Hello, everyone!! It's been some time, hasn't it? The last several months have been, to sum it up in a word: chaotic. Now, to explain, I'll have to start at the beginning of the story:

It all began in November of last year. My girlfriend and I lived in a very quaint one-bedroom apartment. It was exactly what we wanted, and the six or so months we lived there were bliss. Everything was running efficiently and without toil: we payed rent, nobody bothered us. And then, that November, a little before Thanksgiving - it began. My girlfriend was just leaving for work, in a bit of a hurry. Just as she was walking out the front door, however, she stopped, and made a sound I'd heard from her many times before: a low humming sound, that indicates she's surprised or confused. Curious, I get up from my desk, and go to investigate. What do I find? Heaps - and I do mean heaps - of black garbage bags, blocking our doorway and the entire walkway in front of our door. The only culprit could be the new neighbors, that had only just moved in a week ago. No one else had ever given us any trouble - it had to be them. So, I told my girlfriend to go on to work, and I'd issue a report with the complex's front desk. The lady working the desk assures me it will be taken care of, I return to my work, appeased. Next morning arrives, girlfriend goes to leave, and again, there is trash bags blocking our door. The same ones from the day before. Again, I issue a report, and again, I am assured it will be taken care of. A week passes, and we've had to move them all to the side ourselves, and no progress is made. Finally, my girlfriend gets fed up, and takes it up with the neighbors directly. I attempt to calm her, (she has a very bad temper!) lest it gets uglier than it needs too. Alas, my efforts were in vain. Who comes to the door, after my girlfriends raucous knocking and banging, but perhaps the dirtiest man I have ever seen in my life. I try to avoid arguing others, but the blood feud that ensued following this encounter was something very much out of my hands. And, after a rather, erm... ugly series of events, we moved.

Yes, I was sad to leave our little apartment, but I didn't want to stay if it meant my girlfriend would be unhappy. So, we are now residing in a very quaint one-bedroom cottage style home, just a few miles from my girlfriend's parents. The Landlord is her Great Uncle. He is an exceptionally... eccentric man, but not overall a very bad guy. He's much easier to deal with, at least, than the Garbage Bag Man. And now, after months of trying to sort out countless skirmishes, searching for a new place to live, and the messy process of moving, I have returned. We aren't quite settled in the new place, but it's actually quite comfortable.

footnote: I'm convinced the new place is haunted.

welcome back, StarrySkylark! sorry that you and your girlfriend had to go through that and move because of the new neighbor, but glad you are in a nice new place now close to family. What is this about the new place possibly being haunted though o.o

Thanks, very much! It's a cozy little home, but sometimes... I see things...
I mean, perhaps this is just my imagination, because I do believe in ghosts...
I may just be jumping to conclusions, but every once in a while, I'll see a shadow in the corner of my eye or hear a unexplainable noise... My girlfriend believes in ghost as well, but she doesn't think our new place is haunted. But, I swear! When she's at work, I'll hear walking in the hallway and living room, and the distinct sound of whispered conversations. I don't know how else to explain it, our closest neighbor is about half a mile to the left of us, and there are so many trees around here we don't get much wind... it's really creepy...

Wow, that is very interesting! Have you ever tried setting up a camera or video recorder to see if you could catch something on tape?

By the way, I really like Seinfeld so I appreciate your signature :D

I've certainly thought about it, but honestly, I'm a little scared of what I'll capture :'D

I imagine that I would be too, haha

Lately, nothing strange has happened, but I'm still a little paranoid about it haha

Wow! I love this subject matter. Before my trucking days, I had this one apartment for about six years and all sorts of bad neighbors came and went. It was one of my pet peeves to see garbage bags left in front of doors. My tactic was to slip by late at night and quietly move said garbage bag directly in front and up against the offending neighbor's door. It seemed that most folks don't like having to move smelly garbage bags first when exiting their apartments. There weren't too many repeat incidents after my doing that.

Funny thing, we ended up trying that. This guy just genuinely didn't care at all about the garbage. He'd just step over it and go on his way. Gah! It was so frustrating to watch him be so nonchalant about it, when I was over in my apartment tearing my hair out!

