Tuesday, May 09, 2006

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGH!

I am so hopping mad! My effing neighbor is trying to play some stupid, passive-aggressive, junior-high-school game with us and I am pissed. After several months of listening to her weekly screaming fights with her husband, our neighbor hit an especially alarming note and ruined one too many of my nights, so we called the landlords and the cops. After ruining one too many of my days with her obscenely loud, booming music, I asked her to turn it down a couple of days ago. Since those two incidents she has:

1) Stuck a melodramatic note on our door "to the ## ___ St. residents" (as if she doesn't know our names), to not leave the front door open lest we break her daughter's heart by letting their cat out (well, they have an apartment door that should do the job just fine, and the door would be shut if she weren't stinking up the hallway with her cigarrettes, but fine- we leave it shut now- with a super-duper air freshener.)
2) Started playing the music extra loud
3) After I asked her to turn it down, went about her apartment and up&downstairs stomping as loudly as possible and singing at the top of her lungs (I suppose the reasoning was supposed to be, "if I can't play my music, I'll just have to sing my heart out, so I'll still be obnoxious but she can't exactly ask me to turn it down.")
4) Turned her car on and blared the music at top volume out of it (including subwoofer, parked in front of our door & windows), with her dog tied to the car and barking his head off (poor dog never barks, but the music was just that loud), and stood on her porch screaming at the dog to "shut the f**k up! I can't believe you're being so loud!." Love the pointed tone, don't you?
5) We just discovered she moved all of our stuff stored in the basement over to one side and smooshed her things up next to it, as if to draw a line down the middle (you know, like young children and junior high schoolers might do when they don't like sharing a bedroom). This last one has me so steamed! Big, bad boundary issue here- if you want me to move my stuff, then ask me to move my stuff- but do not touch my property without permission!

All done in such a way that calling up the landlords would make me feel like a child myself- it either can't be proven or seems like we ought to work it out amongst ourselves. But, I fear that if we continue to try to do that, we'll just incite more crap. I've already asked the landlords to fix a few things lately (light not working, broken windows, woodpecker nesting in house) and really don't want to make a nuisance of myself, especially in something that seems like running to mommy&daddy. I don't know what to do here. We have both tried to be as nice as possible and as reasonable as possible (we've both lived in several apartment buildings before this and never had to ask someone to turn music down or call the police about a fight- we both feel this particular neighbor is pretty extreme, and we know their previous neighbors also called the police about a fight). I guess I'm trying to say we've been really flexible about this, but I really feel attacked and there does not seem to be a way to reason with this woman. She's just nuts. Whatever it is, we need a solution now, because this has to stop. Any ideas?

1 comment:

Trista said...

Derangels has a point. Someone who's that bad a tenant might also be doing things like not paying rent (or not paying it on time) that might work with you if you complain to the Management.

Also, though you may be reluctant to do it, the next time she does the car thing, you CAN call the police. Also with the dog, you can call animal control for the barking (I know, we had a neighbor do it to us -- too bad it wasn't our dogs barking).

You could also go talk to her about her moving your things... Can you report her for smoking? You might also want to start documenting the harrassment -- times, duration, recordings, pictures. You can let her know that you're doing it, too. That might get her to stop. Anyway, it would serve to make your case stronger when/if you do talk to the owners.

Sorry, that's all I've got.