Ideally, home is a place where you feel safe and you can relax. Unfortunately, sometimes neighbors can make a home feel anything but safe and relaxing.
In today’s story, one man gets revenge on a neighbor who is irrational, unreasonable and threatening.
Let’s see how the drama escalates…
This was last year. I just sold my home in my HOA.
About 5 years ago I bought a 1500sq ft townhome condo in an up and coming town. Right in the downtown area.
This is a valuable property with home prices having increased 35% since i purchased.
This was a wonderful area in walking distance of everything I loved as a single bachelor.
There was only one problem neighbor.
When I moved in all my neighbors were wonderful.
We all got along great except for one person. She belonged to the HOA board but was moving on because you can only serve 8 years.
We’ll call her Gimpy J.
Here’s the deal with Gimpy J…
Gimpy J is a 65+year old widow whose husband died unexpectedly from a heart attack.
She doesn’t have much to do.
She met a man online and moved on and I was happy for her.
Talking to my passive neighbors I hear bits and pieces of why things are at the HOA because of Gimpy J and another woman who had to move because of age.
Gimpy J was a bully.
On the board the two of them bully residents.
They change the landscapping from mulch to pine needles, they stop upkeep on the pool deck because they hate kids.
They reported one house for anything and everything because their kids were too loud.
She bullied a woman with MS because Gimpy J was feeding feral cats and attracting raccoons and possums near our homes and Animal control was called.
Residents did not like her.
Gimpy J wasn’t in the neighborhood very often.
I got married and wife has been living with me for 2 years now, at this point. We are very happy.
During this time Gimpy J began spending more and more time with her new boyfriend. He lives about an hour away from our house in the country.
She would initially spend the weekend, then a week there, until she began living there all the time with very little time spent here. Maybe 15min-2 hours a month would be at our complex.
Here’s the deal with the parking situation…
Now at our complex there is only 1 rule on parking, each resident is entitled to two spots close to their building, but not necessarily in front of your unit and there is no limit to parking spots you may occupy.
CLOSE to it is the key word.
We have new folks on the board who are all under 40 years of age and the place is starting to get spruced up.
Gimpy J has been gone for 7 months!
We have some friends over regularly and they park in front of our unit.
Gimpy J had 2 hip replacements done and we had not seen her in about 7 months.
In our little area of the complex consists of 8 town homes that face each other, 4 on one side 4 on the other. There are 8 spots for three homes and a handicapped spot for one of our neighbors.
When Gimpy J came back, she complained about the parking situation.
Gimpy J started coming back around in January for longer periods; a day on the weekend to go out downtown or to visit friends.
She started complaining that we were in her spots.
Again, there are no assigned spots.
We were willing to move our friends vehicles for her to another empty spot, that is until she started occupying two spots at a time with her vehicle.
Gimpy J was breaking the rules by taking 2 spots.
This behavior continued as she would come in taking 2 spots any time she was here.
The rules in the Master Deed says no vehicle can take more than one spot without written permission from the Board of Directors or Property Management group and cannot continue for more than 2 days with permission.
This was to account for residents moving in and out.
OP’s mom came to help out.
Suddenly that spring My wife had a medical issue and was hospitalized for 4 days and on disability for 8 weeks.
My mom was the only family member on both sides that had the capability of coming down to where we live to help us out.
She drove down and we needed to occupy 3 spots.
I promptly let our property management company know and the Board of Directors know what was happening providing them with my Mom’s make, model, and plate number and that she would be here 6-8 weeks, just in case anyone had an issue.
Gimpy J was furious!
Gimpy J’s first time home in 6 weeks we had a car in front of her house but she had room for her vehicle.
She marched over and banged, and I mean it was loud, on the door demanding we move the car, and tried to open my front door and walk in my home.
Yes, she tried to ENTER MY HOME.
It shook my dog who peed herself it was that loud, who in turn growled and chased her out.
OP started documenting Gimpy J’s behavior.
I promptly told her there was no assigned parking and the rule is 1 car 1 spot. We would moved a car out of respect one last time and saw she occupied 2 spots with it, per usual.
