"My Neighbor Is A Karen"
Home should be a haven...but when you have a bad neighbor, that haven can turn into an absolute nightmare. These people found themselves living near Karens, and their stories are so shocking, they're unforgettable.
1. Rear Window
I used to have neighbors who were, for lack of a better word, trash. They were clearly addicts and did not live well.
My family was always cordial with them because we never had any issues with them despite how they were, but my parents always told me to be wary. Plus, they had a couple of young kids who were good and one my age who I hung out with sometimes.
Once, I was about to walk into my house with my friend. Their young son, who was my age, was outside his house. He started with some general chit-chat—nothing out of the ordinary—yet.
But as we were walking into the house, he kept trying to find ways to keep us outside, as if he was stalling. Eventually, we went into my house.
We immediately heard a noise coming from the back room. When we rushed in, our jaws dropped to the floor. We stepped in to find my neighbor with one leg in my window, clearly climbing through. My friend and I just stopped and stared at him as he stared back, looking like a deer in headlights. We had absolutely no idea what to do or how to react. We were young kids, and this was a grown man who I had caught breaking into my house.
He just awkwardly smiled and said he was just making sure the window was closed. As he did, we heard his son run around the back and warn him that we were home. He just told his son that he knew and that we were right there and he was talking to us.
He then nonchalantly said bye and climbed back out the window, leaving my friend and me to wonder what had just happened.
2. The Sovereign Psycho
When I was in high school, our across-the-street neighbor declared himself a member of the Montana militia even though we didn’t live in Montana or anywhere near it.
He decided that paying taxes and car registration fees were unnecessary since he was now a sovereign nation unto himself. He knew that eventually, the government would be coming to claim his properties, so he made sure to prepare.
His plan was absolutely bonkers—he removed the fence to his backyard, lined up his three cars side-by-side, and replaced the fence. He then welded all three cars together via a couple of long bars across their bases and left his yard hose on for days, possibly weeks. When they finally came to take his cars away, they removed the fence and tried dragging the first car out.
The one car carried the other two along, which pulled them all deep into the mud. They had to get several trucks and a welder out to take care of the matter.
3. All Bark, No Right
My neighbor’s dog barked nonstop. He was likely just acting out because it was never walked or shown any affection from its owners. He was often left in their empty backyard for long stretches, usually all day.
I would wake up many mornings to barking, as early as 5 am. When I would walk out into my backyard, the dog would bark the entire time. The sound is deafening.
Not only was their dog a problem, but so were they. Once, they blocked our driveway by accident, so we had to ask them to move their car. For the following days, their car's bumper was about one inch from our driveway, and they parked so tight against the mailboxes they likely had to crawl out the other side. Then they continued to block our driveway and mailbox on purpose. We decided enough was enough.
We notified the Homeowner’s Association and they had to intervene multiple times because we stopped getting mail. The post office confirmed that they had to hold our mail, as they could not deliver it.
Not only did they block our mailbox, but they would also block our driveway on trash day. They had 50 feet of curb space but instead put their cans right in front of my mailbox or driveway, which was also completely out of their way.
4. Long Term Losers
I lived across the street from my neighbors for 20 years. They were the worst people I knew. They would work on their lawn at 5 am on a Saturday but would complain if I would be playing basketball in my driveway in the afternoon.
They also complained that I would park too close to their driveway, even though I would be 15 feet away from the edge of their drive on my side of the street.
But that's not even the worst thing they did—they also liked calling the authorities for every little thing, from lighting fireworks on the Fourth of July to our dog being outside for more than 10 minutes. The only time they didn’t call the authorities was when our house was getting robbed!
