Neighbors

harley said:
I know a guy on the registered sex offender list in VA because someone called the cops on him for peeing in the bushes. He freely admits to being drunk and stupid, but once you get on the list, you're on it for life. I wish it was otherwise, because I would prefer to know who is dangerous vs who is not.
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All the lists I've seen show the at least the class if not a somewhat vague description (ex. "contact with a minor") that allows you to separate the peed on the side of the roader from those you really don't want around your family.
 
harley said:
I know a guy on the registered sex offender list in VA because someone called the cops on him for peeing in the bushes. He freely admits to being drunk and stupid, but once you get on the list, you're on it for life. I wish it was otherwise, because I would prefer to know who is dangerous vs who is not.
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I completely agree. They treat an 18 year old who had consensual sex with their 16 year old high school sweetheart the same as someone who has forced sex with a pre-pubescent child. I pee in the trees off the local rail trail almost every time I go on a long bike ride. That does not make me a dangerous sex offender. The system needs to change.
 
House #1 herd gunshots a lot, police around frequently, had all my windows broken out of my van, beer bottles on the lawn, crazy neighbors with vicious poodle dog

House #2 neighborhood kids threw sand in our air conditioner condenser outside, stole mail from the mailboxes in our circle, broke our fence out front. No parental control whatsoever

House #3 neighbors behind us drank and fought EVERY weekend. We would wake up and find lamps, couch cushions and chairs in our backyard. Then they began throwing eggs at our house. Next door neighbor's kids cleaning dog poop from their yard by throwing it into ours.

House #4 cul-de-sac. bad move. Full scale baseball games out there all the time, baseballs hitting our garage door parents out there as well, Called Sheriff they told me that is why developers created cul-de-sacs so kids would have a place to play

House #5 next door neighbor would clean doggie poo from his yard by tossing it over his back fence onto the road behind us, no adherence to leash laws...let German Shepard run wild all over. Dog once charged me and I had to shove running lawn mower at him to stop

String of bad luck or are people selfish and clueless? I prefer the later...thinking of getting some chickens and a Bengal Tiger
 
When we were in the rural Missouri home, we only had one neighbor, the one who was arrested for importing drugs, but a lot comes with rural areas. For one thing, Whiteman AFB was 30 miles away. Normally not a problem, but at some of the Gulf War, they were doing bombing runs from there, and it would wake up everything.

Another was snow geese migrating through and feeding on leftover grain. It's amazing how much noise several million geese can make all NIGHT LONG! One moves then ten, now there's thousands flying around in the dark trying to land on their friends. The squawking goes on for hours.
 
Spock said:
Had one set of neighbors... clan of relatives... well and infamously known throughout Dodge County Minnesota:
* made their living getting into liability lawsuits. One time the patriarch fell through the roof of a building while attempting to break into it. Sued the owner and won.
* cops wouldn't touch them. They new the law better than the county attorney.
* Came home from the hospital to follow firetrucks up our driveway. The 12 year old son had set the pasture on fire in a 40 mile an hour wind.
* The son would routinely drive his dirt bike up into the yard. He would set his back tire on a hose, lock his front brake, and attempt to tear up the hose.
* They had a dump/burn pit in the back yard. Every once in awhile they would burn it off and then shoot at the rats that were driven out by the flames.
* One time I was out mowing the lawn and looked up to see the son watching me... through a rifle scope. Barney Fife said there was nothing they could do and then said "I didn't say this, but I recommend you carry a firearm.
* Our driveway was at the end of the street so the only way we could leave was by driving by the front of the neighbors house... so if my wife and I left together she would duck down in her seat to make it look like only one person in the car to suggest somebody was still home.
It was a loooooong 3-4 years before we could move out of that place.
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Oh my goodness! You win the "Worst Neighbor" award!
 
The worst neighbors I've had were tame compared to these stories... we were in a condo and the unit under us was occupied by a middle-aged woman and her son and her mother. The son was a bit odd- didn't make eye contact, wouldn't say hi, and played the Boy George Culture Club album at full volume over and over. Occasionally there were long, loud arguments in a language I didn't recognize, especially when Dad (the Ex) showed up.

