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My Entitled Neighbors Took Over MY PRIVATE BEACH.. So I Banned Them From My Land! — Transcript

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0:01A debt collector and a parking
0:02enforcement officer meet on a private
0:04beach.
0:05Sounds like the setup to a terrible
0:07joke, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it
0:09isn't a joke.
0:11They're the married couple living next
0:12door to the hero of today's story, and
0:14over about five summers, they managed to
0:16turn one man's quiet stretch of
0:18shoreline into what he later described
0:20as a small branch office of hell.
0:24With umbrellas.
0:26Entitled Bobs.
0:29My name's Daniel. I'm 47 and I live on a
0:31small private lake in Northeastern
0:33Pennsylvania. The kind of lake that
0:35doesn't show up on tourist maps and
0:37doesn't have a public boat launch.
0:39About a dozen houses spread out around
0:41it, a lot of trees, and not much else.
0:44I've got roughly 3 acres. The house sits
0:47up the hill and there's a path down the
0:49left side of my property that ends at a
0:51little natural sand beach. Real sand,
0:54not gravel, which on this lake is close
0:56to a miracle.
0:58Most of the shoreline is either rock
1:00shell for that black lake muck that
1:02swallows your flip-flop and keeps it.
1:05That beach is mine. It's on the deed.
1:07It's on the survey, and there's no
1:09easement across my land for anybody.
1:12That detail's going to matter.
1:14Now, my neighbors.
1:16I'm calling the husband Bob, and because
1:18I couldn't think of anything better, I'm
1:20calling his wife Female Bob.
1:23The names are stupid on purpose. They
1:25know who they are, and honestly, they've
1:27earned worse.
1:28Bob is a collection supervisor at an
1:31agency about 40 minutes from here.
1:33Female Bob works for a private parking
1:35enforcement company. The kind that
1:37contracts with apartment complexes,
1:39restaurants, marinas, and businesses
1:40with private lots.
1:42Between the two of them, their entire
1:44professional existence consists of
1:46telling strangers they owe money.
1:48That will also matter.
1:50Bob and Female Bob bought the place next
1:52door about five years ago. Their
1:54shoreline is a steep rocky drop with
1:57maybe 8 ft of usable mud at the bottom.
2:00Beautiful view.
2:01Terrible swimming.
2:03That first summer, Bob was standing near
2:04the bottom of his property looking
2:06miserable, and I said what any
2:08reasonable neighbor says, "Hey, if you
2:10guys want to swim, come down my side
2:12path and use the beach. I don't use it
2:14every day."
2:16There was no paperwork, no money,
2:18nothing formal, just neighborly
2:19permission to use it now and then.
2:22And that, folks, is how most of these
2:24stories begin. Not with a villain, with
2:26a nice guy being neighborly on a
2:28Tuesday.
2:30For the first year or two, it was
2:32genuinely fine.
2:34They came down maybe once a week, said
2:36hello, brought their own towels, took
2:37everything home. Female Bob once brought
2:40me a plate of brownies.
2:42I had zero regrets.
2:44Then it started to drift.
2:46By year three, they were down there most
2:48weekends, then most warm evenings, then
2:51they started bringing friends without
2:52mentioning it. I'd come around the
2:54corner of the house and find six people
2:56I'd never met floating around on
2:58inflatable loungers.
3:00Then the chairs stayed.
3:01Two folding chairs tucked under a tree
3:03instead of carried home, then an
3:05umbrella, then a second umbrella, then
3:07kids' toys, a foam noodle and one of
3:09those plastic sand molds shaped like a
3:11crab that somehow ended up in my kayak.
3:14Then came the cooler that lived down
3:16there permanently and slowly filled with
3:18rainwater and dead spiders.
3:21The final touch was a big gray plastic
3:23deck box, the kind you put on a patio,
3:25hauled down the path, and set near the
3:27tree line.
3:28Towels, floats, sunscreen, a pump, a
3:30folded canopy.
3:32I noticed all of it.
