My neighbor called the police on me

[Double Naught Spy]

i have always tried make sure that what i do does not negativly effect their privacy or peace and quiet. the other day i went out in my back yard(which is about 350-400 feet from the neighbors house. i thought that he was not home because i didnt see any cars in the driveway.

if he came and said your shooting is bothering me i would have apologized and stopped, but instead he calls the cops. my immediate reaction was to measure 500 feet off his house and shoot some big guns, early in the morning and when he gets home from work, just to piss him off and show him i have rights. what would you folks do?

So on previous occasions, you checked with your neighbor before loud activities, but you didn't bother to check this time. Yes, you thought he wasn't home, but that isn't the same thing a checking with him. How hard is it to phone?

Given the maturity you exhibit here, he probably feels calling the cops was the most prudent thing to do. I am guessing that he doesn't exactly trust you and did not wish to engage you directly because of that lack of trust and the fact that you were armed. If you think about it, complaining to a guy with a gun that you don't trust sounds pretty darned stupid.

So you want to piss him off and show him you have rights? What rights? I am sure he knows you have rights, but so does he. If you decide to intentionally try to piss him off by shooting at 500 feet from his house to show him you have rights, you will also be showing him that he has rights and that you are complying with them.

You both have rights. He probably feels that you violated his rights first by not checking with him before disturbing the peace.

 

[rust collector]

Did you check your phone to see if he tried to call?

You've got good answers above, but you already knew to take the high road. Something completely different may have gotten your neighbor rattled, so the first thing is to try not to take it personally.

The next challenge is to try to visit with your neighbor without being accusatory or defensive. Just a nice neutral conversation asking if there is a process that will insure that no one is disturbed or annoyed. Keeping a positive tone can be difficult if he professes a dislike for firearms, but you learn more about him by visiting and can use your new information to avoid conflict. Time and effort spent keeping/making neighbors happy is time well invested. Of course, there are neighbors who will never be happy, but that doesn't sound like yours.

Although the law requires a 500' buffer zone, the dawn cannon routine could be considered a public nuisance and put your friends at the PD in the middle of things. If ya got the tools (tact & diplomacy), use em.

 

[MrTwigg]

I would say

...as others have to smooth things over. If that fails, invite him over to shoot ...this : www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=1653&osCsid=8de56aeca3f220cbd328d21aaba7efe6 Yeah, it's expensive but so cool !

I dont want to get a rep. here as a smart aleck but sometimes I just can't help myself ! Seroiusly though, as others have said take the high road and at least attempt to smooth things over. That's what I would do.

 

[joab]

I would agree with the others if he had called and left a message or just about anything short of calling the police, provided that you were not doing anything that could be reasonably interpreted as causing any danger to him or his property.

But as it stands
I wouldgo out Sunday morning as soon as the noise ordinance allows and fire off three to five shots from tha loudest boomer I have then switch back to .22s

It follows the same theory I have for tailgaters-
If they don't like 55mph they ain't gonna like 35mph worth a damn

 

[ChickenHawk]

Go, be civil, and talk to your neighbor. Tell him what happened, APOLOGIZE FOR DISTURBING HIM, and, if you like, invite him to shoot.

I absolutely agree with this approach.

This guy is going to be your neighbor for a long time. At the very least the apology will turn him back into a friend. He is probably afraid to see you in the yard after calling the cops on you.

And, it might just turn him into an ally if he takes you up on the invitation.

Good luck!
ChickenHawk

 

[Firethorn]

I for one, feel that your talk of bringing out the magnum centerfires out to be an initial 'mad reaction'. Like what others have said, and your very comments, I don't think you actually did it.

Please, take the high road on this one. A polite visit to your neighbor, after you've had time to regain your cool is your best option. I'd be prepared to apologize about disturbing him and forgetting to warn him. Let him know you didn't think he was at home. As long as he isn't an anti-gun nut, you should be able to reach a compromise.

