When you move into a new neighborhood , there’s always a little bit of trepidation. Will you be able to get along with everybody? If you’re lucky, your next-door neighbor could become a lifelong friend.
On the other hand, you could be moving next to a crazy person. It’s the latter that’s the focus of this article. People on Reddit shared their worst neighbor nightmares , and you have to read these stories.
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This Cursed Apartment
“My boyfriend and I had a next-door neighbor around our age who we thought seemed alright. Laidback professional rented the house with his girlfriend… nothing really noteworthy. His girlfriend eventually left him and we watched the dude slowly lose his mind after that. After a series of episodes of his screaming arguments on the phone or when his ex would stop by, we eventually saw it peak when he took a hammer to his cabinets.”
Whoa!
This Crazy Plant Lady
“Not from ‘hell’ exactly. We used to live in a property with two units and we were in the back. Lived there for 4-5 years before the new front unit neighbors (a couple in their 60s-70s) moved in. A few weeks in, she complained about our front yard bit which was not a shared area and consisted of a tree and 3-4 small bushes. She wanted us to plant something nicer in OUR private area (2m x 1m) keeping in mind we were in the back so no one from the street could see it anyways. My mum told her she didn’t have the time to do that so she suggested we hire her gardener to take care of our area and mum told her we didn’t have that kind of money to spend. Next thing you know she sends us her grandson (he would’ve been in his late 20s) to try and convince us to change our plants to what she wanted. She hinted we should do it because he was a professional ‘private detective’ and he was really good at his job. Crazy plant lady.”
Yeah, like somebody can tell you what to do in your backyard.
These Crazies
“We had a neighbor who was obviously nuts. They were older and both unemployed and having a rough go of it. So what’s an unstable busy body to do? Why, peek over your neighbor’s 6-foot-tall solid wood fence to spy! They called animal control on us because the dogs splashing pool water was gross. Not their drinking water, that was an automatic watering system that refilled with fresh water every time they used it, but the splashy baby pool water the dogs like to play in. We asked them, ‘Why did you call animal control on us, our dogs have their own FLOOR of the house, they are hardly abused.’ They said, hysterically sobbing, ‘We just didn’t know what to do!!!!’
We relocated to another residence after that. They then stole the huge ceramic pots of black bamboo that went on either side of the porch. When we pointed the theft out, they got angry and claimed since we were moving out, they were fair game.”
I bet these folks are glad they moved, huh?
This Odd Complaint
“My friends’ new neighbor asked them to stop cooking food because the smell bothered them (but only in the guest bathroom, when she cozied up to the air vent). She suggested that instead of hot, cooked food, my friends should eat lunch meat and nuts, or should they ‘heat food the natural way.’ She did not give any specifics on what that meant. Later in the message, she said that if they MUST cook food, they should consider simply not cooking food instead.
Eventually she went to the leasing office to complain that my friends were cooking their food. Thankfully they declined the complaint because it was so ridiculous. If you’re this kind of person, please never live in an apartment complex.”
Ah ha, ha, I’m laughing so hard at this one.
This Grow-Up
“I was fairly young, maybe around 4 or 5. I remember my parents always talking to our direct neighbors about people a few houses down. I didn’t really understand it then but they mentioned things like illegal, dangerous, etc. but it mostly went over my head. Then one time most of the people on my block came over to discuss these ‘dangerous’ neighbors. I don’t think anything came of it because I don’t think the police were ever called. I remember those people a few houses down were a little crazy, and definitely scared me. My parents wouldn’t let me and my siblings play in the front yard unsupervised. The whole cul-de-sac had issues with this one house. They would have parties every now and then that would get out of hand and was a huge noise issue. I remember not being able to sleep because the music was so loud.
Then one day I came home from school and there were fire trucks and police cars on the street, and that one house was on fire. Since I was only 5 my parents didn’t tell me everything and just told me there was a fire, and the people who lived there had to move. It wasn’t until YEARS later I found out that the people who lived there were some type of drug dealers, and that fire? Their meth lab straight-up exploded and almost burnt the house down. The people were arrested and were never seen again.”
Yikes!
This Selfish Behavior
“I was the neighbor from hell once. I realize how much I sucked now, but at the time I was apparently just a douche. I lived below a couple with two young children (one couldn’t even walk yet). I was in a band, and since I worked the 2-10 shift at my job, we recorded our album, in my apartment, after 10:30 pm every night. I can’t imagine they liked me at all, but they never really complained and were nice enough when I would see them in the halls and stuff. Still, now that I have my own kid, I realize I sucked BIG TIME.”
I once lived next door to a band, and they would scream at the top of their lungs in the middle of the night, so I totally understand that. Not cool at all.
This Insane Neighbor
“My sister was looking to buy a three-bedroom house and she was not having a lot of luck finding something livable that she could afford. She came across a house that was absolutely beautiful. Large airy rooms, big eat-in kitchen, everything updated, and decent property size. It had been on the market forever and it was cheap. She was completely mystified. Until she was shown the property by the owner.
