strangers came and sat on my back porch

[Jeannie in NJ]

behind our back yard and between our yard and the meadows is an access road that people take walks on and ride bikes. OUr back porch is quite a way in from the access road. Well, I heard a dog barking and looked and there are people sitting on my back porch. I went to the back door and asked them if their dog was after my cat and they looked put out and said "no, we are just waiting for someone". I mean I was at my back door so it was obvious I live here. I just stared at them until they finally left but now they are walking back and forth on the road behind my house. THese are not neighbors at all, just tourists hanging around and I guess they think the entire town is their's to use however they want.

 

I would love to put a fence in but dh said no.

[earthyfamily]

Frustrating isn't it? A few days ago a mom and her little girl were walking along our road and the little girl just decided to start swinging on our rope swing...mom is standing there on her cell phone watching. I'm like...who does that? Your kid wants a swing, get one...don't use mine. If she had gotten hurt it would have been our problem I'm sure.

[Doodle]

Shortly after we moved into our last house, I looked outside to see the neighbor man and his son using a tree on my property to hang a piñata. :confused: I never could figure out why he thought this was acceptable and what was wrong with the trees on his property.

[Jeannie in NJ]

Doodle, sorry but that made me laugh. People are so strange sometimes and just do whatever they want to do where ever they want to, no boundries.

[Belacqua]

Shortly after we moved into our last house, I looked outside to see the neighbor man and his son using a tree on my property to hang a piñata. :confused: I never could figure out why he thought this was acceptable and what was wrong with the trees on his property.

 

Good grief.

 

We had neighbors (the "had" being one of the great joys of my life) who played baseball on our yard and left their beer bottles in our trees. When we asked them to play on their own grass, they pointed out that the baseballs would ding their cars. Evidently, our car was impervious. And, they noted, they had every right to use our yard because we "never used it."

[milovany]

Ugh. I have a hard time with situations like that. I want to be nice, but at the same time -- as has been said -- who does that? What are they thinking?

 

We used to live in a mobile home park, right on a large pond. We loved the location and had a great view out our back windows of water wildlife. Our back yard slanted from the back of our house down to the pond, and a road ran alongside our property, as well. Other park residents would walk over to the pond to feed the ducks, fish, or what-have-you and instead of staying at the edge of the road, would come over and hang out in our backyard. We finally put up a fence.

[Element]

:lol:Crazy!

 

That happened to us once. It was super bizarre. There were just two people (maybe late teens, early 20s) sitting on the bench on our front patio (not enclosed.) Our front patio is probably 30 feet from the public sidewalk so it wasn't like they just stepped off the sidewalk and onto my porch. They were looking down at something in their hands and my paranoid brain thought they might be doing/selling/something with drugs so I sent dh out. He stepped out and said, "Can I help you?" and the boyfriend said, "Actually, yeah. Do you have a small screwdriver or something? Her necklace broke."

 

:001_huh:

 

I don't remember what dh said, but I don't think he gave them any tools. They left eventually, and we never saw them again. The whole thing was just strange!

[FLDebbie]

And, they noted, they had every right to use our yard because we "never used it."

 

Thanks for the good laugh!:lol:

[Heatherwith4]

Bizarro.

[Truscifi]

:001_huh: Who does that?

[wonderchica]

I sat on a stranger's patio once. I didn't want to. I was in college doing respite care with an autistic child and we went to the neighborhood playground, which was very close to a house. He decided he wanted to stretch out on their lawn chairs :glare: You have to know this child, but trust me when I say I did everything I could to get him up and away from the house. Finally I gave up and sat down too. If the neighbor came outside, my plan was to tell them he wouldn't listen to me and to give it their best shot :lol:

[fraidycat]

:001_huh: The nerve of some people, sheesh.

[KnitWit]

My dh calls people like that "your land is my land" people. :lol:

 

We have neighbors like that. I was up late one night with a sick kid. About 2am, I went in the kitchen to get some water and just happened to peek out the blinds. My neighbors were in our circle (we have a circle drive...we are *out* in a *country neighborhood*) lying on sleeping bags, looking up at the sky with a big telescope set up. :blink: I opened the door and they just waved. :blink: I asked them what was going on and they said "Oh, we are just stargazing, it's a great night for it." :blink: Then they said "Our only open area without trees is the horse pasture, so we decided to come over here." :blink: I was too tired to care. I just shut the door. They must have gotten the message because they didn't come back. They also go next door where there is a pond with a dock with a swing and they sit over there and have a beer and laugh and talk. :blink: I know for a fact that neighbor doesn't like it...but it's not my property and she doesn't say a word.