It's been a while since I mowed a lawn, and I've never shot a .22 without hearing protection, but I'm pretty sure a standard lawnmower is louder, but the very uneveness of gunfire can make it more distinctive and annoying. The human mind can very quickly tune out a motor, gunfire takes longer.

Having lived in dormatories and apartments, keeping good relations with your neighbors is essential. Feuding can only make you and your neighbor miserable. You shoot off cannon at dawn, he paints his house fuchia or something. Parks a junker in the street. Calls you multiple times a day. Calls the cops multiple times. Eggs your car/house. The list is endless, legal and illegal.

Double Naught Spy, I think that you're overreacting. From what he's stated, he's tried to be a good neighbor in the past, and given no reason for the neighbor to think that he's dangerous or unreasonable. I had an almost identical reaction a couple years ago when the new(then, now gone) neighbors above me called the cops about my stereo. A simple knock on my door would have fixed matters, faster than trying to work through the cops. I finally figured out that the stereo was resonating through a wall support or something and moved them, which fixed the problem. I was playing it quietly enough that the cops couldn't hear it through the door and asked if I'd turned it down.

 

[1 old 0311]

Are you sure it wasn't his wife, or adult children? He may be cool but she may not be. Talk to him and feel it out.

Kevin

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Drop it.

Unless you live on a VERY large lot, you probably can't comply with the law. The law probably doesn't say 500 feet from your neighbor's house, it probably says 500 feet from any dwelling (might oven say 500 feet from any structure). That would include your own house as well as his, if anyone wanted to push it.

Even if it only applies to his house -- a half acre lot isn't much of a buffer. Rounded down, an acre is 40,000 square feet. For a perfectly square lot, that's only 200 x 200. 500 feet is almost the length of two football fields set end-to-end.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

I agree with M2 Carbine. This person is being passive-agressive through use of legal technicalities and a third party.

...

I'd stay within the law... but I wouldn't worry about his comfort until he appologies for his bad behaviour, and by thus doing, recognizes your territory. Respect between you will be restored. Then you can return to being a considerate neighbor towards him.

Whoa.

Some people are simply uncomfotable telling another person that person is doing something wrong (or illegal, if you choose to think that breaking the law isn?t "wrong"). Calling the police is not being passive-aggressive. It is being passive.

As for "recognizines your territory," the police told Pale Rider he was violating the law. The neighbor as correct, as I understand the sequence of events. If the law says no shooting within 500 feet of a dwelling (as it does where I live, BTW), then you have no "territory" to be recognized if you were violating the law.

 

[TallPine]

Does this so called "good" neighbor even know about the 500' rule? Did he come out and pace it off before calling the cops?

Have you ever shot before on your land when the neighbor was home? If so, were you farther than 500' at that time? (I don't even know if you have enough land to be that far away - it sounds like a long narrow parcel if your neighbor's house is that close to yours...?)

Anyway, I think the neighbor is out of line and just being bitchy (he could have just looked out his back window and seen that you were target shooting away from the houses). My experience with bitchy neighbors is that they only get worse, and the nicer that you are to them the more it encourages them to bitch - but maybe I just had a bad experience, as my bitchy former neighbor is in prison right now.

You might be able to smooth things over, or maybe not... I would just setup my "firing line" 501' from his house and shoot anytime and anything that is legal (btw, did you even know about the 500' rule before this incident?).

Fortunately, just about everybody out in my area has guns and shoots on their land from time to time. I located my pistol/rimfire range in a natural bowl behind my house with hills on three sides. I picked out this spot even before we signed the contract on the property

 

[sumpnz]

The law probably doesn't say 500 feet from your neighbor's house, it probably says 500 feet from any dwelling (might oven say 500 feet from any structure). That would include your own house as well as his, if anyone wanted to push it. Emphasis mine

Most places with those sort of buffer zone rules make an exception if you have the permission of the structure owner. Since it's his house, I'd say he has the owner's permission to shoot less than 500' away (unless he has multiple personality disorder and one of the other personalities declines consent ).

