How Far Would You Go?
Imagine you’re forced to stay at home and work, and you only have your precious dog for company. The only human interaction you’re getting is with literally the worst family of neighbors known to humanity. And these people only get more and more insufferable as time goes on. How far would you go to put a stop them? Would you just invest in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, or would you take action? How long before the cops have to get involved? Those were the questions that poor Anya had to deal with in her fancy new townhouse. All she wanted to do was be a competent adult and enjoy this upgraded home from her dingy apartment. Instead, the literally demonic neighbors made it their mission to deny her any joy whatsoever. Only Anya could deliver some satisfying karma to these oddballs, but it would get a whole lot worse before it got better.
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No One Listened To Her
No one gives you a manual for being an adult, you just sort of struggle through problems as they come up. No one knew this better than Anya, who was renting a very large townhouse for a year, living by herself for what felt like the very first time. It was definitely a huge adjustment, and there was so much to keep up with, on top of working remotely and organizing everything that she brought with her. Seriously, why did she have so many throw pillows?! From the minute Anya moved in, her nosy neighbors overtook her picturesque driveway, using it for extra parking, storage, and even social events. Anya politely asked them to stop using it. It was her driveway, and she worried about the neighbors damaging her poor, defenseless car. The not-so-neighborly husband and wife merely scoffed at her, like they cared about their neighbors’ feelings! Anya took what felt like drastic action to her. She added several large potted plants near the driveway, installed a security camera on her doorstep, and added a threatening ‘NO TRESPASSING’ sign. It was way more than Anya had budgeted for that month, but if it got her the space she needed, then it would be all worthwhile. That seemed to work. The driveway was empty, and no one was dangerously close to denting her car. Unfortunately, it worked for only a few hours, until the most rambunctious and wicked children targeted her house to attack.”
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Attack Of The Miniature Goblins
Now before we get into those miniature goblins, we need to establish some important context first. Anya closely followed the nation-wide ‘stay home’ orders and had been working from home. She hadn’t been in an office in months. She only saw her coworkers in tiny video screens on her laptop, and she really missed seeing them in person. Sure, she had moved into a new place, but she still felt trapped. What she wanted most of all was to go out somewhere with her friends, instead of just another virtual movie night. Unfortunately, the only human contact she found were these lousy neighbors, who turned out to have even lousier kids! Anya vividly recalled how, ‘They were about five and seven, boys, and they kept ringing my doorbell multiple times a day to ask if they can play with my dog, if I want to play with them, or anything else they can think of.’
Anya had a very sweet old dog, but her dog was quite tiny and she genuinely feared for its safety with those rambunctious pipsqueaks. And it was impossible to focus on anything when your loud doorbell keeps going off, just as you settle back into your routine! Anya tried to politely ask the two boys to stop ringing her doorbell, but there’s no way to have a coherent conversation with literal gremlins. They could barely pay attention to her with all the energy they contained. Anya next tried the boys’ parents, which went about as well as you can imagine. What’s the worst thing you could imagine these parents telling Anya? As Anya recalls, “I was told boys will be boys, and they weren’t going to do anything about it.”
Yikes. These little monsters were running amok, and Anya didn’t have a good enough excuse to call Child Protective Services on them. Unfortunately for her, the torment was about to get far worse than Anya could have imagined.
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Was Her Solution Enough?
Anya removed the battery from the doorbell. It was the only thing she could think to do right then. But that didn’t bother those little boys. They thought now would be a great time to run around her house constantly, banging on her window and doors to get her attention. They saw her gardening in the backyard, so they tried to burst through the gate in a lethal attempt to play with her dog. Anya tried being forceful with the children, but not having any children of her own, she wasn’t exactly experienced with this sort of thing. The goblins demanded to see her dog, but Anya scolded that they would never see this dog again if they kept up this behavior. They simply ran back home, only to send their dad over to handle Anya. Their stern dad tried to scold Anya for some stupid reason, but Anya cut him off. She affirmed that if he wouldn’t keep those boys away from her property, then she would plant some prickly fruit bushes to teach them a lesson. She then immediately shut the back door in the dad’s face. That felt fantastic to stick it to that rude family.
