Couple Gets Revenge On Neighbor After They Snuck Their Underwear Into Their Laundry, But Not Everyone Is On Their Side
Some felt like they probably deserved it for hogging the washer, but who puts their underwear in someone else's laundry to begin with?
ssuaphotos, krakenimages / Shutterstock.com; Canva Pro Apartment-living definitely has its benefits, but one of the biggest downsides is having to share laundry facilities with all your neighbors.
Having to wait for those washers and dryers when you just want to get your laundry done is a total drag, but one person's neighbor had a truly daring, and kind of bizarre, solution to the problem that sparked quite bit of a debate about apartment laundry decorum.
A couple found that their neighbor added their underwear to their wash cycle.
Yes, people hogging the washers is profoundly annoying. But who would mix their underwear in with a stranger's? That's precisely what happened to a couple on Reddit.
As they detailed in a post to the "Petty Revenge" subreddit, it all began when the Redditor and their partner put in a load of laundry before running out for a quick errand, thinking they'd arrive back just in time to put the load in the dryer.
But when they returned, things were not as expected. "The washer we swore we started says it has 30 minutes left," the Redditor wrote. "Odd."
After some investigating, they discovered they hadn't forgotten to turn it on, but rather, "someone who had a small handful of underwear and shirts decided on the bright idea of mixing their laundry in with ours and rerunning the cycle."
The couple got revenge on their neighbor by leaving their laundry soaking in the stopped washing machine all day.
The subreddit is called "petty revenge," after all. Rather than re-run the washing cycle and leave the neighbor's underwear off to the side, the couple instead pulled out their clothers, wrung out all the water into the machine, and left the neighbor's underwear swimming there with the lid open so the cycle wouldn't run.
Photo: Reddit
Of course, they thought about going even bigger with their payback. "We did think about even more petty options like putting their clothing outside, but [our] complex has cameras outside so we decided against it." Instead, they figured "we can at least delay them getting their clothing done longer."
That's a lot more merciful than a lot of the stories other Redditors had to tell, like one woman who dumped a jar of pasta sauce on her neighbor's clothes when they removed her laundry without asking. Yikes.
Most were on the couple's side, but others thought they probably deserved to have their laundry messed with.
The internet is full of all kinds of stories of neighbors making things deeply weird when it comes to the apartment complex laundry room, from stealing their neighbors' undies to hanging them up like decor when they accidentally leave them behind, as happened to the woman below.
But actually putting your own underwear into someone else's laundry, to mix and mingle with theirs? That's on a whole other level. Still, some on Reddit felt like this couple probably brought it on themselves.
Many assumed the couple had been hogging all the washers and had left their laundry sitting for far longer than they let on — a common and deeply annoying occurrence in apartment laundry rooms.
Photo: Reddit
"While I agree ADDING clothes is weird... if I came down to the laundry room and the washers were full, I’d give them 10 mins to come get their stuff," one person wrote. "I don’t have all day to wait while they ... hog the machines." Fair enough!
But it turns out, this situation was so, so much weirder than that. Because there were nineteen other washers available. And two other laundry rooms in the complex!
Photo: Reddit
So it really seems like the neighbor just... didn't want to do their own laundry or something? And, well, adding your underwear to someone else's washer is certainly one way to solve that problem! A very weird and gross one, but a solution all the same.
But weird and gross as it is, experts like lawyers and real estate agents say revenge is probably not the best solution for neighbor disputes.
Rather, a conversation, a report to a building manager, and taking legal action with your local housing authorities, if necessary, are better. Or, you could just do what I would do, which is just leave the laundry behind, buy new clothes, and never look back. Who knows where that neighbor's undies have been!
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.