Sometimes the only way to win a neighborhood standoff is to get a little creative.

So, what would you do if a grumpy neighbor kept claiming part of your yard was actually his and made a point of hovering outside your bedroom windows to prove it? Would you get help from the law? Or would you find a way to keep him busy?

In the following story, one homeowner faces this dilemma and ends up jamming their TV signal. Here’s how he did it.

Created a problem to keep my annoying neighbor occupied and get some peace

In the early 90s, we bought a new house on a lot that had recently been severed from the neighbor’s property. It was a large corner lot, divided into two parcels.

The back parcel was originally intended as a second driveway to connect the side road to the neighbors’, but was mistakenly sold to us.

Our neighbor, a known grumpy old guy, insisted that this back parcel was his property and was never intended to be sold (he and his lawyer messed up).

Fed up, he came up with a plan.

He would often stand there, right in front of our bedroom windows, to kinda mark his property! Trying to have a reasonable conversation with him was impossible. I repeatedly told him I had the deed and that the property line wouldn’t change.

His wife was rarely seen, as she had limited mobility and spent most of her time watching TV via a C-band satellite dish.

At the time, I was working in wireless and had access to test equipment. To find a way to keep the neighbor occupied and hopefully give us some peace, I decided to generate interference that would jam his satellite signal.

They were very frustrated with the issue.

I set it up on a timer so their signal would cut out ten minutes before the hour and come back ten minutes after, meaning they would consistently miss the beginnings and ends of their TV programs.

This definitely kept him busy as he tried to figure out what was wrong. He even called out technicians, but of course, the issue never occurred when they were there.

I could often hear his frustrated outbursts, and I imagine his wife was adding to the pressure.

From that point on, their relationship was different.

After a few weeks of this, I walked over to him while he was fiddling with the dish and casually mentioned that I worked in wireless and had some knowledge of satellite communications, and maybe I could have a look.

He was immediately interested, so I climbed up the ladder, pretended to adjust something, gave him some technical-sounding nonsense about what I had found, and then told him it was fixed. I then stopped the interference coming from my house.

A few days later, he came over to thank me profusely, saying I had fixed it when no one else could! From that day forward, he was the friendliest neighbor and never mentioned the contested piece of land again.

Wow! That worked almost too well!

Let’s check out how the folks over at Reddit feel about how he handled the situation.

This person thinks he did the right thing.

For this person, the feelings are mixed.

According to this comment, what he did is illegal.

This sounds like it was pretty serious.

This was so well-played, but as others said, it’s good he didn’t get caught because jamming signals can be illegal.

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