When a relative does something so messed up, it can affect the whole family. These people open up about their dysfunctional family members and what they did to earn a "What the heck" from everyone.
He Was Using Their Computer To “Check His E-Mail”
“Have a cousin who used my parent’s computer to ‘check his e-mail’ but instead, he was trading inappropriate child footage he had made with someone else. All the computers in the house had to be part of the investigation. The computers are still pretty screwed up with all the software installed by the investigator’s team and they had to go to federal court. He’s in prison for a very, very long time and he’s been disowned.”
It Started Out As Helping Out An Old Lady
“A couple of years ago, a couple of distant family members (father and son) were arrested for murder. That’s pretty messed up as it is, but the details of the murder make it freaking unconscionable.
The father had been helping out this elderly woman, cutting her grass, etc and found out that she kept her life savings stashed in her house. In short time, his wife gets a new car, and his son, who was a police officer, is suddenly able to pay off his bills and get out of debt. Apparently, this went on for a couple of years until one night when the father, and possibly the son (there were conflicting testimonies), decides to break in and clean her out. The old woman tries to stop him and the jerk chokes and beats her to death.
Both father and son got life and the wife got 25 years as an accessory. The father died in jail a few months ago. I don’t really believe in Hell, but in this case, I hope there is one reserved for him.”
Her Sister Attempted To Kill Her Whole Family
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“My sister tried to murder my family while we slept. Wound up in the Utah state mental hospital. She was 14. I was 11.
One spring day, in Salt Lake City, my older sister decided to take me to the mall. We took the bus downtown, bummed around, spent our allowance, typical kid stuff. Wandering around, we came across a 19-ish old street kid bumming money. I asked him bluntly why the heck he didn’t get a job. He laughed and asked my sister if she wanted to get some ‘white stuff.’ I knew what was up. I also knew she had no money. He told her he’d help her get some money for it. He sent her off with some guy and hung out with me.
When my sister returned, we went behind a building and my sister and the guy shot up. While I had watched enough television to know what was up, I had never been directly exposed to anything like this. She handed me a bunch of change, told me to tell my parents we got separated, and take the bus home. So that’s what I did. About 2 weeks went by with no sign of her. Then, one night, the phone rang. My parents went to pick her up from the police station. She had been living with some random guy in a van.
When she came home, her pupils were huge. She told me how she had done sooo many substances and made sooo much money selling herself. I was pretty disgusted. Then she told me how we could be independent of our parents (my mother and I didn’t get along well) and it would only involve starting a small fire. ‘You’re talking about killing them?’ I asked, with far less horror in my voice than I felt. She laughed and called me gullible.
A few mornings later, I woke up around 5 in the morning. I’m not sure what woke me, I think it was the smoke. I wrapped myself in the baby blanket my great-grandmother had made me, and ran outside, yelling for my family to come out. My parents and younger sister followed. My stepdad ran back inside to get my older sister and our pets. My sister’s bedroom door was locked. The fire was coming from within. But she was in our backyard, with a backpack, clothes, food, her flute, and her VHS Star Wars trilogy.
I remember narrowing my eyes at her and telling her I knew she did this. The fire was out before the fire department got there. She was charged (and eventually convicted of) 4 counts of attempted homicide and aggravated arson. I had come clean with my parents about most of what had transpired that day, as well as the ominous ‘joke’ about starting a fire to emancipate us.
My statement to the police, the fact that she was packed and ready to go, and the batteries having been removed from the smoke detector were more than sufficient to show her intentions. She remained in the state hospital until she was an adult. “
His Parents Stole His Money
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“When I was 16, I cut my finger off in a shop class accident at school. The table saws didn’t meet the minimum state safety standards, so my parents sued the high school. They settled out of court for a little over $25k, which after attorneys fees, left me with about $20k. Being a minor, the money had to go in a joint account with my parents on the account. I took $1500 and bought my first pickup truck about a week after the settlement. Fast forward 2 months later and I’m checking the mail one day after school, and I see an envelope from the bank. It’s addressed to my parents and myself, so I go ahead and open it – it’s an overdraft notice!
