Reddits Nuclear Revenge is back...

Found a damn good story on it... If it isn't true it's a good read. If it is true, man is it one piece of sweet revenge.


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r/NuclearRevenge
•Posted byu/Lanatheavenger

Karen takes advantage of when I'm vulnerable and steals from me. Best friend gets her slapped with a sex offender label and prison time.

Hello! I just learned of this delightful sub from some Youtube videos and boy, do I have a doozy to tell from twenty or so years ago. I was the victim and my friend Lana was the nuclear avenger towards the perpetrator (hence the username), but she’s given me permission to post it as long as all names were changed.

I’ve been telling this story for years so some details are still clear as day. Buckle in, ladies and gents and all of you in between, it’s a long and wild ride.

Background

My hometown was a very small town. There were no corporate businesses in town, everything was family-owned and run. Those who didn’t work in the town usually drove about 15 min. to an hour away for work. We had a local sheriff instead of police. As you can imagine, the town was pretty much dying. I’ve moved out of the country since then and from what I hear, it’s completely gone now.

My friend Lana and I grew up as next door neighbors and we were best friends. Lana was Chinese, scary smart, and the calmest person alive. All the kids in our town (there weren’t a lot of us) went to the same school which was about 30 minutes away by bus. Neither of us were popular but at the very least we weren’t hated. Lana was loved by the teachers for her respectful attitude and good grades, and she was always offering to tutor our classmates or younger students who needed it, including me for English Lit. She was so successful at it that she started her own little business for it. It was part of how she got revenge for me.

The town we grew up in was small enough where everyone at least knew each other by last name. So everyone was acquainted. If gossip happens then it spreads fast. Part of this was thanks to the one bar in town run by Frank, a cool old biker dude who was loved by everyone as the local grandpa. Frank was nosy and gossipy as heck but we all loved him anyway because he was a genuinely good person. He was the type of guy to volunteer to go to parent-child meetings if the parent couldn’t make it for any reason.

Yup, we had a lovely place to grow up in with lovely people. Then Karen moved to town.

Karen was an utter b*tch in many ways for her own reasons, but like I said, gossip spread fast. One neighbor heard the story from an out-of-town relative and eventually the whole thing was known: Karen’s husband had cheated on her and they had a nasty divorce. They had one son, Nick, who was the same age as us and Karen got custody (somehow). She had moved here a year later because her job (waitress) found out that she was stealing money. Her husband had jumped on that opportunity to announce to their mutual friends that the reason he cheated was because Karen was manipulative in every way under the sun. She had financially, physically, and emotionally abused him and he had run into the arms of a woman who, while perhaps not completely moral as she was knowingly cheating with a married man, was not abusive.

At first Karen had attempted to save herself by claiming he was making it all up because he was just upset that he didn’t have custody rights. Her son, Nick, however, was on his father’s side and secretly confirmed his father’s words to his classmates who told their parents. Eventually the pressure and hate on all sides became too much and she fled the city and came to our town where no one knew her.

Everyone did try to befriend Karen at first, but a Karen is a Karen. She responded to our friendliness with waves of entitlement and subtle racism. Nick was fine. He was the type who was used to cleaning up after his mother’s messes through apologies and baked goods (his specialty was cookies). Lana and I befriended him and brought him into our friend group at school. While Nick loved baking, our school didn’t have the equipment for a Baking Club so he joined the Drama Club instead.

I didn’t like Karen. She had screamed at me for more than one occasion and made me cry. She also poked fun at me for being a little overweight, which for a thirteen-year-old translated to me being a hippo.

She had money from her life savings and pretty much lived off of that without working. The only good thing about her was that any child support money went into Nick’s education and health. Nick would later tell me though that she was grooming him to be her next cash cow so he needed to get a good job to pay for all of her crap and to "grow up quickly" so she wouldn't have to take care of him. Not like she did anyway.

