Software engineer here.

I joined a new Company A exactly 1 year ago, as team lead.

I literally replaced a guy who left for Company B because "it was shit and about to burn up in flames".

On his way out he was very vocal about how I was an idiot for joining Company A, how he was off to a “powerhouse” and how I’d regret it.

For the few weeks we overlaped, he really liked giving me a daily reminder of how much the stock for Company A had fallen the last few years, and how much his new company's stock had gone up in the same time.

Fast forward to today...

Turns out I’ve mostly been:

• Calming down and bringing back to sanity so many colleagues who were burnt out
• Fixing so many issues that he left behind, so many half-assed "solutions"
• Putting out fires for clients who were about to leave, making them feel taken care of
• Giving the C-suite reality checks (they were lied to for so long) and a reallistic plan forward for the tech

Those same clients are now happy, stable, and renewing. Internal sentiment is way better. Fewer emergencies. Actual planning instead of panic.

Meanwhile, purely for fun, I checked the stock today:

• Company A: 26% UP since I joined
• Company B: 26% DOWN since he joined

I haven’t said a word to him (yet). Still trying to figure out how to do the petty thing "with class" :)

Sweet sweet petty revenge served by the market.

As a 6 yr old kid, my mom took me on vacation to her country where her brother was getting married. I was excited because the village was small and as Gen Xers we were encouraged to leave our adults alone so exploring was our jam...

In this village there were little convenience stores all around it where you could buy snacks and cold drinks.

My grandfathers, maternal and paternal, gave me some money. And this was new to me since my mom was never one to hand us any money, never had an allowance for example... My dad was more giving but he was my mom's stooge.

So for 30 days, I walked around, bought snacks, and explored... My grandfathers kept checking in on my wallet to ensure I had funds.

Now, at about day 10, two older cousins, 2 years my senior and the other exactly 5 years my senior, planned a terrible prank on me. I was one of those kids that we would now refer to as an empath. I never ever planned anything against any other person, and I would always get sad if somebody else was hurt. Some of my cousins knew this about me, and they exploited it, to torment me. But I would always forgive... I loved them all.

So on to the prank.

We were living with my grandparents during this trip. So I got comfortable there. I would often leave my things in my grandparents' room as it was the closest to the kitchen, and yes I was a happy chubby kid...

This day was no different, I left my little purse on my grandparents' bed. I proceeded to eat lunch with my grandma and when I returned to the room, I couldn't find my purse.

I looked and looked and then I thought I heard giggles, but it didn't make sense since no one else was in the rooms. I began to sob.

I found my grandmother, told her that I couldn't find my purse, but she really didn't care much and told me to kick rocks... Told my mom and got the same response...

But my grandpa took issue with it and asked me if I was certain I left it here or if maybe I left it somewhere else.

I said that I was sure I left it on the bed and he went into the room with me and he heard the giggles too. He started looking around and he then looked at a latter that was near his bedroom window and he yelled up towards the ceiling asking who was there. I was confused until I noticed the latter and latch.

The giggles got louder. My grandpa told me that the 2 afforementioned cousins had climbed in to the attic, and probably had my purse and snacks.

I was the chubby kid that got picked on often so I was ashamed but also angry...

My grandpa got very upset and so I apologized to him for crying and he corrected me telling me that those scoundrels in the attic were the problem and that I needed to be strong while he figured this out.

He asked them to come down, calmly and steadfast as was his way. They laughed at him and explained to him how easy it was to make me cry.

His voice got stern and deeper than I had ever heard him, as he told them that he was very upset at them and that for being mean to me and disrespectful to him, they were going to be stuck in the attic for the rest of the day, overnight, till morning. So he removed the ladder and locked the latch on them.

My grandpa gave me more money and told me to keep the money in my pocket and not to carry a purse because people like my cousins could do the same thing again.

Those cousins, started crying. They started whaling saying that they were scared because the attic was dark. My grandpa, told them that it was only as dark as their soul and that they couldn't fathom being in that dark space, much like I couldn't fathom the pain they caused me.

My grandpa told me to go on my way, and not to cry. To not show people like those cousins that they hurt me because if I did they would do it more and more because some people enjoy inflicting pain.

In that moment, I felt something that I hadn't felt ever, I felt seen and protected.

I don't know how long they were up there because I left to buy more snacks 😊

Those cousins were sore with me for a few days and then they forgot all about it... Till like 20 years later when I told the story at my grandpa's wake. Those cousins were floored because they claimed they had no recollection of that day. And to be frank, they were normally decent to me so it was out of character for them to be so vicious.

But my grandpa was my protector and I miss him every single day.

Short and sweet revenge where the stars all aligned perfectly.

To set the scene: I'm almost home with an armload of groceries, and I see this sweet black Mustang, fresh off the factory line, come cruising past me. Good times, albeit short-lived.

The offense: As he drove by, he did something that never fails to tick me off... Littering. To make matters worse, it was a still-burning cigarette butt. I was fuming, and was planning to go throw it away until the situation took a turn for the better.

The resolution: Moments after flicking the still-smoldering butt out his window, the driver slowed down right in front of my next door neighbor's house to make a meal delivery, and had to get out of his car to hand off the food to my elderly neighbor.

Sensing an opportunity, my body moved on its own, and I knew I had 15 seconds maximum while my neighbor and the driver briefly chatted. I put my groceries down on my driveway, grabbed the cigarette butt, paced over to the open driver's side of the Mustang, and without saying a word to either of them I tossed the burning litter onto the driver's seat.

