'The plants [were] completely chopped down': Guy loses 1/4 of his backyard after repeatedly cutting down neighbor's plants in middle of the night

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 8, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

This neighbor keeps sneaking around at 2 AM to vandalize other people's properties. 

Maybe every neighborhood has a person like this: the one who pilfers from people's garages, or takes other neighbor's tools and won't return them, or, like this dude, disrespects people's property. It's one thing to steal inanimate objects. But this guy felt it was appropriate to go around chopping down plants! Plants are living things, and they take a long time to grow. They're not so easily replaced… and even if they were, it would cost thousands of dollars to buy whole plants instead of seeds. 

You can't control what your neighbors do on your own. Aside from talking to them and bringing them plates of cookies until they change their mind, you've got to live and let live. People like this dude just can't handle it when someone else gets to have their way. This guy threw a fit multiple times… it was only a matter of time before police would have to get involved to mediate. 

Next up, this blog was perfect for amateur poets who wanted to share their work for critique, but things went downhill when a couple of trolls began leaving unpleasant feedback. 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 9905736192
    via Annie Spratt on Unsplash
  • 02
    r/ r/MaliciousCompliance Posted by u/BalloonUnderstudy 235 12 My neighbors wanted to call a professional to mark their property line, my parents agreed
    via u/BalloonUnderstudy
  • 03
    This was a long time ago but I remember it clearly. We moved in to a community with tight space in between our house and our neighbors, and we didn't like them being able to see into our kitchen. We put up a bunch of plants, costing thousands but my parents thought it would be worth it. A week later my parents awoke to the plants completely chopped down. My father was furious, and marched down to our neighbors house. He told my father the plants were on his property line, therefor he had total r
    via u/BalloonUnderstudy
  • 04
    Later that day my father called the company that put in the plants, and with the warranty we could have them replanted next week for no charge. We made sure there was no way it was on our neighbors property. However a few days later we caught him chopping them down at 2am. We called the police upon obstruction of property, and after a chat with my neighbor he decided to call a professional and mark his property line. My father agreed.
    via u/BalloonUnderstudy
  • 05
    A few days later i got home to find orange tape in my neighbors yard. Apparently, his fence was 11 feet over our property line! We watched as he took down his fence, completely furious. Within the next month we were enjoying our new space and privacy in our backyard, and my neighbor ended up losing 1/4th of his backyard. My neighbor ended up having to pay almost 10k for the destruction of our property, and we got to plant our plants again.
    via u/BalloonUnderstudy
  • 06
    Tl;dr My neighbor chopped down our plants because he claimed we were on his property, after calling a professional he lost 11 feet of his backyard and had to pay for destruction of property, and we got to keep our plants.
    via u/BalloonUnderstudy
  • 07
    froggyc19 Something similar happened to my parents last year. New neighbour bought the house beside ours, started doing renos (without permits... but that's a whole other story), and complained that our fence was on his property, and that the new stone walkway leading to the back my stepdad had built the previous summer needed to get dug up and removed along with the fence.
    via u/froggyc19
  • 08
    My parents tried to reason with him, explaining that all the land lines in the area are all crooked, and that everything had been this way for 30+ years without issue. He wouldn't hear of it and insisted on the removal, so my mom called the city and requested a new eval after fighting with this guy for months.
    via u/froggyc19
  • 09
    Turns out, not only was the fence on OUR land, but his new one was on ours as well. His back fence was on the land of the backyard neighbour and same on the other side. My mom got the three other houses that bordered his to all get evals as well, so in the end he lost almost half his yard to the surrounding houses. Justice is so very sweet.
    via u/froggyc19
  • 10
    shadowshooter9. This is why any one curious about property lines should get city plans and measure it out
    via u/shadowshooter9
  • 11
    [deleted] Yeah my mom's neighbor cut down all her lilacs that were on her yard the day before the surveyor came. Talk about going to war. There is a dispute, you agree to call the surveyor, and then just go out and do it anyway cause you know you will be found wrong.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 12
    [deleted] How has no one talked about how absolutely crazy that neighbor is. Instead of handling this like an adult and going to talk to your new neighbors to sort this out you sneak out at 2:00 am and cut them down. Who the h thinks like that. People are something else.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 13
    Mullenuh Exactly my thought. Like he was trying to pick a fight. My guess is that if it hadn't been about the plants, he would have found something else to make a fuss about.
    via u/Mullenuh
  • 14
    milhouse234 I feel like some people live for the drama. My friend moved into his house and within the first few days their neighbor came by and asked them if they could avoid parking directly in front of their house on the street, since her husband comes home late and it's convenient for them.
    via u/milhouse234
  • 15
    No problem, doesn't make a difference to them. One day this past winter it was hitting -60 with wind chill and cars weren't starting, so we had to push his car out of the driveway so his gf could leave, and the only spot we could get it in was that one spot. Literally an hour later they complain about it and start arguing about the spot. He didn't park there at all for over a year no problem but you bet your a he parks there every chance he can get now.
    via u/milhouse234
  • 16
    laikewag When the person you threaten to call someone on says go on do it, you better watch out.
    via u/laikewag
  • 17
    SCSAutism As a first time homeowner who is about to take down faulty fence this hits home. I'm glad my neighbors are decent because I'd hate for them to fight me tooth and nail over this. Grats on the bigger yard
    via u/SCSAutism
  • 18
    generica_ccount My parents recently got in a spat with a neighbor over a similar issue; my folks had cleared out some of "the neighbor's" brush and the neighbor threw a fit.
    via u/generica_ccount
  • 19
    The neighbor worked for a legal firm, and she used her company's letterhead (without permission from their company) to try and send a threatening notice over the value of the destroyed plants (they referenced a law written to protect trees, not weeds - they would've been entitled to 3x the cost of the destroyed shrubbery, which would've been around $0). She also delivered it to the mailbox herself, which is illegal.
    via u/generica_ccount
  • 20
    They had a surveyor find the property line, and when it came up 2-3 feet too short, they fing moved.
    via u/generica_ccount

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neighbors gardening plants malicious compliance neighborhood garden malicious-compliance-reddit neighborhood-drama neighborhood-stories terrible neighbors malicious compliance reddit
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