 

Whackadoodles.

[radiobrain]

We have a fenced in yard, our neighbors on either side don't...but they are covered in scraggly wooded stuff. It does not seem to stop people from walking down our driveway, and going through these trees, brambles etc, to then go through someone else's property to get to the next street. Why not just walk down the right street? Our street is one block long. :confused: They also likely get scratches and step in dog poop, not to mention me explaining that they're trespassing. Oh well. Some people don't get it.

[Melissa in Australia]

Here there is a law that if people are walking through your property for (i think) 7 years then it becomes a right of access, and has to be kept open for people to walk through. So I would be putting up fences.

[Zebra]

We used to have 1 car, and one day my DH had it at work and I was at home one day. I was startled by the noise of someone using our water spigot on the outside of the house. I thought I was going crazy, but looked outside and sure enough, there was a very dirty man (who looked homeless to me) filling up an empty plastic gallon of water with our water. I didn't know what to do. But, as he was walking by he saw me gaping at him. I opened the door and he said, "Oh, I thought no one was home. There's no car in the driveway. I just needed some water."

 

:001_huh:

 

I just gave him what must have been a very dirty and confused look. I mean, I wasn't doing it on purpose I was just so completely stunned. Apparently he was doing work on the house that was being built next door. It was so weird. I'm not going to deny anyone a glass of water, but geez, just come into my BACKYARD AND HELP YOURSELF WHILE I AM HOME ALONE. Not to mention, there is a whole shopping complex a half mile from my house with not only a grocery store, but plenty of places with water fountains. Or you could like, fill the gallon up when you leave home for the day.

 

Anyway...I would at least act embarassed if I did something like this :lol:!

[sunnylady303]

Huh. I wonder if we are those people.

 

We have a 5 acre farm and it borders our neighbors 18 acre farm. They have a creek running just over the property line on their side (no fence or anything) that my girls love. It's their favorite place spot and I can see it from the house. It is the far part of their farm from the neighbor's house and they don't grow anything or keep livestock - it's all wild. My kids have played there for three years and it's never occurred to me to ask. It's always seemed more like a part of our property. :blush5::rolleyes:

 

They are probably posting about us somewhere - "we have these neighbors whose kids play in our creek and act like it's theirs. Who does that?" :lol:

 

Maybe I'll go talk to them about it this week. Can't believe I never thought about that.

[Denisemomof4]

Wow! i don't think I could live there without a fence!

[saraha]

A few weeks ago, the tree trimmers came down our contry road to trim all trees near the power lines. My boys were watching them out the window and said one of them had walked off into the trees a little way down from the house (part of our property). I went out and asked what was going on, and they replied "Trimming the trees" I asked why someone had been walking in on our property in the stand of trees. The guy says something like "Just wanted to have a look at the dead one" I said we didn't need any extra service and he looks at me funny and said he wasn't offering any.

 

So, I tell my husband this story when he gets home and he starts laughing. I asked him why it was funny, and he said the guy probably went to relieve himself and didn't know anyone was watching.:tongue_smilie:

[SunnyDays]

How's that song go? God is great, beer is good.... and people are crazy. ;) I'm sure we can all agree on at least one part of that.

 

We have a six foot wooden fence around our backyard. And I very much like it that way. :D

[kalanamak]

I said we didn't need any extra service and he looks at me funny and said he wasn't offering any.

 

So, I tell my husband this story when he gets home and he starts laughing. I asked him why it was funny, and he said the guy probably went to relieve himself and didn't know anyone was watching.:tongue_smilie:

 

I would have thought the same thing. Thank goodness he didn't offer you any extras.:lol:

[gardening momma]

A few weeks ago, the tree trimmers came down our contry road to trim all trees near the power lines. My boys were watching them out the window and said one of them had walked off into the trees a little way down from the house (part of our property). I went out and asked what was going on, and they replied "Trimming the trees" I asked why someone had been walking in on our property in the stand of trees. The guy says something like "Just wanted to have a look at the dead one" I said we didn't need any extra service and he looks at me funny and said he wasn't offering any.

