New Family Home
Moving to a new neighborhood can be a bit refreshing. A new house, a new community, and new neighbors. And who knows? Maybe that relationship could blossom into a friendship. However, that isn’t always guaranteed. Sometimes your neighbors can be your worst enemy. Just ask “David,” a soon-to-be father who made the decision to move into a bigger house for his family. All he wanted was a home where he and his wife, “Isabel” could grow their family and create memories. However, all that hope went down the drain when he met his new next-door neighbors. With the inconsideration and ignorance on their part, David decided he had enough of them and schemed a plan to ruin them just the way they ruined his dream home.
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New Neighbors
When David and Isabel found out they were pregnant with twins, they knew they had to get a bigger home. A studio apartment was not ideal for two crying babies and the set of stairs was not ideal for a pregnant woman. After many months of house hunting, they finally found their new dream home. It was a newly renovated house, with enough room for the growing family.
As soon as they signed the lease and had the keys in their hands, a woman came over from next door. Her name was “Rosie” and she was their neighbor. They thought she came over to welcome them to the neighborhood, but instead, she listed all her do’s and don’ts. One was: No Loud Noises Before Noon. Her boyfriend, “Rick”, who also lived next door, worked long hours at night and needed his rest in the morning. Her approach wasn’t the best way to first greet them, but they understood where she was coming from. So to avoid any conflict with them, the couple nodded their heads in agreement.
After two weeks, they had officially moved into their new home. And unlike their first encounter with a neighbor (Rosie), the rest of their neighbors were very welcoming. They were real chatty folks to which some openly told them no one liked their next-door neighbors, Rosie and Rick. Even though David and Isabel hadn’t met Rick yet, they had already heard so much about him. And not in a positive light. The word on the street, quite literally, was that he was an extreme hothead and was constantly in an argument with someone. One neighbor even claimed Rick and Rosie were “radio pirates as in illegally broadcasting on the radio with all sorts of Dutch music” and always blasting the music. That was a strong claim, but David and Isabel would soon find out how true it was.
It wasn’t long until Rosie and Rick were blasting their Dutch music all through the night. Not sure what Rick did for a living, but it sure seemed like partying was his occupation.
David and Isabel weren’t fond of their neighbors’ late-night activities but never confronted them on it. They didn’t want any trouble however that all came to an end when one day Isabel’s father came over to visit. Things only escalated from then on.
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Welcome Home, Babies!
With their new dream home, the couple wanted to add grass to their lawn. Since Isabel’s father was a handyman, he agreed to come over and help David with the landscape. Now, behind the house, there was public parking, so David directed his father-in-law to park in a closer parking spot, so they didn’t have to walk at a further distance, unloading the grass sods and equipment. Sounds reasonable, right? But not to Rick. The infamous Rick that David had heard so much about finally made an appearance. And he could tell right away, his neighbors weren’t kidding about his rude behavior. He immediately demanded the men to move the truck and park somewhere else since that was his parking spot. Mind you, it’s public parking. There aren’t reserved parking spots.
David told him to take a hike because they weren’t moving that truck. There were other parking spots he could park in, there was no need for him to get ticked off about this one. David and his father-in-law continued unloading and headed towards the house. David thought that was the end of it, until later that day.
They had just finished the lawn and the father-in-law was hooking up his trailer to leave, then came Rick again. He started threatening him to which David saw from his window. He hurried outside in his father-in-law’s defense and started threatening Rick back. Now, David was no fighter nor looked like he could fight, but when it came to family, he was willing to get his butt kicked. What he was saying was 100% not him, but Rick didn’t know that and backed down. It seemed like it worked because ever since that incident, he no longer had any issues with him. That until the babies arrived.
It was a rollercoaster of emotions when Isabel went into labor. She birthed their first daughter with no complications however the second baby was having trouble. After intense labor, Isabel and David became parents to two healthy twins. Then came the intense new parents’ moments.
They barely got any sleep the first three days with the girls. They hoped once they were back at their home, things would get better. Keyword “hoped.” They must have forgotten who their neighbors were. The whole street knew Isabel gave birth, but that didn’t stop Rosie and Rick from partying.
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Scheme
Since the arrival of the small family, Rosie and Rick wasted no time going back into their obnoxious partying ways, blasting their music throughout the night. And it wasn’t only that one day, it went on for days. Week after week. Getting no sleep because of the newborns and the music, Isabel and David were beyond fed up.
