"What goes around, comes around," is a saying that just about everyone has heard at some point or another, but not everyone has seen it come to life with their very own eyes. The people in the following stories, however, aren't those people.
A Reddit thread recently asked people to share the craziest examples of seeing instant karma on the open road. It's safe to say that each of the people in these stories definitely got what they deserved. All posts have been edited for clarity.
But Officer, I Didn’t See That School Zone
“There is a busy road through town where I live. It’s normally two lanes but over the winter, the right lane was shut and the speed limit was reduced to 15 mph while they laid new sewer pipe. I was driving the posted speed limit when a lady in a BMW gets behind me and starts waving her arms and flashing her lights.
When we got out of the roadworks, she flipped me off and stepped on the gas accelerating to 45-55 mph. She was still accelerating when she passed the cop parked in front of the local elementary school. It was a school day, so I think that ticket was a large one.”
Where Did That Pole Come From?
“We were living in Cleveland at the time, and my dad was driving home in his old Cutlass. Massive blizzard moves in on his way home, snow falling so bad you can barely see. He’s driving slow, like 15-20 mph, because of the conditions. Guy pulls up next to him and motions for him to roll down his window. My dad, thinking something is wrong, rolls down his window.
Guy then calls my dad a wuss, flips him off, and tells him to learn how to drive, then speeds off. About 5 minutes later, my dad rolls up on an accident where someone smashed into a telephone pole. Turns out, it was the person from earlier. So my dad slows down, rolls down his window, flips the guy off and tells him he needs to learn how to drive.
One of the happiest moments I ever saw my dad when he came home from work.”
The Brightest Light in the Bunch
“Driving my dad’s old trail jeep back from a BBQ one night, there was an old 1965 Willys, on a back road, doing about 35 MPH. Now, we had this jeep as a kind of rally support vehicle, lights all over the place, extra battery and everything.
It’s about 4 AM, nobody in front or behind us, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere from behind us comes a whatever sports car. I immediately switch to the right lane, giving him ample space to pass me. Instead of taking the offer, the prick gets behind me and starts honking and flashing his high beams.
This goes on for about a minute, while I try to figure out what exactly is he complaining about, until I figured out he was really just trying to mess up with me. By then, my dad is already half-awake, when I instruct my girlfriend to open the glove compartment, flip the four top switches and the one on the left. She asks me about it, and I just tell her to do it and see. She starts flipping them, and just as my dad yells from the back seat, ‘Don’t do it,’ she flips the last one.
All of the lights around the center column, (6 on top, 4 each side), plus four high beams on the rear bumper, all light up like a thousand suns, right in front of this guy’s eyes. He slams the breaks so hard his car immediately spins about 720 degrees before regaining control and stopping.
She flips the lights off and away we go. He just stood there behind us, half a mile or so, all the way until we got off the road, never again trying to pass us!”
It Was Too Late
“My stepdad was not a nice person. He held me to a higher standard than he held himself. I was always wrong. He was always right.
One day, we are headed to get breakfast at a cafe in my super small town. My stepdad decided he was irritated that the car in front of us was going slow. He decided, as is typical of him, that he would tailgate the car. Again, he’s not nice.
I was a passenger and I saw the driver look in his rearview a couple of times, then, somehow, all his lights flashed. I thought ‘that’s weird,’ so I looked a bit more critically – Dodge Intrepid that could make its lights flash… weird extra antennas on the roof… strange license plate. That’s an unmarked cop car!
So I told him, ‘That’s a cop!’
Of course, as if it was just a quick reaction, he told me to shut up.
I decided that I would let this play out. A few moments later, the car in front pulled off the road abruptly and immediately pulled back onto the road behind us.
Now, I am certain my stepdad was getting what was coming to him.
Did I tell you about how this guy was sick? He’d beat me if I so much as left crumbs near the toaster in the morning. I mean – beat – like fists to side of face. Child protective services knew us well. Sadly, I was so conditioned and scared, I always protected him; blaming bruises on other stuff (we had a 120-pound dog who was an easy scapegoat, I played a sport, etc).
