There will come a time in our lives when biting our tongue just isn’t worth it. Some people just need to be told off – even if you don’t really know them. Here, 25 satisfied people share the time they publicly scolded a complete stranger.
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1. Some kid was in a restaurant where my mum and I were trying to have a quiet lunch. This kid starts to throw crayons at my mum, literally from the next table. The mum was too busy talking on her phone to care. I tried glaring, but she couldn’t care less. In the end I walked up to her to confront her and she actually gave me the “one minute finger.”
That was it. I picked up all the crayons on the floor, on the table, and from in front of the kid, dumped them on her lap and sat back down. I think she was so shocked she just left. The manager of the restaurant gave us a free meal. Apparently that particular woman was known for just letting her kid run riot.
ChromeDeagle
2. I was at the gym sometime after new years and heard a girl say to her friend something along the lines of “God! Why are there so many fat people here?”
I lost it on them.
Unicornmayo
3. I once told off a customer in a retail store for being rude and mean (she made one of my staff cry she was so awful). The general gist of what I said was, “Do you feel better about yourself after you make this 17 year old girl cry? Was it really necessary? Until you learn to treat others with respect I do not want to see you in my store again. Leave before I call security.”
southpaw_sam
4. I had to yell at a lady in a theater. She had two young children with her. After the lights went down and the movie was starting, the kids were still running around like little maniacs. All I said was, “Shhh.” She screams at me, “They’re children!” I yelled back something along the lines of, “We all paid to see this movie. Yes, they’re children. You are the parent. Shut them up or get out.”
rational_discussion
5. I went to see the Hunger Games. I went to the 4 o’clock show because I thought it would be more empty, it wasn’t. Teenage couple sits behind me talking loudly. Thirty minutes into the movie they still haven’t stopped talking.
So I turn around look them dead in the face and ask them: “Hey guys, did you read the books?” The girl just looked at me wild eyed and bewildered and replied with: “Ummmm….noo.”
I looked that little jerk in her face and said: “Well I did, and if you two don’t shut up I’m going to tell you what happens and ruin the movie for you.” That bought me ten minutes of silence. Then they started talking again, so I turn around and say: “Hey! You see that little girl ‘Rue’? She dies.”
Silence the rest of the movie.
Vicrally
6. I once caught two kids (around 12 years old) about to throw a coke can at an old woman from across the street. I got in the way and yelled, “Try it and see what happens!”
They stopped in their tracks and tried to deny what they were about to do. Afterwards I felt bad and thought maybe I’d overreacted and could have used less threatening language towards two kids but it’s probably the only way I was gonna get through to them. The old lady was completely oblivious to the whole thing.
[deleted]
7. Back in college there was a developmentally delayed guy who worked in the dorm dining hall. He obviously had some problems, but was with it enough to hold down the job, remember certain students, carry on conversations, etc.
One day I was behind some girls in line who were standing right in front of him talking about how they didn’t like being served by the “r*tard” and so on and so forth. I said, “He has ears, he can hear you, he’s a person just like the rest of us and you shouldn’t treat people like that.”
They called me names and walked away.
Tah4349
8. Went to see the Wolverine movie in a really big theater; about halfway up the rows of seats, it had an aisle that cuts across horizontally from one side of the theater to the other. Some afather was there with a toddler, and he let the kid run back and forth across the aisle, squealing the whole time.
I put up with it for about 30 minutes, and then finally went down to the father and said, “Do you realize the entire movie theater can hear your child, and that it’s ruining the movie for the rest of us? Please make him be quiet.” The father stared at me in complete shock, as if the concept had never crossed his mind. He left immediately with his kid.
Several people around me said thank you as I sat down.
Dalek_999
9. At this bar in a small town I had never been to.
Drunk guy being super inappropriate to a cute girl and making her very uncomfortable.
I can’t stand people who do that. No woman should have to listen to that. It also makes all men look worse.
Anyway, I’m a very passive, non-violent guy, but I’m 6’6″ with a pretty solid build so I guess I can be intimidating.
I stood right in front of him and told him that he was way out of line and if he kept it up there were going to be problems. Stared each other down for a couple seconds and he left the bar.
Several people thanked me and the bartender gave me a free shot.
ClamJuicer
10. I used to work in the toy department of a retail store. The Leap Frog ‘laptop’ had just come out and they were REALLY expensive. So I am straightening shelves and notice a kid just wailing away on one of these laptops – mom is nowhere to be found.
