Karen Bulldozed The Only Road To My House… Then Got Arrested For Destroying It!

[00:00:00]Hey there. Welcome back to Story Slices, where we slice through the best Reddit tales just for you. The first one is an entitled people story. Is it possible to get your neighbor arrested for being a Karen? My neighbor destroyed the only road to my house, so I found out >> the police call it criminal mischief.

[00:00:17]They just call it contempt of court, and I call it the beginning of my ultimate revenge. This whole mess started about 2 years ago when I bought my property in a rural area about 30 minutes outside of town. It's a beautiful piece of land, 5 acres with a small house surrounded by trees and wildlife. The only catch was that my property sits at the end of a private road and I have a legal easement to use that road to access my place. For those who don't know, an easement is basically a legal right to use someone else's property for a specific purpose.

[00:00:50]In my case, I have a recorded easement that gives me the right to use the gravel road that crosses my neighbor's property to get to mine. This easement was established decades ago, long before I bought the place, and it's in the property deed. Everything was disclosed when I purchased the property, and my lawyer reviewed all the documents to make sure everything was legal and above board. The road itself isn't anything fancy. It's about a/4 mile long, maybe 12 ft wide, covered in gravel and dirt.

[00:01:18]It's a typical rural road that works perfectly fine for what it needs to do.

[00:01:22]There are potholes here and there, especially after heavy rain, but nothing that a truck or SUV can't handle. I've driven it hundreds of times without any real problems. For the first year I lived there, everything was great. My neighbor at the time was an older gentleman named Frank who owned the property The Road Cross. Frank was retired, kept to himself mostly, and we had a perfectly cordial relationship.

[00:01:45]We'd wave to each other when I drove past his house, and occasionally we'd chat about the weather or local news. He never once complained about me using the road, probably because he understood that I had every legal right to do so.

[00:01:57]Then Frank decided to sell his property and move closer to his kids in another state. I was a little sad to see him go, but I figured whoever bought the place would be reasonable. The property sat on the market for a few months before it sold. That's when my problems began. The new owners were a couple in their early 50s. Let's call them Karen and her husband Dave. From the moment they moved in, Karen made it clear she wasn't happy about the easement. The first time I met her, I was driving home from work and she was standing in her driveway. I stopped to introduce myself and welcome them to the neighborhood, trying to be friendly. Hi, I'm your neighbor from down the road, I said with a smile.

[00:02:33]Welcome to the area. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other around since I used the road to get to my place. Karen looked at my truck, then at the road, then back at me with this pinched expression. Yes, about that, she said, not even telling me her name first. We weren't really aware of this easement situation when we bought the property.

[00:02:50]This road is on our land, and frankly, we paid a lot of money for this property. We're planning to do some landscaping, and we don't want a bunch of traffic tearing up our driveway. I kept my tone polite. I understand, but the easement is recorded in both of our property deeds. It's been there for probably 40 years or more. I only drive to and from work, so it's just my truck twice a day on weekdays and maybe a few trips on weekends. I'm not running a business or anything. She crossed her arms. Well, we'll see about that. We're going to have our lawyer look into this whole easement thing. There has to be a way to get it removed, or at least limit when you can use it. That conversation set the tone for everything that followed. Over the next few months, Karen became increasingly hostile. She'd stand at the edge of her property and glare at me every time I drove past. She put up a sign at the entrance to the road that said, "Private property, no trespassing." Even though my easement gave me every right to be there, I ignored the sign and kept using the road like I always had. Then the letters started arriving. The first one came from Karen's lawyer informing me that they were investigating the validity of my easement and requesting that I limit my use of the road to essential trips only. I took the letter to my own lawyer, who read it and basically laughed. This is nonsense. My lawyer said, "Your easement is ironclad. It's recorded. It's been in continuous use for decades, and it specifically grants you access to your property. They can't limit when or how often you use it as long as you're using it for normal residential purposes. Send me a copy of this letter and I'll draft a response explaining that you intend to continue using your legal easement rights exactly as you have been." My lawyer sent a polite but firm response. Karen's lawyer sent another letter claiming that my truck was causing excessive wear and tear on the road and demanding that I pay for maintenance. My lawyer responded that as the easement holder, I was responsible for maintaining the easement in reasonable condition, but that Karen's claims of excessive damage were unfounded and that a gravel road naturally developed some wear with use.

