Neighbor From Hell

[PepperElf]

or must think it's ok to peep out the windows and hunt people down that way.

that's prolly why they're not going after her then. if she's peeping from her own property it's not illegal, even if she uses binoculars. if she goes to public property or your property then it's illegal.

not sure how that applies to an apartment complex.... perhaps if she only does it from within her own apartment i guess.

[blas]

PepperElf, it's a he....just to make matters worse

That's the tough part. Sure I'm happy as hell he isn't peeping me from my window, and sure, lots of people are nosy and always looking out their windows...but there has to be something I can do.

I have to pay $600 a month to live here. I can't smoke inside. I HAVE to go outside. And I have to go outside to come and go......and when they open the pool, I want to be able to tan without being hunted.

[Gruesome]

I used to have a neighbor from Hell.

The house across from me is a rental, smallish but not tiny, and has room in the driveway for 4 cars, if packed really really tightly.

There were rarely less than 6 cars there, and more often than not there were 8, parked on the street in front of his (and sometimes my) house, and often in the yard as well. The guy worked on cars as a side job, and while I can't blame a guy for working from home I'm not sure the first step in the repair process had to be the removal of the muffler. And of course they were all big American V-8 engines, which apparently need to be revved a LOT, the later the better, to prove they are fixed.

His teenage kids were shifty-eyed and guilty-looking, but never caused any trouble as far as I know.

The BIG problem was the traffic, and I mean that in more ways than one. This was a quiet cul-de-sac of about 10 houses so just about every car that passed in front of my house was known to me, until these people moved in. In the evenings, lasting until all hours of the night, and more frequent on the weekends, this guy would have people driving up and having a brief face-to-face chat that always involved a slow handshake and furtive glances to make sure nobody was watching.

Yup - dealin' drugs. Every last one of us on the court complained to the owner of the house, and when the lease was up they were out. I guess they trashed the house, too.

[Gabrielle Proctor]

I would tell her straight up, "If you don't like it, don't look! You nosy, old cow! Stay out of my business or I'll call the cops on YOU for harrassment!"

[greensinestro]

We had a neighbor from Hell, named A, at our old house, although that's not how things began with her. She was more of a problem for the HOA than with us, but at the end, not one person wanted anything to do with her.

With the HOA, the problem was with the color of her house. Their guidelines stated the colors had to conform to what was appropriate, nothing loud or "sticking out", if you will. She painted the trim of her house a bright turquoise, which she claimed was seafoam green. The HOA sent her notices every month that she needed to correct this right away, or she would be facing liens. This went on for two years with meetings, arguments, etc. The neighbor on the other side of us even offered to paint the trim for her to the approved color, which she refused, claiming it was seafoam green, and nobody else would tell her otherwise. The HOA people even brought color samples from Home Depot showing her what seafoam green was, and what her color was. There still was no convincing her that she needed to comply. Finally, after all the meetings and leniency from the HOA, the HOA had no choice but to slap a lien on her house. Afterward, she painted the trim white herself. The other neighbor by this time had given up his offer, because she constantly told him how right she was.

Later on, A was declared unfit to work (she was a nurse) due to her diabetes. She never took care of herself and ended up with gangrene of her feet, causing a few of her toes to be amputated. Well, this was everyone else's fault, not hers, and it caused her to be even more bitter about people in general. First, she had to concede to the HOA, then had to give up her career. She also had two dogs that she often kept outside at all hours of the day and night. Due to A having all this free time, she often would go out with her boyfriend and leave the dogs tied up in her driveway, barking at all hours. It got to where we had to call the cops a few times (after politely asking her to put the dogs inside). This happened around 2, 3am, while sensible people are trying to sleep. After this occured, she often had confrontations with us, often when we got home from work, about how bad we were making the situation as neighbors. All A had to do was put the dogs inside, but again, she was in the right, as she always saw herself.

