rSlash - r/Prorevenge Vet Steals Evil Boss's Business

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

0:00 Intro 0:09 Sue me 12:09 Landlord Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to r slash pro revenge where someone learns the lesson don't mess with military veterans Our next reddit post is from forsaken salad. I'm a military veteran who was injured in iraq I mention it only because it's important to the story I worked for this company and I say company but in reality it was a guy who owned a few businesses And he was the richest person in a very small town I joined the military before I even completed high school. Late birthdays and all that. I chose a military career path that I figured I would enjoy,

and since I love working on things, I became a mechanic. The job offered a great sign-on bonus, so that was cool. I went through basic only-ever-spending money on necessity, so I saved up quite a lot. Long story short, when I discharged, I was pretty comfortable, even after a nasty divorce. After a decade of this, I decided to set down roots in a small town since it'd be nice and quiet. By this point, I was tired of always working on other people's cars and wanted to devote time to working on my car.

I bought a small house and saw I helped one at sign at a local lube shop. I figured it'd be simple work for me and something to cover my few expenses. I grab an application from the office, getting all kinds of looks from the townies. By the way, I'm 6'3 and since I discharged from the military, I stopped cutting my hair and shaving, and I had one full sleeve. Needless to say, most people cross the street instead of walking past me. When I went to turn in my application, Sue, the bookkeeper, asked me a couple of questions, and she noticed that I said that I was a veteran on my application.

Later that day, Sue calls me and asks me if I could come back in to meet the owner, Peter. I show up, and Peter's eyes bulge at first sight of me, but we get to chatting, and my southern charm wins him over. He tossed me a calendar that he had made of his car collection and asked me to name the ones that I recognized. He was impressed that I knew so much, and we chatted cars for a bit. He offered me the position and explained that I'd be paid $100 per day and I would work Monday through Saturday 8-6, no overtime.

But I'd get a full day's pay even if we closed shop early for some reason, and I should eat whenever I could. I'd be off every Sunday, and I'd get one extra day during the week. It was an awesome start, and I work maybe a year with no issues. Peter asks me if I could help him out by being a relief worker for his other Lube shops in neighboring towns. He says he'll give me 20 bucks every day for travel, and basically I'd be covering so guys could take days off at the other stores. I agreed and did this for about a year. Then disaster strikes. Peter meets Karen

and falls madly in love. In the span of a month, they're married and he starts supporting her and her gambling problem. This is when all the problems start. One week, I notice my paycheck was only $250 and I ask about it. Bookkeeper Sue tells me that apparently there have been some changes and I should really speak to Peter about it. Sure, no problem. I call up Peter and ask if we can talk about some things. He shows up with Karen in tow and when I asked why my pay was short, he tells me it was because of the bad weather and us closing early affected the business.

I would have let it go at that because Peter was a nice guy. But Karen decided to speak. It isn't very fair to us to have to pay you for a full day if you don't work the full ten hours. I said that would be true if I wasn't on a negotiated day rate, and if I get paid for each day instead of working hourly, that's why I don't get paid 19 hours of overtime each week. Karen claims that's not how it works anymore from now on.

I'd be paid for the hours I worked and nothing else. Okay, whatever you say, Karen. Fast forward to the next week. We had a week's worth of very busy days where we were open a couple of hours later than normal to finish up with waiting customers. Also, I gave up one of my days off to cover for a sick coworker. So when what should have easily been over an $800 paycheck was only $600, I had some questions. I called Peter and asked him what was going on and why I only got paid $600. And he says, well, that's what we agreed

on $100 a day. I look at him blankly and ask if he forgot about last week and he just says, it is what it is. Okay, so at this point, I'm aggravated. And that's when Karen walks up and asks, so what is OP complaining about now? I look at her coldly and say, well, I worked 80 hours last week and y'all only paid me $600. She looks at me and says, you're contracted labor and you agreed to $100 per day. So why would we pay you more than that? I look at Peter and ask is this how it is? And he just said, you heard the lady. I went home and convinced myself that I was only working to cover my few living expenses anyway. The job isn't that hard. The only other things I could do in this small town would have been assembling sheds or slinging chickens at a

chicken plant. The next week, one of the guys I work with is getting yelled at in front of customers by Karen about what she claims is an OSHA violation. She claims that as part owner of the company, it's her responsibility to ensure that all OSHA regulations are met, and his apparent violation was him wearing tinted safety glasses. Somehow, I attracted Karen's attention and she said, You got something to say, you B-word? And I just kept walking. I told Sue that she needed to have a long talk with Peter before Karen's mouth wrote checks that he would have to cash, and she said,

I just keep the books, don't involve me. So this behavior goes on another year, and finally I'm at my limit. On the day that I started my malicious compliance, I was in a very bad mood. I had woken up to news that a good friend of mine who was responsible for me bad mood. I had woken up to news that a good friend of mine who was responsible for me surviving being blown up in Iraq was taken out by a drunk driver. Not wanting to deal with anyone, I tell the shop that I'll be working pit all day and to just let me be. These guys have been working with me a few years and know something is up. Peter and Karen shows up and she storms into the pit and screams, Peter come look at this mess. I have no idea what she's talking about

because I always kept the pit spotless and would clean as I worked. And a lot of others would also clean at the end of the day. Peter looks around and talks to me like he's talking to a teenager. Clean up this pigsty. I shake my head and say, today is not the day, Peter.

