If you found a wallet on the bus, we're guessing your next move would be to return it, right? We all want to do the right thing, but the next time you stop to lend a helping hand, you might want to reconsider. Being a good samaritan isn't always so good for the samaritan, and these tales of good deeds gone bad prove it.
30. Don't be a bad neighbor.
A few years ago my dad was mowing our lawn and our neighbor offered him his riding mower for the day. We have a decent sized yard so it probably would have taken a third the time, but my dad kindly said no thanks and continued on. The neighbor insisted again and again so eventually my dad gave in. The lawn mower ended up breaking and the guy made us pay to get it fixed which ended up being several hundred dollars. Obviously, since my dad was the one operating it when it broke he gave the neighbor the money, but I did learn something that day - when someone rejects your offer LET IT GO.
29. Didn't have enough for everybody.
While working a job site in a bad part of the city, I gave a one-eyed homeless guy $5. He wandered off, apparently telling other homeless guys his good fortune. Homeless guys began melting out of the scenery asking for their $5. I realized my mistake at that point and stopped being generous. They apparently turned their anger on one-eye and stabbed him for his $5. I found out when questioned later by police.
28. That's how you get ants.
A few weeks ago as I was leaving work I saw a lady was carrying a cake in from the parking lot. I held the door open for her and she, as people generally do, quickened her step as to not inconvenience me too much. She proceeded to trip and fall chest first into this cake, ruining it and getting it on her clothes.
She was okay, but the cake didn't make it to work that day.
27. Always hide the evidence.
A security guard at the building I operate was on his first weekend shift there and didn't know he wasn't allowed to leave site during his shift. He didn't bring a lunch and so I told him that while I was there escorting a contractor doing electrical work I would cover his post so he could get lunch. So he had been there for 8 of his 12 hours before I could watch his post for him so he was starving. He was gone 20 minutes and came back with food. I told him if anyone gave him trouble for leaving to call me and I would back him up. His supervisor found out from the food bag in the trash that he'd gone off site and had him fired for leaving. I found out he had signed off on the post orders that at no point could he leave the building during his shift unless relieved by a superior.
Poor guy was just hungry. Sorry buddy I didn't mean to get you fired over the basic human right to eat lunch.
26. Try not to laugh.
A wobbly one-year-old was walking right towards the sharp, metal corner of the grill outside during a cookout at my place. It could have easily sliced his forehead open. I quickly put my hand over his forehead to protect it against the corner. I ended up pushing his head too hard, knocked him down, and while trying to aid him from falling down and getting hurt I spilled my entire beer all over him. He cried (loudly) and someone said, "Why did you just clothesline the baby and pour your beer on him?" I didn't honestly have a very good answer.
25. That's just low.
I didn't press charges when ex for attacking me and punching me in the face. I though I was doing a good thing; I did it so she could still get her CNA certification and have a decent job to help support our kids. Instead, she quit her job a couple days before the court date (to get more child support) and filed a bogus restraining order against me.
24. Two tickets to creeperville.
I usually work late shifts and one night I'm walking home alone. Halfway through my journey a shady looking guy comes from the local park trailing a girl. They're about twenty feet ahead of me, and I think the girl was now aware that the two people she just passed were now on her tail. I had to do something as well because we were getting to the most secluded part of the walk, if there was a time to make a move on a defenceless person that would be it.
The problem is, I had no clue how to go about this and warn her. But maybe I could distract the creeper without him wanting to kill me. So I finally yell at the top of my voice,
"HEY SWEETHEART! FANCY A GOOD TIME???!!"
My logic was, if I could provoke her from a distance, it'd both catch her attention, and ward off Mr. Shady.
The shady guy jumped out of his skin and looked around, at this point I prepared myself for a fight. There was no need, he veered off in a totally different direction. The girl, on the other hand started running for her life, terrified.
