Neighborhood disputes can get really trashy. When civil discussions go from polite conversation to slinging insults and even objects, that’s when you know that you’re probably not going to be one of those happily waving and “G’day” saying neighbor pairs.
Reddit user RamenNoodles620 took it one step further by taking an offending neighbor's trash can, loading it into their car, and dumping it into - you guessed it - an even bigger garbage container.
Talk about taking out the trash!
More info: Reddit
Things can get 'trashy' between you and your neighbors, but beware that there is probably no going back from there
Image credits: Binyamin Mellish (not the actual image)
A woman shared a story of her neighbors placing their trash can in front of her garage door all the time
Image credits: u/RamenNoodles620
Image credits: Efrem Efre (not the actual image)
After putting their trash can in the right place for 1.5 years, the poster got so upset one day that she just put the can in the trunk of her car and took it for a ride
Image credits: u/RamenNoodles620
Unfortunately for the trash can, its final destination wasn't a loving home but rather a construction site dump, and the woman finally got her revenge
In today’s story, we have two parties - the original poster (OP), who kept having to move her neighbors’ trash can out of her driveway and the offending neighbors who kept putting it there.
Garbage collectors would occasionally leave the neighbors’ trash can in OP’s driveway, which wouldn’t be a problem on its own. The problem arose when they would just leave it there for 2-3 days at a time, slowly annoying the poster.
It all came to a head when OP wanted to drive somewhere but the bin was in front of her garage again. The poster snapped, loaded that trash can into her car, and just took it to a building site, dumping it into a construction waste container.
In the comments, OP clarified several things about the story.
When it happened at first, she didn’t mind, saying that it’s a minor mistake, but after 1.5 years of the same behavior, her patience had just about run dry. What’s worse is that the trash can would almost always be full of garbage, excess trash placed around it as well, which would lead to it getting blown around by the wind.
Other than that, the other neighbors are nice, helping each other out and shoveling snow for others, knowing that they’ll return the favor.
Ironically enough, OP said that “this is the rare occasion where I wish there was an HOA,” but took the comment back when another commenter pointed out that the HOA would likely be fining her, thinking it’s her garbage can.
For this article, Bored Panda reached out to the poster of this story, RamenNoodles620, who graciously answered some questions for the article.
OP has witnessed and heard about various incidents involving the offending neighbors. In one instance, they had double-parked with the driver still in the car. Another vehicle pulled up behind them, honking to indicate that they should move, so they could get around.
The neighbor could have just moved up to the right, where there was empty space. They also could have gotten on the curb, like other people do, so cars could still go through.
Instead, they got furious, started screaming at the people in the other car, who were actually living on the same street, and then got into a verbal argument with them.
Image credits: Snowmanradio (not the actual image)
“Example 2 is that when they first moved in, the neighbors would almost every day get into a yelling match. Yelling at each other, yelling at their kids almost every other day.”
One day, when it had gotten really bad, OP almost called the police about the screaming, but she heard that the cops had already arrived. Someone else must have called.
A little while after that, they got into a screaming match with a neighbor they had suspected called the cops, yelling and threatening them. Another neighbor got into the melee, defending the ones who had called, and the jerk neighbor yelled at them too.
For their part, OP avoids the neighbor couple but tries to be nice to the kids they feel bad for.
“Their kids always get a ball or toy into our yard. I just give it back to them if I'm there and tell them to just ring our doorbell if we are home, and we can grab something if it gets in our yard,” OP clarifies.
There have been far more situations that the poster has heard neighbors retell, which is unfortunate for everyone around because the neighborhood is pleasant otherwise.
At this moment, there hasn’t been any update to the story, but OP says: “we will see, I guess,” for now.
If you’re wondering whether you should take OP’s strategy of guerilla warfare against the neighbors - she suggests that you should first talk to them if they seem reasonable. If not - move the can to block their garage or stairs instead.
OP only chose this course of action because they knew that talking to them wouldn’t lead anywhere and would have alerted them to OP’s shenanigans.
Although it’s difficult to say what the main factor is, a FindLaw survey shares the top 5 reasons why neighborhood disputes start.
Turns out that the number one cause for neighbor disagreements are noise complaints, followed by issues with pets and animals, then followed by children’s behavior. In spots 4 and 5, we’ve got various complaints about visual appearance, including trash, and, finally, property boundaries.
Nevertheless, a quick search will show you that many people have problems with their neighbors’ trash situations.
Image credits: Oleksandr Pidvalnyi (not the actual image)
People in one Quora thread were consulting a person about what to do if a person is dumping trash in their can, with most saying that it’s likely that their condo’s bylaws have a solution for this situation.
Looking at your bylaws seems like a sound solution to deal with trash issues, but what other courses of action are available to peeps dealing with pain-in-the-butt neighbors?
An interesting thread on the Houzz forums from a whopping 11 years ago (that’s about 30 years in internet years) talks about the issue of a neighbor leaving their bin in front of their house for no apparent reason.
Somehow, the thread has refused to perish with people occasionally commenting on it even now.
There were various speculations and outlandish suggestions, but the outstanding one was that you should simply go over there and politely talk to them about it, if that doesn’t help, then anything from small claims court to the HOA's intervention may help.
But a simple word with your neighbors shouldn’t be undervalued as that’s kind of the only way to foster a positive relationship and sense of community with them. I’m being honest – as tempting as it may be to kidnap your neighbors’ trash can, dump it in your car, and destroy it in the woods mobster style, it’s really not the most morally upstanding thing you can do, right?
So leave these solutions only for the most extreme of cases, where you're not afraid of the bridges you may burn.
The original story collected 3.1k upvotes along with 236 comments. These commenters shared their own ‘trashy’ stories of neighbors and joked that the neighbors got what was coming to them - their trash can was simply blown away by the strong winds. Share your own garbage disputes in the comments below!
The community agreed with the poster's sentiment and joked about the whole situation
