There's no better feeling than doing something kind for another person without expecting anything in return. But when the recipient throws your favor back in your face? It can really spoil the moment. We asked people from around the world to share the horribly ungrateful things they've witnessed. These stories bring home the meaning of the phrase, "A simply thank you would be nice."
38. Too immature for toys.
After getting close to $500 in gifts for Christmas, my sister tore down the tree, kicked other people's gifts, started yelling and crying, all because she didn't see a Wii among her presents (this was when they were really hard to find). We actually did get her a Wii, she just didn't get to it yet. I even had to take on a second holiday job at an online gaming store to get it.
She was a 24 year old med student at the time.
37. Not so sweet ride.
A girl in my high school received a used car on her 16th birthday. She was unhappy with the fact that it was used (3 yrs old.) So she intentionally totaled it. Her thinking was that if she totaled this one her parents would have to buy her a new one. She didn't get a new car, and had to ride the bus.
36. That deflated quickly.
I saw this woman on the side of the road who had a flat tire and was clearly having issues changing it. So polite ol' me decided to halt my run and go see if I could help out. I stroll over and offer my services to her and she accepts, but she backs away to a pretty far distance.
I proceed to change her tire and help get her on her way and as soon as I finish and proceed to extend my arm for a handshake, she says "Back away, I have 911 on my phone right now and all I have to do is press Call." I don't know if she thought I was going to attack her or something but you don't just do that to someone who just helped you change your damn tire.
Flabbergasted, I ran away and I haven't seen that woman since.
Photo by Joshua Köller from Pexels
35. Took the shine off it.
My younger sister got diamond earrings for her 16th birthday from my parents. She then says in a sulky tone "This isn't what I asked for". Parents then take back earrings, scold her and she gets nothing for her birthday. She then spends the rest of her birthday demanding that they give it back to her.
Photo by Dmitry Zvolskiy from Pexels
34. Looking a gift horse in the mouth.
I was visiting friends at their farm years ago. My friend from high school and his wife and their daughter who was about 16. The daughter was out saddling her horse when the horse kicked her in the chest. Collapsed her throat and she couldn't breathe. I performed an emergency tracheotomy saving her life. About two months later I get a letter from a law firm. They changed their mind about how grateful they were and decided to sue me for leaving a scar from the tracheotomy.
33. Would have been an appropriate response.
I got my sister an HP laptop for Christmas. She had asked for a pink netbook, preferably HP, so I got it in a plaid I thought she'd like. The day she opened it, she was upset because it wasn't solid pink, even though I knew she liked plaid style. She tossed it aside, saying she won't use it unless I return it and get it in solid pink. Almost slapped the hispanic right out of her.
Pixabay
32. Threw the friendship away.
My so-called friend in Year 2 "accidently" threw away the present I gave her. It was a mini kiddie make-up set I spent months saving up for because my allowance was a mere $5 per month (parents were poor). I didn't know someone else gave the same thing to her earlier and when I asked her about it, she said she only wanted one, not two and "accidently" threw it away. Needless to say I'm no longer friends with her anymore.
31. Cool aunt, shattered dreams.
I have two nephews aged 14 and 12 and they have every game console out there. So thinking I was going to be the coolest aunt ever, I bought them 4 of the latest games, and they were over $50 each. I don't see them often, I wanted to do something special, $250 is a lot of money in my budget. They took one look at the games, said "they suck", threw them against the wall and broke the cases. I picked them up, took them back to the store but they refused to take 3 of them back due to the damage. I ended up selling them at the mall to one of those game stores, got almost nothing for them. Never again.
Image by White77 from Pixabay
30. Go on, take the money and run.
I delivered a pizza in a low-income type apartment complex...total was $18 something and she handed me a $20 rolled up and told me to keep the change. I turned around and started walking down the stairs back to the parking lot while unrolling the $20 to put in my wad of cash when I find a $100 wrapped up inside of the $20. Immediately I turned around and went back, knocked and said "I don't think you meant to include this inside the twenty." as I extended my hand towards her with the $100 bill in it.
She instantly started screaming at me about how she didn't give me a hundred dollar tip and that I'm lucky she doesn't call the police. Slammed the door, then called to my pizza shop to complain.
I told the manager the whole story, she was put on the do-not-answer list.
Crazy lady.
29. It's just metal.
A co-worker whined that her grandmother gave her a silver necklace for her birthday when "she knows I only ever wear white gold!" I laughed and told her that when my grandparents were alive I only ever got a birthday card and that stopped when I started high school, but the co-worker only got more defensive trying to get me to sympathise with her situation.
