People Enumerate The Sizeable Things They Did For Revenge
17. Don't Pay Me For My Work? Get Your Car Towed
“I had been hired as a day laborer for a few days to tear out an old concrete driveway. Had to sledgehammer everything, and break the chunks down into manageable sizes; then wheelbarrow all the chunks to a dumpster, and deposit them. It was backbreaking work, but I needed the job and the $$. I was working with another, older guy.
At the conclusion of the job, and before I/we got paid, I asked the contractor for the job (who had come back to inspect our work & to collect tools) if he could give me a ride downtown, to which he agreed.
On the way downtown, he told me he wasn’t going to pay me, because the other guy I had been working with told him that I wasn’t a very good worker and that I had actually taken a break, etc.
I was incensed. I had worked very hard and was anticipating being paid.
When we arrived downtown, the guy parked the pickup truck we were riding in a parking lot.
He barely said goodbye; he was glad to see me go — as a teenager, I didn’t have the gumption to have put up much of an argument. He left the parking lot.
I hung around for a few minutes until I was sure that he was gone.
I then opened the hood of the truck and removed the coil wire (from the distributor to the ignition coil.) The truck could never ever ever ever ever ever start without that wire.
I threw that wire so far away (and so well hidden) that it would never have been found.
Perhaps the guy came back… tried to start the truck… Ruh-ruh-ruh-ruh-ruh-ruh-ruh. Maybe he lifted the hood. Possibly he spotted the missing coil wire. Potentially he could have been smart enough to replace the missing coil wire with one of the spark plug wires, but he still would have been running on only 5 of 6 cylinders — not a very good running engine at all.
But I like to think that he had no idea what was wrong… and ended up paying for a tow to a car shop… and ended up paying for a new set of spark plug wires to be installed — about what he owed me for wages.”
16. Lying Ex Can't Pay Her Bills Anymore
“My two-timing lying ex stole all my stuff and lied to get a TRO (temporary restraining order) against me after she got exposed publicly in front of her parents and friends.
I made a police report and she got called out at her work. Since she was outed as a liar at her work and coworkers ended up calling her out on her stealing, she decided to make up a story and had all my guns taken away right before I was supposed to move out of Hawaii. She took all the supplies I had bought to carry me through a few months.
I was advised to leave her be and let it go. But it’s the principle of the situation.
I waited almost a year after moving and happened to check out our joint account to make sure it was closed. To my surprise, it wasn’t and she was actually putting her direct deposit into it. After monitoring the account for a few more months I found the direct deposit pattern and her bill pattern.
I went back and closed the account right after the direct deposit and before her rent and car payments were due. Seeing that her account went almost to zero after those things were paid I knew she was paycheck to paycheck. So I received no less than 25 blocked calls and threats. I left the next day and laughed all the way home. I heard she had to go do some extra credit work… normal for her anyway.
That was the best feeling. Even her best friend called me and asked, then wondered why she kept the account open and thought she was stupid for doing it.”
15. Steal Loads Of Jewelry? I'll Steal Your Inheritance
“25 years ago my aunt passed away when I was a baby, leaving my two cousins who were both in their early 20s alone to fend for themselves. My grandparents (who were very wealthy) put a clause in their will that grandkids will receive half of their share of inheritance if a parent passes before the children reach age 30 and then the other half when my grandparents eventually pass.
Both my cousins received a very sizeable inheritance coupled with the funds they got from selling my aunt’s house. The younger of the two paid off her college loans and was able to buy property, she still lives on the same plot of land. The older sibling blew all of his inheritance. Straight out of a book of the bible, within 6 years, he was back to living in a condo working as a police officer.
Everyone in our small family knew he had a substance issue so he was barely making ends meet with his officer salary and buying copious amounts of substances.
For the next 4 years, my cousin went to rehab three times, sponsored by my grandparents. He sobered up after getting his partner, now wife pregnant. Absolutely wretched woman. She saw my grandparents as payday and essentially baby trapped my cousin thinking it was her ticket.
Within 7 years they had three kids so she is locked in tight. She’s a nurse and with 3 kids around they always needed a little boost. Guess who they would always ask? You got it, my grandparents. Being the kind spirits they are, they always lent a hand. My father, mother, sister, and I got sick of it very quickly.
My grandmother, unfortunately, passed away when I was 17 leaving my grandpa as the last remaining.
I was undoubtedly my grandfather’s favorite among the grandkids which left a real sore spot in the mouth of my cousin and his wife. I had two more years at home before college so I lived with my grandpa to keep him company and help take care of him. My cousin and his wife HATED this, so much so that whenever they came to visit and I was not home, they would send their three gremlins into my room to destroy it (my room had double doors so it couldn’t be locked).
This was the start. The longer I lived there, the more they would mess with me. My cousin even went as far as to place one of those little mechanical noisemakers in the cabinet in my room (the ones that play sounds at random intervals that make you think you’re insane). Thankfully my german shepherd would always hear it and after a week or so she finally found it.
They did this to distance me and deter me from taking care of grandpa so they could swoop in and be the heroes. This continued until one of the ‘kids’ ‘found’ my gun. By this time I was 18 and in the ‘possession’ of a firearm. I use quotations because my grandfather has guns, but cannot aim and shoot them anymore due to arthritis and nerve degeneration, so when I moved in, he placed all the weapons in my hands should the need for self-defense arise.
But should he see them out for any reason other than cleaning, there would be chaos to raise. Being very well trained with guns and having a sense of pride in defending my home I took this responsibility very seriously. I always kept a handgun in a locked container in my nightstand with the key on a high shelf out of reach from the gremlins.
One fateful day, I am out getting my grandfather food when I come home and my older cousin, his wife, and my grandfather are staring at a gun on the table. It was my gun that I kept in the lockbox. IT WAS LOADED AND HAD A BULLET CHAMBERED. I always keep a magazine in the lockbox but never loaded into the gun. The lockbox was nowhere to be seen.
My cousin claimed one of the children ‘found’ the gun and was playing with it. I was 100% certain that he either found the key or broke the lockbox open to get to it and load it, as a 6-year-old would not be able to reach a key I could barely grab, figure out what it was to, load my gun and chamber it. I tried my best to explain what my cousin had said was nonsense and that I never keep my firearms loaded in the house, but my cousin who is a cop scolded me on gun safety and threatened to have me arrested if I didn’t leave and hadn’t arrested me yet ‘because we’re family.’ I was asked to collect my belongings and go back to my parents.
My cousin had won, or so he thought.
The next day I apologized to grandpa and explained to him there was no way one of the kids could have gotten the key, he agreed with me and he apologized but he thought it best I move out until things cool down but once they do I would be welcome back home. Our relationship was a little fractured due to misinformation provided by my cousin.
A month later, my grandfather died of a heart attack at 86. I was DEVASTATED. I was just beginning to get back into rhythm with him and rebuilding the trust that was somewhat shattered. To this day, I am still unsure of what kind of man he saw me as due to my cousin.
Immediately, my cousin and his wife began sucking up to my dad, as they had sealed payday with grandpa, it was time to move on to the uncle.
This persisted for a month or two. I wouldn’t stand for it. Then came time for the will. My grandfather’s lawyer read out the will to me, my father, mother, and sister in our home, our two cousins would be briefed individually on their share of the estate, per my grandparents’ requests. Then the miracle line in the will comes to fruition: ‘if anyone attempts to claim any part of the estate that is not assigned to them, they forfeit any assets they are supposed to receive and will be divided equally among the remaining family members.’ This was basically their way of saying ‘if you try to claim more than you’ve been given, you get nothing.’ My father is supposed to receive every piece of physical property (aside from two or three items he set aside for me) from my grandparents as he is the only remaining child.
The revenge.
I hatched my plan. I called my cousin and told him all of grandma’s jewelry was to be donated to a charity auction. Grandma’s collection of gems and metals was extensive, to say the least, so a charity event wouldn’t care if a few pieces didn’t make it right? It was a lure of gargantuan proportions that my greedy jerk of a cousin could not resist. He bit right on it and headed over to my grandparents’ house asap, determined to snatch up as much as he could, a handful would send his kids to college.
Regardless of what I said, the jewelry was never going to go to him anyway, so his actions were purely his own since none of it was destined to be his. Coincidentally, dad was on his way with the lawyer to my grandparents’ house to overlook everything, formality stuff.
According to my dad’s testimony, my cousin had three shoeboxes worth of grandma and grandpa’s jewelry piled on the kitchen counter ready for loading into his car.
My dad and the lawyer stood in the kitchen wondering why it was all there when my cousin walks in from my grandparents’ bedroom with a fourth and final shoebox. The jig was up and he put two and two together that I set him up. Which was true. but there was no penalty against me for exploiting my cousin’s greed so he would screw himself over.
It’s worth noting that between the 18 years from my aunt’s death and my grandpa’s death, their wealth had increased several times over, so my cousin felt ‘wronged’ and expected to receive just as much as my sister and I, despite receiving half of his already and blowing it. Throughout this whole ordeal, his younger sister (my other cousin) has not had a problem at all and is still weeping over grandpa’s death like the rest of us.