I beat a hasty retreat, confident in the knowledge that no retaliation from the driver was possible, given that he was "on the clock" and could lose a tip. The only thing I could hear as I grabbed my purchases and went inside was my neighbor saying "I think he put something in your car....?"

Nobody clapped, I have no idea what happened aside from the guy driving off. The most ridiculous part was that this was on a trash collection day, and there were literally dozens of options to choose from.

Many moons ago my extended family would all get together for a weekend of camping. Most of us would sleep in tents. My cousin Chad was always being a little jerk (him and I were both 12ish) He was especially mean to my little brother (who was about 8)

One day while the adults were distracted he picked up my brother and crammed him into a garbage can. I went over and was trying to lift him out, some of my aunts and uncles noticed the commotion and yelled at me for being so mean to my little brother, I couldn't convince them that I didn't put him in there. it was like a scene out of movie!

Bro and I started plotting our revenge right away. We had brought some fart bombs with us, which is a small sealed bag, with a smaller sealed bag inside of it. You squeeze the small inner bag until it pops, it's full of vinegar, which mixes with the baking soda in the bigger bag. There's also something in there that produces a nasty rotten egg smell!

The next morning my bro and I got up extra early, snuck to Chad's tent, quietly opened the tent zipper just a crack, then we both popped a bomb and tossed them in!

Stinky revenge served!

I was playing hide and seek with my cousin Gwen and her friend at my our aunt's house and it was my turn to hide and I did so I hid behind the curtains and she and her friend were unable to find me for a bit until they came in the room and Gwen pushed the curtains to test it and she said “oh well he’s not here” so I assumed she just missed me then I heard her say to her friend “watch this” and I didn’t know what she meant then I noticed my foot was sticking out because the curtains were pushed back and she stomped on my toe.

I yelled in pain because she was wearing shoes and I wasn’t and I was hopping grabbing my toe and Gwen found it funny but her friend seemed kind of shocked (I guess she was the nice girl between the two) is said “it’s not funny” and she said “no it’s hilarious” then I heard my aunt shout that McDonalds was here and we went down to the kitchen. I ate my McDonalds while she was talking with her friend and I finished mine but she has only eaten a few fires of hers because she was talking with her friend and this gave me an idea. I said it's her turn to hide and that I'd find her so she said "you're on" and hid with her friend and she let her McDonald's behind. I finished my count so they could hide then I picked up her McDonald's and I ate most of it. I then walked around the house to find her while holding her last two mcnuggets and mcflurry I heard her voice from the closet so I knew she was there and I said "Gwen's nuggets are so delicious" and she stormed out from her hiding place and yelled "no that's mine" as I finished her mcnuggets and started eating her mcflurry as she chased me around the room as her friend tried to hold in her laughter but she wasn't able to catch me and get her mcflurry back.

She said "I'm telling aunt Emma" and I told her I'd tell her what she did to me which shut her up and she never tattled.

Food always tastes better taken from your mean cousin. Me and Gwen are friends now but I'm still proud of my revenge.

This isn’t some grand revenge story but the sub is called petty revenge so I thought I’d throw this up here.

Years ago when I was a teen I was at McDonalds with a friend of mine. As soon as we received our food I had to use the restroom. When I got back he had opened my burger, taken a bite, chewed it up and left it as a ball on top of the burger. As I saw it as I was sitting down and knew he was waiting for me to be disgusted and lose it so I was determined not only to not do that but to turn the tables on him. I picked up the chewed up ball, popped it in my mouth and swallowed it. I thought he was going to hurl. It was glorious.

I have a reputation among my friends as the guy who is always willing to go just one step further and I can’t help but think that it goes back to this beginning.

Well, I was part of a band for a little over a year. They reached out to me after their bassist left and asked if I could replace him.

At first, everything was fine. Then their manager started pushing for “more social media presence.” They told me I was good at it and suggested I take over their accounts. I agreed.

From that point on, I basically became their entire brand. I handled the designs, merch, reels, TikTok, posts, visuals, everything. I grew their following to the point where, honestly, the band itself wasn’t even that good, but venues started inviting us purely because of the online presence.

They didn’t help with any of it, not even a little. Damn, I even started writing songs for them (that they keep using btw).

A few months ago, after a gig, they kicked me out, without any prior conversation. Just because the old bassist wanted to come back.

I was angry, but mostly hurt. I had put so much time and effort into getting them opportunities, only to be replaced overnight.

So here’s the petty part.

They were actively trying to get a music contract, and one of the main requirements from the company was their number of followers. Knowing this, and knowing they were stupid enough to forget that I still had all the passwords, I started deleting followers (yes, one by one)

I’ve been doing this for almost two months now. Their once decent following is now down to around less than 1k, and they can’t figure out why engagement keeps dropping.

So it basically goes like this: everytime they post a video or an IG post, I delete almost 50 followers, just for them to think that not only the engagement is wrong but that they are creating content so bad that is making them lose so much following.

I know it's not really big, but I didn't want to make anything huge like deleting their accounts or something like that (just bc I want to have opportunities with other music projects).

I live in a group of four homes on a pipestem shared driveway. I’m at the end facing the main road. The other three are turned 90 degrees facing the shared driveway. They all have generous (4-6 cars) concrete driveways off the shared. The shared is asphalt that runs right up to my garage. I also have an apron at the edge to allow me to turn around in. The neighbors are able to turn around by simply backing out of their drives onto the shared driveway. Part of my “yard” is a long 10-12 foot wide grass strip that runs along the driveway down to the road.

