Living in neighborhoods introduces you to a bunch of different people. Sometimes they are nice neighbors and sometimes they cross lines that should never be crossed. People share times when an interaction became inappropriate with a neighbor and how they handled the situation. Content has been edited for clarity.
Back To Jail
“I’ve had a lot of unusual neighbors who did a lot of strange things like stealing my mail and packages, making inappropriate advances, and having fits because they wanted to use my driveway and couldn’t understand why I might need it. Things like that, but I understand such insanity is normal anymore.
The one which was not so normal was when my neighbor, who lived in my guest house. His nephew decided he liked me and was going to move in with me whether I liked it or not. The kid was fresh out of prison and swore he couldn’t stay out of trouble because of peer pressure from others. So, his uncle decided to give the irresponsible twit a fresh start and arranged for him to stay with him in our state.
I did not enjoy the kid coming around and putting the moves on me and soon found myself sneaking around in my yard to water it or to leave or come home unless I wanted to fight about not wanting to have an inappropriate relationship with him all the time.
My son and I couldn’t even run races or play catch or ball in the yard. Every time I let the dog out, the kid was there. It sucked. I spoke to his uncle about it and started to feel like a threat.
He spoke to his nephew about it who felt certain all he had to do was force himself on me and I would instantly be in love with his magical arse and let him move in with me.
His uncle didn’t agree and was kind enough to not only work everything out with the probation officer but to drive him back to his home state.
About a week later, the uncle came over and told me the kid had returned and wanted to stay with him again until he could move in with me. His uncle told him that wasn’t going to happen, and got in a fight with him as he had to force him to leave. Even though his uncle called the police, he was concerned as his nephew came back and stole a chainsaw from him.
Since I had iron grills on all my doors and windows, his uncle thought his nephew was going to use the chainsaw to see his way into my home. He called the police and told them what had happened and what he thought his nephew, who was breaking probation, was going to do. But the officers didn’t seem concerned. As such, we both decided it would be a good idea to take shifts and stay up all night and watch for his nephew.
At about two in the morning, the kid pulled up outside my home with his chainsaw. I followed my neighbor’s instructions and immediately called the police. I told them the kid was here with his chainsaw, that he was breaking probation by traveling out of state, and if he sawed his way into my home, I was frightened for my son’s and my lives, so would get rid of him the minute he broke into my home.
Interestingly, the police were out there just as he fired up the chainsaw and started to see through the wall of my home. This was so long ago, I cannot remember the exact conversation which happened, but the nephew told the police that he lived with his uncle in my guest house and had lost his key and mistook my house he was trying to break his way into for his uncle’s.
I told the police that was not true. The uncle came out and told the police that the kid was breaking probation and had full intent on forcing his way into my home.
Even though the kid was yelling and screaming that we were all lying and fighting with his uncle over the chainsaw, for some reason the police just let the kid go.
The officers helped the kid put the chainsaw into his trunk along with the five gallons of gasoline he had brought with him to the outside of my home.
I don’t know what the kid needed the gas for other than to burn my house down if he couldn’t get in, but the officers seemed fine with that.
Off the kid drives in the middle of the night as though there was nothing unusual at all about his behavior. But, I guess he had committed no crime other than breaking probation which the officers didn’t believe. They didn’t even bother to check.
A couple of hours later, the kid called his uncle from jail. I guess he was pulled over a block from my home for speeding. This officer discovered he had broken probation as we had pointed out earlier and arrested him. The kid was returned to his state where he would finish serving his two-year sentence.
I was so freaked out about the kid getting out of prison, so I packed up and moved a year later as did the uncle. With the help of a private detective, I buried myself without a trace. Although the uncle and I had become good friends, we decided it would be better to never speak to each other again so his nephew wouldn’t find me once he was released.
It still scares me to talk about it. But that was the most inappropriate thing a neighbor had ever done.”
That Escalated Quickly
“Okay here’s what happened when I was visiting Ontario for the first time.
You see, a friend of mine moved there to get her college degree. So I went to visit her & stay the weekend.
