Kids take neighbor's mail and ‘return’ it to her after claiming they found it, then demand a reward for their act of kindness, neighbor refuses: ‘Please leave’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
May 28, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

When we were kids, we constantly came up with easy and creative ways to earn money. The easiest way was to offer our parents our services for housework in exchange for a few dollars. Some kids would wash their parents' cars, some would fold the laundry, and some would shovel snow, and they get nicely rewarded for their hard work and devotion. 

Other ways to make money as kids required a bit more skill and effort. You could make lemonade and sell it on the street, or offer to walk the neighbor's dog every morning before school, or find any other steady endeavor that could earn you money on a regular basis, practically operating as a working kid.

Out of all of these honest jobs, any kid can find their way around and make some money in the process. However, that doesn't stop some kids from trying to take shortcuts, or attempting to earn their money in malicious ways, which seems like what the kids in the story below tried to do.

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    Cheezburger Image 10510234880
    via Jupiterimages

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • The 27-year-old woman who wrote the story couldn't figure out if the kids knocking on her door to ‘return’ her mail, which they claimed they found, were genuine or not. But when they came back to demand a reward for returning the mail to her, she realized it was the latter. Fortunately, she was not willing to play along with their games.

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    AITA for refusing to give a reward after two kids returned my opened mail with money inside?

    I'm 27F but I am pretty petite and could easily pass. for like a high schooler. So I am home alone at my parent's place dog sitting and I get back from walking
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    the dog and as soon as I close the door and lock it, I hear the ring cam doorbell go off and knocking and I can see through their Alexa that it's two kids. Probably
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    middle school aged. They have a bike and scooter. I did not see them when I came back from the walk, so I don't know where they were waiting or where they even came from.
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    They are just standing there and so I'm thinking that they are trying to sell something or another so I plan to just ignore them and focus on getting the dog
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    resettled. Except now the dog is barking like crazy because she senses someone by the door and I can hear the kids say "I just saw her go inside". They
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    then say "we found something of yours and it has money inside". So they are knocking like crazy and even start kicking
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    the door. I figure that I'll just speak to them through the ring bell so I say (without opening the door) "Hi. Just leave it in the mailbox. I cannot open the door right
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    now because my dog is not friendly". Which is, true, but also like, I have no idea if this is a scheme or if there's an adult in a car waiting for them, etc. My mind is going
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    into all sorts of scenarios that could end horribly for me. After them standing there for like five minutes, I can see through the cam that
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    they put it in the mailbox and walk slowly away on their bike/scooter. About two minutes later, one of the kids comes back and puts his hood on. Rings the
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    doorbell and I can see him put his hood on and I say "what's up?" through the ring cam. And he says "My friend wants a reward". And I say "thank you for bringing
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    back the mail but there is no reward, please leave". And the kid just stands there demanding a reward. So I say "I have your faces, if you try to threaten me, I will call
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    the cops". The kid then says "call the cops I don't care! I returned your money. If I ever find something for your house again, I'm not returning it". He then walks
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    away before giving me the finger. I'm not looking to get these kids into any sort of trouble or anything because I think
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    they were just being dumb fks and they couldn't have been older than like 14/15 but AITA for not giving a reward? What they returned ended up being an opened envelope (don't know how
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    they got it, if it was already ripped, or if they opened it) from my aunt that had a $20 bill in it (my aunt is old school like that).
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    Cheezburger Image 10510242560
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    I've had my fair share of finding misplaced items/wallets and I've never once demanded or even expected a reward. My friend wanted me to post
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    their faces on the NextDoor app and blast them but I don't know. So, AITA? ETA: because I see some comments about this: I didn't think the fact that he
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    put his hoodie on made me feel unsafe. I didn't feel unsafe about the boys themselves, more annoyance because it was stressing the dog out (although them standing
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    there for a while made me think someone might have been coercing them to stay there until someone answered the door, but that might just be my anxiety). I was also extremely stressed
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    about the reactive dog and that played a big factor into me not wanting to open the door when I could accomplish what needed to be said (a thank you and leaving in the mailbox is
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    fine) through the ring doorbell. I also felt kinda weirded out when one boy came back and not the other. I mentioned my age and size because you'd be
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    surprised at how people assume you are naive when you're a) young and b) a woman and c) know that you might be home alone.
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    armomo3 You don't get a "reward" for doing something that IS illegal. Chances are they saw there was money in it. I'd report them to their parents and let them know I didn't like their attitude or tone and
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    perhaps they should let them know opening mail is illegal. I'd also make certain there was only $20 in there. Maybe she sent you $30 and they were looking to double their take.
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    Dufiel Morningstar Does your ring camera pick up your mailbox, and does it record...because if you have evidence of them going into your mailbox, that's a federal offense. You are NTA
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    meetmypuka What are the chances that they "found" your mail in your mailbox?
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    Anxious_Leading 7158 NTA they opened your mail and were kicking the door? they want a reward for not stealing $20? yeah NO
    via Anxious_Leading7158

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aita neighbors kids house neighborhood mailbox neighborhood-drama neighborhood-stories reddit story petty entitled Reddit children entitled people
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