The world is just bursting with infuriating, awful people. Even when you’re minding your own business, every once and a while, you’re bound to run into one of these jerks. All you can hope for is that you'll get a good story out of it—like these people.
1. It’s Payback Time
My roommate in college had only child syndrome and taped a piece of paper over her clock because she didn’t want to "share it with me". Never mind that she couldn’t see the clock herself, but she would rather no one see the clock than share the clock with my eyes. So, from then on, I would steal one sock from a set once a week.
It was slow enough that she didn’t realize it was me sabotaging her socks, but fast enough for her to be really annoyed and wondering that the heck was happening to all of her matching socks.
2. Don’t Get Keyed Up Over It
So me and my partner had just finished shopping and were leaning on the car having a smoke. This made me remember a story from a long time ago. Basically, he was leaning against his car outside of a store finishing a smoke before he went in when some random woman walks up to him and says, "I don’t think the owner would appreciate you leaning on their car".
He told this woman he owned the car but she tried to argue the fact that it was her car. She even said: "It’s my car, get off of it". He then pulled out the keys and unlocked the car and she just went silent and walked away.
3. Concession Stand
Movie theater worker here. I was working on Christmas Day one time and the lines were extremely long. This mom and her kids came up to my line and things were going smoothly. She paid and I handed her the food and wished her a Merry Christmas, but then she asked if I could fill up a few extra popcorn containers that she had brought along.
Normally my company has no problem doing this if they had ordered large popcorn, but we were so busy that I just didn't have the time to fill the containers for her. I politely told her no. This is where it gets bad. In front of everybody, she immediately starts to chew me out in front of at least 30 people including her daughter.
This woman then took one of her bags of popcorn and dumped it all onto the counter (it was buttered). Her six-ish-year-old daughter started to pick it up for us, but the mom told her not to. The mom said that he (referring to me) can pick it up. Amazingly this woman then proceeded to ask me to fill her popcorn back up, and wouldn't leave until I did it.
So, I, who was just a 19-year-old kid, almost wanted to cry. I didn’t know what to do, so I just filled it up for her to make her go away. After that, she gave me a smug smile and said, "Now that wasn’t so hard was it"?
4. Flying Footlong
A seven-year-old girl came into my store to get the sandwich with a note listing the ingredients she wanted on it. At the cash, I rang in the sandwich, and the little girl passed me one filled-out Sub-Club card, which used to be good for a 6" sandwich with a purchase of a 28 oz drink. I cleared the cash and rang it in again, discounting half the sub.
I told the girl how much she owed me and she just stood there, looking at me. I asked her what was wrong and she said that her mom never gave her any money. I asked if her mom was outside and if she could go get her. This is where the nightmare started. The girl left and came back in crying, getting towed behind a raging mammoth of a woman who was demanding to talk to my manager about how she was being disrespected.
I explained to her the usage of the card and pointed out where the details were printed. She screamed, reached over the counter, grabbed the sandwich, and then threw it at my head. My manager later saw the security footage and called me laughing his butt off about it.
5. The Bad Check
My sister borrowed a large sum of money from our retired mother, with a promised payback plan. She never made a single payment. My mother is now down to her last dollar, so we tried to get our sister to pay her at least some of the money she owes. I still can't believe her horrific "revenge". A few months later, a check showed up at our mom's made out to her for $0.00 and a comment on the bottom that said, "Get a job".
6. Fools Rush In
I was there when this 16-year-old motorcycle driver was hit by a truck. The paramedics had to treat him on the spot so that he’d have a chance of survival. This didn’t sit right with a 50-year-old driver who claimed that she had "an important appointment" and the resulting traffic jam was getting in the way of that. The officers on the scene told her to calm down and get back to her car.
Well, she didn’t like that and started to harass them non-stop. Screaming, cursing, getting out of her car to nag at them because she was running late. After all it was "just a single motorcycle driver, how long can this take?" Sadly, the boy didn’t make it—but the story doesn’t end there. The horrible woman is now facing charges for blocking the corridor for emergency vehicles and resisting officers.
I hope the poor guy at least gets entertainment out of haunting her for the rest of her miserable existence.
7. Tricky Transaction
My grandfather passed a few years ago, and my grandmother was not in a position to live alone, so she decided to sell her home (of 50-odd years, no less). This was on top of the remainder of my grandfather's pension, so she had about $50,000 or so. She asked my father to handle all the bank work and such.
One day my father called her, asking if she was well enough to go to the bank, but his sister's (my aunt's) newest boyfriend picked up the phone instead, said it was taken care of, and hung up. Turns out, they had tricked my grandmother into putting all that money into their account, which they had no intention of letting her access.
Luckily, my dad was able to explain to Nan what my aunt did, and the bank, having known and respected my grandfather, reversed the transfer.
8. Mommy, Not Very "Dearest"
My dad joined the Marines when he got out of high school. He didn't really spend money but instead just sent it all back to his parents to keep for him or use in the event of an emergency. His father then passed and his mom used the money to pay for funeral expenses and keep up with bills.
She then sold their farm and made a bunch of money. They lived outside of a large city that got much larger and rich people wanted to live out in the country, so they were willing to pay a lot of money. So fast forward a couple of years. My dad married my mom. They had my little brother, who was born with severe respiratory issues.
He had to stay on a respirator for a month and they weren't sure he was going to make it. This is where the jerk comes in. My dad asked to borrow money from his mom to pay the medical bills, which were obscene. She told him no and that he shouldn't have had a kid if he couldn't afford it.
9. Fast Food PTSD
I went through a McDonald's drive-thru once and the place was slammed inside and out. After ordering, I was asked to park next to the curb and someone would bring my order to me as soon as possible. A girl walked up to my car visibly shaken and as she handed me my food, she said something that made my heart sink: "Please don't slap me". I said, "What?" Apparently, the last lady she delivered food to yelled at her and slapped her across the face because it took so long.
10. That Wasn’t Something To Joke About
When we started the 10th grade, my best friend had lost his mom in a brutal way a few months prior. Somehow, he had pulled himself together just enough to start going back to school. I don’t know how he handled it, being an only child and growing up without a father. His mom was all he had. A kid who thought he was popular—despite getting on everyone’s nerves—wisecracked to my friend’s face about his mom’s passing. What he said, I’m not exactly sure, but my friend snapped.
My friend threw him on the ground and punched him in the face multiple times. The end result was a broken nose, a broken left orbital, and my friend got kicked out of school. We were very grateful he taught that kid a lesson, but sad it had to come at such a high cost.
11. First-Class Pain In The Butt
We were on a flight from Miami to Bolivia as a family of five with three kids under 12. We’re getting on the flight, sitting down, when this entitled woman and her husband come up to my row. I’m sitting in the same row as my brother and sister. They say: "Excuse us, you’re in our seats". All three of us have all been well versed in child travel by this time so we pull out our individual boarding passes and show her that we’re also assigned these seats.
They insist that we’re wrong and demand to see the passes. We don’t give them over. My dad comes over to see why strangers are talking to his children: "Excuse me, why are you talking to my kids"? "They’re in our seats, look". My dad says: "That’s their assigned seat, they know how to read a boarding pass". By this time, we have attracted the attention of the flight attendant.
She confirms that indeed, those seats had been double-booked. The couple are irate, demanding their assigned seats. The flight attendant leaves to go "see what I can do for you". This whole time, the woman is making a big show of trying to store her bag in front of ours in the overhead bins and complaining loudly. The attendant returns and says: "Thank you so much for your patience. It was double booked, but it looks like we have enough seats in first-class available for your party. If you could please follow me"?
They sigh, relieved that finally SOMEONE will see reason. Well, the joke was on them. The flight attendant holds up her hand. "No sir, not you. If you three (looking at me and my siblings) will please join us up in first class, we’ll make sure you’re taken care of". The lemon-sucking look on the woman’s face as we politely grabbed our bags and moved to the coziest laps of luxury our young selves had the fortune of lucking out on was unforgettable.
I remember the meal making me have a headache, but the reclining seats, warm blankets, and sleep masks sure helped with all that suffering.
12. Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes
When I was a kid I never cut my hair, no matter what I never cut my hair, so I had very long blonde hair. And as a kid, a lot of people would ask to touch it. And I was fine with it, as long as they had my permission. So when I was six, my mom took me to a grocery store to buy some things for dinner that night. We got to the store and my mom got the stuff she needed, but was missing the bread from the other side of the store.
She sent me to go get it since I was fast and small. When I got to the bread, I picked out the brand we would usually buy, and at the time I really liked baguettes and other types of bread. So when I saw the baguettes, I totally forgot that my mom was waiting for me and grabbed a loaf(?) and headed back to my mom. When I was heading back to my mom from the bread aisle, I felt someone pull on my hair. Not gently, no, they yanked it.
They pulled so hard I thought my hair what going to come out. And I cried so hard my mom heard me across the store. I turned around in shock. It turns out it was a kid about my age who wanted to touch my hair, so his MOM, and I say his 40-YEAR-OLD MOTHER, pulled my hair so her friggin' kid could touch it. My mom rushed over and told the lady to let go of me.
The conversation then went like this: "Let my daughter go"! "My child just wanted to touch her hair, she has very pretty hair". Me: "She pulled on my hair, it hurts"! My mom: "You could've just asked! You can’t just pull a kid's hair, I can call 9-1-1 for assault"! Her: "You are harassing me, all I did was let my son touch her hair! I can call the authorities on you for harassing me and my child"!
My mom: "Firstly, I am not harassing you, you grabbed my child. And secondly, you can call the authorities. You will only be making things worse for yourself". She was absolutely right. As it turns out, the entitled mom DID call the authorities and they took both our statements. The entitled mother had given an over-exaggerated and dramatic report, telling the officers, as we would find out later, that I had given consent for her kid to touch my hair and my mom had come out of nowhere and started harassing the entitled mother.
My mother had given the officers the actual report from her side. I had been asked to give a report, but I was too scared and tired from the experience to say much. They checked the security footage and saw what actually happened. In the end, she got what was coming to her. My mom decided to press charges and sued the entitled mom for assault.
She was sent away for six months and fined for providing a false report as the cherry on top!
13. Out Of The Flowerbed And Into The Fire
Because the groundhog had no shadow, spring came early, so I had decided to work on the garden strip that borders mine and Karen’s property. There's a fence between the garden and her house. While doing so, I get rid of some of MY daylilies that are on MY property. I finish, return to my house and continue my day, until I hear a shriek from the side of my house.
I rush over, because I'm scared someone got hurt, and Karen, who just got home from work, asks me why I got rid of HER lilies. I say that they were MY lilies, and that I was making space for tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots. She then calls 9-1-1 because I had destroyed HER property. The authorities come and basically tell her to go inside and shut up, because it's pretty clear who's flowers they were.
But it didn’t end there. The next day she had a few too many. This put her anger over the edge about the loss of my lilies. She went, with wood and a firestarter, to my neighbor’s house on the opposite side. She then lit their bins on fire. This then spread to their porch, and before long their entire house was on fire.
I'm a light sleeper, and living in a cul-de-sac, was woken up by the orange haze floating through my windows. I called 9-1-1, the whole shebang, witness report and everything. I walked out of the house, with 9-1-1 still on the phone—and I couldn’t believe what happened next. The deranged neighbor fully confesses, all while they’re in earshot.
After a while and as the fire department shows up, she realizes her mistakes. One: she lit a house on fire, and two: she lit the wrong house on fire. She's being charged with arson and the like, and everyone got out. There’s a mother, father, and two kids who are high schoolers. It still feels surreal.
14. You've Been Framed
I used to work at an Applebee's. One of my tables was an elderly couple and what I assumed was their granddaughter. They ordered their food (steak, salad, and chicken fingers). In the kitchen, a random server, let's call him Matt, was running people's food because everyone was busy. Well, the table next to mine belonged to a server named Ashley.
Matt accidentally ran Ashley's food to my table. He asked the elderly couple if they were at the table that had ordered a chicken penne pasta, onion rings, and a chocolate dessert, all of which were completely different than what they had ordered. They said yes, then proceeded to yell at the manager about how their food was wrong and how bad of a server I was.
I hate people.
15. Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Enraged
A long time ago, I visited my sister and her husband when they lived on Long Island. One Saturday, we all took a ride into the city to go see the Statue of Liberty. The parking lot was packed, of course, so my brother-in-law started driving around looking for somewhere to park. That's when my sister lost it. Incredibly impatient, she began throwing a massive tantrum in the front seat.
She then demanded that her husband find a parking spot IMMEDIATELY and started pounding her fist on the dashboard. Her husband very calmly told her that he was trying to find somewhere to park. My sister’s rage escalated to the point where she ordered her husband to pull over and let her out of the car. I finally spoke up and told him to let her out, but he didn’t.
I have never seen a grown person have a meltdown like that. On the other hand, though, I do remember her losing her mind like that when she was a toddler. I guess some people never grow up.
16. Party Pooper
When I was in high school, a friend and I went to a party at the home of a girl whose parents had recently moved to Florida. The parents had decided to keep this house as well as the new one until she finished high school. When my friend and I got there, we found out that her 23-year-old brother, who had just gotten out of prison, was also there.
So we were all hanging out, playing drinking games and cards, and just having a good time until her brother started causing problems. It started with him kicking people off the ping-pong table, and then he started calling people out and trying to start something. My friend and I decided to get out of there since nobody was having a good time.
Unfortunately, our car was blocked in, so we had to wait for someone to move theirs first. When the girl’s brother heard that we were leaving, he went into a fit of rage. He started screaming, knocking stuff off counters, and throwing things at the TV. We finally got my car unblocked and started driving away, but this psycho had other plans.
He started running alongside my car and just whaling on the windows like something from a horror movie. It was terrifying. When I was finally able to lose him, I stopped and checked for damage, but there wasn’t any so we quickly took off. Needless to say, I wasn’t surprised when he ended up back in prison less than three months later.
