Committing reverse vandalism - who has done it?

[johnre]

I guess I had better explain what I mean by the term - so here's the story around how I came up with it:

A couple that my wife and I are very close to occasionally would take care of our dogs and cats when we traveled out of town, and we would do the same for them.

When we traveled, they would take our Siberian Husky into their own home, since she was OK with any cats. But since their Siberian was lethal to any strange cats, the way it worked out was that we stayed in their house whenever it was our turn for pet care. And that meant putting up with the (lack of) maintenance done on an otherwise great old 1908-era craftsman home.

It started with small things, such as fixing a sink in one of the baths that never had hot water because the faucet stem was frozen- all it needed was to free up the stem and put in a new set of faucet washers all around. I followed that up with:

• repairing a faulty latch on the bath door where guests would occasionally lock themselves in and not be able to exit
• repairing the drawer glides on badly sticking kitchen drawers
• Repairing a swing door between kitchen and dining room that, if opened, would swing off the pivots and fall over
• fixing some crazy light switch wiring, such as three way switches done incorrectly, and pull chain lights in a closet that required another light to be turned on to have power
• fixing a 1908-era 120 V AC plug that was intermittent and arcing whenever the plug was wiggled

Thus the term "reverse vandalism" - you find something broken and anonymously fix it, your only reward being to watch the recipient's puzzlement when they discover it. I told my wife not to tell them I did it; I just let them discover it all on their own. What was the most fun was hearing them initially say appreciative things like "xxxx just got better on its own when you were here". And after a few stayovers, of course, they put 2 and 2 together and figured out it was me, so it became more challenging to find anonymous things to do. I did set up some ground rules that I went by:

1. It had to be small and inexpensive; $10 max.
2. It couldn't be anything that was real obvious or discoverable just by looking at it; what was best was something that had to be hand-operated.
3. It didn't count if they were told I did it.

So let's hear it - who has done this?

 

[four.cycle]

^ I do it all the time. A vacation cabin I rent now and then recently got a bathroom repaint.
I always take a file with me and put new edges on all the wood cutting tools. Last time it looked like someone had been using the maul to chop up rocks.
I do not fool with plumbing in structures belonging to other people unless they are paying me.

 

[Mike65]

The last time I was in Florida visiting my older brothers I fixed a couple things in my oldest brother's house & did not tell him & waited to see how long it would take for him to find it was fixed.

 

[bdbecker]

Wife was a bridesmaid for a wedding and was also doing everyone's hair and makeup, so she was ******* all day. I was hanging out in her friend's apartment with our infant daughter during that day and was bored with just watching TV while she napped. I noticed there were a lot of loose handles on the kitchen cabinets, so I tightened them up. I also reinstalled a towel rod that was ready to fall off the wall in the restroom. Granted, it was a rental and she could have just put in a maintenance call to have that stuff repaired, but I literally had nothing better to do so I just took care of it. She sent Wife a text while we were driving home when she noticed the towel rod thanking me for fixing it. I'm sure she eventually noticed all the cupboard and drawer pulls in the kitchen were tight as well.

Probably actual vandalism... during college, we made a trip to my buddy's hometown for a birthday party (small town Iowa). As we were driving up to his parent's house, we noticed that someone had spray painted a WWII era symbol on the side of an old garage that was on an abandoned property nearby. It really bugged my buddy, so in an alcohol fueled effort to make things right, later that night we found a can of light purple paint and some brushes in his Dad's garage and snuck over and painted a heart over top of the symbol. Apparently the heart was there for a couple of years until the property was purchased and the house and garage were demoed to make room for a new build.

 

[Firebrick43]

We rent a cabin in Wisconsin every late summer for a fishing trip from one of my wife’s former co workers.

This year we utilized my boy scout knot tying in lashing down with real rope his boat lift cover that he had on with tiny bunjee cords that a storm had wrecked. The same storm had also taken their floating trampoline that was 20’ in diameter, flipped it over and carried it across the lake. Retrieving it was a chore but we got it done and I returned the anchoring lines so the could slide to one end and allow it to flip. Diving down and picking the concrete anchor up, then walking across the bottom to fix its final position was the hardest part.

 

[tarmy]

Geez OP, you obviously don’t have a family(wifey’s in my case) ski cabin or similar. I am under the impression, after 35 years of experience, that the entire rest of the wifey’s family purposely either breaks things, are too lazy/stupid to fix things or just don’t care. Seems every time I am up there, with tools each time of course, I find plenty of stuff that needs to be done.

