Privacy is a tricky thing. With us carrying devices that track our every move, browser history, and even listen to us, to give us the thing that we really crave - targeted ads - we really don’t need much to feel insecure about it.
Well, the situation has ramped up to 11 in Most-Star-7094’s household, with his neighbor drilling holes in their fence so he could peep at his sunbathing wife.
Guess you can call him a real ‘drill-seeker’.
More info: Reddit
Sometimes, a neighbor's creepy behavior shouldn't be ignored
Image credits: Mikhail Nilov (not the actual image)
A man took it online after his neighbor kept drilling holes in his fence to peep at his sunbathing wife
Image credits: u/Most-Star-7094
The neighbor would drill holes in their fence at eye level, later saying he was "bird watching"
Image credits: u/Most-Star-7094
The poster was so desperate after the 3rd time he had to patch up the peeper's drill hole, he was ready for legal action
In this story, the original poster (OP), a Texan, came to Reddit for input about a neighbor damaging his property in order to get a chance to peep at OP’s sunbathing wife.
Although the neighbor was merely drilling 2-inch (5 cm) sized holes in the fence, the far bigger offence was them peeping at the poster’s wife. When OP would patch up the hole, the neighbor would go ahead and do it again, a total of 3 times now.
The creep went as far as to defend himself by saying he was bird watching, later backpedaling by saying that OP had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his backyard.
According to Mark Litwak of Entertainment Law Resources, you actually do have a reasonable expectation of privacy in your enclosed backyard, with ‘enclosed’ being the key word here.
Other resources corroborate this, saying that as long as your backyard is enclosed, then you could sue for invasion of privacy, but your mileage may and will vary depending on your country and state’s legislation.
In a comment, OP clarified that the fence is between 6 and 1/2 to 7 feet (about 2m) tall. Which would mean that the yard could likely be considered as enclosed, again giving a reasonable expectation of privacy.
This is all besides the fact that the creeper neighbor is drilling holes in someone else’s fence to watch a woman sunbathe.
Image credits: Robert Miller (not the actual image)
Another poster on Reddit by the nickname of BrandonUnusual had an experience of his own with a peeper a couple of years ago.
If you’re not interested in the story, I’ll summarize it for you: Brandon’s wife was showering when she noticed her neighbor looking at her through the bathroom louvers. Brandon initially thought this was an accidental fluke while the neighbor was gardening, but was proved wrong the following day.
The neighbor had the gall to come over and just talk to him about random neighbor things. The same evening, his wife came home, shaken, saying that the creepy neighbor had flagged her down, saying that “he thought they had shared a connection and that she had left the shutter louvers open a bit for him to watch her as she showered.”
Brandon took precautions, as well as reached out to the daughter of the neighbors’ family to let her know what was going on, as he feared that the man may have control of his wife’s phone and intercept the message.
Bored Panda reached out to Brandon to find out how his situation was resolved to maybe get some more insight for the current one.
After the whole thing, the neighbor kept his distance and they had zero personal contact with him for about two years.
“If we went outside and he was outside, he went inside immediately. Until recently, that's how things have gone. Unfortunately, he now seems to think things have blown over and he is attempting to act like a normal friendly neighbor again.”
The situation is awkward and unpleasant, Brandon says.
He frosted the glass on the window in the bathroom on top of the louvers, so they feel better about the fact that he can’t look inside. They also had a Google Nest camera, but the neighbor hasn’t come to the door since.
For others, Brandon recommends just calling the police.
"I really regret not doing it, because I had faith that when I communicated the issue to his daughter, who was living with him and his wife, she would have talked to her mom.”
He doesn’t think it ever happened, so the neighbor pretty much got away with it. Calling the police would have created a record and his wife would have found out for sure.
Image credits: Mario Heller (not the actual image)
This is a complicated case, but according to the The First Amendment Encyclopedia, there is an “intrusion on seclusion” claim, which isn’t just a snazzy rhyme, but actually applies when “someone intentionally intrudes, physically or through electronic surveillance, upon the solitude or seclusion of another.”
To pursue a claim like this, the plaintiff would have to establish 4 things: that the defendant invaded the plaintiff’s private matters intentionally and without authorization, that the invasion is offensive to a reasonable person, that the matter the defendant intruded upon is a private one, and that the intrusion caused the plaintiff mental anguish or suffering.
Now, I’m not a lawyer, but it seems to me that OP has a pretty solid claim to hold the neighbor accountable in court if it came to that.
Just to get a second opinion, we actually reached out to the aforementioned Mark Litwak, a veteran entertainment attorney and founder of the Law Offices of Mark Litwak & Associates based in Los Angeles, California. His knowledge and experience is so vast, that you just have to see his credentials for yourself.
On the "reasonable expectation of privacy” claim, Mark had this to say: “It depends on the type of fence. If it was a chain link fence that passersby can easily see through, there would be no expectation of privacy. If it was a solid wood fence that blocks any view, yes.”
As for the best course of action for someone in OP’s situation, Mark said that property damage, such as putting holes in a fence, is recoverable. Furthermore, invasion of privacy is actionable, if the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Image credits: Max Rahubovskiy (not the actual image)
The more severe issue in this case is the peeping, which is putting it very lightly. It’s a crime - in some states a misdemeanor or felony, finable and further enforceable with jail time.
Some experts also say that it may be a “gateway crime”, which is a notion that shouldn’t be thrown around lightly, but there is proof that a significant number of violent offenders have a history of voyeurism or exhibitionism.
Many commenters held a similar notion, saying that OP’s wife was in danger and that the crime shouldn’t be minimized in any way, involving the police as soon as possible. As there is a likelihood of the voyeur escalating and someone being hurt.
The post got nearly 10k upvotes in the legal advice community approaching 100 comments. Commenters gave OP advice, from reasonable to super bad, including that he should walk out naked and spray the neighbor with wasp spray. Share your own stories of creepers in the comments!
The comments suggested things, ranging from going out naked and taking the neighbor to small claims court
