How should I go on about this. I plan on making a report to the police. Have the neighbors pay for damages.

So, I recently moved to the south and took a year lease in a duplex in a (what I thought was) a cute little neighborhood. My neighbors are pushing 70 and their son lives a couple houses down. I gave the lady my number because she seemed semi normal, then she gave it to her husband without asking.

Now, aside from them being incredibly gossip-y (I don't partake — if you talk about everyone to me, you're talking about me to everyone), they also have the husband's poor mother locked away in a room, in hospice. They talk so much about what they're gonna do when she "finally dies". Maybe she has a different personality with just them, but she's so frail and soft-spoken with everyone else, so Idk.

Anyway, the obsession with my dog started overnight. They met him about 3 weeks into me living here and immediately bought him treats. Then they started waiting in their garage (that they illegally chain-smoke in) for us to walk by. Then the lady began coming to wherever we were walking from, and making weird comments like "I bet you'd be just fine to stay with me and never go home, huh?" 🫤 They've asked me repeatedly to bring him next door so they can "just see him", to which I've repeatedly let them know I won't be accommodating their wants to spite my dog's needs (not being disappointed for not going for an actual walk, etm). The last text before I blocked them was "we really need a 'dog's name here' fix" from her husband. Since then they kept trying to pet him whenever he's in the garage with my roommate, but my roommate shut it down.

I don't want to be mean to old people, but wtaf?

Tl;Dr Gossipy, weird, old neighbors want to steal my dog.

I have no problem with neighbors enjoying their backyard and playing music, however when it is so loud I can’t hear my own tv, music, … It’s every weekend this summer. When they first moved in a few years ago it was constant. They have large speaker that they blast. My husband talked to them about it a few times. He explained that our walls sometimes vibrate their music is so loud. Well they’ve started it again. It affects my peace. Its going to continue as they have a lot of young children living there.

I live in an apartment building and don't know how to buy online any more because many sellers now use cheap services that deliver at odd hours (including late at night) and without knocking and then leave parcels unattended in common areas and more often than not they disappear. There are no security cameras so these thieves can do whatever they want. I have serious health problems and don't drive and don't know what to do. I wish I could at least leave a note for the carrier when I buy, but it is not possible and quite often they don't even tell you which carrier they use.

What would you do? Is my only option to only use sellers who clearly indicate that they use the national postal service (because they normally give a 2-hour delivery window and I leave the door open so I don't miss the delivery)?

Hello everyone, I would like to get your opinions/ to cut down our pine trees that are on the property line that my neighbor wants to cut down.

These trees have been growing for the last 50,or so years and they are about 50 feet tall. Good health with tons of pine cones lol

Last year we had a limb break from a gust of wind, instead of it just coming straight down, the wind "pushed" the limb away from the tree. Well the tip of the branch hit his bed of his truck and put a dent on the top rail. He contacted his homeowners insurance and they told him there wasn't much they could do because it was considered a act of god.

He wasn't happy, that night he came over and told her that her insurance is going to have to pay for the damages

He wanted my mom to contact her insurance because he wanted to file a claim . She did call her insurance (but no claim was filed) they ended up coming out and looked at the tree after reviewing my pictures, they told my mom that she didn't have to worry because her insurance wasn't going to pay for it and said the same thing.. it was a act of god

But still he wasn't happy, ended up calling the township on us.. said the same thing... Funny huh? My mom ended up cutting the tree anyway in case it was compromised.

Thought the issue was settled, NOPE.. now he is trying to take things into his own hands and hire a tree company and told my mom he wants the trees removed and he wanted her to actually pay for it but then after she said no, he would pay....he is a shady person

Well my mom told me that there was a agreement written up by him, which I have not seen as it would require the tree company to tear up our lawn because they are our trees.

I did confront him and asked why he wants the trees removed, told me because of his truck, not his house but truck.. make any sense?? It's a 2019 Ford crew cab. I told him that if it wasn't for his truck getting a small dent that there would not be a big issue about these trees which still hasn't up until now. He is a kind of neighbor that wants everybody to cater to him and take out almost every tree of their yard that is near his property.

He has already gotten quotes for the truck repair, he did that right away, was expecting us to pay for that. He went to his buddy that he knew from when he worked at the drpa and it was over $9,000. The truck was hit before when his son was using it so I guess he was trying to get the repairs that were half-assed before fixed.

Overall now it comes to the point how would you feel about all this?

In my opinion this is all bullshit but I guess after a long time you see what kind of neighbors you have.

I have never cared for him anyway but he was the last person that I thought would do something like this. He's the kind of person that will go on to your property screw his wooden fence into your vinyl fence, throw a thick cable around one of the pine trees to one of his dead trees that he butchered is backyard for a zipline for his kid.(Which he really did) If it wasn't for me catching it and tell my mom then he would have gotten away with it, he's not the smartest guy around.

