zerothehero

I just feel like venting about the trap house around the corner. It's gone from bad to worse, and with COVID-19 going around (I won't but) I would really like to torch it. It's gone from bad to worse, and the garbage and broken glass spills out to the sidewalk and street. The house has long seemed abandoned, but someone obviously owns it, locks it sometimes, lots of times the front door is wide open, windows upstairs broken, and I would be surprised if it has working plumbing or electricity. Tents go up and disappear in the carport, when the sun shines random folk can be seen passed out on the couch in driveway. And the thought of people gathering in there to smoke or shoot up just creeps me out. The city needs to condemn it, and the cops need to bust the trespassers or at least make them scatter and distance. And these are not your friendly neighborhood partiers; they're pants sagging' blue clad gangbangers. All I can do is roll my eyes and hope it burns, which I guess is about as close to acceptance as I can muster about it at the moment.

August252015

Call the police.

jr67

A place like that is a drag on any neighborhood, zth. I wonder, have you contacted your municipal authorities? Do you get any response? If it appears that strangers are gathering in violation of current isolation rules that might be an extra hook you could use to motivate the police to take action now, even if they have been less responsive in the past.

Depending on the size and location of your city/town, there might be a community organization with some ideas.

I know that here in the U.S. there are "safe streets" groups in various localities. I just googled that term and with a little poking around found links to groups all around the U.S. (There is also a paid advertisement for a commercial "Safe Streets" product that may come to the top of your google results, but if you look around you might find a bona fide organization in your area, or at least some general information and ideas on how to get the attention of your local authorities.)

Maybe type in "safe streets" or "crimefighters" or something like that, plus the name of your neighborhood, town, city, state, province, arrondissment, department, or the like, and see what comes up.)

Good luck. You and your neighbors shouldn't have to put up with this.

ShiftHappens

Are you in the US? Call your counties code enforcement.

Say there are children that regularly walk past the home and there are drugs and rats.

Anna

Yeah, I would call the police or city authorities to come and take a look and hopefully, to make a decision to condemn the house.

zerothehero

It's complicated. The police surely know. They routinely drive past obvious code violations and do nothing until someone complains, and then it becomes a conflict. I complained about an abused dog (different address) and ended up subpoenaed to testify in the case, and had to defend my actions (filming, "throwing rocks" at the dog which were actually dog biscuits because the poor thing was thin and chained). The police here are sketchy, too. Lots of them, anyway. I've heard too many stories about people contacting them and it backfires. And right now they've made it clear they're trying to stay safe and won't address "petty crime," so it's a free for all. The local stores are not only out of toilet paper; they're out of guns. The blessing is because it's across the street and around the corner I don't see it unless I go down that street, so I'm just not walking the dog down that street anymore, not since I saw the needle in the grass when we were rounding the shattered glass. Asking God to bless America hasn't had much effect, I'd say. I'm just feeling kind of hopeless and trying to rethink it. I really can't complain. I've had a good life, I'm healthy, wife is healthy, we're not starving, I'm employed, we're not broke. Just a lot of disappointments, life savings disappearing (which I almost deserve because I've never trusted the idea of market-based retirement schemes), stuck at home...but I can work from home, which is a blessing. I keep going back to the Buddha knowledge that we suffer when we cling to wanting things to be different, so I work to let it go. Not much else to be done, really. Walk dogs, play guitar, clean house. Maybe I'll do some spring yard work. Sorry for being a downer. I'm not usually one to unload on SR. Not recently, anyway. Have a good day.

HeadEast

What she said.

zerothehero

Lol. I guess you missed the part about it not being safe or effective to call the police around here.

2muchpain

Have you consider organizing a crime watch in your area? Maybe if these people see you are organized, maybe they will get the message and leave. John

ShiftHappens

I was in the same boat

The cops blow you off, but Code Enfocement LOVES a call where they get to exercise their authority😀

The not only condemned a flop house, but had several people arrested. All on the down low 😀😀

Austin4Wyo

It may be an ineffective recourse, but if it's your only recourse, and you choose not to exercise it, that's your decision. Own the consequences of your choice, and remember, choosing not to decide is still a choice.

Plenty of people offering constructive solutions, and you're poo-pooing all of them. Do you want this fixed, or did you just want to play the victim?

zerothehero

Wow. Who are you to judge? I was just venting. I'm not playing "the victim." Have you considered that in my original post I did not ask for advice? As if I hadn't thought about all those suggestions and more before I posted? I made my decision before I chose to vent about it in a post that I had no plans to do anything about it and would just let it play itself out.

So, I will own the consequences of my ill-chosen decision to vent about something and thus receive unsolicited advise and judgement. No thank you very much.

Misssy2

Everytime you look at the house...remember the part of the serenity prayer...Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change....seems the police are taking a blind eye...and in that case of course you are not going to put yourself in danger....and approach anything about this situation.....So since you are not in control...of this....you have to find a way to let it go.

Its so heartbreaking to hear that #1 you and other people in the area have to watch this kind of devastating destruction...#2 that the people in this situation at the "trap house" are in total devastating self destruction and their lives will eventually lead to death if they keep it up.....

Remember this....nothing lasts forever...and this will change and get better one day also....The police honestly are probably afraid to go near these people because these types of people have a higher risk of contracting the infection or something with their poor hygiene, low immune systems....and drug use...Probably when your area returns to any type of normalcy this situation will be dealt with.

I'm sorry you have to watch it....for me it would be a reminder of where I could end up if I want to keep drinking....I never thought I would end in hospital from drinking and I have too many times....So I don't even want to challenge the fact that I don't think I could ever end in a "trap" house...I'm sure that is a possibility for me if I want to drink again..

Sober369

Hey Zero, I love that you posted that here and I totally agree that sometimes we just need to vent stuff. Especially right now when we aren't going to be around others who we might normally vent to.
Ignore the haters. Haters gonna hate.

zerothehero

Suggestion are fine. Support fine. Judgement not so much. Thanks.

Update: It looks like it's been boarded up, and though there is evidence folks are camping on the property at times, it's quieter. I rarely leave the house and avoid going that direction, so I've seen it literally once since the original post above. My guess is it's being condemned. It is what it is. A temporary eyesore and moderate hazard to avoid.

Dee74

A gentle reminder that you guys can report posts if you feel it breaks a rule, or use the ignore function

Dee
Administrator
SR

zerothehero

It just struck a nerve. I'm good. Thanks, Dee.

SoberCAH

Sorry for your travails, Zero.

I don’t know where you live, but some big city police departments in the US don’t investigate property crimes and, I suspect, may not be particularly proactive on matters like this.

Also, I don’t particularly worry about homeless people or a few shady looking characters, but I lack the courage to take on the Crips, which is the gang whose members dress in blue clothing.

Glad to hear that someone has boarded up this nuisance structure.