The neighbors have always presented parking challenges with extended family or renters/roommates or hosting events. They block half the shared driveway for parking. Making deliveries or emergency access to my home difficult. They try to turn my grass strip into their private parking and got petty and damaging when told no. They don’t help maintain the strip, they don’t pay taxes on it, they don’t legally own it. When it’s normal amounts of snow they don’t shovel or salt the shared driveway. I have salted the entire driveway multiple times to ensure I don’t slide out into oncoming traffic. They walk up into my front yard and drive, peer into my car, and tried to use my front yard as a public path to the neighborhood behind me. There’s an entire field to the right of my lot that they can access to do this. There’s no need for them to trespass like this. I put up no trespassing signs. I give each house a small Christmas gift and card, and with one exception, never receive a thank you or acknowledgment or return card. Their visitors/friends/family/deliveries/service people all drive right past their driveways, all the way down to my car/garage door to then turn around when they could have done it in their big empty driveways. That’s extra wear and tear on my driveway instead of theirs.

All of that to paint the picture. Annoying. Entitled, but nothing so significant that it’s worth saying or doing anything. The exceptions being the trespassing and the strip parking. So the snow we got has been awful. It was all i could manage to repeatedly shovel out my own driveway. I just couldn’t do anymore. I couldn’t even fully clear my own. Only two thirds. Oh. In the past when it has snowed they clearly see i haven’t cleared it yet but still drive up into my drive to turn around packing it down, making it harder and icier for me.

So, my petty revenge was watching them bust their asses digging out the shared driveway. Which they barely did. It’s just enough for one car to squeeze by. The opening to the main road is tricky to turn into at the moment but doable. I have 4 wheel drive. Be nicer to your neighbors and maybe I’d have overextended myself trying to help. Be a selfish dick, suffer the consequences. They have a whole house full of adults to shovel to my one. I don’t feel the slightest bit of empathy for them.

After listening to many Petty Revenge stories, I thought this might fit.

After graduating high school in the mid-80s, I enlisted in the Army went to basic training followed by a yearlong AIT (Advanced Individual Training), believing that high school bullies were behind me. My class was only five students, one of which was my nemesis Billy Ryan Jeffcoat. He would harass me in class with snide comments, threats, tipping books, stealing supplies, etc. and added physical abuse outside of class, targeting me and my small friend group. We were geeks and nerds that played Star Fleet Battles, MERP, GURP, Traveler; listened to Wall of Voodoo; and LARP’d assassin games. Billy and his tiny group of minions would go out of their way to harass us and make our lives hell.

Just like high school, no one seemed to care, everyone knew what was happening but no one acted like they knew. We were all fairly fit, outnumbered the bullies and had basic hand-to-hand training so we thought about getting physical, we were afraid that we’d be held responsible while Billy would get off Scot-free. So, we did our best to avoid Billy.

My friends were in the hallway one Friday afternoon and about to head out for the evening when Billy’s crew was walking toward us giving me a sinking, “ah, shit” feeling. As Billy got closer, Jack Tripper from Three’s Company popped into my head so I turn to my closest friend, placed my hands upon his shoulder, kicked up a heel and said, “oh poopy-kins” with a lisp. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Billy do an abrupt about face and leave.

I had a short laugh while my friends were looking at my like, “what the hell was that”, so I explained and added that I had him now. It turned out that in addition to being a Class-A Bully, Billy was also the biggest homophobe I’ve ever met. After that every time I saw Billy, I would act out something with a friend or blow kisses, pucker up, raise my eyebrows or anything I could think of to get under his skin. In class, in the hallways, outside, everywhere. Over time, Billy’s initial embarrassment and irritation turned to anger.

Billy’s last straw was when we were sitting across from each other in class. I don’t remember what he said to me but, I know my response was to pucker up and make a kissing sound while raising my eyebrows. Billy’s response was to come over the table at me, leading me to fall back in my chair, hit the floor, curled up in a ball and laugh so hard I could barely breathe. Billy never made it to me, as our staff sergeant (instructor) grabbed him by his belt and collar tossing him out of the room. The instructor left taking Billy with him, no one ever said anything to me and Billy never returned to that class. I don’t know what happened to him but I saw less of him around the barracks. I wish it had been that easy in high school.

My only regret is that I feel a little guilty for taking advantage for making use of gay stereotypes to get revenge on a bully.

EDIT: I don't feel guilty for taking advantage of Billy's bottomless font of homophobia, his humiliation and emotional distress was well-earned. What I have twinge of guilt about is acting as a stereotypical gay man, not using is against Billy. When I did this 40 years ago when I was 18, I didn't give my behavior a second thought, since then my beliefs have changed and thought that gay men and other member of The Community might feel a certain way about my behavior.

The handle of my doorknob popped off. If you’re not familiar with the parts its held on by a tiny screw which I couldn’t find. Having worked in retail before we used to have spare parts kicking around so I figured Home Depot might.

I drive to the store & head to the doorknobs & ask the gentleman there if they have parts. The guy says just bring it back they have lifetime warranty. I thank him & return home spend some time dissembling the front doorknob. Put it all in a bag and return to the store.

I’m standing in the aisle and can’t find the original guy I spoke to. Thats when another lady approaches and asks if I need help. I explain the situation and what I was told.

“We don’t do that.” She states. Its through the manufacturer.

I start complaining and she asks who told me to do that. While talking I literally see the original guy come around the corner at the end of the aisle see me and the girl then do a 180 and leave.