I approach the kid, ask him nicely, “Is that how you play with your toys at home?” The kid gave me a sheepish “no” and placed it back on the shelf.
I was feeling pretty good about myself at that point when the kid’s mother comes out from nowhere and very rudely tells me that I have ‘NO RIGHT’ to speak to her child that way. I calmly looked his mother in the eye and said Ma’am, your son was about to break a $150 toy. our store has a you-break-it, you-buy-it policy. If you would like me to give it back to him so he can continue hitting it, I would be happy to ring you up at my register for the damages. She then proceeded to give me a death glare, grabbed her son and stalked off.
Magellan2255
11. I’m a student in a Culinary Arts program. We rotate though stations and run a full-operation sized cafeteria on the university campus. One of the stations, desserts, requires that you serve and plate in front of the customer.
I was helping this one woman and another guy (who comes in every day and is the rudest customer I’ve ever dealt with) butts in front of her and reaches for the dessert that I’m still plating. She says loudly, “Excuse me. That is mine, she’s not done and you can wait and not be so rude. You are unbelievable.” He walks away, with an unhappy, childish look on his face. She looked at me and said, “Sorry, I can’t stand rude people.”
I couldn’t have been more grateful.
[deleted]
12. In college my friends and I were sitting at a table and behind us was a kid sitting by himself. A group of kids sitting in the same area had been laughing and talking loudly about his general fashion sense for awhile.
Eventually one of the girls got up, walked over and proclaimed loudly, “I’m sorry, but I have to help you out because you look like a total idiot.”
The kid sat there in disbelief as she walked away and his eyes started welling up. I was pretty infuriated and walked over to her table. In the most conversational tone I could muster I said, “Oh hey! Do you know that guy?” She said she didn’t.
That’s when the scolding began. (continued…)
“So you just thought it would be appropriate to demean a complete stranger in public to look like a cool kid in front of all of your friends? I hope you feel better and that you all got a good laugh at his expense. Maybe next you can pause to reflect before you’re a total jerk.”
I then walked over to the table and invited the kid to sit with me and my friends. Turns out he had just transferred to the college, and didn’t know anyone.
Gfdf
13. About a year ago at my university, there was this blind man who was THE NICEST GUY EVER. Seriously, he takes a full schedule of classes, and is always somewhere on campus.
He uses a white cane to help guide himself, but still, understandably, gets lost on the large campus plenty of times. He doesn’t really have much of a family left, as he is much older, but he loves learning and says that’s how he wants to spend the rest of his life. Anytime I see him, I always say whats up and walk with him to where he wants to go, because he tells some of the coolest stories.
One day I was walking in the hall of one of the campus buildings, and I saw him accidentally brush a girl with his cane. He immediately apologized, but that didn’t seem to matter to her. (continued…)
Instead of being understanding of the fact that he is blind, she starts screaming at him and telling him to not be such a “pervert.” He keeps apologizing and saying he didn’t mean to bump her with his cane, but she isn’t having it, she is making a scene.
I’ve never moved so fast in my entire life, I sprinted across the hall and said “Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?” She is shocked, since I guess she didn’t think there was anyone else in the hall watching, and she starts saying how he hit her with his cane.
“That man has more dignity and self-worth than you will ever have. Apologize to him, and leave,” I said.
She apologized without even looking at him, and walked away with her head hanging down.
reddit_user
14. My buddy and I were at a movie and these dudes who were talking about how they had just got out of basic training were bashing the movie and laughing, making rude comments etc.
Well my buddy tells them to “pipe down” and they flip him off but quiet down. After the movie, we are at the front of the pack right behind the 6 or 7 guys being rude and my buddy says, “That was really rude to everyone how you were behaving,” and one of them (the loudest) whips out his military I.D. and says, “Yeah, Well I’m a marine and I fight for your freedoms.”
My buddy who just happens to be an officer whips out his and says, “I’m a marine officer and just because you have the honor of wearing a uniform doesn’t give you the right to be this way.”
Then he made them stand at attention right at the door of the movie theater and apologize to every patron exiting.
Jayhoe03
15. I used to fly a lot for work, and often had to deal with the typical flying annoyances (crying babies, people who were too wide for their seat, obnoxious drunks hitting on the flight attendants) but the one that sent me over the edge was when a 9-10 year old girl in the seat behind me began to kick the back of my chair repeatedly, yelling at the top of her lungs for no reason.