This co-worker is actually a lovely person but has lived a very sheltered life.
Photo by Tom Quandt on Unsplash
28. Out with the old, in with the new.
When we were very young we were very poor. My sister's birthday was coming up, I think she was about 7. There was no money to buy gifts but my mother had a small piece of white satin cloth and a box of tiny little pearl beads. She hand sewed this beautiful little wedding gown for my sisters doll and sat up night after night hand sewing these tiny little beads on the dress. When my sister was given it for her birthday she threw it across the room in disgust, saying "I don't want that it's my old dolly." I'll never forget the heartbreak on my mother's face.
27. He deserved it.
This is actually something I did as a child. When I was having my 5-6 birthday party, my parents invited this kid that I hated with all my guts. We were family friends, but this little brat would always try to pick fights with me, pulling my hair and whatnot. Anyways, when I went to open his present he had given me these yellow suspender pants with little red train designs on them. So I'm just standing there like, "Who even wears suspenders?!" I then proceed to make a huge scene in front of everyone and throw his gift back at him. I've since learned to act like a human being.
26. Forever young.
The sister of my coworker was at the office. I ended up chatting with her around 7pm while she waited for her bro to finish up work. I hung around only because she was kinda pretty and single.
After mentioning her father paid 100% of her $100,000 tuition, a car, and all her living expenses, she starts laying into her dad for promising only $500,000 as her future graduation gift. She was expecting something more along the lines of $750k to $1 million so she was super ticked and kept talking about what a jerk he was being. Apparently, she changed her major one too many times for her father's taste and was living the lifestyle of a "forever student".
This was when I was struggling to pay off my college loans, not earning very much, and barely staying afloat with paying my rent and covering my beer money.
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
25. Just a little worn in.
When I turned 18, I planned on buying a brand new computer with the money that was released for me on my birthday. My dad calls me a few days in my research, in panic; "Do not buy a computer!"
Well, naturally, I realise that my party is in a few days and settle for buying it afterwards. He had bought a brand-new one for himself, and passed his old one down to me.
It was hard not to be disappointed because I love new things. And it's not like he's out of money - of course I did my best to keep a good face and thank him for the gift - and I did use the computer for three years.
Photo by Ruca Souza from Pexels
24. Crash landing.
I'm a paramedic in Germany.
One time we came to a motorbike accident. The driver was in a horrible condition. In order to save his life I had to cut through his leather suit with was a pretty good race combination (full leather, many protectors). Me and my teammate did a good job and saved his life. He later tried to sue me for cutting his leather suit in pieces. Needless to say that he wasn't successful.
Photo by Stitch Dias from Pexels
23. Christmas is canceled.
I made Christmas stockings for my then girlfriend's (now wife's) two teenage children. I spent hours finding little specialty candies, little toys they'd like, make up, etc. I tried to make them outrageously nice stockings and happily spent about 200 bucks on the two of them. On Christmas morning they spent about two seconds looking at them, judged them unworthy and then just cast them aside. The boy actually stepped on his at one point, breaking one of the toys and did not care. To this day I think he did it on purpose. It sort of ruined the whole making Christmas nice for the kids mood for me. They are adults now and I guess the fact that I still remember that scene points out how petty I am. But still.
Pixabay
22. Everyone loves a gift certificate.
I gave my niece a 32gig iPad 2 for her 16th birthday last year. I really thought she would be so excited, she has an iPod, and a Nano and really thought giving her a new iPad 2 would be so exciting for her. The night before her birthday I thought I would surprise her and give her the iPad. When I handed her the gift wrapped box she opened it, looked at the iPad, shrugged her shoulders and said, "Thanks" then walked away. I really felt like I had let her down. Then within hours of that my other niece, her sister who is 13, starts complaining to me that the Kindle I gave her for her birthday earlier that year only shows print in black and white and why couldn't she have an iPad. I told them both that maybe I've been a little to generous to them both and that they should figure out what they like at Old Navy since their presents for the next year for Xmas and birthdays would consist of $25 GC's.
Pixabay
21. The ol' switcheroo.
I used to work for a local car dealership. I was selling the cheapest car on the lot to a dad and his daughter. It was a 2000 Daewoo for $3,000. She was SO excited to have her own car and it was what her dad could afford to buy her. At this same time another salesperson was selling a brand new Eddie Bauer Explorer to a dad for a present to his daughter. As I was presenting the Daewoo to the new owners the daughter of the other dad comes in to see her new Explorer. She starts throwing a fit and yells "I didn't want an explorer, I wanted an Expedition!!!"