I really like most of the people in my current neighborhood but haven't formed the close relationships many of you describe. The exceptions are people whose actions don't affect me directly but a couple of neighbors had a boundary dispute that had to be resolved in court, a few people don't pay their HOA dues (we have Continuing Liens filed so will collect eventually) and one woman has had tenants living in the house (HOA violation) in the 8 years I've been here. They don't answer the door and drive into the garage and close the door. Latest news is that they were supposed to be buying the property on an installment sale, stopped paying and she's going to be selling the place. I sure hope so. I resigned from the HOA Board after the President allowed one party to the boundary dispute to put up a vinyl fence. The Restrictions say "all fencing must be wood or ornamental iron". Board President said it was OK "because the Restrictions don't say vinyl is prohibited".:facepalm:

I'm gonna put up one made of cinder block.:D
 
I’d prefer never to have a neighbor… ever… we are actively looking for 50+ acres in the woods and hope to never see a soul [emoji16]
 
As I type this, I am outside on my brand new patio and deck listening to my neighbor's dog bark incessantly. It barks for hours at even the slightest noise from our side of the fence when the neighbor isn't home. The neighbor is a spoiled 20 year old girl and daddy bought a house and she rents from him. I've kindly and tactfully asked the neighbor numerous times to keep the dog in an interior room when they aren't home but they don't think it's a problem. I've called the city and the animal control and they didn't do ANYTHING. I feel that if I call the police then it will create a war that I don't want. We are semi-retired and so we are home a lot and we love to be outside. So it sucks but I don't know what else to do. Neighbors can be a royal PITA.
 
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SoaringEagle1 said:
As I type this, I am outside on my brand new patio and deck listening to my neighbor's dog bark incessantly. It barks for hours at even the slightest noise from our side of the fence when the neighbor isn't home. The neighbor is a spoiled 20 year old girl and daddy bought a house and she rents from him. I've called the city and the animal control and they didn't do ANYTHING. I feel that if I call the police then it will create a war that I don't want. We are semi-retired and so we are home a lot and we love to be outside. So it sucks but I don't know what else to do. Neighbors can be a royal PITA.
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Exactly why we will soon live out in the country on at least 50 acres of heavily wooded bliss
 
Over the years we have not had problems with our neighbors. 4 of our 5 neighbors have been the same family since we arrived in 1990. The nicest thing has been our "open shed" policy - if you do not have a tool, check a neighbor's shed, feel free to borrow it, just leave a note. No problems in 30+ years.

However, I have a doozy of a "bad neighbor" story from 1981. It is truly a "stranger than fiction" situation. I may may mentioned it here before, but not in this detail. It is a long story...

The first apartment I rented on my own when I started working for Megacorp was in a nice apartment complex. There were a lot of people around my age there, so it was a fun place to live. My apartment was on the ground of my entryway, with a large living room window with a wonderful view of the parking lot.

Directly above me lived a couple, then probably in their late 20s. She (we will call her Tiffany, short for “Amazon Ice Queen Medusa”) was tall, beautiful hair and face,with a figure (in my eyes) to die for, but had a glare that, if looks could kill, would leave you dead and decomposing. He (we call him Mac, short for "NFL Linebacker Mac Truck Wrestler") was about 6-3 or 6-4, built like a pumped up pro wrestler in their prime (he reminded me of wrestler Scott Steiner in his “big poppa pump” days), and with a glare to match hers. If you passed either of them and greeted them, she would glare; he would glare and *might* grunt something that meant either “hello”, or “do not talk to me or I will break you”. Someone claimed he was an “enforcer” for local organized crime, and I had no desire to find out if that were true. From the people I saw them with I would not be surprised, so I just tried to stay clear of them.

They seemed to have a volatile personal relationship at times. I could hear yelling and occasional stomping above me. But I felt I would likely be risking my life if I knocked on their door and said anything.

One early summer Saturday morning in 1981, around 3AM, I was returning from DJ’ing a party. My neighbor across the hall (call him Steve) had gone to the party with me, and he headed into his apartment while I put away my DJ equipment. On my last trip to the car, as the the entryway door is closing behind me, I see Tiffany coming up to it, so I wait hold the door open for her. She rushed by me, I said “Hi”, she threw an anatomically impossible curse in my direction and went up the stairs. Okay, my bad.

