Man Wishes He’d Thrown Phone In The Gutter Instead Of Returning It To Thankless Owner

New Yorkers sometimes get a reputation for being a little rough around the edges. Although we all know that some of it might just be stereotypes, one man’s story on Reddit seemed to back it up.

While walking through the city, he stumbled upon a lost phone and, being the good Samaritan he is, tracked down the owner to return it. But instead of being thankful, the owner was rude, even complaining that the man should’ve just left the phone where he found it.

Frustrated by the response, the man decided to get a little revenge. Keep reading to find out what he did next.

The man found a lost phone on the streets of New York and went out of his way to track down the owner

Man Wishes He’d Thrown Phone In The Gutter Instead Of Returning It To Thankless Owner

Image credits: Dominyka Proškėnaitė (not the actual image)

Instead of being thankful, the owner rudely complained that he should’ve just left it where it was

Man Wishes He’d Thrown Phone In The Gutter Instead Of Returning It To Thankless Owner

Image credits: friends_stock (not the actual image)

Man Wishes He’d Thrown Phone In The Gutter Instead Of Returning It To Thankless Owner

Image credits: Easy-F

Why are people rude for no apparent reason?

It’s never pleasant to be on the receiving end of someone’s rudeness, especially when you’re trying to help, like the OP in the Reddit story. Curious about what can trigger these outbursts, Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Charlotte Russell, a clinical psychologist and founder of the blog The Travel Psychologist.

While it may seem like some people are harsh without reason, that’s not always the case.

“Sometimes, stress or competing priorities can lead someone to act this way,” Russell told us. “For example, if we’re in a rush and stuck behind someone moving slowly, or if we’re dealing with something difficult in our lives, we might be more irritable than usual.”

Consider all the stories of tempers flaring during the peak of the COVID pandemic, when emotions were running high. In the U.S., for instance, Time reported several shocking incidents from September 2021 alone: a woman in Philadelphia pulled a gun on fast food servers who asked her to order online, several women from Texas assaulted a hostess at a New York City restaurant, and a California woman attacked a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, knocking out some of her teeth.

However, these are not common occurrences. “For a good proportion of people, this kind of behavior is relatively rare,” Russel said.

But for a smaller group, unkindness might be a more consistent trait. “These individuals may have an inflated sense of self or other personality-related issues,” Russell explained. “They tend to be critical of others and lack empathy, often feeling a sense of superiority. They usually know when they can get away with being inconsiderate and when they can’t.”

As for the Reddit post, the motivation behind the New Yorker’s difficult response may remain a mystery.

“What really struck me is the lack of empathy from the phone owner,” Russell noted. “He doesn’t seem to appreciate that the man who found his phone went out of his way to help. Of course, we’re only hearing one side of the story, so it’s hard to make strong conclusions based on a single example.”

Still, Russell added, “The phone owner’s reaction, as described, seems quite extreme. It makes me wonder if this is a pattern of behavior rather than just a one-off incident.”

Man Wishes He’d Thrown Phone In The Gutter Instead Of Returning It To Thankless Owner

Image credits: Liza Summer (not the actual image)

Commenters responded with similar stories—some grateful, some not

Man Wishes He’d Thrown Phone In The Gutter Instead Of Returning It To Thankless Owner

Other users sided with the man, agreeing that he did the right thing

Man Wishes He’d Thrown Phone In The Gutter Instead Of Returning It To Thankless Owner

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Kyiv-born, Vilnius-dwelling writer with a suitcase full of curiosity. My Master's in International Communication fuels my love for exploring different stories. Whether I'm putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), you might catch me out and about with my film camera, cycling around, or on a quest for the perfect coffee spot. Occasionally seen trying to find inner peace on the yoga mat.

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I'm a Visual Editor at Bored Panda, crafting captivating visual content to enhance every reader's experience. Sometimes my mornings are spent diving into juicy dramas, while afternoons are all about adding extra laughs to the world by editing the funniest memes around. My favorite part of the job? Choosing the perfect images to illustrate articles. It's like imagining a story as a movie in my mind and selecting the key shots to tell the story visually.

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How would you react in a situation similar to the man's experience in NYC?

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arthbach 6 days ago

As I was getting off a bus, I spotted a phone on the seat. There had been two elderly women sitting there, one of which I knew. I explain this to the bus driver, and said I'd get the phone back to the owner. It didn't belong to the person I knew, but to her friend. I called the ICE number (In Case of Emergency), and spoke with the woman's daughter. She was so relieved as she'd been trying to phone her Mam for the last hour and thought something awful had happened. Her Mam lived a 5 minute walk from my office, so I dropped it off the following morning. Everyone was so happy to have the phone back, and to know the elderly woman was safe.

24points

ValdaDeDieu 6 days ago

In three cases I've found lost wallets and gone out of my way to return them to their owners; money intact. All were appreciative; in one case I got a reward, though I protested. They weren't hearing me - they were Cuban/Venezuelan people and I think it was a matter of almost superstitious pride that they "paid" me, because that wallet was full of valuable documents and cash. But for me, I simply did it because it's what I would want done for me in Goddess Forbid, the same situation.

4points

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Trillian 6 days ago

At that point I would have dropped the phone off at the nearest police station and made him come get it there.

24points

ValdaDeDieu 6 days ago

I mean, it's a whole lot of drama for nothing. It was nice of him to go out of his way to return it. But from the moment that d******d was rude to him; he should have hung up, blocked his number and dumped the phone into the trash. End of story. All this texting, complaining etc... Means he was expecting appreciation or a reward instead of just doing it because it was the right thing to do - and when he finds out that IN THAT case, it wasn't - just dropping the issue! You can be kind to others, and sometimes the kind thing to do to yourself is to forget them when they're ungrateful to you!

0points

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Cee Cee 6 days ago

I've always had positive responses from people whose lost stuff I found and returned. Will be buying flowers for the woman who found my dog this morning and rang me to say she had him. Bless her she even gave him something to eat - he'd already had breakfast the greedy guts.

10points

Kharyss 6 days ago

I once saw an old lady fall in the park. She was banged up pretty badly so I called her an ambulance and waited with her. They couldn’t take her dog with them so I took it home with me. Little a$$hole peed all over my carpet and didn’t get on with my dog at all. I called the ER and left a message for her with my address and number. At 11pm I got a call from her daughter and I asked when she’d pick him up. She said she’d just had new carpets put in so I should just keep it till her mum came home. When I refused she asked me to drive it to her house because she didn’t have a car. An hour’s round trip later, I didn’t even get a thank you. However she did ask if I’d brought her food for it since she didn’t have any. Luckily I’d already fed him that night but I did wonder if I was doing the right thing leaving him there.

3points

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