Hi all, I couldn't find a specific subreddit for dealing with neighbors so I thought I'd post here. It's nothing too serious but I could use some advice.

New neighbors moved in a few months ago. We live in a row of five townhouses in small neighborhood of Seattle. Behind our townhouses is a small gravel back "alleyway" (it's a very narrow walkway behind everyone's back doors), and at the end is a gate that separates our alleyway from the main street and sidewalk. This gate is almost always left open, and every morning I go to close it before I let my dog out to use the bathroom. She always goes potty out there first thing every morning. We've lived here for almost five years and this is just our routine everyday. Usually at night I will latch the gate, for in the past on multiple occasions we've had people come off the street and hang out in the alley. Ive caught people sleeping, hooking up, or doing whatever back there.

Anyway, this morning I go to close the gate as per usual and I find that the latch has been removed from the gate. I ask my three neighbors who have all lived here the same amount of time as us, they are unaware of it. So it's obviously our new neighbors. These new neighbors live right on the end next to the gate. My feeling is that they tried to get in one day or evening and just couldn't be bothered to walk to their front door, so they removed it. Their front door is literally about twenty feet from the gate. Right off the main sidewalk.

I know this isn't that big of a deal, but it's really frustrating that this happened. It's not their gate, it belongs to all of the homeowner's who live here, and have lived here several years.

To anyone that took the time to read this, could you lend any advice as to how to approach them about this matter? I haven't had any issues with any neighbors before this and would like to handle it correctly and effectively. Thanks for taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for any input. Have a good day.