Some people are messier than others, but parents should try to teach their kids to pick up after themselves instead of making a mess.

In today’s story, one neighbor shares a story about children who would throw toys and garbage on the sidewalk, and their parents didn’t seem to care.

The neighbor cared and did something about it.

Let’s see how the story unfolds…

Children were playing “let’s dump all our crap over the fence” for years. I joined and won.

I have lived in my neighbourhood for six years. I run daily and walk the dog daily, when it’s not -45C out, but since it’s a newer area there aren’t many paths.

So I take basically the same sidewalks every single day.

About four years ago I noticed there’d always be a pile of crap on the sidewalk behind a specific home. We’re talking a basketball, pair of shoes, half of some plastic toy, an umbrella, etc.

Really random groupings of everyday life detritus, always on the sidewalk, always behind this house.

She would move the garbage out of the way.

I have a short dog and also I am aware enough of the world that I know this stuff can affect say, a mother with a stroller or someone in a wheelchair trying to navigate around it.

So when I’d come across it I’d always move it onto the grass because I didn’t really know where it was coming from.

Eventually I’d see it get reported as litter on our local complaints app and the city would clean it up and that was that.

Once or twice I took a garbage bag myself and threw it out.

This happened for years.

Facebook shed light on what was going on.

I had to make a Facebook account for a job I took, and idly decided to join my local neighbourhood Facebook group.

Scrolling back to read the drama, I came across a complaint about that house. Someone commented “try being their neighbour, it’s like living by a dump.”

By scouring the comments I found out these kids just do this constantly, the parents don’t care and have been talked to by the city and the neighbours, and the colour of the house of the culprits (confirming which house it was.)

The kids just thought this was fun.

She has been getting revenge on the kids and their parents for years.

So I decided – why not just throw everything BACK IN?

I began doing this in 2021.

Shoe? In their yard. Gatorade bottle? Yard. Dog poop bag? Yard.

One time a whole Barbie was out there. I picked it up. Chucked it.

She was persistent about throwing everything back in their yard.

See, the kids were never out when I was out, so no one really saw me throw it back in.

One time we threw the same shoe back and forth six times. Six runs, I saw that glitter Velcro shoe.

Six times, I tossed it back over their fence.

This whole thing baffled me because I can’t imagine the parents understood where all their stuff was going. I saw a whole raincoat, big toys, adult sneakers.

Like, these children were taking stuff from the house to do this! It always slowed down in the winter but once the snow melted… it came back.

A tricycle was the last straw…

One day I went for my run and one of those plastic tricycles was there.

Something in me snapped.

I moved it to the side and left it there. I ignored it for a few days.

Then, I went for a walk with my dog. And I heard the kids in the yard.

I picked that sucker up, stepped far back, and with all my might, whaled that shit into their yard.

She confronted the kids.

I heard a shriek and the sound of breaking, and then silence.

Then I walked up to the fence, and said, “I better not see any of your garbage on this sidewalk ever again.”

And then kept walking with my dog. Because really, what were the kids gonna do?

The fence was higher than they were, it was not gated nor close to a walking path, so if they wanted to see me they’d have to go down six houses to come out to the path I was on. Their parents clearly didn’t give a care.

The kids seemed to learn their lesson.

This was fall 2022.

I’m happy to report I haven’t seen a single piece of garbage behind their house since. And yes, they still live there, their artwork is still proudly displayed in the windows.

It baffles me that the kids’ parents were okay with them throwing their things on the sidewalk.

The tricycle incident definitely seemed to get through to the kids!

Let’s see how Reddit responded…

This reader is surprised OP’s tricycle stunt worked.

Another reader shared a hypothesis about why the kids were throwing stuff over the fence.

This reader loved the part about the shoe.

Another person can relate to OP’s story.

This reader applauded OP for teaching the kids a lesson.

I wonder if the kids stopped throwing the garbage all on their own or if the parents scolded them after seeing the broken tricycle.

Either way, it worked out!

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.