[00:04:53]This back and forth continued for weeks.

[00:04:55]Karen kept trying different angles, claiming I was driving too fast, claiming I was using the road for commercial purposes. as I wasn't claiming the easement was somehow invalid because of some obscure technicality her lawyer dug up. Every single claim fell apart under scrutiny.

[00:05:11]My lawyer kept shooting down her arguments with actual law and facts.

[00:05:15]Then Karen tried a different approach.

[00:05:16]She sent me a letter offering to pay me to stop using the easement. She offered me $5,000 to find another way to access my property. The problem was there was no other way. My property was at the end of the road, surrounded on three sides by protected wetlands that couldn't be developed or crossed. The county wouldn't let me build a road through wetlands, even if I wanted to, and it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars anyway. The only way in or out was this road. I declined her offer. She came back with $10,000. I declined again and told her the easement wasn't for sale at any price. I needed it to access my home, and that was that. She didn't take it well. You're being completely unreasonable," she shouted at me one evening when I was driving home. She'd actually positioned herself in the middle of the road, forcing me to stop.

[00:06:03]"We're trying to be nice about this, and you won't even negotiate." I kept my voice calm. "Karen, there's nothing to negotiate. I have a legal easement."

[00:06:11]"I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm just trying to get to my house." "This is harassment," she yelled. "You're constantly driving past our house, kicking up dust, making noise. We moved here for peace and quiet. Then maybe you shouldn't have bought a property with an easement on it, I said immediately, regretting the blunt response. But I was getting tired of this. Look, I'm sorry you're not happy with the situation. But I have every legal right to use this road. If you want peace and quiet, I suggest you stop standing in the middle of the road yelling at me. She stormed off, and I thought that would be the end of it. I was wrong. About a week later, I left for work in the morning like normal. When I came home that evening, I found the road completely destroyed.

[00:06:53]Karen had hired a contractor with a bulldozer and excavator. They had completely torn up the road surface, pushing all the gravel into massive piles on either side. Then they dug a trench across what was left, 6 ft deep and at least 10 ft wide. The bulldozer was still sitting there next to an excavator, and the road was utterly destroyed. Not just blocked, but ripped apart. I sat in my truck staring at the destruction, genuinely shocked. I mean, I knew Karen was upset about the easement, but I never thought she'd actually do something this insane. There was no way to drive across it. The trench was too wide to jump with a vehicle and too deep to risk it, even if I wanted to try. I pulled out my phone and took dozens of photos and videos from every angle. Then I called the non-emergency police line to report what had happened. A sheriff's deputy arrived about 20 minutes later. He walked up to the trench, looked at it, looked at me, and shook his head. "Who did this?" he asked. I pointed toward Karen's house.

[00:07:49]My neighbor. She's been trying to stop me from using my easement to access my property. I have all the documentation showing I have a legal right to use this road. The deputy walked up to Karen's front door and knocked. Karen answered with a big smile on her face until she saw me standing behind the deputy. The smile disappeared. Ma'am, did you have this trench dug across the road? The deputy asked. This is my property, Karen said defensively. I can do what I want on my own property. Not when there's a recorded easement, the deputy said. Do you have any paperwork showing you have the right to block this easement?

[00:08:22]Karen's face went red. He doesn't have the right to constantly drive across my property. This is harassment. I'm protecting my property rights. The deputy turned to me. Do you have documentation of your easement? Yes, sir. I pulled up the PDF of my deed on my phone and showed him the easement language. He read through it, took down the information, and nodded. Ma'am, this appears to be a valid easement. He told Karen, "By blocking it, you may be interfering with his legal property rights. I strongly suggest you contact your lawyer and get this resolved. You need to make the road passable immediately or you could face legal consequences." Karen just glared at both of us and slammed the door. In the meantime, I was stuck. I ended up having to park my truck at Karen's property line where the road was still intact, then hiked the rest of the way to my house across rough terrain about a/4 mile through brush and uneven ground. It wasn't a straight path. I had to navigate around trees, climb over fallen logs, and cross some muddy patches near the wetlands. It took me 45 minutes each way, and that was when I didn't make a wrong turn and have to backtrack. I had to do this twice a day just to take care of my dog and get essentials for my house. I couldn't bring my work laptop home. Couldn't get changes of clothes.