17. One At A Time, Please
My stepbrother and his girlfriend of three years were getting married. His girlfriend just happens to be my best friend, so I was extremely excited for them. I was chosen to be the maid of honor and my biological brother was the best man. We were all that close—except for one other person in the wedding party. That would be my stepbrother’s best friend. He's the worst guy I've ever met.
I never really liked him because he was a total creep and always tried to hit on me when my stepbrother wasn't there. My stepbrother is quite protective, so I never told him—if I had, he would have been absolutely furious. Also, I can stand up for myself. Anyway, once this friend FINALLY got a girlfriend he stopped annoying me. Well…temporarily.
During the planning of the wedding, nothing crazy happened apart from the normal wedding stress. We invited almost everyone we knew. It was going to be great—or so we thought. The big day arrives and everyone is ecstatic. The ceremony was beautiful and everything went wonderfully. Then the reception came. It got off to a good start—then it took a turn.
The groom and bride plus the bridesmaids and groomsmen were all seated at a table at the front of the venue, while the guests were sitting in front of us, so they were facing our table. Everyone was giving speeches and enjoying the food. Then, out of nowhere, my stepbrother’s best friend stands up, takes the mic, and says he has something important to say.
We're all confused, as he had finished his speech, but let him talk. I wish we hadn't. He asks his girlfriend to come up to the table. I already knew where this was going. He starts a speech about how much he loves her and how they were meant for each other. She's smiling but I think she didn't want this to happen NOW, of all the times.
He then kneels down and pull a ring out of his pocket and asks her to marry him. She say yes. They start running around showing people the ring all the while the bride—my best friend—looked like she was going to cry. My stepbrother and brother were whispering to each other. I couldn't hear what they were saying. Finally, my mom gets up to remind everyone that this was her son's wedding and that we should stop talking about someone else's engagement.
Everyone was quiet. Suddenly, we hear this banshee scream. The girlfriend started screaming and crying saying MY MOM HAD RUINED HER SPECIAL DAY. Then my stepbrother’s "best friend" began screaming at us too, claiming that he did nothing wrong. They got kicked out in the end. My brother lost his best friend that day—but he didn't really care. That idiot lost all his friends.
18. Karens Gonna Karen
My wife needed a few things from the grocery store and on this particular day I happened to be available and I offered to go for her. She works hard and does a lot, so I definitely felt it was necessary to do something for her so she could just relax for the day. I took my stepson with me so she could rest up and just take it easy. I thought it would give me time to spend with him for some bonding—but instead, we both got an afternoon we’ll never forget.
We completed all of the errands, which went smoothly, and then headed to the grocery store to finish up our day. My son, being a typical four-year-old, was full of energy running ahead of me laughing and speaking to everyone he comes across, which I generally don’t mind as long as he doesn’t hit anyone and stays within eye view. As I’m making my way down an aisle looking for canned corn, my son jogs to the end of it when an older lady is entering at the other end.
My son, being the sweet social butterfly he is, approached and exclaims an excited "Hi! Me four and me Ryan"! Bless his little heart. The lady looked down and says "Well hello there. You shouldn’t be running around unattended, let’s go find your parents". I didn’t think anything of her statement because I assumed she just hadn’t seen me.
"Ryan! Come back here bud, please"! He excitedly runs back toward me and starts turning in circles because you know, he’s four lol. I’m still searching the shelves as the lady walks past me and stops behind me. Again I think nothing of it because it’s a grocery store and you have to share the aisles. I turn my basket around and start to walk toward the front cash registers when this lady literally blocks my path.
I say excuse me and try to walk around her and she moves her cart in front of me again. I honestly thought she was just getting confused and said excuse me once again and tried one more time to go around and she just blocks my path. The following conversation ensues. Me: "Um, sorry about that, we’ll get out of your way". Lady: "Oh, I don’t think so! You’re not going anywhere with that child"!
Me: "You mean my son"? Lady: "That’s not your child! He’s white! And you’re Mexican. You probably didn’t even know his name until he said it to me"! Me: "Sure, whatever lady, can you just move? My wife is at home and anxiously awaiting for us". Then, she upped the ante. She said: "Stop your lies. You’re not taking him anywhere, you pervert"!
This whole time my son is standing close to me holding my leg because he was honestly getting scared. I was getting angry because I hadn’t had much sleep and I have a short fuse anyway. Me: "As you can see he’s standing close to me because he trusts me and you’re scaring him so how about you buzz off"? Lady: "No! He’s scared because of you! He just doesn’t know how to express it yet".
She looks at my son. Lady: "Come on now sweetie, I’m here to rescue you. Come with me". Thankfully my son was able to communicate to her he wasn’t going anywhere with her. But she was having NONE of it. I still get mad when I think of what she did next. She literally grabbed my son and began to run. It caught me off guard because I honestly could not fathom what was actually happening.
My son starts screaming loudly because he was so scared and this lady is just like "Don’t worry sweetie he won’t hurt you I promise"! Suddenly I snap back into reality and I begin to chase after this crazy witch. While running through the store, I yell for people to stop her and that she’s kidnapping my son and thankfully a worker stops her before she makes the exit.
Lady: "Why are you stopping me? This Mexican here is trying to take my grandson"! My son literally is bawling his eyes out and extending his arms out calling for me. This lady was relentless and would not let go until my son even after he slapped her face multiple times. I laughed a little, not gonna lie. At this point, a manager shows up and asks what’s going on.
The lady spoke before me, saying: "This (pointing at me) pervert is kidnapping my grandson and I was just trying to escape"! I said: "That’s my son you freaking psycho. Now let him go". The manager didn’t know what to believe. I don’t blame him, he was caught in a weird situation. So I pulled out my phone and showed him pictures of me and my son that dated a year or so back as proof. Her response was infuriating.
This lady still would not give up and accused me of faking them. Like how would you do that exactly? I’ll never know, but whatever. Sadly, there were two other ladies there taking the psycho’s side and said I was attempting to take my own son because there was no way we were family because of our different skin tones. One even called the authorities, which I was actually happy about because I knew they’d be able to review the security cameras.
Even still, I called my wife to see if she could come to the store to get this situation cleared up quicker. As soon I told her what was going on, she zoomed to the store. She got there about the same time as the officers. The crazy ladies were giving their statement to the officers when my wife walked in. As soon as she walked in, my son goes "Mama help"! My wife is a true mama bear and she immediately flew into a rage when she saw this lady holding my son.
She yelled: "Let him go NOW"! The lady said, "Sorry sweetie, I was just trying to protect him from this pervert over here". Another one piped up, "Yeah we saw him kidnapping him but this lady saved him"! The cop looks at the lady and is confused. He asks: "I thought this was your grandson"? My wife said: "I have no idea who that lady is".
She takes out her phone and shows the officer a picture of my mother-in-law. Finally, the lady fesses up. "Okay, I’m sorry he’s not my grandson but I was only trying to protect him from this dirty pervert over here"! The other lady said, "Yeah I witnessed the whole thing, he snatched that child and tried to run away with him but this lady stopped it"!
As if that wasn’t bad enough, there was another one. She said: "Yes I saw it too. He needs to be taken away. And you (pointing to my wife) should be thankful that this lady was here to save your son because you obviously just let him loose wherever"! My wife says: "Who are you talking about again"? All three crazy ladies pointed at me. My wife replies: "Oh you mean my husband"?!
The ladies were shocked. They said "Husband?!"?! My wife said, "Yeah who do you think called me and got me here so fast"?! I presented my ID to the officer and the manager and my wife did the same. We also each showed pictures of us on our phones to prove we were really a family. The cop nodded in approval and handed us our phones back and jotted down a few notes.
The three ladies for some reason still kept trying to say this was all fake and my wife was in on the kidnapping and said we needed to be detained. My wife lost it at this point and let off some colorful words I won’t repeat here but she definitely got her point across. Then the nail in the coffin came for the psycho trio. The office turned to the manager and asks: "Sir, do the cameras work here"? The manager says yes, and the officer asks to review them.
The three ladies' faces went pale. Like ghostly pale. The officer reviewed the outside camera as I pulled into the parking lot and saw me take my son out of my car and then as I went up and down the aisles and most importantly the instance the woman snatched up my son and began to run. Upon his return, he asks "Would you like to press charges"? The lady pipes up: "Yes I would"!
The officer’s reaction was brutal. He looked at her and said: "Why would I be asking you that question? Shut your mouth and sit down". He turns to me and repeats the question. I said absolutely. Lady one was charged with attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, providing a false report, and child endangerment. The other two were also charged with providing a false report as well.
To make matters worse for the first lady, my son bruises easily and she left some terrible spots on him from where she was grasping him—but he’s fine! This added a charge of child abuse to her rap sheet. The officer will be following up with me in a few weeks.
19. The Ex (For Good Reason)
This happened to a co-worker of mine. My co-worker had a son from a previous marriage die very young, around 14. He got his son cremated and had him in a vase in his house with pictures, etc. One day while he was breaking up with his second wife (now ex) he came home from work and the ashes were gone. He still has no idea where they are five years later. He assumes she threw them out.
20. Unwelcome Mother-In-Law
After my dad's wife passed, her mother, who lived with us, heard that my dad was planning to sell the house, move somewhere smaller, and pay for her to go into sheltered housing. Her reaction was so disturbing. One day when he was out at work, the old witch took my step-mom's ashes and scattered them all over the garden.
Then, when my dad went ballistic trying to find his wife's remains, the harpy said, "Well now you can't leave here and you can't make me leave". I can't describe the change in my dad after we moved out and got that woman out of our lives.
21. Everything But The Kitchen Sink
My now-ex opted to separate a couple of weeks before Christmas. I almost didn't notice because I was working 16+ hour days at that point. So, the morning of December 25th, she showed up with her entire family, with pickups and trucks to take out all of "her" things from the house, which was literally everything. Then came the kicker. After I was visibly cleaned out, she went to the closet to pull out the presents that I bought for the kids.
She told me: "They can open them at my new place, since they have no beds to sleep in here. You want them to have their gifts, right?" I consider all of that time to be a jerk move.
22. The Lazy Lumberjack
My dad once made a rocking horse for my niece. He carved it out of several pieces of wood, hand braided the tail and mane out of rope that he painstakingly unwound, and hand painted it. It was a beautiful toy that would have lasted for generations. The fate of that precious gift still haunts me. One day her father was too lazy to go out and chop wood, so he smashed it up and threw it into the fire.
23. Off Menu Order
I saw a little girl order something off a menu at a restaurant in Florida. When she was done ordering, her mom said "You really messed up again. I trusted you this time. You want to get that tummy tuck surgery when you're 20? What’s the matter with you!? Waiter!... Give us a few more minutes. My daughter was confused".
The little girl was not that overweight. She had to be only around 10 years old, and she was now crying hysterically. The mother kept yelling at her to stop embarrassing her and stop making a scene. I'm a dude, was about 22 at the time, and so angry witnessing this that I actually considered the consequences of smacking her in the face.
24. Standing Up For The Little Guy
I was in line at Costco Gas. The lines are nuts because gas prices are nuts and Costco gas is cheap and convenient. Everyone is on edge. The Costco gas employees have to periodically sweep the lanes and clean up spilled gas. Just like at the registers when they close a line they stop people from lining up in that lane.
They finish the people currently in the queue and direct other customers into different lanes so they can cone off the lane and sweep. I’m pumping gas and see this go down. A woman drives around the cones and into the lane they are sweeping like she’s exempt from the process and is going to get gas. Employee guy jogs over and tells her in a normal tone, "Sorry ma’am, this lane is closed for the moment, can you please pull around into a different line"?
She says "Why"? He says "This lane is closed… (sees an empty spot not yet filled in the adjacent lane) you can go there". And points. She starts screeching "You don’t have to talk to me that way! I don’t appreciate! Screech screech screech"! A guy gets out of the passenger seat. Employee guy is babbling and pointing and waving, points at cones, empty lane, broom.
Screeching lady turns into cursing lady and starts dropping expletives about how he can’t treat me this, and effing that. Passenger guy gives employee the finger. Employee is looking around because he’s in over his head. Cursing lady starts with the "Your manager is going to hear about this, you just lost your job, screech screech"! Gets in the car and peels out leaving. I knew what I had to do.
I finish pumping and go find a place to park. I google the store phone number and call. I hit the number to speak with a manager. I ask for the manager in charge of the gas station. "Sorry, he’s gone for the day. Can I leave a message"? Uhm… "Ok, can I tell you then? I just saw this whole thing go down. In a minute you’re going to get a call from a lady claiming she was just disrespected by a gas employee and complaining a storm. Let me tell you what actually happened from an objective observer because no way this guy did anything wrong and it’s going to come down to his word versus crazy lady".
They replied: "Ok, thank you for the heads up, it’s nice to hear he was doing the right thing, and oh, actually your lady is on the phone with this other manager right here it sounds like, and I’ll pass along your message. Thanks for calling".
25. The Best Revenge Is Petty
My mother-in-law is very entitled. She visits and plops herself on the couch and expects us to wait on her hand and foot. The couch may as well be her throne. I had told my wife I had one rule for her visit: no news. I can't stand having the news on. It's nothing but things crafted to get you angry or afraid. My mother-in-law was informed of this multiple times.
However, she insists she can't live without knowing what is going on. As soon as we go to put my daughter to bed, I hear the news on. That’s when I decided to get petty revenge on her. My TV is controlled by Google Home. My phone is tied into the system so acts as a home unit. I tell it to turn off the TV. She puts the TV back on. I turn it off, she turns it back on. I then go into the FIOS app and block news channels.
She does something I didn't realize that could be done and had Google turn on CNN on YouTube, but she doesn't know the difference though between the TV and the YouTube feed so...cue pettier revenge. I use the app to pause the playback. My wife is now trying to laugh quietly. She waits a few minutes, has Google start it again and I immediately pause the playback so she again has a frozen screen.
She is screaming about how the TV is frozen, so I shout down it must be the storm we are having and the cable is down. It gave me such a warm fuzzy feeling.