She was living next door to an OPP, which is the Ontario Provincial Police. This guy would come home every day for a two-hour lunch all while leaving his cop car running in the driveway. She told me this happened all the time, and she was always bothered by it.
She told me he did it every day. Well, I found that hard to believe but didn’t question her integrity because she had no reason to lie.
So the first day there he drove that cop car home & left It running while he went inside his house. This was at 11:15 a.m. He stayed inside his house till a little after one p.m
I was shocked. I couldn’t believe he wasted all that gas for nothing.
She was right in what she was saying all along but didn’t know what to do about it. So I said I’d talk with him.
So when he came back home we were sitting on her porch waiting for him.
Then as he rolled in the drive l walked over to have a chat with him.
When he saw me, he immediately held out his hand to shake mine with a pleasant grin on his face and said, ‘Hi I’m Jeff.’
So I told him my name and immediately asked why he leaves his cop car in the drive running all the time he was inside.
Well instead of answering that question he started asking me questions instead.
He asked if I’m new here and which house was mine. But each time I answered his questions, I’d keep asking my question.
But he just wouldn’t answer me and kept repeatedly asking me questions. I just couldn’t get an answer from him at all.
Then he suggested I come inside for a drink. Well, normally I’d say no to that but I still wanted an answer and it was hot outside
So I yelled to my friend who was still sitting on her porch that I’d be right back. Fine!!
We went inside.
He then asked, ‘What’s your poison?’
l knew right then there he did not mean a glass of water or soda. That’s a very common phrase we all use all the time when referring to mixed drinks.
So I asked what kind of adult juice he had. Turned out he had his adult juice cellar downstairs.
Down we went. He had the widest assortment I’d ever seen.
Well, he had so many different British Columbia adult juices that I was impressed. But l know now l shouldn’t have told him that though.
He took that to mean something else entirely. It was like the open season to him when he came up behind me and put his arms around my waist.
I was shocked. Not at the fact that he did that but that he snuck up on me so quick like that as l was just looking at him a second before.
That’s when I decided it was time to go. So I went upstairs, and l ran out the front door to my friend waiting for me on her porch.
I waited to tell her what happened until we got inside her house because I didn’t want anyone else to know. I thought about this the whole weekend but told her not to tell anyone else. So she promised she wouldn’t.
I think he made an advance on me cause he knew I lived in British Columbia. He kept asking me personal questions in his driveway. Remember? So I think he felt comfortable enough to do what he did without a second thought.
I wonder, though, how far he would have gone.”
Nosy Neighbor
“I have not had an inappropriate interaction with a neighbor, but my best friend did until her fiancé took care of the situation.
I’m not saying names for obvious reasons, but my friend, her man, and their three kids have a very nosey neighbor.
Red flag one: Whenever she would leave or come home, she would come out and walk over asking intrusive questions like, ‘Where did y’all go?’ or ‘What are you doing?’ and open the car door and talk with her kids before she’s even gotten out of the car.
Well, my friend is a quiet, secluded person, so she will reach out if she wants to talk or socialize so obviously this made her very uncomfortable but she didn’t say anything. Brushing it off that she means well but is overbearing.
Red flag two: When they moved in last year, all of the neighbors told them to watch out for her. They said she was nosey and gossiped to anyone about anything. Right down to who doesn’t get their trash picked up. Nothing was off limits to this woman.
Red flag three: She would even follow her into the house while she has all her kids in tow and walked around the house, looking around as if she was searching for something.
She literally couldn’t even take her children outside to play without her talking with the kids and asking about them. Leaning over the fence. Mind you, this woman has never said, hi how are you to her or made small talk. It’s always straight to intrusive questions.
Red flag four: Her two-year-old daughter was talking with the neighbor through the fence babbling away and this lady reached down and said, ‘I’m gonna kidnap you and take you home.’
Still, my friend never said anything but was clearly very upset about it and rushed her kids inside.
Red flag five: My friend and I have daughters five weeks apart. My daughter passed away at three months.
Anyways, one day we were all outside and this lady said, ‘I haven’t seen your baby where is she? With the father? I always see her baby but where is yours at? Did something happen?’