 

So, I tell my husband this story when he gets home and he starts laughing. I asked him why it was funny, and he said the guy probably went to relieve himself and didn't know anyone was watching.:tongue_smilie:

At the end of 12th grade I went on a rock climbing/camping trip with my cousins' youth group. I was one of two girls (well, I couldn't quite tell if the other was a girl or not). She went home early, so I was the only girl in the group when we went rock climbing. It was an area that was surrounded on 3 sides by two-track roads, and the 4th side was the cliff. If we had to go, we had to go into the woods within that area. I did (it was very difficult to go far enough in to not be seen from any of the 4 sides). On my way back I saw one of the adult male leaders standing before a tree. He was actually facing me, with the tree between us, so he didn't see me, and I didn't see anything, if you know what I mean, but there was no doubt what he was doing. I hid behind a tree so he wouldn't know I was there. :lol:

Edited August 26, 2012 by gardening momma

[LibraryLover]

Strangers sitting on my porch would be odd, for sure. Our home is not situated in a way where that would make any sense, so I would probably lock the door, and call 911. However, a mother talking a walk with her child, and letting him play on the tree swing in the front yard? Not a problem. We have a large and open front, with really a short (& really old) stone 'fence'. We live on a main walking, biking, running route. I could understand a child being interested, and it's far enough from our front door. A mother & child would not concern me. If I saw them, I might go out and say hello. To check on them, evaluate the issue etc. I live in a fairly small town. Not everyone knows each other (too big for that), but everyone knows someone you know. lol

Edited August 26, 2012 by LibraryLover

[nono]

One more week Jeannie!

[besroma]

A few weeks ago, the tree trimmers came down our contry road to trim all trees near the power lines. My boys were watching them out the window and said one of them had walked off into the trees a little way down from the house (part of our property). I went out and asked what was going on, and they replied "Trimming the trees" I asked why someone had been walking in on our property in the stand of trees. The guy says something like "Just wanted to have a look at the dead one" I said we didn't need any extra service and he looks at me funny and said he wasn't offering any.

 

So, I tell my husband this story when he gets home and he starts laughing. I asked him why it was funny, and he said the guy probably went to relieve himself and didn't know anyone was watching.:tongue_smilie:

 

:lol:

[Annie G]

Good grief.

 

We had neighbors (the "had" being one of the great joys of my life) who played baseball on our yard and left their beer bottles in our trees. When we asked them to play on their own grass, they pointed out that the baseballs would ding their cars. Evidently, our car was impervious. And, they noted, they had every right to use our yard because we "never used it."

 

They left their beer bottles in your trees? I swear I hear something new here every single day.

[Corraleno]

It was ~6 or 7 months between the time we bought our current property and when we were able to move here and start building the new house, although the barns, pipe stalls, round pen, and other horse facilities were already here. When we arrived, we discovered that our neighbors had been dumping all their manure on our land, had gutted the tack room/office and taken all the furniture, had dismantled and stolen 3 pipe stalls, had cut the steel door off one of the barn stalls and used it on their own barn, and had been keeping a rottweiler in our barn, which was full of dog feces. We later heard from another neighbor that the guy had been telling his friends & relatives that he owned our property, and he later complained that we never paid him for "looking after the place" while we were gone. :confused:

 

A few months after we moved in, I found an entire family, with little kids and 2 dogs, in one of our paddocks trying to feed the horses some weeds. I asked what they were doing and they said they were visiting the neighbors. I pointed out that the property line was like 2 acres away, on the other side of the pipe fence, and they said "Oh, we know, we just wanted to see what was here." I said that letting toddlers and dogs run around in a paddock full of horses was highly dangerous, and asked them to please leave. They acted highly offended and huffed off. We now have a solid, 6' tall fence between the two properties. :glare:

 

Jackie

Edited August 26, 2012 by Corraleno

[Photo Ninja]

I heard water running outside in our front yard one morning (the pipes were making a noise) so I went out to see what was going on since the sprinklers were not supposed to be watering then.

 

There were gardeners working in the planting area between the sidewalk and street, area that the HOA maintains. They had my hose running across my front yard to the holes they were filling in, watering them and some new plants they had installed. To get to my hose they had to walk across my front yard, uncoil it from the hose-stand, then drag it all the way to the street.

 

I asked what they were doing and they said they had just worked on the irrigation pipes and wanted to be sure that they had not done anything to the water lines going to the house while they were working there. They wanted to be sure my house water was still working. :glare: Dumb answer.

 

I asked them why they couldn't tell the difference between the water mains that go to the house, which are nowhere near the planter area, and the small pvc irrigation pipes running through the planter area. He looked at me stunned. I guess he didn't think I could see through his lie. I also asked why he had to uncoil the hose and drag it all the way across the yard to the street in order to see if the water was working, and why he didn't just knock on the door to ask me. He didn't say anything.

