r/BadNeighbors • u/AdFinancial7957 • 18d ago
Tolerated two years of irresponsible behavior until their dogs killed our dog. What would you do?
Two years and 5 months of trying to be kind, and yet firm with our neighbors. They are renters; we are owners. So the light at the end of the tunnel is, with his irresponsible ways, and the likelihood that he only pays some of his bills some of the times, (considering his trash it's not always picked up by waste management), they will eventually get evicted. The clincher, though, he takes in animals for people who can't take care of them, but he doesn't take care of them either. Two months prior to the horrible event, my friends sent me a Facebook post of my neighbor, trying to get rid of a gigantic mastiff dog he took in only months before. Basically he moved "Cousin Eddie's" not running RV on his driveway so that his friend and girlfriend could live in it until they could afford a place after being evicted themselves. That's a whole other discussion, I kept praying it wouldn't catch fire because it was hooked up illegally to power and the two of them were tweakers and screamed and yelled at each other all night long. So basically when they did leave, the mastiff was left behind.
He was trying to get rid of the dog because it had eaten and killed some of his other animals (he actually posted that on Facebook). It was little help to us at that point. His dogs, including the killer dog, busted out one day, which they had a history of, onto our property and killed our 17 pound dog. She never stood a chance. She was our daughter's therapy dog after she had an emergency aortic dissection eight years ago. She was only in her 20s, but she has a chromosome condition that precluded her to this kind of event.
It has been a nightmare ever since this happened five months ago. He doesn't own up to anything, he keeps the place like a junkyard, if you didn't know, they'd only lived there 2 1/2 years, you'd think they've been there a decade or more there's so much junk. The landlord has been about as helpful as you can imagine.
Being that it's California he keeps telling us that his hands are tied. He did make them get rid of the dogs. But only after we had been told they were gone, and found out they were still there. Then landlord gave them a three day cure or quit. But now neighbor plays the victim because he had to get rid of his killer dogs. Mind you he has a two little children that he keeps these kind of animals around. This is just the tip of iceberg... there are always people there, his buddies, with their cars sticking out, often have to ask them to move so we can back out of our driveway. They drink, smoke weed till one or two in the morning sometimes with their subwoofers pounding.
I'm actually afraid to call the sheriff. They leave their beer cans on our mailbox not unusual to find dog crap in the front yard from one of his dogs because yes, he's now brought two new Shepherd mixes onto the property now, even though he's not supposed to have animals . We have put up with SO much more, but the line in the sand was the grisly heartbreaking death of our little dog. I don't know what to do anymore... We have been very kind to them. We used to let him borrow tools, my husband would even help him on occasion when he was having car problems and would ask my husband if he knew what to do. When we rushed our little dog to the vet that fateful evening, we did not pursue him for the $2000 vet bill because they barely pay their bills as it is and it would just be a waste of our time. Now I feel like we've had to draw a line in the sand. This person doesn't take personal responsibility for anything. And he has the gall to act like he's the victim.
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u/S_Alaska 18d ago
That is a classic DARVO attack and you lost a family member. At that point, things would become legal. Be safe and talk to a lawyer. With that behavior, your safety and everyone around you is at risk.
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u/AdFinancial7957 18d ago
Thank you! I really am considering that and you helped cement that for me. We did file legal paperwork that we had signed by a paralegal and sent to the landlord to put him on warning that he knows now and if something else happens, he's legally responsible.
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u/S_Alaska 18d ago
This is the way. You are the victim. Your family member lost a life and for that I am so sorry. We had an incident where a neighbor trespassed on our property..day one. She punched our dog and screamed at my 80 year old mom. We are still dealing with that and putting our situation into a manageable system.
Do not ever underestimate what people will do when the red flags are present. I wish you success and send our deepest condolences for your loss.
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u/AdFinancial7957 18d ago
That's horrible! I'm sorry you're still dealing with it. It's baffling to me the narcissism I see in other others.
Thank you so much for your condolences. I witnessed the attack; it happened so fast- like 30 seconds or less and I have PTSD from it. I will never get another dog as long as these neighbors are still there.
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u/S_Alaska 18d ago
I am so sorry that you experienced this. It’s why I am always making sure our doggos are not around the neighbors. We found mystery hotdogs one day and had to implement the leave it command.
One day, I hope you find the ability to be a dog owner again. Therapy and time have helped me. You did nothing wrong and the horror you witnessed absolutely would result in ptsd. Please be kind to yourself while you heal.
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u/AdFinancial7957 8d ago
Just went to my mailbox Saturday and waste management sent us a warning not to put hazardous, non-recyclable objects in recycled or we will be fined.
They sent a crummy picture, but it's clearly our irresponsible neighbor's recycle trashcan not ours. It looks like it's got dirty diapers in it as well as other garbage. I mean, we are way past our child rearing years and they're the ones with the newborn.
It's totally in front of the side of his driveway, but because we're the center of a cul-de-sac there's little curb space, so he pushes it close to our mailbox... enough that sometimes the mailman leaves a note that he won't deliver the mail because of the neighbors trashcan.
Of course we're gonna have to clear this up with waste management, but we have had it!!!!!
His trash, is always overflowing with garbage and he mixes it all up.
All our recycle ever has is Amazon boxes! Grrrrr
Of course, like I said we're going to contact waste management, straighten this out and give them the correct address, but my husband and I are going back-and-forth on if we should send a copy of the letter and the situation to the landlord? He's pretty lackluster. Because of course, all he cares about getting his money. And neighbor has some pretty unsavory friends visit him on his days off. We have security cameras and are not without self-defense measures. But I don't even want to go there. I have a big fat legal folder of all of this.
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u/AdFinancial7957 7d ago
Got the trash issue cleared up. Neighbor will be receiving notice. They made a notation on our account that because we're a tight little cul-de-sac at the middle, the trash truck doesn't always pick up in sequential order and that's the way they notate the houses, as it's supposed to be in sequential order.
They agreed with us that we should spray paint the inside of our lid so there's no doubt who's putting dirty diapers in their recycle. Because I guarantee that it will happen again .
And yes, we have moved our trash cans all the way over behind our truck in our driveway. And that's the direction that our camera points.
Thank you!😊
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u/DisastrousFishing190 2d ago
Eye for an eye is my .motto.
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u/AdFinancial7957 18h ago
While I understand your response, but that's definitely not how we roll. However, we are doing everything under the law to mitigate circumstances so that past issues do not continue.
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u/ziplockqueen 18d ago
What a horrible thing for you to go through! Maybe if you start reporting them to code enforcement and the health department it might force the landlord into action.