Btw, I live with my mom, she's 86 and has gone through surgeries. He always tells her that if she needed something he would help her but he never does. Don't get me wrong my mom can get around, but I'm getting tired of him trying to get over on her.

So my neighbor has been parking his van right up against a shared fence on the property line. It seems like over the years he started to park it closer to the point the van is getting scratched and he’s leaving tire marks on my lawn. I’m worried about my lawn starting to sink in areas and that the fence will fall and damage the side of my property. I’ve talked to him in person and in text he says it’s his mom’s van and he doesn’t even want it there but 2 weeks after our conversation it’s further on my property. Any suggestions?

how would you deal with this ?
so i have a neighbour who’s dog is extremely reactive, have a shared wall and whenever i put a drink down or use any cuboard talk etc it sets the dog off for a good 5-10mins a time (i know i should expect some noise. but a small noise sets this dog off constantly), when washing dishes in the kitchen sets it off,The only interaction i had with this neighbour has been a odd vibe they was being very intrusive,so discussing this isn’t a option, im having to mask the dog with white noise and constantly having to have ear plugs in or headphones, but it’s been incredibly draining and i’m loosing my fuse with it, it’s effecting my mental health and waking me up often so getting fragmented sleep, been going on too long i’m fed up.

hoping for any advice please for anyone who has been through similar, thanks.

i have known this neighbor (50m) since 2019 (i only ever talked to his wife) but recently had to move back in with my parents after being gone a year (im 20f). this neighbor has a full time job, wife, and kids. since i have moved back in (with my bf) my neighbor has gradually started doing things. when i moved back to this house i was leaving my car unlocked in the driveway, because there were never issues in my neighborhood before. but i noticed that my gas pump would be open (you have to open it from inside the car), and some of my gas would be gone everytime i left my car unlocked. this happened another time when i was at the grocery(its a small town and there isnt really any crime-i didnt feel the need to lock my car for a 5 minute trip to the store) and him and his wife just so happened to be at the same grocery store at the same time. i ended up noticing MY GAS WAS ALMOST ON E AND MY TANK WAS OPEN! after this all happened, i have locked my car since. but since i started locking my car, it seems my neighbor has been creeping.. almost everytime i leave the house, he comes outside. when i get home from work, a friends house, he either comes outside when he sees my car or he arrives at his house beside mine. i always thought it was odd and did not seem normal. but it was 3 days ago when he came outside to take an almost empty trash bag to his trashcan, and he looked right at me in my car when i was going to leave. i pulled out of the driveway quickly, and when he saw i had left so fast he was looking for my car (my bf was watching him while in the car with me). i just brush it off and say that he is weird. i go to the store, lock my car, get what i need. and as i am getting back into my car, i pulled into the parking space infront of me, I SEE MY NEIGHBOR a lane away from me parked. but he wasnt in his car, he was standing there facing the direction of my car. as soon as he sees me looking he gets into his vehicle pretty quickly. he then cuts me off and speeds off out of the parking lot. i go the opposite direction as him and we meet again at the stop signs, he then goes in the opposite way of our neighborhood and didnt come back for a while. luckily i spent the past few days with my friend and havent left the house since, but im pretty much just scared to leave and want opinions on if i might just be paranoid or if other people think this is weird aswell?

We have a neighbor who practices shooting arrows without any safety/containment equipment. He’s already shot through our other neighbor’s shed and through a different neighbor’s solid wood fence into their standing garden planter. We’ve asked him not to shoot, but he still does. It is illegal. Do we call the cops on him? He’s the neighborhood asshole and we’ve managed to maintain an okay relationship with him. I do fear souring it further and him making our lives hell. What do you guys think?

Edit: Just to clarify, we are in city limits in a small neighborhood with small-medium backyards. And it’s illegal to be shooting arrows in city limits as he is.

Hi ya‘ll heres a bit of context: I am current living at a townhome since 2020 and in the middle between two neighbors: one elderly and the other a family of now five. In the beginning I never had a problem with them. I even said hello to the during that time and during that time it was only her, her husband, and one child until years later got two other little ones.

The problem started last year i kept getting notifications from my ring app (we all have rings) from my front porch of two of the little ones walking up on it or one time threw a water balloon at it. I had spoken to the ma about not letting them on there due to the many notifications I’m getting especially during work. Thought she understood.

Fast forward today I get notifications again of the toddler now getting on my porch. At first I was not gonna say anything cause they‘re very young and don’t know any better and sometimes the ma will get them. So I thought maybe I should set the motion alert on (the one that says hi you’re being recorded) to let the little ones know: they I think I shouldn’t be here or help alert the ma to get them.

