HOA Karen Destroys Veteran’s $300,000 Lamborghini! She won’t know what’s coming

 

 

The first time I saw my Lamborghini fully destroyed, I felt like someone had punched a hole straight through my chest. I’ve owned cars all my life—classic muscle cars, beat-up project cars, even a few restored antiques—but nothing prepared me for this. The Lamborghini wasn’t just a car; it was my reward for two decades of service, discipline, and sacrifice. Every dollar, every sleepless night, every careful investment had led me here. And now it was gone, obliterated in what had to be a deliberate act of malice.

I took a step closer, inspecting the damage, almost mechanically. The hood was crumpled inward, like it had been slammed with a steel pipe. The windows weren’t just cracked—they were shattered, shards of midnight blue and glass littering the concrete floor. I crouched to examine the wheel rims; they were scraped and dented, one of the tires punctured beyond repair. My stomach churned as I noticed the interior: scratches along the leather, the infotainment screen smashed, the steering wheel scuffed and gouged. Every detail screamed intent.

My first instinct was disbelief. Who in their right mind would destroy a $300,000 car in someone’s own garage? I ran through the possibilities: burglary gone wrong, a prank, a random act of violence. But nothing made sense. The garage door had been locked, no signs of forced entry beyond the broken car. Nothing else in my garage—my tools, my project bikes, my spare engine parts—had been touched. Someone had come for one thing and one thing only.

And then my mind went to Karen.

The HOA secretary. The same woman who had harassed me over “commercial garage activities” for months. Who had timed my garage door, followed me on weekend errands, and left passive-aggressive notes plastered across my property. Every escalation in her behavior now clicked into place. The obsessive stares, the bogus violation notices, the secret questioning of neighbors—it all pointed to her. And suddenly, the destruction of my car didn’t seem random at all. It was targeted, personal, and deliberate.

I pulled out my phone to take pictures for insurance documentation, but my hands were shaking so badly I had to rest the phone on the workbench. Even through the lens, the carnage was staggering. My mind raced—not just with the cost of repairs, which could easily reach six figures, but with the thought that someone had invaded my personal sanctuary. My garage had always been my retreat, the one place I could work on cars without interruption, without judgment. Now it felt violated, like a line had been crossed that couldn’t be ignored.

I replayed the past few months in my head. Every encounter with Karen, every complaint she’d lodged, every smirk when she timed me cleaning the car—all of it suddenly felt sinister. She had been escalating for weeks, each petty violation building toward something more. But I never imagined she’d go this far. I kept thinking, Could she really be capable of this? But my gut told me yes. There was no other explanation.

As I surveyed the damage, I realized that this wasn’t just about a car. It was about control. Karen had been trying to control my life, my property, my peace of mind for months. And now she had crossed a line from harassment into outright destruction. I couldn’t let this go. Not only because of the money, but because of the message it sent: that she could act with impunity. That she could destroy what I worked for and get away with it.

I took a deep breath and stepped back, forcing myself to think. I had to document everything, but I also had to act smart. Calling the police was obvious, but I needed more than just a report—I needed evidence tying her to this. I remembered the neighborhood security cameras I’d installed months ago after some petty thefts in the area. I ran inside, grabbed my tablet, and started pulling the footage from the past 24 hours.

The grainy video confirmed what I had feared. At around 4:15 p.m., a figure approached my driveway. She wore a beige jacket, her hair pulled back, moving with deliberate steps toward my garage. My heart sank as the figure produced a large, blunt object—something like a sledgehammer—and began striking the car. The camera shook slightly as I zoomed in on the figure’s face. My jaw tightened. It was her. Karen. The HOA’s self-appointed enforcer, the neighborhood tyrant, had done this.

I sat down hard, staring at the screen. Rage, disbelief, and fear mingled into a cocktail that made it hard to think straight. I had to plan my next move carefully. This wasn’t just about repairs or insurance. This was about justice—and making sure she never had the chance to terrorize anyone like this again. But how far would I go? How did I respond to someone who had crossed every boundary imaginable?

I knew one thing: Karen didn’t know I tracked everything. Every interaction, every minor violation, every obsessive note. She didn’t realize that I had eyes everywhere—even when she thought she was invisible. And now, she was about to find out that her little act of revenge would come with consequences she never imagined.

