# Winning against repeat neighborly retaliation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 22, 2015, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-against-repeat-neighborly-retaliation/738275 "2015-11-22T09:18:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![socalfusions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@socalfusions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/socalfusions)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-against-repeat-neighborly-retaliation/738275/1 "2015-11-22T09:18:46Z")
After a legal pursuing of a noise dispute with a neighbor who refused to change their ways through more subtle requests I’ve been experiencing continuing retaliation from them. It started with thrown glass in front of my home, littering of condoms, tampons an fast food, and most recently loitering near my property. I’ve reported every incident to the police but they’ve been unable to do much without concrete proof that it was this person. This person has a friend who lives near me and they must pass my home which provides a convenient excuse of why they would be near my property. They go to great effort to engage in indirect retaliation and have yet to personally approach me which is frustrating since it also makes it difficult to catch them. I’ve been saving up for a cctv system but even then it seems like it would only work if they visibly showed their face or license plate when performing an illegal act. Most recently I was woken up by my car alarm going off and went out to see why, no noticeable damage but unsurprisingly the individual was with a group of friends playing football and likely threw it at my vehicle or struck it themselves. If I had a cctv system I’m sure it would have been useful but they could have claimed to have thrown a bad pass though just with that person in the group it would have raised suspicions. I feel that law enforcement will be unable to do anything regarding this matter due to this persons persistence on being inconspicuous and randomizing the acts. I really feel like retaliating myself in the belief that it would discourage them from continuing without repercussions. Of course it’s risky and instead may promote a back and forth. I know the mature route is to not stoop to their level but so far all that’s done is allowed them to continue unhindered. Do I intimidate them in person? That causes no harm if I don’t hit the but has the benefit of showing some dominance where as I’m currently neutral if not on the ropes. The thing is I’ve had great results with “retaliating” in the past though in a different scenario, a couple of guys were throwing paper balls at me in class once and I requested that they stop, they threw another and I walked over to them and slapped the kid, they were shocked and became defensive asking why I did that and I said I asked politely. I was in the process of being picked apart but I retaliated out of rage and destroyed them with the class as a witness. The teacher was borderline senile and had a habit of letting mischievous acts go unnoticed. Does that event have any relevance to my current predicament? I feel like similarly destroying this person may be the only way to stop them. I’m a little older than this person and really lean towards the letting it go, observe and report style but how can I continue to essentially do nothin while they persist in invading the privacy of my own home? My options in my opinion seem to be; 1) Don’t retaliate but attempt to acquire proof of future acts to pin them legally. 2) Retaliate in a way that destroys them but causes no actual harm so as to discourage future acts. Anyone been in similar circumstances or have any good advice on overcoming this? --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-against-repeat-neighborly-retaliation/738275)._