Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated May 7, 2008
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.
The Flower Pot
I must admit I have not been writing much at all these days, this is most probably due to our troubles starting up yet again. After four months of calm we had a flower pot that used to be placed on our wheelchair ramp thrown at our front door at ten past one on Sunday morning, by a group of teenagers. We did actually catch them on our security camera as they walked past the front of our house, just before it was thrown. Yet the police said later, when they viewed the tape, that it was not enough to arrest them, as it did not actually get them on film throwing it. We installed the security camera way back when the trouble started over our neighbour's barking dog, which in the end it transpired that he was paying the local junkies 20 pounds a time to throw a stone though our living room window; this was done seven times in all throughout that year, and was covered in an earlier Snippet, along with all the other events like the bleach on our roses and the condoms full of urine being thrown at our front door. The point being that it really affected Mk2 who, as you know, is terminally ill with emphysema and blood clots in both legs. Mind you, it also affected me as well, as I was already being treated for depression, due to my frustration with not being able to cope well with the back injury that ended my working life and limited my mobility a great deal, this in fact made me feel totally useless when it came to trying to put a stop to all the victimisation we seemed to be going through.
It did not seem fair to me at all really, I mean we never get out much, keep ourselves to ourselves and cause no problems for anyone else, and live a quiet life, yet we seem to be targeted, and all because we complained about a barking next door.
Although I must admit I do not think that this incident was connected to the dog problem, as our neighbour was well warned by a big burly police sergeant, who had more than a word with him about all the events that had happened to us over those three years. He actually told him that he knew it was him who was paying the junkies, and even although he could not prove it, that he would be round to arrest him if anything at all happened to us in the future. I think looking back on it now, it must have been the state he saw Mk2 was in when he came to take our statements about the seventh time our window was smashed, as she was really at the edge of losing it altogether. He apologised for the fact that the police were powerless to do anything about it, but I think at the same time he knew exactly who was behind it all, especially when one of the junkies who had been paid, admitted to Mk2's niece that he took the money, but never did the job himself and gave the money to someone else to actually smash our window. Yet when the police went to take his statement he recanted it, saying he had changed his mind, but he told my wife's niece that he had in fact been threatened by his drug dealer that he would be 'done over' if he went ahead with his statement. So that basically put our whole case up in the air, and we had no evidence at all against our neighbours, yet the sergeant told him that he in fact did know the truth behind it all, hence his threat to arrest him. That was when it all stopped, and we thought that it was over.
Well it was in a way, but this incident is all down to another new neighbour, young teenage lass with a young child, who had just moved into the house across the road. She got that house after that dear old lady who had lived there for years, died. She was a grand old soul who was popular with everyone; in fact she was the oldest resident in our street as well as being the longest resident as she had moved in there some 55 years earlier. The flat was empty for a while, then this young lass moved in a few weeks ago and we thought no more about it, until the first weekend when we saw a lot of young lads coming and going until well into the early hours of the Sunday morning. We never heard anything ourselves, but our friend, who lives in a the adjacent flat to the young lass, was across visiting us and told us that in the end she had to phone for the police that Saturday night, due to the loud music and general loud behaviour.
We never thought much about it really, as I said earlier, we just keep ourselves to ourselves. Then our friend from over the road came and told us that the police were called again the following weekend, this time by the couple who lived above the young lass's flat. Again, we never thought much about that at the time, as we did not hear anything. Then my wife's niece (who I will call Jean) and who lives further down our street, came over to visit us, and I noticed that the young lass from across the road, who was standing at her front door with one of her boyfriends, was glowering at Jean as she came to our door. I asked her why, and Jean explained that on the first week after that lass had moved in, there had been a bit trouble at the housewarming party that she was holding, and that Jean's daughter (who I will call Vicky) had an argument with one of the young lads at the party, which flared up so badly that Vicky's boyfriend was actually stabbed many times by a few of the youngsters at the party, including the young lass herself. Yet we never heard a thing, as this was really late at night, and we were both in bed. In fact, although that incident had happened a few weeks earlier, this was the first of us hearing anything about it, yet the repercussions of it would cause so much trouble at our door. It seems that the young lass and all the other folk at that party that night, were all under the impression that it was us that had called the police, when I fact all I was doing was having a smoke at our kitchen window.
So it now seems that we have another enemy in the street for no apparent reason, as if we did not have enough trouble as it is. The ironic thing about it all is that we never go out, or throw parties or cause any trouble at all, yet we seem to be the most unpopular folk in the street. What makes it all really worse is the fact that we can not move, as we are trapped in a catch 22 position, as my age and health are both against me being able to get a mortgage, and we are what is called "Adequately Housed" when it comes to applying to housing associations for a rented house. Still, all we can do now, is put up with everything in the hope that things may get better.
