H
heygrape
Guest
What is the name of your state? What is the name of your state? Illinois
My son bought this house for me to live in 10 or so years ago. Everything was fine until the neighbors from Hell bought the house next door to me.
There is a drainage pipe running through my property that empties the street water into the park behind me. Everything was fine until the neighbor started throwing his yard waste and wheelbarrows full of leftover sand from a patio project into the storm sewer in the street. I saw him doing it and I immediately went over there and begged him to stop. He refused.
Over the months all the yard waste and sand have made their way to the end of the pipe and spilled out. This has built up the park land so that now the water doesn't flow smoothly anymore and backs up onto my property. Imagine the water from a 3 block area all draining into One persons yard. The neighbor is still continueing to use the storm sewer as their private garbage can and they have a "we'll show you!" attitude towards me. I contacted the park district and the street storm sewer department. They both send letters of warning to this neighbor. And the sewer department said they won't be doing anything about the pipe because they want as many free emptying drainage pipes as possible. (You should see the mesquito problem I have from all the standing water.)
Then the real trouble started. The neighbor broke my window on my house, egged my house, and are now directing their underground sprinkler system directly at my 2 year old wooden shed. I called them to ask them to stop soaking down my shed with their sprinkler system. They called the police and told them I was harrassing. I spoke to the police and asked them to tell the neighbor to stop. The police said the neighbor was not doing anything illegal.
I called the police when they broke my window and the police wouldn't do anything. I called the police when they egged my house (I actually saw them) and the police said it would be my word against theirs even though I saw them do it. The police also said, "We have to protect their civil rights." When I asked if I have any civil rights, the cop just shrugged and didn't answer me.
I called the police when I and the neighbor across the street saw the rifle sticking out through the bushes and heard the shots. The police said, "Oh, it's only a BB Rifle" and did nothing.
Almost all the paint has washed off the shed. All I could think of at this point was to buy a tarp and wrap it around my shed to protect it from the twice daily soakings. This took me all day as I am disabled and it's very hard for me to climb ladders, etc. The neighbor turned me in because the tarp made my shed look unsightly. It did. It was embarrassing and I didn't know what else to do. I went to the city and explained to them why I had put the tarp on the shed and they said, "Too bad. You have 5 days to take it down." I asked if there was anything legal I could use to protect my shed. They said, "No. Repaint it. And you better keep that shed maintained or the neighbor can turn you in again and you will have to tear it down."
I was struggling to get a board up a extention ladder to cover my broken window that I can't afford to fix, when the neighbor came running out screaming at me, "I hope you fall off that ladder and break your (censored) neck!".
The policeman that lives down the street, who ironically is also the head of the neighborhood watch program, will not help anyone in need. All he does is boast about his wonderful neighborhood watch program on TV. He got robbed a few months ago and rather than deal with the problems we have here, he moved out.
I am not the first person to be victimized by this neighbor. This same neighbor stoned a ladys little poodle down the street and egged their house. When the ladys son came to protect her and got into a physical fight, the ladys son went to jail. That's how stupid our police department here is. It is a known fact in this city that the police don't care about anything but their paychecks. They have even been on TV denying that they don't care.
When these neighbors moved in the first thing the woman said to me was that they had had trouble with the neighbors where they lived before. Then the son said to me, "Is there any racist people in this neighborhood? If there are, we will run them out of the neighborhood!" I told them that they were not making a very good first impression. We have other black neighbors just 3 houses down and they are wonderful neighbors.
I apologize for the length of this post. Even with the length of this post, I've only told you about 1/10th of the hell that is going on here. I can't afford to move and am physically unable to do a move anyway. I don't dare call my son who owns this house and lives in California, because he will come to help me and end up in jail for trying to protect his mother. He couldn't sell it right now anyway because of all the damages caused by the neighbor and the street water problem.
Please give me a grain of hope if there is one. I'm so alone here and I'm down sick with chest pains and migraines most of the time from the stress I'm under. Are there any laws out there that can help me at all?