[00:09:32]Couldn't do any of the normal things people do at their houses. I was basically camping at a friend's place while hiking to my house daily to keep things from falling apart. On the third day of this nightmare, I actually had to call cops because I'd twisted my ankle pretty badly making the hike and needed help getting back out. The paramedics hiked in to where I was, helped me back to the road, and treated my ankle. They were not happy when they learned why I was having to hike through rough terrain to access my own house. "You're telling me your neighbor dug a trench and you can't get to your house?" one of the paramedics asked, incredulous. "That's exactly what I'm telling you?" I said, wincing as he wrapped my ankle. She's trying to force me to stop using my easement. That's insane, he said. What if there was a real emergency? What if your house caught fire? We couldn't get equipment back there. That comment actually made me realize how dangerous Karen's stunt really was. If something happened, a fire, a medical emergency, anything, emergency services couldn't reach my property, I was completely cut off. Over the next few days, while waiting for the court hearing, I couldn't get to my house at all except for those painful hikes. I had to stay with a friend. I couldn't get my work laptop, my clothes, nothing. I had to call my employer and explain why I couldn't come in. My driveway was literally destroyed and I was locked out of my property. I had to use vacation days I'd been saving for an actual vacation. I couldn't feed my dog properly, who thankfully a neighbor on the other side of the wetlands agreed to hike in and take care of. She had to make the same rough hike I did, and she wasn't happy about it either. I was losing money every day this went on. Not to mention the stress and physical pain of dealing with it all. My lawyer filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order and injunction.

[00:11:14]Because I was completely landlocked and couldn't access my property or get to work, the court treated it as an emergency. It still took 3 days to get before a judge, during which I had to stay with a friend and take unpaid time off work. When we finally got the hearing, my lawyer and I explained the situation. The judge looked at Karen's lawyer and asked, "Does your client dispute the existence or validity of this easement?" Karen's lawyer, looking uncomfortable, admitted that no, they didn't dispute that the easement existed and was valid. They were arguing that I was abusing the easement by using it excessively. "How many times per day does the plainif use this road?" the judge asked. "Typically twice per day on weekdays for work commute and occasionally on weekends for errands," my lawyer answered. This is normal residential use for someone who lives at the end of the road. The judge looked at Karen's lawyer. That doesn't sound excessive to me. Counselor, your client has blocked access to this man's property entirely. He can't get to his home, can't access emergency services, can't go to work. This is clearly interfering with a valid easement. He turned to Karen, who was sitting in the courtroom looking defiant. Ma'am, I'm ordering you to restore that road to passable condition within 48 hours. If you fail to do so, you'll be in contempt of this court. Do you understand? Karen stood up, her face red. Your honor, with all due respect, this is my property. I should have the right to. Ma'am, the judge interrupted, his voice stern. You bought property that has an easement on it. That easement was recorded and disclosed. The plainif has every legal right to use that road. You do not have the right to block it. 48 hours. That's my order. I thought that would be the end of it. I really did. The judge had been crystal clear. But when I drove past Karen's property 48 hours later, not only had she not filled in the trench, she'd actually made it worse.

[00:13:02]The contractor had dug it even deeper and wider. It was now at least 8 ft deep and probably 12 ft across. It looked like a moat. I took more photos, sent them to my lawyer, and he immediately filed a motion for contempt. We were back in court 2 days later. This time, the judge was visibly angry. "Miss Karen," he said, using her last name, but I'm keeping it out for privacy. I gave you a direct order to restore that road. Not only did you not comply, you made the situation worse. This is a clear case of contempt of court. Karen's lawyer tried to argue that there had been a miscommunication with the contractor, but the judge wasn't buying it. Your honor, my lawyer interjected.

