So our neighbors have been a growing problem for a few months now. They seem to be a flop house for six or seven people, most of them look high all day. They go out and Rev a Harley at 3am, they burn plastic been our houses in a fire pit, they have a new dog every two weeks because they keep getting out and getting hit by traffic in the busy street we live on, the current two have bit people. I’m not one to care how someone lives, but these folks make the rest of our slum neighborhood look downright utopian.
I’ve tried taking to them, they’re stupidly hostile. I’ve put in complaints with the city, noise complaints with the police, they don’t do anything about it. Does anyone have advice on dealing with this? I’m tired, at my wits end, and my small town tactics aren’t as easy to pull off in a proper city.
Oof i didn’t give any fucks until the dogs part seems like an awful waste of dogs for no reason other than being a pos . I don’t think there is much you can do unless violence is an option like you can’t ask them nicely or get any help from law and violance may even decrease your life quality rather than increasing it .
Rev a Harley at 3am, they burn plastic been our houses
Finally people with some culture!
Imagine them using cheap chinese motorbikes instead …
/s
You wanna know the difference between a Harley and a lawn mower?
The lawn mower has a reason for being that loud.
Many paces so not allow more than “x” number of unrelated people to live in the same house. Might try that avenue. If its several people, see what zoning allows max capacity of the home to be. Buildin, housing and fire departments don’t like too many people in one house.
That’s actually a wholly new idea to me, I’ll be looking into this immediately. Thanks!
Best of luck.
Yeah… so I had a trap house move into the abandoned house next to mine.
Lots people spouting off with this and that and the other but won’t give you advice that works. And advice that works? Banana bread.
Dead ass. Make them banana bread. Monthly if not weekly. Make them notice when it’s not there.
We did this with the gang / crews that would rotate through next door. Was a rolling assemblage of cardroom, drug spot, ladies, just depended on the crew.
But I’ll have you know, they do not fuck with the house that makes them banana bread. We ask them to not having people smoking and talking around outside? Next day, signs up on the porch “No smoking or hanging around”, same with music, you name it. Obviously there are limits, but it took what could have been a terrible situation and made it bearable.
For this to work you have to change you attitude. Eventually they got busted by the feds, but once we had made “neighbors” with them, the rest was easy. They even started moving the trap house lawn. Respect earns respect. Change your attitude and you might be able to change the situation.
This is actually the tactic I used on the rest of the neighborhood. The small town charm and my double chocolate brownies cooked in a waffle maker (I call them Wownies) has me on good terms with everyone from the dealer down the street to the homeless under the bridge. Unfortunately these folk don’t bite when I offer and bite too much then I don’t. After the first few tries they just started trying to hang out in my yard and started peaking too close at me workshop.
And then they all clapped, the gang, the neighbors and even the banana bread joined in
The banana bread’s name ? Albert Einstein .
Albert’s gang affiliation? The next door neighbors!
There isn’t a hell of a lot you can do to really get rid of them. I’d try to find out if they’re renting the property and see if you can get in contact with the landlord/property management company and tell them about it. Most lease agreements require that you disclose how many residents are staying there so there’s a good chance theyre violating that rule among many others. The other thing is (assuming that this is the US since no location given and that’s where I have experince) document absolutely everything. Make a notebook just for writing down the date and time of every stupid / possibly illegal thing you see them do. Take video / audio recordings whenever possible and avoid direct contact. Then every time they rev their motorcycle at 3am call the non emergency police line. Every. Single. Time. The cops will get tired of it, but they’ll be more tired of the likely rude/violent reaction from your scumbag neighbors. Also call animal control any time you see their dog running outside of their property or of it bites someone. Long term / extreme pettiness is what’s going to work. Most importantly though never confront them directly and never tell them you’re calling the cops.
In addition to this [already great] answer: if you get other neighbours on the same page of you, even better. Have them reporting the scumbags to the cops, documenting the shit that they do, etc.