3:34I also kept telling myself none of it
3:36was worth starting a neighbor war over.
3:38When you live next to people, you learn
3:40to let some small stuff go.
3:43Then one Saturday, I was walking up from
3:45the dock and heard female Bob telling a
3:47carload of arriving guests, "Just park
3:49along the grass. Our beach is right down
3:51there."
3:52Our beach.
3:54I stood there for a second, felt my jaw
3:56tighten, and then went inside and made a
3:58sandwich, because apparently that's what
3:59I do instead of confrontation.
4:02And just to keep score here, the only
4:04things Bob and female Bob actually owned
4:06on Daniel's beach were two folding
4:08chairs and an absolutely staggering
4:10quantity of entitlement.
4:12The next escalation was harder to
4:14ignore.
4:15I'd invited my friends Mike and Laura
4:17out for the afternoon. I had to run into
4:19town for about 90 minutes, part store
4:21then the pharmacy. So, I told them to
4:23head down to the beach and I'd meet them
4:24there with drinks.
4:26When I got back, they were sitting on my
4:28porch with their bags packed. Bob and
4:30female Bob were down at the beach with
4:32maybe seven guests. When Mike and Laura
4:34had walked down the path, female Bob
4:36came over and told them, very
4:37pleasantly, that they were having a
4:39private family gathering that afternoon
4:41and asked if they'd mind using another
4:43spot on the lake.
4:45Mike and Laura knew perfectly well whose
4:47property it was.
4:48They also didn't want to start a
4:49screaming match with my neighbors while
4:51I was buying windshield wipers, so they
4:53came back up and waited. I apologized
4:55about nine times. Mike laughed it off.
4:58Laura didn't. She looked at me and said,
5:01"Daniel, that woman genuinely thought
5:03she had standing to remove us."
5:05I spent that night convincing myself it
5:07had been a misunderstanding. Maybe they
5:09thought Mike and Laura were random
5:11people from the road. Maybe I'd somehow
5:13been unclear.
5:15He hadn't been unclear, he'd been
5:17polite. Unfortunately, some people
5:19mistake those for the same thing.
5:21About 2 weeks later came the part I
5:23still get annoyed about. I'd been to the
5:25grocery store with Buddy, my yellow lab.
5:27Buddy's nine, weighs about 70 lb, and
5:30has never in his life had an aggressive
5:31thought. His entire personality is,
5:34"Hello."
5:35I was carrying grocery bags toward the
5:37house when he heard it, music,
5:39splashing, kids yelling, all coming from
5:42down at the beach.
5:43Buddy, who's run that path his entire
5:45adult life, dropped into a happy trot
5:47and went to see what the fuss was.
5:49Then I heard female Bob's voice cut
5:51across the water, "Get that dog out of
5:53here." And Bob, right behind her,
5:54"Daniel, call your dog." I put the bags
5:57down and walked down the path. There
5:59were eight or 10 people on my beach.
6:01Umbrellas, chairs, Bluetooth speaker,
6:03coolers, towels, kids toys.
6:06The gray storage box was standing open
6:08near the trees like they'd installed a
6:09concession stand.
6:11But he was standing in about 4 in of
6:13water, tail going, staring at a kid who
6:15very clearly wanted to pet him.
6:17Female Bob walked toward me with her
6:19arms crossed, "There are children down
6:21here. You can't just let him run around
6:23loose down here."
6:25"He lives here." I said. "If that dog
6:26knocks one of these kids over, you're
6:28going to have a liability problem." she
6:30said. "You'd be responsible."
6:32I looked around at my beach, my
6:34shoreline, my property, and all the
6:36stuff they'd spread across it. Then I
6:38said, calmly,
6:40"This is my beach." And she said, and I
6:43want to be precise here because it's
6:44probably the most honest sentence she
6:46ever spoke to me, "You know what I mean.
6:48We're using it right now."
6:50Then Bob walked over, dripping wet,
6:52doing the reasonable guy voice, "Come
6:54on, man. You've got the whole property.
