25 Updates From People After They Accidentally Derailed Someone Else’s Life

In moments of aggravation, we might fantasise about ruining someone’s life. But when it comes down to it, we usually set aside those feelings and move on, even if begrudgingly. But what happens if you unwittingly wreak havoc on someone’s entire world?

#1

Image source: St3phiroth, Mikhail Nilov

I was working for a federal program and had a boss who hired her sister without disclosing to higher ups that it was her sister. (A disclosure required by the program.) Boss then paid the sister 2x the usual rate for the job and sister was logging a lot of extra work hours that she hadn’t actually been working. I only found out because my boss insisted I needed to do the time sheet inputs for her because she couldn’t be bothered. Boss told me to take any questions to Boss’s boss and left for the day.

I noticed the discrepancy immediately, and went to boss’s boss to let them know there was an issue with time tracking vs scheduling “on her sister’s time sheet” and wanted to know what I should do. The sister thing was news to Boss’s boss and then the discrepancy triggered an investigation that uncovered a whole bunch of other misuse of government funding. Boss lost her job, the FBI got involved, and Boss eventually ended up with some massive fines and jail time.

Knowing what I know now, I would accidentally report her again.

#2

Image source: raybaythebayb, Timur Weber

Not me, but my husband. He’s the reason my parents are divorced.

When my husband and I were engaged, I drove to work and when I got there, instead of my car turning off like normal, it sounded like it just *died*. Let out it’s last breath and was gone. I called my fiance and he drove over, had my car towed to a shop and got it looked at. He did all of this while I was at work.

I later told my mom about this and she was floored. “You mean, he just took care of it?” “He wasn’t upset? He wasn’t irritated to have to take care of it?”… “if that happened to me, your dad would take care of it, but he would be pissed and find a way to blame me.”

My mom left my dad a week later. To be fair, this was their *second* divorce. But my mom saw everything so clearly that day.

#3

Image source: pm_me_gnus, T.H. Chia

Coworker would always talk about how “Jessica and I” were going to go here, or “Jessie and I” went there, or “Jess and I” got up to this, that, or the other.

One day I ran into him and his wife in the wild. He introduced her only as “my wife.” I, of course, said “Oh, Jessica. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

Gentle reader, his wife’s name was not Jessica.

I feel nothing about it. He shouldn’t have been cheating on his wife. But if was going to, he shouldn’t have spent years telling me about Jessica then introduce his wife only as “my wife.”

#4

Image source: pamsteropolous, Sam K

I told my toddler it was bedtime when it was bedtime. Ruined her life.

I feel fine about it because she needs to sleep. Just wish she was less shouty.

#5

This isn’t my story but an old coworker. And it’s timely because it’s 9/11 today.

Said ex co worker was a manager at a different company and at the time managed a team member who was not cutting it. He gave her lots of chances and opportunities but was failing miserably at the job. He made the decision to fire her. She was terribly upset – loved the job/company. Begged him to stay. He had to say no.

Fast forward a few weeks later, she gets a new job opportunity – across the country. Needs to fly out for the interview. She was on one of the planes that hit the Twin Towers, on her way to that interview.

He obviously had no control over any of this but felt deep regret for a long time. What if he waited just a few more weeks to fire her? Delayed her search for a new job, and then she wouldn’t have been on that plane.

That story always sticks with me.

Image source: CurlyMom7

#6

Big move on a busy road a while ago. Lots of moving parts. Permits. Store downstairs. Reserved parking. Just an incredibly stressful amount of management. When the day comes me and my roomies were incredibly stressed because if one thing goes wrong, the whole house of cards collapses. It seemed, however, to be smooth sailing. The only thing that was annoying, was that cars kept parking on our reserved space (before we got our moving vans there). Most left numbers we could call, so we did and they’d usually leave.