Move on and take her with you. This apparently infuriated Karen, who of course thought that it was the utmost disrespect of her and Peter, and he tells me if I don't like it, I'm free to leave. So I left. The next day, Peter calls me and asks me to swing by the main store on my way home. I think he's going to apologize about the day before, figured out one of the other guys might have told him why I was so on edge. No, that was not what it was about. Peter was calling me to inform me that for the next six

months I would be on a probation period for my actions, and for these six months I would only be paid $50 a day, and I wouldn't receive the normal $20 a day that I receive for driving to the other shops. I ask if he's serious about this, and if he has seriously considered what he was doing. This is when Peter let his true color shine. He tells me I'm lucky I wasn't fired for my constant disrespect towards him and the co-owner Karen. How, if he didn't pity me for being a struggled disabled veteran, he would have fired me a long time ago.

Something inside of me snapped, and I just started laughing. He asked me what I thought was so funny and I stood to my full height, stepped on him like a drill sergeant about to give him wall to wall counseling and say, you should reconsider your life choices and who you choose to go to business with. Peter then says, what are you going to do, sue me or something? Go ahead if you think you can afford to with what you get from the VA, like a thousand dollars a month. I know how bad you need this job. That wasn't my plan originally, but it kicked in my malicious compliance and I'll always

be a soldier who goes to war. That day I called a labor lawyer, paid the $3,000 retainer, and started my lawsuit for an unsafe work environment, unpaid overtime, and minimum wage violations. All the while, I was continuing to work for him. It was glorious, but still not enough. It took all six months of my probation for the lawyer to get the paperwork together and file. After everything was ready, my lawyer filed the paperwork and Peter and Karen were served at the main store while I was working.

When they read that I was suing them, Karen and Peter flipped. Peter shouts, I should kick your butt, you ungrateful piece of garbage. And Karen screams, you're effing fired, you pussy. I bet you weren't even really in the military. The process server recorded everything and gave it to my lawyer, who added to the lawsuit unlawful termination because it's illegal to fire an employee because they're suing you. The next day, I opened up my own lube shop car wash combo and started recruiting my former co-workers at higher pay plus commission. They also wanted to jump in on the lawsuit,

and my lawyer was more than happy to add them to it. So two years down the road after subpoenas to get security footage from the shops, the books going back five years, and sworn testimonies, we go to a meditation to settle. They offered a measly 50k to split between the 15 of us on the lawsuit, when that didn't even cover the unpaid overtime. We declined, and our Apache came in to save the day. us on the lawsuit, when that didn't even cover the unpaid overtime. We declined, and our Apache came in to save the day. We got the company's tax documents, sent in by the IRS. Peter held each lube shop as its own individual LLC, each with its own tax ID and employment

records. Peter and Karen thought that it would be a smart move to file for a tax credit for employing a veteran at each of the six shops. In their filing, they claimed that they employed a veteran. Me, as a full-time employee working a minimum 36 hours a week at 12 bucks an hour. At the next mediation, my lawyer presented the reports to their lawyer and the mediator. And after a quick 20 minute discussion, Peter and Karen came back and agreed to settle at our request of $400,000 in unpaid overtime to be split between all 15 of us. Plus a personal settlement for the unlawful termination suit of $20k for each shop that I was listed as an employee at, as well as unpaid wages for the 6 months

that I was only paid, five bucks an hour. Their only demand was that we all agree to a gag order so that nothing would leave the mediator's table. Of course we signed and we took our paychecks. But somehow, their tax paperwork made its way to just the right person at the IRS, and they decided to audit Peter and Karen. And an investigation was opened on them for tax fraud. I sold my shop to the employees that came over. They used their settlement money to

pay me $8,000 each and I sold it to them and washed my hands of it. I put my house up for sale and moved away. Eight months later, I came back to handle some chores. When I met Sue, she couldn't speak fast enough to tell me what had all happened and it was perfect. What I thought was an Apache turned out to be an atom bomb. Peter filed bankruptcy to try to not go broke after making a plea deal for probation for tax fraud and paying a ton in unpaid taxes. Karen took off with some dude that she met at a casino.

I asked Sue if she knew who reported the fraudulent tax paperwork to the IRS and what happened with Peter's car collection. Sue told me, I have no idea, but why don't you check the parking behind the realtor's office before leaving? On my way out, I took a peek behind the realtor's office to see a safety green SB1 sitting there. Peter's old pride and joy. Apparently, Peter started selling off his cars early and cheap, hoping he'd be able to buy them back after filing bankruptcy. To this day, I have no idea who, if anyone, actually turned in the tax paperwork to the IRS. My personal theory is that whoever was tasked with compiling it all with their claims noticed something strange and reported it. However it happened, it couldn't have happened to anyone more deserving.

