Hey, another neighbor thread.

[joannqn]

The house directly across the street is a rental. The last renters left without paying rent, but not before we had called the police on them a couple of times for fear of them abusing the kids. They'd scream at the poor girl constantly. They were quite charming.

 

Now, we have a houseful of people over there. We're pretty sure we know who the main renters are, but it appears that 4-6 adults (all young, in their 20s) and 2 toddlers are currently living there, and it's only a small 2 bedroom house.

 

Anyway, we called the police for a domestic shortly after they moved in last summer. I heard the main guy tell the main woman (sitting on the porch), "I'm calling the cops. He's on top of her and is threatening to kill her." Well, in case he changed is mind about calling the cops, we did. They took the guy away in handcuffs.

 

Since then, we've noticed a pattern at that house and emailed the police liaison officer to see if the house was on his radar. He asked for some specific information, and we've been keeping tabs to report back as requested. So, tonight we noted...

 

Three cars visited in the space of 3 hours. Each car had two people in it. The driver waited in the car while the passenger went into the house. A few minutes later (five at the most), the passenger returned to the car, and they left. The last car came back less than 10 minutes later and sat in the car for about 10 minutes until the male renter came home. They went into the house and then left within 2 minutes of his return. Also during those same 3 hours, the male renter left four times, each time for approximately 15 minutes. None of the times did he return with grocery bags so we know he's not just running up to the store real quick.

 

This kind of activity happens daily. No one in the house is gone long enough to have a job outside the home.

 

Yep, it looks like we have another drug house for a neighbor.

 

There's an alley on the south side of that house. The house across the alley from them is a quiet couple with toddlers. Behind them is a house (we can see the garage from our porch) that was a meth lab a few years ago. The house around the corner (our backyard is kitty corner to them) was a drug house that was shut down a couple years ago. Two houses over from us had similar activity as across the street two owners ago.

 

Is our neighborhood ever going to be drug free?

[Skadi]

Calling the cops because you believed someone's life to be in danger? Kudos. But is that incident proof that they must be involved in another illegal activity? Absolutely not. Drugs don't freak me out as much as neighbors snitching on neighbors over something as innocuous as what you described. Sorry. They could be selling drugs, sure. They could also be plotting to kill the president for all you know. But that's none of your business -- we have police who have very strict guidelines on how they can carry out investigations, and as a private citizen, I don't think you should be part of that process. It's kind of creepy to be carrying out secret surveillance, especially when there is so little to go on. If you see drugs or they try to sell you drugs, that's one thing. Spying into their private lives and reporting their every move to the police with such evidence as "He doesn't come back with grocery bags so he MUST be selling drugs!" is a sign that you've become so involved that you've lost perspective and objectivity. I can think of at least four habits of our household that are much more suspicious than what you've observed, but thankfully our neighbors don't jump to conclusions. Leave the policework to the police. Doing otherwise is putting your family at risk, and it even has the potential for taking law enforcement's attention away from actual crimes being committed elsewhere.

[TravelingChris]

Yes, Joanne, it definitely seems like a drug house. Can you think about moving?

[creekland]

I think drugs are a very good guess, and we'd be discussing our observations with the police and then let them take over (or continue observation as they suggest). There's no way I'd want a drug house in my neighborhood.

[....]

I dealt with something similar for several years and I have a little bit of advice from my uncle, who is federal law enforcement. I'll pm you. :tongue_smilie:

[mom4him]

Calling the cops because you believed someone's life to be in danger? Kudos. But is that incident proof that they must be involved in another illegal activity? Absolutely not. Drugs don't freak me out as much as neighbors snitching on neighbors over something as innocuous as what you described. Sorry. They could be selling drugs, sure. They could also be plotting to kill the president for all you know. But that's none of your business -- we have police who have very strict guidelines on how they can carry out investigations, and as a private citizen, I don't think you should be part of that process. It's kind of creepy to be carrying out secret surveillance, especially when there is so little to go on. If you see drugs or they try to sell you drugs, that's one thing. Spying into their private lives and reporting their every move to the police with such evidence as "He doesn't come back with grocery bags so he MUST be selling drugs!" is a sign that you've become so involved that you've lost perspective and objectivity. I can think of at least four habits of our household that are much more suspicious than what you've observed, but thankfully our neighbors don't jump to conclusions. Leave the policework to the police. Doing otherwise is putting your family at risk, and it even has the potential for taking law enforcement's attention away from actual crimes being committed elsewhere.

The original poster stated that the police had given her instructions and she was following them.

I totally disagree with you. It is time that we stand up and take control of our neighborhoods. I am not talking about storming into a house ourselves. I am talking about observing what is going on and if we feel it is not right reporting it. As a citizen of this country and a part of my neighborhood that IS my responsibility.

[....]

Yeah, don't pretend for one minute that these kinds of places are safe or harmless. I've heard all kinds of stories from my sister (who is an attorney) and other family members who are law enforcement.

 

I hope that's not what it is. I hope your neighbors are just obnoxious. I hope they move on and you get some nice, quiet neighbors for once. For people that do live next to one of these, I wish it would stop. Drugs are a massive cancer in our society.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I think it is her business, because where there is drug activity, there is frequently also violence. When I was first on my own, I lived in an apartment across from a drug dealer and all kinds of other stuff happened, too. When an innocent woman was shot in the stomach, I finally moved away from there. Drugs=danger.

