But there's always that ONE GUY right? Always. And he happens to live right next door. You've all read about him. He's the lawn mower guy. There are tons of stories about him, but unfortunately, all of them are hearsay, and none carry proof. My neighbor across the other street (I live on a corner) had a dog that barked kind of a lot. And one night someone spray painted "Stop Barkin'" on her car. My friend that rents my apartment had a foster dog that was barking, and the next day after his complaint she had two screws in her tire. And another neighbor with a dog that barked woke up to bricks in her yard one morning. All signs point to him. But alas no proof.
So yesterday, he walks himself over to my barn while I'm getting ready to ride, and asks me for the second time to pay part of his bill for some trees he had cut down. He had asked my permission in the fall to cut some trees at the back of his property. I had already had a guy out to do tree work, and spent more than enough money. My guy said he did absolutely everything that needed doing. So I told the neighbor, he could cut whatever he wanted back there, but he was responsible for the bill. He said ok, and went about his business cutting the trees. Fast forward to a couple months ago and he comes over asking me to pay half. I kind of put him off, and said I really don't think so, but get me a copy of the bill and I'll take a look at it. So I did some research and found that I am in no way liable for that bill. So when he came over last night asking again, I said I did my research, and I'm not legally responsible for that. So he said well if that's how you feel... and he went home. I called my dad to remind him that I need my brother to get these cameras up yesterday and what had just transpired. He said he'd call my brother asap, and I went to get on Shiny. I walked around a couple laps, and then picked up trot. As soon as I did, the neighbor starts banging on his metal shed which happens to be right next to my ring. Shiny was startled and showed me some acrobatics. Fortunately, I held on. If I had gotten on Pammon instead of her, I'd have been very hurt. No doubt.
I guess today's confession is that I'm not feeling very comfortable in my own home these days. It's not a good feeling to not trust your literal next door neighbor.
While I can let the police know what's going on, he didn't actually do anything illegal by making a lot of noise on his own property. So I'm not sure I'll really get anywhere there.
Have any of you dealt with neighbors like this? What did you do to fix it, or are you still dealing with it?
