Police…again!

Once again I had to call the police on my neighbors upstairs.

Last night, around 9:00, kids started arriving at the apartment above me. They were running up and down the stairs right outside my living room (wooden stairs – makes a lot of noise when people run/stomp up and down), playing music very loud in the parking lot with the bass cranked so that the house vibrated, and being generally loud and disruptive. When most of them were upstairs, the stomping started. Very loud stomping that shook my ceiling and, as it grew in strength, eventually my chair. It felt like the whole house was going to come apart.

A little explanation on the house. It was built in the early 1800’s and is a wood frame house. The front part, with an apartment upstairs and downstairs, is the original house.  The back part, also with an apartment upstairs and downstairs, is what was originally the barn.  Since the building is so old, it isn’t very sound proof between apartments (I can hear people use the bathroom upstairs – I know, TMI), the floors are slanted in spots and, when people put a heavy load in the washing machine (we all share a laundry room), the whole house vibrates. If you dwell here for any length of time you will notice these things. You can’t help but notice the lack of soundproofing and how old the house is when the windows start shaking when there isn’t any wind but then you hear the washing machine running and realize that is causing the whole house to shake.

Knowing this about this old house, I would think that the kids upstairs would realize that every bit of noise carries down to my apartment.  Most of the time just standard noise like muffled voices or someone walking across the floor is easy to ignore.  After all, it is part of living in an apartment.  But to deliberately stomp on the floor wearing shoes at 9:30 at night is just being stupid and inconsiderate.

Since I really needed to get to bed early last night (9:30), I called the police.  I had not idea how long this would go on and wanted to go to sleep.  I didn’t call 911 since it wasn’t an emergency but called the regular number.

About 5 minutes after I called, as three of the girls from upstairs were leaving (making a lot of noise in the process), a police car pulled in and blocked the driveway.  Then another car parked in front of the building on the street.  The girl driving the Ford Explorer, that was now trapped, exited the vehicle and ran upstairs to tell the other kids that the cops were here.

The police spent some time questioning the remaining girls in the car then one of officers went upstairs to talk to the people there. He pounded on the door and pounded and pounded.  No answer.  He tried for a good 10 minutes to get them to let him in and they didn’t.

In the mean time, my neighbor in the front apartment on the first floor called me and wanted to know why the police were there.  I explained the situation and she told me what was happening at her end of the building (that’s how I knew the police had parked in the front of the building).

As we were talking, two more police officers showed up. Three of them were questioning one of the girls from the Ford Explorer in the driveway while the one that had been upstairs pounding on the door came to talk to me.  He explained that the girl had said that they were having a St. Patrick’s Day party upstairs.  He also said that they couldn’t break down the door but, if they could gain access to the apartment, they would charge them with disorderly conduct.  I gave him one of the kid’s cell phone number and told them a little about the situation (the eviction, the fight last week, etc.). He asked me if there was another entrance and I said there was but I wasn’t sure if these tenants had ever used it.  Previous tenants had but others had blocked it off with furniture (for security).  He thanked me and said they would see what they could do.

All four of the police officers questioned the girl in the driveway, which must have been intimidating for her. They asked if she had been drinking (yes), what she had been drinking (beer – no; Jägermeister – yes) and her age.  There is the kicker.  She is only 19.

The police then offered to drive her home to her mother and she agreed.  Like she would disagree with four large police officers surrounding her. One of the officers drove her home, the others conferred for a while on the front lawn (according to my neighbor in the front) and then they left.  We (my front neighbor and I) assumed the third passenger in the Ford Explorer drove off with it since no one exited the apartment upstairs but someone had left with it.

From the point the police showed up and for the rest of the night, I didn’t hear a single sound from upstairs.  Dead quiet. I even sat in my living room listening for about a half hour before I went to bed.  I was sure they would start partying again but they didn’t.

One thing that my neighbor pointed out to me is that, if they had just told me about the party, I probably would have ignored it.  If they had come to me and said, “It is St. Patrick’s Day and we are having a party.  We will be done by 11:00 and will try not to be too noisy”, then I would have tolerated it.  I would have even called the kid who rents the apartment and let him know that they shouldn’t be stomping on the floor since it is an old house and plaster is going to start falling. After all, once I heard it was a St. Patrick’s Day party, the stomping made sense.  They were trying to dance like Riverdance up there. Thinking about it, that is what it sounded like.

But they didn’t talk to me about it, I didn’t know what was happening and didn’t know how long it would last. After the big fight last week, which sounded somewhat like the party but with yelling, I am not willing to ignore things when I don’t know what the noise was all about. It could have been another fight.

I will be glad when they are gone. Three more weeks to go. Of course, if this pattern holds of there being excessive noise once a week, it will be three more times of calling the cops on them. This is getting really old really fast.

Yes, yes, yes…. I know…. I need to move to my own house. First I need to buy a new vehicle then I can get back to the house-hunting project. That is the current plan. In the mean time, I have to deal with immature, stupid kids living above me. O joy.