It’s easy to ignore when someone is rude in public, but it’s always exciting when someone decides to take things into their own hands.

That’s exactly what happened to this Veteran who was simply shopping in the pet store when a woman decided to verbally attack him.

He decided to play along and took things to a whole new level.

Was it epic or embarrassing? Let’s find out…

Well, that escalated quickly…

So a bit of backstory: I’m a veteran who suffers from major depression and ptsd.

Because of this my psychiatrist (psychologist? Idk I get them confused, the therapy one not the medicine one) suggested getting a service animal, and said she’s write a letter to make it an ESA until it was certified.

Luckily, a friend of my mom’s was giving away three Great Pyrenees/Catahoula mix puppies, which was perfect for me as I herd and haul cattle for work, and both breeds are herding dogs and very intelligent, happy, and lovable, so she’d be able to help me at work and with my ptsd.

The characters are pretty self explanatory, but I’ll mention that Sadie is my pup, the goodest, clumsiest pup that ever pupped.

Sounds adorable!

Normally, my company lets me bring Sadie with me, and she’ll ride in my truck or hang out in the shop with our mechanic’s dog, but my GF usually spends Friday-Sunday at my place and Sadie latched onto my GF immediately when they met.

They were both cuddled up asleep and looked too cute to wake, so I left Sadie with her for the day, knowing she won’t mind as she has a Great Dane and loves big puppies.

After work I called my GF to let her know I was heading home.

She said she was taking care of the horses, yes she’s a horse girl but not that kind, and she had Sadie with her but she was just finishing up.

Knowing that neither of us would want to get out again after getting home I asked her if she wanted to meet me at the pet store to grab a “service dog in training” vest because trying to train her in public is pretty hard as everyone, very understandably, goes crazy for her on sight and has to pet her, and I figured that this vest would at least deter the sane crowd.

So, fast forward to us in the large chain pet store (there’s only like 2, so 50/50 chance you think of it immediately) letting her choose a few toys and finally coming up on the collars/harnesses section we’ve been looking for.

Cue me fitting her for different harnesses, leashes, and yes, Christmas sweaters as well.

I’m starting to put up everything I had pulled out while joking with my GF when I get a hard tap on my shoulder by someone with very long nails.

Enter our villain…

I turn to see what I instinctively know is a very entitled woman.

She was mid-late 40s, long bleach blonde hair in a ponytail, jeans that may have fit 20 years ago (although in her defense she wasn’t overweight, but the jeans were just way too tight), and a button down western shirt, thankfully with an undershirt just in case the poor buttons lost their never-ending battle with her obviously artificially altered bust line.

Now, this is the type of woman I refer to as a “Texan soccer mom,” but for this story I’ll just call her Betty.

Betty, as soon as I start turning: “it’s about time, I’ve been waiting here for at least 5 minutes while you attempt to flirt with this poor woman.”

Now, GF hates confrontation and avoids it at all cost, but me, well, I see it as a way to joke, annoy, or just let my inner a-hole shine through.

GF knows this and as we share a look she rolls her eyes at my smile and walks off with the pup to browse the next aisle.

Betty, again annoyed: “Really? You’re just going to ignore me?!”

Me: “I’m sorry about that ma’am. What do you need?”

Honestly she was already annoying me with her rudeness, but that’s no reason to be an a-hole, yet.

Betty: “I need to know where the something is.” I wasn’t really paying attention at this point, already deciding to have a laugh sending her on a wild goose chase.

Me: “Oh, sure thing ma’am! Go to the end of this aisle, down three, make a left, then a right at the next, and it’ll be at the top halfway down” or something like that, I don’t remember as I was just saying random things.

With that, Betty takes off on her quest to find her magic somethings and I walked to meet back up with GF, who was now in line for the 1 open register in the store (not complaining, it was moving fast, just setting the scene).

GF: “Wow, that was fast”

Me, a bit proud and with a big smile: “oh, she just needed to know where something was”

GF, knowing me well enough to not believe I’d help someone that was being that rude: “Really? That’s it? Did you help her?”

Me: “Yep, I was a bit rude back though.”

Betty, immediately after, almost cutting into my sentence, with who I assume is the manager: “That’s him right there! And he’s still harassing this poor woman too! I want him fired right now! He gave me wrong directions to aisles that don’t even exist just to get rid of me to flirt with this woman more!”

