Living in a neighborhood usually means dealing with different personalities, and there’s almost always that one person who loves to complain.

So, how would you react if you made an effort to fix something for the community and that same neighbor did nothing but criticize your work? Would you brush it off, or would you find a way to make a point?

In the following story, a homeowner finds himself in this exact situation and comes up with a creative solution. Let’s see what happened.

Crappy neighbor

Lived in one of those new subdivisions with a dozen mailboxes on a wooden beam with two posts.

The contractor had placed it on the corner of my property, but on a street that was very steep.

The mail carrier left us all notes that they would stop delivering if we didn’t move the mailboxes to the other street that was level.

One night a car hit one of the posts, so me and a neighbor agreed we should fix and move the mailboxes.

It was a Saturday, so everyone saw us but nobody offered so much as a word of encouragement.

As soon as we were done, they all started criticizing where we placed it, the height, everything.

There’s always that one guy.

The most vocal was a guy who worked the midnight shift with his girlfriend and complained when my dog barked at his dog that he allowed to roam the streets while they slept.

My dog was inside a fenced yard and this guy thought I should block off my dog’s view of the neighborhood.

I had specifically made the fence so my dog could look out. But his complaining about the mailbox was the final straw.

So, one day, I took my pop rivet tool with me to get my mail and riveted this guy’s mailbox shut.

It took him a month before he removed the rivet.

Yikes! That’s one way to teach him a lesson.

Let’s see what readers over at Reddit had to say.

Here’s a great idea for next time.

Now, this is revenge!

Forget the mailbox. This person’s worried about the dog roaming the streets.

Excellent point!

It was a funny way to get the guy back, but this was pretty risky.

Messing with mailboxes is a crime!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.