My neighbor was kind-hearted, took in a foster child and eventually adopted her. But the biological mother came forward to reclaim her child from my neighbor after having passed drug tests. My neighbor was devasted especially because the biological mother had a history with Child Protective Services.
They had also spent two years absent from the child’s life. Tragically, just a month after the child was returned to the biological mother, the child lost its life at the hands of the mother’s boyfriend. The child had been so close to my neighbor and was living a happy life only to have it taken away because of the biological mother’s actions.
When I was 14, I was visiting family in New York City with my younger brother. My brother struggles with hearing and often doesn’t respond to people if they don’t make eye contact with him. We were on a crowded elevator when a man behind my brother said, “Excuse me,” but my brother didn’t hear. The man shouted for my brother to get out of his way and didn’t hold back his use of profanity. Everyone in the elevator stared at him, wondering why he would swear at a child, despite it being New York City.
The man tried to brush it off and jokingly said, “Welcome to New York.” But I was sure to make him regret his actions. I told the man that my brother is deaf and watched the blood drain from his face. The elevator was packed with 10 people who all glared at him for the next forty floors. It gave me a satisfying feeling.
I was watching a movie with my friend when a group of men who had just finished basic training began loudly criticizing the film. Everyone’s experience was disrupted. My friend told them to be quiet and they reluctantly complied. We were behind the group of rude men as we exited the movie and my friend confronted them about their behavior.
The loudest of the group, a Marine, argued that his service gave him the right to act that way. My friend, who also happened to be a Marine officer, told him that was incorrect and made the group stand at attention at the theater's exit and apologize to everyone who was leaving.
A woman that I previously worked with was reasonably attractive and began dating one of her colleagues. They were not the best looking but had a kind heart, was intelligent, and had a high-paying job. They eventually got married and everything seemed to be going well for them.
But things changed after a year of marriage when the woman cheated on her husband with multiple men. The man did not show up to work one day and could not be reached. His manager called the authorities and it was soon found out that his wife’s betrayal had caused him so much emotional distress that he had taken his own life.
I had gone on a trip with a girl and her family to New Hampshire. We were attending her cousin’s wedding on the way back but the girl had been treating me poorly. She gave me the cold shoulder despite her family being there. I felt uneasy as we arrived at the rehearsal dinner. Everyone went to the hotel bar afterward, and another wedding party arrived. One of the men from the other group began being disruptive and causing trouble for both families. The girl’s behavior had already made me on the edge and the man’s actions were the final push. I angrily walked over to him and said, "What is your problem?
You are here for a wedding! If you say one more thing to anyone at my party, I swear to God I will beat the living daylights out of you until you can't walk anymore. So turn around and shut up!" I could tell the man was intimidated by my words and immediately apologized and stopped causing trouble. The group I was with congratulated me for my “heroic” actions. I left the wedding early later that night and went home by myself. I left the girl behind.
My grandfather hadn’t been aware that he had Alzheimer’s yet when authorities took $25,000 from him. He had been planning to purchase a truck but forgot about it and so couldn’t explain the funds to them. The officers took the money and left without any legal action. It was only a year later when we found out about the seizure when we were cleaning the house and found a receipt.
But it was too late to do anything because the department had already spent the money. I am still angry about what happened.
My friend's marriage fell apart after his wife left him for her wealthy employer. The situation worsened when they both fought in court about who would get custody of their children. The battle drained my friend financially.
They constantly introduced new information and delayed proceedings to wear him down until he could no longer afford to fight for joint custody. Unfortunately, my friend lost access to his children, and his ex-wife would often deny or ignore the little access he had. She would taunt him with statements like "what are you going to do about it?" and he knew she was referring to the previous legal battle.
My younger brother was intelligent but didn’t know much about choosing a partner. He would rather be in a bad relationship than be single. He was in a relationship with someone who had good looks and was willing to date him.
My wife and I went out to dinner with the couple one night when the woman only ordered a salad. Before long, she started making rude comments about my wife's appearance because she is taller, athletic, and wears a size 10-12. My brother stood up for my wife and told the woman off, saying that my wife was a better person than her. He made it clear that she would not be eating at his expense again.
I was in a queue at an electronic store to return something when a woman in front of me was trying to return a vacuum cleaner that was not in working order. The vacuum cleaner was dirty and the cord was knotted. The store representative told her that it could be fixed by emptying the dust container, but also mentioned that it could not be returned because it was past the warranty. The woman angrily started yelling profanities, making everyone in the line uncomfortable. She also started hitting the counter and making aggressive threats. The situation escalated when she raised the vacuum cleaner brush as if threatening to hit the store representative.
