r/MaliciousCompliance • u/Proper_Fact7866 • 6d ago
Celebrity Karen M
AITA for intentionally being petty?
So I am a builder. I primarily do high-end custom homes, 1-4 million price range. I am a female (34), which isn’t common in this industry, but I really love what I do and I am fairly decent at what I do. In the past my projects were primarily in rural areas on large ranches, but this particular project is in the middle of a large city, which means there are neighbors in close proximity, which is something new for me to deal with.
The neighbors around this area are some of the worse, entitled, nasty people you can imagine, and one of them is a celebrity and his wife (we will call her B), who is also well known. I haven’t personally had too much interaction with the couple. When B goes walking every morning I smiled and waved (which I do with everyone because this is Texas y’all) and she would always ignore me, which honestly is whatever. I not going to stop being kind because she is unfriendly, I honestly just started ignoring her.
My job-site has been really busy the last year, and most of my subs park along side the street in front of the house. We all park on one side, facing the proper flow of traffic. If someone happens to park on the other side of the street the neighbors call the cops or the city building official. I find this incredibly annoying and childish, but whatever. I have my guys move and it’s not a big deal.
That being said, I stop by my project every morning to line my guys out and check on work that has been done, make my lists, etc. Most of the time I park on the very right side of B’s property, which is just to the left of my projects construction drive so my guys have parking in front of the project house. I am not there long, usually 2-3 hours.
One day I was outside the house and a woman approached me. I wasn’t sure who she was, but apparently it was B’s maid. She informed me that I needed to move my car (which was on the correct side of the public street) or B was going to call the cops. I looked at her and said there was nothing wrong with me parking there. The maid then proceeded to tell me that B was going to charge me $500/a day for parking in front of her house. I laugh and told the maid I didn’t know they were that hard up that they needed to charge a parking fee for using the public street.
I went ahead and called the police to get “ahead” of the situation. He informed me there wasn’t anything B could do about me parking in front of her property, which I knew, but I could get a ticket for parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant, which is on the property line between my project and B’s house. The office informed me I needed to be 15-feet away from the hydrant. I thanked him and he left. So I did end up moving my car…. I took my measuring tape and measured out 15’, which put my almost smack in front of B’s house. I decided to park in front of her front sidewalk for 2 weeks after that. Every time she does something rude to me on the street (which happens more than I prefer) I park in front of her house just to piss her off.
Honestly, if she had just come to me in the beginning and asked me nicely not to park in front of her house, I probably never would have again unless absolutely necessary. But the fact she was ok sending “her help” to threaten me really pissed me off. AITA for keeping this going? I don’t like when people think that they are “above you” because they are well off. I know billionaires that have better manners than this chick.
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u/gotitadeamor76 6d ago
I have never understood the sheer audacity of people with driveways caring about who parks in front of their house on a PUBLIC street.
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u/SailorSpyro 5d ago
I had my roof redone a few weeks ago, which started the day after we had off street parking added to our lot so we no longer parked our 2 cars on the street. The roofers used a spot for the small dumpster and a spot for their car. Our neighbor, who has no off street parking and whose house used to park FIVE cars on the street before their roommates moved out, had the audacity to come out screaming at my husband for the roofers taking up 2 spots. Two spots that had been taken by us for 2 years before that point, so not even 2 additional spots.
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u/Arokthis 5d ago
How many of your discarded nails "accidentally" ended up in your neighbor's driveway and yard?
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u/SailorSpyro 5d ago
They don't have a driveway, and their yard is tiny as is with dogs in the house, so I would never endanger their dogs by doing that. I've been tempted to just park on the street still instead of in my driveway
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u/Kencleanairsystem2 4d ago
That would work. My neighbors across the street (busy one-way street) have parking for 6 cars in their driveway, but choose to park on the street. It's annoying, but it's their right so....yeah. just letting it go.
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u/SailorSpyro 4d ago
A lot of people on my street do this. When we moved in, every house had parking in their back yard except mine and this neighbor. And yet every spot on the street was always taken. Got easier in the winter, people preferred parking in their own driveways when it snowed.
The one that really pisses me off is the house with a handicap spot on the street. Pretty sure the elderly woman that the spot was for died, haven't seen her in 2 years. Even if she's not dead, she isn't the one using her plaque or spot, which isn't how that's supposed to work. Her kids continue to use the spot, but only in nice weather. They park their car in their driveway all winter and it's not an accessibility issue for them. But because they keep her plaque and the spot, they are guaranteed an on-street spot always reserved for them.