 

He finally said that a lady up the street had told him he could use the hoses at any of the houses when he needed water. I asked him if he really thought that one person could give him permission to trespass and use my hose and water and any of the other neighbors' hoses and water. He said that she told him he could do it, so I told him that he was welcome to go get her hose and drag it down the street and use her water because she has no authority to give him permission to trespass.

 

He quickly put the hose back and turned off my water. Sheesh. If he had just knocked and asked I probably would have let him use the hose. But to trespass, then lie about why he was doing it? No way. (The lady up the street is a totally different story, a crazy lady who appears to think she is the queen of the HOA who rules the neighborhood...)

[emcap]

It's comforting to hear so many crazy neighbor stories. Makes ours sound pretty tame.

We live in the country, but on three to five acre lots and we have a hill that leads down to a creek through some woods. When some new neighbors moved in they started exploring, walking the dog, etc down our hill and when we'd meet them there, they'd just be all - hi! Fun creek, huh? Sure we'll see you again soon. It's not community property people!

[Photo Ninja]

Okay, here is a great story about people with no boundaries.

 

We were selling our house and had an offer. It was an absurdly low offer, so we countered and had not heard back yet, but were not considering his offer because it was way too low. One day we came home to see a painter's van in front of our house. We walked inside, and dh immediately sent our dc out to the front yard because he heard voices inside. I grabbed the phone to call 911 and he confronted two men in our family room.

 

He asked what they were doing there and they said that _____ (the guy who put an offer on the house) sent them over to give him a quote on painting the inside of the house, that he said the house would be open and they could just go inside. We said that _____ doesn't live there and is not the owner of the house. Dh told him that they had just illegally entered our home and we were calling the police. They said that they had permission from _____ to go in, were surprised that he didn't live there or own the home, apologized for a couple minutes, then quickly left. They had entered our house from a back door (had to go through a side gate and into the back yard to get to that door).

 

We had a realtor card on the counter, so we think a realtor showed the house while we were gone and didn't lock the door properly when they left, which is how these guys got in.

 

We called our realtor and told him what happened and instructed him to call the guy who put in the offer and tell him that we were not going to accept any offer from him and not to send anyone else to our house. Our realtor was flabbergasted. He later called back and said that the other guy's realtor didn't believe that he had sent the painters there, but then guy admitted he had because he wanted to know how much it would cost to paint the interior, and that he was also sending out landscapers to give a quote on changing the yard and a flooring company to get him an estimate on installing hardwood floors throughout the house. All before we had accepted his offer! He had found out that we had an open house scheduled for that afternoon and intended all these companies to come into the house then to get him estimates. Uh, that is not what an open house is for. :lol: His realtor apologized and said she had told the guy that what he did was totally inappropriate, and our realtor made certain that this guy would not be contacting us again. :tongue_smilie:

[mom2scouts]

I can't believe people thought it was OK to sit on your back porch! Some of these other stories are just as crazy.

 

We live a few blocks from a middle and high school campus and the street behind us comes directly from the schools. One year I kept seeing teenagers walking from the side of my house. We have our backyard fenced with a chain link fence and so do our neighbors so I knew they had to have jumped our fence. Once I was in the backyard playing with my young children and a teen boy walks up to the fence right behind our swingset, jumps the fence, and walks right by us through our fenced back yard. I was stunned that he would think it was OK to jump into a fenced backyard where a mother and children were playing and I told him that fences mean "Keep Out!". He said, "Oh, sorry." and kept walking.:001_huh:

[justLisa]

These stories are crazy!

[Myeightkiddies]

In our old neighborhood, the house across the street had just sold. A fence company went there one day to put up a privacy fence. I noticed a man walking away from our yard and a large cord laying across the street. My oldest son went outside to see what was happening. He came back and told me that the fence company ran out of gas for the generator and plugged into our house. Well, they had just got there, so they ran out of gas before coming to the property. Also, I was floored because they didn't ask, and I wasn't thrilled about providing electricity when they are getting paid for the job. We made them remove the plug. One of the trucks left and returned with gas.

[goldberry]

We live very rural and I am super freaky about respecting other's properties.

 

Our closest next door neighbor is only here about 3-4 weekends per year. They invited us over one time to see where they had a nice view with a bench. They said very clearly anytime you want to wander over any time we are not here that's just fine with us. I'm still uncomfortable with it! DH and DD like to go over there to climb on the rocks some times, but I think it's weird even though they offered.

 

DD also explores on the other side, which is an empty lot (no house) and which we never see the owners. I asked a long time resident if that was acceptable behavior, and she said yes, since it was an empty lot without a fence or no trespassing sign. I let her do it but still feel kind of weird!