Right before my dad is supposed to show up, four cars park in the reserved spot. They’d left no number. Their owners weren’t in sight. There was no way for me to get any of these cars out of there. To be clear: this meant that there was nowhere for my dad to park the moving van in this incredibly busy road. If he couldn’t, we couldn’t move my stuff, which was completely blocking the already very tight hallway and first part of the stairwell. Moving my stuff back up four floors was out of the question. I had like 40 minutes to solve this so I just called the cops. They show up within 15 minutes, start writing down fines and tell me they’ll get a tow truck. Half an hour later tow truck shows up, along with a couple of the car’s owners. Big arguments between the cops and the owners.

All of a sudden, reinforcements show up. Like six other cops. Apparently they’d seen d***s laying in one of the cars illegally parked there. And the dude seemed to be working in the hookah bar across the street. So they detain the guy with the d***s and wait around for an hour to get a warrant to raid the f*****g hookah place. Meanwhile, one cop is holding back traffic (including trams in two directions) so my dad can parallel park the van). Other civilians are still arguing. It’s f*****g chaos and I’m just standing there so f*****g stressed out about what’s going on. Suddenly, one of the cops asks me if the sandwich place downstairs in the building always has their outdoor seating out like this. Apparently that was also illegal so they start getting into that.

Four people got pretty big fines and towing costs, the sandwich place has no more outdoor seating, the hookah place is closed and I’m sure the d**g user was arrested.

Just cuz they parked in my spot.

Image source: Friendly_District547

#7

Image source: Itsyellow, AS Photography

When I was in high school, I accidentally ran a red light and hit another car. The other car was totaled, and I later learned I broke the driver’s hip.

I was a young high school kid at the time. The male cop walked up to my car carrying a license plate, and I started crying, “are you taking my license away”. And he responded with a very warm and fatherly, “no honey. That guy is undocumented, if he wasn’t in the country you wouldn’t have hit him. This is all his fault”.

Turns out he was living with his adult daughter, and took the car across one street to the grocery store, and I hit him on his way back.

I totaled the family car, broke his hip and he got deported.

I ran a red light and got nothing. No punishment. Not even a ticket.

I am so sorry.

#8

Image source: Sufficient_Bake6862, Rene Terp

I do photography and videography at Weddings. This particular wedding half the guests spoke a language I am not fluent in and it was before AI translations existed. The mother of the bride said something derogatory about the groom’s mom in her native language and I included it in their video because she was smiling when she said it.

Turns out the groom’s mom spoke multiple languages.

#9

Image source: Trin_42, Alena Darmel

My good friend was scheduled to have surgery when it was discovered she had an aneurysm. I was with her at the hospital with her family and right before she was taken away, she handed me her phone and said she wanted me to keep it until she was in recovery.

She ended up dying on the table, she was a heavy smoker for 20+ years and that doctor couldn’t find any good tissue to graft to save her. I turned her phone back on and handed it to her husband. It was maybe 24 hours after her death when we discovered that she had been having an affair for years, had been embezzling money from the business to provide for her boyfriend and signed over a car to him that he was supposedly still paying for. It broke all of us, and I still have unresolved feelings towards her for putting me in that position. I think she knew I would figure it out and expected me to cover for her. I love and miss you Amy but you’re a POS for doing that to your family.

#10

When I was 17 I accidentally saw some files on my bosses laptop. So I reported it to the police, turns out the guy was a huge p**o and had terabytes of child p**n across several computers. He got sentenced to 50 years in prison. Honestly, that’s one of my proudest accomplishments.

Image source: Darth_Cuddly

#11

Image source: ParadisePete, Emre Uğurlar

Many years ago I was going to the track (harness races) and I asked a guy, Alan, if he wanted to tag along. He was 17 I think. He’d never even seen a horse before. Each race I would tell him what I thought and he’d either bet $2 or skip the race. $2 was important to him.

Then in a late race there was a horse named Minya Mitzvah. He got all excited. “A Jewish horse! I gotta bet him!” The horse was awful and I told him so. Went off at 30-1.

