Neighbors can make or break a living situation. And unfortunately, it is very common for them to be the worst sort of evil. This man was no different, but he underestimated how far this family would go to live without conflict.
Could Go Either Way
Moving can be one of the most stressful parts of someone’s life. Or it can be one of the most freeing parts. It all depends on where you move from and where you’re moving to. And if you move from one bad place to another, well, that’s the worst-case scenario. ‘Bri,’ her brother ‘Leo’ and her mom ‘Cathy’ were about to make a critical move. And unfortunately, more than one piece was incredibly messed up. You know, the grass isn’t always greener, unless you kick your neighbor out and suddenly your yard becomes way brighter. Bri and her mom were about to spend months getting justice on a bad neighbor and finally feeling like their move was worth it.
It wasn’t easy though, and they didn’t think it would work. Sometimes it takes a lot of patience to make things happen when you really need them to. And Bri and her family knew how to be patient. If you have had or currently have a bad neighbor, take notes, you never know what loophole you can find or what your next step could be to make your situation much more bearable.
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What’s New
Bri and her family weren’t in the best place in life. It was just her, her mother, Cathy, and her brother, Leo. Unfortunately, their living situation just didn’t make sense for them anymore. Bri was having a tough time at school (kids can really be terrible sometimes). Cathy knew the city was too expensive for them to continue living there. Leo was too young and all over the place to really help around the house, so most things fell onto Bri’s shoulders. And since they were carrying the family, Bri and Cathy made the decision to move. It could only get better right? New city, new life. So much potential!
I know every time I have moved I have felt the eagerness of a new place. It can feel so exciting. And then things come crashing down when someone ruins it.
“Well, it was perfect for about a week, if that,” Bri said. Almost immediately after moving in, they began to have problems with one of their neighbors. Of course, it was a terrible neighbor to ruin their new start.
Now we all know how neighbors can be. And there are so many different kinds of neighbors. There are even some who are fun to be around and make the neighborhood a better place! However, it is very common to run into a bad neighbor, especially one with a complex about something. Some of them truly can’t get over themselves, which makes it hard to convince them they are doing something wrong.
It seems like parking egos are big right now because everywhere you look someone is having an argument over a parking spot! And sadly, Bri and her mother couldn’t escape it. Their terrible neighbor, “Sal” had decided he was in charge. Too bad he didn’t know who he was dealing with. Cathy wasn’t going to let him treat her family like this.
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Five-Minute Walk
This whole moving thing had been a pretty quick decision, but it was made out of necessity. And they hadn’t gone too far, just “nearly half an hour away.” It was one of those, ‘it’s just far enough to make a difference’ type of things! However, they weren’t expecting to deal with conflict right off the bat. But Sal didn’t have a care in the world for his new neighbors. I doubt he really cared about anyone but himself in general. Sal was sour milk, the fridge was their new neighborhood.
Sal “made the mistake of taking [Bri’s] mom’s parking spot.” This might not seem like a big deal at first. Maybe it could be slightly frustrating? But a revenge story about this? Come on.
Well, it turned out that there was severely limited parking where they were now living. There were assignment spots. The only other option was a five-minute walk from the house. Obviously, this was annoying, and if there were weather conditions, then things had the potential to get messy really quickly. Plus Cathy had two children and while Bri was older, Leo was not and a walk even as short as five minutes could be dangerous for almost anyone, but especially children. Cathy saw the chance to bring it up one day when she saw Sal walking to his car, parked in her spot.
She politely asked, “Hi, is this your car?”
Sal snapped back at her while walking to his car, “Yeah, and it’s my spot, too. It’s always been that way.”
Cathy, eager to shut all this nonsense down, said, “Well, you see, the spots are numbered, and this is clearly our un-“
She didn’t get to finish before Sal cursed her out, got into his car, and drove off.
This was what they had to look forward to? It was like they had walked themselves into another awful situation, just this time there might be something they could do.
Unfortunately, they would have to go through a lot more of his antics before things could get figured out. And Cathy felt like this would never end.
I can imagine the feelings of possible regret for moving. Maybe they had made the decision too fast? Maybe it wasn’t the right thing to do after all? Why can’t people just be halfway decent?
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Unlivable
“[Sal] had driven away and set the tone for the entire lease between [them].” They began documenting his actions they witnessed, you know, just in case. The landlord wouldn’t do anything. They couldn’t even tow the car because it was private property and the landlord was a stale cracker, not budging to help his tenants.
