Love Thy Neighbor

As you read this post you will find out about these photos.

It started when I decided to make the side of my house which is the entrance to the music studio look better by putting trees and decorative bark at the entrance. My neighbors protested and insisted I move the trees, along with our truck and the canopy that the truck parks under, and while we were at it, move our fence 20 feet. I was confused. It was our land, they had the right to go across it to go back and forth to their house, which sets behind our house, but nothing else. I refused to move the trees, and shortly there after they filed a law suit.

It was such a long process, with their attorney and our attorney going back and forth with paperwork. Our neighbors, in the mean time, took it upon themselves to gather what they thought was evidence that we were "bad" neighbors. They would take pictures of us when ever we walked out on to the road, and pictures of my students arriving for lessons. They put up a security camera on the eave of their house pointing down into our back yard (see pic). The creepiest thing was the camera would actually move and follow us around the back yard.

We also suspect that they cut a rope to our canopy that caused it to tumble loose down the road, flatten the tire on our truck, leave nails under our tires and poisoned our trees. They were so desperate to find stuff that would make us look bad in court, we actually caught them standing on the roof of their house taking pictures of our back yard and sneaking up to the closed gate trying to peer in.

This whole thing took a terrible tole on me emotionally. Even though you know you haven't done anything wrong, you wonder if the courts will know it, too. And then you have an emotionally unbalanced person, just a stones throw away from you and you don't know if they are going to take a pot shot at you while you are gardening in your back yard or not.

Finally, we had our day in court and in the end the Judge denied everything they requested. We didn't have to move our fence line, move our truck, or make my students park elsewhere. We didn't have to let them have access to their sewer line that was in our back yard. For the record we never denied them access and the sewer line belongs to the Utility Company, anyway.

As you can imagine we were very happy when it was all over, but it didn't end there. They put up a face holding a pair of binoculars that was peering in to our back yard. Most people would say, no big deal but it did take me for surprise every time I walked out because I kept thinking it was a person standing there.

Several weeks later, and we suspect after they got the bill from our attorney, the head came down and was replaced with a glove with the third finger up and the letter U on it (see pic). Actually, it took me a while to get it. Then on their window next to it, was a picture of a hand with the third finger up (see pic).

Sour grapes, right? It was difficult thought to explain to my son and his friends what that obnoxious thing was, let alone why they would do it in the first place. Even the next door neighbors were upset as they have children, too and they could see it also.

We felt they crossed the line, but what do you do? Go talk to them. Tell them they are being gross.

We decided to put up a large gazebo and plant trees in our back yard. The gazebo managed to block the glove and the window, and the trees, when they get bigger, will eliminate them looking into our back yard anymore.

A few days after that, the glove came down. It could have been because of what we did, but I think either one of our neighbors or someone else told them to quit. I believe it was the latter.

It has been 3 weeks since the last incident and it feels like we have our home back again. We feel like we have a sanctuary to come to and block out the rest of the world and a place to relax. We no longer feel like we are being watched while we are in our back yard as the video camera no longer follows us.

Everything seems to be back to the way it was when we first moved in here 7 years ago. Neighbors saying hi, but mostly neighbors minding their own business.

So, if you ever decide to sue someone, or if someone is suing you, you might want to forward this story, because in the end, our neighbors who so desperately wanted to prove us wrong, just ended up proving us right and it cost them approximately $40,000 to do it.