People Who Have Inadvertently Ruined Someone’s Life Share What Happened

These people have some harrowing stories about ruining other people's lives.

A Man Too Lazy To Throw Away His Trash Ruins A Life

“I crashed a friend of a friend’s party. It was quite crowded, about 40-60 people in a medium-sized house. I was drinking and eating some Pringles. When I was done with the Pringles, I put it on the floor because the table was full of random junk and I was too lazy to tidy it up.

Several minutes later I heard a crash and people screaming all over the house. I went to the general direction of the noise and saw a man in the middle of the shattered glass table. There was blood all over the floor and some of the shattered glass had pierced his back and the back of his head. I asked the guy next to me what had happened, then to my shock, he replied ‘He tripped on an empty can of Pringles on the floor and fell on the table.’

He’s now paralyzed from the waist down and can’t speak properly.”

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A School Project Reveals Very Unexpected Results

“When I was in high school I was studying blood types and how traits get passed on from parents to children.

I started asking my family members what their blood types were in order for me to make a chart for Dominant and Recessive traits.

Well, I got to my aunt and uncle who were both O positive and after some research determined that none of their kids were fathered by my uncle because they had completely different blood types.

She confessed that she cheated on him 20 years earlier and continued the affair for 9 years. Uncle was devastated and kids were wrecked. They got divorced, my aunt moved to Alabama to live with her longtime boyfriend, my cousins got all messed up becoming addicts and one moved in with her own boyfriend and got pregnant.”

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Ruining A Life Physically and Emotionally

“I crashed a car with my girlfriend at the time in the passenger seat and broke her back, shattered some bones in her hands, and put a gash on one side of her mouth ruining her smile. She was likely destined for Cambridge or Oxford, was an excellent piano player and had everything her somewhat meager upbringing could afford her to get her where she was likely going. Incredibly talented intelligent and fairly pretty young girl. Once she was out of resting and back to school she became lazy and unmotivated, was kicked out of the private school she had a scholarship to, her damaged hands meant she couldn’t play anywhere near the level she used to be able to and the big scar on her cheek made her feel ugly and she let go of her body. We parted ways fairly amicably, but later she came to resent me for the issues the crash caused the rest of her life. Last I heard she was at a local community college studying photography, where she apparently had fallen in with the wrong crowd and wasn’t doing too well.

I’d love to go back in time and brake a few meters earlier, or at least message her and tell her how sorry I really am, but I know I should leave it in the past.

The crash changed my life as well, I had recently passed my pilot’s license but I picked an illness up in the hospital which kept me from flying for about a month. I was then meant to go onto commercial training, but in the time I was in the hospital, financial ruination of my father meant that was no longer possible, so I went to college to study aeronautical engineering, which I wasted, went into a retail job where I still am, and that’s the story of my last 6 years.”

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Breaking Up An Escape

“Hit a car in the rain. Everyone (little girl, boy, mother, and dog) was fine but the weird thing was that the car was full of clothes and seemingly random items. I distinctly remember a blender. And they were all dressed in there pajamas as though they’d just hopped out of bed, loaded up the car, and set out. Well, eventually the father shows up. I’m standing next to the little boy, he’s probably twelve, while all the cops, firemen, and onlookers are hurrying around us. It is absolutely pouring. The father sees the kid and walks straight past him to go look at the car. It didn’t hit me until later that they were running from him, the father, secretly, in the night. I looked at the kid and said I was sorry and that I couldn’t see through the rain. He didn’t even look back. He just stood there staring straight ahead in his soaked clothes with that angry look kids get when they’re trying not to cry. I knew he hated me and I knew I had just put the cherry on top of a horrible childhood.

I will never forget that moment. They never filed an insurance claim and I never saw them again. I destroyed someone’s life and all I had to pay for was a new bumper and grill for my truck.”

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Getting A Father In Real Trouble

“When I was a freshman in high school (14-years-old), my friend told me how she had been hooking up with her best friend’s dad for over a year.

I don’t do well with big secrets on my conscience, so I broke down after marching band one night. I told one of my friends who made me tell our band teacher, who reported it to the police and talked to my friend’s parents.

She told her parents I was lying about it, but that Monday morning I was called to the principal’s office where I had to tell the band teacher, principal, and the police.

Later that week, the news reported that the man was arrested. I don’t really know what happened after that, but it’s safe to assume that I probably ruined his life and he doesn’t even know who I am.”

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Messing Up A Best Friend’s Life Over A Girl

“Man I feel really guilty over this one. Back when I was in high school my friend Rob and I both liked the same girl, though being the complete brat I was I got really jealous. So somehow I managed to convince him that she wasn’t into him (she kind of was) and instead go for some other girl named May, who had been after him since early sophomore year.

