A good neighbor is one of those underrated blessings you don’t really think about until you end up with a terrible one. When the people next door are considerate, you barely notice them, but a nightmare neighbor can make your own home feel like a place you need to escape.
For this homeowner, the empty property beside hers suddenly became occupied. At first, she assumed new neighbors had finally moved in, but the strange noises and growing mess next door soon made her realize something was seriously off.
More info: Reddit
A good neighbor can make your home feel like a sanctuary, while a terrible one can turn everyday life into an ongoing headache
The narrator watched the empty property next door become occupied and increasingly difficult to ignore
As the months passed, the poster discovered a neglected dog, growing piles of garbage and foul smells coming from the neighbor
After repeatedly contacting code enforcement, the author was shocked when one of the squatters climbed over her fence and jumped into her pool
The poster was even more disturbed when the woman tried her door and peered through the windows
The Original Poster (OP) had watched the property next door sit empty for ages, so when a dog suddenly started barking through the night, she assumed new neighbors had finally moved in. Then the weather warmed up, and a truly nasty smell began drifting over the fence. Curious and increasingly concerned, the poster peeked into the yard and discovered a filthy chained dog with no food or water in sight.
The property itself was becoming a disaster zone, with garbage piling up and the smell getting worse by the day. The narrator contacted animal control about the dog and code enforcement about the mess, even reporting the situation as a potential public health hazard. It got worse as the occupants decided burning their growing mountain of garbage was a perfectly reasonable cleanup strategy.
One of the squatters climbed over the poster's fence and jumped into her swimming pool, deciding it was the perfect place to wash herself. That moment took the whole situation from disgusting to downright audacious. The narrator called the police, who found the woman nearby, where she explained that she was homeless and had no water or electricity at the property.
Apparently, the author’s pool wasn’t the end of the boundary-crossing. Security footage showed the woman trying to open the OP’s front door and peering through her windows. The police warned her but made it clear there would be no second chance. To make matters worse, the property belonged to the city, and the poster said getting squatters evicted under New York law could take months.
New York’s animal cruelty laws make proper care a responsibility, including providing animals with adequate food, water and shelter. This makes the poster's concern about the chained dog not only humane, but understandable, especially after she discovered it without necessities and surrounded by its own waste.
The dog was only part of the narrator's frustration. As garbage piled up and the occupants started burning it, the mess began spilling into the surrounding neighborhood. New York’s Department of Health specifically lists improper waste management and outdoor burning among the issues residents can report to local code enforcement, while warning that burning trash can expose nearby neighbors to harmful smoke.
The situation left the poster dealing with a frustrating legal obstacle on top of everything else. According to her, the property belonged to the city, leaving her to watch the mess unfold without being the person to remove the occupants. Removing someone from a property, even one owned by the government, requires appropriate legal process.
Readers felt the narrator had been far too lenient, especially after the woman tried to open her door, with many warning that she could come back and escalate. What would you have done if your neighbor jumped your fence and used your pool as a bathtub? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Commenters thought the narrator had been far too lenient by not pressing charges and warned that the squatter could return
