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Woman Outraged After Neighbor Refuses To Remove Rose Garden To Accommodate Her Allergies

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Allergies are the bane of many people’s existence.

They seem to be so much more prominent these days.

People can be allergic to the strangest things.

But how much of that is other people’s problem?

Case in point…

Redditor throwaway5373834 wanted to discuss her experience and get some feedback. So naturally, she came to visit the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit.

She asked:

“AITA for threatening to call the cops on my neighbor after I found out she was cutting my roses?”

The Original Poster (OP) explained:

“So I (25 F[emale]) have lived in my house my entire life.”

“My parents moved and gave it to me when I turned 21.”

“Ever since I was born, we have had roses in our yard.”

“Well I recently got a new neighbor (31 F) and she is apparently allergic to my roses.”

“She lives right next door and won’t stop complaining about my roses.”

“I don’t want to get rid of them.”

“I think she should’ve considered that I had plants when she first went to buy the house.”

‘It’s not like it was the cheapest option or anything, I live in a pretty expensive neighborhood.”

“A few days ago I came home from work and found pieces of my rose bush on the ground.”

“At first I thought nothing of it, but it kept happening.”

“I decided to get a camera in my front yard so I would know what was going on.”

“I came home yesterday and checked the cameras, and there she is.”

“Clear as day you could see my neighbor (wearing some mask) chopping away at my bushes.”

“I was obviously outraged when I saw the footage and went up to her door and threatened to call the police if I saw her do it again.”

“She called me selfish and rude, that I should have taken the roses out because she was allergic.”

“I’m not getting rid of my roses.”

“It’s not my fault she’s allergic and chose to buy a house next to someone who grows roses.”

“She says that she could get hurt, but I don’t think it’s my problem.”

“AITA?”

Redditors shared their thoughts on this matter and weighed some options to the question AITA:

  • NTA – Not The A**hole
  • YTA – You’re The A**hole
  • NAH – No A**holes Here
  • ESH – Everyone Sucks Here

Many Redditors declared OP was NOT the A**hole.

“NTA. You need to call the police regardless and show them the video because she’s not going to stop.” ~ OnionsAreForThePoor

“This! NTA. Who knows what she will do next.”

“She might poison the plants so they die.”  ~ Janetaz18

“She WILLINGLY with FULL CONSCIOUSNESS bought a house next door to a garden with roses.”

“That she could see with her own eyeballs before closing on the house!”

“File a police report, hire a lawyer.”

“Be relentless towards this woman, do not give an inch. Ever.”

“Also, never ever ever speak or communicate with her again.”

“Ignore her entirely, let your lawyer and the police communicate with her.”

“Make sure you’re always visible on your cameras anytime she approaches you, increase the coverage of your cameras so that you have evidence if she falsely accuses you of anything.”

“I’m wondering if she’s trying to get you to move out?”

“Sell her your house? Or if she’s just bonkers??”

Whatever the reason, take steps and protect yourself.” ~ No_Performance8733

“How do you know if you are allergic to Roses?”

“One of the best ways to know if you are allergic to roses is through taking note of how you come into contact with them.”

“If you are prone to breathing allergies and roses are around, you could be allergic to the pollen, even though it is not airborne.”

“So the best thing to do is to keep a healthy distance.”

“Yeah, she’s not allergic if she can get close enough to destroy them. NTA.”  ~ kimtpring

“Definitely report her to the police so you can establish a paper trail and pattern of her behavior.”

“Her actions cross so many lines.”

“Trespassing is bad enough, but I can’t imagine the nerve of her to just go at someone else’s private property like that.”

“Please report her.”

“I’d also hate for her to escalate things in the meantime and destroy them all before any action is taken against her.” ~ PintSizedKitsune

“NTA. Call the police and make a complaint.”

“I have never heard of an airborne rose allergy.”

“Roses don’t release pollen into the air, and are considered more or less hypoallergenic for most people.”

“People who handle rose plants very frequently can develop contact dermatitis.”

“But if this is what the neighbor has, she should not be touching the roses.”

“Years ago one of the other names for hay fever was rose fever, if it occurred in the spring.”