26. Pre-Emptive Strike
I had a very long commute to work and some days when I was working late, I would take an Uber home, rather than go through the pain of changing several trains. It was expensive but comfortable. To keep a track of how much I was spending on Uber I had a separate bank account and I would use only that account to pay Uber.
In those days my manager and I were still on good terms. She got to know during one conversation that I made only online payments to Uber and rarely carried cash on me. So she decided to take advantage of this and one day pretended that she had lost her phone and needed to book a cab for her father and so could I book it for her. I obliged.
But there was something that she didn’t know. I hadn’t told her that I had opted for payment in cash, rather than online payment while confirming the booking. And it turned out to be a good thing that I made that switch. She kept the cab for six hours and proceeded to roam all over the city. Next day she asked me why I had not informed her that the payment was in cash.
I pulled out my phone, showed her the map of the route she had traveled, and the time the cab stayed with her. No. You are really not as smart as you think.
27. When In Doubt, Smile
I worked in retail for a bit during my senior year of high school and sometime after. I once had a customer rudely ask me if I had gone to high school. She even had the audacity to say that I was probably a dropout towards the end of a transaction. I was so stunned, I didn't know how to react...then I just gave her an exaggerated shrug, a big, dumb smile, and I crossed my eyes as I handed her her bag.
28. The Hair Scare
I was a hairstylist at a salon when this lady in her late 60s came in. She said she wanted to go a shade darker than she had, so I picked out a medium blonde. When she left, she was happy. That was around 3 pm. Then, around 6 pm she called us and said she didn't like the color...She wanted to know if she could come back in at 8 pm to get it fixed. I told her she could come in first thing in the morning since we closed at 8:30 pm.
So the next day, at 8 am, she came in...but she was totally tipsy. Yet it was even worse than I could have imagined. While I was finishing up her highlights, she started screaming at me, telling me I made her look like "a freaking dog" and that her husband told her she couldn't come home until she got her hair fixed. The latter part was weird because she told me earlier that her husband was blind...
Anyway, I was seven months pregnant at the time and she pushed me up against the wall, telling me I better fix her hair or her son-in-law, who is a well-known lawyer in Houston, was going to sue me. She was acting so crazy that the other stylist was freaking out. The guy that was in her chair even got up and told her to screw off or he was going to call the authorities.
She got in his face and started yelling at him, and then she went over to my client and told her that her hair color was beautiful and that she wanted her to be the same color. My client's hair was actually darker than the lady's, and it was still blonde. Anyway, I ended up fixing her hair and she thanked me at the end of the night. I sat in my car crying for an hour.
I regret not calling 9-1-1 on that witch. I also wish I was able to thank the guy who stood up to her for me.
29. Anger and Adrenaline
Our gym teacher was a loser. Gave nicknames—some good, some bad—to everyone. He was always sarcastic. Always berating everyone, and speaking down to us instead of encouraging.
Meanwhile, one of my friends, whom we’ll call Bob, was about a half-foot shorter than everyone else. Everyone was around five feet. He was an interesting interesting dude—loved learning, played video games, was great to hang out with. But he looked scrawny. It didn’t look like he could hurt a fly, if I’m being honest. But that's why we were all stunned by what he did during one gym class.
That day, the gym teacher said something about Bob’s mom. Now, Bob’s mom had fibromyalgia and some other conditions that made her her weak and unhealthy, not by choice. And something in Bob snapped. Bob completely took down this six-foot monster gym teacher. The gym teacher looked like he stood no chance.
Luckily, before things could get any worse, they were quickly pulled apart. Bob got expelled and had to move schools, while the gym teacher was fired for fighting a student and being an overall jerk.
30. Friends For Never
My good buddy's wife is famous for her lack of tact and general jerkiness. Their little girl is about two years older than mine. Her birthday was coming up, and my daughter, who was seven at the time, wanted to pick out the birthday gift. She plays with my friend's daughter and has a good idea what she likes. She made a long list and carefully selected what she thought was perfect.
Fast forward to the day of the party. Buddy's daughter opens up my daughter's gift, her eyes light up, and she squeals "Thank you!" My blood boiled at the wife's reaction. She goes: "Oh, honey, granny got you one of those already. Go ahead and put that one in the Goodwill box". My daughter was crushed.
It took all my strength not to get up and ream the ever-loving heck out of my buddy's wife. Six months later, we drew names for Christmas gifts for the kids. My buddy drew my daughter...and his wife forgot to buy a gift for her and didn't realize it until we were passing out gifts. I don't speak with them anymore.
31. Mistranslation Of "In Case Of Emergency"
A friend of mine worked on a cruise ship as an entertainer for six months. She didn't need that much money on the ship but kept an apartment back in Germany, with the landlord getting regular standing order. When she came back home she couldn't get her door open, so she called the landlord.
He told her he had already thrown out all of her stuff because after one month of her cruise she didn't pay the rent. The horrible truth came out. Turns out her parents, who had access to her bank account in case of emergency, took all the money (and she made a lot in those months on the ship) to pay their bills because their own salary had gone into two new cars.
So basically, she sat there without an apartment, without any friends in town, totally jet-lagged and without a single Euro in her pockets. All because of her parents. Still makes me mad.
32. False Hope Father-in-law
My soon to be father-in-law contacted a real estate agent to help us look for houses...after bad mouthing the apartment we currently live in. He kept declaring it unfit for his grandchildren to grow up in. He had told the agent what the price range we were looking in, and that he had about 20,000 to put towards a smaller house.
I spent WEEKS online and in person, narrowing down my search. All the while excited, out of my mind at the prospect of owning a home and all the jazz that goes with. When we finally got it down to two, we contacted said father-in-law. He came to the properties and gave us his opinion. It was mostly stupid rich guy nonsense about "mature trees" being something we needed because they add to the value.
Not once did he start looking at pipes or foundations, which I found strange. But it was about to get so much worse. My fiancé and I went home to ponder the final decision, only to be informed by the real estate agent that the father-in-law, when asked to start signing papers, now has no money for this project, and claims he never offered to help to begin with.
33. A Wii-ally Awful Christmas
My cousin is now divorced from his wife, who was never really liked anyway by our family due to her craziness. They have two kids together. She had a son from a previous relationship that my cousin raised as his own and a daughter by the next poor, unfortunate soul to get tangled up with her. This story takes place after they separated.
Her parents get a Wii for the kids for Christmas at the mother’s home, as it's her turn for Christmas. The kids are super excited when we call them, and they say they'll bring it around so we can play together on New Year's Eve. NYE comes around, and the kids don't bring the Wii. They also seem very quiet.
I sit down with the eldest and ask what's wrong and get this. "I'm sorry we can't play games, but mummy had to sell the Wii because we don't appreciate mummy enough". I knew something was up with that, and I eventually found out the truth. The real story: The mother had pawned the system to buy substances.
34. Cheating (The System) Ex
My ex-brother-in-law pulled one of the biggest jerk moves ever. He was married to my sister for 18 years. Three kids aged 15, 13, 11. He decides to cut and run and shacks up with another woman who has two kids. So, Jerk Move #1. But that was just the beginning. He brings these kids along to his kids' soccer/rugby/rowing events and calls the new kids the nicknames, which he had used with his kids for years, in front of his biological kids.
My sister had stayed home and taken care of the kids when they were younger, and he was able to go out and build up his career. At some point in time, my sister started working a bit part time and taking courses to get her teaching certification. At the judicial hearing dealing with the divorce, the judge said that he would have to pay child support for his kids and would also have to pay some spousal support for two years until my sister was finished with her certification and could be financially more stable.
He decided to quit his 75K a year job so that he could claim not to have income and therefore couldn't pay either child or spousal support. He actually went on social assistance for five years in order to try and screw over my sister. Only, it backfired right in his face. Unfortunately for him, that didn't work and he now owes my sister 60K in back child support and the original spousal support. What an idiot.
35. The Panhandling, Not Pauper, But Prince
I once went to a movie at a mall with my buddy. As we were about to park in the lot, this jerk in a BMW cuts us off and takes the parking space. So, we get another parking space nearby and my buddy wants to mess this guy up on general principle of cutting people off in parking lots, and I tell him to "cool it".
As we walk by, this guy in the BMW is grabbing trash bags out of the trunk and my buddy and him exchange words but my buddy doesn't hurt him like I was fearing. About three hours later, we're leaving the theater and this homeless man is panhandling for change. I toss a dollar in his hat or whatever he had, and my buddy says, "No way, look who you just gave a dollar to!"
I take a moment to actually stop and look at him, and I can't believe my eyes. It's the jerk with the BMW! I go and take my dollar back out of his hat, and the jerk makes a scene and now there's a crowd of people gathering around us like I just robbed a homeless man. So I'm trying to explain to this crowd that this jerk drives a Beamer, and I can show you where he parks it, and this guy is denying he owns a Beamer, and the crowd is getting hostile and I'm nervous I'm about to get messed up.
Finally I say "Fine, I'll put the dollar back, but when I walk past a specific red BMW on the way to our truck I'm going to key the heck out of it and anyone that wants to watch can follow me!" Well, that guy got up and bolted towards the parking lot! Left his hat full of change and everything. And that's the story of how I almost got impaled by pitchforks.
36. Broken Bro Code
In high school I had two best friends. Let's call them Jack and Alex. Jack had trouble with women. He also had a crush on the same girl since middle school, let's call her Sara. Anyways, Jack, Alex and I would always cruise around together. Alex and I were very aware that Jack had this huge crush on Sara. I just want to make it clear that the three of us had been friends for a really long time. Like five years of being best friends. That's important later.
By the time senior year rolled around, Jack had worked his magic and had included Sara in our group of friends. He wasn't dating her or anything, but he was getting to "hang out" with her all the time. I suppose that was his strategy to make her his girlfriend. Jack had a party while his dad was out of town and a bunch of people in our grade showed up.
It was a pretty big party. Jack was convinced it was the night he was going to finally sleep with Sara. It was the end of a five-year pursuit. I hoped it would work out for him. At the end of the night, Jack was up against Sara. Kissing her, whispering in her ear, making her laugh, etc. It looked like things were going to work out.
Jack smiled at me and texted me, "Wanna step outside for a smoke before I take her to my room?" "Sure," I replied. So, Jack and I went outside, and the guy is giddy with excitement. He's finally going to sleep with this girl. He was a virgin, so it was a pretty big deal. We laughed for a while and I congratulate him on his seemingly inevitable conquest.
We head back inside to the party...Sara is gone. We look around. The party is pretty loud, so we ask around. Someone piped up, saying, "Alex has her in the bathroom". We listened . Yeah, Alex and Sara were messing around in the bathroom. Jack was absolutely broken. He had spent the better part of five years of chasing Sara.
We went outside to drink our drinks and he's on the verge of tears. About 20 minutes later, Alex comes outside and looks at Jack and says, "Sorry bro," and starts laughing. They weren't friends for a long while after that. It was pretty messed up.
37. Worst Grandma Ever
My ex-mother-in-law gave my three kids gifts they loved at Christmas when they were small. Two days later, she came to the house, packed EVERYTHING she got them into bags, and took it all back to the stores because she was "broke".
38. Daddy Issues
My parents divorced when I was 14, and I went with my mom out of state. About a year later, as she was dealing with some personal issues, she said she needed a break and asked if I would mind living with dad for a year or two, having had already cleared it with him. It was a chance for me to go back to my old high school, in addition to helping mom.
So despite some misgivings I said sure and went to live with him and his new wife. It turned into the worst mistake I've ever mad. Fast forward six months, dad has too many drinks and then drives. He's sentenced to 6-12 months in county lock-up. Two days after sentencing, my stepmom tells me I have to move out.
This despite my mom telling her she'll cover all my expenses until dad gets out. Nope. OK, whatever, I guess I sort of get it. But I went to the correctional facility to ask dad to maybe intervene on my behalf so I don't have to change schools AGAIN, since he would likely be out in 3-6 months. Not only did he refuse, it honestly got ten times worse. He chose that tender moment to tell me he wasn't even my biological father. I confirmed this with my mom in the aftermath. So I really just needed to go. Thanks "Dad". :(
39. The Battle Of Will(s)
When my mother and father were together, they had bought two thirds of house. To help them out, my grandmother on my mother’s side bought the other third. My parents split when I was five and thereafter had an ongoing court battle over the house shares. My grandmother lived with my mom, sister, and I right up until she passed. In her will she declared that my mother would get her share of the house and my father would get nothing.
Because of this, my mother offered my father all the investments they had, which included trucks, seeds that were very expensive to sell, etc. Basically they were worth nearly the equivalent my grandmother's share of the house. My father, being lazy, let all the trucks, seeds, and stuff go to waste after years, therefore making them worthless.
Once he realized that he messed up the investments, he declared a court battle with my mom to get half/all of my late grandmother’s share. My mother was a single parent at the time and did not have enough wages to get herself a lawyer, so she represented herself. Meanwhile, my father was able to afford all the lawyer expenses (he was miner earning big bucks).
Then my mother went to bank to retrieve my grandmother's will. The plot thickened after that. It had mysteriously disappeared. The bank lady exclaimed to my mother in a very obvious tone that "this is very odd". After a long a hurtful court battle with my father, my mother ended up getting her half of the share they had bought together, but more than half of my grandmother's share went to my father.
Months later, my mother had found out that my father’s brother-in-law worked for the same bank where my grandmother's will was kept, and you can figure out the rest. My mother couldn't prove anything. Basically, my father is cruel and greedy. This is when I found out the true side to him.
40. No Gifts, Cash Only
My wife is Indian, and we got married in India. Because of the trouble it would be to bring back gifts from India to Canada, we said in the wedding invitation that although we understand that physical gifts are more personal and genuine, for practical reasons, we would rather have money.
Obviously, we were super tired after the wedding, and we were leaving the very next day for our honeymoon. We decided to leave all the gifts, including the money (we hadn't opened anything yet), at her mom's place. When we came back from the trip to take our stuff, all the envelopes were gone. Her mom had opened and taken all the money.