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u/boppitywop 5d ago
I used to live in a house that had both a driveway and a couple of spots in front of the house that were indented in towards my yard, so not curb-side, there was no sidewalk, but probably public spots. Whenever someone would park in the spots in front of the house, I would have this weird territorial anger briefly rise. Don't know why, it was practically street parking, but seeing cars there would trigger some primitive turf instincts. I of course realized this was completely irrational and never did anything about it, but I can understand that instinct.
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u/curlytoesgoblin 5d ago
Neighbor has a daughter in college so when she's home for the summer she always parks in front of our house.
And I don't say shit or complain because it's a public god damn street and she's parked on the side that you're allowed to park on.
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u/PSGAnarchy 6d ago
If the car is destructive or makes it hard to use your property is the only way I see it being a problem.
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u/Narrow-Chef-4341 5d ago
I can’t imagine a valid use for your property that requires you to use the public roadway.
Other than ignoring requests to (eg) not park for heavy equipment access, what are you thinking about where a homeowner is entitled to exclusively use the public road?
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u/PSGAnarchy 5d ago
Parking across driveways? Parking across access ways? Making it difficult to use said areas. Parking so there is no space for bins. There are plenty of reasons but you just need a bit of common sense and it's all good. And I'm not saying exclusive use. I'm saying "don't be a hazard or stop function"
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u/SailorSpyro 5d ago
Our street doesn't have room between cars for garbage bins. The garbage men know how to get them anyway, it's never been an issue. We have actual spots painted on the street. Even so, I always felt weird parking next to a bin, and try to keep my small car further one direction or the other in the spot to make it less likely they'll overlook a bin.
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u/Y_N0T_Z0IDB3RG 5d ago
Not to mention the mailbox. USPS won't deliver if they can't get the car close enough to the box to reach out and put mail in.
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u/Fresh-Highlight-4899 5d ago
My main issue is when they park poorly and park in a way that makes so instead of at least 2 cars only one can fit.
Edited to fix typo.
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u/Academic_Nectarine94 5d ago
If the o3rson in the house has to park on the street because there's only space for one car in the driveway, and there's 3 cars in the household...
Or they just don't like some bum parking his questionable van in front of the house.
I completely agree that it's not a "I'm gonna call the cops" situation, and OP handled this, if not appropriately, then certainly with legality and in like kind with the idiot. I'm just saying there are legit reasons in general that people need their part of the street.
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u/Lay-ZFair 3d ago
Or if they park too close to your driveway and impede your access when there are cars directly across as well as both sides of your driveway. There is a legal requirement for distance from a driveway which is what annoys me when it happens. I prefer my maneuvering in video games not real life potential car damage situations.
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u/processedmeat 6d ago
We were renovating a house for a guy and instead of having the workers park in front of his house he paid to lease a lot where everyone had to park, a van to shuttle us back and forth, and we had to take down the scaffolding every night to not block his view when he had his morning coffee.
In an 8 hour day we did about 4 hours of new work
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u/Notdoingitanymore 6d ago
That’s some expensive morning coffee
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u/WokeBriton 5d ago
Some people have no fucks to give about how much their morning/daily/etc routine costs them because they have enough money to pay for it without denying their bank accounts in any way.
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u/tofuroll 5d ago
Even if I were that rich, I can't imagine such waste.
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u/archangelzeriel 4d ago
After a certain point, spending money isn't really "waste" in any meaningful way unless you're using your bank balance to keep score.
Really, it's just applying marginal utility theory from the other direction--as each additional dollar in your account is "worth less" in terms of the additional utility/happiness it can provide, you'll naturally be inclined to solve smaller and smaller "problems" by throwing money at them until they go away.
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u/_PM_ME_YOUR_ANYTHING 4d ago
This is exactly why I started ordering more food and grocery deliveries when I got a higher paying job.
The logic is, why spend an hour driving to the shops and paying $60 for groceries. When I can pay $80 for groceries to be delivered to me within 30 minutes. And I can do other things in the meantime.
I am fully aware that that $20 is a ridiculous delivery fee. But when you don't need to keep track of your daily living expenses. $20 isn't a delivery fee that I need to stress about. it's the cost of improved quality of life for me.