6:56Can't you just keep the dog up by the
6:57house for a couple hours?"
6:59That was the moment it clicked.
7:01They didn't think they were borrowing my
7:03beach anymore. They thought whoever was
7:05occupying it at that particular moment
7:07was in charge of it. And that afternoon
7:09it happened to be them.
7:11I called Buddy. He came running over,
7:13soaking wet and delighted.
7:15We went back inside.
7:1710 guests on a man's private property
7:19complaining to that man about his own
7:21Labrador being on it?
7:23Somewhere a property law professor just
7:25woke up screaming and doesn't know why.
7:28The next morning I walked back down to
7:30clear my head.
7:32There was a sign. Not homemade either. A
7:34real aluminum sign mounted on a metal
7:36stake at the top of the path. Private
7:38beach, residents and guests only.
7:41I went next door and knocked. Bob
7:43answered holding a coffee mug and
7:44looking completely unbothered. Female
7:46Bob came up behind him. I asked about
7:49the sign.
7:50"Oh, that's just so randoms don't wander
7:52down from the road." Bob said. "You get
7:54people driving around looking for lake
7:55access. It protects you, honestly."
7:58I stared at him. "What strangers?
8:01Anybody walking down that path is
8:02already standing on my property. They'd
8:04be trespassing on me, not on you."
8:08Neither of them had much of an answer
8:10because there wasn't one.
8:12The sign wasn't really about strangers.
8:14Somewhere over the previous two summers,
8:15Bob and female Bob had quietly promoted
8:17themselves from guests to management.
8:21And now they had letterhead.
8:23I told them the sign came down.
8:25So did the storage box, chairs,
8:27umbrellas, cooler, toys, anything they
8:29were leaving there permanently.
8:31I told them we could go back to what
8:32we'd originally agreed on, occasional
8:34swimming, nothing stored on my property,
8:36and no acting like the beach belonged to
8:38them.
8:39Bob gave me that patient tone people use
8:42with difficult customers.
8:44"Daniel, none of it's hurting anything.
8:46It's out of the way. You barely use this
8:48part of your property anyway."
8:50That was it. That was the sentence.
8:53Let's appreciate Bob's logic for a
8:54second. Daniel wasn't using his own
8:56beach enough, therefore Bob apparently
8:58deserved it.
8:59Try that argument at a car dealership
9:01sometime.
9:03I didn't argue. I went home, pulled out
9:05my deed and survey, and read both
9:07carefully. No easement, no shared
9:09access, nothing granting the neighboring
9:11parcel any right to cross my property.
9:14Then I spent $200 and an hour with a
9:16local real estate attorney named Nathan,
9:18mostly for peace of mind.
9:21Nathan read everything and gave me the
9:22simple version. I'd given them
9:23permission, permission wasn't an
9:25easement, and permission could be
9:27withdrawn.
9:28His advice was equally simple. Put it in
9:31writing. Give them a reasonable deadline
9:32to remove their stuff. Don't debate
9:34property law with them. Document
9:36everything. If they crossed onto the
9:38property after permission was withdrawn,
9:40deal with it then.
9:42So, I wrote a one-page letter. Polite,
9:44plain, no dramatic legal language.
9:47Effective in 14 days, permission to
9:48enter my property was withdrawn. Please
9:51remove all personal belongings before
9:53then.
9:54I even offered to help carry the storage
9:56box back uphill.
9:57They removed everything on day 13.
10:00Slowly, loudly, with an impressive
10:03amount of sighing.
10:04I put a simple cedar gate across the top
10:06of the path and hung a normal private
10:08property no trespassing sign on it.
10:11Bob came over that evening. "You can't
10:13just cut off access we've had for
10:14years," he said. "There's established
10:16use here. There are rights that attach
10:18to that. I deal with legal all day,
10:21Daniel. I know how this works."
10:23I told him Nathan disagreed.
10:25And that was all I said.
