up behind me and inquired if there was a problem. Joe also offered his assistance.
The woman was taken aback and looked between me and the three shirtless guys in shock. Mick humorously stated that she was overdressed, given the beach setting. She could see that her argument wasn't gaining any support from us.
The woman suddenly came up with a thought and accused us of improper conduct. She insinuated that we were involved in something we shouldn't be. We all found this accusation rather amusing. Sam, who is gay, burst into laughter.
The woman's daughter was embarrassed and had her face buried in her hands, turning bright red. Sam continued to laugh uncontrollably, and the woman called us "perverts". At this point, Joe fell to the floor laughing.
Mick suggested she leave, reminding her that they were in the middle of closing. My boyfriend arrived at this moment, and I decided to give the woman a little shock by hugging and kissing him right in front of her. This sent her into a fit of rage, and she left with her daughter, and we never heard from her again.
64. A Blessing And A Curse
So I'm a 19-year-old girl, second kid in a pack of five. I've got three brothers who are 21, 13 and 7, plus a sister who's 16. Our family was always broke - my dad's job wasn't great and my mom didn't work. They still kept having more kids though, because they're super religious and buy into the 'children are a gift from God' idea.
It wouldn't bother me, except that it made our lives pretty tough. Growing up, we'd never get new stuff; we lived off hand-me-downs. We'd hardly go out and had to put up with family members looking down on us for always needing help. But my older bro and I have managed to make it into college and we're aiming for better futures for ourselves. For a moment there, we were back at the parents' house.
One day, out of the blue, our parents gathered us up with some so-called great news - a new baby on the way. I totally lost it, asked them what they were thinking, bringing another kid into this mess? My older bro tried to calm me down, but I was beyond fuming. To top it off, they wanted me to give up my inheritance from our great uncle - money meant for my college!
I told them straight, "No way!” If they couldn't provide for the kid, they needed to think about other options. Instead of understanding, my mom cried, my dad called me selfish. I told them the only thing I'd help with is a termination.
I was really worried about my siblings' lives getting even tougher. I'd been there before; looking after my younger siblings while my older bro could go out and have fun. I kicked into action, dialed up my mom's cousin - practically my aunt - and filled her in. She was shocked and promised to have a word with my folks.
A few days later, I had to move out. My mom kept preaching about how blessed this baby was and accused me of wanting to kill it. I've found a friend's place to rent for cheap, but I'm still keeping in touch with my 16-year-old sister. Meanwhile, my aunt tried talking sense into my folks and, unsurprisingly, got nowhere.
I'd also asked a couple of my cousins - one's an accountant - to try and get my parents to see reason. From the tears and accusations, it didn't work. The intervention was a total flop.
So now, I've chosen to cut ties with my parents. However, my older bro will keep the lines of communication open for me, just in case they stop letting my siblings speak to me. But for now, I've had enough of them.
65. Selective Vision
Man, I had a couple of customers today that really ticked me off. Normally, I'm cool with crabby customers. I just let them vent and then hit them with "Sorry, that's the company rules" or something like that to get them to zip it. But not today. And the first one was a real piece of work. She was a bit older and had bought four packs of hot dogs.
We've got hot dogs on sale right now: buy two and you get them for 99 cents a pop instead of $2.99. It's a limit one deal, so it's actually a pretty sweet steal – you save four bucks. But this lady was peeved that only two of her hot dogs were at the sale price. I got called over to sort it out. She insisted the sale sign didn't mention a limit.
So, I whipped out our sales ad, and before I could even open it, she's like "I don't read those". That really got my goat. I set up the refund and then fetched the sale tag from the shelf. And what do you know, right there in bold uppercase: "Limit one deal per customer". I nabbed the sign and headed on over to show her.
But as soon as she saw me coming, she bolted because the cashier had put through the refund before I could get the sign. It kinda bugs me that customers can read the sale sign, but decide to ignore sections of it.
66. Needing An Explanation
Yesterday at work, I had my first encounter with an angry customer at my job at a burger joint. Involved were myself, my coworker Karen, my boss Bernard, and a jerk named Darren and his little girl.
We work on a number system, serving up orders as they're ready. I was learning a new role but wasn't directly interacting with customers. I noticed this dude (later identified as Darren) was hanging around the counter looking annoyed, receipt and burger in hand.
I could tell something was up, but I didn't think it’d go down like it did. I asked him what was wrong. He told me he had the wrong burger. He seemed kinda ticked off, but was keeping a lid on it. I apologized and asked him what he was missing.
That's when Karen butted in. She was taking orders beside us and said she thought his kid grabbed the wrong food. I later told her that pointing out the customer’s mistake was unnecessary and we should focus on sorting the problem, not placing blame.
Anyway, instead of giving me an answer, Darren asked Karen to repeat what she just said to his daughter. Weird, right? We were both stumped. He called his tall, pre-teen daughter over. I tried to calm the situation, telling him we could easily fix the order, but he wanted his daughter to learn a lesson.
Eventually, I got sick of Darren’s demand for us to discipline his child and said I wasn't the right person to address this since I wasn't involved in serving the order. Karen backed out too, saying she was busy with orders. This pissed me off because she got us into this debacle.
Things escalated from there. Darren's attitude flipped and he began getting loud and condescending – making me, his daughter, and everyone around us seriously uncomfortable. He kept interrupting me every time I tried to explain that I couldn’t help him as I wasn’t involved in serving the food. All I wanted was to escape the situation, so I decided it was time for the manager.
As I walked away to get Bernard, Darren started shouting at me, yelling that he didn't want the manager involved. Everyone around was watching him lose it. I called out to Bernard and Darren immediately dropped his aggressive voice. He told Bernard he just wanted to understand what went wrong with his order.
Bernard jumped into the conversation but Darren still wanted to talk to me, using a super snide voice. He retold the whole scenario with his own twist and then asked if I agreed with his version. I just went along with it right then, trying my best to hold back tears. His constant hostility made me really angry, but I was doing my best to keep cool.
After a few more rounds of snarky remarks, he asked me point-blank if I wanted to be talking with him. That was it for me. I absolutely lost it. “No, I don't, Bernard,” I snapped. "I can't do this". Then, I marched out, leaving all this drama behind me.
Some of my colleagues checked up on me in the back. One even offered to let me hit him just to vent my frustration, which was pretty sweet even though I didn't take him up on it.
I only had about 15 minutes left in my shift, so I was soon home free. Bernard apologized, saying he didn't expect such behavior from Darren. I mean, Darren didn't seem bats*it crazy at first. But he’d just finished screaming his head off at a 4’11 employee (me) while towering at 6'3 with his taller-than-me daughter by his side.
I told Bernard it felt like Darren treated us differently. He played nice with my manager but was clearly hostile to me. Bernard guessed it might be a height thing. Whether or not that was true, he agreed Darren was definitely off.
67. Too Good To Be True
So, important note: My shop doesn't do coupons. Never has, probably never will. One day, this lady walks in, all set to spruce up her new pad. I offered to give her the grand tour of our stuff. She's all hyped up about scoring some giant deal.
I figured it must be 'cause she was scooping up everything that was 40% off. Nope. Wrong guess right there. She spent an hour plus cherry-picking stuff for us to hold for her at the counter. Then out of the blue, she drops the bomb, “So stoked I got a half-off coupon for everything here,” and this was like my "oh-oh" moment.
