I’ve been fortunate in my life to not have any truly repugnant neighbors. Heck, I can’t even think of any neighbors that have been a mild nuisance. The vast majority have been reasonable and even downright nice to live beside.
And it’s stories like this that make me appreciate just how lucky I’ve been with where I’ve lived in my life.
Because I never realized neighbors could ever be this awful.
Sometimes when disputes come up, it’s not clear what to do or where to turn, so you look to the internet for advice.
That’s what Reddit user AwareTable had to do, posing a doozy of a situation to the subreddit r/legaladvice.
The subreddit is a great place for these sorts of questions.
You might not get guidance from full-on specialized lawyers there, but it’s free, and there are a lot of experienced minds there who genuinely want to help out.
And frankly, AwareTable needed a LOT of help.
As they explained it, a “disgruntled neighbor” who lives where the school bus stops in their Oklahoma community installed some strobe lights on his house.
The problem is that AwareTable’s three “young, elementary aged children…all have a very serious case of epilepsy.”
Of course, strobe lights can trigger epileptic seizures, more commonly in children.
What’s more, they’re not even the only kids who wait at that bus stop who have epilepsy.
Two other kids around the same age also have epilepsy, and they’ve all been grouping together to catch the bus.
Unfortunately, this new neighbor bought the house right in front of the bus stop, and he’s “been an absolute hell to everyone.”
“From the second day on, he has harassed our kids telling them to get off his property, even though they were technically on a public road,” AwareTable wrote.
“Through the grapevine he somehow learned that a majority of the kids were epileptic, and has installed strobe lights in his front lawn. These are VERY powerful, VERY fast lights that you can not avoid walking by.”
Maybe he didn’t realize it was a problem?
Nope. AwareTable said that after confronting the neighbor, they confirmed that he did it knowing the kids have epilepsy. “He hates kids, and has made it very apparent even calling the lights ‘brat repellent.'”
AwareTable also said that they’ve tried more than just personal confrontation about the strobe lights.
“We’ve contacted the police, and they won’t even come out to talk to the guy,” they wrote.
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And appeals to the school to pick the kids up further down the street didn’t work.
The bus “just couldn’t drive into our neighborhood and easily back out. They have to be picked up on the street.”
For now, they’re driving the kids to school themselves, but obviously they’re looking for a better solution.
The legal minds of r/legaladvice came up with a few ideas.
For one, user RexWrecks7616 suggested bypassing the police and going right to the local prosecutor.
“That’s the person who decides how to interpret the law and presents charges to the court…In my mind, it’s pretty clear Child Abuse,” they wrote.
They even had a law for AwareTable to cite.
There’s an Oklahoma law against “the willful or malicious harm or threatened harm or failure to protect from harm or threatened harm to the health, safety, or welfare of a child under eighteen (18) years of age by another, or the act of willfully or maliciously injuring, torturing or maiming a child under eighteen (18) years of age by another.”
Going down a similar avenue, another suggested that maybe child protective services could help.
“How about CPS?” lump532 wrote. “This person is clearly intending to abuse your children.”
AwareTable replied, saying “We plan on looking into that tomorrow. It just seems like a very niche route to solving the issue though. I think it would be better handled by the police, but there’s definitely multiple ways to take it from what I gather.”
Others thought that involving the municipality or even the ADA would help.
If the police aren’t willing to get involved, bylaw enforcement could at least levy some stiff fines, noted PossiblyWitty .
The neighbor would have to be pretty petty to decide the strobe lights are worth paying fines.
Meanwhile, iamjacksilver wrote that they “would highly recommend contacting whatever organization enforces ADA compliance. Also I would get a hold of local and national epilepsy foundations. Typically they have access to good lawyers that are just waiting for a case like this.”
What do you think? What do you do about a troublesome neighbor like this?
