our psycho neighbor

Ok, so as promised- here is a post about our "pyscho neighbor" living below us. It's pretty long.

It all started In Mid-october when Shawn and I moved in to our amazing new apartment here in Allen, Texas. Shawn had to work all day so my dad came in town to help us move in. As my dad is unloading boxes and furniture from the uhaul truck, he kept hearing a car's alarm going off. We didn't know it then, but this was only the beginning. We live in a second story apartment, and we later realized that the car alarm that would go off every ten minutes or so was a "message" from the family that lives below us that we were being too loud. I'm sorry but, we were MOVING IN. It is impossible to not make noise when you are hauling beds, armoires and couches up a flight of stairs. However, we naively assumed that the car alarm was some sort of glitch or techinical problem and had no idea that someone was PURPOSELY setting it off.

That evening, (our first day to live here) Shawn, my dad and I went to Wal-mart to buy some light bulbs and cleaning supplies etc. We arrived home that evening, tired from our long day of moving boxes, and were sitting around in our apartment, when all the sudden there is a bang on the door. Shawn answers it (I half- expected it to be a friendly neighbor welcoming us to the community), and it is the man who lives below us, he tells Shawn we are being extremely loud and to please quiet down. Shawn is totally shocked and apologizes to the man. We were all just sitting around, not moving anything or making any noise at all, so it was really confusing, but we didn't want to get on the wrong foot with our neighbors on the first day we moved in so we took extra care to be very quiet the rest of the night.

A few weeks go by and as Shawn and I are sitting on our couch in our living room watching TV one night, another bang on the door. It is the same man, this time saying "look, I don't want to have to go to the leasing office about all this, I just need you guys to be quiet." Shawn, once again is totally shocked, says "okay" and shuts the door.

Weeks go by, and we are constantly hearing this car's car alarm go off. On and off. On and off. We begin to put two and two together that whenever our neighbor feels that we are being too loud, he sets off his car alarm as a sort of warning or message to us.

A few weeks later, we receive a notice on our door from the leasing office as a "friendly reminder" that this apartment complex is a community and to be aware of the people living below and above us.

Right before Christmas is when we adopted Tozer, our dog. He is a great dog who has not learned to bark. We think it's because, for the most part, Tozer stays with us in the apartment and he doesn't hear a lot of dog's barking so he has not really "learned" it yet, because he is still less than a year old.

Shortly after New Year's, Shawn and I are sitting on the couch, watching TV, when we hear a loud bang on our door. Shawn answers it, and it is a police officer. The officer seems confused and informs us that someone has called and reported that apartment 3205 (thats us) has a dog that has been barking nonstop. The officer looks down at Tozer who is sitting quietly next to Shawn's feet and says "well, um, I stood out here a while and, well I didn't hear any dog barking so..." We inform him that our dog has not actually learned to bark yet. He sees that this is so, pats Tozer on the head and says sorry for the confusion, and that it "must have been a different apartment". Shawn and I are once again, in shock. We are beginning to realize that our neighbor has basically called the cops and made up a lie, as a way to get the cops to come to our door and basically indirectly intimidate us.

Weeks go by, car alarm goes off all the time. off and on. off and on. off and on.

A few weeks after the "dog barking" claim, Shawn is out walking Tozer early in the morning (6 a.m.-ish) when our "psycho neighbor" gets into his truck. When the guy sees Shawn and Tozer, he revs his engine, squeals his tires and comes about ten inches from the curb where Shawn and Tozer have jumped to avoid being hit. After this, things have gotten scary. I now lock both locks on the door, and am a little nervous to be home during the day without Shawn.