So, I ask her if I can take a look, all the while trying to explain that our shop's a coupon-free zone. Off she goes for another half hour in search of this elusive coupon. When I finally get a chance to peek at her phone, the puzzle's solved—she'd stumbled upon one of those shady coupon code websites, probably fake.
The website even had huge text shouting these were unverified codes. She was totally cool about it all, but I was drained trying to explain why her coupon was a no-go in our store. I know the older folks can get a bit confused with this stuff, but she just couldn't wrap her head around the fact that her coupons were useless. And naturally, we ended up having to restock half of what she chose.
68. An Apple A Day
.
I had a guy come to my counter yesterday to return a clearance MacBook he'd bought. No biggie, I can handle that. So, I'm pretty petite, right, and this guy towers over me. We have this routine - I open up returned goods to check them out. So I boot the laptop, but all I see is this dodgy screen with a weird folder icon. Whatever, doesn't phase me. As I'm doing the return, I see he paid partly with a $43 gift card and the rest, around $1,057, was on his card.
Our return policy is simple - refund back to the original payment methods. So I tell the guy $43 will go back on a gift card. He doesn't like that, and says the last guy he dealt with shoved everything onto his card, not a gift card. He wanted his full $1,100 back on his card.
Usually, customers get this and it's not a problem, but this guy wasn't having it. I was a bit rattled, so I called up my boss. She was busy and couldn't come right away which obviously annoyed the guy. He's like, "I don't got all day!" At that point, I'm practically begging my boss over the radio, “Please, I need you here.”
When she finally gets over, she checks out the MacBook - and it still has his accounts on it! That got him even more worked up. So, we call a floor manager. They tried to explain that we couldn't do anything until he got Apple to sort out whatever he'd done to the laptop. He's sitting there calling Apple, shouting voice commands and arguing with the manager. I had to step away for a minute to collect myself.
In the end, he got his full refund on his card and returned the laptop, but he swore he'd never buy clearance from us again.
69. A Lucky Gamble
This literally JUST happened. Some guy strolls in and goes, "What's the $8 lottery thing my wife always gets?" I'm just staring at him, rings no bells at all. And yeah, he's not wearing his mask, but I've gotten good at recognizing people from the eyes up since we took over the store.
Anyway, I've got no clue who he is. So I say, "Hold up, you're asking me, someone who doesn't know you from a bar of soap, what lottery ticket your wife likes?" He goes, "Yeah, she always gets the $8 one". I had to break it to him, "Mate, there's no $8 ticket". He then asks, "So, what games you guys got?" So I start listing until we hit bingo.
I hand him his ticket and give him a bit of advice, "Just a tip, probably best not to let your wife know you needed a stranger's help to know what she likes". Hoping that would be the end of it, but no such luck. He’s still not clicking, he says, "Well, she's always here". I'm like, "Good for her, but she ain't here now and I have no clue who she is".
He tries to explain, "Well, I come in with her sometimes". I wanted to wrap things up so I just went, "AHA! Must be my bad memory then.” What I didn't say was, “Or maybe it's because I see a ton of people every day and unless you're a regular chatty Kathy, you're just a face in the crowd!” Jeez.
70. Three Strikes
A while back, I had this after-hours gig at a small nationwide US shop for woodworking gear. Most of our customers were awesome, but every now and then, we'd get a sour apple. This one night, with about 15 to 20 minutes left on my shift, this happens.
I was at the main desk, staying busy till it was time to shut down for the night. It was super quiet on the floor, just me around. Then, enters Mr. customer. "Hey there, welcome to our shop!" I greeted him warmly. He kind of glanced at me fish-eyed, nodded slightly, and went in.
A few minutes later, I see him heading my way to the counter, so I ask, "Hi there! Find everything alright?" The guy just drops a few packs of euro hinges on the counter without saying a peep. Alrighty then. "So, have you shopped with us before?" I try again.
Our system needs the customer's info if they're cool with that and if they're already in there, we just bill them under their account. Instead of an answer, the guy chucks a postcard-sized paper onto the counter. In comes the third strike. Bing! Bing! Bing!
Now, if a customer is in our system and dishes out their birth month, we send them a birthday coupon yearly that gives them a 10% cut on a single purchase. There are a few don'ts printed on the coupon too. As I suspected, the guy had just plopped his birthday coupon in front of me.
I check his account with the info on his coupon, notice something crucial, and can't help but chuckle. "Alright, sir. Your birthday isn't up till next month, and sadly, this coupon is only valid for a single purchase during your birth month". While saying this, I had the coupon held up with the fine print on display.
His reaction? He just stares at me blankly for a moment, huffs probably in annoyance, and starts strutting toward the exit. "Wait!" I called out. "You forgot your birthday coupon!" He just shot us a casual wave without turning around, walked out, and melted into the night.
Well, whatever, mate. Our manager is a chill guy who always tells us to go the extra mile for our customers, so that's what we do. We've had folks trying to cash in their birthday coupons early and we'd usually just give them the discount and a friendly heads-up about when it was really supposed to be used.
But no, not this guy. He flat out refused to show even basic politeness or say a single word to me. And that's totally on him.
71. Not Stuck, Just Stuck Up
The place where I work has two diesel pumps, one on each side of the pump island. There was a guy with a diesel truck and a trailer, filling up with $130 worth of diesel, and another truck waiting behind him. Then, this lady storms in, yelling that she's blocked in and can't leave because the second truck is in her way, and he refuses to move.
At this point, the only way for him to move would be to back up into one of the exits and into the main road, which is not really possible at 9 AM when everyone is rushing to work. The lady just kept screaming at me, demanding that I make him move because she "doesn't have time to wait!" Blah, blah, blah, we go back and forth for about 10 minutes, with me explaining that he is not actually blocking her or anyone else, as traffic is clearly moving through the parking lot.
Finally, I had to get another manager to step in and say, "Ma'am, if you turn your vehicle to the left instead of the right, you can use the left exit. If you back up just four feet, you can use the exit that you claim is blocked. I'm sorry you can't use the specific four feet of road you want, but short of me physically lifting his truck, there is NOTHING more we can do." So, the lady threatened to complain to corporate about both of us.
72. Chicken Heads Will Roll
So I recently got a few chickens. On the second day, the neighborhood kids stop by for a bit. I'm inside feeding the baby, when all of a sudden, I hear all this ruckus outside. I go to check and find a bunch of kids I've never seen before messing with my chickens! One little punk even has one of my hens by the wing and when she tries to get away, he kicks her!
I was pretty ticked off. I stood on my porch and shouted, "Everyone out! I don't know who you think you are, mistreating someone else's pets like that. It's not okay to harm animals. Get off my property, now!"
I ordered my kids and their friends inside, leaving the backyard off-limits. I head back in to finish feeding the baby when I hear the fridge open. I tell my toddler, "[Name], no snacks right now". But, it wasn't my toddler. One of the intruding kids had just helped himself to my fridge!
Though he wasn't the one who kicked my chicken, he was definitely not innocent. I showed him the door. And just as I'm doing that, the mother of the chicken kicker suddenly shows up. She starts yelling at me, saying, "You think you're so superior, telling my son off! I'm calling the cops!"
