It all started with a lost wallet and a Good Samaritan.
But the story did not end well.
The good samaritan was curious if others had similar stories, and the comments on AskReddit proved that s/he was not alone.
Now, here’s that OG post and 15 of the other best stories of good deeds that did not go unpunished:
1. The OG Wallet Story
My friends and I found a woman’s wallet on the sidewalk in downtown Athens, Georgia. The driver’s license had a name and DOB, and she had a University of Georgia student card. We looked her up in the UGA directory and called her to return the wallet. She was grateful and we felt like heroes. Well, guess what?
She showed up to meet us with her “tough guy” boyfriend, who smelled like a brewery, and accused us of stealing it. They tried to “interrogate” us for 5 minutes straight, as we attempted to hand them the wallet and leave. It was so bizarre. We were baffled. We’re six well-dressed UGA alumni and students, 2 females, 4 males, some in their 30’s, working professionals – who had driven to meet her voluntarily to return the wallet. And she thought we were the thieves?! It was unreal. They claimed $500 dollars was missing from the wallet. Our immediate response, “You carry 500 dollars around, in your wallet?”
The boyfriend became irate, and screamed, “Ya’ll ain’t goin’ nowhere til I find out which one of you fuckin fags took it!!” (Exact quote) Again, there were 6 of us there and 1 of him. Needless to say we weren’t intimidated. The girlfriend looked scared. I diffused the situation, separated everyone, and got the hell out of there.
2. Worst $200 Ever
I found a dog (pit bull) wandering in my neighborhood along a busy street. I hopped out of my car and put my dog’s spare collar on him to keep him from being hit. I walked to all the nearby houses and knocked on the doors asking if anybody belongs to the dog or if they knew who did. After about 10 houses I gave up and took him home. That afternoon I made “found dog” fliers (without the dog’s picture), about 100 in all and put the up around the area. In front of my house I put a big one so people would know that this was the place. After a few days I had pretty much resigned myself to keeping the guy when I got a phone call. The lady gave a perfect description of the dog and I told her she could swing by and pick him up.
About an hour later she shows up, with the cops. She gets out of her car and greets me with “Are you the asshole that stole my dog?!?” I was of course taken aback. I stood there with a slack jaw not knowing what to say. “I asked you a question! Did you steal my dog?!” “What? NO! I found a dog and tried to find his home!” “You stole him and I have witnesses!” she then tried to get the officer to arrest me. It only took a few moments for the officer to realize she was crazy. “So he stole your dog, asked all your neighbors who the dog belonged to, put up signs saying he had the dog and then invited you over to take the dog back? Either he’s the worst criminal in the world or you don’t understand the definition of ‘stole’ ma’m.” She then claimed I stole the dog for the reward money. The officer said he didn’t see an offer for a reward nor did I ask for one. “But just out of curiosity, how much reward money were you going to offer?” asked the officer “$200! That’s what he wants, that’s why he took the dog!” “Well, we have no evidence of him stealing the dog but it seems to me that he’s earned the reward money.” Worst $200 I ever earned.
3. Poor Terry
Caution, this one is sad.
My uncle’s best-friend is a man named Terry. Terry was a large man, and quite the bruiser. In the mid 90’s Terry was at a local dive bar, when he hears a man screaming at a woman. He really rips into spewing obscenities loudly across the bar. Terry steps in, tells the guy to keep in down, or take it home, nobody wants to hear their problems. The girl runs off to the bathroom crying, and the man apologizes to Terry telling him “Sorry man, I just found out she cheated on me”. The guy promises to keep it down, and Terry walks away. When the girl comes back from the bathroom the yelling resumes, and the guy hauls off and hits her. The girl runs off and Terry comes charging over to give the man an ultimatum. Terry offers to kick the shit out of the guy, or let him walk out on his own. The guy chooses the latter. A couple minutes pass and the bar phone rings, a call for Terry. Terry picks up the phone and almost instantly drops to the floor in agony. The man went across the street to a pay phone, called the bar, asked for Terry, then snuck back in and stabbed in 3 times in the back, making him a paraplegic. The guy took off running but was caught a month or so later in florida, the girl was still there to identify him. Terry is, and always will be in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. All for standing up for a girl who was getting beat up by her boyfriend.
