We all look for patterns in how people treat us, and if we find one, we have to wonder: is it me, or them?

This man asked the internet if he’s in the wrong for using a self-printed cart unlocker after being harshly called out for it by a stranger.

Apparently, he’s a con artist.

Was it his fault this time, or maybe something else?

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for using a self-printed cart unlocker?

This past weekend, I went grocery shopping at Aldi (US), where you need to insert a quarter to get a shopping cart.

Since I kept forgetting quarters, I eventually 3D-printed a little keychain-sized unlocker.

It works the same way a real quarter would work.

You insert it, the cart unlocks, and you can remove it again.

As I approached the carts, an older man offered me his.

I thanked him but told him I didn’t have a quarter to give him in return.

He looked confused and asked how I planned to get a cart without a coin.

So I showed him my unlocker tool and briefly explained how it works.

He felt like it was cheating.

He immediately got angry and accused me of stealing. He called me a con artist and clearly saw what I was doing as morally wrong.

I stayed calm and tried to understand where exactly he saw harm being done.

Like, who’s actually losing out?

He tried to understand how it could be seen as cheating.

To be fair, I admit there could be an edge case: After checkout, there’s often a cart near the cashier where groceries are loaded into.

If that cart has a quarter in it, and I walk off with it (replacing it with my empty one), someone else might end up not getting their quarter back.

When I’m done shopping, I never lock my cart back in. I just leave it with a quarter (or without) in it for the next person who might have forgotten one.

I don’t take anyone else’s coin and I don’t profit from this.

It’s not about scamming the system.

But things escalated.

Back to the man. He was really upset.

I tried to talk to him and figure out why this bothered him so deeply, but he didn’t want to engage.

I told him, “I’m really sorry this upset you,” and he yelled back, “You’re not sorry!”

Are they married?

Here’s the thing: in my life, I’ve had maybe half a dozen interactions like this.

They always follow the same pattern: starts off normal, then suddenly turns into a surprisingly intense judgment, and I spend days afterward feeling rattled, trying to figure out what went wrong.

This time, I’m trying something different by actually talking about it and asking others for perspective.

AITA?

Maybe it happens because he keeps apologizing without having done anything wrong.

Let’s see how Reddit feels about this.

A reader shares some thoughts.

Case dismissed.

Not so uncommon.

Another reader chimes in.

Exactly.

He didn’t cheat anyone.

In cases like this, apologizing can make someone even more upset, since it confirms their biases.

That man was just plain rude and also wrong.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.