My husband once got mad at me and locked me out of the house. I broke a front window and crawled through. I only hope the neighbors weren't looking!

Yes, we had some nasty neighbors on Shaw AFB when my hubby was in the Air Force. To make a long story short, they were thrown out of housing and would never be allowed to live in base housing again any where. I hated to do it, but you just don't mess with my kids or you pay for it. Vique.

Well, they are not bad really... but their new air conditioner is sssssoooooooooo loud, that I could not have my kitchen window open. They run their unit much earlier than us.

But, I moved, and all is well. ;)

My worst experience was when my boys were young and the neighbor's kids were taunting them. I made my boys go in the back yard and play and the kids next door followed on their side of the fence. I eventually put up a spite fence which helped some. One day I heard the father pushing his daughter who was 10 or 12 years old to fight the boy coming down the street. The boy was minding his own business. Eventually the mother and I got into it and she told her husband to do something. So he finally came over and started bawling me out. I told him to look at his wife who was sitting around the corner. I told him she was talking about him and laughing because she made him bawl me out. Lordy, he went around the corner and yelled at her to get in the house and I didn't have anymore trouble with them. LOL

I would. But I am usually the "worst neighbour" - BWA HA HAAAAA!

I once had a neighbor who on the surface was socialably enough, but then, he developed a habit of entering my garage, if it was open, to 'borrow' a minor thing or two without saying anything to me.

I had some left over fuel from an old outboard motor that used a very heavy mix of 16:1 fuel to oil ration. To rid myself of this stuff, I poured it into a gas can for my lawnmower. When I put it in the lawmower, I'd dilute it with clean fuel if I had some, but for the most part, was using it up in my low-compression mower engine. So long as it did not knock, all was well. It did smoke a bit until the engine got hot.

And then one day, It seemed that my gas can was light, but I gave it no notice. I merely thought, my, I used that up in a hurry. A couple of days later, my family and his were chatting over an evening meal and I said, "I see that you have a new mower. It looks like a nice one." To that, he replied, "Yes. The last time I used my old mower, it smoked and fouled a plug. I took to my favorite yard equipment supplier. He looked at it, saw the fouled plug. Said it was buring a lot of oil and the engine was shot. Probably bad rings. He offered me a good end-of-season price on a new mower so I bought it." He beamed over his new mower.

And then it occured to me, "That's where that old, oil loaded, fuel of mine went to!" I could hardly contain myself. I had to make and excuse to go back into my house for an item and a snicker.

We had nextdoor neighbors in Ohio that hated animals. We had licensed dogs in our fenced in yard. The man waited until my hubby left for work one morning, then called saying he was coming over and shooting our dogs for barking. I told him to come right ahead, my camera was ready, and I would sue for all I could get. He didn't come, but they "rocked" some of our cats to death with real rocks.The wife was also a nutcase...one of those extreme germ freaks...who wore white gloves to keep her hands clean when out, then removed the gloves to eat.

When we lived in town, the person in back of us was a 40-ish "cowboy" , going on 14 years of age. He drank, smoked weed, did heavier drugs and played his stereo so loud it made our windows quiver. We spoke to him several times about having consideration for others (there was a sick child living next door to him) to no avail. We called the police, and soon after he climbed our fence and swore at me about making HIS life miserable. Since the police, town council and other neighbors (whom we fondly referred to as "the Clampets")would do nothing, we moved. God help that neighborhood.

I'm still thinking about which one was worst. I can't pick just one. Dh and I have had several undersirable neighbors. We think our next move is going to be on a few acres of land with limited neighbors.

Apartment living was fun. We had a group of construction workers move in for a while. There was a female groupie who apparently followed them around and had different boyfriends. She was endowed and so dh gave her the nickname "Milk Maiden". We woke up one night to hear her get cussed and then beaten.

