We all have to watch people do bad things and get away with it every single day. All we can do is hope that karma will even out in the end—but if we're VERY lucky, we get to see karma work its magic instantly, and there's nothing more satisfying.
1. Just Stop
My neighbor followed me down my driveway to yell at me for not coming to a complete stop at the stop sign. I apologized politely, even though I knew he was being petty as we live on the end of a quiet street. He then proceeded to yell and curse at me as he backed out of my driveway but as karma would have it, he backed into my tree.
He dented the whole side of his car and ripped his mirror off. He then proceeded to fly off down the road and didn’t break for the stop sign.
2. Against The Rules
I was playing volleyball with a group of my friends a few years back. One of the guys who is just an acquaintance of mine was known for being unreasonably angry. Throughout the whole game, he was a total meanie to everyone, yelling and screaming. He wouldn’t stop citing the rules and blaming everyone for breaking them.
Eventually, we all had enough so we just unanimously kept egging him on and acting dumb on purpose to fluster him. At one point he gets so mad that he got on both his knees and started screaming. And that's where karma flew in...literally. While he's throwing a fit, this lone pigeon swoops by and takes a dump on his face. The rest of us laughed about it for weeks
3. A False Start
A guy was stopped at a red light in the middle of a very busy intersection in a very busy part of my city. This was in the middle of summer so there were a lot of people around. This guy has a very fancy BMW and clearly thinks he’s super cool. He blasts his music really loudly and starts revving the engine as he waits for the light to change.
The light turns green and he does the whole tire-screeching thing except something doesn’t go as planned. There’s a strange sort of crunching sound and then a loud bang. This guy has to pull over to the side of the road in front of all the people he was trying to impress. Lots of laughs were heard from the people around.
4. What Goes Around, Comes Around
A few months ago, I was on vacation in San Francisco. Late at night after a potluck and drinks, my friend drove me to a metro station near her house and gave me directions to take the train back to my hotel. I walked in, paid my fare, and went underground only to find out I'd just missed the last train by a matter of mere minutes.
Fortunately, my friend was awesome and gave me bus directions back, but there was another person who'd missed the same train, and he was in a far worse situation than mine. He was pretty out of it, carrying massive bags of groceries, and was trying to get back home. He also had no way to call an Uber. Feeling bad, I offered to call him an Uber.
I told him he could pay me back what he could. He only had $3, but so be it, I wasn't going to turn him down. We chatted awhile until his ride came, he went off on his merry, inebriated way, and I went to catch my bus. Except when I got on, I realized it was a bus from the other transit company, and so my current fare wasn't transferable.
I'd have to pay again. I realized I had no dollar bills left in my wallet. I spent it all on that useless metro fare. Panicking, I reached into my back pocket where I keep small change, well knowing I didn't have enough for the $2.50 fare. And that's when I felt the $3 that guy gave me. It was such a beautiful feeling. I think we were mutual guardian angels that night.
5. The Cost of Karma
Back when I worked at a hardware store, this dude threw a fit because the system refused to refund one of the sixteen items he was returning. Dude proceeds to scream at the top of his lungs, shout at, threaten, and get in the face of, in order: me, the other cashier, the store manager, and about three other customers. He's told repeatedly to leave the store as he's no longer welcome there. His response was crazy.
He refused to leave and, instead, stood in the entranceway, screaming and shouting at every customer that walks in. He stood there pathetically, telling people not to shop there because the store is ripping him off. Well, maybe 10 minutes or so into this whole episode, the authorities show up. His face just falls SO fast and he gets really quiet and starts trying to meekly make excuses.
What’s even more amazing is that we TOLD HIM we were calling them and that they were on their way. He was banned from the store before we could finish processing his refund and he was out about two hundred bucks.
6. Get Your Facts Straight
I worked at a major state university as a contract HR Director. The head of student housing was this battle ax, loud, narcissistic, angry woman who bulldozed everyone and everything around her. She yelled at everyone and made demands that were unreasonable and unprofessional. She would fire anyone she didn't like and treated subordinates like her servants.
Since it is nearly impossible to fire directors and managers who work for the state, she got away with it. This went on for 20 years. I didn't know this when I was brought in to investigate all the complaints against her and her department. It turns out that if a person was straight, she would fire them. I figured out the pattern of her firing only straight people over 20 years.
In the end, I had to interview her and share my findings. She tried everything she could to lie her way out of it but it was documented and clear. She went to the Dean and held a meeting ranting about how a typical empowered straight white man would be against her hiring choices and discriminate against her valued employees!
