Imagine living next to a neighbor who sets up a community farm stand where neighbors can take things he grows in his garden for free.

If you also had a garden, would you want to share what you grow with the community too, or would you want it to be clear that you’re not participating in the farm stand?

In this story, one homeowner is in this situation, and he is fed up with people who come to the farm stand and steal from his garden. He doesn’t want to share what he grows with the community.

He’s starting to feel like he’s going crazy because everyone seems to be against him.

Is he doing anything wrong? Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA, asked the neighbor to move their ‘little farm stand’ because people are stealing from MY garden

Before anyone says ‘just build a fence’ WE CAN’T AFFORD IT RIGHT NOW. And no, no HOA.

My neighbor set up one of those pantries/farm stands where people can take items that they grew in their garden, pantry stuff, donated stuff, etc.

In theory it’s a great idea and especially in a time when life in America sucks and people are struggling to make ends meet (my family included)

People don’t seem to understand boundaries.

The problem: people started coming into MY yard to pick things in MY garden.

I’ve put up signs saying not to do it, I installed rabbit fence around the garden, I’ve angled a tarp so you can’t see what’s there from the road.

People just hold their kids over the fence to pick tomatoes and beans or jump it.

One lady seemed to think taking the tomatoes wasn’t really stealing.

I ended up getting into an argument with a lady over it. I yelled HEY, STOP. THOSE ARE NOT FOR YOU TO TAKE.

She told her kid to move faster and then tried to run away.

I caught up to her and asked her what the heck her problem was.

And she turned it into how dare I swear in front of her child, why am I so angry, am I really that upset about a couple tomatoes.

I said I am upset that you are STEALING from me.

The neighbor isn’t very understanding.

The next day, I approached my neighbor. I asked if I could maybe help move it to the other side of their driveway so it’s next to the other neighbor’s house. They don’t have a garden out front.

They said at least not until the end of the season.

I asked if they could make larger signs, talk to people, just do SOMETHING..

They were like “can you really not afford to share?”

This would be such a frustrating conversation!

I said that they aren’t taking my zucchini because they’re starving, they’re taking my tomatoes because they WANT them.

They said that I’m going to have to learn to live with it for now and we can talk about a solution together that will benefit the whole community after.

I said I do not care about a solution that benefits the whole community. I care about a solution that stops people from STEALING FROM ME.

Another person was stealing.

So last night it happened again, man in his 50s.

I sprayed his butt with the hose.

He started yelling at me and after a minute or so the neighbor came out yelling at me too.

People have posted on the neighborhood board to be careful if they come by because I’m a jerk.

He feels like he’s going crazy.

The neighbor says I’m scaring people away from a community resource.

I told him that I’m going to continue until he does something about the freaking thieves who feel entitled to MY GARDEN.

I feel like I’m losing my freaking mind here.

Am I the jerk for asking them to move it? Am I the jerk for being TICKED OFF that people are freaking STEALING from me? This is food for my family.

Just because one person wants to open up their garden to the community doesn’t mean their neighbors should have to do the same.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This is an interesting idea.

Another person points out what the neighbor is really doing.

Here’s another interesting suggestion.

Everyone seems to think he should help himself to his neighbor’s farm stand.

Taking something from someone else is stealing. The neighbors are stealing. It doesn’t matter if it’s money, jewelry, or vegetables. It doesn’t belong to them.

A lot of people who commented seem to like the idea of taking items from the farm stand to replace what was stolen or to send a message to the neighbor and motivate him to move the stand. That wouldn’t even be stealing because the items on the farm stand are free. Let’s see how the neighbor likes his empty farm stand!