"The dad fell in love with the therapist and they hooked up."

"He was still paying for all the bills at the house he wasn’t living in because one of his kids was still living there too. One day, the water department came to the office kinda panicked looking for him; they'd used property records to try to find him (very nice of them, tbh) because the meter reader detected the house was using so much water they feared a massive leak and potential for a sinkhole if it was the mains outside. 

They had a crew ready. He ran over there. She had every water fixture running, every light on, etc. She apparently had been doing this for at least a month, just running up the bills to be a real asshole."

"Even though they had been separated for months, he loaded up his tools and a spare and drove out to her car where the wife's new boyfriend beat him to death."

"The dad fell in love with the therapist and they hooked up. Therapist proceeds to spend the next several months convincing the kids that their mom actually hates them and doesn’t want them. Divorce proceeds and the three kids want nothing to do with mom, so dad gets custody. 

Years later, the oldest kid wises up to the therapist plot and gets in touch with mom. Mom reconnects with all three kids and starts custody battle to get them back. After exposing the therapist, she loses her license and mom wins custody. While mom and kids were out to dinner, dad and therapist torch mom’s house. It was still ongoing, but I quit and never heard anything else about it. I hope mom and kids are healing and doing well."

"Well, the woman across the street from their house decided she didn't want to be married to a soldier anymore; common tale, so she packed up her shit, packed up their kids, and took off to go live with her mother in the lower 48.

Where she differed from most, however, was how she turned the central heat off, opened every faucet in the house all the way up, and promptly fucked off into the sunset.

This was Alaska in the middle of winter. The average daily temperatures were about -50° at the time. It was well over a week before anyone found out.

The carnage that single act caused was unreal. My mom peeked through the windows after it was discovered by the Army and the neighbours but before they'd started doing anything with it. The scene was like something out of a movie. 

Every pipe in the place had burst. There was an ice waterfall that led all the way down the main stairs in the living room from the upper level bedrooms. Everything in the place was covered with an inch of hoarfrost. The ceiling was caved in, the walls were busted out, the water ran for who knows how long and then froze solid and kept going until finally the pipes had frozen through enough that it stopped the water entirely.

The Army were pissed. I mean really, really pissed. The worst thing in all this is the soldier that was over in Iraq got into a world of shit for that, despite it not being his fault at all (in the military, if your spouse or kids fuck up, you fucked up), but the Army did at least bring criminal charges against the ex wife. Not surprised, the house was more or less a total loss, and building houses in Alaska is expensive.

Never got an update, but my mom still to this day talks of regretting not having taken any photos of it, because as she said, it really was beautiful in a way. It ain't often you see a living room with a glacier right through the middle of it."

"The lawyer spoke to my mom because she was a witness to the husband's abuse and she may have to testify so her friend can have custody of her kids. She never had to testify as her friend was granted full custody with visitations. The following month, the father picked up the kids for their weekend visit, and flew to Brazil. She never heard from her kids until nearly 25 years later when they returned to the US looking for her."

"The divorcing couple had raised Rocky since he was a baby as a pet raccoon. Rocky had custom clothes, multiple cat condos, and was litter box trained and TOILET TRAINED. When the couple got divorced, they had a giant fight over custody of the raccoon. I’m talking comparing medical bills, who let the raccoon into the garbage, and who spent more time to trim Rocky’s nails. 

It was hilarious and petty. Ultimately, we had to reach a visitation schedule with Rocky and a list of house rules; including sending Rocky to each household with his clothes, maintaining a specific diet, and providing evidence that the garbage was secured against the raccoon. It was my favourite case for a long time. And yes I got to meet the raccoon. He was a good boy."

Additional thumbnail credits: Netflix, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 20th Century Studios