10:27The most dangerous man in America isn't
10:29necessarily a lawyer. Sometimes, it's a
10:31guy who's worked down the hall from a
10:33legal department long enough to think he
10:34absorbed a law degree through the
10:36drywall.
10:38To their credit, they didn't test the
10:39gate. For about 3 weeks, everything was
10:42quiet. I genuinely thought that was the
10:43end of it.
10:44Then, on a Thursday afternoon, I drove
10:46my pickup to a marina complex on the
10:48bigger lake about 15 minutes away.
10:51There's a bait shop and a casual
10:53waterfront restaurant there that does
10:54pretty good fish tacos.
10:57They share a private parking lot managed
10:58by a contracted enforcement company.
11:01Guess which company.
11:03I bought a bag of shiners and a coffee,
11:05kept the receipt in my shirt pocket out
11:06of habit, ate outside, and came back to
11:09the truck maybe 25 minutes later.
11:11There was a yellow wheel boot on the
11:13front driver side wheel. Under the wiper
11:15was a violation notice. $325.
11:19Reason, unauthorized vehicle
11:21non-customer parking.
11:23At the bottom in smaller print, it said
11:25the citation could be paid or disputed
11:27within 30 days before being eligible for
11:29referral to collections.
11:31I was genuinely angry for about 8
11:33seconds. Then I read the issuing
11:36employee's name, Female Bob.
11:39I actually laughed out loud. A guy
11:41loading a kayak into his SUV looked at
11:43me like I'd lost my mind.
11:45I went inside and asked for the marina
11:47manager, a guy named Ron. I showed him
11:49my receipt, the notice, and the boot. I
11:51told him my truck had a parking mode
11:53dashcam with timestamps and asked if he
11:55could check his cameras, too.
11:57Ron pulled up the footage. It showed me
11:59park. It showed me walk into the bait
12:01shop. It showed me sit down on the
12:02restaurant patio. Then 11 minutes later,
12:05a marked parking enforcement vehicle
12:07entered the lot, passed two rows of
12:09cars, and drove directly to my truck.
12:12Ron watched that part twice. Then he
12:14said, "That's not a patrol. That's a
12:16B-Line."
12:17He called the enforcement company
12:18himself. The boot came off without
12:20charge, and the citation was formally
12:22marked as disputed.
12:24I assumed Female Bob had just made one
12:26incredibly stupid decision, and that
12:28would be the end of it. Then Bob decided
12:30to participate.
12:32Bob's agency handled delinquent accounts
12:34for several private parking operators in
12:36the area, including hers.
12:389 days later, I got a collection letter.
12:40Standard agency envelope, standard
12:42aggressive language, outstanding balance
12:44$325 plus a $47 administrative fee.
12:48Prompt payment requested.
12:50The agency name at the top of the letter
12:52was Bob's employer. Remember, the
12:54original notice gave me 30 days to pay
12:56or dispute the citation before any
12:58referral to collections. It had been 9
13:01days, and the charge was already
13:03formally disputed.
13:05I sat at my kitchen table and read the
13:06letter three times. Then I called
13:08Nathan.
13:10"I think my neighbors just mailed us
13:11evidence," I said. There was a pause.
13:14Then Nathan said, very quietly, "Please
13:16tell me you kept the envelope." I had
13:19the envelope. I had the postmark. I had
13:21the collection notice.
13:23I had Female Bob's original parking
13:24citation with her employee information.
13:27I had my time stamped receipt. I had my
13:29dash cam footage. And Ron had already
13:31preserved the marina camera footage.
13:34Two people had apparently taken a
13:35personal neighbor dispute, run it
13:37through two companies internal systems,
13:39and then mailed me the paper trail.
13:42There are dumb ways to get revenge, and
13:44then there's putting your revenge into
13:45two corporate databases and paying
13:47postage to send the victim a copy.
13:50Nathan didn't suggest a lawsuit. He
13:52suggested something much simpler. Three
13:54calm letters.