So there I was, standing close to the secluded part of my walk, feeling like a creeper myself. Part of me is thrilled that I prevented something terrible from happening. The other part though feels terrible for scaring her. I to this day kind of wish I came across her again, just so I could explain the situation.
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23. Next time, keep it.
My friends and I found a woman's wallet on the sidewalk in downtown Athens, Georgia. The driver's license had a name and DOB, and she had a University of Georgia student card. We looked her up in the UGA directory and called her to return the wallet. She was grateful and we felt like heroes. Well, guess what?
She showed up to meet us with her "tough guy" boyfriend, who smelled like a brewery, and accused us of stealing it. They tried to "interrogate" us for 5 minutes straight, as we attempted to hand them the wallet and leave. It was so bizarre. We were baffled. We're six well-dressed UGA alumni and students, 2 females, 4 males, some in their 30's, working professionals - who had driven to meet her voluntarily to return the wallet. And she thought we were the thieves?! It was unreal. They claimed $500 dollars was missing from the wallet. Our immediate response, "You carry 500 dollars around, in your wallet?"
The boyfriend became irate, and screamed, "Ya'll ain't goin' nowhere til I find out which one of you took it!!" (Exact quote) Again, there were 6 of us there and 1 of him. Needless to say we weren't intimidated. The girlfriend looked scared. I diffused the situation, separated everyone, and got out of there.
22. Hard-earned cash.
I found a dog (pit bull) wandering in my neighborhood along a busy street. I hopped out of my car and put my dog's spare collar on him to keep him from being hit. I walked to all the nearby houses and knocked on the doors asking if anybody belongs to the dog or if they knew who did. After about 10 houses I gave up and took him home. That afternoon I made "found dog" fliers (without the dog's picture), about 100 in all and put them up around the area. In front of my house I put a big one so people would know that this was the place. After a few days I had pretty much resigned myself to keeping the dog, when I got a phone call. The lady gave a perfect description of the dog and I told her she could swing by and pick him up.
About an hour later she shows up, with the cops. She gets out of her car and greets me with "Are you the jerk that stole my dog?!?" I was of course taken aback. I stood there with a slack jaw not knowing what to say. "I asked you a question! Did you steal my dog?!" "What? NO! I found a dog and tried to find his home!" "You stole him and I have witnesses!" she then tried to get the officer to arrest me. It only took a few moments for the officer to realize she was crazy. "So he stole your dog, asked all your neighbors who the dog belonged to, put up signs saying he had the dog and then invited you over to take the dog back? Either he's the worst criminal in the world or you don't understand the definition of 'stole' ma'm." She then claimed I stole the dog for the reward money. The officer said he didn't see an offer for a reward nor did I ask for one. "But just out of curiosity, how much reward money were you going to offer?" asked the officer. "$200! That's what he wants, that's why he took the dog!" "Well, we have no evidence of him stealing the dog but it seems to me that he's earned the reward money." Worst $200 I ever earned.
21. No thanks to free chicken.
I live in an area with fairly low-priced rentals, so it's full of college kids and people who are of lower incomes. I was at the corner store and the family in front of me had a case of beer, a 12-pack of Coke, a few packs of cigarettes, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and some milk. Their debit card got denied, so they took out the milk. Got denied again, took out the chicken. Got denied again, took out the mac'n'cheese. Finally got approved, so they were going home with beer, Coke, and cigs. Their two kids, maybe 4 and 6, asked what they were having for dinner if they didn't have the chicken nuggets. The mom's response was, "You can drink Coke, it's got calories." The younger kid started crying for the chicken nuggets. The mom grabbed her by the arm and told her she wasn't getting any dinner.
I bought their chicken nuggets and ran after them. I tried to give them the box, and the mom started screaming at me, "do we look like a charity case, I can raise my own kids, you don't know what it's like being a mom" and tons of other stuff. I was like, "Just take the chicken, your kids are hungry." The woman hit the box out of my hands and she and her man grabbed the kids and stormed away.