[00:13:40]We'd also like to inform the court that my client has been in contact with the district attorney's office regarding this matter. That got everyone's attention. My lawyer explained that he'd contacted the DA about the destruction of the easement. Turns out intentionally destroying an easement road can be charged as criminal mischief or malicious destruction of property in our state, especially when it leaves someone landlocked and unable to access their home. The DA had reviewed the case and decided there was enough evidence to file charges. The judge nodded slowly.

[00:14:08]I'm issuing a warrant for your arrest for contempt of court, he told Karen.

[00:14:12]Additionally, since the district attorney has filed criminal charges for the destruction of the easement, you'll be facing those charges as well.

[00:14:20]Baleiff, please take Ms. Karen into custody. Karen's face went white. You can't be serious. This is ridiculous.

[00:14:26]I'm the victim here. But the baoiff was already moving toward her. Karen was arrested right there in the courtroom.

[00:14:31]She was handcuffed and let out while she shouted about how unfair it all was and how she was going to sue everyone. Her husband Dave, who had been sitting quietly in the back of the courtroom looking mortified the whole time, just put his head in his hands. Karen spent several hours in jail before posting bail on both the contempt charge and the criminal destruction charge. As part of her bail conditions, the judge ordered her to immediately restore the road to its previous condition and to not interfere with my use of the easement in any way. This time, she complied. Within 3 days, a contractor had filled in the trench, brought in new gravel, and graded the road. It actually looked better than it had before, though I'm sure that wasn't Karen's intention. The bill for all of that work, plus the legal fee she was racking up, had to be substantial. But the story doesn't end there. Remember how I mentioned that as the easement holder, I have certain rights? Well, my lawyer explained that since I held the easement, I actually had rights to maintain and improve the road as long as the improvements were reasonable and necessary for my use. He said I could do things like improve drainage or fix problem areas without needing Karen's permission since it was all part of my legal easement rights.

[00:15:38]This gave me an idea. Karen had complained repeatedly about the road being poorly maintained, about water drainage issues, about dust, about everything under the sun. So, I decided to fix all of those problems thoroughly.

[00:15:50]I hired a civil engineer to design a proper drainage system for the entire length of the easement road. Not because I necessarily needed something that elaborate, but because Karen had complained about water issues and I wanted to solve them completely and professionally. The engineers plan included drainage ditches on both sides of the road, proper culverts, French drains in the low spots, and professional grading of the entire road surface. The work required heavy equipment operating on Karen's property for two full weeks. We started at 7:00 a.m. every morning, which was completely legal and within noise ordinance hours.

[00:16:23]The excavator, the bulldozer, the road grader, the dump trucks bringing in gravel, all of it parked on and working across her property line where the easement ran. Her fancy new house had a constant view of construction equipment and heard the backup beeps all day long.

[00:16:37]And because the engineer had specified that we needed to remove and replace the base layer in several sections to properly fix the drainage, we actually tore up parts of the road worse than Karen had before properly rebuilding it.

[00:16:50]All completely legal, all completely within my easement rights, and all creating way more disruption than if Karen had just left the road alone in the first place. I made sure to be extra friendly to the construction crew, bringing them coffee and donuts every morning. I'd chat with them right there in Karen's front yard, making sure we were highly visible. Every time Karen came out to complain, which was often, the foreman would politely explain that we had every legal right to do the work and that she could contact my lawyer if she had concerns. The look on Karen's face every morning when the equipment started up was priceless. She'd glare out her window, sometimes come outside and just stand there fuming, but there was nothing she could do. She'd tried to weaponize the road against me, and now I was legally improving it in a way that caused her maximum inconvenience. The bill for the entire road improvement project came to just under $12,000, which might not sound like a lot, but for a rural gravel road that was working fine before Karen destroyed it, it was significant. And yes, I paid for it myself because I wanted to. But the irony was that if Karen had just worked with me from the beginning, none of this would have been necessary. The road would still be a simple gravel path, and she wouldn't have spent months dealing with legal battles and construction noise. When the work was finally done, the road was in better shape than it had probably ever been. The drainage was excellent. No more potholes, properly graded, and compacted surface. It was still a gravel road, but it was a really nice gravel road. And every bit of that improvement ran right through Karen's property, a constant reminder of how badly her plan had backfired. Meanwhile, Karen's legal troubles continued. The criminal charges were moving forward.