Despite her anger, I tried explaining that her kid can't just go around hurting animals. She still went to call the police. She comes back 15 minutes later, with a bargain to offer. She figured they could sort things as adults, and asked for $100 in exchange for the distress I caused her kid. I told her to just go ahead and call the cops, they'd know how to handle the situation.
73. The HOA Was Paved With Pain
When we were renting, the HOA used to report things to our property manager, and then we'd get a call from the property manager, listing all the things we supposedly did wrong. It got to the point where we were notified about stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with us. For example, we got a call saying we couldn't have a grill on our front porch, but the funny thing is, we didn't even own a grill.
Then they told us we could only have one car parked on the street, and that our other two vehicles needed to be in the garage. The thing is, we only had one car back then. And remember the time when we got a call because neighbors were supposedly complaining about our dogs barking at all hours of the night? The problem was, we didn't even have dogs.
But perhaps the weirdest one was when our property manager called, saying, "You need to move the doormat that you have leaning against your house." Well, my husband went outside and found the doormat was leaning against our neighbor's house.
Later, as homeowners in a different neighborhood, we faced another HOA hassle. We were written up for not taking down our Christmas lights promptly. This was in mid-January, and the reason was that we had been away for my grandpa's funeral. As soon as we received the write-up, we took the lights down right away, but we hadn't received any warnings, as they usually do. They just went straight to a write-up. I let them know we had removed the lights, and they responded by saying we hadn't removed all the decorations.
I had a snowman on the door that said, "Let it Snow," and some snowflakes in the window. These were winter decorations, not Christmas. They were quite snooty about it until I pointed out that they broke their own procedures by not giving us warnings, and we felt targeted. They dropped the matter.
Then, there was the year when we decided to redo our landscaping. We had pavers sitting in front of our house, which was a clear sign that we were doing some work. But then we received a cease and desist letter in the mail, claiming that we hadn't obtained HOA approval to landscape our backyard. They even included a photo as evidence.
What's interesting is that the angle of the photo showed that the person taking it had actually gone into our backyard to snap the picture, which they aren't allowed to do. I emailed them to point out this intrusion, and they ended up dropping the issue. It just goes to show how dealing with an HOA can be quite a hassle.
74. Swinging Seniors
Pretty sure the average age of our HOA members was around 60 when I was 16. We had a pool, and my mum kept getting these HOA "offense" letters 'cause I wore a bikini. Even thought I thought it was creepy and weird, I switched to a one-piece, but still they weren't happy. Called it "risque". They quit the act when my mum piped up saying it's my high school swimsuit, and they should tell us what’s so shocking about it.
Come next summer, they drafted these absurd rules which pretty much ruined the fun at the pool for any kid. The pool then became a place more apt for oldies. A pretty sober story till now, right? Nah, here’s the twist. There was an undercover operation by the big guys up top and as it turns out, half of the HOA were using the pool as a kind of launch pad for their swanky club parties. They got busted for their inappropriate shenanigans in the pool.
Karma did its thing that year. Those silly rules were tossed out, and we got our pool back. As years passed, I picked up one big life tip— stay clear of houses with an HOA. Most of the time, you’re dealing with older folks with this weird sense of entitlement.
75. They Weren’t Playing Around
When I was just a kindergartner, we packed up and moved to a different neighborhood. My dad, bless his heart, had made this killer playhouse for me and the sibs. It had these cute lil' windows, a tiny door, real working lights, and believe it not, AC too. It was a small-scale house before the mini-house trend even kicked off. Man, was it a beaut! And he made sure to build it on top of cinderblocks so we could take it with us when we had to move.
The neighborhood's snooty homeowner's association, though? Uh-uh, they weren’t having any of it. They wouldn't let us bring the playhouse, saying the area doesn't allow "toolsheds"; apparently, they're eyesores or something. Funny thing though, backyard playsets were A-okay, but somehow, our playhouse just didn't make the cut. Me and my kid sisters were crushed. I remember sobbing because we had to leave behind the playhouse dad had worked his butt off to make.
76. Smoke Signals
We got a new girl on the team yesterday. She was super nice, a little shy, and had a killer sense of humor. And you know what? I really liked her from the jump. She'd never run a register before, so guess who got to show her how? Yup, yours truly.
When there was a bit of downtime, I gave her the lowdown on selling cigarettes. She asked if she had to card everyone and I just told her to trust her gut. If they looked under 21, ID them. If they looked like your grandpa, probably not necessary. She got it, and she was really catching on to the cash register.
Feeling good about how she was doing, I decided to give her some space and stocked up some shelves. But I stuck close, just in case she needed a lifeline. About 10 minutes later, someone starts yelling. I rush over and there's this old dude laying into the new girl. Poor thing looked like she was about to burst into tears.
Turns out, he asked for a certain brand of cigarettes and she'd given him the wrong ones twice. Top it off, she asked for his ID and he let loose on her, screaming about how he was in a rush. Sees me, asks if I can check him out. I look over at the new girl, she's crying now. That was the last straw. I wasn't having that.
I tell him, cooler than a cucumber on ice, not to talk to my coworker like that. He comes back at me, saying he doesn't have time for this, and I just told him straight: if he was so rushed, why is he standing here yelling at us? He gets mad, threatens to never come back if I say another thing. Fine by me, as far as I'm concerned, if you're gonna treat my team like crap, shop somewhere else. So I told him as nicely as I possibly could to have a great day and out he goes, grumbling under his breath.
As for the new girl, she was just in tears. Really tough first day. And all because some jerk couldn't show a little patience and understanding.
77. Behind The Doors
When I was just a kindergartner, we packed up and moved to a different neighborhood. My dad, bless his heart, had made this killer playhouse for me and the sibs. It had these cute lil' windows, a tiny door, real working lights, and believe it not, AC too. It was a small-scale house before the mini-house trend even kicked off. Man, was it a beaut! And he made sure to build it on top of cinderblocks so we could take it with us when we had to move.
The neighborhood's snooty homeowner's association, though? Uh-uh, they weren’t having any of it. They wouldn't let us bring the playhouse, saying the area doesn't allow "toolsheds"; apparently, they're eyesores or something. Funny thing though, backyard playsets were A-okay, but somehow, our playhouse just didn't make the cut. Me and my kid sisters were crushed. I remember shedding tears upon tears because we had to leave behind the playhouse dad had worked his butt off to make.
78. With A Smile
So, this one time, an old dude with some lumber came to my cashier. I said 'hi' and instead of a typical response, he jumps straight in, saying he's got eight pieces of lumber from the left pile. Before I even start counting, he’s like, "I already told you, it's eight!" So, I kept going, telling him I’m only doing my job. Finished counting, and yep, it was eight pieces.
Next, he tells me he's got 10 pieces of wood on the right. So, I start counting them too. He gets smart with me and asks, "Where'd you go to school?" Caught me totally off guard, not sure what he wanted to know. The weird part was, he kept this smile plastered on his face, like his cheeky comments were totally okay.
Oh, and he had his mask halfway down, nose sticking out. He pays up, takes the receipt, and walks out, not a 'thanks' or a 'goodbye' to be heard. He's totally one of the worst customers I've ever had. Just plain rude, and it still bugs me how he acted.
79. Taking Me For A Ride
I'm a single parent with an amazing little girl who's about to turn five in August. In the past year, I've been in a legal battle with my ex who tried to keep my child away from me. Lawyers can be quite costly, and being a single parent doesn't make it any easier on my finances. But a few months ago, I won the lawsuit, and I was finally able to have my child back with me at home.