 

[V4Vendetta]

"Go, be civil, and talk to your neighbor. Tell him what happened, APOLOGIZE FOR DISTURBING HIM, and, if you like, invite him to shoot."


It's always good to be civil at first. Invite him over for coffee or tea, have him explain what happened & why he called the cops. SHUT UP WHILE HE'S TALKING!! Nothing ruins a good disscusion like going on the defensive. When he's finished, explain your side of the matter. If he's scared of guns or just ignorant because of the lies spewed forth from the Brady bunch, invite him to shoot with you. Explain the top 5 safety rules & such. BE CIVIL!

If that fails, get any book written by George Hayduke, The Revenge Artist.

 

[carlrodd]

I agree with M2 Carbine. This person is being passive-agressive through use of legal technicalities and a third party.

I live in the Dallas, Texas area and we have a LOT of people like this guy. Once they think they can antagonize you without remifications they will only get worse.

It's like staring down another dog. The guy is behaving in the pattern of an animal (even in unconciously) trying to expand his territory... by metaphorically "pissing" on your area of operations.

I'd stay within the law... but I wouldn't worry about his comfort until he appologies for his bad behaviour, and by thus doing, recognizes your territory. Respect between you will be restored. Then you can return to being a considerate neighbor towards him.

that sounds about right to me. my first thought was..."what sort of person would do that to begin with?" if you had a rapport with him, and all the sudden he busts out with this behaviour, that says to me that the only thing keeping him civil before was your gracious, neighbourly behaviour. he sounds like a contentious person who enjoys causing friction. measure 500 feet and blast away. the discord with your neighbour will keep you on your toes, and as your responses to his poor behaviour become more clever and elaborate, perhaps he'll eventually move away. double plus good.

 

[Zundfolge]

Get yourself a handfull of used truck tires, lash them together and fill them with insulation.

Then hang them so they are about 4-5 feet off the ground and shoot with the muzzle inside this giant "suppressor" ... that should eliminate much of the sound problem. (I was hoping to find a photo of such an aparatus but I can't seem to find one).

 

[Rock45]

Gee,
It sure would be nice to have more info here...as others have stated it seems that the only reason that he has been a decent neighbor is because YOU took the initiative to get his consent/approval of any activities that you felt may be offensive/annoying to him.

If he didn't feel like you were kissing up to him he may have showed his stripes long before this.

Adjust your shooting position to comply with all applicable laws or find another place to shoot...talking to him is a must, but don't expect desireable results.

Take the High Road here, and don't intentionally become a bad neighbor yourself...but it sounds like you no longer need to make any extra effort to appease this putz.

Bryan

 

[Berek]

I used to have the same kind of issue with an ex-neighbor. Not about shooting as I was inside the village limits, but with pretty much anything else. He would say one thing when we were talking and do something else.

Example: My 30th birthday, we hired a band that played until 1am. We asked him if this would be ok before we hired them. We even went so far as to invite him and his wife days before we even asked if he'd have a problem. The day after my party, the cops showed up with a complaint signed by him. After that, it was every little thing. Even this: My trash day was monday. I would put a bag on my back porch on Wed or Thurs and, not much later, a cop would show up saying that the bag has been there for weeks.

I lucked out though. When his wife found that he took out a mortgage to try and force me out of my land, she left him, he was forced to sell the house as part of the divorce and was gone.

What really sucked though is that 2 months later, I was transferred by my employer and had to move or lose my job. Considering what I was making and the job market outlook at the time, I moved.

But I digress. If you were on decent terms with your neighbor before this, try again. Talk to him about shooting, maybe invite him along. If he gets stupid about other things after this, it's time to maybe nitpick his actions. I know that's not very High Road, but if you do nothing to provoke his actions and he shows his true colors, maybe he needs to be shown what he's doing to others.