She went on about how no one knew who I was and she had seen "this kind" of heterosexual men in power before. I let her rant for a while until she finally stopped. I knew exactly what I had to do. I quietly stood up, walked to the Dean, and showed him on my phone pictures of my wedding to my husband. He started smiling and asked to share. I walk over and share it with her.
Her mouth hits the ground. Her tune changes quickly. The Dean tells her she can either retire immediately, or he will fire her on the spot. She retires.
7. Clairvoyant
I was driving home on the highway during a horrible blizzard at night. The roads were extremely slick and dangerous, I was going about 30 miles per hour. My daughter was a newborn and it was the first time I had ever driven in the snow with her. I was nervous—and it was about to get more dangerous. Some numbskull in a huge truck was doing 65, passing everyone in the slow lane.
He was just being really risky and ignorant to the conditions and other drivers in general. He passed me, and I said to myself, "You're going to crash bro." Right at that moment, the dude fishtails, loses control, and crashes into a ditch. Don't worry, I'm not a sadist, he was completely fine. I know this because I saw him emerge from the truck and do a little angry freakout dance.
His truck wasn't fine though. That's what you get for endangering others during a blizzard!
8. A Small Reward
I was working in a supermarket when a panicked customer came up to me and said he'd accidentally left his cash in the ATM and asked if anyone had handed it in. I was about to say no when a second customer appeared behind him and said he'd been trying to catch up to him. He'd been queuing behind him at the ATM and saw what happened.
He'd gotten the money for him. It was £200, so a decent amount. The first customer was super grateful and offered him some of the money but he wouldn't take it. The second customer then bought a scratch card, scratched it, and found he'd won £5. Not a whopping amount of karma, but karma nonetheless.
9. Watching And Waiting
Many years ago, I went up to an amusement park with a friend on a beautiful summer day. As we got closer to the exit ramp leading to the park, traffic starts backing up because of the number of other people with the same idea. People started peeling off into the shoulder to get around the line of cars waiting. The fact that some people were already doing it seemed to entice others, until the line on the shoulder came up to just a few car lengths ahead of us.
We keep slowly moving forward, but the cars on the shoulder aren't. I'd assumed that it was just a situation of them not being able to merge back into traffic, but as we got to our exit, we made a hilarious discovery. There was a single cop car parked at the end, and there were a few officers walking down the line of cars writing tickets. I don't remember what we did at the park that day, but I often think about those cars and smile.
10. Mind Your Business
My roommate is very nosy and judgmental about people's personal relationships. At the beginning of the first semester, we went to dinner with our suitemate, who is quite a few years older than us, in order to get to know her. Somehow, we got on to the topic of teenage mothers, and our suitemate admitted that she got pregnant at sixteen.
My roommate said something along the lines of, "I would get an abortion so fast. I'm guessing you didn't want to keep it either?" Oof. The consequences were gut-wrenching. Turns out, our suitemate had actually had a miscarriage. It was an awkward meal after that but it was so refreshing to see her get shut down like that. I hope she learned a lesson.
11. A Sweet Treat
In my freshman year of high school, I was walking to class. Some older kid is waltzing down the hallway with a pack of doughnuts. As we get closer, he opens the box of doughnuts as if to offer me one, I happily oblige, and reach for one, only for him to snatch the box away from me and give me the classic "got you" type of attitude.
Unfortunately for him, he pulled back a bit too quickly and sent the entire box of doughnuts into the garbage can in one quick gesture.
12. Gotta Love A Happy Ending
About 12 years ago, I was looking for a book at Barnes and Noble. I could only remember the cover and seriously nothing else (I hadn't read it). An employee helped me search for it for about 20 minutes and we finally gave up. On my way out, a person bumped into a table, causing a huge stack of books to fall off the table.
I figured that employee helped me for a really long time, I'll pick up all these books to return the favor. I look down and in the pile of books was the one we had been searching for.
13. Art Imitates Life
I was in eighth grade. I was standing on a bench when I watched some girl fall over in the yard, I started laughing and pointing and then went to lean back onto the fence that was behind the bench. Turns out it had broken off where I was standing and I fell straight through and into the mud.
14. Squawking For Hot Dogs
I was buying some drinks at a Circle K one day while visiting someone in Florida and these old tourists cut us in line, all the while complaining and moaning loudly about everything, how expensive everything is, how crowded the beach is, it’s too hot, etc. they are also really rude to the cashier and take forever arguing about the price of the hot dogs. But don't worry, they got their just deserts.