But before I could even think about confronting her, I needed to figure out the logistics: police reports, insurance claims, evidence organization, and most importantly, what to do when the HOA inevitably tried to downplay or cover for her. One thing was certain—I wasn’t backing down.

And as I stared at the mangled blue machine in my garage, I couldn’t help but wonder: how far would Karen go next? And how far was I willing to go to make her regret ever laying a finger on it?

The answer was coming—but it wouldn’t be simple.

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An HOA Karen destroyed the Lamborghini of a retired veteran and ends up regretting it deeply. Here is what happened. Let’s dive right into the video. So, I am a 42-year-old retired Army veteran. I served multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq before a knee injury ended my career.

 The VA rated me at 70% disability, which gives me enough to live comfortably, especially combined with my savings from 20 years of military service where I didn’t have much to spend money on. Now that I’m retired, I’ve been getting back into my old hobby of working on cars. My dad was a mechanic and he taught me everything about engines and body work when I was a teenager.

 It is something I really missed during my army years. and the physical therapy for my knee actually recommended that I find activities that would keep me moving without being too strenuous. So, I’ve been wanting a Lamborghini Huracan for years, not to show off, but because I genuinely love the engineering. The way they designed the naturally aspirated V10 engine is just incredible.

 After saving up my deployment money and disability payments for almost 3 years and getting lucky in the stock market, I finally bought a 2023 model 2 months ago. And damn guys, this dude really got lucky. The stock market. Congrats. It is midnight blue and absolutely beautiful. My neighborhood used to be pretty quiet and peaceful.

 I’ve lived here for about 15 years and we never had any major problems. But about a year ago, the residents voted to establish an HOA after some issues with a few houses that were not being maintained properly. At first, it seemed like a good idea. They started maintaining the common areas better and got some of the more rundown properties fixed up.

 Most of the HOA board members are reasonable people. There’s Tom, who’s a retired teacher and really knows his stuff about property management. Sarah works in real estate and has good ideas about maintaining property values. And even Bob, who can be a bit gruff, is fair, and actually helped me when I had questions about installing a new fence last year.

 But then there’s Karen. Karen is the HOA secretary. And from day one, she has been on a power trip. She’s probably in her late 50s, lives alone since her divorce a couple years back, and seems to think that her position on the board makes her the neighborhood dictator. I swear this woman has nothing better to do than patrol the streets looking for violations.

Let me give you some examples of how crazy she is because the car incident was not the first time she had targeted me or other neighbors. About 6 months ago, Karen decided that my lawn was inconsistent with neighborhood standards. Now, I keep my lawn neat and green, and the VA actually pays for a landscaping service as part of my disability benefits.

 But Karen claimed that because I had a small patch of clever mixed in with the grass in my front yard. It was a weed infestation. She sent me an official violation notice demanding I remove all clever within 48 hours or face fines. I called Tom about it and he just left. John, Clover is actually good for lawns.

 Karen’s been watching too many HGTV shows. Just ignore it. The other board members backed me up and they had to send Karen a formal letter telling her to stop issuing these bogus violations. The craziest incident before their car situation happened about 3 months ago with the Burger family across the street.

 They got two young kids, maybe 8 and 10 years old. The kids would ride their bikes in the culde-sac where we live. You know, like kids do. It’s a safe, quiet street with very little traffic. Karen decided that this was a safety hazard and a noise disturbance. She actually called the cops on these children for riding bikes in front of their own house during the afternoon.

When the cops showed up, they basically told her that she was wasting their time. Kids playing in their own neighborhood is not a crime. But Karen wasn’t done yet. She started timing the kids bike riding and documenting it. She would stand outside with a stopwatch and a clipboard, literally following these children around while they played.

 It got so creepy that Mr. Burger had to threaten to call the police on her for harassment. That is when I realized that Karen had some serious issues. Normal people don’t obsess over children, playing or elderly women’s garden decorations. She seemed to get some kind of satisfaction from trying to control everyone around her.

 Which brings me to my Lamborghini situation. I keep the car in my garage most of the time. It is not a daily driver. I use my 2019 Honda Accord for regular errands. The Lamborghini is more of a weekend car and a project vehicle. Sometimes I will take it out for a drive on Saturday mornings when the traffic is light, but mostly I just enjoy working on it and keeping it in perfect condition.

