There’s nothing better than witnessing someone getting their comeuppance on film. Whether it’s watching Keanu Reeves take down assassins for killing his dog in John Wick or The Bride (Uma Thurman) taking revenge on those who left her for dead in Kill Bill, the revenge movie is a staple of the thriller/action genre. But it’s not just movies that make for good revenge stories. 

There are plenty of books about people seeking revenge on those who wronged them, such as The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe, Dolan’s Cadillac by horror writer Stephen King, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and Nutshell by Ian McEwan

People love a good revenge story, and while movies, TV shows, and literature are great, there is nothing better than a real-life tale of revenge. Scour the internet and you will find plenty of people happily recounting their revenge stories. These range from small things like getting revenge on someone who put their feet on the seats at the cinemas to shooting someone with a salt shot. Just don’t expect any stories about a revenge killing or murder involving someone’s wife or girlfriend. We are leaving those grisly stories of retribution for the movies. 

Collected below is a bunch of the best real-life revenge stories so you can indulge in your fantasies of vengeance without actually having to take any action. 

1. Rude Parents

“I’m in graduate school and my paying job is as a behavioral therapist for a few families that have kids with autism. I often take my clients out to the local mall or whatever to engage them with the community.

One of my clients, ‘Sean,’ has been diagnosed with both autism and a rare chromosomal abnormality. He’s nonverbal and has severe physical and mental handicaps, but the dude is seriously one of the coolest people ever. He’s obsessed with one of the department stores in the mall that employs pianists. I’ve spent hours sitting by the piano and listening to them play, which is fine because it’s easy money for me and it’s probably his favorite thing ever to do. 

The other week we were in there hanging out. ‘Sean’ is standing up and rocking back and forth on his feet, clapping and squealing to himself at times. He may have been a little louder than the average customer, but it was a busy Thursday afternoon and he wasn’t being disruptive in any way.

Lo and behold, a random woman comes up behind me and taps me forcefully on my shoulder. She tells me that Sean is being way too loud, for which I immediately politely apologized for. She continues to say that ‘people like Sean shouldn’t be out in public’ and I ‘should be ‘ashamed to have a child like that.’

A few minutes later, the woman returns with her children and strikes up a short conversation with the pianist. Most of the pianists are elderly women that are just there to get out of the house, and since Sean and I are there all the bloody time I know them all by name and they often sit down with us during their breaks for small talk.

The woman asks the pianist if some of her brood could play on the piano, as her oldest is ‘just the talk of her art school’ and is ‘incredibly brilliant at the piano for her age level!’ The pianist looked her dead in the eye and said, ‘I’m sorry, but we try not to encourage rude behavior in our stores. Perhaps children as brilliant as yours shouldn’t be out in public?’

As the woman stood there stunned, the pianist turned to Sean and gave him a high five.” – u/swinebone/Reddit

2. Don’t Mess With Grandpa

“My family used to own a farm that backed up to a high school. There was a thin tree line and a small fence at the edge of our property.

One year some kids hopped the fence (really short chain link one maybe 2-3ft) and stole an engine out of the old dump truck. Another time some kids broke all the windows on the combine. A lot of kids liked to hang out in the woods back then and would constantly leave trash. One of my uncle’s finally fed up with this shit started going out there with a 12 gauge fill of salt shot, and would shoot at them.

Now I didn’t believe that last story for the longest time until I started hanging out with a guy who went to that HS. And he was telling me a story about how he and his friends would hang out in the woods behind the school to smoke and drink. Until one day some crazy old guy come out and started shooting at them, tagging my buddy in the ass with a salt shot.

I just looked at him dumbfoundedly, then started laughing my ass off. He said, ‘it’s not funny man, that shit hurts.’

After I regained my composure I explained to him that that was my uncle, and he probably deserved it for trashing the place and trespassing.” – u/DylanCO/Reddit 

3. Keep Your Feet Off the Seats

“I was out to a movie with my friends last night. We come and sit down, and I realize pretty soon that this girl in the row behind us has her feet up on my friend David’s seat. She’s there with one of her friends. So David turns around and he says something like, ‘uh do you think you could put your feet down?’ And I think they say something in response but I didn’t hear it. The feet didn’t go down. A few minutes later David says, ‘hey, will you get your feet off my chair? It’s extremely rude.’ And they still don’t budge.

