Altercation with neighbor

[N Florida Mike]

A little while ago I started hearing a dog barking and people yelling.  At first I thought it was someone else's dog because we live on a lake and sound carries over water.

Then I thought maybe the neighbors dogs had gotten in our yard again .

Turns out my daughters dogs were barking and a nieghbor catty corner across the lake was shouting at my 20 year old grandson. Our dogs don’t stay out long, and rarely  bark unless stimulated to. Dogs bark so regularly around here and I’m so used to it now that I’m even used to  the “Bumpus” dogs next door across the canal.…. that are out there barking a lot more than ours. Anyway ,The same neighbor had shot another neighbors dog that got in his back yard. The police didn’t do anything. That caused those neighbors to move to get away from him.

Anyway , I have never seen my grandson get that angry in his life. In fact, it’s the second time I have seen him ever lose his temper. I don’t know what all was said before I got out there, but apparently the neighbor was upset about the dogs barking and started yelling at Tyler.

I went out and told Tyler to get in the house but got kind of riled up like back in the old  days. I still dont respond well to being cussed at outside in the dark over something I had nothing to do with. 
I told the neighbor he needed to watch his mouth and if he would have just been a man and knocked on my door we would have took care of the dogs without all the trouble. He kept on .

I went in and shut the door and him still running his mouth.

Now Im all keyed up and don’t feel like sleeping…

I love my lake , but sometimes wish it was in the middle of 100 acres with me being the sole owner…

Sorry , just had to get it off my chest.

 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

People generally suck as a rule of law.   People generally let you down as a rule of law. 

These are things that become truer and truer the older I get.    That guy will have to answer to the universe, likely in a road rage incident to a person who has nothing to lose.  Florida after all has a stand your ground law, and those type of hot heads usually push the wrong guy.    My childhood best friend's dad, and former NHL hockey player was shot in the lung point blank range over a parking space....and sadly he earned it.    He beat on another person's window over a parking place on XMAS eve with his kids/wife in the car at the mall.   He tried to scare the wrong guy that morning, luckily, he lived.  

 

 

[Woody B]

Bad neighbors are the worst.  Most of my neighbors are great, but I had 1 for a while.   

 

I do have to tell my neighbor/dogs barking joke.

 

 

My neighbors stole my beagles out of my back yard and put him in their back yard.  They wanted me to know what it was like to live next to someone who's dogs barked all night.   

[Mobasser]

Hope you can relax Mike. He sounds like a hot head, and got carried away.                               Maybe after a period of time, you can go to his house and talk with him, and get things resolved.                                 You may never really like him, or be friends with him, but you can get along.

[Jar11591]

6 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

People generally suck as a rule of law.   People generally let you down as a rule of law. 

These are things that become truer and truer the older I get.

Sadly I feel the same way. Maybe it’s cynical but accepting it helps my own sanity I think. 

 

I do lawn care and landscaping, mainly on residential streets with lots of houses in close proximity. With some people it’s very clear that their only hobby is starting trouble with their neighbors or people who are working there. I always love when a customer “warns” me of their neighbor before I show up to mow a lawn. Has to be a rather sad existence to sit and wait for non-issues to start fights with neighbors. 
 

Living in residential areas, there are things that you just have to accept and deal with. Barking dogs are one of the easier things on the list of “things you have to accept when living in close proximity to people”. 
 

Mike at the end the day, this guy will probably continue to stew in his own anger, while you’ll be on the lake catching bass with a smile on your face. Actually I’ve seen your fish pics, maybe you won’t be smiling but you know what I mean ?

[Deleted account]

I'm with Chazz Palminteri on this one, I try to get to "Spoken like a gentleman, give him a beer" if that gets me nowhere then "Now yous can't leave"...

[galyonj]

One thing that never fails to make me feel better is settling down by a nice, roaring fire, and listening to the helpless screams of my victims.

[gim]

No offense to you @N Florida Mike, but there's usually two sides to a story.  We've only heard one here.  If I were you I'd keep my dog or dogs in my own yard and limit the barking.  BTW I think you did the right thing by just walking away.  Confrontations rarely turn out well and you still have to live there.

