You have to live next to your neighbors for a long time, so it is best to try to get along with them whenever possible.

But what should you do if your neighbors are constantly complaining to the city about tiny things, without ever bringing them up to you first?

That’s what happened to the family in this story, who ended up getting some revenge in the best way possible.

Read on to enjoy.

A Sign of the End

Background:

My parents live in the middle of our town, but their house is surrounded by about an acre of forest/wood.

This part of the property has never been developed or anything, it’s always been wild and my parents like it that way (this is relevant).

Their house is also at the top of a hill, and their property extends down the hill, to where it flattens out.

There’s a street down the hill and a few of the houses there have backyards that face my parents’ property.

The issue has been one set of neighbours down the hill, who have been a thorn to my parents for a few years now.

That would get annoying really quickly.

Their favourite move has been to call by-law on my family.

They don’t talk to my parents first about the issues, they go straight to our city’s by-law.

Once, because the previous owners of their house had illegally dumped a boat on my parents property, and my parents had to pay to remove it.

And another time, because there was a tree that had to be removed (I can’t remember the exact reasons it had to be taken down) which cost my parents $5K to do so.

Obviously, this has not endeared these people to my parents.

Why would they do this?

Story:

Recently, my parents found out that the neighbours had whipper-snipped a swath of my parents’ property.

For reference, the neighbours have a fence around their property, so it’s not like they accidentally went a little too far in the maintenance of their own property.

This became the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Or rather, my parents tolerance for their crap.

LOL – I bet that drove them crazy.

After a quick check with by-law, because they knew that the neighbours would be on the phone to them immediately, my parents bought a No Trespassing sign.

One that is the exact maximum size allow by our city.

The bright red monstrosity is 2 by 3 feet.

My mother and brother went down the hill and installed it, fully on my parents’ property. Facing the neighbours’ backyard.

So every time they are in their backyard, or even look out the back, it’s right there.

In all its petty glory.

Did I mention you can also see it from the road?

I’m sure not only all of their neighbours and visitors can see it, but anyone walking or driving past can see it (my sister may have changed her daily dog walk path to go past it, so she can laugh. We’re all petty in my family).

Not so smart putting it in writing.

Within 24 hours of it going up, my parents received a letter from the neighbours.

One that included a whole pile of excuses and deflection.

The tree they forced to remove had made weeds grow, so they had to weedwhack my parents’ property.

There was a gate in their fence, so they thought they were allowed to go on the property.

They wish my parents had talked to them first about the issue (which made my mom angry laugh).

It also included several things they’d done on the property that my parents hadn’t known about, which just annoyed my parents further.

And was also stupid of them, because they just admitted to destroying property and trespassing.

On a letter they signed and dated.

The letter asked that my parents take the sign down.

While my father (who can be a softie) was considering it, my mother said no.

And she’ll be the one dealing with them.

She has no intention of taking the sign down, and legally, she doesn’t have to.

So now we’re just waiting for the neighbours to show up to talk.

Which we know they will, as they mentioned it in their letter.

I would love to hear how this plays out.

And now they get to face my mother. Who has what we call dragon lady mode.

Where she goes quiet, calm, and her anger is as cold as ice.

The last time she was this annoyed with someone, it ended with that person being forced to resign from our local school board because of her.

I hope I’m there when the neighbours find out that my mother is a petty, clever, vindictive dragon.

A great story of very petty revenge. Well done.

Let’s see if the people in the comments liked it as much as I did.

Hard to believe someone would be so stupid.

You have to watch out for people like this.

I bet it is a good story.

Have the police cart them away.

This person suggests hanging up more signs.

Never admit your guilt in writing, come on!

These folks clearly aren’t the brightest.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.