The last weekend in January is when everything "hit the fan" so to speak. My birthday was on the 4th of February, so my parents and sister came in town on the Friday before to celebrate with us. Friday night, I made dinner for everyone and after dinner, we were watching a video of a comedy sketch on Shawn's laptop. Shawn has dell, and his computer speakers are pretty lame. We were all having to lean in to even hear what the comedy guy was saying. As we are watching it "bang bang" on the door. Here we go again. This time- its two police officers. They very calmly look at Shawn and I and say, "We've had a complaint that the surround sound system in your apartment is on extremely loud, but, we have been standing out here for ten minutes and, well, we don't hear anything at all". This time we are almost laughing it is so ridiculous. We inform the cops that we don't have a surround sound system and that our TV is not even on. My dad is standing in the background eating a popsicle and my mom and sister are sitting on the couch. Apartment 3205 was definitely not having a party. Haha, anyways the cops leave and the car alarm goes off for about an hour, on and off on and off.

The next day is Saturday. Car alarm goes on and off over and over again. We try to ignore it and end up having a really good day. After my birthday dinner and then a movie, we get home and walk up the stairs to our apartment. Car alarm. off and on- every two minutes. This time, other people in the complex start getting mad about the car alarm. Two other cars in the parking lot turn on their car alarms. One guy opens his apartment door and screams "turn off your f***ing car alarm". Total Chaos has erupted. This neigbor of ours seems to think we are too noisy, but... ironically, he sets his car alarm off a whole lot to prove his point. As I am standing on our balcony witnessing all the chaos going on outside, I realize that one of my car doors did not shut all the way and the light is still on inside my car. After the car alarms turn off and it seems like all the commotion has died down for a bit, I go downstairs very quickly and re-shut my car door so that my battery does not die. About ten minutes after coming back upstairs, bang bang bang on our door. This time, it's scary. FOUR COPS are standing in front of us. Shawn goes outside to talk with them and a few seconds later they order Shawn to tell his wife come out and talk to them. I come outside and one of the officers brings me over to the other side of the stairs away from Shawn. He asks me if me and Shawn are having any problems or arguments, when i look at him confused and say "no" he says there has been a report of suspected domestic abuse in our apartment. I am completely flabbergasted. I look at the guy and say "No, we are newlyweds, we still kind of like each other" As I am explaining to the guy what has been going on all night and that we just got back from a movie to celebrate my birthday another officer comes over to me with his little black baton thing waved at me and asks me what I was doing being seen near the neighbor's truck downstairs. I told him that i had to go downstairs and shut one of my doors and that my parking space is located right next to the neigbor's truck. The officer says "ma'am did you hit or kick that man's car?" I informed him NO and the officer looked at me accusingly and said that there were scuff marks and dents in the guys car. After a few more minutes of talking to me and Shawn and realizing that the guys accusations were once again false, all four officers left our apartment complex.

The next day our neighbor went to the leasing office and told them that he saw Shawn and I smoking pot the night before. Seriously? Everyone knows Shawn and I wouldn't even drink champagne at our own wedding, much less do drugs. Plus my parents were both staying at our place. How likely is it that we were smoking pot? Basically, to wrap this story up, we have gone to the police station and talked to them, they say our neighbor is not doing anything illegal, so we will have to handle this all with our landlord. We have gone to our landlord, he says that we basically need to just call 911 if we have any more problems. It's a total runaround and we are completely miserable living in the same building as this guy. He is totally scary and unstable. We can't really afford getting a lawyer and no one in the leasing office seems to know what to do. We actually were informed through an unnamed source that this guy living below us has had problems with another tenant. He complained so much about this lady being "so noisy" that they moved her into a different apartment. We also heard from an unnamed source that the apartment that lady was switched into was supposed to be mine and Shawn's apartment, but at the last minute it was switched because of this guy below us complaining about someone else. I know it's confusing. But it feels good for me to write all this stuff down.

Anyways, we are really having a hard time with this guy. If you could please pray for Shawn and I and the situation with our neighbor I would soo appreciate it. It's sad that this is our first home together and we have only been married 3 months and we are having this much drama. If you have any ideas of how we should handle this or suggestions, I would be very grateful to hear them.
See Ya,
Emily