I turned around, glared at the girl and at her mother sitting next to her, and simply asked her to stop. The girl almost instantly resumed the kicking and yelling prompting the flight attendant to come over and speak to the mother and her child. Less than a minute after the flight attendant had returned to the front of the plane the kid started at it again.
I undid my seatbelt, turned around, and completely ignoring the kid, I ripped into the mother… “Is this your kid?? Yes? Then act like a parent and control your daughter. If you can’t keep her quiet and behaved for a 3 hour flight you shouldn’t be on a plane.”
Smirkcircle
16. Just last week I was at the supermarket and there was a woman who had about 3 items on the belt speaking away on her phone.
When a little old lady went over to put her stuff on the belt the woman on the phone said, “What are you doing? This is my space, I’m just waiting for my husband to come with the rest of our stuff. Then up strolls this guy with a cart that was almost overflowing with stuff. I just couldn’t hold my tongue.
Turns out this woman had been hogging a space on the belt and telling her husband what to get over the phone! I told her that she and her husband could go to the back of the long line they were causing (I was in the next line over).
They called the manager and I explained how vile and selfish they had been. To his credit the manager told me I was right, sent the people to the back and comped the old ladys groceries to apologize for her inconvenience (she only had about 4 items anyway).
tomdwilliams
17. A while ago I was in the local McDonalds. It was apparent that it was the cashier’s first day working there, but he seemed to be doing okay. He entered something wrong though and asked his manger how to fix it. The manger comes over and starts tearing into him in front of all the customers, calling him, “an idiot” and “an inbred animal and so on.
After I received my order at the counter, I asked the manager to come over and told him, “Please do not talk to that cashier that way ever again. Just because you are a day shift manager at McDonald’s does not make you a superior human being, and gives you no right to treat others, especially your employees, like dirt.”
After I sat down the other manger came over a brought me some apple pies and thanked me for standing up to that guy. Apparently he acted like that towards everyone.
Miniskirtninja
18. This guy was being absurdly rude to me and my coworker. I had already told him quite clearly that there was a line, and he would be waiting in it in the order he came in (this was a high end store at xmas time, so a sense of entitlement is a little bit too common).
He called my manager an idiot after having to re-ring something. Another customer behind him about half his size taps him on the shoulder and says loudly, “Would you mind shutting up and letting these people do their jobs, you are seriously pissing us all off.”
The bigger dude threatens him and the smaller guy goes, “If you were as tough as you like think you are you wouldn’t have to be such an idiot, just shut up.”
Intotheopen
19. When I was in 5th grade in after school care, a lady grabbed my brother who was in 3rd grade at the time by the neck, picked him up, and threw him 3-4 feet against the lockers for pushing her child out of the way when her kid cut in line in front of him for the water fountain.
I just started going off on her. I was calling her everything I could think of while following her out the door. These werent your normal 5th grade insults.
My dad is a Marine and I was saying all the things I wasnt supposed to have heard him say. I followed her and her kid out the front door and got just about to the circle where busses pull in to pick up the kids before she turned around and came at me like she was trying to kill me. (continued…)
There were no teachers around. I could see it in her eyes that she was really going to hurt me.
She grabbed me by the shoulders and picked me up and shook me as hard as she could. The whole time I was screaming. Then I heard car breaks and my mom football tackled her to the ground. That night I got ice cream for trying to protect my brother and sent to bed early for saying all of those bad words.
Rustybullethole
20. I was at a Panera Bread around the holidays a few years ago. It was full-on shopping season, and the place is close to some shopping malls, so it was extremely busy. This older couple ordered coffee, and the lady behind the counter gave them a to-go cup, saying “I’m sorry, we ran out of clean mugs, and the dishwasher is running now, but I didn’t want to make you wait.”
The lady got PISSED and started screaming about bad service. The poor girl behind the counter kept apologizing and saying they would be done in a minute but the lady just kept bitching.
Meanwhile, another employee comes up to take my order, so I ordered my drink and said as loud as I could “And a to-go cup is FINE with me; unlike some people, I understand the drink will taste the same!” The old lady freaked about how rude I was while I waited for my drink. The manager comes out and gives me a free loaf of their holiday bread “for being so patient.” Old people left, still pissed.
Baconbabe456
21. I am a member of a private gun club that includes a range. I was there by myself when a family pulls up. I introduce myself, and continue shooting.