I figure, this has got to be a mistake, so I get in my truck and drive down to the bank. Sure enough, my piece of crap mother has spent every last dime of the money! I go ahead and get a print out of all the transactions, and go home and wait for her to get home from work. As soon as she hits the door, I ask her for $1000 to go school clothes shopping, and she tells me that she doesn’t think I need to spend that much money on clothes and that we could go together next week. So I say cool, then let me have $100 so I can get some stuff for my truck. She starts getting agitated and asks me why I’m in such a hurry to spend all my money (keep in mind, the only time I’ve touched it was to purchase the truck 2 months prior).
At this point, I can’t keep it in anymore, and I go and get the bank notice and the printout from the bank and I throw it in her face. Needless to say, the argument that ensued was the legitimate end of my relationship with my mother, and the start of a really big strain on the relationship with my father. Apparently, my mother had been hiding a gambling addiction, and 90% of the money she stole from me went to that. She would go down to the local pub and write checks for cash to the bar and would sit there for hours feeding my finger money into the machines.
Fast forward 10 years or so, and I’ve reconnected with my aunt and uncle on my dad’s side on Facebook. We are having a conversation about my grandmother, who had passed away when I was 8, and the conversation turns to what my brother and I had done with our lives. I haven’t talked to this woman in nearly 20 years, so I give her the rundown and tell her that my brother is working for Southwest and that I’m a mechanic at a local car dealership. She then proceeds to ask me if I had used my college trust to go to technical school to learn how to be a mechanic. I laughed and said you’re joking – dead silence ensues.
According to her, when my grandmother died, her will stated that all her belongings were to be sold, including her house and land, and the money was to be divided equally amongst all her children (3) and grandchildren (5). I asked her what her share was, and she said just a tad over $88k. I remember my parents getting new cars and taking trips after my grandmother died, but as an 8-year-old, I didn’t think anything of it.
My mother is worthless scum who throughout my entire life has done nothing but stolen from my brother and myself without even batting an eye.”
It’s Sickening How They Take Advantage Of Their Elderly Parents
“Back in the late ’90s, my grandmother went to live with her son (my uncle). She was in fairly good health at the time being in her early 70s. She could drive herself, do the grocery shopping, clean the house, etc. After a few years, she started to get hip pain which progressed to where she could no longer drive, cook, clean, etc. She was able to walk with the use of a walker, but it was very painful for her. Getting her in/out of the house required using a wheelchair.
I would visit her once or twice a year as she lived approximately 8 hours away. My uncle’s house was always a mess, dirty, smelly, cat/dog poop all over the house, etc. My uncle would always say that the doctor said her hip didn’t need replacing yet and that it could be managed with pain medication.
I’d always report what I saw back to my mom and one year she had enough. We went down to visit and she looked nothing like herself. Her hair was past shoulder length when it was always cut short before, her fingernails were not trimmed, her bed sheets stained and filthy. We took her to get her hair cut and they said it had been 18 months since she was last there. She was also showing signs of early dementia complicated by the pain pills and lack of general interaction with the outside world.
A few weeks later, my brother, mother, and I drove down with a U-Haul, packed up all her stuff and moved her back up to my mom’s house. One of the first things we did was schedule her with a hip doctor. He said her hip was so bad that he couldn’t do it and would need to go to a specialist to have it replaced. Even the specialist was appalled at how bad it was. A few weeks later her hip was replaced and she was off the meds.
We also dug into her financial records. My prick uncle had not only been taking her social security checks at his own discretion but using her credit cards as well. He had racked up over $60k in credit card debt. His response: ‘Well that’s the cost of running a household.’ Oh and that he drove and trashed her car since she couldn’t drive anymore.
So for a couple thousand a month in SS benefits, her credit cards, some cashed in stocks, she got to live in severe pain, in a house cut off from the world, surrounded by filth. If she was getting a level of care that corresponded with the money he took from her, we wouldn’t care.
Since we moved her up here, her son hasn’t called her once. Well, he did call once to ask for her social security number because he couldn’t remember the online password to pay on her credit cards. We, of course, didn’t give it to him. I sort of wish my mom had filed criminal charges against him. He doesn’t think anything he did was wrong.