“But it’s not caused by roses, it’s a reaction to whatever tree or grass pollen is in the air at that time.” ~ Paevatar

“I’m allergic to almost every flower and plant out there.”

“Roses included. I wear a very special mask because my allergies are mine to take care of.”

“They are not somebody else’s responsibility.”

“They are my responsibility. NTA.”

“OP most definitely needs to press charges.” ~ Beneficial_Bat_5656

“A few of my neighbors grow jasmine, which sets off my allergies.”

“I take an antihistamine.”

“And I daydream about somehow becoming rich enough to buy all the houses in my street, and making the gardens allergy friendly (specific to me, in this fantasy scenario I don’t care about anyone else’s allergies).”

“But I don’t go into their yards and rip the jasmine out.” ~ Kalamac

“She’s probably got issues/sensitivities with common perfume ingredients and assumes it extends to, or comes from, the flower(s) that are the scent.”

“Consequently, she assumes that roses are the allergen.”

“NTA to OP though.” ~ bloodfeier

“Someone I know is allergic to mimosas and guess what, before buying a house she did her homework and checked if the enemy was lurking around.”

“The new neighbor could see that there were roses close to her prospective house and yet decided to live here.”

“And anyway, a neighborhood with gardens it is likely to have roses.”

“Is she going to play the mad gardener and wreak havoc in all her neighbors gardens?

“Big NTA.”

“And like everyone said, involve the authorities because she won’t stop here.” ~ Vistemboir

“If the new neighbor feels self entitled enough, she might not have bothered to truly check to see what plants are growing in the yards of her new neighbors.”

“My sister had that happen to her.”

“Someone moved into the house next door to her who has hideous allergies to most airborne pollens.”

“When my sister went to introduce herself to the person who was buying the house next door to her they struck up a conversation in which the person who was thinking of buying the house mentioned her allergies.”

“And my sister asked her what she does for them because she has five lilac bushes in her yard that she will not get rid of.”

“The potential new neighbor insisted oh no if I buy the house you have to get rid of them.”

“My sister, a registered nurse looked her in the eye and laughed and said no!”

“If anything had happened to her lilac bushes my sister would have been the first one to be filing legal complaints.”

“OP You Are NTA!! File complaints! Trespassing!”

“Destruction of private property!”

“Vandalism of property!” ~ Betrayed_Orphan

“NTA, she’s messing with your property.”

“I’m personally an indoor person myself so if I was your neighbor I would just stay indoors.”

“I believe calling the police was the right call instead of taking actions into your own hands.” ~ Koyomi-Rose

“NTA. I am highly sensitive to fresh roses, fragrant flowers in general.”

“5 minutes In a room with roses and my eyes start itching.”

“Ten minutes and my nose will be running, 20 minutes I have a massive headache.”

“Having said all that, I’m ok if the flowers are outdoors.”

“The air helps dissipate the scent and I usually need to be pretty close to them outside for my allergies to kick in.”

“I also know enough to distance myself if I feel symptoms starting and I take my allergy pill daily.”

“With my allergies I would have noticed the roses immediately and never have bought the house.”

“The neighbor is crazy, report her.” ~ MNGal8027

“I don’t know I’d say NTA, she decided to chop up your roses (your property) with the reasoning of allergies.”

“There’s antihistamines for that, and if it’s really that bad, she should have tried talking to you about it before slicing ’em up.”

“She saw em when she bought the house, why should you have to change which plants you grow on your property?”

“That’s sucks, hopefully you’ve still got some that’ll grow back.”  ~ DaSpicyGinge

“NTA. That’s trespassing and destruction of property.”

“Rose bushes are expensive, especially mature ones.”

“You were right to threaten police action.”

“And if she does it again you should follow through.”  ~ that-1-chick-u-know

OP came back with a few deets…

“Edit: So I called the cops last night, and I am going to be pressing charges for trespassing and destruction of private property.”

“I also asked her why she didn’t just use some kind of anti allergen and she said she ‘couldn’t trust doctors with her diagnosis’ whatever that means.”

Well OP, Reddit hears you.

Your property, your rules.

Trespassing is never ok.

It sounds like you have the situation under control.

Good luck.