Technology
Karen’s Demon Child BREAKS HIS WRIST while STEALING MY PURSE… So she SUES ME
In this episode, a listener recounts a bizarre encounter with a purse-snatching teenager that leads to an unexpected legal battle. After the teen injures himself during the theft, his mother sues the ...
Karen’s Demon Child BREAKS HIS WRIST while STEALING MY PURSE… So she SUES ME
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Interactive Transcript
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Karen's demon child breaks his wrist while stealing my purse. So she soothes me.
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Hi guys, before I start I'm from Germany and the story took place there. Please keep that in mind,
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because A are laws might be slightly different and B English isn't my first language.
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And if I write things in a strange way, that's why. So in the early 2010s I was trying on sneakers
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in a shoe store downtown, with my purse lying next to me on the floor. I'm both blind and deaf
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on my right side, brain surgery gone wrong, but I'm okay considering the circumstances.
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So I didn't even really see the teenager who sneaks up, grabs my purse and starts booking it
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out of the store. If he hadn't started running, I probably wouldn't have noticed that he'd taken
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my bag. Huh. Without really thinking I start after him and since I'm wearing new sneakers from
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the store, a store clerk runs after me. The kid makes it about 200 yards before I catch up to him.
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Now I didn't try to tackle him. I just wanted to grab him and we lost our balance.
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Poor guy tries to catch his or our four with me on top of him. He was maybe 150 pounds and I was
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maybe 185 and there was a sickening crunch. Text book Gallyezy Fracture. I instantly feel horrible
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for the chap and try to see what's wrong. I used to work as an EMT. The clerk from the shoe store
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is standing there staring at us, trying to figure out what just happened. The kid was clutching his arm
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and trying to act tough. He might have even tried to get back up and keep running but there were too
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many people around us now and he changed his mind about that. I asked for an ambulance to be called,
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but it's the police who show up first called by the store. They ask what happened and I explain.
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The store clerk explains as well. A few witnesses chip in and the police ask if I want to press charges
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and I say something like, I think he's been punished enough. And yes, technically since the police
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were already involved, they should have filed charges against him but they followed my wish
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instead for whatever reason. Plus they were happy not to arrest him just then because he needed to
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go to the hospital and have surgery. To arrest him they would have had to follow him to the ER
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and that would have been such a waste of their time. First, forward about a month, in short
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succession I got two letters. One's informing me that the police are looking into a battery charge
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against me and the second is a summons into court and I can't believe my eyes. I've been sued
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by the person at your for quote, damages for pain and suffering. Schmerzengild, they wanted
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something around 8,000 euros for the broken wrist. Luckily I have an awesome lawyer who's also my
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cousin and we appear in court. This was the hearing for the damage claims. The investigation by
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police and prosecutor had already concluded that I hadn't caused the boys injuries on purpose
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and had been suspended. While we wait for the case to be called, the kid sits on a bench,
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his arm in a brace looking a bit sheepish. Next to his lawyer, who's a young guy and henceforth
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will call lawyer one, there stands the boy's mother glaring daggers at me. We get called inside
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and lawyer one starts to elaborate in great detail how I threw myself on top of the kid while he was
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on the ground and so caused his injury, which in turn took surgery to fix. It's hard for me to keep
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quiet but I bite the inside of my cheek and hold my tongue. Once lawyer one is done, my cousin gets
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up and the first thing she does is to inform the judge that the injury was caused during a crime,
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explaining about the purse snatching. The judge pauses, looks at lawyer one and asks if he was
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aware of this. He says, yes, but that shouldn't matter because in their view, I caused the injury
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deliberately and therefore the circumstances shouldn't matter. As long as I wasn't defending my health,
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I had no right to injure a child. He's not completely wrong about that given our laws and I
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even agree with him. Stealing a purse shouldn't give someone permission to do you bodily harm on purpose.
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The judge has two questions, were their witnesses and why were their no charges filed against the
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thief. My cousin produces statements from witnesses, the first police report of the incident,
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and the documentation about the suspended investigation about whether or not I should be charged
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for battery. She also informs the judge that the police had followed my wish in not filing charges
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for the theft and explains that I felt the kid had suffered enough due to his injury.
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This is where the entitled mother makes her first big mistake. She interrupts my cousin before
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she can finish and says something like, obviously she, meaning me, was afraid she'd get into trouble
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for what she did to my poor child and the police did not do their job properly.
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Lawyer one tries to shush her and apologises to the judge, saying his client is clearly an
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emotional distress over her child's injury. Her poor child, by the way, was 17 and is sitting in
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his chair behind Lawyer one and his mother and looks like he's trying to disappear into the floor.