Out comes the crazy neighbor, screaming at my sister, swearing, shaking her fist, and hollering like a fat granny Clampett. She followed them around the property screaming and when they went inside she stood by the windows and screamed through the screens. The owner basically said, ‘No way in hell you are going to buy this house, right?’ ‘Nope.” But my sister did sign a complaint and act as a witness for the homeowner.”
Can you imagine that?
This Spiteful Behavior
“My neighbor once vomited on my living room window out of spite…”
What? That’s not only disgusting but quite disturbing too, no? I mean, of all the things they could have done, they resorted to this? It’s unbelievable.
This Odd Sighting
“My neighbor rented his rooms to randos and once in the middle of the day we saw one of the renters in the front yard and washing his naked butt with a garden hose. My husband and he made direct eye contact while we drove by.”
Ha, ha, that must’ve been a sight, huh?
These Dogs
“10 chihuahuas.”
Oh my! I can only imagine the sound that 10 chihuahuas could make, haha. I lived next door to somebody who had one, and even that wasn’t fun. So I sympathize with this person here.
This Party House
“I lived next door to an Airbnb house. At first, it was fine, but then during tourist season the house was rented out to some dude that decided to invite all his boys over for a lovely party… on a Tuesday… till after midnight… in the pool… next to my bedroom window…and blocked our driveway with their cars.
We spent the next six months calling the police (non-emergent line) for one thing or another as a barrage of events unfolded. Other fun mentionables were loud pool parties till 2 or 3 in the morning, Goth metal music blaring from a stereo that made our windows shake on that side of the house, garbage left sprawled on our yard, cars parked in our driveway when theirs ‘was full.’ I eventually contacted the owners through the Airbnb listing and explained that if they couldn’t find tenants that could respect the residential area that I would be happy to talk to the HOA about putting in an ordinance against short-term rentals for our area. Needless to say after six months of BS they put the house up for sale and we finally had a nice neighbor that moved in. Peace at last.”
I’m glad that worked out.
This Neighbor From Hell
“Our first house was in a working class, post-WWII suburban neighborhood. The houses were a single driveway’s width plus about 2-3 feet apart, open yards. We moved in early spring, with our then two-year-old, so we were spending time outside when our new neighbors in their 70s came home. We smiled/waved, they came over to introduce themselves, and the first thing the lady says is ‘I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY TO YOU PEOPLE. DON’T BLOW THE SNOW UP AGAINST OUR HOUSE, IF GET WATER IN OUR BASEMENT WE WILL SUE THE [expletive] OUT OF YOU.’ Ooooookay, nice to meet you too.”
Wow, that’s pretty crazy, no?
This Insane Person
“I was the admin of the community Facebook page for a nice gated community and I really tried to be a good fair admin. I kicked a member off for calling all the women of the neighborhood “useless [expletive] and saying that all housewives should be muzzled and chained to the stoves where they belonged. So he showed up at my house threatening to burn it down with our dogs inside. We were scared to leave our house for a while.”
Holy, moly!
This Awful Situation
“I was told that the apartment across from me had kids but only on every other weekend. So that was a lie. They had their kids there every day, ALL DAY. And all these kids did was scream 24/7. The parents would also scream back to them. With the TV permanently set to 90 for the volume. No kids show either. It’s a one-bedroom apartment and they had like 5 kids, including a toddler. Oh, how did I know? Their kids tried to get into my apartment. Twice. They eventually skipped out and I got to see the stuff the cleaners had to haul away. There was an adult bed, a crib, and nothing else. These kids were sleeping on hardwood floors every night. When I looked into the bedroom, there was a kid-sized hole in the wall. Like someone had picked up and thrown a child into the wall. Now I understand why the kids cried all the time.”
Oh my goodness! That’s so sad.
This Constant Screamer
“Neighbour behind my house would scream at her kids daily to the point our kids would be afraid to play in the backyard.”
Yikes, no one wants to witness something like that. I would be scared, too.
This Horrible Story
“My neighbors in college thought it would be fun to shoot the pellet gun in their backyard. When shooting at cans wasn’t satisfying they went ahead and shot my cat. I was gone at the time and when I got back home, my cat had run back in through the window to hide, blood all over the floors. Took him to the vet who removed the pellet and he died two days later from peritonitis. One of the saddest moments of my life.”
OMG, I can’t even imagine that. I would have been absolutely devastated by that.
This Tree Killer
“Looked out of my window to see my neighbor leaning over my 6-foot-high fence, and stretching right into my yard to saw some of the main branches off my tree… My tree had never extended over the fence and her limb-hacking killed it. A few months later, she cut one of the wires attached to our boundary fence that was holding up a shade cloth in my backyard. I called the cops on her. And a couple of weeks later, all the plants along our boundary fence mysteriously died and seriously damaged some of my trees… And I still have no idea what her problem is!”
Wow, I would like to know that, too.
Oh man, those were some stories, huh?
I’ve had my share of dealings with crazy neighbors. One time, I smelled smoke coming from the adjacent apartment, only to find out that my neighbor had fallen asleep while cooking. She could have burned the place down. Imagine that? Have you ever had an odd encounter with a neighbor before?
