Shocked by stories of the "neighbours from hell"

These days, a cellphone with a camera and a YouTube instant upload app can be your best friends in those situations...

Broadcast the bad behavior out to the whole world, embarrass and humiliate the living crap out of them. There's simply no arguing or disputing actual video of someone caught in the act of bad behavior. And, that can include the police and other local officials, if they didn't respond.

That's why my philsophy is "the best neighbors are no neighbors".

One of my security cameras caught a neighbor stealing from another in broad daylight. Another neighbor on in my area caught a car speeding up the street and sideswiping (and totaling) a parked car with one of his security cameras. After turning the footage over to the police, the response from the guilty party was "I only hit his mirror". The footage obviously told a very different story. The guilty party refused to report it to his insurance company until he was threatened with jail a few months later.

I need better cameras to be sure, I just can not afford them at this point.

The past few days, I have been searching webcams.... and was amazed at how many there are of everything. From barber shops to coffee shops, to marinas to bars to entrances to peoples homes, etc, etc. Many of the cameras are meant to be viewed by the public, some are simply unaware the cameras are not protected...

I've never had a bad neighbor knock on wood...even dismantled part of a fence to put in a gate so me and the"neighbor" can get to each others house easier for what ever...visits, beers, chit chat. But as a surveyor the worst jobs I've ever had to do was define property boundaries between to waring and hostile neighbors fighting over strips of land as thin as two inches.

Neighbors from Hell? First know thyself

I have a close family relative who has a long history of animosity with her neighbors. Wherever this person has lived, (and there are many venues over the last 40 years), she has built up long lists in each and every place of how the neighbors are horrible beyond belief. Property disputes, noise disputes, dog and horse disputes, traffic disputes, what have you, the whole litany is discussed every time I visit this person. Even during family holiday gatherings, amidst bountiful provender and lovely surroundings, all that can be discussed at the table are the sins of the neighbors.

This person is by any and all measures a very wealthy person and is currently living in a house and community that most of us would die to even so much as visit. Yet she is not happy, and that has been the case wherever she lives. And somehow, it's always the neighbors fault, not hers.

After a few trips to visit her, (which I will never do again) I realized that it's not the neighbors who are the constant problem. It's her. I once asked her "have you ever actually talked to your neighbors and tried to sort out the problems?"

She said "NO! I just called the cops on them, and took my dogs over to poop in their yard". So she doesn't actually know the people who cause her to lose sleep, and she is perpetuating the pet warfare, which is totally unfair to the dogs. How dumb is that? Some people just don't deserve to own critters, or have neighbors.

As for me, my nearby neighbors on this tiny little dead-end alley on which I live, are my best resources on a continuous and daily basis, and we depend on each other in times of need, so we do not piss each other off, and we help each other out whenever called upon.

Know thy neighbor, and know thyself.

Neighbors from Hell? First know thyself

:good:

Rick