I never thought lending my BBQ to a neighbor would turn into a viral drama, but here we are. When Claire, the woman next door, asked to use my grill while my family was away, I said yes without hesitation. Big mistake.
We came home to a backyard that looked like a war zone. Beer bottles, trampled plants, and food smeared everywhere. Claire’s response? A casual, “Oh, teens will be teens!” No apology, no offer to clean up. Just entitlement.
Fed up, I handed her a note with three simple rules. The next day, she retaliated with her own list—demands like “no spicy food” and “mow my lawn too.” The audacity! Then, my daughter found videos of Claire’s son, Adam, laughing about the mess he’d made in our yard.
I posted the evidence online, and the internet rallied behind me. A contractor even donated a fence to keep Claire out. When she realized the backlash was real, she finally backed down. Adam, humiliated at school, begged me to take the videos down. Claire, cigarette in hand, muttered, “You win.”
The moral? Never underestimate the power of public shaming—or a good fence.