As I suspected, it was a cop. And he was ticked off. My stepdad saw this finally and as I watched the realization that I was right set in, he decided maybe now was a good time to put on the seat belt that he never wears. Except, it wasn’t.
With one hand on the wheel and two eyes on the rearview mirror, he had no hands or eyes to manage the curve that was coming and so we crossed over the center line into oncoming traffic.
The cop had seen enough and put his lights on.
I was laughing. Uncontrollable, belly busting laughter. This guy will get owned by this cop. But it turned out even better than I thought.
We pulled over. The cop came up and was about to do his spiel when he suddenly said, ‘Sir! Step out of the vehicle! Now!’
I was actually scared at this point. The cop made him spread ’em’ against the car hood and then came back to where I was sitting and retrieved the nine-inch buck knife my stepdad kept between the seat and the stick shift. The cop placed the knife on the roof and proceeded to pat down and lecture my stepdad.
Did I mention how all of this is happening directly in front of the local cafe where the entire town had breakfast?
Needless to say, the cop was not impressed and I got to see this fool who made my life a living nightmare get treated like the criminal I knew he was.”
Two Thumbs Up!
“Years ago, my brother and I were going to school together. He was driving, I was the passenger. The route we take involves turning onto a road that is 4-lane, then becomes 2-lane for a little under a mile, then back to 4-lane. I can’t remember the setup exactly, but we turned onto the road where it becomes 2-lane and found we were behind a little red compact car. The speed limit here was 35 and this car was going 31-33. My bro and I were chilling a good distance, the road splits soon, no need to be impatient.
The black sports car behind us did not agree. He rode our tail tighter than any car I’ve ever seen. The whole mile, we never saw his grill in the mirrors, just windshield with Sir Jerkface furiously behind the wheel. As we approached the 2-to-4 expansion, I noticed a cop car parked on the other side facing the opposite direction, with two guys inside of it.
As we approached the split, the little red car naturally went into the right lane. My brother started to follow it for a second, then caught himself and switched to moving toward the left lane. Sir Jerkface saw this and would have none of it. That left lane is his. He sat on the horn as he drove full speed, straight towards the left lane and us. My bro quickly swerved right just fast enough to dodge, then went back into the left lane as we regained our composure and I put together what just happened.
This is where the madness really started.
We sat there for about three seconds, breathing heavily and staring at each other. Then, I remembered the cop car. I spun my head around to confirm my suspicion. Yep, it tore a U-turn at the split and was rapidly approaching us. I yelled at my bro to quickly return to the right lane. As he completed that, the cop car hit its lights and sirens and sped past us towards the red light ahead, where Sir Jerkface was impatiently waiting.
The karma was finally happening.
We reached them as they were pulling off to the side. I gave an enthusiastic two thumbs up to the cop car as we passed. I drove that road on average four times a week for four years, I have not seen that cop car parked there before or since. The one day it was, was the day I needed it. My guardian angel, my sweet justice.”
Ya Get What Ya Give
“I must say, when I smoke these days I always extinguish them in an ash tray in my car, rather than just flicking them out the window. I wish I could say I was always in this habit. But my past indiscretions do lead to a slightly funny story:
When I was about 19, I was driving home from work around 8 pm, cruising at about 65 along the highway. Even though I was in the habit of flicking butts out my window, I would at least try to do it in a place where it wasn’t going to hit somebody, or their car… usually.
I finish a smoke, and unthinkingly just flick it out the window. Looking in the rear view mirror, I see it catch the air turbulence of my car and smash directly into the center of the windshield of a car behind me.
I felt bad. I would rationalize the littering all over the state through great feats of questionable logic; but I couldn’t rationalize how much of a prick I was for blatantly flicking a a butt into someone’s windshield.
The other car swerved a bit on the initial hit, recovered, and immediately accelerated into the left lane beside me to express their discontent with my actions.
I tried to look apologetic and explain with meek facial gestures and soft hand motions that I really didn’t mean to do that. I’m sure I failed to communicate that, but it doesn’t matter. I was the aggressor in this situation regardless.