We confronted her and she eventually gave back some of the money, but she insisted that in many cases, there was a note saying the money was actually for her. We never saw those notes, nor does it make any sense for people to give money to her through gifts to us. She even called my parents to complain about how I hurt her feelings when I accused her of trying to take money from us.
In the end, I didn't push it too much. I don't really need that money all that much, whereas she has some financial difficulties. I even offered to help her financially many times before that happened and she refused. It just made me angry that she'd rather take from us than accept my help.
41. One Ex And A Baby
This is about a friend and his live-in girl. She claimed to be using birth control, but she definitely wasn't. What do you know? She gets pregnant, which happens if you aren't using birth control. She then asks for money to "get it taken care of" and claims to have gone through with it. Well, she didn't, and only told my friend when it was too late.
They now have a child, a daughter. She is/was/or becomes crazy, and moves to Florida with the girl after taking custody. Turns out, she finds the child unmanageable. Crazy ex moves back to the city my friend lives in, basically dumps the kid, who is now 13 years old, in his lap.
He spends four years just about literally fighting her through school. She would throw stuff at him constantly. The girl completes high school, moves out of my friend’s house, and is now back in with her crazy mother.
42. Family Matters
My great grandparents grew up during the Depression, so they learned to save. They had a couple million dollars saved near the time they passed. My grandmother went first, and originally, they had it split up to go to my grandpa and my two uncles. That is, until my uncle Ray decided to be a jerk and trick my ailing grandmother into signing over to him only.
Once he got the money, he spent it all on partying within a couple years. Occasionally he would buy something for someone else but would blackmail you later. He’s long gone now.
43. With Friends Like This…
This happened with my former friend. Err, "friend" actually. She loved setting up all of our friend group on blind dates. But this was all part of her ridiculous plan. She'd then show up "accidentally" on the date and completely monopolize the guy. If he was ignoring her and concentrating on us, she'd go nuts until he finally got creeped out and left.
If you'd say anything to her about it, she'd reply that we were jealous of her since she's obviously SO much more attractive, intelligent, stylish, etc.
44. Should’ve Laid Off The Bottle(s)
One day last week when I came home from work, I noticed my shed door was open and the padlock that I used to keep it shut was broken. And I had a LOT of bags full of soda cans in there. Me and my friends tend to drink a lot of soda, so I've built up a lot of cans over the course of about a year. And I was going to cash them in at the bottle drop soon, because I like big payouts. It's ten cents a can where I live after all.
But there was more than just my bags of cans missing from the shed too. They took my gardening shears, a steel rake, two shovels, a full two gallon gas can, a cheap power drill I got for like $5 used, an electric hedge trimmer, and a small electric chainsaw that was also used, and a machete. They didn't touch the lawn mower, weed whacker, extension cords, or the old radio I had in there.
No idea why they took what they did, but I guess they figured they could resell them or something. I checked my camera footage to see if I caught anything—and I made a disturbing discovery. There was my three nephews (ages 16, 15, and 14) breaking into my shed with one of their dad's large claw hammers. I recognized the hammer because it's bright yellow and black, and their dad has a bunch of them.
It only took them a few hits to smash that cheap lock. After they first broke into my shed, they took what they could by hand. And then they came back with some shopping. It took them a few trips to get all of the cans. And they didn't bother to even try and close the door when they were done. My sister and brother-in-law first denied their kids took anything from me.
So I went to their house and showed them the security footage from my cameras. I never told them I'd had cameras installed—and there’s a sad reason why. This wasn’t the first time my nephews robbed me. It started with food & snacks. And then moved on to DVDs and video games. Then pretty much anything they thought they could smuggle out after that.
Any time I made them return stuff they'd stolen from me, I was treated like the bad guy and then got the fakest apologies I've ever heard. And they never got in much trouble from their parents either. The final straw happened last year when my nephews broke into my house and took three six-packs of my favorite blood orange ale from my fridge.
But that’s not the worst part. They used my hidden spare key to get in, and also took a huge dump in one of my bathrooms and not only didn't flush, but also peed all over the floor. And I'm pretty sure it was intentional. The drinks they took were hidden in one of their bedrooms when I confronted my sister and brother-in-law about my nephews stealing it.
I was basically given an equivalent excuse to "Boys will be boys" when I wanted them punished. So I had the cameras put in and told no one. Which was a smart move. When my sister and brother-in-law saw the camera footage of my nephews stealing from me, they seemed furious. But they were actually madder that their boys skipped school to rob me.
They'd spent all day making repeated trips to the Bottle Drop and cashing the cans by machine. The bottle drop also pays by machine. So they just kept bringing the cans in till they cashed them all. And then they bought video games and junk food with the money. Said money actually amounted to nearly $200. With that and the destroyed padlock, I told my sister and brother-in-law that they now owed me $200.
My sister and brother-in-law went from being angry at their kids to making excuses for them, and then being angry at me for wanting that money back when I know they have three kids and a mortgage. I said it was either that or I go to the authorities and press charges. They told me to get out, and I said they have two days to decide how to pay me back before I go to the authorities.
I got back everything else my nephews took, machete and gas can included. Though they'd already used the gas for something. But over the next couple of days, my sister and brother-in-law were blowing up my phone with a ton of messages. Both verbal and text. At first they were calling me heartless because it was right after the holidays and they have three kids and a mortgage.
Then they started gaslighting me—and even threatening me. And all of this would go in a repeating cycle. My nephews chimed in from another cell phone and were sending me lots of messages of their own. Which were more fake apologies and gaslighting. My eldest nephew even sent me a picture of himself holding a soda can and giving me the middle finger.
So I guess they weren't taking my threats of going to the authorities seriously because "FAAAAMILY"!. When I last spoke with my sister and brother-in-law, they refused to negotiate any sort of method of repayment for what my nephews did. Even when I suggested they just sell the video games that were purchased with the money from the cans.
Then they had the audacity to say I'd actually tempted my nephews by having the cans in my shed to begin with. Oh yes. I'm the devil snake that tempted my nephews with a shed full of cans that just screamed "MONEY MONEY MONEY"! So that was it. I went to the station that morning and filed the report. Gave them a copy of the video footage of my nephews stealing from my shed.
I gave them the broken lock they smashed. Showed them all of the texts, which were screen-capped and also given as evidence. Heck, I even gave them a copy of the photo my eldest nephew sent me of him flipping me off. I did tell officers that I found it worrisome that my nephews had taken the machete. But they classified it as a tool. Especially since they took a lot of other actual tools. So fair enough on that, I suppose.
But my nephews were indeed caught and detained on Saturday. Officers came to their house and my sister and brother-in-law were forced to let them in because they had a warrant. Apparently, all three of my nephews went from being cocky little jerks to crying like babies when they were being put in cuffs. I know this because a neighbor I'm acquainted with that's sort of friends with my sister was there to see it.
It didn’t end there, though. Shortly after the arrest my sister and brother-in-law were blowing up my phone again. They weren't able to get their kids out till Monday morning. And now the boys are being charged with larceny, willful destruction of property/vandalism, and harassment. The authorities took this whole case pretty seriously as there have been complaints about my nephews for some time—but nothing was proven until now.
The past few months, bags of cans have actually been going missing all over the area. Don't know if it was my nephews or not. But they're likely suspects. And with word spreading of their arrest, let's hope other neighbors with security cameras come forward with more footage. My sister and brother-in-law showed up at my house too. I refused to open the door and told them that this all happened because they are enablers who refuse to hold their kids accountable for their actions.
That made them just scream and pound on my door more till I threatened to call 9-1-1 on them too. And since I've done it already, they know I mean it now. So they left without any more trouble. But they went back to blowing up my phone. I didn't block my sister or her husband. Instead I decided to just save all of the messages they send me because I've made the decision to take them to small claims court over this.
I don't really need or want the money, and have already replaced the destroyed padlock with a much better one. However, the kids aren't the only ones who need to be taught a lesson. In the end, I hope I put them in enough of a hole that they learn not to screw with me ever again. I also have the full support of my family on this. My parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.
They're all supporting me in this because my nephews have stolen from them too. And after banning my nephews from my house, some of them did the same.
45. All This Over A Parking Space
I am a paramedic in a place that has some HOAs and apartment complexes. We hate responding to the apartment complexes because there is nothing but assigned parking and no-fire zones. Basically, if we can't find a space to fit in we have to block the road. My agency also uses first responder vehicles and ambulances. The first responder, as implied, usually arrives first so we do our best to leave room for the ambulance to fit in.
We get a call at the apartment complex. I am the first responder. As I pull up to the address by some miracle, there is a spot only two apartments away. Great, I can leave the road clear for the ambulance. As soon as I park, out comes this guy screaming I can't park there. I do the "are you serious" look and just say it’s a medical emergency.
He says he doesn't care, I can't park there. Keep in mind my vehicle has enough lights to make a Christmas tree jealous. I just grab my stuff, lock the vehicle, and keep going. He is screaming he is going to call the authorities, I tell him they are already on the way. They respond to medical emergencies. An officer gets there while I am in with the patient and tells him basically to pound salt.
The officer enters the apartment—and then this guy really goes full-blown hissy fit. He enters the apartment and comes into the room where I am treating the patient. He starts ranting and raving about how I have to move my vehicle. I look at the officer and say "get him outta here". The officer then seals his fate. He asks the patient if she wants this person removed from the apartment and did she ever give consent for him to enter.
The patient's response: "Get him OUT, he's trespassing". Boom, the all-clear. The cop gives him one last chance and tells him to leave or he will be detained. He doubles down, yelling: "I AM ON THE HOA BOARD, I CAN GO WHERE I PLEASE". At this point, backup is called. The officer at least manhandles the guy out of the room. The ambulance arrives with PD backup and they get him out of the apartment so we can safely remove the patient.
Not entirely sure what happened next, as I was in the back of the ambulance, but when I got out one of the officers approached and said, "Sorry but we need another bus. We had to taze him". Policy for PD is if they taze someone, they have to be transported to the hospital by ambulance to the hospital, as the taser spikes have to be surgically removed due to the barbs on them.
They wait for the second ambulance and take him. I go back in service. I found out a few weeks later that he was charged with trespassing, assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, interference with government administration (AKA interfering with the scene of an emergency). All over a parking space that I would have been in for all of 20 minutes if he hadn't created problems.
I can only assume he took a plea deal, as I was never called to testify.
46. When You Assume…You Know The Rest
Being someone that used to fly a lot, I constantly was upgraded to business class, first-class, or simply just upgraded seats using miles. Since the flight in question was a connection for me, I arrived and boarded later than most of the plane. As soon as I walked into the plane, I saw someone was sitting in my seat, since I had been upgraded.
Now, if you fly enough, someone sitting in your seat is not an uncommon occurrence. But this time, it was an encounter I’ll never forget. I said: "Excuse me, I believe you are in my seat". The man in my seat does not even bother looking up at me, waves his hand dismissively at me, and says: "Let’s just switch seats so I can sit beside my wife". I say, "Sure! What is your seat"?
He snickers and says a number. Now, I do not remember exactly what seat number he said, but it was the last row of the airplane. Aisle seat. Right by the bathroom. Yes, I have had to fly in those seats in the past. Remember, my assigned seat was in the first class/business class section. Now, I have switched seats with people innumerable times in my life without a second thought, even first-class seats—the look of someone getting to unexpectedly ride first class is priceless.
But the way this guy was behaving and what he was expecting—this was not one of those times. Me: "No. I am just going to sit in my assigned seat". Now he finally looked at me. He says: "Well I want to sit by my wife so I am not moving". I reply: "Well, if you want to sit by your wife, I am sure whoever is sitting way back there would be more than happy to switch seats way up here so you can sit back there with your wife".
He didn’t like that at all, for what could he really say at that point without sounding like a jerk? He just stared at me. Now annoyed, I say: "Move". He says: "I am not moving". DING. Darn right, I pushed the call button. The flight attendant approaches: "Yes sir, how may I help"? I hand her my ticket and say that he is sitting in my seat.
She asks for his ticket, checks both tickets, sees his seat number, and gave him a look like, "Seriously"? She says: "Sir, you need to sit in your assigned seat". He replies: "I want to sit beside my wife". Well, I wasn’t missing a beat. I parroted my original statement about me being sure whoever was sitting back there beside him would be more than happy to switch seats and sit up here.
Boy oh boy, that obviously made him angry. The flight attendant looks at his wife and says "Ma’am, would you like to switch seats so you can sit by your husband"? His wife: "No". The flight attendant continues in that all-too-familiar flight attendant voice that lets you know you have no choice: "Well sir, you have to sit in your assigned seat so please gather your things".
What a sad and pathetic sight it was seeing this grown man act like a baby, gather his things and then sulk towards the back of the plane. Yes. His wife sat beside me that flight and didn’t join her husband in the back of the plane. No. We didn’t talk to or look at each other even once, which was perfectly fine with me. Imagine dismissively expecting someone to give up their first-class/business class seat to sit in the very last row of the airplane by the bathroom.
47. This One’s Almost Relatable
I work at a fast food restaurant and this incident happened on a hot summer day when our ice cream machine was broken (surprise!). This meant that I had to disappoint a lot of people. When I told them the machine was down, most customers responded with an "OK" and walked out all sad, but this one lady acted like a complete monster.
After she ordered ice cream, I told her that the machine was broken and apologized. However, that wasn’t good enough for her. She pointed to the soda fountain and said, "No it’s not! I just saw someone get some over there"! So I tried explaining to her, without laughing my head off, that that was not the ice cream machine.
I then showed her where the ice cream machine was, behind our front counter. She suddenly made a break for it, ran over to the machine, and pulled the lever. Ice cream exploded all over her. This sent her into a meltdown and she started to demand that we buy her new clothes and give her free food. When I told her "no", she stomped out of the place screaming her head off.
48. Love Thy Rager?
When my significant other and I lived in a duplex, we had next-door neighbors who were in their 40s, so they were a little older than us, but acted like they were in their teens. On most nights they would get totally smashed and start blasting music. On one such night, the noise was so unbearable that we had to resort to calling in a complaint.
