Sometimes you find yourself in a sticky situation where doing the right thing involves bending the rules a little bit or even breaking the law. It's a sign of ethical intelligence to know when to throw rules and laws by the wayside in hopes of actually helping someone or saving a life.
Hopefully, the powers that be recognize that laws can actually obstruct justice in some cases, but there's a fine line between compassionate people and bureaucratic sticklers. Whether it's rehoming a dog that's being horribly abused, or sliding freebies to those less fortunate, sometimes it's good to be a little bad. Here are some of Reddit users' craziest yet most justifiable stories about doing illegal things for the right reasons.
His Coworker Was Missing Out On Most Of His Job’s Benefits
“About 15 years ago, I was working at a manufacturing plant. One of the guys at my station had been working there for four years as a temp, while I was hired from temp to full time in just six months.
I asked him why he hadn’t been moved to full time yet and he told me it was because he didn’t have a diploma or a GED. He had two kids at the time, and a third child on the way.
So after work one night I brought him to my house, scanned my own GED, and then photoshopped his name in place of mine and printed him out about 40 or 50 copies of it in color, not black and white. The whole process took about two hours to make sure it looked as perfect as a real GED, and in the end, it did.
He took a copy to HR the next morning and told them his mom had finally found his GED so he made a copy of it for them. He was hired on as a full-time employee within two weeks.
Though what I did was surely illegal, it didn’t seem right that my coworker had been working for four years as a temp while everyone else around him kept getting hired on full time (which gave a $3 per hour raise, insurance, paid time off, sick days, paid holidays, etc). I had to do something to help him, especially since he had two (soon to be three) children to provide for, so I’d say it was for the right reason.”
Monsters Like This Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Run Pet Stores
“I used to work at a veterinary clinic that had a partnership with a local pet store. The pet store was one of those places where the top of the ‘cages’ are open so anyone can reach in, pet the puppies, and move on to the next, which is also a real easy way to spread diseases between animals.
The place was run by the scum of the earth; they would pull a puppy off the floor on a Friday, put it in the back until around lunchtime Monday, and then bring the dog to us. By that time, the puppies were usually too sick to save. I can’t tell you how many puppies a week they would bring us with parvo.
One day they brought us a Corgi puppy who had previously had a kennel cough. He was sick for so long that his lungs were permanently scarred, so he would have a cough for the rest of his life even though he wasn’t sick. They asked us to just put him down since he was deemed unsellable. We falsified the paperwork to say he was euthanized, and one of the other techs took him home.”
She Was His Saving Grace And He Considers Her A Mother
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“I went to Seminole Middle School way back when in Florida and my family was really poor…like, REALLY poor. I used to steal lunch wraps and salad from the health bar during lunch in the cafeteria. The lunch lady knew. There were three different lunch periods, all hosted at different times of the day.
She wouldn’t charge me until the third lunch, and even then it was next to nothing. I would have a backpack full of wraps and salads that I’d take home and share with my brother.
14 years to this day, I have spent every Sunday talking to her for at least two hours. She is old now and nobody really visits her. I tend to go see her from time to time when the opportunity arises. I bring her Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas dinners. Sometimes I cook breakfast for her and I maintain her garden. I take her for walks (she’s in a wheelchair). I love her. When she passes away, I will have lost a mother and a friend.”
They Actually Wanted To Press Charges Over Donated Candy
“I used to work at a CVS. After Halloween, all their candy goes on sale, up to 80% off. After three weeks, though, no one wants candy corn flavored chocolate or bat-shaped gummies, so they told me to throw it all away.
This was about two shopping carts worth of candy, none of it expired or damaged, just out of season. Instead of taking it to the dumpster, I placed it all in the back of my car. The next morning it all went to the local food drive center (in all honesty, I did keep two bags for myself). The food center sent me a thank you letter saying I donated over 50 lbs of candy. Apparently no good deed goes unpunished though, I couldn’t believe what CVS put me through once they found out what I had done.