I wish I'd followed them and called CPS or something.
20. Gone baby gone.
I'm a female education major and I work part-time at a retail store in the mall. A little boy of about 3 left his mother and was running into the crowded food court, and it was Black Friday in my low-income area, so there were a LOT of people.
I yelled for his mom but she was in the dressing room, so I ran out and grabbed him before he could get lost in the crowd of people. When I walked back in the store the woman charged at me (as I explained that he had run out of the store, there was no way she didn't know what I was doing), took the kid out of my hands, grabbed my ponytail, got in my face, and screamed at me for touching her son. Her speech was strewn with profanity and she was yanking my hair the whole time.
My boss called security but was otherwise useless, and not a single customer did anything. I didn't fight back because she had a child in her arms, she was larger, and people in the area have been known to carry knives. Anyway, a security guard showed up. She was later arrested and faced assault charges.
19. She really wanted those textbooks back.
I was at a bar in Boston and noticed there was a backpack under my table. I open it to find a new Macbook pro and a few architecture books with a Northeastern college sticker on it. I went through the items looking for a name or some sort of way to identify the owner but found nothing. I really didn’t want to give this to the bouncer because i knew it would probably "disappear," but after about 30 I turned it in to the bartender who put it behind the bar.
Fast forward an hour later and this girl comes through the door walks over to where I was and starts looking all around, saying "where is my backpack" over and over. I say "Hey, i just gave it to the bartender." She PUSHES my girlfriend out of the way and rushes to the bar demanding her backpack. Bartender turns it over then she opens it to inspect the contents. When she realizes its all there she just turns and walk out. No thank you. Nothing.
Photo by Anastasiya Gepp from Pexels
18. He was better off without it.
I was on the bus and noticed some guy on his blackberry. Well, I dozed off for a few minutes and woke up and noticed the guy had left his phone on the bus. I picked it up and tried to find a number in it so I could call to let him know I had it. Checked his Facebook and saw he updated his status from home saying some thug on the bus robbed him he also said how horrible people are in Los Angeles, how its a city filled with thieves. I updated his status correcting him, politely letting him know I had it and that I could sent it to him. He emailed me his address and I mailed it to him... he didn't even send a thank you email back, guy was a jerk.
17. Funny how that money just disappeared.
My manager found a wallet in a cart at work. Brings it straight to me and I looked in the wallet for ID. I called customer to come get her wallet. She comes in picks up her wallet and then calls the police and tells them I stole $400 out of her wallet. I got to make a statement and everything. Surveillance video is reviewed and proves she is full of it. Customer is still outraged and the police have to literally show her the video and threaten her with jail before she backs down.
Wallets just go straight into lost and found now. I make no effort to contact people any more.
16. Now everybody has to suffer.
I am a police officer. Our department used to carry lock out kits for people who locked their keys in the car, locked a kid or pet in on a hot day, or otherwise needed to get into the car. The way they work is you wedge a small air bag in the door jamb to open the door a little then put a long thing pole like thing through the space and either pull the door handle or hit the power lock button and voila, door is unlocked. Anyways, sometimes doors would be slightly damaged, or cars scratched or dented in process and people were suing the police department, or asking for reimbursements when this would happen. Ultimately our department decided to get rid of the lockout kits and if you lock your keys in the car you have to call a tow truck or locksmith to get them out. Now if there are kids or pets in the car on a hot day, rather than using the lockout kit and using minimally invasive methods to get them out, we smash a window.
15. The perfect payback.
I worked at a shoe store and a lady asked for our special breast cancer awareness shoes. My grandma died of breast cancer so I wanted to help her. We didn't have the shoes so I ordered them from another store in another district. She want the shoes shipped to her house. I'm not allowed to do this but I bent the rules for this lady. She bought the shoes but didn't seem happy. She complained about the price because Kohl's had them cheaper but not in her size.