The beauty of it has evolved to where they now all leave notes of broken ****, send email blasts of broken ****…or just assume I will fix it. This is a 5 bedroom 4500 sq foot house…no small maintenance task.

Since we stay for free, I figure that my labor pays our share of the expenses and just keep my mouth shut and wifey happy…seems to work out in the end

 

[MovingAlong]

Would love to visit family without having to fix something someday...

 

[nadogail]

I once adjusted the television set in an Indiana motel while driving from NYC to San Francisco.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Backfired on me. My boss let me use his vacation home in Florida one time and I noticed that two of the windows in the garage had stripped gears on the crank outs.

I went to the hardware store and bought and installed replacements.

He called me about 6 months later all pissed off about it. I'm not sure why exactly, but I think it was because "I overstepped". Or maybe he thought I was the one that broke them. Anyway, he wanted to know what happened to the old hardware I removed, which he assured me was higher quality than what I replaced it with.

Fortunately, I didn't throw the old parts away, I put them in the bags the replacement cranks came in and left them in one of the drawers in the garage. So, I told him where he could find the stripped out ones. That was the last I ever heard about it.

As you might expect, I've never been offered another opportunity to stay at his vacation house.

 

[bdbecker]

Would love to visit family without having to fix something someday...

Growing up, whenever we would go to my grandparent's lake house, Dad would always toss in a 5-gallon bucket of random tools because he knew he was going to get asked to fix something.

I'm not much for swimming in lakes, but I learned to never forget a swimsuit because it was almost a guarantee that we'd have to hop into the water to adjust the location of the dock or lift (or both). It was never quite in the right place for grandpa no matter how many times we moved it.

 

[manwithtools]

Back 15 years or so my BIL and SIL house in Indiana had very poor water pressure at almost all the fixtures. I told him it was because of all the galvanized supply pipes (house built in early 1900's). On the next trip from TN to their house I brought the plumbing tools and over the next 3-4 days, I ripped out all the galvanized I could get to in the open basement and replaced it with copper (at my expense). At the same time, I rerouted the piping to make more wall space useable and removed a couple of "head-knockers". Still had pretty poor pressure, so I suggested they replace the service from the street (also galvanized). After they had it replaced, it cured all the pressure issues.

My reward; I got to take showers with full water pressure rather than the dribble it had previously. They were very appreciative. SIL, said it sped up her washing machine's cycle so much that it was like getting a new washing machine!

 

[dcg9381]

Would love to visit family without having to fix something someday...

That's was 70% of my summer vacation. Between wrangling all the kids (part time), alternating days of dinner duty, pointing out and then fixing intake/exhaust problems on the 240Z, dealing with a wooden power boat (which has a leak), installing 2 electrical sub-panels / 10 outlets, fixing the wifi, and keeping a jetski running so the kids could finally do watersports on their own it was kinda exhausting. And most of that time I was working my full time job.

Wouldn't trade it for anything. I suppose these are "joys" that will be missed when gone.

I have learned the power of "no, I'm not working on that today. I'll get to it by X".

I was at a VRBO this weekend and was wondering "how much trouble am I going to get in if I fix that step...."

 

[BrandonV]

Good friend of mine. I'll hang out at his house and randomly fix things while he's out picking up beer or food.

"Hey, the laundry room light fixture works again!".

 

[Danno1]

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I've been known to sharpen all the kitchen knives.


.

 

[Danno1]

I once adjusted the television set in an Indiana motel while driving from NYC to San Francisco.

That must have been quite a feat!!!!


.

 

[Joe Reed]

Once or twice a year we stay at my son's house in Niceville FL to take care of their dogs while they get away for a few days or a week. There are always a few things I find that need fixing. It's always fun to see the look on his face when he notices the changes...

 

[LopezBart]

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I've been known to sharpen all the kitchen knives.


.

I give folks a heads-up when I do this....

 

[manwithtools]

I give folks a heads-up when I do this....

Probably a good idea...

 

[driftpin]

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/why-doesnt-the-toilet-flush.521816/#post-10317655

My brother's Boston Victorian house had problems.

Another story, about my San Francisco sister's Victorian house, having a slow sink in a full bathroom. I was visiting and noticed that the sink was very slow to drain I popped the rod for the sink stopper mechanism out and withdrew the stopper along with probably 4 in of hair soap scum and who knows what causing a slow sink. I cleaned it all off and rather than causing a toilet obstruction I threw the disgusting mess into the trash. I didn't say a word about it to them, my sister and her husband, but I am sure that they noticed the difference in the drainage performance of the sink as it was a bathroom they frequently used.

