Nighttime Noisy Revenge: How One Tenant Turned the Tables on a Lazy Maintenance Guy
Let’s face it: apartments are a mixed bag. One day, you’re thrilled to have your own place; the next, you’re stuck showering under a trickle, your garbage disposal is on strike, and the only guy who can fix it seems to have gone full “Where’s Waldo?”—unless you’re a good-looking neighbor. If you’ve ever felt ignored by an apartment maintenance team, you’re not alone. But few people take their frustration to the creative, sleep-defying lengths of one Redditor, u/CollectsTooMuch, who brought a whole new meaning to “petty revenge.”
This is the story of how a disgruntled tenant, a trusty compressor, and a very tired maintenance man became unwilling co-stars in an epic late-night showdown. Bonus: the Reddit community showed up with jokes, puns, and some surprisingly sage advice.
The Setup: An Apartment Nightmare, With a Side of Favoritism
Reddit user u/CollectsTooMuch set the scene: a cheap apartment, a solid roommate, and a laundry list of maintenance issues—think dead garbage disposal and pathetic water pressure. But after months of submitting requests, the only thing getting fixed was the morale of the “two good looking women across the hall.” Our hero was ignored, while the maintenance guy spun excuses like a DJ at a wedding.
As u/CollectsTooMuch pointed out, “He lived on-site and had to handle emergencies.” But unless you were on his preferred client list, your problems were never urgent enough. One commenter, u/BayAreaPupMom, nailed it: “The sad thing is: he'll never connect that his lack of sleep was a direct correlation to his jerk attitude. Still good pay back.” In other words, sometimes karma needs a little nudging—with a power tool.
The Compressor Conundrum: Petty Revenge, Powered by Electricity
Here’s where things get electric—literally. One night, while working on his car in the garage, OP’s trusty rolling air compressor tripped the breaker, plunging the outdoor lights and garages into darkness. He watched as the “maintenance man” shuffled out of bed to flip the breaker back. Eureka!—a plan was born.
Armed with knowledge of the weak circuit and a schedule of late-night hours, our revenge artist started a campaign of calculated chaos: flipping the breaker by firing up the compressor at all hours—especially at 3 or 4 a.m. The maintenance man had no choice but to get up, every…single…time.
Redditors took this and ran with it. As u/CoderJoe1 punned, “You compressed his sleep schedule.” Others piled on: “considered it preventative maintenance on his ego too,” quipped u/Slight-Book2296. Even as the maintenance guy failed to fix OP’s problems, he became intimately acquainted with the breaker box—night after sleepless night.
The Community’s Take: Puns, Insights, and a Dash of Debate
Reddit’s r/PettyRevenge crowd never met a dad joke they didn’t love. The post’s top comments are a pun-derful masterclass: “He must be PSI-d,” cracked u/Chum_Gum_6838, while u/duchess5788 riffed, “Or needed to use his bar.” And, because it’s Reddit, the joke train never quite stops: “when do you know it's a dad joke? When it... becomes a pparent,” deadpanned u/Informal_Ad_9610. Even the peanut gallery can’t resist a good groan.
But beyond the laughs, the thread is full of practical wisdom and a touch of empathy. Some users, like u/Magazine_Spare, noted that many apartment fixes aren’t rocket science—“low water pressure? unscrew the shower nozzle and remove any sediment… garbage disposal doesn't work? could be a switch or a hex wrench.” Instead, the maintenance guy chose the path of most resistance…and least sleep.
The post also sparked debate about the ethics of “revenge power outages.” One user worried about CPAP users, but OP clarified that “the circuit was for the outside lights and garages. Unless they were sleeping in a garage, there was no danger.” Others pointed out that onsite managers sometimes don’t get overtime for these late-night calls, so the only thing lost was beauty sleep—and maybe some dignity.
Lessons Learned: The Petty Power of Persistence
What’s the moral here? Sometimes, when you’re ignored by those in power (or, in this case, those with a wrench), a little creative persistence goes a long way. As u/Vin-DicktiveDiaries observed, “He set the rules. He decided that 'Outside Lights' constituted an emergency, but 'Broken Garbage Disposal' did not. You simply played by his rulebook.”
While the maintenance guy likely never realized the source of his nocturnal woes, OP and his roommate enjoyed months of mischievous satisfaction. As OP himself said, “But I know and that’s what was important to me.”
And isn’t that the essence of petty revenge? Not to change the world, but to know you’ve nudged the universe ever-so-slightly in your favor—one compressor at a time.
Have Your Own Petty Victory?
Ever outwitted a lazy landlord or found creative ways to restore balance in your rental kingdom? Share your stories (and best puns) in the comments below! And remember: sometimes, the smallest acts make for the best tales—especially if they keep your nemesis up at night.
Stay tuned for more real-life petty victories from around the internet. Because sometimes, revenge really is a dish best served…at 3 a.m.
Original Reddit Post: Made sure the lazy maintenance guy didn’t get sleep