This was early winter and there was a heavy fog obscuring the far side of the track. Off they go and disappear into the fog. Even the announcer is saying “your guess is as good as mine.” They’re in the fog for a long time and finally the first horse emerges. Alone. We’re waiting for the rest of the pack, which eventually the field emerges, but the lead horse is way out in front. Who knows what happened in that fog. We can now see the colors and sure enough it’s Minya Mitzvah. It cruises home and Alan reveals that he bet $10. So now this kid suddenly has more money than he’d ever seen in his life. His brain is doing cartwheels.

He was hooked. From that day on he became a degenerate gambler, always chasing that high. Years later he told me “I can’t stop. Even if you gave me a million bucks I’d be broke in a year.” All because of a Jewish horse and me casually asking him if wanted to tag along.

#12

Image source: donorcycle, AS Photography

I accidentally stumbled upon a 2.5M Ponzi scheme when I was in finance. The person involved wound up committing s*****e once the Feds got involved.

#13

Image source: MysteriousCrew3732, Eko Agalarov

I went to my husband’s best friend’s wedding with my husband. I had only met him once as he lived in another city. We had gotten married in August and his best friend was getting married in October. Anyways, at the wedding I told the bride that it was so nice to see her at their wedding when they had just been to mine.

Huge mistake, my husband never thought to tell me, and honestly I was in my wedding daze. The bride did not attend our wedding. He had brought another woman.

#14

Image source: FormerStuff, Mick Latter

I suggested a kid I knew at school to consider joining the military and using the GI bill later in life after he wasn’t able to get accepted to a college or university. He thought it was a fantastic idea so he went for it.

Dudes convoy hit a IED on his first deployment. He survived but has a litany of health problems. I feel terrible for suggesting it.

#15

Image source: aubrey_25_99, Tima Miroshnichenko

I work in a public library and, because of how our book hold system works, I once accidentally informed some poor guy that he was likely getting a divorce.

His wife had placed several DIY divorce books on hold and they had a shared library account. When I called their landline phone number (the only one on the account) to tell them that their book holds were in, he answered the phone and, when I explained why I was calling, he asked what the book titles were. With out thinking, I rattled them all off. “The Michigan Divorce Book,” “The Divorce Book: What Every Michigan Married Man or Woman Needs to Know,” etc. I think there were four or five of them altogether, so it seemed pretty inevitable that he was headed for the single life.

We don’t typically share our patron’s private account information with anyone, including what books they have checked out or on hold, but if they are sharing an account with another person, we have no idea which person on that account has placed the hold, and sharing an account means that all the account info is shared freely amongst all the people on the account.

I know it’s not my fault that this guy got a divorce, but that’s a heck of a way to find out and I *do* feel bad about that.

#16

Image source: kindnesskangaroo, Marta Klement

Not directly, but a friend came to me once to casually ask me about another friend and how they were handling their new job. The friend with the new job had been ecstatic because it was a huge opportunity for their career in an over saturated field. It was essentially their big break.

I told the first friend that they were loving it and handling it just fine and they asked if they were like stressed or anything. I offhandedly said something about them having friction with one of their coworkers but that they were doing fine with it.

What I didn’t know is that friend asking me these questions was friends *with* the coworker and used what I told that friend to help get my friend fired for “creating a toxic work environment.” Not only was it very high school drama, but it ruined the trajectory of my friend’s career completely and they’re still struggling today to find meaningful employment despite this happening four years ago.

#17

Image source: FMLitsSML, Polina Zimmerman

When I was younger and in my party days, I slept with a guy I met on a night out. Nothing untoward except in the morning I saw his phone ping and his lock screen was of him, a woman, and a small kid. I questioned him and whilst he initially denied anything, he eventually admitted he was married “but going through a rough patch”. He asked me not to say anything to his wife.

I was pissed as he’d lied to me about being single, and I now wanted nothing to do with him. So, once he’d left, I found his wife on social media and told her what had happened. She was annoyed at me (rightly so) but thanked me for telling her, saying she suspected something as this wasn’t the first time he’d gone out by himself and told her he stayed at a friend’s.