They leave, and as we walk out, we witness a seagull come and snatch the guy’s hot dog right out of his hand. His wife then shrieks and proceeds to drop hers out of surprise.
15. All T, No Lift
I was out skiing at a mountain with a T-bar tow lift. For those who don't know what that is, it basically a big upside-down six-foot-tall upper case "t" which is pulled by a cable. You hold on and it slides you up the mountain. The T shape allows for two people to hold on to either side of the crock of the T. People fall off of this all the time when they are not used to it.
One brave young boy, maybe 12-14 on a snowboard set out to handle the T-bar. He lost his footing about 30 seconds in but held on despite being dragged. This happens often but usually for only a few seconds as most have good enough sense to let go. Not this kid. Instead, this boy was dragged up more than a thousand feet on his belly.
I was behind him as was another couple. We could not believe he was holding on. The T-bar stopped further up for someone else and he was too exhausted to stand up and fix his situation. The couple behind him had been laughing so hard that when the T-bar abruptly started up again they fell off. Bottom line? He made it to the top and they didn't.
16. A Huge Delay
On my way to work, I have to cross a four-lane road with no traffic lights. There is a crosswalk, but no one will ever stop for you until you slowly step out into the road and wait for the first car to stop, and you hope the rest will as well. I always make sure to not to walk forward into the next lane until I'm certain that drivers can see me.
One day, cars in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th lanes stopped for me to cross. I was stuck in the middle of the road trying to figure out if the Mercedes in the 3rd lane was going to stop for me. Instead, he slowly drove by and I shrugged my arms at him as he drove by and said, "Really?" He then decided to flip me off as he passed. Oh, but karma followed close behind.
He was totally unaware that the car behind him was an officer, and he was promptly pulled over and ticketed.
17. Karma Loves Physical Comedy
I was at a festival once and there was one of those dudes who was just obnoxious. You know, shouting insults, screaming, throwing things at people, just an animal. He was slightly uphill from the main intersection, only maybe thirty feet from the crowd. I was standing around waiting for a friend. The dude's campsite was completely makeshift.
He had some poorly planned tarp thing held up by a nylon rope that was strung over a pickup truck and secured by slamming a car door shut on it. Suddenly, the guy throws his drink at the crowd, crawls up on top of the car, and starts tight-roping it between the car and the truck. I was very impressed that he made it at least two steps before the rope slipped.
The guy spread his legs, and he dropped three feet straight onto the suspended rope. I have never in my life seen a guy wreck his groin so hard. He was in a fetal position, then he spun around the rope in slow motion until he was upside down. Then the rope scraped across the roof of the truck, and fell between the cab and the bed.
He had partially collapsed the tarp city and got dropped onto his head in the mud.
18. Keep An Eye Out
I worked in a cell phone store years ago, lines were long and some woman's kid was running through the store, knocking over things and just being a general hellion. I asked her to control her child several times, as he could easily get hurt doing what he was doing. After about the third time she yells, "Don't you tell me how to raise my… ".
She never finished her sentence because the child ran head-first into a very heavy hanging sign and knocked himself out cold. The kid fell like a bag of potatoes. The kid was alright, the mom threatened to sue us, I reminded her we had video and audio of me asking her to control her child three separate times as well as her swearing at me. I never heard from her again.
19. Look Where You’re Going
About a decade ago, I was driving my wife to work in some light rain on the highway with my decently-modified vehicle and this kid kept pulling alongside me on my right revving at me and trying to get me to race. I just shook my head at the situation and kept driving. I got to my exit and, once you get off the exit, it splits into three lanes.
The middle lane goes straight into a commercial complex where my wife worked. At this light, a lot of folks tended to stay in the middle lane and then also turn right (despite it being not allowed) because of the terribly long light. I got into the middle lane and that same kid goes flying up on my right side revving again and just staring at me.
Turns out, he should have been looking ahead because WHAM! He rear-ends the car stopped at the light. I dropped my girlfriend off at work and then returned to give the officers testimony. And that's when the horrible truth comes out. Turns out, the kid didn't even have a license. Ten plus years later, he still might not!
20. A Cycle Of Events
I watched someone bend down to pick up a wallet someone ahead of them had just dropped. The guy who picked up the wallet began to run it to its owner who was already across the street and while doing so, his own wallet fell out of his pocket and onto the crosswalk. Some dude in the bike lane rode up a little ways ahead, bent down and picked it up, and just started heading off.
