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

[weeblewobble]

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.

Im not sure "old man in a thong" is a better option than "naked old man."

[Pinky830]

Let's see...a fugitive from the police ran into my neighborhood and holed up inside a house two streets over from me. I don't know why the cops were pursuing him so rabidly, but it happened just as I was coming home. Three cop cars pulled over from the main road, and a cop with a shotgun and a K9 unit immediately started patrolling the woods. More and more cars came in as I got home, and then you could hear a police helicopter overhead. My mom called during the drama, and when I told her about it she said, "Are your doors locked?"

"Yes, of course!" [pinky walks around locking all the doors because I hadn't even thought of it...sigh...]

He ended up in an empty house and a standoff commenced. By the time my kids' bus came, the neighborhood was still barricaded, and the bus had to go back to the school. All of the parents had to go get them (and I don't remember if we had trouble getting the cops to let us go home). Oh my goodness, and you should have seen all the cop cars, SUVs, and a few specialized vehicles I'd never even seen. I really didn't know my county had that many cop cars. It reminded me of Terminator 2: "The cops are here!" "How many?" "Uh...all of them, I think."

This went on until 7 PM. I never really heard how it ended except nobody got shot.

[LadyClaire]

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.)

I was just thinking "Wait, a street sign with bullet holes is unusual??" before I realized that it's probably different in the city. Out in the country, seeing a street sign without bullet holes is odd. 

[kymom3]

I live in the country, so don't have a lot of neighbors, but thought of this one.  The people involved could also qualify for a Darwin award. 

The family who lived across the road from us thought it would be a good idea to move the grandparents in.  They had them living in a small camper on the front of the property, and couldn't be bothered to get proper electricity.  No, they just got an extra long extension cord and ran it from the house to the camper--about 50-60 yards or so.

So one afternoon the camper caught on fire, and since we are so far out of town it was almost completely burned up before the firemen could get there.  Luckily no one was hurt.

[hjaye]

In the 3 years we've lived at our current location, 2 pig trucks have overturned in the neighbors yard.  There's a curve in the road in front of his place, and the driver's fail to slow down enough. 

While I was still living with my parents, there was a drug raid on the house next door.  They'd been having a party, so there were LOTS of people running all over, jumping fences, etc.  I'd been baby-sitting and was walking home in the middle of all this.  A cop stopped me to question me, then escorted me to our house where (luckily) my dad claimed me as his daughter.

It's been quite a few years since this happened, but every now and then a cattle truck would over turn on the highway near downtown.  There is a hairpin turn if you want to take the Interstate south and if you're not familiar with it you could easily tip a car or truck.  What I used to find amusing was that once the truck was overturned, there would be cows all over the road, and they typically would report how "Most of the cattle was recovered"......... I'm sure there were a few people in the surrounding neighborhoods eating lots of steaks and roasts for the rest of the year............ 

[Kimblee]

Not where I lived but at a club where I was a promoter:

Our club was the second building from the corner. I came outside and someone said there was a fight at the club around the corner. I walk over and peek around the corner and indeed there is a group of guys and girls yelling at each other. I turn around and get a few steps and then hear  POP and a kid comes running past me. He fired a shot about 15 feet to the left of where I'd been standing a minute ago .

A car peeled away and I wrote the license plate number on my arm in eyeliner to give to the cops. They caught the whole group about 30 minutes later. We found the bullet shell on the ground in the middle of the street. It was unsettling to say the least - your adrenaline just starts pumping and you don't realize the severity of the situation until much later.

Nice!

You have quick reflexes!

[WhiteTigerCub]

One time I was sleeping over at a friend's house over night. We had been up till the wee hours of the morning so were nearly dead asleep when we woken by a pounding on the door from the police. The police officer instructed my friend to move a car and garbage can out of the street because they needed to land a helicopter in the middle of it. A few minutes later we feel the the ground shuddering as the helicopter landed and the medical evacuation team loaded up a lady onto a stretcher, secured her to the helicopter and flew away. We found out later that day from another neighbor, she'd died of a drug overdose.

Lady across the street from friend was a cat horder. Who knows how many cats she had indoors as we never saw, but could see about 5-6 cages on her front porch with about 15-20 cats in them. We called animal control who decided that the cats were not being taken care of properly, so we got to watch as the lady had a screaming hissy fit at the top of her lungs about. "You are ripping my heart out!!! Don't take my babies!!!!"   The police had to restrain her to keep her from assulting the animal control people while they loaded up the truck with the cages. They returned 3 more times that day and took away more cages.

[nalapuppy]

These are some great stories!  I'm posting for updates for now, but will contribute when I have more time.

[Ms_Cellany]

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.

Im not sure "old man in a thong" is a better option than "naked old man."

Like!