I’m saying this because, from the cops’ PoV, it’ll sound way more serious if multiple people are reporting the same thing. So they’re more likely to act.
An important detail: don’t make shit up. It’s fine to report small shit, as long as it’s real; but cops have a professionally trained nose for bullshit, so don’t try to bullshit them, it’ll backfire.
I think this is a great answer.
I would buy a camera security system so it’s always on and you have an automatic record. Something with a hard drive.
Don’t say anything about it, just quietly set it up first pointing at your house. For “your security”. Then a few days later point those cams at their house / the street / their yard / etc. You may see more that you didn’t know was going on.
Video evidence goes a long way. More than a person’s word, usually. Sadly.
Hm, so idk how I feel about this one.
I think everyone deserves privacy, even shitty neighbors, recording individual instances is one thing but literally setting up surveillance on someone’s home is a little yikes
Human memories are notoriously unreliable, and physical evidence, like video footage SHOULD ABSOLUTELY be worth more than a person’s word.
You’re upset the physical evidence is worth more than hearsay?
Aside from the Harley thing being a nuisance, I’m absolutely thankful we live in a society where there is nothing you can “do about” the neighbors you don’t like.
You have the option to move, I suppose.
Where do you live? Need a place with a friendly neighborhood to cook my moonshine and get drunk all day with my cousin wife. She’s a huge fan of Barbra Streisand and a bit deaf so I hope you won’t mind. Most of our dogs are friendly with the kids unless they don’t ride a bike.
I need to warn you though, sometimes my wife and get arguments about politics, especially when we start drinking in the morning, but it only happens once or twice in a week. No biggie.
Did I say she’s a bit deaf?
Anyway. See you soon neighbor!
Yeah getting dogs run over every 2 weeks, letting dogs bite people, burning plastic, running illegal drug dens… These are definitely the kinds of freedoms we need to protect! The only problem is running motorcycles at night, that’s where you draw the line apparently…
It sounds like you’re dealing with a biker gang. If that’s the case then you’re not going to be able to reason with them. They’re further entrenched in their lifestyle than in regular society. I hate to suggest narcing, but next time you call the cops, let them know that they’re running gang activities out of the house. Cops care more about gangs than they do noise complaints. If you’re in a really bad neighborhood then they still might not do anything about it, but they’re more likely to mobilize if they think that there’s the possibility of a big bust. Be careful though, if the gang suspects you ratted on them, it can be a hard time for you.
Seems like a bit of a leap. They’re probably just regular ol’ white trash.
Doesn’t seem like a leap at all to me. What they described is a gang flop house, not some po-dunk family. It should be fairly easy to tell the difference though. Biker gangs typically wear patches on their jackets indicating their membership.
OP never said that they’re white, and there are many different ethnicities that ride Harleys.
there are many different ethnicities [who] ride Harleys
Huh. Here I thought it was trashy old white guys and their fans.
The Mongols are a huge gang and they’re predominantly Hispanic. There are plenty of African American motorcycle clubs that ride Harleys on the West Coast.
Also when the cops find out you lied about gang activity, to manipulate them into moving against non gang members, you’re fucked.
Theres legal ways and Illegal ways. How morally flexible are you?
If in being frank, they have an open crawl space next to unguarded electrical boxes and a gas main. This is an easy fix, but I promised my partner is keep it legal until we had a real reason not to.
Aside from the motorcycles revving at night, are these people bothering you at all?
Well the dogs are constantly trying to get my son, the burning plastics can be smelt in the house, they’ve broken a section of our fence trying to get their dogs, and of course the 3am motorcycle business.
“They” will be more flexible. So?
Catnip.
Buy a bunch of catnip (it’s not expensive on eBay) and sprinkle that shit all over their yard. Get it in the flower beds, get it in the ditches, get it everywhere. It’s a mint and it grows like a weed. Next thing you know the neighbors front lawn will be littered in cats and there will be no way to get rid of them.