I intervened and told her to put the brush down, making everyone laugh. But the situation took a turn for the worse when the woman started charging toward me. To defend myself, I mimicked a bullfighter and got away from her. Eventually, security arrived and helped calm the situation. The incident ended with me getting a girl's number and getting thanked by the store manager and other customers.
I am a relaxed person who enjoys travel, and I don’t often get affected by small things. But I was on a delayed flight one day which made me worry. It was delayed by 30 minutes and I didn’t know if I would make my connecting flight. I was one of the last people to board and I still had to check my bag because there wasn’t much space. I was making my way down the aisle when I saw a man trying to fit his oversized bag in the overhead compartment. He called for a flight attendant and they told him the compartment was full. The man grew angry and started yelling at her, asking for her name and employee number. This fueled my own anger and I shouted at him.
I told him to stop making a scene and to check his bag. I told him that his sense of entitlement was affecting the other passengers. The whole plane started clapping when I was done with my outburst and the man was embarrassed. I was thanked by the flight attendant who also gave me free drink cards for my next flight. Another passenger also gave me a free voucher for free WiFi. It was a satisfying experience.
This woman—a serial suer—was at her best friend’s funeral driving in the funeral procession when she suddenly stopped her car. The parents of the recently deceased were in the car behind her and bumped her bumper from behind. The procession was obviously going extremely slow. The woman sued the parents for back and neck injuries and won.
The last postcard we got from this woman was a picture of her dancing it up in Greece. Her family wouldn’t even let her come to visit them on their properties anymore for fear she would fall and sue them. She was a real piece of work.
We were a small business making super specialty products. We almost lost everything for the stupidest reason. We had a customer put down $30K, take delivery of our product, then decide, “I think it will be cheaper just to sue you than to pay you the remaining $30K”.
I thought this was impossible as we had all the signed paperwork and everything, but three months later, he got to keep our product without paying us. Due to all the attorney fees which we had to carry and the fact that down payments go to suppliers, my partners and I had to open up our personal bank accounts to keep the company afloat. All of our employees got paid, but we, the owners, had to forego salaries until it was settled.
I was at a Taco Bell at around 5 am. As anyone could imagine, I was totally trashed and just wanted some tacos. The line was about 50 people long, so I waited a long time to get food. When I was ordering, I realized that my buddy wasn’t right behind me like he had been the whole time, and instead, some Jersey Shore-looking person was. The guy cut in front of many people, and they were all yelling at him to get back. I started telling him to get to the back of the line, but he was just smirking and ignoring me, while my friend—also trashed—was glaring at him over his shoulder.
I kept trying to get this dude out of the line when suddenly, he lunged at me. This guy was pretty built, and though I was tall, I wasn’t strong. I knew I had to act fast, and act fast I did—I grabbed the back of his neck, stuck my leg in front of him, and laid him on the ground. Then, I asked him if he was OK and I helped him up. Security came and asked ME if I was OK and told the guy to get to the back of the line. I got some cheers and my tacos.
I worked for a retailer in the UK that sold second-hand games, movies, and tech. We often had customers coming in trying to sell us hot or broken items, and we would refuse to serve them. We had one guy who regularly came in with obviously lifted Blu-ray discs. I took pleasure in constantly refusing to serve him unless he provided proof of purchase. After a few weeks of trying and failing, he absolutely lost his cool. He decided to take it out on my staff and me.
When screaming and threatening us from across the counter didn’t garner any sympathy, he decided that playing the race card was his best bet. He appealed to another customer who was being served one station over. The furious tirade that flowed from this other gentleman’s mouth was incredible. After berating the thief for his awful behavior and blatantly lifting goods, he went on to explain why using the color of his skin as an excuse was disgraceful and insulting. After a few minutes, the dodgy customer was shaking and sheepishly left the store to boos and catcalls. The other guy got a full staff discount and a round of applause from the entire store.
A girl in high school had a mad ex-boyfriend decide to post the racy pictures she had sent him on her Facebook page and tag the entire school on the posts. She went to the authorities about it, and they told her that while they could prosecute the guy, but she would also be prosecuted for producing and distributing illicit photographs of a minor (her).
They scared her off, and the guy got off scot-free.
One of my friends owed almost $50K in student loans that he didn’t remember taking out. The reason he didn’t remember taking them out was because his school—which was a for-profit college that had since closed—convinced him to sign a document when he first enrolled—at age 17—which essentially gave them the right to take out loans on his behalf in order to pay his tuition. They used that to ruin his life. They didn’t explain to him what the document was. They just got him to sign it amongst a flurry of paperwork.
