crotchedy old neighbor

City of Warr Acres (suburb of OKC, OK) did the same thing to my mom a few weeks after my dad died. Had an '87 suburban they bought new. Has led a hard life. Hadn't been tagged in three years. My dad dies and a few weeks later they tag it as a junk vehicle. I had 48 hours to move it. We got it tagged, they said that is not good enough, that by city ordinance, the vehicle had to be moved every 48 hours or it would be subject to immediate tow. My mom is convinced some city worker just wanted to take it for themselves, which wouldn't surprise me all that much in that town. I ended up spending several hours replacing the alternator (long, long story about hard-to-find parts and dead batteries) and driving it home to Stillwater. It is currently awaiting restoration.

 

I bought 9 acres, built a new house, dug a 3 acre lake and have no neighbors I can see. I can piss off of the deck anytime I like.

 

I've lived on the Chicago North side since '89, not an easy place to live if you like having a lot of projects. I have never had neighbor problems ever. I make a point of telling my neighbors how I have a portable tire inflator, battery jumper box, can refer them to good mechanics etc. Last 5 years I've tried to keep my quicker stuff a little more quiet as I had some stuff that was practically open headers in the past. But we all have little kids now so that doesn't work.

I've gotten nuisance tickets from the city for stuff like tinted windows when they weren't even tinted while I was parked at the gas station.

 

Gotta love old asshole neighbors that have nothing better to do than harass you ! I bet they have binoculars to watch what you are doing . Now if this is true , then everytime you are out in your back yard , make sure to scratch your ass many time and keep flashing your middle finger around . That way when your damn snoopy neighbor keeps looking out to see what you are doing , maybe they will get the picture and stop .
I am sure you have an idea on who it is , so make sure you give plenty of middle finger gestures all the time for them to see .

Retro Jim

 

I'm not usually an advocate of retaliation of any kind or an "eye for an eye" attitude, but if you are absolutely sure that its this guy, go talk to him first and get a feel for his attitude.

If he's still a jerk, yep... find something to complain about. Consult the county ordinances first. Frivolous complaints with no basis just get you a bad rep.

 

That's not very nice, what did that deck to you?

 

I lived next to that lady for 5 years, we even gave up one of our dogs to pacify that bitch, it didn't work. It wasn't until the last year we were there that I called the cops on her. She had a video camera in her bedroom window trying to catch out dogs barking. The problem was that it was a neighbor behind us that had the noisy dogs. We jsut got blamed for it. even the city knew it wasn't our dogs.

 

How interesting that this thread came up...
Just got off the phone with my cousin. She lives in a small town of about 1500 people a good 40 miles from anything that resembles a city.
She lives on the outskirts of town in a farming area, and she has about 10 neighbors that you can see [their houses] from her front yard.

She's got "one of those" neighbors, and she has fussed to me about him a couple times in the past. As I understand it, her other neighbors have had trouble from him as well.

Long story short, about 7-8 years ago, they got a MAJOR snowfall that knocked out the electricity for a couple weeks, so they installed a back-up generator and made sure they kept enough fuel on hand for a 2 week strech.

Well, this winter they finally got hit again. Power was out for a week. All the neighbors migrated to her house. The last one to show up was the SOB. It only took about an hour for Mister SOB to start showing his ass and making everyone in the house [21 people she told me] rather upset.

She [along with just about everyone else] asked him to leave.
Mr. SOB spends several days in an ice cold house with no electricity, and nobody hears from him.
Today, she says a "For Sale" sign appears in his front yard.

 

2 words-LOUISVILLE SLUGGER

 

I never have any issues with the "city" because I live in "da 'hood"

The neighbor to my left, right, and behind me do not speak English. 3 different languages. So if they did have problems with me they couldn't b$%^ to me about it.

The ones to the left raise chickens and dogs for fighting. The ones to the right run a sheet rocking business out of their garage and have trucks and crap all over. The ones behind run a landscaping business and their yard is full of trailers.

Across the street is a young city cop with a Trans-Am with loud pipes and a few HD's. He works swing shift and comes and goes at all hours.

If someone DID show up about my "yard art" then I would just point to the few crack houses,burned down 3 family houses,and abandoned junk lots on the street and ask them what kinda actions where being taking there.

