'My neighbours stole my wheelie bin - I paid £30 for a new one and I'm livid'
Keeping track of your wheelie bins is one of the many jobs you have to do as a homeowner, and it's important that you keep on top of when your collection days are, as rubbish can quickly pile up if left for too long.
But one woman has claimed her neighbours have been interfering with her wheelie bins, as she accused them of pinching her bin for their own use, leaving her to fork out £30 for her local council to send a new one.
The woman explained she lives alone and has been having issues with the people living next to her - who are a "group of lads who rent" - for several months.
At first, the blokes would "contaminate" her recycling bins with items that didn't belong in there, which would mean the bin men wouldn't collect her rubbish.
After she left a strongly-worded note telling them to stop, she thought she'd solved the problem - until her entire bin went missing.
'My selfish neighbour stole our parking spot - my revenge means he'll regret it'In a post on Mumsnet, she wrote: "I live on a row of terraces so have the classic leave the bins in the ginnel for collection set up. I'm in my early 20s and I live by myself (I own the house) and next door is a group of lads who rent.
"I first had issues with someone 'contaminating' my recycling bins with stuff that shouldn't be in there meaning my bins weren't being collected and I had to sort through their crap. That ended when I left a note on my gate saying 'use your own bins you scruffy pr**k'. Seemed to work.
"Fast forward a few weeks and my general waste bin goes missing - shockingly next doors didn't get collected again that day (it literally never is because they put food waste in it which isn't allowed). Everyone else's bins were in the ginnel and none of them were mine. I knew it was next door who did it but couldn't prove it so the council made me pay £30 for a new one."
The woman then said she suffered from a chest infection last month which left her housebound and discovered someone had "reported" her for not picking up dog poo in her garden.
She believes the men next door were the ones who reported her because they're the "only neighbours" that can see into her garden, and she now feels "unsettled" as she thinks the men are "watching" her.
She added: "After a very bad chest infection at the start of January where I could barely breathe and sprained muscles in my rib area from coughing, I find someone has reported me for not picking my dog's poo up in my own yard for about 3 days.
"They're the only neighbour that can see into my yard - and I assure you I normally clean it up as it happens because I hate it there but I was just too ill. I removed it as soon as I was well, so this letter unsettled me as I felt they were watching my garden. I can't see into theirs because they have an extension."
On the next bin collection day, the woman managed to get outside as soon as the bins had been emptied - and saw her old bin outside the blokes' house, with her house number still on it.
But she doesn't want to bring it back into her garden, as she feels "intimidated" by the men and doesn't want to cause more trouble by starting a war over bins.
She wrote: "Today I managed to get my new bin in as the bin men came when I was [working from home] and I saw them come. Funnily enough, I found my old bin outside of next doors house!! It even still had my number sticker on it.
'Neighbour outraged I ignored the door when they knocked - and said I'm selfish'"The thing is though, I don't know what to do! I feel intimidated and targeted (one of them sometimes comes out of their house to glare at me when I'm walking past) so I don't want to take the bin back since they'll see it in my yard and potentially do something else.
"The council won't do anything, and I can't imagine the police would do much over a stolen bin. I'm just starting to feel on edge with it all - like I'm being watched or something!"
Commenters on the post encouraged the woman to contact their landlord if they're renting the property, while another said she made need to "make peace" with her neighbours.
One wrote: "I suspect you might have put a red rag in front of the lads with the pr**ks note, you are now perhaps the brunt of a lark with them now. If the bin doesn't make a reappearance by the weekend you might need to wave the white handkerchief and ask if they have it and make peace, for the sake of peace."