 

Starting problems with a neighbor is one of the last things I'd ever want to do.  I've been pretty lucky so far with neighbors.  I've never gotten into a serious argument over anything with them, but we're not going to dinner anytime soon either.  We just mind our own business and wave when we see each other.  I tend to be pretty up tight about how my property and lawn looks too.

[GaryH]

10 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

A little while ago I started hearing a dog barking and people yelling.  At first I thought it was someone else's dog because we live on a lake and sound carries over water.

Then I thought maybe the neighbors dogs had gotten in our yard again .

Turns out my daughters dogs were barking and a nieghbor catty corner across the lake was shouting at my 20 year old grandson. Our dogs don’t stay out long, and rarely  bark unless stimulated to. Dogs bark so regularly around here and I’m so used to it now that I’m even used to  the “Bumpus” dogs next door across the canal.…. that are out there barking a lot more than ours. Anyway ,The same neighbor had shot another neighbors dog that got in his back yard. The police didn’t do anything. That caused those neighbors to move to get away from him.

Anyway , I have never seen my grandson get that angry in his life. In fact, it’s the second time I have seen him ever lose his temper. I don’t know what all was said before I got out there, but apparently the neighbor was upset about the dogs barking and started yelling at Tyler.

I went out and told Tyler to get in the house but got kind of riled up like back in the old  days. I still dont respond well to being cussed at outside in the dark over something I had nothing to do with. 
I told the neighbor he needed to watch his mouth and if he would have just been a man and knocked on my door we would have took care of the dogs without all the trouble. He kept on .

I went in and shut the door and him still running his mouth.

Now Im all keyed up and don’t feel like sleeping…

I love my lake , but sometimes wish it was in the middle of 100 acres with me being the sole owner…

Sorry , just had to get it off my chest.

 

 

Go get ‘‘em Mike…  hopefully it improves.

[N Florida Mike]

2 hours ago, Mobasser said:

Hope you can relax Mike. He sounds like a hot head, and got carried away.                               Maybe after a period of time, you can go to his house and talk with him, and get things resolved.                                 You may never really like him, or be friends with him, but you can get along.

I was already thinking about that. His wife is on the lake ass. board with me. So the next meeting should be interesting ?. Unless we make amends before then. 

I avoid drama at this point in my life but sometimes it finds you. 

I put up with the “bumpus dogs” across the canal that are way worse than ours. Because I didn’t angrily confront them, it seems that they respect my being out back more and so they keep them in more… That beagle tho !! I don’t know if he confronted them or not about their dogs but they are way worse and 3 times more numerous than ours.

He must have had a bad day before that. I’ve talked with him before and he’s unmovable in his positions on things.

He’s exactly like those grumpy old guys in the balcony on the muppet show.

Or like walter Matthau on “ Grumpy old men” , except without the humor…

 

[ScottW]

After going from working on machines for a living to dealing with people in sales I found that a machine takes grease a lot better than people to quiet down. I also learned that I don’t ‘people’ well. ? 

[Bluebasser86]

I've had some good neighbors, and some bad ones. Right now, they're not real great. I'm usually friendly to people outside and do my best not to be the bad neighbor, but most of those around us have stopped talking to my family completely since they discovered what I do for a living. I still wave and say "hi", but just get ignored. Had a bunch of trash dumped on top of my truck when I came out to leave one morning. Pretty sure I know who it was but trying to keep the peace the best I can to protect my family so just cleaned it up and went to work. 

 

Be really careful in your situation Mike. If the guy is willing to shoot someone's dog just because it's barking, there's probably not a line that he's not willing to cross. 

[Darth-Baiter]

i take the rocky treacherous, nasty trail.  AKA the "high road".  sucks to always be the ambassador.

 

sometimes i just want to aim my boot at someone's nuts.    but i dont.  

 

in the end, my home is my sanctuary.  i will move heaven and earth to keep the peace.  i would knock on the dudes door after everyone gets a cooling off, and try to work it out.  

