People Describe the Most Insane Adult Temper Tantrum They’ve Ever Witnessed
Being an adult is hard. No one can deny that. And yet, we all get up every day, put on our big-kid pants and deal with the world without having a meltdown every five minutes. For most people, it’s easy to bottle up frustrations. For others, however, it can be a struggle — even when it’s for stupid, trivial or nonexistent reasons.
Can you imagine calling a cashier “evil” for trying to collect money for children’s cancer? Or driving your car through your grandma’s rose bushes because you missed the family Easter egg hunt? While these scenarios may sound too immature for anyone over the age of five, they’re entirely real, and plenty of people have watched these childish meltdowns unfold in person. These rattled-up witnesses took to the internet to share the wildest temper tantrums they’ve ever seen an adult throw!
Request Denied
One time, a lady asked if she could skip me in line. I declined. “Sorry, but I’m on my lunch break and I need to get back.”
She turned to the person behind her and said, “Look at this kid; he won’t let me cut him in line because he thinks he’s more important than I am.”
Right, I’m sure you have places to be, lady.
The “Petty” in Petty Cash Fund
A roommate once cursed me out because I asked him to contribute to the house’s petty cash fund, which was used to purchase dish soap and toilet paper. You know, two bucks a month for the things we all use.
Because he opted out of contributing to the fund, he was therefore asked to make his own arrangements. A few months later, our pipes clogged, and we had to call a plumber. It turned out that the roommate was so angry about being excluded from our sharing system that he chose to tear pages out of a book to use instead of toilet paper. We were in a service corps, so thankfully, we didn’t have to foot the bill.
Kids Will Be Kids
One time, a woman sent her two eight-year-old kids into the pop-up Halloween store I worked at with her debit card so they could buy whatever they wanted. The son, of course, immediately lost it. He called his mom, who came flying into the store literally screaming at the top of her lungs that I must have stolen it because I was both the floor supervisor and cashier at the time. I told her there were cameras pointed at each register and that I hadn’t moved from my station for over half an hour.
She didn’t believe me and called the cops. Because the situation was now an accusation of employee theft, none of the employees were allowed to leave the building. It took the police 20 minutes to show up, way past closing. We were all miserable and just wanted to go home. All I could do was apologize profusely. We couldn’t even stand outside because she was there, waiting directly in front of the doors, staring through the glass at us with unbridled fury.
A single cop finally showed up, and she already looked fed up. She took all our statements, looked over the CCTV, told the woman to deactivate her card and go to the bank in the morning. The woman finally left after threatening me the entire time, and the cop hung out with us for a couple of minutes, just making fun of the whole situation. Real chill lady.
Priorities
I answer 911 calls. One day, there was a fatal car crash, and we had to reroute traffic from the main road down a side road and then back up to the main one. A woman who lived on the side road called 911 asking why there was “commercial traffic” passing through her “residentially-zoned home.”
I explained that there was a serious car accident on the main route, and that as soon as that was resolved, the detour would be removed. She continued to complain, very angrily, that the trucks going by her house were kicking up dust and pebbles onto her driveway. She demanded we send someone to clean it for her. I said no, we don’t do that.
She then demanded to speak to a supervisor. I got all her information before telling her he’d be along to speak to in person after he finished informing the family of the person who died in the car accident that their family member was dead. Then I hung up the phone.
When the sergeant got there, she refused to come to the door.
Don’t Let The Door Hit You Where The Lord Split You!
A longtime parishioner made a scene before the morning service when she spotted a family sitting in her pew. She insisted that the family move or else she’d leave the church “and take her substantial pledge with her.”
To their credit, the family — newcomers to the church — didn’t move, and the woman left in a huff, much like a child having a tantrum.
Touchy Trucker
A truck driver came into the pretty popular truck stop I used to work at. He was buying a bunch of junk food. When he paid for his stuff, he absolutely laid into me because he had to type his PIN into the debit card reader. Apparently, this was the only place that ever made him do that, blah blah blah.
He cussed me out and accused me of trying to steal his card information using the camera above the register. It was ridiculous. He was easily in his 50s. He made me cry. The lady behind him was super nice, though, and hugged me afterward.
Charity? How Dare You!
I worked at a bookstore in high school. Every winter, we had a book drive where we asked customers if they’d like to donate a children’s book as they were checking out. Usually, people say, “No, sorry,” but one guy would not stop going on and on about how if he wanted to buy a book, he’d just keep it, not donate it.
