I shut off the pressure washer. “Then she should stop staring at my garage.”
He gave a little smirk, trying to play it off as guy talk. “I’m just saying, if you kept it out back, there wouldn’t be all this drama.”
“If your mom minded her own business, there wouldn’t be all this drama either.”
His smirk faded. “She runs the neighborhood.”
“Good for her,” I said. “But she doesn’t run this property.”
A few days later, a homemade violation notice was taped to my garage, claiming I had seventy-two hours to hide the ATV or she would initiate towing. That was the line. I walked straight to her house, found her on the sidewalk with her friends, and held up the paper.
“You don’t get to threaten towing on property you don’t control,” I told her.
“It is not a threat. It’s the next step for non-compliance,” she countered.
I kept my voice dead even. “Listen carefully. My property is not in your HOA. If you or anyone acting for you touches my ATV, I will report it stolen.”
Her son called out from their garage, “Over a tow? Relax.”
I turned directly to him. “If you touch it, you’re going to get arrested.”
He actually laughed in my face. “You’re okay, bro.”
After that direct warning, strange things started happening. The side gate was left unlatched. The ATV cover was shifted. A gas can was moved.
Could it have been innocent? Maybe once. Repeatedly? No.