Two hours later she comes back with a friend and wants an immediate refund. The way ordering shoes from other districts works means I can't refund her. So I have to call my district manager and explain that I broke the rules and ask how to fix the issue. Meanwhile this lady is calling me stupid and lazy. Saying young people just don't know how to do anything. She gets her return and continues to bully me. This is during a busy Saturday.
I still had her address... so I mailed her an anonymous glitter bomb.
14. Everyone knows work is more important than grandpa.
I went to drop my son off at his absent mother's grandparents house while I went to work at the prison. I notice that his grandpa is pale and sweating profusely. He says it's just heartburn. I put my hand on his forehead and his skin is cold and clammy. I convince them that something is wrong and call an ambulance. I then call work and explain the situation and that I won't make it in. Grandpa ends up having a 5 bypass heart surgery that night. Doctor says his heart stopped on the operating table, but he survived. I go to work the next day and get disciplined for missing work.
13. Should have gone for the three-year warranty.
I used to be a PC repairman so I know my stuff. Had to use my relative's somewhat old laptop, realized it was running ridiculously slow. Disk was always at 100% usage. It had numerous bad sectors. Helped her save all her precious data (family pics, videos, bank stuff, pay stubs etc) by putting it into my own PC so she doesn't lose it. Helped her with buying a new ssd which would also help her with the speed of the laptop, making it snappy and actually usable. Did not bill her anything for any of the work that I did, which took over 1 week as the hard drive was so far gone, she only had to pay for the new SSD which went into her laptop. Got a call a year later telling me that her laptop stopped working and that it was my fault because I had tinkered with it a year prior.
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12. Can't save anyone's life, these days.
I had a quasi-friend jump out of my car once. No warning. He just undid his seat belt, opened his back passenger door, and was gone. Myself and the other occupant in my car provided emergency first aid while I got on the phone with 911. It was a horrible experience, especially as a young adult suddenly surrounded by police and insurance attention.
I wanted no part of any of this drama and it showed up one day and imploded my life. When he woke up from his coma nearly a week later, he was different. His family flatly didn’t believe my “side” of the story, and encouraged him to think of me as the villain who’d attempted to murder him. So, of course, I end up getting stalked and threatened for two years by him and his family, and right before the statute of limitations comes around I find myself on the receiving end of a lawsuit.
11. Must have been a thick wallet.
I found a wallet on the subway. Looked through it. There was an ID with an address on my way home so I stopped and rang the bell saying I found a wallet on the subway with this address. So the owner of the wallet comes downstairs and I confirm its the same guy as pictured on the ID. He then proceeds to accuse me of stealing the cash that was in it (several thousand dollars to hear him tell it) and threatens to call the police. This is before I handed him the wallet so I still could have just walked away with it. I threw it off the little stoop into the bushes and walked away.
10. A little mishap becomes a big problem.
I was playing at the playground with my young kids. I'm a big guy (6'6 and 270lbs), so I'm always hyper aware of my surroundings when around a bunch of kids. As we're playing, I notice a little boy unsupervised who is about to fall off the platform of the playground structure (which is about 6' high). My kids are on the ground and safe, so I quickly hustle over in time to catch the kid as he falls off, but he wiggles on the way down and bangs his arm on a pole.
I get him turned right side up and try to calm him down, when some soccer mom comes rushing at me yelling at me to get my hands off her son and that I'm hurting him, etc etc.
I get out of there and back to my kids and we go over to another part of the playground (this place is huge and has like 5 areas) and like 10 mins later I'm approached by 2 cops who want to talk to me about hurting the lady's kid (she claimed I pulled him off the platform so my kid wouldn't have to wait for the slide and that she "saw the whole thing officer.")
So I got to get interviewed and almost arrested because this lady didn't want to parent her kids. The only thing that saved me was that another parent saw what was happening and corroborated that my story was correct and the lady was letting a 2 year old who could barely walk explore literally several acres of playgrounds with almost zero supervision.
