For the people saying how mean other people are. My baby have the right to take a nap in the afternoon with out interruptions, my neighbor called the cops on me because i couldn’t throw the ball back because i was trying put my baby to sleep. She came demanding me and i get mad i told her now i don’t want to do it! police came the officer him self get the ball for her.

I am dealing with the same issue with my neighbor here. I just had a newborn and my neighbors were not being considerate on the noise level. They constantly throwing the balls over the fence, and would come knock on my door to come get the ball back. You know... i would kindly do so if I see it when I am in my backyard, but come on... don't knock on my door constantly just because you want the ball back. It's been more than 30+ times over the course of the past few weeks and I am getting so damn tired. I stopped throwing the ball back and stopped answering the door, and while we take walks around the neighbor with our dog, the elderly parents would come approach us and tell us to throw the ball back. It's really getting to annoy me a whole lot, as we can't even enjoy our peace and quiet with our new baby.

This is a tricky one. Your husband should not have jumped the fence. Maybe just ignore the request and give them a box of chocolates to say sorry?

The neighbor’s son is always kicking his ball over my fence, but he is very polite and really a nice person. I made a deal with him, I will get his ball for him once a day. We have both peacefully stuck to our agreement now for the past five years. We respect each other’s limits.

Hi thanks. I've been experiencing the same thing about my son's kicking the ball over into the neighbors property. She sent me a message about my kids not calling for the ball, not coming to ask for the ball, and not jumping the gate for the ball. But this message was sent to me one evening after she swore them to they face about the ball. They seldom play but when they play some how it lands up in her court yard. So I asked them to rather go and fetch the ball from her or use the common passage to collect the ball, but now she has also told my kids they trespassing. I would believe they are when they collect it from her court yard but she's removed the boundary gate and now she claims more of the usage of the space. She's got a protection order against us from playing ball coz the evening when I got home I was so upset of missing my uncles funeral. But during a pandemic she doesnt expect me to take the kids to the park and scene every child at the park. So at the end of the day I was forced to oppose her protection order and retaliate and get one for myself and for her swearing the kids. She can be sitting out there will not throw the ball back. Instead swear the kids.

It's your property he cant just take possession of the ball

I went and spoke to my neighbors after about the third time my kids kicked the ball over their fence as I knew they'd start getting peeved. I told my neighbors (when my kids were out the back) to tell them from now on everytime they kick a ball over the fence itll cost them a dollar to get it back. You can bet they were definitely more careful after that.
A couple of days later my neighbor rings me to tell me my girl tried to get a ball back, when she told neighbor she didnt have a dollar, neighbor said well, you can wash the windows instead, hilarious my child was keen, and then the others wanted to too.
Kids are funny, why get all mad or grumpy about shit that you can have fun with!

My ex neighbours litte shits threw sparklers in my pool and I baked chocolate cake with finely grounded laxatives for the kids and no sparklers were thrown in pool

If your neighbor has a tree hanging over your property you are allowed to cut the branches but must give any fruit removed to the property owner.

Just because it's on your property, it doesn't make it yours. Your husband has not stolen anything, has not broken and entered her property and at best has trespassed. This would of course have to be proved.

Keep your balls and advise your neighbor that failure to return any future balls when requested to do so will result in a report being made to the police for retaining stolen property.

Try and reach an agreement on a time each week she'll toss them back over the fence.

Bottom line, parents

Ha!! Many years ago when our boys were young they kicked a ball over a nasty neighbors fence just ONCE and she kept it, stuck it with a knife and binned it. But she is a total fruitloop who even asked my partner to come dig up a blackberry growing in her yard and then reported him for trespass. 😡

Sorry bud, but your husband illegally trespassed on another's person property. If it was taken to court and the matter of your kids throwing balls over the hard several times a day came into account with mention of the multiple complaints, I guarantee you'd be fined for intentionally trespassing. If your kids are as active as they seem to be, maybe you should buy a larger property rather than blaming the neighbours for not taking your shit. Or take them to a park. There are loads of alternatives.

When the neighbours kid throws shit over our fence, we wait 7 days to give it back for a few reasons.
1. It damages the plants in our garden.
2. I work late and the child is loud which limits my sleep sometimes to 2-3 hours a night.
3. The more we threw it back over the more the kid thought it was okay to do it.
4. Not much stuff ends up in our yard when we aren’t quick to throw it back.
5. There’s an oval, 1 minutes walk away.

Some people are saying that balls in garden should just be put up with. My neighbours child has thrown 6 over today, 5 yesterday. I don't think I am grumpy for not finding this ok. One or 2 a week I could live with, but this many is rude and inconsiderate.

Yeah nah. I don't think they can keep them. We had an unregistered car left in our yard once, it seemed to have been abandoned. We called the police and asked if we could have it towed or sell it to the scrap metal yard, they said no just because it was in our yard, and the current owners couldn't be found, didn't mean we could touch it. I thought it was just the police being useless arseholes. But now I see their point.
Why would balls be any different (when you think about them both in terms of property and not how much they're worth)? Both are owned by someone else. Your neighbours sound like pricks.

