Shutterstock

Imagine seeing a teenager who lives in your neighborhood trespassing on your property even though you have no trespassing signs posted. Would you leave the teen alone, tell him he’s trespassing, or contact his parents?

In this story, one couple is in this situation, and they call out to the boy and have a conversation with him about the situation. Then the boy’s mom gets involved. Then the boy’s dad gets involved, and the dad is pretty upset about the whole ordeal.

Now, the homeowners are wondering if they were really in the wrong for talking to the neighborhood kid. Should they have handled the situation differently?

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for asking a neighborhood kid if he could read?

Yesterday, I (45M) observed a neighborhood teenage boy trespassing on my property. I decided to say something to him as this is not the first time and we have signs posted (PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESSPASSING).

There are 2 signs posted, at both ends of a temporary dirt accessway used by landscaping and construction vehicles.

I observed the teen jogging up the accessway from 1 house away, while walking my dogs.

They called out to the boy.

My wife (42F) was also with me and she knows him better than I do. My wife got his attention by yelling, from 1 house away: “HEY [name]! You know you’re not supposed to be on there! What are you doing?”

To which the boy shrugged and said he “didn’t know”.

I chimed in with “did you see the signs?”

To which he replied “yes”.

Here’s the question he’s not sure he should’ve asked…

I followed with “And you *CAN* you read, right?”

The boy confirmed he could and I continued with “then you should know you can’t be on there – that’s our yard, not public space – please don’t cut through our yard.”

The boy was out jogging, and with our message made clear my wife and I didn’t see the point in taking it any further, so we said goodbye and the boy jogged off.

The boy’s mother (40’s F) was walking down the street toward us immediately after the boy jogged off. My wife and the boy’s mother are neighborhood friends (a friend group of ladies that does social events like concerts, brunch, parties, etc. but that’s about it).

Apparently, the boy’s mother was mistaken.

The boy’s mother asked my wife what happened because she either heard or saw us talking to her son.

My wife explained the situation and the mother said she didn’t know the accessway wasn’t public property and doubled down saying she and her family used it all the time.

At this point, I had already said goodbye started walking back to the house with the dogs, as the ladies talked – and I needed to get the dogs home.

It wasn’t over.

Around an hour later, I got a social media message from the father (40s M) asking me to call him.

I called the father and he asked me what happened, so I relayed the story, as above, what happened, what was said, how it ended, etc.

The father proceeded to tell me that I was a “jerk” to his son and I shouldn’t have said anything to the boy – instead I should have called the father and he would have “handled it”.

I reiterated my points to the father that the accessway on our property is temporary for construction access only, there are signs posted, our social media posts, the HOA letter, etc. how the boy admitted to seeing them and ignored them anyway – and why I said what I said as a light-hearted way to say “stay off our property”.

His explanation didn’t seem to matter to the boy’s dad.

The father came back with “..if you want to be a jerk to a kid, then that says a lot about who you are…”

This went back and forth a few times, me repeating my points and wondering why the father wanted to talk in the first place – and the father calling me a “jerk” for saying what I did to his son.

So Reddit, AITA for asking a teenage boy if he could read, after ignoring posted no trespassing signs?

The question was a little rude, but I think the boy’s dad is overreacting.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person thinks the parents are being ridiculous.

Another person doesn’t think OP did anything wrong.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about neighbors who were sick of their hedge getting demolished, so they put a surprise inside.

I’m sure the kid’s dad wouldn’t like this!

Another person has a theory about why the dad is really upset.

The neighbors don’t own the neighborhood. It’s pretty insane that their boy was trespassing, but yet they’re playing the victim like the homeowners did something wrong by telling the kid to read the signs and follow the rules.

It’s private property. Get off!