Revenge might be a dish best served cold, but ProRevenge needs to be seen and felt by a whole bunch of people so they know that absolutely anything is possible. There’s unfairness oozing out from underneath pretty much every rock you look under, so it feels amazing when someone is finally able to get some well-deserved justice.

Redditor u/Three-Nations shared an incredible story about how their friend concocted an elaborate plan of revenge. Having been swindled for $400 by a landscaping firm owner, the man got justice over a year and a half later. He managed to get the conman to court and actually forced him to incur a whopping $15,000 in expenses. Scroll down for the full story, Pandas. It’s a bit of a long read, but it really gets you into the entire mood of how complicated revenge can be. And don’t worry, the good guys win in the end!

Bored Panda got in touch with u/Three-Nations who was kind enough to answer our questions about the story. They had a chat with their friend, the protagonist of the story, and revealed to us how they felt about the Reddit post going viral, why they think some people choose to swindle others, and whether it’s best to move on or to hold onto anger. Scroll down for the full interview.

Sometimes, Karma is a bit busy and needs a helping hand

Image credits: Sami Abdullah (not the actual photo)

An internet user shared how their friend got revenge on the man that conned him in a story that spans years. Here’s what happened

Image credits: Ty (not the actual photo)

A year and a half later, the perfect opportunity for revenge presented itself

Image credits: duke (not the actual photo)

The cherry on top was the swindler’s reaction when he learned that this was all done in revenge for what happened ages ago

Redditor u/Three-Nations had a chat with their friend, whom the story is about, and shared their thoughts with Bored Panda. According to u/Three-Nations, their friend was quite surprised at how popular the post became. They believe that the story resonated with so many people, far and wide, because it’s a tale of opportunistic revenge where patience is key.

“They feel it was ‘opportunist revenge’ because they had almost completely forgotten about the incident, to begin with! It was over two years ago that it happened and COVID hit so they had to move on. My friend admits that for a few days they were seething with anger over it, however, circumstances required them to move on and so they did. $400 was a lot of money to them,” u/Three-Nations told us.

“Whereas other stories of ProRevenge are the person is plotting for weeks/months on end doing long cons, my friend’s revenge started when they were browsing the internet, saw the stuff for sale, and realized it was being sold by the landscaping owner. They’ve admitted that if they didn’t see the generator and knew some of the regulations around it, they just would’ve shrugged and moved on to a different listing.”

Another reason why the post succeeded is likely because the story perfectly illustrated that what goes around really does go around (with accumulated interest, no less). “Granted—it needed a little push, but sometimes that’s what you gotta do and the landscaping owner learned a lesson he sure as heck isn’t going to forget any time soon.”

According to the redditor, their friend doesn’t really care that some people think that the story is “fake or rubbish,” because that’s how the internet works: there will always be someone who doesn’t believe you.

“They just hope that their story brought some joy to people’s day and they don’t want their location to be known as they didn’t want people to start going online and doing what he did to other people who may not know of their obligations. You can call them hypocritical for not wanting people to do what they did—however there is a big difference between doing it to someone who deserved it and someone who doesn’t and there are people who would—upon finding out the location— immediately go online to find a generator to buy to try and get thousands of dollars from a person who doesn’t know their obligations,” u/Three-Nations explained to Bored Panda some of the ethical dilemmas associated with the story and why anonymity was best in this particular case.

In the protagonist’s opinion, it’s opportunistic greed that makes some people decide to con others. Redditor u/Three-Nations said that it’s difficult to feel sympathy when Karma visits someone who deserves it. It’s not the first time that they’ve tasted what injustice has felt like.

“We were students once living together before they moved overseas and we were living on the government allowance, and when our allowance went up, the landlord raised the rent to take 90% of the allowance increase because ‘I can’ and ‘you’re living off the taxpayer AKA me so I’m just getting back what’s rightfully mine’ and threatened us with eviction if we complained any further. That landlord sold the property about a year after we moved out and later we discovered that he got a huge fine for changing the report on the property to hide serious damages caused by a leaky roof that had rotted out the inside of the walls.”