The last Family Plumbing story: our son in Miami had a chronically slow toilet that finally stopped up. He tried using a short snake and was unable to clear any obstruction. His wife beseeched me to please come and take a look at it. She was calling on a Sunday night and that bathroom is used by t h e i r two young boys. My longer snake drum on a cordless drill failed to solve the problem so I informed them it's time to yank the toilet and I sent my son off to the hardware store to get a wax ring. I pulled the toilet and this is what has been growing in their toilet for the past 12 years since they had a remodel. The bathroom got entirely new Plumbing so that was something from since that time. I think it should have been cast in resin and displayed on a local plumbing supply houses counter, or it's tall enough to have been a floor display on a short pedestal.




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Root troubles

Hello all Im trying to plant some food plots and my spot was overgrown with saplings vines etc. I have a mahindra 5570 with bucket and small disc. Will a tiller work in all those tiny roots in clay.What if any implement can I get.I found a small garden tractor with belt drive tiller but I dont...

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[Hooked]

Years back when I was traveling a lot for my job there were many trips to a location near where my BIL and family lived. It was a string of very old connected town homes (I guess that's what they're called). Every time I visited there was always some project underway so most evenings were spent help said BIL with one or more projects. The above post regarding water pressure was one such on the long list which we tackled on one trip. The lines in the bathroom were unbelievably closed with rust. When I left that time all the faucets were all back to full pressure.
Fun and enjoyable times together with his family.

 

[lund]

Quite a bit. BUT I usually fess up I helped out and usually mostly do this with relatives and good friends who I am sure will want it and will not have a cow if something does not go 100% right. Keep in mind plumbing fixes can go wrong in a hurry.

I think I left every rental I had a bit better via free fixes for the landlords. That made me popular ... which was good overall since it resulted in me avoiding rent increases.

The most extreme case of this was I rented a very cheap apartment in a high rent area (Berkeley, CA) years ago for a relatively long duration. The plumbing, electrical, kitchen, heat, etc were all messed up. I spent easily $500 or so in materials and a lot of time to fix stuff and turn it into a much better place while being locked into exceptionally low (for the area) rent for years to save big $ (probably ~$600-$1000/month). The landlord seemed super happy for the fixes and did not raise the rent on me, while I accumulated saved $ month by month. The location was also good. I never understood why the owner never bothered to fix the stuff before and rent for more. But their failure to do so was good for me. Once or twice friends asked me how much I was renting for and were visibly shocked/upset to learn about the low rent (CA is a big stress for everyone to afford housing, so it can induce a shock if someone hears about good deals), and wondering how it was possible. I would explain that I spent a week or two of my own time and $ to fix it, etc. The saved rent $ helped me save and invest more than I otherwise would have to later afford to buy my own house in the area. So the "generosity" of the labor and materials donation worked out well for me.

 

[engineer2]

I take basic hand tools with whenever I travel.
Apartment: bought a kitchen light fixture cover to replace the missing one. Landlady was very happy about it and said she could never find one that fit. Ace Hardware to the rescue!
Vacation rentals: Fixed a garbage/recycling pull-out that a previous renter had probably pushed down on. Luckily nothing was broken. Lowered a hot tub thermostat from 120 to 102F. Tightened up a bathroom shelf unit that was about to fall down.
Minor hotel room repairs; Lots of 15 second repairs with a screwdriver. Adjust the TV picture back to normal colors.
Friend's summer home: I was a hero after I got the cable TV working again. Someone had simply plugged cables into the wrong place. I also plugged the toilet so I ran out and bought him a plunger.

 

[mrvm]

Probably not actual vandalism for my actions but while my son& DIL were away in Italy vacationing, the HOA sent them a notice of high importance to immediately repair the rotting wood under the front door frame. I drove 2.5 hr to their home and made the necessary repairs with white PVC boards. I took the opportunity to bring back some OEM old but coveted car parts that were left on my property for a several years. Complete exhaust system, 4 wheels&tires, 4 struts and miscellaneous body parts. He had promised for years to sell /move them but the opportunity presented itself now I got room for my junk.