 

They are everywhere!!!!!!!!!! My "neighbor" complained that my "eyesore" all brick garage was ruining his property value. He later called the code enforcement officer to complain that I was storing "old car parts" in my garage. These are just a couple of compaints he has issued over the past 30 years. His very first complaint was that I didn't own one of the two lots (the one that borders his property) that I was building on. My guess is that he had wanted to purchase that lot, but didn't know it was for sale. It's been "interesting" ever since. I finally went to talk with the code enforcement officer about the situation and was told that there was nothing that I could do about his harassment (photographing whatever I might roll out of the garage, etc). I then went to speak with a police officer and asked about the harassment, as well, and was told that his actions were not illegal. I then asked the officer "what would be the likely sentence for someone convicted of assault and battery?". The officer told me that I don't want to do any such thing and I replied that I was just asking so that I could weigh my options. I've turned the other cheek for all these years... I've run out of cheeks! I don't know what happened after that, but the neighbor hasn't bothered me since my conversation with the officer. I guess that if it wasn't me he was bugging, it would have been someone else.

 

Sometimes, and maybe very few, the complaints come from a realtor who is trying to sell a house on your street...

 

Everytime I beat my ex's ass in court ,I get a vist from the bylaws officer.Too many cars,blah,blah,blah,etc.Screw her!! After 3 years of this crap it's time to go on the offensive!! I called the bylaws office about the illegal apartment she is living in;also let the fire department know about it. Oh yeah ,I told the income tax people about it too!!! I also ratted out her landlord parking his highway tractor in the driveway.

 

Some people just aint happy and have an ax to grind about any thing, and if the can't find any thing, they will make some thing up ... never fails

 

put up no trespassing signs and catch him on camera and have him arrested. that might shut him up!

 

The guy next to me is a Vietnam Vet, and got a pretty bad head injury, plate in head, etc. I respect his service as anyone should. But, this guy seems to have it in for me. I had lived here 4-5 years when he moved in. My kids were small and we had 2 cats. He is a dog lover, HATES cats. he is very fastidious with keeping his yard not just mowed, but scalped. Fussy about weeding flower beds and all that. This is a very conservative and religious neighborhood I live in, and my neighbors don't like the fact that I will sometimes sit in front or back of my house and have a beer. This guy saw me drinking beer a few times and would occasionally throw an ugly glance my way.

Anyway, he mentioned to me that cats had been shitting in his flower bed and that he was thinking about shooting them with his BB rifle. I told him I had seen one of my cats over there and that I would not be bothered if he popped it with a BB as long as he wasn't really trying to hurt it. A few days later, a strange black cat started hanging around my house. I already had one black cat that mostly stayed inside, but went out occasionally. I had been petting this new cat and had thrown it a table scrap or two. After mowing the yard one evening, I was cooling off in the back yard - the new cat had just gone around the corner of the house. Suddenly, I heard the sound of a car engine, a thud, a dog barking and excited voices. I walked to the corner of the house, looked toward his place. He and his wife were standing in the street, talking to a woman in a Honda. I couldn't exactly hear everything, but I heard his UGLY-ass wife say "It was that damn black cat!" Apparently, the cat had strolled thru his yard while his golden retriever was taking a crap, resulting in the dog chasing the cat into the street, just as the car started up the hill. The dog ran into the side of the car - neither the dog nor the car were injured, and the cat got away.

Next evening, the guy stomped into my garage and walked up the handicap ramp and banged on the door. He told me my cat caused his dog to run into the car. I tried to tell him it wasn't my cat, but he would have none of it, saying it was the only black cat in the hood. He told me that if he caught my cat over there again, he would shoot it and that the sheriff's dept. told him he would be within his rights to do so. he said he didn't want to upset me, so he thought he'd give me fair warning. I told him if he killed my cat I WOULD be upset. To this he answered, Okay, you're no longer my neighbor.

So, we didn't speak for a couple of years till he jumped on my 11 year old son for no reason. I called him on the phone and told him the only time I wanted him speaking to my son was if he caught him on his property. he got pretty nasty, telling me I was going to have a problem with my son because I didn't know what he was up to.

So, we didn't speak for another 3 years - then on Christmas Eve 2008, the guy was in his front yard letting his dog out. I hollered at him and started walking toward him. He answered "What?" in an unfriendly voice. I asked how he had been doing, that we hadn't spoken in a long time. Suddenly, he changed and became very nice. We talked about 10 minutes, exchanging Merry Christmas wishes. I came away feeling pretty good about it.

3 or 4 times over the next 11 months, we spoke to each other cordially. Then came fall 2009. I have a couple of large maple trees in my yard. The guy on my west side has a huge oak with huge leaves. I decided to wait until most of his leaves were down before I had my yard cleaned up for the last time that year, having already gotten the leaves mulched once. A couple of times, I noticed this crazy guy standing out in the street with his blower, blowing leaves from the street back into this lady's yard. I guess he thought if he did that, they might not end up in his. I wondered if he did that to me when I wasn't around.

