Source: Pexels/Reddit

For the customer, a delivery takes not much more than a tap on a screen. But rarely does anyone consider the needs of the driver who is often sitting in hours of traffic and dealing with difficult restaurant vendors.

What would you do if you got stuck with a super difficult anonymous customer who tanked your delivery ranking? One guy recently shared an absolutely insane story about this on Reddit. Here’s what went down.

Delivery driver revenge

I spent some time doing deliveries for the apps you all likely know.

It’s a great last resort, but it’s a soul-crushing gig because you see how very little the companies and customers think of you, so your spirits can get pretty low.

Disappointing, but not surprising.

On one of those days, I delivered an order to a beautiful 3-story townhome in a row of townhomes that overlooked the street.

Each home was separated the street by a gated front yard that locks from the inside.

Upon trying the front gate, I found it locked.

Seems unlikely that there would have been another result.

I called the customer but the phone number didn’t ring through; they hadn’t bothered to provide a working phone number.

This is a constant source of frustration: customers will live in a place where it is impossible to get to them, provide no means of contacting them, refuse to check their phones, and then get mad at the drivers.

And that was the case this time.

Sounds like this issue happens more frequently than it doesn’t.

After being unable to contact them, I set the order outside the locked gate, took a photo, messaged them to inform them of the situation, wished them a nice evening, and left.

It was maybe around 1 am— the area was completely empty of cars and people, so their food wasn’t in immediate danger of being stolen by a passerby.

I considered the matter settled.

Sounds like it might have been an impulse order anyway.

Shortly after, I saw that my rating took a hit and my tip was removed by this customer.

I had delivered the food as closely to the customer as they had allowed me to get, they had refused to let me get further, and they had penalized me for it.

This sort of thing happens often, but as I said, I was already in no mood for more of it today.

And that’s fair enough.

So I decided to get some petty revenge.

I ordered a bike lock from Amazon— one that isn’t expensive but is still extremely difficult to cut through.

The kind you can only unlock with a combination.

Oh this guy really thought this one through, huh?

When it arrived, I set the combination to a random 4-digit number, since leaving it at the starting 0000 would make it too easy to guess.

If I retaliated too soon, it might be apparent that it was their snubbed delivery driver, and though these companies rarely penalize their drivers for anything, it wasn’t worth the risk of losing the gig at the time.

So I waited a couple of weeks, then I decided it was time.

Man, this really set him off!

Late one weeknight, I returned to the vicinity of the townhome in question.

I parked a couple blocks away, threw on a hoodie capable of covering most of my face, and removed any distinguishing accessories.

All was silent and completely dead, but I still walked casually to avoid suspicion, in case someone happened to appear.

This feels like the beginning of a horror movie.

When I got to the row of homes, I made sure the hood was pulled up, lowered my face, and strolled up to the right one.

In a fluid motion, I wrapped the bike lock around the metal bars of the gate and clicked it closed, tightly trapping their front gate shut.

Then I strolled casually away.

Can’t even imagine how confused the person who lived there must have been…

You locked me out and then punished me for not getting in?

I will punish you by locking you in!

I have no way of knowing what problems— if any— this caused in their lives.

Wonder if he even knew their name?

I like to imagine they walked out the door the next morning in a hurry to get to work, saw them at they were locked in, and had a terrible day from there.

Maybe they were late to work.

Maybe they couldn’t get the lock off for a few days and it annoyed them every time they forgot and tried to leave that way.

This is some American Psycho-level internal monologuing.

Maybe such a seemingly senseless inconvenience that they were powerless to understand or seek retribution for annoyed them for weeks.

There was surely another exit, and they probably had an acquaintance somewhere with strong bolt cutters, but the possibility that this upset them makes me ecstatic.

Seems like maybe it might be time for this delivery driver to get a new job. Let’s see what the Reddit comments had to say about this one…

Others immediately jumped to encourage the situation.

One person was duly impressed.

Another made a witty observation.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a researcher who complained about being excluded from a trip only to watch the university cancel the whole thing.

Someone else made additional suggestions.

But one person asked the important questions…

Revenge is a dish best delivered cold…