13:56One went to compliance at female Bob's
13:58parking company. It included the
13:59receipt, the footage timeline, the
14:01disputed citation, and a straightforward
14:03question about why an employee had
14:05targeted a documented paying customer
14:07with whom she had an ongoing personal
14:09property dispute.
14:11One went to Ron in the marina because
14:12they were the client whose customer had
14:14just been booted while legally using
14:16their business.
14:17Third went to compliance at Bob's
14:19collection agency. That one included the
14:2130-day language from the original
14:23citation, proof that the charge had been
14:25disputed, the collection letter mailed
14:27on day nine, and a simple question, "How
14:29did this account get into collection so
14:31quickly, and what involvement did the
14:32supervisor married to the issuing
14:34parking officer have in that process?"
14:37Nobody screamed. Nobody threatened
14:39anybody. They didn't need to.
14:41Both companies cared very deeply about
14:43documented procedure, and both had just
14:45been handed documentation showing that
14:47something had gone badly off procedure.
14:50The parking charge disappeared
14:52completely.
14:53I paid nothing.
14:54The enforcement company confirmed in
14:56writing that the citation had been
14:57voided and that female Bob would no
14:59longer have any involvement with the
15:00marina account.
15:02Ron told me the marina had made a formal
15:04complaint to the contractor and was
15:05reconsidering whether to renew the
15:07parking contract.
15:09Bob's agency was more careful.
15:11They confirmed that the collection
15:12notice had been withdrawn, no balance
15:14would be reported or pursued, and Bob
15:16would have no involvement in any account
15:18or correspondence connected to me.
15:21They didn't tell me what happened to him
15:22internally, which was legally sensible.
15:25And if I'm being petty, slightly
15:27disappointing.
15:29Bob and female Bob set out to cost
15:30Daniel $325.
15:32Instead, they generated several pages of
15:35compliance evidence against themselves.
15:38Since then, they wave. That's about it.
15:41Just the little distant neighbor wave
15:43you'd give a state trooper while driving
15:44exactly the speed limit.
15:46They've never asked about the beach
15:48again. The gate's still there. The
15:49private property sign is still there.
15:51And the sand looks exactly the way it
15:53did before somebody decided it needed a
15:55gray storage box and a management team.
15:58Last Sunday, I walked down with a coffee
16:00and sat on a log near the tree line
16:02while buddy tore back and forth along
16:04the waterline chasing absolutely
16:06nothing. No umbrellas, no Bluetooth
16:08speaker, no liability lecture, just 70
16:11lb of wet Labrador and a quiet beach.
16:14Bob went back to collecting debts.
16:16Female Bob went back to writing parking
16:17tickets. And I went back to collecting
16:20the only thing I ever wanted out of that
16:22shoreline in the first place, some
16:23quiet.
16:26Our next boss had a very simple solution
16:28to employees checking their phones at
16:29work. Ban every personal phone from the
16:32warehouse floor.
16:33It worked beautifully, right up until
16:35the day she lost hers and asked
16:36everybody else to call it.
16:39Karen lost it.
16:42I work at a warehouse, big one. The kind
16:44where walking from one end to the other
16:46takes you a solid 5 minutes if you don't
16:48get stuck behind a forklift.
16:50My boss, I'll call her Karen because it
16:52fits, was a middle manager who genuinely
16:54believed that if you gave an adult an
16:56inch, she'd take the whole shift off.
16:59She wasn't cruel. She didn't scream at
17:01people. She just treated every single
17:03one of us like a 14-year-old who
17:04couldn't be trusted with scissors.
17:06And Karen loved rules. Not solving
17:08problems, rules. Broad, sweeping,
17:10everybody gets punished forever rules.
17:13So, one Tuesday, she called a floor
17:15meeting about phones. Now, to be fair,
17:17she had some actual examples. One guy
17:19had been checking messages between
17:21pallets, another been scrolling for a
17:23few minutes when the line was down.