Sadly, a similar situation is going on with my father’s mother as well. He’s racked up over $15k in legal fees trying to get full custody of his mother as well while her daughters destroy her house and use up her money for their own deeds. I haven’t seen her in almost 2 years because of all this. They won’t let anyone in the house, not that I would put myself or my 2-year-old son in that house full of 4 dogs and 15+ cats.
It’s truly sickening to see how my family can treat their own parents.”
Her Mom Tried To Have Her Arrested
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“When I was about 21, I was staying at my dad’s place while he was out of town, partly to take care of things – lawn, mail etc, and partly because I had a terrible boyfriend/roommate and couldn’t handle being there more than I had to so it was to be a nice 2-month respite while I sorted out my crap. I was having trouble sleeping and was generally very depressed but I was trying to just take care of the house and go to work. About a month in, I get a phone call at my dad’s place from my mother. It’s 6 AM, I had just managed to fall asleep a few hours prior, and she’s wasted. Like incomprehensibly wasted, which was nothing new but lordy 6 AM is early to be that wasted (or late I suppose if she were still). She says something to the effect of ‘yu haven ben takin care uvva house. Imma come or there an make yu shape up.’ I told her in no uncertain terms that she was not welcome (my dad supported me in this) and that if she came over, she would not be getting in the house, and I hung up.
She shows up at 8 AM, even more wasted than before, and starts wailing on the door, hollering un-words to get me to open it. Evidently, she had a key, ever the pragmatic one her. She comes barging in, kicks in the door of the bedroom and starts screaming at me, then lumbers to the kitchen and starts crashing around the dishes talking about how I’m a failure and can’t clean, do my job, I’m a tramp, etc. I start yelling back, after 2 hours of sleep and over 10 years of her BS I was done. I tell her to get out and start escorting her wobbly wasted butt to the door. At this point she crumples to the floor, wailing like an injured deer and screaming that I’m hitting her, oh why is her cruel, cruel daughter hitting her!
She grabs the phone and dials 911. I grab it back and hang it up. Of course, they call right back and I answer, trying to explain what the situation is while she’s shrieking in the background. I hang up again. I tell her if she makes me deal with the police over her stupid wasted lies, I WILL NEVER SPEAK TO HER AGAIN. She thinks I’m bluffing and when the cops call back again she launches into a slurred tirade about how I hit her and was kicking her and she’s terrified of what I’ll do. I didn’t know what to do. She was looking at me with this childish smirk the whole time she was on the phone, I could hear her ‘Ha Ha Ha’ in my head. I went to my room, packed up my things, and left her there. I heard her yelling to the cops ‘She’s getting away! Hurry up and arrest her!’ The last words I ever said to her were ‘NEVER AGAIN.’
That was 7 years ago. The only communication I’ve had since was a couple years ago around Christmas, she told my dad to tell me ‘I’m not gonna live forever you know.’ It’s a shame. Up until I was 10 she was a saint, almost idyllic. She painted, did crafty stuff with me like decoupaging and paper mache, she sang to me and knew everything about literature and history, she was a great cook, and REALLY funny, so beautiful and charming. It was very hard to watch everything fall apart when I was 10.”
The Relationship Took A Serious Turn
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“My group of friends and I always use to hang at our one friend Jay’s house. His mom used to be really cool and talk to us and buy us junk food. Then my best friend at the time, Mark, got really close to Jay’s mom. At first, it was like just talking to her in the kitchen a room away from everyone, like whatever who cares. Then she started picking him up when we went over. Weird but whatever, maybe she was around and he didn’t have a ride.
Then the summer before senior year of high school I got a job. I worked weekends, so I wasn’t at Jay’s as much as the others. Apparently, during this time as I learned later, Mark and Jay’s mom hung out a lot. As in Mark was always at Jay’s, even when nobody else was there. Jay’s girlfriend told me that whenever she was there, Mark was already there hanging out with Jay’s mom. Also, they went to go see movies and get dinner.
Now Jay’s mom has been married twice before the current one. Jay’s dad the first, his brother’s dad the second. The current guy, Moe, is one of the most chill, nicest guys ever. He just wanted to watch sports and eat steak. So as far as my friends and I knew, the marriage didn’t have any problems. Then it all came to climax.
