Many people today have cameras on and around their house to help with security and peace of mind.

What would you do if your neighbor asked you to send footage of her property, but couldn’t give a specific date or time?

That is what happened to the property owner in this story, and after telling her no twice, she kept asking.

Let’s see why she keeps asking, and why he keeps telling her no.

AITA? New Neighbor Requesting Surveillance footage for a 30 second activity within a 2 week time frame – I’ve said no twice and they keep asking

My neighbor from a few doors down purchased the house next door to me and is actively renovating it.

They’ve been pretty respectful and so have I.

This is really nice.

I recently gave the owner my phone number after I saw a pretty extensive water leak from their renovation flowing into my driveway to the street.

Not a big deal but obviously they would want to get that turned off immediately and repaired.

I’m in construction and real estate and recently had a similar leak from my house – so being neighborly, I texted them a link to the part they needed to fix the specific issue.

Nothing wrong with asking.

Flash forward about a month later, neighbor is texting me asking if I have surveillance footage of their renovation property – especially the outdoor breaker boxes. They referenced a two week period that a (now fired) contractor allegedly flipped a breaker that they weren’t supposed to (pool pump came and stayed on, ran dry, & burned out).

I immediately let them know that my surveillance system is not in any way aimed at their house and I wouldn’t have a view of that.

She just won’t take no for an answer.

They asked again in pretty much the same words as if I hadn’t already replied.

I did not feel so inclined to send them all sorts of camera screen shots that were none of their business, but I did send them two where her property line was just on the edge of the screen.

They replied with a zoomed portion of the one of the pictures – maybe equated to less than 1% of the entire view – circling and drawing arrows all over it and “this is the breaker box!” “Please send me pictures.”

Does this lady know what she is asking for?

Mind you I already said “no” twice at this point.

I have not replied again since the last text, but for those not understanding the request: there is no “quick way” to watch 2 weeks of surveillance footage of a tiny zoomed in 100×100 pixel area awaiting any type of movement – your eyes would have to be on the screen the entire time.

This is very different then watching for something stolen or broken – where you can easily narrow it down.

This is not reasonable request, even from a neighbor on friendly terms, much less from a random acquittance that I’ve spoken to maybe 5 times.

So what she is asking for is a little ridiculous.

Aside: I manage property all over town, have a lot of surveillance systems, and have been asked MANY times for footage by police, neighbors, strangers, etc.

Even the police, when investigated a crime, don’t ask for things that obscure.

AITA for not replying again, not saying no a third time, not explaining why, or not being willing to watch 2 weeks of video footage looking for a possible 5-60 second period of an extreme closeup?

It seems like it would be easy to explain that this would take hours to go through. Maybe the neighbor has a more specific timeframe to try.

Let’s see what the people in the comments on Reddit have to say about it.

Yeah, the neighbor is a little absurd.

This is the best idea.

Sometimes being direct is the best answer.

This person recommends offering to do it if he is paid.

This commenter says to just lie.

Just send her the full two weeks of video and let her deal with it.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.