The other car accelerates and quickly pulls in front of me. Then… nothing. They just drive at a reasonable speed ahead of me.
About 3 minutes later, their car slows down a bit, and I can see the driver awkwardly rolling down the window via his manual window lever… having a bit of trouble keeping his car within the lane. As though his other hand is occupied and he’s driving with his knees.
Then, from out of the darkness comes a cacophony of embers from his driver’s side window. I’d estimate at least 20, possibly 40, lit smokes being shoved out the window, peppering my car all over. My car was about one week old, still shiny and perfect. Each smoke blemishing the paint just enough to never be perfect anymore.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but I totally deserved that; and it was pretty brilliant.
I pulled up along the side of him, and I think this time I successfully looked apologetic. Gave him a respectful wave and slowed for my exit.
These days, I don’t flick anything out my window, for more reasons than just hilarious retaliation; but that was the first day I really thought of my actions in a more serious way, I started to grow up a bit.”
Failure to See
“I was driving down a 5 lane road (two lanes each side and a turning lane) doing 40 m.p.h. in a 35 m.p.h. zone. I usually stick close to the speed limit because this was a major road used a lot and the cops would patrol it.
I was doing 40 and getting tailgated by this dude in a Dodge Neon. I drive a four wheel drive F-150. At one point he was so close to me, I could only see the roof of his car in my rear-view mirror over my tailgate. My truck really isn’t that tall, he was just really close. I just held my speed at 40. Didn’t brake check him, just let him sit there. I could see he was getting angry. I didn’t want to slow down because he was so close. The other lane was clear for 300 to 400 yards, I would have happily let him pass me, I just didn’t want him to be behind me anymore.
Finally, he whips into the curb lane, it ended up being a dressed up Neon, with a wing on the back and the big mufflers that make a lot of noise. He pulled up next to me, stared straight at me taking his eyes off the road, screamed ‘IDIOT,’ and then revved the engine. Chances are if he had taken a second to actually look at the road, he would have noticed the parked delivery truck in front of him, as he slammed on the accelerator, he basically slammed right into the back of a delivery truck.
Me, being the prick I am, broke out into laughter, then pulled over and walked back to see if he was okay. The Neon had tucked itself underneath the delivery truck, peeling back the hood and mangling the front clip. The delivery truck driver saw everything, as did the people behind me.
When the cops showed up (the delivery truck driver called them), he tried to insist that I ran him into the truck. Thankfully, some people came to my rescue. Even the cops didn’t believe his story. After I talked to the cops, I was free to leave. As I was leaving they were giving him a field sobriety test. I am not sure what happened to him.”
Don’t Flip Off the Cop
“It was a bout 1 am in the middle of town at a stoplight, and a nicer Mustang pulls up along side me (I’m in a stock Corolla) and starts revving his engine, calling me a names while his girlfriend is laughing.
I ignore him and turn up my music. He peels out, takes off and goes around the bend. That’s when I see the cop pull out of a parking lot on the side of the road. I slow down and wave to the guy as he is pulled over.
He flips me off just as the cop is walking up to his window.”
Mass Karma
“My dad was driving back from the shore when traffic got bad. About a mile ahead, there was an accident that had brought traffic to a crawl.
It just so happens that my dad decided to be patient. Others weren’t so patient. People began driving on the shoulder in order to get ahead of the traffic. This angered my dad. We all know how this goes. We do the right thing and are punished for it, whereas these fools are skipping in front of traffic and will probably get away with it. He thought about following this stream of cars onto the shoulder, but he decided he’d do the right thing and wait.
As he got closer, he saw two cops in a parking lot. One cop was directing all of the shoulder drivers into the parking lot, while the other wrote all of those drivers tickets.
He described it as one of the most satisfying things he’s ever seen.”
It’s Not Nice to Mess With Mother Nature
“I had a prick in a Hummer riding my tail at the speed limit, down a steep, snowy hill, in the right lane, in the middle of winter, 20-30 seconds away from a light that clearly had less than 15 seconds left before turning.
