I got into it with one of our IT people about a patron service issue. He thought he could bully me and tell me how to do my job, and I let him know he couldn’t, and he threw a great big temper tantrum. Which tons of people witnessed.
Later on, when explaining what happened to somebody else, one of the other IT guys said, “Well, Bob barked, and Zsofia bit.”
Which totally isn’t what exactly happened, but it made me feel like such a badass. Oh hell yeah. Let 'em say that. 
A guy once described me thus: “The avatar of mania behind the wheel of an automobile”. I took it as a compliment at the time. Still do, come to think of it.
Another time, long long ago, a guy told his girlfriend who was complaining about me changing the radio station in his truck said, “This guy is my best friend! I’ll throw you out before him!”. I’ve since saved his bacon on more than one occasion since then.
At my new job, someone told me that my boss said about me to them, “She’ll do well; she’s not intimidated by [the docs].”
No, I’m not. I’m happy to be your colleague, but I’m not your minion. It works.
I wasn’t there, but I’m still taking credit for it.
A bunch of my friends were at the bar during happy hour. There was a trivia contest going on and all these folks were playing. There were at least three teams (I don’t know how many players were on each team; as I said, I wasn’t there) with friends that I knew. It was turning out to be a close game as the final round came up. During this final round, each team was allowed five minutes to confer and come up with their answer.
I was at home and my phone started ringing. And ringing. And ringing. Turns out that three different teams couldn’t figure out the final answer and all (individually): “Let’s call Walker. He knows everything.” (That’s a paraphrase.)
I’ve got more, but I guess it really doesn’t count if the army gave me 24 155mm howitzers to fire at targets with. Most of y’all never had a chance like that. So I’ll leave those stories out.
ETA: I didn’t answer the phone when they all called because I was at home watching Jeopardy! I am such a dork. But all my friends know *not *to call during Jeopardy!
One time Chuck Norris said “Who the hell is Satchmo?”
Other than that, I got nothing.
On the other hand, Scylla always starts the best threads.
I hate to have to say it, but in reading through the thread, I’ve got you all beat.
I wish I could tell you about it.
This is definitely TMI territory, but it made me feel like a rockstar.
I had to go to the GYN to get a biopsy done. It required a shot of novocaine in my interlabial sulcus (do not Google it at work). In layman’s terms, a needle jab into the most sensitive pink part of the body. So I’m looking at the cartoons on the ceiling, doing my deep breathing and pain management stuff from labor, and they give me the shot -
and both the doctor and her nurse paused, and finally the doctor said, “Wow, you didn’t even twitch!”
To be honest, it wasn’t that bad. My PT soft tissue work is sooo much worse, but my therapists never give me any credit for not jumping off the table and punching them in the face as (my lizard brain tells me) they so richly deserve. So the cred actually comes from an act less hardcore than I am capable of. 
This isn’t exactly hardcore cred, but in the same vein, I was complimented on my ability to relax by my physical therapist one time. I have done quite a bit of work on learning how to relax, so I was pleased by it being noticed.
I’ve been called my bosses’ “Ace in the hole. . .” on some occasions. Once, overheard someone saying that in thirty years, I was “one of the top ten people to get shit done!” he’d ever seen. And that was when I was a little newb.
My other hardcore cred? I wear it on my chest.
Tripler
I still try to earn it on a daily basis, though.
I’m an Infantry squad leader in the US Army and during one slow day of work the soldiers in my platoon were all sitting around and talking. Well it quickly turned into a bragging contest about their squads, but my soldiers, instead of bragging about themselves, bragged about me and the alpha team leader. They soon went from real stories to
“Chuck Norris wears Sgt [Snite] pajamas to bed”
“When Chuck Norris wakes up he eats Sgt[the team leader] cereal for breakfast”
More humurous than street cred though.
I was recruited by 4 different teams for the same bar trivia contest. Had to go with my best friend’s team, of course, but the other teams still jokingly offer to save my seat and buy my rounds when I am able to show up for a trivia night. Too bad I don’t know any actual USEFUL stuff…
When I was a training manager for a group of hotels, I overheard one of the employees I had trained arguing with my boss’s boss (CEO and major shareholder of the company): “No sir, that’s not how you do it. This is how Miss Lacunae taught me to do it.” Mr Big Boss: “Oh, Miss Lacunae definitely knows better than me how to do this… thanks for showing me.” (Yay me! But I had the best mentor in the business, so he gets at least 95% of the credit for teaching ME the right way.)
And the other evening, I put on a full face of makeup for work while simultaneously nursing a fussy baby. When I finished with my mascara, my husband and 9-year-old daughter were watching me in awe!
Got some hardcore cred yesterday. Stopped in at Huddle House (like Waffle House) for a late breakfast after Court. While paying the check, the waitress tells me I look like a bodyguard. I asked her why she thought that, and she says…because you’re big and look like you’d squash anybody that messed with you.
I get a lot of it at my workplace for being an IT guy who’s not afraid to actually mingle with the plebes.
Receptionist, to HR Supervisor: “We should make [Zeriel] a cape and mask, since if you could fight crime with IT he’d be Superman.”
I can’t think of one right now, but I’ll paste a bit from the greatest movie ever made, Action Jackson!
Lightweights! 
After having this bounced off my head fairly recently, resulting in this, while still causing my attacker to flee, then bumping into the guy 2 days later and punching the shit out of him , I think my hardcore cred is pretty secure.
ps. The initial attack by the 19yr old plastic gangster, was because I had the effrontery to challenge him about breaking a couple of my flat windows in front of his mates.
You should have punched him harder!
20 years ago I wouldn’t have been satisfied unless I’d at least put a brick over his own head, but age and wisdom mellows the worst of people.
This is not mine, but by grandfather’s. He took up canoe racing late in life, and in his early seventies was still placing in the top 3. He said one time when he was getting his gear together for the start of a race he overheard a 20-something competitor say to another “I hate it when that old guy shows up!”
Recently there was a conversation between my bosses, with me in the room, that went like this:
Boss #1: We need to get this configured and installed by <insert date>. Slee is going to do it.
Boss #2. Slee, have you done this before? Know how it works?
Me: Nope, don’t know jack about it. Never dealt with it before.
Boss #1 to Boss #2: Doesn’t matter, he’ll get it done. He always gets it done.
Now, the cool thing about this is that my boss thinks I can get it done when I don’t know shit about the particular system. The downside is that my boss thinks I can get it done when I don’t know shit about the particular system.
Slee
And yes, I got it done and it worked. It was rather complex Cisco IP video stuff.