I told her she had passed in her sleep a couple of weeks prior. I was standing on the porch then crying, and she shushed me to stand next to her at the fence. She was fake crying and held my hand saying she was so sorry. This happened not long after her passing. Still very fresh.
Well, it stopped there I believe, or my girlfriend hasn’t told me anything more after that. There are more crazy things she’s done but I can’t remember off the top of my head. Maybe not crazy but very inappropriate and stepping over boundaries. She’s lonely and bored but still has no excuse for such behavior.”
Entitled Contractor
“A new neighbor who is a contractor built a new fence. Whoever built it cut my fence and tied it off to his. When I approached him about it, he denied it and proceeded to undo it. I took photos of this happening. Then I asked him to repair it himself, but he refused. I then showed him the law regarding cutting fences and reminded him his wife could go to jail since she was the owner.
He then said, ‘Well your fence is old.’
My reply was, ‘So what? It’s functional and it’s mine along with being on my side of the property line.’
He said he would get a survey on the property line.
So I asked him, ‘Did you not do that when you bought this house?’
He had only been there about a year. When he kept choosing to ignore me I reported it to the city as he never got a permit for the fence. He knows the law on that but chose to ignore it.
I had someone repair it and gave him the bill. I previously hired him to do foundation repair. He didn’t complete the job. (Still isn’t completed). Didn’t give me the material I paid for. Won’t reimburse me either. I had given him over half down. I told him I would file suit in small claims court and include the cost of repairs after him in my suit. Also that since I had a record from the city about the fence (he had to pay a penalty for that and did pay me for the fence repair months later) I would most likely win my case.
I didn’t realize someone who is a neighbor and in business to repair and remodel homes would rip me off.”
Mysterious “Neighbor”
“Last year I went to Gurgaon, India for a few months.
I used to spend most of the time in my room and rarely went out except in the morning for tea and breakfast and at night for dinner.
Whenever I come back after breakfast, I used to see my neighbor’s room locked with the light off. Same scene I used to see after coming back from dinner. For the first month, I thought that no one used to live in that room until one fine morning I saw a guy opening the lock silently.
I went toward him and talked to him for a few seconds. He asked me to come inside and I went in. I saw darkness everywhere in his room. There was no room for light or sunrays to enter the room, even heat couldn’t penetrate in. I asked him to switch on the light two times but either he didn’t listen or ignored me. After 3rd time, he said that he didn’t like much light. It was morning time, so I also ignored it.
We met several times after that but only in the morning, most of the time when he used to open the door in the morning. I never asked him where he used to go at night and neither did he tell.
After almost three months, I packed my bags to catch my train to go back to my home for Diwali. I had to give rent to the house owner so I went to the owner’s room.
He took the money and while closing the door, I jokingly asked, ‘My neighbor’s electricity bill must be coming to zero, right?’
He replied ‘Obviously, as no one lives in that room for the last year.
I packed my remaining bags and never came back to that house again. Plenty of questions still haunt me. Was he some outsider who used to live illegally there? But why did he always come in the morning to live in complete darkness?”
Creepy Neighbor
“I used to live in a small apartment building in a slightly sketchy part of town. Nothing too dodgy at all, but not the kind of place you’d be too comfortable on the streets if you were alone at night. So, perhaps it was no surprise that my neighbor was a very questionable man who’d taken it upon himself to harass every woman in our building.
He was charming and handsome but would use his looks to get close to people, just to harass them with inappropriate remarks and wait for an opportunity to grope them. It didn’t take long before his reputation caught up with him and everyone was avoiding him.
Given the way he was, I count myself pretty lucky that the most inappropriate thing that had ever happened with him was when I came home one day to find my door unlocked. I cautiously pushed it open and entered to find that nothing seemed amiss at all, but I was still troubled and worried. It was at that exact point when my neighbor stuck his head out of his door to ask what was up. Given that he was the only person around, I cautiously asked him if he’d noticed anyone going in or out of my studio.
He leered at me and went, ‘Oh you didn’t lock your door? Man, pity I didn’t know I could’ve just walked in, all my cameras could’ve found such a good home in your bathroom.’
I slammed the door in his face and called the building manager, who explained that some maintenance workers had come by to fix the heater and that he was sorry, but he must have forgotten to lock my door.
