While most of us see revenge as a sort of cold and cruel settling of a grudge, people can be pretty comically creative with how they settle a score. After all, in this day and age, going scorched earth isn’t required to let someone know they messed with the wrong person.
Someone asked “What's the most deliciously wicked act of pettiness you've committed in the wake of a relationship's spectacular implosion?” and people shared their best stories. From putting cheaters on blast to clever bits of revenge, be sure to upvote your favorites as you scroll through and share your own stories in the comments below.
#1
Ex was a "vinyl DJ". After he basically treated me like s**t one night and we had a huge argument I got up during the night and took out vinyls and put them in the wrong sleeves. He had fair few hundred. Took me ages. I then packed my little overnight bag I kept at his and left. He was supposed to play a gig the next day.
I heard he was RAGING 😂
I heard he was RAGING 😂
145points
#2
I took his phone to the bathroom with me. he assumed I was reading through his messages with the other woman, but I just deleted every single photo of me/us together, my contact info, and removed myself from all of his social media, then handed it back to him, took my stuff, and left.
133points
#3
This experience is forever burned into my brain. I can't say I've always had this much self-respect, but there are days that I am proud and sometimes inspired by my younger self.
9 months into my first relationship, I found out that my then-boyfriend had been cheating on me and professing his love to at least two other gals. When I confronted him about it over the phone, he said he thought he was polyamourous and that he couldn't help it (yeah, not how that works guy). Now, even though he was a cheater, I wasn't the type of person to dump someone on a phone call or over text. I needed to look the guy in the eyes while he told me the truth about his transgressions. This was early high school, so the next day my dad called my school and told them I wouldn't be coming in. My dad then drove me to the next town over and took me to this guy's house. Dad asked if I was okay to go in by myself. I nodded, and my sweet dad waited in the car for me as I walked up to my ex's suburban home. I knocked on the door, and conveniently, his mother answered the door. My ex's mother had no idea what was going on, but politely invited me in and called for ex to come downstairs because he had a visitor. Apparently, he had also called in sick to school that day. His mother gave us some privacy and I sat on the couch across from him and made him tell me every detail as he sobbed his eyes out.
At one point, his mother heard him crying and entered the room. She asked us to come into the kitchen and offered us a couple of drinks, which I politely declined. Sensing tension, she asked what the problem was and if she could help with anything. The sweet woman had no clue. Never breaking eye contact with ex, I politely replied that she probably could not help. However, ex did have something important to tell her. I stared him down and said, "You will, or I will. Every detail just as you told me."
He sobbed and confessed that I had been his girlfriend for the past 9 months (he never even told his mother???), and that during our relationship he had actively been cheating on me (or at least tried to cheat with several, only succeeded with two). His mother just stared at him in shock. He knew that neither woman at the table was responding with the empathy he sought, so as a hail Mary he stumbled, "I...I THINK I'M POLYAMOUROUS."
His family was fairly progressive, but the look he received from his mother screamed, "Oh, b******t!".
Her face turned with utter disgust. There was a pause before her eyes met mine, and she apologized on behalf of her son. She said she knew I had loaned him a few games and that I had given him some nice gifts for his birthday. However, when it came to my birthday, she noted that the gift he had given me was small and more suitable for a friend. She asked me about how much everything had cost, and I responded with a reasonable estimate. She nodded her head and turned back to her son.
Her face turned with utter disgust. There was a pause before her eyes met mine, and she apologized on behalf of her son. She said she knew I had loaned him a few games and that I had given him some nice gifts for his birthday. However, when it came to my birthday, she noted that the gift he had given me was small and more suitable for a friend. She asked me about how much everything had cost, and I responded with a reasonable estimate. She nodded her head and turned back to her son.
"I know you just got paid. Go get your wallet."
My ex slinked up the stairs, and his mother and I sat in heavy silence until he returned. He handed me a wad of cash, and his mother chimed in, "Don’t forget the money for gas, too." He handed me another wad of cash and returned the Gameboy games he had borrowed as well. With that, I thanked his mother, collected my items and walked out the door.
My adrenaline was pumping, but as soon as I got back in the car with my dad I began sobbing too. Before going home, my dad bought us some ice cream and took me to a public dock so that I could look at the quiet lake and think. It was bittersweet, but I'm grateful I had a man in my life who had showed me what it meant to be truly loved and cared for.
131points
Sometimes, the pettiest revenge can be the most insidious. For example, just moving some items around. Interestingly, the Ministry for State Security (the Stasi) in communist-era East Germany would use a similar tactic. They would, for example, break into the homes of dissidents and move the furniture around just a little bit.
