Well, I put "fight" in quotes because it was more of a shouting match.:grin: The guy is a total dick, and has been to me and my wife ever since I moved in a little over a year ago. He's been living in this neighborhood for like 45-50 years and he thinks he runs the place. Among the things he's done: -He puts his trash in MY yard every week for pick up. -He put a toilet for sale in MY yard with a sign saying it was for sale for $10 and his address on it. (1.If you have to put your address on it, it's obviously not in your yard. 2. Who the eff tries to sell a toilet on a small residential street?) - He told me I am not allowed to park in the street in front of my house (Free, public parking), and even sent his wife out telling me she was concerned because someone hit their car one time when it was parked on the street.(They park on the street every day) -He told me within a week of moving in that I needed to take care of the dandelions in my yard because they were ruining his yard. -He mows his lawn like literally every other day because he has nothing to do, so any time I mow my lawn, or do any yard work, he makes snide remarks to me about it. -He's parked his car with all four wheels in a different neighbor's grass before, twice. -A week after I moved in, without me asking, he brought over his lawn mower, told me I could use it if I needed it, but he didn't want me to make a habit of it... That's just a sampling of random things he's done. So, yesterday I finally got sick of the whole trash can thing every week. I got home from picking my wife up from work, got frustrated, so I moved his trash can into his driveway. About two hours later, I hear like 5 honks of a car horn in a row. Wondering what it is (like I said, I live on a quiet street), I go outside, and he's standing in his driveway with his trash can. He yells over at me, "Did you do this?" I'm like, "Yes, I did." He starts yelling louder, angry now, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I'm like, "Why do you put your trash in my yard every week? You've never once asked me, and I don't appreciate it." He's getting angrier, "Did it ever occur to you that I'm being considerate? These trash guys have to stop at every house, I'm just trying to make for one less stop." I responded, "Did it ever occur to you that if you were considerate, you'd have asked me if you could put your trash in MY yard?" He proceeded to tell me that I'm lazy, trashy, inconsiderate, an ass hole, etc. etc. Told me he'd been putting his trash in my yard for fifty years. I actually looked up my house on Google Maps, and his trash can is sitting in front of his house on the picture they took, so he's a liar. I printed the picture showing his trash can on Google, just in case I ever want to press this further. I told him he was an idiot, pretty much laughing him off, because he doesn't know me from any one else. I told him that it was my property now, and I couldn't care less what he's done for fifty years, because I owned it now, and even if he wanted to put his trash there, he wasn't going to. Then I said if he were considerate, he wouldn't have put a toilet for sale in my front yard. (which in all honesty, I should have confronted him about, but I was trying to turn the other cheek) He didn't really have a response for that one. Then, he starts telling me that I can't park my car in the street because it's going to cause an accident. That nobody has ever parked there in fifty years (once again, I know this is, in fact, not true). I told him that it was a public street and I would park wherever I wanted to. I said that we live on a quiet street, and people are supposed to drive slowly. He said that they don't, and I said that I didn't care, because if they hit me, it was their fault. From this day forward either me or my wife will be occupying that spot every day. He then started talking about my wife (calling her my girlfriend), and said he just didn't know what to say about her. He apparently thinks she's just horrible because she has not said "hi" to him a couple times while seeing him in the yard. I told him he better not ever talk about her. So, I was ready to continue to yell at him, but he decided to quit talking after I kept calling him inconsiderate about the trash and toilet thing and walked off. About two hours later, after my wife gets back home from her bike ride, we were going for ice cream, and he was out, mowing his yard. My wife is not the kind of woman you'd want to mess with by any means. She can handle her own, and then some. So, I start yelling at him, "Hey! My wife's here! What did you have to say to her? What did you want to say?" She's all telling me to stop because it was awkward for her. He heard me and looked my way, but pretended not to. Yeah, I know that was kind of a dick move by me, but I'm still fired up about this idiot. So, two questions for those that read all this: A.)Who is the dick? Me or my neighbor? B.) Any experiences like this before?
Yep, without a high-five or low-six-figure income I think I'll be staying in the condos. Assigned parking and no grown men treating lawns and curbs like sovereign airspace.
their Seriously though... I had a neighbor who was a jerk. We never got into an argument, but I did my best to ignore him. He called the police once when we had a party because people were walking on the sidewalk. The police came by and essentially told me he was crazy and we were doing nothing wrong. The day we moved, the moving van cab was parked a bit in front of his house. When he came home, he parked on the street about 6 inches in front of their bumper.
In before Clint Eastwood pic/gif. He shouldn't have done those things but you let it go on for a year. Should have taken care of it from the start. Now you're about to have the AARP all up in your ass.
You waited kinda of late to set or express your boundaries but now that you did do not let up for a second.
That's my general thought, too. In hindsight, I should have confronted him about this long ago. The toilet thing was recent, and was the last straw.
Listen I am 60+ but i would have put the toilet on his front porch at the least. If really pissed off would have thrown it on his drive to let it shatter. but i would really have to be pissed off to smash it. WOULD HAVE DONE IT AT NIGHT THOUGH DO NOT NEED WITTINESS
I was with you until you drug your wife in to the fray. It's a draw now that you needed backup to deal with an 80 year old guy.
Lol, I didn't need backup in the least bit. I just wanted her to know that he had said something about her, and I wanted him to know that she knew.
I envisioned..... <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QnJQ9U9pW9Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
My neighbor puts his trash in my yard and I don't understand the logic there, either. We have this narrow grass section between my driveway and his that I mow and maintain. I think he owns like a little sliver and, for whatever reason, both of us have part of our sprinklers watering the same narrow section of grass (of which his sliver of the grass is about a foot wide and the remaining 90% of the grass is mine). When he puts his trash out there, it's basically in my grass in front of my house if you are looking at it from in front. But, it's not enough for me to gripe about to him. I just don't understand the problem with him putting it in front of his house? I think he doesn't want it in front of his house because it looks bad while it is there...so he puts it in front of mine? Hello? What is annoying about it is there is inevitably trash that gets left behind (falls out or whatever) and I'm picking this trash up most of the time. Not to mention his family and kids make a ton of noise that I put up with rather than be a prick about it...that I hear inside my house as screaming and whatever. They are basically asking to be yelled at by me one day...and if something else happens...I'm not one to back down. I think they see a green light because I never complained before...and they start doing other things because they think I'm tolerant (example...making noise at 11 pm in their backyard on a weeknight when they know I go to work very early meaning I go to sleep earlier). But, that's neighbors for you. I'm been yelled at by another neighbor for some bs that I didn't agree with nor was he in the right (didn't have his facts straight) before...so I tend to shy away from being that guy. I just mind my own business when it comes to neighbors albeit I have my gripes and deal with something from them almost daily. Your neighbor, however, sounds like a real piece of work.
Did you at any time tell him you were from Texas and not Florida? I think that would have resolved the situation pretty quickly.
Did you promise to return the camera promptly with a proper apology? This could have all been avoided.
1. Take a dump in a paper bag. 2. Place on neighbors doorstep 3. Set on fire. 4. Ring doorbell and run.
dang. Beat me too it. Like others have said, it's a bit late to set boundaries. SHould have been done early on. That way you might have had a normal discussion and not a shout fest. Also, the wife thing while he was mowing the lawn was pretty uncool. Just let it go. No sense in calling the old guy out after the altercation, as well as bring your wife into it and put her on the spot. I don't know. It just seems a bit much to get into a shouting match with some 80 year old dude.