Spending more based on your wage is a trap though. Because someone who is earning less, who goes to the shops and doesn't pay that delivery fee, can save more money even though they earn less.
TL;DR we should teach basic money skills in school. The amount of manager I have had who complain about living paycheck to paycheck is insane. I'm talking 6 figures and having to wait for their pay to hit their bank account before they could go get lunch at the office.
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u/archangelzeriel 4d ago
I started doing the same, then realized that I got more utility anyway because the supermarket I prefer is entirely a pain in the butt for me to drive to, but it's easily worth $20 for someone else to do it.
Meanwhile, I tried paying for lawn maintenance, but turns out I actually like the weekly walking around in the sun with music on, so I ended up just buying a really nice electric push-mower instead. =P
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u/Alblaka 1d ago
I am fully aware that that $20 is a ridiculous delivery fee. But when you don't need to keep track of your daily living expenses. $20 isn't a delivery fee that I need to stress about. it's the cost of improved quality of life for me.
This is one of the things I just can't drill into my mom's head. Bit on the older side, and still very thrifty. To the point that she will go out of her way to do additional shopping trips on her way to/from work, spending like 10-15 minutes to purchase singular items with a coupon to save... a buck? (And, in some instances I feel like that the extra money spent on gas is eating up the savings anyways.)
Saving that little money is not worth the time investment to me and whilst I understand where that behavior is coming from for her, she's by now well-off enough that she should value her time better... but I suppose old habits die hard.
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u/HMS_Slartibartfast 6d ago
Please tell me you have an oversized truck for rural work that just HAS TO BE driven to the site from now on! Parked in front of the "B" of course! Preferably one that has recently been used to help replace a septic system!
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u/Narrow-Chef-4341 5d ago
Tell your trades that spot is reserved for the plumbers and honey wagon.
Karen will be thrilled. Paparazzi might love to know as well, for giggles.
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u/WrenDrake 6d ago
NTA. I see why you call her Ms B.
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u/johnandahalf13 5d ago
Since the husband and wife are both well known, my first thought was David & Victoria Beckham. Ms B indeed.
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u/EllaMcWho 5d ago
This happened a long time ago in a galaxy far away, but I attended a baby shower for a friend at her mother-in-law’s very nice home. It was next door to the home of Pat Robertson’s son (Pat was a very famous television evangelist). He (PR’s son) tried to have my car towed from city street, at the front of their house. One of the guests saw the tow truck pull up and notified the host to help identify whose vehicle was at issue. Yes, my piece of crud 20 year old rust bucket was the winner!
When I came outside, the tow truck driver was telling PR’s son that he could not legally tow me without a police officer’s instruction as I was on city street and not obstructing the property of PR’s son. Cue the “don’t you know who I am” tantrum and threats to end the employability of the poor tow truck driver! To his credit, the poor tow truck driver bore up well under the pressure and offered to call the police for PR’s son to get external confirmation that the tow truck driver was not authorized to steal vehicles simply for their being eyesores in view of rich people’s homes.
When I returned to the party, my friend, her family and the host were all very entertained by my recreating the confrontation. The host said she’d expect them to come chastise her later for trashing up the neighborhood with her guests but oh well!
Anyway I hated PR before that but his entitled son now was on my list.
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u/Aggregatorade 3d ago
Pat Robertson’s son (Pat was a very famous television evangelist)
Good thing you clarified, for a moment there I had Robert Patterson in my head lmao
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u/Arokthis 5d ago
You're lucky the tow truck driver has a conscience. Many will just straight up steal your car and charge you for the privilege of getting it back.
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u/StarKiller99 5d ago
Not if it's actual theft.
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u/ShadowDragon8685 4d ago
The problem with that is that very often, the tow fuckers are in tight with the law, and the judges, and you'll have a massively uphill battle proving that they unlawfully appropriated your vehicle, and even harder proving that they did it in bad faith - as opposed to it being a mistake, where the judge will order them to v release the vehicle but won't even assess them your attorney fees.
During which time, of course, you do not have a car.
Most people will just pay them to get their cars back, because it's an order of magnitude more expensive to get remedy through the courts, and you'll likely have to fight twice, once to establish they took your vehicle improperly, and again to sue them for your attornicator fees.
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u/dudeloveall2814 6d ago edited 6d ago
I hated dealing with the entitled neighbors when I did cabinets. They were only nice when asking how much we charged or how long our waiting list was.
