Illogical neighbours

Post Reply New Topic

Hmm. It looks as though they will probably not be able to kick down my door, because I have researched how one is supposed to go about it, and according to this http://www.wikihow.com/Kick-Down-a-Door you are supposed to aim your kick below the door handle. The footprint currently on the front door, that was left there when the previous occupants left, is not below the door handle. It's in the middle quite high up. Edit: no, I went and checked it again, and it's on the opposite side to the door handle. Therefore, it looks as though whoever tried to kick down the door last time was not a very skilled person or a professional criminal. They were probably just a nasty person having a violent tantrum.

This makes me feel better. Having researched the evidence they've already left, it looks as though they don't know how to kick down my door after all. And they can't get through the windows. I am on the first floor, so the windows are quite high up.

Last edited by Plodder on 11 Jan 2013, 4:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Please Plodder, stop worrying so much and take a calming medication if need be so you can sleep. Or sweet tea... whatever works for you. You will make yourself ill if you think of nothing else! I am sympathetic to your problem, but hopefully nothing will happen and you can stay in peace with your little dog until its time to move. Don't stress yourself constantly like this - keep yourself busy with something.
I pray you will be OK but if you are really worried maybe you should consider covering the glass panel with something. Do you have a trustworthy male friend or relative that could help you maybe?

Pat your dog for me, I have a delightful miniature pinscher that I love but he stays with my mom as I can't keep dogs in my garden flat.

Thank you for replying. I seem to be just talking to myself on here but it's helping me type to somebody even if I think no one is reading.

I don't have anything to cover the panel with and I don't have any male relatives who want to help me. My dad drove me here and dumped me and drove off.

I will contact the homelessness department at the council tomorrow. If they have someone who's working out of hours, I will ask if they can get someone to come and board up my door from the inside. Of course they might refuse to do it, and say I am worrying needlessly, and they could be right. On the other hand, what if they refuse to do it and it then turns out my worries were justified, and someone smashes the glass and climbs through to beat me up?

Aggggghhhhhhhhhhh

I'm almost afraid to post my support since you haven't liked other posts...

I've had crappy neighbours too and I can sure sympathize with you. Being a basement-dweller, I can understand the complaint about walking... some people aren't conscious of their footfalls and can be "plodders". It sounds a lot louder to the people below - but still nowhere near as bad as that psychotic woman screaming both below you AND at your door! I get the impression she's mentally imbalanced and incapable of rational thought and reasonable discussion. Try not to let her get under your skin - she's crazy and would probably scream at the trash cans outside if she thought they made noise!

My username has nothing to do with how I walk. It implies slowness of thought.

I demonstrated to the police officers how I walk across the floor and they agreed that I am walking normally, as any normal person would, but that the floorboards are squeaky (which is NOT my fault).

Even if I were genuinely "plodding" around my house during the day I really don't think that justifies verbal abuse, threats of violence, and anonymous correspondence being posted through my door.



Like I said, I don't particularly mind the words. When they come and yell at me, I listen, reply, close the door, get angry, think "sheesh" and then carry on my life. It's the threat of violence that has now been issued that is bothering me so much. I repeat: threat of violence. I am grateful to the people replying to the thread to sympahthise and trying to tell me to "calm down" and "don't think about it" because I know your intentions are good and you're trying to make me feel better, but actually I think the advice you are all giving me is far worse than the practical strategy I am trying to formulate of locking myself in the bathroom and arming myself with a broom.

I am the one who is actually living in this house, and I am the one who knows what this street is like, and who now has to watch out for this angry female's sister who is now probably being instructed to come round and "batter" me.

If you don't live in Scotland, you don't know what "battering"means. It's council estate slang for "beat into a pulp."