Then one night, it dawned on David what the other neighbors had said before about Rosie and Rick being radio pirates. Unsure what that actually meant, he looked up online all there was about it; the laws and its regulations. He took a glance at their antenna, it appeared to be no less than five meters long which was illegal as is, but David needed more to take them down. Yes, that’s right. David had a scheme planning in his head. Based on his online research, depending on what type of equipment Rick had attached to that radio, it could end him up in jail and possibly a fine of up to 45K. And that was David’s ultimate end game: To end Rick’s nonsense.
He knew he had to plan this accordingly and take every precaution because the last time he tried to stop Rick’s shenanigans, he was given a warning by Rick, himself to “never do that again or else.” It was the time when David finally called the cops to make a noise complaint on him. It didn’t go as planned. The cop went over there and blatantly told Rick that his next-door neighbor (David) called them to stop the music. The next day, that was when Rick made that threat. So this time, David tried to avoid the cops for the sake of his family’s safety. He couldn’t risk calling out Rick’s bluff.
Meanwhile, as he was carefully scheming his revenge, Rick confronted him outside. Uh oh! Did he find out?
Rick demanded, “Hey! Cut back some on your ivy that’s growing on my side of the fence. It’s getting tangled in my antenna. I’m going to be gone for a couple of hours, so when I come back I want them gone. Come to my yard, if you have to.”
At first, he was relieved that he had no suspicions, but then a light bulb went on in David’s head.
David replied, “You got it!”
His scheme was in action. For him to take down Rick, he needed the exact model and make of that antenna. Since he now had permission to be in his yard, it made things less complicated.
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Phone Calls
Once Rick left, David headed over to his yard and took pictures of the antenna, radio, cords, and other equipment. This was his one shot to take down Rick, so he was making sure he had as much information there was. Once he returned home, he hopped online and searched who to call in regards to “Broadcast pirates.” Two numbers showed up: the telecom agency and the police. Oh boy, the police.
After he made that first call to the telecom agency, he was debating on calling the cops since the first time it didn’t go so well. Then he remembered, his nephew was an officer. Well, technically he was an immigration officer, but maybe he had connections with other officers who could help. And that began the investigation on the neighbors.
To avoid suspicions that David was the reason for the investigation, the law enforcement called the operation a “neighborhood investigation.” So it didn’t single Rick out nor David.
While the investigation was going at full speed, David and Isabel had other things going on. They found another home. Being over the whole situation, they signed the lease of the other home and had two weeks before they could move in. Then it got brought to David’s attention that the law enforcement was going to do a raid at Rick’s home. Per David’s request, they agreed to wait until after he moved.
After two long weeks plus two days later, the raid happened. He heard from one of his former neighborhood buddies that in the raid, law enforcement took everything from Rick. His equipment, computers, radio, cellphones, and his car were seized. The last he was seen was in handcuffs, in the back of a cop car. What about Rosie? Well, because she was intervening during the arrest, they also handcuffed her. It was pretty insane news, and David couldn’t help but notice that his buddy seemed a little too thrilled.
When asked about how he felt about the situation, the buddy shared how he was glad they were arrested. Finally, justice was served.
He was fined 30K in euros and was sent to jail for three months. All of his things that were linked to radio pirating were destroyed, except his car. They took his car because, during the investigation, undercover cops saw he was driving it around with no insurance and invalid Ministry of Transport. That was a big no-no. And for Rosie, she was sentenced to do 40 plus hours of community service. It was bad news for the couple, but exciting news for the rest of the neighborhood. Since the law enforcement took everything from them, Rosie and Rick eventually had to sell their home, which meant no more of the constant chaos from their house. David’s scheme worked in his favor.
David was no fighter, but when people mess with his family, then that’s when he draws a line. To this day, David doesn’t believe they know he was the culprit behind ruining their lives.
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Thoughts From The Author
After reading this story, I was surprised David was able to not only think of this scheme but also pull it off with success. I guess when you have terrible neighbors like Rosie and Rick, there is really no other choice. Between the constant partying and threats, Rick 100 percent deserved every ounce of the repercussions.
The most shocking part was that both could have avoided the community service, fines, and jail time if they were considerate. Maybe blast their music only on the weekends between certain hours or invest in top-notch headphones. There were definitely workarounds for Rick’s behavior too. Like a take an anger management class, there was no reason to threaten people for taking his parking spot in a “public” parking lot. Hopefully, Rick learned a lesson here: Stop being a prick, because karma is real.
But ending with more of a happier note, I hope David and Isabel enjoy their new home, filling it with better memories than the last. They absolutely made the right decision on this scheme. Not only for them but other people who had to deal with Rick’s and Rosie’s shenanigans for years.
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