When some people walk out their front door to go out into the world and interact with other people, they just want everything to go smoothly and amicably, with minimal conflict. However, other people seem to crave that conflict and thrive on getting into clashes and arguments with other people as often as they can. It's almost as if they are legitimately looking for a bone to pick with everyone they see.
Whether its a group of diners treating their server like trash or a fellow shopper acting like an entitled maniac, it's typically better to just leave the situation than to try and reason with these people. The more material we give them to work with, the more it fuels their flames of rage. Here are some of Reddit's most exasperating, bizarre stories about people's encounters with rude strangers.
The Couple’s Accusatory Rant Caused The Opposite Of Its Intended Effect
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“I was out walking my dog because at the time she was cooped up a lot and I wanted to let her stretch her legs. We walked from our apartment complex to the neighborhood next door. My dog had already done her business and I, a responsible member of society, picked it up and threw it away.
While walking past a house, a woman ran out and started yelling about getting her weapon. I thought for sure I had misunderstood her, so I said, ‘What?’ which caused her to run back inside and bring a large man out with her.
‘WHAT DID YOU SAY TO MY WIFE?!’ he yelled. I told him, calmly, that she came out and yelled at me so I was trying to figure out why she was angry. She began to scream about how my dog (this was the first time I’d ever walked in that neighborhood) was crapping in her yard and how she was going to shoot me if she caught it happening again. I assured her that I had never been near her house and I was the only one walking the dog. I pointed out that we weren’t even slowing down near the house until she came out and threatened to shoot me.
But reasoning with morons doesn’t exactly work, as she kept screaming and her giant husband seemed to be getting more agitated, so I just started walking again and avoided their house on the way back out of the neighborhood.
That said, it did inspire a new hobby. If my dog dropped a lot of poop, I’d pick it up like normal, put it in a plastic sack, and drive over to their house. If the lights were out and the cars were gone, I’d take the bag and empty it on the lawn, right where they’d likely step out of their car when they returned. I never saw it happen, but I always hoped it played out as I planned.”
She Had Zero Control Of Her Riled Up Son
“A few years back I was working for Gottschalk’s before they closed. I worked in the back side of the store in the Children’s Section and Intimate Apparel. One time I was next to my register, organizing panties or something, when a woman walked up and asked me to ring her up. I went over and began scanning her items when her son wandered off toward the expensive leather jackets in the women’s section on the other side of my register.
This woman was paying absolutely ZERO attention to her son and even had her back to him. As I was still ringing up her massive amount of items, her son climbed up into the middle of the coat rack. He grabbed onto the metal bars on top, and began swinging back and forth while screaming, ‘IMMA CHIMPANZEE, IMMA CHIMP…’
Of course, the rack tumbled over on its side, causing a freaking chain reaction that sent ALL of the coat racks crashing to the ground. I ran over, pulled her son out of the middle of the collapsed rack, made sure he’s okay, and attempted to get the FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR coats off the ground.
The lady, still at the register and not even bothering to check and see if her kid was okay, suddenly shouted, ‘EXCUSE ME! YOU WANNA FINISH RINGING UP MY FREAKING ITEMS?!’
Flabbergasted, I stared at her in shock, the carnage of her son’s exploits all over the ground behind me. And then yeah, I rang that witch up. Unbelievable.”
The Guy Expected Them To Be Mind Readers
“I was in Walmart with my friend a few months ago. We were looking at silverware in the kitchen section and we parked our cart in one of the larger aisles since no one was around. As we looked through the various utensils, a tall, skinny blonde man who looked about 40 came and stood near our cart.
I glanced over at him for a split second and he seemed to be looking at the items on the shelf next to our cart. Then I looked back to my friend and the man yelled at us, ‘Did you seriously just LOOK at me, and NOT UNDERSTAND WHY I WAS STANDING HERE?!’ We both looked up and the man was glaring at us angrily. Neither of us knew what the heck he was talking about, so we just kind of stared back at him, dumbstruck. ‘MOVE YOUR CART!’ he yelled.