My dad was about to say something when a cop car adjacent to us swerved in front of the cycler and made him give it back. The cycler bumped into the cop car and was trying to go around when he was tackled. I think they might’ve ticketed him but the light changed so we couldn’t stick around.
21. Kindness Is Free
One time at an always-packed beach parking lot, I happened upon an open spot, just vacated by a young family whose car had passed us seconds before on their way out of the lot. Again, it's packed, people getting stuff out of trunks, backseats, coolers everywhere, beach chairs, and the standard chaos. I'm proceeding very slowly towards the spot.
Then some guy coming from the next aisle sees the spot and books it to the end of the row. He then proceeds to turn right and then left into the spot that was on my right. Oh well, I was annoyed, but not enough to get riled up over it. I gave him a wave to let him know I appreciated his actions, and went around the corner and back up the aisle he just flew down.
As I'm waiting for another vehicle to back out of their spot maybe 30 yards further up (couldn't believe our luck), the family who was in the original spot rolls by on their way out, the driver reaches out and hands me their parking receipt with 4 hours left on it and said, "I saw that. What a bonehead. Enjoy some free parking". We were quite surprised, super grateful, and the best part?
We parked, got out, walked past the guy in his purloined spot, and saw he had forgotten to put his car in park or engage the parking brake and the front end had rolled over the parking block and torn up the bottom edge of his Mustang's front spoiler.
22. Mistakes Were Made
I met this guy at the bus stop. He asked for my major, the minute he learned I was majoring in visual arts he started berating me, saying it was a useless major and that I was going to end up homeless. I just ignored him and got on the bus. After a while, it becomes clear that there is a talent scout on the bus as a man is talking loudly on the phone about recent contracts.
The guy I met at the bus stop started pulling out a CD player and insisted that the talent scout listen to his Elton John impression. The talent scout guy was impressed and a bit incredulous. The guy had mixed up his CDs and had him listen to an actual Elton John album. I never saw someone slouch back in their seat with such shame and embarrassment.
23. Taking The Joke A Little Too Far
One time in middle school, this guy who was relatively new at our school was making fun of a girl in our class who fell in the hallway in-between classes; coincidentally this was a girl I had a crush on. He was a little bit of a class clown and was mocking her, trying to make it look like only babies and clumsy people fall over.
Apparently, he misjudged his footing, and while attempting to jokingly ape the way she had fallen, actually fell for real, and landed squarely on his back in front of everybody. He broke his arm in the process. Passing him by in the hallway, I saw him just lying there, surrounded by adults and staring up at the ceiling, face completely expressionless.
He didn't come back to school. Pretty sure he moved after that. I would have too.
24. Pay Attention To The Lessons Of The Past
I had a day off work and, as I was making breakfast, I accidentally sliced my fingertip with a bread cutter. I wrapped it up and went to Urgent Care. It didn't need stitches but the doctor put a couple of Steri-Strips on it and said not to use it for a day or two and stay off a keyboard. I went to work the next morning and told my boss that I had to stay off a keyboard for a couple of days.
As I walked out of the room I remembered I had to tell her something else and as I was walking back in, I heard her mocking my injury. Just as she finished, she accidentally slammed the door of the one-ton safe on her hand.
25. Shoe Swap
I went with my girlfriend to the store so she could buy a pair of boots. She had owned this style of boot for well over ten years and was a big fan. Unfortunately, they stopped making that particular type, and she was beside herself. I was being very supportive and comforting, but I also happened to see a pair of boots in the sale bin that happened to fit, so I bought them.
She was happy for me because I didn't own a pair of boots, but I felt that I was sort of rubbing salt in her wound. We had gone in to get her something she loved, and we left with her feeling crushed and me getting an unexpected sweet deal. A month later, I went to a different store to buy the same pair of sneakers I had been buying over and over again.
Unfortunately, I found out that the line had just been discontinued. However, something caught my girlfriend’s eye and she walked out in nice new sneakers.
26. Emergency Repairs
Cars constantly park on either side of this particular road in town, essentially turning it into a single-track road. They were told over and over again not to do it as emergency vehicles can't fit through but seeing as there were no double yellow lines to denote it as a no-parking zone, the poor parking officer couldn't do much.