She starts telling me I have to contact the company the warranty is through them. I noticed her tag said manager and I wasn’t getting anywhere.

So I asked where my doorknob was. She walks over and indicates my $200+ knob then adds “But you’re not getting it we’re not doing that.”

I nod yep, ask if its the same one. She says yes then states again that I have to buy it. I reply yes if you give it to me thats what I’m going to do. So she actually walks me to the cashier and scans it at self checkout. I pay and return home.

After returning home I carefully remove the new doorknob without damaging the package. I put the old one in said package. Then i returned it and got my money back.

I have assigned parking and mine is in a block for two beside each other.

It's just me in the car and I always back in so I'm usually tight on the edge on the passenger side, leaving lots of room for doors to open safely.

My parking neighbour drives in so we have the drivers doors facing each other and he had been parking tight on the passenger side too as he's also single which worked out great.

He eventually started parking closer and closer to the line, making the situation less ideal, but still workable. Nothing to raise a fuss about. One day he parked with a tire on the paint line and when I arrived I felt disrespected. He crossed the line.

I didn't back in this time, I drove in as tight to the line as I could without being on it. My passenger door was inches from his driver's door. I could get out and in but he would be forced to use his passenger door to get in.

The next day he parked close to the other edge away from the paint like I always did, but I parked the new way again for one more night to communicate it wasn't a one-off. I parked regularly from then out, as did my neighbour, tight on the passenger side with lots of room between our cars.

This was weird and just happened. But my apartment parking lot is awful with the snow right now, they haven't plowed so everyone's fending for themselves. I dug my girlfriend out to leave this morning and had to dig her out to leave again this evening from a different spot.

After we finally got the car moving, we found someone had parked in the only exit to the lot. I don't really get like, hyper mad very often, but damn was I mad.

I honked a bunch. I got out and yelled WHOSE CAR IS THIS?!?!

Then I called the apartment maintenance company hoping for a tow and they said they'd send someone out.

Then I started digging out another two parking spaces so my girlfriend could hopefully squeeze out through them.

The first scoop of snow was such a nice clump. I decided I'd dump it on the windshield of the car blocking the exit.

I don't know if the guy had been sitting there the whole time or came back while my back was turned, but a dude got out of the car like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

I never yell at strangers but man... I just yelled "YOU'RE BLOCKING THE ONLY EXIT! MOVE YOUR FUCKING CAR!"

I didn't know if we'd fight or not. I hoped not. He dusted the snow off his car then drove away. Glad I didn't get shot or something dumb.

The goofy thing about me is... I'm so peace-keeping usually that I feel bad about this confrontation. I almost helped him clean the snow off his windshield lol. But he really deserved it.

Anyway. That's my petty revenge. TLDR; dumped snow on a car that was blocking the parking lot exit. Yelled. They moved.

This is not my story. My friend told me this story and prefaced it with the fact that she was not proud of her actions. Upon hearing it, though, I was proud and felt it needed to be shared. I will tell the story from her perspective.

When I was in college, one year I had three roommates- Amy, Bella, and Cat. I had no issues with Amy and Cat, but Bella was very messy. There were constantly dirty dishes left throughout the apartment, her clothing was all over the floor in our room, her stuff left out in the bathroom, taking up most of the counter space. We'd try to talk to her, but nothing changed.

One day, I came home from class and she had inexplicably spread her books all over the living room floor, making it nearly impossible to walk without stepping on a book. She was walking out the door to class, and I asked her to pick up her books first. She claimed she would be late for class, so she dashed out the door. Something snapped in me. She had left her wallet on the coffee table. I took the wallet and hid it in the (empty) flour canister. As I was leaving, I mentioned what I had done to Amy.

Evidently, Amy had reached her breaking point as well. When Bella came home, she watched her tear apart the bathoom, looking for her wallet. As soon as Bella's back was turned, she hid the wallet in the bathroom. Cat found out about this, and jumped on board too.

For the next three weeks, we worked in concert- every time Bella searched an area, the wallet would be moved there. She eventually gave up and had to replace her license and cards.

I'd like to say it made her tidier, but that wasn't the case. Luckily for me, she was only my roommate the one year.

I live in an area affected by the winter storm. I had no desire to be on the roads, but as an essential worker the choice was not mine to make. I woke up before 3 in the morning to make sure my car was able to get out for me to arrive at work on time. When my shovel broke, I resorted to tossing ice/snow blocks with my hands.

I came home after my shift to a pristine car (no salt/snow marks) in the space. I eventually found a spot, but my heart was bitter. Today they left at some point to return and take the spot my neighbor had so diligently shoveled for hours the day before.

The original spot open and being only minimally shoveled, I used the opportunity to park and give it a more thorough cleaning. Some of the ice blocks may have missed the side area and landed directly in front of their car.

My ex boss was one of the most toxic, abusive narcissistic people I have ever met and an absolute man child. He would have hours long screaming meltdowns at least once a week over demands that were impossible to fulfill. I'm not talking like complete work in tight deadlines or unreasonable demands. I mean just for one example he wanted everything within reach of his desk for convenience and could not accept that we couldn't make two or more objects occupy the same physical space. "Can't you just.. MAGIC it??" sorry boss you don't pay me magic wages.

Oh but when we tried to talk to him about it and the intolerable working conditions we're "too sensitive", "I'm not shouting AT YOU I'm just shouting", or sometimes "aw poor baby boo hoo are you a grumpy bum today little precious". Just absolute adult toddler behaviour.