4. Another Wallet Story
I found a wallet outside on a patio by the smokers area at a bar one time. So, as a smoker, I just hung out outside and asked everyone that came back out if they lost their wallet. One girl was like “OMG I DID!?” I asked her to describe it, she did, and I pulled it out and she was like “YOU!? YOU TOOK MY FUCKING WALLET?” I said “no, it was sitting on that bench right there, figured it was better if I try to find the owner than just let it sit there on a busy Friday night”. She said “I have every right to call the cops!!!!”.
I just said “Wow, try to do a nice thing for someone…” and threw her wallet into the parking lot and went back inside the bar.
5. Beatings
Stop a man beating a woman at a bar. Instead the woman started to hit me along with the guy. Then at the end the man beat the woman again saying he didn’t need her help.
6. LOL
In line at 7-11 behind an elderly woman. She pays for her things and leaves. There’s a banana sitting on the counter. Cashier looks up and calls out “Miss, your banana,” but she doesn’t hear.
I bolt after her and catch up quickly, “Hey I think you left your banana inside.”
She turns to me and glares. “I didn’t want the banana you little shit,” and continues walking away.
7. Good/Punishment/Reward
Found a cell phone in the middle of the street. Nobody was around so I figured I should check the contacts to find out who owns. Figured “home” was a safe bet. I call and start talking after they pick up, only to be torn apart by the owner’s mom, who thinks that I’ve stolen it (apparently the phone was lost the day before and they were looking) Anyways, the dude who owned it gave me 30$ for returning it and 10$ for “dealing with his mom”. So, my good deed was punished but I got a reward for being punished?
8. Charity Case
I live in an area with fairly low-priced rentals, so it’s full of college kids and people who are of lower incomes. I was at the corner store and the family in front of me had a case of beer, a 12-pack of Coke, a few packs of cigarettes, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and some milk. Their debit card got denied, so they took out the milk. Got denied again, took out the chicken. Got denied again, took out the mac’n’cheese. Finally got approved, so they were going home with beer, Coke, and cigs. Their two kids, maybe 4 and 6, asked what they were having for dinner if they didn’t have the chicken nuggets. The mom’s response was, “You can drink Coke, it’s got calories.” The younger kid started crying for the chicken nuggets. The mom grabbed her by the arm and told her she wasn’t getting any dinner.
I bought their chicken nuggets and ran after them. I tried to give them the box, and the mom started screaming at me, “do we look like a fucking charity case, I can raise my own fucking kids, you don’t know what it’s like being a mom” and tons of other bullshit. I was like, “Just take the goddamn chicken, your kids are hungry.” The woman hit the box out of my hands and she and her man grabbed the kids and stormed away.
9. Pony-tale
I’m a female education major and I work part-time at a retail store in the mall. A little boy of about 3 left his mother and was running into the crowded food court… and it was Black Friday in my low-income area, so there were a LOT of fucking people.
I yelled for his mom but she was in the dressing room, so I ran out and grabbed him before he could get lost in the crowd of people. When I walked back in the store the woman charged at me (as I explained that he had run out of the store, there was no way she didn’t know what I was doing), took the kid out of my hands, grabbed my ponytail, got in my face, and screamed at me for touching her son. Then she went into a rant about how white people need to stop trying to save black babies and that the white man didn’t know what was best for black kids. Her speech was strewn with profanity and she was yanking my hair the whole time.
My boss called security but was otherwise useless, and not a single customer did anything. I didn’t fight back because she had a child in her arms, she was larger, and people in the area have been known to carry knives.
Anyway, a security guard showed up. She was later arrested and faced assault charges.
10. Macbook Whoa!
I was at a bar in Boston and noticed there was a backpack under my table. I open it to find a new Macbook pro and a few architecture books with a Northeastern college sticker on it. I went through the items looking for a name or some sort of way to identify the owner but found nothing. I really didn’t want to give this to the bouncer because i knew it would probably “disappear”.. but after about 30 I turned it into the bartender who put it behind the bar.