 About a month after I bought it, I was in my garage detailing the car with the garage door open to get some air flow. I had my shop radio playing classic rock at a reasonable volume and I was just enjoying the process of waxing the paint. It’s actually quite relaxing for me. But that is when Karen marched over like she owned the place.

 Excuse me, she said in that condescending tone she uses with everyone. You cannot operate a commercial garage in a residential neighborhood. I looked up from what I was doing, confused. Commercial garage? I’m just cleaning my car. You’re making noise. You have the garage door open and you’re clearly running some kind of automotive business.

 This violates HOA regulations. I tried to stay calm. Karen, I’m washing my own car in my own garage. There’s no business here. She ignored me and started taking pictures with her phone. I’m documenting this violation. You need to cease this activity immediately. I explained that I was not running a business, wasn’t making excessive noise, and that plenty of neighbors work on their cars in their garages.

 She was not having any of it though. This is exactly the kind of behavior that brings down property values. She said, “People don’t want to live next to someone who thinks their garage is an auto shop.” After that confrontation, the harassment really ramped up by Karen. I started getting official looking violation notices about every week.

 Excessive noise from garage activities. Commercial vehicle storage, referring to my completely normal Lamborghini, failure to maintain closed garage policy, which doesn’t even exist. When I contacted the other board members, they confirmed what I suspected. Karen was making up rules and issuing unauthorized fines. Tom was actually pretty angry about it.

 She’s been doing this to several residents, he told me. We’ve had to overturn about a dozen of her bogus violations in the past few months alone. We are considering removing her from the board if this continues. But Karen just kept escalating. She started timing how long my garage door was open. She would walk by my house multiple times a day, clearly hoping to catch me doing something she could sight me for.

 A couple of neighbors mentioned that she had been asking them questions about my so-called business activities. The breaking point came when she started leaving passive aggressive notes on my garage door. things like, “Reminder, residential garages are for parking cars, not commercial activities, and please be considerate of your neighbors regarding noise levels.

” Well, I decided to ignore her completely and just go about my business. I figured if I didn’t engage with her crazy behavior, she would eventually find someone else to bother. But I was wrong. This past weekend, I drove my Honda to visit my sister about 2 hours away. She’s got two kids and I tried to visit every couple of weeks to help out since her husband travels for work.

 I left Saturday morning and planned to come back Sunday evening. When I got back around 7:00 p.m. Sunday, everything seemed normal. I parked my Honda in the driveway, grabbed my overnight bag, and went inside to check the mail and get settled. I was not planning to take the Lamborghini out that evening, so I didn’t immediately go into the garage.

 About an hour later, I decided to check on the car. Partly because I like to look at it and partly because I wanted to start it up since it had been sitting for a couple of days. When I opened the garage door, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My Lamborghini was completely destroyed. The windows were smashed, the hood was dented in like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, and there were impact marks all over the body.

 The side mirrors were hanging by their wires, and one of the doors was so damaged it wouldn’t close properly. easily $80,000 in damage, maybe more. I just stood there for a minute trying to process what I was looking at. My first thought was that someone had broken in, but nothing else in the garage was touched. My tools were all there.

 My workbench was undisturbed, and even some expensive equipment was sitting right where I left it. This was targeted. Someone had specifically destroyed my car, and nothing else. I immediately thought of Karen. She was the only person who had shown any hostility towards the car and her behavior had been escalating for weeks.

 But I needed to be smart about this. I called 911 and reported the vandalism. While I was waiting for the police, I checked my security camera system. I’d installed it about a year ago after there were some break-ins in the neighborhood. The cameras cover my driveway and the front of my garage, and the footage was crystal clear. At 2:07 a.m.

 Saturday night, Karen walked up my driveway carrying a sledgehammer. She spent about 20 minutes in my garage and you could hear the sound of metal being struck repeatedly. When she left, she was still carrying the sledgehammer. I immediately called my insurance company, USAA, which handles a lot of military members and knows how to deal with exotic cars.