Two things to know about Karen: the first was that she hated Frank for being her exact opposite (well-liked and respected). Frank hated her equally and gave her shitty service at the bar, which she couldn’t complain to the manager about because he was the manager and owner and nobody would back her. But Frank’s bar was the only place in town licensed to sell booze and Karen was pretty much an alcoholic after the divorce.

The second thing was that she hated Lana. Neither of us are entirely sure why. It was probably racism, but Lana had also taken Nick under her tutoring wing and Karen kept insisting that she was sabotaging his grades. Joke’s on her, his grades got better. Then Karen insisted that Lana only got good grades because her father was a teacher at our school. Again, racism. Mr. Chang was Chinese, but was definitely not Lana’s dad.

TBH, I think another reason Karen hated Lana was because Lana has always been extremely chill, and so has never appeared to quake in fear at Karen’s mercy. In Lana’s own words, her own tiger grandmother was scarier (I’ve since met them and she’s right; Karens try to attack like they have some sort of high ground and tiger grandmothers just flat out attack).

The Incident

Senior year of high school and suddenly my dad was ill and bedridden. The local clinic (neighbor’s house two doors down) was doubtful about his long term survival if he didn’t get help from a real hospital. Lana was my rock in my emotional storm that was depression. I temporarily moved in with her while my father was moved to a big hospital in the city and my mother followed after him by staying with a cousin who lived there. I was given the choice to go, but I didn’t want to because it was just painful seeing my father like that. My mother didn’t blame me at all. Lana’s parents were absolutely wonderful, if a little stricter than what I was used to.

There I was, a lone 17-year-old who was more emotionally fragile than average, when Karen decided that if Lana wasn’t a responsive enough target then she’d just switch to me.

Karen laid her trap by appearing to suddenly be very sympathetic and kind towards me. She told me that she was sorry about what had happened to my father and to contact her if I ever needed help. Lana and Nick were immediately suspicious. I was too, initially, but the longer my parents stayed in the city the more sad I got and any friendliness was a welcome blessing. I was convinced that maybe she had changed. Nick gradually came around too, and I think it was because deep down he was always hopeful that his mother had some good in her. Lana was the only one who remained suspicious, and Frank was too. Frank often dropped by to check up on me and told me not to get taken in by her.

I learned of this later but Lana was suspicious because while Karen was nice to me and Nick, she was still vicious towards Lana. I didn’t know about this until after the incident.

Eventually Lana and I got into a huge argument about Karen. Lana pointed out that Karen was probably up to something and I snapped back that she was just jealous since Karen had always been mean to her. Thinking back on it my argument sounded scarily like Karen’s and I still kick my teen self for not realizing it.

Due to this argument I move back into my own house. But being alone in the house was really difficult. Nick always dropped by to help me with any chores that needed doing. Even though Lana and I weren’t talking, she would still leave me some leftover food from her parents on my doorstep. Frank tried to get us to make up, but I was stubborn.

One weekend Karen shows up instead of Nick and Karen says that Nick was taking care of yard work at their house so she’d help out instead. I thanked her for the help and this was where my naive stupidity came in. This was the time of month my family usually did a deep clean of the house and I was nervous about having to do it all myself, so I was glad that extra help showed up. I show her around the house and explain how my family cleaned things (dusting, vacuuming, wiping down, etc). Karen’s nodding and commenting on my family’s nice stuff (red flag).

We go downstairs and while I’m vacuuming, Karen’s wiping down the windows. She eventually tells me that she’s done all the ones on the first floor so that she’d go up to the second. I say okay and ask her to clean the banister after she was done with the windows. She says okay and goes up and out of my sight.