17:24Somebody looked at his phone while
17:26waiting on a picker, small stuff. The
17:28kind of thing a normal manager handles
17:30by saying, "Hey, knock it off." and then
17:32moving on with life.
17:34Karen went in a different direction.
17:36"Effective immediately," she said, "all
17:37personal phones stay in your lockers
17:39during working hours."
17:41There was that pause where everybody
17:42waits to hear the exception.
17:44There wasn't one.
17:46Phones couldn't be in your pocket,
17:47couldn't be faced down on your
17:48workstation, couldn't be in your
17:49backpack near your station. They had to
17:52be physically inside your locker in the
17:54locker room on the other side of the
17:55building.
17:56You could get them at your scheduled
17:58break, at lunch, or after shift.
18:00Somebody asked the obvious question,
18:02"What if my wife needs to reach me?"
18:04Karen had an answer ready. "If there's a
18:06genuine emergency, your family can call
18:08the front office and somebody will come
18:10find you."
18:11Which sounds reasonable until you
18:13consider that the front office is up a
18:14flight of stairs behind a badge door,
18:16and that somebody will come find you in
18:18a warehouse this size means somebody
18:20wandering around aisles looking for you.
18:23Then she added the line, the one that
18:24came back later and bit her right in the
18:26policy.
18:27"If it's not important enough to wait
18:29until your break, it's not important
18:30enough to be on your phone."
18:32And just like that, reaching an employee
18:34went from sending a text to launching a
18:36warehouse-wide search party.
18:38Because apparently emergencies are
18:40polite. They call reception first and
18:42wait for somebody to go hunting.
18:44Nobody fought it. That's the thing
18:46people expect, some big confrontation.
18:49There wasn't one. We all just shrugged
18:50and put our phones in our lockers
18:52because you don't torch your job over a
18:54dumb rule.
18:55We complied, completely, cheerfully
18:57even.
18:59That turned out to be the funny part.
19:01About a week in, Karen came around the
19:03receiving dock and found a pallet with a
19:04busted corner and crushed cartons. She
19:07wanted it documented for the vendor
19:08claim. "Can you take a picture of that?"
19:10she asked me. My phone's in my locker."
19:14She blinked at me for a second like the
19:15words hadn't finished loading. "Right."
19:17She said. "Okay."
19:19She went and got a camera from the
19:20office. Took her about 10 minutes round
19:22trip.
19:23A few days later she was standing by the
19:25packing stations and asked one of the
19:27leads to check a text from another
19:28supervisor. "Phone's in my locker."
19:31"Right."
19:32Then there was the time she wanted a
19:33quick photo of a mislabeled skid so she
19:36could send it upstairs. One of the guys,
19:38genuinely trying to be helpful, offered
19:39to run back and grab his phone real
19:41quick. Karen said, "No, locker access is
19:44at breaks only." He said, "Okay." and
19:46went back to work.
19:48Because that's what she'd asked for. You
19:50could watch it wearing on her.
19:52Every time somebody said, "My phone's in
19:54my locker." her jaw got a little
19:56tighter.
19:57And the thing is nobody was being smart
19:59about it. Nobody was smirking. We were
20:00following her policy exactly as written,
20:03which is apparently the most aggravating
20:05thing an employee can do.
20:07Turns out blanket rules are like ceiling
20:09fans. Eventually they hit the tallest
20:11person in the room.
20:13Then came the afternoon.
20:15Karen came out of her office moving
20:17fast, patting her pockets. Managers were
20:19allowed to carry phones because they use
20:21them for work. Fine, whatever. Nobody
20:23cared about that part. The point is hers
20:25was gone. She checked her desk, her
20:28office chair, her jacket, the break
20:29room, a couple of carts, two
20:31workstations. Nothing.
20:33And this building is huge. Manually
20:35searching it's not a 15 minute job. She
20:38came over to me at the pack line. "Can
20:40you call my phone?"
20:42I want to be clear, I didn't plan
20:43anything. I just stood there for about 2
20:45seconds while my brain caught up. Then I
20:47said, "My phone's in my locker."
