Homeowner From Rich Neighborhood Gets Accused Of Ruining Halloween After She Urged The Community To Screen Trick Or Treaters From The Other Town

Boo! Show me your ID.

Chelsi

• Published in Halloween
• April 8, 2022

Halloween is an annual anticipated event that people of all ages. But let's be honest, nobody loves Halloween as much as kids do; they enjoy dressing up in all sorts of costumes, and most of all they love trick or treating.

Kids learn which houses and neighborhoods are the most generous to visit. A Redditor lives in a neighborhood that kids love during Halloween.

OP (original poster) lives in a rich neighborhood of about 90 houses that gets a lot of visitors during the festivities. They're so popular that they used to have around 700 to 1,000 trick or treaters annually.

OP loved this because her kids are no longer at the trick-or-treating age. However, in the past few years, the amount of people that visit their neighborhood during Halloween has gotten ridiculous.

Their neighboring town of 30,000 people brings their kids to OP's neighborhood. As a result, thousands of kids and parents flood their streets causing litter and trampling their yards.

She was annoyed but did nothing about it until a recent family emergency happened on Halloween. OP's daughter tripped and broke her arm which meant a much-needed trip to the emergency room.

Unfortunately, there were so many people they couldn't get out. OP said empty cars were parked in people's yards, lining the sidewalk, and parked in the middle of the road.

They had to wait until 1 AM after the merry trick or treaters have left before they could go to the ER.

OP's daughter was in pain for hours but they couldn't really do anything about it. This was the straw that broke the camel's back.

OP got in touch with the neighborhood community and managed to get the guards on board. They will stand at the gate with a pre-approved list of names, family, and friends of people living inside the subdivision, that they will allow inside the neighborhood.

That year there were only about 300 kids who managed to trick or treat. This was great for OP as there was not much litter left after.

They will be doing the screening again this year. OP didn't think she did a bad thing until she talked to her sister about it.

OP's sister reminded her that when they were young, they had to trick or treat in the nicer neighborhood because they used to live in a trailer park. She said OP is a horrible person for ruining Halloween for thousands of kids.

Despite her sister being upset, OP doesn't feel bad about what she did. OP said that if there was a fire or other emergency then first responders wouldn't be able to go through due to the people and haphazardly parked vehicles.

OP doesn't believe she was wrong but her sister's outburst made her doubt her actions. Do you think OP is the a**hole? You can read her original post below:

"I was annoyed."

"I was done."

"Honestly, I'm not too broken up."

Oh gosh.

Initially people assumed that OP was discriminating against poor kids and using the emergency as a reasonable excuse

They even said she was selfish and masking her hatred for "those people"

OP said that wasn't the case at all and explained where she was coming from

Surely the city government can intervene if the problem is this bad?

Apparently, it's not a city but a financially struggling small town

A commenter asked OP for clarification

While they are not poor, OP says they're also not drowning in money. Well, you can read the rest of her comment below which doesn't help her case

It does sound like there are other biases at play here but OP didn't bother to answer or refute the comment

Did OP call an ambulance at least?

OP said that there were so many people and vehicles, an ambulance wouldn't have been able to go through

After some time, comments supporting OP's actions were gaining traction

They pointed out that if it was a life-threatening emergency, the amount of people and cars in OP's neighorhood would have caused a big problem

The parents could have made sure they were treating the neighboorhood and, by extention, the residents nicely

If they cause obstruction then it's a problem

If others can maintain proper decorum and not destroy other neighborhoods, then this could be done in OP's town as well

That is if the parents and children make an effort not to destroy people's property

It seems OP acted just soon enough before things escalated to this level

The happy times stopped because the parents weren't responsible adults

It's easy to see why OP was rightfully worried...

... but she shouldn't go around telling people about her involvement with the pre-approved list

This is a big blow for the children who only want candy but OP was right to raise concerns

OP just wanted the annual tradition to be safe for everyone involved

As the people from the first comments, I thought OP was just discriminating against others from outside her social standing. Reading and reflecting on what she posted, my opinion changed.

OP could have easily been labeled the witch who ruined Halloween but if you really think about it, she just wanted the fun times to be safe. Had the visitors been responsible and respected the properties then this wouldn't have happened.

Chelsi