After I few minutes in my apartment, I heard another argument going on upstairs. I was not paying much attention, I was putting my DJ stuff away and getting ready to crash and get some sleep. Then a large CRASH! occurs, and I heard glass and other objects hitting the ground outside my window. I looked out, there were enough building lights to see window glass and parts of audio equipment on the ground. This was soon followed by a few more pieces of electronics, clothes, and small items. Tiffany was clearly the one yelling and throwing things and stomping around on a rampage.

I opened my apartment door, and Steve was standing in his door. We looked at each other, looked upstairs at the noise, and before we could say anything we heard someone running down the steps from above. Then a woman wearing only shoes came around and down the last flight of stairs, moved quickly by us, smiling and saying “sorry about this”, and went out the entryway into the parking lot.

Steve and I, both being 23, had greater amounts of visual curiosity than common sense at that time. A naked woman running past us in the wee hours of the morning was intriguing. We proceeded out the entryway door, where we saw said naked woman picking up some clothes and yelling something up at the window, while dodging a few objects still coming out of the window. Tiffany was sticking her head out of the window and yelling many things that cannot be repeated in decent (or even halfway decent) company. The naked woman walked quickly off, presumably towards her car. The noise is starting to wake up people in the other nearby apartments, so we figured the police would be there soon.

As much as Steve and I were enjoying the show, we chose to go upstairs to find out what was going on there (curiosity is now trumping safety considerations). Upstairs a couple who lived across from Tiffany and Mac (call them Sherry and Rob) were standing in Tiffany and Mac's doorway, talking into the apartment. Rob had called the police. They went into the apartment, to try to calm things down, Steve and I followed.

Tiffany had made quite a mess of the living room. Whatever substances she was on had given her strength and vocalization, and she was continuing her wild behavior Mac, was just in a corner, in a sheet or blanket, not saying anything, with a blank look on his face, He looked at us, he wasn’t glaring, he was just… blank. The gist of Tiffany’s rant (in much more colorful and blunt language) was how could Mac be "physically intimate" with these other not-so-nice-women but not with her. Interesting. The woman who ran out had a nice figure, but not as nice as Tiffany's.

But then... she looks in our direction, with fire in her eyes, and starts yelling (again in more blunt and colorful language) look at these two, they are decent, I bet they would want to be "physically intimate" with me, do I look that bad, don't you want to be "physically intimate" with me?

No way I was going to say a word in this situation, in front of a gorgeous but drunk/drugged-up room destroying female, and her boyfriend who could easily put my body parts in several different hospitals. Steve was quiet as well. Tiffany kept talking that "line" to us… then started moving towards us and began to stripping off what little clothes she had on. Uh-oh, we are seeing way too much of Mac's girlfriend, and he will likely kill us in the future for that. We begin backing away, Sherry goes to her to try to calm her down, Mac is just staring blankly (we hope) at us. Tiffany realized that we were neither going to respond nor come near her, and suddenly sits down on the floor, lamenting why no one wants to be "physically intimate" with her. Sherry gets something to cover her.

Thankfully, the police cars arrive at this point. Rob, Steve and I went down to meet them and showed them to the apartment. Tiffany got dressed and was arrested (she had assaulted Joe and he had bruises), a small crowd had gathered outside of our entryway, and Steve, Sherry, Rob and I gave our statements to the police. We had a gallows humor moment (away from the combatants) of wondering if this situation goes to trial, what might happen to us. Mac decided to spend the night elsewhere, got a few things and drove off.

The apartment complex (who had good management) had the windows fixed or boarded and the mess cleaned up by Saturday afternoon). Of course, word of the incident had spread through much of the complex, so it was the talk for a few days.

Things took a strange turn in the aftermath.

I ran into Tiffany a couple of weeks later. She knocked on my door one evening. She was back at the complex. The charges had been dropped, for whatever reason. I carefully opened the door, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly, she is very friendly to me, apologizing for her behavior on that night, for being unfriendly, saying I seemed like a good person, etc. I tell her do not worry about it, everyone has bad days. She tears up and asks for a hug, which I gave her. As good as the hug felt, it did not erase her past craziness for me. In future encounters she was always very friendly, bordering on flirty (e.g. sitting next to me at the pool and saying "can I sit next to you? I don't mind you checking me out"). She behaved in a similar fashion towards Steve. We both remained wary of her.