She also didn't like when the cop asked her if she'd have preferred I let her son fall on his head (he tumbled headfirst when I caught him.)
9. Left her in the lurch.
I was going to a music festival and my friend wanted to go with me. He couldn't afford it so I bought him a ticket. He drove us there and we were having a good time. One of my favorite artists came on the stage so I went into the pit to have some fun while he stayed in the back because he said he was "just chillin." After the set I walk out of the pit looking for him and turns out he left me there, no ride, hour and a half away from my house. I was 15 years old and wasn't about to buy an Uber so I had to call my mom to pick me up who was livid at me at first because apparently my friend told her that he thought I had a ride home. Needless to say I never invited him anywhere again.
Photo by Wendy Wei from Pexels
8. Throw the book at him.
I lent an acquaintance my library card so they could check out a couple of textbooks. Three months later I get an email saying I have five textbooks (each worth about $150) and that I need to return them or pay for them. I contacted my “friend” and say I either need the books or the cash, or the books and the three bucks or whatever the late fee was. They say they lost the books, which is ok, just find them before you have to pay 1k out of pocket for these things. Six months later, they’ve blocked me on all forms of social media, and since our class is over I have no way to see them. Ended up having to pay about 500$ and beg for leniency. (And also my local library has a student forgiveness program as long as it’s the first offense, which saved my life.)
Moral of the story, never lend anyone anything that you wouldn’t give a complete stranger.
7. He rode off with the goods.
I let my former roommate in college borrow my bike because he was late to class. He comes back at the end of the day with the bike nowhere to be seen. He then nonchalantly tells me that the bike lock was cut off and the bike was stolen. Bear in mind this was no generic Walmart brand bike, this was a bike I built myself and cost me about $300. I tell him that he needs to reimburse me the full amount but he says he would only give me $150 because he didn’t think it was worth that much. It took him 3 months to get me the money. From that experience I learned to never let anyone borrow anything from me that I wasn’t okay with losing myself.
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6. A posthumous let-down.
I took care of my elderly mother for the past 20 years. My brother and half-sister moved far away years ago, which in hindsight was probably a good idea. I took her to every doctor's appointment, took care of her in my house after 3 different surgeries, did her taxes, made all her phone calls, did everything. When my family had to relocate across the country, she moved with us. When we moved back, so did she. Then I went through my divorce, and for reasons I still don't understand she wrote me out of her will. I didn't know this and continued taking care of her for over a year. My ex-husband let it slip one night after a few too many drinks and painkillers following a bad car accident. My mother told him she had disowned me. I didn't believe him, I thought he was just messing with me. She died last month, and it was then I found out it was all true. My name wasn't even mentioned in her will. Like I never even existed to her. It's left me in a very bad place emotionally.
5. Water deals double damage.
My friend/roommate broke her iPhone the second time in a row within a year. I felt bad and didn't want her parents to skin her alive so I offered to let her use my old iPhone5. I use the old iPhone whenever I go overseas because it's unlocked and in perfect working condition. I probably travel overseas about every 4-6 months.
Before giving her the phone, we had a direct face-to-face agreement that if something were to happen to the phone, it needed to be replaced because I use the phone.
A few months later she ended up getting water inside the phone. At first she tried hiding it from me, then tried making something up saying that the phone just randomly turned off, then tried to tell me that she took it to the Apple store and they said that the logic board died and it wasn't her fault. I later took it to the store myself and they said it was 100% water damage.
While she is/was my friend, I felt like I should not have to spend $150 on an iPhone just to replace mine because I was doing her a favor, especially because we had an agreement. Not to mention that this iPhone was unlocked, which is very hard to come by on the internet without getting scammed.
She decided to try and offer me $50 because "it wasn't her fault." We haven't spoken since.