Added bonus is you’ll have cats you can pet, and very little pests in your neighborhood.
Considering who the neighbors are, the cats could be in danger.
Gonna level with you… If they’re roaming outdoor cats, they’re already in danger. If you really feel motivated to help them this would also bring them to an easier for SPCA to pick up. They’re also a threat to local wildlife.
Used to be - by the numbers - a cat that goes outside At All would live half as long as one that never-not-once went outside.
Now it’s 1/4. Source: SPCA contact.
And sure they’ll kill pests, but a housecat is an absolute killing machine for songbirds. You want less mosquitoes, you need to see far fewer cats.
I have 3 “strays” currently that are all 15+ years old, born outside and the only time they’ve seen a vet was when they were fixed.
good on your for animal negligence I guess.
strange flex.
I mean they’ve never need to go and got their shots when they were fixed.
…look, good on you for taking care of 3 strays, but honestly: pets require yearly vaccinations - you really aren’t doing them any favors if they haven’t been to the vet since they were spayed/neutered. Please, take care of your animals.
https://www.lowcostpetvaccinations.net/cat-vaccinations-cat-need/
Actually, catnip was on my garden list already! I was planning on getting fast and loose with the seeds so this won’t take much extra.
If you want to get really nefarious and don’t mind getting a little legally sketchy, bug spray normally kills grass in the areas that it’s sprayed in. If you happen to draw rude things in someone’s front lawn there’s no way to stop it from showing aside from spraying more, or just waiting for it to grow out
Not sure where you live but if this happened in Japan you’d talk to the local Yakuza and they’d take care of it. Meaning they’d make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Sadly, the US keeps all it’s organized crime in the halls of government buildings.
Sounds like a J6 opinion…
If you live in Jersey I can hook you up. But be prepared to return the favour.
Sounds like you have a case of shitty neighbors. Like cockroaches, only way of getting rid of them would be burning the house down. Since that isn’t a humane option, I would look at moving.
I mean, those neighbors sound awesome, for one. For two, they also keep rent low, which is pretty good.
But in any case, if you want them to move out, probably I would [redacted]. As a bonus, you won’t have new neighbors for maybe a year, unless they just throw in a manufactured home or a prebuilt or something. On the downside, you might have to deal with construction noises next door.
I can also recommend [redacted] but wearing the lead-lined jacket afterwards does get tiring. Can OP negotiate with planetary [redacted] for a better solution?
You can’t, end of discussion.
The most that the city or the police can do is issuing them a small fine for the noise complaints. The only one with even an ounce of power here is their landlord, but then it depends heavily on your country/state.
In my experience, bad neighbors don’t really move. If you’re lucky, you can move. But yeah, the qualities that make them bad neighbors often follow them to the rest of their lives, and they’re stuck at their current means and especially in this economy, that’s not a recipe for moving.
It sounds like it’s a gang. In my experience gangs usually move on after enough people from that house get arrested, killed, or OD.
Live and let live. Mind your business and move.
Probably not what you want to hear… But I mean it.
I believe “live and let live” kinda doesn’t work when your fucking dog bites people, you know?
That’s the cops job to deal with, Obviously report that, but if it’s something not illegal, you don’t really have an option
Getting woken up at 3am is their business. They need sleep to be healthy and work and their neighbors are the ones causing the problem. The viewpoint you’re expressing is very selfish and antisocial.
Wow, two in a row. I don’t even have to fully type it out again.
Its so easy to say, move. The practical reality is often different. Also why the hell should they move if they aren’t being obnoxious but the neighbors are. There’s a certain level of decency that one should have in any setting. Being obnoxiously stupid to the point of doing all the things in OP’s post makes people like that just fucking unacceptable or intolerable to live with. If people want to live like that then they should go live in the fucking wild. The rest of us actually want to live in civilized society.
Are they renters? Can you complain to the homeowner?