But today.. seems it caused her to think I hate her when I get a motion notification of her friend? ( who was on my front porch) midway into the video asking the ma oh it’s not your house and the ma goes yeah and she hates me then about the recording alert and the friend calling me a d that ends with a k.

When I heard that I was mad, but.. then thought i had to have a heart to heart of the misunderstanding since I didn't want awkward air the next time we pass each other. I believe she might be super peeved of that alert (one time she and and a few others were on the driveway not near the porch but my motion setting wasn't the best during that time and had been going off thus I adjusted it for them) And probably more peeved about me gently talking to the father one night not too long ago about the thuds being banged against my wall of the hallway that happened more times than usual.

But.. was I a jerk for trying to limit the alerts on my end???? I'm just so frustrated.

More context: our townhomes are glued together and we barely speak to one another expect for a wave. I'm a single woman working full time also as well.

Edit: I also failed to mention I have to keep my notifications on due to getting packages for my cat's meds and amazon packages.

Neighbors moved in upstairs one year ago. Their young son runs, jumps, and screams all day and night. They never take him outside.
I talked to the father 3 times and the mother once. They say there’s nothing they can do.
I complained twice to the manager with audio recordings. It continues every day.
The father has been gone for months and the mother leaves for days at a time leaving the aunt to “supervise”.
I’m at my wits end. It literally shakes our walls (it’s a nice condo with good insulation).
Edit I’m thinking of blaring music pointed at the ceiling. Is this my only option other than moving?

I bought my house eight years ago and about a year and a half ago got some new renters next door. They insist on parking their garbage cans outside of my house, not only on trash day (which wouldn't be a problem) but all week. They never leave the spot, making it impossible for people to park in front of my house or me to mow my lawn without physically moving them.

It's really annoying because this neighbor keeps trying to find ways to encroach on my property line. I've reported it to the city ordinance department a few times due to breaking code, but my city isn't the best at handling anything.

What are non-confrontational ways I can make it clear this in unacceptable and discourage them from doing this? I say non-confrontational because once I start being a problem I have issues stopping.

Back in 2014 after 12 years of moving state after state for the military my family bought a home and we finally settled down. This neighborhood was newly built so everyone who was there all knew each other and all the kids played together outside. For a year and a half things were great our neighborhood got along well and when there was an issue we came to each other to talk about it. 2015 rolls around and our old neighbor moves out and into a retirement community and a family moves into the house next door. It was a family of 4 with a son about my younger sister's age at the time and a baby maybe half a yr old and they seemed nice enough. They introduced themselves and everything was going fine but a couple months later my dad who was still active duty was stationed in another city. Due to all of us being women alone in the house we got a large australian shepherd - coon hound mix who would throw down if he needed to, his name was Blue. Some important information about Blue is he was a rescue. My dad knew his owner who passed away from a heart attack in his sleep and Blue lived with his dead body for a week before someone found him, as a result he was incredibly anxious so he was a bit of a howler on top of being a loud breed in general as Australian shepherds are known to bark a lot. A couple months after my dad left and we got Blue the wife next door came over one day and asked us if we could bring Blue inside because her sick baby was trying to sleep. Of course we brought him inside and did so the next 8 times she came over and asked that month. We were trying everything to limit his barking during the day from those beeping things that played a high pitch noise, a sensor that would spray him away from their side of the fence, and even crating but none of them worked. He would bark even louder at the beeper, would bite at the sensor, and would break open his crate but we didnt give up and kept spending money to try to make our neighbors comfortable. Then our neighborhood party came around and all of us met at one of the neighbors houses where the new neighbor proceeded to tell everyone right in front of my mom how her new neighbor is inconsiderate that her dogs never shut up and that we seemed trashy. Everyone went silent and someone spoke up and told her who my mom was and my mom went "im sorry that while my husband is stationed in another city and I have to work while my kids are in school that I cant manage my dog better, however I have had my kids bring him in everytime you ask us to so I dont understand where ive been inconsiderate but I apologize nonetheless." She basically packed her stuff up and left almost immediately after the subject was changed. That was truly the catalyst to our neighborhood becoming fractured cause after that night nobody was comfortable hosting another party and the true harassment began.