So Bri and her mom couldn’t use the parking spot. This meant lots of long walks to and from the car and house. And I’m sure it wasn’t fun to have to walk the path in the dark.
They had really done most of what they could. They had asked politely, also made requests to the landlords, etc. What more could they do to make him have some common decency? Does it even exist anymore?
It was around a full month of living there when Bri was driving home from school with a friend and they saw the space was open. Bri decided it was high time to give “him a taste of his own medicine.” And although it wasn’t the best idea, “turns out, he wasn’t very rational either.” She mostly just wanted to prove her point, but of course, this became an issue when he blocked her car in with his. He was threatening Bri and her friend. He was acting erratic and didn’t stop until Bri’s friend agreed to move her car. And then Bri went straight inside to talk with Cathy.
Cathy “agreed this was the last straw.” He had now threatened her child, there was no way he would get away with this. Momma Cathy was in full bear mode.
And suddenly she had the best plan thought out piece by piece in her mind. Cathy told Bri to hold off on doing anything for a bit while she reached out to a friend. She didn’t want to make Sal go too far, who knew how crazy he really was. This friend was going to make or break their uncomfortable situation. They couldn’t live like this anymore.
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A Solution
Cathy had no interest in playing nice with Sal anymore. She had contacted her friend, who was the Sheriff. It was time to see what they could do about this situation. Since towing wasn’t an option and Sal reacted poorly to any common sense reasoning, they needed someone with a bit more authority to step in. If Sal had been a bit nicer they probably wouldn’t have had to go this far.
Cathy felt no remorse for telling the Sheriff every little thing she and Bri had noticed since they moved in. She wanted him to know everything just in case something stood out or could be the piece to give them their parking spot back. She told him about the noise, Sal was always shouting and one time “broke some furniture outside.” Cathy reported a strange, and terrible smell coming through the walls of the place. This was definitely not normal and actually suggested a few things which piqued the Sheriff’s interest.
He asked Cathy, “how much do you hate this guy?”
She replied, “I just want my parking spot.”
The Sheriff said, “Well, here’s the thing. We can’t do anything about your parking spot. That’s a civil dispute and not our territory. But–”
Cathy was anxious to hear what they could do, it had seemed like a lost cause until this moment.
“But?” She questioned.
He replied, “You mentioned you smell stuff through the walls, right? Well, we’ve been arresting an awful lot of people driving under influences, and it’s really close to this complex. If we got him for that, he’d have no car to park in your spot behind bars”
There it was, a possibility. And they were determined to make it work. All hands on deck.
This was their livelihood at stake! It was going to be a grueling few months for Cathy, Bri, and Leo as their plan went into motion. But it would all be worth it for what was discovered in the end. They would be heroes after this.
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Justice
Cathy, Bri, and Leo started keeping detailed records of every smell, every indecent thing, and of course the comings and goings of Sal. They were invested now, and even bought a camera to document when a car came and left. This was all within their rights, although it must have been tiring to be so attentive to the actions of a crazy neighbor.
But it had to be done, they moved to have a better life! Not to deal with a psycho parking bully.
It was months and months of collecting the information and sending the evidence over to the Sheriff’s office. They had packed up most of their belongings, desperate to at least be able to leave quickly if needed. Bri was walking to and from school. They had almost given up on justice.
But then it happened. Bri saw Sal’s apartment “swarmed by six law enforcement cars.” They were a mixture of child service offices and armed police officers.
The documentation they had provided proved Sal was responsible for numerous substance busts and arrests around the county. All the cars coming and going from his place, parking in their spot. They all turned out to have possession charges out against them or had been arrested the same night they left Sal’s. Sal was selling multiple kinds of substances out of his apartment.
What really upset Bri and her family was the reason child services had to be there. “He had shared custody of three kids!” How could someone put littles in such a risky situation?
The Sheriff assured Cathy and Bri, “He definitely won’t be seeing those kids again.”
Sal was going to be behind bars for years and they finally got their parking spot back.
Cathy chose to remain anonymous, no one knew she had helped bust Sal.
In the end, she just wanted to make sure her little family had a safe place to live. Otherwise, their move would have been for nothing. And in the end, a mother’s wrath is like no other because she wasn’t going to stop until she got the parking spot and her family could live a more peaceful life.
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