There’s always that one family member you either don’t like or can’t see eye to eye with. Eventually, their problematic behavior reaches a tipping point. In these stories, these relatives had enough and share how they sought revenge. Content has been edited for clarity.
Our Grandparents’ Money
“When I was 3, my grandparents passed away. They set up a savings account in my name. The account was meant to be accessed by me when I was 21. At that point it contained just over 300k. My grandparents left me a letter saying they would like me to share the money fairly with any other ‘Smith-Jones’ children, meaning my full siblings (dad’s a Smith, mum’s a Jones).
By ‘fairly,’ they meant that they wanted me to assess the situation and judge for myself what was fair. I never had full siblings, but I have 2 half brothers, ‘Mack and Joe Smith’, who are dad and stepmum’s kids. Due to the specific wording my grandparents used, I legally never had to give Mack or Joe any money. However, I see Mack and Joe as my brothers, and as the money came from our grandparents, I felt that the fairest thing would be to assign each of us 100k, so we all got an equal sized lump sum, and I figured that when Mack (the youngest) turned 21 and took his 100k, we could split any remaining money.
When I turned 21, dad suggested I buy a house with my 100k. I found a place I loved but it was 130k and I couldn’t get a mortgage, so dad said I should borrow 30k from the account. I did, figuring I could pay it back before my brothers turned 21, and I have been repaying it. The account should be at 208k right now, but due to me withdrawing and then repaying that money it’s at 195k, so I still owe 13k.
Joe turned 21 recently, and as I was giving him his 100k, Joe noticed that there was less in the account than there should be. I explained and said I was going to put it all back before Mack (now 19) turns 21.
Joe told Mack and both boys said I stole from them and owed them the full 13k back plus 3 grand of interest that they felt they would have gotten, and they wanted it all paid by this summer, which gave me less than 6 months to bring the account up to 211k. I said I’d do it, but over 2 years as planned.
The boys then wrote up a contract to that effect. I went to sign it, until I saw that it said 6 months to pay it all back. I wouldn’t sign as we agreed on 2 years. They said I should figure it out as they were entitled to that money and would be seeking legal advice. Later that day I got an email, clearly written by them, saying that they intend to sue me for the 16k, plus whatever is currently in the account, and additional ‘damages’ and ’emotional distress’ on top of that.
At this point in time, I’d given Joe about 50k of his 100k, because he wanted it in instalments. I responded that legally, they were never entitled to any of it, and given their attitudes, I’d say they’ve already received an amount I deem fair, so that 50k was all they were getting. I then got a barrage of texts, calls, and emails yelling at me for going back on our ‘deal.’ I blocked them.
They then took to social media, saying that I was trying to screw them out of their inheritance and rallying our extended family into harassing me over this, and it mostly worked as a lot of people messaged me. However, I got a message from this guy called ‘Chris Smith.’
Chris said he was 27, and claimed to be my half brother. I had never met him before, but he sent me photos of him as a kid with our dad, grandparents, and me. He showed me that he also had an account with 150k in it, and a scan of a letter from our grandparents, saying this money was meant to be shared fairly among dad’s illegitimate children. Chris also told me we have another half sibling, who is 18. He’d been looking for me for a while, but only found me when dad shared Joe’s post which had me tagged.
We checked with a solicitor to make sure, and as the boys are legitimate, they aren’t entitled to anything in Chris’ illegitimate kid fund, and as they are my half siblings, they aren’t entitled to anything in my Smith-Jones kids fund, either.
I sent the boys a letter formally telling them to back off, stop posting about me online, and enjoy the 50k because it’s all they’re getting. The day they received the letter, Chris got a PM from dad, asking if the boys can have some of Chris’ fund. Chris also said no, and told dad we’d met. I told Mack and Joe about Chris and our other half sibling, with Chris’ permission.
So it looks like my grandparents, knowing about Chris before they passed, set up 2 funds. One for the kids dad had with my mother, who was still his wife when they passed, and one for children born out of dad’s affairs, presumably to make sure no one tried to screw anyone else over out of hurt feelings.
I’m getting a lot of shit, but holding firm on my decision. The boys have realised that I won’t back down on this and it sounds like I’ve caused a schism at their house, as Joe has all the money and no intention of sharing so Mack is now feeling twice as screwed, plus stepmum apparently did not know about the other half siblings, or that my half sister was born after she and dad got married, and she’s made dad move into a hotel. It sounds like dad is looking for a long term living arrangement outside of the family home, because it looks like she is not letting him move back in. Dad is begging me to reconsider, but honestly I’m done with all of them except Chris and my sister.”
Evil Stepfather
“When I was 15, my mom started dating a man she met on a dating website. I didn’t like him the first time I met him, but two months later, he moved into the house.
About three weeks after he moved in, he took my skateboards, self-built halfpipe, ramps, BMX bike, ice hockey gear, and many other things to the dump one day while I was at school. He said he did this because he didn’t want all of my stuff cluttering up ‘his’ garage.
One day he decided to take my extensive Pokemon card collection, my extensive comic book collection, my Game Boy, my PS2 with all the assorted games, and my fantasy and sci-fi book collection, and got rid of it all because ’15-year-old boys should be playing football and baseball, not being a nerd playing with Pokemon cards and reading comics and books.’
I would like to add that he was a middle school teacher and in his off-time refereed and umpired local middle and high school sports games.
My mom never intervened, and in fact acquiesced when he demanded that she stop giving me lunch money because ‘the little one will just spend it on comics and other things.’
One day, I took maybe $3 and change out of his change jar so that I could buy a slice of pizza and some fruit punch during lunch at school because I was tired of being hungry. My twin sister was always a bit of an jerk and frequently blackmailed me into doing her chores from a young age. I was fed up and refused to do something, so she told him what I had done. This man actually called the police and pressed a larceny charge against me.
