My neighbors to my left have been hellish old crazies since I moved here 5 years ago. We were cordial up until last summer when the 70-75 year old husband did the jerking off motion to my partner (for the second time, mind you) because his friend had parked in front of the guys’ house for 24 hours (bachelor trip).
Note: even with our friend parked there, both the husband and wife neighbors could also park their huge truck & jeep. So, there’s tons of room especially since the house on the other side of them doesn’t have cars so they can park in front of her place too. But, whatever, keep peace and all so we don’t park in front of their house if we can help it just because they aren’t worth our time.
But I knew I was done pretending to be nice. Yesterday, MLK day, I heard a knock on our door at 8am but it was a holiday and I was off work so I kept sleeping. Later, when my partner left for therapy, the neighbor approached him and said “yeah we called the cops on you because you guys keep parking too close to our car. He was going to ticket you, but I said I’d talk to you first.”
My partner, always one to avoid drama just shrugged and went to therapy. When he told me 4 hours later when he got home, I was skeptical. 1). I wasn’t parked illegally nor was I close to the car. I was eye-estimating about 2 feet of space between us. I was also parked in front of my own house 2). If I was *going* to be ticketed for that, I would have.
Or they would have left a note at my door. Also – I’m parked in front of my own house and our apron (no driveway, but apron). What is the problem, exactly? So, the s**t-stirrer I am, I went outside and bumped my car a little closer so now there was only 1 foot between us.
As I closed my car door, I even got some pageantry and threw up a peace sign and left hip lean towards their house (they have cameras covering every square inch and the one our front also covers my entire lawn so they saw). I also called the non emergency line and asked to speak with the officer who came to my residence.
Told him the story and he laughed and sighed saying that he was never going to ticket me and when he told our neighbor he was grumpy and pissed off. They even offered to do house checks for us since we leave for our honeymoon soon. Neat, right? So a few hours pass and suddenly there’s a cop car in front of the neighbor’s.
He called once again and showed the video to the cop (but he tried telling him I was flipping him off vs. doing a peace sign, thankfully the cop is smart and knew the difference).
C*p comes to our house, I let him in and tell him about the numerous threats, fear mongering (aka how he also tried lying that this guy was going to ticket me) and how he has acted so disrespectfully and immature to us that I was done pandering to these old people.
Our neighbor to the right has also had issues with them (more racially as our AH neighbor is a r**ist and they are brown) so we are on the same page. I explained that I know the c*p is an innocent in this and is playing middle man, but since I am doing nothing illegal or morally wrong, I will continue to park how I want.
The cop alluded to continue doing what I was doing and make sure to avoid anything illegal and I agreed and thanked him. Not super petty, I know, but this is the start I bet. I’m going to keep parking 1 foot from their jeep’s behind in front of my house (also over our apron to our nonexistent driveway) and let him raise his blood pressure.
Can’t be good for his health in the long term. Also, if cops keep being called on me for legal doings, I will stop opening the door and be sure to file a harassment/restraining order. The cops know these people WELL since they call many times for other nonsense and our neighbor to the right had to call them on the other neighbors because they were threatening them and their kids.
Not all neighbors are like this, right? We plan to move in 1-2 years anyway, but I wfh and take joy in stirring pots as you see.
Here’s what people had to say to OP:
paintedlotusyt wrote:
Just stay safe. People this unhinged have no boundaries anymore.
OP responded:
Absolutely, I don’t plan on letting them get close enough to do anything. They are both two old people with significant disabilities. I’m not exactly worried about them doing anything to me. I would more be worried about them doing something to my car because I don’t think that they are man enough to do.
CaptainBaoBao wrote:
I had a neighbor like this, long time ago. He was very well know in the precinct. One day when calling the police he pretend that thief entered his apartment through the wall. Now that they had a direct eye witness of dementia they could launch a welfare procedure that lead him in a medicalised retreat house. The quietness was uncanny.
OP responded:
That is amazing omg why the hell would he pretend such a thing???????? What is the benefit????? Jeez.
ryguy4136 wrote:
The authorities should be telling these people to screw off, instead of humoring them by coming out and talking to you at all. “There’s nothing illegal happening here, and if you keep wasting our time to harass and intimidate your neighbors, we’re going to press charges over it. Goodbye.”
OP responded:
To be fair he was a young officer and definitely is just trying to keep the peace. He kept saying “we just all have to be neighborly” and I agreed but after the history with these folks, they burned that option to the ground. If they keep calling false reports tho, they will get in trouble according to my googling lol.
Rougeone23456 wrote:
We dealt with something very similar with an old neighbor.
He was a retired cop. Old, with an array of health issues and was just mean. He was mean to everyone, including his wife and adult son. He had a lengthy history of verbally attacking anyone that parked on “his side of the street.”
Unfortunately, in that neighborhood, his side of the street was the only side of the street you could park on. When we first moved into our house, every neighbor that introduced themselves to us, warned us about him. We heard all the stories. They had been dealing with this guy for years and I guess, for their own sanity, they would just not park there or tell their guests not to park there.
It didn’t take long for him to start on us. The difference, though, was that I didn’t just ignore him. I went toe to toe with him. When he would yell, I would yell. When he called the cops, I called the cops. He wasn’t going to intimidate us. I didn’t care if he was old, sick or a retired cop.
I was paying a mortgage for that house and taxes for that street. I had every right to park on it as much as he did. One weekend we had company come over and one of our guests parked in the only open spot on the street which was next to this guys house. He called the cops, of course. When the cop got there, it was one that had dealt with this guy and us before.
When the neighbor started going on and on with the cop over the spot, the cop stopped him and said “Mr. such and such, I have told you over and over that this is public street parking and anyone can park here. If I have to come back out here again for this nonsense, I will arrest you for misuse of public resources.”
The cop didn’t even come over and talk to us. We were standing on the porch, waiting. After he finished with the neighbor, the cop looked over at us, nodded and got in his car and left. It was the last time he called the cops on us. About a year later, his wife and son came over to apologize to us and let us know that they had put him in a nursing home.
He had a major stroke and his wife wasn’t in the best health to take care of him. They were selling the house and the wife was going to be buying a condo in the same building as her son. She was so excited. She told me she couldn’t wait to finally have peace and was thinking about getting a cat.
OP responded:
I love this entire story!!! Tbh once you said he was a retired cop I knew the kind of psycho you were dealing with. Big oof but yay that you and his own family are free now!
Silverheart117 wrote:
To the best of my knowledge, most countries have laws against false claims/calls to police about possible crimes. I’d suggest doing some research and letting both your neighbors know and strongly hinting to the officer that what is going on is something that is quite possibly jail worthy. Next time it happens of course.
OP responded:
Yeah I did research and it said to keep records, document, and after numerous false calls I can file for harassment/restraining orders. I definitely will be doing this.