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The judge in an unusual move for a German court asks the kid directly if he thinks that I injured him
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on purpose. The kid sort of shrugs and right there, his mother makes mistake number two.
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That fat cow, or fat cow in German, threw herself onto my poor child while he was lying in the street.
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She should be locked up. Now in Germany you can't just save rude things like fat cow to someone,
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even if they are true, at least the fat part is true about me. And he was specially
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can't say things like that in court. My cousin turns around to me and silently mouths, wow,
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there's even a murmur of reaction from the three or so people sitting in the back of the court.
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Many court proceedings are open to the public in Germany. The judge looks at this lady who's
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again being shushed by Lawyer one, not quite as gently this time, and who is stage whispering,
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well it's true, ish dog vaat. When all is quiet again, the judge waits a few more seconds,
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just glaring at this lady teacher style, and then looks at Lawyer one and asks,
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do you want to proceed with this nonsense? Before Lawyer one can say no, it would have made
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the court cost cheaper I think. The entitled mother says, yeah, the judge nods, shuffles his papers,
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and declares the case dismissed. Order's all costs, court and both lawyers to be paid for by the
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claimant, and then turns to me and asks if I want to file charges for libel. Belidigung,
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my cousin nods enthusiastically at me, so I say, yes, judge announces she'd speed things up and
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asks Lawyer one if he'll be representing the lady. Lawyer one nods, and the entitled mother
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seems to have lost the plot and keeps asking him what's going on. Before Lawyer one can even explain
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to her what's about to happen, the judge makes it official and awards me 150 euros and damages,
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and again decides that all costs and lawyer costs should be carried by the lady. My favourite
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thing about this, my lawyer is my cousin, and she wouldn't have charged me more than absolutely
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necessary. But she's also working in a prestigious law firm with four partners who raked up a combined
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six PhDs, which is not cheap. I don't remember the exact amount this lady ended up getting
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billed with, but it was a good chunk. We all, me, my lawyer, her husband and their two adorable
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little kids, went out to dinner, and the entitled mother paid for it with the money she had to pay
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me in damages. Thanks for reading. Wow, I actually didn't know that libel cases could be
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spontaneously kicked off like this. Whenever we hear about civil cases in the US, the judges
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always seem to be fairly keen to keep the things as short and simple as possible, and I've never
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seen a new set of charges being laid within minutes of another case being dismissed. Kind of
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feels like this was the judges way of punishing the lady for bringing the case in, for hearing
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without disclosing all of the relevant information, as well as for her crappy behaviour in
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name calling and interrupting. They also didn't make the libel too much money, which is a nice touch.
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This was just a slap on the wrist to the lady, and I think we can all agree that the German
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Karen was the mega jerk here. The kid is 17, and just approaching the age where the rule of
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he's just a child doesn't apply anymore, but maybe with this example of what not to do, he'll
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turn out alright. Kind of funny that he just shrugged and didn't even speak up to avoid his mum
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losing the case though. Am I the jerk for telling the stepfather who raised me that he's not my
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dad when he didn't treat me like his son? My mum married my stepdad when I was only one. He had a
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one-year-old son and then they had a daughter a year later together. My stepbrother and I are 16 now
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and our half-sister is 14. Stepfather is the only father figure I've known and I've always called
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him dad. My actual dad isn't in my life. Growing up, I always noticed that he treated me differently.
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He never mistreated me, but he was always more interested in his own children than me.
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In fact, he always showed very little interest in me. I've always felt like a second-class family
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member. My mum treats my stepbrother exactly like me, but my stepfather doesn't do the same for me.
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Anyways, this last couple of years have been difficult because stepfather started doing stuff
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with my siblings, like going on trips, going fishing or hiking, father children bonding moments
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as he calls them. And he's never taken me with them despite me asking to go. Initially, he always
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said maybe next time, until I called him out last week and he took me aside and explained that
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this is for him and his children. I'm not his child like they are. He said he loves me, but it is
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different. He can't dilute the experience by bringing me as well, but he said my mum can spend
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some mother-child moments with me and my sister if she wants to as well, and that it would be good
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for us to have that for only us. This conversation happened on Friday before they went off for a weekend
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trip. My mum told me that this is how he feels. She can't change it, but she's made sure I'm always
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treated equally when it comes to money, which is true, but she can't change the way he feels
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so I need to accept it. I've been thinking all weekend and it was clear to me that when he doesn't
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see me as his son, it's wrong of me to see him as my dad. So I decided that if I'm the stepchild
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he tolerates because of my mum, I'm not going to pretend like we're anything anymore. I decided
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to stop calling him dad and go by his first name. So on Sunday night after they returned, I said,
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hi Tom, he was surprised but didn't say anything. At dinner he asked me what that was all about,
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and I explained that I don't want to dilute the experience he has with his real children
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by calling him dad when clearly I'm not his son. It's something that should be kept for his
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children. I was told to go to my room by my mum. Later she came to me and said that this has
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hurt him and I should apologise. I said I'm just following his lead and treating him exactly
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like how he wants to be treated by his actions. And if he's hurt, then he should look in the mirror
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because that's what he's been doing to me. My mum told me that in the end this is the man who's
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raised me all my life and I need to apologise and show remorse. She says he's 95% of the way to being
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a dad to me. I shouldn't ignore all of that and focus on the missing 5% and reject him entirely.