The school then took out several private loans with an exorbitant interest rate, and my friend just started getting letters out of the blue the year after he graduated. When he was in school, whenever those loans would show up on his student portal, they were just given a code number and classified as “financial aid”. Therefore, he thought he was getting education grants. Apparently, this has happened to a lot of people, but he was told that there’s nothing he can do about it, especially since the school had closed. He contacted multiple entities to discuss the issue, and all of them said there was nothing he could do because he signed the contract willingly.
I was at a party with some friends. A guy who was a year or two younger than me showed up. We never really got along, but I had never done anything to him. Everyone was drinking and having a good time, and this guy showed up in his dad’s truck just looking for a fight. He approached me and started yelling at me and freaking out.
He thought he could scare me, but he was so wrong. I’m a girl, and this huge guy was picking a fight with me. Being the brazen person I was, I walked up to him, grinned, and socked him in the face. I’m not sure if he was shocked or mad, but as my male friends gathered to keep him in line, he got into his truck and drove off.
I had a cool, older female professor at a community college who could not get any respect from this group of trashy girls. They would constantly talk in class over her. These were not teenagers either—they were women in their late 20s talking back to a 45-year-old professor. One day, we were right in the middle of class, and everyone was getting mad because these four girls wouldn’t shut up.
The professor was frustrated but was way too nice to be nasty…so I decided to step up to these jerks. I turned around in the middle of a class of nearly thirty people and said, “Hey, can you guys SHUT UP so the rest of us can hear the lecture”? The whole class turned around and looked at me as if I had just grown a second head. But I could tell they all wanted to pat me on the back.
I had worked at Chili’s for about five years. I had so many experiences with rude people that I lost count, but one was by far the worst. I was waiting tables around graduation time and I had a party of 25 call ahead at about 7 pm, saying they would be arriving in 30 minutes. We set the table up for them and were anticipating their arrival. They actually showed up about an hour and a half later than they said they would. We had since broken up the big table and seated other smaller parties there. When they arrived, they were angry that their table wasn’t ready for them. The really soft-spoken, sweet hostess who was working that night simply explained to them that we thought they had chosen somewhere else to go since they hadn’t come sooner. That’s when the Karen came out. The lady who was speaking to the hostess immediately burst out, saying that we should have known that they were still coming. She then said out loud that she knew Chili’s “was a terrible idea,” and that we were all terrible at our jobs. Almost in tears, the hostess said that we would set up another table for them in a closed section and that I would take care of them. These same people would always come in, be rude to everyone, NEVER tip, and constantly complain so they could get free food. When I waited on large parties by myself, I always started everyone with water just because it takes some time to get everyone’s drink order and get it out to them. I figured it was better to at least have some water available while waiting. As soon as we got them settled in, several started complaining that they didn’t have water and that I was rude not to offer them a different option. I simply explained I would be bringing them whatever they would like and that the water was just to hold them for the time being. Apparently, that wasn’t good enough for them. They told me I was an idiot and said, “Get this mess out of my face”, referring to the water. Most of them ordered strawberry lemonade, so I made all of the drinks and brought them out to them. The group then started to complain, “This stuff tastes nasty”. They told me it didn’t taste anything like what it did last time. I told them that we made it by the same measurements every time, but that I would be glad to make a new batch for them.
I went and poured out what we had and made another batch of strawberry lemonade. I took it out to them, and they again complained that it was nasty. I offered to get them something else, and they said, “We just want a waiter that isn’t an idiot and knows how to make strawberry lemonade”. I got the manager to explain that we made our strawberry lemonade the same way every time. They rolled their eyes and told the manager that I was being rude to them. Then, when they started eating their meals, they began to be even more disrespectful to me. They started pouring their drinks out on the floor on purpose, throwing food at me and insulting me right in front of my face. I had a couple of other tables complain that this large party was being extremely loud, which they were. I went over and asked if they minded being a little quieter as they were disturbing the other tables in the restaurant. One kid then yelled, “OH, YOU THINK I’M TOO LOUD”? They all started being even louder than before, and some tables even got up and left. That was the final straw. I yelled over them and told them they were no longer welcome at our restaurant. That shut them up. One kid told me that I couldn’t do that, and I said, “When you start causing our other good paying customers to leave, I can do what I want, now get out”. They had the nerve to ask for boxes of their food that they hadn’t touched because they were too busy being loud. I told them that I couldn’t care less if they wanted their food and that they needed to leave. My manager and I stood at the door smiling, watching them all walk out. One girl told me that I had ruined her graduation party. I informed her that she had no class and got what she deserved. A few of them stayed and talked to my manager, begging him to allow them back because it was their favorite place to eat. He told them they cost the company money when they came in, and they were never welcomed back.