 

[Lassen Forge]

Electrical - Had a rental house in Berkeley that had a light circuit that had an intermittent "blink"... nothing I thoght serious, but one evening was in the basement and started following romex... found the feeder to the circuit, and the 3 staples that had been driven through it... complete with scortched floor joists. Went down and bought a roll of 12/3, and started rerunning all the fubarred wiring someone (probably the landlady's ex hubby) had totally hosed - hot neutrals,Neutral/ground crossovers, jeez, you name it. SPent probably 3 weeks futzing with it (including a couple new breakers where the old ones had issues as well)... Then went through all the old "bush button" light switches, cleaned the contacts on the knife switches - surprise, no more dim lights, no more weird blinky ****. Lived there another 4 months, but moved out when the LL started going, um, bizarro on us. As in transferring the house ownereship to her ex to break the rent control. who then scalped us for having a friend there for a month while she was getting resettled, and jacked our rent yet again.

That was a VERY cool house, tho, and gave me ideas I used later on our own places.

 

[Pen & Wrench]

Boy Scouts call that leaving it better than you found it, and it could be as simple as picking up garbage, or something more involved. I think its a great idea.

 

[landrover bodger]

at a motel in Williams AZ i told them the toilet was blocked they gave me a plunger so i could unblock it.

 

[bwringer]

Would love to visit family without having to fix something someday...

Damn near every time I would visit my Mom, I'd end up replacing and/or moving a toilet. IIRC, there were four crappers in that damn barn, and it took several tries to get her to actually replace all of them rather than replacing the highest usage one and then shuffling the "best" of the remainder. Ugh.



As to anonymous reverse vandalism, I've done that many times in other people's houses, vacation rentals, and hotels. It's easier to just take care of an annoyance and be done with it rather than farting around with calling a guy.


Way (waaaaaay) back when I worked at a grocery store, we had an orange juice squeezer machine; oranges went in the top, tasty orange juice came out the front. Quite nice. It stopped working, and the boss shoved it into the back. The company that made it was long gone, and no one really had any idea what to do with it.

One extremely boring evening a few weeks later, my usual work all done, I hauled my tools in from my car and took the covers off to see what I could see. Everything was actually fairly straightforward, and there were some helpful diagrams on the inside of the case we hadn't seen before.

When I was done, the machine had been through its first-ever thorough cleaning and recalibration (it was pretty nasty inside), and I had hand-filed a replacement part for a broken orange separator (or whatever you actually call the part that lets one orange at a time through), freed up several sticky solenoids, adjusted all the bits and bobs, etc. The machine squeezed oranges far better than it ever had, and didn't require babysitting and unjamming.

My boss was actually a pretty great guy, and he was quite pleased, as I knew he would be. I certainly would not have done this for many other bosses I've had, but I knew he'd have the brains to be happy a profitable machine was back in business, and not to complain I hadn't fluffed the lettuce for a few hours.

 

[Sumboodie]

.


I've been known to sharpen all the kitchen knives.


.

My brother did that to my Mom's knives and she about cut her finger off a few days later.

 

[johnre]

Good to hear from so many of you on this topic; I suspected I wasn't alone!

Good friend of mine. I'll hang out at his house and randomly fix things ....

Oh, and that reminds me - there maaaaay have been some pretty decent beer in their fridge that got consumed while we were staying there, just sayin'. But the value of it never exceeded what I deemed the value of my services was worth - by quite a margin.

I give folks a heads-up when I do this....

See my rule #3. What you fixed doesn't count in that case.

I'll hang out at his house and randomly fix things while he's out ....

It's always fun to see the look on his face when he notices the changes.

I'm convinced this is the key - you make them figure it out on their own. It's best when they don't notice it immediately and have to later deduce that it seems to be correlated to when you last visited.

 

[hans109h]

It always feels a bit different to do it when it's not yours and you don't have too. I've been know to clean things that might overwise never get cleaned, like water softener brine tanks or under the hinge of the washer lid, lol. The best part is not telling.

 

[PoorUB]

We stayed at our daughter's house for a couple weeks to take care of her cats. I told her I was going to be bored out of my mind, so think of some projects for me to do. I fixed a couple leaking faucets, fixed the lawn irrigation and set the timer, and some other little tasks.

What she didn't mention was cleaning the garage. She had talked about buying some heavy shelving to get everything off the floor. I got everything else fixed and walked out into the garage with plans to clean it up. There wasn't anywhere to put anything so I went to Home Depot and bought $600 of "pallet racking". I put up the shelves and cleaned up the garage. It was pretty much a disaster when we got there so when I got done it was an obvious improvement with the large empty area of the floor. I told my wife not to say anything.