This was after the lady of the house screamed at my partner for politely asking them to turn down the music. This woman literally yelled, "Call the authorities! I dare you"! After they showed up, made the couple turn down the music, and left, the real fun began. The woman started turning the music up to extreme levels, then dropping it down to almost nothing.
But that’s not all she was doing. When the music was low, she would run along our shared wall, banging and screaming at the top of her lungs and swearing at us for calling the authorities. She’d then turn the volume back up and repeat the process over and over. She was shrieking in such a way that other neighbors were coming outside to see who was in such peril.
We had to call the authorities a second time, but by the time they arrived, she had worn herself out and all was quiet. I do have a recording of her banging on the walls and screaming, though, and I do listen to it whenever I need a good laugh.
49. The Happiest Time Of The Year
When I was in high school, I worked in a computer store at the mall. Christmas is a busy time of the year, so on all receipts, we put a note that there would be no returns, refunds, or exchanges during the last week of December. The post-Christmas sales are chaos, especially in a mall. To make up for that, we extended all returns by a week. We can all see where this is going, right?
A customer came in on December 26th—the single busiest day of the year because of the sales. This man received two of the same product for Christmas and wanted to return one of them. Fine, that makes sense. He’s got the gift receipt, but when my coworker told him that we’re not doing any returns or exchanges at the moment, this dude flipped his lid.
He went on a solid five-minute rant about how we’re screwing him over and taking money from his pocket (keep in mind he’s already said it was a gift). The store is absolutely PACKED, so he’s pretty much just going into meltdown mode to ensure we give him what he wants and then send him on his way.
My manager came out of his office in the back to see what the all commotion was about. My coworker explained the situation and the manager then asked the customer if he’d like an exchange or a refund. The customer’s body language softened and he took a deep breath to calm himself and said, "Yes, I’d like a refund".
My manager then told him, "Come back next week and we’ll give it to you. Now, if you’re done screaming at my employee, then get the heck out of my store". The customer then turned the Meltdown Meter up to 11 and fully freaked out. Mall security had to come and he was barred from the mall for six months. I guess he never got his refund...
50. Now That’s The Tea
I work in the marketing department of a small-ish cosmetics company. I’m not what you would call "higher up" in the company, but I’m not entry-level either. Earlier today, I went into the office’s common area/kitchen to make a cup of tea (earl grey, if you care). A woman talking on a phone came into the room as I was waiting on the kettle to boil.
I recognize her as one of our new hires from sales. I doubt she’s been here long enough to get her first check. She was talking loudly, but I ignored her; it’s a somewhat loud office, so it isn’t a big deal for someone to make a little noise. A minute or so later, she says into the phone, "hold on, I need some privacy," and then turns to me and says, "Excuse me, sorry, I’m on a private call, I need you to leave".
I’m confused at first, then what she says registers. I get this surprised smile on my face, the kind that says "you joking, mate"? I tell her no. She gives me the look. Her mouth is open, eyes wide. How dare I use the common area for what it’s for. She doesn’t even say anything. I point to the kettle. I tell her I’m making tea.
She tells me that it is an important medical call. I tell her the kitchen isn’t a private room, and that she can go to an empty conference room or to her car if the matter is that sensitive. She says she doesn’t like the chairs in the conference room and that it’s too cold to walk out to her car. I shrug. She eventually gets that I’m not leaving until I’ve had my tea and she stomps off to a conference room.
I hate being a narc, but, for heaven’s sake, just let me make my tea in peace. So, I decide to walk down to sales and chat with her supervisor (whom I know fairly well). About the time I finish relaying the experience, the woman in question walks in, sees me, and stops. I point her out to the supervisor, pat him on the back, and walk back to my office. Good luck, newbie!
51. One Name To Rule Them All
My wife and I spent four years trying to get pregnant before the wrong side of 35. We are currently 33 respectively now and are blessed with a wonderful infant son. My wife has a younger half-sister. The woman is entitled and awful, and also her mother's golden child. We've refused to let her or my mother-in-law in the house since they both blatantly tried to make off with my wife's jewelry box a couple of years ago.
The box contained a lot of valuable jewelry inherited from my wife's grandmother. Said jewelry is now in a safety deposit box as per my suggestion. My wife and I had nearly given up trying to conceive when it suddenly happened. And we were ecstatic. After we found out we were having a boy, we started looking into names. I ended up suggesting the name of my Scottish grandfather, and my wife loved it.
So that's the name we settled on. But we made the mistake of posting about it on social media. Well no surprise to the stereotype in this mess, my sister-in-law was pregnant too. And was months further along than my wife and also having a boy. She decided to claim my grandfather's name for her own son. And not just the first name, but the middle name too.
We called her furious over what she was doing, and she smugly told us there's nothing we can do about it. Which she was sorta right. There was nothing we could do about it legally. We realized that drama was exactly what my sister-in-law wanted. And she thought that by taking the name for herself, we'd not be able to use it.
I laughed and told her that while what she did was dirty and underhanded, we would keep our chosen name. And she could just deal with it whether she decides to go through with copying us or not. Well my sister-in-law’s baby-daddy called me and said I was an unreasonable jerk for still wanting to use the name after sister-in-law claimed it. I said she claimed nothing.
Since we couldn't own the name, then neither could they. Before he ended the call he threatened me by saying I'd be sorry if we didn't change the name. Then he hung up before I could respond. Months later, sister-in-law has a healthy baby boy and names him my grandfather's name. We did not show up for the birth. Both because of the pandemic, and because we simply didn't care to be there.
The sister-in-law called us wanting congratulations. But we told her we simply didn't care. And that if she was still insisting we change our baby's name, then she'd be in for some big disappointment because we were not. Sister-in-law demanded I put my wife on the phone. But it was already on speaker and my wife spoke up and said she agrees with me entirely.
We weren't changing the name. Sister-in-law hung up on us, but soon started sending emails with text walls of names. Even suggesting similar ones. I responded back that the name was from my grandfather, and that's why we were not changing it. She shut up and we didn't hear from her again till after our own son was born.
Two months later we were blessed with our son. He came out perfect, and we named him just as we'd intended. Well, no surprise my sister-in-law called us a few days after the birth to scream in our ears that we copied her son's name. I pointed out she was the real copycat since she had no familial ties to the name and we did. And anyone who looks at our family trees could see that.
Then my wife spoke and said after the attempted theft of her grandmother's jewelry, she no longer considered her her sister. And would have nothing to do with her nephew either. For months we were bombarded with messages and emails from my wife's side of the family. Half were on our side after finding out the whole story, the other half were not. But it didn’t end there.
Sister-in-law baby-daddy true to his word showed up at my door to "Make me sorry". I'm not sure what his plan was. But I pretty much towered over him. I'm 6'1" tall and well-built from regular exercise and three trips to the gym a week. He on the other hand was very skinny and about 5'6" tall with a babyface that was badly hidden by a slim beard.
I told him my house has cameras, and to get off my property and never come back. He just yelled at me and drove off in his beat-up old car. Sister-in-law and mother-in-law called us from a different number to yell at me for making sister-in-law’s baby-daddy feel emasculated. I didn't even threaten the man. Just told him to leave and not come back. And if he didn't want to feel emasculated, then he shouldn't have come knocking.
Then they tried to bring up the issue of the baby name again and demanded we change our son's name as, "He's so young. So there's still plenty of time to do it!" We held our ground and told them that they were bonkers to still think they were in the right after they copied our choice of name just to try and get one over on us.
I said sister-in-law didn't even name her son out of love, but out of spite just to try and stick it to my wife for no good reason. Then my wife called them both out on the way she was treated growing up, how entitled sister-in-law and mother-in-law have always been, and how she was glad to leave them far behind. And she wants nothing from them, and they won't have anything from us.
That left sister-in-law sobbing and mother-in-law called me a terrible person before hanging up the phone. We were no contact again for a little while till sister-in-law called us again sometime later to bitterly tell us we'd won. She and her baby daddy got in a huge fight and he left. He was apparently very sore that sister-in-law didn't let him even give their son a middle name from his family.
He said he was sick of the drama and wanted his son named after him and not some guy he wasn't even related to. Sister-in-law finally caved and they got the boy's birth certificate reissued with a completely new name. Which cost sister-in-law around $500, or so she claims. I still can’t believe that she still tried to twist it around after that.
Sister-in-law then demanded we at least compensate her for the name change, plus another $100 for the emotional damage as now she's going to have to get used to calling her son by a different name. We laughed and said this would have never happened if she hadn't stolen our baby name to begin with, and we didn't owe her anything.
Since then we've been no contact with sister-in-law and mother-in-law. But my father-in-law who's a very nice man and divorced from mother-in-law for obvious reasons would come by often and loves his grandson. From what he and other relatives told us the situation between sister-in-law and her baby daddy was pretty tumultuous. But we don't care. Not our monkeys, not our circus.
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52. Dreams Destroyed
My nephew's biological mother became pregnant with her third child and agreed to give the baby to her boyfriend’s aunt and uncle. The aunt and uncle had been trying to have a baby for years. They paid all hospital bills, bought her groceries, built a nursery in their home, and were so excited the day she went into labor.
Well, my nephew’s mom had them kicked out of the hospital because she said they were bothering her and wanted to take her baby. Uh, they DID want to take him, obviously. She then refused to give them her baby, claiming they were crazy and then named her son Bentley...when Bentley is the aunt and uncle's last name.
In the state of Indiana where they are, there is no law holding a mother to a surrogacy contract, so they were screwed. The mother had child protection services investigating her multiple times after her neighbors called the authorities because they found out she left the six-month-old alone in the trailer for hours.
53. A (Un)Happy Birthday
This happened to a good friend of mine. He had an older brother who got a car for his 21st birthday. So, leading up to my friend's own 21st birthday his parents kept hinting at him getting a car as a present, too. On the day, they blindfold him and lead him out to the garage. Naturally he's very excited.
He can hear jingling of car keys; his parents and brother are there. They remove the blindfold, and horror sets in. They show him a matchbox car sitting in the middle of the garage. They didn't get him a car, they got him a matchbox car. His parents and brother thought it was hilarious. They never got him a car.
54. Grandma’s Grouchy Greetings
My grandmother called me on my birthday one year and said "I wanted to say happy birthday, but I didn't send a card cause I know those darn things just get thrown out anyway. Why waste the $1.99. Also, your dad's birthday is in three days and I'm not making two phone calls so just tell him happy birthday, too".
55. An Undesirable IOU
My mom opened a credit card in my name without my knowledge or consent while I was in college. She took cash out and never paid the bill. By the time I figured it out, the card's balance was $2,500. I do what I can to pay the minimum each month, but I have large student loans to pay and I am only making about $15,000 a year. It makes me so angry when she tells me "your credit card people are calling again, you should do something about it".
56. A Bad Deal
When I was broke and unemployed I decided to sell my car to make rent. My dad is a mechanic, so I asked if he could help me sell it. He agreed, but said he would take some of the money when it sells to pay for some tires he helped me put on it. I thought that was fair. So, after a couple months I asked him if anyone showed interest in it. He informed me that he sold it.
I asked for my portion of the money from it. My heart broke at his reply. He said he wasn't giving me anything. A shouting match occurred. I ended up borrowing rent money from my mom, who was in a pretty bad financial situation herself. Worst part was, my dad makes well over 100k a year, owns six vehicles and three dirt bikes, and lives in a mansion while renting out the other huge house he owns. He's also currently in Hawaii.
My mom was being sued at the time because my sister "borrowed" her car and crashed into another car. My mom was also looking after that same sister’s son. I've since finally found a job, bought another car, and stopped speaking with my father. Oh, and paid my mom back.
57. The Custody Arrangement
This happened to a boss of mine at the place I used to work. It was just me and him literally for 12 hours a day, so we got to know each other quite well. He was about 42 and I was 20-21. He told me that his three kids, who he had with his ex-wife, decided that they wanted to live with him instead of her because they didn't like her boyfriend(s) or what not.
I believe they were seven, 14, and 16 at the time. So, they did, and their mother disowned them. Like, she began refusing to pick them up from school, do ANYTHING for them, pay for anything for them, etc. She also ended having to sell her brand-new Mercedes that she had bought because she was no longer getting that much-needed "child support" from her three kids.
The same woman ended up re-marrying within three months and didn't invite her two eldest children. Didn't even tell them she was planning a wedding.
58. Worst Mother Ever
My mother has done a lot of really repugnant things. The one that sticks out most is when my brother and I hit high school, our parents decided to send us to a Catholic high school. Not really a big deal, and it turned out awesome for me in the end. But my brother was very reluctant to go, understandably, because all of his friends were going to the public school in our district.
So, that's when my mother came up with a truly heinous lie. She told him that all of his friends had told her in secret that they hated him and were glad he was leaving. She had all sorts of terrible things that they supposedly said. Of course, none of these were true, but he was only 14 years old, very sensitive, and it positively wrecked him. In fact, the consequences were brutal.
He went to the new school, had trouble making friends for the first couple of years, got involved with some bad people, etc. Now he still struggles with self-confidence and all this other stuff, nearly 10 years later. She also broke up most of his relationships by telling his girlfriends that he was cheating on them and that she "couldn't bear to keep his secrets any longer!" That's far from all.
She would hit my dad to provoke him to hit her back so she could call the authorities. Of course, my dad never did. She hit me once and I was too young and foolish to know that if I called officers, she'd go away for good. That night, she took all the phones in the house and hid them so that I couldn't tell anyone.
When I first went away to college (as far away from home as possible), I slept in one Saturday. I woke up to officers at my door. They told me to check my phone. During the three hours I'd slept, my mother had called me over 40 times, alternately crying and screaming, telling me if I didn't answer her calls, I'd have to come home and she'd stop paying for school, because clearly I had done something horrible if I was ignoring her for three hours. The next year, I decided to start paying for school myself and stopped talking to her.
