The strangest, scariest, most dramatic thing that you've seen in your n'hood

[MommyPenguin]

The apartment I lived in before I was married.  One night my boyfriend was over and we were watching a movie when we heard what sounded like the "crash" of the garbage truck lifting the dumpster... except that instead of a single crash-bang, it went on and on and on and on and on...

Turned out that a woman had accidentally hit the gas instead of the brakes when she had intended to turn into the gas station next door to the apartment complex.  So she'd hit the corner of a parked car hard enough to cause it to hit the car in front of it, that car to hit the car in front of it, etc., so that seven cars parallel-parked in a row all banged into each other.  But hitting the parked car hadn't been enough to stop her.   She'd barreled across the lawn, gone up a hill, through a chain-link fence, and into the corner of the apartment building.

I suspect she was drunk.  Or something.  Because I don't understand how you could accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake, right after you came around a corner (so she shouldn't have been going too fast to begin with), hit a car, and keep going about 100 feet over rough terrain (hopping a curb, going up a hill and through a fence) without managing to brake the car until you hit a building.

When I was a kid, I remember hearing a story that happened in my city but not my neighborhood.  An older woman was taking a shower when a man broke into her house and went into her bathroom.  She stormed out of the bathroom.  "How dare you, break into an old woman's house and scare her half to death!  You ought to be ashamed of yourself, you rapscallion!  Who is your mother, because she needs to know what a scamp she has raised!  You young people have no respect for the elderly, you naughty boy!  How dare you startle an old woman in the shower!  I could have had a heart attack!"   Etc.  The whole time, she is bearing down on him, shaking her fist in his face.  She backs him all the way down the stairs, out of the house, and stands in the front yard screaming at him as he drives off.  I totally want to be that woman when I'm old.  Although I think I'd rip off the shower curtain to cover myself before I chased him all the way outside. 

[Daquiri40]

In my old neighborhood:

1.  We were all watching a fire and one of the neighbor kids ran across the street and was struck by a semi.  Thankfully, the semi was not going very fast and pretty much just knocked him down.  An ambulance came and took him away where he stayed overnight for observation. 

2. One of our male neighbors, in a drunken rage, tore down the huge tent he had put up in the back yard.  He ended up passing out on top of it and sleeping it off through the night.

3.  Another male neighbor found out his wife was cheating on him with the next door neighbor.  The husband threw his wife out in her nightgown, over the porch railing, and into the snow.

4.  The next door neighbor she was having an affair with, had a drug problem.  We watched him being taken away, screaming and fighting, strapped down on a stretcher.  Turns out he was on PCP and having a bad, bad reaction.

5.  Another neighbor got drunk every Friday night.  His wife would lock him out of the house and he would scream at her from the back yard for an hour or so.  "Drop dead!  Drop dead and I really mean it!  Drop dead and I really, really mean it!"  Over and over and over.

[PeasNCues]

The apartment complex I live in now is across the street from a club. It used to be a nice little cafe and is now an infamous gang hang out.

There was a huge ruckus when I was leaving the apartment - there were LOTS of police cars, lots of guys on the ground of the parking lot in cuffs, lots of shouting, lots of police officers with big guns and at least four police dogs that I could see. I just drove on, but further down the street, there were two more police cars and a little further down, a police officer hauling his large german shepherd off a guy while his fellow officer had a gun on the guy.

I think there is a life lesson there somewhere - something about not running from cops with dogs? Seems like a bad idea anyways.

I'd never seen anything like that before, so it was pretty fascinating. Never did find out what was going on - I tend to keep my head down and my nose out of things in my neighborhood. 

[Carnation]

We had genuine bullet holes in a street sign until the city came and changed it out.

A pizza guy got robbed at the end of our driveway.   The culprits ordered a pizza and used the address of the people across the street.   They robbed him in the street.

And we live on a street where lots of police officers live.  Current and retired.


We were also in the downtown library when shots were fired in the area behind it.    We heard them.  I counted four.

[Reuth]

We had genuine bullet holes in a street sign until the city came and changed it out.

In the south that would be unremarkable. People use them for target practice. (And then there's my grandfather, who ran over the "city limits" sign with his farm equipment because he didn't want to live in the city.)

[fey01]

We had an older man living on our cul de sac a few years ago. His neighbor had left her grill too close to their shared fence and the fence caught on fire. He ran out of his front door wearing nothing but a short, frilly skirt and used his hose to put out the fire.

In my parents' neighborhood, there is another older gentleman who rides his bike in nothing but a thong. The first couple of times I saw him, I had to do a double take because I thought he was naked.

[Perfect Circle]

My current area - we currently outraged at plans to limit our parking. That's about how exciting it gets.