It is best practice to shoot from the same firing line as all the shooters. I notice that the Father and son are forward of the firing line by about 8 feet. I would have said something at that point, but I could see them and wasn’t going to accidentally shoot them.
I am preparing my AR-15 when I hear a large “clink” noise next to my head. I turn and see a women shooting a 22 rifle behind us. I am talking 30 feet behind the range, directly behind the father and son. She has apparently accidentally shot at the fire line, or 6 feet from my head.
While inside I am fuming, I also understand its best not to start a fight when guns are involved. I call a cease fire. I walk over, ask her to see her gun and and calmly take it. I then explain the keeping a firing line keeps everyone safe. I unload it, then give it back. Then promptly leave as I did not want to get shot.
Nofilmincamera
22. I was on the city bus in Ann Arbor, MI. There was a very old couple that I sometimes see getting off at the cancer center at the hospital. This day, the woman gets out of her seat 30 seconds too soon before the bus stopped, and quickly loses her balance. She falls over onto a man (roughly 55 years old).
He looks at her with utter disgust and pushes her off of him. She falls onto the ground. Some nice young men help her up but she is obviously shaken up and off balance, and she falls on the man again. He shouts out, “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING, YOU DUMB WOMAN!”
She seems very disoriented and confused at this point, and her husband does not appear to see what is really going down. The man gets out of his seat and looms over her in a threatening manner. (continued…)
He yells, “I HAVE A BAD BACK AND YOU COULD HAVE HURT ME, GET OUT OF HERE”. This man was maybe 6’1” and 200 lbs, and the old woman appeared to be in her late eighties and no more than 100 lbs.
I couldn’t believe what was happening. The bus driver stopped the bus out of confusion. I jumped up and told the man to get off the bus, and that I would call the police, and that he has no business being on public transportation.
He moved towards me (I am a 21-year-old gal, and not too physically imposing) and I looked him in the eye and told him to get out of my face. The bus driver finally saw what was going on and ordered the guy off the bus. I haven’t seen him since. Some hot guy also gave me his phone number on a piece of paper when I got off the bus. Score!
[deleted]
23. I was at the grocery store on my lunch break. This older woman was walking up to a checkout like. She went to take her salad out and it opened up and just went everywhere.
So, she starts crying and saying how she can’t afford to buy another salad and apologizing for the mess. A clerk and I went over and start helping her. The clerk tells her it happens all the time and that they won’t charge her, but the woman is still visibly upset and continues apologizing and crying.
Then I hear two other middle-aged women (hair all done up, expensive clothes, etc. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about) giggling and having little laughing outbursts every time the old lady says something. I was appalled, but whatever. To my amazement, they then start openly mocking her, loud enough so we all could hear, and flat out laughing at her.
At this point, I stood up, grabbed my basket, walked over near them and quietly said, “Come on, quit it.” They both stop laughing and get beet red with anger. One of them then says, “Excuse me? Who are YOU?” (continued…)
I calmly replied (it takes a lot for me to get mad), “She’s obviously upset, she can hear you over there, and it’s embarrassing, for you and her.”
This is when they both lose it, saying, “Who do you think you are? Dont you ever talk to me like that.
To which I replied, “Listen, I know you’re both really unhappy because you married a man for money and now he’s cheating on you with a much younger woman and your kids probably don’t respect or like you because you’re obviously a crappy person, but you don’t have to be mean to strangers. If you want to laugh, whatever, but don’t start mocking people. Try to contain yourselves, and act like the adults you never had to become.”
[deleted]
24. In college, for a Spanish class I was taking, I had the opportunity to go see a foreign film for extra credit. I had to take notes during the film, so I could write a brief summary of the movie to turn in to my Spanish professor.
The movie is playing in one of our big lecture halls by the foreign film club at my school, so there were a lot of students there watching. I get to my seat, settle in and start watching the movie.
About 10 minutes in two girls enter the hall, and proceed to make a lot of noise, like nothing is going on at all. They take their seats in my same row, but on the other side of an aisle. They continue to talk for the next 10-15 minutes, loudly, while the movie is playing. Not giving any cares. (continued…)
I can tell the people around me are annoyed with subtle “ahems” and groans and multiple head turns to look at the girls. But no one really does anything, and the girls keep talking.