[00:18:27]She ended up taking a plea deal that included paying restitution for the damage to the easement, court costs, and a fine. The total came to over $8,000 on top of everything else she'd already spent. And she still had to deal with the contempt charge, which resulted in additional fines. Her lawyer bills had to be astronomical. Between the initial attempts to challenge the easement, the emergency hearing, the contempt proceedings, and the criminal case, she'd probably gone through 30 or $40,000 in legal fees at least. All of that to try to stop me from using a road I had every legal right to use. But the real satisfaction came from watching Karen realized that she'd lost completely. Every time I drove past her house, now she wasn't outside glaring anymore. She stayed inside, curtains drawn. The fight had gone out of her.

[00:19:15]She'd thrown everything she had at me.

[00:19:17]Money, lawyers, a literal bulldozer, and all of it had failed. Not only had she failed, but she'd made her own situation worse in every possible way. About 6 months after the road improvements were finished, I noticed a forale sign on Karen and Dave's property. I later heard through the contractor who had done my road work that they were having serious financial problems. Between the legal bills, the restitution, the contempt fines, the cost of restoring the road, and the mortgage on the rural dream home they had just bought, they had apparently stretched themselves way too thin. They sold the property for less than they had put into it and moved away. I do not know where they went, and I honestly do not care. By that point, I was just relieved they were gone. The new owners are completely normal. When they were looking at the property, they asked me about the easement, and I explained the situation as simply as I could. I told them I had a recorded legal right to use the road, that I used it for normal residential access, and that all I wanted was to get to and from my house without drama. The husband laughed and said, "So, we just don't block your road and we're good." I said, "That is literally all it takes. We have had zero problems since. Sometimes I drive down that road and think about how avoidable the whole thing was. If Karen had been reasonable, we probably would have gotten along fine. I would have driven slowly to keep dust down. and I would have chipped in for maintenance when needed. I would have been a perfectly normal neighbor using a perfectly normal easement to reach my perfectly normal house. Instead, she treated my legal access like an insult.

[00:20:45]She hired lawyers, blocked the road, destroyed it with heavy equipment, ignored a judge's order, got herself arrested for contempt, faced criminal charges, paid restitution, and eventually had to sell the property she had just bought. And the road is better now than it ever was before. The drainage works perfectly. The gravel is properly graded and compacted. No potholes, no wash outs after heavy rain, no muddy sections near the low spots. It is honestly nicer than some county roads around here, which still makes me laugh a little. That is the part Karen never seemed to understand. An easement is not a favor. It is not a suggestion. It is not something the landowner gets to revoke because they regret buying a property with someone else's access rights attached to it. It is a recorded legal right, and mine said I could use that road to reach my home. She tried to make the road unusable so I would stop using it. Instead, the court made her restore it and I used my legal right to maintain it properly. She got fines, restitution, legal bills, criminal charges, and a sold house. I got access to my home back and a beautifully maintained road. So yeah, that is how my neighbor bulldozed the only road to my house, got arrested for destroying it, and somehow helped me end up with the best gravel driveway in the county. The contractor who dragged the trench and then got paid by the court order to fill it back in is the only true winner in this story. That man play both side of the wall and secure the bag twice.

[00:22:10]Absolutely legend.

[00:22:12]>> The next one is an entitled people story. I feel like I need to start by saying that I do not hate dogs. I genuinely believe there are no bad dogs, only bad owners. But I do not like it when strange dogs jump on me, shed, or slobber all over me, or run at me while loose. I especially hate it when loose dogs chase me. Just because you love your dog does not mean everyone else will melt over it or even want to interact with it. I live in a neighborhood where the fences were built at the same time as the houses, and they are not terribly secure. There are things you can do to fix that, but apparently not enough residents have bothered because loose dogs are a common occurrence here. Of course, there are also repeat offenders. Those people never take accountability. They just blame the poor fence construction, shrug it off, and say it is just dogs being dogs. Recently, one of the repeat offenders sent letters to everyone in the neighborhood explaining proper loose dog etiquette. She also posted it on several neighborhood forums. It was ridiculous. The basic situation was that her darling fur babies, or as she called them, her giant geriatric puppies, had gotten out. She did not like how the dogs were treated by the people who found them. So, she decided to educate everyone on how it should have gone, at least according to her. She of course explained that her dogs never get out and that this was a first. This was despite multiple posts going back at least a year featuring those same dogs and loose dogs spotted on the street posts. She then spent about half a page explaining how the fences were the real issue. My next door neighbors have two dogs and have never had this issue because they secured their fence. But apparently that was not the point. She said dogs getting out is just something that happens even under the best circumstances and that we all need to be aware of the proper way to handle it.