A neighbor on the other side had a live in boyfriend. She came and pounded on our door one night because he was drunk and cutting his clothes up with a knife. We called 911 and then he drunk drove and left. Didn't see him back for a few days. He also hit dh's vehicle in the parking lot and left a dent in the door and drove off.

We rented a house for a while. The neighbors were happy to see us move in. Several of us were our own neighborhood watch. There was a house down the street that had several come and go visitors. Apparently there was drugs and prostitution going on there. I called 911 one night because the woman who lived there was running down the street in her nightgown. There was a guy beating her.

After that, we bought a house. Our next door neighbor liked to throw parties with alcohol. No better way to say you had a good time than loud cussing and a fistfight. This happened a couple of times. When this couple argued they would go out in the back yard and yell at each other. I guess they needed the privacy. Unfortunately, dh had let our cat out and we had to let them finish arguing before we let her back in.

Now we live in what looks like a better neighborhood. It has gone downhill a lot in the last two years. I think the worst I've seen so far was a drunk neighbor from down the street who flipped his car on the next door neighbors mailbox.

The night we moved into our second apartment the couple in the house next door were having a huge fight. He was beating her up. I just couldn't stand it. I went over and knocked on the door. He answered it and I offered for her to come and stay with us. Well he flipped and tried to hit me. She told me to go and I did still telling her to come over. I called the police when I got back. The dispatcher said "Oh he's at it again?" They sent a cruiser and was told nothing was going on. Ya right!
When I got my first motorcycle, DH rolled it out of the truck and I was so excited, I had to learn how to start it and take a ride RIGHT then. Well MR Big Man came out in the driveway to watch. Told me "I can't wait to see you fall down and see you all scratched up." I got so MAD I poked him in the chest with my finger and told him to back in the house and hide, cuz my biker friends were coming for him. Jerk didn't speak to me for months.
Then there was the time he went to the pet store and fell in the love with the cute fuzzy white puppy. Never looked to see that the cuttie was a Great Pyrenees that would be about 120 lbs when full grown. LOL They finally moved and she grew a spine and left his sorry self. LOL

When we moved to FL we bought the home of the neighbors from hell! LOL The neighbors were thrilled that the police didn't come any longer.

We did have some neighbors on this street a year or so ago who were not quite what they seemed at first. The police came several times for "domestic distrubances." Once a week or so there would be a police car at that house. However, one of the couple must have been calling the police b/c none of us ever heard anything. In a few months, though, they divorced. He was in the military and MPs came to supervise the day he moved his stuff out. They both went their own way (first him, then later her, too) and the house has been on and off the market ever since, but vacant. One of the other neighbors was summoned to testify when the wife pressed charges against the husband for violating the restraining order, coming to the property. That neighbor was very ticked when he took the day of work for it, then arrived and waited for a couple hours before he was finally informed she withdrew and charges were dropped. And she didn't even walk across the street to inform her "witness." Strange people, but the seemed so promising when they first moved in. Ya never know.

Otherwise, I don't want to jinx this, but we've had great neighbors. The last two places we've lived the neighbors have told us that the families before us were terrible neighbors: hard to get along with, mean and badly behaved kids, disrespectful. I think that's kinda funny, it makes us look good. Ya know, anything would be better than what they had before us. ;o) So we don't have to work too hard to make the neighbors like us.

She was an alcoholic nymphomaniac, prone to nudity and to singing "Black Velvet" while standing on the roof of her car in the driveway or on a bar or along the road when she was too drunk to drive any further.
Once, about 3 a.m., she pounded on our door until we awoke. I went to the door. She pleaded for our help because her Doberman "Roxie" was dead in the front seat of her car. She couldn't rouse the dog. We went to her driveway and she clung to me whimpering.
We looked in the car window and it looked like Roxie was fine. DH opened the car door and Roxie sat up and wagged her tail. The neighbor still thought Roxie was dead. We finally got Roxie out of the car and the neighbor was crying in relief. She couldn't believe her Roxie was alive.
The neighbor never had a clue what she was doing or what she had done. Her drinking gave her "blackouts" and no recall whatsoever. At least, that was her story and she always stuck to it!