So I tell David that he should go find an employee and get them to talk to this girl. He does exactly that, and after a couple of minutes, an employee comes and talks to this girl. She is obviously pretty peeved but begrudgingly agrees to put her feet down.

After the employee leaves, she puts her feet right back up. At this point, I’m pissed off. Why is it so important to you that you have your feet up on someone’s chair? You’re just being a brat.

So I get out of my seat, walk up two rows, sit down in the seat directly behind this girl, stick my foot on the back of her chair, and push it forward. They both turn around and try to say something to me, but I can’t really hear them since the movie had started by this point, so I just say ‘just watch the movie.’

I kept my feet up there the entire movie. It felt like I had done wall sits for two hours but I’m glad I did it.” – u/deliasen/Reddit

4. Married People, Single Sex

“Working at Blockbuster, circa 2003. When checking people out, there were two things you’re supposed to do. 1: read the titles of the movies and give the due dates. 2: tell people to have a nice day/night after handing them their movies on the other side of the security gate.

So a guy comes in with his two kids on a busy Friday night. He has a few children’s titles and a softcore porn flick. I ring up the videos and tell him the due dates of the kid movies and say ‘the other one is due _____’ trying to save him a little embarrassment. I walk over to the security gate to hand him the videos where I’m planning on telling him to have a good night, but he’s still at the register. Confused, I look at him and he says, “Aren’t you forgetting something?” I think through the Blockbuster process and can’t come up with anything.

He has an indignant look on his face and says, ‘You’re supposed to tell me to have a good night!’

I’m pretty stunned that a grown man is so reliant on the well wishes of an eighteen-year-old, especially since I would’ve given him what he so desperately needed if he’d walked over to the security gate. So I say, ‘Sir, I’m so sorry. Have a great night. I hope you enjoy your copy of…’ I look down at his VHS tape then look at everyone behind him in line and raise my voice, ‘MARRIED PEOPLE, SINGLE SEX!’

He turns bright red, and the lady behind him covers her face. Sorta feel bad for his kids getting caught in the crossfire, but there are always casualties in war.” – u/jake_swivel/Reddit 

5. Bubble Gum Lover

“Some guy pulled a dick move on the road to my uncle on his way home. My uncle sees the guy pull into his driveway and that he lives only 4 blocks away from my uncle. So every day my uncle drives a few blocks out of his way to go home and throws his gum in the guy’s driveway.” – u/bakedzitipie/Reddit

6.  Cotton Eye Joe

“I had two jobs, one was at this country ice house…[in the middle of] nowhere outside of my city. This place was pretty small but was one of the few bars in a certain area so it would get busy. A lot of good ol’ boys and oil field guys. 

I worked the door, checked IDs and such, and usually broke up fights or kick people out. One night some trouble happens between some regulars and one guy tries to hit another guy with a pool stick. I happened to get hit in the arm but got behind the guy and put him to sleep. The next day the manager calls me to tell me I’m being let go. Apparently, the pool stick guy spends a lot of money, and my putting him to sleep left him bitter so he called the owner. That’s fine.

Anyways the bar has a nice fancy jukebox. If you have the app you can just pick songs on your credit card and they’ll play. If you hit play next on a song, even if they turn the jukebox off, it’ll play when it starts back up. It’s also unskippable. With the master remote you could skip a song but they lost that remote so they really can’t do much if someone plays a certain song they don’t like, and even if they unplug it, it’ll play no matter what when they turn it on.

Here’s my petty revenge:

The owner does inventory every Tuesday night. It also happens to be a busy night because they do pool tournaments and it usually gets packed. So here I thought, I could probably just play the same song over and over and there’s nothing they can really do. I got twenty bucks in credits and that usually gives you about 18 unskippable songs. Plus more depending on if the app gifts you credits.

I picked a remix of ‘Cotton Eye Joe,’ which comes in at around seven minutes a pop. Usually when the pool tournament started. Two hours of hearing the same song has killed their business on Tuesdays. Even if they unplug it, it’ll still play when they plugged it back up.