The fire department even took a stick with chalk rollers on it that was the width of a fire truck, ran it down the road, and put a notice on every car it marked, saying that if there was an emergency then their car would have blocked the road. Anyway, inevitably, there was a fire and the fire trucks needed to get through. Low and behold, they couldn't fit.
So after a BRIEF attempt at knocking on people's doors, they literally just drove straight down the road, scraping almost every single car and knocking all the side mirrors off. I'm pretty certain that emergency vehicles in the UK are not liable under insurance for cars they hit whilst on-call so they faced no repercussions for the mayhem.
I really hope all of those people paid more attention to their repair bills than they did the parking notices.
27. An Act Of Hubris
My first car wasn't the greatest vehicle, but I managed to scrape some money together to be able to afford it, and it was something I was proud of being able to have when I was young. I was out driving running errands in an affluent part of the city when I came to a red light, and these two dudes around my age in some expensive car pull up beside me.
They are kind of snickering to themselves, taking a few glances at me every now and then. Whatever, it's fine. Eventually, the driver rolls down his window and asks, "Hey, bro. Wanna put that thing to the test"? And starts revving his engine. Now me being a little annoyed, I start revving my engine because I knew they weren't expecting me to do that.
The two bros go, "Ohhhh", and start getting fired up. Green light comes, and we both slam on our accelerators, except I cap out at the speed limit. The two dummies speed off in a big display and head around the bend. But I had a plan. See, I already knew something about this particular stretch of road. There were usually officers set up with speed traps.
Lo and behold when I come around the bend, their car is pulled over to the side with a cop parked right behind them, lights flaring. They did not seem amused by my smile and wave as I passed by them.
28. Burning Bridges
I work for a staffing agency as a recruiter. My co-worker was working with this guy who was pretty sharp. He was a programmer. His company was doing layoffs but he was told he wouldn’t be affected. My co-worker contacted him, chatted about the situation and he said he would be interested in looking around for other opportunities.
We just had a new client give us a position that fit his background. We lined up an interview pretty quickly, he interviewed and got the position! Great. It was even a little salary bump. Straight direct-hire, no contract stuff. He goes in, and works his first week. All is great, all smiles. Well, that next Monday comes and he isn’t there.
The company calls us asking where he is, so my co-worker calls him. He answers the phone and my co-worker asks, “Hey, is everything okay? You were a no-call no-show today over at XYZ company”. And the guy proceeds to tell us, “Yeah, I never actually quit my job. I just took a vacation for the week to see if I liked the place. It was okay but I’ll just stay here”.
My co-worker responds, “Man, is there anything I can do? This puts us in a tight spot, this is a brand-new customer of ours, can I do anything”? And the guy tells us “Quite frankly I don’t care what kind of position it puts you in nor do I care if they are a new customer. I’m staying, don’t call me again”. And he hangs up the phone. Well, it wasn't long before he came to have many regrets.
He got laid off the very next week.
29. First Class Dummy
We were boarding a transatlantic flight, coming home from the US to the UK. There were nine seats across the jet arranged as three sets of three. Me and my siblings are sat in the first three, then my parents have two of the middle set. Another family of five takes up the last four seats in that row and one in the row behind. The other dad was very loudly and rudely complaining.
He wanted the seat my dad was sitting in for his son (who sat in the row behind). It was clear to everyone that he had prioritized getting the front row and extended legroom over having his family sit together when he checked in and was now trying to intimidate the stewardess into giving him both. My dad tried to interrupt with the intention of offering to switch seats.
He had already decided he didn't want to be sitting next to this kind of person for eight hours. The guy obviously expected him to say something else so told my dad to mind his own business before he had a chance to speak. Stewardess asks everyone to stay calm and says she will be back in a minute. When she returns, she escorts my mum and dad into empty seats in first class.
Then comes back and says to the angry guy, "Problem solved, your son can now move". The stewardess has the biggest grin on her face and the guy was so confused. He got what he wanted but still felt like he had lost somehow, he just didn't understand how.
30. A Good Deed
I was in high school walking back from lunch when there was an older gentleman who had crutches in front of me, he couldn’t manage to get off the road since the curb was high and he obviously had leg injuries. All the school kids were walking past him so I did what I thought any decent person would do and went over to him and gave him a helping hand.
As I walked on, I got flagged down by a woman in a car who had watched the entire incident and she informed me she was the headteacher of a neighboring school and had been at a meeting at my school. She phoned up my school and explained the situation to my headteacher. As soon as I got back in for lunch I was brought in by my headteacher.
