18 Neighbor Stories That Made Us Google “Best Places to Avoid Humans”

Having great neighbors is one of life's underrated gifts. They're the ones we interact with most often, and in tough times, they can be the first to offer support. But not everyone is fortunate when it comes to their neighbors. Today, we’re diving into real stories of people whose lives took a turn for the worse—all because of the people living next door.

• My 7 y.o. son’s dog suddenly went missing. One day, I saw my neighbor’s boy walking the dog. He said they found it on the street. I had a big fight with his dad, who refused to believe the dog is ours.
  Yesterday, his mom asked to see me alone. My blood ran cold when she declared, "You've been played all along. Your wife knocked on our door and asked us to take the dog!" I couldn't believe my ears.
  It's true, my wife wasn’t thrilled about getting a dog at first, but she grew to love it. She’d never do something like that to our family. When I told her what the neighbor said, she was furious and swore it was a complete lie. I love my wife and choose to believe her, but I can’t deny the doubt my neighbor planted in my mind. I can’t shake it.

• My next-door neighbor sent us a letter through the mail asking us to never park in front of their house after I parked there once. The kicker is, a couple of years later, they seem to have started some home business with employees, and now every single day there are at least three cars parked in front of our house. © sheepinwolfsclothes / Reddit

• The downhill neighbor had a wide-open view of our beautiful lower yard. They got a barky dog that they left in their backyard all day. The dog tore down our fence trying to get out and get to our dog. We built a new solid wood fence, and then they complained, saying that they couldn’t see our yard and that we were spying on them from our yard. Whatever.
  Then they built a raised deck so they could see over the fence. We planted a row of bamboo and haven’t seen them since. They called the building department about our fence. The building department came out, said it was legit, and cited them for their illegal deck. © Aromadegym / Reddit

• One time, our neighbor released her bees while she went on holiday. They attacked us every time we walked outside for days until we had to call a beekeeper. It was the middle of summer, too, so we were stuck inside with the windows closed. © xzamin / Reddit

• My parents’ neighbor owns a landscaping company, so he has a dump truck. His house is set further back from the road than theirs, so his driveway, which is right on the property line, extends past their house and next to their backyard. My dad noticed the neighbor turning the dump truck around in my parents’ backyard when the ground was very soft from recent rain. He went back, and sure enough, there were giant ruts in my parents’ yard.
  When my dad confronted the neighbor about using their backyard to turn around, the neighbor responded by saying, “I’m sorry, but if I turned it around in my yard, it would have left ruts in my lawn.” So he knew it would leave ruts, didn’t want them in his yard, and left them in my parents’ yard instead. © livecaterpillarflesh / Reddit

• Our neighbor across the street once tried to force her way into our house when just my wife was home, claiming my wife had been having an affair with her husband and that our son is proof. She is an 80-year-old Jamaican, and my son looks white. Also, I think the husband may have died some time ago. © Unknown author / Reddit

• My neighbor would garden at 2 AM, which would be okay if it weren’t for the fact that she would spy on us if we were coming home late or something. She also would stare out of her living room window and spy on everyone during the day.
  Oh, and she also tried to save my brother from a 'stranger' who was driving toward my house, where she was standing near talking to my brother, by telling him, 'Come with me; I will protect you,' and grabbing him while running toward her house. The stranger was my dad, whom she knew, and my brother is an adult. © Unknown author / Reddit

• I was renting an apartment a few years ago, and the landlord decided to rent the basement to a young man who 'got into some bad things but is doing better for himself.' He would stay up all hours of the night playing electric guitar.
  One night (around 4 AM, and I had to be at work at 8 AM), I was getting so frustrated that I stomped on the floors to remind him that there were people living upstairs. I heard him go outside for a few minutes but thought nothing of it. The next morning, when I went to drive my car, I found that he had slashed my tires. © sarahabea / Reddit

• A while back, my girlfriend at the time and I lived in a duplex, which turned out to be really just a house with the top and bottom stories closed off. One morning, we woke up, and the power was off in half the house; my girlfriend missed her alarm for work. We figured we blew a breaker or something but couldn’t find the fuse box anywhere. I asked our bottom-story neighbor about her power.
  It turns out the breaker box is in her part of the house, and she turned our power off because she kept hearing a 'buzzing sound' from our place. I went mad, screamed, yelled, and told her I would call the police. I called the landlord, but this woman is a friend of the guy's mother, so he wouldn’t do anything. © Cthugha19 / Reddit

