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

[Outdoor Girl]

6 yrs is probably a lot less gross than 6 days or weeks.  That poor guy that no one knew he was missing.

[happygrrl]

I didn't see this but a few years ago near where I live a man was found dead in an apartment. The body had been there 6yrs.

  

Warning: We lived in an apartment complex with several buildings, and a man in the next building over committed suicide in his bathtub, and wasn't found for 4 months. (I don't know how the neighbors didn't notice anything?)

We had a meth lab percolating under us for several months--i don't know how many times I called the police, and nothing was done, so we left just as sson as we could afford it.

[Martienne]

We live on a street that is the in-town route of a state highway, so the road is pretty high-traffic, even at night. Last month on a Saturday night, we had watched a movie late, and at 1:00 am, my husband and my 12yo daughter were still awake. My husband is a little bit hard of hearing and was in an interior room, so he just heard a muffled bang, but my daughter was reading in the front bedroom, and heard a much more distinct crunch sound punctuated with the sound of a hubcab spinning. They run down to the front of the house to find that someone traveling in the eastbound lane had crossed the line onto the westbound side, sideswiped our van, and then hit the neighbor's car dead in the driver's side fender. Despite the early hour there were neighbors in the street gawking and someone had already called the police. They gave my husband a copy of the report number so we could contact our insurance with the information, but they had to leave one for the owner of the other car on the windshield since no one was quite sure where she lived (the building across the street has four apartments and the cops weren't willing to knock on all four door to figure out which one was hers). She didn't find out until she got up to leave for church the next morning, at which point my husband had the happy job of explaining to her what had happened. She tried to get upset about us not making sure she was notified but once he pointed out that we didn't know which apartment she lived in, she dropped it.

ETA: The driver was long gone by the time anyone went out to see what happened. I suspect that they were either drunk or fell asleep. It left a healthy white streak on our maroon vehicle and there were shards of white-painted plastic and metal all over in the street, so I imagine the driver's care sustained plenty of cosmetic damage. Hopefully the police can figure out who it was. Luckily my husband had upgraded our insurance to comprehensive coverage when his car died and we went down to one vehicle, so the damage was covered.

[nowhere]

A man jumped off the roof of the building across the street. The doorman said he was a non-resident who ran past him and into the elevators. Two years ago, in a different neighborhood, a man killed his father and tried to kill his mother. My husband and I briefly entertained the idea of buying the house since it's really, really inexpensive now, but the guy will most likely get out of prison in a few years and we don't really want him showing up on our doorstep. On a lighter note, when the circus comes into town, they walk the elephants through a tunnel next door to my apartment in the city. I haven't seen it myself (just missed it this year), but a guy who works in my building told me about it.

[Pinky830]

I've mentioned elsewhere that my neighbor across the street has a mentally ill family member living with him. Most of the time we don't hear a peep out of him, but every couple of months or so we have an episode. A typical one: they have motion-sensor floodlights, and a neighbor walked past their house and made the lights come on, and "Mike" came out and yelled profanities at her for turning his lights on.

We've had a slight uptick in episodes lately. Two weeks ago, at about 9 PM we gradually realized there were flashing lights in the street. As we watched, a total of 3 cop cars, an ambulance and a fire truck all pulled in. This is a small cul-de-sac with 8 houses, so that pretty much filled up the street. With all of that, I kept expecting to see flames shooting out of the roof, or everyone rushing out with Mike on a gurney, but after 10 or 15 minutes, everyone just left.

A somewhat funny one was a few months ago, when 2 cop cars pulled up in front of the house. Two cops went to the front door. Pause for a few minutes. Cops go around back. Cops come back up front. Normal, sane relative ("Don") comes out on the porch and talks to the cops for a few minutes. Cops go inside. Cops coem back out with Mike in handcuffs. Cops, Mike and Don all stand around on the porch chitchatting, with Mike still in cuffs, nobody's body language looking the least bit tense, Mike's face is the only one visible and he's smiling. Cops take the cuffs off Mike and they leave.

And a creepy, annoying one from the other day: Our cable, internet and phone all went completely out one afternoon. Hugely annoying, plus DH works partly from home and can't link in to his office computer. Cable guy comes out the next morning and looks at the cable hookup at the street next to another neighbor's house...the cable company has had major issues with our street already, and they have some sort of weird jerry-rigged exterior box with the cable power hookup in it. It had been *cut with something sharp.* This neighbor is one that Mike has a special hostility toward, because she's pretty prickly and got loudly in his face once over his antics. Mike was outside working with a Weedeater the previous day. So while cable guy's there, a fourth neighbor comes out to tell him that Mike probably did it, and if he comes out of the house, cable guy should get in his truck. We never see Mike, but I call the cops and file a report.

Someone was telling me the other day that their street was like "Desperate Housewives," I told her that mine is more like "To Kill a Mockingbird."

[weeblewobble]

A man jumped off the roof of the building across the street. The doorman said he was a non-resident who ran past him and into the elevators. Two years ago, in a different neighborhood, a man killed his father and tried to kill his mother. My husband and I briefly entertained the idea of buying the house since it's really, really inexpensive now, but the guy will most likely get out of prison in a few years and we don't really want him showing up on our doorstep. On a lighter note, when the circus comes into town, they walk the elephants through a tunnel next door to my apartment in the city. I haven't seen it myself (just missed it this year), but a guy who works in my building told me about it.