After about 5 seconds of being 2 feet from my bumper, he decides to change lanes and floor it in an attempt to cover the last 20 seconds of ground in the 10 seconds left. About 200 feet short of the intersection the light turns red and the moron finally decides it would be a good time to start slowing down.
He slid through the red light, clipped the rear end of a tractor trailer, and took out the traffic light at the far end of the intersection.
For bonus marks, it turned out there was a cop a few hundred feet behind us, and, being well uphill of us, had a nice clear view of the idiot weaving through traffic and accelerating to nearly twice the speed limit towards a light they could not possibly make.”
Sometimes The Winner Is Actually The Loser
“My first car wasn’t the greatest vehicle, but I managed to scrape some money together to be able to afford it, and it was something I was proud of being able to have when I was young.
I was out driving, running errands in an affluent part of the city, when I came to a red light. These two dudes around my age in some expensive car that was obviously paid for by their parents, with music blaring through their expensive subs, pulled up beside me and were kind of snickering to themselves, taking a few glances at me every now and then. Whatever, it’s fine.
Eventually, the driver rolled down his window and asks, ‘Hey, bro. Wanna put that wussy thing to the test?’ And started revving his engine. Now me being a little jokester, I started revving my engine because I knew they weren’t expecting me to do that. The two bros went, ‘Ohhhh,’ and started getting fired up.
The green light came and we both slammed on our accelerators, except I capped out at the speed limit. The two losers sped off in a big display and headed around the bend.
Now the thing about this stretch of road is that there are usually cops set up with speed traps. Lo and behold, when I came around the bend, their car was pulled over to the side with a cop parked right behind them, lights flaring.
They did not seem amused by my smile and wave as I passed by them.”
Old Man Foiled By Technology
“An elderly guy had a brand new debit card that wasn’t activated. He yelled and screamed at me and the store manager about how signing his name makes it work.
Anyways, he tried to leave the gas station and immediately got pulled over for not only ‘reckless driving’ (he sped out of the station), the cop also loudly informed him he was getting a ticket for no seatbelt.
My manager and I haven’t seen him again, he was a regular, not only for his own gas, but also all the girls he was/is a sugar daddy for.”
Fist Fight In The Parking Lot
“Outside a venue at a concert, two big tough guys in a truck were slowly rolling along, obviously bothering two female acquaintances of mine. Finally, one of the girls stuck up for the other one and told the guy to get lost. By this point, there was a bit of an audience, so truck bro yelled something about us guys out there at the show needing to ‘leash your dogs,’ then peeled out toward a four-way stop.
The four-way stop turned red and they waited, which was enough time for a scary dude (and a friend of the girls I found out later) to sprint out of the crowd and after the truck. He reached them at the light, stepped up to the driver side window, leaned in, undid the guy’s seatbelt, and ripped him entirely back out the window.
The scary guy proceeded to choke him out and explain to him why it was happening, while truck bro two had to stop the truck from listing out into the intersection. He then got out and whined and orbited, threatening to call the cops over and over.
He let the dudes go, and they got back in their truck, peeled out again, and left.”
“It Was Fantastic To Witness”
“I saw this guy a few miles back, weaving in and out of traffic across three lanes of highway. I was in the lefthand lane, starting to pass a semi, so I had nowhere to go except forward and it was my absolute intention to get ahead of the truck and then get over so this idiot could go wreck somewhere else. Of course he gets up my tail as I’m already doing 10 over, and it’s not worth it for me to go faster, because in my state doing 80 mph will get you a much higher fine.
So I get even with the front of the semi, flick on my blinker to let the guy know that I’m getting out of his very important way, and then start moving into the middle lane when I’m just over a car length in front of the truck. Speedy decides to try to cut me off on the right side, which also put him way close to the front of the semi (which is a ticket-able offense in my state as well).
I slightly swerve back into the left lane, the guy accelerates up, and then from the righthand lane, an undercover car swings behind him, flicks on lights and sirens, and pulls him right over. It was fantastic to witness. I spent the next few hours of my drive playing it over and laughing to myself.”