# Ever get revenge on a bad neighbor? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 9, 2015, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197 "2015-02-09T06:52:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![stolatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@stolatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolatt)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/21 "2015-02-09T18:32:56Z")
We like to call it liberating or asset reallocation. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/22 "2015-02-09T18:40:54Z")
If you live in West Pulaski County, Arkansas, I want my ladder back. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/23 "2015-02-09T18:44:10Z")
> [@48Willys](#): > > I once had a neighbor from hell. I will not go into the gory details, lets just say the entire neighborhood was praying for them to move. The property was owned by a sweet old lady who had moved in with her son because she really had to. She had rented it to this jerk (kind word). > > OK, OK, I will relate one thing that is typical of his actions. He once threw his trash into my bushes in the front yard. He did not just put his trash in my cans, no, into the bushes! He emptied the bags and kept those. I was so pissed off at him that I wanted to confront him. He refused to answer the door when I knocked. > > Anyway, I am not sure if this was revenge, but it worked for us. Us being the entire neighborhood. I approached the sweet old lady about her problem renters. It soon became obvious that she could not deal with them. She did not have the strength. > > After talking it over with my wife, I offered to buy her house for fair market value. She gladly accepted, I promptly evicted the jerk. I wish you-all could have seen his face when I served the papers. Priceless! > > My neighbors became my defacto property managers, I never advertised and I always had the best renters. If one of my neighbors did not have a renter for me that they had vetted, another did. Worked well for me. > > I have done this exact thing twice now. It works. Iā€™d call this the sweetest kind of revenge. Iā€™m sure most people with bad neighbors wish they could just throw the bums out. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/24 "2015-02-09T18:46:02Z")
Well, the entire neighborhood is aware of the fact itā€™s their kids and kidā€™s friends that have committed multiple acts of vandalism in the neighboorhood. Effectively theyā€™ve been shunned by all the neighbors, the rest of whom are really nice, pleasant people. We all do stuff with each other, help in times of need, Iā€™ve shared smoked briskets and pork butts with everyone else but they (assholes) get nothing but a cold shoulder. Iā€™m not going to do anything illegal or wrong but these jerks used to attend block parties when they first moved in and I know it bothers them that theyā€™re excluded now. Tough. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/25 "2015-02-09T18:58:36Z")
Eh, just outlive them. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/26 "2015-02-09T18:58:44Z")
A former next door neighbor would walk his dog only as far as my front yard, knowingly. Didnā€™t bother trying to actually walk him. This went on for a while without us noticing. He never picked anything up. One day I went out there with a glove, picked up everything I could find, and tossed it into his yard. They moved out after that, but Iā€™m sure that was a coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/27 "2015-02-09T19:29:51Z")
\*Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.\*_Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.ā€™_ In other words, revenge is always a bad idea- other than ā€œLiving Well Is the Best Revengeā€. Itā€™s almost always illegal, and if not, then itā€™s quite likely to go wrong and make you feel horrible or start a cycle of revenge- and those you are getting revenge against hardly ever think they deserve it. Revenge also had a habit of backfiring. Next few of those that I know who actually got revenge was happy about it. Combine that with the chance of it going wrong- and itā€™s never a good idea. Of course, you can try to make things right- sue someone for damages, report their illegal activities, and so forth. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/28 "2015-02-09T19:32:01Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Made myself a lovely spot with a pile of snow behind and most of it piled in the front yard. I did NOT in this case put out parking chairs. > > Got back to find a pickup truck in the spot. I muttered several things under my breath, put the car in the garage, and then cleared a new parking spot. By loading all the snow in the bed of the truck. Piled about even with the roof. You could hear the springs sagging. How was he to know you hadnā€™t just vacated the spot? You agree that you failed to mark it properly as tradition requires. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/29 "2015-02-09T19:34:20Z")
