Revenge of ‘Little Cutie’: Hong Kong man turns tables on noisy neighbours with sweet-sounding device that blasts out tit-for-tat racket
- Incensed man has been plagued by late-night and early morning noise from his upstairs neighbours for months
- After an official warning from the property’s management fell on deaf ears, the man turned to a ‘revenge’ device which blasts amplified noise into adjacent flat
An exasperated Hong Kong man has found a novel way to take revenge on his noisy neighbours, and it goes by an unlikely name.
The city’s cramped living conditions mean noise pollution is a common problem and recently an enraged citizen – who had complained 14 times about his noisy neighbours to no avail – found a cutting-edge way to fight back.
It came in the shape of a vibration speaker called “Little Cutie”.
On a Facebook group called “Neighbourhood Noise Alliance (Hong Kong)”, which has more than 8,000 members, the angry man explained that he had been suffering from noise from his upstairs neighbours for a long time.
He said the family of four living upstairs never go out except to take their children to school.
As a result, the children have been “walking from one end of the apartment to the other, playing with balls and sometimes jumping up and down”, making his life unbearable.
The poster said that sometimes he was woken up at 7am by the sound of running.
After investigating the situation more closely, he discovered that the two children upstairs were playing basketball and jumping around in the apartment, and their father failed to stop them.
After 14 complaints to the property management company, the noisy family were sent a warning letter, but it had no effect on their behaviour.
In desperation, the man approached the above-mentioned Facebook group for help where it was suggested he seek the services of “Little Cutie”.
An online observer said: “The only solution is to fight back with ‘Little Cutie’ and be crazier than them.”
“Little Cutie” is a vibration device that, when attached to a connecting ceiling or a wall, will create noise several times louder than that it detects in the adjoining dwelling.
The poster decided that whenever the neighbours made a noise, he would activate “Little Cutie” to blast back heavy bass music.
Under Hong Kong’s noise control laws, it is an offence for a person to make or cause a noise in a dwelling or public place between 11pm and 7am or at any time on a public holiday.
According to the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department, in 2021, the department issued 1,185 warnings over neighbourhood noise due to hawking activities.
