CAN

Of COURSE I have attracted the attention of a very annoying neighbor at my new place. This guy, Creepy Asshole Neighbor (CAN for short), is like Fester in 30 years. He has no friends, no family visiting him, and apparently no job. All he does is glare at people while walking his beautiful pit bull up and down the street. Or he sits in his backyard, playing with his dog and muttering and glaring at people. 

Our houses are very close together, and one day last August (after several months of completely ignoring my existence), CAN ambushed me from his backyard when I was leaving for work. He started yelling about me having lights on at night. He was barely coherent. I was confused, because I only have lamps on in the living room, I rarely use the bright overhead lights, and I usually turn off the lamps and go to my bedroom on the other side of the house by 10 or 10:30 every night. I wasn't sure I even completely understood his issue, because he made no sense, so I just ignored it, and I ignored him.

For several months, I had limited and very sporadic contact with him. He saw me taking care of Zelda's body after she died, and he said that he was sorry, and talked about dogs of his that had died. He was still pretty creepy, but he was trying to be nice. He said things to indicate that he'd been watching me, but I let that go. 

Then nothing for months. 

In April, he started yelling at me again, saying that I was "stalking" his house, and trying to see into his bedroom windows. Uh... right. Oh, and his method for getting my attention was to hit the side of the house with what sounded like a chain, and then start yelling through my windows about how I had no moral fiber or good ethics.

More ambushing, waiting for me in his backyard when I left the house for work - my door comes out facing his yard, so I couldn't avoid him. I told him repeatedly to mind his own business. I involved my landlords, in case I had to call the police, and my landlords tried to talk to CAN. 

After a few yelling incidents in which CAN basically told me that I wasn't allowed to open my blinds and windows, bitching about my windows being open even while I'm at work (the cats are spying on him then, apparently), and a giant chalkboard note that CAN left facing my house (his writing is as nonsensical as his yelling), I tried contacting the police about harassment. They sure didn't care. They basically said that I should take it up with CAN's landlord, although from what I've heard, he owns the house. 

I didn't understand why I was attracting so much negative attention from CAN, when I was doing nothing wrong. Especially after all of the shit with Fester, I felt like I was doomed to have to constantly deal with douchebags who think that they can try to intimidate me and tell me what to do. And, just like with Fester, I've had friends and family telling me to watch myself with CAN, that he didn't sound stable. That he might try to hurt me. I really don't like confrontation, but I just wanted CAN to stop. To just ignore me.

Then I found out that this is a pattern with CAN, just like it was with Fester. A woman on my block has a restraining order against CAN because he stared at her so much. He does have a staring problem. Other landlords on the block have tried talking to CAN about his behavior, and in fact I heard someone having a huge argument with CAN last Thursday night. As messed up as it is, I felt better about the whole fucked-up situation. I am not alone in this. Everyone dislikes him.

I have been ignoring CAN completely. I actually thought the chalkboard was funny, but he took it down while I was gone this weekend. But I am not going to change a thing I'm doing. I'm going to continue opening my blinds and windows, because I don't have A/C, and I like light and air. I am completely ready to defend myself should CAN go beyond yelling, and I'm also completely ready to call 911 and make the police do their jobs. Just because it's been quiet this week doesn't mean he's done trying to mess with me.