The next time it happened, 2 weeks later, we refused to move our vehicle.
We also began taking pictures for our records and communicating with our HOA of Gimpy J’s erratic behavior.
She continued to arrive, bang on our door, scream at us for having a car parked “in her spot.”
Gimpy J didn’t stop!
One time banging on the door, she dented the frame with her keys.
A few additional times when we were not home she would come in and park occupying two spots.
I would take more pictures, for my records in case something happened because of her erratic behavior.
Finally it happened.
Gimpy J’s family is even worse than she is!
About this time last year, I was at the gym and I get a call from my Mom and my wife, frantic that someone is going to tow my wife’s car.
I drive home as fast as I can and its Gimpy J’s boyfriend’s son and his girlfriend, whom we have never met.
This moron, who doesn’t live here and has no business here, is screaming at us and insulting my pregnant wife and mother. “MA MOTHER-IN-LAW PAYS $XXX DOLLARS A MONTH FOR THESE SPOTS! YOU ARE BREAKING THE RULES! IMMA TOW THAT THERE SUV!!!!!” All while drinking beer.
Now we know he can’t do anything except scream and try to intimidate us outside.
He calls his “mother-in-law” (who is not married to his father) about the situation.
OP calls the police.
Gimpy J drives an hour to our complex.
When she gets here she parks her car behind all three of ours and gets out blocking us in, and I had enough.
I quickly snap some pictures.
I called the police.
I will not feel unsafe or be harassed in my neighborhood by people who do not live there, or are barely there.
Gimpy J realizes i called the police and moves her car.
OP and his family prepare for the police.
I print out all my documentation, pictures, and communication from the HOA.
I shower quickly because I’m disgusting from the gym and throw on a nice polo shirt and shorts.
Pregnant wife sits in her rocking chair and my mother sits calmly at the kitchen table.
They welcome the police inside.
The police arrive and we can see them hollering, waving arms widely, and screaming.
The police come to the door and we kindly open up.
Gimpy J tries to walk in before I block her and ask her to leave my property and invite the police officers inside.
We apologized that we even have to call them over something so petty, but our neighbor is acting crazy and her behavior has been escalating.
The police are on OP’s side.
We explain what is happening, show them communication from the HOA, show them pictures.
The officer quickly had enough of these white trash pieces of garbage. He imposes a no trespass order on my porch and will not let her near my property. If she steps foot on our walkway she is in violation of the order and she will be arrested.
We watch him go back out and explain calmly to her and she starts screaming along with her boyfriends kid and his girlfriend.
This goes on for a while and the officer calls for back up and a second car arrives promptly.
Gimpy J gets arrested.
Gimpy J promptly declares its her property too, she pays her fees and that he can’t do that because everything is community property outside of a home.
She goes and marches up to my stoop and he arrests her. Charges her with disorderly conduct and harassment.
The police then tell Gimpy J’s boyfriend son to go home.
He gets in his truck with his white trash girlfriend and they drive off.
The boyfriend’s son got arrested too.
As soon as he hits the road outside of our complex, the 2nd police officer pulls him over, for DUI!!!
Thats right, the drunk guy screaming at my wife and mother had been drinking the entire time and was loaded.
Police couldn’t do anything in the complex, but could when he hit the main road.
Both of them were hauled off the jail and we stopped hearing from them about parking.
Gimpy J eventually moved.
2 days later Gimpy J and her boyfriend show up to the complex and they park her boyfriend’s car in our lot and leave it, parked in one spot to ensure its “hers”.
Well, they drive off and we don’t hear from them in a week and no one is home.
Since Gimpy J’s boyfriend does not live here and his car is abandoned, I called the HOA to report it.
They came and towed his SUV.
Gimpy J put her house on the market 8 weeks later.
Good riddance! Talk about drama! She was a horrible and unreasonable neighbor. I’m so glad she finally left.
Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…
The HOA parking rules benefited OP.
This reader explains why the revenge was so great.
HOAs can really be awful.
This reader REALLY loved this story.
Another reader moved away from an HOA.
When someone breaks the rules, document everything!
If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.
