"Range war"- what else could happen?

[ihedrick]

Some may remember problems I have had with my son and a few other things. Lately, I have been dealing with being "turned in" for who knows what all. Just wondering if anyone else has gone through anything where someone has turned them for something even if it was a total lie.
The last thing I was hit with last week was for running a dump on my property. Yes, a dump. The kind of place where someone could bring their household garbage and leave it. Also got hit on "illegal" signs...a sign saying car for sale!
I have too much stuff to worry about other than this childish stuff and ask myself "what will they come up with next" So I am asking you guys what you think a person could "report" someone for just to cause them some headaches.
And for those of you who may ask; I have not turned in anyone for anything during this whole ordeal.

[DaleK]

Look at your state, local and federal laws. Pretty much any of them.

There was a woman near here beside a hog farm who didn't like the smell of hogs (they were there before she moved in)

Three levels of government had over 300 separate and distinct complaints from her phone number about various supposed violations, from environmental, to fisheries act, to labour, you name it.
They had to respond to and investigate EVERY single one, and the farmer had to deal with every investigation. Just about bankrupted him, which was probably the idea.

There's a huge problem in most bureaucracies now in that even when they know they're being used to harass someone, they're still required by law to respond.

[hintonlady]

Originally Posted by DaleK

Look at your state, local and federal laws. Pretty much any of them.

There was a woman near here beside a hog farm who didn't like the smell of hogs (they were there before she moved in)

Three levels of government had over 300 separate and distinct complaints from her phone number about various supposed violations, from environmental, to fisheries act, to labour, you name it.
They had to respond to and investigate EVERY single one, and the farmer had to deal with every investigation. Just about bankrupted him, which was probably the idea.

There's a huge problem in most bureaucracies now in that even when they know they're being used to harass someone, they're still required by law to respond.

After a certain amount of time authorities do get annoyed with abuse of this system.

If you can find proof of who keeps reporting and they are unfounded eventually a pattern will emerge.

One in which you can pursue them for harrasment, slander and several varieties of fraud and malicious/unlawful reporting.

Most places will NOT take anonymous reports for this very reason. Too many people use it as a weapon/means to abuse.

[naturewoman]

If there is no evidence to support the accusations, why are you worried? It will come back on the person reporting it if they keep reporting untruths.

[texican]

Is this your son doing this?

My momma had a talk with me once... something to the effect... she brought me into this world, she could take me out... funny thing, there wasn't any problems, but she Was letting me know, that she could take me out if I became an embarrassment to the family...

Do admit it would be hard to take an offspring on a 'fishing trip'...

[Carolyn]

I have a neighbor like this!! I have nothing to hide, but she is a pain, she doesn't want my dogs to bark and she insists that my brothers dogs can see her from 3/8 of a mile up the road through her lilac bushes and right through his tractor and hay bales in front of them to bark at her. HMMM her dog is running in my yard and jumping at my goat pen, so my dogs are barking. I did call her and very politely asked her to please keep her dog home, cause I have goats and don't want any of them hurt. If there is something or someone out there, we want our dogs to bark. This is only one of the problems we had with her. Last time she called the Sheriffs Dept to tell them that my dogs and my brothers dogs were barking and that we had them in little tiny kennels and weren't watered or fed, my brother told him to come check for himself, then tell her to kiss his a##, and when she runs her 4 wheeler in our ditches to keep her dog out of our pasture and away from our livestock. He said we don't want any trouble, he didn't care if she runs her 4 wheeler in my ditches and her dog runs wild, just don't complain that our dogs bark when her dog runs in our yards. The we heard that people were laughing at her, because the Sheriff dept told her that she could get herself in a lot of trouble by calling in false reports after a while. But before that every little thing turned into a major deal. We haven't heard from her since then. My brother has been here for 17 years and I have lived here for almost 14 years, she has been her for 8 years. there is nothing here to hide, but why not be good neighbors? But other people know how she is also and I had one lady said that she would come and help build a buck pen just on this side of my fence, just so the nice aroma would blow into her yard. No I won't do that, just leave me alone, I leave her alone even if I don't agree with her. I figure she is a very unhappy person angry at life and for some reason wants to make others just a miserable. I am not going to let it happen and I think this makes her more angry. Gosh when I delivered newspapers, I delivered a free paper to her for a year, then when I quit, my daughter wheeled and dealed another free year for my brother , us and her. I have tried to be a good neighbor, but some people just are so angry at life. Good luck. Carolyn

[big rockpile]

I was cuffed one time because my Chickens stunk and they told the Law I was a violent person.

I had Law called on me by a neighbor because they said I put sugar in their Gas Tank.

Had neighbors dig up Survey Markers and move the Fence.

Been Shot at.

Ah number of things I've had to deal with people over

big rockpile

[nathan104]

During a spat, my aunt called the social security administration and report that my uncle was doing side work while on social security disability. I have been in fights with my family members to the point where we didnt speak for over a year. But, I dont think we would ever do something like this to each other.

