Danette's Story

My story starts 11 years ago, when we moved into the house we are currently in. The neighbors to our right were an older couple. They were incredibly nice! They let us put a fence on part of their property to keep our dog in our backyard. They were always giving us fruit and vegetables. The gentleman died a few years ago and his wife is being taken care of by a full-time caregiver now, still in the house. We've never experienced a problem. The neighbors to the left of us were different. When we moved in, I noticed they had a little boy about my kid's ages. His name was John. (Fake names I'm giving here) He came over shortly after we moved in and started playing with my boys in the back yard. I tried to be nice and ask him questions...he didn't say much and didn't seem too friendly, but that's o.k. On another occasion he came over and he and my boys were playing in the back, and John had a squirt bottle with some unknown liquid in it and he squirted it into my 7 year old's eyes, which sent him screaming and crying in the house. John ran home. My son wasn't a cryer, so I was worried he had squirted some chemical or something, so I knocked on their front door and the dad, Jim, answered. I explained what happened, and that I just wanted to find out what was in the bottle, and the dad screamed at John and said "GET OVER HERE!" John denied doing anything, and his dad grabbed him and spanked his butt on the spot. He then turned to me and yelled at me! "Don't ever let your kid play with my kid again!" And slammed the door. Our first taste of what was to come.

We very much avoided our kids playing together. My oldest son has some special behavioral issues, with ADHD on top of it, so he was always trying to go over there, or always causing the neighbors to be cranky with us. If we watered our lawn and so much as a drop of water got on their house, they would be at our front door demanding that we do something about it. Jim is a scrawny guy, but he was scary. He was always angry. Never saw him smile. We did a fairly good job of keeping to ourselves and avoiding contact with them. The mom of the house, Jane, was kind of an odd one. She had slurred speech every time we spoke, the result of a drinking problem.

Fast forward several years. We rarely locked our back door. Our neighborhood was half-way decent, and I grew up in a small town where we never locked up. Not a good idea! My husband had mentioned a few times that his bottle of Black Velvet kept getting lower and lower. I told him he was crazy. He was totally perplexed. Our oldest son took several medications and we usually left them on a ledge in the kitchen. We had noticed a few times that the bottle would come up short and we would have to get a refill a bit sooner then expected. Also perplexing, but I assumed we were just being shorted at the pharmacy.

Several months later, I had brought the kids home from school and I walked into my bathroom and saw my hairspray laying on the floor. It gave me pause. I stopped and thought for a moment. Hmm.... I decided to check the pills on the ledge. Gone! I called my husband. He didn't know where it was. I called my friend who lived with us and questioned her about whether or not she had any friends she brought over. She swore she didn't. I searched everywhere. No pills! Someone was stealing from us! We started locking the back door! We called and filed a police report. They came and checked things out more thouroughly. My diamond and ruby necklace that my husband had gotten me for Christmas, (the only expensive piece of jewelry I owned) was gone. Several pairs of earrings and some cookbooks were gone. Alcohol, gone. There was actually a longer list, but I don't remember what else was taken now. We had to buy more pills, which were really expensive. We filed a claim with our insurance and got reimbursed for everything. I wondered who on earth was breaking into our house. Was someone watching us to know when we left? It was scary! I prayed about it. I asked God to let me somehow find out who was breaking in. I forgave them, but I just wanted to KNOW!

Fast forward again. It was hot outside so we had our sliding glass door off of our bedroom open while we slept. Before bed, I had made it my ritual to lock all the doors. I'm sure I locked them this night. We went to bed. My husband was an early riser. He has a routine that involves getting up before anyone else in the wee hours of the morning, and taking his vitamins, watching some news, all while the house is quiet. On this particular morning, he got up as usual, but the suddenly woke me up. He said "I just caught the neighbor in our kitchen going through our medicine cabinet!" I said, "WHAT??? Which one?" It was Jane!! I said, "What did she do?" My hubby had walked around the corner in the kitchen and caught her digging through our medicine cabinet, and then a look of shock came over her face when she saw him. She took off out the back door and ran home! We were shocked! But I was so happy that my prayer had been answered. We called the police and they arrested Jane. She had been fully dressed when she was in our kitchen, but quickly changed into her pajamas and played like she was asleep.

A few days later, at the courthouse, they asked us if we wanted to press charges. She had a clean record. I didn't want to be responsible for getting something permanent on it! We decided not to. We fully forgave her, and we all seem to get along fairly well now. Jim was in an accident not too long ago and had a head injury, which took him a long time to recover from. He owns his own business. He fell off his ladder while working. He decided to sue the owner of the home building company, who's house he was working in at the time of the accident. Coincidentally, the owner of that company is my brother-in-law!

Neighbors are like a box of chocolate! You never know what you're gonna get! :)