AITA (26F) for reporting my neighbour (38F + 39M) son (11M) to the police for trespassing?
A woman, 26, living in England, reports her neighbor’s 11-year-old son for trespassing after repeatedly climbing into her garden to retrieve his football, despite her attempts to resolve the issue amicably. After talking to the parents and installing CCTV as a deterrent, she decided to file a police report when the trespassing continued.
Her neighbors are furious, and her siblings believe she’s in the wrong.
‘ AITA (26F) for reporting my neighbour (38F + 39M) son (11M) to the police for trespassing?’
I (26F) live in England. I own my home and understand I am fortunate, but I also worked hard for it. Any money I received or earned while working part-time till graduation went into my savings account.
Most people on my street are social housing tenants; I’m still determining what that is, but they’ve explained that you’re eligible for the scheme if you’re on a low income. It’s more secure than the private sector as you mostly get assured tenancy’s even though there are different tenancy types.
For a while, I got on well with my next-door neighbours “Emily” and “Ben” they also have three kids (13M, 9F, 4F), but soon I started experiencing a lot of problems from next door. I work from home often, and I could hear shouting next door constantly;
Ben is 5″11, 145kg and quite loud and intimidating, and I could hear their kids screaming and crying. I had to ask them to lower their voices daily, and I even explained that I work from home. The next set of problems revolved around the 13-year-old son.
I spotted their son climbing over a wall to get into my garden to get his football back which at first I ignored it. Then after it happened ten times, I finally decided to speak with his parents, and I can’t remember what I said entirely. Still, it was something like, “Hey, I just wanted to have a word as I have seen your son, trespass 11 times to get his ball from my garden.
I would appreciate it if you could get him to stop as he is trespassing, and if he just came round to the front and knocked on my front door and asked for his ball back I would happily collect it for him.” The neighbours apologised and said they would make sure their son doesn’t do it and knock.
A few days later, their son did it again while I was in my lounge. I walked into my garden, which made him jump and spoke with him. I told him I’d seen him trespass to collect his ball on various occasions.
I told him I had talked with his parents and that trespassing is a crime, and I would appreciate it if he could just come to the front and knock in the future. He didn’t say anything and just went back into his garden. I informed his parents, and they apologised, but it continued.
I got fed up with it and decided to invest in CCTV finally. I wrote a letter to residents on my road to give them a week’s notice that CCTV is being installed at my address, and it will cover my entire garden and it will also cover my doorway. I also wrote that I’m getting a ring doorbell camera.
After installing CCTV, I thought it would stop the kids from trespassing. It continued. I saved the footage, filed a police report against the son for trespassing, and sent all my evidence to the police. I knew there was a strong chance that nothing was going to happen but I just wanted the son to have some responsibility.
When my neighbours found out they were mad AF with me and since then our relationship soured. My siblings found out about this and think I am a total Ahole for this. AITA?
Here’s what people had to say to OP:
NTA. Once or twice is a mistake. 11 times is careless. You would also potentially be liable if he fell or injured himself going over the wall
Why is it relevant that you own your house and other houses are social housing?
YTA – How, exactly, is this kid retrieving his ball from your yard hurting you? Also: you made a big deal out of telling them not to bother you because you work from home, but then you’re telling them “but have your kid knock on my door to get his ball back.”
Your relationship with your neighbors soured because you’re being needlessly petty and hard to live around, *and you called the police on them because a child was retrieving a toy.* Congrats!
YTA, you sound like an awful person to have in the neighbourhood. Calling the f**cking cops on a kid collecting a football. Also, why did you put in the part about the Council houses when it has no relevance at all? Admit that you feel better than these people.
Low income housing isn’t a scheme, it keeps lower income people, usually families, from being homeless. Legally you aren’t an AH, but as a neighbour you for sure are. This kid sounds like he has a rough home life and is just getting his ball out of your garden.
He probably doesn’t want to talk to any adult in his life at all, much less a guy who keeps complaining about him to his parents. If he’s not wrecking anything in your garden, YTA for making his life harder.
Edit: I didn’t know “scheme” was just a similar word to “project” in the UK!
It’s a kid and his ball. Good lord lady. When I was 10 I was bigger than when I was 9. I hit a ball straight into Mr. Russo’s sedan. Cracked a headlight. Farthest I ever hit a ball. I was so proud for 1/2 a second. I waited for him, came to him to say sorry, not to tell my dad, and I would pay for it.
This Vietnam marine with a glare that would scare Medusa looks me dead in the eye without a hint of emotion and says “no more hitting in this direction. Bat the other way” (which made sense given the layout of the neighborhood). Never spoke about it again.
Fast forward 25 years and I see Mr. Russo outside when I’m visiting my parents for a month. We chat. One day I asked about the headlight and he said something I’ll never forget… “want to be a good neighbor? don’t ever be the reason a child feels like they can’t have fun in their neighborhood. And never give out s**itty halloween candy”. YTA.
ESH. The parents of that kid should try to make sure the kid doesn’t come into your garden but you literally filed a police report against a 13 year old for getting his back??
Also I understand that you work from home but obviously kids are going to be loud and you’re not going to get complete silence living next to kids.
YTA the way you wrote this post screams AH. The way you used the term scheme might as well tattoo AH on your forehead. It’s a kid getting his ball back. Chill out. if he’s not causing damage in doing so you’re overreacting. If he knocked on your door every time he needed the ball back you’d just complain about that too since it would be interrupting your work from home.
YTA. 26? You sound more like 86 yelling “get off my lawn.” Would you be so offended by a ball being retrieved from your yard if you thought the neighbors were homeowners & not getting housing according to you because of a “scheme?”
You bought this up as a point you could have left it out. Neighbors are neighbors no matter if they own rent or it is subsidized. Very snobbish. Your siblings think you are an a**shole & so do I.
YTA. If there is something poor people need a bit more, it’s harassment from the police over something so trivial /s
You sound like “that” neighbour. What a miserable life you lead.
Did the woman take reasonable steps to protect her property and assert boundaries, or did she overreact by involving the police and ruining her relationship with her neighbors? What do you think?