I got home, made a drink and went to sit in the back yard with the SO. There is a large empty parking lot directly behind the house that is part of the former YMCA housed there. About 30 minutes in a very loud car pulls up, then another and then a crotch rocket that sounded like it had no muffler. We hear dudes (probably 6-7 all together) talking and whatnot. No big deal. They began revving engines, the bike sounded like a jet engine but no big deal. Then they started doing burnies around the tree that is in the middle of the lot. Still no big deal. To us. Across the street from the lot is an apartment complex of about 25 units I'd say. The people there did have a problem with what was going on. We could hear a lady asking what they were doing. They of course told her to fuck off. Shortly there after what I assume was her Husband got home. Dude is big and drives a tow truck for a living. If you've ever known a legit one, they work all the time. It cannot be easy work to say the least. Anyway, he asks them the same thing. Next thing we hear is some dipshit telling the driver over and over again how he's going to fuck him up. The next sound was a dull but loud smack followed by what sounded like someone dropping a cantaloupe on the floor. The truck driver dropped the dude with one hit. Things began to escalate quickly as I went in to grab my phone and call the cops. They were there in I'd say a minute or two tops after I'd hung up. Three of them took over fast as the dudes were all yelling their side of the story at them. I think they were there for 45 minutes or so. I don't know if anyone was arrested or cited. The guys were on private property to begin with so who knows. Irony, just last Saturday I read an article in the local paper that said our city is ranked third safest in my state. I even told my Boss about the article, yesterday. Little did I know that that very night I'd be calling the cops. FOCUS: When have you had to call the cops and why? What happened as a result?
I probably told the story before, but guy in our fraternity went bonkers after he graduated. He started showing up back around the Greek Village to hang out with the undergraduates seemingly randomly. Well he was also a pathological liar and told everyone he won some huge lawsuit and was now a multi-millionaire. So he tried to get this ad-hoc trip together (in the middle of the school week, mind you) to clubbing in Miami, all expenses paid. Most of the guys in the fraternity were either too sketched by this proposition or didnt care because it was 2 weeks from finals and no one was blowing off class for this shit. Except a couple guys did, and went with him. These guys were the biggest idiots in the fraternity, so there wasnt much surprise there. They got back 4 days later with a 1000-yard stare and very jittery. The alum that took them swore them to secrecy about the trip apparently, but they told someone anyway. The person they told was equally stupid and starting running his mouth. Well the alumni found out and went fucking ape shit. He started running around, trying to punch and shove anyone that got in his way looking for the 2 guys that talked. We were downstairs when we heard the goings-on up on the third floor and knew shit had hit the fan. I called the cops. They came and took this guy away in handcuffs. Well apparently they went to Miami, scored some coke and hookers, and then the hooker stole some money and they chased her down and beat the shit out of her (we suspect, we dont really know). This didnt stop there. We got a restraining order against the guy and still ended up coming back multiple times, and getting arrested multiple times until they set a police dog on him. He eventually let up. A few years later he got arrested on a separate incident for breaking into someone's house an wearing a dead lady's clothes. The aristocrats.
Damn right, cops like to par-tay. I've called the cops many times for witnessing car accidents, but I don't think that counts. And, I've had the cops called on me, but that's a different thread. I called the cops when my office was robbed. The came, took the report, sent some other lab cops to check for evidence, prints, etc. and then - hold on to your hat - never solved anything. My story is not that interesting. I just wanted to get in a post before ToyToy filled up the thread.
I can only remember calling the cops one time; I was unfortunate enough to live next to a frat house and while their basic weekend parties were something I could deal with, the weeknight after-the-bar-closes parties were too much but hey, we've all been young and wanting to party. The straw for me was when some of their drunk friends were talking loud about fighting then trying to punch holes in the fence. I didn't feel like trying to rationalize with a bunch of drunk college kids so I called the cops on them. The cops came, asked them to quiet down (which they did for about 15 mins) and then told me that technically the fence is 50% their property so there was nothing they could do about it.
