Our new neighbor had been upset about parking since the day we moved in. She believed there should only be one car per house on our street, even though there were no such rules in place. One evening, we found a handwritten note stuck to our windshield. It read: “One car per house! Move the extra one or else!” We laughed it off, thinking it was just an idle threat. After all, both of our cars were legally parked in front of our house, and we weren’t breaking any laws. Three days later, we woke up to the sound of engines and loud clanking outside. When we rushed out, both of our cars were being hooked up to tow trucks.
Standing there with a smug smile was our neighbor, clearly thrilled with herself. “Well,” she said, folding her arms, “maybe now you’ll listen when someone tells you the rules!” I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Wow,” I said slowly, “you really went through with it, huh?” Her smile faltered. “What’s so funny?” I shrugged, trying to hold back a laugh. “Oh, nothing,” I replied. “Just the fact that you now owe us $25,000.”