So at the new house we moved into, we now have a schizophrenic neighbor across the street. No problem, I am sympathetic towards people with mental disorders. My brother in law is autistic and I have never been one to be scared of people with any issues. Well so this guy is about 45 or so best guess, and lives with his mom there. She is hardly home and when she is, she is inside. So the man spends the majority of the day standing on the front porch facing our house screaming. He will shout curse words at the top of his lungs over and over. He flicked my wife and son off for waiving at him the other day. Next door to their house is a family with 2 kids around 10 years old. He will walk to the property line by them and scream at them and their house cursing and saying things you can't really understand. The kids are scared to death of him and so is my wife. We will wake up at 2am to him screaming, and if you want to talk about really being scared...late at night backing out of the driveway and look in the rearview mirror to see him standing behind the car just staring in at you. Anyways, our 4 month old puppy ran over there today. My wife and son let her out and when they called her she took off running over there. It has happened twice. The puppy ran over into their yard once right by the road and came right back. It was on their property maybe by 4ft. The second time was today and it ran over there by the house and the mom came out there chasing it off with a broom. That is fine by me, if our dog is on someones property or near you chase them away or tell us and we will come get them. I completely understand that, and we almost always keep her on a leash. The only time she even crosses the road is the kids next door to her always ask if she can come over and them play with her (their parents even asked me if it was ok if they could). Well anyways my wife walks outside after putting shoes on to go get the dog and the old lady is standing in our driveway chasing the dog. My wife walks out and apologizes to her and says she was just coming to get her, and the lady starts yelling at her saying the dog has become such a nuisance and is in her yard everyday (complete lie) and starts talking about leash laws and everything. Anyways my wife stays calm the whole time, and she said the lady just keeps yelling and she said we need to do something about this dog since its a nuisance...Sooo my wife says "you want to talk about a nuisance? Your grown son standing out here screaming and cursing around the clock when there are all these kids out here playing. Our son is a toddler and do you think we want him out playing in the yard while some main is standing there screaming towards him?" And the woman says oh he is harmless don't worry about him he isnt a nuisance. And my wife said, the neighbor kids came over to our house the other day and were telling us how scared they are of him and everything and there parents don't like it either. But basically the conversation ends with the lady saying well why don't you go ahead and call the cops then, I will just contact my lawyer and see if you can do any good. Sooooo.... sorry for the long rant, but apart from keeping my dog in our yard, any advice on the situation? My wife is scared of the guy going crazy and doing something to her or my son. And I agree with her.
1. I was going to go talk to the other neighbors the ones next door and see if they feel the same way we do. And I think we will call the police and see what can be done. I guess public disturbance, I am not sure. He used to have the cops called on him ALL the time is what we were told because he would wander around the neighborhood screaming at everyone. 2. Will do with the dog 3. Not an option at the moment, we just moved in and remodeled a couple months ago
I hear you, brother FCX. If you don't mind saying, do you live in a small town or a larger city? I would suspect that you might get better results after calling the police if you are in a larger city. They would probably be more likely to haul the guy away. Small town politics might be a problem.
Good advice. I would think about talking to a real estate lawyer. You may be able to get the house purchase rescinded on the grounds that the seller should have disclosed this situation to you. It is probably a long shot but i would at least look into it. Get your wife a CCW and some firearms training. She may need it one day.
Gees, you don't have many options. Cops and lawyers sounds like a bad idea and a losing one at that. You don't want to live in a combat zone. I suppose I would call the previous owners and ask them to tell you everything they tried or how they handled the situation. You need info. Then I think I would try the nice approach, more than once if necessary. Buy them a fruit basket or some gesture of good will. Perhaps make friends with them, learn about his disability. Maybe offer the guy 10 bucks to rake your lawn or something. I don't know, just saying. Maybe a small amount of attention is what the guy needs to end the cursing, He might be cursing for attention and reaction. You need to find out what makes his mother tick and the guy also. I would treat them like normal people though. They'll see right through you if you act like you're up to something. (Which you are, peace and quiet).
One of my first thoughts too. The agent had to know about neighbors, they ask those sort of questions even if the agent was unaware of the schizo.
It is a pretty small town in Tennessee. On the plus side if something ever did happen as far as him being aggressive towards us, tn laws are a little more forgiving towards shooting someone on your property.
As far as the real estate lawyer, we knew about the guy beforehand. It has just gotten much worse over the past several months. I think his condition must have worsened or something. And it was a family sale also, so that isn't a good route. As far as carry permit, my wife and I both have used guns before I grew up on a farm and her dad taught her a lot as well. I keep a shotgun at the house also. I will be getting my permit in may and she is getting hers in November (we are both young and will be getting them as soon as we turn 21). She told me the other day she wanted one as soon as possible because he scares her so much when they are home alone
I've tried to talk to him before, he will stare at you when you approach and then turn around and go inside. My wife was waving at him when he flicked her off the other day. As far as the cursing goes, it's like he is talking to somebody a lot of the time. Like he is yelling at voices in his head. That's the scary part. I've tried listening to what he is saying before and it's like he is screaming at someone else. He will look straight at us and scream sometimes but a lot of the time he will be facing a tree just screaming. Neighbors told us he used to walk around the neighborhood screaming and crying. I feel bad because I know he can't help it and I'm sure that is a terrible thing to go through, but anyone yelling at voices in their head is a little sketchy to me.