And it only took a week for Anya to follow through on her word. She planted an entire wall of prickly blackberry and raspberry bushes on her garden, right by her driveway. She also planted strawberries and tomatoes in her garden, but those were mostly for her. She didn’t want her entire life to be consumed by this family, so she treated herself to some special plants. Anya got to enjoy two weeks of pure, uninterrupted quiet. The kids didn’t enter her garden, and they weren’t walking around her house anymore. They must have come into contact with those prickly plants the hard way. She would notice the kids staring into her yard, as if they were plotting a way to get around this new development. But come on, how devious were these kids? The bushes were working, right? Well, it turns out that they absolutely were not.
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Grow Up Ya Brat!
It turns out that the kids were eyeing all of those delicious fruits growing in Anya’s garden, and no way would they politely ask her for some samples. Anya will never forget how, “First, I caught the boys picking and eating raspberries, so I told them off and told their mom that I caught them stealing, and that I would call the cops next time.”
Anya meant every word. Sure it was only fruit, but she wanted these little pests out of her life. It was bad enough being stuck at home, but being stuck at home constantly dealing with this frantic family? No thank you! In response to Anya’s ultimatum, this mom merely huffed and told Anya to grow up. Seriously, grow up?! Those kids were the ones attacking her house to try and get some bonding time with her dog, who at this point was terrified of them. Anya tried to force herself to relax, searching for just half an hour of calm away from this family. She was having some serious thoughts about moving away, but she didn’t want to let this family win. Nope, she couldn’t let them get to her like this. But as she peered outside, she discovered this family performing their most desperate act yet.
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She Finally Terrified Them
There they were. The dad and his sons, walking right into Anya’s garden, picking away all the fruit that had frankly taken quite a while to grow successfully. Seriously, what was wrong with this family? They acted like they owned her property and could do whatever they wanted to it! She put the hard work into the garden, those trolls didn’t deserve any of the reward! Anya knew that talking to the family would never work. So she called the cops on them. She actually did it. Anya would never forget the sight of how, “Two cops showed up after ten minutes or so, and they confronted the neighbors while they were still picking berries. They told them they were trespassing, and that the berry picking was in fact considered stealing. I could press charges.”
Anya couldn’t believe what she was seeing. For the first time since she moved here, the confident demeanor of the family finally melted away to something resembling fear. The dad was having some trouble thinking of what to say in response, and he kept looking back at his house in desperation. Maybe he was hoping his equally terrible wife would show up to defend him somehow from the cops? The cops lead the guilty dad and his kids back into their house, and another officer came over to Anya’s place. This was it, Anya would get to determine the fates of these nasty neighbors!
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The Family’s Fate Was Up To Her
Another officer walked back inside Anya’s house with Anya not too far behind. He turned around and asked her if she wanted to press charges. Anya had been so ready to torment this family and drive them into the ground. But was it all worth it? They already were threatened by the police, didn’t that get the message across? Anya then, “Asked [the officer] if they felt they scared the neighbors enough to stay away. I got a small smile and yes from him.”
According to the other officers, the mother had been shouting at them constantly about this “little witch” living next door. Spoiler alert, she didn’t use the word “witch”. Anya could tell that the family got the message. That was all Anya wanted. She didn’t care what happened to them as long as they gave her some space. Anya recalled how, “I told them no for now, and I asked them if I would be allowed to get an extra camera set up on the wall to cover my entire front garden. They said that’s allowed.”
Both Anya and the neighbors now know that if those kids are caught on her property again, Anya won’t hesitate to call the police, who will charge the family faster than they could blink. Anya liked it better than she could hold this threat over them, instead of pressing charges right away. As she continued to stay and work at home, her days became noticeably more pleasant. Her dog even grew less fearful of the neighbors. It seemed like everything had neatly worked itself out. But did Anya do the right thing here?
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Was She Ever Justified?
What do you think, dear reader? Was Anya justified in her loathing of this family? Or did she do way too much? I mean the kids just wanted to play with the dog, were they going to be that dangerous for the animal? But also the incessant banging on her windows and doors would drive anyone completely mad, I’m surprised Anya didn’t try to have the entire family arrested! Let us know what you would have done in the comments. There’s isn’t like a rule book for how to handle terrible neighbors, but at least Anya fought her way to peace and quiet finally, whatever the costs may have been. Moral of the story is that people can be terrible, and it’s better for everyone just to live in a secluded cabin in the middle of the remote countryside.
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