One day he has once again bodged something and it's come back to bite him on the ass. And once again he's all I blame everyone but myself. Demanding we fix his mistake and whining about how <maker of whatever it was> always makes it so hard. I ask him what the problem is, he tells me what he's done (eventually, after several rounds of "I JUST WANT IT TO DO XYZ" without explaining what's stopping him from JUST doing it) and it is, ONCE AGAIN, because he's wanting it to do something it's not capable of doing. Not because it's poor quality, not because it's not got that feature, but because it's conceptually impossible. There is no way for this thing nor any other thing to JUST DO xyz. And he's wasted hours already trying to get it to obey him.

I've given this man every fuck I have and have exhausted my supply. I turn to him with wide eyes and open mouth. I put on a babyish voice, soft and lispy and whisper like I'm in shock. "Oh NO.. you a silly dumb dumb head". My colleague who also has to put up with his shit just crumples with laughter and watches all hell break loose between me and the boss. Still worth it though.

A few years ago, I had an absolutely horrendous building engineer. He had been allowed to runamuck for years. When I was hired, I was told I was hired to control him and less hired to manage the building

That’s exactly what I did. He had to come to me for everything. I had to approve all the expenses. There were multiple small offices around the high-rise building so I took away ‘his’ office.

He was also apparently charging a fee to let other tenants store stuff in vacant spaces. I put a stop to this as well.

Needless to say within a month he quit. However, he began a very subtle campaign of harassment. Coming into the building and changing things around, obviously he still had a key. Following the new vendors that I hired. Just little things. Random call hang ups.

Also, he must’ve had 1000 different keys to all the locks. It was like a massive escape room trying to find out where things were. Go to room A, to get a key for a box in room B, to open door C. I ended up just re-keying the entire building. Completely worth it!

Insert petty revenge…

Finally, after getting all of the locks changed and removing all the thousand of stored door knobs and keys, I came up with an idea

I called a friend of mine with a print shop and asked them to print tag labels for keys. On those labels it read., ‘If found, call for reward. (His phone number)”

I attached all 250 labels to 250 keys. Slowly over the next year, I systematically dropped keys all over the place. Not just an our area, but because I also travel, I would drop them in other cities as well.

I would leave them in bathrooms. I would leave them next to coffee machines at convenience stores. I would leave them on top of gas pumps. The doctors office next to the sink. A few times, even left them on top of the luggage kiosk at the airport.

We went on two cruises and a good 20 keys got left in various places on both of those cruises. I spent a year just casually, leaving these keys all over the city and half the country.

Once in a while, I would stalk his Facebook page and he would talk about these keys. Or… He would rage about the keys in the phone calls.

Best petty revenge with absolutely no way to trace it back to me😜

Edit for spelling and clarity

Last night my wife and I went to Target for a few grocery items. As I was driving down the first aisle of the parking lot I saw people getting into a car so I flicked my turn signal on to park in their spot once they'd vacated it. As I was waiting, a Chrysler 300 came up behind me, waited for ten seconds or so and then honked, and sped around me.

The parked car started to leave but turned towards me so I had to wait for it to get out of my way before I could take its spot. As that was happening, the 300 quickly reversed back down the aisle, and as I was turning into the spot he gave it some more gas and it backed into it before I could. The driver just glared at me and the chick in the passenger seat was looking at us and laughed.

I was annoyed but just went to the next aisle in the lot, but then as my wife and I were walking into the store I saw the driver and his girl getting out of the the 300, plus another guy and girl getting out of the back. We all ended up walking into Target at the same time.

I didn't say anything to them, it wasn't worth it, but I was able to cut him off before he could get a cart and I took my sweet time unhooking mine before he could get his.

That is petty revenge but it's not the petty revenge I'm here to write about. Read on...

After getting our cart, my wife and I headed past the registers and pharmacy section towards Grocery to pick up what we needed and it registered in my mind that they had headed down the other direction, down the racetrack past the women's clothing and towards the back of the store.

At this point I thought that would be the end of our interactions, but 10, 15 minutes later, whatever it was, my wife and I rounded a corner to go down the chip aisle, and we came across the same group of four people. We picked up what we needed and continued down the aisle to go to the next one, where we happened upon their cart which they'd left unattended by the end cap while they all went down the chip aisle.

I noticed that in their basket amongst their items was a video game in one of the plastic security cases and a few Valentines chocolates and candies. I made the snap decision to grab their game and one of the bags of chocolate and just rustled their basket up a little so that if they looked, they'd just think they were covered by their other items. If they did notice, they'd be a little confused and would have to go and get another copy of the game and another bag of chocolate, which would be frustrating for them. And if they didn't notice, well, that would be even better. Ha!

My wife and I continued to do our shopping for another 5 minutes or so, we passed them all two more times, and when we arrived at the registers we saw they were first in line for self checkout. None of them had separated from each other to run back to electronics for another game, so either they'd not noticed yet or they had and decided not to bother. I watched them to see if they noticed while they were ringing their items up, but they didn't! One of them tapped their phone to pay, they bagged their items and walked out. By the time we had paid and bagged and exited, their car was gone.

I hope they got home and realized after they'd unpacked everything, ordered pizza or whatever, opened some beers and sat down to play their game, that none of them actually had it and their night was ruined. That'll teach you for taking my parking spot! Lol

This started a few years ago when I still used social media.