59. How Not To Handle A Divorce
My uncle's ex-wife had a sister who was going through a messy divorce. Her husband ended up getting the house and custody of the kids. Her revenge was jaw-dropping. She burned down the house with her kids inside. They all perished in the fire. Last time I checked, I think she was still behind bars.
60. Unbalanced Books
My mom put one of my cousins through college because his parents didn't think he needed college. It was the whole, "I didn't go to college! What do you need it for?" thing. So, my mom put up the money for a four-year degree, and he becomes a stock broker. Fast forward three years later, my dad passes. Slow, lingering cancer.
My dad arranges to get as much money in stocks a possible, so my mom has something to live on. The idea is my cousin will be able to manage her stocks and keep her in cash for a good long time. Four to five years later and my mom is broke. My cousin it seems, had been flipping the entire thing 6-7 times a day and getting commissions on every transaction.
Selling off her good stock to buy some buddy’s stock. Basically, whittling away at the cash while getting his own income. She sues, goes into arbitration with the brokerage firm, and comes out with nothing. This jerk scammed my mom out of $500,000 and walked. I have only seen this guy twice since, both at funerals. As much as I would have liked to toss him in under the coffin, cooler heads prevailed.
61. A Bad Start To A New Beginning
My dad was from Argentina and had emigrated to the US when he was in his early 20s. After getting married, my parents decided they were going to move to Argentina and start a life there as soon as they had enough money saved up. Around the time I was two years old, they had saved up about $30k, which was a decent amount of money in the 80s for a low-income family.
They had also purchased our plane tickets to fly there to start finding a place to live. My father always had a lot of issues with his brother screwing him over, so he decided to send the money ahead of time to his brother-in-law instead, whom everybody in the family loved and trusted. Well, said brother-in-law disappeared the following day with the money, leaving behind his three-year-old daughter and his wife, without saying one word.
We always thought maybe he had been offed due to some weird debt to someone or something. My parents were forced to cancel their plans and continue living in the US. We didn't find out that he had left Argentina and moved to Spain with the money until two decades later. The jerk decided to start a new family with the money he took. I'm still not sure how my father managed to track him down.
62. Santa Must Have Misheard The Request…
I remember one Christmas Day, I was out with my mom shopping for last-minute presents. Then, as we get near the store, my mom just decides to tell me that her and my dad were getting a divorce. I was eight at the time. I sit there trying to hold back tears as she just walked in the store as if nothing had happened.
63. The Extra Long Drive Home
When I was 15, I went on a date with this guy. OK, OK. So maybe the "date" amounted to nothing more than making out in the backseat of his Chevy Tahoe. But anyways. He drove me home afterward. We got within a half mile of my house, as in I could SEE IT in the distance, and then things changed drastically. All of a sudden, he says "Oh, look at the time, I don't want to miss my curfew. Is it OK if I take you back into town? Can you get a ride home?"
I was so dumbfounded that I just nodded, and I don't think we talked for the rest of the ride. When we got back into town, he gave me two quarters for the pay phone and dropped me off. I went into a bar and called my dad to come pick me up.
64. Relatively Entitled
My aunt racked up about 60 grand in credit card debt and can't declare bankruptcy because my uncle would lose his job over that. The jerk move: She called my grandmother "ignorant and uneducated" for not changing her will to cover my aunt's reckless debt. First off, you shouldn't be waiting for someone to kick the bucket to fix your mistakes! And the reason my grandmother doesn't have an education is because she spent her teen years at AUSCHWITZ.
65. A Loss In Louisiana
My best friend comes from a difficult living situation and moved out when he was 18. Horrible stepfather, apathetic mother, absent father, etc. The one plus of the situation was a wealthy uncle who he has always been close with. In high school, they made a deal that if he stuck it out and graduated with decent grades, he would pay for college.
So, he stuck it out: He put up with his stepfather's physical mistreatment, his real father's emotional mistreatment, his mother's idiocy, and practically raised his two half-sisters and graduated sixth in his class. He applied to several schools and checked with his uncle to make sure the deal was still on. It was.
The summer after senior year, he moved out and lived with friends, and that August we moved to Baton Rouge to attend LSU. First week of school, it all falls apart. He is notified that some payment or other has not gone through. He talks to the financial office, and they've never received his tuition.
Then he calls his uncle to see what's up. Well, turns out the uncle didn't believe this kid could stick it out and thought he could just lie and fake his way through it longer than my friend could put up with his family life. Even after graduation, the uncle thought that my buddy wouldn't be able to find a way to LSU, as his parents wouldn't pay for travel costs.
He never did pay tuition, and my friend deferred enrolment is still working, saving, and hopes to go next year.
66. Long, Very Lost, Relative
About 18 years ago, my cousin's now husband was in a relationship with a woman. Things were not going so well. She was a bit unstable and he decided to call it off. A few weeks later, he got a call from his ex to say she was three months pregnant with his baby and that she was going away so he could never see the baby.
He looked for her for some years after but never found her. Fast forward to a year or two ago, he is now happily married with 15- and 12-year-old daughters. He then gets a friend request on Facebook from a girl claiming to be his long-lost daughter. Naturally he is thrilled and they spend over a year chatting, sending letters, photos, and slowly getting to know each other.
His 15-year-old was particularly thrilled to have an older sister to share her problems with. Then came the day they were to finally meet up. It all began to go wrong then. Despite waiting the whole day she didn't show. They got a Facebook message later that evening apologizing and saying that she couldn't face meeting them just yet, it was too much for her so soon, so they were devastated but told her they understood.
Fast forward a few more months and they received a call out of the blue from the ex's new husband. He said he didn't know how to break it to them but the daughter they had been in touch with for over a year didn't exist. He had found Facebook messages and emails that his wife had been sending them under the guise of the daughter she had said she was pregnant with all those years ago.
Well, she never was pregnant then. All the pictures she had sent my cousin's husband were of her eldest daughter by her new husband.
67. Houseguest Nightmare
Many years ago, I allowed my brother-in-law to stay with us temporarily as he lost his job and his apartment and had nowhere else to go. He acts nice in the beginning. We go out of town for a few weeks, and he is eager to watch the house for us. We come back to a nightmare. He has changed all the locks. We knock and knock, and he refuses to answer.
Suddenly officers pull up and he had successfully evicted us from our own property. We had to rent another place for six weeks until we could go through court proceedings and get back in. When we did get back in, he had trashed the house. Poured milk and eggs on the carpets, put raw chicken inside the walls, taken all the plugs and fixtures, ceiling fans, etc.
We called the authorities again and were told it was a domestic issue and to take him to small claims court.
68. A Date Disaster
I was packing up for a weekend trip with my friends to the beach when this guy texts me, asking if I could see him today. I told him that I was leaving town and could see him when I got back. But he was relentlessly asking to see me today. So, I agreed, and he picked a breakfast spot for us to meet at.
The entire time I'm driving (it took 30 minutes) to meet this guy, he is just blowing up my phone. Like four or five messages before I can even get in one. Not only that. He's calling me when I don't respond fast enough. I'm driving! So, I get to the restaurant and I tell him I'm there...and he tells me he's 10 minutes away.
I'm like, okay cool, and I sit in my car waiting on him. The entire time I'm waiting, he's being super vulgar and asking me about doing stuff with him in his car before breakfast. I flat out tell him I'm not comfortable with that. After waiting on him for 10 minutes after that, I tell him that I can't wait any longer for him.
He sends me this, word-for-word, "Oh, trust me you just got scammed your so stupid". In all honesty, if you can't even use the proper spelling of "you're" in a sentence, I don't think it would have worked out anyway.
69. It's Just Your Imagination
I just found out my mom "killed" me and my sister off. She took out my sister first, then she told her work that I caught something from my sister and also passed. She took donations for our funerals. I only found out because a few co-workers of hers reached out to me. I was confused at first.
My mom lost her job shortly after her co-workers talked to me. She hasn't told me she lost her job yet. She also got an eviction. She stopped paying ALL of her bills about a year ago. Of course, it all goes back to one thing. I found out she's been using. I can't believe I didn't see it before. Her life is falling apart.
70. Karma Needs To Meet This Dad
I didn't witness it, but my ex's alcoholic dad out of the blue one day, when my ex and her mom were out of town, locked the younger daughter in the closet. He told her he didn't love any of them anymore, left to go get a moving truck, and packed everything in the house up and left. My ex and her mom returned home hours later to find an empty house and the other daughter still locked in the closet, sobbing.
The dad moved down to Florida to work under the table for his rich parents. Because he had no reported income but could afford a good lawyer, he wasn't required to make child support payments. He also had all the bills and the two mortgages on the house all put in the mother's name only, leaving her in bankruptcy as a single mother with no job experience.
Luckily, they made it through with the support of family and friends, but apparently it was very chaotic for several years.
71. The Good Deed, The Punishment
I met an unemployed guy who was poor and barely able to feed his family or pay the bills. So, I hire him to regularly do our lawn and pay him a higher-than-average fee to have the lawn mowed. We go out of town the week he usually mows, and I tell him to just mow it like usual and pre-paid him. I get back and the lawn hasn't been mowed. I just figured something came up, not a big deal.
I try to call him, and he doesn't answer. I called a few more times over the next couple days and got concerned for him, thinking something may have happened. I'm hoping there is something I can do to help him. The truth eventually came out. One day I go out to my shed, open it up, and everything is gone. I suspect him but know that there was no evidence he did it besides his suspicious behavior of avoiding me.
I call the authorities, file a report, and they pretty much say that I won't ever see any of the stuff again and that is that. Or so I thought. I am walking around Wal-Mart a few months later and I see him. His eyes widen, and he literally turns and quickly walks the other way. It was at that moment I knew for sure.
72. Mom’s Un-PC Move
I was very poor as a teenager. Poor as in counting pennies for the bus, living on $30 in groceries a week, and having to rely on the food bank. I was going to school full-time, working full-time, and trying to save money for a computer. Even though I only earned $3.65/hour, I still helped with the bills nearly every month and rode the city bus two hours a day for my school commutes. We barely eked out a living.
Back then a new PC cost $2,000 minimum. I was trying to save for a used computer, so I needed about $800-$1,000. I wanted it because I was changing my major to computer science and really needed that PC to get more experience. After a few months I had gotten up to $320 saved. I kept it in a box and counted it up sometimes after looking at the computer catalogs (no internet back then).
Well, my mother had seen the money, so several weeks later she got angry at me because I was cooking too much (I had to eat, I was a teenager) so she took the money and rented a motel room for five days. She said she had to "get away to think". I was absolutely crushed. I didn't get that PC until about six years later.
73. An Unfortunate Engagement
I was engaged to a woman who I really loved and would do anything for. I took a job I didn't like to support her while she got an advanced degree, paid the entirety of our "too-nice-for-my-salary" apartment in a place neither of us had lived before and took care of her pet while she was away on a several-months-long trip for school.
She gets back from this trip, and after two days of her being awkward, I come to find out that she hooked up with one guy on the trip, and then carried on a month-long relationship with another. All while wearing the engagement ring that belonged to my late mother and taking my calls while he was in bed with her.
The night that it all fell apart, we slept together once more, the first time since she was back. I got a VD. Two days later, pretty crushed and broken, I had to go be in my cousin's wedding party and walk a girl with her same name down the aisle. I also hid the fact that we had broken up from everyone so as not to take any of the attention off my cousin. This meant having to cheerfully answer lots of questions about my own upcoming wedding.
74. Where Credit Is Due
My boyfriend's sister used to be a loan officer at a credit union. She secretly took a loan of $5,000 under her parent’s name and never paid back. A couple of months ago, we found out that she also took a $30,000 loan under my boyfriend's name. I guess she figured that she wasn't making enough money to pay the loan and stopped making payments.
She quit her job and the credit union couldn’t contact her. They looked up my boyfriend’s location and sent him a letter regarding a $25,000 loan that he hasn't been making payments for. He realized that it was from his sister's former workplace and decided to contact her. She ignored him. He contacted the bank to see if he was primary or a co-signer. They told him he was the primary loaner.
His parents threaten her to contact them, or they were going to report to the authorities. She now is in the process of selling her house and paying the debt collections. My boyfriend decided not to report her, and his parents are paying half of the 25,000 to save her sorry butt.
75. The Unfair Eviction
A few years ago, as I was graduating high school, my dad got incredibly sick and ended up in a coma. While he was in the hospital, I still lived at home I was waiting to turn 18 to move out, but living with me was his new girlfriend he had moved in two weeks after my mom left. So, I am pretty upset because I thought my dad would be a goner at this point.
In the midst of that, his girlfriend is constantly calling me a liar and telling me she will throw my stuff on the lawn because she doesn't want me there. Now during this time, I was working full-time at car dealership and wasn't dating anyone. But I later found out that once my dad finally recovered, his girlfriend, now wife, told him I was bringing different men home every night and sleeping with them in his house, and that I didn't care enough to respect his house while he was gone.
I NEVER did that. I was almost never home because of work. So then because of what she told him, while he was in the hospital recovering, he took my house key from me, and told me I wasn't welcome there anymore.
76. Scammy Daddy
My father asked my mother for a divorce on my birthday. He took everything they had in their home and started dating a 20-year-old. I took out a $6,000 loan to refurnish a house I started renting with my mother. It was one I could not afford on my own. My mother passed two months after moving in.
In her final email, she told my father to give me her life insurance so I can pay the loan back and hopefully pay most of the rest of the lease. He took off with it. Bought a truck and a stereo. Left me broke, in debt, in a lease I couldn't afford, and with a little brother to take care of and get the rest of the way through high school.
My parents also owed the school $2,000 that the school demanded from me or else they would not let my brother graduate.
77. Judgy Judy
I went to a small Southern Baptist church as a kid. A friend of mine whose family didn't have a lot of money stayed over on a Saturday night and went to church with my family the next morning. She was concerned about her clothes because she didn't own a dress, but she had some nice khaki pants and a nice shirt, and we told her that would be absolutely fine.