I was really proud of the dad of the Explorer as he walked back into the finance office. He changed the deal. He corraborated with the guy buying the daewoo and switched the names... So the girl crying over her "Explorer" now had a crappy Daewoo and the girl who was really grateful to have a car ended up with a fully loaded paid for Explorer... I would never have believed it if I had not been the salesperson.
20. Money is wasted on kids.
My friend's youngest daughter had a Dora the Explorer birthday party for her 4th birthday which was in August, so naturally I assumed she liked Dora the Explorer. Come Christmas time I bought her a set of Dora's baby sister and brother, it cost about $30 which is a lot to spend on a child I didn't birth. She opened it up, started screaming that it was for babies and she is too old for Dora now. Her mum took her home without her present so I gave the dolls to my youngest who fell in love with them. A few weeks later when she came over to our house she threw a tantrum and took the dolls home because "they were hers first!" I know that kids don't have a filter when it comes to manners but I know my kids would never do anything like that, they have received some pretty strange gifts from relatives in the past and they just say thank you and pretend to be excited about it until they get it home and throw it to the bottom of the toy box.
Photo by samaraagenstvo feeria from Pexels
19. Moving to a lower level.
Kid I barely knew asked my help moving cause I'm pretty strong and can move the couch and stuff. First problem, he has two friends there who are carying a pack of gum up and down the stairs each trip, and his mom. So I take the bed he has apart and his mom has the balls to ask me to speed up cause her rental on the truck was only for 3 hours. This point I turned around and asked her if she wanted to take care of it herself cause she was more than welcome to (I have this rare ability to not give much of a care if I'm talking to an adult, my friends don't) so she just shuts up and leaves me alone. At his new place I helped move in and put the bed back together and then he tells me as I'm packing up MY tools "Oh can you leave your tools here I have a couple other things to build but my friends are coming over for dinner... I packed my tools and gave him a piece of mind and told him that this story would go round campus and he would be known for the ungrateful little brat he was.
18. Like stealing money from a baby.
My older sister Amanda is EXTREMELY spoiled. My dad practically worships the ground she spits on. Well she's 9 years older than me so of course she was able to do more things. I used to help my mom at a resturant every day from when I was 5-8 years old. Because I was so young, people would give me tips throughout the day. When my mom's shift ended, she would walk me nexted door to the bank and I would deposit my earnings. By the time I was 8 I had a little over 800$ saved up. May came around and my sister was going to to turn 17. For her birthday she wanted a crap tons of hair styling stuff and makeup. Well my father had other plans... He convinced me into letting him "borrow" my $800+ and combined it with his $500. He then went out and bought a cheap car for $1000 and used the other $300ish for seat covers, new tires, a new stereo, etc. May 5th... We gave my sister the car and she threw the biggest fit ever! She wanted nothing to do with the car. So she sold it for $700. Dad got his 500 back, Amanda got 200 to spend on hair junk and I got nothing back.
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17. The hug of life.
When I was fifteen, a girl in my driver's ed class turned red and stood up. She put her hands to her throat, couldn't make a sound. Her eyes looked crazy. She was choking on a piece of candy. Everyone looks for one beat, two beats. I'm like, "what the hell" and I stand up and walk over two tables and give her the Heimlich. On the second attempt, the candy flies out like ten feet, like in a movie or something. She starts gasping and bawling. It's a big scene. She thanks me.
The next day at class when our parents are picking us up, she is walking down the hall with her white-trash mom. They walk up to me. I'm expecting a thanks from the mom or something. I've never seen this woman before and as she gets close she starts yelling, "What did you think you were doing? You aren't a doctor or a nurse! You could have broke her ribs! You're lucky I don't get a lawyer and sue your family! I still might!" Et cetera, et cetera...
Photo by Atul Choudhary from Pexels
16. Lost in translation.
So I knew this guy at university whilst doing my post graduate degree. He was Turkish and his English really wasn't that great. I have no idea how he got by on the course, but hey, somehow he did. Anyway, I'm half Turkish, half English myself and therefore we had something to talk about from a cultural background. When it came to writing the dissertation he asked whether I could check his written English and make changes where needed. I agreed thinking that whilst his spoken English was poor, maybe his written English was good and that he would only give me part to check.