My friend grabbed the cart and stammered a quick, ‘Ohokaysorry.’ The guy continued to glare at us as he waltzed around the corner. Before he was out of earshot, my girlfriend said, ‘Geez, sorry,’ rather quietly in my direction. The man whirled around and snapped, ‘WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME, FILTHYMOUTH?!’ ‘…um…geez, sorry?’ Then he left in a huff as my friend broke down in tears. Since we’re both rather small females, we were just shocked into silence by that lunatic, unable to defend ourselves. However, I still feel bad for not grabbing one of the nearby forks and forcefully placing it into his brain.”
His Poor Mother Was Shown Little Compassion
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“My family and I were at Logan’s Roadhouse and as we were leaving, this server was goofing off with some of his other coworkers. As he backed up, he abruptly stuck his foot and leg in the pathway of my 63-year-old mother. Of course, she started falling and put her arm out to break her fall. We all hear this insane crunch as her arm snapped just above her elbow and all her weight fell on it, with her head slamming into the ground.
She cried out and I ran over to her while my dad yelled the waiter who did it because he was trying to back away so no one would see him (he didn’t even try to help). I held her still and saw that her forehead was completely destroyed by the concrete floors, and her arm was bent completely backward from how it would naturally be.
Eventually the ambulance got there, but they wouldn’t listen to me when I told them that her arm was broken (she’s a larger lady and the bend in her arm was close enough to her elbow for it to look like her elbow) and they kept trying to stretch her arm really far over her chest to secure her. I was freaking out because she was screaming in pain every time they pulled on her arm, and they wouldn’t listen to me at all and kept acting like I was being ridiculous.
The whole situation was mortifying because of how absurd everyone was acting. I couldn’t believe that waiter wasn’t even the least bit concerned with helping the woman he terribly injured. My mom kept asking what was wrong with her head so I took a picture to show her, and it only got worse from there. She kept holding her head with her good arm since her other arm was useless by that point. It was the worst, and all I could think was what the heck was wrong with that waiter.
The waiter didn’t get in any trouble, as far as I know. We had a long ‘battle’ of sorts to have Logan’s pay for her medical bills (only her medical bills, nothing else because my mom doesn’t like suing). We tried to find out where the waiter was but they only told us he had left for the military, so we left it at that.
Nothing happened with the EMTs either, even though I encouraged my mom to seek them out so they would at least know that they were in the wrong. She had to have 2 major surgeries to try to repair what they could of her stretched tendons and torn nerves and muscles. After about 2 years of therapy, her arm is almost back to normal. She can’t feel much around the area, but her hands can grasp things a lot better than before, though not like her right hand.
Logan’s eventually settled with her, though the whole time they were trying to say it was her fault for not wearing the right kind of shoes. She wears those thick diabetic shoes, which clearly would not have had any part in her accident. It really turned into a huge ordeal.”
Talk About Having No Concern For A Fellow Human Being
“Many years ago, I was a cable guy in New Jersey. One day we had a severe hurricane and there was massive flooding everywhere. I was asked by dispatch to come in and help handle downed poles and other emergencies (people will live without power, but not cable TV, believe me).
I hopped in my old ’74 Mustang and drove off to HQ. On the way, the road flooding was horrific. I nearly gave up after several fruitless reroutes. Eventually, I reached an impasse. I had to navigate this one road that was flooded really bad; a BMW was floating by. I looked at the arrangement of cars and decided if I stayed left of car X and right of car Y, I should be able to snake through the lake of water. I was wrong.
My car lifted and began to float. Water poured in from all directions. The dashboard lights all lit up. Abandon ship! So I did. I opened the door, flooding the car, and escaped. I swam in the murky water and came out on someone’s lawn. As I pulled myself up out of the muck, I was head-to-toe in mud. Just then, a door opened and a very large and unpleasant woman screamed at me, ‘Look what you did to my lawn!’
I looked at her lawn. It was a flooded mess, most of it underwater and much of it carried away down the street. Oh, and it had a few divots where my hands and feet were when I pulled myself out of the muck. I couldn’t believe she was upset at a few divots when 30% of her lawn was floating out to sea, but she continued to berate me. I was freezing cold, covered in mud, upset at ruining my car, and in shock that this old bat was actually chastising me.