My son bought this house for me to live in 10 or so years ago. Everything was fine until the neighbors from Hell bought the house next door to me.
There is a drainage pipe running through my property that empties the street water into the park behind me. Everything was fine until the neighbor started throwing his yard waste and wheelbarrows full of leftover sand from a patio project into the storm sewer in the street. I saw him doing it and I immediately went over there and begged him to stop. He refused.
Over the months all the yard waste and sand have made their way to the end of the pipe and spilled out. This has built up the park land so that now the water doesn't flow smoothly anymore and backs up onto my property. Imagine the water from a 3 block area all draining into One persons yard. The neighbor is still continueing to use the storm sewer as their private garbage can and they have a "we'll show you!" attitude towards me. I contacted the park district and the street storm sewer department. They both send letters of warning to this neighbor. And the sewer department said they won't be doing anything about the pipe because they want as many free emptying drainage pipes as possible. (You should see the mesquito problem I have from all the standing water.)
Then the real trouble started. The neighbor broke my window on my house, egged my house, and are now directing their underground sprinkler system directly at my 2 year old wooden shed. I called them to ask them to stop soaking down my shed with their sprinkler system. They called the police and told them I was harrassing. I spoke to the police and asked them to tell the neighbor to stop. The police said the neighbor was not doing anything illegal.
I called the police when they broke my window and the police wouldn't do anything. I called the police when they egged my house (I actually saw them) and the police said it would be my word against theirs even though I saw them do it. The police also said, "We have to protect their civil rights." When I asked if I have any civil rights, the cop just shrugged and didn't answer me.
I called the police when I and the neighbor across the street saw the rifle sticking out through the bushes and heard the shots. The police said, "Oh, it's only a BB Rifle" and did nothing.
Almost all the paint has washed off the shed. All I could think of at this point was to buy a tarp and wrap it around my shed to protect it from the twice daily soakings. This took me all day as I am disabled and it's very hard for me to climb ladders, etc. The neighbor turned me in because the tarp made my shed look unsightly. It did. It was embarrassing and I didn't know what else to do. I went to the city and explained to them why I had put the tarp on the shed and they said, "Too bad. You have 5 days to take it down." I asked if there was anything legal I could use to protect my shed. They said, "No. Repaint it. And you better keep that shed maintained or the neighbor can turn you in again and you will have to tear it down."
I was struggling to get a board up a extention ladder to cover my broken window that I can't afford to fix, when the neighbor came running out screaming at me, "I hope you fall off that ladder and break your (censored) neck!".
The policeman that lives down the street, who ironically is also the head of the neighborhood watch program, will not help anyone in need. All he does is boast about his wonderful neighborhood watch program on TV. He got robbed a few months ago and rather than deal with the problems we have here, he moved out.
I am not the first person to be victimized by this neighbor. This same neighbor stoned a ladys little poodle down the street and egged their house. When the ladys son came to protect her and got into a physical fight, the ladys son went to jail. That's how stupid our police department here is. It is a known fact in this city that the police don't care about anything but their paychecks. They have even been on TV denying that they don't care.
When these neighbors moved in the first thing the woman said to me was that they had had trouble with the neighbors where they lived before. Then the son said to me, "Is there any racist people in this neighborhood? If there are, we will run them out of the neighborhood!" I told them that they were not making a very good first impression. We have other black neighbors just 3 houses down and they are wonderful neighbors.
I apologize for the length of this post. Even with the length of this post, I've only told you about 1/10th of the hell that is going on here. I can't afford to move and am physically unable to do a move anyway. I don't dare call my son who owns this house and lives in California, because he will come to help me and end up in jail for trying to protect his mother. He couldn't sell it right now anyway because of all the damages caused by the neighbor and the street water problem.
Please give me a grain of hope if there is one. I'm so alone here and I'm down sick with chest pains and migraines most of the time from the stress I'm under. Are there any laws out there that can help me at all?