Over the last few weeks, my daughter had been talking a lot about wanting a bicycle. However, due to the financial strain from the lawsuit, I couldn't afford to get her one. Luckily, I received a summer bonus last week, which gave me the financial boost I needed. So, yesterday, I was able to buy my little girl the bike she had been wanting so much.
We had a fantastic time riding our bikes. But as dinnertime approached, I still had to prepare our meal. We headed back home, parked the bikes in the backyard, and I started making dinner in the kitchen. After about 10 minutes, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye through the kitchen window, and my heart sank. I saw a kid casually strolling by with the brand new bike I had just bought that day.
I quickly ran to the front door, hoping to catch him before he got away. Fortunately, I did manage to stop him. I took the bike from his hands and sternly told him that it was mine, and he had no right to enter someone else's backyard and take things. I was really upset, and I insisted he leave my property, placing the bike inside my front hallway, thinking that would be the end of it. However, I was wrong.
Fifteen minutes later, the doorbell rang, and it was the kid and his mother. She demanded that I return the bike to her son, claiming he had found it. I explained to her that he had "found" it in my backyard and that I had bought it for my own child that very day. I suggested that she should teach her son some manners and not allow him to trespass on other people's property to take things. She threatened to call the authorities.
I chuckled and told her to go ahead and call them, then I closed the door in her face. At this point, my daughter was in tears, worried that she might lose her new bike. After comforting her, I returned to the kitchen to resume making dinner. Just as I was about to put everything on the stove, the doorbell rang again, and I was furious. I stormed to the door, ready to confront the woman.
To my surprise, she had actually called the authorities, and there were two police officers at my door. I invited one of them inside while the other stayed with the woman. I explained the situation, showing the officer the box the bike came in and the receipt with my name on it. He shrugged and apologized for the inconvenience, assuring me that I wouldn't be bothered again.
I let him out and closed the door with a smug smile on my face. I peeked out the front window and saw the woman throwing a tantrum, which ended with her in handcuffs in the back of a patrol car. I didn't care what happened to her. Finally, I was able to finish making dinner, and my daughter still had her new bike. That's all that mattered to me.
80. No Means No
This happened ten years back, arguably the worst time of my life. I'd just turned 18, and because my mom was a gambling addict, we lost our house. But not long after, some family friends extended a lifeline, offering my mom and I some rooms in their house. The family, couple and their son who was my age, were pretty cool about it all. I even got my first job from the mom, making some side money at a bingo hall.
These family friends always wanted their son and I to be a couple, since childhood. Despite my protests, they were kinda keen on the idea. This seemingly boosted the son’s ego and one day, outta nowhere, he slapped my butt. It freaked me out, so I had a go at him. When our parents found out, my mom brushed it off since we were living there, and the boy offered a weak apology over dinner.
His dad joked about being glad that his son's interested in girls, implying he was worried about his son being gay. From then on, the boy made gross comments and touched me whenever he could. Whenever I approached his parents, I was told, "Boys will be boys" or "he probably didn't mean it". They suggested that I give him a chance because "deep down, he's sweet". The worst part, my mom didn't care, saying stuff like "stop playing hard to get," just because she was benefitting from living there for free.
One day, he touched my chest while I was on the couch. I blew up at him and yelled at him to stop. He threatened me, saying "Shut up! You live in MY house". I was so scared and tried to avoid him as much as I could.
A few months later, he declared that he was taking me to his senior prom. His parents were excited and said we'd be having the house alone after the dance. I turned it down right away. Despite their insistence and offering to pay for everything, I refused. When my mom came back from the casino and found out, she got mad and told me to change my decision. Still, I said no.
The day after prom, the jobs laid down some new rules - we had to pay for everything, including rent. We couldn't afford all that. They gave us a month's notice to find a place to live.
We had to move to a shifty place with a man my mom met at the casino. She blamed me for losing out on what she called a "golden opportunity". Her remarks cut deep, making me really angry.
Months later, I came home from graduation, finding out that my stuff had been thrown out. My key wasn't working, and no one answered the phone. I waited until 3 a.m. when they finally returned from the casino, and my mom told me I was on my own.
I had to live out of my car and crash on different friends' couches while working hard to save enough cash to rent a flat with a roommate. I haven't spoken to my mom or the other family since then. Recently, my mom left a voicemail wanting to talk, and she's been calling ever since, but I have no plans to answer.
81. The Fountain Runneth Dry
I've got a small shop in a mall, right next to a pretty, but empty, fountain. It's always been empty since we moved in last year. One day, I was sitting around, enjoying the cool breeze and watching shoppers pass by through the quirky angled windows of our store.
I was split between checking out the mall traffic and focusing on my game, always on the lookout for any issue. Suddenly, I saw a guy, who looked like he meant business, marching straight at me. I barely had any time to even greet him with my usual "How you doin’ today?" line. He asked me this weird question: “When are they going to turn on the fountain?”
I told him I didn't know, and he seemed confused, like he didn't know how to take my lack of info. He then said, “They drained all the fountains!” I was the one confused then. Obviously, they'd drained all the fountains, I had been staring at the dry one all day, so I knew.
Confused why this guy thought I didn't understand...did he blame me? Maybe he didn't know that the mall guys call the shots. So, I told him, “You gotta ask the mall folks. We're just a store here.” He said, “I will!" and then stomped out, off to find his next mission.
82. No Sign of Weakness
My mother is in a wheelchair now, and I often take her out to the store or the mall to give her a change of scenery. What really gets on my nerves is that she's perfectly capable of moving her wheelchair herself, but some people just assume they can push her out of the way without a second thought, especially when I'm not right there behind her. This has happened more than a few times, and it's frustrating.
It's incredible how, when someone is in a wheelchair, they suddenly seem to become invisible to many people. For instance, I remember a time when I was unloading her wheelchair from the trunk of my car, and another person parked so close to us on her side that neither she nor the other driver could fully open their car doors. I politely asked the person to move, but they ignored me. In the end, I had to find another parking spot.
There have also been moments when parents got upset with me for asking their children not to play on her wheelchair while she was using the bathroom. And, quite frequently, while I'm pushing her in the wheelchair, people will abruptly stop in front of us without any warning. This has caused me to accidentally bump into them with my mother's wheelchair. Strangely, they often react as if we are the ones at fault.
83. No Shame
One of my neighbors was about to have their first baby. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse when the wife passed out and became unresponsive at home while an elderly relative was visiting. The baby was born at the hospital, but the wife's health rapidly declined. Sadly, only the baby came back home. The wife didn't make it. This was an incredibly tough situation for the husband to endure, and he didn't leave the hospital until after his wife had passed.
Their townhome had only two parking spots, and our Homeowners Association (HOA) had recently made some changes to the rules regarding overflow parking. Initially, residents could park for no more than four days a month in those spaces, but it was then reduced to just 90 minutes per month, and this rule change went into effect just two days after the wife was hospitalized. During this time, the wife's car was parked in the overflow parking lot while the elderly relative was visiting.
To help care for the baby and make funeral arrangements, the wife's mom came to town. She flew in, took a taxi to her daughter's home, and retrieved the extra car keys from the house. When she went to the overflow parking, she was shocked to find her daughter's car missing; it had been towed by the HOA. The husband came back home with the baby, and he discovered a pile of mail that had accumulated in his absence.
