After Enduring Their Neighbor’s Harassment For Years, This Couple Finally Got Tired Of It And Called The Cops
by Michael Levanduski
When you move into a new neighborhood, you hope that you will get along with your neighbors and have a great relationship.
What happens if your neighbor is mean right from the beginning and complains about your noise, lawn, and everything else?
That is what the new homeowners in this story experienced, so eventually they got tired of it and called the cops on him.
Check it out.
Neighbor called code enforcement on me about my lawn without even speaking directly with me first.
A little background info: My wife and I purchased our house a few years ago.
The day we moved in our neighbor, Roger, called the cops on us for moving in too loudly.
We weren’t playing music, or even talking amongst ourselves.
Just my wife and I moving our belongings into our new house.
Cops came, I explained that I was just moving in and they apologized for bothering us.
Wow, what a jerk.
Roger, in all of his retired proud boy glory, comes out of his house immediately after they left to let us know he is the one that called the cops and in more words says he is setting the tone for our new life.
Even still, we were super cordial with this guy because we wanted to make a good impression in our new neighborhood.
It’s our first home and it was important to us to make it homey.
About a year or so later our first son is born.
We let our property fall to the back burner while we adjusted to parenthood.
A few newspapers piled up in our driveway and, in the rain, sort of melt onto our driveway.
All on our property.
Roger comes knocking on our door to complain.
I tell him I’m sorry and that we let it get away from us.
I explain that we have a newborn son and I would get to it ASAP.
He digs in and starts telling me how when he was a new father he didn’t let anything affect his property and he tells me I’m being lazy.
I said, “then why don’t you pick it up if you’re so worried about it?”
To which he says, “No, I want you to pick up the mess”
I was trying to be semi cordial still because I’m not interested in unnecessary conflict with my neighbor so I told him fine, I will get to it and he left.
Later that year, Roger comes over one day to ask if he can trim the tree that hangs over my fence onto his side of the fence.
I’m fine with that so I say no problem.
He casually mentions how one time when a 17 y/o kid, friends with his delinquent drug addict son at the time, broke into his garage he hit him in the head with a baseball bat.
The police came and he was cleared of all responsibility because it was a break in.
He’s smiling and laughing while telling me this. “Noted” I’m thinking to myself, “this guy is a psychopath.”
Well it’s a couple years later now with a few more minor run ins but nothing too significant and my wife and I just had our second son one month ago.
I mean, grass can grow a lot in that time.
About 10 days ago, son isn’t even 3 weeks old at this time, I get a notice on my door saying my lawn is in violation of my city’s code.
I mowed it two days before my son was born so it’s been about 3 weeks since I mowed and it’s been raining since.
I have 48 hour to comply.
I call the number on the card and no answer so I call the non emergency line to verify what my responsibility is because of the vague wording on the door hanger.
It’s because one of the types of grass in my lawn (growing very sparsely, like one blade per square inch) is over 12 inches tall.
The majority of the grass was like 2 to 3 inches long but there was another type there as well that grew faster.
I told them that I’m a new father and ask for an extension to deal with it later.
They said don’t even worry about the lawn, just take care of the baby.
So now with some newfound confidence I mow my lawn in a spiral shape leaving lots of grass remaining as a middle finger to whoever (we know who it was at this point in the story, right?) called the cops on me about my lawn.
A couple days later Roger talks to me over our shared backyard fence and asks about my lawn mower and if it’s busted or something.
I told him, “no, I just have more important priorities than mowing my lawn” and tell him about my new son.
Then I asked if he was the one that called the cops on me about it.
Yeah right mister.
He says he called code enforcement but not on me.
He called on my new neighbors on my other side, a really nice Mexican family who is always diligent about their lawn and always working outside on their new property.
He says code enforcement must have happened to notice my lawn when they went to follow up on his call next door.
At this point I say something along the lines of, “look, I’m a pretty cool guy, if you have a concern about my property then you can speak with me directly.”
He swears up and down that he didn’t call on me and that it was just a coincidence.
Whatever.
About a week after that, yesterday, he knocks on my door and I already know what’s coming.
I answer the door kind of chuckling and greet him.
He’s kind of chuckling too at this point because it’s ridiculous.
He says, “hey, so you said I could talk with you if I had an issue with your property.”
I tell him “Yeah, by all means.”
He gestures to my lawn and asks what it’s about.
I say, “It’s kind of like a middle finger to whoever called code enforcement on me.”
He is irate.
Says if it’s a middle finger to him…
Nice, he confirmed it was not him, so no problem.
I stop him and remind him that he told me he didn’t call them on me so he shouldn’t feel targeted.
He ignores me and restarts his sentence the same way again, so I cut him off again and I say, “I specifically am telling you it’s not a middle finger to you, Roger.”
He says, “If it’s a middle finger to me then this means war.”
What does this guy think he is going to do?
“Over what?!” I asked him, laughing.
He is getting bigger and huffier by the second and tells me I’m a lazy jerk and my property is in shambles (lol) and that all the other neighbors mow their lawn.
I remind him I have a newborn son and that my lawn can wait for now.
He puffs up as big as he can and says, “I never had this issue when I was a new father!”
I told him I don’t care about what he did as a dad (Ironically enough his drug addict son lives in the house on the other side of him and causes trouble in the neighborhood regularly. Cars peeling out, people screaming at each other, drug addicts always waiting outside, etc.)
Now he tells me that he’s going to call code enforcement on me every day and I tell him to get off my property.
He says, “Move me” so I tell him I’m calling the cops and he says do it so I grab my phone and start dialing.
He walks to the side walk and keeps yelling at me about how I’m lazy and not fit to own my property.
Cops come and speak with us.
Yes, that was kind of anticlimactic.
Very anticlimactic.
They did make sure to let him know that he needs to get off my property when I say so and that’s all I wanted from them.
Tomorrow I’m going to take my hedge trimmers and mow my maze down to 11 inches.
Hopefully, he backs off now, and hopefully, this person has time to care for his lawn (and his kids!).
Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say.
This commenter recommends getting the sheriffs involved.
That would annoy him for sure.
This sounds wonderful.
Here is a sinister plan.
This person recommends planting microclover.
This neighbor needs to get a life.
Why are there so many people like that.
If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.
Categories: STORIES
Tags: · city infraction, cutting grass, lawn, lawn care, long grass, neighborhood, neighbors, petty revenge, picture, reddit, top
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