I have never been "battered" before but I grew up attending a High School with a very poor, rough catchment area and I am all too familiar with this "battering" practice. Amongst the drug-ridden poor of Scotland's seedier estates, there are all too many females who are good at "battering" others, and they often do it on another person's behalf. Hence why the sister in is being told do do it. It's a sort of "I stand up for you, you stand up for me" thing. The fact that she's now threatened to send her right-hand woman to come and see me means she's got mad. "I'll send my sister round on you" is not a slang phrase that implies her sister will be coming round to happily talk about the weather. The sister has already been brought round once as backup at the New Year. She was bad enough then. She was angry (because I was walking and cooking, which was apparently "banging") but she didn't hit me. If she now has to come back (because I cannot stop walking, as they want me to, so the "banging" they object to will continue, and the issue will not have been settled to their satisfaction) she will not be coming back this time to talk. She will probably be coming to batter.

I have already been hearing the hysterical female neighbour wail tearfully and angrily on her phone for the past hour or so. I can't hear what she's saying but after the police left she clearly phoned someone to tell them about it. What I'm hoping is that she's only phoning ONE person. She's been on the phone for ages now. I'm hoping she's not phoning up the whole local gang.

Last edited by Plodder on 11 Jan 2013, 4:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Right. I will stop worrying about it. I have done all I can. I have phoned the police. They did nothing. I have made a plan of where to lock myself in. If I am battered, I am battered. If I am not, I'm not. It seems I can't do anything to stop it from happening, because there is nobody to help me, and I'm not a big tough man.

Sometimes, I just get really angry, and wish I were a big tough man. Then maybe these awful people would think twice before coming and saying all this stupid crap to me.

Plodder, I used to put a chair up to my door to feel a little more secure. I felt silly for doing this, but a therapist told me that if I felt better - why not? It didn't hurt anybody and it made me feel good in my own home. I didn't do it for long and it helped my anxiety a lot. Maybe just a chair or something will help you through a few days.

Even though the police did nothing, your neighbors will get the message that people in uniform will show up - this could well be a deterrent. Sometimes that is all that is needed. I am glad you called them. Keep written records. I think you are doing a good thing journaling here as you automatically have a date and time stamp, but you might just want to keep a little binder. I hope now things dull down and you can relax

I can't believe I didn't connect my foot-falling "plodder" to your username... it didn't even register! More coffee...

I don't think it'd be too hard to rig up some sort of door-stopper system that'll prevent your door from being kicked in by an angry water buffalo. You'll sleep better at night knowing a big wooden plank is preventing that door from ever opening!

Good luck on dealing with the neighbors.

I've been fortunate that most of the apartments I've lived in were pretty good and I never had a problem with the neighbors. The only time I ever had trouble with the neighbors was when I rented a house in a very quiet neighborhood and the next year a bunch of seniors in college rented the house next door. The night of the first football game of the year they hit the bars until the bars closed and then they moved the party to their house. I don't know how many people were there, but there were cars everywhere. If someone had needed an ambulance or if there had been a fire, the ambulance or fire truck could not have gotten down the street. It didn't take me long to call the police on them. After that happened a few times, they kept their parties indoors and relatively quiet.

In apartments, I only ever really lived in three places where noise was an issue. Two of them involved family disputes and the third was a girl whose bedroom was right above mine and who brought home a different guy nearly every night the year she lived above me. Sometimes it seemed like her bed must have been hopping up a foot in the air.

My favorite areas were where there were quite a few foreign students, primarily from places like China and India. They were always very quiet. Another was some apartments where a great number of the inhabitants were Mormons. They were also a pleasure to have as neighbors.

Plodder, I would be a mess too. This kind of confrontation and threat is awful to deal with. Thank goodness you will be moving soon. In the meantime, I'm not sure what to suggest. Is it legal to carry pepper spray in Scotland?

Update: nothing has happened. I'm still alive.

BlueMax: that is absolutely hilarious. I just assumed from your comment that you had interpreted my username to mean that I walk very loudly. How weird that you actually used the word "plodder" without actually remembering that was my name! What are the chances of that?

Ann2011: I am not sure about the pepper spray. I don't want to buy anything like that, in case anyone grabs it from me and uses it on ME.

Yes, there is the possibility that could happen. Glad to hear your still with us.

Update: I am in a new house now. I am away from the nasty neighbours, so it's all OK.

Congrats! Hope the new digs are quieter AND nicer for you and your furry friend!

That's great! Glad to hear you got through it!

That's great news Plodder! I'm very happy for you. I hope you have peace and happiness in your new place.