A few years ago, a circus truck carrying elephants had a wreck just outside a nearby rural community.   The elephants were unharmed, but in the confusion after the accident, they broke the door of the truck and ran off.  A woman called 911 to report that she saw elephants jogging down Rural Route XYZ.  The dispatcher hung up on her because he thought it was a prank.

(The elephants were rounded up and no one was hurt.)

[Elfmama]

A man jumped off the roof of the building across the street. The doorman said he was a non-resident who ran past him and into the elevators. Two years ago, in a different neighborhood, a man killed his father and tried to kill his mother. My husband and I briefly entertained the idea of buying the house since it's really, really inexpensive now, but the guy will most likely get out of prison in a few years and we don't really want him showing up on our doorstep. On a lighter note, when the circus comes into town, they walk the elephants through a tunnel next door to my apartment in the city. I haven't seen it myself (just missed it this year), but a guy who works in my building told me about it.

A few years ago, a circus truck carrying elephants had a wreck just outside a nearby rural community.   The elephants were unharmed, but in the confusion after the accident, they broke the door of the truck and ran off.  A woman called 911 to report that she saw elephants jogging down Rural Route XYZ.  The dispatcher hung up on her because he thought it was a prank.

(The elephants were rounded up and no one was hurt.)

Dispatch should not have done that.  DD#2 says that if someone calls and it is not an obvious prank like "Is your refrigerator running?" then they send a cop out.  It DOES NOT MATTER if Dispatch thinks the elephants are all in the caller's head.  Because sometimes there ARE elephants jogging down the road or standing in the garden eating the rosebushes.

[Kaora]

Not my neighborhood, but my smallish town.  Over the past couple weeks, we've had six or seven home fires start, and two of them can be linked to either candles or cigarretes, that leaves five unsolved.

They had the community police and emergency, NCIS and Ordies (the Ordinance Extraction) out on a rather nasty one that happened near where my boyfriend lived.  Still unsolved, but it looked like they were hoarders.  Aye...

Otherwise, a case a few years ago where neighbor's kids got ahold of fire starter.  The houses all survived, but fence, and the palm tree near it, were both toast.

Mum came home to check on us on that one-- then went straight reporting.  She was still working for the paper then, on a police and fire beat, and had an excuse to get on the blocked off street.

[Outdoor Girl]

Re:  Elephants in the street.  That happened in a city near me not too long ago.  The circus was in town and the elephants (3) made a run for it.  A woman awoke to an elephant in her yard, nibbling on her shrubs.  She had to be quite insistent with the 911 operator to get a police response.

There were a few people wondering what they'd been drinking the night before as they drove past the elephants.  I'm surprised there weren't a bunch of traffic collisions that morning.

[Elfmama]

Re:  Elephants in the street.  That happened in a city near me not too long ago.  The circus was in town and the elephants (3) made a run for it.  A woman awoke to an elephant in her yard, nibbling on her shrubs.  She had to be quite insistent with the 911 operator to get a police response.

There were a few people wondering what they'd been drinking the night before as they drove past the elephants.  I'm surprised there weren't a bunch of traffic collisions that morning.

I remember reading about that, which is what prompted me to ask DD#2 what she would do if someone called into Dispatch and reported elephants in her garden!

[wheeitsme]

I had a great uncle who owned a buffalo.  He ended up moving to a ranch in what is now the Padres National Forest (it wasn't when he moved there - that's how long ago it was).  But before he moved, he had this buffalo.  In Los Angeles (Los Angeles was much more rural then).  You'all can probably guess what happened.  One day it got loose.  A lady called the police and told them that there was a buffalo in her yard.  My uncle got there before the police did.  "Really officer - there was a buffalo..."

[Kaora]

Again, smaller town, so that makes some of this all the odder:

I once reported a bomb threat I found scribbled in a bathroom stall.  In the dead center of a naval military base.  To get out of a math test.  It's like weeding out the dumb ones early. Had the Base PD, FD, Ordies and all the bomb sniffing dogs out there, but nothing came of the threat, unlike some other stories I've heard.

Bonus multiplier: This was shortly after 9/11 and the base was still on high alert.

[40andbetter]

At our old house (that we had just accepted a offer on and were prepping to move from) an Ice cream truck was robbed  crime scene tape went down the middle of the street while it was "investigated" - meanwhile around  the corner a gas station / mini market was being robbed while the cops were "busy" with the ice cream truck robbery I have a feeling the 2 incidents were connected -It got embarrassing for us when the soon to be new owners came down the street during this with their grandmother in the car to show her their new house

[Bijou]

Not me, but my husband...last night he was walking out the little pathway next to the house to go to work and came face to face with the grand daddy of all the other skunks in the neighborhood!  It started running toward him and luckily, right past him without spraying him.  PHEW!!!!!!  Last thing I want on a Sunday night is to have some skunked up old man trying to come through the bolted door...you've heard the phrase, "GET A ROOM!"?  Well, he would have had to.  I might pass him some tomato juice through the window.   

[Elfmama]

A forum friend says that the ideal thing for deskunking some critter that's tangled with them is Biz and Simple Green.  (Biz is a laundry detergent additive, Simple Green is a concentrated cleaning solution.)