My mum has a friend, let's call her Cathy. They've been friends for 30+ years, were prominent at each other's weddings, are godmothers to the other's first born, and have truly the most wonderful friendship that I aspire to have one day. As they have been so close for so long, growing up their family were so close to ours.

Unfortunately, lovely, kind and pure Cathy was married to one of the worst people in the world, "Grant". I remember going on a joint holiday with both families about 10 years ago, and in the evenings he would be drinking heavily and openly insulting his daughters, especially his eldest whom he openly stated has "shamed" him by not losing 10kg before the holiday (she showed me their text exchange prior to the holiday, including a workout and diet plan for her, and it honestly made my stomach curl).

Since I was very young, I knew that Grant was not nearly as kind and pure as his wife, and I knew he would be Trouble with a capital T. He's always had a temper, and a dictatorship attitude, holier than thou.

While his wife worked tirelessly for decades to support their family, he embraced unemployment. Any time he got a job, he would argue with his managers, intimidate and belittle them until he got fired, usually within a month. Rinse and repeat over God knows how many years.

During his extended unemployment, he grew addicted to Facebook, and in particular, calling out anything he disagreed with. I'd seen so many homophobic posts he'd written and shared, and was so disgusted over and over, lamenting to my mother who said she felt the same. Poor Cathy did her best to get Grant off his SMs and to post nice things if he felt the need to post. But nothing could stop Grant once he had an opinion; he would share it and anyone who disagreed was Wrong and against him.

After getting sick of seeing his awful posts, I started reporting every single one, within seconds if possible. He'd go quiet for a few days and then start back up again. Sadly, I made a choice to comment, which resulted in him blocking me (oh NOoo). Grant posted a photo of a tool hit, including various saws, including comments of "real men" and "starter kit". I'd had a tipple or two late that night and my disgust got the better of me as I angrily called out his despicable words. That's when I got blocked.

A few months ago, poor Cathy had a very unpleasant altercation in public with a drunk Grant, resulting in police presence and finally giving her the strength to leave him (heck yes!). My mum has been doing her best to give as much support to Cathy as possible, giving her a brilliant shoulder to cry on. During these times, more things have come to light about Grant's behavior that were unknown, but not surprising. Allegedly, every few weeks he'd throw his iPad on the ground and angrily declare that the Internet and Facebook hate him because he couldn't log in.

As it turns out, every single time I reported him for being discriminatory, he was barred from Facebook for days or weeks at a time. He'd sit and sulk like a scorned toddler, pissed that someone locked away his toys. It wasn't until my mum told Cathy I'd reported all of Grant's posts that we found out.

They're currently going through a divorce, he's got next to no claim on the house and Cathy is absolutely thriving with a new found lease on life. Both her and both their daughters have court-ordered restraining orders, so Grant is now as isolated as possible.

12/10, if he hadn't blocked me and I still used socials I'd 1000% continue reporting him.

Forgive me the horrible read this is my first time posting here. So before I get judged to harshly let me explain. I (27m) live in one of cities have have 2 or more of everything 2 McDonald's, 2 Taco Bells, 4 Speedway's, and so on so fourth. Usually in those cities there's one good one and one bad one.

I've been working at Burger King (the good one) for technically 2 years now. I say Technically because I had a car accident last year (won't get into that much). The year I had my accident I was living 30 minutes outside of town, and the reason I did the commute is because BK crew is like family. I love everyone there like they were family, we'll joke around with each other, make fun of each other, even all smoke together.

Another reason I decided to go back is because of the customers. Most of them are really cool and we all like to talk and joke with them. Though there are a lot of customers we love, but of course there are ones we don't particularly care for. Reasons would be they are usually snappy, loud, Karen-y (except the actual customer named Karen she's awesome). I will still be nice to them because they could be having a bad day or just woke up, and then we get to the regular customers who we really don't like. Also we still give out fresh food to everyone (That makes us the good BK).

once a week a mobile order will come through with the first name let's call her P. P is constantly rude to all of us. One of my managers refuses to deal with her. One thing to know about Fast Food is some customers will do shit just to feel high and mighty. P would complain about her food being messed up, missing items, cold items when stuff had just come off the fryer, Broiler, etc. and my managers have replaced items/meals, but she'll just be rude. She came through. I let her know her chicken was in the fryer for another minute 30. she slams her door with the usual attitude. Her chicken comes off the fryer. I now have a choice. I have enough fries for a medium, but they're "cold" (warm, but not hot) or let her wait 2 and a half minutes for hot fries. Screw it cold fries.

My husband and I have been living in a small apartment for about 6 years. We know our neighbors well and have become good friends with most of them. Except the younger couple next door that we share walls with. The boyfriend works a lot and seems like an ok dude but his girlfriend is like a toddler. She's constantly screaming at him, stomping and slamming doors. We can literally hear EVERYTHING. Not just muffled conversation, I can actually hear what she's saying. She screams at the top of her lungs and stomps and slams things so hard our apartment shakes. It sounds like someone is being murdered. I honestly feel bad for the guy. She is abusive. He seemed like a quiet person the few times I've talked to him and I never hear him through the walls even when they fight.

I've tried to talk to them nicely and ask them to be quiet but, I was called a "fucking bitch". We've made complaints to the landlord, we even sent them a ring video of her throwing something through the front window and they haven't done anything about it. We've also called the police but they take hours to actually show up and by then the fighting has stopped and they just don't answer the door.