“Okay, you don’t have to donate,” I replied, and told him his total. He just kept circling back to how ridiculous it was that I asked him to donate a $4 book to kids who couldn’t afford them, up until the moment he left. He’s the only person I ever thought was a jerk for not donating.
He’s Won Too Many Times!
My nephew is a gymnast. I was at one of his award ceremonies to watch him receive a metal, and there was a red-faced mother who shouted in reference to my nephew that, “HE’S WON TOO MANY TIMES! HE SHOULD BE KICKED OUT TO GIVE THE OTHER KIDS A CHANCE!” She then went on to scream until she was escorted out by security. I was later told by my nephew that her son came up to him not long after and apologized for his mom’s behavior.
Beggars Can’t Be Choosers
I was buying some food from a street cart — $3.50 for a falafel sandwich. Some guy walks up to me and asks me to buy him a meal. I ask what he wants. He says a chicken over rice ($6.50). I instead just give him some change — 50 cents — because there’s no way I’m going to buy lunch for a stranger that costs more than my own. He’s decently dressed in a camo jacket and sweatpants.
He begins insulting me, saying I can do better than that and how I have money to spare. He was able to get a peek at my wallet when I was pulling out the change and saw I had around 50 dollars. This was my organization’s money, as I was tasked to purchase some silverware for the office. I told him it’s not my obligation to buy him food. He continues to berate me for the low amount I provided. Things get heated, and we start cursing each other out. I finally decided to leave after I received my food, and the guy chose to throw my money on the ground. I ended up picking up my 50 cents and leaving.
I was about 21 at the time, and this guy was probably in his 40s. I guess you can say that both of us got angry over something pretty trivial, but man, this one incident really affected me, and I do not hand out change anymore.
Rat Race
A few years back, I was on a flight to Florida when about halfway through, the oxygen masks deployed. The captain made an announcement that there was a problem with cabin pressure and to expect a few minutes of turbulence while he descended to a safe altitude.
A man sitting in the row in front of me yelled out, “Oh, come ON!” I had been staring at the back of this man’s head through the seat gap for most of the flight because he had a “rat tail,” and I had not seen anyone with that hairstyle since the early ’90s. I was transfixed.
We didn’t end up needing to use the masks, but shortly after, the captain came back on the speaker and said we were going to be landing at the closest major airport to change planes. He told everyone to prepare for landing. At that point, the rat tail dude got SO MAD. He kept ranting and ranting until two flight attendants came over to him. In the next two minutes, the entire plane learned his life story and the reason he was going to Florida. Apparently, his wife had cheated on him, and now he was going to tampa to meet a woman he’d found through a dating website for the first time.
“She’s already angry because she has to get me from the airport and she barely has enough gas to get there. And now, because you people feel like switching planes, she’s going to run out of gas waiting for me in the pickup area!”
The poor flight attendants kept trying to explain to him that the plane had a small leak, so it was crucial we landed as quickly as possible. They kept assuring hin that it would not take long to deplane. During this time, the pilot came on the speaker TWICE telling the flight attendants to take their seats for landing, but dude was so out of control it was risking their safety. He would not stop. At one point, he yelled, “I bet the pilot just has to go number two and doesn’t want to do it on the plane!”
C’mon, Your Kids Are Watching!
A guy was with his kids inside a fast food place at one of those big retail stores. He brought his order back to the counter and told the pregnant cashier that she got his order wrong. His attitude started out calm enough, but anybody who has worked food service could tell he was going to be one of those customers. He explained that he had ordered a different sandwich and started shouting at her.
A manager got involved and told him they would just give him the money back. So he took it, aggressively, of course, and said to his kids in a loud and self-righteous tone, “Come on, kids. Let’s go to a REAL restaurant!”
Wrong Charity
My office wore shirts supporting a prominent national charity during the month of November. We weren’t asking for donations or anything; we were just wearing the shirts. One man started complaining as soon as he saw them, saying that it was ridiculous how much people donated to children’s cancer research when so many more adults have cancer. He continued being loud about it and even started engaging other customers.
The charity on our shirts didn’t raise money for childhood cancer research, but for babies born prematurely.
Shaken
This giant lady at a drugstore was violently shaking the double stroller with her two toddlers in it. She was freaking out about losing a five dollar bill. “WHERES MY FIVE DOLLAR BILL?! OH MY GOD!” A complete meltdown.
I grabbed a five out of my wallet and was like, “Excuse me did you drop this?” Just so she’d stop shaking those poor babies.
Wrong Bookstore
I saw a woman lose her mind because the bookstore chain she was in wouldn’t accept a now closed bookstore chain’s gift card. During the yelling, it became clear that she was aware the other bookstore had closed but believed that this one was obligated to accept the gift card because it was Christmas and it would be unfair if he card was useless.
Millimeter Maniac
I work as a barista at a coffee shop. One day, this dude came up to me asking for a filter coffee with almond milk at exactly 47 degrees. So I did exactly that.
A few seconds later, he lost his cool and complained that his drink was made incorrectly. I asked him what was wrong with it and he said that the drink was one millimeter too high. I was like, what?
He claimed that this had never happened to him before. I tried to calm him down but he insisted I get the manager. My manager came and banned him from entering the store ever again.
Slice and Dice
I used to work in a deli. One time, this lady came up asking for a sandwich with “the cheese sliced thin and stacked on top of each other.” I thought to myself, How else would I stack it? I sliced the cheese and went to hand it to her. She lost her mind because I apparently didn’t stack the cheese right.
She made me reslice the cheese thinner and stagger the slices more, all while berating me and telling me how awful I was at my job. She also claimed to know the owner and said she was going to tell him how bad my attitude was. Luckily, my manager stood up for me. That dumb old lady made me cry first thing in the morning.
No Time for This Nonsense
A couple of days ago, I had to adjust my watch band because my wrist had swollen due to the weather and my arthritis. A woman walked by and stopped to look closely at what I was doing.
Then, from out of nowhere, she started berating me for having my watch band mounted the wrong way. For simplicity, I wear it with the buckle on the lower band. This offended her to the point that she was shrieking and showering me with saliva while turning bright red.
Parental Discord
I was at the book store with my family. My mom saw a toy car my little brother liked, so she broke the door on it, and then asked the cashier if she could get a discount on it since it was broken. The cashier said she wasn’t allowed to give discounts, so my mom called her a stupid fat lady and stormed out of the store.
This is one of the more mild incidents with my mom. Needless to say, I do not talk to her anymore.
Do You Want Her To Have An Allergic Reaction?
A lady complained that her cookie dough topping tasted funny, so my coworker, who had a gluten allergy and couldn’t eat it, said she’d go get someone else to test the cookie dough. In response, the lady flipped out at my coworker, demanding to see the manager.
We didn’t really have one, as it was a small business and the owner wasn’t there, but his wife was, so she stood in. The lady chewed out the owner’s wife, saying that my coworker couldn’t do her job correctly. She seemed to think that it was a HUGE deal that my coworker couldn’t eat gluten and that she shouldn’t be allowed to work there.
One of the perks of being a small business is that you can tell off customers who act that way, and the owner’s wife did exactly that. She called the lady stupid and told her not to come back.
H.E. Double Hockey Sticks
I had a mother stalk me on a university campus when I reported her son for plagiarism on three essays in a row. We’re talking full paragraphs linked by TurnItIn to specific webpages. She finally confronted me after a few days and freaked when I said that I could not discuss the matter with her. She stomped her foot, went into a dramatic monologue in the athletic center foyer about my questionable ethics and my belief in God, and she was yelling about the afterlife when security dragged her out.
Too Much of a Good Thing
My sister got angry at my dad because he surprisingly gave her $100 to enjoy her holidays in Thailand. She had already gone to the bank that day to get money for her trip and now she had too much cash.
Raiding the Pantry
I work at a grocery store. A woman brought in boxes of canned goods and cereal boxes. No receipt. She said that she bought them for a donation but forgot. Just for giggles, I scan an item. It’s not in our system.
I take a look at the cans… The expiration dates had long passed. I explain that we can’t return her goods because they were purchased a long, long, time ago, and even if I wanted to, they aren’t in our system.
She threw a fit. Straight-out screaming about terrible customer service, getting the attention of everyone in the store. My manager came over, and she screamed, “He won’t return my goods!”
My manager told me to just do it. I responded that he should look at the expiration dates. He told the lady, “I’m sorry, but you can’t just clean out your pantry and expect to return expired goods.”