They thanked me for giving the school a good name and I got an extra hour for lunch and a certificate at the school award ceremony.
31. Sometimes It’s Okay To Follow The Crowd
We were driving on a very icy road, in a four-wheel-drive car, after one of the first big snowstorms of the winter. We're going a little slow, which is about as fast as we feel we can push it, given the ice sheet over everything since the snow melted to slush and re-froze overnight. We've been driving in ice our whole lives.
We know what'll work and what is risky, and today’s conditions are bad. All other traffic is basically moving at our speed or even slower. A shiny new lifted red Dodge pickup pulls up behind us, tailgating and revving his engine. Basically, everything is screaming, "Big man in his big truck doesn't need to be held up by some tiny car that can't handle the snow"!
We hit a straight section and give him an easy chance to pass us. He takes it and quickly accelerates. BIG MISTAKE. About 400 feet beyond us, the road takes a moderate curve left. He tries to turn, but it's a solid sheet of ice and the truck just goes straight into a parked car and guardrail, right in front of a dozen or so witnesses.
We coast past at our slowed pace, making the turn without issue. His front end was pretty smashed up, maybe not totaled, but I'd be amazed if he could drive it to the shop.
32. Above His Own Rules
I was in a class learning French, it was very early in the curriculum and our first test had a question that needed you to translate the word "singe" (monkey). A lot of us never learned this word at this point. I triple-checked all of our previous lesson material which even had a lesson on animal names and monkey was not among them.
Turns out, those who did know it only knew because they had watched an Eddie Izzard stand-up routine about learning French. So we brought this up and the teacher eventually gave us a point back if we missed it, but a smug student who grew up in Quebec said something to the effect of, "Even though it wasn't in the lessons, you can't just expect to be spoon-fed all of your vocabulary”.
He continued, “Knowing words outside of the lesson is part of 'global knowledge' and it's required for succeeding in this class". For the record, I agree with that philosophy—to become fluent you have to branch out and go outside the curriculum for more words. But this is the first month of class where you can't expect students to know that much outside of the lesson plan.
Fast forward to getting the grades for a later test and I catch him being a huge drama queen because he missed a point for not knowing the word "dehors" (outside) and sure enough he was arguing that he was never taught that word in class.
33. He Needed To Cool Off
I was at a big sports tournament after a game and it was raining a bit. An aggressive driver can’t be bothered with people rushing to their cars and almost runs over a kid. He then yells at people in his way and decides to weave around traffic to get out of the place quicker. There is a sawhorse blocking the exit he is not supposed to go out.
The rain is getting heavier. Everyone is watching this impatient person as he gets out of his car to move the sawhorse and bypass the traffic line and pedestrian traffic due to self-entitlement. When he gets out to move the sawhorse, he closes his car door and locks himself out of the car with the car running. Downpour ensues.
34. The Perils Of Winter
I was driving back from spending Easter with my parents when it was heavily snowing and roads were covered with ice and snow mix. I hate driving in the snow anyway so that fueled my anxiety. I had to take an exit that was on the left side, which is usually for people who go fast or are passing others but I had to stay in that lane.
People were flying by me, going probably the intended speed—and that's when I saw it. This one car just driving by like their life depended on it. Later, I come upon a wreck that happened maybe a minute beforehand. Oh look, it was the speed demon who was on the side of the road with a car that is now sitting perpendicular to the road.
I am assuming said fast car was getting into a lane or had clipped the person in front of them to cause them to do that. I always want people to be cautious of driving in hazardous weather. Nothing is that important that you have to speed and not think about the other drivers. Unless it's an emergency, then call the right people!
35. A Small Price To Pay
I was at a red light, and, I have no reason why, but I gave a homeless person all of the change in my ashtray. The light turned green, and I made my left turn and a few seconds later I was hit head-on by a full-size truck. When they were loading my car on the tow truck, the guy asked me, “How’s the driver”? And I simply said, “I’m fine”.
He was shocked at first, and then once he realized I wasn’t kidding, he said he’d been towing for 20 years and never seen anyone survive this extreme of an accident, let alone be standing there talking to him while loading up the car.
36. Safety In Waiting
I live in Colorado and see dangerous, aggressive mountain driving more than I would like. One day, there was a bunch of traffic coming down from the mountains on a two-lane road. Some guy in a brand-new BMW jumped the line of cars in the oncoming lane, apparently, he was thinking he was too good to wait in line.