The preacher's wife approached us after Sunday school, before the service, and pulled my friend to the side of the sanctuary. My friend was trying to pull her arm away because the woman was hurting her. I followed and heard the preacher's wife say to her, "Listen, you're welcome in God's house, but I don't want to see you back here until you can find something decent to wear".
My mother had followed me and heard her, so we packed up and left right then and did not go back. We'd been going to that church for about 10 years.
78. The Mythical Wedding Gift
My best friend got married, and the bride’s side of the family said they would pay for the wedding if it was within reason. So, they kept everything within reason. Instead of paying for the wedding, the bride’s family spent the money on a vacation and didn’t tell them. They had to postpone their wedding because nothing was paid for.
In the end, my friend and his wife paid for the wedding themselves. When the big day finally came around, the bride’s family gave $150 and an IOU in a card saying we owe you a better gift. The family has a boat, a jaguar, and took another vacation that year.
79. Live, Laugh, Rage
My mom has always thrown tantrums when she doesn’t get her way, but her tantrum during Thanksgiving of 2012 definitely takes the cake. She always makes plans at the last minute and then freaks out when things don’t go her way. For the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, I had been asking her what the plans with her family were going to be.
I needed to know ahead of time because her family lives over an hour away, so sometimes it’s hard to fit them in. Whenever I asked my mom, she kept saying that she hadn’t made any plans. I finally told her that I was just going to do my own thing, and I made plans to go to Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin’s house at 3:00 pm.
My cousin had just bought his first house and wanted to host dinner that year. He asked that everyone bring a dish. The NIGHT BEFORE Thanksgiving, my mom said, "Oh, we’re going to my dad’s at 2:00 pm tomorrow. You can just ride with me". I never ride in a car with her because she refuses to take me back to my car or to other places that I need to be.
I said, "I won’t be able to do that. I have to go to Rickey’s at 3:00". She replied, "Well, get Rickey to change it". I told her that I couldn’t ask him to do that because there are a lot of people going and everyone had made plans in advance. She said, "Well, go late". I told her I couldn’t do that either because I am taking food.
She then tried to say that I could go to her dad’s and still make it to Rickey’s on time. I said, "No, I can’t. It’s over an hour away. Sorry, but I’ll just see y’all at Linda’s [my stepdad’s mom] in the evening". My mom sat there quietly for a moment. Then she got up and walked out of the room. About a minute later she came back into the room holding a vase. That's when the nightmare began.
She threw the vase at me and started swearing and screaming. "You ruin my life! I hate you! You ruin everything for me! You're such a selfish little jerk"! While she is yelling all of this, she is grabbing anything she can get her hands on and throwing it at me. She started pulling her hair while she was screeching. She then threw herself on the ground and started thrashing around.
She stood up and broke the folding door off the laundry closet and started kicking the dryer while still screaming. She was not forming any actual words by this point. She then took her pants off, flung herself back on the ground, rolled around, and screamed some more. I told her she needed to calm down before her blood pressure got too high as she has passed out during tantrums on multiple occasions.
She screamed, "I hate you"! one more time, threw a cup at me, and then went to her bedroom. I could hear her back there beating the walls and screaming. Her tantrum lasted for about 15 minutes. I called my boyfriend and said, "I know it’s late, but could I come and stay the night with you? My mom is having one of her tantrums". He told me to pack a bag and come stay with him for a few days.
While I was packing, my stepdad came home, and my mom doesn’t dare act like that in front of him. She came out of her room, totally calm, and said, "You need to clean the mess you made". I looked around at all the broken glass and stuff laying everywhere. "You mean the stuff that you threw at me because you weren’t getting your way"?
She said, "Well, you shouldn’t have made me mad". I left the house and didn’t speak to her for several days. Shortly after that, I moved out.
80. That, Um, Special Bond
One time my sister and I had just got home from grocery shopping and I was putting away all the food, as usual, when she asked me to feed her cat because she really had to pee. I always feed her cat, but my mistake was simply asking, "Can’t you feed him after you pee? I’m putting away the groceries". She threw a massive tantrum and stomped away.
I then fed her cat because he shouldn’t have to suffer due to her meltdown. About 10 minutes later, she passed me in the hall and said, "Night". To which I said, "I fed your cat. You’re welcome". She replied, "Well I cleaned his cat box, so YOU’RE welcome". Like, whoa, cleaning up after your own animal!? THANK YOU, YOUR GRACE!
81. Bridesmaidzilla
My baby brother was born terminally ill. The long hospital stays and expensive meds kicked in around six months old. To cope with the huge medical bills, mom worked some odd jobs over the years, including making custom wedding and bridesmaids gowns. My mom had a few golden rules. Number 1: She did all of your measurements. I heard the lecture of "vanity fibbing only results in a poorly fitting dress" more times than I can count.
Number 2: All final fittings must be completed at least three weeks before the wedding. That way if Dewey had an emergency hospital stay, she’d have time to arrange for someone to sit with him while she went home to finish a job. He was nonverbal and needed a constant companion. This particular bride wanted all of her bridesmaids in pastel organza dresses (organza is a gauzy fabric).
The base dresses were white, covered with these colors. Unfortunately, the bride had more bridesmaids than pastel shades the fabric came in... meaning one lucky bridesmaid wore tan. The bride refused to start a fight by assigning colors so it was first come, first serve. When you came for measurements, you got to pick from the remaining colors.
One bridesmaid lived three hours away and flat out refused to come to town to be measured. She insisted that telling us she was a size 8 was good enough. Bridal sizes are very different and didn’t cleanly convert, so that meant nothing. Mom finally reached the compromise that a local seamstress could measure her and send in the measurements.
One month before this wedding, Dewey was admitted into the ICU to be placed on a ventilator. Mom now had to find coverage enough to get eight dresses finished off in the next two or so weeks. She pulled it off thanks to amazing friends, but it was tight. Dad was busy working overtime to pay the bills and dealing with us other two kids.
Well, this horrible bridesmaid still REFUSED to have a final fitting more than two days before the wedding. She "didn’t want to waste a trip just because [my mom] was a horrible seamstress who didn’t understand proper sizing". I was cleaning up seed pearls during that lovely conversation! My mom begged a friend to sit with Dewey for an entire day so she could do the fitting and adjustments all at once.
Well, the horrible bridesmaid was two hours late. When she arrived, she saw the hideous tan dress and began literally screaming about how it wasn’t fair and my mom must have picked that color. She demanded another bridesmaid return their dress and both dresses get swapped colors. It would have been 20+ hours of work, so mom laughed and told her that was a big no.
The bride arrived and told her friend that color was the only option left and she was sorry, but it was that or drop out of the wedding and pay for the dress anyways. The bridesmaid finally agreed to put it on...yeah, she’d lied about her size. When the zipper didn’t go all the way up, Mom whipped out the measuring tape only to discover this woman had shaved 1-2 inches off every measurement except height!
Her defense was that she wasn’t going to let a jealous seamstress lie about her so she "fixed" the numbers before passing them on. By this point, my mom was all but breathing fire. Her son’s life hung in the balance and this lunatic was making her life awful. My mom demanded double for the dress because she was going to have to add strips to the base white dress to make it big enough then make a whole new overdress from organza.
It was doubling the time and adding substantially to fabric costs. The bridesmaid fought over it and my mom finally told her "Fine, pay me the agreed-upon amount and take your dress as is"! Now, the bride herself was trying to talk the bridesmaid into just paying up. She finally agreed to it and my mom told the bride to get the bridesmaid out of her house.
They could come back in five hours to get the dress. Thankfully the redone dress was a perfect fit. The bridesmaid paid the remaining balance and left after that. But she still ruined something that day. After my brother passed, my mom refused to ever make another wedding dress. She’s only made one in the 21 years since, as a favor to the friend who spent that ill-fated day with Dewey in the ICU while Mom fought with the awful bridesmaid.
82. Where The Sidewalk Ends
So, when I was around six years old I lived with my family in a nice house in a small city in Poland, it was a quiet neighborhood on the outskirts and pretty much all the neighbors knew each other. There were no sidewalks around the part of the street I lived at. Only one crappy sidewalk that started on the other side in front of my neighbor's house.
It's important to remember that the sidewalk was very old and in bad shape. Still to this day, people are asking the city to fix it. This story is about that neighbor, Karen. She was an older lady, everyone suspected that she really didn't have anything better to do than gather gossip and disturb everyone trying to rule the street.
Everyone was commenting that if you wanted to get the whole area to know something you had to tell her it as a secret. Whenever someone came to visit us they usually parked their car in front of our property. But on bigger meet-ups, like barbeques or parties, people would park in front of our closest neighbors' houses too.
That never was a problem, no gates were obstructed, and no one was disturbed. Well, almost. Karen hated when someone parked in front of her house, she would always run out yelling about "How we dared to park filthy cars on her precious sidewalk". My mother is not someone that lets anyone yell at her. She had many discussions with Karen about the laws and rules that stated that she doesn't own anything outside her fence.
Which means that the sidewalk is public and anyone can park on it as long as they leave enough space for a wheelchair to pass. That wasn't enough. Every time someone would come to us and park their car there, the yelling would start. Until one time when my mother’s friend, Tomek, came for a coffee during winter. He's a local policeman and his specialty is road law.
So my mother tells him about Karen and her behavior regarding the sidewalk. Tomek laughs since that thing was in such a bad shape that it can barely be even called sidewalk. When he was leaving, he assured my mom that he would step by next day for a coffee on his lunch break. Next day comes by and I was playing with my brother in the snow.
We see a black car pulling over in front of Karen's house and, as the driver gets out, Karen storms out of her house yelling "You can't park here. This is MY sidewalk. Get your filthy car off my prop—". Well, there he was, Tomek, with his full uniform, hat and all, turning around towards Karen as comically as he could and asking "Excuse me? You tell me that I can't park my car here"?
She says yes, and he tells her that the sidewalk is open to the public. She claims it’s her sidewalk, and he asks if she is then the one responsible for taking care of it. She says yes—but he has the perfect reply. "Oh, that's so nice that I found you. Since it's YOUR sidewalk, you are responsible for clearing the snow from it to not create danger for the people walking on it. Since it was not plowed I need to write you a fine for endangering public safety".
He then pulls out his notebook. She says that no other sidewalks are plowed, and claims that she’s too old to shovel. He tells her that she should hire someone in that case—but that she wouldn’t be responsible if the sidewalk was not, in fact, hers. Finally, she relented and said it wasn’t hers. Tomek says: "But a moment ago you were yelling at me that it was. So what is it? Is it yours or not? Because I don't know if I should fine you now".
She says it’s not hers. He replies: "All right, seems like we cleared that up. Now, if you ever harass anyone like you did with me, it could result in a fine. So I recommend you watch out on what you claim to be yours". And then he proceeded to cross the street and enjoy a coffee in our house. Karen never disturbed anyone for parking in front of her house again, she would only stare at people trying to burn holes in their skulls with her sight.
83. In Her Defense
I was in a McDonald's during the lunch rush. This old guy in front of me started harassing the girl at the register who was obviously fairly new. He asked her where she was from and then asked her if everyone from her town was as dumb as she was. He turned to me after saying this and was just like, "Am I right?" I flat out told him right then and there that she was doing her best (during the busiest part of her shift, mind you) and that his jerk behavior wasn't making things any better or easier.
When I got up to the counter, I told her I was sorry she had to deal with pricks like that at her work.
84. Out Of Change
I worked at Chick-Fil-A when I was 16. I was a cashier working the counter during breakfast. The manager hadn't come back from the bank, so I didn't have a lot of change left in my drawer. I had a line of a few people in front of me and so did the other girl next to me. I let the guy know that unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to take his order at my register because I didn't have any coins to give him as change.
I told him that the girl next to me would have to take him. Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. He got super upset and started screaming at me, telling me how horrible and stupid I was. Apparently, I ruined his entire morning. He totally created a scene in front of everyone. On top of this, I was super emotional and I burst into tears. The owner came out and asked the guy to leave, telling him he wasn't welcome at that Chick-Fil-A anymore.
I moved over to the end of the counter and started portioning out cheesecake while trying to compose myself and a few ladies came up to me to tell me I was doing a great job. That kind of restored my faith in humanity.
85. Let Me Downgrade You
A young woman walked into the cinema I worked at, and as always, I was at the ticket office. I sold her tickets to the show she wanted to see. She then proceeded to the 'Candy Bar' and ordered a cup of coffee—black, not too hot—and I offered to take it into her theater for her, to which she said, "That would be great!" Before I took it in, I decided to upgrade her cup to a mug, which was the larger of the two containers we offered, as we were pretty much out of cups.
I made her coffee and headed up the theater stairs to give it to her. I handed it over to her and she stared at me as if I'd just ended her firstborn. She shrieked in the packed theater, yelling: "DID I NOT ORDER A CUP?" I was shocked, but I rolled with it and said pleasantly, "I upgraded your coffee for free," to which she replied, "I ORDERED A CUP AND IT'S WHAT I BETTER GET, MAKE ANOTHER ONE!"
So I grudgingly made her another coffee and brought it back to her. She then offered a snide remark: "Looks like you finally did it right!" Now, I know she ordered the cup and I was obliged to carry out her order for her, but for heck's sake, isn't a free upgrade a GOOD THING?
86. Sketchy Parenting
I worked at a local sports bar and I had two men come in with their dates...and their children. The eldest child was running around the restaurant picking food off of people's plates, while the middle child was changing the TV stations in the middle of baseball playoffs. The youngest child was sleeping on the table while the adults proceeded to drink margaritas.
I served them their food and as soon as the youngest child woke up to take a bite, he proceeded to vomit, covering the table completely. I attempted to be a hospitable server and I cleaned it up, expecting that the customers would be appreciative. Nope. They simply ordered more margaritas. At that point, I refused to serve them anymore (they each had two margaritas) because they were extremely disrespectful and I was not comfortable serving drinks to people who are responsible for getting children home safely.
That's where everything hit the fan. These women proceeded to stand up and scream at me from across the table, saying, "You don't know me, you want some?" Thankfully, I had my manager come over and kick them out. The kicker? Before they left, they poured out two full ketchup bottles underneath the table and left no tip.