Our next Reddit post is from TheVaneja. We'll start off by noting that I spent about two decades working in security. During that time, I worked many different types of security in many different locations. The one that matters for this story was time spent in the rental housing tribunal in a major city, as a kind of bailiff. For those not knowing what that is, think a courtroom like you'd see on TV but with less formality and an adjudicator instead of a judge. They functionally are the same thing to landlords and tenants, but they definitely aren't the

same thing. This place exclusively deals with landlord and tenant disputes. For two years, I worked at the rental housing tribunal. It was early in my time in security, and I was 18 to 20 years old. Being as it was a major city, the sheer number of cases I sat through was beyond my ability to count. I saw everything there was to see. No one was capable of surprising me with the story, because I've seen them all.

One side duty of mine was to ensure that all parties had copies of all evidence being presented. I did a lot of photocopying and always read and inspected everything I copied to ensure that nothing got cut off are made illegible. Skip forward almost a decade. I left the city and I'm in a fairly large town in the same province which has the same tenant loss. I have a few roommates in a decently sized townhouse. We get along well. But there's a problem. Only I can write checks among the roommates, and our paydays don't line up.

So I'm the one who pays the rent, and I usually can't do it on the first because roommates don't usually all pay in time. We advise the landlord that we might be a day or two late, but we'll always have it by the third at the latest. The landlord has no problem with it at all. I spoke to them myself. For about a year, this works fine. No complaints from the landlord, because even if we're often a day or two late, we always pay. We're also fairly quiet and don't damage the property. Nearly model tenants. I don't actually have any idea why, but one day, this changed.

I suspect a different person in the rental company started overseeing this region. One day, suddenly, we get a summons to the rental housing tribunal on the second of the month for failure to pay rent. This doesn't actually lead to a case because we paid the same day. But now we have to pay the application fee the landlord paid in order to serve the summons. I complained to the neighbor, who was also the superintendent, and eventually heard back that their contact at the company was now demanding first-of-the-month payments, no exceptions.

Well, that really didn't work for us, so we probably had to pay that fee 15 to 20 times over the next two years. I could have gone to tribunal over it, but we were technically without a leg to stand on and I knew it. Maybe if I won enough times I could ding them for harassment, but I don't have time for that and my roommates didn't care. After being split between us, the fee wasn't enough of a deterrent to change our behavior, so we accepted it.

If this was the only issue, there wouldn't be much of a story though. At the same time the rent leeway vanished, so did mandatory maintenance. We suffered through it. We were all working too many hours at terrible pay to be able to actually do anything about it. We adapted. But after two years, it broke. Everyone but me up and moved out for various reasons within a four-month period. I had been saving up quite a while, and I was able to quit my job without having to immediately get another, so I suddenly had a lot of time. I didn't want to stay and pay the rent by myself or have to find roommates I could live with, and with my experience at the tribunal, I knew I had the landlord by the balls.

So, I went after them the landlord by the balls. So I went after them. I stopped paying rent. Annoyingly, I didn't get a summons on the first month, but I did on the second. So I went. With a meticulously documented plethora of evidence of failure to maintain the property and entering the property without formal notice. I had a copy for the landlord and a copy for the adjudicator. I knew from experience that technically you're a copy for the adjudicator. I knew

from experience that technically you're supposed to give the other party the evidence before the tribunal, but I also knew about the leeway that the adjudicator gives to those who represent themselves. So I didn't give the landlord the evidence until our case came up. It was 100% a total ambush. They argued they were ambushed, but the adjudicator just dismissed the case, dressed me down a little, and told me to file my own summons as I should have done. This was the petty revenge part of my revenge. The landlord and lawyer drove three hours to get there for nothing. Worse than nothing.

I filed my own summons, and the big day shows up. It's been about four months of me NOT paying rent at this point. I'm prepared to pay rent if I lose, but I don't think I'm gonna lose. The whole thing could not have gone better. I had 20-30 pages of evidence and 20 odd photographs. They had nothing. They had no actual defense for our water heater being out for 6 months, or us not having a fridge for a year, or us not having a fridge

for a year, just to mention two severe issues. Their entire defense rested on us being late for rent, which actually worked against them once that led to the adjudicator learning how many times we'd paid the application fee and all their lies that had no evidence to support them. They even talked over me a few times, and I saw in the adjudicator's eyes the one time I opened my mouth to protest during their turn to speak. But I forced myself to shut up with every gram of willpower I had, so only a squeak came out. The adjudicator respected me. He had no respect for the landlords. I'd won on every possible front. The only question was, how much?

It was more than I'd ever seen. I got 9 months of free rent, and the landlord was ordered to have everything fixed before the next month or I'd get more. I gave notice I was leaving at the end of the 8th month, and I left at the end of the 9th. Because the landlord had never renewed the lease, I didn't have to give him the three month notice the lease specified. So basically, I got a 13,000 judgment in my favor. Adjusted for inflation and rounded. I also made the landlord and lawyer drive three hours. Twice, only to lose. The landlord's face was so red at the end that I thought he'd have a heart attack. He didn't though.

Bye Mark! OP, it's awesome you got your revenge, but I can't imagine living without a fridge or a heater for nine months. You must have been really motivated to catch a deal. That was r slash pro revenge, and if you like this content, be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.