[NavyToad]

Some people will provoke a fight hoping you’ll react so that they can sue you. I almost smacked the most anal, obnoxious neighbor I ever had. He’s gone now, but not before he cost his immediate next door neighbor thousands in court. Unfortunately, people like your neighbor and mine are becoming more common every day.

[roadwarrior]

Simple solution:

Talk with your local law enforcement and ask them to make a "courtesy call" to 

discuss the issue with your neighbor. You don't necessarily need to file a formal

complaint against the dog or owner. A short conversation will probably resolve

the problem. If not...you'll have to kill them!

 

 

                                                  

[N Florida Mike]

5 hours ago, gimruis said:

No offense to you @N Florida Mike, but there's usually two sides to a story.  We've only heard one here.  If I were you I'd keep my dog or dogs in my own yard and limit the barking. 

I haven’t had a chance to talk to my grandson yet, but as I said before, this is by far the worst he’s ever lost his temper. He is so consistently calm I can’t imagine how he could have lost it like that. He had gotten a short bat somewhere, and was hitting the top of a stool with it.

I think that’s the main reason I had words with the guy. I can take most stuff people direct at me- but I get real defensive when family is involved.

We do keep the dogs in , and they are only let out for 30 minutes or less each time. If the guy would have just waited a few more minutes, they would have been inside…

He kept saying I knew our dog was barking and didn’t care as he was trying to sleep ( at 10:30 pm) . He’s retired by the way… I even apologized but said I didn’t know they was barking. He said How could you not know? Which essentially was calling me a liar.

@Bluebasser86 , that’s terrible and absurd that someone would do that because of your job.

We had wannabe rioters come through  a couple years ago and I had words with them because they were well up in our property near the house. After I confronted them , they ran, but I kept getting flat tires after that so…

Yeah I know about the violence the man has. I’m not at all concerned about myself, but my family members. My daughter and her husband ( Tyler’s parents) haven’t been arrested for any violent crimes but they are people that  this guy probably doesn’t want to mess with. I hope and pray it doesn’t come to that…

1 hour ago, roadwarrior said:

If not...you'll have to kill them!

No thanks. Not spending the rest of my life in jail for anyone ! ?

[TOXIC]

But what do you do when the neighbor is your fishing buddy? My neighbor and I used to fish all the time.  We helped each other with home projects and I drank my fair share of beers sitting in his garage and him in mine.  He bought the house next to us with his mother.  They had 2 dogs Rusty and JoJo.  Rusty was a Chow mix and both dogs were as sweet as could be.  The problem was my neighbors mother would get up for work at 3am and let the dogs out.  I normally got up between 4:30-5.  Rusty would sit in their backyard and nonstop bark until she brought him in.  It would wake me up with not enough time to really go back to sleep and after a while it got unbearable.  So, what did I do?  Well, I was working a sponsor gig at an outdoor show and there was a guy there selling duck/turkey/game calls.  He had a crow call that you blew in and it was really loud and obnoxious.  I bought it and for 2 weeks straight after his mom would bring the dogs in and leave for work, I would go over and stand under his bedroom window and wail on the crow call for about 5 minutes, then go to work.  One weekend we were having a beer in his garage and he warned me that one of these mornings I was going to hear a shotgun blast because he was going to take out a crow who had been waking him up every morning.  I told him to hold on and walked back to my house, put the crow call in my pocket and came back over.  I asked him to tell me again what was waking him up and he said…I told you it was a @od #amn crow to which I then pulled the crow call out of my pocket and said…does it sound like this? And I blew a loud call on it and he just looked at me with a blank stare and I told him that same crow was gonna be under his window every day his mother let Rusty out to bark at 3am.  We both laughed to tears.

 I hope your situation remedies itself peacefully. 

[Captain Phil]

Older people can be annoying at times. They are bored and don't have much to do except let little things fester.   Something that you wouldn't notice becomes a big deal to them.  Coupled with the fact that they feel like crap most of the time, altercations can and do occur.   When my wife and I were in Real Estate we saw this all the time in homeowners associations.  I try to stay optimistic and rarely fly off the handle.   I've learned it's a lot better to stay calm when others don't.  Nothing is more annoying than dogs barking or running loose all over the neighborhood.  Dogs cause more problems than any other neighbor issue.  Try to explain to your son that the old man doesn't feel well.  It's not personal, he is probably mad at everyone. 