My old place... Well, it was actually quite a nice and quiet neighbourhood, but I was blessed with one really funny, slapstick type of moment and very strange neighbours.

The funny moment came when we had two friends visiting from abroad. We'd been in the house maybe six months and were talking about how quiet and nice the neighbourhood was. Our house overlooked a huge green and playing fields so it really was very quiet. About five minutes later we hear screetching tyres and sirens. Someone was trying to outrun the police and drove to the field in front of us with two patrol cars following. They arrested the guy at the end of the green, no damage done. But it did make our comment about a quiet safe neighbourhood just before seem rather odd.

And I had neighbours who initially were very nice. They had four kids and the oldest one was around eighteen when we moved in. Turns out he had a bit of a drug habit and started dealing from the house. I found police officers in my garden one day about to do a raid next door and they would sometimes come and smash into the house around 5am. Fun.

His parents also started to have problems with each other. One night we were holding a party and they came  over and started to argue. She marched off, he followed about half an hour later. Then we started hearing shouting. She was beating him up on my front lawn. We tried to separate them, but it was no good, so we had to call the police on them in the end.

Fun times. I'm pretty glad we moved.

[Reuth]

I am really glad I didn't see this one, in the neighborhood where I grew up. My mother told me about it. Our neighbors would occasionally get into huge arguments, well one day he ran outside to get away from the yelling, and she ran after him, and chased him around and around the house, the argument still going at full volume. The problem being that they forgot to put on any clothes before going outside.

[NestHolder]

It was on a Sunday morning at about 0630 when we were awoken very suddenly by a very loud bang, like the loudest thunder I've ever heard.  I thought there had been a lightning strike and our chimney had crashed through the roof.

My husband put on his dressing gown and slippers and went outside to have a look at the situation.  The street was filling with people, similarly dressed, and he suddenly saw orange... huge, huge flames visible between the trees and houses, from about a mile north of us.

Local oil depot had blown up.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buncefield_fire

There was a trail of BLACK smoke across the sky for days.

[P-p-p-penguin]

I remember that, NestHolder.  Must have been unpleasant to be so close.  Wasn't there a lot of concern about the fumes?


My mum's side of the family deal with quite a lot of dramatics because they're Irish and live in Belfast which seems to attract a larger than average number of riots.

[Akarui Kibuno]

Well, I may have told the story somewhere before but here goes.
Nasty coworker had jumped from his window!!! I found myself calling the paramedics (and PurpleNeighbor, for some reason, called the cops as it was happening, which is weird because Nasty Coworker was supposedly his friend... wouldn't he want his friend to be rescued ? Duh) .

I don't understand this part; why was calling the police wrong?

Well, picture this: a good friend of yours just hurt himself through an accident. Would you rather call the paramedics to save him, or the police for a statement ? My issue is that the sequence of events was very, very weird. The upstairs neighbor had no way to know I was calling, yet when I opened the door to go downstairs and talk to Mom, I was on the phone with the paramedics, trying to get info out of Mom, and the upstairs neighbor was making his way down and mentioned calling the police. Which is way odd considering the circumstances.

I am sorry if it seems confusing, when the whole thing happened, the only thing I can remember about my feelings was that I had very bad thoughts about that guy. Ugh.

[PeasNCues]

When you call the emergency number, do they not call the police and the ambulance. 

[Reuth]

Well, I may have told the story somewhere before but here goes.
Nasty coworker had jumped from his window!!! I found myself calling the paramedics (and PurpleNeighbor, for some reason, called the cops as it was happening, which is weird because Nasty Coworker was supposedly his friend... wouldn't he want his friend to be rescued ? Duh) .

I don't understand this part; why was calling the police wrong?

Well, picture this: a good friend of yours just hurt himself through an accident. Would you rather call the paramedics to save him, or the police for a statement ? My issue is that the sequence of events was very, very weird. The upstairs neighbor had no way to know I was calling, yet when I opened the door to go downstairs and talk to Mom, I was on the phone with the paramedics, trying to get info out of Mom, and the upstairs neighbor was making his way down and mentioned calling the police. Which is way odd considering the circumstances.

I am sorry if it seems confusing, when the whole thing happened, the only thing I can remember about my feelings was that I had very bad thoughts about that guy. Ugh.

I would have called 911 and they would have sent whatever emergency services were needed. He called the police non-emergency line?

[Outdoor Girl]

AK is in France, not NA so the procedures might be different...

[P-p-p-penguin]

I think it's the fact that the creepy guy specifically mentioned the police when it was obvious that the jumper needed medical attention as a priority.   Most people's reaction would probably be, "Someone's hurt, I need to call for medical assistance.", but his was, "This guy jumped, I need to get the police to deal with it.".  To me, that doesn't seem like a normal reaction to such a situation.