We put up with our neighbours kids throwing stuff over our fence for a while when they first moved in - kids playing etc. etc. Then it just became ridiculous. We would gonout and come back to 20+ soft drink bottles all over our lawn and 9ur dog eating them. We spoke to the father and asked him to tell the kids that the dog was eating them and that it would make her sick. From then on he would bring the kids over every time for us to discipline them! They were definitely doing it on purpose! I once missed being hit on the head by a Hockey stick by mm when gardening. We stopped returning stuff after a while.

its funny how pwoplw complain about kids being inside watching screens and when they are outside playing they complain about that also. I think by law, they can't keep your stuff. It doesn't automatically become theirs just because it is in their yard. In regards to the noise, I feel that kids should be able to make a bit of noise. Maybe if you limit their time outside to an hour or so and then off to the park.

I like the ad for chocolate, where the kids are constantly kicking balls over the fence and the long suffering patient neighbour keeps throwing them back.
They see shes in her yard, throw over a wrapped bar of chocolate, and then call out to her "you don't need to throw that one back". Ad ends with neighbour blissfully eating her bar of chocolate ....
Obviously with your situation its gone too far for that now, but it makes you wonder where the whole neighbourly thing, and tolerance for kids has gone .....
Although maybe a bar of chocolate, with a thank you card, for all the previous times they have given the balls back, might help break the impasse.

I have had trouble with my neighbours grandchildren for six years now. they not only throw balls over the fence, but bottles, bits of wood, broken toys, used nappies, broken bits of pottery, you name it. I have spoken to the neighbours and their grandchildren several times, but nothing changes. My dog sometimes finds the balls before I do and chews them up. when I spoke to one of the kids about throwing bits of pottery that just missed me, One of the adults told me to go inside you f...ing c..t and mind your own business. Then another came at me at told me he would kill my dog and he owes them money for the balls he has destroyed. That made me call the police.

Tell your kids to be a bit more careful, or if they really wanna boot it take them to the park. Your neighbour shouldn’t have to continually be throwing balls back over esp if he has complained numerous times.

Wow, one of my neighbours when I was a kid use to give me a lollie every time I came to collect a ball from her yard. Kind of incouraged me to go to her place because I loved her lollies. But then again she was elderly and probably a bit lonely because I would always go through her house to get the ball instead of the gate. And she would love a chat. I miss her actually.... I had really great neighbours.

We had our back fence neighbors coming over 3-4 times a day on the weekends, asking for their stuff back. They werenpolite and patient but in the end I said please don’t come over every time, I’ll just chuck it back when I get a chance, it’s too disruptive when I’m feeding a newborn and always at meal times. They were fine about it, sometimes they have to wait a day or so.

Wtf ...I can’t actually believe what I’m reading ? As if the kids intentionally throw things over fences , they are obviously just having fun playing and accidents happen. What is wrong with your neighbour? Doesn’t seem normal ? I mean it might be annoying to go out several times a day to throw stuff back over fence or have kids knocking multiple times a day to retrieve items but to actually just say no and keep it? That is so messed up!

Thanks we got flowers and a card for her. I do limit the time they can be outside and they know if they make too much noise they have to come in. I imagine it's annoying but I'm not keeping them in all-day

Did your husband happen to take some of their balls when he got your kids ones by accident?

So strange to be asking for them back! They are not theirs just because they go over the fence that is ridiculous. If my neighbours car ploughed through my fence I wouldn't say, "Freaking awesome, new car!!!" So strange. Tell him to fuck off, problem has been solved don't bother you again or you will have to call the police for harrassment.

How are they throwing hundreds of balls over the fence? An odd one here and there I’d be forgiving but if it’s constant you’ve got to teach your kids for other people’s space and sanity too hearing all the noise and carry on all the time is not on.

I would keep the balls since they are yours and maybe just get your husband to apologise for jumping the fence. If you have put up a net to limit the balls going over then your neighbours are just being petty. They can't keep or sell your belongings just because they are in their yard particularly if they have stopped your kids from collecting them.
I remember living in a cul de sac as a kid where all the kids would play cricket. The balls would sometimes be hit into the front yard of one person who decided to keep the balls (they were tennis balls) and wouldn't give them back. Someone ended up ringing the police and they were made to give the balls back.

Can they prove that he jumped the fence and got them from there? Can they prove they're the same balls?
In the interest of keeping the peace, I'd buy cheap look a likes and drop them off. If anything goes over there again, maybe drop off some flowers with an apology note (seriously just get a $8 bunch of flowers from woolies and pad them out with some native foliage and leaves and shit). How young are your boys? Can they still do big puppy dog eyes? Use that to your advantage. Have them bat their big eyes when you drop the balls off and say "escuse me Mrs Crankybottom, why do you want our balls? Do you like football too? You can come play with us if you want to". Really milk that guilt trip on her. We used to have neighbours like you guys. Back before we had our own kids. But it was never any problems for us to get their stuff back. I wouldn't let them in the backyard, our dog would've jumped on them and licked them to death. But I had no dramas getting their balls or toys back. They're just kids. It's not like they're asking for their misplaced swastikas or nazi propaganda. It's a ball for goodness sakes.

Kids are kids, id much prefer having kids come knocking to get their ball back then have them in front of a screen all day. Yes, i live in a neighborhood full of kids and yes it happens a lot. As for the neighbour asking for your balls back, ahhh no lol.