Last year, there was a tenant in the house next door to me that left their attic light on CONSTANTLY! Their house, their rules, right? Well…there wouldn’t be a problem if there was a shade or something on the window, but they had a mega-watt bulb in there and it was shining DIRECTLY INTO MY WINDOW!!!!
The first time I mentioned it to them, the guy said “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”, so I pretty much followed him up the sidewalk and when he got to where he could see that side of my house, I told him to turn around and look up. There was a “spotlight” on my house!!!! I swear, I was able to take a shower at midnight without turning the bathroom light on! His response was “Oh.” and walked into his house. The light was turned off 10 minutes later.
Two days later, the light was back on. Three weeks after that, I left for vacation and when I came back, the light was STILL on!!! So, just this one time, it was on for 8 weeks non-stop! I pointed it out again. Nothing. The light stayed on.
I tried one more time after that, even suggested that if they didn’t want to turn the damn thing off, at least get a blind to cover the window. Didn’t do a thing. I even wrote to his landlord. Nothing. So…I took action.
I have a very bright flashlight. I turned it on and positioned it in my window so that it was shining directly into their kitchen (that window had blinds, but they didn’t close them all the way). My thought was to see how long it would take them to figure out how annoying having a light shining on them was, get the hint and turn the attic light off.
Well, an hour after I turned that light on, there was a knock at my door. It was the POLICE!!! These assholes called the police about a fucking LIGHT!!
The conversation went something like this:
Me: Yes, officers, what’s up?
Cop 1: Do you know why we’re here?
Me: I don’t know. Could it be because I’m trying to be a good neighbor by helping the people next door light their kitchen?
Cop 2 (to cop 1): You were right!!!!
When they were walking towards my house, they noticed the huge spotlight on my house and figured that had something to do with it.
I told them that I couldn’t believe they had to come out for something that ridiculous and explained the entire situation…how I had that light shining on me for 2 years and finally had enough. They then asked me if I would turn off my light if they talked to the neighbors and told them that they needed to either cover the window or keep the light off unless the room was in use. I agreed and immediately went to turn my light off.
About 15 minutes later, the neighbor was putting a giant piece of cardboard over the window. I couldn’t believe that they would rather live with cardboard covering the window rather than simply turning the light off!
The cops came back to me and asked if that was OK. I said that was all that was needed. The neighbors claimed they didn’t know that the light was shining into my house! I called bullshit and told the cops that I had mentioned it to them several times.
So…the pettiest thing I ever did to get even with a neighbor was to assault them with light!