This has been done once by every {{sitcom}} and sitcom-like cartoon since 1952.

One of a pair of rival neighbors discovers on the city map describing their property that it extends into said rival's. They will begin commandeering anything of the neighbor's that falls into their property. Their tree, workshed, the TV in the their living room, etc.

The episode frequently ends with the rival neighbor discovering that the first read it wrong, and what it ''really'' meant was that the property line cuts into the first's property instead. Insert defeated "wah-wah-waaaah" trombone sounds here.

This is usually {{Snapback}}ed as it never comes up again.

See also ThisIsMySide, which is the same plot in miniature. Compare and contrast with ForeignerForADay.
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Examples:

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* There was once an issue of ''Disney Magazine'' that had this happen to DonaldDuck. He finds a bricked-up doorway in his cellar, behind which is a chest of valuable antique coins. He sells them, and goes on a spending spree, only to have his neighbour come by with a map proving that anything behind the bricked-up door is actually on ''his'' property. All of Donald's fancy new furniture is repossessed, and immediately re-purchased by the neighbour, so Donald has to make do with some old chairs found in the main part of the cellar. [[spoiler: Turns out the chairs are even more valuable than the coins were.]]

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[[folder: Film ]]

* The Oscar-winning silent 1952 short ''Neighbours'', by the National Film Board of Canada, is a dramatic and disturbing instance. A surreal anti-war parable, it depicts an escalating battle between two homeowners over the ownership of a single flower growing right on their property line. Watch it [[http://www.nfb.ca/film/neighbours_voisins here]].

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* OlderThanFeudalism: ''TheBible'' prohibits moving your neighbor's boundary stone or other property marker, presumably to prevent just such a quarrel taking place.
--> "Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set." (Proverbs 22:28)

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[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* ''SanfordAndSon''
* ''MarriedWithChildren''
* ''{{That 70s Show}}'' - happened exactly like the trope's definition, starting with Bob taking things from Red's garage and ending with Red finding out that he owns part of Bob's house.
* Nickelodeon once had a special ''Literature/ManiacMagee'' about a town where white people stayed on one side of a boundary, black people on the other, and yet both sides still were able to run their town in a capable manner, (The duality would be resolved by the Fastest? Kid in the World, can't recall how.)

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In a second-season episode of ''The {{Flintstones}}'', Barney painted a property line through the middle of Fred's house.
* ''{{The Jetsons}}''
* ''SpongebobSquarepants'' did this.
* ''GoofTroop'', In the episode "Goof Under My Roof" plays it straight, when it looks like Pete owns half of Goofy's house, and he then claims everything in that half as his.
* A ''MightyMouse'' cartoon "The Green Line" featured a town where mice lived on one side of said line, cats on the other. An evil cat spirit tries to get the cats to ignore the line and attack the mice, but Mighty quickly arrives to restore peace.
* One episode of ''ThePinkPanther'' ("Pink Panzer") had an unseen narrator building up conflict between the Pink Panther and his neighbor, starting with a couple of borrowed possessions, but then coming into this trope when he, at the narrator's urging, saws off a limb that extends over the line, dropping leaves into his yard. The neighbor retaliates by sawing off part of the Pink Panther's ''house'' that was extending into the space over ''his'' yard. The narrator gets the panther to build a wall, then the neighbor to bring out a unit of artillery, the panther to bring out something bigger, the neighbor to call in some military help... At the end, the narrator is eventually revealed to be [[spoiler:The Devil]].


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