Sometimes, you have to be sarcastic with people to get your point across…
Yes, it can backfire from time to time, but it can be an effective method for easing the tension in some situations.
But it didn’t work too well when this guy tried it on a neighborhood kid.
Let’s see what’s going on here…
“Yesterday, I (45M) observed a neighborhood teenage boy trespassing on my property.
I decided to say something to him as this is not the first time and we have signs posted (PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESPASSING).
There are 2 signs posted, at both ends of a temporary dirt accessway used by landscaping and construction vehicles. I observed the teen jogging up the accessway from one house away, while I was walking my dogs.
They had enough of this kid.
My wife (42F) was also with me and she knows him better than I do. My wife got his attention by yelling, from 1 house away: “HEY [name]! You know you’re not supposed to be on there! What are you doing?” to which the boy shrugged and said he “didn’t know”.
I chimed in with “did you see the signs?”, to which he replied “yes”. I followed with “And you *CAN* you read, right?”, the boy confirmed he could and I continued with “then you should know you can’t be on there – that’s our yard, not public space – please don’t cut through our yard.”
The boy was out jogging, and with our message made clear my wife and I didn’t see the point in taking it any further, so we said goodbye and the boy jogged off. The boy’s mother (40’s F) was walking down the street toward us immediately after the boy jogged off.
My wife and the boy’s mother are neighborhood friends (a friend group of ladies that does social events like concerts, brunch, parties, etc. but that’s about it).
The boy’s mother asked my wife what happened because she either heard or saw us talking to her son.
Here’s the deal…
My wife explained the situation and the mother said she didn’t know the accessway wasn’t public property and doubled down saying she and her family used it all the time.
At this point, I had already said goodbye started walking back to the house with the dogs, as the ladies talked – and I needed to get the dogs home.
Around an hour later, I got a social media message from the father (40s M) asking me to call him. I called the father and he asked me what happened, so I relayed the story, as above, what happened, what was said, how it ended, etc.
Hmmm…
The father proceeded to tell me that I was a jerk to his son and I shouldn’t have said anything to the boy – instead I should have called the father and he would have “handled it”.
I reiterated my points to the father that the accessway on our property is temporary for construction access only, there are signs posted, our social media posts, the HOA letter, etc.
How the boy admitted to seeing them and ignored them anyway – and why I said what I said as a light-hearted way to say “stay off our property”.
The father came back with “..if you want to be a jerk to a kid, then that says a lot about who you are…”
This went back and forth a few times, me repeating my points and wondering why the father wanted to talk in the first place – and the father calling me a jerk for saying what I did to his son.
AITA for asking a teenage boy if he could read, after ignoring posted no trespassing signs?”
Check out what folks had to say on Reddit.
This person spoke up.
Another individual said he’s NTA.
This Reddit user shared their thoughts.
Another person said he’s NTA.
And this Reddit user spoke up.
Full disclosure: I might’ve said the same thing.
Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.