[Daquiri40]

-- I had just moved into a second floor apartment in a quiet neighborhood.  I had my windows opened to catch the night breeze.  At 3am, I woke up startled because I heard a man screaming in the middle of the street all sorts of insults to the neighbors next door.  It turns out, he needed a shot every month and sometimes wouldn't show up for it.  When he didn't, he yelled at all of the neighbors until the police arrived.  The police could calm him down and he would go get his shot the next day.

-- The FBI had a loud talk with my across the street neighbor one day.  They kept telling her if she just admitted her part in a robbery, things would go easier for her.  They somehow knew she was a participant in some store robberies.   The house was foreclosed on (before the big real-estate crisis) and she was forced out.  Thank goodness!

-- I heard pounding in the vacant house next door.  My boyfriend went outside a few hours later to take out the garbage and all he could smell was gas.  Someone had stolen the copper piping in the vacant house and just let the gas flow.  The firemen came and turned off the gas.  The gas company came a little later and told us how dangerous a gas leak is (no kidding).

-- I was stopped at an intersection near my house at a red light.  A pick-up truck turned right next to me at a high speed followed by 7 police cars chasing him.  I thought for sure one would hit me as they made the turn.  None of them did - great driving by all!

[gmama]

SamiHami's high school stories reminded me of this one: when I was in my sophomore year a girl in my school was attacked by the Scarborough rapist (as the police named him).  It wasn't until years later when he was caught that the public found out it was Paul Bernardo. 

Also, years after he was caught and sent to jail, an acquaintance of mine had the police knocking on her door one day with an old wallet of hers that she thought she'd lost.  Turns out it was in Paul Bernardo's possession (along with other women's wallets and purses).  This was how he was scoping out his next victims. *shudder*

[otterwoman]

Out my front windows one morning, we saw a fawn running as fast as her legs could move followed quickly by a fox. Three seconds later, the fox is now hauling as fast as she can with a big doe on her heels. The fawn was under the apple trees panting away, nearby was a yearnling.

And now the not-so-pollyanna; a couple of miles away a drug runner was murdered, drugs and thousands of dollars in cash left behind. It seems the drug gang he worked for was unhappy with his services and had "terminated" him.

[Marisol]

I think my section of the road is a mecca of trouble.

There have been four car crashes right in front of my house.  One was a girl who was pushed off the road by a crazy ex.
The powerline breaker box (or something?) was hit by lightning and exploded into flames.
Tree limbs have fallen onto the powerline and caused black outs.
My neighbor's across from us have been broken into twice.
We've had some crazy woman knocking on doors at 2am asking to use the telephone for "an emergency" and when you say you will call 911 for her she says nevermind and asks for money.
Someone drove all over my neighbor's grass in the middle of the night.
There is a crazy lady in a power wheelchair who yells things while she goes up and down the street.

I think that is it.

Adding:
Police helicopters with search lights at night shining them into our yard.  The next day my shed was open. 

[MrTango]

After college I worked for about 6 months as a 911 dispatcher for my county's Sheriff's department.

Craziest thing that I recall ever happening in my neighbordood was a Saturday around noon when my mother called 911 to report a house fire on their street (a few houses down).

[Missyanthrope]

I'm embarrassed to say that my husband and I are the guilty ones here.  We live in a quiet upper class neighborhood where NOTHING ever happens.  Except for us:

First night in our new house the smoke alarms went off and wouldn't stop at 3AM.  We grab the pets and ran outside to call 911.  Cops show up, engines and rescue show up.  House is searched.  No fire.  Fire Marshal uses canned air to blow out several of our smoke alarms to remove spiderwebs, and....the alarm stops.  Cue massive embarrassment on our part.

Husband is diabetic.  One night he has a seizure due to a severe low blood sugar.  I call, and again at 1AM we have lights and sirens all over our quiet little culdesac.  Husband gets glucagon and is fine, but adamantly refuses to allow the Fire Dept. to remove our wooden railing and balustrades to get him downstairs on a stretcher.  He slides down the stairs on his butt, and then LOUDLY refuses to be transported for observation.  I skipped church that week so I didn't have to answer any questions.

And finally when our latest little one was just 7 weeks old she was battling acid reflux and an overactive reflex reaction.  As I was getting her ready for bed one night she began to gag, and in her panic she stopped breathing.  This repeated itself several times  before I yelled for my husband to call 911.  In the meantime I worked on trying to assure she had a clear airway, and trying to calm her.  I was pretty calm considering, and credit my previous BLS/First Responder training I had had in order to work as a dispatcher at a local college.  Everyone else?  Husband was screaming into the phone, eldest foster daughter was crying hysterically, younger daughter was running around screaming and trying to climb the adults, and the dog was howling.  All while I ran to the front yard to meet the ambulance.  I know the whole neighborhood heard it, because we didn't stop getting questions for WEEKS afterward.  (Side note, little one is perfectly fine now, is 15 months old and going strong, and now all the adults in our house are trained on infant and child resuscitation).