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I declined. I said he's the one who needs to apologise if he wants things to change between us.
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Am I being the jerk in this situation? Nope, not the jerk and it seems like you adequately and
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clearly explained your point of view in a way that not many people would have been able to
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debate you with with a clean conscience. And although your stepdad is a jerk, I think your
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mum is equally bad for not reinforcing that he needs to equally care for all of the children in
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his household. It might have been a little different if you were older when he met you,
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but you've been raised alongside his son from a young age and clearly looked at him as a
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dad for some time and expressed an interest in that sort of relationship. I don't see how a guardian
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can look at a 15-year relationship of raising two boys as the sole father figure and then deciding
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that he should give special treatment only to the one he was related to by blood. It's such a
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robotic and programmed decision without any of the love or joy that should come for a family member
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of that many years. If you like, am I the jerk? You're probably going to love, am I the genius?
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Check it out linked below. Also go to am I the jerk.com slash submit if you would like to submit your
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own stories. Am I the jerk for interrupting my husband's live stream and going off on him after
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he forgot to feed and change our daughter's diaper? My husband has a YouTube channel with over 14,000
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followers. He's been doing live streaming a lot lately even though I told him that we have
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responsibilities to take care of. Before our daughter, she's seven months old, was born,
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he'd stream randomly and spend a lot of his time with his followers. Answering questions and
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engaging in conversations, he keeps saying that his followers are good for his mental health
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and this engaging with them weekly makes him become better at socialising and communicating.
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He's been complaining about wanting to do a live stream for days. I told him with look at our
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schedule and see if we could get him some time to make it happen. Apparently this wasn't good enough.
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Yesterday I had to go grocery shopping and I asked him to keep an eye on our daughter while she was
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asleep. He said okay. I was gone for four hours but kept calling him to see if everything was okay.
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He'd tell me she was alright and that she was sleeping. I started getting this weird feeling that
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something was wrong because she must have been hungry or needed a diaper change. He argued that
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everything was fine and I immediately went home and when I entered the house I didn't find him.
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I shouted his name but got nothing. I went into the bedroom and saw that my daughter was awake
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and her diaper wasn't changed and worse was that her bottle wasn't even touched. I was confused.
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I got out and noticed that his office door was closed. I figured that he was doing a live streaming
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from the noise that I heard. I was beyond seething. I barged into the office and saw him sitting.
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I blew up while he was trying to turn his mic off and telling me to stop but I didn't stop.
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I berated him for leaving our daughter unattended and with no milk or diaper change.
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He freaked out on me saying I just ended his entire channel and destroyed his fan base for
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interrupting his livestream and embarrassing and scandalized him like that. I told him not to say a
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word but he kept yelling, calling me out of control and unhinged. He was almost crying so I had to
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leave the office. He kept fighting with me until I decided to go stay with my mum. He started
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blaming me for ignoring his needs after he already expressed them and that he forgot to do what I
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asked him and I'd cost him so much. Now he's telling us to come back home because he misses his
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daughter. Okay, game loving nerd who's also a former streamer here. If I ever get back into that
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hobby, have a kid and behave like this guy who will charitably call a gentleman, please,
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for the love of the flying spaghetti monster cancel me. What a garbage dad. If it were an accident
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or a slight oversight like streaming while she was asleep and not realizing for a minute or two
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that the kid needed attention, then that's still negative karma but not total jerkery.
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But this guy was actively answering his wife's messages, lying about monitoring and caring for
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the kid whilst completely ignoring her for what sounds like a several hour period. That is
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neglectful as all heck. He deserves to have his channel trashed and I hope he can use the extra time
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to focus on becoming a better parent. Actually given his tantrum at the end, a better person.
