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Neighbour Bullying

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The Neighbour From Hell Lives Nextdoor

You live in a quiet, peaceful neighborhood. You enjoy the presence of the native birds in the trees and your block is planted to encourage them in. You also have a little dog and a couple of cats that make up your house family. That's fine as you live alone and the pleasure they give you is unsurpassed.

You have lived in this house for say 24 years, or thereabouts. You raised your family here and bit by bit you improved the garden from the hard baked clay and rocks that greeted you when you first arrived. Now it is a productive wonderful place to sit and enjoy the environment and to grow some lovely fresh fruit and vegetables in the back garden. Everything is great.

Great that is until 3 years ago when the neighbor from hell moved in next door. A skinny weedy woman of about 30 years of age with 2 small children who delights in telling you she is pregnant. You are shocked as you gaze over the ugly black tattoos down her arms and elsewhere. Her face is spiked with what appears to be diamond bits stuck on the end of skewers. There is even one in her tongue that tends to clash with that on her lip.

You try not to look away in disgust as you half heartedly listen to her news. But you are a generous soul and soon you are running in with fruit from your trees for the children. You offer to help her get her garden going, which looks as yours did when you first arrived. But she is shifty and you feel funny inside. "This is not someone I need in my life" the inner voice is telling you. Nonetheless you are a peaceful soul so you take part in a few conversations with her from time to time. After all you are neighbors.

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Barking Dogs And No Sleep

Soon after her moving in there are 2 dogs in the yard next door. They bark repeatedly all night under your window. Night after night you try to sleep. Finally you go in and knock on the door and ask politely if they can please keep the dog quiet.

You wonder why the noise is not disturbing them. Its quiet for a night or two and then it starts again. Finally one of the dogs is removed. That means just one dog barking occasionally during the night. You decide to put up with it rather than to ask again for the tenth or twelfth time for them to keep it quiet. Oh, there is suddenly a man living with her.

Then the dog starts digging under the fence. You pick it up and carry it to the neighbor's front door and politely hand it back. Its a nice dog and its obviously distressed about something. Week after week more holes under the fence more trips back with the dog. Then they try to fix the holes but the dog now is coming in under the front fence into your front yard and barking. You let the dog out into the street. It 2.30 a.m. This happens a few more times. By then you are fed up.

A letter comes from dog control asking if you are having trouble as other neighbors have reported it. You ignore the letter because you don't want to get her in trouble. One day you decide to talk to her about working together to fix the fence so that the dog can't get under it. She yells and screams abuse at you. You recoil with shock. Like its her dog and all you are doing is trying to help.

One night you are sound asleep and suddenly a massive explosion happens right outside your bedroom window. You jump out of bed thinking something has blown up in your house. Then you realise that it was a banger, a great big one, more like a bomb. It wasn't in your house but in the neighbor's back yard. Its 3 am and then you are awake for pretty much the remainder of the night.

A few night later there is this strange green light moving across your ceiling while you are trying to sleep. You get out of bed and look in the neighbor's yard. Your window overlooks their back area. There she is happily sitting outside her backdoor working the laser. You wonder what is it all about?

A few night later you are woken again around 2am with a loud thud on your roof. You think cats and try to go back to sleep. Another night the thud is more intense and against the laundry door. Again you think cats and try to go back to sleep. A few night later a thud on the roof wakes you again. This continues over some months but never regular enough to catch her at it.

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How Do You Respond to Barking Dogs?

Would you ask the neighbor to keep it quiet?

Would you Try to Stop It by Reporting it to Authorities?

Yes

tvyps says:

I tried to tell them, they got tired of it. Going to the authorities is useless in the USA and Animal Control won't do anything. I went to the Housing board and they sent a letter, big deal huh? Finally, they declared bankruptcy and moved out. If you have irresponsible neighbors who won't control their pooches, they are usually irresponsible in other ways such as finances. Just be patient and they will eventually move out!

Mim_Art says:

You poor thing! I hear you ... I have some of those (more than one, sadly) but fortunately they are not right next door (well, the ones next door are not there ALL the time - it's their 'summer cottage' so they believe while they are on holiday everyone in the world is *sigh*). The others are down the road a bit - but one constantly adopts dogs she can't care for, so they roam around looking for food and attention. These dogs deserve a better home in the end.

Sarah says:

always go to the authorities. Our neighbour attacked us and we have been living in fear for 5 months now praying she will be evicted. She laughs to the other neighbours about what she has done and i am now ill from the trauma of it all. Some people you can't reason with i'm afraid. They don't understand reason.

Annamadagan says:

But, if it kept going on and on, yes I would report it.

dthonstad says:

I have had to deal with a bad neighbor before. I would try to talk to them first, but if this did not work I would report every instance of disturbance to create a record of harassment. In my previous situation after talking to authorities they basically told me that without proof they could do nothing. So I set up my own video surveillance and made sure the neighbor knew I was doing it and could see the video recorder. It sucked having to do this, but the constant egging stopped.

kitty222 says:

I'd warn her a couple of times so she can't say she wasn't notified. If it doesn't stop or the dog becomes a nuisance like what you described, I'd report it.

BeenThereStillThere says:

People who believe in 'talking it over' in situations like this are living in blissful ignorance and have never actually had a true neighbour from hell, or they'd change their tune right quick. Sadly these days, talking to a neighbour like this will just put you on their radar as a target, and increase your troubles tenfold. And unless you catch them redhanded in a criminal act, the cops do nothing. Even if they are caught, it usually only amounts to a slap on the wrist for them, and an elevation in your troubles with them. So sad, but so very true.

KathyT says:

Everyone makes mistakes - but if this went on and on, you bet I'd report it. I have very little tolerance for people who don't properly care for or socialize their dogs.

justin bieber says:

JUST LET THEM BARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LaStryge says:

Report

DavidDove says:

unclear choice

whoisbid says:

yes if it causing people to lose sleep

pheonix76 says:

I would first ask the neighbor to keep the dog quiet. If I thought the dog was being abused or neglected I would certainly call the authorities or offer to take the dog in.

sherel57 says:

First I would ask the neighbor to quiten his dog. If it persists I would report them. I realize that sometimes the neighbor may not be able to handle the problem so I would suggest they take the dog to obedience school.

Oosquid says:

Yes to both. I'd ask them to keep the dog quite, if that didn't work there is nothing else to do but report it.

LisaAuch says:

I have 2 very large dogs and live in a small village, the neighbours behind me have 2 very small dogs who make the most noise day and night. My dogs are very well behaved and do not respond to the 2 dogs in the other garden, and only ever bark if the is a loud knock at the door, but I was the one visited after neighbours complained as it MUST be my dogs. So I asked the dog warden in and opened my back door and sure enough there was the little dogs barking away! By this time my dogs were licking the poor warden to death, apology was given and off he went to the correct house, so as a responsible dog owner I would

No

hippiechicjewelz says:

I just call my neighbor and ask if they could kindly give their dog a bone or something to stop the barking. Being that I am friends with my neighbors they don't mind and will usually bring the dog inside so I can get some sleep.

Deadicated says:

I use a doggie whistle; just kidding. In NYC you file a 311 complaint; that is after yelling obscenities out the window first don't work. Lol

Cari_Kay says:

No. Honestly, we had a neighbor who kept reporting our puppy's barking. Our pup was becoming pretty aggressive and then we realized our neighbor was threatening him and being aggressive toward him. It was simply horrible. Thank goodness those neighbors have moved. I couldn't ever do that to a neighbor.