I watched my car list to port, then sink. Only the roof stood above the waves. It was a total loss, no point in thinking about it. As this horrible woman continued screaming at me and threatening to call the cops, I swam to the far side of the mini-lake to find dry land. As I did, some dude in a Cadillac pulled up and offered me a ride. I explained I was covered in mud, but he didn’t care. He saw the whole thing and just wanted to help out a fellow traveler in trouble. He drove me almost all the way to HQ as I thanked him profusely. I’ll never forget that guy. Once at work, I was one of only five who made it. We spent the next 14 hours fixing downed wires and flooded boxes for $7.24 an hour plus time and a half.”
She Was Totally Insensitive To The Severity Of The Situation
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“My pony, who we boarded at a self-care facility, started colicking the day before my senior year was supposed to start. With horses, colic can mean a lot of things, and a ton of things can set it off. Basically it’s a general term for a horse’s stomach ache which can easily be lethal, often because they have no vomiting mechanism.
My pony was obviously having a hard time of it. He was covered in sweat, pain absolutely emanating from him, and it was taking four people literally dragging this 800lb animal to keep him from dropping to the ground and rolling (rolling can complicate the colic, even causing knots to form in the intestines, so it is advised that you continuously walk a horse that is trying to roll during colic). It was obviously an intensely serious and dangerous medical situation; even the most ignorant person would have been able to identify that immediately.
One of the boarders was a very snobby and self-important woman who, much to everybody’s disgust, had a habit of driving down the barn’s long hallway and parking her trashy Volvo outside of her stalls, making foot traffic awkward and horse traffic almost impossible…in a HORSE barn.
So we were desperately dragging this dying horse up and down the length of the barn’s hall, waiting for the vet to come and give him some medicine when this woman arrived, opened the hall gate, and started driving in. Another boarder ran to inform her of the situation so she’d stay out of the way with her car, but she just turned her nose up and kept driving, trapping us into the far third of the hall. Eff your dying horse, apparently. It was absolutely unbelievable. Sadly, my pony ended up having to be put down after the vet determined he didn’t have a chance.”
He Was Way Out Of Line
“My mom was out for a walk, slipped on some ice and couldn’t get up. She called me and said she thought she had broken her ankle. I rushed off and pulled my car into a driveway to back it up next to her on the street, and this man came out and yelled at us. My mom told him that I’m her son and she called me to help, and he just kept yelling about how he saw us from his roof(?) and wondering what I was doing using his driveway. After that, we just decided to ignore him, since we had bigger problems to deal with. But, in my mind, I was just thinking ‘Why does it matter who I am or why I pulled into your driveway? You can see her on the ground, you can hear her screaming in pain, does it really matter right now? What is wrong with you?’
Her ankle was broken in 3 places, and she had to have surgery. She had a plate and some bolts put in and will have a cast on for at least 6 weeks, after which I expect a brace for some months, all of which will be without her driving. But, you know, how dare we use that guy’s driveway.”
She Was Manhandled In The Middle Of Serving A Table
“I work in a restaurant as a server. When I went in on Halloween once (as a dazzling Miss Peter Pan, I must add) I discovered the restaurant had advertised that all kid meals were free for children under 10. As soon as I checked in with the hostess, I was double sat with parties of 3 and 12. I was all flustered trying to get drinks and orders from both parties as the host sat me again and again. The party of 12 just happened to have 4 or 5 children so I had to add together what their food would be, take it off their bill, and then split up the bill onto 3 separate checks while dealing with my other tables.
As I was handing the party their checks, I got sat again with two people. I had to postpone greeting the table because one of the women in the party told me that I added 2 extra cold beverages to their bill and needed it fixed right away because they were trying to make it to a movie. I ran through the restaurant looking for my manager to correct the bill so I could hurry and give it to the woman before greeting my other table, which had been waiting too long.
After fixing it and returning it to the woman, I thanked them for coming in and told them to have a great night. Then I immediately turned to my new table to greet them. I started taking their order when I heard, ‘Excuse me, this bill is still wrong, I told you we only had one cold beverage,’ and the woman grabbed me by my shoulder and turned me around to face her WHILE I was with another table.
This woman tried to tell me that I didn’t take the beverages off and the bill was still wrong. I pointed to where it said ‘ERROR Cold Beverage: -2.29’ on her bill and compared both the old bill and the new one I had given her to show her the difference. When she tried to argue with me, I told her that I knew the bill was right and that I was busy and had other customers to help.