However, just like that, my cousin lost enough in the course of 30 minutes that made him contemplate his sanity. OVER GREED. My cousin’s jerk of a wife apparently filed for divorce a few weeks later. We haven’t heard from him in nearly 6 years as he is all but disgraced now. You can call this a fairytale ending, and on this particular part of the story it somewhat is (there was a massive lawsuit by an unknown family member involving the IRS and FBI later on) but honestly I would rather have my grandparents.”
14. Jerk Supervisor Dug His Own Grave
“The supervisor position for my department was known to have a lot of turnovers, so I had a lot of bosses. But the one I’m going to tell you about takes the prize as the biggest jerk.
So, the new boss starts working at my agency. We’re created by the State Legislature but funded by the users we regulate.
As a ‘governmental’ agency it’s extremely difficult to fire someone. It has to be a blatant act, easily verifiable, and in violation of published policies. You get the idea.
I’d been employed with the agency for 13 years, had a solid work ethic and provable productivity. My position is a professional one and I have two degrees in the field. I loved my job.
About 8 months before the bad boss, Terry (his real name and I don’t care) was hired as a tech worker, Emily (also real name and again I don’t care) had been promoted. Emily was known to spend her workday texting her significant other or best friend, or on the phone making appointments or scheduling vacations, and brown-nosing whoever was her direct report (speaks to how she got the promotion.) I TRIED to train her up, but she was always too busy or out sick.
Enter newly hired Terry. He was cognizant of my skills and work and was generally genial for the first couple of months. Suddenly, Emily was getting the choice assignments. When I asked Terry about it he responded that she had experience. I countered that no, she didn’t because she didn’t have time to be trained in that area. I warned him that her lack of experience was going to cause him heartburn.
Within a month it did. He had to fix her work and would spend hours in his office trying to train her up in the area. Now let me say that Emily was attractive. Tall, blonde, curves in the right proportions and the right places. I’m a short, redheaded, tomboy with curves corresponding with that description. BUT I’d been the sole employee in the department for 11 years and had built a solid reputation in the field.
Terry begins to walk into my (shared) office when Emily was out to tell me the agency no longer needs my expertise and I should go find another job. He tells me this daily for weeks. I finally go to his boss (who had been my boss before Terry) and ask if the agency would like me to leave. He vehemently tells me the agency needs my expertise and asks why I’ve asked that.
I tell him what Terry has been telling me. A discussion happens between the two and I’m told that Terry denies telling me that. Now I see how it is. Terry nearly gets me written up twice, both times for lying to HR. Emily gets a promotion to supervisor (for which she was wildly unqualified, and she crashed and burned within 9 months… another story) and I get the trashiest review I’d ever had.
I knew I had to bide my time, keep the cleanest nose ever but I knew how to take him down. March comes around and I’d put in for vacation for a week that month. I’d put in for the time off two months earlier. The Friday before my vacation begins I’m called into Terry’s office.
‘You need to be reachable on your cell phone the entire week,’ he says.
‘Well, that’s going to be difficult. My parents live in another state in a rural area and the cell service tower is for another provider. I only get service when I go into town,’ I informed him.
‘I want the phone number of your parents’ house. Give it to me.’
‘No. That’s an intrusion into their privacy. There’s nothing I’m responsible for that can’t wait a week,’ I told him.
‘Give it to me or I’ll have you written up.’
Ok, I’ll give you the number. In the back of my mind, I’m thinking he’s written his own death warrant. You see, at our agency whenever you make a long-distance call, you have to enter a code that is unique to you for the call to go through.
On Wednesday of my vacation, my mom answers the phone and tells me it’s for me.
Terry’s on the phone DEMANDING the password for my computer. I decline to give it to him. He INSISTS I give it to him. While he’s in the line yelling at me I log into my personal email and start composing an email to the head of admin and HR director detailing this phone call. I eventually hang up on Terry and send my email.
Monday morning at 9 am I’m called into the HR office. What is this email you sent? What happened? I detailed the call and what Terry wanted (which is against agency policy) and how I handled it. Can you prove it? Well, he had the call on speaker and Emily was in his office to witness it. Oh, by the way, here’s my mom’s phone number.
I’m sure you can figure out if it’s been called, when and by whom.
Terry is an absolute jerk to me all day. Whenever Emily left the office, so did I. I was DONE with the jerk. DONE! The next day Emily is called into HR. An hour later, Terry is called (Emily hadn’t returned.) Two hours later, they both return. Emily begins to ask me about certain areas she hasn’t gotten into yet and I kind of blow her off (she’s an accessory in my mind.).
Terry refuses to speak to me at all. I found out later that he was told to stop harassing me and the next time I complained, he’d be fired. Six months later Terry quits. Six months after that, they demote Emily back to a position equal to mine but out of my department.
I retire in 8 months with a sweet pension and retirement benefits.
Screw you both Terry and Emily. No one screws with me and gets away with it.”
13. Beep, Beep. Under The Bus You Go...
“Bob was a back-of-store Lead Hand for a retail store.
Along with his colleague Larry, he made sure that shipments and deliveries were scheduled and handled correctly, that the crew out back were doing their jobs, and that the restocks for front-of-store were picked correctly. His Assistant Manager (AM), Frank, had resigned, and Bob had applied for the job. Bob had been handling many of Frank’s duties, particularly those that involved computers since Frank was older and not very adept with a keyboard and mouse.
Bob didn’t get the job. Instead, they brought in Richard, an AM from another store, and Bob had worked with him in the past. He was a jerk and had once thrown Bob under the bus for one of his own mistakes, causing Bob to get yelled at on the floor in front of his colleagues, then hauled into the Manager’s office to get written up.
Bob was thinking of quitting anyway, but getting turned down for the AM position, and then seeing Richard roll in, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
One pertinent thing is that Larry, his colleague, was a Harley-riding biker type. He wasn’t a member of a club, but enjoyed riding, and did charity rides and stuff like that. He also, every year for a decade, went to Sturgis, South Dakota, for the annual rally in August.
So Bob decided to submit his resignation… effective the day after Larry left for his trip. He did this by attaching a PDF of his resignation to a bunch of reports… and requesting a ‘read receipt’. Bingo. Richard clicked ‘read’ and Bob printed it out.
The schedule for the warehouse crew was posted online, on a web-based scheduling app, with the Admin account under ‘assistant manager(at)store.com’, this was store policy.
All emails were created as ‘job title(at)’, and when a person left the position, the password was changed. This way, nobody had to change their contact information, they were communicating with the job title and not the individual. IT had a list of logins for every position, and changed passwords with every transition, so the outgoing person couldn’t sabotage things.
Bob had asked Richard repeatedly for his password to the scheduling site and never got an answer.
So, Larry worked a Thursday and headed out. Bob worked Friday, his last day, and before he left, he told his crew to make certain they checked the scheduling app and worked their scheduled hours.
Then he went home and shut off his work phone.
On Monday, before opening, he showed up to turn in his phone and his keys, to be greeted by Richard losing his mind.
The Store Manager corralled both of them and took them to his office.
Richard went on a tear, describing the things that happened over the weekend, how Bob was incommunicado, Richard had to come in and pee on fires, and demanded that Bob be written up. Bob let him go on and on.
The Store Manager said, ‘Bob, what have you got to say about this?’
‘Well, a writeup is a disciplinary action for an employee, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘It’s going to be hard to make that stick since I’m not an employee.’
Bob had a folder, and pulled out a printed copy of his resignation, showing that the previous Friday was his last day. The Store Manager read it, then handed it to Richard.
Richard said, ‘You never sent this to me!’
‘Yes, I did, three weeks ago. Here’s a copy of the email, and here’s a copy of the read receipt.’
The Store Manager gave Richard a wilting stare. ‘So who have you got lined up to replace Bob? Have you been interviewing?’
‘I didn’t get this email. This is fake. No, I haven’t been interviewing anyone. I guess Larry will have to cover until I can fill that position.’
Bob: ‘Yeah, good luck with that, Larry isn’t even in this time zone. He’s in Sturgis. And no, it’s not fake. If you want, IT can verify that by checking your email history.’
Richard turned white. He realized he had no supervisors for the dock… at all.
The Store Manager asked Bob, ‘Is there any way we can get you to stick around?’
‘No, thanks. I’ve already lined up a new job, sorry. But you’ve got bigger problems than this.’
SM, ‘Like what?’
Bob pulled out more copies of emails and handed them over. ‘I asked Richard repeatedly for his password to the scheduling app. Several times. Can I jump on your computer for a second?’ SM turned his laptop to face Bob, and Bob logged in to the scheduling app.
‘Okay, so the Admin account is under Richard’s job title. This is where we post the schedule for the crew. I used to do it for Frank because he wasn’t a computer guy, but technically, this falls under the Assistant Manager role… the login is assistant manager(at). I’m logged in under my own account, but I can still see who’s scheduled, across the board.
I just can’t edit it. I don’t have the permissions.’
‘Here’s the schedule for the warehouse crew for the next two weeks.’ He turned the laptop back around. ‘It’s blank. There isn’t anyone scheduled to work… at all.’
