"Then why didn't you knock on the door and ask to look?"
She didn't answer. She just clutched her clipboard tighter and scurried off into the darkness.
That's when the alarm bells started ringing in my head. She wasn't just nosy; she was obsessed. And obsession never ends well.
The third sign was the most damning. A week later, I came home from town with groceries and noticed something odd near the base of my cabin. A thin black cable snaked through the grass, running from the side of my shed toward the treeline. At first, I thought maybe I'd dropped an extension cord, but as I followed it, my stomach twisted.
The cable ran straight across the yard and into Karen's property.
I crouched down, inspecting where it connected. Sure enough, someone had tapped into the output line of my generator. My machine was pumping electricity straight into Karen's house.
I felt my blood pressure rise. She wasn't just complaining about my generator anymore; she was stealing from it.
That night, I couldn't sit still. I paced the porch, replaying it over and over. She'd had the nerve to sneak onto my land, dig around my shed, and hook up her own line like some back-alley electrician. I pictured her smug face sipping wine inside her cabin, lights glowing warm and bright thanks to my generator. She probably told herself she deserved it, that she was entitled, that her fake HOA rules gave her some kind of authority over my power.
But entitlement doesn't change the facts. What she'd done was theft, plain and simple.
The next morning, I decided to confront her. I didn't bother with subtlety. I walked right up to her porch, knocked on the door, and waited.
She opened it slowly, as if she already knew why I was there. "Can I help you?" she asked, voice dripping with fake politeness.
"You sure can," I said. "By explaining why there's a cord running from my generator into your house."
For a split second, guilt flickered in her eyes. Then she plastered on that smug smile. "Oh, that? I thought it was a community power source. It's only fair that we all benefit."
"Community power source?" I barked a laugh. "Karen, it's my generator. I built it. I maintain it. And you broke onto my land to steal from it."