Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
Recently, a longstanding feud over parking spaces between neighbors in Cheras has resulted in the entire neighborhood receiving parking tickets by the city council, totaling over RM30,000 in arrears.
Everyone should do their best to get along with their neighbours, but sometimes, you will wind up with neighbours from hell. If you had no recourse to legal or civic remedies, what can you do?
Here’s a collection of stories showcasing how some Malaysians have taken “love thy neighbor” to the next level, using creatively mischievous tactics to teach their neighbors a lesson:
“Whose parking space is it anyway?”
I live across the street from one of the local parks. This means that there is very little parking available because all the kids and families come here to exercise and use the BBQ pits and playground.
My neighbour is very passive-aggressive about people parking in front of her house. She leaves handwritten notes underneath their wipers reminding them they aren’t allowed to park in front of her house.
“That is my legal parking spot! NOT YOURS!” the note would read.
One day she came banging on my front door, demanding that my visiting mother move her car immediately, otherwise her car would get towed! “If you don’t move it now, I’ll call the tow truck myself!” she shouted.
My mother moved her car to avoid an incident, but the whole experience left a sour taste in my mouth. After that, I started sprinkling fresh canned tuna in her front garden when she wasn’t at home.
Now, she regularly has a group of cats at her front gates, in her garden, and at her front door sniffing for food!
The rude neighbour who left his rubbish exposed.
I had a selfish neighbour who used to leave their garbage out in plastic bags by the roadside instead of putting it in the proper rubbish bin.
For a while, there was garbage strewn all over the neighbourhood. They were basically inviting every stray animal in the area to come and have a feast.
If the strays didn’t spread the trash, the wind sometimes picked it up and blew it into our gardens and it was so bad that there were drains getting clogged by the mess.
When we approached our neighbor and asked him politely to put his garbage in the bin, he politely told us, “Go screw yourselves.”
He continued leaving his garbage lying around after a few days, the entire street looked apocalyptic.
I don’t know who coordinated the effort, but suddenly, there were police, fire department, health inspectors in our street, going door to door, interviewing people, and asking questions.
Everyone pointed to that one guy. “Let’s see you talk your way out of this one,” I thought to myself as they knocked on his door.
I heard that he had to pay a very hefty saman for all the trouble he caused, and he moved out a few months later.
The BMW owner who yelled at other people’s kids.
My friend, Puan Zaiton had this to say about her anti-social neighbour from 20 years ago: “He would yell at my children when they were just playing in our front garden in the evenings or on weekends.”
“He even complained about the swing in our garden because the branch came from a tree in his garden!” She shook her head.
She told me that he forced them to take the swing down, disappointing her children, so she waited for the perfect moment.
“He liked to park his car under the tree for shade,” she said, “so when he went away for a few days on business, I threw breadcrumbs and birdseed into the tree and onto his car.”
When he came home, his car was absolutely covered in bird poop, which damaged the paint. He had to repaint his BMW and was without it for a week.
“The swing might be gone, but at least I got the last laugh,” she added with a grin.
The stubborn neighbors with smelly dog poop.
My neighbour had three dogs, and those dogs had the run of the garden and would just do their business there. Naturally, in the heat that would start to stink very quickly!
We tried talking to them for weeks, but they refused to do anything about it. So I waited, and one day it happened: it rained so bad that there were floods in parts of KL and Chow Kit! “Perfect timing,” I thought.
When the rains began to die down, I took some beef stock powder and hurled handfuls of it all over their front yard and driveway. The dogs went crazy, running around trying to find the meat, and of course, got completely muddy, sticky, and stinky.
My neighbours across the road later told me they could hear the screaming as the filthy dogs ran into the house and created a terrible mess. “Serves them right!” I laughed.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
These stories, while amusing, offer important lessons about dealing with difficult neighbours. Patience, communication, and finding constructive ways to address grievances are far more effective in the long run than resorting to petty or mischievous tactics. Such actions can escalate conflicts and damage relationships beyond repair.
While these tales highlight creative problem-solving, they’re not examples to emulate. Instead, they serve as cautionary tales to remind us to seek peaceful resolutions and avoid stooping to behavior that could make matters worse for everyone involved.
Tolerance and mutual respect are key to fostering harmonious relationships in any community. By being respectful of others, we create an environment where everyone feels valued and understood.
Hopefully, we get good neighbours we can get along with and form friendships to build that true Malaysian neighbourhood spirit of support and care that makes everything easier.
Do you have a personal story about a neighbor from hell?
Submit your story to hello@inreallife.my and you may be featured on In Real Life Malaysia.
Read also: How This Man Became Malaysia’s Most Notorious Enemy in ONE Day
How This Man Became Malaysia’s Most Notorious Enemy in ONE Day
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