A few weeks later, the neighbor was kicked out. I can only imagine how many complaints must have been flooding management for them to decide to drop him like a hot coal, and I can’t help but feel sorry for whomever his new neighbors are wherever he is now.”
Intruder Alert
“On one of those long summer days, I was lazying on the couch in the living room, with a huge glass window in front of me so I could see one of my kids playing on the patio in the backyard.
Suddenly I heard muffled sounds from the backyard, I could see the back of my kid against the glass window, frozen, violently shaking his arms. but that’s all I could see.
I ran outside, and I froze too, briefly.
There was some guy in my backyard, one I did not know.
All those images of people getting beaten, abducted, robbed, and taken advantage of flashed through my mind.
I quickly picked my kid up and locked him tight in my arms.
The guy moved towards the corner where there was a cat, behind the bush.
He picked up the cat, and walked back towards the fence, all the while ignoring my presence in my backyard.
At that point, I said, ‘Hey what are you doing in my backyard?’
The guy did not turn around and continued to climb up the fence.
I asked again, a bit louder than before.
This time, a woman standing on the deck behind the fence replied, ‘What the heck are you going on about?’
That just hit like a cannonball.
So you live in the basement of the house behind mine, I do not know you, have had no communication or contact with you whatsoever, your cat walks into my backyard, my children are playing in my backyard, you thought it was perfectly okay to jump into my backyard, and you curse and abuse me when I ask you why are you in my backyard.
And yes the matter ended up with me calling the police.”
Fair Warning
“We had a neighbor back when my daughters were in their teens that would creep out watching them if they were in the backyard tanning or mowing the lawn in shorts. He also would sneak up to their windows at night and watch them though I never caught him.
I’d discover evidence of it in the shrubs like his brand of sticks. One winter, one of my girls said she heard something outside her window but we saw nothing. The next morning I found footprints from the window leading to his side garage door.
I knocked on his door and when he answered I said, ‘Just wanted to let you know there’s been someone watching my daughters through their windows at night and they might be watching you guys too! Have you seen anyone?’
He said no, then I said, ‘Well, I sure hope it stops now that I notified the police. I’d hate to severely injure the man when I catch him. You know what I mean, right?’
He mumbled, ‘Yes,’ and quickly closed the door. The nighttime visits stopped but I’d still see him watching them from his windows when they were out. I’d make a point to come outside and stare right at him until he’d disappear. We were renting and moved shortly after. Just a creepy guy all over.”
Let My Kid In
“Years ago when my three children were young, we had neighbors that had a boy about nine years old. During the winter, my neighbor got mad because I didn’t take him in after school or something. I’m not even sure. But, we ended up fighting on the front porch.
She attacked me and broke my glasses. I ripped her blouse. Afterward, she left me a note wanting me to reimburse her for her blouse. I corrected the misspelled words and told her I felt we were even because she broke my glasses.
And I reminded her in my note back to her, ‘Had I known her child was out in the snow, I would certainly have asked him into my home to stay warm until she got home. My children and I were upstairs at the time and didn’t know he was outside. But he didn’t knock on our door so we didn’t know what was going on anyway.’
My son was younger and didn’t go to school that day. He was sick. If my son had gone to school that day everything would have been fine. Anyway, she was one of those women you couldn’t do anything to get along with.”
Old Man Snaps
“When I was a kid and the strange neighbor was chasing his cat and my friends were laughing and making fun of him, I was laughing a bit but he came over to me And slapped me in the face. Sure I was laughing a bit at his suspenders and shorts with a t-shirt and black socks, but I didn’t say anything to him.
I could have hit him back. I was not a small kid, but I had some respect for adults and neighbors I knew. But he had no business hitting me. It was humorous chasing a cat around and not the nicest neighbor.
My parents talked with them and nothing came of it. I shouldn’t have laughed but don’t go around smacking a kid across the face. When I said nothing at all to him out of respect. Believe me, I wasn’t the perfect kid I had it coming for future times. But never would I take a swing, back at an old man either. He was probably 65 and I was 13 and a big kid but raised right.”