Bob turned to Richard. ‘Here are my keys, and here’s my company phone. I’m done. By the way, in accordance with this email from IT, I’ve ‘factory reset’ the phone.
Good luck.’
Bob left the office and all the way out of the store he could hear the Manager yelling at Richard.
Apparently, Richard had to go into the personnel file and burn up the phone lines calling warehouse guys to come in at the last minute… and company policy was that if you were called in with less than 24 hours’ notice, it was time-and-a-half.
Many of the records were outdated, so if he reached a worker he had to ask them if he had any of their co-worker’s numbers. Once he got things straightened out a bit he was shown the door, they brought a Lead Hand and an Assistant Manager in from another store. Richard was ‘fired for cause’, denying him Unemployment, and tagged with a ‘Do Not Rehire’.”
12. Call You Early In The Morning? Roger That!
“I was a tenant on the ground floor with the house owner staying on the first floor. We had a common direct drinking water supply to a sump from where we had to manually collect the same. Water used to come from 3:30 AM to 6:30 AM and each household needs only 30 minutes’ supply.
I’m used to getting up early and used to collecting water at 5:00. They used to collect at 5:45.
Things were fine for some time. Suddenly his wife discovered that we are collecting water earlier than them and felt that the owner should collect it first. They didn’t tell it in words but their body language implied the same. The next day when I went I found them collecting water at 5:00 so I collected mine after they had finished. The 2nd day I went at 4:45 and so they had to wait.
On the 3rd day, I went at 4:30 and it was again their turn to wait.
Not used to getting up early they felt giddy and extremely uncomfortable at the changed routine. So they requested me to call them the next day onwards once I finished. So I finished my work at 4:45 and woke them up at 4:45 for two days. On the 3rd day, the house owner collapsed at his door while answering my call.
Getting up and mustering courage he said: ‘Please don’t call us anymore; we shall fill it at our convenience.’
Even after 30 years, my wife laughs her heart out remembering this incident.”
11. Take My Space? I'll Bury Your Car In Ice
“So back in 1998 or so I was living in an apartment complex in Lancaster, PA. I had just moved away from my Mormon family who was devastated that I wouldn’t drink any more of the Joseph Smith (Con-man) Kool-aid ™. I was enjoying living with my super immature partner who still came home and snuggled with her STUPID Talking Winnie the Pooh bear (which I later microwaved, keep that quiet, I never told her).
So she moved out. Then one day as the weather turned wintery, it started to snow pretty well. I had two cars at the time and they were around the corner of my building in the lot. As the snow got around 6″–10″ deep it finally quit. I went out and like my neighbors, I was shoveling out the spaces where the cars were.
Once they were all cleared. I put them back.
By this time it was getting darker and I needed some grub. So I got in the car and went out. I came back to see my neighbor’s car in my space. She was a middle-aged larger woman who lived on the same side as me. So I just knocked and asked if she would give me my space back. She proudly informed me that there were no assigned spaces in the lot.
So it’s first come first steal as it were.
I was able to dig out another space a few down and parked there for the night. The next afternoon my friend was up visiting. I told him what happened and he thought it was pretty awful and then I thought to myself. ‘She really wanted that space, who am I to deny her the spot and all that it contained?’
So we decided to replace the snow that was removed and then some (pro-rated for loss from melting). We cleared out 4 other spaces and put the snow all around the car and even rammed it underneath, careful not to damage the car at all (We may be jerks but we still respect property). I’m talking snowplow forcing it under all 4 sides (all while singing Dirty Deeds by AC/DC).
The neighbors saw what we were doing and were laughing like crazy. Plus we were shoveling out their spots, so it was a community service (as Jesus would do).
We then brought out buckets of water and dumped them all over the car. It froze quite nicely. So in this parking lot, you saw a minor amount of snow in a few spaces, and this vehicular ice sculpture compacted into the white lot lines.
All witnesses swore they didn’t see a thing, which was neighborly. The next day I came out to see her and two maintenance men trying to free the car from the space. They couldn’t budge it.
I later got a call from the main office from a lovely older lady named Marsha. She asked if I could stop in. So I grinned and walked up to see her.
As I walked in smiling, she looked back with the same look and was holding back laughter, and let me know that there are no assigned spaces in the lot. I told her that I agree and that I thought it’d be selfish of me to keep the snow that was in it to myself, so I simply put it back. She also told me that I was being accused of breaking her car antenna.
It was broken for as long as I could remember, it was an old 80s Dodge/Chrysler New Yorker/Dynasty. So she didn’t pursue it.
When the car was finally removed 2 days later, the shape of the undercarriage was imprinted in the ice it was sitting on. It was all the way under. So essentially, we put the car on an ice shelf when ramming snow underneath.
She didn’t take my space anymore (come to think of it, no one did). We didn’t talk either. So, two problems solved.”
10. HOA President Is A Bully But His Ego Allowed Me To Bully Him
“A million years ago my property was part of a large farm. I bought it about 30 years ago, long after the farm was broken up, but before there was any development near it. The piece of land I got was near the back entrance that joined into a dirt road that ran past. The more expensive plots were near the tarred road in the front.
I originally bought a large chunk of the land intending to do some farming, but that never happened. About 20 years ago some of the owners got organized (We’ll call them the Organised Owners – OO) and had the area designated as a municipal suburb. The municipality agreed to put in tarred roads, water and electricity if a certain percentage of the properties were developed. A construction company (linked to the OO) went around contacting the owners who had land but no buildings offering to build houses for us at a very (very) reasonable price – contingent on them getting a certain minimum amount of people signing up.
While this was happening, one of the OOs approached me and offered to buy half of my property. I agreed, and the funds I got for the sale (which was about 4 x what I’d paid for the entire chunk of land 10 years prior) combined with a small loan from the bank gave me what I needed to pay for a house to be built, and it was a fairly large and nice house too.
I stayed in the house for a few years, and my mom moved in with me. I had decided to subdivide the property again and build her a house next to mine, but unfortunately, an un-diagnosed tumor took her before the house could even be started (well, it was diagnosed, but too late to do anything).
Soon after she died, we moved out of the house and started renting it out.
About a few weeks before we moved out, the OO I’d sold the land to started talking about starting an HOA. I wasn’t interested and left soon after. About two years later, the neighbor OO contacted me. There were two roads entering the area these days – the original tarred road that was near where the farmhouse had been and was entered from a fairly busy main road and my ‘dirt road back entrance’ which was now a tarred entrance from a wide but not very busy municipal road.
The HOA was trying to get the old farm road blocked off to improve security and decrease traffic and wanted the road next to my property to be the main (and only) entrance to the HOA community. And they were pressuring me to join.
I said no, and I was adamant, and eventually, they accepted that but told me they wanted to have a sign near the road welcoming people to the neighborhood, and the only practical place to put it was on the edge of my property.
They also wanted to build a little guard hut and have a security guard permanently monitoring who went in and came out, and they wanted to build his shed on my property. We came to an agreement whereby they would mow the lawn and pay the equivalent of about $35 per month in exchange for the land they needed. I was very happy with this arrangement, since the property was fairly large, and it didn’t really cost them anything since they already had a full-time gardening service servicing the HOA.
This all happened over a decade ago. They eventually got the other main road blocked off, and the HOA is paying for rent-a-cop to be permanently stationed close to my property, as well as mowing my lawn and paying me enough for takeaways for the family each month. I’m occasionally contacted by members of the HOA to get me to sign up, but I’m really not interested. My property has been rented to the same tenant for all these years and everything there is going well for me.
Until about 3 years ago, when someone scared the life out of my tenant’s young daughter by making strange noises and shooting a gun close to her bedroom window three or four times over about a month. This scared my tenant and I guessed it scared the HOA because they AND my tenant contacted me with a proposal – I join the HOA and they give me exclusions from the HOA rules, including exclusions from paying the monthly fees, and in addition, they will build a wall around the ENTIRE HOA neighborhood, including electric fencing and security cameras.
They told me they had wanted to do this for a while but were unwilling to build the wall on a property that was not in the HOA.
I couldn’t see the downside, and so agreed.
It took a little over a year to build the wall and get everything completed, which is quite fast. And then a month to the day after everything was done, my tenant got an HOA warning about his dogs barking.
He told the HOA that while the property was in the HOA, it was exempt from the rules. The HOA told him that they had canceled the exemptions and that he had 30 days to comply. He contacted me, and I opened some mail I’d gotten from the HOA (I’d ignored it since I was supposed to be exempt from the rules and fees).
Man, did I get a surprise. They had retroactively canceled the exemptions, and were claiming:
That I pay late fees going back over a year.
That the easement agreement had been canceled, and that they were retroactively canceling it a year back because the HOA contract allowed them to use “small unused portions” of HOA members land for the common good for free.
That I refund them what they had paid for the easement over that period.
That I owed them for the garden service mowing the large lawn.
That I would be fined for each infraction my tenant failed to remedy.
This started an expensive process involving lawyers and the court system, which ended with a judge telling me that what the HOA had done was mostly legal – they had the right to revoke the exemptions, but that they had to give me 30 days notice.