My ex had a long list of mental health issues. That only made what they did to her even more cruel. In the three years we were together, she tried to take her life twice. Her parents admitted her into a local clinic. She spent three days there. I was so shocked at what qualified as “help”. The place was more like glorified babysitting.
She came out feeling no better and was then hit with a $15,000 bill. The $15K covered three days of supervised TV and reading, with a mere two sessions with a psychiatrist to evaluate her. It didn’t include the overnight stay at the hospital and ambulance. After her stay, the doctor prescribed her medication which cost $3,000 for her prescription. We thought the pharmacist had made a mistake. She ended up going to a different doctor, who, thankfully, helped her out.
I received a phone call one day from my father. He had the most solemn, sad, monotone voice I had ever heard come out of him. I immediately knew something was wrong. He informed me that my grandmother was finally succumbing to her aneurysm, and there wasn’t much time left for me to visit her and say my goodbyes. I was delivering pizzas and decided to call into work so I could go see her. We were way overstaffed for the night, and I called in a few hours before my shift.
There was honestly no reason at all why it shouldn’t have been a simple, easy, completely justified call-in, especially after I explained to the manager directly what the dire situation happened to be. Much to my dismay, the man terminated me before he hung up on me. Even worse, when I went in the next day—after seeing my grandmother in a heartbreakingly shriveled and ill state—in order to plead my case—he got in my face and asked, “Yo grandmother dead yet”? in a thug-like manner. I almost lost my cool and hit him, but I didn’t. To this day am completely appalled by his actions and lack of empathy.
My brother and I, who are twins, were in middle school. This kid, Tommy, was being a jerk. In the bathroom, he would walk up behind whoever was using a urinal and tug one of their shoulders back. The victims would be shocked and end up peeing on themselves. My brother had been the victim of Tommy’s nonsense, as had many of us.
One day in the bathroom, Tommy grabbed my brother’s shoulder and jerked it hard. Instead of fighting in the other direction, my brother pulled the ultimate revenge—he turned around and peed all over Tommy. When they went to the principal’s office, Tommy got in trouble for his behavior and was sent home to change his clothes. My brother was the hero, as the boys could all once again pee in peace.
When I was in elementary school, I stood up to many kids. I wasn’t a loser but I wasn’t exactly popular either, and somehow I ended up as the target during this one game of wall ball we were playing. These kids were usually nice to me, but something I did had angered them, and mob mentality won. They were all yelling at me, so I just walked away. About eight of them followed and cornered me.
They started throwing wall balls, basketballs, and softballs at me repeatedly until I was backed up into the corner. At that moment, I had to think on my feet. There was a mop next to me…so I exploded in a rage of fury and picked up the mop. I beat the living daylights out of every one of them. Unfortunately, I was suspended for an entire month and had to go to anger management classes for a year, but nobody messed with me again.
I used to work for Qwest, which was bought out by Century Link. A guy bought a no-frills landline for about $10. There was no long distance, no caller ID, nothing. It was just a landline for dial-up internet. He called his ISP from his modem and left it on for an entire month. As it turned out, it was a long-distance number, but he didn’t know. He soon realized what a horrible mistake he’d made. He ended up with a $25K phone bill. He was an average guy working a regular job who had a tiny home. He had worked the extra ten bucks into his budget so that he could have internet. However, after that, he was drowning. He made two payments of $500 to try and take care of his bill, but he would never be able to pay the whole thing.
He called me, begging and even crying, for help. How the system worked was whoever waived anything took a penalty. It didn’t matter if it was a mistake or legit; waiving anything gave the employee waiving it a penalty, and it was a sales job. Not to mention, that $25K couldn’t be waived by anyone but upper management. I took it to my bosses, but their response was infuriating. Nobody was willing to waive his bill, even though he had already paid a grand towards it. The fact was that the company wasn’t out anything. The infrastructure was already in place. They would have made a profit on just his paying his monthly bill, but they didn’t care. The way the corporation saw it was that he owed the money, and therefore, no matter how it would destroy his life, he had to pay it back. However, that wasn’t the main motivation. The company can write off that loss as a loss, and as such, his defaulting on his debt was more valuable.