They continued: “He not only had to reimburse the buyer for the house but also had to pay thousands of dollars in fines and damages. More than he had received in rent for the previous 2 years! We know what it’s like to be at the end of it and when you’ve been at the end of it, it’s difficult to feel sympathy when something happens to that person who is being opportunistically greedy. If anything, my friend learned that if you’re going to rip someone off, don’t tell your friends or co-workers. If they didn’t overhear the conversation in the bar, they would’ve never known about being ripped off and they wouldn’t have done what they did.”

The redditor stressed once again that their friend had completely forgotten about having swindled. They’d moved on because they had to. “Holding onto anger isn’t good, however, they saw an opportunity to give someone a taste of their own medicine. They honestly didn’t think that they would get that much money. They thought that the judge would just order the owner to refund them and pay for the cost of repairs or replace it,” the redditor said.

“They were shocked they got that much money and would’ve felt bad for the owner if they hadn’t seen him verbally abusing his staff at work when they went to pick it up and if his attitude prior to going into court was better. They would’ve been more than happy to have avoided court completely and just had the owner pay to have it repaired. They believe that if the owner hadn’t scratched off the ID number, they would’ve just had to pay the cost of repairs and give a refund. The payout is one of the reasons why they sold the generator on the cheap to a good cause. They tried to give it away, but the buyer refused and demanded that they pay something for it. They did it since, after such an action, karma would come back and they hoped that it brought some balance back to their lives so to speak.”

According to u/Three-Nations, the author of the story, some redditors wondered why their friend paid the $400 invoice rather than arguing about it and why they were so afraid of debt collectors. “Their family suffered heavily in the Grand Financial Crisis and not only did their house get foreclosed on but due to their parents losing their jobs they had debt collectors actively harass them and even seize property. My friend basically had a panic attack brought on by the memories and paid it rather than have anything to do with them,” they explained to Bored Panda.

The OP shared some more of their thoughts and details about what happened in the comments

After getting tricked into parting with $400 when selling a water heater, the OP’s friend later realized that he’d been bamboozled while at a bar. This happened completely by accident. Now obviously he wasn’t going to let that go when he learned about it. And the perfect opportunity for some ProRevenge presented itself around a year and a half later.

He saw that the man who had ripped him off was selling a generator online. Here’s the thing: these things need a warrant of fitness (aka a WoF). If you sell it without it, you can get into a lot of trouble. So, still feeling the hurt from being conned, the man decided to give the company owner a taste of his own medicine.

They bought the generator, demanded a WoF, and then reported the guy to the government. It’s oddly satisfying reading how the company owner, the original owner of the generator, squirmed and tried to wriggle his way out of it all. However, he was forced to pay a ton of money for not following the law and not having a WoF. First of all, he had to refund the purchase of the generator ($800), then pay for the repairs ($5,000), and then pay a fine of $10,000 that was given to the ‘affected party.’

The cherry on top was the owner hearing that this was all revenge for the $400 he’d ripped off for the water heater so long ago. The long and short of is that the good guys won, but only by concocting a slow-burn evil plan. Sometimes, that’s what it takes to teach the bad guys a lesson, isn’t it? If only everyone had the patience for this, the world would quickly become a better place.

But all entertainment and jokes aside, it’s not a bad idea to work with your emotions and to let go of all of that resentment and hate.

During an earlier interview, Bored Panda spoke about anger with Suzanne Degges-White, from Northern Illinois University. The Licensed Counselor told us that living in constant anger can have profound negative effects on our bodies. That includes anger at how unjust everything seems.

“Constant anger can lead to metabolic diseases, cardiovascular problems, and digestive issues. For some people, health concerns are the reason that they may learn to let go of anger,” the professor explained to Bored Panda.

“While being angry can lead to social change and begin to topple barriers and other aspects of injustice, we also know that anger isn’t going to be the best choice to build alliances or convince others of the need for change,” she said.

“Finding common ground is essential in making true, collaborative change. This requires us to let go of anger, whether that is finding a way to sublimate it or overcome it, or just put it aside for the time being,” the professor noted that anger has its role, but it shouldn’t be an emotion that we constantly carry it with us in our daily lives.

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