Is it just me, or do some people make it their only goal to bother the heck out of their neighbors? Some do it to be petty, others do it to be annoying, and some do it just because they can. Well, it's time they get a taste of their own medicine.
People on Quora shame their arrogant neighbors. Content has been edited for clarity.
A Minor Overreaction
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“My neighbor came over and knocked on my door. By the look on her face, I could tell she was livid, and so I asked her if everything was okay. She pointed to the mutual hedge between our houses, which I had clipped the day before. Now keep in mind this hedge is mostly private which is just underbrush basically. Of the two of us, I am the one who keeps my yard up and she is not interested in yard work. But this day, she was upset because I had dared to clip the bushes more than she thought was appropriate. I had clipped them before and it was no problem, but now she was not happy.
She proceeded to yell at me saying, ‘Who does that?’
‘They were clipped a bit more than usual, but they would grow back,’ I said.
She would not back down and was threatening me with a lawsuit and fines until I finally told her I wasn’t going to stand there and take that abuse.
Several hours later, I was coming down my driveway and I saw her sitting on her porch. She practically leaped off the porch and came into my yard shaking some papers in my face, telling me she had talked to her lawyer. Turns out they were clearly meant to scare me, which they didn’t because they were very bogus-looking papers.
Then the next morning, early, a policeman came to my door before I was even dressed. He seemed rather embarrassed to even be there when I asked him what the problem was, and so I asked if it was concerning my neighbor?
He nodded and said, ‘Ma’am I’m just doing my job and I need you to fill out some papers.’
I asked him if it was against the law to clip mutual bushes and he just said, ‘Ma’am, she filed a complaint so we have to follow up.’ Well, he went to his police car and sat there for the longest time and then he drove off and I never saw him again.
My neighbor was still on the warpath and she would do things like park in our mutual driveway and park at the very edge of the drive so I had to park on the street and couldn’t get in. One time she actually parked behind me, blocking me in. And if a friend came and parked in the driveway, she put a note on their car, saying ‘PLEASE don’t park here!’ Eventually, she sent me some more papers from some legal something or another; it seemed like more hogwash to me, saying it wasn’t safe for either of us to park in the drive-in case there was a fire because the fire trucks couldn’t get in there and I would be responsible and she hoped I would do the right thing.
Now I was beginning to doubt the mental stability of my neighbor, and I just took all this in without saying a lot. But after the police visit, I did write her a letter telling her the police probably had better things to do with their time and if I ever clip the bushes again I will be sure and ask her, and I did deliver the letter in person.
Time went on and she would barely speak to me for over a year. If I was working outside, and the houses are close together, and she was on her porch I would say hello and she would not even look at me.”
The Parking Queen Was Dethroned
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“We’ve lived here for 14 years, and have had several run-ins with the woman next door, who is usually known as the Parking Queen.
The first thing we noticed was if one of our friends came to visit and parked anywhere near the front of her house, she’d come knocking to ask them to move. This happened several times, and even though we all know that street parking is for everyone and that no one owns the city street, we acquiesced to keep the peace.
My husband often stepped in to help the neighbour’s husband – since he had MS, it was hard for him to put up Christmas lights, or clean and repair his gutters. He did this regularly for years, in spite of the nasty wife.
One summer about four years ago, the husband called over the fence. He asked my husband if we had any use for the box springs from underneath his king-sized bed; he’d bought a new one and didn’t want to deal with the old ones. We did not! We have enough stuff!
But my husband took them and said to me later, ‘It’s fine, I’ll take them to the dump, he’s got health issues.’
Now, this would have actually cost us time and money, but my husband is a good guy. Later that day, while working in the front yard, we overheard them on the front porch. The husband had just told her we would take the box springs.
‘Are they going to pay us $50.00?’ she asked. I looked over at my husband and he just shook his head and shrugged.
‘Dang it, Maureen, they’re not worth anything! I just want them gone. Maybe they’ll get some use out of them-‘ but Maureen just said, ‘Fine, but he’s doing something for those. I’ll ask him to clean the gutters.’
At this point, my husband knew he wouldn’t be cleaning the gutters again.
The next day, my husband got home from work, had his supper and laid down for a nap (he did this a lot then) and shortly after, the neighbor came to the door asking for him, but I sent her away, saying he was sleeping. I thought that was the end of it, but she came back 90 minutes later! I slammed the door in her face.
We didn’t hear a thing from them for months. One winter day, it dumped about three feet of snow and my entire neighborhood was out shoveling – except – you guessed it – the Parking Queen. She stayed inside. Four hours later, we had two spaces cleared in front of our house, plus part of the street.