I didn't notice until Monday that my mother’s jewelry was missing and the stash of emergency money my dad kept in his drawer was gone. I only learned about it when Frank suddenly dropped by after I got home from school and asked if I had given Karen my mother’s silver bracelet. To my horror, I discovered that Karen had taken my mom’s jewelry, sold some of it to a pawn shop in the city, and used both that and my family’s emergency money to load up on booze. Luckily I got the money back because Frank had put it all to the side to ask me about it (it was the only reason he actually sold booze to her). But I was badly shaken, betrayed, furious and felt stupid for trusting her.

Frank warned me not to confront her alone and I promised I wouldn’t. He told me to wait for Lana or Nick or Lana’s parents. He said that he would go himself but he had left with his bar still open for business with the sheriff watching the register. But after he left my fury got the better of me and I went right to her house to confront her.

She was wearing my mother’s bracelet still. She just laughed nastily in my face and called me a stupid and gullible little girl. She told me that I deserved it because I had been dumb enough to believe her and then she dropped a horrible lie that hit me like a bombshell. She told me that my father was just faking his sickness and he and mom were living in the city without me. When I asked her what that meant she gave a dramatic sigh and said, “They abandoned you, you stupid little c*nt, they didn’t want you anymore! They dumped you on that *insert racist word towards Chinese here* family so that they didn’t have to deal with your fat ass! Everyone knows about it but you!” Then she slammed the door in my face and I heard her laughing to herself.

Now, that was a lie, my parents didn’t abandon me. But I was 17, alone at home, and admittedly suffering from minor abandonment issues because they had been gone for so long and because dad was dying. I completely broke on Karen’s doorstep and started sobbing my eyes out. Nick found me there (he had been at Lana’s for tutoring) and he immediately carried me home before going back to confront his mother. I cried so hard that I passed out on my couch. When I woke up, it was night time and both Lana and Nick were quietly discussing something in the kitchen. They stopped when I stepped into the room. I hadn’t heard anything they said, but Nick looked noticeably pale. Lana was as unflappable as ever and merely gave me a big hug and told me that she’d take care of things.

Cons: This was the night that Nick started to avoid Lana a little bit. He would admit to me later that this and revenge that would follow would forever change his perception of her. He still went along with her plan but it was the fact that she had devised it and accurately calculated the results that scared him. In his own words, “Her mind works in ways that terrify the shit out of me.”

Pros: Nick confessed to me that night (Lana had left). He told me that the reason Karen had changed her target from Lana to me was because he had admitted to having a crush on me. Karen had deemed me unfit for her son and decided to destroy my self-confidence. I was seething… but I did get my first kiss And I got my mom’s bracelet back.

I've gotten this question before, so I'll just answer it: Why didn't we tell the sheriff? Nick, on Lana's instruction, had pleaded on his mother's behalf and truthfully said that he had gotten my bracelet back and he'd go with me to get back the stuff from the pawnshop. The sheriff always felt really sorry for Nick so he agreed. Frank was reluctant to let it go, but he didn't want to give Nick a tougher time. We got back all my mother's stuff and I'm pretty sure she still doesn't know about what happened to this day.

The Revenge

For the next few days I would barely see Lana around. She always seemed to be working on something, but she assured me that we were cool and that she’d explain later. Sometimes I’d catch her talking about something with Nick, with Nick looking noticeably uncomfortable.

Then the thefts around town started. Everyone was suddenly missing something. Some people lost prescription drugs, some lost money, some lost jewelry. The major thing was when Frank’s bar was broken into repeatedly and bottles of alcohol kept going missing. It only stopped after he installed a deadbolt on all doors. The sheriff was running everywhere, investigating all he could. Lana’s parents cautioned me about living alone and told me to come back to their house. Lana instead volunteered to sleep at my place and her parents seemed uncomfortable with the idea, but they gave in because they knew their daughter was responsible enough for the two of us.

Those nights were really fun. Lots of girl talk and giggling and me talking about Nick. Lana was very happy for Nick and I. I felt so happy not having to be alone in my own house anymore that I slept soundly every night and had to be shaken awake by Lana when it was time for school.