Me to GF, who was visibly annoyed with me: “What? Giving her wrong directions is a type of rude!”

Now, Betty coming up with the manager just made me smile more, which of course annoyed my GF more, but I couldn’t help it, this was too funny.

Store Manager, to Betty: “ma’am, I’ve never seen him before, he doesn’t work here.”

And to my GF: “ma’am, is this man bothering you?”

GF: “Yes, but no more than usual” with a big smile on her face, thinking she was funny.

I don’t think she’s getting it…

Betty: “Then why do you smell like an animal?!”

Manager: “ma’am, that’s obviously a cow smell, we don’t sell cattle.”

Betty, giving up on the manager and turning to me: “You don’t work here?! Why didn’t you just tell me?!”

Me: “Why didn’t you just ask?”

Betty: “That’s no excuse not to tell me! It would’ve taken a lot less time!”

Me: “yes, but it wouldn’t be as fun. Hopefully next time you speak to a worker or a stranger you won’t be so rude.”

Betty, screeching at this point: “where do you work? I’ll call the manager there to complain about you, and she even admitted that you usually bother her so I’ll tell him about your stalking too!”

Ok, at this point we were next in line, and I didn’t have any plans on staying to argue, but what she just said made me laugh right in front of her.

“Lady, idk who you think you are but let me tell you some things. 1. I don’t, nor have I ever, worked customer service. My boss could care less that I was an a-hole to some menopausal old woman. 2. Don’t be rude to people, no matter their job they deserve respect, and 3. What is your obsession with me flirting with my GF? I got news for you, even if I was single I wouldn’t be flirting with you, but I’d be happy to help you find someone more age appropriate, you’re what? 55?”

Yes, I know it was a bit of a low blow since she was obviously sensitive about her age, but at this point she’d made it personal and I was mad that she’d accuse me of stalking when she didn’t even know my name.

My GF was doing her best to ignore us and pay so we could leave, and luckily after I said this she had her receipt in hand and we turned to leave.

Betty, eyes wide and mouth agape, of course started screaming profanities once she saw us start to leave.

She followed us out to the parking lot, basket and all, with the manager following her, since she hadn’t paid for anything yet.

My GF was starting to visibly shake, she really doesn’t handle confrontation well, so I got her in the car and then loaded the bags in the trunk.

The entire time Betty was screaming, mostly incoherently, following me around the car while blocking me from backing out by putting her basket behind my car. At this point, a few things happened at once.

Uh oh…

First, I got in the driver seat and started to swing my door shut. Second, Betty tried to stop me from closing the door by grabbing it.

Third, she fails to stop door and it closes. Her hand was still on it. Fourth she screams like a rabbit being attacked by a ferret (long story).

Fifth, I open the door so she could get her hand out, she immediately yanks it away and then did the one thing that I never expected: after getting her hand CRUSHED in the door, this idiot tries to stop me from closing the door.

Again. With her knee this time. She’s definitely got determination, I’ll give her that. Of course it didn’t close all the way this time, but I was mad and slammed it so it closed hard and fast and was probably still pretty painful.

Now I’m laughing again, not at her getting hurt, but because as I looked back to tell the manager she may need help back to the store, I saw him, already halfway back to the store with her basket!

The entire situation was just so unbelievably absurd.

At this point, my GF was crying and holding Sadie really tight, so shut my door, made sure no body parts were in it this time, and backed out, careful not to run over Betty, although admittedly at this point it’d be a lie to say I wasn’t tempted.

It’s been a week now, and while I expected to get a summons of a letter from a lawyer or something, nothing has happened, and that’s fine because I don’t think that you can get in trouble for hurting someone while they try to restrain you from leaving.

I should also say that no, I don’t particularly feel bad about anything that happened to Betty, but I feel horrible for putting my GF in this situation and apologized at least a hundred times this week.

We’re good, but I gotta be on my best behavior in public for a while.

Let’s get into the comments…

This person didn’t totally love the story.

And this person feels bad for the girlfriend.

While this Reddit user applauds the interaction.

Regardless of your opinion on the situation, defeating a woman like this is admirable.

Hope this guy, his gf, and his pup are better!

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.