As I was walking to my car the neighbor OO (the one who bought half my land so many years ago) told me that I was stupid to have refused to join when the HOA started, as I could have been a founder member (whatever that means), and that next time I should be sure to understand the documents I sign before signing them.
Neighbour OO was right, I should have read the contract (better).
Also, I was interested in what it meant to be a ‘Founding Member’ (spoiler: Nothing), and so when I got home I grabbed the HOA contract I’d signed, as well as all the other documentation they had provided me with, and started reading. I was determined to break every rule I could find a loophole to break.
I didn’t get past the first page.
While the street address of the property is used to identify it for all practical purposes, in the city records it has a unique property number that has to be used on legal records. When my mom moved in, I’d subdivided the remaining property but hadn’t yet started building on it. And when I gave the HOA the easement all those years ago it had been on the property I’d sliced off for my mom.
And when the HOA set up the contract, they had simply used the property number from the easement.
The next afternoon the neighbor OO delivered (and had me sign for) two documents – one telling me that my exemptions would expire in 30 days, and one letting me know that the easement would no longer be required after 30 days. I think he was being a bit malicious here, because I lived about an hour away from the property, and he drove out himself.
EXACTLY 30 days TO THE HOUR after the HOA had given me the 30 days notice, I knocked on the neighbor OO’s door (did I mention he was the president of the HOA?) and had him sign for two documents. The first was that I planned to build a house on my HOA property (which confused him) and the second noticed that they had 30 days to remove from the property the guard shed, the parts of the electric boom that were on my property, as well as the sign.
He tried to engage me but I ignored him, climbed into my car, and drove off.
Early the next morning I got a call from the HOA lawyer who explained to me that their junk would be staying on my property since it was in an ‘unused’ part of my land. I explained that I was building a house there and that the land would not be unused anymore.
I could hear the smirk as he told me that building a second house to be spiteful would not be accepted by the courts. I sure hope he could hear the smirk in my voice when I told him that the property in question did not have a house, and was, in fact, barely large enough for a house to be built and would not be large enough for any extraneous buildings.
I then told him to go look up the property in question and call me back. (I had sliced off just enough to be legal, which was just enough to build a small house).
It took them just under 5 days to get back to me. Their lawyer told me that the terms of the easement meant that I could not cancel without their permission, so I emailed him a photo of the document they sent to me canceling the easement.
That afternoon Neighbour OO invited me to lunch (his treat) to discuss the problem. I said ‘No thanks.’ He extended the offer again two days later, and again I said ‘No thanks.’ Others of the original OO contacted me to try to talk. Some sounded aggressive, some sounded sympathetic. I said, ‘No thanks’ to each of them.
Eventually, the lawyer phoned and asked if we could come to some sort of arrangement.
I asked what he had in mind, and he told me that he was prepared to discuss exclusions in exchange for access to my property. So I said ‘No thanks, and please don’t call me again.’
About 9 days before their 30 days was up I got a call from a different lawyer. He said he wanted to ‘negotiate a surrender’ (his words, not mine). I agreed to meet him at his office the next day.
I’d already had documents drawn up, and the meeting was as simple as me giving him the documents and him reading them over. My new easement offer:
Included everything offered by the old easement offer.
I changed the line ‘mow the lawn’ to ‘get the property to HOA standards and keep it there’ since it was now in the HOA.
Would cost them about $500 per month instead of ~$35.
This amount would be increased with inflation (the previous contract didn’t include that bit).
When canceled, for whatever reason, the HOA would have to pay me a cancellation fee of around $7500.
The contract automatically terminated 30 days after any disciplinary action was taken against me, my tenant, or the property (‘the property’), any complaints were levied by the HOA against the property, any legal action was taken against the property by anyone in the HOA.
That (lawyer who had offered to negotiate surrender) would be allowed to mediate any disputes between us, at HOAs expense, and that
The HOA would pay all my legal fees if any legal action was taken against me.
I’d deliberately left some insane things in there so that I could appear to ‘concede’ some points or be negotiated down when the HOA got indignant about the points I actually cared about.
The lawyer didn’t look happy. He said that my proposal sounded unfair, but that he’d have the HOA president look at them. I reminded him that in 8 days I’d be setting a group of men armed with sledgehammers and anger management issues loose on whatever of theirs was still on my property.
That evening I got an irate call from the HOA president.
He told me he was never going to sign the new contract. I said ‘OK’. He then told me I was charging too much per month, and that it should be at the same rate as the previous contract. I pointed out that when I signed the previous contract the area was under development, and there was at least one other road leading in and out, but that now there was only mine.
And besides, mine was now developed with everything they needed. He told me that I was forcing them to sign a document they didn’t want to sign. I told him that he was free to not sign it. He whined about everything he could think of. And then eventually told me I’d be hearing from his lawyer.
The next morning Surrender Lawyer called to ask if I’d be willing to come to their offices to sign the contract.
I agreed. When I got there that afternoon I learned that Surrender Lawyer was not a lawyer, but a Paralegal. He handed me the contract and asked me to sign it. He laughed when I told him I’d have to read through it first to make sure nothing was changed and mumbled something that sounded like ‘I’m sure you would’.
I read the contract.
Nothing had been changed. NOT A SINGLE THING. And the HOA president had signed it, with the Surrender Paralegal signing as witness. I looked at him and said ‘Why did he sign this? It was stupid to sign it!’ and the paralegal looked at me and said ‘I started telling him that signing it would be a bad decision, but he told me I wasn’t being paid to think or give legal advice, and to shut up.
So I shut up.’ I said, ‘Do you understand what he’s signed here?’ He looks at me and nods. He said he asked him if he should have one of the lawyers look at it before giving it to me, and he told him that they had already billed enough for this and that he’d sign it and sue me after their easement was safe.
This happened about a year and a half ago. It took 6 months for the HOA to find out how screwed they were. They wanted to sue me, but their lawyers explained to them that there was no way to win. Even if the court sided with them, all they would get is the easement contract voided, and they did not think that the court would side with them.
The lawyers were adamant about one thing – the HOA could not live with the ‘HOA pays my legal fees if legal action was taken against me’ since it didn’t limit the people taking legal action against me to the HOA – as worded, the HOA would be forced to pay for my legal fees if ANYONE took legal action against me. They argued that the courts would probably not enforce that, since the context of the agreement was to do with the HOA, and I told them I was prepared to find out since the HOA would definitely be the ones taking action against me if they challenged it.
I eventually signed an addendum to the contract that said that the neighbor OO (HOA President) would personally pay all my legal fees unless he held no position at all in the HOA and that the HOA would pay all legal fees if the HOA took legal action against me. He resigned from the HOA at the end of that meeting. I politely told him in front of everyone that he should not sign documents unless he understands what he’s signing.
He didn’t look pleased.
It came out during the mediation (you cannot imagine how happy the lawyers were that their paralegal was mediating) that without the ability to control access to the HOA neighborhood through the security boom (partially) on my property (the HOA had become a ‘gated community’ a number of years back) the HOA would be in breach of their own articles and would be dissolved. I also learned (should have been obvious to me) that all the security cameras were wired, and all terminate in the guardhouse/guard shed. So basically, it was my way or the end of the HOA.
That first mediation was really quite funny. My paralegal looked more than a little glum as we assembled and he called everyone to order. I suspected that he had been told to work against me, so I took the initiative. I reminded everyone there that I had agreed to let the Paralegal mediate, but that I had agreed to no arbitration at all. If I didn’t feel like the proceedings were fair I’d leave and they could go ahead and sue.
The paralegal brightened up and things actually went quite well.
I’m writing this after getting home from the latest mediation. I built a ‘paddling pool’ for the neighborhood dogs. As in I made it myself. I dug a hole, packed it with stone, and added a concrete finish. It was my first attempt, and if I say so myself, it looked… well, terrible. The HOA called for a mediation meeting (what they do now instead of taking official action.
I’ve declined their mediation requests in the past) in which they told me, as nicely as they could, that the paddling pool was an eyesore right at the entrance of the HOA. I asked them to create a list of what needed to be fixed and how it needed to be fixed to give to me the next meeting. The list was extensive. It basically required the pool to be rebuilt from scratch, I asked them if there was any way to reduce costs on the work they needed to get it up to HOA standards, and they assured me there was not.
I thanked them, pulled out a copy of the agreement where they had agreed to ‘get the property to HOA standards’ (which I’d highlighted), and handed it to them with the list. I told them the HOA usually preferred if these things were dealt with within 30 days. They started arguing until the mediator reminded them that they could not force me to comply without causing the easement to end.
I should mention that their lawyers usually no longer attend these things. They said they would get it done.
I also learned a lot about neighbor OO today:
I found out that Neighbour OO sold his property about 3 months back, and is apparently leaving the country for Australia.
I found out that the HOA had successfully sued him for what they had lost to his mismanagement as part of his vendetta against me.
I also learned that he had a vendetta against me. I have no idea what I did to upset him.
I’m not sure if I will screw with the HOA anymore. I already think I’m so close to breaking them the only thing stopping them from canceling the contract is the massive financial loss if they do. I guess a lot depends on how they treat me and my tenants going forward.