I’ve been doing it for two months so far, last I heard they had to buy a new jukebox at a cost $5,000. I’ll probably stop for a month then start again. ” – u/SgtSlaughterEX/Reddit

7. Where’s the Fire?

“When I was still married I had a feeling he was cheating on me. I found a pack of condoms in his car. The box was already opened so I poked a hole in the wrapper of each. Then I proceeded to soak them in habanero pepper juice for an hour. I put them back in the car before he woke up. 

He told me he had to go help his mom with some stuff around the house. He left. Three hours later my best friend called to tell me that she had sex with her ‘boyfriend’ and now she was on fire down there!

My husband came home and placed an ice pack down there, saying he got burnt by something. Needless to say after that, he lost his wife and she lost her friend. Neither one of them knows what I did. Now if I see either one of them I always ask, ‘Where’s the fire?’ – Anonymous/Bored Panda

8. The Quite Car

“I take the train to work each morning and then again to get home. I like to sit in the quiet car because it allows me to think and do a little extra work each day. On the train ride home today a woman in front of me kept talking on the phone even after people nicely asked her to be quiet. The conductor also came through and informed her she was in a quiet car.

The seats we are in have very little support so someone behind you could push your seat and you’d feel it. Several riders decided it wasn’t worth it and switched cars. I decided I had enough and slouched far enough so both of my knees were firmly in the back of her seat pushing fairly hard. She cocked her head around and told me to put my knees down. I closed my eyes and fake slept.

She got up and moved to a different seat. There was a person behind her and guess what he did? Knees to the back of the chair. People started catching on and she chose a seat with no one behind her. Another rider changed seats behind her and she got some more knees.

The conductor came through again and was unaware of our little revenge. She got up and told him that people were putting their knees into her back and stalking her to each spot. The conductor put his index finger to his lips and said “Shhhh, this is a quiet car.”

She moved to a new train car.” – u/abCEEdeeznuts/Reddit

9. She Took the House and the Dog But I Control the Thermostat

“My former wife loves to take expensive vacations. We live in Ohio, which doesn’t exactly have extravagant places to see unless you like to watch grass growing or interstate construction. While we make OK money, I’m convinced she felt the need to single-handedly improve the US economy by taking elaborate vacations: Broadway shows in New York City, gambling in Las Vegas, Spa’s in Arizona, and sightseeing in San Francisco. The airlines know me so well they ask about my dog when I call to make reservations. His name is Fred.

In my attempt to try and save whatever I could so the princess could have her nice things, I bought this Honeywell Wi-Fi-enabled device so I could adjust the HVAC while we were away piling up massive amounts of debt on Mickey Mouse watches. I thought we could save a few bucks by keeping the temp cool in the winter and warm in the summer. The device was easy to install. I did not have the “blue” connector so I had to re-purpose the green one – this required an adjustment to the actual HVAC unit in our home. There are plenty of videos on Youtube to demonstrate how to do this. Within an hour I was up and running.

The device works flawlessly. You can adjust the temp from anywhere you have a Wi-Fi or cellular signal. Little did I know that my ex had found someone that had a bit more money than I did and decided to make other travel plans. Those plans included her no longer being my wife and finding a new travel partner (Carl, a banker). She took the house, the dog, and a good chunk of my 401k, but didn’t mess with the wireless access point or the Wi-Fi-enabled Honeywell thermostat.

Since this past Ohio winter has been so cold I’ve been messing with the temp while the new love birds are sleeping. Doesn’t everyone want to wake up at 7 am to a 40-degree house? When they are away on their weekend getaways, I crank the heat up to 80 degrees and back down to 40 before they arrive home. I can only imagine what their electricity bills might be. It makes me smile. I know this won’t last forever, but I can’t help but smile every time I log in and see that it still works. I also can’t wait for warmer weather when I can crank the heat up to 80 degrees while the love birds are sleeping. After all, who doesn’t want to wake up to an 80-degree home in the middle of June? – The General/Amazon Review

10. Matching Tattoos

“My boyfriend cheated on me so I convinced him to get matching tattoos… he went first and I went home.” – @_Breyonn/Twitter

11. No Parking 

“I’m moving out of my apartment this week and I rented one of those curbside drop off/pick up moving crates. My city requires that you get a permit for the street ($40) and provides ‘no parking’ signs so the crate can be loaded and unloaded.

