Feeling powerless sucks. Sadly, life has a good number of things that force us into that state. Like natural disasters or force majeure circumstances or neighbors from hell.
Well, OK, you can argue about the last one, but you can’t really choose who your neighbor will be. This is where the powerlessness begins. And, in turn, you'd better hope your neighbor’s not one spawned from the fiery pits of Mount Doom, because you and your friends will have to go on an epic journey to vanquish them.
Now, we don’t have a story about that in particular—your best bet is to go on a 12-hour binging marathon of the Lord of the Rings for that—but we do have a story of equally epic proportions coming in from r/PettyRevenge.
It involves a woman selling her long-term piece of real estate that she'd had for decades in a way that would irk the living heck out of her neighbor who had been a pain in her backside for years.
More Info: Reddit
Having a nasty neighbor sucks, but remember that you can always get revenge, even if it is petty, on them
Image credits: Paul van de Velde (not the actual image)
Redditor u/MeanAd3975 recently went to r/PettyRevenge, a section of Reddit dedicated to stories of small victories over those who’ve wronged folks. There she shared quite an extensive story of how she and her husband bought a piece of land that they had plans for, but life got in the way, and in some ways, it turned out better than expected.
But, let’s rewind. In her youth—around the 1980s—OP and her husband ran into a bit of money after the hubby got into a car accident and was paid a $30,000 settlement. The two eventually decided to buy a 10-acre property, an empty plot of land, for $5,000 with the hopes of developing or reselling it in the future.
This woman, after having owned 10 acres of land for nearly 30 years, took a loss as it let her get a taste of sweet revenge on her neighbor
Image credits: u/MeanAd3975
Well, throughout the entire nearly 30-year span that she was the owner of the land, OP didn't do much land development. The property slowly became a place for parties, camp outs, and motorbike racing (her kids’ idea).
OP and her husband bought 10 acres of land back in the 1980s with the hope they'd develop it into a livable plot
Image credits: u/MeanAd3975
About 15 years ago, folks started buying out neighboring flats. And one of OP’s neighbors turned out to be a real chore. Long story short, she had problems with the trees on OP’s property as they were blocking her view; there was a stream nearby that the neighbor from hell had a problem with; and she would regularly call and eventually text about nearly any peep coming from her property. Things like that.
What ended up happening, though, is a neighbor moved in and started causing heaps of trouble for them
Image credits: u/MeanAd3975
For years, the land was actually used for parties, camping, and the owner's kids would ride their dirt bikes there
Image credits: Patrick Briggs (not the actual image)
There were a few surprises regarding that, like the stream being dammed, and all of the water being redirected and flooding OP’s property. But she rounded up some people and undammed it. The neighbor also managed to get the trees cut down, all 23 of them. Despite them being on OP’s property.
Needless to say, all of this and more bothered the living heck out the neighbor, leading to more trouble
Image credits: u/MeanAd3975
First her plot got flooded because of the damming her neighbor did, then the neighbor straight up cut down 23 of her trees
Image credits: st-dvs (not the actual image)
Needless to say, the neighbor was in a bit of trouble for all of this. Mostly because OP knew a guy who knew a guy who had the power to do something about it, because these were legal violations. It took a few years to get it all in order, but OP got $10,000 for each tree that was cut down, and they also got another $45,000 for selling the timber. This is besides the fines and damages that the neighbor had to cover for the implications of the damming.
So far, their $5,000 initial investment was looking pretty lucrative.
In both cases, she got compensated for it, but it took years and a whole lot of patience to get that done
Image credits: u/MeanAd3975
Well, unfortunately, OP’s husband passed away, and their dream to build a life on that property along with him. So, OP decided to sell. The property was listed for $1 million, as it was the market price at the time, but OP did not want to sell it to a land developer who would probably build ten houses there. No, she wanted an individual.
Following her husband's death, the dream of building a home there was gone, so OP decided to sell the lot
Image credits: u/MeanAd3975
Of course, the neighbor was always there to deter any buyers, but what ended up happening was OP took a $250,000 loss from her initial asking price. In part, it’s because she was still getting a lot of money and she had already got over $300,000 in compensation for the damages the neighbor did, but also, the buyer was an individual who wanted to build a single house and use much of the remaining plot of land to build a dirt bike race track for his two boys. Given all this, it didn’t really feel like a loss any more.
“Plus knowing the [nasty neighbor] was going to be miserable for years to come… you just can't put a price on that!” concluded OP.
And a buyer came along–a family who offered less, but planned on building a dirt bike track for their kids, so OP had no doubts and took the deal
Image credits: u/MeanAd3975
OP continues to visit the property just to see how it’s coming along. In the six years since she sold it, the new owners have built a lovely home at the farthest point from the nasty neighbor and, as promised, there is a huge race track there as well. She also never blocked the neighbor, so she does continue getting messages from her, but only because it puts a smile on her face knowing she is still grumpy about it all.
And folks on Reddit had a lot to say about it. The general consensus was that the neighbor definitely had it coming, and knowing that OP not only sold the property, but also to someone who built a dirt bike race track, is satisfying, to say the least. Between trying to sabotage OP’s sales, cutting down the trees, rerouting the stream, and the incessant calling and messaging, it was a natural consequence.
Others shared similar stories, mostly involving both nasty neighbors and dirt bikes. And yet others didn’t think it was petty as much as it was “nuclear” revenge in some aspects. Whatever the case, the story got nearly 10,000 upvotes and over 35 Reddit awards.
You can check out the post in context here. And remember that this isn’t the only time folks got revenge on other folks, and you can read about it in one of these random links here, here, and here.
BUT! But, it doesn’t have to end this way. Consider sharing your thoughts and opinions in the comment section below, and why not share some of your neighborly revenge stories, if you have any!