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I just called the police on my neighbor for the second time this month. I came home this evening to find my house reeking of weed. I could care less what these people do, but it makes my apartment smell horrible and I have asthma. The cops literally showed up for a few moments and left.

A few weeks ago, this guy was blaring the same repetitive bass over and over again at 1:30 AM on a Sunday. I called and even talked to the two officers who came out. The cop looked at me and said "Oh, he was just mixing a song. I think he is a DJ." The guy even walked up to me the next day when I was on my porch. He was being extremely aggressive and I was legitimately worried about my safety. I told the police that this evening and still they do absolutely nothing.

I'm a young guy, and I can put up a lot. I'm almost finished with college and there isn't much I won't just deal with. I can even deal with this behavior, but there are two little girls who live next door with an elderly woman, and we do not need this where we live.

I hate being that jerk neighbor that keeps calling, but I'll stop calling when the police actually do something about the problem. Just needed somewhere to vent, and facebook probably wasn't the best idea for obvious reasons.

I'd say nuke it from orbit, but that doesn't really help with neighbors.

That's so weird. I was mixing a song yesterday and smoking a copious amount of weed when the cops showed up. I think my neighbor might have called them. Weird coincidence.

Report the police officers for failing to do their duty.

Perhaps its the persistence that will actually see something done. Maybe they don't want to ping the guy for an isolated incident or two, but after 4 or 5 calls about legitimate problems (so you have 2 so far as I understand it) it'll become clear that it's actually him, and not someone overreacting?

I had similar neighbors once. Maybe you should launch an aggressive campaign of subtle terror against them. Find ways to annoy him and get under his skin that aren't directly harmful or even attributable to you (ex. anyone could could have left that half-rotting dead fish in front of your door... I would never do such a thing).

Also, assuming you don't have passive aggressive sadistic tendencies, talk to the cops' superiors if they aren't taking care of things.

seriously, talk with other neighbors, it is likely the cops will do something if multiple reports come in from multiple sources.

Fight fire with fire.
Find the be song you and place your speakers next to the wall.

Then plant heroin in his car and get the cops to arrest him

Honestly?

Police are not going to be able to help you very much in a situation like this. Unless there is a pattern of activity that makes it fairly clear that the individual is selling narcotics they might just stop showing up.

Your best bet is actually to talk to the owner of the property you rent from. If it gets to the point where multiple tenants are threatening to move out--they tend to take that seriously.

Do not follow the advice of people that suggest you escalate the situation by fighting fire with fire. Your neighbor is an donkey-cave and he is going to be willing to go farther than you in an escalating conflict.

Just keep calling the police and make a nuisance of yourself to them like your neighbor is being a nuisance to you. The problem is there is not a lot the police can actually do besides respond to your complaint and tell the guy to quite down or whatever.

OP, I'm (temporarily) in an apartment so I can sympathise with having savages for neighbors. What you need to do is focus on what they are actually doing that violates lease agreements and local laws so you have something specific and observable to complain about.

Get the landlord involved if need be. That might yield better results than the police.

I have a scorched earth policy with neighbors who annoy me.

I think you should learn to party.

Don't take it on yourself to white-knight for an old lady. Old ladies will talk to their landlord if someone bat an eyelash at them the wrong way. If it really bothers her, then she'll make a complaint.

Otherwise, just chill. Spray some febreze. Flex your zen muscles.

 Kovnik Obama wrote:
I think you should learn to party.

Don't take it on yourself to white-knight for an old lady. Old ladies will talk to their landlord if someone bat an eyelash the wrong way at them. If it really bothers her, then she'll make a complaint.

Which actually goes as a point against any reports to the landlord by the old lady.

If a young man however reports the same thing? They tend to take it a bit more seriously.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Kovnik Obama wrote:
I think you should learn to party.

Don't take it on yourself to white-knight for an old lady. Old ladies will talk to their landlord if someone bat an eyelash the wrong way at them. If it really bothers her, then she'll make a complaint.

Which actually goes as a point against any reports to the landlord by the old lady.

If a young man however reports the same thing? They tend to take it a bit more seriously.

Perhaps. Having personnaly experienced homelessness a long long time ago, I'm just not enclined to feth over people's housing, even if they are being loud jerks.

I've also never had a loud neighbour that refused to lower the volume when asked politely, that helps too.

In moments like this, I simply refer to my guide to life:

My advice. Move.

Sadly, that's about all you can do.

I agree with Kanluwen. This isn't really a job for the police (although it seems hard to believe they didn't cite him for noise at 1:30am on a sunday, but perhaps your locality doesn't have a noise ordinance).

