What's the best petty revenge for a neighbour that constantly plays loud music but doesn't answer the door when you try asking them to turn it down?

lemonlemington@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 127 points –

We've tried the usual of calling police (three times), inviting them over to hear how loud it is (they agreed that it was very loud), asking to at least reduce the bass, blasting our own music (not sustainable) and so on. Sometimes it works for a day but inevitably it's back to the usual.

Hoping for some petty revenge ideas to complement the other efforts.

86

Set up a mic and play back their own music after a delay, loud enough for them to hear. Don't open the door if they come.

This will be super effective, and also give you plausible deniability because it could just be an echo... just make sure that if they do turn it down, you turn down in response.

That's a really good one.

solutions

The real fun option is using the cb option above to have ‘god’ tell them to turn down their music by setting the frequency to a high enough level that you can speak through the cb every time they play music right into their speakers. You can also speak through their speakers when they’re off!

Or blow them all up.

What an interesting article. From a purely academic standpoint, of course.

Wait... Am I missing something here? I don't understand why a 10kHz wave would do anything to a pair of speakers at a distance.

Unless the speakers are actively playing the output of a radio themselves, it's not like 10kHz waves will randomly affect the membrane of an electrostatic speaker. The membrane vibrates by an electric signal, not by EM radiation.

Even then, I feel like radios don't just output whatever their antenna picks up raw. The electronics in radios tune to specific frequency bands and decode the underlying signal by means of FM or AM, and it is that underlying signal that gets played by the speakers.

So even a stronger encoded signal doesn't necessarily mean louder speaker volume. It would just mean a clearer, less-noisy song.

Powerful radio signals will cause interference in anything aerial-like that they pass through. Speaker cables would serve perfectly. For FM signals this would just sound like static or horrible nosie, but AM the interference will sound like a distorted version of the sound signal. Interference in the speaker cables will pass to the speakers... I guess this is the idea, but you'd need a very powerful radio transmitter which would almost certainly be illegal.

I didn't study the article but it sounds like the idea is that the AM amplifier will cause an induced current in the speaker. No idea if that's true or not though

I was afraid that's what it meant. I haven't done Emag calculations since college but I feel like induction would only work at extremely close distances (as in centimeters) if at all, right?

All those induction experiments have multiple loops, tightly around the passing magnet for a reason since changes in the current is directly proportional to changes in the magnetic flux density (and only the ones normal to the surface area created by a closed loop).

And the closed loop created by the speaker and its source is a really irregular shape, designed to have a small cross-sectional area anyway. It all sounds kind of fishy.

You blast music right back, but not just any music. Blast Wannabe by the Spice Girls, but make it just a loop of the intro, like 10 hours of "So tell me what you want, what you really, really want I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want"

That is a difficult one. Maybe you can boost the volume when he sleeps? In that case he sees/feels what you’re experiencing. Just make sure your other neighbour doesn’t hear it.

Another thing you can do is create a device with a timer that hits the wall every now and then. I saw someone made it for his neighbour and it hit the wall about every 30 minutes so his neighbours couldn’t sleep..

The best way to get a (petty) revenge is by fucking with someones sleeping pattern. If done correctly you will bother him for the whole day!

If its a house and its summer tonnes of birdseed in their yard, handfuls upon hand fulls. Then let the birds do the work.

Id theres a lot of feral cats in the neighbourhood a d they have a garden buy a shitload of catnip seeds and absolutely saturate their yard.

Come spring time its a nightly cat gangbang in their yard.

What would this achieve? Lots of birds? A bit of bird poo? I don't think I'd even notice if someone did that to me

The neighbor i did it to his fence on the one side luckily not mine, the tree, the swing off the tree and the entire roof of his house was just covered in bird shit by the end of summer. I did have some friendly fire on my house but not to the point i had to get it professionally cleaned. Seen alot of beautiful birds around that summer, and i dont even remember what the sumbitch did to piss me off just enough.

Most homeowners I know would be very bothered having their entire house, yard, deck, and driveway covered in bird shit. It's less effective if you live somewhere that gets regular rain, though.

