19 People Share The Weirdest Things They’ve Caught Their Neighbors Doing
I’d like to think I’m a pretty normal neighbor, but I also know someone has probably watched me carry all the groceries inside in one trip and wondered why I was willing to die over a second walk to the car. You never really know how you’re coming across through somebody else’s blinds.
That’s the problem with having neighbors. You get little glimpses of their lives without any of the context. Sometimes there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. But not always. Sometimes you just need to wait to find out if someone on Nextdoor noticed too.
These people on Reddit shared the strangest things they’ve caught their neighbors doing, and several sound like good reasons to move your desk closer to a window. Working from home just got better.
1. Yabba, Dabba, And Do
Neighbor lady every night at 7 pm went on her front porch and yelled, ‘Yabba Dabba Do!’ at the top of her lungs. Turns out she was calling in her 3 cats Yabba, Dabba and Do. Absolutely made me smile every time I saw it, but people who didn’t know thought she was bonkers. 😊
2. The Lawnmower Finger Guns
Growing up my neighbor did something that always made me laugh. He had an old riding lawnmower that always backfired when he turned it off. He got used to the timing of the backfire and would do a double finger gun shooting motion at the exact time of the backfire. He passed away many years ago, but he was always a very good neighbor to us, and my father always spoke well of him. When my father passed away last year, the neighbor’s daughter came to pay her respects, and I told her that story, and she had no idea, it was really nice to give someone a new story of their father.
— u/bama83
3. The 3 A.M. Slug Hunt
I went out for a cigarette at 3 in the morning to find my 82 year old neighbor wandering around her yard with a flashlight. She had pink rubber gloves, kitchen tongs, and a full gallon-size freezer bag of what I thought was dirt. I asked if she was okay and why she was out so late. She joined me for a cigarette and proceeded to tell me all about her slug hunting adventure. That bag was full of slugs, lol.
4. A Safety Harness With One Small Problem
He was clearing his roof from snow. He even wore a harness and was secured by a climbing rope… that rope was held by his wife, who was standing on top of the roof and weighs like half his weight. I don’t know if that was intentional, but to me this looked like an ‘if you die, I want to die as well’ situation. When I talked to him about it a few days later, he basically said his wife insisted on him being secured, so he agreed to ‘this nonsense’ to ‘make her calm.’ Lovely couple, still married, still alive, lol.
5. Thursday Morning Salsa With The Vacuum
My neighbor used to practice salsa dancing with his vacuum cleaner every Thursday morning around 6 am. I could see him through the kitchen window doing full spins and dips with that poor Hoover, the guy had some serious moves, though. The dedication was actually pretty impressive; he never missed the Thursday sessions.
6. A Romantic Evening, Interrupted
A long time ago when I was in high school, I managed to take this girl I really liked up to this cabin in a little mountain lake town to stay with my family. We snuck out to my car one evening to hang out and get some privacy, overlooking this serene little nighttime mountain street, with people’s porches flickering. Very romantic. Suddenly the neighbor across the street, directly in front of us, slides the window open, sticks his bare ass out, and rips the most absurdly loud and disgusting fart that echoes down the entire street. Then he slams the window shut. We died laughing.
7. The Neighborhood Nursery Rhyme Whistler
I live in an apartment complex, and one of my neighbors whistles nursery rhymes while walking around late at night. Normally wheels on the bus. I can’t be sure, but I think he does it just slightly too slow so you can’t tell why it’s creepy, but it really is, especially at 2 am. I do know him, and he’s nice. I think he just babysits his grandkids a lot. I do keep an eye on the local news in case the only lead is that the suspect whistled nursery rhymes when leaving the scene. I would be straight on that [stuff].
8. Vacuuming The Driveway
I saw my neighbor literally vacuum his driveway, not blow leaves… every Saturday, and that is made of concrete.
9. An Argument With A Crow
Scream at a crow for cawing. Bro leaned out his 2nd-floor bedroom window to shriek at a crow. The crow gave zero [cares].
10. Yelling At The Radio
I was out in my yard, and the guy next door was in his garage, yelling at someone. It sounded like a fight where he was loud and the other person wasn’t. It took me a good few minutes to realize he was yelling at the radio. Which was on a Christian station.
— u/theyarnllama
11. The Daily Drive-By Scream
I live in a condo complex, and for one summer, every day around 4:30-4:35ish, a woman driving a small Honda civic would honk her horn furiously for about ten seconds or so, stop her vehicle, and then she would roll down her window and let out a primal scream before driving off at a normal pace. I always felt as though it was directed at one of my neighbors, but never knew which one.
12. Words Of Encouragement For The Plastic Plants
The wildest one I’ve heard was a guy on his balcony at like 2 am, in a full robe, watering obviously fake plastic plants while whispering ‘grow… grow…’ to them. Then he stopped, saluted the ficus, did two perfect marching steps, and went back inside like nothing happened. Harmless, but I think about it way more than I should lol.
13. The Backyard Action Movie
I used to think my neighbor was just a quiet, normal office guy until one night around 2:30 am I heard dramatic action-movie music blasting from outside, so I peeked through the window and saw him in a bathrobe in the backyard holding a leaf blower like it was some kind of heavy weapon, diving and rolling across the grass while attacking two plastic chairs he had clearly positioned as enemies, pausing occasionally to check his phone like he was reviewing choreography, then carefully repositioning one chair before dramatically collapsing to his knees as if betrayed in an epic finale. And the funniest part was that the leaf blower wasn’t even turned on, because he was making all the explosive sound effects himself, and the next morning he casually picked up his newspaper and waved at me like absolutely nothing had happened, leaving me to question whether I witnessed a low-budget action film rehearsal or a very committed mid-life crisis.
14. Mowing Through A Thunderstorm
Neighbor cutting his grass in the middle of a massive thunderstorm. Like, the biggest storm that season. Just out there. Push mowing his lawn.
15. The Invisible Spiderweb Dance
Saw a neighbor a couple houses down walking in their backyard while talking on their phone, and then they just flipped out and started flailing their arms and then spinning and running again. Saw them a few days later, and they said they had walked through a big spider web, and that was the reason for the episode.
16. The Backyard Orchestra Conductor
My friend told me this story: they had a nice neighbor fella growing up who would regularly get high on drugs and transform into an orchestra conductor on his back patio late at night. He’d get really into it, from the quiet lows to the dramatic highs amongst each pretend instrument section. Then, completely drenched in sweat, and once the song was completed, he’d take a bow and retreat indoors. She said it was the funniest thing to watch.
17. A Very Hands-On Approach To Dog Cleanup
One of our neighbors picks up after his dog weirdly. And by weird, I mean he picks up each forbidden tootsie roll WITH HIS FINGERS and puts it into the bag. He picks up the [poop] with his fingers. Yes. My husband saw him doing this one day while he was on a walk with our dog and was absolutely horrified. Someone must have said something to this man, because he now picks up the poop with gloves. Still with his fingers. But at least he uses a glove now.
18. Brushing Her Hair Over The Neighbor’s Driveway
Older neighbour across the street when I was in University would walk to the edge of the road, lean her head over her next door neighbour’s driveway, pull a hair brush out of her fanny pack and brush her hair onto the driveway.
19. The Front Lawn Shower
Lawn shower. Picture a hairy, round, bald man having a shower from the hose in his underwear on the front lawn. Idk if he thought no one was watching or not, but it was seen, and my eyes haven’t been the same since.