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Five months into a new townhome is usually enough time to settle in comfortably, not enough time to have called the fire department twice over unexplained smoke.

One homeowner experienced this kind of unsettling introduction to her neighbors, starting with a bizarre first-month incident involving a property dispute over infidelity and escalating into repeated smoke smells throughout her garage and bathroom.

The situation peaked when she and her husband came home to a house so thick with smoke they had to go outside, discovering the downstairs tenant airing out his unit with a towel and explaining that the people upstairs claimed to be burning sage, a smell she didn’t recognize as sage at all.

With her indoor air quality monitor reading over 150 and a firefighter confirming something “weird” was going on next door, she had to leave her own home while five weeks pregnant with a toddler in tow.

Now she’s stuck deciding whether to approach her neighbors directly or go straight to the HOA.

Keep reading for the full story.

So tired and annoyed

I’ve lived in my new townhome for about five months, and my neighbors to the right have been… interesting.

The first month we moved in, the wife knocked on my door asking me to call 911 because a woman wouldn’t get off her property. I told her she needed to call herself (she had the Brazil emergency number pulled up on her phone, they’re from Brazil). Apparently she was fighting with a Russian woman over sleeping with her husband. It was bizarre.

Things have only continued to be chaotic since then.

Since then, I’ve been smelling smoke in my garage and our main-level bathroom. At one point I even called the fire department because I thought something electrical was burning, it smelled like melting plastic.

Last night, my husband and I came home and the entire house smelled like smoke. It was so strong that we went outside to see if something had happened.

Our neighbors rent out the lower level of their townhome, and we saw the tenant airing out his place with a towel, trying to get the smoke out. He told us his unit had filled with smoke because the people upstairs were burning sage.

This tenant wasn’t buying it though, so they escalated the issue.

I’ve smelled sage before, and this didn’t smell like sage to me. I ended up calling the fire department again because I genuinely didn’t know what was going on. The firefighter said they “definitely have some weird stuff going on over there.”

I’m currently 5 weeks pregnant and have a toddler, so I wasn’t comfortable staying in the house. Our indoor air quality monitor was reading over 150, and I actually had to leave because I couldn’t tolerate the air.

That wasn’t all these neighbors did.

To top it all off, they’ve recently started parking an abandoned daycare bus full of junk in the guest parking lot. It makes the neighborhood look terrible.

I’m usually someone who minds my own business, but this feels like one issue after another with these neighbors. I have a feeling that if I try talking to them, they’ll either pretend they don’t understand me or nothing will change.

Would you contact the HOA at this point, or would you try talking to the neighbors first?

Something sketchy is definitely going on here.

What did Reddit think?

This user would prefer a Karen over whatever this is.

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This tenant needs to address the issue before it gets worse.

The HOA needs to get involved as soon as possible.

A firefighter independently confirming something “weird” is happening next door isn’t a detail to gloss over, it’s essentially professional validation that this situation has moved past typical neighbor friction.

An air quality reading over 150 inside her own home, severe enough to force out a pregnant woman and a toddler, is a genuine health and safety issue, not a matter of personal preference or minor annoyance.

Attempting a direct conversation first is reasonable in most neighbor disputes, but this pattern, repeated smoke, an unclear explanation, and now documented fire department involvement, suggests one conversation alone isn’t going to fix this.

This problem needs a solution — and soon.

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Author

Benjamin Cottrell

Benjamin Cottrell | Assistant Editor, Internet Culture

Benjamin Cottrell is an Assistant Editor and contributing writer at TwistedSifter, specializing in internet culture, viral social dynamics, and the moral complexities of online communities. He brings a highly analytical, editorial voice to his reporting on workplace conflicts, malicious compliance, and interpersonal drama, with a specific focus on nuanced stories that lack an obvious villain.

As a published author of rhetorical criticism, Benjamin leverages his academic background in human communication to dissect and elevate viral social media threads. Instead of simply summarizing events, he provides readers with balanced, deep-dive commentary into why the internet reacts the way it does. In addition to his cultural reporting, he is an experienced fine art photography essayist and video game reviewer.

When he isn’t analyzing the latest viral debates, Benjamin is usually chipping away at his extensive video game backlog, hunting down the best new restaurants, or out exploring the city with a camera in hand.

Connect with Benjamin on Instagram and read more of his essays on Substack.