After nearly everybody had been burglarized, including Lana’s house (some silverware) and mine (it happened while I was at the supermarket. My mother’s bracelet went missing again D, suddenly everything went quiet for a week. Then it was Nick’s turn to suddenly disappear, but he came back after a few days and gave the school a signed note from his father. Karen hadn’t seemed to notice that he had left, as she was still chugging on the alcohol she had bought from Frank with my family’s money. That should have been a sign for me about what Lana had done; alcohol at her place usually didn't last that long.

One week later we wake up to sirens and we go to the window to see actual police cars lined up in front of Karen’s house. Before our eyes, Karen gets dragged out by two cops in handcuffs while she’s kicking and screaming profanities. Nick was following behind her, uncuffed. We watched as the sheriff gave Nick a hug and said something to him. Nick just shook his head.

I remember Lana smiling.

I never saw Karen again, but Nick came back. He was 18 at the time and able to live in their house alone. Police came to question everyone, including me, the "first victim" in the crime spree. I refused to give testimony in court because at the time I was super confused and didn't want to be involved anymore, and Nick said he'd do it for me. He, Frank, and a couple of other people from town left one day to give witness statements for Karen’s trial. She was being charged with theft, resisting arrest, assault of a police officer… and child sexual abuse.

The last one was a major what. When Karen was judged guilty of all crimes and put in jail, Lana sat me down and told me what she had done.

So it turns out that Lana was not just book smart. She was scary smart. She knew how to pick locks and how to wipe away traces. She practiced sleight of hand tricks with Nick until she could pretty much pickpocket anybody. She was the one that had been going around stealing things through two methods. The first was breaking and entering. The second was simply walking in as a tutor and slipping items into her bookbag when her students and their parents weren’t looking.

She stashed all of these things in Nick’s room, who would stuff everything into Karen’s room when it was time. But that wasn’t all. No wonder Nick was so scared of her now (he still is).

As it turned out, during that time period when Nick suddenly disappeared, Nick had gone to find his dad and “confessed” a horrible “truth”; that Karen had been sexually abusing him ever since the divorce (at this point) 5 years ago. He told his father that it was because Nick looked a lot like him (Nick actually does resemble his father quite a bit) and when she was drunk she would attempt to have sex with him. When she was more sober she would grope him and make comments about him being as handsome as his father and that she hoped he would grow up quickly. Both Nick’s father and his girlfriend (the one he cheated on Karen with) were understandably horrified. The girlfriend had a lawyer brother who was damn good at his job and he immediately jumped on the case.

Nick told me that being in the Drama Club really paid off. None of it was true, except for her wanting him to grow up quickly (remember the cash cow thing). Everything he told the lawyer had been devised by Lana, and she had purposefully devised it so that it fit into Karen’s public behavior.

Everything just fit in so well that it was hard to believe that 2/3s of the story was a lie. Frank told his story about how Karen had come into his bar with money she had made from stealing from my house, and how she used it to buy alcohol. Nick told his story about confronting his mother after carrying me home and how she freely admitted that she had stolen my things and he had to fight her for the bracelet. The lawyer reasoned that Karen was the only person who didn’t have a job in town, so she had the most free time to go around to people’s houses and steal things. Plus the alcohol that had disappeared from Frank’s bar, which obviously went to the town alcoholic. She had stolen money before from her old waitress job. And she had admitted to stealing stuff from me and selling it for booze money, so it was likely that she had the intent to do so again and had put her crimes on a wider scale and meant to eventually hock all the items she had illegally acquired.

It turned out that Karen really had drank that alcohol too. Nick just refilled her bottles with the stolen alcohol and she never noticed. They found the empty bottles all over the house, including under her bed with all the other stuff she "stole".

