our next door neighbor (who is my uncle) borrowed our lawnmower with out asking -not unusual- and yanked the cord right out of it. he has gone all summer with out his own lawnmower and has borrowed our or my parents. finally a couple of weeks ago he bought his own cheap crappy one but for some un-known reason he borrowed ours the other day.
he told me he pulled the cord to start it and it pulled right out. so this probably would've happened when DH started it today anyway. BUT, he didn't tell DH about it and i forgot all about it as i was baking and had 3 kids climbing on me when he told me and i really haven't seen DH until today. this is not the first major lawn tool or appliance he's borrowed and broken. he also borrowed some good paint brushes when he painted his house and never returned them. after a couple of months when i went to get them back from him he said "oh, i don't clean brushes" and then went to wal-mart and got me some cheap-os.
i think my DH is going to come unglued with this one. i neglected to mention it to him and so did the neighbor. he went to get the front lawn mowed before the football game and opens the shed to find the cord laying on top of the mower!
i can see him fuming but never talking to the neighbor about it. should i ask them if they're going to pay for it? should i take the mower, get it fixed and bring them the bill? what suggestions do you have?
"proper etiquette" (and I'm betting people like him have never heard that term) says a borrowed item must be returned in the same condition that it was rec'd. Hubby borrowed a drill from a co-worker when we first got married. The drill stopped working right at the end of the job. He went out and bought co-worker a new drill. Everyone recognized that the drill probably would have stopped working anyway, no matter who had it. It wasn't something hubby did .... it just died. It cemented the idea with hubby never to borrow (or lend) tools because, ".... I ended up buying one anyone, so I should've just bought me one to start with."
I borrowed my sister's curling iron once. It died in the middle of me doing my hair (aauugghhh!!). But I bought her a new one. She didn't want to take it because ".... it probably would have died the next time I used it, too." But that's not the point. She loaned me a working curling iron ... I was obligated to return a working curling iron.
And I'd put a lock on your garage/storage shed to avoid the borrowing it without asking thing. 
)
I tend to stick with a "neither a borrower nor a lender be" philosophy.
I used to lend books and quickly found out (1) you almost never get them back (2) when you ask for the book to be returned (after months), the borrower is defensive/evasive about when it might be returned (3) borrowers let third parties borrow them (which means they are gone forever - "Oh, I didn't realize you wanted it back") and (4) if and when you get your books back they look like they've been run over by a truck.
Nearly every time I lend someone something I regret it.
Regarding your ding dang neighbor, the next time he comes over to borrow something, I'd just tell him very directly-but nicely- that the past experiences w/ him borrowing things have been unsatisfactory. Give him examples, as kindly as possible.
If she's your Aunt, you definitely should talk to her. I'm sure she knows about her husband's type of actions.
Being family, as well as next door neighbors, you can't make a big stink (as I would want to).
Tell her you're putting a lock on because 'someone' keeps breaking your stuff. If she's receptive, you could go into detail, but I'd bet she'll know without you having to say anything out loud.
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