> [@Elret](#): > > Iā€™ve told this here before, I think, but coming from the receiving end of neighbourly revenge, I always like to remind people that maybe sometimes your neighbour isnā€™t as bad as you think. > > I was living in a townhouse complex and had a large, friendly, quiet dog. There were lots of dogs in the neighbourhood, and most of the owners were friendly and responsible. Shortly after moving in, I was walking my dog and she peed on a patch of grass in a large common area where dogs played and peed regularly, and we continued walking. A neighbour saw this happen, and tore a strip off me for not picking up after her. I explained politely and cheerfully that of course I would always pick up her solid waste (and showed my arsenal of baggies) but that she had only peed, so, well, what could I do? The neighbour flat out didnā€™t believe me, and despite the lack of evidence on the lawn, began to glare at me anytime she saw me, and several of her group of buddies did as well. Over the next few months or more, I was approached a couple of times by various neighbours telling me they regularly saw me leaving her crap on the grass, and a couple of notes as well. I started to walk her in a different neighborhood, but still I was being scolded semi-regularly. Finally one day I came home to find dog crap smeared all over my front door and stoop. Iā€™m certain there were some very satisfied neighbours smugly congratulating themselves on their revenge. I cried and felt sad and uncomfortable living there for years. Great example! ---
**Author:** ![Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fool_in_the_Rain)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/30 "2015-02-09T19:57:27Z")
Not so much revenge but karma. Living in the city can be a crap shoot for who your neighbors are. Next door was a three family house. Owner on first floor, rentals on 2nd and third. Inevitably the renters were to blame. Loud music all times of the day; all night parties; drug buyers at all times of the day banging on the door and yelling; barking dogs; filthy dog owners. Calls to the police typically forced the owner to make the renters leave. The owner died a couple years back, and the son took ownership, it went downhill fast. The last two years of renters were drugged out partiers, bike gunners, drunk yellers, and one of the last renters had a dog that WOULD NOT SHUT UP! Calls to the police fixed some of it, but the dog, oh the dog. Filthy conditions, overfed, underfed and it would not shut up. The dog officer finally fined them $250 for noise ordinance when I called the night before at 3am because the dog would not shut up, and the officer heard the dog on the phone. They kept the dog in the house, and it quieted down for a while. Then they moved the dog into the front room with all the windows open so the dogā€™s barking could ECHO OUT OF THE HOUSE. On the second or third night of this, we were losing our mind and determined to call a lawyer, the person on the third floor threw a cigarette out his window onto the second floor porch roof, and it caught fire. Now, I am thankful no one got hurt. The damage was limited to the front of the house, mostly exterior. The owner was broke, he had no insurance, the house had all kinds of code violations. The city deemed it unlivable. They are all gone. For the first time in 16 years, it has been a quiet 6-8 months. Weā€™re selling soon, so IF anyone buys it, weā€™ll be gone. The only sad part is that the owner stole all the tools that the guy on the third floor had stored in the garage. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/31 "2015-02-09T20:02:26Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > You agree that you failed to mark it properly as tradition requires. I never heard of that, but it rarely snows here. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/32 "2015-02-09T20:10:09Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > You stole ladders? :dubious: Well, that could be one interpretationā€¦ > [@Ethilrist](#): > > ā€œSalvaged.ā€ > [@stolatt](#): > > We like to call it liberating or asset reallocation. I prefer these! šŸ˜ƒ > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > If you live in West Pulaski County, Arkansas, I want my ladder back. > šŸ™‚ That wasnā€™t me! > [@Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](#): > > Not so much revenge but karma. Thatā€™s how I see it! > [@Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](#): > > The only sad part is that the owner stole all the tools that the guy on the third floor had stored in the garage. Any ladders in there? šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/33 "2015-02-09T20:17:24Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > ā€¦ - other than ā€œLiving Well Is the Best Revengeā€. I find this to be a satisfying philosophy on quite a number of different levels. ---