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You have to clock out for a cigarette break. I once worked in a nice bar restaurant hotel in the UK
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and at the time I was a smoker. Also, this establishment had a digital clock in
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clock out system with a credit-sized swipe card assigned to each employee. I was just a simple barman
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pouring pints, running food and clearing up. My direct manager, let's call her Steena, as that was her
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name, was lovely and we got along very well. But above her was a bit of a she-minute or of a manager,
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let's call her Margaret, also her real name. Cue the malicious compliance. Steena and I both
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enjoyed a cigarette break out the back of the car park, but Margaret didn't think we should
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smoke during work hours unless on break. So to combat this, Margaret said we'd have to clock in
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and down for each smoke break. Not a problem. Now something we'd worked out on the clock in and
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clock out device was that it rounded to the nearest 15 minutes, 15, 30, 45 or on the hour.
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So we figured if we clocked out at 11.53 and then clocked back in at 12.07, it would round both
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to 12 midday. We tested this and sure enough on our next pay slip it showed we never took a break.
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So we kept doing this every time and were sure to tell everyone else earning minimum wage working
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crap hours about the same heck. I left a few months later and found out from a friend that Margaret
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had left and shortly after that the new manager changed the clocking in and out system. But I
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thoroughly enjoyed those 14 minute paid cigarette breaks. Okay, lots of people are rising into me
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getting upset thinking I was being smug about taking unpaid breaks. Firstly, I was abiding by the rules
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but the boss wouldn't like it, hence malicious compliance. Secondly, Steena was very fair and let
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non-smokers have a break too. I took this to future roles in the hospitality industry, allowing
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non-smokers a five minute break as well. It was only fair. Yep, classic host boss stuff,
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work out how the clock in and clock out system works, any glitches involved and then take full
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advantage from that point on. I've got to say that in the country I've worked in, 15 minute breaks
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were mandatory and paid, not something that you had to trick the system into accepting, although
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lots of places skip over them anyway. So for me, you two don't really come off as jerks in this
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situation and good on you guys for making sure that the poor non-smokers got their breaks in as well.
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There are groups that often go under looked in the restaurant business,
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to the point where a lot of non-smokers I knew actively took up smoking just to get the extra
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breaks. Sucks that you have to fill your lungs with tar that you aren't even addicted to for a
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I'm piggybacking off the HOA trend going around the internet. The story was relayed to me by one
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of my favourite professors over five years ago. So my apologies if the details are foggy or
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inaccurate. My professor was a very, very private person. The sort of guy who'd hesitate to tell you
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his favourite colour if you hadn't known him long enough. He had recently had an incredibly
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nosy couple move in next door and realised the flimsy four foot fence he had got for the dog
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wouldn't keep out the peeping eyes. So he installed a fence, but instead of using a standard size
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which he knew his neighbours would peer over, he built an eight foot fence. It wasn't even a week
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before the HOA was on his butt threatening every fine they could and claiming that he couldn't
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have a fence over six feet tall. So being a beautiful citizen, he called the fence company to
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uninstall said fence. While a fence was being taken down, he closely examined the HOA handbook
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on the precise definition of a fence. He installed a new six foot fence that fit every single
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regulation, but with a three foot brick wall beneath it. A short update, a lot of people are
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pointing out that they've seen a story like this here before. I acknowledge that faking stories
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for internet fame is a major thing, but I'm relaying the story as I've heard it. I have plenty more
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about this weird guy, granted they don't fit this channel. He used them to illustrate points
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mostly, like one about the horrendous public transport of Galveston, where he literally ran
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through people's yards. I don't know if his stories were true, honestly I bet many of them weren't.
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But he was a real man, and I'd share his name if I felt like that was okay. He served Cuban coffee
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during office hours. We got a random sub towards the end of the semester because he had a triple bypass
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that had told none of us about. Truthfully, I don't know if he's alive even, which was one of the
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reasons I wanted to share this. I have no way of making people believe that I'm telling the truth,
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but honestly, if you look through some of the crazy HOA stories, you'll see that this one
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isn't even that far fetched. What a strange story for us to get here. Although I'll admit,
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this professor seems like that one coworker we've all had who was weird, but in a positive way.
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I'm going to go with my standard answer that's correct in the majority of cases. The HOA are
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the jerks and the burden of proof to say otherwise lies on them. I saw a pretty excellent series of
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comments while perusing this story and I feel like I should share them here. The HOA is somehow
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both the most American and un-American thing I've ever heard of at the same time. The freedom to
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deprive other people of freedom is pretty central to a big chunk of Americans. And we'll leave you
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all on those humorous observations. Thanks for watching.