On a future weekend, Mac knocked on my door. I debated not opening the door as I was sure he was going to kill me. But I figured he could break down the door anyway, so just face my fears. I opened the door – and she was quiet, pleasant, even a bit embarrassed. He could barely look me in the eye. He was moving some of his things out of the apartment and asked if I could help to get it done faster. He said “Tiffany likes you, she won't lose it in your presence.” Great, I wonder what she had been telling him.

I went up to the apartment with him. She shot him death stares as he gathered his things, but smiled at me and said to him “at least you are hanging around good people like Jolly”. Oh, great, again.

When we finished loading his stuff, Mac offered me money for my time, but I refused. I also told him (in so many words) that I had no intentions of playing in the garden where he used to dwell. He finally got a smile on his face, shook my hand, and said its cool, I knew you were not, but if you wanted to I would not care, I am done with crazy.

That was the last time I saw Mac. Tiffany moved out a couple of months later, I guess when the lease was up. Fortunately I was traveling a lot for Megacorp at the time so did not see much of her until the day she moved out. Joe and I were both there when she left, she gave up both big hugs. She told us of a club she hung out at, come down sometime, we can party. I knew of the club, and it was not one I wanted to spend time at.

I do not known what became of them. A few year later I happened to see an article about a shootout in the area were a couple of men were killed, one of the pictures of the deceased looked like Mac to me. I hope it was not him.

This is easily my most memorable neighbor incident. In retrospect it seems humorous. but at the time, dealing with those personalities, it was more weird and a bit frightening. It is one reason I hope to not live in an apartment again :).
 
First & hopefully only apartment.

Couple downstairs...mom would scream obscenities at her pre-school age kids.

Dad would read by going out onto the patio & chopping wood for what seemed like hours.

Was very glad to leave on acceptance to graduate school.
 
This thread has been absolutely riveting. I've had my share of bad neighbors (a garden variety HOA nazi and a few ear shattering, muffler-lacking motorcycle racers at all hours of the night whose throats I wanted to strangle.) But holy toledo - what I'm reading here beats all. :popcorn:
 
Neighbor relations seem to be a lot worst from since my mother was stringing a clothesline between the two poles in the backyard and talking with the neighbors as they are putting up and taking down the clothes...

I can remember my mother saying, "quiet down, the windows are open."
 
Our first home we had a fabulous neighbor. An elderly man who was a former farmer. I’d come home from work and he’d leave veggies from his garden on our doorstep. He plowed our private dirt road and our long driveway. He’d share stories from his life with us. He would pitch in and help my husband with work around our home. Loved him. His name was Smitty. Wife and son also really nice people.

Lived there for 10 years. Next home for 32 years had no neighbors. Lived in the woods.

Now we are in an HOA community for retirement and many neighbors very nice, social and helpful should you need them.
 
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Since I've been living in houses as a single man, I've always gotten weird or bad neighbors, or somewhere in between. Right now, I have them on my left, on my right, and across the street. The one behind me finally decided to replace two broken pickets on my backyard fence he damaged. He had chipped the bottom of them one day while mowing his lawn with his riding mower, although it took him a few years to get around to replacing these those two pickets. This wound up being the first and last time we spoke. But he did appear to be more friendlier than my other surrounding neighbors.

I believe what got to him was, a bad wind blew one day, and the section of my fence that had the two damaged pickets, came loose, and started collapsing towards his yards. It had gotten to the point we could see or walk into one another's back yards. I think that wind incident shook him up a little, because he didn't damage my fence to the degree it came anywhere near loose. Like I said, he only accidentally (I assume it was an accident) chipped off two or three inches of the bottom of my two pickets, just enough to let a small rabbit squeeze through.

Perhaps this could have went in the "Paranormal Stories" thread.

Oh, he also nailed back up this section of my fence that was collapsing, which was really my responsibility.
 
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We have had great neighbors over the years. One old octogenarian next door kept his home, lawn and property immaculately. He'd even vacuum the cracks in his sidewalk! Great guy.