• The only time I have seen one of my neighbors outside, he was wearing a tuxedo and carrying a box of ceramic model dragons to add to his open trunk, which was already full of ceramic model dragons.
  The same neighbor also constantly has friends over, who park on the sidewalk and have super trashed cars, doesn’t mow his lawn, and has two large dogs that never seem to go inside. © Joffrey17 / Reddit

• My neighbor came into my backyard when she thought we (university students) had gone home for the summer. I still lived in the house. In fact, I was sitting by the window when she entered our backyard. I thought nothing of it—I chalked it up to her looking for her cat.
  I went back to reading my book and completely forgot about her until I saw movement out of the corner of my eye some time later. She was walking out of my backyard with all our plants.
  She stole our garden. I was so astounded that I just sat there and stared at her. I never even tried to stop her. © VandWW / Reddit

• I lived in a flat (apartment) where the front door faced the neighbor's door over a common hallway about 2 meters long. I had one neighbor—a middle-aged lady. She used to stand behind her closed door and repeatedly say, 'I know I didn’t,' over and over and over again in fast succession for about 30 minutes at a time.
  It used to freak me out. I moved because of her. I didn’t want to know what she knew she didn’t. © Unknown author / Reddit

• I rented on the second floor of a three-story building. A very young couple moved in above me. I started getting woken up at 2-3 AM because the guy would arrive home, drop stuff on the hardwood floors, stomp around, etc.
  Then the fights started. Also between 2 and 3 AM, in the middle of the week. They would consist of 10–15 minutes of screaming and object throwing, followed by him slamming the door on his way out. It was happening once or twice a week, so I complained to the building strata. It kept happening.
  One night, I just stood in my room and recorded it on my phone for ten minutes. I called the owners of the actual suite and played it for them. They were gone that month. Respect your neighbors, folks. © Bunktavious / Reddit

• Many years ago, my family came back from a 10-day vacation to find a note on the door from the town. One of our neighbors had called to complain that our grass was too tall and 'creating an eyesore.' Well, of course, it was tall—nobody had been there to cut it for 10 days. Naturally, teenage me was told to mow the lawn right away, which I really didn’t want to do, as it was a hot day, and I was tired from the vacation and a 3+ hour car ride home.
  I knew well which neighbor had called to complain, so I emptied the lawn mower’s grass catcher in the middle of his driveway (he was at work at the time), and though I expected him to come say something about it when he got home, he didn’t. I guess he got the message because there were no further complaints. © Keefer1970 / Reddit

• I have a neighbor who gets irrationally angry when he sees people with dogs simply walk by his house, since he is overly protective of his lawn and garden. I learned this because I made the mistake of walking my dog by his house once.
  He caught me, stormed out, and gave me a 5-minute speech about how I shouldn’t let my dog walk by his house. He has done this to several people, including a 9-year-old girl, whom he made cry. Yeah, he’s a real pleasant guy. © MemeLord_____ / Reddit

• I used to work a lot from home, and in the place I was staying back then, my neighbor used to go out for a run, take a shower, and get dressed at her window right across from me every weekday at exactly the same time. I started opening my window to make it more obvious I was sitting there, working. She responded by having her window open, too. © 7hr0w_4w4y_ / Reddit

• My friend has a key to his neighbor’s house. When she goes to work, he goes in and watches her TV and uses her toilet, then leaves. He leaves everything else untouched.
  Other than this, the guy is a normal dude. He does it just because he can. © banjohusky95 / Reddit

• I have neighbors across the alley from me who, on trash night, would put their garbage that wouldn’t fit into the garbage cans (because they have 4 foster kids) into our recycling bin. This would be okay, except sometimes I wasn’t done putting things into the recycling bin, and what they put in was always garbage, not recycling.
  Anyway, they did this all year round, but I started taking their garbage bags out and throwing them as hard as I could into their side yard. After I did this twice, they stopped. © floydfan / Reddit

When it comes to shocking and bizarre situations, hotel staff have seen it all. Their experiences make for some unbelievable stories. We’ve put together an eye-opening collection of real events witnessed by hotel workers, and they’re sure to leave you speechless.