Also since there were more than 8 people in their party, the bill had gratuity added automatically. Where the bill asked for more to be added onto the tip, the woman wrote, ‘No way!’ I found that very humorous since the only thing that went wrong with their whole experience was the extra beverage, which I fixed. That woman and her family are regulars, so I do my best to stay clear of them now.”
She Could Not Have Been More Oblivious To Her Child
“I was standing at a crosswalk on a fairly busy street one day next to a woman gabbing on a cell phone with her little 3 or 4-year-old son toddling around. The woman wasn’t making any attempt to look at the kid, and wasn’t holding his hand.
The kid (probably bored by waiting) toddled right past me, jumped off the curb, and started walking into the street. As soon as I saw him leaping off the curb, I instinctively shouted, ‘OH NO!’ and sprang into action, running for him. I managed to grab him by the back of his shirt and yank him back to the curb before an SUV whizzed by at 40-50mph (obviously they weren’t paying attention, either).
The boy started sobbing, of course, because what little kid wouldn’t? It was scary. I spun around and IMMEDIATELY was met with his mom’s face as she proceeded to flip out, screaming about ‘how DARE I touch her son’ and ‘how DARE I make him cry.’ I tried to argue and tell her that I just saved the kid’s life when he walked out into the road, but even after hearing that, she just kept calling me nasty names and screaming at me.
She may not have noticed me wresting her toddler from his fate of being vaporized into a fine kiddie paste, but, given the circumstances, shouldn’t she have at least given me the benefit of considering that I was telling the truth?
She wouldn’t stop screaming incoherent garbage at me (while still holding her phone near her face, mind you, heaven forbid she end the call), so eventually, I just shouted back that she should keep a better eye on her son and walked to another crosswalk 2 blocks down.
I wasn’t expecting a grand hero’s parade, but a simple, ‘Thanks for not letting my boy become kinderjelly,’ would have been nice. Coincidentally, this was near where I lived, and I ended up seeing the woman and her boy again about 6 months later as they were walking through the neighborhood. She was still on her phone, but this time the boy was trailing after on a leash. Lesson learned? I guess…”
He Literally Should Not Have Been On The Road
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“When I was 21 I got my first ‘big kid’ job so I decided to buy myself a new (used) car since my clunker was awful. I got a beautiful Pontiac G6, and I loved it. Exactly 3 weeks after I bought it, I had to go back to the dealership to sign some paperwork so I could lower my car payment and my mom came with me.
As I was driving back home, going about 35 mph and MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS, this old man in a Chevy Avalanche pulled out of a parking lot right in front of me. Had he floored it, I would have barely missed him. However he STOPPED to make sure nobody was coming from the other direction. I slammed on my brakes, blared my horn, and t-bone his truck.
The front end of my car was barely there with fluids leaking all over, airbags all in my face, and my mom and I both got hurt. Then this jagoff decided to get out of his truck and start screaming at me, asking me why I hit his car, what is wrong with me, etc. I looked like I was all of 16 at the time, so I’m sure he thought he was right in that old brain of his.
He kept physically coming toward me, swearing at me, and screaming, even when the cop came. Finally, after 10 minutes of screaming, he asked if we were ok, and my mother went off on him that we weren’t ok and that he had no right being on the road. We came to find out that he hadn’t had a valid license for a few years, which wasn’t surprising. I still don’t know how he thought I hit him on purpose.”
Her Social Etiquette Was Way Off
“I got on a late bus which was packed, and there were people standing in the aisle from the front to the mid-door. A lady in that group moved to stand past the mid-door and I followed her so I could have some space and not be so crammed in. The very next stop a bus on the same route caught up to us and unloaded all their passengers onto our already very crowded bus.
It was jammed from me to the front, so I looked to the lady that I followed to see if she was going to move back to clear some much-needed space. She looked me right in the eye and said, ‘You. You move to the back. You keep hitting me. I moved back here to get away from you and you followed me. Please go. Go. Just go.’ I just stared at her in shock, wondering what the heck she was she talking about since I’d just got on the bus and any contact would have been because the bus was moving and we were standing. I just gave a, ‘Whatever, lady,’ and moved past her. I won because someone in the back got off right away and I snagged a seat. However, I did sit there stewing and hoping she’d say something else on my way out so I could berate her.”