Leslie/KS

We have been incredibly lucky, all our neighbors have been wonderful - either very friendly or very quiet, but no problems at all, ever, in our 36 year marriage. I dont recall my parents ever having "problem" neighbors either - but perhaps they did but didn't discuss it in front of us.

Really, very very lucky on that score.

I have been SO lucky to not have bad neighbors. Truly lucky!

Sheryl

I don't/can't post details. Two neighbors. Women. Now I'm pretty sure they were/are mentally ill. Had to be in order to be so vicious. Ganged up together against our family. Made false accusations and finally one of them sent her "semi-thug" brother into the mess misleading him with all her lies. Lots of police activity. I started to carry a gun. The police wanted to play both sides for their own selfish reasons.

They underestimated me. I the shy overweight mommy could fight back. I knew some people too. I went back "home". Hardest thing I ever did. Best thing I ever did. They had a talk with the brother. He decided to stay out of it. The troublemakers moved. The ones who thought they could intimidate me hid in their house for a year while their house was for sale. We're still here and get along just fine with all our neighbors. A few have told us they were so afraid. They could have helped by getting involved but I understand, people are weak.

I hope those 2 rot in he// from the inside out. Actually they aren't doing so well. I keep tabs on them. Karma has taken its toll on them.

I could forgive almost anything done to me personally but not to my kids and family. DD suffered the most as she still remembers the fear she lived under. Years later she told me she had built little shelters in closets and hidey holes with food and toys around the house and made her little brother practice staying in them with her. DS doesn't have clear memories of it but he has grown into a man who watches his back and fights for any underdog. A real tough guy with a gentle compassionate nature. I'm very proud of them both. The skanks' families mostly didn't do nearly as well. Karma. I love that gal.

Wow. After living 50 years in the same house I guess I am lucky. We have many neighbors but no problems.

These weren't bad neighbors, just their annoying dog. The couple both worked, as soon as they left the driveway in the morning until they pulled back in their dog would bark, continually all day long. Since it was during the day it wasn't reportable, the dog was well taken care of, and the people themselves never heard it. It was one bark at a time, over and over. Luckily we bought a different house soon afterward.

No bad neighbours here either, not in any of the places I've lived. The worst story is that one neighbour lets dandelions grow in his back garden and they sometimes spread to ours. Not a big deal considering what some of you have gone through.

We rented a small house on our property to an elderly woman. She was fine for a few months. All of a sudden my sweet as a kitten lab was missing. In 9 years this had never happened. I searched for her every where calling her name. Later that night a neighbor a mile or so away said she found my dog tied to a tree in the woods.
How wierd. And it was the oddest thing she was tied with the belt from a terrycloth robe. It was a miracle my dog was found. About a week later same thing. I went to where my dog was found previously and there she was tied to a tree again. This happened about 4 times. Long story short we finally had to call DFACs. She was put into a home and what a nightmare getting her things legally dealt with.
But I guess she was better than the young couple that burnt the house down when we served them with an eviction notice after 3 months of nonpayment.

We've had great neighbors all 35 years of our marriage but our next door neighbors growing up were, ah, "different".

The father would undress down to his t-shirt and boxer shorts, haul a chaise lounge out into the middle of the street and fly a kite...with a fishing pole. He loved to make kites, I even began a lifelong love for kites because of him, but I was not allowed to watch him fly them if he wasn't completely dressed. LOL

This man's son Brice was a bit of a nut case (also?). One day when I was about 18 my mom and I were sitting at home chatting when Janet, a neighbor who lived across from us called frantic because Brice (about 22) was over at her house with a *large* pair of scissors asking for a haircut. She was not a hairdresser. He was totally nude. Her three young girls standing behind her with their mouths agape. LOL

So my mom tells Janet to send Brice over to her, she'd talk to him. So, Brice comes over, with the same large pair of scissors in hand. My mom calmly tells him she would cut his hair if he promised to put on the robe she held out for him to wear. He did, she cut his hair, he went home and slept off whatever drugs he had ingested.