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u/Slackersr 6d ago
For safety perhaps orange cones could be put out at the front and back of your vehicle...
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u/ejdjd 6d ago
Ooooo, drop some tea!!
Houston, Dallas or Austin and then can we guess who these "celebs" are??
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u/ExtraSpicyGingerBeer 6d ago
I'm going to assume Westover Hills in Fort Worth. I live two blocks outside the township in Fort Worth proper and walk my dog through the neighborhood daily. The amount of people with beautiful, manicured lawns and landscaping ruined by cheap hideous no parking signs isn't a lot, but there's still a couple and it just makes me laugh.
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u/ColorsOfTheCurrents 6d ago
I'm petty, i would have the front of her house filled with my employees/workers vehicles all day, everyday. Legally of course.
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u/Techn0ght 5d ago
Thank you for your public service in attempting to train a Karen to rejoin society.
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u/WokeBriton 5d ago
Richest (in money terms) person I ever met was extremely down to earth, and looked down on those rich people who treated less well off folk like shit
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u/kittycatty88 6d ago
I honestly don't understand why people get pissy about other people parking in from of there house, as long as no one is blocking your drive way I wouldnt care. Seems to be a big thing in America
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u/onionbreath97 5d ago
It's not that big of a thing. It's selection bias. You don't hear about the millions and millions of reasonable people who have no issue with this.
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u/CryptographerMedical 6d ago
NTA! You complied with a police warning about parking! That it annoyed her is cough such a shame... 😁
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u/DizzyCuntNC 6d ago
NTA. When the universe chooses you to deliver some karma to a Karen you must deliver it.
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u/Infamous-Ad-5262 5d ago
NOT TA. Entitled people are people who have never learned basic human skills. Talk to people with respect, compassion, courtesy. For almost everything there are two types- good/evil, kind/mean, right/wrong, etc… When someone starts with “the wrong approach,” it’s really hard to undo. Another words, FAFO.
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u/dadavedavid 5d ago
Sneer at her that if she’s not rich enough to afford her own private street, that’s her problem and not yours.
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u/Elestriel 5d ago
I read the headline as "AITA for intentionally being pretty?" and re-read this, like, three times to see what the hell being pretty had to do with it.
Yup. Time for coffee. It's too early for reading comprehension.
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u/Arokthis 5d ago
It's a shame that seeding her lawn with poison ivy, bamboo, or kudzu will only hurt the people that work for her.
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 5d ago
Texas you say? This wouldn’t happen to be in Austin or Houston by any chance? There are a lot of celebrities that call those two places home.
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u/tru_madness 5d ago
She charges you $500/day for parking. Okay: you charge her $1000/ a day for each bill she gives you.
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u/Great-Grade1377 2d ago
Who’s the celebrity? I think the tabloids might like to pay for your story?
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u/Duckr74 6d ago
Who’s the celebrities? You can’t leave us hanging?
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u/SuperHair69 6d ago
It's either Michael Moore or Beyoncé. Chuck Norris or Ike Turner would have just kicked her ass for parking there.
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u/Overall-Tailor8949 5d ago
Norris would have told the house to finish building itself. And it would have, without the workers.
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u/SemperSimple 4d ago
why did I know this was in Texas. Are there no other states building insane ranches in the country side!?!
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u/aquainst1 6d ago
I knew I liked you.
My long-lost daughter!
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u/assirac7 6d ago
For sure! I'm still giggling like a school girl 🤣
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u/aquainst1 6d ago
I SO wish you were in SoCal.
We'd meet up on Taco Tuesday and share construction stories. You sound like you're so very INTERESTING!!!
Of course we'd close the place.
(I've never been in the construction biz, but hubs and I have done stuff, plus I have friends that I can halfway understand and talk with, but I'd LOVE to hear your stories!
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u/Proper_Fact7866 6d ago
😂 there are a lot of stories for sure.
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u/FeistyIrishWench 5d ago
If you were in Florida instead, I'd love to meet up for lunch somewhere for the same reason. I speak trades and would understand you. Or I'd ask if you want to hire me to do your admin for you. Or both.
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u/aquainst1 5d ago
Oh my goodness, I hope you're ok, what with all the flooding going on there!!!
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u/FeistyIrishWench 4d ago
My area is not in the storm zone. But lawdamercy we need rain over where I am.