 They said they would have an adjuster out first thing Monday morning and that I should get a police report number for the claim. When the police arrived, I showed them the security footage, and Officer Willow, who responded to the call, watched it twice, shook his head, and said, “That’s about as clear-cut as it gets.

 Do you want to press charges?” “Absolutely,” I told him. He suggested that I try calling Karen while he listened to see if she would confess anything. Sometimes people dig themselves in deeper trouble where they think they’re only talking to the victim. I called her number on speaker phone while officer Willow and his partner listened and I asked Karen, “Someone destroyed my Lamborghini this weekend while I was out of town.

 Do you know anything about it?” There was a pause and then she got immediately defensive. Why are you calling me? Why would I know anything about your car? Well, you’ve been complaining about it for weeks and I have security footage of someone who looks exactly like you. That is when she completely lost it. Good.

 I’m glad that someone finally did something about it ridiculous car. You think you’re so special, huh? Flaunting your money around the neighborhood like some kind of big shot. You’re just a broken down soldier who got lucky with disability money. And you act like you’re better than everyone else. Officer Willow motioned for me to keep her talking.

Karen, are you saying that you destroyed my car? Damn right I did. Every night I had to look at that thing sitting in your garage knowing you’re living high on the government dime while the rest of us work for everything we have. I’ve worked my whole life and I cannot afford anything like that.

 So yeah, I took a sledgehammer to it, and I’m glad I did. The officers had heard enough. Officer Willow took the phone from me. Ma’am, this is Officer Willow with the city police. You just confessed to felony vandalism. We’ll be over to arrest you in a few minutes. You could hear Karen dropped the phone. 20 minutes later, Karen was in handcuffs, still screaming about how unfair it was that I had a nice car, and she didn’t.

 But the story doesn’t end there. Karen made bail, and apparently her sister came up with the money. I figured that would be the end of it until the court date. I was in my driveway around 6 p.m. talking to the USAA adjuster about the damage assessment when Karen came charging out of her house. She was carrying once again the same sledgehammer.

 You ruined my life. She screamed running straight at me. I lost my job because of you. I’m going to finish what I started. She swung the sledgehammer right at my head. Now Karen clearly forgot that I’m a combat veteran with hand-to-hand training. As she brought the sledgehammer down, I sidestepped, grabbed her wrists, and used her own momentum to throw her to the ground.

 The sledgehammer went flying across the driveway, but she wasn’t done. She got up, and tried to claw at my face, calling me every name in the book. Well, at that point, I did what my training taught me. I threw a controlled punch right to her jaw. She dropped like a sack of potatoes, completely unconscious.

 The insurance adjuster was standing there with his mouth open, probably wondering what kind of a neighborhood he had wandered into. I immediately called 911 again. This is John. I need police and an ambulance. The woman who destroyed my car just got out on bail and attacked me with a sledgehammer. I had to defend myself and she’s unconscious.

 The paramedics arrived first and confirmed that Karen was just knocked out, no serious injury. When she came too about 10 minutes later, she was immediately arrested again. this time for a sword with a deadly weapon and violation of her bail conditions. Officer Willow, who happened to be on duty again, just shook his head when he saw me.

 “Some people never learn,” he said. “She’s not getting bail this time.” And he was right. At Karen’s second arraignment Tuesday morning, the judge took one look at her record. Felony vandalism followed immediately by assault with a deadly weapon while on bail and denied bail entirely. The district attorney told me that Karen was now facing multiple felony charges and was looking at several years in prison.

Her public defender already called asking if I’d be willing to accept a plea deal. But honestly, after she tried to bash my skull in with a sledgehammer, I’m not feeling very generous here. The HOA board held an emergency meeting and voted unanimously to remove Karen from her position. They also passed a resolution apologizing to me and several other residents who had been harassed by her unauthorized enforcement actions.

 So yeah, Karen destroyed my car thinking she would get away with it because she was jealous of what I had earned through military service. But within 24 hours she was arrested twice, lost her job, lost her position on the HO board, and is now looking at several years in prison. I would say she regretted it pretty instantly.

 The funniest part though, my neighbor Tom told me later that Karen had always talked about wanting a luxury car, but could never afford one on her administrative assistant salary. Well, it turns out she was just eaten up with jealousy the whole time. My Lamborghini is currently being repaired at a specialty shop that USAA recommended.

