Sometimes, homeowners forget that just because the street and sidewalk are close to their property, it isn’t solely theirs. Discussing this is a fine line to walk, but when public safety is involved, sometimes these issues have to be brought up.

Let’s read this Reddit post where a neighboring family deals with a woman’s inconvenient parking job, blocking public sidewalk use.

Woman blocks her sidewalk with a car, asks us to call the police.

My neighbor blocked the sidewalk with her car during the last two snowstorms.

This meant:

(1) So she claims, she didn’t have to shovel a path from her car to her house and instead was able to step directly on her shoveled sidewalk (which she pays someone to shovel) and could then walk to her front door

(2) She didn’t need to shovel the sidewalk that her car blocked because no snow landed there.

(3) She didn’t shovel the sidewalk between her car and the edge of her property — about two feet — because once people have to walk around her car in the street, who cares about the last couple of feet? She shoveled the sidewalk [to] her the driver’s side of the car, but not the passenger’s side.

The woman’s reasoning sounds purely for her convenience, but maybe there’s something more to the story.

So my wife politely knocked on her door, explained that forcing our kids to walk around her car meant they walked in the street, and that wasn’t safe. Therefore, could she please drive her car fully into her driveway, as required by law?

The law doesn’t permit someone to block a sidewalk. We didn’t want to make this into a big deal, but as neighbors [we] asked if she could be a normal human.

The woman said no, then claimed it wasn’t safe for her to pull at the way into her driveway because that would force her to step in snow. My wife said if that was a concern, she should shovel a path on her grass from her driveway to her front door.

The woman then claimed she is not feeling well. My wife pointed out that she did this two months ago during the last snowstorm and that she goes to work daily. If she really was sick she’d be stuck in the house. Additionally, not feeling well doesn’t preclude a person from parking in their own driveway or walking in snow.

This wife is a problem solver!

My wife said she would call the police (non-emergency line). The neighbor says “go ahead,” and she’d get a doctor’s note.

So we did. The police said they would drive over. We didn’t see whether the police chatted with her or not. Either way, she got a ticket for blocking the sidewalk.

Oof, all because you don’t want to pull up an extra few feet? Not worth the ticket!

She did shovel the two feet of sidewalk. I suspect the police did speak to her and reminded her that not shoveling a sidewalk is a fine from the building department, not the police, and if we were willing to call the police, we’d probably call the building department too. (We had planned on it, but they were closed on the weekend when this happened.)

Great! It seems like things are resolved. Right?

She now pulled further up, still partially blocking the sidewalk, but at least we don’t need to walk around in the street. Of course, if she does this again, we won’t be asking her politely to move the car and will call the police instead. Not that entertaining, but ask us to call the police, happy to.

Sometimes, you must ask yourself, “Is this the hill I want to die on?” If more people entertained that question, maybe there’d be less neighbor drama. But let’s see what Reddit has to say. Who is in the right here?

One Redditor provided an entertaining solution to move around the neighbor’s car.

Another user advised they first get some much-needed snow gear.

Then, a reader reasoned how this could end up as a lawsuit in the family’s favor.

Finally, another Redditor left us with some important words of wisdom.

Truly, some battles are not worth fighting — and this neighbor could’ve saved money and drama if they’d just pulled their car up a few feet more.

It’s a safety hazard, and the sidewalk is for public use — it’s not right to prevent that.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.