Also, I do like the monthly payments, though, so I’m motivated to play nice.”
9. Steal My Identity? I'll "Steal" Your Cars
“Our 40-something neighbor Frank Smith has a brother three years older named Fred with the two similar in looks and build. Apparently, these boys were not obedient children and got into trouble a lot. Frank (mostly) straightened up by the time he reached 21 but Fred kept at it, with drinking, illegal substances, multiple DUIs, etc. While the two were still living at home with their parents in their early 20s, Frank happened to leave his wallet on the kitchen counter one night after coming home from a night out.
The next morning, he discovered his ID wasn’t in his wallet. Thinking he must have left it at a bar the night before, he tried locating it but with no luck. Not thinking much about it, he just got a new ID.
Fast forward a year or so and Frank gets a phone call. It’s his uncle whose son works at the county jail.
Fred had been arrested and their cousin happened to see him when he was getting booked – under the name Frank Smith. Turns out Fred had given the police Frank’s name (and ID) and was going to jail under Frank’s identity. Needless to say, Frank was livid. He went down to the jail to prove he was Frank and Fred was a liar. Fred was ultimately sentenced to serve time and stayed put.
During the time that Fred was in jail, Frank received a letter in the mail from the state BMV. It said that his two vehicles, an Audi sedan, and a VW bug, were due for e-checks (emission checks). Frank was confused because he only owned a truck. He went to the BMV and discovered that these two vehicles were indeed titled in his name. That’s when Frank realized that his brother, who had lost the right to own a vehicle due to excessive DUIs, used his identity to register these cars.
Frank asked how much it cost to get duplicates of the titles – $8 each. So he paid $16 and walked away with title documents for the two cars. He knew enough of his brother’s friends to start calling around in search of the cars – lo and behold, he located them both (at different locations). Frank is a knowledgeable mechanic and could start these cars without keys, but he knocked on the door of each house where the cars were.
He explained to each person that he owned the title to the car, showed them the document, and gave them the opportunity to remove their belongings from the vehicle before he took it. They understood and didn’t push back, taking their things out of the car and handing him the keys. Frank proceeded to sell both cars and pocket around three thousand dollars for all his troubles.
The good news is that after his stint in jail, Fred got sober and became someone Frank could actually be friends with.”
8. Got $40k For "Accidentally" Confiding A "Secret" To A Gossiping Coworker
“I worked at a chain salon in the US for minimum wage (+tips). We got paid on a sliding scale, the more you added services the more your hourly pay. Then, for back to school, we started offering $10 haircuts. It’s dumb to offer a big discount on back to school because that’s when everyone needs a haircut but whatever.
Except, to advertise this sale we had to stand on a rickety step stool and hang a 10-foot long 3-foot wide banner off the roof of our store. The step stool alone made it a dangerous task, but on top of it, the sidewalk was uneven. Our manager insisted we do it twice a day (open&close) ‘in case someone steals the banner’. Because certainly, someone would want to steal a banner with our logo that says ‘$10 Haircuts’.
It was annoying but I was looking forward to my next paycheck. I had a high service dollar per hour which should’ve meant a bigger hourly pay & paycheck. Except it didn’t. That $7/haircut discount? It was coming out of our final service dollar calculations and we ended up making significantly less than usual! I’d worked there for years and this was the smallest back-to-school paycheck I’d ever seen.
I went in the next day and was annoyed. That morning, a coworker (who was a total brown-nose & gossip) and I were outside setting up the banner. It was my turn to stand on the rickety step stool and I said I was ‘glad this will be the last time I ever do this!’ I was fully prepared to make a joke about how I was going to fall and crack my head open when the petty revenge idea came into my mind and I swiftly executed it.
When she asked why, I told her not to tell anyone but I’d accepted a job at another salon with a set schedule, higher commission, and $5 more an hour. I said I’d planned on putting in my two weeks but they needed me to start sooner so I was going to work the weekend and not come back. This would leave us understaffed for the back-to-school rush.
After reiterating she could NOT tell ANYONE, especially not our boss, she agreed.
I left early that day and on my next shift, my boss pulled me into her office. She said she’d ‘heard a rumor’ that I was leaving to work at a different salon. I told her I had a much better offer elsewhere but if she could match that I would love to stay.
She had to put a call into our district leader about the raise but said I could work with a set schedule starting the following week. I was working until 9 pm some days and at 9 am the next, the unpredictable schedule made finding childcare a pain in the butt! I was consistently ranked #2 in sales for our store and the district, so the DL approved the raise and I stayed there another five years!
This means I got an additional $39,000 in pay for ‘accidentally’ telling the salon gossip my ‘secret’. I also got a 20% commission on $500-$1000 a week in product sales.
I also started printing out my service sales slip from the day before at the beginning of every shift, so that when payroll ‘readjusted’ the paychecks to include coupons I could pull up my record and dispute it.
According to payroll, there was nothing they could do about it. I stayed another five years, raising the issue sporadically until they brought back the $10/haircut sale and I quit. A few months after I left I was made aware that a different employee in another state filed a class-action lawsuit and I got a letter asking if I wanted to be a part of it.
I accepted and the lawyer loved receiving five years’ worth of documentation, emails from corporate and payroll, etc. they had to go back through all of my paychecks and compensate me for the difference. This included adding the free haircuts (reward program) and discounted haircuts as their whole amount, increasing the service dollar. .19 cents an hour here and .30 cents an hour there added up and despite the fact that the settlement was split with a lot of people I got $10k from that in addition to my adjusted pay which was around half the settlement amount.”
7. Call Me A Loser? I'll Take Away Everything That You Have
“My dad has 3 siblings all older than him and all equally trashy human beings. They bullied my dad for years and made his childhood miserable after their parents’ divorce due to him being slightly darker in skin tone than them (grandma is white, grandpa is brown-skinned).
They were abusive racist idiots and the worst of them was my older uncle. He was a big bully and a snob that saw himself better than everyone else.
All the bullying and the bad treatment messed up my dad mentally so much that he became a raging heavy drinker. This made my life miserable as a result (till I moved out 2 years ago) and caused me many traumas that I am still dealing with to this day.
Anyways in my country, the most important year in your life is your last high school year. It ends with a nationwide exam that determines if you can go to university or not and the success rate in this exam is fairly low. Basically, if you fail it’s either you drop out and move to low paying jobs that will never amount to anything due to our country’s bad and declining economic state, or you just keep repeating till you get your degree and go to a university that you don’t even want to be in but at least it’s a safety net that can get you out of the country hopefully one day.
Things did not go well for me due to family issues and having undiagnosed ADHD at the time that was causing me a lot of academic problems without me knowing the cause, which in turn gave me some sort of depression. Goes without saying that year ended up in me failing, and due to the importance of that exam people saw it as a shame and kind of a big letdown.
Needless to say due to the long introduction my family never had a relationship with my uncles, especially since they looked down on us due to my father being a heavy drinker and us being dirt poor which made them think less of us. Bear in mind they stole everything my dad inherited from his father including a house and a piece of land that could have lifted us at least to a mid-class level.
Lo and behold my big uncle that I last saw when I was 7 came to visit us 3 days after the failure of my diploma. I already did not like the guy after all the stories that I heard about him and his visit felt weird. He had no business being around us at all and somehow he came uninvited. My mom sat him down and started making the usual small talk and then she called me saying that he wanted to say hi.
I went and the conversation went as follows:
Uncle: Oh look how much you’ve grown up, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you. You look just like your dad. The apple does not fall far from the tree. After all, even in terms of being a successful person, you’re following in his footsteps.
He then lets out the loudest and most sarcastic evil laugh ever.
Me: What do you mean by this?
Uncle: Well I heard you failed high school. Guess this branch of the family is bound to be the loser side.
Me: I guess you better shut your mouth and go away. No one wants you here anyway.
Uncle: Guess your stupid mom did not raise you well. What did I expect from hood rats like you?
After that things devolved into a shouting match and he left. After what happened I was mad for a while.
I couldn’t forget the humiliation and I decided that one day I will exact some revenge and I started plotting.
I did some digging till I discovered that all his business and assets are in his wife’s name. He basically owns nothing due to him committing tax fraud and ripping off his formal business associate out of a huge amount before declaring bankruptcy and transferring the amount and everything he owns to his wife to evade taxes.
I came in contact with former employees that agreed to testify if this thing ever came to court due to him being a trashy human being overall and treating them like absolute trash while they worked for him.
Moving forward a few months, I couldn’t even hope for a better outcome than this. He came to our house again to speak to my dad because he wanted to make a golden custom ring for his daughter on her 10th birthday (my dad is a jeweler).
While he is in our house he called out for me asking for a phone charger because his phone is dying and at that moment I almost jumped from Glee. It’s my chance to get his phone and dig around, maybe I can find any documents or emails that can be used later in the police case I was assembling against him. I told him I don’t have a brick but I can charge his phone with a cable from my laptop.