The next day, I got home from work to see my neighbor’s car taking up both spots we had cleared. The spot in front of her place, still piled high with snow. I threw my car in park, stomped up to her house and banged on the front door. She opened it in her nightgown. I couldn’t be civil.
‘You get out there and move that truck right now. I didn’t spend hours clearing that out so that you could just take it. And parked in the middle!’ I yelled.
Then she says she parked that way in order to ‘save’ that spot for her Uncle. I lost it!
‘If you don’t move it right now, I’m going to move for you,’and got back into my car. Thank goodness that she moved it -clearing that snow was back-breaking labor, and I would have punched her in the face if she hadn’t moved. We don’t speak now.”
Yeah, There’s Nothing Funny About This
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“It was Memorial Day weekend and my roommates and I were getting packed and ready to go to the beach. We had our door open to get the cooler, towels, and beach chairs out on the deck. Our apartment building was set up where you had to exit on the outside balcony to leave.
We were almost ready to go and I was outside waiting for my two roommates when my neighbor and her two young kids walked out of their apartment with their dog. My neighbor had a son and a daughter, probably about a year apart. They looked to be about five and six years old.
Now, these kids were always completely out of control. Their father worked long days and the mom stayed home with them. He’s the ‘bad guy’ who tells them ‘no,’ and their mom is always trailing behind them as they run up to strangers. I even saw them try to jump into a guy’s car once when he was trying to leave for work. When the mom was around, her kids were the world’s problem.
Knowing this, as soon as I saw them, I went to close our door because I knew what was going to happen next. Before I could grab the handle, these kids rushed in front of me and ran into our apartment, while their mom was lagging behind with her dog. It only took seconds for these kids to start jumping on our furniture and running throughout our apartment. One kid was on the couch jumping and trying to throw knick-knacks from our bookshelf into our fish tank, while the other kid chased my cat into one of my roommate’s room.
It was straight-up Chuckie Cheese Mayhem going on in our apartment.
We were all 24 years old, so our apartment was the furthest thing from child proof. I rushed in to help my roommates because we all knew from past instances their mom was going to be the least bit helpful. She would yell for them every few minutes to ‘hurry up,’ but she mostly thought it was funny.
We were not laughing.
I had my two roommates chase the kids out of the bedrooms and lock the doors so we could at least confine these rugrats into one room. I was also nervous because my cat was a rescue and does not particularly enjoy being messed with (like most cats) and I wasn’t sure if she would bite one of the kids.
It took us about 30 minutes to get these kids into one spot. Once they both were in the living room jointly jumping on our couch, I walked outside and took their mom’s dog on the leash, and demanded she go in and retrieve her children. That took another 15 minutes because once she grabbed one kid kicking and screaming when she went back in to grab the other, that kid would run back inside. They were throwing full-blown tantrums and wanted to stay.
It took 45 minutes to get these wild rascals out of our home and not one single apology.
Most parents teach their kids to not talk to strangers I guess, unless they are your neighbors and their mom needs a free babysitter.”
Just A Bunch Of Bullies
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“My fiancée and I moved into our townhouse a year ago. Became great friends with many of the neighbors. Weekend get-togethers, drinks at the gazebo after work, etc. I became president of the HOA. My fiancée did some contracting work for our closest ‘friend,’ across the street. It all went south from there. They had a disagreement about what work should or should not have been done. He refused to pay $900 for the work he had done. Then he lost his job, got dumped by a girl he was dating, and it all got worse.
Eventually, he teamed up with four other neighbors who disliked my fiancée, and they started using the legal system to harass us. They filed five protective orders, one disorderly conduct, and a violation of the protective order. We had to go to court and pay a ton in lawyers fees. Thank goodness, all charges were dismissed. Boy, were they mad after that. Then the harassment really began.
We’ve had the police called on us for trimming bushes and a tree because they claimed he was ‘staring’ at them, amongst other ridiculous things.
The four angry little neighbors went door to door through the neighborhood to badmouth my fiancée, saying he was a ‘menace to society’ and a ‘criminal,’ none of which is true. They said since I was the president of the HOA, I needed to be removed because I brought him into the neighborhood and didn’t do anything about it. Our friend and I, who were on the board as well, were both recalled and kicked off the board. Three out of the four got themselves replaced to the board and now have made it their sad little life work to harass us.
We have been recorded wherever we talk, walk or go in the neighborhood. We recently received ‘cease and desist’ letters from the management company because one of them claimed my fiancée was walking across the street and obstructed one of the idiots from driving down the road. Really? How? Did he throw himself on the car? No.