Lana's ultimate card though was that there were plenty of eyewitnesses who listened to Karen shit talk in the bar. Stuff about how Nick was going through a rebellious phase and she had to "discipline" him and had drunkenly contemplated tying him up so that he wouldn’t run to his “asshole father”. About how other children in the neighborhood were stupid brats (especially me and Lana) and how she would love to “discipline” them too. Karen’s “discipline” was most likely violence, but coupled with Nick’s sexual abuse story it was taken as an admittance to pedophilia.

Lana had heard about this previously from Frank ranting about what a shameless b*tch Karen was and decided that it was perfect to use for her purposes. She had crafted everything to have at least a grain of truth.

In other words, Karen got sent to prison under the label of a sexual offender. All because she stole some of my mom’s jewelry and lied to me about my parents.

Epilogue

Just to get it out of the way:

My dad unfortunately passed away after a very long fight. My mother went through her own bout with depression and ended up moving out of that town. I was in university in the next state over at the time so she found a place nearby for the both of us to live in starting from my junior year (I was in the dorms before that). We both moved out of the country after I graduated. She’s a lot better now, but she refuses to date anyone else. Wears her silver bracelet everyday because it was a gift from my father.

Lana would go on to get a degree in education and then moved out of the country to teach overseas. Her parents eventually also moved out of that town and eventually went to live and take care of Lana’s tiger grandmother on the west coast. Her grandmother was the only other person she revealed this revenge story to. Her grandmother was pleased and would call her “My general” in Chinese. Her parents still don’t know why. We're still in touch.

Nick would leave town almost immediately after Karen went to jail to live with his father and eventual stepmother. We kept a long-distance relationship before he finally broke it off and admitted that he was too scared of Lana and what she could do if he ever disappointed me. After what she had just done to his mother I didn’t blame him and said I was fine being friends. He runs his own bakery now, married with a daughter and another child on the way.

Frank passed away at the ripe old age of 80. He was about 68 when this whole event occurred. RIP old friend. You were my grandfather in spirit.

I’m fairly certain that Karen’s dead. Nick and her father and entire family cut her off and never visited her and even if she’s still alive they don’t know and don’t care. I don’t live in the States anymore so I don’t care either.

This is another question I've gotten: Why did Nick's stepmother's lawyer brother do nothing to help when Nick's parents were divorcing? Long story short it was because her brother disapproved of infidelity. Yes, Karen was an asshole, but yes, they were still married. But he immediately jumped on board when he heard that there was a kid being sexually abused, so he's a good guy.

Hope you enjoyed my story! It’s made Lana something of a celebrity among my friends and they’re gobsmacked when I put her on Skype or Zoom (these days at least) to talk to them. I don’t think they ever quite believed that she was real before that.

EDIT: I realized that I forgot to add something about the sexual abuse before a couple comments reminded me. Already made a responding comment below but I'll put it up here too.

At that time, Nick told me that none of what he told the lawyer was true. About a year afterward (we were already broken up) he called me up and told me that there was some partial truth to the sexual abuse, but it was more like sexual harassment. When Karen got really piss drunk, she'd mistake him for her ex-husband (again, they look very alike). She'd either fly into a rage and try to hit him, or she'd attempt to seduce him. She had pushed him down a few times. He always managed to escape and it never quite clicked in his mind that it was something abusive or predatory because he just thought it was one of her drunk episodes. He never told me because "that's not something you tell your crush", but he had told Lana. And he probably regrets it.

He told me about it because he was starting therapy and had only come to the realization that drunk or not, it was still abusive.

two cents ¢¢

CERTIFIED HOSEHEAD!!!

people (especially women) do not give ONE DAMN about what they inflict on children and I defy anyone to prove me wrong

Dysfunctional relationships almost always have a child. The more dysfunctional, the more children.

The selfish wants of adults outweigh the needs of the child.

Some mistakes cannot be fixed, but some mistakes can be 'fixed'.

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. Leo J. Burke

Adoption agencies have strict criteria (usually). Breeders, whose combined IQ's would barely hit triple digits, have none.

This "Karen" bullshit needs to die yesterday.