At that point, I ran away. When the cops found me and returned me home, I found out that he had been trying to talk my mom into sending me away to military school or something of that nature. I ran away again, and between having run away several times and the larceny charge, I ended up turning 16 in juvenile detention.
I spent the next couple of years miserable. Once I was out on my own, I didn’t speak to my mom for several years. We eventually reconciled, and by that point, they had married. I was a lot bigger than I had been as a young teenager, so we basically avoided each other for the most part.
My mother found out that she had stage 4 cancer and no longer wanted to waste any of the time she had left with him, so she had a lawyer draft up a separation agreement whereby he would receive a set amount of money upon separation and would have 45 days to retrieve his belongings from the house. He had spent his entire inheritance in six months and then had to sell his mother’s house that he grew up in in order to settle his debts shortly before they started dating, and my mother bought the house back from the bank before they married. She allowed him to keep the house, and he moved back into his mother’s house.
My mother passed away about nine months after their separation, and despite the agreement, had been allowing him to come and get his stuff piecemeal. I put an immediate end to that.
He was past the deadline to remove his personal effects, and they were now legally mine to dispose of as I saw fit.
I sold his baseball card collection (around $14k) and his autographed sports memorabilia (roughly $11k) and also sold all of his woodworking equipment, along with several finished pieces of furniture that he had made ($6,500 I think).
I kept his mother’s engagement ring (platinum band 3 diamonds roughly 2 carats), wedding band, his coin collection (I also collect coins), and some tools and other odds and ends.
Now comes the real fun.
Around a month ago, I finally saw him at the grocery store. As he was leaving, I approached him. I told him I had sold his collections as he was pushing his cart out towards his car. He reacted exactly as I expected. He took a swing at me multiple times. I already had my phone ready to dial 911. Several of these punches missed, and the ones that did connect didn’t have much effect because he’s nowhere near as strong as he was 20 years ago in his forties, and I no longer a skinny little 15-year-old. He continued to try to punch me as I spoke to the 911 operator and was actively ramming his grocery cart into my new Toyota as the police officers pulled into the parking lot.
He was arrested for assault, communicating threats, and destruction of property. As a result, he lost his job (and pension) at the local middle school, and because he had never learned how to save money while married to my somewhat wealthy mother, ended up having to sell his mother’s house because he hired an expensive lawyer thinking he could somehow beat the charges.
My nephew, who was on the football team, made it well known to his friends that he had just been arrested and convicted of assault as well as other charges, but that he had also physically abused me as a child, causing several parents to call for him to resign from refereeing and umpiring for local sports games.
He ended up having to take a job as a cashier at Walmart so that he could afford the rent on his crappy little trailer in an absolutely awful neighborhood.
Even though that Walmart is not the closest Walmart to my house, that is now the only place where I go grocery shopping or to purchase anything that I need. I purposely stand in line longer than I need to just so that he can be the one who has the pleasure of ringing up my purchases.
Every time I go there and step into line, I see him die a little bit inside, and it gives me such satisfaction. Sometimes I’ll say that I’m paying with exact change and as I’m about to hand him the money I’ll say ‘Oh! I didn’t realize I had (rare coin from his collection) in my pocket! I guess I’ll use my credit card.'”
The Favorite Son
“I have a young brother ‘Todd’ who had a complicated birth and had to stay a month in the ICU and because of that my parents have always doted on him and almost denied him nothing, even if it was to the detriment of my sister ‘Abby’ and I. My brother drinks in on the attention and has on more than one occasion made himself the center of attention at either my, my sister’s, or a cousin’s special event.
Because of this Abby and I have a strained relationship with Todd and our parents. Unfortunately, Todd met and fell in love with ‘Lucy’ who announced her own pregnancy at the baby shower my mom held for Abby.
When I proposed to my wife ‘Michelle,’ I just wanted to elope but she really wanted her family to be there so I invited my family out of obligation. While out my best man ‘Jim’ noticed a receipt from a jewelry store slipped out of Todd’s pocket. Jim confronted Todd about this which led to an argument. Jim told me everything and I told Todd that he was no longer going to be a groomsman because I knew he was going to propose at my wedding. Todd cried to our parents and which led to a blow out.
In my parents’ eyes, since Todd never admitted that he was going to propose to Lucy at my wedding I was unfairly judging him. I refused and brought up Todd’s past behavior. My parents couldn’t refute this and got Todd to agree to not try anything at my wedding. This wasn’t enough to convince me to let him be a groomsman but I warned him that if, as a guest, he’d try anything I would make him regret it. Fast forward to the wedding and surprise surprise Todd walked over to Lucy and proposed to her during Michelle’s father-daughter dance and did it in a way so that EVERYONE would notice.
Cue my revenge, Jim and I had hired a woman to pretend to be Todd’s side piece who cornered Todd and Lucy and claimed that she was pregnant with his baby. Todd denied this but when she called his phone, I gave her his number and messed with Todd’s phone to incriminate him, it didn’t look good. Lucy threw the ring back at Todd and left in tears.
When Todd saw the smile on my face he knew that it was me and I didn’t respond to a single call/text from him or my parents until after the honeymoon. Lucy has thrown Todd’s stuff out and has been denying access to their kid. Todd is furious and is demanding that I clear his name. I sent him a text saying that I had no idea what he was talking about as well as a screenshot of a bill for the wedding and gave a vague message demanding reimbursement for half of the wedding costs. Michelle knew the whole time what I was planning and gave me the green light after Todd ruined her moment with her dad, so I felt pretty good but now even Abby thinks I went too far.”