The idea would be to create a sense of unease, without a clear perpetrator. After all, the person would notice at some point but be in a state of constant doubt, questioning if they simply forgot their own actions. It would also cause strain in relationships, as partners would blame each other for misplaced items.
#4
My ex cheated on me. I turned his best friend against him simply by telling him everything he did. It wasnt nuclear in intention but he lost his entire friend group over it. And props to his best friend and all his other friends who actually refused to tolerate how he treated his girlfriends.
130points
#5
Had been seeing a guy for 3ish months. I thought we were getting pretty serious. He'd spent nights & wknds at my place, we were (i thought) making plans to meet families/parents, spoke on the phone every day at great lengths, then one day I was completely ghosted. Blocked, blocked, blocked on everything. I was devastated. It took a few months for me to somewhat heal from this....
Cue the "are we dating the same guy" page on FB for my city...I posted him anonymously & there were other women admitting to dating him until he ghosted them, etc. THEN, a woman commented that he was married to her coworker. She received all the tea and told the wife. Every month or so, I would repost him anonymously on various other AWDTSG pages in my & surrounding cities and multiple women were commenting that they were currently dating him & they would compare notes, etc. I found out he & his wife split, and he was now living in a city a few hours away & still doing the same to other women.
Cue the "are we dating the same guy" page on FB for my city...I posted him anonymously & there were other women admitting to dating him until he ghosted them, etc. THEN, a woman commented that he was married to her coworker. She received all the tea and told the wife. Every month or so, I would repost him anonymously on various other AWDTSG pages in my & surrounding cities and multiple women were commenting that they were currently dating him & they would compare notes, etc. I found out he & his wife split, and he was now living in a city a few hours away & still doing the same to other women.
I continue to post his photo every month or so just to blow his s**t up.
Edited to add: I've since found his profile on here & fetlife. Anyone else wants to blow his s**t up, just let me know...
104points
#6
I emailed his mom to tell her her grown a*s son (30s) wouldn’t leave me alone after I ended things. Not a few minutes later he’s texting me upset I got his mom involved lmao
99points
However, setting aside the horrific crimes of a secret police force, “petty” actions are often the most effective precisely because they are too limited to invoke any sort of hostile response. Calling someone out might not be as effective as just maliciously complying with what they seem to want, since it forces them to acknowledge their own actions.
#7
Not wicked, but absolutely petty. I never wanted children and was clearly upfront about that from a fairly young age. In my 20s, I had a boyfriend who said he was OK with that and felt the same way. Except he lied. He wasted four years of my life waiting for me "to come to my senses" and understand that of course I wanted to have kids. I was deeply hurt but also angry that he just wasn't taking me seriously and he honestly believed that I just needed to have a baby to understand how great parenthood was actually going to be. He really believed it would all just be fun, fun, fun. Of course, it would mean me leaving the workforce to become a stay-at-home mother and homemaker while his career went on as usual. He had never so much as babysat an hour in his life and really had no practical concept of what having children involved. The fact that he was so casual about assuming I wasn't serious about my own aspirations or that they didn't matter just pissed me off. It also turned out he didn't think I was going to do anything significant in my career. It was so condescending. He told me I would never find a partner as good as him.
It was not a smooth or easy breakup. My parting shot was to buy my ex-fiance subscriptions to every parenting/new baby magazine on the market and in the process of signing him up for those, I checked every box to have him contacted by phone and mail for any and all promotions related to having a family, and for sales calls from life insurance to diaper subscriptions to education savings funds to toy sales. He absolutely detested junk mail and telemarketers, so I felt a certain glee signing him up to be inundated with all of that, but I also thought he should have stacks of those magazines on his living room coffee table for any potential future girlfriends to see.
Anyway, I went on to girl-boss my way through my career and I accomplished a lot to be proud of. I didn't stay in touch with the ex, but he tried to message me online about 12 years ago after he heard me do an interview on NPR's Morning Edition. I did not respond.
84points
#8
I took a picture of his family's secret chilli recipe and his mother's soup recipe. Both are considered family secrets. I make the soup every winter. I have also shared them with people.
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80points
#9
I cut the tips of the pockets out of all his jeans. Just annoying enough to count, strange enough to subvert suspicion
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79points
It’s also a pretty subtle, yet effective way to make sure someone understands that if their behavior continues, it’s only going to get worse. For the stories here, centered around breakups, this “final act of pettiness” might also serve as a good form of closure. Sometimes dumping a horrible partner isn’t enough, it’s best to finish with that feeling that you gave them what they deserved.
#10
My then BF had a favorite Tshirt that he had bought overseas years ago. That shirt was wearing out, and although he had looked high and low for years, he was never able to find the shirt again. He loved that shirt. I mean LOVED. His birthday was coming up. I used to be a graphic designer, so I easily reproduced that beloved shirt and had a few made up in multiple colors for him, and one for me. Then I found out that he was cheating, and we broke up. I started dating someone soon after.