They also have ordered us to remove a donated fire pit (a silly propane fire feature table you find at any restaurant/hotel/bar) and chairs from a common area that we set up to bring the neighborhood together for social gatherings. The worst part is, the neighbor who started all this, he’s the one who put together the original petition to allow it! Now that he hates us and is on the board, he is demanding it be removed. What a hypocrite!
Most recently, my fiancée was at the mailbox with another neighbor. He knew she has signed the petition to have me removed from the board. He asked her why she would do that. Especially since he had helped her with power washing her deck and some other things around her condo. She said it was the ‘principal’ of it. They talked/disagreed and then my fiancée walked away. Her husband came down to our house thumping his chest and fisting his hands, yelling my fiancée better never talk to his wife without him around ever again. They had words. They then called the merry band of four brats as to what they should do. They were advised by the HOA board to file a protective order and disorderly conduct. They even told them how to fill out the forms and what to do.
We get back to court again next month. Yes, I know, we are moving!”
He Couldn’t Change His Thought Of Him
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“My kids were young, ten and six or thereabouts. My wife and I were spending the evening outside playing whiffle ball with the kids. Being the designated pitcher, I hadn’t really noticed, but my neighbor’s kids were standing just on the other side of the driveway watching us play. Naturally, I went over and asked them to join us, and the oldest girl, about seven or eight, told me they couldn’t. So I asked why not and she said ‘Our daddy won’t let us’.
Won’t let his kids come play with my kids, in my front yard, in plain sight from anywhere in his house, maybe 200 feet away.
I’d be lying if I said he was anything other than consistent. This went on for years – every time we were outside playing with the kids, there they were. One tippy-toe across the driveway watching us the whole time. Every time we asked them to join us it was the same thing, ‘Our daddy won’t let us’. My wife would quit when they showed up, and go back inside, it made her so angry.
So, fast-forward about 15 years. One day I’m outside and I see my cousin’s husband’s truck coming up my neighbor’s driveway. This can only mean one thing. A few minutes go by and I see them go into the garage, shortly I can smell the chemical burning from my back porch. That’s right, folks, crystal. Smoking it up, I told you it could only mean one thing when the dope man comes to visit. I was still sitting there on the porch when my neighbor’s wife comes out the back door, and walks toward the garage. Yes, if you haven’t guessed already, the plot is about to take a turn.
She disappears into the garage and it wasn’t 10 seconds later when all heck broke loose. This woman was a screamer, many times over the years I had stopped and stood still thinking I was going to have to run over there and pull her off of one of her kids. But never had I heard an outbreak like this: that woman let loose with a passionate fury. After a couple of minutes, I saw my cousin’s husband come running out, in his truck, and burnt rubber getting himself somewhere else. I think I felt the ground shake when she came stomping her way back into the house, and the temperature outside went up about 10 degrees, I think. Then, everything got real quiet. I’ll tell you, not a bird was whistling, not a bug was buzzing. Strange kind of quiet.
He came out of the garage looking like a whipped puppy. Head down, walking real slow towards the house. Reminded me of The Green Mile. Glanced kind of hopeful in my direction, and went inside.
The next day I’m outside, and for the first time in 20 years, my neighbor actually walked across that driveway and up onto my back porch where I was. My son was there, so we made small talk until he went inside. Now, my neighbor wanted to know what I thought about what went on yesterday. I told him, from appearances, his wife busted up in the garage and caught them either smoking something or sucking something. I couldn’t say which.
He said, ‘Yeah well, you know, I uh, well it’s like, uhh…’ So I let him take a breath while I explained about how I could smell the chemical burning, knowing what it is that they do, and with all the things I have done before I’m not the one to stand in the judgment, and as long as he keeps that stuff on his side of the driveway it isn’t any of my business what he does.
Then he surprised me by saying his concern was only what my opinion of him was going to be going forward. So, I told him my opinion would remain as it had been for a long time, and it was too late for him to worry about that. It was then that I reminded him about how his kids used to watch us playing whiffle ball, and how they told us he wouldn’t let them play with us, and he didn’t care what my opinion was then, so why should he care about my opinion now? It’s too late — I made my mind up many years ago.
And that was it. Back across that driveway, he went without another word, about five years ago, and not a single word has passed between us since.”
That’s A Little Ironic
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“When we first moved to California, we lived in an apartment complex. It was me, my wife and our three little girls (six, two, and one). When the complex manager showed us the available suites, she kept showing us second-floor units. I gestured to my girls and asked if there were any units on the first floor, as whoever was downstairs would complain because kids will be kids. She assured me all the units were well insulated and not to worry, as sound doesn’t travel that much in these units.