I used to run a software company. I had a digital agency hire me to work on a banking contract they had and were losing due to their offshore development team. I had no idea this job would ruin me. I went onsite to the bank to save the contract, finish, and deliver the software. It took more than three months to do.
Over that time, the agency kept dragging out my invoices, paying small bits and pieces, always saying they would pay tomorrow. After the contract was done, they declared bankruptcy, didn’t pay me, and bought the rights to trade that bank contract off to the debt collection agency. They then started a new company and using that contract. Since I spent three months working for free, it sank my business, and I had to close it. Meanwhile, the “new” company just kept on like nothing had happened.
I was on a teen tour across the country. We were about 40 teenagers on one coach bus going across the USA for 40 days over the summer. I didn’t like any of the people, but I was the group clown, and my repertoire of strange voices, faces, and jokes always entertained people. It was nearing the end of the tour, and we had just been in Park City, Utah. At some point during the trip, I found the book Before You Leap in a book store, which is a two-part book. The first part is the autobiography of Kermit the Frog, and the second part is a guide to life written by the Muppets. So, of course, I bought it on the spot. That day, I was reading it on the bus and enjoying it. One of the girls on the tour came up to me with her two friends and started asking me to do a voice. Normally, I would oblige, but this time, I said, “Sorry, I’m busy right now. Come back later and I’ll do it then, okay”? The girls started insisting more and more, and I just showed them the book and said, “Please, I’m reading a funny book right now. I just want to enjoy it at the moment”. The girls still kept insisting.
After saying “No” several times, I ignored them. Then, things started to escalate—Not liking this turn of events, the first girl decided to start hitting me repeatedly. It was a minor annoyance, and I ignored it. Then her friends joined in, but I continued to ignore it. The hits got harder and harder, and I politely told them to stop. They said they wouldn’t unless I agreed to do the voice. Then, they started to hurt. I respect women and believe in gender equality. I also think gender equality means women should take the good with the bad and not get any special treatment. I’m also a believer in self-defense. So I backhanded the girl that started it in the face. Of course, the only person on my side that day was me. The counselors forced me to the front of the bus, where I enjoyed my book in peace.
My parents, sister, and I went to a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert. After the show, we returned to our hotel across the street from the arena. My dad and sister were walking ahead, and my mom and I were a few paces behind when these three obnoxiously trashed guys started talking to us. Things were fine until they took things too far—they began grabbing my mom’s behind “jokingly”. Being the classy and awesome woman my mom was, she told them to leave us alone or she’d call the authorities on them. That’s when one of the guys stopped in front of us and spat in my mom’s face.
I lost my marbles. By then, my dad had realized what was happening. He jumped in immediately. As his two friends stood by, we proceeded to beat the daylights out of the guy. I have no regrets. Don’t ever disrespect my mama.
A good friend of mine had trouble keeping work due to his mental illness. He had very mild autism and was fully competent but couldn’t navigate the politics of most jobs. He was on unemployment while between jobs, and he really relied on it. As part of that, he had to attend regular appointments, talk about what interviews he had, etc. One day, he missed an appointment because he was rushed to the hospital.
At the time of the appointment, he was lying on a table having surgery. He called the unemployment office to try and explain the situation—but the person there couldn’t care less. They told him that since he hadn’t given two days’ notice that he was going to miss an appointment, he was cut off for good. Meanwhile, two days earlier, he wasn’t aware of any issues, let alone ones that needed surgery!
A buddy of mine had a court case. I showed up for moral support and saw the most prejudiced nonsense I had ever seen. An officer pulled over two young Black guys for no reason. He pulled his piece on them and yelled at them to get out of the car and walk backward toward his. He put them in cuffs in the back of his car. He searched their vehicle and found nothing.
So, he wrote them tickets for walking on the highway. That’s what they were in court for. The men explained to the judge, “He FORCED us to walk on the highway! He was armed”! The judge found them guilty. I’m angry just remembering that day, and I’m not even the one who got screwed.
I was at The Gap when a rather portly woman berated a cute, petite salesgirl. She was saying how furious she was that nothing fit her and that not every woman was size zero and had no curves like a real woman. She dropped that line several times and continued getting louder and louder. The poor girl she was yelling at looked about ready to cry.
I couldn’t help but step in and give her a piece of my mind. So, I leaned over and said, “Not all girls are size zero, but most aren’t size 40 either, so it’s harder to stock the store for those outliers”. I wish I had given her a troll face and danced my way out of the store.