I pay a yard service to do my yard, and the service employs Hispanic guys. One morning, they were mulching up the leaves. I walked outside while they were working and got in my car to leave. As I got in the car, I saw his truck coming down the driveway. He pulled up into my driveway and came storming up to my car. I let the window down and he immediately started screaming that my leaves had blown over into his yard after he had cleaned it up for the last time. he wanted to know if I was going to have those guys come over and clean his yard up that had freshly blown leaves on it. I just sat there, closed my eyes, lowered my head, and said that all I wanted to do was live in peace and that I didn't want any problems. He said that it wasn't right that all of my leaves should be over on him, that his yard had been finished and now he had to do it again. He stomped back over to his truck, threw it in reverse, and flew down the driveway, barely missing one of the workers who was standing in the driveway blowing leaves back into the yard.

We haven't spoken since. Some of my buddies kid me that I should whip his ass, but I don't want to start down that road with this guy - I'm not sure I could whip him anyway. And I know he has guns - one of his other neighbors had their grandkids over to visit - the grandkids had a couple of Dalmatians with them and the dogs got into this guys yard chasing a ball. The guy came out on his deck, waving a pistol around, threatening the dogs while these 4-5 year old kids were standing with them. The kids father had to be physically restrained from going after the guy.

I see nothing to gain from having any real trouble with this guy - he's crazy as a shithouse rat, and I feel like any sort of trouble I have with him will be viewed in those terms, that he isn't totally responsible. I've heard him threaten his wife and son - he flies off the handle and gets extremely nasty.

The people who live behind me are religious conservatives and once they realized I drank alcohol, wanted nothing to do with me - guess who they made friends with. They stand behind my house and look down this way, pointing fingers toward whatever they don't like about my property.

You know, your relationship with your neighbor is a little like the one with your spouse - you'd better be prepared to put up with at least a few things that rub you the wrong way.

 

Dear Neighbor,

I have two passions in life.

1.Messing with hot rods.

2. Is raising hogs.


Which one do you want me to mess around with?

Sincerely,

Your Neighbor

 

I got shit piled all over! Love the country! My neighbors are real bastards though! When the levees broke in 08, my neighbor Henry had the nerve to wheel up in my yard in an air boat with a case a beer! We went blasting through corn feilds .....what a jerk! Hahaha

 

^^^ sounds to me like the guy you are describing is straying into illegal activities territory. Threatening to kill an animal (or actually doing it) is illegal in most places. Threatening people/animals & waving a gun around is also illegal in most places. Maybe the laws are different in Tennessee but I would think that the police would take a very dim view of some of his antics.

And you're right, he sounds like he has a screw or two loose. Watch your back.

 

I got a neighbor that was trowing his dog shit over my fence he has a little girl type dog.I went over and knocked on his door and told him if he dose it one more time I was going to start to trow my dogs shit over in his yard. have a American bull dog that shits bigger them I do guess what no more shit over my fence.

 

oh, makes more sense now

Id like to see a pic of that 45 white 6X6, have you posted one before?

 

Had a neighbor punch holes in my tires (did not use a knife, to much noise) 2 different times, one of the times on two of my cars one of which I just put new tires on all because he thought I was feeding his dogs chicken bones, I was'nt. I was so mad I drove the two cars with flat tires next door to his house and blocked him in so he could not move his car, one in front and one in back bumper to bumper. He called the police and they asked me to move them, ok fine. Knowing I would have to stay up day and night to catch him I put up a motion light and also made up a 4'x8' sign that said "TIRE SLASHING COWARD, THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS WATCHING, BE CAREFUL" and put it on top of one of the cars with tires still flat in my yard for everyone to see. It was'nt even an hour and he was out there taking pictures of the sign like he was going to do something about me accussing him of the act, lol. Can you say guilty, how do I know it was him in the first place? because the first time they were punched I confronted him about it while trying to be nice, and he actualy admited to asking a buddy at a bar to do it for him.

 

Here ya go....

