HOAs are often full of rules and regulations, but they’re also filled with people who enforce them a little too enthusiastically.

For one family, a neighborhood snoop learned the hard way that spying on kids isn’t exactly in the bylaws, but it does get you a front-row ticket to a protective mom’s wrath.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

Threaten to tell my mother on me? Okay

Years ago, when I was around 8 years old, my mom and her five kids moved in with her BF.

He lived in a cul-de-sac neighborhood with a Homeowners’ Association and everything.

Now almost everyone in the place kinda had an issue with this.

You could say they came from different walks of life.

Most of them were conservative PTA Christian types so a divorced woman, with a career, moving in with her five kids and sleeping in the same bed with her BF was kinda scandalous for them.

So one of the board members on the HOA sent her eldest son, around 20 years old who still lived at home, to go snoop on us.

We didn’t notice until almost 3 days later because of this incident I deliberately caused.

She sets the scene.

It was summer and hot as heck, so I was poking around in the garage with my little sisters looking for a kiddie pool our mom’s BF thought he still had, when we found an old sprinkler.

It was the next best thing, so we changed into our swimsuits and set it up in the yard.

It was the kind that made a wave, so we were running around jumping through it screaming and laughing like kids will do.

Then they noticed something unusual.

I soon noticed a guy crouched by the neighbors’ fence snapping pictures of us.

I crept over to him and he didn’t notice until I was less then a foot away and the following conversation ensues.

Even a child can tell he’s somewhere he doesn’t belong.

Me: “Uh whatcha doing?”

Him: “I’m working go away”

Me: “You’re taking pictures of us – that’s not working!”

Him: “Sure it is! Now leave me alone or else!”

Me: “Or else what?”

Him: “I’ll tell your mother on you!”

She recognizes a perfect opportunity for revenge.

I raised both eyebrows and then I smirked my hands clasped behind my back as I leisurely walked to the front door eyeing the guy the whole way.

He frowned at me, camera lowered, obviously knew I was up to something.

So she went off to tell her mom!

I opened the front door and looked at him as I sing-songed into the house “Hey mom! A man taking pictures of us wants to talk to you!”

Mom wasn’t too happy.

The ground seemed to shake and the windows rattled as my mom 6-foot even and built like a linebacker burst out of the house holding the biggest knife she could find.

In her mad dash out (to his credit and my deep amusement) the guy was halfway up the street sprinting for his life before my mom even got off the porch.

The HOA and the cops try to figure out what happened.

About an hour later when we were sitting around eating popsicles, he returned HOA board and a cop in tow.

It turns out the neighborhood had rules about above ground sprinklers and that’s what he was taking pictures of to get us fined.

Accusations flew back and forth.

The cop was called because the board was concerned for their safety when presenting the fine due to my mom’s “anger issues.”

To which my mom asked how would they have reacted if a complete stranger was taking pictures of their kids.

Nobody had a response, so they moved things along the guy smugly presented his evidence.

The snoop was looking guiltier and guiltier by the minute.

At this point, they really should’ve checked the camera before they got the cop involved and came over.

The guy was either a terrible photographer or a creep because every shot he took he captured close up pictures us.

Everyone but his mom was shooting him dirty looks and my mom literally growled at him.

We still had the sprinkler out, but they decided to let us off with a warning because we were new.

The mom and son were ordered by the cop to stop spying on us or they’d be dealing with him.

The sprinkler is now the least of this snoop’s worries.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter would have gone much further to punish this creep.

This redditor agrees there should have been heavier punishment here.

This user insists no sane person would buy this story.

The wannabe spy’s close-ups caused more trouble than any sprinkler ever could.

No HOA handbook justifies this level of nosiness.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.