[RoseGarden]

Oh boy, I think a lot of us have 'one of these' types in our neighborhoods. You know the kind...the neighborhood is completely peaceful and everyone minds their own business and gets along just fine until that certain someone moves in and starts stirring the pot and pitting neighbor against neighbor. We have one here who calls various governmental agencies on anyone/everyone she thinks is doing something wrong. A couple weeks ago I was out on my property and the county animal control officer comes by and tells me I have had a complaint about 'my cats' being in someone's yard. Ok, but I no longer have cats, haven't had for about eight months now. Now, other people have cats, and they roam everywhere. I have cat tracks on my car, occasional cat poo in the yard, etc. I don't really care, myself. No biggie to me. But this certain lady who called animal control on me made it a point to stand out in her driveway and talk to the animal control officer and then watch the animal control officer drive down the street and talk to me. I told a.c. officer that I no longer had cats, that the cats in question were not my cats and therefore not my responsibility, and further she needed to determine exactly whose cats they were before she acted on any complaints against me or else the county would have a lawsuit filed against them for undue harassment. The a.c. officer comes back with 'well, we have no proof that you're telling the truth and for all I know they are your cats' to which I replied 'prove it', and reminded her of what I just said and walked away. As I was walking away I heard this certain person call to the a.c. officer who then backed her truck down the street to talk to this certain person again. I went about my business. Now if anything else comes of this certain person, there is going to be the devil to pay. I've done nothing to her. She's just a malcontent who loves making trouble. She also makes an issue of her ethnicity at seemingly every opportunity even when no one else even brings it up. It seems she is using her ethnicity as a way to act like 'oh poor me' and as a lever against us 'dumb red necks' as she calls some of us. Well, I don't care if she's pea-green pink, it's not going to wash with me because I have done nothing to be guilty of. She's just a trouble maker and I hope the county gets tired of her calling every agency in the book on people. The neighborhood was peaceful and quiet before she moved in. Someone mentioned to me that she probably won't live here forever. I can only hope. It's awfully hard to be a charitable, kindhearted person when you're accused of something you didn't do.

[Micahn]

Years ago I had something like this happen. I bought a home and the one next door was built by the same builder. Well when I got mine it was not all the way done yet and I finished it up with many up grades. Well the lady at first started calling the builder (he was a friend of mine so he told me all about the calls) Saying things like hey why are they getting a bigger back porch or hey why are they getting a fenced in yard and so on and so on. Well after about 10 calls to the builder she started calling the county saying things was not being done to code. After she figured out that every thing was not only to code but way over it lol she stopped calling them.
Well then I move in and the police started showing up for different things. First my dogs was barking full time (the cop stood out side to listen before even knocking on the door and they did not even bark at him :-) Then she called saying I was not mowing the grass on "Her" side of the fence. Well the fence was right on the line so she was told to mow it herself that really made her mad :-)
After a couple of years she left me alone and started in on others close by. One day the wife yelled for me to come look at she (the lady next door) and the lady down the street was in our yard rolling on the ground. She ended up in jail over that one as she attacked the lady down the street.

The main point is someone people are just like that and want to cause others problems.

[wogglebug]

Sometimes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If she's calling the authorities to complain, you call the authorities for advice. Say you've got a neighbour who's starting calling authorities as a way to harass you. Try to avoid naming her. Ask their advice about what you should do. Tell them that they're welcome, in their oh-so-generous free time, to drop in for coffee and cookies, and to take a glance around, so that if they do get a call they'll know the background in advance. Tell them it's a 50-50 chance she'll do it, and you realise they'll still have to respond, but at least this way they can do most of the work on their own schedule rather than hers, and get the coffee and cookies as well.

It'll still be a hassle, but this way you've got a chance of avoiding being hauled into court, with attendant expenses. There's even a chance they'll get so upset with her that they'll haul her into court with no further input from you.

[COSunflower]

My grandma lived in a trailer court and a neighbor down the road a couple houses called the manager to tell them that my grandma didn't pick up the weeds she had just pulled from her flower bed...well, my grandma had only gone in for a drink of water and wasn't DONE yet! The lady was always calling the manager and complaining about dumb stuff - turns out later that she was diagnosed with Alzhiemers.

[ihedrick]

Thanks for the input. I'm not so much worried about the actual complaints. It hard to "make" the time to deal with them; especially when the official drops in unannounced. I do homeschool, take care of my handicapped/half blind parents who live next door, in addition to my attempts at homesteading (both animals and gardening).
Some of the offices around here still will allow unsigned reports to be made. I made sure to tell them that they were being used to harass me and they really do need to require a name for any report. They don't let you see the report anyway; so why they afraid to list the name?
I can't pinpoint this on my son or the family he hung around. But some reports had to be from someone who knew our household and such. you can't see much of my place from the road so for someone to report my porch is falling down and is a hazard. The porch is old and could use some paint; but isn't anywhere near falling down. And I don't have company over...at all, so it couldn't be a house guest. The one about dumping trash was the stupidest thing I ever heard.
Thanks again guys for sharing your knowledge and experiences. I have a county official get together I need to plan.

[Danaus29]

We just dealt with someone calling the board of health on a vacant house we own. Said the roof had holes in it and was collecting rain water (when there were no holes and it hadn't rained for weeks). Yes there were some obscure tiny little violations (trash the former owner had left and we hadn't got around to picking up yet because we were busy cleaning up the rest of the trash). No name on the report. Happened just a week after we called the sheriff because (we suspect this same neighbor) someone left a bomb threat toward the local middle school on our property the day we had it surveyed. This was only a couple months after all 3 properties were reported to zoning for a whole bunch of trumped up complaints. We still got cited for unlicensed vehicles and "trash" (which turned out to be lumber, one pile covered by a tarp which had been cut to reveal the lumber, and wood at our house that we were using as supports for working on stuff) and a commercial vehicle which we don't have. Nothing you can do about it, really. The zoning officer who is peed because they have to keep coming out for nothing will cite you for the slightest little thing they can find. And then they don't even know the zoning laws they are supposed to enforce.

Forgot to mention that zoning was called because we called the sheriff about someone leaving a story about a Columbine like massacre on our property.

I'll stop now before I get into a huge rant about it.

[ihedrick]

One of the biggest problems I have ran into is that none of the officials really know the laws. ANd when I ask about them I get the run around. WHen I do find them; they are so vague and everyone seems to think it is a "judgement" call. Well sorry, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I like my recycled siding; it not only saves me money, but keeps it out of the landfill. Some rich folk would never think of recycling and their judgment would be to get rid of it.