 

I had a neighbor ,who lived 2 blocks away, call the cops on me for driving my race car onto my open trailer every sunday morning (not very early I lived close to the track). Now mind you it was not an all out tube chassis 7 second car, just a stock suspension 78 Malibu. it had mufflers and could have been street legal if I had wanted a street car. It would run for maybe a minute just to back it out of the garage and drive it onto the trailer. The neighbor lied to the cops and said I was doing burn-outs & passes all over the neighborhood.
A cop car shows up at my driveway sunday morning.
I said to the cop " do you think this car has the power to spin the tires and leave rubber"? The cop replied "of course,very easily" so I replied "so where are the tires tracks from me doing all these burn-outs?" The cop looked at the street and said "good point!" Then he asked me if I could push my car up the trailer every sunday. I just rolled my eyes. I told him as soon as I could afford a winch I would get one,but until that time he could meet me here every sunday morning and watch me drive my car on the trailer and that I would have coffee and donuts waiting when he arrived. The cop chuckled and said "be careful when your racing and keep the noise to a minimum" I thanked him and never heard a peep out of anybody else after that. P.S. my other neighbor ,who lives right behind my garage told me he loves to hear a "healthy" sounding motor when he's out mowing his lawn so could I start my car and rev it up a little while he's outside.Then he tells me he didnt even know I had a Hot Rod in the garage till the other day when he saw it driving by and he was living there for 2 years.

 

hahaha,very nice

 

in a way i guess i'm on the other side of the "asshole" coin on this topic . i live in a small town surrounded by corn and bean fields. i have the second largest yard in town at just a touch over 2 acres, with all the other houses having the standard size garden variety yard. i'm not sure what the attraction is but every idiot with a quad/snowmobile/dirtbike thinks it's ok to ride in my yard. and it's always the same answer when i confront them

me: um ....i'd really rather you didnt ride in my yard
idiot : uh .....i didnt know it was your yard
me: well who's yard did you think it was ??
idiot : oh .....i guess i'll ride somewhere else.

brilliant, a town surrounded by wide open fields but these morons have to ride in my yard.

 

I live in a neighborhood of solid, middle class working and/or retired people. The lots are fairly large by today's in town standards, but 90% of the neighborhood is houses built pre-1950, mine in '41.
My house is on a hillside and building a shop of any size would have required heavy duty dirt moving and retaining walls.
I also wanted 3 phase electric because my other hobby is machine tools like those I earned a living with for 40+ years.
Combine that with potential for neighbor problems, and I decided to locate a shop elsewhere. For lots of years, I rented shops for cheap, then they got scarce as the building code people got stricter in city and county and people had to charge lots more rent to get enough out of a building to meet codes.Went several years as strictly "shade tree" in the backyard on a gravel pad using "country creeper" ( a big piece of cardboard).
Finally I found a 1600 sq. ft. bldg. with concrete floors, block walls, aluminum roofing over wood decking, truss consruction for no interior support posts, etc. 3 phase was available if I had at kleast 1 7.5 hp motor.
The lot is small, and I can only store inside, but then I have a friend with a salvage yard where I am storing 2 parts cars now over in his "private stock" area.
The neighborhood is bad, pretty much "Inna Hood", so I spent some of the money I saved buying that bldg. and land for $16K on door & window bars, plus monitored security with it's own cell phone to call out.
Been there now for 25 years and still happy with the decision.
Dave

 

I found that if I have an old car setting in the yard and someone complains, putting a "for sale" sign on it makes the authorities leave me alone. Since I live out in the country, sitting at the picnic table in the front yard, while cleaning my guns, on a nice afternoon also seems to convince the neighbors leave me alone. It doesn't hurt to have a reputation either, and you don't even have to do anything to get it. Just have a few friends spread rumors about your past and people avoid you like the plague. Several years ago when I caught a car thief and held him at gunpoint for 45 minutes til the cops arrived, well that sort of put a topper on the reputation thing. I did win over a couple of the neighbors when I took out the coyotes that were raiding their chicken coops. They no longer complain when they hear an occasional shotgun blast coming from my place in the middle of the night. Works for me. Funny thing is, I'M the crotchety old neighbor, but I only get crotchety when people get into my business. A few years ago a new neighbor moved in next door. He has a sandblasting business. I'm the only person who welcomed him to the neighborhood and I never have had reason to regret that. I keep an eye on his business at night and on weekends when he's not around. I also gave him easement to run power lines across my property (shortest route). His business pissed off a few neighbors, but now they leave me alone and bitch about him, and he doesn't give a sh*t.

 

I just keep buying all the property around me. I have a new neighbor two doors down and it must be his first back yard cause all week end he and his son road atv's and killed the grass! no problem, his grass. Just leave me alone, I have seniority!

 

I don't think you are on the other side of the coin. You're minding your own business on your own property. It's no one's right to be on your property.

My in-laws have the same problem. They own a pretty good sized plot of land and the neighbor kids are always cutting across it on their ATV's....even though they've been told and told and told NOT to do it.