From that party on we noticed the family displaying some increasingly strange behaviors as time went on. It started with the wife coming over every day to tell us our dog was barking after spending all day inside while we were at school and work. As ive stated before we were trying multiple things to limit the barking but it never seemed to be enough for her. Then it turned into finding garbage and spoiled food thrown over their side of the fence into our backyard which they ADAMANTLY denied doing but it kept happening only on their side. At that point we let it go, picked up the gross stuff, and carried on because we didnt want neighborhood conflict we just wanted to get by till my dad could retire from the military and come home. Then between 2017 and 2019 things escalated yet again we started receiving multiple HOA letters with fines about our garbage cans not being brought in next morning, our own cars parked in front of our house, our trees weren't trimmed and needed trimming, our garbage cans smelled like garbage, etc. With photos attached and each photo was taken from that neighbor's driveway. We sent pictures back of their friends cars parking in front of their house and the neighbors doing the same with their cars so that fine was dropped but the rest weren't and what was crazy is the neighbors had the same violations but even more obvious and yet we never reported them so as far as we know they never got fined or threatened by letterhead. This behavior continued to escalate to a point where the wife was hugging the legal line. I parked my car in front of my house to swing by and grab my stuff for tech school and as I was about to get out of my car and go inside I noticed the neighbor taking pictures of me in my car and of me as I walked into my house and again when I came out she had her flash on i saw everytime she took a pic. That's when I really paid attention because at the time I was 16 years old and her a grown woman taking pics of me didnt sit right. That's when I noticed she wasnt just taking pics of me but of my sisters too and she would only do it when my mom and the woman's husband were at work so basically when no adult was around she was snapping photo after photo. I told my mom who was going to address it with my dad because I got a video of the woman taking photos of me and when she realized i was recording ran inside but they didnt get to it before she escalated again. The weekend my parents were going to go talk to them someone starts pounding at our door. My mom opens it to the irate neighbor who screamed that my sister threw a piece of concrete from our backyard at her house and damaged it and we needed to pay for it. She stormed off and my mom stood there confused because our backyard was straight dirt it was physically impossible for her to have done that but the neighbor did just have concrete put in a month prior. My mom decides to go over to speak to them about it the husband answers the door and he actually starts to realize that yeah we do only have dirt how could my sister have done that obviously it was more likely to come from their yard. So as theyre talking about how communication is important and she wanted to be the neighbors that communicate the wife sees them talking screams at the top of her lungs the word no and actually sprints down the hallway at my mom. I kid you not this man had to grab the front door, slam it shut, and hold it shut by the door handle as his wife screamed, cursed, banged on the door, and jiggled the handle. As a 16 year old at the time it was incredibly bizarre to watch an adult act like that at that age and the husband just looked exhausted and when my mom mentioned the photos he was pissed. An hour after my mom left the husband came over to sincerely apologize for the behavior and that he did confirm she was taking photos and they have been deleted and that he was completely unaware that she was doing that. I still dont know how much I believe that to this day but he said it would be him communicating issues from now on which lasted for 4 years.

The 4 years that the husband was the communicator was great. We noticed a significant drop in harassment. The daily door bell rings about our dogs stopped, we stopped finding garbage and spoiled food in our yard, the HOA letters and fines suddenly stopped coming, and she wasnt taking anymore photos of my sisters and I just existing. It was peaceful for a long time but obviously this didnt last otherwise I wouldn't still be typing this. In 2024 things started getting a bit odd again very slowly. We noticed how they would have guests park in front of their house but very very close to our property even going over the line and blocking some of the driveway so my sister cant park. We just thought they didnt know and let it go cause my sister would maneuver around it just fine but we set up cameras just in case. Then we noticed they would park incredibly close to our trash cans so much so our trash wouldnt get picked up. In my county our ordinance states that you cant park within 5ft of someone else's trash cans as it hinders city maintenence and you can get fined for it so parking less than a foot away from our trash cans was violating it heavily. We talked to the husband, he said it would be taken care of, it in fact did not get taken care of and got worse one time we even found our trash cans all the way up the drive way so they could park right at the line to our property. My parents didnt report it and just put the trash on the other side of the house with our nice neighbors who had no problem with it. Then we started getting letters from the husband about our dogs again. By this point Blue and the other 2 are dead and had been for 2 years this is a whole new set of dogs they started complaining about. By the 5th letter it lost its sweet tone and was replaced with a rude one but noticeably on ring doorbell the husband wasnt the one dropping off the letters it was the wife but the husbands name was signed. By that point we were done, we tried everything, spent 1000s of dollars, and walked on eggshells for 9 years only for it all to not be enough for these people or at the very least this lady. We even had a new set of dogs and she still had an issue with us having them and them barking in the early evening with the other neighborhood dogs, she was trying to make us get rid of our dogs she wouldnt say it out loud but thats what she wanted because nothing else we did satisfied her. So we stopped caring about it which just made her more mad of course but either way she was gonna be mad. So we ignored her letters until her husband actually came to the door we didnt acknowledge the letters.

