Better Than It Used to Be
I grew up in a rural area on a fairly big property. It had been a large farm that got parceled out as the owner aged. So, there were acres of land and my parents had 10 acres behind the neighbors. The house was relatively far away from them, too. One neighbor was an absolute piece of garbage.
When I was eight, I remember seeing the cop lights at his door. I found out the shocking truth when I was a little older—he had gotten into a pretty bad fight with his father over his oxy prescription. The father owned the house, and the 30-year-old kid lived there rent-free.
He did a few years in lockup, then moved back in with his father who he had practically tried to end. He grew illicit plants on our land, then threatened to hurt my mother when my father and I tore it down.
But, we didn’t call for the authorities. This type of thing actually happened really frequently. I can remember multiple times when I was younger when he’d bang on our door, screaming threats at my mom.
Other times, I can remember thinking about how to protect ourselves, in case our neighbor actually got inside the house. This occurred maybe eight to 10 times a year. He has calmed down a little after a second arrest and some anger management classes.
Nowadays, he just has massive bonfires with tons of loud music and leaves empty cans on our property, which is still extremely rude of him It’s still better than physical intimidation and threats though. Story credit: Reddit