It turned out to be awful. I spent two evenings running through the whole 15,000 words changing grammar and vocabulary. It almost drove me insane. After all of that I emailed it back to him just saying that it was the best I could do etc. I heard nothing back. Not even a thank you.
I saw him around the university 6 months later. Turns out he's doing his PhD now. I heard all about it, but still no word of thanks. No good deed goes unpunished.
Pixabay
15. Kids are brutally honest.
My son was 6, and was really into trains. He had a fantastic wooden train set with all the bells and whistles, and he and I spent hours putting it together in different ways and playing. But he kept begging for an electric train, begging and begging. I told him "not until you're 8." Well, that Christmas I decided to surprise him and I put together a small electric train set on a 4 x 8 piece of plywood. I couldn't spend exhorbitant amounts on it, but it was a nice oval with a split off that went up and over the main track and rejoined. A couple of engines, a few cars, some simple trees and a crossing with lights. It wasn't much, but I spent hours putting it together after the kids went to bed every night.
Christmas morning comes, all the gifts unwrapped, and I tell my oldest, "There's another surprise for you downstairs." He ran down and found the train and his eyes lit up, he was so excited. I showed him how to work it, then went upstairs briefly to help pick up. Ten minutes later I'm coming back downstairs to play with him and the train set, and he's walking up the stairs. He looks me in the eye and says, "It's kind of boring," and walked past me.
Yeah, I admit it... I cried...
14. Bet she regrets saying anything.
My spouse used to have an old Mercedes E-class; it was like a 1995 or something. He wanted to give it away to my little cousin as a first car, because it was safe, reliable, and my little cousin's parents couldn't afford to buy their kids anything big, like cars. So we gave her this car and she freaks out and started going on about how we were going to go out and buy a new one and she wanted a new one too. So my spouse took the keys away from her and gave them to her older brother, right in front of her. (The reason we didn't give it to him in the first place was because he had an old Honda that he had paid for himself; however, it was falling apart and needed a lot of work to keep it safe.) We even volunteered to pay for his insurance and his first year of college just to spite his little sister. That felt real good. We haven't bought my female cousin anything in over 3 years. We don't even send her a birthday card. If you act like that when someone gives you something you clearly aren't worthy of anything.
13. Not in the spirit of the cartoon.
I made the mistake of being nostalgic while at my uncle's house and watching an old episode of Sailor Moon online. My younger cousin who's about ten watched it with me and was instantly obsessed. Her birthday is in August and I've been babysitting her for years, so I've seen her ridiculous 'birthday lists.'
That year she demanded that she get a full on Halloween Costume of Sailor Moon complete with red boots, scepter and long flowing blond hair. My aunt searched tirelessly online--but to order one of those really nice cosplay costumes with custom measurements can be hundreds of dollars.
Instead she made it, slaved over stitching this costume and creating this wig and little leg covers all for one day of my younger cousin's life. It was honestly very good, and much better than some of the stuff they sell online.
She presented it to her on Halloween, and my cousin just cried, threw down the costume and started screaming and stepping on it and telling her mom how much she hated it and how it wasn't even close to what she wanted.
I was shocked.
Pixabay
12. Give it a little gas.
A couple years ago a friend and I were driving across the country in a big moving truck full of my mom's furniture. We had been on the road for about 18 hours on the 2nd to last day of the trip and stopped at a rest stop to stretch our legs and use the bathroom. Sitting at the rest stop late at night was an entire family, mom, dad & 2 young kids and their car which was obviously broken or otherwise not working. Feeling like I should try and help I asked the father what was wrong and he told me they had run out of gas and just needed to get to the next town which was about 40 miles away. I couldn't leave the rest stop with that family stranded so my friend and I got back in the truck and drove the 40ish miles to the next town, bought gas & a can and drove all the way back in our huge moving truck. The whole trip back and forth took us about an hour and a half and by the time we got back to the rest stop we were both about to pass out. Well, the family was still there waiting and I hopped out to give them the gas they needed so badly. I handed the can to the father and he looked at me and said "I would rather have the money". This caught me off guard as money wouldn't help them get anywhere but it was then that it dawned on me that he never wanted gas to begin with and probably had some in the car. He was just fishing for cash and using his kids as the bait. I felt really bad for the mom as she was just looking at me the whole time with this expression of "I'm so so sorry". I was at a loss for words since the dad didn't even want the gas we had just drivin for over an hour to get for them. I just set the gas can on the ground, got back in the truck and left feeling like a giant fool.