Then he died and his do-good niece decided to turn his large, 12 bedroom ocean front home into "affordable rentals" in the most upscale and desirable area of town.

Drug dealers, folks right out of prison, police raids, 3am comings and goings.......after two years, we had to move from our forever home (in the family for over 100 years).

We're now in a gated HOA community and quite happy. Love it!

Truth be told, we seldom see anybody...we joke that we live on a movie set where no one actually lives. After almost three years here, we are hard pressed to identify all but a few neighbors. More than three quarters of our neighbors we have never seen, let alone speak to.
 
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Moparguy392 said:
Who have been your best or worst neighbors you've encountered and why?
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Neighbor 1 (2001): White supremacist neighbors who said I didn't "belong in the county". Fun times!

Neighbor 2 (2010 - 2014): DESPICABLE TRASH. Would ACTUALLY throw trash over the fence into my backyard, and one time actually threw over a burnt old towel that had dead insects on it. I threw it back over and she came screaming, banging on the front door to "tell me off". Whipped out my phone and began to dial 911. She took so fast the ground shook underneath her feet. Never a problem again although she did write "BITCH" on my frozen car window on a January morning.

Neighbor 3 (same time period): ENTILED SOB and No. 2's "friend". Guy didn't want me to park in front of my home because it was "difficult" for his wife to reverse their car into their garage across the street. Again, telling him to keep ranting as I called the police took care of him.

Lesson learned. I guess in the grand scheme of things, it could have been worse.
 
All were uneventful but 2. The first trained their pre-K kids to sing a song about my house price at their estimated 325k. They sang for 2 years while walking by to second grade. They tried to sell my house to their friend, booking appointments and pushing my phone number out. They threatened legal action until I had a survey and shared property line sketches for their own property as well as mine and showed how they matched. Screaming fits over imagined slights. I managed to complete the exterior repairs before they began calling inspectors and cops on me regularly. Ultimately I sold the house for 180k more than the song and exited the building. Thankfully I did not have to endure their progressive vision of my life during the covid war. I would have loved to finish removing the last of plaster and lousy windows, but I was out of money and patience. Good riddance.

The second neighbor was in bed with the girlfriend. That was a much easier decision.
 
Safire said:
Neighbor 1 (2001): White supremacist neighbors who said I didn't "belong in the county". Fun times!

Neighbor 2 (2010 - 2014): DESPICABLE TRASH. Would ACTUALLY throw trash over the fence into my backyard, and one time actually threw over a burnt old towel that had dead insects on it. I threw it back over and she came screaming, banging on the front door to "tell me off". Whipped out my phone and began to dial 911. She took so fast the ground shook underneath her feet. Never a problem again although she did write "BITCH" on my frozen car window on a January morning.

Neighbor 3 (same time period): ENTILED SOB and No. 2's "friend". Guy didn't want me to park in front of my home because it was "difficult" for his wife to reverse their car into their garage across the street. Again, telling him to keep ranting as I called the police took care of him.





Lesson learned. I guess in the grand scheme of things, it could have been worse.
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Rude, ugly behavior. Sad you have to live with that kind of contempt. What's wrong with people? Have to be mean to feel good about themselves.
 
I'm getting all new neighbors on the 13th of September, and this is by choice. I hope they are good ones. On the other hand, my new neighbors are getting one new one too. I hope they like my dog.
 
Residential neighbors have been mostly good. It's the business behind me that has been my nightmare, off and on for 26 years. Classic tale. When I bought my house in 1986, there was a cute, unassuming greenhouse behind me, hidden by a large copse of pretty trees. Fast forward a few years. Greenhouse sells out. Rezoning. Drug rehab center proposed. Gravel pit proposed. Everything short of a nuclear waste storage depot proposed. Constant battling to preserve out property values and quality of life. Attending zoning board hearings and getting neighbors to attend also (as an introvert). Very stressful. At this point, it has become a church, and I have spoken with one of the board members, and they seem to be very neighbor-friendly. Yes, we have prevented the raping of the lot behind us, but it has been a God-awful struggle, off and on over the years, I would have liked to avoid. Yes, moving was an option, but just too expensive with no proof of less stress afterwards.
 
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