Our latest addition to Bored Panda’s list of ‘Most Badass Women’ goes to Melissa Scruggs, a Volcanology Ph.D. candidate at the University of California Santa Barbara. She recently woke up to a giant boulder blocking her car after her neighbors decided to do some drunken driveway landscaping. It was no accident though — the undergrads throwing a house party next-door purposely moved it there to annoy her. However, they forgot one little thing: Melissa literally studies rocks.

Some people take the piss without even thinking about what they’re doing. Well, actions have consequences and if your aim isn’t on point, the piss bounces back. Just saying.

In a classic tale of petty revenge, she used all the (power) tools at her disposal to send a message to those who wronged her. Women in science are probably some of the most ambitious and clever people out there, so you probably shouldn’t mess with them. And who knew being a Volcanologist could be so cool? Yeah, science!

Image credits: VolcanoDoc

“I (and other grad students) have lived in the same building for about 3 years now,” Melissa told Bored Panda. “The current neighbors are 1st or 2nd-year undergraduates, and they moved in across the driveway in July 2018. I was a little concerned at first because they would occasionally throw a big house party from time to time, but they’ve generally been pretty considerate with noise and keeping people out of our yard.”

Image credits: VolcanoDoc

“I never really had any issue until about a week and a half ago. This is actually the second time this has happened. So, the purpose of the rock is so that if you suck at parking, you don’t take down the fence – it’s inconvenient, but I get it. About a week and a half ago, one of the guys decided that it was too inconvenient for him, and he turned it so that it was more on my side of the fence. They wouldn’t answer the door to help me move it back, and it was a few days before I had helped to get it put back. Then on Friday night, they had a really big party. “

“I went over to ask that people stay out of our backyard, and noticed that a car was blocking us in, so I asked that it be moved by 7 am, and left a note. When I woke up, the boulder had been rolled all the way in front of my car.”

Melissa explained why it was necessary to take her petty revenge: “I figured that if I moved it back, they were just going to do it again.”

More info: Twitter

People wanted to know more about the story, and Melissa indulged them

Image credits: IWasLeftBehind

Image credits: VolcanoDoc

Image credits: VolcanoDoc

Image credits: VolcanoDoc

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Image credits: VolcanoDoc

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Image credits: VolcanoDoc

Image credits: VolcanoDoc

Melissa was incredibly surprised that her neighborly spat would get so much attention online. “As I posted on Twitter, I had absolutely no clue that everybody would find this so funny – I just thought a few of my geologist friends would get a chuckle out of it,” she said.

“The Matilija Sandstone (I’m pretty sure that’s what this boulder was) is a reasonably soft rock, comparatively speaking – not very much of a challenge for an auto-chipper in the hands of an igneous petrologist!”

She also wanted to highlight the need for people to stand up for themselves, especially women in science. “I’m hoping that I can use this attention to serve as a role model for anybody (but especially girls) who want to be righteous and awesome scientists and to really engage the public with Earth Science. Geologists are often overlooked but quite important – and, as you can see, we’re pretty freaking awesome as a general rule.”

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