What he found was infuriating. There were multiple fines from the HOA, ranging from the towed car to violations such as leaving trash cans out past 4:30 PM on non-trash days and some weeds sprouting in the driveway. To make things worse, there was even a bill from the HOA president who had "impounded" the trash cans and recycling bins, charging a $30 per day "storage fee" per item. The HOA president lived on their street and was fully aware of the ambulance visit, but he refused to dismiss the fines since he believed the husband could have gone back home during this difficult time.
This situation made the news, but unfortunately, some people are simply not moved by public shaming. However, there was a silver lining. Another neighbor realized that the HOA rules did not require permits for rummage sales, so they organized a massive neighborhood rummage sale to raise money to help pay off the fines. When the HOA president tried to shut it down, multiple residents pulled out the 300-page HOA by-laws book to show that the rummage sale was within the rules. This creative solution also made the news, and they managed to raise a few thousand dollars to assist their struggling neighbor.
I eventually moved away and decided never to purchase another property with an HOA due to the petty issues that HOAs often create. The husband chose to relocate closer to their families, in part because he wanted to avoid dealing with the HOA.
84. A Hairy Situation
When I was a kid, my parents were really strict about me being clean-shaven. But now that I'm an adult and living on my own, I decided to grow a long beard. During a visit to my family, they were pretty uncomfortable about it because they have strong prejudices against Islam. They were worried that people might think I'd converted to Islam and that it would harm our family's reputation.
I basically told them to mind their own business and focus on their own appearance instead of my beard. I thought the issue was settled, but I was totally wrong. Today, while I was napping on the couch, my mom went ahead and trimmed my beard without my consent. It looks like a mess now, and I guess I have no choice but to shave it off.
Shutterstock
85. A Steep Price
A guy came in wanting to swap out his pants today. He'd snagged a $70 pair and a $60 pair in a buy-one-get-one-half-off deal, so the $60 ones ended up being 50% off. Now he wanted to switch the pricier pair for another $60 set. But here's the catch - with the BOGO deal, the system combines the items. If he swapped, it would look like he was returning both and buying back the one he wasn't returning, nullifying the deal.
The swap would cost him an extra $11 since the BOGO deal was gone. Understandably, he was ticked off. I helped him out with a 25% discount, getting him about $5 back, but he wasn’t having it. That's when I knew this was gonna be tricky.
He asked for the manager, which, as shift lead, is me. He wanted even more off, but that wasn't gonna happen. He was getting fired up, so I suggested he try again with the store manager tomorrow. He agreed and finally went on his way, after a solid five-minute line holdup.
He never asked me to keep the pants, and we had no others left. I set them aside on my manager's desk, gave her a ring, and asked her to tell him they were out of stock if he came back. I also reached out to my girlfriend—my manager’s daughter—who works at the nearest store and asked her to squirrel away their last pair.
The nearest pants in his size are now two cities away. He wanted more, and now he's stuck with nothing. It's small, but hey, it's a win.
86. No Matter How You Slice It
This guy pops into the store one day and says, "You give 50% off for bagged mulch with holes, right?" I said, "Well, that's for the cashier to decide, based on hole size". Alrighty, he said. But, something seemed fishy to me, so I told a colleague to watch out for him. After a bit, he rolls back in pushing four bags of soil, each bag with a massive slash upfront.
They were neat slashes, not gouged holes from rough handling. He chimed, "Half off on each, right?" I was juggling a few customers, so I rang them up (originally each bag was about 4 bucks). After giving him his change, he wanted me to tape the slashes shut. I told him, "That'll have to wait till the line clears out".
That was his cue. He started to kick up a fuss, so I asked the next guy in line to hold on for a few minutes. It took a customer complaint and five minutes of chaos to finally tape up the bags up to his standard. Then, a few days later, while outside with a new colleague, he came again, this time asking for "a discount on rocks?"
I explained to her that we'd need to assess the situation. I didn't catch that he was the same dude initially because I heard rakes instead of rocks. This time he had a bunch of bags totaling around $90, asking for a half-off discount on all. My colleague turns to me, confused. We have a limit—only $50 markdown without supervisor approval. When I inspected his bags, they had clean slashes, just like before.
I told him that just because the bags were open with nothing missing inside, didn't mean we could slash half the price off. Instead, I told my colleague to just take $20 off. He wasn't happy and kept asking for half off because "someone ruined his bags". Fed up, I told my colleague to just markdown the price and wave him off so we could keep the line moving.
87. Schadenfreude
I work at this grocery store that's kinda like Trader Joe's. It's an awful gig from the top down, but what happened yesterday? That's not on them. Here's the low-down. I was almost done with my shift, and I was hauling a few boxes of pre-cut fruits to the fridge. I was wrecked, dude.
Now, I didn't really pay attention to how I stacked these boxes on the trolley, and they all crashed onto the floor. Like, stuff went flying everywhere, mostly berries and grapes. It wasn't a biggie, but it happened like, smack-dab in the middle of the store. This area is like the junction of all things - four sections and the store's backroom access point. Plus, it was Saturday afternoon madness with more customers than the store can handle.
This little mishap I had caused a mini traffic jam. My boss and I were rushing around trying to clean up. I was on my hands and knees fishing for grapes. The infuriating part? The dumb jokes the customers were cracking. Plus, even though there was enough room for them to maneuver around, they'd scrape their carts very close to where I was crouching.
Already feeling mortified, but things got really intense. Next thing I know, I'm hyperventilating, getting tunnel vision, and having a full-blown panic attack. Maybe someone looking in might've thought it was funny, but for me, it was degrading. I mean, customers were wheeling around me like I was invisible and throwing out pointless remarks.
It was hands down the most embarrassing moment in my job. The customers seemed like vultures, circling me. Still, somehow, we managed to clean up the mess and dodge past these customers turned scavengers.
88. Discounting It
This fancy doctor woman rolled into the shop the other day, with a big bag of clothes. She asked if we had a discount for health care folks and we had to say nope - those discounts are only for military and teachers or students. She flipped out, arguing that docs work way harder and deserve it over teachers.
To me, this was straight-up rude and ignorant. I mean, come on, a well-paid doc wanting a discount over teachers who are barely making ends meet?! She was dropping $300 on clothes and had more shopping bags with her - didn't exactly seem like she was scrapping for a discount. But then she dialled it up and threw down the "Who worked hard during the pandemic? Doctors, that's right!” card.
Sure, she had a point, but she was also pulling in a neat paycheck. It's the teachers, though, who are schooling our future, including future doctors, on a tight salary which is why they usually get discounts. I was blown away how she dissed the teachers for their discounts like the employees made the call on that.
89. Holier Than Thou
So, this church leader dude comes into our shop every Sunday and Wednesday. He once told one of our staff that she was in for a hard time because she has ink on her arms and won't serve him. Throughout the pandemic's worst, the guy never wore a mask. He always had something to moan about the service, claiming nobody at my place knew how to wait tables. But the real kicker?
He threatened to report one of our waitresses to child welfare. Why? Because he thinks her tattoos and piercings make her a bad mom. Honestly, every fiber of me wants to level his self-righteous attitude with a swift punch to the ear.
