Turning 21 during lockdown was far from ordinary.

Despite the restrictions, a small, responsibly held gathering around a backyard fire seemed like a safe way to celebrate.

However, the night took an unexpected turn when a noise complaint interrupted the festivities.

Read the story!

neighbor called the cops on my birthday party…

Over lockdown, I turned 21. I held an appropriate party for the occasion, five of us recently tested and hanging out around a fire in my backyard with a good distance between us.

We were merry for sure, but never shouting, just singing some songs together and chatting.

Around 10 at night, a very apologetic police officer pulled up and told us they got a noise complaint about us, and even he thought it was a little much but had to check it out anyways.

He just said to maybe tone it down a bit and have a good party.

At least the cop wasn’t a party pooper.

We saw my backyard neighbor watching us from the window with a phone in her hand, a woman who has always been really snotty to my immigrant and poorer-than-her family, and quickly put two and two together.

Honestly, if she had just asked us herself to quiet down, it wouldn’t have been an issue at all.

I don’t want to cause any issues with her because she’s just such a pain in the butt to deal with already, so I’ve been taking the quietest, pettiest revenge possible since then…

Ah, the taste of sweet victory.

Every growing season, I plant mint right through the holes in our shared fence.

Her perfectly manicured yard is her baby, and the mint totally overtakes it (our yard too, but we don’t actually care).

We hear her complain about it to her family constantly. Whenever she thinks she got rid of it, I plant more. Just burying some roots so they take time to grow and spread.

Mess with my birthday and prepare to be mildly inconvenienced.

Though the police visit was a minor inconvenience, it was the snotty neighbor who had called them that irked him the most.

Rather than confronting her directly, he chose a subtle form of revenge.

Let’s see what Reddit had to say about it.

This person thinks he could’ve taken it up a notch.

This person has an even better idea.

And this commenter offers yet another alternative.

Guess when you mess with a birthday, you need to prepare to deal with some minty mischief.

So many fun haters out there!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.