They eventually hooked up not too long after and not surprisingly she got knocked up about 4 months later. Because of this, he dropped out mid-senior year and last I heard is working at a grocery store. Now, the last time I spoke to him was probably about a year ago and he sounded very miserable since he was stuck in a crappy on-off relationship along with a kid he obviously wasn’t prepared for.

Despite all this, he still didn’t blame me even though I set them up on purpose. In all honesty, I still feel extremely terrible every time I think of how I inadvertently messed this poor guy’s life up. I really do hope he does well despite the fact I messed it all up.”

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What Can You Do?

“I was at a party and met an old flame, she kinda acts like maybe she wants to hook up again, but not right then because she has a boyfriend, I didn’t do anything wrong, so no big deal.

I didn’t think anything about it and was leaving later on and got jumped by her boyfriend and one of his friends.

I got beat up really bad.

About three or four months later I run across some bad dudes, known felons that I used to see around, not really friends, just ran in the same party crowds.

We are at a bar, they ask specifically about the dude who beat me up if I knew where he was, cause he did something to tick them off, and these were dudes you didn’t want mad at you.

I didn’t ask anymore, all I told them is where his girlfriend lived.

He’s been missing since that week.

It’s been about 20 years.

Ran into the girl about 5-6 years ago, she looks at me, turns white and leaves.

So I might have REALLY ruined someone’s life.

And I’m not losing sleep.”

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Trying Save Someone, But Really, Sending Them Down The Wrong Path

“My friend was getting kicked out of school for getting caught drinking too many times. His parents were preparing to come pick him up.

I had a meeting with the dean for other reasons and at the end explained my friend was the hardest working person I knew. He had learning disabilities and would literally study from the second he got out of class until 1 am just to pull C’s and a few B’s and then go out and party hard for a couple hours.

I was able to convince the dean that he was the most worthy person I knew to be there in the mix of all of us partying like crazy.

I got a call a few months later that my friend was missing. They found that he blacked out in a creek and drowned in 3 inches of water on his way back to the dorm.

I can’t take much responsibility for that, but it messes me up. In a moment of assertiveness and courage, I fought for my friend and put him on a path that caused him to die a different day.

I shook the dean’s hand at his funeral and we both just kind of stared at each other for a second – like no matter the intentions, we did this.”

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Wrecking A Life With A Broken Heart

“Pretty sure a decision I made to ‘play it safe’ led to ruining an ex-girlfriend’s life.

I just got out of high school, she was just starting her senior year. I was her first ‘serious’ boyfriend, but 90% of it was long distance because I moved away for college. Over our 3 year relationship, we saw each other in person maybe 10 days total – the rest was over MSN Messenger or Skype.

Eventually, I realized that in order for our relationship to advance, one of us would have to move. We both said we would do it when we had the money, or both of us move somewhere in the middle if we could afford it. Trouble was, she was raised in a Hispanic family – Hispanics are BIG on family, and being any further than the next town over is unheard of. I, on the other hand, was too broke to afford the cost of living in her state, and I didn’t want to risk losing everything I had worked toward (college, new job, etc).

I knew that I could string her along forever with false promises, and I knew if I did that, she would hate me when she eventually realized I had no intention of following through. So I ended it there. What I didn’t realize was how hard she would take the breakup…

She started drinking heavily, went partying with the wrong crowds, started sleeping around (she had previously been ‘saving herself’ for me when we were together), and eventually got pregnant by a random hookup. Last I heard, she was a single mother, struggling with addiction, and struggling to hold down a job.

I know that I shouldn’t blame myself for the choices she made several months after the breakup, but 8 years later I can’t help feeling bad about it since my life has gone so well in comparison.”

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Someone Deserving Of A Life Altering Moment

“I had a neighbor who was a drinker. Worse than that, he was a drinker and a driver. Not a day went by I didn’t see him swerving into his driveway. One morning, around 5 am, I came out and he was hosing off the front of his car – that kind of guy.

I called the cops a few times. They didn’t do anything. Kept saying they needed to catch him in the act. I figured it was only a matter of time before this guy killed someone. And I was pretty worried having my kids playing outside with this menace on the loose.

I bought a burn phone and began using it to file anonymous complaints with virtually every agency I could think of. I told them whatever I thought might prompt action. Never filed a report but always just left a juicy tip for them to follow up on. I basically figured that a brat like this was doing something illegal and would get swept up if I just figured out the correct combination.

The one that eventually stuck was when I called the local substance task force. They stopped him on the way home one day and caught him with both driving under the influence and with a bag of a white powdery substance in his car. He also had a weapon in his possession (he had a CCW) but, because he had this with illegal substances, it resulted in him being charged with like a super felony.

He went away after that. House was either seized by the sheriff or foreclosed and a young family moved in afterward.”

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Not By Direct Action, But Guilty Just The Same

“Long story short, they had submitted a credit application which would have helped their business stay afloat. They were declined.