OK. So we moved in and everything was cool. I actually introduced myself to our neighbors downstairs and let them know we have kids. If they have any issues with noise, please let us know and we will try to remedy the situation as best we can. Actually, it was a single guy who was hardly ever home. In any case, our kids were in bed by eight, and he didn’t think it would be a problem. All sounds good.
A couple of weeks later, we came home to find a complaint notice from management on our door. Apparently one of our neighbors complained about our girls making noise by running around! What?! I went downstairs to ask our neighbor why he had made a complaint when I’d asked him to let me know first. He had no clue what I was talking about and said he wasn’t bothered by the noise. OK.
The following week, there was another complaint notice! This time I went over to the management building to find out what’s going on. Apparently, it was the upstairs neighbor who filed the complaints! What? The ones who stomp around like the Hulk? So I go upstairs to talk to this neighbor – it was the complex manager who rented the unit to us!”
She Had No Right To Do That
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“A couple of years ago, in the fall, I was getting ready to clean up some hanging plants outside. I realized one special plant hanger my daughter had bought me for Mother’s Day a few years earlier was gone. This had purple beads on the hanger, from the top of the hanger to the pot. It was gorgeous and I replanted it every year.
I asked my next-door neighbor if she had seen anyone messing in the backyard, describing the potholder. Turns out, we were out of town for a few days and she took it upon herself to take all the plant holders down and throw them away, even my purple beaded one.”
Not The Best Type Of Friends
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“When I was 10 or 11 years old, I was coming down the sliding board on my neighbor’s playset. Their oldest son who was my age took a 2×4 and hit me across my shins as hard as he could. My younger brother and I were playing with the neighbor boys and having a good time, I thought. Apparently, in his world, I was a threat or something. My shins turned all but black before the end of the day.
Needless to say, two days later, when it didn’t hurt to walk. I went back over and proceed to raise welts on him with a wiffle ball bat (the skinny yellow ones that whistle going through the air). After that day we were no longer friends. His brothers were ok, but their mom didn’t want them playing with us anymore. Because I was the violent one, not her son. He had welts for a couple of hours, maybe a day tops. My shins were all kinds of colors and I couldn’t walk without hurting for like two weeks. At the end of the day I just moved on. As a child, I knew I didn’t want friends like that.”
Not The Best First Impression
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“We had two different things with different neighbors. I bought my house over 20 years ago and have seen many neighbors come and go. This person and his family had just moved in. The first day they lived there, my husband was outside at the garage.
The neighbor came over and said to him, ‘Hey are you a creeper?’
My husband is usually quick-witted but he was so shocked at what this guy said that he was speechless! The next day, this guy came to the door and told me his wife didn’t like my dog barking at her in the backyard. Our dog was doing exactly what she was supposed to do. She isn’t an excessive barker, but if someone new comes around she will bark. I told him as soon as she figures out they are supposed to be there, she will no longer bark. That wasn’t good enough, so he called Animal Control to file a complaint. They came to the door, didn’t hear any barking, and told me about the complaint.
Now mind you, I had this dog long before I moved here, and had been here for many years. I also knew the Animal Control Officer that came to the house, and she knew my dogs well. She said when she saw the complaint come across her desk, she wondered if I had gotten a new dog.
I told her, ‘No, I got a new neighbor!’
Then the next thing this same neighbor did, he got a puppy for his kids. He first kept it in a crate in the yard, then about the second or third day let him out and he jumped the fenced into my yard. He was a very sweet dog. I brought him back home. The next day, the same thing, the dog jumped the fence. It seemed he just wanted to play with my dog. This neighbor got so mad at this dog that, rather than train him, he got rid of it! My husband and I were both very glad when just before his one-year anniversary of moving there, he moved out. That was a very happy day. We’ve had a lot of neighbors, the rest of them were pretty good neighbors.”
Yeah, They Definitely Had That Coming
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“We switched houses with my neighbors when I was a kid. It was this massive blow up and I’m so glad they moved back to wherever the heck they came from. The main thing that happened that was really the tipping point for my mother, was when they officially owned our house and we owned theirs, but we hadn’t moved yet.
I was probably 10, my sister 12, and my brother 7.
They cut off our water and power.
We’d just gotten home from school, wanted a snack, something to drink, but there was no water in the house. It was mid-may in the middle of a heatwave at 3:00 pm. It was probably 90 degrees with the full sun outside.
The nerve of these people.
My mother went and flipped off all their breakers. Petty? Yes. Do I care or blame her? No.”