4. Should have just walked away?
I ran into the middle of a busy road to rescue a kitten. I went door to door until I finally found the owner. The first thing she did when she saw me holding her kitten was accuse me of stealing it. Every single animal I've ever rescued I've either been ignored or yelled at for trying to return. One guy yelled at me to get off his property despite the fact I was holding his lost cat.
3. Never get involved in someone else's fight.
I stopped a domestic violence incident by calling 911 when I came upon it in my apartment hallway. The assailant had the victim on the ground and was beating and biting him in the face. The assailant fled when I showed up, but returned shortly later while I was helping the victim get to safety, and he strangled, beat me and broke several of my bones in the process - in full sight of the victim.
The victim refused to cooperate with the police, refused to let the paramedics into the building and lied when questioned, saying that I provoked the attack by picking a fight with the guy. The victim and the assailant got back together as soon as the assailant was released on bail, and they were allowed to remain in the building.
Because the victim lied, I lost my apartment, disqualified from the Victims of Crime Compensation program offered by my state, no lawyer would take me as a client, and my involvement in the incident was completely stricken from the assailant's court proceedings. He committed 5 felony offenses, but that was busted down to 1 single misdemeanor count once the victim began lying to prosecutors. The prosecutors did not bother to contact me. This was on top of me almost losing my job due to my injuries, and the thousands of dollars of debt I went into due to medical expenses.
The assailant was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a 4 hour seminar on why it's bad to hit people and bite their faces off. He never had to pay a dime in compensation toward my medical, court or relocation expenses, something that is supposed to be a mandatory imposition during sentencing in violent crime cases.
Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay
2. Congratulations! You have been selected...
My brother and I became concerned that my mother's fiancé was in reality an African scammer. We tried to talk to her but she wouldn't listen. We asked the only other family member we knew she'd told, my aunt, what she thought and she agreed with us and agreed to talk to Mom. We talked to the guy, researched his information and proved his story was completely fabricated and showed it to mom.
She now hates us for embarrassing her and violating her confidence by talking to our aunt (a family member she told the story to). She's told everyone we did it to keep her from remarrying. She slammed us publicly. She sent us emails outlining how we have consistently embarrassed her and lived our lives horribly. She refused to talk to us and then told everyone we didn't even talk to her on her birthday and don't go see her.
In short, we now have no relationship with our mother and have been portrayed as horrible people because we didn't let an Internet scammer take her small nest egg.
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1. Standing up for someone gets you knocked down.
Freshman year, there was a rumor going around at school that some girl I knew had been "stalking" someone. From what I heard, she made a MySpace account pretending to be some guy. Lets call this guy Gavin. I heard she had a huge crush on him. Gavin was very popular and this girl went from being ignored to getting bullied by students and some teachers. This girl was in the 7th grade and Gavin was a senior.
When I heard about it, I asked the girl if it was true. She said it wasn't and explained to me how she had been framed. I believed her and befriended her. She had even told me that Gavin didn't pay much attention to the rumor and apologized to her about everyone's behavior.
But of course, everyone kept bullying her. One day, I found her crying. She told me some guys (Let's call them Tony and Joey) made her cry by calling her names and telling her to go kill herself. They were 16 years old. This girl was 12 years old at the time. I'm not going to lie... Before that happened, I had already hated those two guys. When I found out what they said to her, it made me hate them even more. After that, I began looking out for her more often. I told everyone in my gym class to drop it and stopped some senior girls from hurting her.
No one knew we were friends because we were in different grades and we had one class together. One day, everyone found out that out and when I got confronted, I said, "Look guys, this girl has feelings. What you guys did was ridiculous and telling her to go kill herself disgusts me. I think she's a sweet girl and its not fair that you are all making her seem like a horrible person. I'm going to keep talking to her and I don't care what any of you people think."
As a result, a lot of people stopped talking to me. Does that bother me? Nope. I could care less about those people. From what I've been told, Tony and Joey apologized to her. I still hate them though. Also, I don't regret standing up for her and being her friend.
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