90. Same Difference
It went to my grandma's funeral a few weeks back. She'd died in the hospital, and I was outside talking with my godfather, who also runs the funeral home. Might sound freaky having a funeral director as a godfather, but not to me. He's been there since I was a baby, treating me like his own. His job, to me, is like any other gig - even has some perks.
We were out front of the hospital, chatting amongst the company cars - including the hearse. Then, outta nowhere, this mom with a visible sense of entitlement strolls up.
EM: Hi. Me: Um...hi.
She had a kid with her holding a soda.
EM: My son wants to ride in the limousine. And she pointed at the hearse. I was momentarily struck dumb cause that day, my head was already filled with a million thoughts and this unexpected conversation took me by surprise.
As an introvert, talking to strangers is hard for me. The other reason is, I was trying not to burst out laughing. She genuinely thought the hearse was a limo. Me: I'm sorry, but that's not-- EM: Don't tell me you're going to say no to a kid?
I was at a loss for words. Me: Lady, trust me. You don't want your kid in there.
EM: God, you’re such a miser! What's the big deal even if he spills his soda? You can afford a limo, you can afford to clean a soda spill! This is when my godfather intervenes. GF: Excuse me, miss. What's the issue? EM: I want my son to ride the limo!
My godfather says the zinger of a lifetime. GF, thinks for a sec: Well, sure. He can take a spin in the limo, but only if he's in a coffin. The mom was thrown for a loop. She takes a long look at our "limo," and the penny drops. Still wondering how she thought a hearse was a limo - maybe she didn't see the company logo.
Anyway, once she figures it out, she turns ghost-white and bolts with her kid. My godfather and I just look at each other and crack up.
91. Playing Favorites
So, my soon-to-be husband and I have been engaged for three years while I knocked out my PhD. We booked our dream wedding venue for this September three years ahead, which worked out because I needed the extra time to plan while I continued my studies.
My sis got engaged a few months back, with a spring wedding next year in mind. They didn’t have a venue yet but they had a few vendors and a solid date. At a family BBQ, my sister surprised us all with the news that she's got a bun in her oven. Everyone was thrilled and began chatting about whether the wedding date would change because of the baby. When she said she was hoping to shift it to September, we thought, "Cool, no problem, don't have too many out-of-towners who can't handle the quick switch".
But then came the bombshell. My sister wants our venue. She's thinking that juggling a wedding and pregnancy is too much, and our venue is already booked, so why not make use of it? This totally put me on the spot and annoyed the hell out of me, not to mention my future husband.
My family took my sister's side, saying she needed the venue more than me and pointing out that we'd already waited three years for our date, what harm's a few more months? This led to a massive blow-up with my family that ended with my fiancé and me storming out.
Later, my sister rang up in tears accusing me of always getting what I want. My dad, while acknowledging my planning, argued that it's who you're marrying that matters most, not where. My future husband is livid with my family and doesn't want my sister to be a part of our wedding at all now. My family said they'd back out too if my sister doesn't get the venue, calling me selfish.
My brother-in-law, though, he apologized for the drama and admitted that he'd told my sis not to ask for the venue. Trouble is, she's blaming me now for potentially messing up their marriage, because, you know, this is all my fault, right?
My fiancé and I, we're done. We've replaced my sister with my aunt (the only family member who's got our back) in the wedding party and possibly not including the rest of my family. My future dad-in-law told my family to get lost when they suggested my sis get the venue because of her pregnancy.
After hearing all about this mess, my sister accused me of being unfair and choosing the opinions of internet strangers over family. But I'd had enough and told her off. She's used to getting her way with tears and tantrums, and I won't be her doormat anymore.
Later, she unblocked me just to send a fake message from my wedding planner about rebooking the venue. I've made sure the vendors and venue know not to make changes without me. We've also ditched the caterer my parents were supposed to pay for and replaced it with a family-and-friends cookout for our bachelor party instead.
On the upside, everyone involved in our wedding has offered us extra security for the day. But it's just made me realize how toxic my family is. They've gotta give some serious apologies if they still want to be invited to the wedding.
92. Giving New Meaning To “Food Fight”
Finally, I can vent about the night my future mother-in-law, who we'll call "Ellen," ruined my engagement. So my girlfriend and I were ready to make the leap and get hitched, only holding off on the proposal until we’d met each other’s families who live out of town.
I assumed horror stories about meeting the in-laws were exaggerations. I mean, introducing my girlfriend to my parents was easy. However, I couldn't have been more wrong about Ellen.
Here's the deal, my girlfriend's folks had her young, then they had a "redo" with a younger sibling, who was six. We all met for dinner at a fancy steakhouse, which wasn't child-friendly, but they had brought the little one along anyway.
Things started to spiral when the kid said she was thirsty after about 15-20 minutes of no service. Ellen started screaming for water like we were in the desert. It was embarrassing how intense she was, especially since the restaurant was simply busy.
The staff brought water and apologized, but Ellen’s drama didn't end there. She caused another scene when the waiter told her they didn't have a kid’s menu. She dismissed him without any courtesy. Then, to my surprise, she started picking on me about my career.
Dinner had barely started and already I was thinking of my exit strategy. Ellen wasn’t done though. She didn't even let the waiter finish describing the specials before cutting him off, and then bizarrely just ordered for her and her daughter, leaving the rest of us to order later "so the kiddo's food could start".
I thought it was a joke and laughed, but I was the only one who found it funny. Ellen's disruption continued when another table got mashed potatoes before us. I'll spare you the details but let's just say she made quite a scene.
To top her poor behavior, she literally started removing bills from the lousy tip she'd already set aside every time she saw another table get mashed potatoes. My patience had run out by then, and I told her that this made me uncomfortable. Thankfully, Ellen relented, but what happened next took the cake.
She grabbed a plate of mashed potatoes from a stranger's table, claiming her daughter was "starving". This led to a tussle with the rightful potato owner, a tennis ball-walker-equipped elderly lady. Eventually, the staff had to kick us out.
Later, alone in our car, my girlfriend blamed the "terrible service" for the evening's disaster, seemingly oblivious to her mom's tantrums. The fact she didn't see anything wrong with her mom’s behavior was the deal-breaker. If this was her normal, I wasn't sticking around.
Thanks to Ellen, I dodged a bullet. We soon split, realizing we weren’t right for each other. While I'm not sorry about never seeing Ellen again, I pity any waiter that will have to serve her in the future.
93. Here’s To You
Last weekend was Liberation Day in Holland, and loads of cities were throwing parties. All these festivities are usually free, but they're super strict about you not bringing your own food or drink, 'cause they wanna sell you their overpriced drinks. Good thing one of my friends lives right where all the action is, so we just stash our alcoholic drinks at his place and sneak them in during the party.
Now, I didn't wanna walk around with a JD bottle in plain sight, so I poured it into a 1L Vanilla Coca Cola bottle, mixed in a bit of coke so it looked legit, then headed off to party. As I'm browsing around the festival spot with my “coke,” I feel a tap. Party manners say to step aside so someone can pass, so I do just that.
Next thing, someone's tugging at my shoulder. Turning around, bam, stereotypical Karen in my face. She's all like, "Where'd you nab that?" pointing at my bottle. I answer, "It’s from home". She's all, "Can my kid have a sip?" Me, not wanting everyone to know I had liquor on me, said, "Why don’t you buy him a fresh, cold coke from the stall over there?" She fires back, "They don't sell vanilla coke there, my kid doesn't fancy the regular one. He wants yours". then puts her hand out.