[00:23:57]Then she gave a list of dos and don'ts.

[00:24:00]According to her, if you see a loose dog, you should call the dog to you so you can bring it into your house or at least your yard to make sure it is safe and secure. You should not ignore it or let it continue wandering because it is probably lonely and scared. After all, the poor puppy is lost. You should make sure it is warm, dry, and comfortable.

[00:24:19]You should not, under any circumstances, feed it. You do not know whether it is on a special diet, and you might make it sick. So, you should not feed it at all.

[00:24:27]You should take a picture, or preferably a lot of pictures, from many different angles, and post them on all the social media platforms so the poor baby's worried mama can find it. But whatever you do, you should not bring it to a shelter. According to her, it does not matter if it has been a few hours or even a few days and no one has come looking for the dog. The owner might be busy or might not realize the dog is missing. Shelters are apparently terrible, cruel places where the dogs will be lonely and scared. Plus, when the dog's mommy finally realizes her precious baby is missing, she might not be able to afford the fine. Or if it happens over the weekend, she might have to wait until Monday to get the dog out.

[00:25:04]According to her, even a no-kill shelter is always the wrong choice. And of course, if you have done all of the above and realize you no longer have the ability to keep caring for what is now a very hungry and confused animal, then you should go back to social media and beg one of the many strangers online to take the dog and care for it until its owner can finally be bothered to retrieve it. I honestly thought it was a prank, but the Facebook post, especially between the original post and all the comments, was the best part. Apparently, when this woman's dogs got out, which seems to happen regularly, no matter what she says, someone did catch them, and made a good faith effort to find the owner. They posted on two neighborhood forums, kept the dogs overnight, and fed them in the morning along with their own dogs. The next afternoon, when the dogs were still unclaimed, they took them to a local nokill shelter. It was late Friday afternoon by then, and that particular shelter does not have public hours after 4:30 or on weekends. These dogs had no collars, no tags, and no microchips. Saturday morning, the owner finally saw the social media post and was furious to discover that her fur babies, whom she claims she cannot be parted from for even an hour, had been missing for 2 days. And no, the owner was not out of town. She was angry that they had been fed strange food by complete strangers and then dumped at a shelter. Worse still, she could not retrieve her sweet babies until Monday.

[00:26:25]She was also furious about the expensive fine. I looked it up. The first offense is around $10. It is the repeat offenses that get pricey. The letter and Facebook posts were not even subtle. She was basically calling the people who helped her dogs dog-hating, irresponsible jerks who tried to break up her family. Sorry, but maybe dogs getting out is something that happens sometimes, though I personally think that is a weak excuse.

[00:26:48]But if your dog gets out and I happen to encounter it, I am not going to rearrange my entire life around your pet because you did not secure your yard. If the dog appears aggressive, I am protecting myself and calling animal control. If it is not aggressive, I will either ignore it or if it keeps hanging around and no one comes looking for it, that dog is going to the shelter. I may or may not bother posting it to social media. And after seeing this woman's reaction, I am even less likely to do so. Maybe instead of attacking the kind people who took in your loose dogs when you could not be bothered to look for them, you should be grateful they made as much effort as they did. The next one is entitled Parents Story. My name is Michael. I was born and raised in Missouri. I will try to keep this short.

[00:27:31]My mom died when I was 13. My dad remarried and we moved in with my stepmom, Linda, and my stepbrother, Lucas, who was the same age as me. Then everything went downhill. My father started overcompensating and became superdad to Lucas. That meant I was basically left in the dust. Over the years, it became very clear that Lucas was the priority. Lucas could do no wrong. Lucas was the golden boy who deserved everything. I will not go into all the details because I am sure you have heard this kind of story before.