Birds shit on everything anyway, no?

I'm in the UK so yeah, pretty much constant rain lol.

It makes sense that the impact of this wouldn't register as much with you, in that case.

Its effectiveness is very much relegated to specific geographical areas. :D

Spell something on the lawn in birdseed. Sure, birds this year. But next year the extra fertilizer will cause the grass to grow greener in that word.

It's really the rats that would be the nuisance. Wherever bird seed is, rats aren't far behind.

I knew someone once who salted insults into someone's lawn. That shit never grows back either.

Apartment or House?

I once had to tell the Indian couple above me to turn down their insanely loud Bollywood movie fest. When they came to the door the wave of noise that came out was like standing next to a speaker at a Motorhead show. I don't know how they could stand it. They did turn it down finally.

This is the same couple who, based on the noise, sounded like they would take all of their pots out of the cabinets every night and drop them on the floor followed by a bag of marbles. Every, damn, night.

Start mowing your grass, leaf blowing, etc. first thing in the morning, as early as legally allowed, for hours. If he asks you to stop, just ignore him.

Pleas don’t bring innocent people around you into with that nonsense.

Figure out which WiFi network is theirs, and then set up like 50 with the same name.

Pour your leftover chicken juice in any and all vents for their home. Heck, get a syringe and shoot it in their lock.

You can buy live spiders in bulk. Use your imagination with this one.

My sister had this problem. I'm not a tough guy but I parked my car outside their house and blasted Hooker with a Penis so loud it blew out my speakers. And stared at them uncomfortably. They ended up moving

Sure you did Buddy 🤣

I bet you that old ocular pat down scared the shit out of them!

The sunglasses prevented them from knowing. Also, they couldn't tell how scared OP was. Oh, I'm not supposed to tell them that part?

Research frequency that literally makes people feel ill, nausea... set up. Wear ear plugs and leave for a while.

No idea if this has ever worked.

I'm a sound engineer and I had awful neighbors. So I tried that to calm the monster of a kid my upstairs neighbors failed to raise.

I tried every pure frequencies from 12 000 kHz to 20 000 kHz with 1000 Hz steps at absurdly loud volumes.

The problem here was the air in our different apartments acting as an isolant, the material between our apartments, and the fact that this kid and his parents where deaf fucking morons.

In the end, the proper solution was to move. That worked as intended as I don't hear them anymore.

My favorite petty revenge for a lot of things is putting gel deodorant on people's car door handles.

What does that do? I mean besides getting gel deodorant on their hands?

Nothing, just makes their hands gross.

That's why it's petty revenge.

Okay then, I like this idea.

There is some upside based on context though. For example, if I'm in a parking lot and I gel the door handles of some asshole with a truck that took up four parking spaces, chances are they understand why it happened, so there's that.

Dedicate an hour a day to simply knocking at their door, until they answer it.

You should try going in your house and watching TV. It’s a subtle revenge, but it’s the only one that will yield a result that doesn’t end with you red faced and embarrassed, Karen. if the cops didn’t step in it was probably during the day, and thus not a violation.. The neighbor doesn’t have to answer his door just because you knock on it,, and you can get fucked. take home lessons: 1. get fucked Karen. 2. don’t point cops at anything you don’t want to die you cretin. It’s dangerous dipshit.

  1. The police spoke with them regularly and it was always after midnight. 2. Not everyone lives in N America where you have the freedom to be killed by your police or a small child.

cops are cops wherever you go. they’ll kill you too, just ask Mark Duggan. It doesn’t matter what continent you’re on.

Not all police forces are trigger happy idiots like those in the US. Many forces aren’t even routinely armed. Police officers calling to a house about a noise complaint in the UK aren’t going to be carrying guns.

Duggans shooting stands out because it is rare, whereas in the US it is routine. Don’t project America’s problems on to the rest of the world. Just because your police forces are batshit insane doesn’t mean that is the case everywhere.

every police officer in every country is armed with a weapon of some sort. A cudgel is a weapon.

