Homeowner gets upset at next-door landscaper who decided to trespass on his house because no one was answering the door: 'I want to have words with him over this [but also] stay in their good graces'

Author image for María Cetra
María Cetra • Writer
Jul 22, 2026 6:00 PM EDT

You can always leave a note.

There is a sense of entitlement that is related to the fact that someone did something that you didn't like. As if that made it available for you to do something that is wrong. Like a chain of bad acts, where someone does something improper, maybe even by mistake, so the person affected decides to avoid common sense when responding to that act. That is what happened in this Reddit story. The user who shared this story was being a bad neighbor by not taking care of his pet's waste and letting it sit on the land of his nearby resident. That was wrong, and there is no doubt about that. But the neighbor's landscaper going into this user's home expecting someone to be inside and demanding to be answered at the door is quite odd, especially when he didn't receive a response. A normal course of action would have been to leave a note at the door or to try at a different time. But no, here's when the entitlement kicks in. He thinks that the most rational idea is to go over the fence and into his garden to try to get the attention of the person inside the home. 


This is not only a felony, as it is trespassing, but it's also the worst idea. He felt that just because the neighbor was doing something wrong, that made it right for him to do something even worse. Society does not work like that. We cannot be upselling bad habits till we all are bad people. To something incorrect, you respond civilly, not by making it worse. It takes two seconds to realize that bad is not solved with worse. 


This type of entitlement felt by the lack of manners of somebody else makes you look even worse. What the other person did was bad, but you should calmly speak to that person, not get into his house without an invitation. To be civil is a choice that everyone should be making. Use your good judgment, act like you want other people to act, set the example!
 

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  • 01
    My house's backyard shares a direct property line with a large church. The section of church property right behind my un- fenced backyard is a large unused open grass field on the other side of a small hill and 3 large, almost de d oak trees that bt up closest to my back yard property line. The trees and natural slope render it virtually unusable for them, so it just gets mown regularly.
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 02
    Visual representation of a man carrying a wheelbarrow over a garden.
    via FRAEM GmbH

    Visual representation of a man carrying a wheelbarrow over a garden. 

  • 03
    This past Saturday morning around 8:30 or 9:00 AM, I was at work and my girlfriend was home alone. The guy who mows the church property came by to do the field. He came to my front door and knocked. My girlfriend was just getting out of the shower and didn't answer. Instead of leaving a note, the guy walked back around the side of my house, into my backyard, and looked through my back sliding glass door, as he was walking
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 04
    back to his mower. He later told me he "saw my girlfriend doing. something with the dogs, so I knew someone was home." He then walked up and knocked on the glass back door, which made her think there was an emergency. She had to scramble to throw on clothes to answer to a strange man standing on our deck. When she opened the door, he was visibly upset and confrontational. He demanded
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 05
    that we "get better" about keeping rocks and dog the church's property line, off claiming it interfered with his mowing. When I called him he told me that he wasn't aggressive so it's his word against my girlfriends at this point. When I got home, I immediately checked the area. There was no massive pile of debris. I saw a few small river rocks near the line, and was absolutely not the dog
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 06
    excessive (we hire a scooper company that comes out the day after he mows usually). I understand rocks can damage a mower, and if I notice the dogs have knocked them over, I always toss them back. But this was completely minor, and the dog was not excessive I just think that since he mows the day before they come and clean up it is an issue of timing. I feel that entering someone's backyard, walking up a private
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 07
    deck, and knocking on a back sliding glass door at 8:30 AM over a few rocks is an unacceptable boundary violation that left my girlfriend shaken. A simple note on the front door would have sufficed. When I called him later, he made it a point to tell me he is actually on the church board as well as being the landscaper, using a very proud, "I'm more important than you" tone. This makes things difficult. I want to have words
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 08
    with him over this, but I also sent the church an email a month ago about purchasing this strip of unused land (with no response yet). I want to stay in their good graces so they're inclined to sell to me, but I'm furious about the overreach.
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 09
    A man in a green shirt and black trousers using a mower to mow the lawn.
    via Jared Muller

    A man in a green shirt and black trousers using a mower to mow the lawn. 

  • 10
    Emotional_Fan_7011 ESH. You are allowed to be angry about him knocking on the back door. But seriously, change the day the company comes out to scoop to the day before he mows. Logic! And stop letting your dogs go on the church property. If they do go on the church property, go over there and
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 11
    pick up the yourself. That is good pet ownership.
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 12
    UnwrittenWonderland NTA but that guy is. It takes nerves to knock on someone's back door because they don't answer the front.
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 13
    ad_explorer ESH. He was out of line but your dogs shouldn't be pooping in someone else's back yard. Regardless of it being excessive or not. Do you not have a fence?
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 14
    vbandbeer So you don't deny that you let your dogs sh on their property. And you admit that often the rocks are in their yard. If you respected their property, you wouldn't have had this issue
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 15
    ShopSweet6798 NTA. He trespassed on private property. Complain to the church. It doesn't matter whether he was r de or not, what matters is that he trespassed.
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 16
    Lilith-33 YTA. He shouldn't have come to the back door. BUT you shouldn't be leaving dog on their lawn. I own a dog (it sounds like you own at least 2) and we go out and pick up her every night, it's definitely something that should be happening more than 1x/week. And if your dogs are pooping on the church's lawn,
    via CodeWerdPynaplz
  • 17
    you should be going to pick it up immediately. Also, YTA for having dogs without a fenced in yard. So you are just letting them out to run around off leash?
    via CodeWerdPynaplz

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