Mark’s dad is pretty paranoid and a liar, so he went through Mark’s phone and saw messages, pictures, etc. Mark was 17 so his dad freaked. Called the cops, got Jay’s mom fired from a teaching job, and told Moe. So fast forward like 2 months, Jay’s mom moved out with Jay’s little brother into an apartment in the same building as Mark. Freaking genius, right? Jay decides to live with Moe who just feels really bad for Jay.
So now Jay’s mom just kinda left Jay with Moe to go be with Mark. Jay, as far as I know, is in community college and for his brother, I have no idea. Last I saw of Mark and Jay’s mom was at a grad party Jay’s mom wasn’t invited to but Mark was so, they decide to make out behind a bush the whole time.”
She Is The Cheapest Woman Even Though She’s Rich
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“My father is one of four kids. His brother is married to the cheapest woman alive. She had an older brother who died young, leaving two small children. When her wealthy parents died, she contested their will and managed to keep their entire fortune for herself (she is worth a few million as a result). Her brother’s kids got nothing, and she is rather proud of that. ‘I only wanted what I was entitled too.’
If you visit her house, my aunt will not lift a finger. She won’t make food or play hostess or do anything at all. She wants props for ‘keeping the family in touch’ but won’t spend a dime to feed the 10+ people SHE INVITED OVER. We’ve learned over the years to treat events at her house like a potluck – we all bring food to share, paper plates (washing dishes costs money, so she doesn’t want to use her own dishes), and plastic silverware. She’s even complained about people flushing too often (more water wasting) and using too much toilet paper during these visits. Last time, my contribution was a 4-pack of Charmin double rolls. I was always taught that if you invite guests over, you feed them and make them feel welcome.
When one of my younger cousins got married, she wrapped up an old vase she had laying about the house and gave it to the newlyweds. She didn’t even bother to clean off the cobwebs or the 1-800-Flowers sticker on the bottom. Yup, she gave them a dirty, used, FREE vase.
When I was in grad school, the extended family met at my grandmother’s to celebrate the holidays. My aunt had the nerve to ask my 90-year-old grandmother for gas money! My grandmother gave her a $20 and then offered me money. I told her that I could always afford to come see her, making sure my aunt heard me loud and clear.
The shopping bag incident. One Christmas, she brought gifts to my grandmother in a reusable shopping bag. You know, those bags you can buy at Whole Foods or any grocery store for about a $1. Apparently, in the chaos, the bag got misplaced. My aunt continued to badger, harass, pester, and beleaguer EVERYONE nonstop about her bag. She wanted that dang bag back and she would not let up about it for about 4 hours. Finally, my other aunt gave her $5 to shut up about it. To this day, I hate those shopping bags.”
Things Are Still A Mess 13 Years After She Took Her Own Life
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“My Aunt killed herself when I was about 14. She had been dealing with Manic Depression for a couple years by then and was constantly on and off her meds. Her husband (the guy’s a jerk) divorced her when she became manic depressive and her kids eventually cut all ties with her due to her being so out of control and her constant mood swings.
To give you an idea of how crazy she was, one day she was over visiting my mom and commented that she liked the neighbor’s patio furniture. She then came back later that night, drove her truck into the neighbor’s yard and stole their furniture! They were home so they called the cops. She then led the cops on the slowest car chase ever, going the speed limit the whole way home and signaling her turns in advance.
Anyways, she started dating this new guy. They had only been dating him for a couple of months when she killed herself. She slit her wrists, then panicked and tried to call 911. There was blood everywhere, as she ran around in a panic before she eventually died. I still remember my mom telling me this in tears that night. She left everything (she was worth a couple million) in her will to her new boyfriend.
My grandparents were in charge of her estate and had to make sure all the money went to her new boyfriend. The ex-husband and kids didn’t like this at all and decided to sue the estate for the money. Now, my poor grandparents (who are extremely Catholic, so her committing suicide was especially hard on them because according to Catholicism she goes to Hell) had to spend about a year and a half in and out of court hearings dealing with lawyers and all that while they are dealing with the death of their daughter.
The estate won and her ex-husband didn’t get any of the money. But now, 13 years later, the ex-husband is threatening to sue my grandparents directly for all the money he feels he is entitled to. I doubt he has much of a case but it’s all one giant mess.”