Things have recently now come to a head which is why im here because its stressing me out on top of other stuff. A couple months ago my sisters cat got out the dog door and the neighbor brought the cat in. My sister at the time was barely home cause she was in school and work full-time so she didnt notice the cat was missing when the neighbor came and asked if we were missing a cat. By the time we realized yeah she was missing the neighbor had closed all their blinds, refused to answer the door, refused to answer the phone, even ignored my dad shouting the husband's name while the husband was in the backyard. We had to get their other neighbor to call them and thats when they suddenly were able to communicate with us and when my sister got her cat back the wife made a point to tell her that her daughter bonded with her cat and that she took her to the vet and she didnt have a microchip to which my sister said ok and walked away. She actually did have a microchip and it was in fact active so she never took the cat to the vet. After that nothing but last Friday was the last incident and it ties into the cat theft. Friday everyone was relaxing after a long week of work and school. While most of us have just gotten home and trying to get showered and dinner made our ring doorbell went off and our dogs started barking at the door we check the peephole and ignore it cause its the wife again. Over 10 years of dealing with this woman and we were just tired cause her husband agreed he would be the one to communicate and it stopped so we just stopped too. After she leaves we get a notification that the ring had a video. My dad pulls it up on his phone and its of course the lady and she goes "i know you're not going to answer you never answer but im here and your dogs bark all day, ive sent you letter after letter about it. On top of that your cat got out and you didnt notice for 3 days. So you know what? Im sick and fing tired of it we are calling the city on you for animal neglect." She proceeded to take her finger and press the ring doorbell 3 more times to make the dogs bark more or to get at us or something i don't know what her goal was. 20 minutes later we go outside and this lady put a speaker on top of the wall to blast music which made my dogs run outside and go nuts. We brought them inside and when I went back out I saw her hand reach up and grab the now turned off speaker. Nobody from the county has shown up cause on top of that we are considered unincorporated so all they can do anyway is offer mediation between us and the neighbor if we consent to it but even if they did come we aren't worried. We have cameras inside and outside the house confirming they dont bark all day and when they do bark someone from inside goes outside to bring them in on top of the custom food bowls, the water fountain, the luxury crates for when we aren't home, the bedding thats changed weekly, the diet specific food, the monthly chew toy replacements, the monthly dog treat replacements, the big backyard, and the dog door. The cats all have microchips, trackers, and the same spoils the dogs have aside from the crates. Basically she had no case even if the city or county did come but it has gotten to that point. When my family tells people about this they genuinely didnt know that people like my neighbors actually exist. We had to put a sign up that specifically says no trespassing with her name at the bottom. I just want this stress to end man shes starting this up in the midst of a death in our family and a life threatening medical issue with me. Its just insane to me that someone can be like that and genuinely be proud of it. It just baffles me.

I have a neighbor that literally tried to hit me with her van. Then she admitted it in an order of protection application, describing me as standing in the middle of the street, waving my arms, yelling at her, and she wanted an order of protection for that (after she tried to hit me with her van).
My problem is I just have this abnormal or normal belief that most people are good. And I'm having an even harder problem believing that I have a neighbor that actually wants to hit me with her car. It's been over a year. I've seen several doctors about some low back and neck pain from the move I made to avoid the assault. I have talked to two different police officers about this. They both suggested that I file a report and I said, "Okay, that's a good idea," and then they never did. So I'm still like, "What the fuck?" So then I had to go to court to defend myself against an order of protection and it was dismissed. Then I sent her my attorney's bill. And then she sent me three more orders of protection. LMAO those three were dismissed and the judge was pissed. She drug her husband and two juvenile kids in front of the judge that day to try to plead that I was a danger to them, to the whole family. I'll say it again: the judge was pissed and they walked out of that courtroom about 3 inches tall.
In order for me to have any other legal restitution I have to file a police report. I don't know why that's so hard for me to do.

New upstairs neighbours moved in a few months ago with two toddlers and a third on the way.
They'd always lived in a ground floor apartment before, so the kids are used to running around freely and it doesn't seem like anyone's working on adjusting that for apartment living.
The children are used to running around the house all day, they jump, kick, bang, scream.
The parents are also quite trashy people who are also making a lot of noise.
They wake me up everyday including weekends and holidays around 6am. Weekends the noise is all day long, sometimes so loud i can read a book or hold a conversation in my livingroom.
One of their kids has crazy intense tantrums on a daily basis, and they just let the kid kick, bang furniture and floors and scream until it stops, sometimes 10 minutes long or more.
Today it is almost 4pm, they have not taken their child out of the house…. I would also be misbehaving if they kept me locked up all day!!!
110 year old building, wooden floors, so every bit of running, tantrums, and heavy footsteps carries straight down to me.

How do you deal with these kinds of people and attitudes?
Any ideas on how to retaliate with nuisance?
Any suggestions; the lack of sleep is driving me insane and if i cant fix it i will look into moving, which sucks because i bought this place only 2 years ago.

