A woman has been left horrified after discovering her neighbours have been sneaking into her garden to use her pool when she isn’t home – and it took her years to catch them
This woman has learnt never to trust her neighbours.
Having a house with a built-in pool is a huge luxury not many of us have access to. Even having a garden big enough to fit a pop-up pool for the summer months is something not all of us have, and if you do, you’re probably the envy of your neighbours who don’t have their own.
But one woman and her family have learnt the hard way that having something your neighbours want can quickly make you the talk of the street – and can make your neighbours start acting suspiciously.
In a post on Reddit, the woman, from the US, explained she and her husband purchased a house with a pool a couple of years ago, and they would regularly have family and friends over to use it during the warmer months between May and October. Importantly, she noted that they have never invited any of their neighbours over to use the pool.
This year, unpredictable weather and family health issues mean the couple haven’t opened up their pool yet. The weather also means the couple haven’t taken their annual summer holiday to the “family lake house”, so they’ve been home all summer so far – meaning they’ve been able to uncover the neighbour’s secret.
The woman was left incredibly confused when she was approached by one of her neighbour’s children who asked when they were going to start using their pool this year. She was even more baffled when she told the little girl they probably wouldn’t open it at all, and the youngster began crying.
It was then that she chose to speak to another neighbour and discovered the truth – the family living to the right of her had been sneaking into her garden while she was away and had been using her pool without permission.
She wrote: “Apparently our neighbours on the right have been having a small family party at our pool every 4th of July when we are gone. They have always cleaned up really well afterwards and because we have scheduled pool maintenance and weekly yard service occasionally things are moved around in our yard and we never thought much about it.
“The neighbour on the left thought we had given the other neighbours permission to use our pool. We did give them permission to retrieve any balls or toys that ended up in our yard, but never permission to use our pool especially when we are not at home.”
The couple now plan on putting cameras up in the garden in the hopes of catching the neighbours in the act, but the woman isn’t sure whether it’s better to simply confront them now.
One commenter told her: “You need to put up ‘no trespassing’ signs, tell your neighbours they are not allowed on your property without explicit permission and change the lock to the gate. Now that you know, you are on notice and could be held liable if they are injured visiting your pool.”
Another added: “That’s a huge liability for you if ever anything bad happened. I think you really need to have a talk with the neighbours as well as move forward with the cameras and such you plan to do.”
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