[ChristusG]

Sounds like the exact sort of pattern of activity that was going on next door to my parents. Now, one of the family members in that household is in jail for dealing drugs. I'd keep reporting to that police officer if I were you.

[chiguirre]

Is our neighborhood ever going to be drug free?

 

Probably not. The only way to escape it is to move to an area you've checked out thoroughly.

 

I hope that's a possibility and, if it's not, that you stay safe.

[pdalley]

The original poster stated that the police had given her instructions and she was following them.

I totally disagree with you. It is time that we stand up and take control of our neighborhoods. I am not talking about storming into a house ourselves. I am talking about observing what is going on and if we feel it is not right reporting it. As a citizen of this country and a part of my neighborhood that IS my responsibility.

:iagree: As someone who did work at a police station before kids I would do exactly what the OP is doing. Drugs = violence - 9 times out of ten. And those are not good odds when it comes to my kids and the chance of them getting caught in a cross fire.

[Lolosoli]

Police cannot be everywhere all of the time! They rely on people like you who will give information they wouldn't otherwise know about.

 

In my city our police encourage us to call in. We also have neighbourhood groups that watch and report everything. Our local police are involved and support these groups.

 

I think you have done a wonderful thing by contacting them. I'd continue to contact.....it is unfortunate that more people don't!

[Guest RecumbentHeart]

In certain circumstances I'd agree with Skadi. In my neighbourhood that kind of behavior would be very disturbing but my neighbourhood doesn't sound remotely like the OP's neighborhood. It doesn't have the established history of violence, drugs and police activity that OP's neighborhood has for years (apparently). It sounds like a completely different situation with legitimate grounds for such observation and reporting.

[joannqn]

Well, that first incident, we were outside playing with our kids when the guy came out on their porch and yelled at the woman about the other guy threatening to kill someone in the house. Pretty easy to notice and overhear that!

 

And we haven't been "spying" to notice all of the other activity. You could be sitting on the porch watching your kids play with the sprinkler on a hot day. After a while, you kind of say, "Gee, that's the fifth car that's stopped there. Isn't it odd how for every car the driver just sits in the car while the passenger runs in for a couple of minutes?" Then you notice it again the next day while you having a picnic dinner with the kids. Then again the next week. Finally, you start to pay closer attention and realize that it's all kinds of different cars, all kinds of different people, that the guy leaves for 15 minutes all throughout the day, and the girl sitting on the porch is smoking pot. Finally, you call the police liaison officer to ask about it, and he asks that you keep a log with times, make/model of the cars, and license plate numbers if you can get them.

 

Remember, this has been going on for a year. Anyone who spends any time outside and is even remotely observant would notice the heavy activity. During the summer, we're outside every day for hours at a time.

 

Unfortunately, we cannot move. We'd love to move, for so many reasons, but it isn't possible. So, we're doing the best we can with where we are...and fortunately, we have a neighborhood group trying to take back the neighborhood.

[KnitWit]

My Dad *noticed* things about his neighbor once. Wasn't sure, finally mentioned it in passing to a friend in law enforcement. Friend checked into it, was concerned enough to park a surveillance van in my Dad's drive for a time and it all wrapped up with a huge take-down. Turns out, my Dad was living across the street from a *safe-house*. What they found there led to the take-down of two OTHER homes and cracking a rather busy *ring*.

 

Just sayin'

[creekland]

and fortunately, we have a neighborhood group trying to take back the neighborhood.

 

 

I hope it works out for y'all. Keep up the good work! If more folks cared about such things this world would be a better place IMO.

[Punchie]

Are you writing down the license plate numbers? My mom's neighborhood had a drug house in it ab a year ago. Her and other neighbors wrote down everything. The police ended up doing an operation and arrested a lot of ppl including several prominent drug dealers. My mom got really scared one night when one of the visitors went to her house by mistake and kept ringing her doorbell. She didn't answer, and her dog kept barking.

 

The worst thing to me about that was that a 5-6 yr old girl lived there.

[ahousefullofjs]

The original poster stated that the police had given her instructions and she was following them.

I totally disagree with you. It is time that we stand up and take control of our neighborhoods. I am not talking about storming into a house ourselves. I am talking about observing what is going on and if we feel it is not right reporting it. As a citizen of this country and a part of my neighborhood that IS my responsibility.

:iagree:

As someone who dealt with something very similar a few years ago, I completely agree.

[Anne in CA]

I am glad you are being proactive. You can take your neighborhood back by making it unfriendly to these types, just like you are doing. A poster said that you shouldn't worry so much about drug dealing and drug abuse as other things, but I have lived next to drug dealers and had horrible situations just by having my kids near drug dealing and it's not okay.

[Renee in NC]

Probably not. The only way to escape it is to move to an area you've checked out thoroughly.

 

I hope that's a possibility and, if it's not, that you stay safe.

 

Even then, there is no guarantee. We moved to 11 acres in the country in NC. There was only *one* house we could see from our house. The owner rented it out a few times, and then a lady with kids moved in. After months of trouble, she was busted for dealing meth.