 

I was just raised that way. I never walked through other's yards, or even campsites.

[MiniBlondes]

What in the world is wrong with people? :001_huh:

[Stacy in NJ]

Get a dog. Seriously. A big dog.

[kitten18]

behind our back yard and between our yard and the meadows is an access road that people take walks on and ride bikes. OUr back porch is quite a way in from the access road. Well, I heard a dog barking and looked and there are people sitting on my back porch. I went to the back door and asked them if their dog was after my cat and they looked put out and said "no, we are just waiting for someone". I mean I was at my back door so it was obvious I live here. I just stared at them until they finally left but now they are walking back and forth on the road behind my house. THese are not neighbors at all, just tourists hanging around and I guess they think the entire town is their's to use however they want.

 

I would love to put a fence in but dh said no.

:blink::blink: Speechless.

Is this your new house? I know you had one for sale.

 

How's that song go? God is great, beer is good.... and people are crazy. ;) I'm sure we can all agree on at least one part of that.

 

:lol: I can agree with all that.

[Jeannie in NJ]

I hear you Nono, one more week. Deep breaths.

[MariannNOVA]

Is it Labor Day yet?:glare:

[jujsky]

Who would even DO something like that? That's just freakin' weird!

[Jennifer3141]

I hear you Nono, one more week. Deep breaths.

 

 

Are you in our area??!?

 

I really love living in Sleeping Bear Dunes but man, it is time for the tourists to GO. I was at my favorite farm stand today and every flipping tourist ahead of me complained about the cost of food. This is a farm owned and operated by two kind people in their mid 60s. They grow everything organically and they are outside all summer long. They look worn out right now.

 

But every single person said something like, "I can get this much cheaper back home."

 

The one person ahead of me was a real jerk so I finally just said to him, "Hey, I'd LOVE for you to leave. More good produce for me and I wouldn't have to listen to your griping."

 

Don't let the Hummer door hit you on your butt on your way outta here, tourists. :D

[sassenach]

I think I would have grabbed my camera and said, "I'm just going to take your picture to show my husband. I keep asking him to put a fence up so people don't invite themselves onto our property, but he just won't listen. Say cheese!" All said with a big smile in my face, of course.

[Alphabetika]

It's comforting to hear so many crazy neighbor stories. Makes ours sound pretty tame.

We live in the country, but on three to five acre lots and we have a hill that leads down to a creek through some woods. When some new neighbors moved in they started exploring, walking the dog, etc down our hill and when we'd meet them there, they'd just be all - hi! Fun creek, huh? Sure we'll see you again soon. It's not community property people!

 

Oh, golly. I'd probably be just like that. I've lived in the city all my life and we live on about 1/10 of an acre. I've never even seen a creek. If I moved somewhere like where you live, I'd be so ecstatic you'd probably find me in your creek, stark naked and flapping my arms with glee.

Edited August 26, 2012 by Alphabetika

[Giraffe]

Many years ago my parents bought a house out in the country near a rural marina where there was an annual boat race. The first year we lived there we woke up to people parking their cars all over our front lawn - our newly landscaped lawn right in front of our house. My father ran out there hollering. The people - there were many of them - said they always parked in this "lot" for the race. My father - not calmly - explained this wasn't a lot, it was our home and front yard. They said the race organizers said they could. I didn't witness the conversation between my father and the organizers :tongue_smilie: but the cars got moved, my father and brother stood guard the whole day to prevent further trespass, and the next year we had fences in place. We STILL had to wave people off for a couple of years after that.

 

It took a while to repair all the damage they did to our lawn. I was too young to know if my parents pursued the matter with the organizers.

[Heather in Neverland]

Okay....that's different. :001_huh:

 

For sure. Wow.

[Stayseeliz]

We've had to tell the neighbor kids a few times not to jump on our trampoline and they are teenagers! I also had a salesman sit on my front porch in my rocker and make phone calls. I was shocked.

[kewb]

People really do some of the strangest things.

[gardenmom5]

can you do some "seperatist" landscaping between the access road and your backyard? you know, beds with barberry hedges? or holly?

[MariannNOVA]

Who would even DO something like that? That's just freakin' weird!

 

 

Spend a summer in a resort town and your bar for freakin' weird will be SO raised!:D

[Element]

Oh, golly. I'd probably be just like that. I've lived in the city all my life and we live on about 1/10 of an acre. I've never even seen a creek. If I moved somewhere like where you live, I'd be so ecstatic you'd probably find me in your creek, stark naked and flapping my arms with glee.

 

:lol::lol: