October 26, 2023 at 5:47 am

‘He was very much enjoying single life at the time.’ This Guy Got Epic Revenge On A Bartender Friend By Serving Him With A Fake Paternity Suit

by Matthew Gilligan

Source: Reddit/AITA/Unsplash/@angelokarabo053

Never prank a prankster who is good at pranking those who have pranked them.

Did you get all that?

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that you need to be pretty careful about who you choose to prank because it might come back and bite you in the rear end if you’re not careful.

And one guy got some pretty epic revenge on a friend who decided to play games with him.

His friend was the person to get the whole series of events kicked off…

Friend crank called me at my job, so I had him served with a fake paternity suit at his.

“10 years ago a friend of mine crank called me several times in my office over the course of a day. I decided in that moment that 1) this would not stand and 2) rather than entering into a long, protracted quagmire of a prank war, I would use the nuclear option and end it immediately.

This guy wasn’t playing around! So he decided to up the ante.

My friend “Mike” was a well known local bartender (I worked at the same bar as a bouncer) and he was very much enjoying single life at the time, facts which I knew I could take advantage of.

Soon a plan began to form: I would have him served with a fake paternity suit while he was working at the bar.

So, I compiled a ton of free online legal documents – not just for the “paternity suit” but also income disclosure forms, statements of parental rights, and suggested visitation schedules pending “demonstrable proof of sobriety.” I filled out all the forms, then smeared what looked like date-received stamps as proof they had been filed and ran copies to make those stamps even more illegible.

I’m assuming this guy had a decent amount of time on his hands, because he went pretty in-depth for this prank.

Hey, there’s nothing wrong with going the extra mile!

From there, I crafted a back story to be included in a cover letter from the fictional mother’s fake law firm (The [nearby city] Family Law Center) on letterhead and all. The mother was an Irish exchange student visiting the area the previous summer. She had only been with Mike so she knew the baby (“Eliza”) was his.

The cover letter encouraged Mike to call during regular office hours to discuss arranging a DNA test to affirm paternity (I set up a generic voicemail for the number listed as the office on the letterhead). By the end, the paperwork was somewhere between 20-25 pages.

Check out how this went down, we think you’ll be impressed.

I enlisted another friend not known by Mike to serve the documents and instructed him to do so ‪around 10pm‬ on a ‪Saturday evening‬. I told him to keep the interaction very simple. I wasn’t able to be by the back bar because I knew I would be laughing too hard, but based on eyewitness reports it played out like this.

FRIEND: Are you Mike [last name]?
MIKE: Yes
FRIEND: Michael [middle name, last name]?
MIKE: Yes
FRIEND: [drops folder on bar]
MIKE: What’s that?
FRIEND: Paternity suit. You’ve been served [turns around and immediately walks out of the bar]
MIKE: yeah that sounds about right

It seems like Mike bought this hook, line, and sinker…

Mike read through the packet, shakily poured himself several drinks, and then ran over to the bar owner (who was aware of the prank), to ask what to do.

He also called the number on the letterhead but sadly did not leave a voicemail.

And then came the big reveal!

After a solid 10 minutes of intense psychological revenge, the owner finally told Mike he should closely read the last page of the packet.

On it, in size 2 font it read “Go **** yourself, Mike.”

At which point, Mike ran to the front door and punched me in the chest.

But the story wasn’t over yet! It seemed that Mike inadvertently pranked himself by not getting rid of the evidence.

Rookie mistake, Mike!

EPILOGUE: Several months later, Mike was on a trip across the country. He had left his car at home with his mom who generously had it washed for him. Mike for some reason kept the paternity suit paperwork in his driver’s side door.

During the course of the car wash, his mother found it and read the entire thing then called him sobbing in the middle of the night asking why he hadn’t told her about her Irish granddaughter.”

Here’s what people had to say.

This person was VERY impressed by this story.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Another individual said this provided some much-needed laughs.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Another reader said this was a master revenge story.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This individual said their friend will probably get them back worse now.

Source: Reddit/AITA

And this reader thinks this person needs to write up some instructions for the rest of us!

Source: Reddit/AITA

A good prank goes a long way!

You gotta love it, friends!