Neighbor ran over nail near our trash cans—how should I respond?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How odd. I’ve run over a nail a number of times (unfortunately) and have never “felt” when I ran it over. Didn’t notice until my tire pressure was low or had a flat. No way to know where it came from.

I’d just respond “Sorry to hear- that stinks! We haven’t thrown away any nails, so we are not the culprit 🤣 I’ve seen a few construction trucks go by recently- probably from them but who knows. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving weekend otherwise- good luck with the tire!”

I’d be friendly and light but take no responsibility at all. I would not under any circumstances pay for a new tire. Hopefully neighbor was just upset at the time, feels foolish and lets it blow over.

The bolded. I'm very surprised he felt it, got out and immediately had a flat tire. Must've been some nail!

[Anonymous]

I recently got a nail in a tire and never in a million gazillion years would it have occurred to me to try to weasel money out of a neighbor to fix it. I would respond with absolutely no opening of a discussion about it:

“Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that. We don’t throw away sharp objects like that. Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would respond with

We didn’t throw away anything sharp, and our trash was fully contained in our bins, not loose at the curb. You getting a flat tire has absolutely nothing to do with us. It happened on public property on the public street.

Don’t mention you have camera footage. But Save that if they escalate.

+1

Though I'd nice it up a bit.

"What a bummer that happened to you! We didn’t throw away anything sharp, and our trash was fully contained in our bins, not loose at the curb. Not sure where that nail came from, but very unlikely to have come from us. Best of luck with your car!"

This. They are looking for a target so all you want to do is take yourself out of their crosshairs so they move on. Like PP said, if they press you can double down that you have no construction materials in use and you have Ring camera footage that substantiates what happened to his car that morning on the public road.

[Anonymous]

Hi Bob,

I'm so sorry to hear you got a flat tire, I know how frustrating that is. Unfortunately I'm not able to shed any light on this matter, because we didn't throw away anything but regular food trash. Sometimes scraps of trash can drop off of trash trucks so I am guessing that's what happened. It's just a hazard of driving on a public street, I suppose. Happens to all of us. Have a great rest of your week and sorry again to hear about the flat!

[Anonymous]

Misdirection is your friend. Tell that guy the only nailing going on around there was his wife & the crew of the trash truck.

[Anonymous]

Compensate DEEZ… 😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"It's not our responsibility to compensate you."

This. Mails can come from anywhere and it could have been a slow leak. Tell them to talk to their insurance. No.

[Anonymous]

You can't reason with crazy most of the time. What other people state is the way to respond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would respond with

We didn’t throw away anything sharp, and our trash was fully contained in our bins, not loose at the curb. You getting a flat tire has absolutely nothing to do with us. It happened on public property on the public street.

Don’t mention you have camera footage. But Save that if they escalate.

This.
Add specifically that you haven’t thrown anything away with nails.
End your short email with: “You have my sympathies that that happened to you. I know it’s a bummer. But we weren’t involved or responsible. Hopefully your insurance will just take care of it.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How odd. I’ve run over a nail a number of times (unfortunately) and have never “felt” when I ran it over. Didn’t notice until my tire pressure was low or had a flat. No way to know where it came from.

I’d just respond “Sorry to hear- that stinks! We haven’t thrown away any nails, so we are not the culprit 🤣 I’ve seen a few construction trucks go by recently- probably from them but who knows. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving weekend otherwise- good luck with the tire!”

I’d be friendly and light but take no responsibility at all. I would not under any circumstances pay for a new tire. Hopefully neighbor was just upset at the time, feels foolish and lets it blow over.

The bolded. I'm very surprised he felt it, got out and immediately had a flat tire. Must've been some nail!

Sounds like a scam to me, honestly.

[Anonymous]

Just say thanks for the warning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Misdirection is your friend. Tell that guy the only nailing going on around there was his wife & the crew of the trash truck.

😂😂

[Anonymous]

What a nasty neighbor!

[Anonymous]

Not yoir problem public road.Contractors driving through drop stuff all the time.

[Anonymous]

in the street? not your problem.

All they need to do is have a plug put in the tire. I admit it's many years (decades?) since I've had to have that done but it was cheap and took 15 minutes.