Being petty af about what happened, I gifted one of those Tshirts I made to my new guy, telling him the story. We took a photo together of both of us wearing the shirts and posted it up on social media. The ex saw the post of us in the shirts and freaked. He contacted me asking me where I found the shirts?
I told them that I had made them for his birthday, so alas...too bad, so sad.....but other than gifting one to my new BF, I had since given all of the rest of them to Goodwill. He was absolutely furious. I thought he might cry. So petty. So worth it.
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79points
#11
Found out my ex was talking to another girl who I knew was a cashier at target. I don’t know if they had met in person but I purposely went to the register she was at. His face turned purple and his voice was cracking the whole time. I wasn’t rude to the girl, I just played it off and was flirty with him. I know she was caught off guard too, so I do feel bad about that. But he was s******g himself. It was so funny. But I say it’s really out of character for me so that’s when I realized, this isn’t healthy and removed myself.
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76points
#12
Left my video game addicted ex, internet bill was in my name so I cancelled it the day I left
75points
#13
Not actually my relationship, but I was too hungover to help very meaningfully when we moved my sister out of her ex husband's house, so I sat on the floor and put all his games, dvds and blu rays in the wrong cases.
Months later my sister discovered that she was now in possession of his favourite game in the DVD box for Titanic, so that was a fun bonus.
Months later my sister discovered that she was now in possession of his favourite game in the DVD box for Titanic, so that was a fun bonus.
75points
#14
He cheated and knocked the woman up. A couple weeks later, I was drunk shopping with a friend and we ran I to his mother and sister. I congratulated them 😂 They asked what for? and I said, "the baby!" His sister was shocked. His mom said thought something was up because he had made some strange comments. When he found out they had heard his news from me, he was livid! Omg, it was great!
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70points
#15
He cheated on me while I was out of town and didn't bother to pick me up from the airport when I returned. I had to get a taxi home where I sat alone in our apartment for hours until he "got done helping this girl with her resume."
When I confronted him, he admitted immediately that he slept with her and he "didn't know which of us he wanted to be with" and asked for a few days to think.
I graciously offered to let him stay in the apartment for that time while I went to a friend's house. I called my parents that night. While he was at work the next day, my mom and I cleared the apartment completely. All of the furniture was mine, pretty much everything was mine actually. We left that apartment empty save for a pile of his s****y gym clothes and his a*****e cat. He walked in from work just after I dumped every picture of us in the kitchen sink.
My mom even took back the pair of nice dress shoes she'd given him for the previous Christmas.
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66points
#16
Found out about a month after we bought a house that my boyfriend of three years posted on a subreddit talking negatively about my body (specifically that I was never his type, asking for tips on how to ask me to get boob implants cuz my boobs were too little apparently, etc). He later doubled down when confronted that he wasn’t really attracted to me due to my skinny-ness. He’d done a bunch of things up to this point but for some reason the Reddit post hurt me the most. I’d never been insecure about my body until then.
So naturally I found someone who actually likes me for me and f****d them in every single room in our house whenever my ex wasn’t there (I’d been looking for my own place in the meantime). When I did finally move out, I reported his illegal marijuana use to his employer (drug use is prohibited when possessing a security clearance). He still has no idea he’s under investigation & will be losing his job soon (which would also mean his house & probably his car cuz he’d been barely making it by since the house got purchased).
I really wanted to take the high road but the audacity of this “man” to waste so many of my good years (met when I was 24, he was 32) made me realize I couldn’t just walk away without some sort of revenge.
Oh and the new guy? Turned out to be literally everything I’ve wanted in a partner and we’re still going strong! NEVER SETTLE, LADIES!!!
64points
#17
He cheated. I called campus cops and let them know he was growing on grounds (he really was). There went the law degree! The same law degree he had me doing all of the homework for him for. 🤷♀️
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58points
#18
I found out my husband had been carrying on with his coworker for years. I had her street address because of Christmas cards. I sent her an anonymous glitter bomb for Christmas that year. He and I are divorcing. I’m sure she knew who it was from, but I never actually heard about it.
56points
#19
Found out my ex cheated on me with the girl he kept telling me not to worry about. I was so mad I intentionally went out of my way to be nice to them, always saying hi and asking how they are. 😂 the girl would walk away so fast and then pick a fight with him afterwards. I was so happy I ruined his day. They broke up shortly after.
55points
#20
He sent his very religious and conservative mom to come pick up his stuff. So I put it all in a bag and neatly placed the two brightly colored sex toys he'd bought me on the top for her to see.
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55points