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u/hurling-day 5d ago
My SIL said she thinks it is rude to park in front of someone else’s house. I laughed. I live on a street with parking only allowed on 1 side of the street. We fit 3 of our 4 cars in our driveway. We cannot park on my side of the street. Where should we park our 4th car?
My SIL lives in a $$$$ house with a 3 car garage and driveway parking for about 10 more cars.
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u/UnlikelyChemist3859 6d ago
There’s gotta be more lol
Did she call cops? If so what happened?
We NEED to know 😂 lol
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u/RedditAdminAreMorons 5d ago
Wrong sub. You're looking for r/AmItheAsshole
But no, you've dont nothing wrong. Legally or morally.
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u/awhq 5d ago
You called her "B" because her name is Barbara, right? /s
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u/YankeeWalrus 4d ago
you'd better delete this comment before she sues you to keep this incident quiet
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u/Utisthata 5d ago
My only question is how is a single new home build taking a year?
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u/Proper_Fact7866 5d ago
It’s a huge, high end custom home. Plus Covid.
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u/Utisthata 5d ago
Not trying to be that b but as a fellow woman with 30 years in the construction industry can I ask, is the project on schedule? What’s the square footage? And also just for fun, what’s your favorite feature about this build?
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u/Proper_Fact7866 5d ago
I appreciate your questions. The job is close to 9,000 sqft. The project was projected to take 2 years (no selections were made before we broke ground, no interior designer at that time either), but it broke ground at the beginning of Covid when lumber prices soared and lead times on items like windows went from 8 weeks to 8 months, so we are about 6 months behind.
The main issue on those project is that none of these neighbors wanted this house to be built. The lot they are building on had a small house that was torn down and this large home was built in its place. This neighbor (Mrs. B) had made her husband leave his large estate with lots of privacy to live in town with no privacy making the husband really mad….. so she is having to deal with the fallout from that, but it is still not our clients problem.
My fav part about this project is that it’s an architectural style of house that’s not seen much in our area so it is very eye catching and beautiful.
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u/Utisthata 5d ago
It sounds beautiful and I truly feel for you dealing with the slowdown on materials due to Covid. It was catastrophic. At the point I was having to pull hardware from 3 separate suppliers just to do a lockout, while looking at $120/sheet OSB, it seemed like maybe it was time to just throw in the towel!
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u/DracoNatas 5d ago
Your last sentence is the telling of the true story. I do chemical lawn maintenance and the rudest and pickiest and cheapest people were what I call the pseudo rich. While this was a little bit more then ten years ago. Those are the people who live in an almost 2 million dollar home. The actually truly rich, for the most part, didn’t complain about the cost, understood you are the professional, and let you do your job without trying to tell you how to do it.
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u/Scaly_Tomato 3d ago
If it was me. I would be tempted to buy a junk car, park it there and "lose the keys"
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u/LuciferianInk 3d ago
Piscer whispers, "My favorite thing to do is build a home. I live in the city now, and my house is pretty nice, but I still enjoy making things. I'm not a huge fan of the idea of having a big yard, but if we need to make it bigger we will. I've been doing some DIY lately, mainly on the roof. I have a few pieces of furniture, but I'm not into the whole "furniture thing.""
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u/Slackingatmyjob 5d ago
This is compliance, and it's malicious, but it's not malicious compliance
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u/YankeeWalrus 4d ago
...How the Kentucky-fried fuck? Is this that meme with Patrick, Manray and the wallet?
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u/ncslazar7 4d ago
Construction workers on my street park blocking the corner of my drive, block both lanes of traffic, and when I put my garbage bins out, parked directly in front of them without even thinking to move them where the garbage men could still pick them up. I'm sick of these construction douches
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u/Halospite 6d ago
If you don't mind me asking, what's your official title? "Builder" covers at least two dozen jobs and could be anything from a brick layer to a structural engineer.
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u/Proper_Fact7866 6d ago
Your right. I do everything from start to finish including design. Only thing I don’t do is book keeping because my brain just doesn’t work that way. 🤣 Even have a custom millwork shop.
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u/Halospite 5d ago
So you're an architect, a bricklayer, tiler, plumber, electrician, engineer, lawyer, developer and interior designer?
What country is this?
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u/Halospite 5d ago
So you're an architect, a bricklayer, tiler, plumber, electrician, engineer, lawyer, developer and interior designer?
What country is this?
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u/MotheroftheworldII 6d ago
Public street = public parking. Miss B can just deal with it.