Me, playing it cool, said, "If he's not a fan of regular coke, I doubt he'd like this one..". In the meantime, her kid starts making a fuss about how he's thirsty and wants "THAT" coke. She gives me this super bossy look, so I finally said, "...Alright lady, here's the thing. This bottle is half Jack Daniels. Definitely not kid-friendly". You'd think this would stop her, but nope.
She hit back with, "That's a lie! You're just saying that so you don't have to share it with my baby! Hand it over!" Trying to fade into the crowd, her kid snatches the bottle from my hand and bolts, with mommy dearest following. I trail after them, and just as I find them, the kid's already had a few gulps and is now hurling his guts out. Seeing the now vomit-covered bottle, I just abandon it and head back to my friend’s for round two. Before I left, I threw the mom a cheeky "Told you" as I disappear back into the crowd. Minor victory, until she barrels towards me, trying to land some punches.
"YOU POISONED MY BABY!!! WHERE'S SECURITY!!!" A couple of people separated us, and a vendor called security. They took statements from us both. She swore I gave her kid a "bottle of poison" claiming it was coke and wanted me busted. Guard turns to me, "What's in the bottle?" I spill, "JD and coke. And, not gonna lie, it was heavy on the JD".
He asked, "Why'd you give it to a kid?" Me: "Nah, man. That wasn't the plan. I was mainly hoping to get wasted myself. They mistook it for coke, didn’t want to believe me when I told them it had booze, and snatched the bottle. Next thing you know, the kid's drinking up before I could stop him".
Right about then, someone in the crowd sided with me, saying he saw the kid snatch the bottle but didn’t catch our chat. Security advises the mom against pulling any more stunts and directs her to take her teary-eyed kiddo to the first-aid booth. He tells me to be more discreet with the booze I'm "bound to blend again soon".
94. Taking A Bow
A few years ago, I was working at a local beauty shop in the South. We sold beauty bits, including clip-on hair extensions. One day, a family of four strolled in; mom and dad were browsing and the two kiddos were running wild, being loud and chaotic.
It was delivery day, and I was restocking the shelves using a cart, or "buggy" as some call it. The cart was packed full. I had to nip to the store room, and when I returned, I saw one of the girls pushing my cart around the opposite end of the aisle.
The kiddo was on her tiptoes pushing the cart she couldn't see over. She said something to her mom and her mom told her to put the cart back where she got it. By this time, I'd caught up with her. As she returned the cart, she said, "Ma'am, are you lookin' for yer buggy?"
I told her she shouldn't be playing with it. That's when her mom went full Karen mode. She stormed over, angry that I spoke directly to her kid and demanded that if I needed to say something, I should say it to her, not her child. Disregarding that her kid nearly caused a mess and hurt herself while her mom was too far to notice.
I didn’t bother arguing and went back to restocking. Later, the mother asked me to help her match a hairpiece to her hair color. I helped her choose one and after confirming with her husband that it was the one she wanted, she assembled her kids and we went to the counter.
At the counter, she put a different hairpiece than earlier. When I asked her why, she admitted that the first one was pricey but she intended to come back for it. So I rang her up and they left. The next day, a fellow worker told me that they had gotten a complaint about me.
I was taken aback as it wasn’t often that I got complaints. Turns out another person had complained about me in that same week claiming I was rude when in reality I had foiled their shoplifting plan. The coworker’s tone indicated I was in for a wild ride later on.
The door opened and in walked the hairpiece lady with her kids. She started berating me about wanting to return the hairpiece she bought. We had a no return policy on hairpieces. Apparently, there was a mix-up with her purchase and the item she was trying to return, which is why she was asked to come back during my shift.
She took out the hairpiece she wanted to return and it was different from the one she had bought from me – it was the one she originally wanted and it was in a different box. When I pointed this out, she lost it; screaming and making vague threats. Meanwhile, one of her kids had come around the counter, trying to join the fiasco while touching me.
Feeling fed up, I spun around and said, “Don’t touch me.” Then, recalling her mother’s previous preference for direct communication, I feigned a sweet smile and exclaimed, “I am sorry, could you please tell your child not to touch me and remove her from behind the counter. It’s not safe for her to be back here.” The lady gruffly commanded her child before promising to be back later to continue her scene.
Shortly after her departure, our store manager arrived earlier than usual. After keeping her in the loop about the incident, she had to face the woman when she returned since I was in the storage room. The manager asked me to stay put.
It sounded like we gave her some money back as a one-off, probably because corporate would have done the same. But then I heard her shout, demanding that I be brought out so she could "snatch me up...” Before she could finish, my manager cut in, “You will not lay a hand on my employee.”
With that bold retort, I was left stunned. Turns out, so was my coworker. Afterwards, we all felt a new-found respect for our manager's toughness. It was then that they realized that if I was being "rude" to a "customer," they were probably a thief.
95. Dog Days
Back in the day, I worked as a dog trainer at a major pet shop. Even though that was my title, I was stuck with all the regular retail stuff too - working the cash register, stocking shelves, and the endless task of customer service. This shop was like a hotspot for Karens from the surrounding white-collar suburbia. So you can imagine the kind of nightmare it gets.
On this one day, it was vet day. We had teamed up with local vets to provide basic vet services like shots and the like. And as you might guess, pairing "cheap" with "Karens" is a recipe for the most chaos-filled day of your week.
The shop that week was absolutely swarming with customers, extending right up to the front door - and we're talking about the largest pet shop in town. I was bombarded with questions from every side, dogs were doing their business anywhere they pleased, and kids were having a ball with the dog toys. Yup, total pandemonium. All while I was playing octopus, juggling five tasks and gearing up for my dog training class. So much fun, right?
As I was running back from the vet's booth after assisting another customer, I spotted this one woman. Tan, sunglasses, shoulder-length hair, yanking a couple of kids down the aisle - you could tell she was trouble. It was like she was about to change into the Hulk on any second. Bracing myself, I started, "How can I help - "
But before I could even finish, she cut me off with a loud "Dogs!" Her eyes had this crazy shine to them. Baffled, I tried to decode her one-word demand, "Dog...toys? Dog...food?". Turns out she was searching for actual dogs. It took me a moment to realize that she was expecting us to sell dogs.
Now, luckily, big chains like ours don't sell dogs directly to avoid the immoral puppy mill business. But the flip side? Having to break this news to this woman. Steeling myself for the storm to come, I began, "I am sorry, ma'am, but we don't sell dogs here -" Before I could finish, she let out a torrent of curses, turned on her heels, nearly yanking her kids' arms off. Then she was out the door.
I was totally blindsided. From start to finish, this whole event took less than 30 seconds. It was like setting a new record. After dealing with this situation, I decided to take my break before the chaos of the next dog training class.
96. She Got A Doggone Sweet Surprise
I used to clean up at a local gymnastics gym on weekends. The owner would rent it out for birthday gigs, always with a coach on hand. One Saturday, I clocked a lady roll up an hour early; I was just about done sprucing up the entrance, even though we were darkness central... swapping out the old light bulbs, you know?