11. The punishment matched the crime.
This is one of my favorite stories of instant justice:
My mother's friend threw his daughter a birthday party; this was fairly affluent family so she got a big party with all of her friends, and this girl got a lot of nice stuff. She got dolls, a doll house, various toys, and a freaking horse, with all of the riding gear and the promise of lessons and everything she could ever need for the horse.
This brat got what millions of little girls all over the country dream of, and you know what she did? She flipped out because it was the wrong doll house. She got a horse and she threw a huge screaming temper tantrum over the (enormous) doll house.
Now I shall digress a bit and tell you about her father. Her dad came from Africa to the US as a refugee, most of his friends and family were killed. This guy competed in the Olympics and worked his butt off to become a doctor of some kind. As one might expect, this guy did not take kindly to his daughter's obvious lack of appreciation for her privileged lifestyle so he cut that right out.
He canceled the party right then (the guests still got to eat cake and keep their party favors on top of an apology for his daughter's behavior), packed up all the toys and took them back to the store, he took the horse back, and grounded the crap out of his spoiled kid.
Pixabay
10. Nothing for the rotten apple.
My Mom bought my sister numerous laptops, iPhones, and cameras on the condition that she take care of them. Every single one was broken in a month or two. Bought her a $900 digital SLR she knows I've been coveting for years, because my sister claimed she was going to take a photography course at school. Got the camera, whined that she didn't get any other presents, used it for a day then let it sit around for 6 months. She uses it now for pictures on her tumblr, but she told my mom she never intended to take a photography course and she can only use the damn thing on auto.
For Easter I spent a couple hundred dollars buying her tons of Hunger Games stuff and random stuff for an Easter basket because I stupidly wanted to do something nice (I'd just pick up random stuff over the course of a few months that I thought she'd like). She was upset that my mom wouldn't be doing baskets anymore because she's 15. She threw a tantrum after she opened everything because Easter sucked because we wouldn't hide Easter eggs for her or hide plastic ones filled with money like her friend's parent's did. She's 15.
I haven't gotten her a damn thing since. I bought my mom a MacBook Air to pay her back for years of caring for me, and my sister threw the biggest tantrum ever. She clawed at my mom's face and tried to steal her car because it wasn't fair that my mom got something nice for the first time EVER. Literally, ever. My sister has since "accidentally" broken her laptop hoping I'd buy her one too. Not going to ever happen.
Photo by Giftpundits.com from Pexels
9. People will do anything for money.
Around 2:30am on a Friday night (Saturday morning) a friend and I witnessed a pickup truck run a red light and barrel through a white taxi van doing about 50 MPH (+/- 5MPH) no breaks, just CRASH. The white van instantly was spun around a couple of times until it hit against a light pole. My friend and I were in complete shock but were the only ones around so we got out of my truck to go help. On the way to the van my friend called 911, and a fire started flaring up from inside the crumpled hood. The man inside was bleeding everywhere and obviously very hurt however the driver's door was smashed so much I couldn't open the door and the passenger door was blocked and resting against the light pole. By this time the fire under the hood is starting to engulf the front part of the van and getting very hot. I took my shirt off, wrapped it around my hand and the broke out what was left of the glass on the driver's side door and proceeded to pull the man head first out of the van with the help of my friend and drag him about 30 feet away to a grassy area by an office building. About 2 minutes later the entire front portion of the van is in flames. Another minute later the fire department showed and put it out. I gave my information and such to the police officers. The man I pulled from the van thanked me over and over again. I thought I had done my good deed for the day... 1 week later I am served papers stating I caused physical and emotional damage/distress to the man and he was suing me for $100,000. 1 awesome Public defender, 3 witnesses, and 4 days in court later he lost.
Image by succo from Pixabay
8. Can't please some people.
I have a friend that knew she had to be out of her place in a few months. No exact date, but whatever. She calls me at about 6 at night saying she has to be out of her place the next day by 1pm or the police would be escorting her out. I should also mention she has 3 kids.
Now the moving wouldn't have been such a big deal. Her problem was she hadn't found anywhere to go. I wish I could say it was due to lack of places, but it was just because she hadn't looked. So within 12 hours, I asked a different friend that she had NEVER met if she could stay with them still she got an apartment and moved her.
Go a month later, she's totally screwed over my generious friends. Financially, with her attitude, and her lies. I'm embarrassed and apologizing. So she FINALLY has her own place but because again she's not great at life, has no way to move. My friends are sick of her and drop everything, as do I cause I feel like an jerk, and move her.