[00:27:59]Lucas was never openly hostile toward me, but he definitely enjoyed the preferential treatment. At some point, I decided it was not worth trying anymore.

[00:28:07]I just focused on finishing high school.

[00:28:09]I had plans that would make sure I would not have to deal with my family after graduation, and I just hoped things would not get any worse. The final blow came shortly before graduation. There was a college fund for me which my dad and mom had set up before she passed away. Lucas did not have one. Guess what happened? Lucas got the fund instead. My dad spent over 40 minutes explaining how he justified it. I was not really listening, but it was something about Lucas needing all of our support and how they would assist me in other ways. In the end, that assistance meant I would be allowed to stay in the family house until I figured things out. That actually worked in my favor because I had already figured things out. I just needed time to put everything into action. What my dad seemed to have forgotten was that my mom had been an immigrant from Switzerland. Since Switzerland operates under citizenship by descent, I had inherited Swiss nationality at birth. I also spoke decent German because my mom had insisted on speaking it to me exclusively before she passed. When I turned 16, I started researching Switzerland and its universities. It was perfect. Tuition fees were a fraction of what universities charge in the United States. As a citizen, I would have no restrictions on working there. The whole process took around half a year. I had to get my passport, apply to my university of choice, and save enough money for my first month there. It was fairly straightforward, but exhausting.

[00:29:28]After about 6 months, I simply walked out of my dad's house and left the key on the counter. I told them I would be leaving a week before that, and my dad acknowledged it with a grunt and a shrug. I assumed we were done, and parting somewhat amicably, I got myself to Switzerland and started my studies.

[00:29:43]My family never contacted me. The first two semesters were rough and I did not have much time to socialize either in real life or online. But after that, things became more manageable. I got back in contact with my friends back home and started posting on social media again. I posted about my life, my studies, and random things. Big mistake.

[00:30:02]It took my family barely 2 days to reconnect. My dad and Linda were extremely upset that I had not informed them about my plans. They insisted that Lucas could have benefited from this opportunity as well. I was not sure what they meant by that, but whatever. They asked why I had kept this from them, why I had disappeared, why I did not feel bad about it, and similar things. At some point, I got fed up. I told them it was what it was. They had their lives, I had mine, and that was that. They did not like that and decided to double down hard. First, they tried to get Lucas Swiss citizenship as well. That did not work because citizenship is only passed down to direct descendants. Then they tried to get Lucas to transfer to my university. That did not work either because he did not speak a word of German. It was weird. These people had never considered the world outside our state to even exist. And now they were suddenly hyperfocused on a foreign country they knew nothing about.

[00:30:56]Meanwhile, my friends back home informed me why my dad and Linda were acting out.

[00:31:00]Apparently, Lucas had started living large. private apartment, car, partying, and all that. He had burned through the college fund, which would have easily lasted for an entire degree in record time. Now, he was barely hanging on. My dad and Linda somehow thought the route I had taken would solve their issues. It did not. The whole situation blew up completely when they convinced me to join a video call. I agreed. It was me, my dad, and Linda. They started by listing their various imaginary grievances again, talking about how Lucas deserved to benefit from my opportunities, too. I swear they used the word opportunity at least a dozen times. I got frustrated and finally snapped, telling them that it was not within my power to hand out opportunities. Then they dropped the final crazy demand. They informed me that in order to support Lucas, we all had to make sacrifices. So, they expected me to interrupt my studies, return home, and start contributing to the family. My dad even said he would pay for my flight back. What a generous man. I almost lost my mind, but I told them as calmly as I could that I would be more than happy to oblige right after hell froze over. That caused both of them to lose their cool. My dad started shouting and Linda started crying. As for me, I ended the call. I decided not to block them, but I refused to take their calls. Now, the voicemails, texts, and emails are piling up. They range from anger to guilt tripping to gaslighting. But I am still here, still studying. Anyway, that is my entitled parents story. If anyone has comments or advice, feel free to share. If anyone has questions about studying in Switzerland, I am happy to answer those, too. Are you hungry for more slices of stories? Don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell to never miss out on any videos. See you tomorrow at Story Slices.