
Shutterstock
Imagine owning your own business. You rent space in a building that is shared with another business with a wall dividing the two businesses. You also share a parking lot, and to be nice, you even let the other business owner choose which spots will be for her business and which spots will be for your business.
What would you do if the neighboring business owner was constantly overreacting when your clients would park in the parking lot, neglected her dog who was constantly barking, and did some crazy witchcraft stuff, possibly trying to put a spell on you?
In this story, we hear about a clinic that is in that exact situation. To make it worse, a lot of their clients are elderly, and it’s awful that they also have to put up with the neighboring business owner.
However, moving the business is not an option. Are there any options to make the crazy neighbor stop being so awful?
Let’s read the whole story to decide.
salon neighbor screams at elderly clients over parking, keeps her dog caged in our lot, and is doing witchcraft on us?
I work at a small clinic that shares a tiny building with a hair salon.
The building is split down the middle: she has the right side, we have the left.
Parking layout: she has the 2 front spots (her choice), we have the 2 back spots, and there’s only 1 public street spot directly in front of the building.
Parking can be tricky.
To get to our back spots, you have to go down a narrow driveway and then reverse at a weird angle.
A lot of our clients are elderly and/or have big cars, so they sometimes briefly pull into or across the front area for a few seconds just to straighten out and then safely back into our back spaces.
They’re not trying to park in her spots and leave their car there; they’re just trying not to crash.
The neighbor is really overreacting.
If anyone even nudges into “her” front area to maneuver, she will stand at her door watching and then storm out screaming, “Get the heck out of here, that’s my parking, can’t you read?!”
She has done this to our elderly clients, including people who are there for the first time.
They apologize and say they’re just trying to back up, and she keeps yelling about “the freaking sign” at people who didn’t see it.
The salon owner is hogging all the parking.
Also she basically lives in her salon.
On the days our clinic is open (we’re closed Wed/Sun), she parks her own car in the only street spot in front every single time, even though she already has two front spots.
Which is very infuriating for us bc the time I’ve been working there which is about 5 years, the maximum amount of people she’s had in that salon is about 5 people, in a day to day basis she only gets one person or no clients a day since she works by herself.
Then she cones off both of her front spots with “reserved” signs so no one else can even briefly use them to straighten out.
So she’s hogging the one public street space plus her own two front spaces, and our mostly elderly clients are left squeezing into the back.
But it gets worse.
On top of that, she has a small, very active dog that she keeps in a cage outside all day, in OUR side of the parking lot near our back area.
The dog is always barking, whining, pacing, and clearly stressed, in all kinds of weather.
I actually called animal control before, but they said as long as the dog had water and some kind of shelter, there wasn’t anything they could do.
So we’re stuck listening to a distressed dog in a cage on our side of the property while she screams at our patients about parking.
This is so weird!
There’s also some witchy stuff going on.
She’s thrown eggshells at our clinic window, put a creepy straw/hay figure facing our door, tossed herbs at our entrance, and made salt circles and star-like shapes in front of our business.
Then she’ll come over acting fake innocent like, “Oh my God neighbor, look, there’s all this salt here, I wonder what it means?” as if she didn’t just put it there.
We always just sweep it up and move on without reacting.
Turns out, she’s a witch.
One day an ice cream delivery lady, who practices witchcraft herself, told us our neighbor is actually a pretty strong or “high-ranked” witch and that each necklace she wears represents a different power.
She said the neighbor is supposed to be a “good witch” because she wears all white clothing, but is misusing her power and “reaping what she sows.”
Either way, we don’t engage; we just clean up whatever she throws on our side.
They can’t move.
People might say “just move,” but we’re in California and commercial rent is insane.
My boss has looked at other locations and everything comparable nearby is way more expensive.
This space is unusually cheap for the area, which is basically the only reason the clinic can stay open.
Also, a lot of our regular patients are in this exact city; moving too far would probably make many of them stop coming and this is one of our main locations. So for now, leaving isn’t really realistic.
This would be extra annoying!
The final straw was when she started parking overnight in one of our two back spots, even though those are clearly for the clinic.
We warned her several times not to leave her car in our back space, especially overnight.
She ignored us told us “it doesn’t and shouldn’t bother you if I leave it here” and kept doing it because if she left her car out in her space she was going to keep getting in trouble by the city.
Does she literally live at the salon?
One night I checked around 4am and saw her car still sitting in our spot, so I finally called a tow truck.
I watched her run out in her pajamas chasing the tow truck as they took her car away.
What else do you think I can do in this situation
Running out in her pjs at night? Doesn’t she have somewhere else to live? Is the salon her business and her home?
She sounds awful. I wish there were an easy solution.
Let’s see what Reddit suggests.
This person offers some advice.
Another California resident weighs in.
This is definitely worth looking into!
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a homeowner who doesn’t care whether or not their neighbors hate their yard flamingos, because they aren’t subject to the HOA.
Here’s some advice about the witchcraft.
If she really is living at the salon, that could be the best way to get her in trouble and possibly get her out.
She sounds like the worst kind of business neighbor possible. And it also doesn’t sound like she has very many clients, so it doesn’t sound like she’s a very good salon owner either.
More than anything, I feel bad for the dog.
