Homeowners discover their neighbors have been hosting unauthorized 4th of July pool party celebrations at their house for years while they're away on holiday: 'Now do we confront the neighbors'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Jul 4, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

Your property is, well, yours—and that's kind of the whole point of owning it. Invite as many or as few people over as you like—heck, put up barbed wire fencing around the entire thing (HOA permitting) and never speak to anyone again if that's your thing. You can say and do as you please with it, within legal bounds… just don't go doing any mining under your suburban house without knowing what you're doing or the proper permits.

But, as it turns out, your property—and specifically your backyard—might not just only yours if you have a pool that catches your adjacent neighbor's attention while you're away on vacation. That beautiful shimmering, unattended water might entice them to go ahead and help themselves to an uninvited pool party every year while you're away on vacation. I guess that's why the paranoid folk among us go around putting up hundreds of cameras, even some facing their neighbors' backyards.

This family only found out that these parties were happening when the neighbor's young daughter came over with tears in her eyes because the homeowners had yet to open their pool for the summer, meaning that the neighbors were going to be without their clandestine tradition.