There are few things more vexing than annoying neighbors. For one Redditor, “annoying” went to a whole other level–their neighbors were actually stealing from their mom’s garden.
So they took things into their own hands and starting calling out the thieving neighbors. But in the end, they weren’t quite sure they’d handled it correctly, so they went to the AITA (Am I The A**hole) subReddit to get some perspective.
The Original Poster (OP), who goes by the name winmdoze on the site, asked:
“AITA for making a punny “wall of shame” for people who stole from my mom’s garden?”
They explained:
“My mom is really into gardening and sometimes people have come by and stole potted plants, yard statuettes, and even dug whole plant bulbs with plants out of the ground. Or cut all the roses off her bushes because they were too cheap to buy from the florist I guess.”
“Anyway my dash cam of my car which I park in the driveway near the garden bed caught most all of them close up and as a way to help my mom not have her plants stolen I printed all their pictures out and made a poster that said”
“‘Oh Hay there! Don’t be a Daffy-dil and steal, or else you might end up doing hard Thyme! We hope Thistle be a lesson to Yew!”
“And I put the pictures of everyone stealing from the garden around the border. Also gave each person a funny fake name : ‘mr potato head’ ‘dill-a-tante’ ‘pothead’ ‘prick’ ‘Succ-er’ ‘i peony in my pants’ ‘frond-less’ ‘dirt-bag’ ‘in-fertile’ and ‘root boy'”
“I thought it was funny and cutesy, like how can you be offended with dumb plant puns… My mom thought it was hilarious and wanted me to hang it up because she was sick of seeing stuff stolen”
“But I got a couple complains, one neighbor said I needed to take it down because I had a picture of his son a minor who did something dumb yes but was just trying to bring his sick girlfriend flowers. And that is was disproportionate and rude to publicly shame him.”
“I told him that it wasn’t that big of a deal and he told me that I was being petty. I called his kid a little Birch which pissed him off and honestly might of been petty.”
“Another guy came to the house and returned a cutting his wife apparently took to propogate thinking it would be no big deal… But yeah it damaged the plant because she cut like a quarter off. And he asked if we’d take down the sign because she was on the board of directors or something from the town and whatever.”
“My mom had answered the door and told him to make like a bee and buzz off.”
“Anyway I guess they both know each other and now both these familys are annoyed.”
“AITA for making a petty sign about people stealing from my mom’s garden? Hoping to get them to stop?”
OP’s fellow Redditors were then asked to judge who was in the wrong in this situation based on the following categories:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
- NAH – No A**holes Here
Perhaps unsurprisingly, people loved OP’s puns but didn’t love the neighborhood theft ring laying waste to their mom’s garden.
“NTA. These people STOLE. That’s a CRIME. And instead of pressing charges or whatever you have created something TRULY DELIGHTFUL. (I wish I were half as clever as you because I’d come up with a pun of my own.)”
“Not only are you not an asshole, you’re also my hero.” —the_spacemambo
“…’If you don’t want your photo displayed, refrain from stealing the plants. If don’t want your photos displayed but you would like to continue stealing the plants, we can press charges in place of displaying your photo. The choice is yours.'”
“NTA !!!” —GhoeAguey
“NTA”
“You should let them know that this is a warning, next time you’ll be calling the police and reporting the theft. If they think a picture of them stealing looks bad, just imagine how criminal charges will look.”
“Be careful you don’t offer to NOT go to the cops in exchange for something. That’s blackmail.” —DLS3141
“This could have been a teaching moment for the boy who wanted to give his girlfriend flowers…. knock on the door, introduce yourself as a neighbor, and ASK please may I have some flowers for my girlfriend who’s feeling sick. I’ll bet the mom would have said ‘yes’ and cut according to what was best for the plants. He’s a minor, so maybe take his picture down, anyway.”
“For his father, though, it was disproportionately thoughtless that he didn’t teach his son to apologize for what he did, so they can be good neighbors going forward. Maybe replace the photo with a picture of a tree and an apple on the ground and caption it ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’ with no names. They’ll know.”
“For the grown-ass woman who hacked off a huge chunk of a plant to propagate it for herself with no regard for the mangled mess she left behind, the right thing to do would have been to come, herself, to the scene of the crime, apologize for what she did, and offer to pay to replace the plant.”
“To go to a plant nursery and spend the money she was trying to save, to buy a mature specimen. And really, if I was involved with anything that came with a board of directors, I would want to know if one was a rude, entitled ass who had to send her husband to argue on her behalf, and, also, not apologize. Herself.”
“NTA, Just sayin’.”
“ETA: Maybe look into motion activated water sprinkler. Or an electrified fence.” —OldLaughingLady
“NTA and this is hilarious.” —Here_for_tea
“NTA. If they don’t like it, they can get clover it.” —HeyAnnieAreYouOk
Let this be a lesson to us all: If you do the crime, you do the thyme!