Chauntay Cripe received letters saying she should move out area for having ‘waist-high weeds’ – that are actually cornflowers in her ‘neat and tidy garden.
A mum was stunned when a neighbour branded her Trailer Trash for having ‘waist-high weeds’ – that are cornflowers in her ‘naturalistic’ garden.
Chauntay Cripe moved with her young family into her home, which had previously been ‘abandoned’ and covered in weeds, in February 2023.
The mum-of-four had only been in the house a few weeks when she first received a typed-out letter branding her father-in-law’s project car ‘unsightly’ and requesting it be moved.
Despite finding the letter ‘upsetting’ the 35-year-old didn’t think much of it until May 2026 when a second letter landed on her doormat.
The mean missive, from someone ‘living in your neighbourhood’, unleashed a torrent of abuse calling her ‘trailer trash’ and describing her home as a ‘disgrace’.
It also bemoaned Chauntay’s garden as being ‘full of waist-high weeds’, despite the offensive plants being cornflowers in her naturalistic garden.
The defiant tile maintenance and repair tech said the letters initially made her angry but that ‘nobody can tell her what to do’ with her own home.
Chauntay, from Boise, Idaho, US said: “I was very angry about it.
“When we originally bought it, it was essentially abandoned, lots and lots of overgrown weeds, no fencing, no anything.
“We moved here and my father-in-law has a project car and it had been sitting up next to the driveway for less than three weeks and we got that first letter. I was still in the process of moving.
“I still had possessions in my previous house so we were still moving. To get this letter so quickly complaining about something that didn’t look perfect in the front was upsetting.
“The letter felt very snide and it was quite upsetting to get that first letter because we had been in this house for less than a month.
Chauntay, who lives with husband Ralf Cripe, 42, and their four children, five-year-old Mae Cripe, three-year-old Bonnie Cripe, two-year-old Doris Cripe and six-week-old Ralf Cripe, said she’s unsure who the writer is.
Chuantay said: “It [the second letter] says I don’t deserve to live in this neighbourhood.
“It also said people who don’t have a lot of money to spend to make themselves look nice for other people don’t deserve to own a home.
“Nobody can tell me what to do and what not to do with my house.
“In some of the fancier neighbourhoods they have home owner associations (HOA) where they can fine you for not having your grass clipped, for having too many vehicles in the driveway, or for having your mail box painted the wrong colour.
“To write a letter of that nature makes me feel like maybe they should sell their house and go move to somewhere else that does have those types of rules and regulations.
“There are a very large number of flowers called Bachelor Buttons [cornflowers] on my fenceline.
“Some of them are shorter and some of them are taller so they’re not all uniform and I think the neighbour is probably interpreting the vast majority of those Bachelor Buttons to be weeds.
“I have more of a naturalistic approach when it comes to outside so my yard is not grass, it has never been grass since I moved in, when I moved in it was weeds and thistles.
“The front yard is not going to change because my children are making precious memories.
“It’s not going to make me leave the neighbourhood, there is no way anybody could force me to leave this house.
“There is no way that anybody can force me to conform to outdated landscaping standards.
“I only know some neighbours on my street and they’ve all been incredibly kind, not a single person has ever said anything negative about my property.
I’ve had numerous comments by people walking past who are pleased this house is no longer the ‘abandoned’ house on the street’.
“My job is to make sure that my children don’t grow up to be the type of people that send letters like that.”
Letter from March 9 2023 reads:
Welcome to the neighbourhood. It is a friendly, safe, quiet, clean place to live. Most people have lived here a long time. The others are from California. LOL.
We are sure you are needing a long time to move in and get that house in shape. It was a mess.
Most people here take pride in their properties and take care of them and keep them neat. We are sure it is an oversight that the junk care is in the front yard. Please take time to move it to the back pasture or put in a garage. It is truly unsightly.
Again, welcome to the neighbourhood we are glad you are here.
Letter from May 15 2026 reads:
I dislike writing this. but, we live in your neighbourhood and your home is a disgrace. It appears that you are “trailer trash” who somehow bought a home. your property looks like one in poor neighbourhoods or trailer parks.
People in this neighbourhood take pride in their homes and property. you are diminishing everyone’s property value. you have trash, vehicles that don’t run, cardboard over an air conditioner, junk on trailers, waist high weeds, crap all over your front yard. your home is a mess.
If you can’t afford to take care of your property please sell it. Residents don’t deserve having to look at your run-down property.