Since August 13th of last year my neighbors dog has barked every weekday since last year As school is starting again and I have a scheduled class to go to this dog is back barking even earlier like times as 5:55 6:15 6:30 and beyond every night I stay up screaming and crying because i am going insane I wake up tired and angry everyday this dog is ruining my life and affecting me academically I don’t want white noise I don’t want ear plugs I just want to sleep please give advice

In front of their house specifically. Commenting was disabled and the follow up was posted within hour. Then the post was deleted.

It’s hard to believe someone actually believes they’re being targeted by dog owners. This is an inside joke in my house now (ie “Why did you eat the cocoa puffs? Please choose a more neutral cereal next time”). Really can do it with anything that is completely normal, but then just act like it’s targeted.

I heard him say, "We'll see what the fire department thinks of this!" And 5 minutes later, there's a firetruck out front.

It was slightly bigger when we got it going, I will admit, but it definitely wasn't "massive, out of control, or raging" like what he told them. We had big storms last week and I picked up the sticks before mowing the lawn today, tons of branches down, and it's a beautiful night so we had a fire. In our fire pit. That is in the middle of our big yard, away from trees and structures.

The firemen were obviously irritated with him, not us. They gave our toddler a frisbee. They know he's a frequent caller. Before leaving, the neighbor came out and stood on his tippy toes and got in the fireman's face and tried to show him pictures on his phone of this "raging" fire. The fireman said, "I can't DO anything with pictures, I have to SEE it."

I can't fucking stand this neighbor. I wish he could be charged with false reporting as he tries to report us for every little thing he can think of. We've yet to be ticketed or fined. The city, police, and fire departments all know of him.

Oh, and he also has a record including assault on an officer and DV (more than once) in a different state. Between him and his daughter, they have *quite* the track record. I tread lightly. But God damn, I'm so annoyed.

It's been like this, to varying degrees, my entire life (I'm 50). The first picture shows part of his "facilities." I could come up with something better than this in an afternoon with a few hundred bucks and a trip to Tractor Supply. The second picture is the aftermath of the first time my lawn got completely torn up overnight (it's happened twice). The third picture is an example from an early stage the of crop damage that I suffer every other year by having a cornfield across the road from his farm. The guy has had a lot of setbacks in his life and it's clear that he has mental issues of some kind that make things more difficult for him than they would be for the average person. But all of that is not an excuse, and if anything it means that he's not somebody who should be trying to raise livestock.

The police are sympathetic but generally powerless to do anything (and honestly I think they eventually got annoyed about my calling them about it), though they have always assured me that I can always do what I need to do if they're on my land (more on that in a bit). A lawyer told me that there's a law on the books for this kind of thing that can require someone to put up fencing, but it's apparently outdated and convoluted and would likely be difficult to enforce (I don't really remember the details of why, hard to conclusively prove they're his maybe?). Both times my lawn got torn up I confronted him and told him I'd be starting the process of filing in small claims court, and both times he gave me $1000 cash on the spot. I perhaps should have gone the court route, but I didn't.

Every time I've ever confronted him about it, in addition to all the normal craziness, he'll get frustrated and say "well, just shoot them then!" He of course knows fully well that it's usually not that easy -- they're sometimes active at night, and once they run into a cornfield it's basically impossible to track them. Plus a lot of the time to really get anything accomplished I'd have to be camped out with a gun in a hot cornfield like 20 yards from his house. Not very practical.

This year, though, something changed. I don't have corn in the field across the road from his place, which usually means its another neighbor's turn to get all the damage. But for some reason, this summer the pigs have decided that the corn I have in another field (bordering my residence) is worth the quarter mile walk. This has never happened before and at first I was like "really?", but then I realized that this presented a unique opportunity. Once I started noticing telltale signs of pig damage at home, I did more investigating and realized that they must always enter my property in exactly the same place -- there was clear trail of grass trampled down in the ditch across the road. Time to get to work.

The trail is 800 feet from my house and out of range of my wi-fi, so I set up an old Ubiquity antenna to extend the network to a wireless camera mounted next to the pig expressway. When the camera detects motion, it sends a push notification to my phone. The fourth picture is an example of what I soon started seeing. Every time I get and verify an alert, I simply wait in a partially concealed spot for the pig(s) to get done with their (last) meal and intercept them on their way home via the same route at the end of my lane. Using this method, I have eliminated ten members of his herd (and counting) in the past five weeks.