Where it gets bad, I noticed she didn't have a crib mattress for one of her daughters. I offer to let her use mine because my son just got a big boy bed. She starts screaming at me saying it's hers and how she has no friends that ever help her. I stood there in shock for about two seconds, told her to stuff it and walked out of the apartment.
Photo by Emma Bauso from Pexels
7. Everything comes full circle.
My wife and I had just moved in our first place on our own. After being on our own for about 3-4 months, my wife's sister calls her crying. Her sister, husband and daughter had lost their home in a fire about a year prior, and had been staying with some friends who where kind enough to let them stay with them. Apparently relationships had deteriorated with the friends and they had to leave immediately. So we had an extra bedroom so we decided to let them come stay with us until they got on their feet. It was supposed to only be a few weeks but it turned into 8 months. 8 months we let them stay with us rent free, the only thing we asked them to pay was the difference in the electric bill each month, which amounted to only like $30-$50 a month. I should mention that we were violating our lease by letting them stay with us, we hid them from our landlord for a while but eventually she figured out we had them staying with us. Fortunately she felt sorry for them and said it was ok for them to stay a little longer. But after the 8th month she sent us a letter saying that if they weren't out in a week then we'd be in violation of our lease. So we had to ask them to go. Almost immediately after they left they deleted us off facebook, and never talked to us again. When we tried to get into contact with them to see why they were mad at us, my wife's sister claimed she was angry that we asked them to help out with the electric bill. And because of that they weren't able to buy tickets to go see A Perfect Circle. But my wife and I had bought ourselves tickets and I even bought my little sister a ticket too since she's never seen them live before. And apparently they were mad at us for this.
Photo by Vishnu R Nair from Pexels
6. It looks used.
The other day was my niece's birthday and she just went to college so I thought I'd get her a laptop for her birthday. Now, I am a student myself but I still wanted to give her something special. So I searched for a great used laptop , and I found a decent Toshiba Satellite. I sold my PSP and some other things so I can afford it.
So there we were at the dinner table opening presents. She opened mine and has this grim look at her face. "This is it? I thought you'd buy me a brand new one."
"You know I can't afford it. It's the best I can do."
"I want a brand new one, not this. This sucks! Worst present ever!"
She then shoved the laptop and box across the table and fell down the floor.
I picked it up, and walked out. My cousin tried to stop me, I just said "I would never give her anything again."
She even had the nerve to call back and asked for the laptop. Apparently her parents punished her for her behavior and she will now have to buy her own things. No more hand-outs or gifts.
Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels
5. Time for a new girlfriend.
Valentine's day, 2004. Now, I've never given a crap about Valentine's day, but my girlfriend at the time had never been in a serious relationship and wanted a special Valentine's day. I was more than happy to oblige.
That day, I went to the local nursery (flowers, not babies) where I used to work and bought two dozen red roses and grabbed an unused delivery invoice. I still had the uniform - just a t-shirt and hat, but enough to make me look like a legit delivery person.
I then spent my entire paycheck on gifts for her, and food for dinner. Everything: balloons, decorations, red and pink cutesy stuff, and several expensive gifts including an iPod and a new camera. I went back to her house and decorated everything, transforming her kitchen and living room into what looked like a display at the mall. I even did the rose petals on the bed thing, because I was sure my efforts would lead to a romantic evening.
I looked up her class schedule to figure out where her class was (we had different majors) and proceeded to burst in, pretending to be a delivery person. I gave her the roses and a teddy bear in front of her entire class, even going as far as making her sign the fake delivery invoice. It was her last class of the day so I knew she'd be heading home. I raced out of there so I could get there first, change, and start cooking dinner. I got there maybe twenty minutes before she did, and everything was going to plan.
She was upset when she walked in the door. "Why didn't you wait for me after class?" She asked. I told her I wanted to start dinner before she got home and finish decorating the house. "Oh, I really wanted to go out to dinner tonight. Can we go out to dinner?" I explained that I was going to make something special at home, and had, in fact, already started cooking. She looked at the table full of presents and the house full of decorations and just sighed, disappointed.
"I really wanted this to be a special Valentine's day. Just this once. I was really hoping we could have a special day together but I guess not."
Pixabay
4. Two out of three ain't bad.
Times were very tough the last few years when I was living at home. My dad worked 2 jobs, my mother worked, I worked, and my brother worked. We all helped to pay the mortgage on the house and the bills. We all worked to save money and cut costs here and there, but still lived a pretty nice lifestyle.
