I devised a strategy to discipline my neighbor after she had been stealing fruit and veggies from my tiny backyard garden for months while pretending it wasn’t her 
For months, my neighbor had been pilfering fruit and vegetables from my small garden. I cared for each bed, investing money and energy to grow tomatoes, herbs, and fresh zucchini. However, as soon as we left the home, she would appear in the yard and leave with bags, as though it were her own produce.
I attempted to speak with her:
I grew my own crops, so please don’t touch them.
However, she gave me a direct glance and answered with a stony expression:
You’re having hallucinations. Nothing was taken by me.
It was useless to go to the police; they merely chuckled:
— Really? For an elderly woman, you’re upset about a few tomatoes?
Thus, I made the decision to install a camera. I have a video that showed her leaving my yard with bags full of greens a few days later. However, she brazenly remarked when I played the recording for her:
Photoshop is that. I’m not like that.
It dawned on me then that evidence was worthless. I had to come up with another strategy to convince her that she could no longer steal from me. So I did something out of the ordinary.
I purposefully left some herbs and vegetables in the garden bed that I had previously treated with a bitter tincture and a specific solution created from medicinal herbs.
The leaves were very bitter, and the veggies were rendered inedible, despite the fact that the treatment was quite safe.
My “victim” returned to the yard a few days later and joyfully collected the bags. She carried them home, and I just saw it on video.
I overheard a fight start at the neighbors’ house the following evening. The following shouts reached me:
What is this repulsive substance? Dinner was ruined by you!
— I took no action! Your veggies have a bitter taste!
No one paid attention to the neighbor’s attempt to defend herself. They argued for days, and I never saw her again in my garden during that period. The garden trap had been successful.
She never returned to my property after that happened. And she simply turned away and passed by without saying anything when we happened to cross paths.
I came to the realization that humor that upholds justice can sometimes serve as a more effective teaching tool than the police or debates.