She yelled some more before storming off and leaving all the stuff sitting on the counter. To this day, I don’t understand how a 40-something adult thought they would get away with that.
Ladies First
I had a woman at a fast food place cuss me out, start filming me with her phone and then run in front of my car to get my license plate as I tried to pull away, and all because I didn’t hold the door for her when I walked out of the restaurant.
The Old Switcheroo
I work at a plant nursery, and a customer came in to purchase a specific tree. We only had one of this species at the time, so she selected it and scheduled the service. It was done two weeks later.
She came into the store right after she saw it. She was screaming and crying, absolutely frantic, because she was convinced it was not her tree. No, it was not the wrong type — it was the wrong shape. She swears we gave her a different tree. At no point did we even have another one of those trees in the store.
Bad Egg
My dad got mad one Easter because the family started the Easter egg hunt while he was on a walk with his wife. He got in his car and drove through my grandma’s backyard, running over her rose bushes.
What Goes Around …
I had a legit argument with a customer once over a $10 off coupon while working retail. The coupon was six months expired. I called a floor manager over who said the same thing I did. The customer then started screaming at me, saying I colored the situation and that I was the reason the manager didn’t want to help her. It got so bad that the store manager on duty asked the woman to leave the store. She tried to complain to HQ about it.
Fast forward two years: I was working on getting a different job and had two interviews to work at a local bank branch. Unfortunately, the troublesome customer ended up being the head of a bank, and she was the one who interviewed me. She screamed at me during the interview and said she would not accept my application. Her VP apologized while I explained the situation calmly. I was careful not to blame her as I know the customer is always right. I walked out of the interview, called local HR about the incident and explained what happened. Turns out, that bank rep was fired a few weeks later, as her behavior off duty hurt her professionally.
All this over a $10 coupon that expired six months prior.
Yo Hablo Inglés
I once said, “Hola!” to a regular customer whom I knew was bilingual. Before another word was spoken, this 60-year-old lady pushed him aside and got right in my face, asking to speak to my manager. She then started ranting about how we’re in America and “jobless immigrants should speak English!” She was literally smacking stuff off of the shelves the whole time. It only ended when he asked in the most Midwestern accent ever, “Would you like me to call the police ma’am?”
There was screaming, and she just left all her stuff behind, even her purse, and drove off. I never saw her again. Apparently, her husband came by to grab her purse while apologizing profusely, but I didn’t see that.
Screaming at the Person Who Saved Your Daughter’s Life
A friend of mine got seriously hurt off a 50-foot ski jump while trying to avoid a six-year-old girl who was hanging out in the blind landing. My friend was on the ground crying with a broken leg and ribs, yet the father of this girl had the audacity to stand over him and scream about how he could’ve killed his daughter… The six-year-old was hanging out in a blind spot where professional athletes were training.
The other people in the park quickly surrounded my friend and told him the father that better never see him teaching his daughter how to ski on the landings of massive jumps like that again. They proceeded to escort him and his daughter down the mountain. The idiot almost got his daughter killed, permanently injured my friend and then had the audacity to scream at an injured person who had just hurt themselves to save his daughter’s life.
That’s The Last Time I Try Being Nice…
In college, I tried holding a door open for this girl that was walking in behind me. She was about 15 feet away, but that’s close enough that I don’t mind waiting a few seconds. She goes off on me about how she doesn’t need “some man” to help her, among other similar remarks. She was visibly irate. How dare I hold the door open for her? I simply said, “Ok,” and let go of the door. It’s a security door that shut heavily. She walked right into it, face first.
Name and Life Story, Please
I watched an old man at one of those big warehouse stores lose his mind at customer service. The place was an absolute madhouse at the time — packed to the brim. As I was passing by, I overheard this red-faced old jerk shout, “What kind of service is this?! Your cashier never even asked me how my day was, or my name. Just rang my groceries up.”
Like, how much does your life have to suck to get upset over that? Ridiculous.
Excuse Me, But Your Medical Emergency Is In My Way
An elderly woman got annoyed when I was picking up a patient who’d just had a seizure. She shouted, “I don’t have time for this stupid stuff ruining my day!” and seemed to be pretty angry, all because we were blocking her way to some frozen foods.
Like, sorry we messed up your trip to buy frozen foods, lady, but I’m sure they’ll still be frozen when we leave. This person only needs immediate medical attention right now.
