People Want Us To Understand Their "Am I The Jerk?" Stories

“I ordered pizza for delivery for dinner from a local place, a place my family orders from often. I got 2 pizzas for my family and waited for delivery.

25 minutes later, I went to greet the delivery driver at the door.

I have 4 dogs that are free to poop in the yard, so I have a sign that tells people to keep off the grass. I have the sign so people who aren’t my friends/family stay off the grass in general. I don’t want people who I don’t know on my grass.

Especially considering it’s been rainy and muddy the last few weeks, I never would have expected the delivery boy to walk through the grass. He did. Once he got to the door he began complaining that he stepped in dog poop and that his new shoes were ruined.

I looked at his shoes, and he indeed had dog poop on them. I shrugged and pointed to the sign that said to keep off the grass. I tried to hand him the money and get the pizzas, but he refused. He told me I needed to pay for the shoes to be replaced as they were around $120.

I laughed in his face.

Thinking he must’ve been joking, I brushed it off and once again tried to get the pizzas. He didn’t budge and told me that he was taking the pizzas back and would be back to get the funds later.

I was angry with what happened, but I made alternate dinner plans and let him leave. He pulled in again and demanded payment for the shoes, and I once again declined. My husband came to the door as well, on my side.

I wasn’t going to pay because the delivery driver was careless.

While I continued to argue with the driver, my husband called the pizza place and put them on speakerphone. He asked to speak to whoever was in charge and was informed that it was the owner on the line.

My husband let him know about the situation, but to our surprise, he sided with the delivery driver.

‘If you don’t pay my son for his replacement shoes, your address will be blacklisted from our restaurant.’ The owner clearly was angry as well.

My husband ended the call and we decided to just ignore them and not eat there anymore.

The driver clearly was not going to leave, after another hour and a half of arguing. I told him I would call the police if he didn’t leave our front door.

Now he’s parked on the street, technically not our property, and sitting there. It’s been another hour. Police can’t remove him since it’s not our property, but I’m very uncomfortable.

I told my family about the situation and my BIL told me I’m acting like a jerk. AITJ for not paying?

EDIT: I haven’t cleaned up the dog poo due to the constant rain and it being extremely cold outside.

I have a walkway that’s very large and lit up. The sign is lit up as well.”

Another User Comments:

“NTJ. You went out of your way to put up a sign about your lawn.

He disregarded a posted sign to walk through disgusting, already muddy grass and then cried when he happened to step in poop (honestly a risk inherent to that job). I used to work as a delivery driver and I once slipped on black ice on someone’s front walkway and my knee was so injured and swollen that I was in tears from the pain driving back to the store, had to leave work early, and take some time off.

I never once blamed the homeowner, things happen—again, it comes with the job. Why on earth was he wearing his nice shoes to deliver pizzas and walk through muddy grass in the first place?

You’re not acting like a jerk at all, stick with your convictions, and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise; if someone walks on grass when there is a sign actively posted telling them not to and steps in the poop as a result, that’s on them.

It’s not your responsibility to make up for his own mistake. He can wash the shoes off or pay to have them cleaned.” versikendra

Another User Comments:

“NTJ

Even if you didn’t have a sign up saying to stay off the grass, that kid was obviously not looking where he was going, and he walked himself into the dog poop.

You didn’t force him to walk over a pile of poop; he entered your property and acted irresponsibly.

Considering that you specifically had a sign up saying not the step on the grass, it’s even more obvious that you’re absolutely not at fault, and you shouldn’t give that kid anything.

People who deliberately do stupid stuff like this and then claim that you should bear the consequences of their actions are generally people looking to trick others out of their funds. It’s very unlikely that this kid is wearing $120.00 shoes for his pizza delivery job.

Sure, don’t judge a book by its cover, but there’s no reasonable kid who would wear expensive shoes like this while delivering pizza in the rain. He is 100% a scam artist trying to trick you out of your funds.

If that kid wasn’t related to the owner then the chances of him being upset would be very unlikely. I’d hazard a guess that he’s only siding with the kid because it’s his kid.

It’s unfortunate (especially if you really like the food at this place), but don’t let idiotic people like this walk all over you like a doormat.

That kid can absolutely just wash his shoes – yeah it might smell on the way home, and that’s really unfortunate for him, but this is the real world, and he can’t expect other people to pay for his actions.

It’s not really clear why people would say that it’s your fault; I doubt there’s a single person who would immediately go out to pick up their dog’s poop every single time the dog did their business.

You should certainly be picking up dog poop regularly, but you’re never going to have a completely clean backyard or front yard when you have dogs. No matter how much poop you pick up, the dogs are always going to create more.

I also doubt that there are many (if any people) who would willingly go out in the rain to pick up poop – if everything is muddy, that can be slightly dangerous cause it makes for easy slipping conditions.

It would also make it a lot harder to distinguish between the poop and piles of mud – especially if this is at night time.

Also, if he’s this idiotic and this much of an entitled con artist, it’s likely that even if you hadn’t had dog poop in your yard, he still would’ve walked in some mud and claimed that your mud dirtied his shoes so you should pay him.

People like this are beyond reason and will do anything to act like a victim.” User

Another User Comments:

“NTJ. You had a clearly marked warning and a clean, lit path to your door.

Also, it sounds like he was wearing ‘real’ shoes, and not tread-safe kitchen shoes. Which is a big no-no in nearly every state and restaurant chain (in the USA). It would be difficult to find tread-safe shoes for $120, as most kitchen and support staff don’t make that kind of cash (they definitely exist, but only a head chef or server/bartender in a fancy eatery is gonna be able to spend that kind of $ on work shoes, most ppl spend around $20-$50).

I will say though, cleaning dog poop out of the treads on a tread-safe shoe would be nearly impossible, and an absolutely disgusting chore. I know, because I have had to do it myself.” Haunting_Chemist4251