After my wife became pregnant, A was one day outside in her driveway, mouthing off to some friends she had visiting, but loud enough for everyone to hear. She was out saying, "I hope she falls down the stairs and miscarries her babies, and her husband should be in jail for being a bad parent." I wasn't present on this, but my wife called me to tell me about it. We were both livid, to say the least.

A couple of months went by, then the twins were born. A week later, I was out mowing my lawn, when A came over to talk to me. I immediately told her to get lost and don't ever speak to me again, after what she had said in her driveway. It turned into her denying she said that, and she would never wish anything like that on children. It got to where I nearly had to call the police, because as I was going inside to get away from her, she barged into my home to explain her side of things. In addition, she told me to make sure I was mowing the lawn on our side and not cutting into hers. To prove this point, she put down a hose to mark what she thought was the boundary (a survey company later revealed it was our property, not hers). I nearly went out to cut up the hose, but decided I didn't need her filing a charge for destruction of her property.

Later on, my other neighbor, who was into law enforcement at one time, told me that A had been to see him for advice on how to file a complaint on us for mouthing off to her that day. It turned out she'd had a tape recorder hidden in her coat when she came over, meaning she knew we were mad at her, proving she knew exactly what she said in her driveway! After this neighbor told her he wasn't going to get involved, A called the attorney general's office and played the tape for them. In conclusion, they did not side with her, telling her that on the recording, despite the language and so forth, she was the one trespassing on our property and had no right recording us. There were no threats made to her life, nor anything that warranted a complaint on us.

A few months later, my wife and I were outside on the front lawn, and A walked over to speak with us. I immediately told her to get off our property and go home, yelling at the top of my lungs. About a half hour later, two cops showed up at our door, wanting to know what was going on. A had told them I had threatened her life and called her a mother f***er. During this time, I could see A on her front porch, looking over to see if the cops were going to slap handcuffs on me. These cops, believe it or not, sided with her, but did not see any reason to arrest me. It had happened on my property, and there is no law that says you can't say certain things to someone else while you are on it. We were both livid to the extreme. Because of this, we decided to report her to the social security administration being she was receiving SSI, but doing things like mowing her lawn, moving heavy objects in her front yard, etc. She got livid about that, but hey. She was cheating the system, and we thought nothing of it until she tried to stick me with a record.

When we were selling the house, A was also involved in that as well. A couple of times, after someone looked at the house, A was out there actually telling these people about our situation. She hated us, told us how she would love it if we moved, but was doing all she could to hurt the selling of our house. Talk about cutting off your own nose to spite yourself here. In one instance, she went outside with a weedeater and dug a trench between our property lines so again, I would not mow into her lawn, and showed it to whoever was looking at our house. After a couple of times of this, our real estate person spoke to A, and told her either she stopped this, or she would file a suit against her, being what she was doing was an infraction of the law. She had no choice but to stop, and we were able to sell and move.

It didn't end there though. A few months later, I went into our old neighborhood to pick up the kids being we had a babysitter who lived there. As I was leaving, I noticed A's vehicle next to mine, in the lane going right. I was going to the left. After I pull into the road, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw A was following me! So, we had moved, and she was out to do one more thing to us before it was over. I had to speed up and literally zig zag in traffic to get away, being I really didn't want her seeing where our new house was. I had thought of calling the cops, but then realized she would just deny she did it, and the cops might tell me I needed to stay away from the old neighborhood, which I could not do because of the kids' sitter.

I haven't encountered her in over three years now, and last I heard, she had her house up for sale. I think it's bogus though, because this was another thing she always did. Whenever someone told her off or upset her, she would go into her garage and put out this "For Sale" sign that had her old phone number on it. After about four times of this, someone that came by to ask about it spoke to my wife, and my wife actually gave these people her correct phone number! A got so upset about this and threw away her sign, never pulling this stunt again.

Sorry for the long rant. I can relate to horrible neighbors though.

