If you’re gonna take revenge on someone who is asking for it, you might as well come up with something so devious, yet so innocent that you can’t but admire the cunning of the plan.
Enter this one Redditor and military mechanic who, after asking for help from other mechanics to fix a very particular issue in a vehicle, was told off in such an (to say the least) unpleasant way that he took matters into his own hands, which in turn put a cosmologically huge chunk of matters into other people’s hands.
More Info: Reddit
Mechanics are some of the most genius people when it comes to mischief, but it doesn't stop people from messing with them and getting the horns
Image credits: Emyr Jones
Meet Reddit user u/Viper896, a military man in charge of a battalion communications (or commo) shop with whom Bored Panda got in touch for an interview. OP grew up with a veteran mechanic for a dad and was always keen on science and tech with a “figure it out” mentality, so it’s no surprise he ended up doing mechanic things in the U.S. Army. He would service tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles (BFV), and the like.
This military mechanic got rejected after asking for help, so he delivered a taste of their own medicine in return
Image credits: Viper896
In particular, he worked with commo, or communications, equipment, so part of servicing was also testing said equipment and fixing it if necessary. But there were other mechanic shops that specialized in other areas, and he would redirect those outside his scope to them.
Well, turns out, there was one vehicle he was servicing with one part that he could fix, but it was buried underneath parts that he needed help with from a different shop, so he turned to them for help. But, they chose violence, said “it’s not their job” and rudely refused to help.
"From what I could tell, the previous issues started because the old leadership would instantly assume that all issues required the mechanical shop to fix resulting in the mechanics do a lot of extra work they didn't need to do," elaborated Viper on the issue.
OP explains that there are several different types of mechanics in the US Army, and there is apparently some sort of rivalry there
Image credits: Viper896
OK, cue pro revenge. OP got his tools (actually bothered to go home for them), got some cans and plastic bags for the bolts, nuts, and washers he’d need to remove in order to get to the part he needed, and got to work.
However, instead of working smart, which he always does as the less you unscrew, the less you’re gonna have to screw back on, he decided to work hard, which is to unscrew and disassemble everything that was more or less connected to the parts he needed to reach.
Because of said rivalry, OP was rejected in his plea for help, so he resorted to teaching them a lesson
Image credits: Viper896
Image credits: New York National Guard
He did end up reaching and fixing the necessary element in the military vehicle, which resulted in roughly two cans and several Zip-Loc bags of nuts and bolts that he labeled with his trusty sharpie and reported to the owner of the BFV that the commo problem was solved, but he’d need another mechanic to reassemble the rest of it.
The lesson effectively consisted of some malicious compliance based on the idea of "it's not my job" and then working hard, but not smart
Image credits: Viper896
And of course, the other mechanic was furious about the disassembled mechanical abomination that he found at the motor pool, demanding that OP fix this predicament, but he was having none of it, and came back with “it was a ‘mechanical issue’ now and it wasn’t my job.”
This just goes to show that you shouldn’t mess with people, or else you might end up spending 3 weeks attempting to reassemble the “mechanical issue” and there can’t be any leftover lug nuts and whatnot!
In other words, he fixed the part he needed to, but he also disassembled roughly 3 weeks worth of reassembly
Image credits: Viper896
The post received quite a bit of attention, garnering 13,500 upvotes and internet karma in the form of praise from internauts. It came as a surprise to Viper as he didn't think the story was that interesting and worthy of a share, but huge shout-out to OP's brother for urging him to post it on Reddit as it is truly a treat!
Not only did they think this was beautiful and an effective way of teaching someone a lesson in manners, but also tearing down the walls of resentment among the teams. Others also pointed out that there was a hint of malicious compliance there because while it was all revenge, he wasn’t really doing anything wrong—he was actually doing everything by the book. Regardless, people applauded his ingenuity.
"It was definitely a turning point. That incident combined with showing the other team we were capable and efficient in our specialty went along way in making the situation better," added OP.
And, of course, the other mechanic was furious, but OP's response was "it's not my job", making for some sweet pro revenge
Image credits: Viper896
You can check out the post here, along with all of the comments people left there, but don’t go just yet, as we’ll miss you dearly, but also, we’d like to hear your thoughts on this story of revenge. Have you done something similar? Let us know in the comment section below!