20:50She turned to the guy next to me. "Can
20:51you call it?" "Locker." She looked down
20:53the line, three more people. Same answer
20:55three times, perfectly polite.
20:58Every personal phone in that building
21:00was sitting in a metal box a 5 minute
21:01walk away because she had personally
21:03demanded it in a meeting in front of
21:05everyone.
21:06And there it was, the first documented
21:08case of a company policy developing a
21:10sense of humor.
21:11"Go get your phone." she told me. I
21:13said, "I'm not supposed to go to the
21:15lockers outside of break. You were
21:16pretty clear about that." "I'm telling
21:18you to go get it." I kept it flat, not
21:21smug, just factual. "Okay, but you said
21:23no exceptions and I don't want it to be
21:25a thing later."
21:27That's when a guy two stations down said
21:28quietly, mostly to his cardboard, "If
21:31it's not important enough to wait until
21:32your break."
21:34He didn't even finish it. He didn't have
21:35to. Karen's face did something
21:37complicated. You could see her land on
21:40the realization that every single person
21:42there remembered that sentence word for
21:44word.
21:45Nobody laughed.
21:47I want that on the record. 12 grown
21:49adults stared very hard at their work
21:51and not one of us cracked.
21:53She was still our boss. She didn't ask
21:55again. She didn't say make an exception.
21:58She just said, "Fine." and started
21:59looking herself. For 20 minutes she
22:01walked the warehouse, pallet racks,
22:03packing stations, carts, stacks of
22:05paperwork, work tables, asking every few
22:07aisles, "Has anybody seen my phone?"
22:10Nobody had.
22:11At one point she came back through and
22:13said, half to the room, "Seriously,
22:15nobody can call it?"
22:17And the answer came back like a chorus.
22:20Lockers.
22:21For 20 minutes the woman who banned
22:23phones from the warehouse personally
22:25toured the entire warehouse looking for
22:26one.
22:27She finally gave up and went back to the
22:29front office. Instead of trying to call
22:31it once and somehow sprint across half
22:33the building before voicemail picked up,
22:35she asked the receptionist to keep
22:37dialing her number every 30 seconds
22:39while she went back onto the warehouse
22:41floor.
22:42So now somewhere in that building her
22:44phone was ringing, stopping, then
22:46ringing again.
22:48Karen came back down the stairs and
22:49started moving through the aisles while
22:51the receptionist kept redialing.
22:53On about the third or fourth call,
22:55somebody near aisle six stopped.
22:57"Wait." Everybody nearby went quiet. A
23:00few seconds later, buzz,
23:02>> [snorts]
23:02>> buzz, buzz. Faint, but definitely a
23:05phone. People started looking around.
23:08The next call narrowed it down.
23:10It was sitting on top of a
23:11shrink-wrapped pallet. Karen had left it
23:14there earlier that day while correcting
23:16a guy because the labels on his pallet
23:17weren't facing the aisle the way she
23:19wanted them.
23:20It had been sitting there the entire
23:22time.
23:23She picked it up, said thank you to
23:24nobody in particular, and walked back
23:26toward her office.
23:28Nobody applauded. Nobody said a word.
23:3112 people quietly returned to work with
23:33their faces under extreme muscular
23:35strain.
23:37Karen had successfully organized the
23:38world's largest game of find my phone in
23:40a building where nobody was allowed to
23:42have a phone.
23:44Three days later, there was a new
23:45printed sheet by the time clock. The
23:46title said, "Clarified personal device
23:48policy."
23:50No apology, no admission that the old
23:52rule was dumb, just a clarification.
23:54Employees may keep personal phones on
23:56their person, on silent, and out of
23:58sight. Phones may not be actively used
24:00on the warehouse floor except for
24:01emergencies or approved work purposes.
24:04That's it. That's the whole thing. She
24:06never said all phones in lockers again,
24:08not once.
