Having a disability of any type at work can make things very difficult, and it is even worse when a coworker intentionally harasses you.

What would you do if you were known to be easily startled due to PTSD and one of your coworkers jumped out from behind you and shouted to scare you?

That is what happened to the woman in this story, and then he denied doing it until a video of the incident was shown. Now he has been fired and is facing criminal charges, but he wants her to drop the charges. She doesn’t think that she should have to.

While it might be nice to drop the charges, I don’t think she is in any way obligated to. Read through the full details of the situation below and see what you think.

AITA – someone fired and now criminal charges bc they pranked me

Relevant backstory: I was rear ended by a semi years back. I am a paraplegic and have a brain injury and PTSD from that accident.

It is remarkable that they can work at all.

I have off and on done some remote (900+ miles) project management for the team I worked with when I got hurt.

There are two lingering problems: 1. I react big when startled – if something loud happens behind me and I am holding something I throw it. (This is a big improvement over where I used to puke and faint and it’s manageable – I always sit with my back to the wall.)

No big deal, some people just cry more easily than others.

2. I cry 5-6x/day completely at random for no reason, and overall I cry really easily with minimal cause. It’s awful and I tell everyone about these things immediately and often.

Now AITA. I had a new colleague (NC). NC came to conference in town where I live. He wanted to meet for first time, discuss (very successful nearly finished) project.

This is absolutely cruel.

We met. I was escorting him to his car, he said he left something behind in work space, came back quietly, yelled “boo” just behind me.

I threw my work laptop at fence, it smashed, I was panic-gulp-bawling, NC said something like “wow you are even worse than they said”.

Not only was he mean, but now he is lying about it.

My neighbor came running, took him away and I went in house, calmed down, called IT for new laptop and got transferred to HR.

His version of events was extremely different, and included accusations of my weeping being manipulative to cover willful destruction of employer property.

You have to do what the company wants in this situation.

Neighbor has video file, w/sound. I sent file to HR. NC terminated, no appeal possible. HR asked if I wanted file sent to police, said corporate legal wants to.

I said um okay. He has been charged with some kind of felony, which DA will not drop or plead down w/o my consent.

He isn’t sorry; he is just mad that he is in trouble.

Charges alone make him unemployable in his (highly specialized) area forevermore. Video makes conviction pretty guaranteed.

He has written apology, and I am not impressed. I watched the video and he is smirking like Jack Sparrow sneaking up, looks shocked when laptop is thrown and I lose it but the speed and eloquence of his CYA call to HR and the stuff he said to them gives me fury.

I think she can do whatever feels right; there is no wrong answer from her perspective.

Also, I have relationships, diagnoses and video etc to protect me – I am much less vulnerable than I must have seemed – how many times has he pulled something like this and gotten away with it?

AITA for not telling DA to drop it? I don’t feel like TA (I feel very hurt and mad, so I am worried I am being petty and spiteful) but also he really will not get work in his field again and he solely supports his family.

None of that is her concern.

Stupid games stupid prizes, but – he’s got 7 kids under 16, 2 are profoundly disabled and his wife has never worked.

I have 10 days to get back to HR/legal/DA.

WIBTA?

He should have thought of his family before doing something so cruel and heartless. If she chooses to drop the charges, that is nice, but it certainly isn’t required.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a person who spent nearly 3 decades climbing the ladder at work only to be fired in a meeting that lasted less than a minute.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about this terrible story.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

I was wondering about this as well.

Yup, he isn’t really sorry at all.

What he did was done intentionally.

Of course knew about her condition and did it anyway.

He doesn’t regret what he did, he regrets the consequences. He messed up, and now he has to live with that. I don’t know if he belongs in jail, but he certainly doesn’t deserve sympathy.

I hope he learned his lesson, especially since he has disabled children himself. Intentionally doing something like this is not acceptable.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman whose HR department advised her to quit if she was that unhappy, so she did and found herself in a role reversal years later.