One day my father was talking about defaulting on the mortgage. I pushed even harder to save money at that point, and pretty much gave my entire paycheck each week to assist. I explained to him we need to get rid of things we do not need. (He likes to provide us kids with all we want, so it does not come naturally to him to cancel a $300 cable/internet bill, he does not want to affect us kids.)
I told him it had to be done. We would drop cable, and get a super slow internet for $20 a month. My sister walked in the room. (20 years old, never had a job. Sits around the house all day. Has done less chores in her life time then my brother has done in a day.) She starts to screams about not canceling cable, it is the only thing she has left to do all day.
I calmly explain to her, that we cannot afford it, and we do not have a choice. She stands her ground. Not that her opinion mattered in the discussion. I grabbed the cable boxes and returned them that day, and had the Internet dropped to the cheapest they offered.
10 years later to this day my sister is still this same exact way. A firm but fair father, a loving but firm mother, 2 hard working sons who have payed for everything on their own, no debt whatsoever, and then her. Swapping between welfare and living with my parents. Complaining every step of the way. No appreciation on her part that I have ever seen.
3. No good deed goes unreported.
When I was younger I worked at a Blockbuster. I was the night shift manager and one night I was working by myself when a customer walks up and hands me a woman's wallet, says he found it on the ground. I peeked inside it to find an ID/membership card so I could look up her account/phone number. Sure enough she had been in the store about 30 minutes earlier so I gave her a call. She seemed pleased on the phone and said she would be right in.
Store policy for something like that was to lock the item in the safe until the customer arrives. I did so and went about my business. About an hour later the woman comes in and asks for her wallet. I tell her it's going to be 15 minutes as the safe was timed and ask her to wait. This was apparently unacceptable and she asked if I could get it faster than that. Told her no and continued helping other customers while she waited.
Once the safe beeped I grabbed her wallet and hand it to her, I had to put the line of customers on hold while I did this because I wanted her out of the store ASAP since she had spent the last 15 minutes fuming and standing right next to my register.
As soon as I hand her the wallet she says "my money better be in here" I explained that I honestly had no idea as I didn't open it all the way as her membership card was on an outer flap. (This was one of those large female wallets that was more like a mini purse with lots of flaps and zippers and such.)
After handing it to her I asked for the next customer in line to step up and basically tried ignoring her. She starts screaming "MY MONEY IS GONE YOU STOLE MY MONEY" which really surprised me as she was a pretty normal looking soccer mom type. I ask the customer I'm helping to wait a second and explain to her the way the wallet was handed to me, and reiterated that I had not personally opened the wallet any further than the first flap.
She starts screaming again saying there was over 200 dollars in it and that she was calling the police. I shrug and tell her to go ahead. At this point I'm completely satisfied to ignore her. She walks to the back of the store and whips out her cell phone. I continue helping the line as customers are looking back at the woman as she is loudly calling the police. Most of the customers are like "yikes" etc. I just shrug and smile.
After the line was cleared the lady comes back to the register and tells me, with a super smug look, the police are on the way. "Ok." I say and give her a "I don't care" shrug and ignore her while checking in movies. About an hour later a cop finally enters the store (she waited right next to my register the entire time) and she starts waving at him and pointing at me at the same time.
I see the cop and roll my eyes and shake my head. He asks her to repeat her story and as she's repeating it he's almost completely ignoring her and watching the football game that we have playing on our DirectTV kiosk. After she gets done he looks at me, rolls his eyes, and asks "did you take the money?"
"Of course not" I say. "I'm sorry there's nothing we can do ma'am" the cop says and leaves the store. As he leaves he holds the door for her and tells her to leave if her business is complete. I smiled super big, like cheshire cat big, and told her to have a super day as she left.
After she left I bought pizza with the 200 bucks I took. Just kidding, but I almost wish that's how the story ended after she embarrased me like that for close to two hours.
2. Almost took the bird down with her.
I work at a pet store. A few months ago, we had a Scarlet Macaw up for sale. I was weighing her in the front of the store, since we have to track their growth when we get them at the store. Little kid and her grandfather come in the store while I'm doing this.
The little girl, who looks about 10 years old (old enough to know better), RUNS towards the bird. This is already not good. It took me a good 10 minutes to coax the poor bird out of her cage to get weighed. She's a very timid bird, and she's slow to trust people.