I hung the no parking signs along my designated space well before the crate arrived. Lo and behold some student with out-of-state plates parks in my space. I call the cops and they ticket the car. After my crate arrives, the car returns and parks again in the no parking zone. At the same time, a landscaping company sets up a no-parking zone overlapping my zone. Now there are multiple no parking signs tacked up by the offending car.

The landscapers are angry, as the car is in its way, so we hatch a plan together. Since we both have permits for no parking zones, we both call the cops separately. The offending car ends up with several more tickets. Additionally, I flag down a meter maid and let them know that the car has been in the spot for more than two hours (the limit for non-residents). Another $40 ticket. By the end of the day, this dumb student had five tickets on his windshield.

No parking means no parking!” – u/NoSprog4Me/Reddit

12. Pretty Little Liar

“I gave my girlfriend my Netflix password while we were dating, and asked her nicely not to use it after we broke up. She continued to use it, so I waited until she was two seasons into Pretty Little Liars to change the password.” – lovelylkp/Tumblr

13. The Pen Thief

“Dad is a principal at a school and has been for a long time… One day a lady arrives and expresses an interest in enrolling her son. Principal dad is speaking with her, gets her some forms to fill out, and even offers her his special pen. The pen is a nice stainless steel job that was given to every member of the executive staff on the school’s 25th anniversary.

Anyway, the lady and her son fill out the paperwork and go on their way, at which point dad realizes his pen has also left. Clearly, the pen wasn’t a gift; it was obviously more expensive than a plastic hotel pen.

Fast forward to the next week when the lady arrives to drop her son off for his first day at the school. Principal dad waits for Mrs. Pen Thief and gives her the Emergency Contact Form to fill out. Normally this is given to the kid to fill out but dad was hoping to see the pen again.

Sure enough, this silly lady forgets where she stole the pen from and out comes the 25th-anniversary pen to fill out the form… ‘And now I just need to sign it here,’ says Principal dad, patting down his pockets as if looking for a pen. Instinctively Mrs. Pen Thief reaches into her handbag and offers him the pen. ‘Thanks,’ he said as he signs on the bottom of the form… and put the pen back in his own shirt pocket right in front of her.

Mrs. Pen Thief looks confused, opens her mouth, realizes what has happened, and quickly closes her mouth again. She mumbles thanks and scurries out the door. I believe he still has the pen to this day.” – u/valiantfreak/Reddit

14. Buttered Popcorn

“I had a boss whom I couldn’t stand. One day, she banned microwave popcorn in the office because she hated the smell. About a month later, I bought one of those USB drives that has scented oil inside…scented like buttered popcorn. I plugged it in on the side of her desktop. Took her six months to figure it out.” – u/weshric/Reddit 

15. Roommate Troubles 

“So I posted on here a little while ago about my roommate using up all my baby wipes and he said to me he would stop. Well, the past two days he started doing it again along with using my toothpaste and not even… being kind enough to put the cap back on after using it.

A couple of days ago he said he has a girl coming over and would like to get some action and leave him alone. I said OK no worries. So about an hour before she came over I pretended to leave and said I am heading out for the night. Five minutes later I snuck back in while he was making dinner for the both of them.

I got to my room and hid in there knowing that for a fact at some point in the night, she would ask to use the bathroom, and I needed to take a shit. So 45 minutes goes by and she arrived and I am just waiting. About two hours after she gets there I hear him go (to the bathroom). Ah, perfect! He went first!

Now time to take a (bowel movement). I run into the bathroom and [go] as quiet as I possibly can. A huge load. And I don’t flush or put the lid down. I go back to my room and wait… There she goes, into the bathroom. She was in there for exactly six seconds and came out. Seven minutes later she leaves.” – u/[deleted]/Reddit

16. Work Place Relations

“I once had a colleague I hated (he was very condescending and really arrogant), so I put an extra Bluetooth receiver in his computer for a computer mouse and kept the mouse in my drawer. I would just open my drawer and it would mess his shit right up. Kept it going for like 2 months. He was about to murder the world when I thought I better stop.” – u/WhereTheFatRolls/Reddit