The one time I've called the cops was when I was working for Planned Parenthood, and we had this one crazy person harassing us through our text service. She wasn't an anti-PP person, and for a while we thought she was just a super bored teenager because she was flooding the line with questions like "what is sex" and "is sex bad?" But after a week or two it was clear that this was actually a genuinely unhinged person. She texted us continuously every hour of the day and we were convinced she simply didn't sleep. We were closed from midnight to 8am, and people would sign on in the morning to see a queue of a dozen messages from her all throughout the night. And when you text when the line is closed, there's an automatic response with the hours of operation, so you'd look at her text history and it would be like: 230am "Hey" [automatic response] 342am: "Hey" [automatic response] 413am: "How long does sperm live" [automatic response] 538am: "Hey" [automatic response]. THEN, she started telling us how she wanted to kill her cousin, and would always refer to her by name. So all day long we'd get these inane questions after inane questions after inane questions, then a quick lil message about how and why she wanted to kill her cousin, and then a long pause, and then back to the inane questions as if nothing was out of the ordinary. And the thing is, we had the capability of blocking harassers when they were talking to us on the chat line, but it was impossible to block people who were texting us, so while we'd just send them some "I'm going to stop this chat now" message it didn't actually stop them from coming in again. But the real fun part was we kept telling it to our higher ups and they wouldn't let us just stop talking to them. They were like, "oh well she's mostly asking legitimate questions that this service is supposed to be answering, so just answer those and when she starts saying off-topic things just stop the text." And I. was. PISSED because they weren't "off-topic," it was this girl giving us pretty detailed missives about wanting to commit murder and they just liked having the higher numbers regardless of the content. Along with being really angry about the situation, I was also legitimately concerned that we were all just standing by doing nothing and that maybe, just maybe, this person was actually going to do this one day. So, we had her phone number and her zip code, so one day I looked up the number for the police station closest to her (I think it was Phoenix or Sante Fe or maybe Reno) and called them up and told them I wasn't sure if I could provide enough information to go off of to do anything about this, but I worked for a national chat service and had been getting texts for weeks from someone in their city who was talking about wanting to murder their cousin and talking about them by name. And they said "Where did you say you're calling from again?" And I said, "New York." "Oh, well then we can't help you because that's not our jurisdiction." "No, I'm just calling from New York, but it's about someone who I at least think is in your jurisdiction." "Sorry, can't 'help you." "Well, is there someone who I can talk to about this? It's not like it's helping me." "Nope." I've never called the cops about something involving myself because I've always gotten the message that the cops are not there to help, and that experience really helped solidify that whole notion in my mind. I still think about that and hope that was just some sad lonely person and not a nutjob gearing up for murder. I've also had the cops called on my behalf when some guy was harassing me on the bus and while it was satisfying to see the cop bring him off the bus at the next stop and see a dude be held accountable for once I am 99% sure he was just let off with a warning because I have a feeling the driver called it in as just disorderly conduct and not grabbing my boobs and smelling my hair. I've also had the FBI called on my behalf three times and Interpol once to investigate the more credible death threats I received at PP.
Funny enough, I just got home to the cops in front of the house talking to Crazy. It's such a common occurrence I just walked by them without saying a word. I have no idea why they were here this time, nor do I care, but I'm sure I'll hear all about it later.
Judging by the fact that when I returned home tonight and there were 4 (FOUR!) cardboard and sharpie signs pointing at the neighbors house, I'm guessing the neighbors called the cops on him and he got his knickers in a knot. Good tools! More in the backyard!!! ---> It's like he's advocating someone robbing the guy...
First question, for clarification: so two of the signs were "Good tools!" and "More in the back yard!!!" Second question: what were the other two signs? If I were you, I'd find a backup place to live asap. I'm guessing your neighbors have a good case for a harassment suit, and even if they don't, it's only a matter of time before your roommates do something that gets them into shit and puts your current living situation in limbo. I get that cheap rent is hard to come by and these guys make for entertainment, but you at least gotta hedge your bets and get a plan B.
That was one sign. I didn't read the others, I just glanced as I walked by because quite frankly it's embarrassing to even be associated with this bullshit. And yes, I do have an exit plan. I really can't take much more of this.