Many years ago I had a super shady contractor walk off the job and demand more money to continue. He threatened me by saying he was married to a relative of Joe Crowley and that the Crowleys ran Queens and would make my life very difficult. I was so pissed off that I surreptitiously recorded him (love that one-party consent rule in NY) and spent the weekend drafting (1) a 50 page complaint that detailed everything he said and (2) a settlement agreement in which I agreed to let him out of the contract in exchange for not having to pay him $30k I owed him. I told him if he didn’t sign the agreement I’d file the complaint on Tuesday. He signed. And I also kept his tools. Asshole.