Same neighbors ... my mom and dad heard a bunch of commotion next door, out front. They go out to investigate and there's Brice's mom and dad locked in their car in the driveway. Brice was high on something and was acting crazy threatening to kill them, so to save themselves, they locked themselves in the car. LOL My dad called police who took Bruce into custody. He was back home in no time.

Curiosity got the best of me and I just checked Classmates.com to see if Brice showed up. It appears he survived his wild, drug-laced days, with how many brain cells intact, I'll never know. :-)

I had completely forgotten these stories, which happened over 40 years ago, until reading this post.

Jodi-

Wow, amazing reading, but really have nothing to share! Guess I have been pretty lucky!

"My dad called police who took Bruce into custody. He was back home in no time."

I have no faith in the system. Some years back my daughter and her ex were just separating and she told him over the phone that she was going to kill herself (she didn't really mean it), so he called the police and they took her to the mental ward at the hospital. By the time I got there to pick her up, a short time later, she was already on a bus headed home. If she had really meant it, their system wouldn't have helped much.

I had these neighbors that decided that they would swim in my pool whenever they wanted. Years before they moved into their home, the town re-routed the street taking several feet of their property. When they moved into their home they decided since the town took some of their property that meant they should have some or ours. Therefore, they decided that our pool was on their property and they should enjoy it whenever they wanted. The whole family with friends were swimming in there when I got home from work. Almost daily! I was too quiet at the time to do anything about it and my ex didn't want to start any more problems so we eventually had to have the property surveyed to get them out. They weren't the kind of people that we wanted to hang out with and they eventually moved away after trying to force the main beam in their house to collapse. That was years ago and I can tell you if anyone tried to do anything like that now I wouldn't have a problem speaking up. Life's lessons!!

I have also been lucky......haven't had any.

Got ya all beat! Neighbor to the east (we all have 20 acres) was known as the 'town drunk'- he and his brother that is. As a nurse at the local hospital, I learned alot about both neighbors... the 'drunk' one would scream and yeall at the kids- 'why the F**k didn't you water the horses, why the F did you...why the F did... you get it. Always had a beer in his hand. Abused his wife- WHY did she stay?? Finally she left. Their very expensive (nice), modular house has never been cleaned on the outside in the 12 years I have lived here. It looks like a junk yard- really. Their dogs run loose- they have even gone in my barn and taken my jacket off the hook, dragged it home and chewed it up. I took their horse back once- it was loose, put it back in the pen... and saw my missing chain/lock on the gate :( They had 19 cats that they didn't feed- they would come in my garage to get my cat's food- causing many cat fights. I took one of their cats to animal control- I found it with 2 paws missing- it had been caught in a leg trap..... That's just the first neighbor. The one to the south is/was a bi-polar, drunk. Heard many, many stories about him. He screamed at his twin kids like nobody- but so did the wife. He would be so drunk when he came home, he'd pick fights with anyone- after driving home drunk as a xxx. He got into actual fistfights with people. He beat up his wife badly once- at least she left him then. He wrecked their nice double-wide home- pulled electric wires out of the wall, damaged the house throughout when he got evicted for not paying house mortgage... Many more stories about them both.... They are gone now :)))) I have never seen people like these before- I hope I never have to again.

An older woman (75) didn't draw a sober breath from 5pm on every day. She would fill her bird feeder and sit with her hose. Everytime a bird she didn't like came to the feeder she would spray it. This would go on for the spring and summer months. It was so pathetic. She moved to a seniors complex. Hopefully there are no bird feeders.

I'd forgotten about my drunken neighbors until I read the above. Our bedroom window was right next to their house and every weekend we heard the two of them screaming at each other (both drunk). They had two grownup children (one was our landlord) and one 8 or 9 who had mental issues. He had a thing about light bulbs and his big thing was coming into our house and stealing the lightbulbs from the basement.