As soon as he got to the blind corner, he saw an oncoming truck and swerved left, hitting the concrete barrier head-on. It triggered the crumple zone and the front third of his Beemer just crunched like a Coke can. Perfect justice: instant, severe, and he was the only person involved. He was uninjured, but his car was unquestionably totaled.
Pixabay
37. A Great Exchange
A few years back, me and my buddy were traveling around Germany and decided to go to Amsterdam. The trip there was an absolute nightmare. Long story short, we're on a bus at around 11 pm because the trains broke down. We also haven't had a chance to eat since early that morning. Everyone on the bus is obviously miserable.
While we're waiting to leave we hear some talking behind us, and it turns out it's some old German woman's birthday. Everyone is singing and wishing her happy birthday when she says something I don’t quite catch. So I ask the person behind me what she said, and they say that all she really wanted was some water. I happen to carry a water bottle with me religiously.
I hold it up, give it a shake, and say, "Wasser”. Then out of nowhere, a hand pops up and drops two sandwiches in our laps. We were eternally grateful to finally have something to eat.
38. He Was Rubber, She Was Glue
A girl in school used to tease everyone and just be generally annoying. She was tossing this stress ball around and aimed it at this one kid’s head. Someone yelled, "Look out"! at him and so he looked up, saw the ball coming at him, and put up his hands in self-defense. It bounced off his arms and back at the girl and hit her right in the mouth.
It was a soft squishy stress ball so it didn't hurt her, but we all openly laughed at her and her surprised expression, so she sat down quietly from embarrassment. She still kept being annoying but she stopped throwing things at people's heads.
39. An Entertaining View
When I was a broke college student, the high schoolers down the street sideswiped my car so bad my front door wouldn't open all the way and the mirror was gone. I confronted them but couldn't prove it. I couldn't afford to fix it. But karma had my back. The next week they come screeching out of the neighborhood while I'm studying next to the second-floor window.
They crash headlong into a tree and total their car. I had a comfortable view as all four of them got out. The driver was sobbing, shirtless on the pavement, until his mom came and cussed him out loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear.
40. A Balancing Act
One day, I saw a man struggling to balance about five boxes of shoes in one arm while he was talking on the phone with the other. I decided it was worth the risk of interrupting his phone conversation to offer to keep his shoes behind the counter while he kept shopping. I smiled and gestured that I could take them for him, to which he gave me a look of pure disdain.
I shrugged and moved on to help someone else who needed something from the stock room. When I brought it back out to her, she was helping the guy I'd spoken to because he'd dropped all the boxes on the floor. Shoes were everywhere and once we fixed them he scurried away without a glance at me.
41. Problematic Attitude
I was waiting to put in at a boat ramp in Florida one day. It was a single ramp, the guy trying to take his boat out of the water was having a tough time backing his trailer down. His wife (I assume) and two kids were waiting on the dock. Some guy waiting to get out of the water starts screaming at him and heckling him. The first guy finally gets his trailer down the ramp.
Meanwhile, the angry guy had docked his boat and started walking up the dock towards the poor boating newbie, screaming and yelling. This dude punches the family guy and knocks him off the dock into the water. Then two burly dudes that nobody was really paying attention to walk up. They grab the angry guy as the family guy was falling in the water, then throw him onto the dock and cuff him after flashing their badges.
They were undercover watching the boat ramp. There was applause and cheering from the folks waiting to put in and take out.
42. In A Hurry To Get Nowhere
There was a dude tearing up the street, ducking off the road onto the shoulder to pass whenever someone wasn't going fast enough for him (which was everyone). The road had a generous speed limit but he was still going way over it. It was a residential area too. Then, about half a mile up the road, there was a cloud of smoke.
I get there and it's the speeder and his car is totaled with the engine as flat as a pancake. A bus had been taking a wide turn using both lanes and he obviously was going too fast to register and tried to race up the side as it turned.
43. Know Your Luck
It was very late at night. The streets were pretty empty, but I knew it would be my luck if I went past a red light, even if the streets seemed deserted, and a copper would show up and give me a ticket. All of a sudden I hit a light and another car rolled up next to me and started revving up like we were going to race. I had no intention of racing so I didn't care what this car was going to do.
It was a very expensive car and even if I wanted to race, it was not a race I would win anyway. So the light turns, and he burns rubber and just tears down the road. All of a sudden I see him from a distance swerve and go right into a light pole. I just continue on and pass him just laughing at the sight of him getting out of his car in disbelief and anger.
