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.
Monday, January 22, 2007
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2 comments:
I have neighbors that moved in approv 10 yrs ago. The husband was always weird, the wife is a school teacher. He is a carpenter. We all have older homes in a middle class neighborhood. We have done alot of upgrades to our home, it looks better than most on the street. Now the neighbors won't even talk to us. We got it honest. What is their problem. People really have problems from these small towns, of course our town is small and everyone know everyone's business. But I have a neighbor 81 yrs old and he says to much imbreeding yrs ago made them crazy. I said the parents and grandparents were poor and EAT to much deer meat and molasses bread, also didn't have enough to eat before they were 5 yrs old, their brain didn't develop properly. Its really a hell hole in the summer no one talks to anyone around this area, only the ones that go to the same church.
Wow. It sounds like your nosey, mean-spirited neighbors have way too much time on their hands and are extremely jealous of your lifestyle. Try to ignore the lesser rumors and be prepared for the more malicious ones that get the police involved. If you have nothing to hide, keep your head up and go about your own business as usual. Sounds like that marijuana was deliberately planted on your property. Very sad that your neighbors felt they had to go that extra mile to get you into trouble. Look into the laws for home ownership rights in your county or state. You have legal rights as a good citizen to enjoy your home. Also, if it gets to be too much, you may have to file a defamation suit against these neighbors from hell to clear your name in these accusations thay are making against you. Going to court may not be what you wanted to resort to, but it may just be what you need to do. Good luck.
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