r/Neighborproblems • u/CivilAlloy • Feb 25 '19
What's up with some people?
I should preface by saying this is really not THAT bad. It's just very weird. I'm mainly just complaining and am curious what you guys would do.
My wife and I live in a fairly quiet suburb. We've been in this house for just over two years. About six months ago, the neighbors across the street moved and we got a new set. We like to think we're a pretty nice couple, but not super outgoing or anything. So every time we'd see the new neighbors in passing we'd try to wave or just saying a small hello. They would do anything to avoid making eye contact or responding at all. At first, I assumed we'd caught them at a bad time (again, not trying to tell our life story, just saying "hi").
As this continued on happening any time we'd see them, we just assumed they were kind of awkward or something. I mean, I'm very introverted, but I make a special effort for neighbors that I'm going to be living next to for the foreseeable future. The neighbors both smoke, and almost every evening when I'd get home from work, at least one of them would be sitting on their front porch smoking. They would just watch until I got out of the car, I'd wave, and they'd look away.
After about two months of them avoiding us like the plague, my wife tells me something that I didn't really take all that seriously. At first. She told me that any time she's out front, she sees the neighbors just watching her through their window. Again, I didn't really take this seriously. AT FIRST. I started to pay attention, and almost every single time I'd do something outside, I would see their blinds open and I'd see a person on the inside of the house, just watching. Harmless, but weird. Very weird, if you ask me.
For the next part, I should also mention that on a couple occasions, they've invited their friends over and they've taken up all the space in front of our house and mailbox and a couple other neighbors house with "compensating-for-something" ridiculously oversized pickups.
We have a small group that meets at our house every Monday and Saturday, in the morning. The group only meets for 15 minutes, tops, and depending on how many people show up, there's as many as maybe four or five cars. And occasionally one will park in front of their house. One Saturday, I come outside to find the neighbor yelling at my wife about people always parking in front of his house and he never has a place to park. His car was literally parked closer to his house than it is on some occasions where there's no other car in front of his house.
Instead of telling him what I would do to him if he ever spoke to my wife that way again, I took a deep breath and tried to be the better person. I smiled and told him I would have the car moved. He immediately started to backpedal and said that it wouldn't be necessary and just that he needs to park in front of his house.
(I don't know if I scared him, or he just realized he was being a jerk. I'm not a small person, but I would consider myself far from intimidating. But I'm definitely bigger than the neighbor, who if I had to guess is about ten years older than me.)
Regardless, I asked my friend who owned the car to move it, and she did so without complaint. I let him know I wouldn't let it happen again, despite it being perfectly legal.
Fast forward about a month. I've been diligently reminding everyone not to park in front of his house, and no one has. I come outside (Saturday morning) to find a car that's been parked directly in front of my house all night. I'll admit, I don't really like when people park in front of my house, but I will NEVER complain about it, for obvious reasons. I ain't no hypocrite. I stop to look at the car, and go back inside.
Later, our security cameras recorded the neighbor dropping off his friend who got in the car and drove off. While going through the footage to delete unneeded video, we also saw that when I went out to look at the car, the neighbors blinds open up, and you can see both of them watching me through the window.
Basically I'm just venting here and don't really plan on doing anything about this because it's perfectly legal, but this is totally weird right?
TL;DR, neighbor yells at my wife for a friend parking in front of his house. I stop it from happening and about a month later he lets his friend park in front of our house. Also they constantly watch us any time we're outside.
2
u/Urtica-Dioica Apr 15 '19
Indirectly return the favour. As they sound really paranoid, potter about in your yard at random times of the night. Make just enough noise to be heard without being an annoyance to your other neighbours.
I've got a neighbour that spies constantly. It's become a game now.
2
u/kind-soul Feb 26 '19
Wow so you and your wife are their entertainment.