Finally, I’ve had it, I get up walk over to the girls and ask them in the most polite voice I could muster, as I was very annoyed. “Please excuse me ladies for interrupting your conversation, would you mind shutting up so the rest of us can watch the film?”
I just stood there and they got very angry and left. The entire lecture hall applauded and the movie went on. There were no more interruptions. I left that place feeling 10 feet tall.
Well worth the 25 extra credit points.
fondupot
25. One summer night several years ago, my friends and I were walking around town being drunk and goofing off. As we are about to turn a corner we hear a guy yelling and then what sounds like a puppy yelping.
As we turn the corner we see that our assumption was correct. This guy had a puppy (no more than 10lbs.) on a leash and was yanking him around because the dog wouldn’t poop on command (we could hear him telling the dog that). So I said “yank that dog one more time and see what happens.” He looked me dead in the eye and yanked the dog so hard that i thought he broke his neck.
We spent the next 3 minutes handing him the beating of his life. My friend still has the dog.
justsmurfyplease
26. I once told off a customer in a retail store for being rude and mean (she made one of my staff cry she was so awful). The general gist of what I said was “do you feel better about yourself after you make this 17 year old girl cry? Was it really necessary? Until you learn to treat others with respect I do not want to see you in my store again. Leave before I call security.”
Southpaw_Sam
27. I’m a hijab-wearing Muslim. One time some guy was following me and my husband around, calling us terrorists, taking pictures of us, saying he was going to get us deported (my family’s been here for 3 generations), etc. Then he said I was a poor excuse for a Christian. I said “Do I look like I’m trying?”
[deleted]
28. I went off on someone who pushed their shopping cart toward the little corrals, but it ended up hitting a parked car. They didn’t bother to look or put the cart away properly.
I also went off on someone who slammed their car door into the parked car next to them (several times) because “they parked too close”. The lady doing the door slamming was parked over the line, the vandalized car was dead center of the spot. I took down her license plate number, went into the store and found the owner of the other car and let them know.
freedomweasel
29. I once chased down a guy who stole a woman’s purse. We wrestled with it and when I got it he tried to fight me. I yelled at him to grow up (he was clearly older than me) and I walked back inside Starbucks. Does that count?
Best part: I walk in, it’s dead silent. Everyone is watching me (the place was packed after some sort of sporting event). I set the woman’s purse on the table near her and ask if she’s alright. She says yes and so I walk back to the front of the line where my buddy was, and say, “And I’d like a Caramel Mocha Frappuccino. The whole place erupts with applause and the drinks are on the house. My smoothest moment ever.
Bamness
30. I work in a school with young children and you would be appalled at the number of crappy parents that have children attending there. I have no issue correcting the children, but when the parents get defensive, I have absolutely no issue correcting them either.
I’ve also scolded my husband’s friends for failing to tip an excellent waiter after dropping $80 on food and drinks (but surprisingly had no money for a tip), I scolded a group of teenagers in a haunted house for going under the rope to skip in line and did it so loudly that all 200-or-so people in line hushed to hear the lecture, and I regularly save children from falling face first out of shopping carts in Wal Mart.
I’m proud of every blunt/rude scolding I’ve ever given and would do it again in a heartbeat.
redditsdaddy
31. As a teenager I was visiting a fast food place with my friends. When it was my turn to order, I started without even acknowledging the server. He interrupted me with words that still stick with me today: “a hello would be nice.” I was stunned.
Ever since I greet the people that serve me; every single one of them. That man changed my life for the better.
bertg
32. I was on the subway.
Two teenagers were sitting there eating cupcakes and some other junk they brought onto the train. He then just throws his garbage on the floor so I just said “HEY! Pick that up!” and he sheepishly picked it up and looked at me like that look kids give to teachers when they get caught doing something they know they’re not supposed to do.
Mun-Mun
33. I gave a 16-year-old kid hell once for parking in a handicap spot without a decal or a need to. Felt great.
Anonymous
34. I was pulling weeds from the outside of my fence on the sidewalk. I had a big paper lawn bag next to me and I was almost done with the whole yard. Then this guy comes walking down the street opening a package of cigarettes and drops the cellophane wrapper on the ground in front of my house.
I lost it. I yelled at the guy, “Hey jerk, I might be pulling weeds but I’m not cleaning for you. I’m trying to make my house look nice.” So he came back, picked up the wrapper and put it in the lawn bag. Ugh.
[deleted]