23-year-old small business owner gets swindled out of being paid, goes to the customer's place and removes his front door: ‘Store wide open in the middle of a busy street.’

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Jun 13, 2025 4:00 PM EDT

When making a transaction, the usual way it goes down is that you pay for the services and/or goods you are receiving. That's just how society works. whether the payment is a trade or money, it's a transaction. So when one party dips out on the agreed agreement, then there are going to be problems. That's common sense at this point. So when someone tries to ditch on the bill, they know exactly what they are doing. Shame on them!

 

And yet, this happens all the time. In the case of this 23-year-old business owner, he had a customer very early on in his career try to get free tradesmen services out of him. He was hired to install a glass door and did just that, a good job at it I might add! And when it came time to pay the bill, the customer was nowhere to be found…

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  • So, the young tradesman used a friend's phone to call him on an unknown number, told him to pay or he will be taking back the door. The guy did not listen and, well, he did just that. 

  • Cheezburger Image 10516423936
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • My friend has a glass business, replaces broken doors, windows etc! One time this Donair shop got broken into and they hired him to replace their broken glass door.
    via PsychologicalWill88
  • My friends business replaced it and billed him. He viewed the invoice and didn't pay for weeks. My friend kept following up and he'd ignore him. Never paid the invoice! He ended up blocking my friends number -
    via PsychologicalWill88
  • My friend calls from a different number and says if you don't pay I'll remove the door. * IGNORED AGAIN* My friend waits until Friday at midnight and goes. removes the door himself, alarms go off. Store wide open in the middle of a busy street.
    via PsychologicalWill88
  • All of a sudden he has 30 missed calls from the shop owner begging for the door back and that he'll pay the invoice! He told him he can hire another company to install a new door for him and he doesn't want his business.
    via PsychologicalWill88
  • Shop owner was begging and my friend didn't budge and blocked his number EDIT: I know what he did was "illegal". Please keep in mind my friend was 22 or 23 years old when this happened about 3 years ago. They're middle
    via PsychologicalWill88
  • eastern, both the friend and shop owner and trust me when I say we middle easterners don't go through court for anything and solve the problem ourselves. I a 30 year old women grew up with this guy and he was much younger than me, but now
    via PsychologicalWill88
  • we're both business owners and he's done glass for my store etc. Very successful kid now! I have no time or reason to lie about this story. I just saw the petty revenge Reddit and thought of that story from years ago!
    via PsychologicalWill88
  • Cheezburger Image 10516431104
    via Unsplash+ (and Maria Ziegler)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • delulu4drama Not paying their bill left revenge options WIDE OPEN earphonecreditroom The shop owner must have gotten unhinged after seeing the fallout
    via delulu4drama
  • BrianaAgain Yeah, I pay tradesmen before anybody else.
    via BrianaAgain
  • FreddyForshadowing I feel like this is a bit more than petty revenge, but it's still hilarious. Your friend should have sent another invoice for removing the door. Edit: I also hope your friend made sure to pass the word to all his competitors about the deadbeat shop owner so that they are blacklisted from everyone in the area. They may be competitors, but everyone deserves to be paid for their work.
    via FreddyForshadowing
  • hamfwb I'm so happy he refused payment and just kept the door. There's a chance this lesson might actually stick. Your friend is making the world a better place.
    via hamfwb
  • legionexile015 Absolute masterpiece. Nothing says "pay your invoice" like a midnight door heist. Your friend didn't just collect a debt, he served poetic justice with a glassy finish.
    via legionexile015

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karens blue collar employee tradie working in trades tradesman trade work blue collar workers blue collar worker story reddit karen young blue collar what goes around comes around entitled people karma pay back senior blue collar karens in the wild justice served entitled karen karma r-entitled Reddit karen story blue collar karma karen entitled people
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