He not knowing any better like the boomer he is, gave me the phone without batting an eye. His phone had a passcode and asking for it was too suspicious so my plan to check his email went down the drain but still, I removed his SD card, put it in my laptop, and copied all his files. I then charged his phone and gave it back.
He eventually left and boom locked my room and started to check all the files. I found nothing at all but as soon as I was giving up I found a well-hidden file with a few videos on it and then I struck gold! A full-blown video of him with another woman with his face fully available clear as daylight and I was literally singing to myself from excitement.
For a few weeks, I made a social media account that made it look like it’s his mistress’ account. I also made a bunch of other accounts that looked like friends and family commenting and interacting with her.
After that, I added his wife and texted her saying that I am her husband’s mistress. She did not believe me at first until I gave her too much personal info that I knew about him for her to keep not believing me.
I told her that he lied and said they were divorced and promised me marriage. She requested to talk to me on the phone, so I made a female friend help out by lending me her voice. She was destroyed and I sent her the tape as proof. After that, she filed for divorce immediately and sued him for infidelity which lost him custody and visitation rights for his girls.
She took everything from him, even the house and all his riches and assets that were in her name.
Overnight he became homeless with 0 to his name but that was not enough for me. I met up with his former business partner through a former employee who especially hated my uncle’s guts and told him everything and that the employees are willing to testify against him in court.
He agreed to file a lawsuit.
The cherry on the top came when his ex-wife testified that he threatened her safety and her kid’s safety if she did not let him put the assets in her name by force and she literally pulled out phone recordings that she had of him being abusive. He was basically using her as a tax evasion tool and she was scared to do anything due to her fear for her children’s safety.
Due to their previous divorce case, the judge needed to hear no more. The man got hit with 15 years in jail so fast that he couldn’t even comprehend what happened before he was on his way to the slammer. He will never see his family again and he will never have his fortune back.
Just to rub some more insult to injury I visited him a year ago and I just said one sentence, ‘this would have never happened if you hadn’t called me a loser,’ and left.
The look on his face while he pieced everything together almost cured my depression.”
6. Mess With My Family? I'll Destroy Your Career
“I was qualified as a mechanical engineer in the mid-1980s working in Textiles, in a little African country. I was part of a management team employed on behalf of an NGO (Non-Govt Organisation) company funded by the Commonwealth and IMF (International Monetary Fund) to help set up viable labor-intensive industries for this country in the Mid 1990s.
To start with, this was a dream job! Free luxury accommodation in a secured village that had: Tennis courts, a swimming pool, and a guest lodge. My contract included: Free Electric, water, and telephone landline (there was no broadband at that time, you used your landline to dial-up; no mobiles at this time), free private schooling for my 3 children, a monthly allowance (note not salary), great pension and full Gold Medical Private medical Insurance.
The catch was that my husband was not allowed to work permanently. He could consult for companies but not be employed – this was part of the legal requirement for me to get work and a residential permit. I was the total breadwinner.
I was respected by the management team and my employees. I loved the people of this nation, the culture, the warmth, and the willingness to learn, the majority of the employees were illiterate when they started employment.
I helped set up schools to improve their verbal and written skills, not only in English but also in the local official language. I woke each day ready to tackle the challenge, see the staff develop (especially the women learning and gaining independence) and see the company flourish and become profitable. The rewards were amazing.
Because the company becomes very profitable it needed to be sold as a going venture to investors in the country.
This was part of an agreement with the CDC (Commonwealth Development Corporation) & IMF (International Monetary Fund) who up to that point were our bosses. The Sale included a clause the assured the continued employment of the local employees for 18months after the sale. The order books were full, the bank balance was very healthy on the day the new owners came in. The new owners have their headquarters in South East Asia: New CEO (Nob) and CFO (Bon) come in – trouble begins
Their first order of the day was to remove the majority of the previous management and bring their team in. I was told, in no uncertain terms that as a female I should be home breeding and not working, my time was up hmph. The company starts ‘losing funds’ within 9 months. This new team started blaming the local employees as the reason for the losses.
Head office sends over a consultant/independent observer, (will call him Ed) to feedback proposals, solutions, and what was the root cause. Ed was empowered to act on behalf of the group’s CEO in South East Asia, this is important for later.
I had to have medical leave for 8 weeks. Whilst on medical leave the CEO decides to cut off free private education, and no more free utilities or food allowance WITHOUT adjusting my ‘Allowance.’ So I went from being well rewarded for the job to having to manage with a salary that was only USD100 and pay for private school and all other household costs that were previously incorporated into the contract.
Yes, the company can do this, basically, a new contract was underwritten as part of the new ownership.
As a true ex-pat employee, the company owns you totally – they own the permits that allow you to work and live in the country. I made a formal complaint but was told if I did not like it, the company would inform the Country Government that I had been fired due to not being qualified. This would have meant 48hrs to leave the country with NO support, no possibility of getting any of our personal belongings shipped, frozen bank account as the Local Government would see this as fraud, possible police record, and my family would lose everything and become destitute!
On my return to work, I was demoted and they place their own man to run my previous department (engineering and maintenance). I go to introduce myself to my new Manager (let’s name him ‘Bob’). Bob refuses to shake hands and states that he is there to make my life miserable and remove me from the company… I saw RED… NO ONE THREATENS MY FAMILY’S wellbeing and gets away with it.
This is how I ensured the whole management lost everything:
Start investigation on what is going on…
In the 1st 12 months that this new management team has taken over the company it is now going bankrupt and in serious debt. New equipment that had been installed by the NGO, has to be ‘sold’ to help pay salaries. The pension fund was found to be ‘underfunded’, was let go – Management blamed the NGO for having ‘taken anything out’ when they sold the company.
This new management team has, somehow, brought overextended families. Older children were all being educated in top Universities either in South Africa or even the UK, younger children in top private schools. There was also extended house staff including drivers, all of this coming out as ‘losses’ in the company books. To top it up I discovered that my new Manager’s University Doctorate was fake!
This management team treats the local staff as sub-human. I had had enough of this. Time to sort these jerks out.
STAGE 1: Prove current boss is not qualified in what he says he is
Talked to Ed about my suspicions. Showed him the transcript from a telephone conversation with the University that he had claimed as having a Ph.D. from. We set a trap…
There was a set of machines that were seriously underperforming, Ed and I work out a plan. I walk into the lead meeting late, I was to be quiet until Ed asked me to contribute, we wanted to give Bob enough rope. In the meeting, I sit quietly whilst Bob blames the local operators, the local maintenance fitters, and everyone else for all the woes that are happening, including why we can’t meet the order book demands.
Ed sweetly asks if there is a possibility of a mechanical issue, Bob denies it. Ed then asks me for my opinion… I explained that Bob has been changing suppliers of critical components to cheaper versions but that still costs the same on the ‘official’ books. I had evidence that demonstrates that Bob was receiving a significant percentage of the difference on the side whilst the company charged the inflated prices.
I also stated that I could fix the problem using the correct components. If I was wrong then by all means – fire me.
Ed sets a challenge to me and Bob, each one of us has a team of fitters and our chosen components. Bob storms to the shop floor and does his usual screaming at everyone. I go down and explain what I was trying to achieve and how it would benefit the operators and get the project going.
At end of the week, we both had to report back to the management team. Ed had asked a few operators, mechanics, and production supervisors how Bob worked and if there was an attempt to sabotage my project. Needless to say, Bob did try everything to ensure my team was not successful but he never had the support of the locals and his team.. they already hated him…
Ed gives Bob a chance to come clean but Bob still stated I was a liar and knew nothing. Ed stands up goes to the door, opens it, and outside is Bob’s family. Ed’s investigation had confirmed what I had stated, as such Ed had organized drivers and contacts to fly to South Africa to pick up all of Bob’s children from schools and universities (and for those in the UK the university was informed, no company funds would be forthcoming for the one child that was being educated.) Ed proceeded to give each of Bob’s family plane tickets for the following morning.
Company security guards and police were sent with Bob to his bank where funds were frozen due to fraudulent transactions. Bob accepted a plea bargain, he will not be welcome in Africa ever and his home country police were informed, so when Bob landed in his home country the head office had organized a police escort. Bob was unemployable and his family was greatly shamed…
I hope he got his just deserts, couldn’t care less – Stage one complete!
Stage 2 the final event:
Prove Nob and Bon have been defrauding the company and Country…
Nob and Bon were still in charge of the company, now 18 months from taking over… the stated clause that the workforce could not be touched was up.
Nob and Bon called an all site meeting… they stood upfront with tears running down on how the NGO had lied about the company orders and profitability, how they are trying their best but the company is really struggling and people will lose their jobs, they announced a reduction of 66% of the workforce.
I had been working closely with Nob and Bon’s secretary, the accountant, and the purchasing officer, so had been able to access the info needed – survival kicked in.
As I was part of the original management team, I had the original accounts that were audited as part of the CDC and IMF funding for the NGO. In the 18 months, I accumulated information on the losses being shown and the missing funds going off-shore into private accounts and not the head office accounts.
You see these 2 did not respect women or the locals, they assumed that what was being done would not be picked up. If they had bothered to understand who they employed in the office, they would have found that the purchase officer and the accounting supervisor were qualified accountants with close links to Government, the banks and they were.. you’re right – women.
