AITH? The next door townhome is being rented out. I previously had neighbors who were being loud, almost put in a complaint with the HOA, which agrees per the covenant that it needs to be quiet after 7pm, it’s a nice middle class neighborhood, mostly professionals, many with kids. Someone else did put a complaint in. They left.
The next people to move in were loud, bass jamming through the walls, night one. I nicely warned them. After that they mostly turned it off by 9-10. Bass resonates, keeps me up, and this is not the party area near NC State. Then they jammed it one night at midnight. Last warning. But, didn’t have to do it again. So, there’s a little animosity.
The big event was a few weeks ago. Apparently, they did not have power, I suspect it got cut off for some reason. One night about 1130pm I heard a noise coming from the side, sounded like someone was opening the door to the crawlspace. I get off the couch where I’m close to falling asleep, go out back door, lights on, look over side with a flashlight, looks like something is hanging from electrical outlet.
I grab my 9mm Ruger, which was downstairs for cleaning, put a magazine in my left pocket, put shoes on and go outside. There’s a phone charging. I put gun in Left hand, unhook phone, walked to front where I was going to call police. Neighbor walks around, says “I thought you were asleep.” Excuse me? You were intentionally stealing my power? Sure, not a lot monetarily, but, I remembered seeing the outlet cover open several days ago.
I kept the gun along my left leg, and, decided to be nice and told him he could charge in the front, I figure he and his wife are having enough troubles (there is a car in driveway that hasn’t moved for at least this whole year, no tag on it). After a couple days they disappeared, except for showing up briefly, looks like they are packing stuff up. On one hand, I feel bad, like I drove them out, concern for gun. On the other, he was intentionally stealing power, and, can’t blame me for their monetary issues. So, am I the AH? I don’t want the owner of the TH to think so, I really have no way to contact them anymore.
11:30 at night, investigating a “noise” or anything, without a firearm would be reckless the way I look at things. Could be anything from a neighbor to a prowler to a would-be home-invader. Might go for a concealed holster depending on where I was, though it would be hard to claim you were in “public” checking on the exterior of your own home.
Better to have it and not need it, than it is to need it, and not have it.
Glad I live in one of those areas in America that is still “high trust”. No firearms needed to roam my own yard, to confront noisy neighbors, or to investigate strange noises. Just a few months ago I returned from a several weeks long vacation to find my garage door open. In my haste to vacation, I had failed to close it. All my stuff was still there. No one had bothered it. I seldom lock my front door. Thanks to our political class importing tens of millions of aliens from low trust societies plus the tens of millions of indigenous low trust “communities”, I understand that many places in America do not have it as nice as I do.
Teach,
Your description does not indicate anything you did wrong. Your actions or gun ownership is unlikely to have anything at all to do with the behavior or choices of your former neighbors. People with long term money problems often move frequently to take advantage of the one or two months of living “rent free” between evictions. It is just as likely that your own taste in music is what was the final straw forcing them to leave.