A friendly neighbor who respects your boundaries and lends a helping hand is worth their weight in gold. However, anentitledand selfish one is like a chronic headache—bound to ruin your day. While we can’t pick and choose what people get to live next to us, we can control how we respond to their behavior.
Redditor u/Remarkable_Panda952 regaled the internet with a story ofpetty revengeagainst a rude neighbor who happened to be a local dealer with a story of petty revenge against a rude neighbor, who happened to be a local dealer. His blocking the author’sdrivewayand having an obnoxious attitude led to him learning a harsh lesson about manners. As it turns out, impoliteness can lead to a drop in business if your neighbors are creative enough.
Read on for the full story, as well asBored Panda’sinterview withu/Remarkable_Panda952, who opened up about some other terrifying incidents in her neighborhood.
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Neighbors who are rude, lack common sense, and ignore your boundaries are incredibly difficult to deal with
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One internet user opened up about how she used to live next to a local dealer who blocked her driveway. Here’s her story of petty revenge
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In this day and age, many people aren’t even aware of who their neighbors are
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Remarkably, many people living in the United States have little to no clue who they’re living next to.
Navigating arguments with your neighbors is no easy feat. Tensions can flare. Things can get really awkward really quickly. And there’s lots of frustration when someone can’t seem to grasp basic common sense things. Alas, common sense is not all that common.
It should be obvious to your neighbor that they and their customers shouldn’t block anyone else’s driveway. It should also be common sense not to insult your neighbors or call them names.
If you’re looking at the long-term ramifications of living in your local area, then you can’t go around being rude to the local community. You need to find a way to live in harmony. Or, well, something at least in the general ballpark of that.
The first step toward resolving any issue with your neighbors, no matter how small or major it might be, is to talk to them about what’s going on.
Explain your side of things. Point out how their behavior affects you. Then, offer them a possible solution.
How you talk to them matters just as much as what you say. You can be firm, but try to stay as calm, cool, and collected as possible.
You don’t want to make it look like you’re accusing them of anything because they’ll only double down.
If you feel like there’s a lot of frustration in the air, you can try being friendlier than usual or using some humor to cut the tension. But that shouldn’t come at the cost of your personal boundaries.
There are various ways that you can handle conflicts in your local area, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll win
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If you’ve avoided any accusations but your suggestions get ignored, you should do some research about your local laws and rights and send them a letter. In it, you should offer some sort of solution to the problem.
(Keeping a paper trail is invaluable, whether you’re dealing withproblematic neighbors, sneaky businesses, or improper colleagues.)
Next, you can get in touch with any organizations or companies that manage the properties in your neighborhood. They might be able to advise you on how to move forward. They might also be willing to help mediate the conflict.
If nothing works and you’ve exhausted all other avenues of diplomacy, it might be time to escalate things. You can either get in touch with the local authorities citing your complaints. Alternatively, you can talk to a lawyer and see whether you could potentially take your neighbor to court.
Of course, if the authorities are turning a blind eye to your issues (as in the case of the author’s story), you’re forced to get creative andtake mattersinto your own hands. A quick way to change someone’s behavior is to make it hurt financially. Which is exactly what the author did to her rude dealer of a neighbor.
According to the author, there were other incidents that anyone would find frightening
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“I actually caught up with a different neighbor from that place not too long ago after running into them at the bank, and he was pretty sure they jumped to harder stuff and got arrested for selling fentanyl. It could be just a rumor, but that house was literally on the wrong side of the tracks.”
According to the author, most of the other neighbors kept to themselves, other than the local church people. She confessed that she would rather live next to a dealer than have to live across from that church again.
Unfortunately, there were some pretty scary incidents that u/Remarkable_Panda952 had to deal with. “One time, I had a crazy gal, high as a kite, try throwing herself through our dining window. And there was a guy once with an axe who ran up to the house screaming before running off when I shut off the alarm,” she said.
“As scary as the axe guy was, it was at least in broad daylight and was fleeting. I’d love to say that was the catalyst for us to move, but at the time, we were paying under $800 a month for a 3-bed, 1,400-square-foot house with apple, cherry, almond, plum, lemon, and orange trees… and we rode that out as long as we could,” u/Remarkable_Panda952 said.
“The landlord got rid of us after 7 years, claiming the house needed too much work to fix with tenants, but they just replaced the flooring and more than doubled the rent. According to the neighbor we liked, they still had the house on a fuse box instead of breakers. It’s been trashed multiple times since then, and most of the trees have died. Those fruit trees are the only thing I miss… and the cheap rent.”
Good neighbors keep an eye out for each other
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The author told us that the neighbor they caught up with at the bank recently was their definition of a perfect neighbor. “When we moved in, he told us about all the quirks of the house. When our car was hit in front of the house, he hopped in his truck and followed the trail of oil and radiator fluid to find them. It didn’t make up for the neighborhood, but he was great,” she told Bored Panda.
From her perspective, good neighbors keep an eye out for each other and share any excess things that they have. For example, where the author lives now, this means giving away fruit. “I’m pretty sure my Indian neighbors are in love with my garden too ’cause I share everything with them when no one in my house wants more!”
We were curious to get u/Remarkable_Panda952’s take on spotting potential neighbor red flags. “Even if you don’t know them, if you see them and they see you and they don’t wave or something to acknowledge you are there, that feels like an easy red flag to notice, and quickly too.” Other possible red flags include being pestered about inconsequential things, as well as parking across your driveway.
The author opened up to Bored Panda that she subscribes to the idea of getting even with troublemakers instead of getting mad at them. “I’m stressed easily and get anxious over drama, so if I’m going through the hassle of fixing a mess, I’m going to enjoy it. Don’t do anything that hurts someone or destroys property, but whatever your solution is, enjoy it and any chaos that comes with it. That’s probably not good advice, but it does make life more interesting.”
Some internet users have very similar stories of their own that they were keen to share
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