Amanda Writes:

My husband and I moved into our home in September of 2005. It is a middle class suburban neighborhood and all of the homes are 7 years old or newer and range from 3-5 bedrooms. At the time, the neighbors didn’t seem half bad. I work odd hours in the IT field as I frequently am “on-call” and have to come and go at all hours of the day and night to fix IT problems. My husband comes from a wealthy family, is semi-retired and only works when he feels like it. We have a mutual friend who rents a room in our basement as well.

One of our neighbors called the police claiming that my husband doesn’t leave the house and that greatly concerned them. They questioned how we could afford anything if he doesn’t leave the house, apparently our incomes became their business. They also claimed there was “short stay traffic” coming and going at odd hours of the day and night, and they claimed that we were drug dealers. The police started taking our garbage near the curb at night from our driveway garbage can. Just to clarify, no one in our home does drugs. Two of our neighbors do however. The police found 0.03oz of marijuana in our garbage that someone discarded (not by us). Apparently this was enough for a search warrant to raid our home.

How the marijuana got there? Who knows! We got raided at gunpoint, in our underwear. They found nothing. They also confiscated our meat scale from my kitchen claiming it was used for measuring drugs. Mind you the scale weighs in pounds (lbs) and is made for measuring meat. They were grasping at straws at this point and trying to justify a reason for being there.

A neighbor came over one day and told my husband that she heard in the neighborhood that he was a sex offender. My husband has a clean criminal record, as do I. Apparently someone was having fun spreading rumors. Just to note, I have two college degrees and my husband went to medical school with a full scholarship but quit for personal reasons. We are highly intelligent people yet we get treated like dirt by our neighbors.

We had a friend visit our home that lives outside the neighborhood and one of our neighbors came over and asked our friend if he was “moving in too?” Apparently we have too many people living in our home and our neighbors disapprove. It’s a 5 bedroom home, and only 3 individuals live in the house.

So this summer my husband decided to make some home improvements. He ordered supplies for new siding and windows and roof and had them delivered. The neighbors called the city claiming we don’t have a building permit. First of all, he hadn’t even STARTED fixing anything, the house was untouched. Just because we have supplies in our driveway doesn’t mean we need a permit if the house is still untouched. The city slapped a notice on our door (with the persistence of a neighbor or two) saying they would threaten legal action if we don’t get a building permit.

My husband went to the city, asked for a specific law that states that we are required to have a building permit for having materials in our yard. They had none. He got a building permit anyway just to keep them quiet. The lady at the front desk asked if it was a “quick flip” as far as fixing the house, he told her people in general need to mind their own business and walked out.

Needless to say the situation hasn’t gotten any better. If anything it’s gotten worse!

Ca1v1n Replies:

That totally sucks about your home getting raided. The funny thing is, I would bet that all your neighbours if asked would call themselves "Good Christians". Funny how their behaviour is anything but. Since they already think you are drug dealers I suggest your husband start wearing white suits and stand on the front step yelling "Say hello to my little friend" as people walk by.

Kyle from Detroit writes:

My wife and I moved into this beautiful old colonial house in a Detroit suburb. When we moved in the neighbor Randy was a nice guy we learned to trust him and even gave him a key to our home. One night about 4 months after we moved in I had a friend over and we were enjoying a couple of beers and smoking on the front porch having a conversation at a usual level (not being loud). Then the next evening at about 2:00 am Randy is drunk as a skunk yelling at the entire neighborhood and using racial slurs. My wife and I went out side to calm him down and send him to bed. When he looks directly at us and yells at us for keeping him up the previous night. Eventually the police show up and get him back into his house. The following morning I bought him a case of beer and left it in the backyard with an apology.

Ever scence then he has called the police on us at least once a week for nothing at all. I have seen him outside throwing tomatoes at my dogs and kicking the fence then calls the police because our dogs "run aggresivly at the fence". He called the cops because there was dog feces in our yard but we clean up the backyard every other day. One evening he called the cops because there was a stray dog in on his front porch barking so he said our dogs was making the noise. The police officer actually showed up and tried to give us a ticket. I explained that the dog was not ours and was still sitting on his front porch.

What can I do? The worst part of this whole thing is HE IS A RETIRED POLICE OFFICER.

Ca1v1n Replies:

First things first. Either get back the key you gave him or get new locks installed. Next thing you know he is planting drugs in your house and phoning in a "tip". Seriously however, I am at a loss. You gave the guy a case of beer and he gets worse? I thought everybody loved beer. It is like a universal peace offering. All you can really do at this point is kill him with kindness, but don't waste any more alcohol on him. I suggest decorative tea cosies and ornamental porcelain figurines.