Steve's personal weblog

Interesting flotsam on programming, Java, .NET, Configuration Management, and the geek lifestyle.

Thursday, February 27, 2003

Here's a good one. Someone's Redneck Neighbor. I actually ran into this site a while back, but someone sent it to me again today. <sarcasm>Unfortunately</sarcasm>, my evil neighbor has moved out and a nice family has moved in, so I can't compian about him anymore. He wasn't nearly as amusing as these folks, though. For those unfamiliar with the story, though... The time was September 2000. The end of a long hot summer in Austin. We were under mandatory watering restrictions, and my neighbor had washed his driveway (to get the leaves off, you know) several times that summer. So I decided after he drove off to leave a note for him. Thought about doing it anonymously, but decided to sign my name to it. Hi Steve - 
Just wanted to remind you that washing your driveway (even on your designated watering day) is against the law while mandatory watering restrictions are in effect. Please don't waste water. 
Thanks!
Steve Donie I was out in the backyard trimming some trees when he came over to the back fence. I walked over and he seemed like he was going to be nice enough, but then just went off on me. Told me to mind my own business, that this was a nice neighborhood until I moved in, that what he did on his property was his business. I did argue with him - told him that it was my business, that the water belongs to all of us, that I was trying to be nice by not just calling the cops. As the argument went on, he proceeded to tell me to just stay off his property, and that if I did set foot on his property, he would kill me. That he had a gun, and that he would blow my head off without asking any questions. And that he would do the same for anyone in my family. I tried to be reasonable and not provoke him. After a while, he left, and I went back to my pruning. He came back maybe 2 or 3 minutes later, yelled at me from the corner of Bonnie's yard that if I did call the cops, "You'll just see what will happen." I asked him if that was a threat, and he replied as he left that it was a fact. The most amusing thing was when he "accused" me of being "some sort of libertarian". Called the police about an hour later, after Julie got home and I told her what had happened. Pretty scary. When the police came they sent 2 cars. They came to our front door, then one went over to talk to Steve. They filed a report, gave me a case number, and told me that I could talk to a detective on Monday. I called this morning, but the case hadn’t been assigned to anyone yet. The cop I talked to told me that he didn’t want to say what charge could be filed against him, but he thought it would be either a class C misdemeanor threat, or perhaps a class B misdemeanor terroristic threat. He also told Steve that if there was any kind of retaliatory action on his part, that would be a felony. I guess Steve just told the cop that he didn’t want me coming on his property any more. Fine with me. Julie and I are both pretty pissed off. I am going to call the detectives this afternoon, and I think I am going to file charges, whatever they may be. I don’t like being threatened, and I sure as hell am not going to let him get away with threatening my family. The guy is a nut. Afterwards, we were both pretty worked up. I set up my PC camera to point out the window and keep track of any movement, in case he decided to do something stupid.