A woman who threatened to "call the cops" on her neighbor after he pushed a child off their bike has been backed by netizens.
The 32-year-old original poster (OP), Reddit user AnnmarieDesimone_20, recounted the incident on r/AITAH, explaining that she lives in a neighborhood where there are lots of kids, including her own, who love to play outside.
It's a mostly family-friendly area, she noted, aside from her neighbor "Joe", who "absolutely hates kids".
According to her post, Joe yells at them anytime they're outside "playing, laughing or even just riding their bikes down the street".
While the neighborhood has "just tried to ignore" Joe, his behavior recently crossed a line.
"I was outside taking out the trash when I heard him start screaming again," the OP recalled. "I looked up just in time to see him running at the kids, his face all red like he was about to explode.
"They all kinda froze, probably thinking he was just gonna yell again, but then he full-on shoved one of the kids off his bike. An eight-year-old. The poor kid hit the pavement hard, scraped his arms and knees up, and started crying.
"The other kids just stood there, completely shocked. And I just lost it. I stormed right up to Joe and just went off.
"I told him he was a grown-a** man pushing a child over some stupid noise and that if he ever laid a hand on any of the kids again, I was calling the cops. He started yelling back, saying the kids were "disrespectful" and that they "needed to learn a lesson".
"I wasn't having any of it. I told him we've all put up with his BS for too long and if I so much as heard him talking to the kids like that again, he'd be dealing with the police."
Redditors didn't have any qualms with the OP for going off on her neighbor. However, many felt that the OP should have called the police on Joe immediately.
One exclaimed, "This guy assaulted a child! If anything YTA for not breaking this guy's nose. Seriously tho, call the cops on this POS."
A second urged, "No need to wait for him to assault another child to call the cops! Call right then and there."
A third chimed in, "You should have called the police, right then and right there. In the state where I live, what he did is a FELONY. NTA. Your neighbor is a bully," to which the OP clarified that she told the parents of the child in question what happened and that they then called the police on Joe.
On a related Reddit note, Newsweek once covered how the reason a different woman threatened to call the cops on her mother-in-law was backed online.
Meanwhile, another neighbor was previously slammed for threatening to dial 911 over a crying baby next door, as Newsweek highlighted.
Newsweek has contacted AnnmarieDesimone_20 for comment via Reddit.
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