[XXDarrienX]

I was bored and googled this link if you find it amusing - http://www.annoyingneighbors.com

[protege]

I forgot to mention this... When I bought my place, several of the neighbors were glad I did. They *hated* the prior owner. Why, you ask? Well, this "woman" got the house after her parents died. Nobody was living in it, but she kept the grass cut. Oh, and I should add, that she, along with her family, wouldn't be out of place on the Jerry Springer Show.

She'd be out on the riding mower (don't even get me started on why you'd *need* a riding mower--the yard is perfectly flat and tiny!), and usually cursing like a sailor. Never mind that most of the neighbors had little kids. She'd do it anyway. As if that wasn't enough, her drunken brother would sometimes come over. He'd be outside all hours of the night, drunk off his ass, high, or both...and screaming for his mother. After that, the cops got to know the family *quite* well

[greensinestro]

Read this thread for a thrill. This was in Reader's Digest a couple of years ago.

http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspi...icle28280.html

[Sliceanddice]

Read this thread for a thrill. This was in Reader's Digest a couple of years ago.

http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspi...icle28280.html

ok that one freaked me out

[blas]

And you can probably imagine Donna and her husband are probably terrorizing their new neighborhood. Maybe her daughter moved out and is doing the same. We can only hope and pray the next time she does it, she goes to jail and stays there, and no one is seriously injured in the process.

To lighten the mood a bit, here's a Sheriff story for you. I heard from the man who lives next door (not Randy, the guy on the other side, we'll call him Joe) that the two girls who lived here before me, before Sheriff drove them insane and they started breaking the rules and smoking inside, they'd smoke outside and try to avoid him, as I do. Well, Sheriff used to leave the shades on his bedroom window all the way up all the time. And he'd trot around naked in front of the window on a daily/nightly basis. The girls didn't know what else to do, so they called the landlord and complained. I guess that's another reason he's stooped to different levels to harrass his neighbors.

Call me insensitive, but I doubt it was accidental that he walked around naked in front of the window. I understand the guy isn't "all there", but if he did it that often, he had to know he had an audience (he ALWAYS knows when I'm outside and finds me!) and he knew they were on the lookout for him. He has to know that nearly everyone watches for him and avoids him.

[Becks]

Read this thread for a thrill. This was in Reader's Digest a couple of years ago.

http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspi...icle28280.html

-a-thon® of the day, week, month, year and maybe decade.

[Talon]

Read this thread for a thrill. This was in Reader's Digest a couple of years ago.

http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspi...icle28280.html

Thrill? More like nausea. Those bastards got off WAY too easy. Hopefully karma has some sharper teeth.

[tropicsgoddess]

I have this old guy we call Slim Grim (he's around 90 something years old) who lives a few doors down from us. A few years ago while we were at my MIL's to celebrate my fiance J's birthday we had the music on but not terribly loud and the sun was starting to set. Slim Grim comes out and starts bitching about how the music is too loud and it's too late in the day for that, rabble rabble rabble. We turned it down a little, then he came back out again and starting bitching. Even MIL's boyfriend went up to him and said "It's J's birthday, gives us a break please". Nope. The old coot still wanted us to turn the music down so he can watch TV on the lowest volume setting like usual.

[protege]

The old coot still wanted us to turn the music down so he can watch TV on the lowest volume setting like usual.

Ugh. There was an old guy in our neighborhood like that. Used to live in the house behind my parents'. Nearly every day, we'd be out playing in the back yard, and he'd come over and bitch about the noise. All summer long, it was like that. Well, until the bastard died a few years later

[Mark Healey]

With the HOA, the problem was with the color of her house. Their guidelines stated the colors had to conform to what was appropriate,

This is why I will never buy a condo or a house in a neighborhood with an association. I don't need some busybody telling me what color my house can be and the only people who have time to be on the committees are retirees and housewives, not the most imaginative people in the world.