I had explained to the secretary, the accountant, and purchasing officer that there would be a time when we needed evidence to safeguard funds and people’s livelihood.
So the files had been building from 6 months to now a year later…
I talk to Ed and give him the evidence we had been accumulating, it was what Ed needed. Nob calls me to the office to tell me that I am redundant with immediate effect. He also stated that for me to be able to stay in the country to sort out my family I would now owe the company rent that was twice my given ‘allowance’… I lost it…
I literally turned around and explained that in less than 24hours, Nob would have no future, his family would have no future, no matter where they run… they would be found… I already knew this to be true as Ed already had the wheels in motion. This time the Group Chairman walks in on my heated conversation together with the IMF representative and Bon in toe.
Nob was fired on the spot, loaded onto a plane with an international warrant for fraud… the IMF pursued this fully… Nob was screwed… in this southeast Asian country, a stain on your trustworthiness means you are untouchable…
Bon didn’t dare much better, he was locally arrested, denied access, fined and the IMF did the same to him as what had happened to Nob, only difference was that Bon willingly ratted Nob for all he was worth.
As for me…
The company limped along but I no longer trusted anyone from that group. I and my husband found employment in another regional country, this time both of us had work permits and airtight contracts.. no one will ever screw us over or make us feel like slaves. The message is – do not threaten my children or my family… I will destroy you… not proud just realistic.
After I left this company I actually ran a little guest lodge… wanted a break from the chaos, only to get into another type of chaos.
I now live in the UK, came home to my husband’s hometown.”
5. Go To St. Petersburg Without Me? I'll Prank All Of You
“When I was 19, I had two best friends since school, and we literally did everything together. We had a common chat, hung out together, and could trust every secret with each other. However, one of those friends (let’s call her Ann) was very conflictual, sometimes she was mean to us, etc. The other one (let’s call her Mary) was peaceful and kind.
Once I learned that my and Mary’s favorite rock group was going to give a concert in our city. I suggested we go together and she agreed, but we didn’t buy tickets.
After a week or two, I reminded her of the concert and suggested buying tickets immediately. She suddenly refused because of some reason (I don’t remember exactly). I decided not to go because I didn’t want to go alone, but generally, I was completely OK with that, no offense was taken.
However, there was another reason for her to decline my offer.
Ann’s father had a business trip to Saint Petersburg, and his company paid for his hotel room. However, he decided to stay at his sister’s since she lived here. He offered Ann to go to that hotel room instead of him, so she only had to pay for the train tickets. She also could take one friend.
She decided to invite Mary instead of me. As I learned later, it was because Ann and I had spent more time together recently, and Mary was very busy with her studies. But they kept it secret from me. I didn’t know anything.
I found all this out because I read Mary’s messages occasionally (and I’m not proud of that). I found that Mary was in a panic when I asked her about the concert and texted Ann wondering what to do.
And Ann said something like ‘aah, just make up something’. I didn’t get mad at Mary, but I got mad at Ann because not only did she lie to me but also made Mary lie to me, made her do things she wouldn’t normally do.
I decided not to tell them anything but when they were already in Saint Petersburg I started texting in our common chat some pranks like ‘Girls, let’s go for a walk’, etc. It was funny to read their messages as if they were not together.
Finally, they gave up and admitted that they came to Saint P without me, I admitted I read their messages, and we had an unpleasant conversation.
As it turned out later, their trip was a complete disaster. For example, they bought tickets to Mariinsky theater, but they were late for the ballet show and had to watch everything from the rear, standing for 2 hours. Moreover, when they were already at the train station to go home, they decided to go to the shop and buy a present for me to apologize.
They were choosing for so long that they missed their comfortable high-speed train and had to buy the cheapest one to return home.
We made up later and continued our friendship. However, we had a few more quarrels with Ann and now she hasn’t spoken to me and Mary for a long time. Mary and I are still good friends.
It’s just a story about how the best thing you can do is, to be honest to each other.”
4. Inconsiderate Engineer Tried To Make My Job Difficult
“Several years ago I managed a training department in a company that made high tech training simulators for the military and control rooms of power plants. The delivered products included training and technical manuals for the operation and maintenance of the simulator hardware and software.
To enable concurrent deliveries we wrote our manuals from the same design information that the engineers used.
For a particular project, I assigned a training specialist to create a manual with certain technical data. Unknown to him and myself the responsible engineer deliberately issued an obsolete version of the data, probably because he had a spare copy not yet thrown away.
I discovered the defect during my final review and begged more time from the project manager to deliver the proper book, but not more budget since I would work on it myself.
My request was rejected and I met the schedule by working for free on nights and weekends.
Six months later karma presented me with an opportunity for revenge. It was common on such contracts for customers to be delivered finalized versions of all technical data approximately six months after customer acceptance testing. My department published some of those technical manuals. Our value-added was to technically edit the documents so that the nomenclature, style, and organization were standardized.
I found a technical description for one software program that was so badly written as to be incoherent and determined: (1) It was authored by the same engineer; (2) he was effectively illiterate in technical writing; (3) no other version existed. I inserted the illiterate document verbatim into the appendix of a related deliverable manual.
I delivered the manuscript to a particularly thorough contract administrator who always read what she issued and expressed my anxiety about the target appendix for which I had no other versions and which needed attention from the only person who could ensure technical accuracy of any needed rewrite.
Approximately two days later she rejected the document and told the project manager to get the engineer to fix it.
The engineer was furious with me for including his document. After he vented on me I went to the project manager and begged that he give the engineer time to rewrite the appendix. The manager ordered the engineer to rewrite the appendix and ridiculed him for using me to beg on his behalf.
After another vent on me, I again begged for more time but was figuratively ejected from the manager’s office. The engineer vehemently demanded that I stop going to his boss. (I was only trying to get him some consideration denied to me.)
It took the illiterate engineer about three weeks to satisfy the contract administrator to whom I repeatedly expressed my empathy and gratitude perhaps once a week for making sure that only the best products were good enough to be shipped.”
3. Keep Us Out Of Our Remote Desktop Link? Here's The Consequence
“At the time, going to campus was a no-go so everything was online. As such, a lot of programs used for course work, which were only on PC, needed a remote link for those of us on Macs or other devices. This link connects students to assigned desktops physically on campus through an application like Citrix. It would only allow students onto the desktops when another class was not remotely ‘using’ that lab at the time, and at night when registered classes were done.
The on-campus computers would show that their drives were in use, so the students who lived on campus would know that someone was remotely accessing it.
Well, I was taking a course in Remote Sensing, which required access to programs such as ArcMap, ArcGIS, R, and ERDAS (you can look them up). They were only available on PC so I, as a MacBook user, needed to use the remote link.
The issue started at the start of October when I was working on an assignment in ArcMap. I was really startled when I was suddenly kicked out, and then furious because I hadn’t had the chance to save my latest input. I then went back to the webpage, re-input my student credentials, and logged into a different desktop.
Not two minutes later was I logged out AGAIN.
Rightly peeved, I emailed the professor and TAs about it and moved on to other homework. I figured it was a bug that would soon be fixed.
No. It continued throughout the entire month. I ended up having to work on my remote labs between 9 pm and 2 am, as I literally was not able to work during the day without being kicked off. It was really annoying, especially since I couldn’t even work during my assigned lab time!
Other students started reporting this, and we’d get a lot of emails from IT. Updates, patches, and things like that we had to install to try and patch this ‘bug’. And nothing worked. It was painful.
I decided that enough was enough, and took a train to campus after my online morning classes. If it was going to keep booting me off the remote, then I would just go in person!
I completed the online health check, got to campus no problem, and made my way to the building that housed all the PCs. Yes, we have a building that houses all the PCs for computer classes. Anyways, I went up and towards the lab that my credentials were registered to.
I’m going to be honest. I wasn’t expecting what I saw. But I was so annoyed.
Through the windows into the lab, I saw two guys going from PC to PC… logging students off!
At first, I couldn’t believe it, and then I got furious. They were laughing about screwing with hard-working students! (I will call them Dumb and Dumber.)
That’s when I decided to get some payback.
I pulled out my phone and placed it beside the window, and it was partially hidden by the trash bin inside the classroom, recording them and what they were doing.
They didn’t notice me, thank God, and I got onto my laptop, remote linking to my phone. I then got onto the university social media page and started to Livestream the video from my phone. I put a title along the lines of ‘Found the bugs kicking students off Remote Desktop’ (the video has been deleted, and I will explain soon).
It didn’t take long for fellow students to take notice of it, and it went viral within 30 minutes.
Names were soon put out as Dumb and Dumber were recognized, and there was a lot of hate in the comments. Even campus police replied, asking for the location.
I was all too happy to give it.
It was then I saw on the stream that Dumb pulled out his phone, and he started freaking out. He had noticed the stream and that it was live.
I quickly rushed to grab my phone and retreat, and that’s when Dumber rushed out the door and tackled me!