This lady struts in and beelines upstairs. Then, in no time, she's downstairs all fired up, barking in my face, "WHY is there no power?! I need to prep for this party. HOW am I supposed to do that WHEN I CAN'T SEE WHAT I'M DOING?!" I was knocked for six and reminded her, as per the boss lady's rules, that she couldn’t set foot in the building until the coach clocked in.
She turned beetroot red. She looses it, "HOW DARE YOU TELL ME WHAT I CAN AND CAN NOT DO! THE OWNER SAID I COULD BE HERE WHENEVER I WANTED. I WON'T STAND FOR THIS BULL FROM A KID!" Cool as a cucumber, I responded, "Alright, but you're stuck without power for the next 45 minutes. You'd better hang tight in your car until coach rocks up".
She huffily stomped off, slammed the door and tried giving the owner a bell. When the coach finally rocked up, I spilled the beans about what had just gone down and how she threw a fit. I scribbled a note for the owner and gave her a call on my way out. I peaced out for the day and returned the next one to collect my paycheck. The owner took me aside and reassured me I had done everything by the book. Then, I got the full scoop.
Turns out, she was just as horrible to the coach, and worse, hadn't paid for a thing. She even overstayed by a full hour. But then, here comes the cherry on top. While her guests were in the gym, her pooch managed to get into her cake in the car and wolfed half of it down. She wasn't even fazed.
She goes, "Oh, we can still use it. We'll just cut around the parts the dog ate". Soon after, she jets back into the gym, yanks a bunch of paper towels, and runs to her car. From the time she smuggled the cake inside to when she bolted out to her car, her dog had... let's just say... made a mess. We're talking poop and puke city ... seats, floors, armrests, dash.... her car was absolutely ruined.
97. Greasing The Parts
So, I was the front desk lady at a car dealership with an aftersales service center. Met a bunch of folks, but this one lady, she took the cake. It's 7 in the evening, the service center's been closed for about an hour but the dealership's open till 8. Just another day in the office, until...
This woman storms up to my desk and thumps a 19-liter container of motor oil on it, nearly giving me a heart attack cause I wasn't looking. She just goes, "Sell me this oil". I'm staring at her like, we ain't got cash registers here, lady.
Plus, where'd she snag that from? The service center's shut and everything's locked up, tight as a drum. After I recovered a bit, I told her as much - told her we couldn't sell anything cause the parts department was closed. She was having none of that. Boy, did she blow a gasket! Demanding her oil and pointing like mad to the nearest window.
I tried to help her, told her about a shop that was open until 9, figured she could get her oil there. She acted like I'd suggested buying oil from a candy shop. "I need Kia brand oil, for my Kia brand car," she said with such sass, it felt like she was testing my IQ. Best of all?
I got anxiety and her earlier desk-thumping had me all shaky. I tried to help her out, told her any oil would work, even offered to help her decide which one's best. But she kept shooting me down.
Eventually, she announced that she'll come tomorrow and how I'd been useless, before storming out. I then noticed she had a kid with her all this while. Really setting a good example there, mom. Finally figured, she'd grabbed the oil from a display case in the service center. The thought of her anger-stealing a display item made the whole thing extra funny.
98. No Connection
A seriously grumpy high-class lady storms into the store, declaring her brand new $3k Microsoft Surface laptop, a gift from her husband, was flawed. She couldn't get on the internet while on the go. As soon as I clocked that she was struggling with the Wi-Fi, I attempted to spell it out for her. Jeez, wish I hadn't!
I explained to her that Wi-Fi won't work outside her home, and suggested that she use her smartphone data instead. But no! She was convinced I was pulling her leg and requested to talk to my boss. Guess what? He repeated the same facts I said, nearly word-for-word. She stormed out throwing a hissy fit.
99. Hotel Havoc
I used to work reception at a swanky little hotel. This real piece of work walked in one day with a dirt-cheap online booking. Straight away, he's hassling me over every little thing. He didn't want to give me his credit card info because his stay was already paid for. And then he snarky told me he didn't need help finding the elevators because he wasn't thick or something.
This guy was seriously on another level. About 10 minutes after he checked in, he's down there again, demanding a bigger room with a king bed and a view, even though he'd only booked a regular queen bed online. I was chill and hooked him up - because we had spare king rooms anyway. But, no. 10 minutes later, he's back complaining about the room size.
Then he goes, "I'm only gonna give you one more chance to get this right," and wanted to see the manager. After a bunch of arguing, we actually gave him our top suite and free parking because he said we'd messed him around. And he got all this for the bargain price of around $40 a night! But, wait for it.
This guy, right, just as he's going out for dinner, tells us he didn't even plan on being in the room most of the time because he was visiting his friends and gonna be crashing with them. Like, seriously? So at that point, I took it upon myself to make his life a pain in the butt.
Every time I saw him leave the hotel - which was pretty often, like 3-4 times a day - I'd reset his room keys. It was hilarious when he would come back knackered from a night out and had to trek all the way down to reception to get his keys sorted. By the end of his stay, he was wound up tight. I wouldn't bet on him coming back any time soon.
100. Leave It Well Enough Alone
Over the past few months, I had a hunch that my upstairs neighbor might have been taking some of my mail. I frequently order stuff online, like books and craft supplies, and there were a few occasions when certain items that were supposed to be delivered on specific dates never showed up. Then, one day, I caught my neighbor snooping around my front door. I asked her what she was up to, and she replied, "Oh, I thought I dropped something in your yard."
To address this issue, I decided to install some surveillance cameras a while ago, making sure they weren't too conspicuous to my neighbors. The camera aimed at my front door was cleverly hidden from view in the driveway. That's when I came up with a plan to catch her in the act. I ordered a couple of special packages to set up a little trap for her. The first one was a glitter bomb, and I arranged it to give her a sparkly surprise as soon as she opened it.
I made sure the box looked just like any regular mail parcel, then I left it by my front door. About 20 minutes later, I spotted her heading to my front door. She glanced around cautiously, picked up the box, and walked away with it. My only regret is that I didn't get to witness her reaction when she opened the box and got a glittery surprise. Since then, I haven't noticed any more missing mail, but if she ever considers doing it again, she'll certainly think twice.
101. That’s What Big Brothers Are For
Back when I was in fifth grade, something pretty crazy happened. This lady grabbed my little brother, who was in the third grade, by the neck. She lifted him up and tossed him about three to four feet, right into the lockers. What got her so mad was that my brother had pushed her child aside when her kid cut in line in front of him at the water fountain. It was unbelievable.
I completely lost it and started giving her a piece of my mind. I was calling her all sorts of names as I followed her out the door. These weren't your typical fifth-grade insults. My dad was a Marine, and I was using all the stuff I wasn't really supposed to know, but I'd picked up over the years.
I kept following her and her kid out the front door, and we ended up at the circle where the buses came to pick up the kids. Then, out of nowhere, she turned around and came charging at me as if she wanted to do some serious damage. There were no teachers around, they were all inside, trying to figure out what was happening. It was just her and me, and I could tell from the look in her eyes that she meant business.
She grabbed me by the shoulders, hoisted me up, and shook me vigorously while I screamed my head off. But just when things seemed hopeless, I heard screeching brakes, and there was my mom, charging in like a football player. She gave that lady a real beating. I'm talking scraped skin under her nails and bruised knuckles from punching so hard.
That night, I got some ice cream as a reward for trying to protect my brother. However, I was also sent to bed early for using the words I shouldn't have.
