An abusive ex-partner can make life difficult even after years have gone by.

If your ex asked for some of his personal belongings back, would you hand them over or refuse?

This woman was helping her sister deal with a messy and drawn-out divorce from a toxic ex.

When he demanded his tools back, she made sure to return them… but on her terms!

Read the story below to find out more.

Picking up his tools

My sister is in a long, drawn-out divorce from an absolute deadbeat.

He was abusive and has addiction issues. He uses the legal system to drag everything out.

Generally, he does not take responsibility for anything and feels so entitled. He wants his baby mama to pay him alimony.

A man’s man, if you know what I mean.

This woman’s ex-brother-in-law has started taking odd jobs.

He’s been out of the house for 2 years.

He’s been unemployed for 8 months.

We figured unemployment ran out when he started picking up seemingly odd jobs.

He said he needed his old tools, so she helped her sister gather them.

Today, he’s saying he “needs his tools, so he can do this job.”

She does need to return personal items.

We come up with a plan, and I gather all his poorly maintained rusty tools and photo document them. I package them on the porch in a way that’s not too obvious.

The porch cam will show if he picks them up.

She gave her sister the 10mm socket tool and told her to hold onto it.

He’s carless, too, by the way.

As I’m wrapping up, I hand her one single socket with the number “10.”

“What’s this?” she asks.

“You should hold onto that one… trust me.”

Was this the perfect petty revenge on the ex?

Let’s check out what others have to say about this on Reddit.

Well played, says this person.

This person is impressed.

People are loving the petty revenge.

Finally, this person thinks it’s 4D chess-level revenge.

Sometimes, the smallest piece makes the biggest difference.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.