We started brawling (it was self-defense, as he kept attacking me to grab my phone), and then I saw Dumb going for my laptop, which was hosting the stream (which was STILL being recorded from my phone!). So… I kicked Dumber between the legs while elbowing him in the neck, before jumping Dumb.
To be honest, I don’t really know what happened next, but I do remember campus police having to pull me off Dumb. Apparently, I had full-bodied tackled him away from my laptop, and he punched me in the face…
With me apparently grabbing his carry-on bag, bashing him over the head with it… accidentally cracking his laptop. Oops!
So, anyways the fight was broken up and we were all taken down to the campus police office.
To make a very long story short, I got a relative slap on the wrist for my part of it. Had to do some on-campus community service, but my record was kept clean. Thankfully. I was not charged for the fight or the laptop, as I was able to prove the self-defense, and that they hit me first/tried to destroy my property intentionally (which made it worse for them).
I was let off on the laptop for a technicality, as I was punched in the face, and had no idea that he even had a laptop in his carry-on. Phew.
As for Dumb and Dumber, I was called in to testify at each of their hearings in December. Turns out kicking students off remote links was considered a very grave academic offense, as it was intentional tampering with others’ work.
The video stream I took was a big part of the evidence against them, and CCTV proved that they had been doing it for weeks. In almost all the computer labs. They had intentionally messed with over a hundred students. Adding to attacking me and my devices… they got into pretty hot water.
Now, the reason this wasn’t discovered sooner was due to the fact that this Remote Link was new to us, and IT was still working through the bugs.
I don’t know exactly what happened next, as they just needed me to come in (masked) and tell what I did and remembered. However, I did get the notification in my email in March this past year that two students were expelled for intentional tampering with other students’ work. Can you guess who? Yup, Dumb and Dumber got the boot for their dumb actions.
It gets even better though. Turns out they were here on student visas! This meant that not only were they expelled from the university with a black mark on their records, they were also given the boot from the country! And most definitely back to their very disappointed parents.
They were actually put on a cargo flight home, as their country wasn’t allowing passenger flights.
They had to go because, without their visas, they were in the country illegally which would land them in even deeper hot water. The university actually took mercy on them and paid for the flight, and I agree. They may have acted stupid, but that’s no reason to have to deal with Border Security or whatnot. I only know this because I ran into, and was able to talk with, one of the campus officers who told me what happened when went I went in person for a lab this recent September.
So, yeah. Those guys had to take a cargo flight home. I think the uncomfortable experience they would’ve had was enough punishment compared to being in lock-up until their country’s borders opened or until other arrangements could be made.
Maybe it’s karma, but they got publicly exposed on a live stream for their actions for all the school to see (which was taken down due to it needing to be evidence against them and all).
But, Yep. They were expelled twice for their dumb actions, and with their names in campus infamy for their stunt. Hope they’ve learned their lesson!”
2. Crazy Customer Gets Banned Over 42 Cents
“I’m a cashier and this happened on a Friday. I should’ve known by the way she acted at first when I greeted her I feel like you can just TELL when u got a customer that had a bad day and wanna take it out on you or something.
So, the customer buys a $17.99 purse. Comes out to $19.58 because ya know taxes. She hands me a 20. I give her back 42 cents and her receipt and with a smile, say have a nice day. She cuts me off and rudely says ‘stop giving me dimes’. I have 4 dimes 2 pennies… she leaves but comes back receipt in hand. I already know what’s coming next.
She slaps the receipt on the counter and points to the sales tax which was $1.60 saying that was supposed to be her change.
I very nicely said actually your change is 42 cents if you do the math and it also says it here. IT’S LITERALLY LABELED SALES TAX AND CHANGE DUE WAS RIGHT UNDER IT.
She says loudly NO YOU STUPID GIRL.
I just immediately go to my supervisor, I can’t even breathe. I point to the lady at my register and say can I please go to the back.
She sees my state and teary eyes and she says I could go. I go to the basement and have a panic attack. Not sure what exactly caused this reaction, there’s a lot of things wrong with me.
So after I think I’ve calmed down I go back up and try to talk to my supervisor and I can barely speak. She says if I need more time it’s okay.
I just nod and walk away because I started crying again…
Now I actually feel calm so I can speak. I go back upstairs and find out that the lady got BANNED. My supervisor said she does not play when it comes to her cashiers and she will not let people treat us any kind even though we drive her crazy sometimes. I’m really glad that even though retail in general sucks I can say that having good higher-ups and getting along with coworkers makes it a lot better.
I’m really thankful and appreciative for them having my back. In the end, I got the last laugh because there’s only one store location in this city.”
1. I Did Whatever It Took To Get Out Of That Chaotic Household
“I grew up in an environment that was absolutely less than ideal. My mother, while literally the only good person in my immediate family (and honestly an absolute saint for putting up with all she has these years), has somehow remained married to my racist, crotchety, yelling, angry jailbird of a father, who consistently fights with his brother (my uncle) who lived with us and continually spreads his misery wherever he goes.
He treated my uncle ‘like a slave’ (In his own words), but not me because some part of him did realize that I was his kid and not his servant. While he would yell, screech, and absolutely tear down my self-esteem many times, he did admittedly get better toward me over the years. To the point where when he was angry he did attempt not to yell.
This did not sit well with my uncle, who decided to turn some 50+ years of rage onto me and my dog in some sort of passive-aggressive attempt at making himself feel better. Belittling us. Yelling at my dog. Telling me I was stupid, dumb, lazy, that I don’t do anything.
You get the picture. It wasn’t pretty.
On top of all this I was born with a battalion of issues, the main of which is relevant to this story being Schizophrenia, Anxiety, and several other issues.
At my lowest low, I showered once a week, ate once a day, and almost never left my room. Because of these three issues, I tended to go in and out of mental hospitals a lot. I liked it there more than at home. Because while I didn’t have the few comforts to which I was used to (my phone and laptop), there was no yelling there.
I am also a writer. And while having schizophrenia is no picnic, it makes my work a lot more interesting when I can hear the characters in my head. And being in the hospital led me to write more, which is how this revenge got started.
Being cooped up in my bedroom, I tended to write A LOT. I’m talking 1000 word stories being churned out in an hour or less.
While my uncle and my dad were calling me lazy and saying I didn’t do anything, I was upping my typing speed, gaining a following of fans, and encouraging other writers. And in the process of encouraging others, I met my friend. We’ll call him Sebastian (Seb for short).
Sebastian and I wrote very similar plot lines and were in a lot of the same fandoms. We clicked right away and got to talking, almost every day.
I was very honest with Seb about what my home life looked like. He understood my feelings, being in a similar position with wanting to leave home. When it became clear to both of us that my home was getting increasingly less safe, we hatched a plan to get me out of there. For good.
Sebastian spoke to his dad and he said it was all right for me to take a spare room in his house.
This was over 500 miles away from my home and a dream come true. Not only that, but his mother had an in with the company I wanted to work at for my dream job. I eagerly awaited my day of reckoning, never letting my dad or uncle know of the plan I had concocted. Every insult, every ‘you’re not moving out’, every ‘You don’t do anything around here’, I braved with a smile even.
Because they had no idea of what was to come.
My mother was the only one who knew. And while she knew she would miss me, she wanted me to go and get out of that situation. She never let it slip to them about what was in the works. I’m sure it caused a great deal of trouble for her later on. If it has, she hasn’t told me since.
When it came nearer to time, I told my dad I had a job offer out in California and would be staying with a friend. Eager to have me working, he encouraged me to go – and sealed my moving. Until, of course, he realized that I was leaving. This caused a conniption of epic proportions. The fact that I could conceivably be capable of leaving and not be his errand girl or emotional punching bag would have clearly been a devastating blow.
But I didn’t care. The plans were made and I was headed out whether he liked it or not.
When the day of my move finally came, my Dad ended up driving me there himself because my mother could not manage the trip with her back. To say it was sweet justice to see my father have to reckon with the consequences of his own actions in that way was putting it mildly.
I had never been so proud of myself. I was up all night, packing, navigating highways, taking out my dog, and absolutely riding the high of 26 years of the systematic breakdown of my spirit coming to an end. When I got to hug Seb that day, it was the best feeling. And when I, at last, made it to my new abode, after I had unpacked all of my belongings, I sat there and wept into my dog’s fur.
Because I had done what they had told me I would never do – what even my 60-year-old uncle could never do – and made it out of there.
It’s now four and a half months later. While I, unfortunately, did not get the dream job I hoped for, I have grown in leaps and bounds. I’ve focused on obtaining the life skills I could not get being holed up in my room, and am trying more new things.
I’ve started eating more healthily, and have begun to take better care of myself. I’m four months free of smoking, and while I don’t go out very much, Seb and I often spend evenings working on stories together. We’re hoping to get our own place come January, and the future is looking very bright. I’d like to tell you that my dad and uncle got better, but they’re still the same people they’ve always been.
I’m just no longer their emotional punching bag, and that’s good enough for me. Mom is doing okay despite my being gone, and I have even managed to get the actual phrase: ‘I’m proud of how you’re handling yourself out there’ out of my father. I’d say it was possibly my greatest achievement in all of this, making him eat his words.”