Complain to the landlord, or find another place to live - those are your options.

Never fight fire with fire.

I don't know what I would do, other than talk to him, the landlord, and keep calling cops, but if you escalate it, then it'll get out of hand. Like "two grown men fighting with chainsaws and Katanas over the who owns the hedges" out of hand.

My mechanism for dealing with neighbors who spin a heavy bass beat through the paper thin walls of the apartment building is with a impromptu return fire at 6:30 in the morning the day after of something rather stately and impressive. The 1812 Overture at volumes so loud it's just below the pain threshold is rather pleasing.

As far as the pot goes, I've never had that issue. The smell never bothered me much, and, as I live in the midwest, there's only roughly four weeks total in the year that the outside climate is actually hospitable to human life*.



* I"m convinced that midwesterners are strange lizard folk that enjoy basking in 90+ degree temperatures at 80-99% humidity. This theory is further supported by the fact that most of them are wearing parkas in what I would consider sweater weather.

 Iur_tae_mont wrote:
but if you escalate it, then it'll get out of hand. Like "two grown men fighting with chainsaws and Katanas over the who owns the hedges" out of hand.

There can be only one.

 Ouze wrote:
I agree with Kanluwen. This isn't really a job for the police (although it seems hard to believe they didn't cite him for noise at 1:30am on a sunday, but perhaps your locality doesn't have a noise ordinance).

Complain to the landlord, or find another place to live - those are your options.

Generally, they do not issue citations unless they actually encounter the activity themselves in situations like this--or unless there is a lengthy history of such activity, but not reported by a single person.

It tends towards the ridiculous but the police do not look kindly upon being used as the instrument of vendettas between neighbors.

Have you tried simply talking with your neighbor and telling him his loud noise at night keeps you awake?

JWhex wrote:
Do not follow the advice of people that suggest you escalate the situation by fighting fire with fire. Your neighbor is an donkey-cave and he is going to be willing to go farther than you in an escalating conflict.

This is why you need to make sure you end the conflict with the first shot.

Grab your loudest cd and skunkiest weed and fight fire with fire.

 Kanluwen wrote:
Honestly?

Police are not going to be able to help you very much in a situation like this. Unless there is a pattern of activity that makes it fairly clear that the individual is selling narcotics they might just stop showing up.

Your best bet is actually to talk to the owner of the property you rent from. If it gets to the point where multiple tenants are threatening to move out--they tend to take that seriously.

Well, that's no fun. That kind of solution might actually work.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In all seriousness though, go with what Kanluwen said. I had a moment of brain damage in my earlier post.

 DemetriDominov wrote:
In moments like this, I simply refer to my guide to life:

I agree, get a new sound system and play this on full volume. If their windows rattle you're halfway there.

 Kanluwen wrote:
Honestly?

Police are not going to be able to help you very much in a situation like this. Unless there is a pattern of activity that makes it fairly clear that the individual is selling narcotics they might just stop showing up.

Your best bet is actually to talk to the owner of the property you rent from. If it gets to the point where multiple tenants are threatening to move out--they tend to take that seriously.

Very much this. Police can't really do much unless you show a legal reason why they need to be there. Specially bring the landlord in on it with other neighbors. In these types of situations the landlord is more or Less God, and the loss of money will anger them greatly.

Do not retaliate. You will have no case with the authorities if you do. Keep bugging your landlord. Is smoking banned in your lease? is it banned in his? And when it's after midnight and the party is still raging, keep calling the police.

I can sympathise with you a lot, I had pretty much the same problem with my uni house last year, playing heavy bass until 2-3am each night, with me in the room below. While I thought about fighting it with fire like some have mentioned this only caused it to get worse to the point where my personal safety was in danger, at which point I complained to the landlord and it was settled rather quickly.

Don't bother fighting back, like you said, if you fear for your safety then it's probably best to talk to the authorities more, either the police or the landlord agency.

The city you live in has a set of legal codes that should be readily available either online or through a short visit/phone call to city hall. Find the codes that deal with noise and other "nuisance" issues. When the police come next time and act indifferent, show them the codes that your neighbor is in violation of and visibly write down their badge numbers and names (alternatively you can ask for business cards as many usually carry some). If they fail to do anything to stop the behavior (as it is their job to enforce state/local law as well as local codes) then tell them that you will report them to their superior as the neighbor's behavior is clearly in violation of statute and as officers of the law their oaths require them to do something about it.

I had a similar situation years ago when I lived in an apartment (worse, I live in a college town). After calling the police several times, the neighbors finally go the hint but I did have to talk to the officers and dispatch to get them to actually do their jobs properly.