Again, the police in the UK and most of Europe are far better trained than those in the US. There aren’t going to have a baton out waiting for someone to open a door.

i challenge you to find some reports of UK police killing people on routine callouts unprovoked. Then compare that to the what seems like a weekly occurrence of such incidents in the US and control for the population difference.

Here’s a list of all police killings in the U.K. to help: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_Kingdom

There is little to no chance a person would be killed or even injured by the police calling to their house over a noise complaint in the UK. It just doesn’t happen. You simply can not presume that America’s dysfunction is replicated everywhere.

You’re the guy that talks in the theater, leaves popcorn and soda all over the seat, etc. We know who the dipshit is here.

Also. The cops don’t just kill pepper for no reason in most of the world. Sorry you live in such a shithole. But it’s not as universal as you hope.

And you’re the guy that calls dangerous thugs to your neighbors house because you don’t like his tunes. I’m sitting pretty in comparison. even if the made up bullshit you said were true. Don’t call cops to peoples homes asshole. You’re just causing trouble, and your lucky no one has died.

Cops aren’t dangerous thugs where I live. Maybe you should move. Not everywhere is like where you’re from. OP is in the UK. Police brutality in most places isn’t like it is in Florida.

every cop in every country is two things: 1. a thug who is willing to commit violent acts. 2. a dangerous authoritarian.

Find me data that says interacting with the police over a noise complaint in the UK takes more years off your life on average than not being able to sleep. Idiot

You’re just a wannabe social anarchist. It’s ok to do anything harmful to others, and there should never be recourse for the victim, right….

No one can be this stupid. Has to be trolling.

Lol. couldn’t get it all out in one go? I’ll give you a few more minutes to gather your thoughts, in case you think of something else witty you’d like to edit in. Try not to call your brute squad on a barking dog while you’re thinking.

It must be really scary for you in this world.

some day you’ll understand the difference between fear and anger. today is not that day.

So are you going to produce any data to show that calling the police to someone’s house in the UK put them at a non negligible risk of being killed or injured by those police, or are you not?

Are you just going to keep assuming that America’s issues are universal rather than accept that America is broken?

Lol. I readily accept that america is broken. but cops are the same everywhere. I believe you had some riots about that a while back. The only difference is armaments. An authoritarian is an authoritarian. there were over three hundred police caused deaths in england and wales between 2021 and 2022, not too shabby for such a tiny place. on top of that there were over 1500 cases of police abuse in london just last year, that’s mostly beatings, rapes, and other forms of sexual assault. no matter how you want to splice the numbers the odds of a person experiencing violence or death are higher when a police officer is present. So any situation where you willfully involve law enforcement makes violence more likely. So don’t call them unless you want someone to be hurt or killed. That’s just basic safety.

but cops are the same everywhere

You have yet to demonstrate this

I believe you had some riots about that a while back.

No, I didn't have riots. I don't live in the UK anyway if that's what you're inferring.

there were over three hundred police caused deaths in england and wales between 2021 and 2022

Why lie? The number is 217. A number that includes all sorts of things, including people dying of natural causes in police custody or dying shortly after police contract, for example in a traffic incident of their own causing. What's the comparable number for the US? We know that US police shot over 1000 people dead last year. That's just one type of killing and given the population difference between the UK and USA it would put them at an equal rate, but that is ignoring the fact that the UK number is for all deaths, not just direct killings. The number of fatal shootings in the UK in 21/22 was 2.

So don’t call them unless you want someone to be hurt or killed. That’s just basic safety.

Only if you live in a 3rd rate country that doesn't have a proper police force. I'd have no issue calling the police on someone if they were causing a disturbance and I'd have no fear for their safety. Similarly I'd have no fear for my safety if the police were called on me.

Projecting America's problems onto other places is absurd and demonstrates a complete lack of awareness of places that aren't America. You need to look outside your bubble and stop pretending that everywhere else is as shitty as the US. Also stop looking at situations as being black or white, presuming all cops are bad is stupid. Thinking in absolutes is not a good way to live your life.

3 more...
3 more...
3 more...
3 more...
3 more...
3 more...
3 more...
3 more...
3 more...
3 more...
3 more...