As a kid growing up, there was a sad family 4 houses down from us. The parents were rarely sober, and 3 or 4 times a year, during an argument, the wife would attempt suicide. Her method of choice was cutting her wrists, but apparently she wasn't very good at it, because she always survived. I remember that once she used a steak knife, once she broke the glass shelf in the medicine cabinet and used that, and many times she used razor blades. My mother was most often the one to call for help, then go over and do what she could until help arrived. Of course, everyone in the neighborhood watched the ambulance come to get her. The last time it happened, the husband called Mom and told her calmly that Mary had done it again. Mom went over and there was John, standing at the kitchen door, smoking calmly. Blood all over the kitchen. Mom called for help again and took care of Mary in the meantime. As we watched Mary being taken out on the stretcher, swinging her purse on her arm, she yelled out, "F--- you, Mrs. N---!" (my mom). Mom vowed that would be the last time she would answer the call for help from them.

They finally moved away but every few years or so, would come back to the area and always stopped in to see Mom. They had both sobered up and were living a "normal" life now. The saddest thing though, is that they had 3 kids, whom we all used to play with, that had to witness all of that. And later, 2 of the 3 actually DID commit suicide. Isn't that horrible?

The neighbors we had in FL are the reason we live on about 90 acres of wooded property now. I can't decide which neighbor was the BEST one- the single woman who was very nice but never home and her house alarm would sound for hours and hours, just blaring. Or the married man across the street who would come home at lunch time for nooners with his girlfriend. Ick.

To our left was the couple who stripped every tree off their lot, built a house and opened a day care center, in city limits out of their home. Legal, I called to ask, as long as they never had more than 6 kids there, including their own. And very often, he would mow his yard as soon as we went out on the screen room to eat dinner.

The house behind us, nice enough people but they kept their poor dog staked out there in the swampy, mosquito-y area and that poor dog barked and howled all day every day. I felt so badly for him.

Catty-corner from us was a guy with a big dog that used to poop a loose stream of yuk all over our yard every day. He wouldn't keep his dog in his own yard so Woody would scrape it up with a shovel and deliver it back to his driveway every day. We fenced our back yard so at least that part stayed clean and we could go barefoot out there. The man was a real jerk and threaten to come over and kick our butts but he was all talk. And a karate instructor, to boot. What a great role model. We just called him "Glassbowl". Sort of.

There was a young mother who would take her kid and let her play in everyone's back yards on their toys and playsets and she even came in our yard to sit on our back porch. HUH? We ended up having to put locks on our gates.

And the best one? The kids across the street who stole plywood from every nearby construction site and built this huge, wonderful skateboard ramp and had 20 kids over every night to go ker-thunk,ker-thunk,ker-thunk,ker-thunk,ker-thunk,ker-thunk, KER-THUNK until the wee hours of the morning, like 2 AM, until I would have enough and go flash our outside lights at them. That was their warning, next call was to the police. The City told me they had a permit for that thing, which was a LIE. We had to put up with it for over 2 years until finally the power company made them tear it down, then the city said it was illegal all along. They had built it right under a power line, it was amazing no kid was killed there. I think that and the crappy dog and the kids next door were the most annoying things about having neighbors.

ilmbg-Got ya all beat! Neighbor to the east (we all have 20 acres) was known as the 'town drunk'- he and his brother that is.

Wow. That does sound like a record. Hard to believe 20 acres isn't enough to keep these problems at bay.

Found an article that talks about checking out your neighbors before you leap into a new neighborhood.

It would be interesting to hear about how others knew a neighborhood was going to have 'issues' BEFORE they moved in.

A link that might be useful:

Look before you leap
By Dana Dratch ⢠Bankrate.com
July 7, 2004

www.bankrate.com/brm/news/moving_on/2004_
guide/look-leap1.asp