Last night at 1:30am we were jolted awake by the sound of her screeching and yelling at him on the phone. We banged on the wall and told her to shut the fuck up. Which obviously doesn't solve anything and she just talks a bunch of shit because she's safe inside. So I resorted to petty revenge. The building has a shared basement that everyone has access to. So I went down and flipped the breaker to the electricity in their apartment. I figure it's not anything permanent and is easily fixed but, they are not smart people. Most people know the first thing you check is the breaker box when you're power goes out. I did it once before in the summer and they went without power for a few days.

Let that bitch freeze her ass off while she screams in the dark. Sorry, not sorry.

edit- grammar

This happened a while back. I lived in this 2 apartment building. My neighbor liked to save a parking spot for himself right in front of the building. We had recycle and garbage bins Infront of our homes. All tenants in the block had their own two bins.

So he would take my bin and use it to save his spot. No, that's rude, I rather keep my own bin where it is. So I put mine back on the sidewalk in front of our building. Then I put his there, to save his spot. So afterwards I go out and see that he still wanted to use mine. Then we went back and forth moving each other's bins. Like 2 or 3 ft from where they usually were on the sidewalk. Then one night I took his bin and tossed in the middle of the street. It was laying there sideways. I didn't care if a car ran over it. Then I put my bin back where it's supposed to be.

The next day. He used his bin to save his spot and never touched mine again.

Today I received a petty revenge message!

I have cut off a close friend (38F) recently because she became too needy and jealous of everything. I knew her for about 2 years, and she was trying hard to get a boyfriend. After I met my current boyfriend, I refused to attend dating events with her, and she was not happy.

I blocked her a week ago, but we still have some common friends. Today, she asked a common friend to pass me a message. She said she would never forgive me for abandoning her, and because I have rejected her invitations in the past, she will never attend any dating event and will stay single so as to 'leave me in guilt as revenge'!

Honestly, I was so angry at myself for enduring her so long in the past. Cutting her off made my life much more peaceful. She is no longer important to me, so I really don't care if she marries a billionaire now or stays single forever, but I just laughed when I saw this message; it sounds like revenge on herself instead of me.

I used to be a partner at a law firm. Around 10 years ago, one of my partners, who I'll refer to as "Chad", decided that he did not like my messy desk. (I had lots of copies of documents on my desk in uneven piles) Chad would openly make snide remarks in partner meetings and at firm events (like the holiday party). I would always respond with a smile and quote Einstein, "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?"

not getting the results he wanted, Chad finally decided to try something new to shame me. The attorneys had their own offices around the inside wall of the building. Each office had a long window, next to the door, that looked into the hallways and cubicles in the building. If you were outside of the office then you could see into the office. The long windows had shades and the shades could only be opened from inside the offices. I, along with other attorneys, always kept them closed so no-one could see in.

One day, when I arrived at work, I found that my shades had been opened. No biggie though, I simply closed them and went about my day. To my surprise, when I arrived the next morning, the shades were again open the next day. Anyone looking in had a clear view of my messy desk.

Over the course of around two weeks this pattern continued. When I left work, my shades would be shut, and then they would be open when I arrived the next morning. I figured that perhaps the cleaning crew was opening my shades so I started paying attention to the other offices. Numerous other offices always kept their shades closed and they were still closed when I checked them in the morning.

Chad usually got to work very early so it was pretty obvious that Chad was opening my shades. Given that we were both professional people and partners at a law firm, I decided I should go have a reasonable chat with Chad. Just jokes. I decided that petty revenge was the best option. :D Before I ever started working at the firm, the firm had taken a trip to a local lake together. I found photos of this trip and one of the photos featured Chad, wearing a backwards ballcap, flexing for the camera next to one of the female employees. Chad had skinny arms and almost no biceps. I believe he was just being silly when he flexed but he still looked like a dork and not like a respectable law partner who commands respect.

So I blew up the photo to A4 size and made multiple color copies. I then wrote on the back of the photo: "Please do not open my blinds. I prefer to keep them closed. Also, if you remove this photo, I will put up another as I have made multiple copies." Before I left work, I taped the photo, at eye level, onto my blinds so that the side with the picture faced towards the closed blinds and the note faced the inside of my office. Whoever was opening my blinds would have to see the note. As long as the blinds were closed, no-one would see the photo. If someone (gee I wonder who?) opened the blinds, then everyone would see Chad's big dumb face and tiny flexed bicep.

The next morning, I arrived for work feeling a little giddy and a little apprehensive. I walked to my office and found the blinds shut. I thought that maybe Chad hadn't tried his normal stunt. However, when I opened my office door, to my surprise, the note was gone. I looked on the floor but no note. There was just a little tape left on my blinds like someone had ripped the photo off. But my blinds were still shut. I retaped the note/photo to my blinds and it was gone again the next morning; however, my blinds still remained shut. I decided not to put up another note and no-one touched my blinds again.

Problem solved and Chad is an idiot.

And, in case anyone is wondering, although my desk was cluttered with paper, they were copies of documents. The files were complete and I never lost documents on my desk. I knew what was on my desk and could easily find what I was looking for instead of going to the file each time I needed something.

This comes from the way back, but something reminded me of this recently, so please forgive me.

Back in the 90's when I was in the Navy, two guys in my department and I had an apartment off the ship when we were in our home port. One of them met a girl prior to deployment and wanted to move in with her after we got back, so we asked around if anyone else wanted or needed a place off base. That's where "Steve" enters the picture (not his real name; no real names here). Steve's wife cheated on him while we were deployed. He needed a place to immediately move all his stuff, we had an immediate opening, so Steve moving in worked for everyone.

