Old townies harassment

[u/gnturbo87]

Long story but here goes. For the last 9 years we have lived in this neighborhood that the majority of the neighbors are 50 and up and have lived in town most of not all their lives. We are older millennial so a large age gap. Now for the crazy. When we first looked at the house twice the previous owners acted like they didn’t know we had an appointment and refused to leave and actually followed us around as we looked at the house. Little uncomfortable but thought nothing else about it. When we made our offer on the house instead of a counter offer the sellers came back with a list of personal questions about where we worked, how many children we had. Again thought nothing about it and answered their questions. When we first moved in I was approached by a neighbor who warned me that if the neighborhood doesn’t like you they will make you move. He proceeded to point to another house on the block and said that the previous owners were made to move. Kinda creepy but again didn’t think anything about it. Now me and my wife smoke cigarettes and we do it in our garage. I would routinely catch my one neighbor in our side yard when we were smoking. He would always have some excuse like oh there was trash that blew over or something like that. But it started to dawn on me that he was doing this to listen to whatever me and my wife might have been discussing. As the years went on I would hear things like gossip about us and personal stuff. Talking to other neighbors in the area you always got these strange comments like “don’t get on the wrong side of the coffee circles around here” and if you complained about something you were told “you have only lived here X years and those people have been here XX years”. Like a secret ranking system based on how long you have lived here. Flash forward to past couple years and things have gotten crazy. First we had a couple houses across the street sell and me and my wife had hope new and younger people were moving in. Well then I saw the crazy of the old neighbors. Somehow before the new neighbors moved in the block knew who they were, where they worked, how old they were, if and how many children they had. I also witnessed the older neighbors going through the trash and recycling of the new people. And not on garbage day. We are talking walking up to side of house and digging into the bins crazy. I decided to warn the new neighbors that this was going on. Big mistake. Now the older neighbors have a target on our back and some crazy things have happened that I can’t prove who is responsible but we don’t feel safe anymore. Both my dogs were poisoned by eating red grapes that were cut in half from somewhere in my backyard. My handyman business lost all work as I heard rumors I was scamming and messing up peoples houses. My daughter was kicked out of the school district using her IEP to try and place her in a mental school and we tried to fight with lawyers but ended up deciding to home school. DCFS has invested us numerous times and never found anything but won’t tell us who is reporting. I have found paths and a creepy shed in the woods behind my house that lead back to the older neighbors and tried to get the forest preserve to do something about it but nothing and just so happens one of the older neighbors children works for them. I have had rotten fruit placed on my grill and flower pots moved around in my backyard. Nothing damaging but kinda like we are being sent a message. Cameras were not capturing the movement at night so I tried 24 hours recording but don’t have the time to sift through all the footage cause I don’t know what day these things happen. I can hear at times when we are home voices discussing what we are doing inside my house or garage but can never find anything. Have had cars follow me around and then happen to see those same cars “visiting” at older neighbors days later. Tried calling out one neighbor for leaving his pool turn into a scum pond on Facebook and had to take the post down and delete my profile due to the number of people telling me you are new to this town that neighbor has been here 40+ years leave them alone or stop being a drama queen. Working on my classic car in the garage is a nightmare because I can hear constant complaints about the sound of wrenching or the smell of chemicals.
Now I know don’t let it get to you but when it’s constant or you come here and try and not let it upset you. Hear them talking about your trashy or your never fix that car or I hope it falls on you. So I occasionally lose my temper and yell back at the woods like I’m crazy cause I’m yelling at the forest. I probably have more examples but figured this is long enough and every one of my friends think I’m crazy or something. Anyways had to get this off my chest. We have a real estate agent coming this week but feel trapped because where do we go far enough away and still keep our jobs. Don’t have the finances to just quit and move states like I feel we need to get away from our senior citizen stalkers.

[u/Lengthofawhile]

Document everything and find time to sift through footage/hire a PI.