I never heard from her again, and I’d blocked the guy’s number and on social media, so I soon forgot about it. Years later I found out she had kicked him out and filed for a no-contact divorce the day I told her, he was caught drink driving after another night out having slept in his car, then lost his (high paid) job and was now living with his parents, who were thoroughly unimpressed at his fall from grace.

Morally I don’t feel too bad as whilst I might have been the one who told the wife, he was the one who literally f****d up.

#18

Image source: ScreamingDizzBuster, MART PRODUCTION

Temporarily: I was looking after my friends’ apartment while they were on vacation. There was building work outside and someone hit the downpipe of the toilet, which broke the ceramic toilet bowl, flooding the bathroom. I cleaned it all up then complained to the building management and asked for the toilet to be replaced before they got back, which set off a series of events that led to them being evicted.

It turned out they were illegally subletting without knowing it.

I felt like absolute s**t at the time but they ended up moving back to Australia because if it, and living a good life there, so I’m ok with it now.

#19

Image source: VarietyOk2628, Felicity Tai

I was once the tool which got someone’s career stalled, but I do not feel entirely responsible.

I was in therapy at an agency, and knew two friends who were therapists working there. I also had a 3rd friend who had just committed s*****e. At the funeral of our mutual friend, one of the people I knew from the mental health agency gossiped about private and confidential information they had snooped into the dead person’s file to read.

At my next therapy session I was deeply grieving the s*****e loss, and outraged about the gossip from the dead person’s file. So, my therapist pressured me to reveal the name of who gossiped, and I refused.

Two days later I got a phone call from my second friend who worked as a MSW therapist at the clinic — and who had absolutely NO idea about what was going down as we had not even spoken in a year or so — and she asked me why she was being questioned and possibly disciplined due to this gossiping.

So, I was forced into a position of having to reveal who indeed had been unprofessional. And that was the end of her career, and it was handled so beautifully that to this day she has no idea it was me who reported her. The incident happened in 1990. I’ve often wanted to tell her, but feel it is best to leave as is. She really did it to herself.

#20

Image source: waikato_wizard, Anna Shvets

I was a volunteer firefighter a while back.
Pager went off for a medical assist (we often had to help ambulance with patient lifts etc).
I opted to give my spot on the truck to the rookie we had in training, figured a lift assist, he could help the guys and get that mental boost of being on the team. No biggy.

I shouldn’t have. Patient was an older guy who had been smoking in his wheelchair, wearing synthetics, and with oxygen thru nose. Caught fire. Was a lift assist to get patient onto the helicopter. Didn’t survive the flight.

The rookie had to see that as his first call. He left brigade shortly after. Some s**t you really can never unsee, and he was just a high schooler trying to do something good for the community. Hope hes OK these days.

Ive seen alot that’ll never leave me either, but I have come to accept that is how life and death can be, and I was prepared the moment the helmet was on for whatever came at me. Kid probably was his first experience of that and unprepared for it.

#21

Image source: sloppy_sheiko, cottonbro studio

I unknowingly introduced a really good friend to the most toxic person I’ve ever come across in my life..

My college buddy Chris (fake name) and I both had a Thursday afternoon off and decided to hit up a happy hour. It was early, there were only about a dozen people in the bar including us and a group of 3 girls.

One of the girls was 100% Chris’s type (tall, thin, dark hair, outgoing) but he was a shy guy and didn’t have the courage to strike up a conversation.

30min and some liquid courage later, I take it upon myself to start chatting with the girls and specifically introduced Chris to the tall, dark haired girl Veronica (fake name for this story). She and her friends were all single, our age, in a nursing program at a cross town school and seemed like nice gals.

Chris, myself and the girls ended up shutting down the bar that night and by 10PM, Chris & Veronica were fully sucking face and acting like the rest of us didn’t exist. I was happy for him, but got a little nervous when they ended up leaving together and her friends started joking about ‘not knowing what he was in for’. Whatever, he’s an adult and far be it from me to rain on his parade.