His Cousin Has Had Many Chances
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“A cousin of mine has turned out to be pretty crappy. He’s had jobs, usually quit or got fired though, so he was working for my dad and uncle’s practice doing IT stuff for quite awhile.
He had his dad’s credit card to make purchases for the practice and racked up something like 10-20 thousand dollars in charges and prepaid credit cards. Well, my uncle finds out from surveillance videos that it’s his son. Calls up my cousin who won’t answer. He finally gets a hold of my cousin’s fiancée. As you might guess, he’s yelling quite a bit. So my cousin files a police report. Now there’s a warrant out for my uncle’s arrest. Everyone else in the family is blaming the fiancée. So my uncle somehow puts all that aside and starts talking with my cousin again and puts him on some budget to pay everything back, get his credit in order, etc. It goes well for a while.
Well, my cousin does the same crap again. This time he gets into my uncle’s savings and takes a few grand and blows it all on Xbox Ones, the new girlfriend and her friends, and other crap. My uncle finds out, the same kind of result, minus the warrant this time.
Third times a charm. My dad is going over the time cards for his employees. My cousin has 57 hours on it. Well, my dad can be a little slow sometimes and may not pay close attention, but money and business get his attention. He calls up my uncle to see if my cousin really worked that many hours. Nope. He spent about 2 hours on the phone with tech support for a printer or something.
I don’t care if he’s going to steal from my uncle as my uncle did a bad job reprimanding my cousin his whole life and in the first two scenarios. But you start stealing from my dad and I’m ticked off. You can bet I ignored his texts asking for money until he got paid again. I made my dad ask my uncle to make sure this was the first time he lied on his time card and to make sure that my grandma knows to watch her things while my cousin is around now. Sad.”
Almost Everyone Was Accepting Of His Orientation
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“My grandfather has 6 brothers. They’re all wildly different from each other. They grew up in backwoods Louisiana, which is probably the only thing they have in common. Despite the differences, they all get along really well.
My grandfather married my grandmother when they were in their 20s. His brother, we’ll call him Bill, married my grandmother’s sister. In my mind, this alone skirts the border of inter-family relations but is far from the weirdest thing my family has done. Well, Bill stayed married for ~20 years, had multiple children and seemed to be living a rather normal life. Then he came out that he was gay.
Everyone pretty much agreed that you can be gay all you want but marrying and having a family before telling them this is kind of messed up. They also agreed that coming out as gay in the deep south in the ’60s wasn’t the best idea so they understand why he waited so long. Now when I say everyone I mean everyone but my grandfather’s other brother, Ray. You see, Ray was in this club that liked to wear white sheets and hang colored folk. Ray didn’t like Bill making man love. Ray got his buddies together and woke Bill up by shouting and burning a cross in his front yard.
My great uncle thought that the best way to tell his own brother he disapproved of his orientation was to get the KKK to burn a cross in his front yard.”
His Brother Completely Betrayed Him
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I haven’t spoken to my brother in 6 years whilst I recovered from his violent aggressive behavior by getting a restraining order. Last summer I get a court summons to repay $70,000 or my house will be sold. Turns out in 2007 he tricked me into signing a deed of guarantee. He racked up the debt then liquidated his company and gave them my address for repayment.
I consulted a lawyer and got my free hour. The deed of guarantee I signed was watertight. The reason being it really clearly stipulated all of the terms, but I had seen the back page which had a signature box on it. I trusted my brother when he only faxed the back page to my second job which I had to keep his business afloat, so I signed it.
The lawyer said as I had not initiated the previous pages, we may have a case against it, but the counter-argument would be that my brother’s company used the loans over a number of years so the agreement was ‘implied.’
The sad irony, my brother had got away totally clean. Not a single thing would stick to him. The debtor knew it too but couldn’t go after him, hence they came after me.
I had no choice but to tell them I would see them in court.
The whole time my brother is laughing his head off. After I finally got the restraining order, I got counseling and slowly rebuilt myself and had a successful career. During that time he had his house repossessed and was made bankrupt so he was ecstatic at the thought of seeing my world tumble down.
Eventually, the debtor backed off as they knew the court was unlikely to force me from my house as I had nowhere to go. I got them to put in writing that I was fully absolved, and now I’m back to square one mentally. But I still have my house and the restraining order.”