AITA for not telling a lady she left her phone on the charging station in the airport?

Jonathan Hours
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Imagine a bleary-eyed couple, marooned in an airport for 15 grueling hours, hopping between charging stations like nomads in a terminal desert, phones juicing up for the long haul. Amid the chaos, a woman’s phone screeches like a car alarm, a shrill guardian against meddlers, left unattended as she dashes off. The couple puzzles over the racket, their patience already thin from delays and cancellations, just wanting a quiet corner to recharge and regroup.

She storms back, eyes blazing, hurling accusations at the couple for touching her precious device—10 minutes of loud, fiery rants! Even after her husband calms the storm, she resets the alarm and bolts to board early, forgetting her phone. Our couple, scarred by her wrath, hesitates to act. Did they dodge a bullet or miss a kindness? Buckle up for this airport adventure!

‘AITA for not telling a lady she left her phone on the charging station in the airport?’

This tale of terminal tempers and forgotten tech buzzes with drama, blending frayed nerves and a moral twist. Here’s the original Reddit post, spilling the full saga of this charging station clash:

So my husband and I were stuck in an airport for 15 hours yesterday due to multiple flights to our destination being delayed and cancelled, so we hung out at a lot of different charging stations. This lady had her phone on top of someone else’s phone in her group on the charging station. Apparently she had set an alarm thing on her phone to go off if someone moves it because she left it unattended on the charging station.

When we got to the charging station at our terminal the alarm was going off already and apparently the lady had walked away to do something and someone else in her group was holding it and the alarm was just constantly going off and sounded like a car alarm. Me and my husband were trying to figure out what was making this noise.

So when she comes back from the bathroom, she’s yelling at her husband “wtf why is my phone going off?! Who touched it?!?!” So she looks over at me and my husband with the nastiest face assuming we f**ked with her phone, which we did not. I do not care to mess with other people’s stuff. She was just yelling and going on and on about someone touching her phone, very loudly and angrily.

For a good solid 10 minutes, constantly b*tching. Her husband tells her someone bumped it while trying to get their phone plugged in to this station. And she just gets even madder still yelling about people trying to take her s**t, which nobody did. So she comes to the station, moves other people’s s**t around to get her phone plugged back in and she puts that damn car alarm trigger back on it, so if it moves, it goes off very loudly.

When it’s time to start boarding she’s waiting at the desk, even though she was in the last boarding group. She was in such a hurry to try to cut every other boarding group, I guess she forgot about her heavily secured phone on the charging station. Her husband tells her, this isn’t our group you can’t board and she just shrugs her shoulders and stays in the line.

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My husband and I are still by the charging station because our boarding group was next to last. I unplug my phone and notice hers is still plugged in. She’s near the front of the line at this point. So I’m not touching that thing to make it go off very loudly again and have her accuse me of stealing her s**t, yet again, just to take it to her and line cutting husband.

She was complaining very loudly about god knows what to the people at the boarding gate so I just decided to leave it, thinking maybe she’d remember but I honestly don’t know if she ever did.. Does this make me an a**hole?

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EDIT TO ADD: I 100% don’t even know if she actually ended up forgetting it. I did see her for a brief moment in crossing when we landed and she didn’t seem angry. So there could be a big chance she did go back for it. I just didn’t remind her to do so.

This airport showdown crackles with tension—a rude woman’s tirade meets a couple’s quiet choice! She blasts the duo with baseless theft claims, then forgets her alarmed phone in a boarding rush, leaving them torn between caution and courtesy.

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The woman’s fury and line-cutting flair scream entitlement, while the couple, burned by her outburst, opts to sidestep more drama. Her husband’s stuck in the middle, likely dreading the fallout. It’s a classic clash of nerves in a high-stress hub!

Airports amplify etiquette woes— a 2023 AAA survey notes 68% of travelers face stress from delays, sparking short fuses (Source). The woman’s alarm and accusations fueled chaos, but leaving her phone tests kindness. Etiquette guru Lizzie Post says, “Small acts of help, even to the prickly, ease shared spaces” (Source). Post’s wisdom nudges a nudge—risking her wrath to flag the phone could’ve cooled tensions for all. Next time, try a quiet “Your phone’s still here” from a distance.

Here’s what Redditors had to say:

The Reddit gang swooped in like jet-fueled jurors, dishing spicy takes and a sprinkle of sass—here’s the boldest from the terminal, served with a cheeky grin:

Kiddler − NTA she was being out of line yelling at you, accusing you of stealing etc. and then she boarded with the wrong group. I say it's a fine example of karma coming for someone & you had no responsibility to remind her since SHE was the one who forgot to unplug her phone.

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[Reddit User] − I would tell her AFTER the plane is airborne.... (laughs in evil)

HeyThere421 − ESH. She sounds like a completely miserable awful person, but losing your phone REALLY sucks. At least for her husband's sake, who you know she's gonna blame for not reminding her to grab it, it would of been nice to just let her know.. That being said, I can't blame you at all because she does sound like the absolute worst.

maywellflower − NTA and she got hit with karma - she deserved & earned it.

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Mandy220 − ESH.. (Sorry!) She is definitely an a**hole, but I think ethically if you see someone forgetting a belonging, even if that person is an a**hole, it's good for your own karma to point it out (without touching it, in this scenario). It's kind of like 'two wrongs don't make a right,' ya know?

[Reddit User] − Definitely NTA. You’re not responsible for another person’s valuables. Moreover, she demonstrated a lack of emotional stability with her earlier outburst, so anyone would be wise to avoid interacting with her again. I think she’d find a way to cast suspicion on anyone bringing the phone to her or even just pointing it out to her. It sounds like you did the best thing by just staying out of her way.

[Reddit User] − ESH - She's an a**hole for obvious reasons, and I think the majority of the people here agree with that. Let me give a different perspective and why you might be a bit of an a**hole as well. When she boards the plane and leaves her phone with the alarm, there is no way for it to be turned off now.

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So now everyone near the gate will have to deal with it blasting their eardrums. Security will probably be called and they will have to figure out a solution. Now think about how uptight airport security can be at times. A possible worst case scenario is that they treat the phone as a possible bomb situation and now the gate has to be cleared out, planes delayed, schedules missed, etc.

So instead of thinking about it as not helping HER, think about it as you could have prevented everyone in the airport from having a worse day, but you chose not to because you wanted to enact karma. While she might deserve it, the rest of the people at the airport didn't, and you had a chance to better the crappy situation for everyone.

anything_always − NTA. Doing something nice makes you nice. Not doing something nice doesn't make you an a**hole.. Yelling, being entitled maketh an a**hole.

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OliversFails − ESH. I probably would have done the same, but it's still a**hole-ish behaviour to watch this unfold and do nothing to prevent it. You can be in the right and still be an a**hole. Sure, she sounds like a b**ch and it must have felt pretty satisfying to watch her board that plane knowing she left her phone behind. But the satisfaction you felt is the satisfaction that comes from being a bit of an a**hole.

jlb8 − ESH, but not many people would do different.

These fiery Reddit roasts light up the runway, but do they land the truth? Was this karma’s win or a missed kindness?

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From a 15-hour airport odyssey to a screeching phone and a fiery rant, this tale taxis through tempers, forgotten tech, and a couple’s tricky call. The woman’s accusations stung, her boarding rush left her phone behind, and our travelers, wary of round two, let it lie. Was skipping the heads-up a sly karma kick or a fumble of goodwill? The terminal’s chaos lingers, leaving us to ponder kindness in a crunch. What would you do if you found yourself in a similar situation? Drop your thoughts, laughs, or airport survival tips in the comments—let’s board this debate together!

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