 It should be back to perfect condition in about 6 weeks. Karen, on the other hand, won’t be driving anything for a very long time. Sometimes people think they can take what others have earned, but they usually find out that there are serious consequences for that kind of thinking. And yeah, guys, if you still enjoy the HOA stories, please don’t forget to like the video and leave me some sty emojis in the comments if you want to support me.

 If we could reach 1,000 likes, that would be amazing. The next one is another super crazy HOA story that is titled, “Am I the a-hole for using my professional qualifications to shut down my HOA’s harassment over my backyard project?” So, for context, I’m a 45-year-old guy who works as a structural engineer for a major consulting firm.

 I’ve been living in this suburban neighborhood for about 8 years now with my wife and two teenage kids. It is one of those typical HOA communities where everyone’s lawn has to be the exact same shade of green and your mailbox better not be half an inch too tall or you will get a violation notice.

 The whole mess started about 2 years ago when I decided to build something special for my kids in our backyard. My son had just turned 13 and my daughter was 11 and they’d been begging for a treehouse for years. We have this massive oak tree in our backyard that’s probably been there for over 50 years, and it seemed like the perfect spot.

 Now, I should mention that I’ve always been the neighborhood’s weird project guy. Over the years, I’ve built custom furniture, a pretty elaborate workshop in my garage, and even a backyard fire pit with built-in seating that became the envy of half the block. My neighbors either love my projects or think I’m completely nuts. There’s no middle ground.

 When I started sketching out plans for the treehouse, I knew it was not going to be some basic platform with a rope ladder. I’m talking about a twostory structure with proper stairs, railings, electricity for lighting, and even a small deck area. Basically, I wanted to build something that would last decades and be completely safe for the kids and their friends.

 I pulled all the necessary permits from the city, which wasn’t cheap or easy. The building department made me submit detailed structural plans, and I had to prove that the tree could handle the load. I even hired an arborist to assess the tree’s health and provide a written report. Everything was completely above board from a legal standpoint.

The problem started about a week into construction when I got my first visit from the HOA president. This guy, let’s call him the president, has been running the HOA, like his personal kingdom, for the past 6 years. He is also a city councilman, which means he thinks he’s got more authority than he actually does.

 The president showed up one Saturday morning while I was installing the main support beams. He walked straight into my backyard without even knocking and started taking pictures with his phone. “What exactly do you think you’re doing back here?” he asked, not even bothering with pleasantries. “Building a treehouse for my kids,” I replied, continuing to work.

 “I’ve got all the city permits if you want to see them.” “This is not just about city permits,” he said. “This structure violates multiple HOA covenants. You cannot just build whatever you want without HOA approval. I stopped what I was doing and looked at him. Well, actually, I checked the covenants pretty carefully.

 There’s nothing in there that specifically prohibits tree houses, and I’m not violating any setback requirements since it is attached to an existing tree. His face got red, which I would learn was his default reaction to being challenged. We will see about that. Well, 3 days later, I got my first violation notice in the mail. It cited some vague language about structures that may impact the neighborhood aesthetics and demanded that I halt construction immediately and submit detailed plans to the HOA architectural review board. I’ll admit this annoyed me

more than it should have. I had spent months planning this project, hundreds of dollars on permits, and I was building something completely safe and legal on my own property. But I decided to play along and submitted my plans to the HOA. And two weeks later I got their response denied.

 Insert Duke Nukem voice in your head. The reason given was insufficient safe documentation. They wanted me to provide engineering calculations, material specifications, and proof that the structure met all applicable building codes. Here’s where it gets interesting, though. I actually was happy to provide all of the documentation because, well, I’m a structural engineer.

 I had already done all the calculations as part of my normal design process. I submitted a 30-page engineering report that was probably more thorough than what most commercial buildings get. Their response still denied. This time, they wanted additional safety features like more railings, different stairs, impact resistant materials, and a whole list of modifications that would have cost thousands of dollars and frankly were not necessary.

 This pattern continued for months. Every time I addressed their concerns, they would come back with new ones. They wanted seismic analysis reports. We don’t live in an earthquake zone. They wanted a wind load calculations for hurricane conditions. We are nowhere near the coast. They demanded that I install professionalgrade safety equipment that you would find on a construction site.

