Some people treat public spaces like they come with free amenities, and that can get under your skin fast.

So, what would you do if someone used your beach setup without permission and later tried to claim your space again by leaving their belongings under your umbrella? Would you just ignore their behavior? Or would you confront them directly?

In the following story, one man encounters this very predicament and can’t let it go. Here’s how it all went down.

AITA for telling a grandmother not to put her grandkid’s stuff under our beach umbrella after she did so without asking

I’m at the beach with extended family, staying in a condo building with a private beach for those staying at the condo building. The beach area is very large and not overcrowded.

One morning, I finish the laborious task of muling kids’ toys, body boards, and our chairs and umbrellas to the beach to set up our spot for everyone for the day.

When I get back up to the condo for breakfast, my wife, who was watching from the window, says that this guy on the beach waited until I was out of eyesight, and he and a kid proceed to put up one of our umbrellas and start using two of our chairs.

At this point, he simply made a mental note of what the guy looked like.

I look down at that point, and the guy then proceeds to move one of our chairs to the waterfront to sit with his feet in the water, which he just left there when he was done using it.

I take note of what he looks like, and on my way down to the beach with kids, I see him by the pool with the rest of his family (he appears to be granddad with wife, with two adult children and their couple of children, his grandchildren).

I resisted a strong urge to say something to the guy at that point.

When they tried to do it again, he finally said something.

Fast forward to later in the day, and the woman who appeared to be his wife comes down to the beach with one of the grandchildren. She proceeds to walk up to an umbrella that we set up for my parents-in-law to use when they got down and put her and her grandkid’s stuff in the shade under the umbrella.

It’s really not a big deal, she put it on the ground, not a chair, and it’s not like we were using the umbrella at the time, but I’m so annoyed with her husband’s helping hisself to our things earlier, that I call back to her and say something to the effect of that’s our umbrella and someone is about to be using it.

My wife stopped me from being a lot meaner than I wanted to be by saying something further when she responded that she was just putting her stuff in the shade.

AITA?

Yikes! It’s nice to share, but they probably should’ve asked first.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about this whole situation.

Here’s someone who finds setting up on the beach a common practice.

As this comment explains, people do it all the time on public beaches.

For this reader, he shouldn’t leave his belongings in communal space.

Yet another person who thinks he was wrong for claiming spots.

They knew what they were doing. It’s good that he said something to them, and even better, that his wife kept him calmer while doing it.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.