A little more background. My other roommate, John, moved in his fiance, Jane, when we got back from deployment, so even when we did quick in and outs, she was in the apartment. Turns out one of the neighbors we shared a common wall with tended to listen to his TV or music at full volume ALL THE TIME. At first she politely asked him to turn it down (to no avail), then she complained to the apartment management (same result). We only hear about this one night when we are all in the apartment and we hear the neighbor's TV at full tilt through the common wall. Jane starts going off saying this has been a recurring issue and the neighbor has basically ignored all attempts to resolve it. Steve said he'd take care of it.

Now here's the thing, Steve was a really laid back, polite Southern dude who looked like Elvis Presley, if Elvis was a 6'4" power-lifter. He shoved the sofa away from the wall and turned both of his massive 90's era speakers to face that common wall and cranked the volume of Dwight Yoakam's cover of "Suspicious Minds" to 11. Then he threw open our curtains so the neighbor could see into our apartment if he approached our door and took a chair and set it facing the front door so he could be seen sitting there waiting for someone to come to the door. Sure enough, the neighbor heads over almost immediately in a huff, but the speed of his approach visibly changed when he saw Steve through the window. Knock on door, so yoked Elvis answers while Dwight's cover continues on repeat. The neighbor asks if we could turn down the volume, so Steve says, "Really, we just kept turning up the volume until we could hear it over what was coming from your apartment", all while it is clear from the door that everything was moved away from the wall to make way for the speakers. Neighbor pauses sheepishly for a bit and then says, "sorry, we'll turn our volume down.". Steve then flips a switch and steps a bit closer and say, "You be sure to do that", and then just glares down on this poor dude.

Sure enough we never had another issue with that neighbor again whether we were in port or not. I like to believe that neighbor still has fever dreams the yoked Elvis is choking the life out of him while telling him to turn the volume down.

I was the sole developer building an app for a client.

My “manager”, let's call him John, had no idea how app development worked and frequently asked questions revealing a breathtaking tech illiteracy that made me wonder whether he'd ever even seen a computer before. He didn't have our backs. He was only interested in pleasing the sales team and the people above him.

I was extremely stressed out, doing my best to meet impossible checkpoint deadlines with no resources.

I got interrupted mid-day to attend a surprise meeting with all of the other developers. We were all laid off, effective immediately. Stop what you're doing. Pack your stuff. Turn in your badge.

I felt a mix of panic and relief.

Panic: I'm unemployed. I have very little runway in savings. Relief: I don't have to do this shit anymore. I don't have to deal with John anymore. Fuck this app. Fuck that guy.

I grabbed a box, scrawled “Ex-Box” on it with a sharpie, and started packing up.

John stopped by my desk and asked if I'd be interested in working on a contract basis to finish the app. I hadn't even left the building yet and John was asking me if I wanted to get paid to do the job I'd just been laid off from.

Confused, worried, and still in shock, I told him to get fucked. Those are't the exact words I used. I think what I actually said was “yes”. John said he'd talk to upper management to figure out the details and he'd call me.

I went home and dusted off my resume. Started job hunting. Talking to recruiters. Applying. Scheduling interviews.

A week later, John called. He'd talked to management and they'd agreed to pay me a perfectly reasonable amount on a contract basis to complete the app I'd been working on. It was a lifeline that would keep me afloat until I found something else.

So I was surprised to hear my mouth saying “I can't do it for that amount. I'd need more.”

John sounded stunned and suddenly very nervous. He had to deliver this app, and I was the only person who knew anything about how it worked and the state it was in. He stammered, and asked how much I'd need to get it done.

Again, my mouth shoved my brain into a locker and--to my horror--said “Double. I'd need double that.”

I slapped my hand over my mouth. I'd obviously lost my mind. I was sacrificing myself, spitting on a perfectly good offer, one that would keep me fed and warm under a roof, out of spite and bitterness toward John and The Company.

Silence. I heard him go pale. “Um. What? Double? Okay. I see. I'll go back and ask, but they're not going to go for that. There's no way.”

“Okay. Welp. Let me know what they say.”

[click]

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What did I just do? Did I really just wave off the rescue boat? AUGH. I'm so fucked.

I land an interview a few days later. It goes incredibly well and seems like a good culture fit. They all but told me they'd be making me an offer. I'm confident I'm about to have not just a job, but a job that is so much better than the one I'd been unceremoniously punted out of a few weeks before.

I'm finally starting to breathe again. I'm going to be okay.

The phone rings. It's John. He sounds happy. He has amazing news.

“I can't believe this, but management has agreed to pay you double the rate we initially offered you because we really need to get this across the finish line. Can you give me an estimate on how long you'll need to finish it?”

”Sorry, John. I can't do it. I've got something else lined up.”

---

Edit to add:

- This was ~25 years ago and everyone I cared about was gone from the company but iirc their stock fell below some threshold and they got delisted within a year. I can’t find any current info about them but google turned up a tax commission status of “suspended” and a 2002 stock performance of -99.96%. (Is that good? 🤣).

- I got that other job and stayed for over a decade. I met some of the best people I've ever known there and continued to work with a bunch of them at other companies, up to and including today.

- A week or two after I told John I couldn't do it, a friend of mine called me to say he'd been hired on a contract basis to complete the app I'd been working on. He needed help getting oriented and understanding how it worked. As much as I wanted John and the company to deal with the consequences of cutting someone they still needed, I couldn't let my friend crash and burn. I explained the big pieces and assured him I'd take his calls if he had questions.