Partial Victory

I woke up this morning to find a dead rat and what looked like corned beef hash on the hood of my truck. My truck is a 71 Ford with a less than pristine paint job so this was more of an annoyance than anything else. The rat went in the sewer and I hosed off the “corned beef” and went to work. I was delayed about 5 minutes.

This is of course the current state of affairs between my neighbor and I. It seems the city has come through, but I have a feeling the last battle has not been fought yet. What I can say is that as I write my neighbor’s idiot sons are moving out. Literally. I can hear them yelling and clanging equipment and inventory into trailers and trucks right now.

Besides the rat and “corned beef” on the truck I woke up to find the shell of a beat up old Nissan pickup truck parked next to my house. When I got home from work there was a large bucket lift truck and a 15 foot trailer parked on the street right where I normally park my truck. I know the bucket truck and trailer belong to one of the sons and yesterday I saw the Nissan on the trailer. That was before they mostly gutted the truck.

I now I kick myself for not snapping a picture. If I had known they had already been contacted by the city I would have snapped the picture of the Nissan on the trailer. You don’t need a crystal ball to predict what these guys will do. They basically act like 12 year olds whose parents have never set boundaries. When they are forced to do something that they don’t want to do they throw tantrums. I’m half expecting to see one of them in the street on his back, flailing his arms and legs about and screaming, “I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna!”

After the rat and trucks I knew something had happened. I first called the city about the Nissan and it has been towed off the street. I then called the city and spoke with the woman at the Planning Dept. in charge of the case. Sure enough she had contacted them via registered mail on the 27th. She sent me a copy of the letter but because it wasn’t registered I still have not received it.

The idiot sons are so stupid and have such contempt for authority that they really made this easy for the city to get after them. When the one son took over the business from his father he got a business license and put the address as the illegally built mother-in-law unit in the backyard. So not only is it a slam dunk to prove they are running the business in the backyard but now the city wants to know about the MIL unit as well.

My plan has always been to be methodical about this. I was going to start with the Planning Dept and get those guys after them for running the business. The next step was going to be to go to the building department and complain about the MIL unit. The thought was that the building department would bring up the file and see that 3 years ago they were sighted for running a junk yard and then now they have been sighted again for the business. My hope was that this would encourage the building department to do something other than just send a stern letter.

The woman I spoke to at the Planning Dept. told me that they sent the letter via registered mail. It basically said that they have 15 days to get rid of the business and to answer for the illegal MIL unit. At the end of that period if they do not comply they will be sent a second letter, this time with more aggressive language and threatening a fine if they don’t comply. After that they will be fined (unknown amount) and the matter will be turned over to the city’s lawyers.

It doesn’t seem it will come to that because it seems they are moving out. I asked the woman from the Planning Department about trucks and trailers parked endlessly on the street. She said unfortunately that is not an issue she can address. She repeated the same thing I was told by the parking department: Vehicles have to be moved every 72 hours. So it seems I’m left with only one option and that is to call the parking control people every time they dump something on the street.

Like I said, it’s a partial victory. I’m hoping that once the business leaves they will eventually find it an inconvenience to keep equipment on the street here. I’m going to wait and see what happens over the next few weeks before I do anything else. I’ll let them get the business out and see if they take the junk with them. After that if there is still a bunch of junk on the street I will contact someone else higher up the chain in the Parking Control division of the Police Dept and find out if there is more I can do about stuff being stored on the street.

The real question at this point is just how stupid are these guys? Can I expect more retaliation besides Nissans, rats, and “corned beef”. I think I’m going to head to Radio Shack and see about a cheap surveillance camera I can hook up to my VCR. I think I can expect more stuff from them but I honestly don’t think they are willing to risk serious jail time to get back at me. I still have some more of this storm to weather, but I can’t say at this time just how bad it will get.