It’s hard enough dealing with rude people, but even more so after a long trip when you’re feeling already exhausted.

In this case, a couple had to deal with a man who yelled at them to move their caravan after they were almost done setting it up… with a dash of xenophobia for good measure.

They decided to not only maliciously comply with the rules but to make him have an unpleasant stay as well.

Let’s read the story.

You want to be strict with the camping site rules? Then let’s be strict with the rules!

A few weeks ago I was touring Europe in my car and caravan with my family.

Usually, people are very nice on camping sites with their temporary neighbors but this incident was a big exception to that rule.

We arrived to a very large camping site in the middle of Sweden late afternoon.

After getting our keys and a printout of info (campsite rules and local tourist attractions etc., actually like a magazine) from the reception, we went to find our designated pitch to set up the caravan so we could start relaxing after hours and hours of driving.

So we release the kids to go find a playground and start the process of setting up camp.

I back up the caravan to the pitch, detach the car, manually crank the support legs down and so on when a grumpy old geezer approaches yelling: “Four meters! Four meters!”

What? They were as confused and tried to understand and comply pacifically.

It was hot, I was sweating from the manual work and a bit confused, so I asked perhaps a bit sharply what he was going on about.

He manages to explain that “the rules say the caravans have to be 4 meters (about 13 feet) apart and that I absolutely must move my caravan” which is already halfway done setting up camp.

Now I admit that I did put my caravan only about 1 meter (little over 3 feet) from the back of the pitch but this jerk has his own caravan roughly the same distance or less from the perimeter and his front tents ground lines are ON OUR pitch.

I go around checking the situation and leave my wife to talk with the geezer.

I come back around after maybe 30 seconds and see my wife upset.

Before I can ask why, she tells me that the geezer told her verbatim “to go back to Finland!” after she had pointed out that his tent cords are attached to our side.

This is extremely inappropriate!

So I get angry.

I’m positively seething and for a moment I consider getting physical, but then I decide to get petty instead.

So I go undo the setup we’ve already done, move the caravan, double check that I’m within the rules.

This took me about 7 minutes.

Then I go tell the geezer that I’ve now complied, so if you want to be strict with the rules, then let’s be strict with the rules!

Your own caravan is clearly in violation of the rules, so move it or I promise I’ll go to the reception and complain.

I was so angry that I remember my hand shaking while I emphasized my message with finger-pointing.

So I was pretty angry.

Did he mention he was angry?

Fallout: We got great satisfaction seeing he had to disassemble most of his front tent, crank up the support legs, get the car, attach the car, move his caravan and then re-set up everything.

It took him and his partner about 25 – 30 minutes to do so.

If you want to be a jerk, make sure you are also in compliance before complaining to someone else.

These kinds of rules are usually more like suggestions anyway…

This feels like a comedy movie scene.

Oh, and I also told the kids that there is a special situation here, you don’t have to be quiet and consider the neighbors like normally.

Instead, you can shout and play as loudly as you like (within the allowed times to make noise) and they did.

Luckily the other surrounding pitches were not occupied at the time so this didn’t bother anyone but the geezer and his partner.

I also got a small solace from the fact that my wife did reply to the “Go back to Finland” comment with the age-old classic “**** you!”.

We left the site and continued on our way the next day as planned.

They didn’t just teach him a lesson; it was a masterclass.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say.

I agree with this reader; he didn’t read the manual.

Why generate more problems when you can just get petty?

Another reader shares their thoughts.

I can’t argue with that.

A commenter points out they were really all in the wrong.

This reader shares their opinion on a particular part of the story.

If you want to tell on others, make sure you’re not in the same boat.

It’s just common sense.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.