Originally Posted by StarrySkylark

Funny thing, we ended up trying that. This guy just genuinely didn't care at all about the garbage. He'd just step over it and go on his way. Gah! It was so frustrating to watch him be so nonchalant about it, when I was over in my apartment tearing my hair out!

My educated guess is that the apartment manager knows this guy is crazy (because it's apartment managers who let crazy people move in) and didn't want a confrontation. This is definitely a drawback to section 8 housing. It's cheap rent. You're right on the busline. You have a short commute to work. But one day, your apartment manager lets in the local child toucher and a good situation goes bad. Eventually, after the manager lets in enough drama queens, dope dealers, parolees, gang bangers, and addicts, the manager suddenly finds him or herself in a situation where their own life is threatened and they wonder why police detectives take over two days to show up and take a statement.

Then the owner of the complex hires a property management company to run his property and he wonders why the property management company is stealing from him left and right. Yes, some folks learn slowly.

I never did, but I had this clever idea to really mess with one of my neighbors whom I could not stand because they dealt dope and abused the welfare system. My idea was to place an "L" shaped brace between the door and door jamb over their deadbolt and drill in four screws. This would prevent the door from being opened from the inside. The only way to get the door open again would require removing the screws and this brace. To really be mean you would use a spanner screw to secure the brace into the door and door jamb. Even your handiest of handymans probably won't have a spanner bit on hand to unscrew this brace and would require a trip to the hardware store.

that is an interesting idea

maybe not the right thing to do, but interesting nonetheless, mr wrong

Originally Posted by salvete

that is an interesting idea

maybe not the right thing to do, but interesting nonetheless, mr wrong

Those were my sin days. One devious deed I did do was knock on the dope dealers window at 3and then I would rush back to my apartment unseen. The silly pothead would rush out his door only to find I was gone.

I did this on numerous occasions. My pothead neighbor finally caught on and he started getting back at me. One day I noticed two adult toys in the back of my pickup truck. I should have written his apartment number on those things and tossed them in the pool, but I didn't. I should have stolen his electric power meter on a Friday with a holiday Monday following, but I didn't. I also thought about taping a brick of firecrackers to his window, but I didn't.

Our apartment complex was rectangular with four separate buildings facing each other with small gaps between each building. A ground level sidewalk with gates at four points was how you entered the atrium of the complex. These pedestrian gates were always unlocked. My pothead neighbor lived right next to one of these gates and so if this gate was locked, he couldn't get outside the complex unless he scaled this particular gate or used another gate which was much further away.

The gates themselves were made of steel box tubing which resembles wrought iron, but isn't as strong. One night I bound the gate nearest my favorite neighbors door with baling wire. This wire was just wrapped around the gate and support fence and could be unraveled in a minute, but a minute was all I needed. I knocked loudly and ran to a point of safety to watch with glee his anger and frustration. Music to my ears.

I eventually moved out and would come back every so often to play the window knocking game. When I first moved into that apartment complex it was an undiscovered gem. The apartment managers were competent, the neighbors were good, and the grounds well-kept. Then they retired and the circus began. The owner brought in clown after clown and things went downhill. The parking lot soon became a dumping ground for stolen vehicles and drug dealing.

The owner stabilized the situation by moving in himself. He tried fixing up the place, but it was an uphill battle. Instead of hiring a large crew of professionals to fix numerous apartments at once, he brought in two slowpokes to work on a single apartment at a time. They would fix an apartment and then a crackhead would move in. By the time they fixed another apartment, two crackheads would have moved out leaving more open apartments in need of repairs. The slowpokes installed new stairs and railings upstairs, but they never fixed every apartment.

The owner installed a long time acquaintance as manager, but she fizzled out and left the scene. Then the owner hired a very unscrupulous property management company and they really let things go. They let gang members in and soon there was a shooting which scared away a few of the better tenants. The owner hired a less unscrupulous property management company and the gang members left. Then other drug dealers and drama queens moved in. It took over a year, but the owner finally wised up to the fact that he was being ripped off. This is when the potheads next door moved in.

Then the owner installed another manager who ripped him off even more and it took months for this to be discovered and dealt with. I moved out a few months after the new manager started letting in more dregs of society in. The whole apartment complex just needed to be burned down and a new one built, but that hasn't happened.