**Author:** ![BaldDudePeekskill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@BaldDudePeekskill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaldDudePeekskill)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/34 "2015-02-09T20:40:57Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Well, the entire neighborhood is aware of the fact itā€™s their kids and kidā€™s friends that have committed multiple acts of vandalism in the neighboorhood. Effectively theyā€™ve been shunned by all the neighbors, the rest of whom are really nice, pleasant people. > > We all do stuff with each other, help in times of need, Iā€™ve shared smoked briskets and pork butts with everyone else but they (assholes) get nothing but a cold shoulder. Iā€™m not going to do anything illegal or wrong but these jerks used to attend block parties when they first moved in and I know it bothers them that theyā€™re excluded now. Tough. You donā€™t live in Peekskill do you? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/35 "2015-02-09T20:54:40Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > That wasnā€™t me! If the 16ā€™ multi position I bought from the neighborā€™s moving sale is liberated from my garage, Iā€™m coming looking for you. What the hell do you do with all those ladders, fence them? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/36 "2015-02-09T21:15:27Z")
> [@48Willys](#): > > OK, OK, I will relate one thing that is typical of his actions. He once threw his trash into my bushes in the front yard. I had one that pretty much did that. For years prior, he kept trying to draw me into whacky extremest FOX News type conversations when Iā€™d walk by. After years of nodding at his ridiculous crap, he finally decided I wasnā€™t his cup of Tea Party when I started walking away from him in the middle of his loud political rants. (Bonus Points: heā€™d usually be standing on My front lawn while he gave them.) Then came the summer when Bill Oā€™Reilly was urging the Tea Party Faithful to riot and disrupt town hall meetings. This guy, who was a small-time politician, was upset that his ranting buddies kept getting dragged away from town hall meetings in cuffsā€¦ and decided that it was All MY Fault. :smack: So, he started putting his garbage in front of my house. He started doing it when I wasnā€™t around. I saw it and my wife pleaded with me not to ring his doorbell (he was also the neighborhood bully and built like an ape). But one time he decided to put his garbage out on my lawn while I was home. At that point, I decided to speak to him. At first I started with the, ā€œbut why would you do that?ā€ approach. Then I tried reasoning with him with ā€œHow would you feel if I had ever put garbage on your lawn?ā€ approach. The ape laughed. I then asked him to move the garbage to the curb in front of his own house. He refused. I explained that if he wouldnā€™t move it to the curb, then Iā€™d have to. ā€œThen Iā€™ll just have to stop you.ā€ he said. Raising children, I learned long ago to ignore people blowing hot air and bad breath my way, so, knowing that it wouldnā€™t pick itself up, I started to pick up the garbage. He then punched me. I was in shock, so I ignored that & still started moving with the garbage I was holding towards the curb. Thatā€™s when he punched me again. I stopped at the curb when he swung a third time, hitting me in the face. I guess I just couldnā€™t turn the other cheek anymore and I snappedā€¦ and I actually (after 3 punches) hit him back. Unfortunately, when I did, I broke his nose. There were police that were called and charges and counter charges and we all went down to court. The judge said he was an idiot for attacking me & that I was an idiot for hitting him backā€¦ and everything was dismissed. (Actually, if he hadnā€™t been VERY politically connected, he would have SO gone to jail. His evidence pictures showed scrapes and rips on his right forearm, but not on his left. Mine showed bruises Only on the left side of my face. The garbage was mostly bundles of nettles and brambles. In other words, The Only Way he could have received those cuts was by punching me first, Through The Nettles, while I still had my hands full holding the bundle.) Yeah, my neighbor is still thereā€¦ heā€™s still an A-holeā€¦ and he still tries to give us a hard time when he can. (Last winter I caught him trying to force the guy who plowed out his driveway to plow the snow into mine. The Big Font of a phoneā€™s dial pad reading ā€œ911ā€ changed the contractors mind pretty quickly.) So, I canā€™t say that I ever really solved the problem with my neighbor. I CAN say that Iā€™m probably the only person that you will ever meet that has actually Broken The Nose of a Republican Politician. šŸ˜‰ ā€¦would that I werenā€™tā€¦ _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/37 "2015-02-09T21:18:24Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > First, remind me not to make you angry. > Second, how do you make a voodoo doll? > > šŸ™‚ Hedley Lamarr: _Now go doā€¦ that voodooā€¦ that YOU doā€¦ SO WELLā€¦!_ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/38 "2015-02-09T21:24:09Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Hedley Lamarr: _Now go doā€¦ that voodooā€¦ that YOU doā€¦ SO WELLā€¦!_ Oh Lord, guide this manā€™s aim as he makes the voodoo dollā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![Anon01245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b77776/32.png) [@Anon01245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anon01245)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/39 "2015-02-09T21:25:41Z")
I do not think that I have ever wanted to get revenge on my neighbor. I barely even know my neighbors or see them. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197/40 "2015-02-10T00:35:48Z")
> [@stolatt](#): > > We like to call it liberating or asset reallocation. Alternative acquisition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-get-revenge-on-a-bad-neighbor/712197.md?page=3)