We have all had run-ins with neighbors who have no sense of boundaries. They also lack common sense most of the time. But how often can we say we got revenge? How often have they gotten what they deserved? Content edited for clarity.
Lesson Learned
“It was a cold winter day. Eight inches of snow had fallen the night before, and the windchill made it feel as if it were in the negatives (Fahrenheit). I drive an all-wheel drive SUV so I have no issues getting out. My wife on the other hand drives a Prius, which slides with the smallest amount of moisture on the road.
My car was down at the time, so we had to take my wife’s car. I spent 45 minutes in the freezing cold shoveling that car out so we could get to the store. We were gone for an hour, and when we came back, our neighbor had taken the spot I had shoveled.
Our apartment complex doesn’t have assigned parking, but in the winter, it’s understood that if you shovel a spot, it’s yours. So when I saw his car in the spot I had just shoveled, I was pretty pissed. I took action before I had time to talk myself out of it.
I went inside and filled two-gallon jugs of water. Then I went back out and poured them on his windshield. Rinse and repeat. I must have poured about ten gallons of water on his car. Being how cold it was, it was already freezing by the time I poured the last gallon on. It sat like that overnight.
The next morning, I got to watch as he helplessly tried to scrape all of these layers of ice off his windshield.
Don’t take my goddamn parking spot.”
Play Them What They Need To Hear
“I had a neighbor that had a dog that barked from about 7:00 pm until 5:00 am NON STOP. They worked nights I believe and they kept the dog outside the whole time. I had had enough and went over one day to try and get them to stop. I knocked numerous times, and all they said was, ‘Dogs bark, what do you expect?’
I don’t know if I have ever been so annoyed in my entire life. It was such a simple thing to fix. So I thought, I guess I have to fix it myself.
Their house was directly behind mine, we shared a divided wall. I recorded their dog for a full night. The minute they brought him in, and I felt like they were sleeping, I popped my phone into the dock and played it on my stereo full blast facing their yard at 9:00 am.
They came over raving mad to my wall by about noon. They were shouting over the wall, asking me to shut my dog up.
I said calmly, ‘It’s your dog. I recorded him since you miss out on what dogs do. I’m just playing the radio at normal allowable city time and I will do this every day. Just so you don’t miss out on the normal experience I enjoy every night.”
They started bringing the dog in at night after that.”
Entitlement
“Friday night I came home from work to find someone on our block was having a large party and one of the guests decided they were entitled to park in my driveway. Obviously, my neighbor had not bothered to tell people where their guests could and could not park.
Keep in mind my driveway is a single-car width lined with a retaining wall on both sides and a garage at the end. Essentially impossible for a tow truck to come to pull them out without property damage.
Seeing this and the lack of street parking I took this as a cue to park right behind them in my driveway. Now a few hours go by and the entitled parker was now knocking at my door demanding I move my car so she could leave. Seeing as she was demanding, I informed her that I had been drinking and would not move my car.
The woman then decided to call the police to get them to force me to move. When the police knocked on my door, I was sure to grab a beer from the fridge before I answered to talk to the officer.
I informed him that after I got home I was unwinding and had been drinking and was in no shape to drive. At this point their hands were tied because they couldn’t tow her car out, I was in no shape to drive, and I was legally parked in my own driveway.
I ended up telling the woman that since it was a long weekend I would be on a weekend-long bender and she could come to get her car after I went to work on Tuesday. I hope she told my neighbors what happened so they’d remember to remind their guests where to park in the future.”
Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures
“Some years ago we had some new neighbors move in next door. Nice enough people but we had a pretty big problem with them. The husband traveled a lot and his wife was afraid of just about everything, the dark, thunderstorms, you name it. The problem was the floodlights over their garage doors. The wife would leave them on all night, every night, even though you couldn’t see them from inside their house.
They were positioned such that they would shine into our bedroom at night. We were not able to block them effectively with our curtains. It wasn’t too long before we felt like something needed to be done.
We asked them politely several times if they could turn them off at night since they served no effective purpose. They adamantly refused. I offered to pay for a timer that would control them. There was no way they would consider it. I thought about taking the bulbs out, shooting them out with my pellet gun, etc. The solution that I arrived at was harmless, but extremely effective if successful. We crossed our fingers that they wouldn’t realize what I had done.
Since they couldn’t see them from inside the house it was about 5 or 6 months before they realized that they were not working. I had loosened the bulbs ever so slightly. They screwed them back in. I waited a couple of weeks and unscrewed them again. Another few months went by. Finally, one day, my neighbor asked me if I ever had any trouble with my outdoor lights. I told him yes, as a matter of fact, I did. I said that they would loosen up occasionally and I would have to re-tighten them. I blamed it on the vibration from the traffic on our street. He said that he had the same problem. I told him that I finally just gave up and left them off. He eventually did the same. We were happy with the final outcome and we were able to keep peace in the neighborhood.”
‘Tis The Season For Revenge
“I own a big house. It is a beautiful old Victorian type that I restored. An older couple moved in across the street this summer and started complaining about everything I did. And I mean everything. They didn’t like the siding I was having put on, my front door color was ugly, and they hated all the different colored flowers I planted. It got to a point where it felt personal. They didn’t like the idea of a young, single woman living in a house I clearly couldn’t afford. They actually told me that, to my face. I tried not to let it affect me, but I was really proud of what I had accomplished with my house, so they were really getting to me.
I did really well ignoring them until Christmas came around and I realized there was no saving the relationship.
I put up lights and a few blow-ups but nothing the other neighbors didn’t usually do. This couple started throwing a fit right off. Christmas offended them. Well, I was done ignoring them and felt I should do something to intervene. So, I just smiled and added more. At this moment my house can be seen on Mars. To add to the petty I told the neighbor next to me and he told another and then another. Now everyone on the street knows how the couple feels about Christmas. And we’ve added even more to the decorations. If only they could have minded their own business.”