WIBTA If I don’t give my neighbor money for a portion of his private security company bill?

A Reddit user shares their dilemma about whether they should pay their neighbor, Dan, $300 as compensation for benefiting from Dan’s hired private security guard who intervened during an attempted robbery at the user’s home. The situation has left them questioning their responsibility in the matter.

‘ WIBTA If I don’t give my neighbor money for a portion of his private security company bill?’

I live in a semi nice area in a major city in the US. Lots of my neighbors are pretty well off. Because of this, we have had issues the last year or so with vehicle prowling and break ins. Several homes on my street have had their garage broken into. Much of the neighborhood have invested in security systems, including myself.

One of my neighbors, Dan, has gone a little further and has hired a private security company. The company drives a marked car, and does regular drive by’s and perimeter checks of his property. I see them fairly often since Dan only lives 2 houses down from me. They are friendly and wave at us when they are in the neighborhood.

Three weeks ago, someone attempted to break into my garage while I wasn’t home. My security system alerted me, and the siren from the alarm system was going off very loudly. This happened to be about the same time that the guard was doing his patrol. He heard my alarm, stopped his vehicle and got out as the robber was coming out of my garage and started running.

The security guard and chased the guy, but the robber got away. The guard called the police (my alarm system already had as well), and he waited for them to show up and gave his statement about what he saw. I turned over my security footage and everything to the police and got a report number.

The issue- Yesterday, right after I got home from work, I hear a knock on my door. I see on my camera that its Dan. >Side note- I don’t know Dan super well, we haven’t had any extended interaction other than friendly waves or brief chats when walking the dogs.

Right away he brings up the break in incident. We share some ‘yeah its scary, thank god we have alarms’ chit chat, then he tells me that he feels I should pay a portion of his security costs for the month. I’m a little shocked by this and ask why. He explains that the security guard that prevented the robbery from going any further was only in the neighborhood because he had paid them to be. He says the guard spent over an hour at my house waiting for the cops and giving a statement for the report etc.

I told him that I didn’t ask the guard to stop, he just happened to hear my siren going off and saw all my floodlights come on. I told him that the guard did call the cops, but it was after my security system had anyway. He asked me for $300 to ‘make things fair’ since I benefited from the random security patrol that he had paid to be there. Basically I don’t feel I owe him anything, and he’s just trying to get a few bucks out of me. He was obviously irritated and left right after.

He never said how much the guard service is in total for the month, so for all I know he’s trying to pawn off a month of service on me. My girlfriend thinks I should just pay him to keep the peace, but I feel like I don’t owe anything and I think I’m gonna be stubborn about it. So, WIBTA if I just ignore Dan and not pay?

Here’s what the community had to contribute:

owls_and_cardinals −  NTA for not wanting to pay. Dan has not gotten anyone else’s input or contribution or agreement to this private security detail, it seems, and he cannot demand compensation after the fact for ‘services’ the detail does that were not requested in any way. Dan’s logic is not rational and it’s not fair.

It seems like your perspective is that while it was nice for the security patroller to come assist, you would have been just as happy if Dan had never hired this security detail and no further assistance was provided, because you have already taken action to secure your property. You should tell Dan this, pretty much.

Try this: “Dan, I understand why you’ve hired a private security detail for yourself, but you should understand you hired it for yourself and not for the neighborhood. I already took appropriate preventative action to secure my home, so I do not plan to pay you for services provided that I did not request nor need.

You may want to instruct your paid security team not to respond to events that happen outside your property if you face increased fees when that happens, or work with your neighbors to make arrangements in advance of what services the detail should provide and what their fees will be.”

tatersprout −  NTA. You owe him nothing. His security company employees acted on their own. It actually has nothing to do with your neighbor or his property. Tell him to kick rocks.

Waste_Worker6122 −  LOL I don’t know of a security guard in the world who gets paid $300/hour. You didn’t contract the security guard so you owe nothing – but if you want to be “fair” counteroffer with something reasonable like $25 for an hour of the guard’s time. NTA.

StAlvis −  NTA. I didn’t ask the guard to stop. Beginning and end of this.

Lunar_Wolf121 −  Nta but get the guard a gift.

AlaskanDruid −  NTA. Dan is a leech. You didn’t hire security. This is all on him.

0KOKay −  Your camera and alarm already called the police. Dan is only paying for “security theater”. And it’s clearly not working. Dan’s security didn’t know what was going on until your alarms went off and already called. Dan should pay for your notification and alarm system because his guy was completely useless before the alarm.

It would be more beneficial to install another camera or two for the $300 to see where the guys are getting into the neighborhood. If Dans security dressed in camouflage and told you what car they got into and the license plate then sure give him the money. But any m**on can sit in a vehicle and play security. PS – Dan is breaking into the homes. And requesting money from everyone.

Clean_Factor9673 −  NTA. That’s between him and the security company; the guard took action on his own initiative. He needs to ask the security company to clarify that he’s paying for his own security, not neighborhood security. He can ask the security company for a discount.

hadMcDofordinner −  LOL What a guy, your neighbor. No, do not pay him for what the security guy did of his own free will. He was just a nice guy who did a nice thing to help you out despite you not being a client. NTA Tell your gf that if the peace is broken, it’s not your fault and Dan will survive.

Informal_Honey1203 −  Sounds like a Mafia style shake down. You’re under no obligation to pay this protection money to your neighbor Tony. Of course you’re NTA, but be careful in case your neighbor, Mr Soprano, decides to make an example of you to make sure the other neighbors pay the protection fee.