44. Check Yourself
This rich kid pulled up next to me at a red light, at least I assume he was rich because he was driving one of the most recent Porsche models. He screams at me that he's going to run the red because, "The rules only apply to poor people like you"! I think his ego was blocking his rear-view mirror because I saw what he didn't.
There was an officer chilling behind us with an eyebrow raised at the guy. So I do my best to pretend I didn't see the cop and I said to the little brat, "You can't run that red! You're too much of a baby"! Kid runs the red, and I see the cop peel out from behind me into the lane the kid was in and pull him over.
45. A Slippery Slope
My husband was carrying our dog's freshly filled water bowl from the kitchen sink to the feeding mat. The dog ran right into him and the water spilled all over the floor. I laughed uncontrollably and called him silly. In the two minutes it took him to find the mop, I forgot the water was on the floor and slipped as I walked right through it to get to the dryer.
I fell hard onto the granite tile. I had a broken arm, had a mild concussion, and received eight stitches on the side of my head.
46. Honesty Is The Best Policy
My wife and I were getting some subs one day and as I’m checking out I saw that my bill was about half what it should be. I didn’t really think anything of it except that maybe there was some special going on. When we got out to our car, my wife looked at the receipt and noticed that we were only charged for one sub instead of two.
So I went back in and told the people the situation and they decided to only charge me half price for the sub and gave me a couple of free cookies.
47. Stuck In Her Ways
Back in high school, I worked for the street department of my city. We were putting a concrete patch on a street and had a lane blocked off. A lady in a huge hurry and a nice expensive car blew by me as I was holding the sign that says stop on one side and slow in the other. The “stop” was facing her. I tell her to stop. She swears and goes by.
Then she drives right into the wet concrete that goes right up to the bottom of her doors. She tries to get out of her car in her high heels and we just stand there and watch her swear at all of us to help her as she ruins her expensive shoes. She gets out barefoot and storms off. We had her car towed.
48. Expensive Trash
I had an ongoing issue with people illegally dumping in my dumpster behind my business. For those unaware, it's far more expensive to have a dumpster at a commercial property than you might think. Mine's shared with two other neighboring businesses and emptied three times a week, and we pay a whopping $400 a month for the service.
So when it's suddenly full of garbage that's clearly not from us it's infuriating. I could never manage to catch the people who did it so I decided I'd install a camera. I was on the roof of my building running the wiring when, what do you know, some person is dumping a carpet and yard waste in my dumpster. I opted to not confront him right away.
I just call the non-emergency line and gave them a license plate number and description. The officer came by to verify the information with me, and as we were standing inside my shop talking, I notice the same guy just backed back up to my dumpster, again. He must've missed the copper’s car in front of my building (or just didn't care).
The officer made him empty ALL the garbage he dumped back into his truck, the dude had to climb in the dumpster and got absolutely covered in yard waste. As soon as it was all piled back in his truck (including the cab, since this was his second trip) the officer handed him a $500 dumping ticket. The look on the guy's face was priceless.
49. Left With Nothing But Her Own Company
I once took a full flight home from Hawaii. I go to my assigned window seat and notice a grumpy woman is sitting in it. I politely tell her she is in my seat. She looks at her boarding pass and, sure enough, she is supposed to be sitting in the aisle seat across from me. She starts arguing that she MUST sit next to her husband and that she's not moving.
I decide it's not worth the hassle and take the seat she is supposed to be in. I don't even get a thank you or anything from her. Once we are in the air, the onboard entertainment of free movies and shows is available. And then the best thing imaginable happens. I look over and see her yelling at a flight attendant that her TV is broken and doesn't work.
The flight attendant apologizes and explains that the flight is full and there are no other seats to move her to. She had the pleasure of enjoying a five-hour flight with zero entertainment.
2. A Step Down
I worked at a grocery store. I was stocking instant noodles on a big sale display. All I had was a cheap small step two-step stool, you know the one with the bar that runs across the top step. Reaching down to the stool from the shelf I was standing on was about three feet. I had a 60% chance my foot would land on the top bar and collapse the thing.
I asked a coworker if I could use his shoulder as a handle as I got down. My supervisor called me a princess for getting assistance. Well, he paid for his taunts in the worst way. Soon after he was stocking the two-liter bottles on a sales display. He tried to get down. He took the 40% success rate jump onto the step and hit the top bar. The step ladder collapsed.
He broke his arm and took down half of the display. I just clocked out and left before they told me to clean up the spilled soda all over the place.
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