PCmor7
Generational Poster
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- Apr 29, 2014
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I ran into a situation a couple of days ago with a neighbor that turned concerning and I'm trying to figure out what to do.
There was a point where he said he didn't like me and "I'm not a person you want mad at you. I guarantee that" while smiling. At one point, he actually growled like an animal -- no exaggeration -- while I was answering him about something. He was visibly shaking once. He made weird insinuations, again, while smiling, that I didn't have a job and didn't own the property I've lived on since my family bought it back when he still was a little boy 50 years ago.
He went off on a rant at another point that "liberals like you are causing all these problems." He said he and his girlfriend talk about me and he doesn't like that I don't acknowledge them or say hi when I'm on my daily run. He said I was "strange."
He was drinking during all of this, though he said it was his first beer, but I thought the yelling and swearing when I never raised my voice, brought up politics or (I don't think) insulted him was extreme.
I'm also concerned because he's recently mentioned on a video on his girlfriend's Facebook that he's carrying a concealed weapon and back in 1990 he was charged with harassment, burglary, criminal mischief and criminal trespass, although I think the charges must either have been dropped or he got a very good plea deal.
This isn't the first time this has happened, but it's the first time he's acted this belligerently. He was drinking when he approached me under a similar premise a couple of months ago, too. And, both times, he's sought me out -- I've left him alone except on an occasion when I caught him throwing his garbage onto my property for about the half-dozenth time and asked him not to do that anymore.
Equally bizarre to me is that he claims the reason he's angry with me is because of how I cut my grass.
Not the time I cut it or how loud it is or blowing cuttings into his yard. He's not saying I'm going on his property -- his recent surveyor confirmed the boundaries our surveyor found 50 years ago. He even showed me the pins asking me not to mow on his ground, to which I agreed.
No, he's upset because he said his mower makes his yard look better than mine.
I'm not really buying that's the reason, because the area in question is three-to-four-tenths of a mile off any paved road and behind an abandoned trailer, junk-filled metal enclosure and a weed-covered section of his property. I asked him why the way we each mowed our adjacent sections would be more noticeable than those things and he started yelling about something else and changed the subject.
When he first showed me where our property lines came together to tell me not to mow on his part, I said it was his and I'd certainly respect his property. However, he also had to reciprocate. He wasn't just mowing slightly over the line like I was. He was mowing a quarter-acre of mine that he admits he knows isn't his and that I already mow and asked him not to mow.
He's since continued to mow slightly over the line by a few feet, and I haven't made it an issue.
Adding to the oddity -- while he just moved into his acre 15-20 years ago after getting the property in a divorce from an 18-month marriage to the granddaughter of the prior owner -- he's known me for 40 years. He and his brothers and I played church league softball together. We watched each other's homes when the other was away. When his Trump sign kept blowing off his property, I'd put it back for him, even though I wasn't a Trump supporter.
Increasingly, though, his behavior has become more and more adversarial, it seems since the election and since I told him not to throw more garbage onto my property. My property surrounds his on three sides and he's dumped garbage on all three.
I can't erect a fence because the area about which he's complaining now needs to remain open because of a water authority right of way. I currently don't have visual or audio evidence of his threat or strange behavior because it came completely out of the blue as I was walking in my yard. There is no local police department, because it's a rural area, so the closest police are the State Police 35 minutes away. And, by my state's laws, he doesn't fit the requirements for a protective order.
I'm at a loss about how to do this. I'd like to give the police the heads up but not something that would require them to question him because I'm concerned that would escalate things and the next time he got drunk or had a bad day, he'd go out and shoot my pets or break into my house while I'm at work or just try to shoot me. If I don't let them know, though, if he makes an even bigger threat or attack next time, the police might dismiss it as a first-time neighbor dispute.
Anyone have any experience with a similar situation to this?
There was a point where he said he didn't like me and "I'm not a person you want mad at you. I guarantee that" while smiling. At one point, he actually growled like an animal -- no exaggeration -- while I was answering him about something. He was visibly shaking once. He made weird insinuations, again, while smiling, that I didn't have a job and didn't own the property I've lived on since my family bought it back when he still was a little boy 50 years ago.
He went off on a rant at another point that "liberals like you are causing all these problems." He said he and his girlfriend talk about me and he doesn't like that I don't acknowledge them or say hi when I'm on my daily run. He said I was "strange."
He was drinking during all of this, though he said it was his first beer, but I thought the yelling and swearing when I never raised my voice, brought up politics or (I don't think) insulted him was extreme.
I'm also concerned because he's recently mentioned on a video on his girlfriend's Facebook that he's carrying a concealed weapon and back in 1990 he was charged with harassment, burglary, criminal mischief and criminal trespass, although I think the charges must either have been dropped or he got a very good plea deal.
This isn't the first time this has happened, but it's the first time he's acted this belligerently. He was drinking when he approached me under a similar premise a couple of months ago, too. And, both times, he's sought me out -- I've left him alone except on an occasion when I caught him throwing his garbage onto my property for about the half-dozenth time and asked him not to do that anymore.
Equally bizarre to me is that he claims the reason he's angry with me is because of how I cut my grass.
Not the time I cut it or how loud it is or blowing cuttings into his yard. He's not saying I'm going on his property -- his recent surveyor confirmed the boundaries our surveyor found 50 years ago. He even showed me the pins asking me not to mow on his ground, to which I agreed.
No, he's upset because he said his mower makes his yard look better than mine.
I'm not really buying that's the reason, because the area in question is three-to-four-tenths of a mile off any paved road and behind an abandoned trailer, junk-filled metal enclosure and a weed-covered section of his property. I asked him why the way we each mowed our adjacent sections would be more noticeable than those things and he started yelling about something else and changed the subject.
When he first showed me where our property lines came together to tell me not to mow on his part, I said it was his and I'd certainly respect his property. However, he also had to reciprocate. He wasn't just mowing slightly over the line like I was. He was mowing a quarter-acre of mine that he admits he knows isn't his and that I already mow and asked him not to mow.
He's since continued to mow slightly over the line by a few feet, and I haven't made it an issue.
Adding to the oddity -- while he just moved into his acre 15-20 years ago after getting the property in a divorce from an 18-month marriage to the granddaughter of the prior owner -- he's known me for 40 years. He and his brothers and I played church league softball together. We watched each other's homes when the other was away. When his Trump sign kept blowing off his property, I'd put it back for him, even though I wasn't a Trump supporter.
Increasingly, though, his behavior has become more and more adversarial, it seems since the election and since I told him not to throw more garbage onto my property. My property surrounds his on three sides and he's dumped garbage on all three.
I can't erect a fence because the area about which he's complaining now needs to remain open because of a water authority right of way. I currently don't have visual or audio evidence of his threat or strange behavior because it came completely out of the blue as I was walking in my yard. There is no local police department, because it's a rural area, so the closest police are the State Police 35 minutes away. And, by my state's laws, he doesn't fit the requirements for a protective order.
I'm at a loss about how to do this. I'd like to give the police the heads up but not something that would require them to question him because I'm concerned that would escalate things and the next time he got drunk or had a bad day, he'd go out and shoot my pets or break into my house while I'm at work or just try to shoot me. If I don't let them know, though, if he makes an even bigger threat or attack next time, the police might dismiss it as a first-time neighbor dispute.
Anyone have any experience with a similar situation to this?