When she got home we went out in the garage for something. I made certain to go before her so I could see the look on her face and it was funny as hell! She walked into the garage, busy talking about something else, stopped in the middle of the floor and looked around with a confused look on her face because all their **** was gone. Then she saw the one shelf, then turned around and saw the other shelf. I got this "look" from her, hands on her hips and she says a long drawn out "dad", and "what the hell!" She had to take another look and walked over an gave me a huge hug.

Another funny thing was she insisted on paying for the other parts for the faucets and lawn, (about $20!) and completely forgot about the shelves. My wife told her to no worry about it and she said she felt bad about us coming out to watch her cats, and paying for repairs too. Again we said to just forget it. Then I mentioned the shelving and then she looks at me with a sad face and said "Now I really feel bad!" She did insist on taking us out for a steak dinner at a pretty nice place in the city and made certain she was paying for it all.

 

[ZRX61]

complain I hadn't fluffed the lettuce for a few hours.

Not familiar with that euphemism...

 

[Firebrick43]

Not familiar with that euphemism...

Remember, we don't kink shame here

 

[ZRX61]

I often fix things when I notice they're broken etc...

One of my favorites is to take channel locks & a pick when I stay at a hotel in Califailure. I unscrew the shower head & remove that stupid goddamn rubber flow restriction doodad so I can have a proper shower instead of the restricted version which is like standing under the nozzle on a Hudson sprayer.
I'm sure future guests appreciate it too.

 

[MovingAlong]

She did insist on taking us out for a steak dinner at a pretty nice place in the city and made certain she was paying for it all.

Nothing confirmed I'd done alright as a parent than when my kid bought me dinner that first time...

You have my respect sir.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Backfired on me. My boss let me use his vacation home in Florida one time and I noticed that two of the windows in the garage had stripped gears on the crank outs.

I went to the hardware store and bought and installed replacements.

He called me about 6 months later all pissed off about it. I'm not sure why exactly, but I think it was because "I overstepped". Or maybe he thought I was the one that broke them. Anyway, he wanted to know what happened to the old hardware I removed, which he assured me was higher quality than what I replaced it with.

Fortunately, I didn't throw the old parts away, I put them in the bags the replacement cranks came in and left them in one of the drawers in the garage. So, I told him where he could find the stripped out ones. That was the last I ever heard about it.

As you might expect, I've never been offered another opportunity to stay at his vacation house.

That was my thought!!! I avoid helping people fix things because… No good deed goes unpunished! I’ve done many things to help people but often something goes sideways or they just keep asking for more and more!

 

[Magnum440d100]

My friend had me take him to the airport in his envoy. Then said I could use it while he was gone. So I vacuumed it and waxed it lol

 

[MovingAlong]

That was my thought!!! I avoid helping people fix things because… No good deed goes unpunished! I’ve done many things to help people but often something goes sideways or they just keep asking for more and more!

Unfortunately, my experiences have been similar. Now I just avoid certain family and friends...

 

[nateo]

I also enjoy this game. I replaced a frayed cord on an immersion blender for some friends while we were house sitting. Another time (for different friends) I chopped up and moved a brush pile.

Now here's a reverse version. I was travelling for work to one of our remote sites where we have several local staff. We're checking out the equipment when the local station manager mentions that the light switch in our outbuilding has never worked right the whole time he's worked there. You had to flick it a bunch of times and it would only randomly work. I gave him a funny look and later that day picked up a new switch and replaced it. 5 dollar 5 minute fix, paid for by the organization.

The kicker? We're all electronics techs. Not electricians, but really how hard is it to swap a light switch? I'm as lazy as they come but damn, ignoring a fussy light switch for a couple decades is beyond even me.

 

[Skellyii]

I often fix things when I notice they're broken etc...

One of my favorites is to take channel locks & a pick when I stay at a hotel in Califailure. I unscrew the shower head & remove that stupid goddamn rubber flow restriction doodad so I can have a proper shower instead of the restricted version which is like standing under the nozzle on a Hudson sprayer.
I'm sure future guests appreciate it too.

HA-Ha!! I thought that I was the only one doing that!

I used to travel for work to all parts of the country. there's nothing better than a good shower when you're on the road. I always carried a wrench and a small blade screwdriver (the TSA wouldn't approve the pick).

I did have TSA ask me about the tools from time to time, and I just told them exactly why I was carrying them. They usually just laughed and told me to have a good trip.