87. Fighting Back
One time, I had a customer come into my workplace complaining that her breadsticks were cold. After putting up with about five minutes of vicious verbal attacks (she called me every terrible name under the sun), I finally told her that she couldn't talk to me that way. She responded with this absolute gem: "I can talk to you however I want, you're just a pizza girl". Well, snap. I lost it.
I was paying my way through university and I was holding down two jobs at the same time. I was tired and stressed. I didn't know until that point that "seeing red" was an actual thing. I literally saw red (I think it was probably my blood pressure). I proceeded to tell her that she was a small, spiteful, stupid woman, who would never amount to anything in life I also explained to her that work is work, and the act of trying to support myself was honorable in itself.
She ran away and sent her husband in. He threw the bread at me and a napkin holder off one of the tables. The security guard saw this, and he grabbed him while the manager called the authorities. He got taken to the station, but he was released later because I decided not to press charges. It just wasn't worth the stress. I'd never been so angry in my entire life.
88. With A Side Of Sass
When I was 17, I worked in a fast-food restaurant. An elderly man came up and placed his order which included french fries. We needed to drop some more in the fryer and it was going to be about a two-minute wait. When I informed him of this, he called me an offensive slur, then took the rest of his order and sat at a booth in the restaurant. I was stunned, to say the least.
When the fries were done, I walked them over to his table and just said, "Here," semi-slamming the food on his table before walking back to the counter. He sat there and ate his food for about a half-hour, then he got up and left. The real shocker came when I went to go clean his booth. This crotchety old jerk had smeared his food all over the booth and left a handwritten note on the back of a placemat that read: "Since you can't get your orders right, I won't be coming back to this horrible place!"
Well, good riddance. The only thing that makes me smile about the whole incident now is that I can take comfort in the fact that he's lifeless and rotting.
89. The Wrong Crowd
In high school, I was heavily involved in a local church youth group. We gathered together for bible study every Thursday night. After service, a large group of us would drive to a nearby restaurant. They specialized in making anything that was greasy or grilled and could fit in a plastic basket. Well, one night, our group was larger than normal, so we split into two groups and for some reason, we chose tables on separate ends of the restaurant from each other.
We got our food, good times were had, and we stayed until closing time. The people at my table cleared our trash and left through the front door to the parking lot. I didn't really think about the other group standing around their table—they were in a corner, and in hindsight, they were acting suspiciously. After a few minutes, they joined us in the parking lot and we all started making plans to go to someone's house to watch a movie.
Suddenly, one of the employees burst out of the door extremely upset. The group from the other table ran to their cars and drove away. The employee walked the rest of us back into the restaurant. My jerk friends had filled up several paper condiment cups with ketchup and placed them face down on the table, so when you picked them up, the ketchup went everywhere.
They also littered napkins all about the floor and table, and as a coup de grace, they unscrewed the light bulbs just enough to make the lights go out. We offered to help clean up, but the employee was so angry she just told us to leave and never come back. I returned a week later and apologized again, but the manager was there and said that he had told his entire staff to call the authorities if we ever showed up again.
90. Just Leave Him
I used to work for my parents in a cafe they ran in our extremely tiny town. Since it was so small, everyone knew everyone. This one guy came in with his wife, who a few years earlier had been in a car accident, so she could hardly walk or talk. It was strange because I had known her for a long time previously and she was the nicest lady, but it was hard to even recognize her afterward.
Anyway, everyone in town, including his wife, was aware that this jerk had been cheating on her since the accident, but he still tried to keep up appearances for whatever reason and she couldn't do anything about it because he had control of her assets. So they came into the cafe for dinner one night and I waited on them. I took his order first, as he insisted, then I turned to his wife to take her order.
I asked her if she wanted the special that evening because I knew she had gotten it before and liked it. Before I could finish my sentence, this jerk exploded: "WHY DO YOU EVEN BOTHER ASKING HER, DO YOU THINK SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE WANTS? SHE CAN'T EVEN PUT HER OWN CLOTHES ON, JUST BRING HER A SALAD, SHE WON'T EVEN KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!"
Keep in mind that nothing was wrong with her mentally—she could understand everything anyone said—she just couldn't really respond. So I calmly told him that the week before she wanted the special and we had it again, and I asked her if that's what she wanted. She nodded, and this really ticked him off. He said once again to "just bring her a salad".
When I brought the food out, I did not have a salad, and instead, I served her exactly what she wanted. He was furious. He picked up her very hot plate and threw it at both of us. She started to cry and I began picking up the food that was now all over the floor. At that point, my mom came out and told him to leave and that he was not allowed to come back, so he stormed out the door, leaving his wife behind.
She had to sit there for about an hour while we tried to get another member of her family to come to pick her up. I have never in my life been so angry. The worst part is, after that, he started having his new girlfriend spend the night at his house...with his wife in the other room.
91. A Horde Of Karens
I delivered an EXCHANGE pizza since the first pizza had the wrong toppings. I gave them the correct order and asked for the incorrect one back. The whole family came out to the front yard and started yelling at me about how they deserved to keep the first, incorrect pizza, as compensation. THEN, they brought out two Pitbulls and threatened to send the dogs after me.
I told them to go screw themselves, then I got in my car and called the authorities. I now keep a lead pipe in my car, even though I don't deliver pizzas anymore.
92. Learn To Read
A customer came up complaining about the shoes that were supposed to be on sale for $29.99. I walked over to the fixture and showed him the sign which said the jeans were on sale, not the shoes. I then said, "Sometimes you have to read the whole sign". My coworker had to turn around and walk off so he wouldn't hear her laughing. I am really surprised I didn't get talked to about that.
93. Your Problem, Not Mine
I was on a call with a customer who was complaining and being absolutely ridiculous. I had only been on the job for a few weeks and I was becoming flustered. There was literally nothing I could do to calm this person down or get him to accept my answers. I was finally about to get him off the line when he made a sarcastic comment to the extent of "Wow thanks, you've been such a great help".
In my rush to say "No problem" or "You're welcome," I ended up saying "Your problem" and then hanging up. He called several times after that and I just ignored the calls because I was so exhausted.
94. Worst Gift Ever
I was the first person in our family to go to college and they were so proud of me. My mother gave me a credit card with my name on it and told me "as long as you are in college, we will pay this credit card every month, just be reasonable with it". Awesome! I was mostly reasonable with it, but I did buy some stupid stuff I "needed" at the time.
At the end of my stay at college, my mother came back and said "Now that you're done with college you need to start paying bills". What she handed me made my stomach drop. She gave me a credit card bill for over 20 grand. I gave her a perplexed look and said "What is this?" to which she cheerfully responded "Oh, you thought I was going to pay the whole bill? I only made minimum payments".
I was naturally angry, but thought about it for a second and said, "I thought this card was in your name and I was just a permitted user, like the emergency card you gave me in high school". Turns out, she forged my signature and applied for a credit card in my name so I could "build credit". The funny thing is, she wonders why I don't get along that well with her.
She actually thought she did me a great service, and still frequently does things like this. I truly believe that she has good intentions, but her implementations always end up as jerk moves.
95. Best Buds No More
This guy at work started at the same time I did and we become buds. We hang out, play some Xbox, the whole nine yards. We worked together for two and a half years at this store and eventually were the two most senior associates.
A promotion comes up to become a Director's Assistant and basically get an automatic pay-rate bump plus full-time. We are both interviewed, and we agreed that we would put our best foot forward and not hold any regrets.
The dude beat me out in the end, and I congratulated him on his victory. He acts a little off but tells me it was a close run, and he knew I was a good candidate. Then I discovered his brutal betrayal. A week after the promotion, the store director calls me in for a serious sit-down.
He says, "I hear you have been cheating the time clock, possibly stealing, and giving discounts to friends". I deny, deny, deny that and ask for proof, or I was going to sue. I’m given a "forced three days off" while it is investigated by corporate.
I’m called in a week after suspension for a sit-down with the big shot. They apologized and promoted me to the DA position. They tell me that my buddy was caught on tape several times stealing, his electronic journal showed consistent unwarranted discounts, and other activities—even though he had "tipped" them off to my supposed activities.
When they confronted him, he broke down, apologized, and returned some stuff he planned to swipe after his shift. This jerk tried to frame me to get ahead.
96. Telling On Yourself
I work IT at a small non-profit. We have a kitchen/ staff room and supply free coffee, tea, milk, sugar etc. During the pandemic all staff were working from home but, for the past few weeks, some staff have been coming back gradually (most for just 1-2 days a week) including myself… and, unfortunately, Karen. Now Karen and I have had many run-ins over the years and suffice to say we don’t get along.
It's mostly because I can’t tolerate her bad behavior. A week or so after being back, Karen sends a condescending email to the office manager, CC’ing all staff. In which she says that, while she accepts that the office kitchen had not been stocked while everyone was on lockdown, she is appalled that there is no bread, bagels, yogurts, etc. for staff that have returned.
The office manager replies, adding CC’ing all staff: "Karen, As a courtesy to staff, we provide free coffee, tea, milk, and sugar, all of which have been stocked. We have never proved free bread, bagels, yogurts, or other food. However, staff do keep personal food items in the refrigerator". Yup, she outed herself as the office food thief.
97. The Magic Formula
I used to have to report website usage, ROI, and all sort of statistics for a bunch of different sites. I built a cool mother of a spreadsheet in which you only input a few numbers and it would calculate just about everything the company would need. It was a bit too complicated for my boss to understand, yet he would take it to clients and brag that he made it.
That ticked me off. Then, after a while, he realized that the spreadsheet was all he needed, and he could use my paycheck to buy a new house. He laid me off. I told him he might need help with the spreadsheet, but he said he was smart enough. So before I left, I made sure to make him eat his words—I changed a single formula in the spreadsheet and had a good laugh about the reports it spat out. They made no sense at all anymore.
98. Comeuppance Bought And Paid For
My mom and I saw a great Bridezilla freak out while shopping for my wedding dress a few years back. We were in a small, local shop when another mother-daughter duo came in. The attendant who had been helping us went up to greet them. The mother said they were here to pick up her daughter's dress, so the attendant looks her name up in the computer, frowns, and says, "Ma'am, you never bought the dress"".
What are you talking about?" The attendant shows the lady the notes on her computer screen. "You said you wanted to think about it, and asked if we could hold the dress. We held it for two weeks, but when we didn't hear back from you, we assumed you didn't want it". "Well, we want it now". "It's been over eight months", the attendant explained, "We sold the dress a long time ago. But I can order you another one, and have it expedited here in a few weeks".
And like a Mt. St. Helens of entitlement, the eruption began. "This is unacceptable!" The mother shrieked. "We have her alterations scheduled in two hours! The wedding is a week away! I can't believe you sold her dress!" The bride, meanwhile, is slumped against the desk and sobbing like someone kicked her dog. My mom and I are just open-mouthed staring at this point.
The attendant was trying to be diplomatic, but is clearly as baffled as we are. "Ma'am, we had no way to know you wanted it. You never called. You never put down a deposit. The dress isn't yours until you pay for it". After some more screaming from the mother and wailing from the bride, they left. The shop attendant came back over to us and I asked her, "Does that kind of thing happen a lot?"
The poor lady just deflated. "All the time". It baffles me to this day. How do you schedule alterations on a dress that you never purchased? Why would you wait until a week before the wedding to pick up your dress? How do you make it to adulthood without knowing how basic buying and selling transactions work?
Flickr, Office of Public Affairs
99. The Bad Husband
I lost respect for this friend when it came out that he was cheating on his disabled and housebound wife. But that was just the beginning of the nightmare. She managed the finances and managed the electronic toll-road bill that showed he was in the wrong state when he was said he was at work. When she confronted him, he denied it until she then pulled out the phone bill with his texts and calls to a number in the general area of the state he had been in.
He then divorced her and tried to screw her out of her share of his Navy pension and insurance. They were married for longer than his time in the service (25 years) and was she entitled to half of it. He went out of his way to hurt her. She passed less than a year later in a nursing home while he was moving in with a completely different woman than the one he originally cheated on his wife with.
Real classy guy. He showed up to the first wife’s funeral with #2. He also claimed to go out "whaling" while in the Navy—he and his fellow sailors would apparently search out and bed the largest lady they could while on shore leave. The winner who took home the biggest got bragging rights until the next round of leave. Horrific.
100. Karma Decked Him Good
My buddy and I were having a drink on a large wooden patio at an ocean-side bar/restaurant. A middle-aged couple was sitting next to us. Our tables were next to each other, and they were relatively close to us. As my buddy and I were just taking in the view, he caught eyes with the dude and said something innocuous like, "Good evening".
The guy retorted, "Mind your own business and keep your eyes to yourself". My buddy and I looked at each other with a "Did that just happen?" expression. My buddy looked back over at him and said something like, "Relax, buddy, sorry to bother you". At that point, we were a little put-off. We got back to our drinks and enjoyed the sunset.
Two minutes later, the guy pulled out a ring for his partner. It was a large diamond. She was excited, and he had a sufficiently smug, self-satisfied look on his face. She went to hand it back to him. Then disaster struck. When he grabbed it, he fumbled. It fell to the deck, rolled an inch or two, and then promptly disappeared, falling between two slats of the deck.
I felt bad for the woman. The guy’s face went white and then immediately red. He was barely able to maintain his composure. It looked like he wanted to strike his lady friend. The dude looked over at us, and now we were looking straight at him. We just smiled casually. He called a waiter over and started discretely explaining what had happened.
He wanted someone to pull up the deck slats. However, that was NOT going to happen. The waiter was cool as ice. Despite the guy raging at this point, the waiter flatly told him something to the effect of, "Look, man, you can come back tomorrow and talk to the manager, or pay your bill and leave now". The guy sat down. His lady friend was visibly shaken.
While enjoying our drinks and the sunset, my friend and I remarked about how karma, while certainly inspiring, is almost magical when it's instant.