24:10And so, Karen's total phone ban evolved
24:12over the course of one very long
24:14afternoon into exactly what everybody
24:16had suggested on day one.
24:19Don't play with your phone while you're
24:20working.
24:24My neighbor Rick likes to drink.
24:27Not in a dramatic way. He's not
24:28stumbling around every night or passing
24:30out in the yard, but on Friday and
24:32Saturday evenings, there's a very good
24:33chance Rick is sitting in his garage
24:35with a cooler next to him, music
24:37playing, and several empty cans lined up
24:39on the workbench.
24:41Normally, I don't care.
24:43One Saturday night, though, the music
24:44was still going pretty hard after 11. My
24:47bedroom's on the side of the house
24:48facing his driveway, and after listening
24:51to the same bassline come through the
24:52wall for about half an hour, I finally
24:54walked outside.
24:55Rick was sitting in the garage with
24:57another guy.
24:58I stayed at the edge of my driveway and
25:00said, "Hey Rick, any chance you could
25:02turn that down a little? I'm trying to
25:03sleep."
25:04That should have been the whole
25:05conversation. Instead, Rick stood up.
25:07"This is my property." he said. "I
25:09know." "You don't get to tell me what I
25:11can do on my property."
25:13"I'm asking you to turn the music down."
25:15He stared at me for a few seconds, then
25:17said, "Go back inside."
25:19Which, honestly, was exactly what I
25:21wanted to do anyway. So, I did. About 15
25:24minutes later, headlights swept across
25:26my living room. Police cruiser.
25:28I looked out the window and saw two
25:30officers talking to Rick in his
25:31driveway.
25:32For a second, I assumed another neighbor
25:34had finally called about the music. Then
25:36one of the officers walked over and
25:38knocked on my door.
25:39He asked if I had some kind of
25:41confrontation with Rick. I explained
25:43what happened. I walked over, asked him
25:45to turn the music down, and came home.
25:47The officer nodded. "Did you threaten
25:49him?" "No." "Touch him?" "No."
25:52"Go on to his property?" "No, I stayed
25:54in my driveway."
25:56He gave me that look officers give when
25:57they're realizing a call is probably
25:59going to be less interesting than
26:00advertised.
26:02Then Rick came walking over. He still
26:04had a beer in his hand, and he was
26:05angry. "He came out here trying to
26:07intimidate me." Rick said. "He keeps
26:09watching what I'm doing."
26:11The second officer asked, "What was he
26:12watching?" Rick pointed toward the
26:14street. "My truck. He came outside when
26:16I moved my truck."
26:18The officer looked at the pickup parked
26:20at the curb, then he looked back at
26:21Rick.
26:22"You moved that truck tonight?"
26:24Rick didn't even hesitate. "Yeah, it was
26:27in the driveway. I moved it out there so
26:28my buddy could leave."
26:30There was a very small pause. The
26:32officer looked at the beer in Rick's
26:33hand, then at Rick, then back at the
26:35truck.
26:36"You drove it?"
26:38Rick finally seemed to hear his own
26:40sentence. "Just from there to there."
26:42The officer asked, "How much have you
26:43had to drink tonight?"
26:45And that was the exact moment I realized
26:47I no longer needed to participate in
26:49this conversation. I quietly said good
26:51night to the first officer and went back
26:53inside.
26:55The music stopped about 5 minutes later.
26:58I don't know exactly what happened after
26:59that. I know Rick was still home the
27:01next morning and I never saw him taken
27:03anywhere, so I'm guessing the officers
27:05handled it without turning it into
27:07anything dramatic.
27:08But for the next several weekends,
27:10Rick's garage was surprisingly quiet.
27:13And he never called the police on me
27:14again.
27:16Rick wanted the police to investigate
27:18his neighbor. Instead, he personally
27:20opened the interview with, "By the way,
27:21officer, I was just driving after
27:23drinking."
27:24Some problems really do solve
27:26themselves.
27:30Hey guys, thank you all for watching the
27:31video. I'll see you in the next one.

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