Holiday Traditions and a Drug House

This weekend was fun and frustrating at the same time. Friday night I decided we were going to get our house ready for Christmas. Out came the ornaments and set around stuff. Maizie, as always was very excited. With each ornament Maizie said, "Did I make this mom? Who made this one? Is this one mine from when I was a baby? When can I be a baby again?" The questions never stopped.

While we were decorating the tree I heard some strange noises in between the houses. I opened the back door to find one of our neighbors trying to break into the electrical box to his apartment. He looked at me and said in his usual drug induced way, "I am just tightening things up back here! That's all." I smiled, nodded and closed the door.

Joe and I discussed that we thought he was going to get electrocuted and then he knocked on the door. Joe answered and he asked if we had a Philip's screwdriver. Joe said, "Sorry, we don't." Needless to say, we do but we don't want to get into the habit of handing out tools to the neighbors for illegal activities.

I peeked through the window blinds to see him pushing a screwdriver into the box and trying to pull the door off. I noticed a large lock had been placed on the bottom of the electrical box. Putting two and two together I realized our neighbor must not have paid the bill and was trying to turn his power back on. He was making some progress but the way he was haphazardly jamming the various tools he had into that box made me nervous.

I held my phone, staring at it and staring back out the window. Finally, I called the police and they had me stay on the line giving a description of our neighbor and waiting till the cop arrived. Once the police came our neighbor took off like a lightning bolt through the back yard and down the alley. The cop followed, flashlight in hand and gun out. Lovely.

I began running from window to window. A sight Maizie has unfortunately witnessed on many occasions. I heard the loud annoying squeak the neighbors door makes every time it is opened or closed and ran to the front. The man had already made it back to the safety of his apartment and the cop was still running in the wrong direction. Argh!

I called the police station back and told them that the guy went back into his apartment. The cop gets the message and came back huffing and puffing, knocking on the front door. It took quite a while for the guys to answer. Once they did I heard one of the men saying, "I swear! It was not me! I just got back from walking down from the liquor store." No doubt he was telling the truth since our neighbors like to begin drinking early in the morning and into the night. In fact, it seems that they don't require any sleep at all.

I heard tempers flaring and reluctantly peeked my head out the door. The cops turned to look at me and pointed to the man they were accusing of trying to break into the electrical box. I shook my head no and they reentered the apartment. They came out with the other guy and I nodded 'yes'. Not happy. Not happy at all. It is bad enough that I have to call the cops a few times a week on our neighbors but now our neighbors knew I had called this time. Not cool.

I have went out of my way to always say hello and treat my annoying and sometimes scary neighbors with the respect they want and I am sure verifying who was who did not please them. I only hoped that they were all too drunk and doped up on crack to remember me.

I went back in the house, reassured Maizie that it was over and we began decorating again. Maizie kept peeking out the front window waiting to see if the guy was going to be arrested. Maizie is all too familiar with the process. Finally she yelled, "There is the cop mom!" I ran back to the window and saw that they were indeed arresting the man. That surprised me.

I heard the cops back at the electrical boxes talking so I went out to see if there was anything new they could tell me about our drug house next door.

One of the cops looked up and said, "Now, if you hear anything else tonight or need anything please don't hesitate to call. We are arresting him but he will be out in a few hours. (I sighed real big.) Also, you may want to call narcotics again."

I explained how many times I have called narcotics and nothing seems to be happening.

The cops explained that there are undercover cops working on the situation in unmarked cars and that it takes a great deal of time. Yes, it certainly must.

I told the cops that sometimes I have felt bad calling because I know the neighbors are struggling on a number of levels....financially, with severe addictions, etc. I asked them if I could be imagining the drug use? The cops brought up the incident last week where they were called because a man on crack cocaine had beat up a woman he was with. I nodded my head since I had talked to that woman on that night as well. She said this to me when I went out to my car, "I am trying so hard. So hard to be clean and just be a good person. I have been off crack for seven days, I loved this guy and thought he loved me and then he does this to me." I nodded and found myself at a loss for words. I said, "Don't give up. Whatever you do....just keep trying." I quickly went back into the house not waiting for a response.

The cops went on to say, "Just remember that if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck it is probably a duck."

Okay. We just gotta find a way to move out of this house at some point. Our neighborhood is historic and beautiful, there are some really good people here and yet there are some people who are very desperate and don't want to live according to the rules of society. What more can I do? There seems to be nothing. I just get so frustrated and angry. I called the landlord again. He lives in a nice house outside of the down town area and could care less. I make a point of calling him whenever I call the cops. He never answers.

The next night we had my mom over for her birthday. The whole family was here and it was a very nice time. I know my parents worry about us living here. They are glad to have us back in Indiana but are not happy we live in this house next to that house. Yes, buying this house was not the best decision we have ever made. We moved to this modest house when we had no insurance coverage for Maizie. Her medications and hospital stays were being refused and mental coverage was being dropped. Debt was piling quickly and we freaked, scaling way down. So, we are stuck here for right now.

What will Maizie remember of these nights decorating for Christmas? The frequent incidents with our neighbors or the meaning behind every ornament she hangs?

I shake it off and we make the best of our cozy little cottage house.