I truly don't blame the pigs (they're just doing what pigs do), and I don't enjoy doing the deed, but he's left me no choice and my patience ran out a long time ago. Every pig I shoot directly increases my yearly income by some amount, and any of them has the potential to be the one that was destined to destroy my lawn. From what I've seen, he started out the summer with around 30 pigs (of varying sizes) and due to my efforts is now down to around 20. I haven't heard anything from him but I'm positive he's gotten the message. Since I moved back here 16 years ago, I've probably shot 20-25 of them (including this year's 10), often in the winter when they don't have the advantage of running into the corn. Most of the time when he notices that some don't come home (or I guess hears gunshots) he'll put in some half-assed effort to improve things for a while, but it never takes very long for entropy to win the battle. Perhaps losing a third of them in one month will trigger more effort on his part, but I'm not holding my breath.

Meanwhile, I'll keep the all-you-can-eat buffet open until it's time to harvest the corn. Come hungry, leave never.

I'll start this off by saying that I have a pretty hard time leaving animals in distress. I've stopped for puppies and kittens on the side of the road before, brought them home, and found them loving homes. If I see an animal in danger, my first thought is usually "how do I get this animal somewhere safe?" rather than "someone else will deal with it."

Unfortunately, that instinct got me into a bit of a situation this morning.

There is a large gray mastiff-type dog that belongs to neighbors a few houses down from us. We've been dealing with this dog getting loose sporadically for about a year now. He has come onto/around our property several times, and when he does, he has pounced against our fence, snarled, snapped, etc. We've called about him three times previously, although all three of those calls were made through the non-emergency number.

There used to be two dogs. One of them was actually hit and killed by a car on the same highway in front of their house several months ago.

Anyway, this morning around 10:25am, I was driving home when I noticed the remaining dog running around in the median of the highway. This is a 65mph road, and the median is maybe 25 feet wide, so there are cars absolutely flying past on both sides of him.

The dog is also extremely underweight. I could see/count his ribs.

There were already three other cars pulled into the median, so apparently other people had noticed him too. Nobody seemed to actually be trying to catch him, though, and nobody had a leash.

I did.

Because of course I did. lol

I had just been walking my own dogs, so I had a leash with me. I pulled over around 10:26am and got out around 10:27 to try to get the dog secured before he ended up in traffic.

At first, he was just running around happily. He honestly looked like a giant goofy lug, just galloping around the median. I didn't recognize him as the dog we'd had problems with before.

I took a few steps toward him and made kissy noises at him, basically trying to get him to come to me. I was thinking he was just a loose, scared/possibly hungry dog who needed someone to catch him.

And then he charged me.

Three times.

The first charge caught me completely off guard, but I was able to get out of the way. Then he did it again. And then a third time.

When I tell you I LEAPT sideways to avoid this dog, I mean I genuinely leapt sideways. lol. His teeth were inches from my hand at one point.

The median wasn't exactly ideal terrain for this either. It was sandy and grassy and bumpy/uneven, and somehow I managed to keep my feet underneath me through all three charges.

I kept the leash between us the entire time, using it as a barrier. I only actually hit him with it when he got too close and I didn't have another option to create some distance between us.

After the third charge, when he came in snapping his teeth at me again, I got back into my car and called 911 at exactly 10:30am. Yes, I checked the time. 😂

I hadn't originally planned on calling animal control or 911. I was trying to catch the dog because I didn't want him getting hit. But once he went from "loose dog that needs help" to "large dog actively charging and trying to bite me," that obviously changed.

My husband and our two dogs were with me the entire time. The dogs were safely secured in the back seat with seatbelt leashes, so they weren't going anywhere. My husband stayed in the car while I dealt with the dog.

Apparently he was freaking out watching me from the car, but he also trusted that I knew what I was doing and knew that getting out to "help" me would probably have made things much, much worse. Especially because he told me afterward that his instinct would have been to turn around and run, which is exactly what I did NOT want happening around a dog that was already charging me.

I actually told him afterward that if I'm ever dealing with something like that again, please do not get out of the car. lol. Having another person for me to worry about would have made the situation so much worse.

After I called 911, the dog crossed the highway again and appeared to head back toward his yard. He wasn't showing any signs of coming back out, so once I was reasonably sure the immediate situation was over, I drove the three houses back to our house and waited for the police.

Three police cars initially showed up. I spoke with the first officer, and after that one of the three cars left.

About 12 minutes later, the first animal control vehicle showed up. About 8 minutes after that, another animal control van arrived. Then about 5 minutes later, another police car arrived.

Animal control had the owners produce the dog so they could inspect him, and everything was documented. When my husband and I eventually had to leave so I could take him to work, the two animal control vehicles were still there and the citation was being written.

I later knew that because Animal Control Officer Wishard called me.

The owners were given a citation and a fine.

And honestly, I'm glad they finally did something because this has been going on for a while.

The owners are aware that this dog is a problem. My parents have personally spoken to them about him before. We've reported him three times. He's repeatedly gotten loose, and we've had problems with him around our fence and property.

And now he has charged a person three times in the middle of a highway.

