A lot of Reddit stories are silly and playful, but this is definitely NOT one of them.

It comes to us from Reddit’s “Pro Revenge” page and it concerns a lot of family drama, a Good Samaritan, and a kid who left this Earth way too early.

It all started when the person who wrote the story talked about the house they bought in what could be considered the “wrong side of the tracks.”

Don’t take my lawn decorations.

“I had purchased my first home in a slightly lower class area of town, which is pretty close to an even lower class area of town.

(Think slightly ghetto a mile from absolute trailer trash.) I know most of my immediate neighbors, since most of them are pretty loud and I’d rather be friendly with them than have them be my enemy.

But there are some really bright spots in this rough part of town and one of them is a nice local kid.

The person and the kid hit it off and the homeowner lets the kid earn some money through some good, honest hard work.

Some local kid likes to go around collecting trash in his free time. A real nice kid, does it for really no reason. Whenever I see him, I usually get him a drink, lemonade or soda so he can stay hydrated. (California is hot.) Sometimes I give him a few dollars, I offer the kid $30 a month to mow my lawn 2x a month. So, kid has a gig for small, but consistent income.

The kid takes a lot of pride in his work. He mows the lawn, pulls weeds, moves rocks out of the driveway, and just makes my place look extra nice, even though I don’t even ask him to do any extra work. This guy is great.

But the kid’s family is in rough shape and his home life is pretty terrible. Despite all the hardships, the kid has a great attitude and even starts going the extra mile to make the person’s yard a little more cheerful.

This goes on for a few years, kid is now a senior in high school. Family is not doing so great, dad just lost his main source of income, and mom had accumulated debt which put a lot of stress on their failing marriage.

Mom was ******* verbally and sometimes physically to both the kid, and the Father. But the kid keeps on walking, doing work, volunteering and being a real happy, up beat dude.

Despite his troubles at home, the kid starts buying lawn decorations. Mostly small, little gnomes, some decorative rocks, and bird bath, and he decorates my yard. It looks amazing, but I knew he must have spent a lot of his own money on that. I try to reimburse him, and he denies. He won’t take it.

So he decided to reward the kid in a huge way.

But then a tragedy occurred that no one saw coming.

I know he needs a car, and I was about to get a newer one for myself, so I gave my mine for free. It really was the least I could do for this guy for everything he has done for me.

A few weeks later, a ***** driver T bones the kid, and he passes away at the scene. I was devastated, his parents were devastated, and they soon after got a divorce.

They were fighting over who gets what, and the father discovers that the mother had a drug addiction she had been hiding. Straight out of left field. She wants everything they had, and she lawyers up to fight the battle.

Due to the debt the mother had accumulated on the father’s bank account, he had really no money. And nobody knew where she got her money from.

The homeowner couldn’t avoid the drama of the late kid’s family and it seemed like someone was just trying to be as vindictive as possible. So they decided to take a side in the court battle.

As sad as it is, it’s not my affair. Until she sent me a letter claiming that the yard decorations are rightfully hers, and that she will take them “or else”.

Now, this is a problem.

I get it, you lost your only child. You’re in a lot of pain as a parent. But you were never a good parent to him. I was closer to him than you, by a long shot.

So, I had a meeting with the father, and told him not to worry about the court costs. I decided I was going to fund him in court.

And things turned out the way they should have, despite all the pain that was inflicted on everyone involved. And the young kid’s memory still gets to live on.

Long story short about their divorce battle, but he wins, and gets to keep everything, and even gets a restraining order on her. He then files for credit card fraud, and puts all the debt on her.

I heard from the father that she was recently arrested for driving while *****, and was search and has a decent stash of drugs on her.

She is currently awaiting trial for that, while the father is living a life now relatively stress free.

And I got to keep my lawn decorations.

RIP Jonathan. You are missed.”

Here’s what Reddit users had to say about this.

One person said this kid sounded like a great one.

Another individual said he most likely just wanted to get away from his home.

This Reddit user was disgusted by the mother in the story.

Another reader is fortunate that things weren’t worse in their past.

And this Reddit user shared some deep thoughts.

I hope folks learned a lesson from this story.

Don’t be a jerk! Be a good neighbor!