So the little girl is running at me, with a very large bird on my arm, spooks the bird who jumps off of my arm and luckily lands on the register counter which is where the scale is anyway. As politely as I could, I asked the girl to please take a few steps back because the bird is very afraid right now. That she is very shy around new people, and that the girl can watch, but just keep her distance.
She was ok with that for about 10 seconds. After I weighed the bird, I got her to step back up onto my arm, and told the little girl I had to take her back to her cage now and give her some treats for being a good bird while she got weighed. This did not go over well. The little girl followed me back to the cage, and kept asking if she could pet the bird.
In case you don't know much about birds, scarlet macaws have VERY large and VERY strong beaks. If they feel threatened enough, they will defend themselves with that beak, and I have no doubt that they could easily take a finger off if they wanted to.
So she asks if she can pet it. I told her no, I'm sorry, but she doesn't like strangers touching her, and she might try to bite you, I don't want you to get hurt. Wrong thing to say apparently. "I WANNA PET THE BIRD!!! LET ME PET IT! LET ME PET THE BIRD!"
She started throwing a temper tantrum, and I just ignored her at this point, since the macaw was starting to bite ME now on the arm (I still have bruises from this), and I just wanted to get her in the cage and get the girl as far away as possible. And this whole time, her grandfather was just standing there watching. He didn't say anything. Just let her carry on.
So I get the bird back in the cage, and she's now on the other side of the cage, sticking her fingers in the cage. Again, I ask her to back up, the bird can lunge and bite her very easily. So she backs up. Thank god, I was thinking to myself. Maybe she'll go look at the hamsters or something else now. Nope.
She goes up to her grandfather and literally screams at him, "BUY ME THAT BIRD! I WANT THAT BIRD! BUY IT FOR ME!!!" He just looked at me, and asked how much it was. My jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
First off, I tell him, that bird is $2000. Plus the cost of the cage, plus food, substrate, etc. Second off, they can live quite a long time. On average in captivity they can get up to 50 years old, and sometimes longer. This is not something you buy because a ten year old girl is demanding you buy it for her.
I actually had to stand there and talk him out of buying this bird for about ten minutes. At least I could figure out where this girl got her attitude from. He was about to buy a screaming ten year old a $2000 bird without a second thought. Good lord. I lost some of my faith in humanity that day.
Luckily, they walked out of the store after that, and she did not leave quietly. She was kicking and screaming the whole way out of the store. I haven't seen them since, thank god.
Photo by Tim Mossholder from Pexels
1. Drive-thru dangers.
I work at a McDonald's and a while back I was taking orders and payments for the drive-thru by myself. A woman came through and ordered two Big Macs, two large fries and two cokes, which came to a total of like $21 (it's Australia, our prices are ridiculous). In the time she took to drive from the speakerbox to the cashier window I reentered them as large meals to save her some money, and as she pulled up I said "Hey, that'll be $16.xx thank you." She eyed me strangely as she fished out some money, and when I held out her change and a receipt she snatched them out of my hand and looked over what she had ordered.
After what seemed like an eternity she started shouting at me about how she didn't want meals, she just wanted the burgers, fries and drinks. It actually comes up pretty frequently as understandably not every customer knows the ins and outs of the McDonald's menu, and generally when you explain what they've actually paid for they apologise and are appreciative of the money you've saved them - so I start going through the routine with this woman, explaining the components of a meal and how she'd actually saved $5 while still getting exactly what she ordered.
I stood there waiting for her to realise she'd benefited from what I'd done when all of a sudden she started hurling insults at me. Stuff like "I COME THROUGH AND ORDER THIS EVERY WEEK AND IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THE SAME, YOU PRESUMPTUOUS LITTLE NOBODY" and "HO DARE YOU THINK I'M SUCH A MORON THAT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO ORDER MY OWN FOOD". I tried explaining that I didn't think she was a moron, it was just my job to give customers the best value and I was sorry that no one had done it before, and she threw her change at me (about 60 cents) and drove off.
In this time a woman in another car had actually come through to order a free cup of water and had driven straight to the payment window, and as a result had seen most of the abuse this woman had given me. As she pulled up I was visibly shaking, because despite verbal abuse being one of the things you're expected to handle as a drive-thru worker I'd never been treated that badly, and she started telling me that she saw (and heard) the whole thing and that I was totally in the right and asked me if I was okay. I talked to her for a while and ended up putting through a free coke for her because I appreciated her making sure I was alright. Eventually she left and I went into the changerooms and cried for about ten minutes.
Image by akiragiulia from Pixabay
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