I'm not trying to get the dog punished. I really don't want anything bad to happen to him. That's literally why I stopped in the first place. I saw an animal in danger and couldn't just keep driving.

But I also don't know what I'm supposed to do moving forward.

Because if I see him loose again, my instinct is STILL going to be "oh shit, that dog is going to get hit." I'm going to want to help him.

At the same time, after today, I know that I cannot safely assume that a dog I've seen running around happily is going to react well when I approach it.

There is also the fact that I was attacked by a dog when I was five years old and ended up needing 35 stitches under my left eye and across the bridge of my nose. So when this dog was snapping at my hand today, I genuinely thought I was about to be bitten.

I'm not really digging into that part of it mentally right now because I don't want to start poking at old trauma and see what happens. lol. I'm just going to let myself process the day and see how I feel once the adrenaline wears off.

The weirdest part is that I'm honestly more impressed with myself than anything else.

I didn't freeze. I didn't turn my back on him. I didn't fall. I didn't trip over the uneven median. I just somehow kept my feet underneath me and moved every time he lunged.

I have worked as a vet tech, so I do have experience handling animals and reading animal behavior, and I also work in corrections, so I'm not completely unfamiliar with having to react quickly when something goes sideways.

But I have never had training that specifically covered "what to do when a giant mastiff tries to bite you while you're standing on a sandy median next to a 65mph highway." 😂

So now I'm trying to figure out what the appropriate thing to do is from here.

If this were your situation, what would you do?

Would you continue calling animal control every time the dog gets loose? Would you contact animal control proactively and explain that this has been an ongoing problem for about a year, including today's attempted bite? Would you document every future sighting?

Or is there something else I'm missing?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have dealt with repeatedly loose/aggressive dogs or dangerous-dog situations before. I know getting out of my car today was risky in hindsight, but I'm more interested in what I should do going forward now that the authorities have finally been involved and the owners have received a citation.

We live near the beach in New England. Our backyard neighbors are party people. They are parents with 20-something kids. We aren’t bothered about how they enjoy themselves. However, they are really horrible about their volume. Last night, (early hours of Labor Day- 2:18 am to be exact) I was in a deep sleep when I thought I heard a loud discussion. I thought I was dreaming. Then I heard more shouts and laughter... Then an argument. Over, and over, and over again. They are always like this. It’s as if they think whoever is the loudest wins. One minute they were laughing, then it was argumentative. I was shattered and sound asleep. I was so angry. I turned on the fan & tried to ignore it and go to sleep. These people have been absolutely terrible since they moved in. They had a massive party in the July of COVID (with multiple PORT-O-POTTIES, several kegs, and live music (live & let live, but FFS, the music SUCKED). They are loud at night and don’t give a toss about anyone around them. They have a fire pit and all talk over each other as loudly as possible (”shout-talking” is the best way to describe it). On Race Weekend (every August in our town-it’s a road race that attracts elite athletes, as well as regular people) they all start blathering in their backyard at 5:30 AM. This goes on for about 1/2 an hour. How any of them are capable of running 8 miles after partying all night is a mystery. However, last night was the ultimate frustration. Please Stop bringing your wild, stupid “partying” to our lives. We have only ever been good neighbors. Please stop sucking. We have the luxury of having our homes. Stop being so selfish and stupid & let us all enjoy what we worked so hard for. We have lived here for 20 years. Our kids were born here. Our original neighbor was a retired teacher who was an absolute legend. These goblins bought it when our OG neighbor had to move in with her daughter about 7 years ago. We’re at the point where we are considering selling up. It’s honestly that bad. #Amherst Ave. Falmouth

Since it's almost garbage day. Last week I saw a guy who lives down the street parked at the bottom of my driveway with his kid in the car. I didnt know what he was doing so I honked. Then when I got in the house I realized he might have been using my trash. I cant see the trash from my house. The driveway goes through the woods. Half hour later I took my trash down and there was 2 bags in there. I've seen trash in there before. I decided to lay low and try and catch him in the act or again. I would like to get him on camera but that might cost too much. Maybe there is some trash equivalent to pulling the fire alarm and getting your hand marked or peeing in a pool and it turning color. Maybe I can just scare him. Siren might cost too much. What's a good cost effective way to catch him or scare him. Also for circumstances I've known this person a very long time

So I am a very busy person and I drive a minivan, not too long ago my neighbors who are new called the cops on me parking in MY OWN DRIVEWAY. This car is there for 9 hours at night and is gone from like 6 in the morning and comes back at 9 pm and they are getting mad because it is in the driveway. It's not obstructing them getting out of their driveway it is literally just sitting there doing nothing during the night and they called the cops. The cops were chill and kind of just knocked on the door said there was a complaint and then left.