[roadwarrior]

 

 

                        

[GaryH]

1 hour ago, roadwarrior said:

 

 

                        

Go get ‘em Clint. 

2 hours ago, TOXIC said:

But what do you do when the neighbor is your fishing buddy? My neighbor and I used to fish all the time.  We helped each other with home projects and I drank my fair share of beers sitting in his garage and him in mine.  He bought the house next to us with his mother.  They had 2 dogs Rusty and JoJo.  Rusty was a Chow mix and both dogs were as sweet as could be.  The problem was my neighbors mother would get up for work at 3am and let the dogs out.  I normally got up between 4:30-5.  Rusty would sit in their backyard and nonstop bark until she brought him in.  It would wake me up with not enough time to really go back to sleep and after a while it got unbearable.  So, what did I do?  Well, I was working a sponsor gig at an outdoor show and there was a guy there selling duck/turkey/game calls.  He had a crow call that you blew in and it was really loud and obnoxious.  I bought it and for 2 weeks straight after his mom would bring the dogs in and leave for work, I would go over and stand under his bedroom window and wail on the crow call for about 5 minutes, then go to work.  One weekend we were having a beer in his garage and he warned me that one of these mornings I was going to hear a shotgun blast because he was going to take out a crow who had been waking him up every morning.  I told him to hold on and walked back to my house, put the crow call in my pocket and came back over.  I asked him to tell me again what was waking him up and he said…I told you it was a @od #amn crow to which I then pulled the crow call out of my pocket and said…does it sound like this? And I blew a loud call on it and he just looked at me with a blank stare and I told him that same crow was gonna be under his window every day his mother let Rusty out to bark at 3am.  We both laughed to tears.

 I hope your situation remedies itself peacefully. 

Reading that I started laughing. We live out with no close neighbors and my wife will get all peeve because the crows wake her up. You gave me a idea to use my locator crow call.?

[slonezp]

Stick to your Chicago roots.

[N Florida Mike]

Tyler’s mom said he told her that it all started when the neighbor yelled for him to get his dogs in. 

Grievous words stir up anger !

[Woody B]

The neighbor has no right to talk to a kid, (or anyone else) that way.  

 

I have to ask.   Where were the dogs?    Were they on your property?   I have a little over an acre fenced in for my dogs.   They never leave my property.   

[N Florida Mike]

10 minutes ago, Woody B said:

The neighbor has no right to talk to a kid, (or anyone else) that way.  

 

I have to ask.   Where were the dogs?    Were they on your property?   I have a little over an acre fenced in for my dogs.   They never leave my property.   

The dogs stay inside our fence. It is app 250 feet to his house across the narrowing neck of our lake and up his property to the house. They could swim over, but our dogs never jump in the lake at all.

I am willing to let it go but now that this has happened once, It will make it easier for it to happen again. 

I found out he’s an ex marine and nyc police officer which I respect, but he really ought to know better because of that…

[DitchPanda]

 I know exactly how your grandson feels...I had a bad neighbor encounter when I was about his age. I was living with my folks at the time and my dad always did a big garden. A new guy had just purchased the house next door and my dad had a deal worked out with the previous owner where they let him use part of their backyard for his garden. One day my dads getting the tiller ready and says hey can you go ask him (new owner) about use using a few feet of his yard? I go over knock on the door and explain the situation...guy ends up screaming at me culminating in him saying: get off my property .... My dad comes over just in time to hear me say why don't you come on out here so I can shut your mouth for ya?

 Well my dad got us separated and I went home about as ticked as a man can be. I'm not proud of it but I contemplated doing some damage to his house...ultimately realizing that's stupid and not worth the trouble. That evening the guy came over and apologized for his actions...I didn't accept his apology instead saying next time you talk to me like that you wont have teeth left in your stupid face. After that he would wave and try to patch things up, to which I'd respond with the finger.  Years later he moved back to town and we buried the hatchet. I just wasn't old and mature enough at the time it happened to let it go.