Meanwhile, the president started showing up at my house regularly, always when I was not home. My wife told me that he had been taking pictures and measurements, and once she caught him actually climbing onto our deck to get a better view of the backyard. When she confronted him, he claimed that he was conducting an official HOA inspection.

This is getting ridiculous, my wife said one evening after another surprise visit. He’s harassing us at this point. I know, I replied. But I’m not backing down. We’re not doing anything wrong here. The whole thing was affecting my kids, too. They had gotten excited about the treehouse, and now they kept asking when it would be finished.

 I’d already built the basic structure, but I’d stopped working on the finishing touches because of all this HOA drama. About 18 months into this mess, I got a letter that made my blood boil. The HOA was threatening legal action if I didn’t either bring the structure into compliance with their everchanging requirements or remove it entirely.

 They gave me 30 days to respond. That is when I decided that I’d had enough of playing nice. I called the HOA’s management company and requested to speak with the legal council. When I explained the situation, the lawyer actually seemed surprised by how unreasonable the demands had become. They want a seismic analysis for a treehouse in our area, she asked. That is unusual.

 It gets better though, I said and proceeded to read her the entire list of requirements they had accumulated over the past year and a half. After a long pause, she said, “Some of these requirements seem excessive for a residential structure of this type. Have you considered having the plans reviewed by a licensed professional engineer?” I almost laughed.

 Actually, that’s why I’m calling. So, the HOA sent me a final notice saying that if I want to keep the structure, I need to have the plan signed and stamped by a qualified engineer certifying that it meets all safety requirements. That seems reasonable, she said. Oh, it is reasonable. In fact, I already have an engineer lined up to review and certify the plans.

 I didn’t mention that the engineer was me. I spent the next two weeks preparing the most thorough engineering analysis I’d ever done for any project. I documented every beam, every joint, every safety feature. I calculated load capacities with safety factors that would make the treehouse strong enough to survive a tornado. I even included a peer review from a colleague at my firm who owed me a favor.

 The final document was 47 pages long and stemmed with my professional engineer seal. The next HOA meeting was scheduled for a Thursday evening. I’d never attended one before because they are usually just boring discussions about landscaping budgets and pool maintenance schedules, but this time I marked my calendar. I arrived early and took a seat in the back row.

 The president was clearly surprised to see me there, but he didn’t say anything until they got to new business. “We have the matter of the illegal treehouse structure,” he announced, looking directly at me. “The homeowner was given 30 days to provide professional engineering certification or remove the structure.

 Since I haven’t received any documentation, I assume he has chosen to remove it.” I stood up and walked to the front of the room. Well, actually, I have the engineering certification right here. I handed him the bond report. He flipped through it quickly, clearly not understanding most of what he was looking at until he got to the final page with the engineer stamp and signature.

 His face went through several different expressions as he read my name and license number. This this is signed by you, he said. Well, that’s right. I’m a licensed professional engineer with over 20 years of experience in structural design. The treehouse has been designed and built to exceed all applicable safety standards. The room was completely silent.

 Several other board members were looking back and forth between the president and me like they were watching a tennis match. “You cannot sign your own engineering report,” he finally said, though he sounded less confident than usual. “Actually, I can, and I do it regularly as part of my job. Professional engineers are ethically and legally permitted to stem plants that they’ve designed and that fall within their area of expertise.

 Structural design is exactly my area of expertise.” One of the other board members spoke up and said, “So, the treehouse is actually safe? It’s more than safe?” I replied, “According to my analysis, it could withstand wind loads that are triple what we would ever see in this area. The safety factor on the structural members is 4:1, which is higher than most residential buildings.

” The president was clearly scrambling. Well, there are still aesthetic concerns and property value impacts to consider, which are not engineering issues, I said. And according to the HOA covenants, structures that meet all applicable building codes and safety requirements can only be denied for very specific aesthetic reasons.

 And my treehouse doesn’t violate any height restrictions, setback requirements, or material specifications listed in the covenants. I could see several people in the audience starting to smile. A few were even chuckling quietly. Furthermore, I continued, I’ve been documenting this entire process, including the constantly changing requirements and the repeated inspections of my property.