After that night, Chris effectively disappeared off the map. The only times I would see him was in class or at that same bar with Veronica. The dude just seemed off, but refused to talk about it and insisted he was happy. Veronica on the hand? Refused to let him out of her site (would make him wait outside the bathroom for her).

Surprise surprise, turns out Veronica was a complete sociopath/narcissist/straight up con-artist who bled Chris dry both emotionally and financially. Highlights include (but are not limited to) fake pregnancies, forcing him to cut off friends, demanding he drop classes to fit her schedule and manipulating him into paying her rent/bills/lifestyle.

Now, Chris came from a nice upper-middle class who he was super close with and apparently they rightfully had some suspicions about this girl. I had just figured he was head over heels for Veronica and ignoring us all, but I knew something was wrong when his Mom called me and asked if I had spoken to Chris lately.

Turns out he had drained his bank account and started wracking up significant debt on the credit card he shared with parents, buying crazy expensive jewelry/make up/clothes for Veronica. That was enough for his parents to drive the 4hours from their hometown to stage a mini intervention.

In the end Chris had to drop out of school, move back home and his parents ended up getting a restraining order against Veronica. His parents forced him to get a job to pay off the $3K he accrued and ended up forfeiting his partial football scholarship.

I lost touch with him once he moved back home, but I sometimes wonder how his life would’ve turned out if we didn’t go to happy hour at Kelly’s on that Thursday..

#22

Image source: JabberwockPL, Thirdman

Twenty years ago I was a computer tech at university. One day my colleague has told me that she is reviewing a very interesting master’s thesis and asked me whether I could find some authors mentioned in the references. Back then everything was either not online or not easily searcheable, so doing so required some google fu. I have followed some obscure links and found a copy of the article that was referenced in one of the chapters. It turned out the whole chapter was basically a single citation – the student has only changed all the ‘I’s, i.e. instead of ‘I have researched’ it was ‘the author has researched’ etc. But of course that is not how it works…

That was literally on the eve of the defense of the thesis… It was a big scandal in the department. The student was kicked out – but given that they formally has finished their education, they could not repeat the year or anything like that – to receive the master’s degree they would have to essentially begin studies at a different department.

Of course, it was not my ‘fault’… Still, being so instrumental in the demise of that person (even if completely deserved) made me feel quite strange.

#23

Image source: Time_Ocean, Anna Shvets

He was f*****g around at work, never getting s**t done, always calling out for b******t reasons, etc. I ended up stuck doing all his work, so once when he called out for “a splitting, puking migraine”, then posted on Facebook about being at a concert, I narc’ed.

They fired him a few weeks later and since his wife refused to work, they ended up losing their house.

#24

Image source: OutOfPlace186, Kaboompics.com

I work in Human Resources and way back when I was new and naive, I had a home address change request for an employee come across my desk. I couldn’t read the handwriting and wanted to be sure I put in the correct new address, so I called their house and their wife answered. I asked her about it and much to my surprise she said “what the hell are you talking about?!” The employee came up to me a few days later and said “I didn’t tell her I was moving out yet.” 😟.

#25

I divorced my ex wife when I found out about her chronic cheating after dealing with years of her alcoholism. She immediately tried to get with the guy she was cheating with, who was married with kids. During a drunken fight between them, she called the cops and filed a false report against him (she had tried with me previously. Was proven fake). In his drunken state, he panicked and k**led himself.

My ex had no remorse, instead posted on social media looking for sympathy. Now 2 kids don’t have a dad and a wife lost a s****y husband. I only feel bad for the surviving family. I have no doubt I saved my own life by leaving her without trying to work things out. In the following month she tricked a guy into marrying her, got knocked up, bought a house. 12 months later he reached out to me on Facebook asking for divorce lawyer advice and asking me to testify against her. She signed away her rights as a mother when she saw my name on the court paperwork.

Image source: FigoTheAWD