AITA for calling the cops on a neighbours boyfriend for parking in front of my house?

A Reddit user shared a frustrating parking dispute with a neighbor’s boyfriend. The boyfriend frequently parks his large truck in a way that obstructs the user’s driveway, despite a polite note requesting he leave more space.

After returning home to find parking impossible, the user called the police, resulting in the truck receiving a ticket. While the neighbor’s boyfriend expressed anger, the user’s own partner believes they overreacted and could have resolved the issue differently. Was calling the police justified? Read the story below to decide.

‘ AITA for calling the cops on a neighbours boyfriend for parking in front of my house?’

I moved in with my boyfriend a year ago, we live in duplex. Our immediate neighbours have the larger driveway with two spots and we have only one, the two are connected as one which makes our spot a very tight squeeze.

Recently one of our neighbours has had their boyfriend staying with them most nights during the week, however he drives a large truck and has taken to parking directly outside of our home and cutting off some of the entry to our driveway, making it difficult for me to park my car into the already tight spot.

I have left a note hoping he could just pull up further onto the street (there is lots of room to move up. The note read “hello would you mind pulling up some, it’s becoming difficult to park in my driveway:)”)

but this seemed to tick him off as I came home last night to him blocking most of my driveway making parking impossible without hitting his or the neighbours vehicle. I’m unable to speak with him directly as I work nights and he is gone when I wake up for work.

This is where I might be an a**hole, I had a particularly annoying day at work and came home to this issue so I decided to call the cops to have them deal with the situation. My street is a one way with the immediate front of my home being only 3 hour parking.

He received a ticket and had choice words for my boyfriend in the morning about it. My boyfriend thinks I’m the a**hole as I could’ve just parked on a side street for the night and dealt with it a different way. I disagree as I already tried to deal with it a different way and nothing good came of it. I am the only one with a car at the moment so I don’t think he quite understands the frustration. So am I the a**hole?

Here’s how people reacted to the post:

LillyLavallee −  NTA, its illegal where I live to block someones driveway, you tried the nice way. Your bf on the other hand, kind of an a**hole for suggesting you should concede your own driveway, its yours you should be able to use it

ProfileElectronic −  There are two AHs in this story – neither one is you .. The first AH is definitely the guy who tried to b**ly you. The second and bigger AH is your BF. He didn’t try to speak to the other guy when your car got blocked. As the tenant it’s his job to keep the driveway open.

Secondly when the other guy cussed you, this guy mutely took it and came at you. He has shown you what he would do in a crisis. Do with this information what you will. But understand that he’ll never take a stand for you and never have got back. If ever you are in a crisis he might go out of his way to stand against you.

diminishingpatience −  NTA. It’s your home, not his. You gave him an opportunity to change what he was doing but he chose to ignore you. You did nothing wrong but he did.

Significant-Wear-681 −  Thank you for your responses, I appreciate feeling like what I did wasn’t too much of an overreaction, however some things I would have mentioned in the original post but I felt was just too much unnecessary detail at the time:

Despite what it sounded like my boyfriend didn’t just sit back while a man cussed him out for my doing, he told him it was deserved and expressed his disappointment for his need to be acting like an ass over something that could have been resolved easily and backed me up to the man.

However when we talked privately he was obviously upset about him getting the brunt of the situation and told me I should’ve handled it differently and that I too acted like an ass. It is what it is but at the end of the day he didn’t roll over and take it or embarrass me publicly. I don’t feel like he is an a**hole lol!

We have no idea what house the neighbour lives in, there are many many houses on our street and with everyone’s different life schedules, including our own going door to door to find out which home the neighbour lives in just isn’t kind or going to happen.

We’ve seen the neighbour multiple times passing by our home in spring and summer weather but not recently as it’s winter and we’ve interacted with her but never long enough to watch which house she goes into nor would we do that, my boyfriend has seen her get into the truck with him however before the parking was a bigger issue. It is just assumed by us that is her boyfriend.

My boyfriend and I are on different schedules he works early mornings and I leave for work as he is about to get home, the truck is gone sometime between then and we have not physically seen either one of them since this has become an issue.

Other than my boyfriend being confronted by him in which the interaction did not include my boyfriend questioning which house he belonged to simply because he was caught off guard.

Lastly, the truck is not there on the weekends so one can assume they probably stay at his place then?? Who knows but if it was as easy as having a conversation with my actual neighbour I would have taken that route before legal action. Thanks again for all the thoughts:)

[Reddit User] −  NTA but your boyfriend sounds spineless. I would have been outside laying in the horn telling him to move or get towed.

Nrysis −  NTA. He chose to park like an entitled a**hole without consideration for the residents by blocking your driveway. On having this politely pointed out and being requested to move, he chose to be an event bigger and more entitled a**hole.

At that point he lost any sympathy, and if he is going to do something that justifies a fine or towing should it come to the attention of the authorities, he has to be prepared for the consequences of such.

Organic-Mix-9422 −  NTA what gives him the right to decide parking in a neighbourhood he doesn’t live in.

subsailor1968 −  NTA. He deserves to be ticketed/towed. Your boyfriend is an AH for not supporting your position on this.

Azaramicrophylla −  NTA. You say it’s 3 hours parking only? Then he is parking illegally every time he stays overnight, even if he doesn’t block your driveway, and could be ticketed on a regular basis. He didn’t deserve any leeway at all.

LowBalance4404 −  NTA. He got a ticket and I don’t think he will be doing it again.

Do you think the user was justified in escalating the situation by calling the police, or could a different approach have resolved the issue? How would you handle a neighbor’s repeated parking problem? Share your thoughts below!