They weren’t hard declined though.

Since my business had a great relationship with the bank, we could have given the word and they would have taken a gamble on the guy.

What did I do?

I called the customer, and apologized to him, telling him his loan was unable to be approved, and that he’d be receiving a letter in the mail explaining why in the next few weeks.

In order to keep his payroll up to date, he sold off one of his critical assets, which he had a loan against, and used that money to both pay his employees and pay off the monthly payment, which is illegal.

I just heard that his checks have started bouncing, and the holder of the loan on the sold asset found out it was sold.

He’s going to go under.

If I had helped him get the loan to get the new asset, he would have had much higher cash flow, and never would have sold the asset that he did. He wouldn’t be an industry leader, but he’d be afloat, and his employees would all still have a job.”

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Setting A Guy For A Life In Prison

“One of my ex-friends got busted for child smut. I was the one that taught him how to illegally download things. He told me he only wanted to download some movies and a few CDs and he went and downloaded freaking child smut. It feels so weird that this man is in prison now and he wouldn’t be if I only I hadn’t taught him how to get his hands on it. I know this man is scum and he fully deserves it and it’s not my fault that he turned out to be a creep, but still, I feel so freaking guilty somehow. He’s in prison because of ME.”

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Catching A Thief

“Caught a dude for massive theft at my business. He came into my office and begged me not to go to the police because that would mean the end of his marriage. So we signed an agreement where in lieu of criminal complaint he would return what money he had left (he blew about half of it on stupid stuff already) and admitted to the theft in writing. So he makes payments on the agreement, and like the idiot he is, stops once the statute of limitations for criminal complaint has passed. So we file a civil suit against him for the entire amount of theft plus a massive penalty plus our court costs as laid out in the agreement, he spends roughly $30K defending against the suit, his wife finds out about it, and now it’s on his record for 20 years because we win and he owes us more money than he will ever see again in his life. The really stupid thing is that if he paid us the money he spent on defending the suit, he would have paid off the agreement.”

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She Blamed Herself But He Forgave Her

“My best friend when I was younger was an incredibly fast sprinter. His dream was to represent our country in the Olympics. He very easily could have done that, had it not been for me.

We were out one day playing in the forest (we were about 12 or 13 at the time). We saw a little stream and thought how cool it would be if we jumped across it. We did a few times and it was awesome. We did it one more time and I bumped into him in mid-air. He landed awkwardly and broke both his legs. Bones were sticking out. It was horrific. I ran to get his mother and he was taken away in an ambulance. He had several surgeries and months of physical therapy. He never ran again and we lost contact.

I blamed myself for years and watched the Olympics last year and felt angry that he wasn’t there when he should have been. I bumped into him recently and apologized for ruining his chances at being an athlete. He laughed, called me an idiot for blaming myself for so long.”

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Home Wrecking For The Best?

“My best friend fell hard for this guy, senior year, and he ended up feeling the same. She had a lot of self-esteem issues and struggled a lot, and I was really excited that she had someone who made her feel beautiful. Well of course since they were dating, he and I got to know each other, and soon enough – 5 weeks into their relationship actually – he decided he was in love with me instead, right after telling her otherwise and taking her v-card. I turned him down, but he still decided to tell her it wasn’t going to work and that he actually only dated her for the hookup. Then she unsuccessfully hung herself and she hasn’t spoken to me since but from what I hear she sleeps around and takes a lot of substances. This guy is still in love with me 3 years later, a pretty painful reminder if I see him.”

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Wrecking A Teacher’s Life Without Guilt

“I started a butterfly effect that got one of my high school teachers fired and blacklisted in the state. He was a piece of trash, trying to get the theatre teacher fired behind her back and was sketchy around female students. One day he called me out for waiting to use a saw for stagecraft, and I blew up on him, called him every name in the book and essentially told him he was a terrible person for reasons X, Y, and Z. I got sent to the office but since my record was spotless they just sent me back to class and had a meeting with the teacher. Eventually, a lot of other students got the courage to call him out too.

The next year I graduated and I heard that he was harassing a female student and the entire class he was teaching reported it. He got fired within that week. It feels good to win.

I also slashed his tires.”

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Creating A Monster

“When I was 13 a really quiet, shy boy joined my friend group, I’ll call him M. He was anti-substances and drinking. I, meanwhile, was very much into both of those things. Unbeknownst to me at the time, he had a huge crush on me. When I was about 16 I would spend all my time outside the school getting wasted with my friends, while those that didn’t enjoy that kind of thing stayed inside. M, out of nowhere, started hanging around and getting trashed with us. Within about a week of that starting, I started dating a different boy and sobered up. Turns out, M had started doing this to get close to me because he still had a crush on me. Been almost a decade and M is an addict who is unemployed and on-and-off homeless. After starting using with my friends, he never stopped, because of me.”

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