Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Are the neighbors owners or renters? If renters then maybe getting in contact with the landlord could be of help.
In our old house there was a rental property across the street, the owners got wind that the teenagers were being left alone and having wild parties that the cops were being called on. They arranged to inspect the property as terms of the lease and found that they were not up keeping it properly and were gone within a couple of weeks. The house was then sold to a very nice couple with young children and who happened to be relatives of another neighbor. These things can turn around.
I agree with the camera system, but disagree on leaving valuables out. Leaving 'easy theft targets' in view of the cameras as bait may be a valuable way to gather evidence of their wrongdoing. The downside is if they figure out you're baiting them they might retaliate so that possibility should be factored in.
I don't know if that is wise. If they are so brazen as to steal a bike or something right off the neighbors' lawn, it might embolden them to further criminal actions.
I don't know if that is wise. If they are so brazen as to steal a bike or something right off the neighbors' lawn, it might embolden them to further criminal actions.
If that's the case then it's better to know than to not know. I'd rather see it coming than find out accidentally.
From the sounds of it, they're already pretty bold and obnoxious. If they were concerned about drawing attention to themselves or having someone call the police on then they'd be keeping things on the down low. They're not. They sound quite comfortable letting others know what they're up to, though in their tweaker mind they've probably convinced themselves that nobody's on to their secret.
OP, my advice from having dealt with this is "tread lightly". The things normal people care about aren't likely to matter to a bunch of tweakers. I'd find out what you can about who owns the house and what their relationship is with the residents. Worst case, one of them has a rich parent that bought/rented the house for their kids to keep them 'contained'. If that's true, then the person controlling the finances is well aware what they're up to and it was their intention to bring this trouble to the neighborhood. Watch who you talk to. A 'safer' neighbor to talk to about it is probably a guy with kids. Older neighbors might be afraid to say anything.
In my case, a number of neighbors were doing little underhanded vigilante type stuff to annoy the tweakers, but it was largely ineffective. The only thing that seemed to work was getting code enforcement to come in and force some changes since they have the ability to levy fines. Even the police were relatively ineffective, and once they knew we were calling the police on them the harassment just took on different forms.
It sounds normal if the neighbors are bunch of tweakers. If you give a bunch of bored, unemployed people a drug that makes their mind race and they go without sleep for long periods they'll start doing all kinds of weird, psycho stuff. Very few people can handle heavy meth use, which is one of the reasons it's illegal. Particularly people who are leading an otherwise unstructured life can get pretty whacked out over time and there's no way of knowing how long these folks have been at it. They could be years in at this point and have a very tenuous grasp on reality.
For them it becomes a game. "Oh, the neighbors think they can ignore us LOL, well F THEM, WE CAN'T BE IGNORED! WE'LL SHOW THEM!!!". Any attempt at reasoning with them isn't likely to have predictable results. It could work, but I wouldn't expect it to. Better to come up with a backup plan besides "let's just hope the tweakers respect our boundaries and decide to give us the privacy we deserve".
I agree with the camera system, but disagree on leaving valuables out. Leaving 'easy theft targets' in view of the cameras as bait may be a valuable way to gather evidence of their wrongdoing. The downside is if they figure out you're baiting them they might retaliate so that possibility should be factored in.
Well I imagine then that the problem will be temporary, since methheads are not known for their stable lifestyles.
Well I imagine then that the problem will be temporary, since methheads are not known for their stable lifestyles.
Not necessarily. If they've lined up good enablers they can go for quite a while in a state of utter chaos without hitting bottom. I did a bunch of research on this trying to figure out when my neighbor's son would finally 'crack' and came to the unfortunate conclusion that many people can go long past the point where they're not able to care for themselves if they have someone enabling them. At the stage he was at - long term jobless, bankrupt, divorced, criminal record, living in a trailer in dads driveway, binging for a week straight, severe weight loss and apparently psychotic, I thought he was near the end. After reading up on other people's experiences however it seems some are able to maintain at this level for YEARS! In his case daddy was providing everything he needed aside from the drugs (food, truck, shelter, bail) and he'd use the truck to gather scrap metal to sell for drug money. That's all any tweaker really needs. For people that managed to break their addiction cycle, the most common reason cited was "I ran out of enablers".
Now eventually he did end up in jail, but not for lack of daddy trying to keep him out. He decided to stick it to his dad by jumping bail (which only makes sense in tweakerville) but had he not done that he might have avoided jail altogether. Fortunately for us daddy got mad enough about the bail jumping to finally kick him out. Otherwise he'd probably still be here.
You can plant lots of TALL and WIDE bushes or the privacy fence thingy.
Heh, sounds easy no? I put up a fence and a hedge after 6 months of screaming fights, drug overdoses and hostile aggressive behavior. The dad then had the nerve to complain that the fence was 'blocking his light'. Never mind he was the one allowing all of this to go on on his property.
I think about the only thing that hasn't been suggested is to have a frank conversation with these people. They sound like total losers, but they don't sound too dangerous.
Have your boyfriend (I'm not sexist, but I think many men and crazy women are more apt to take this conversation better from a man) go and nicely but firmly tell them you don't appreciate them being in your business. Sometimes even pretty messed up people will react well to a little straight talk.
If they are meth heads or even just pot heads, the last thing they want is legal trouble. I think you could nicely tell them that you don't want any trouble with them, but if they continue to make trouble for you, all bets are off. Tell them you know what they're up to and that you know they don't want any trouble either. They will probably get your drift.
Without threatening them, I think you could tactfully make the point that you're just not having their nonsense and they need to leave you alone. You may be surprised how far a blunt and candid conversation can get you. Plus, its a lot cheaper than tall fences, trees and surveillance systems.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