Fast forward an hour later and this girl comes through the door walks over to where i was and starts looking all around.. just keeps saying “where is my backpack” over and over.. I say Hey, i just gave it to the bartender. Saying nothing she PUSHES my girlfriend out of the way and rushes to the bar demanding her backpack. Bartender turns it over then she opens it to inspect the contents. When she realizes it’s all there she just turns and walk out. No thank you.. Nothing…
TL;DR I could be typing this on a new Macbook Pro
11. “That SOB!”
House was a complete mess. I recently started hitting the gym in the mornings because I’m carrying around 20 extra pounds of love. I decided I would skip the gym for a change and tidy up. I spent all morning cleaning out the fridge, mopping, cleaning up the closet… the whole nine yards. When my husband came home in the evening he was very happy. We both work full time jobs so it leaves little time to cleaning. Then he asked me how the gym went. I told him obviously enough I did not go. How else would I have cleaned and cooked the dinner I just cooked from scratch. He looked at me with disgust and asked me if I had looked in a mirror lately and if I knew how fat I was. That SOB ! I left the house that night.
I would never let my daughter see anyone disrespect me like that. She will learn to be treated right. I’m sorry she had to hear that.
12. “Some Thug”
I was on the bus and noticed some guy on his blackberry, dozed off for a few minutes and woke up and noticed the guy left his phone on the bus. I picked it up and tried to find a number in it i could call to let him know i had it. Checked his facebook and saw he updated his status from home saying some thug on the bus robbed him he also said how horrible people are in Los Angeles, how it’s a city filled with thieves and shit. I updated his status correcting him, and letting him know i had it and i that i could sent it to him. He emailed me his address and i mailed it to him…. he didn’t even send a thank you email back, guy was a prick.
13. Target
I went shopping for a Halloween party with two friends from work. At the grocery store, one of the girls lost her wallet. We tore my car apart looking for it, went back in the store and looked everywhere. We never found it. Two days later I was back on that side of town and I decided to go in and check for it in lost and found. We all lived pretty far from that store, and she had no means of transportation. Someone had found it!! So they let me take it to return to her. Well, she wasn’t too excited when I showed up at work with it. She was acting weird. I guess she and the other friend decided I was playing her the whole time. Like I was hiding it so I could be the hero and return it to her.
Lesson learned.
I’m a girl, we all worked at Target together. She was 19. I was 30.
14. Plutonium
Used to work for Walmart, not once did a good deed go unpunished. If ever I found a wallet/purse i would carry it by the corner at arms length, and open it looking for an ID while under a camera (still keeping it at arm’s length). That way when they accused me of stealing (which I never would) there was plenty of video coverage to protect me. Same with cellphones, I would look for a contact Mom or Dad first (if I couldn’t find one I would check recent calls), but I would always handle the thing like Plutonium.
15. “Davy Jones’ Locker”
I managed a pool for ten years. It had a “zero-depth” area, where the water gets gradually deeper, like a beach. This was also the area with all the kiddie toys. Parents would send their toddlers out there on their own, while they chatted, read, sunbathed, etc. The thing was like a succubus for toddlers and three or four of them would go under daily, resulting in my guards or me going in and saving the lives of these children, lest they see Davy Jones’ Locker. The parents basically thought we were babysitters and didn’t give a damn about their children while they were swimming.
At least once a week, I would have to deal with some parent flipping out about how their kid was fine and we had no right to touch them. Threats were made about cops and lawyers. Luckily we always had a patrolman on duty at our pool. He would laugh in their faces and threaten to arrest them for neglect, which usually shut them up. Once, one of my 98 pound female lifeguards saved two kids at the same time. Her reward, a smack across the face from an irate mother. I’ve never seen a cop react so fast. I miss that job.
16. “I fucking love dolphins.”
Once, when I was eight or so, I was at an aquarium where they were hosting a dolphin show. The trainers tossed a bunch of beach balls into the audience, and the kids that managed to snag a ball from the ground could go up on stage and touch the dolphins and shit.
I managed to grab one of the balls, but there was this younger kid who also wanted it, so, being Good Girl Galbinus, I gave it to her. I didn’t realize it was the last ball on the ground. To this day I am still mad at myself for doing that nice thing for the little girl, because I fucking love dolphins.
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