 I think most people would agree that requesting seismic analysis for a treehouse in our area is unreasonable. The president’s face was getting red again. This board has the authority to regulate structures that impact the neighborhood. Absolutely, I agreed. But that authority has to be exercised reasonably and consistently.

 You cannot make up new requirements every month just because you don’t like a particular project. At that point, another board member called for a motion to approve my treehouse based on the engineering certification. The motion passed 4:1 with only the president voting against it. After the meeting, several neighbors came up to congratulate me.

 Apparently, a lot of people had been watching this drama unfold and were frustrated with how the president had been handling it. That was amazing, one neighbor said. We had no idea you were an engineer. I never thought it was relevant before, I replied. My kids finally got their finished treehouse about a month later. It turned out even better than I’d originally planned, partly because all the HOA delays had given me time to add extra features. But here’s my question.

Was I wrong to let this drag on for 2 years before revealing that I was qualified to provide the engineering certification they kept demanding? Some people have said I should have been upfront about my background from the beginning. Others think the president deserve to be embarrassed after all the harassment.

 My wife thinks I handled it perfectly, but she’s probably biased. My kids definitely think I’m a hero, but they are biased, too. So, Reddit, am I the a-hole for using my professional qualifications to shut down what I saw as HOA harassment? And yeah, guys, let me know in the comments what you think about this. Do you think OP was the a-hole or not? Comment number one, you’re the a-hole.

 And honestly, I’m surprised so many people are supporting this petty power play. Look, I get that the HOA president was being unreasonable, but you deliberately wasted everyone’s time for 2 years just to prove a point. You could have solved this entire mess in week one by simply saying, “I’m a structural engineer. Here’s my professional analysis.

 But instead, you chose to drag it out because what? You wanted to embarrass the guy at a public meeting. Think about all the time and energy that got wasted here. Not just you, but the HOA board members, the management company, their lawyer, your wife having to deal with surprise visits, etc. You put your family through months of stress when you had the solution in your back pocket the entire time.

 And before people jump on me about the president deserved it. Yeah, he was being a pain, but that doesn’t justify deliberately prolonging a conflict when you had the power to end it early. That’s not justice, that’s just being vindictive. Comment number two, not the a-hole. And frankly, this was beautiful to watch unfold. People saying you should have revealed your credentials earlier are missing the point entirely.

 You followed their process. You submitted plans. You addressed their concerns. You jumped through every hoop they put in front of you. The fact that they kept moving the goalposts proves this was never about legitimate safety concerns. It was about a power tripping HOA president who couldn’t handle being told no. The seismic analysis demand for a treehouse in a non-earquake zone. Come on.

 That is when it became clear this guy was just making stuff up to force you to give up. You gave them exactly what they asked for, professional engineering certification. Not your fault. They assumed you would have to pay someone else thousands of dollars to get it, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. And also, let’s talk about the real issue here.

 This president was trespassing on your property, taking unauthorized photos, and harassing your wife. That behavior was completely unacceptable, and frankly, you showed way more restraint than I would have. The dramatic reveal at the meeting was awesome. Sometimes bullies need to be publicly embarrassed before they will back down.

 You protected your family, stood up for your rights as a homeowner, and gave your kids an awesome treehouse. Well played, sir. And before we end the video, let’s read one last malicious compliance story. This one is titled Wikipedia’s compliance with a court order. So recently, Portuguese courts ordered Wikipedia to remove information about a Portuguese businessman that he deemed defamatory.

 This included the fact that he was dismissed as honorary console of Cape Verde due to being the main financier of a far-right party, Chagga, and the fact that he was charged with assaulting and robbing his girlfriend in 1989. The Wikipedia Foundation complies with the court order, but his Wikipedia page now has a giant banner at the top that says the following.

 On August 5th, 2025, content from this article was removed following a court order and must not be restored. Therefore, this article may not meet Wikipedia standards for neutrality and comprehensiveness. The removed content pertains to the following crimes allegedly committed by the businessman in 1989 and associated proceedings. Number two, an organization the businessman allegedly founded.

 Number three, his alleged dismissal from a civil service post. This banner implicitly encourages readers to do research into the information that was removed while letting everyone know that he sued to have it hidden.