FILE UNDER: Dangerous Neighbor
Four years ago, my next door neighbor of 20+ years sold his house to a man who instigated a confrontation at a Deland gas station with two Hispanics, resulting in a fight, and he retrieved a handgun from his car, shooting the man in the stomach. He got off, citing "stand your ground".
Moving in next to me, he turned his back yard into a 24/7 floodlight lite compound with 8 feet of fiberglass fabric added onto the existing 6' chainlink fence, and mounted cameras on his house, trees, and the fence pointed at all his surrounding neighbors.
He also has spotlights and one of those rotating holiday "bat" lights aimed at our bedrooms and sliding glass door, and said my DIRECT TV dish was sending "death rays" at his house.
He removed my property markers, dumping garbage on my lawn, claiming it as his.
One of his hobbies is building explosive devices and setting them off, shaken everyone's windows.
We have has some serious confrontations.
He has threaten everyone in this subdivision, many times with a gun, trying to instigate a confrontation, but for some reason the Sheriffs Dept , who were called many times, were unable to do anything, but were well aware of this man due to hundreds of complaints.
Jan 2018, he was walking his dog in the middle of the street, refusing to move aside for a car. Words were said and he kicked the man's car, denting the door. Getting out his car, and realizing he was dealing with an unstable person, turned to get to his car and was stabbed in the back.
Somehow, he got off again with "stand your ground".
Many nights he would wander about the neighborhood, or carry furniture out of the house and destroy it.
A motorhome was purchased that was parked in the driveway became his residence.
Tuesday, October 27, he was playing super loud music aimed at the neighbor across the street, his current target for harassment, sitting in his car waiting for that neighbor to confront him, when a Sheriff's deputy responded to the noise complaint.
Getting out of his car, he aimed a handgun at the deputy, telling him to get off his property, and during the standoff, yelled "shoot me"!
The deputy stayed cool, and disarmed him, finding another gun holstered on his ankle, took him off to jail.
He got out on bail, with the condition of surrendering all his firearms, which he did not.
Monday, Nov 1, 12:00PM the Marion County Sheriff's swat team with a warrant to search and retrieve these firearms, and arrest for non compliance of a court order, finding a lot more than firearms, of which there were many in two safes, and the Bomb Squad was called.
They also found five IED's, a couple of live military hand grenades, bomb making materials, and lots of ammo.
The inside of the house was totally destroyed, with the walls lined with electrified steel mesh, creating a Faraday cage, I guess to keep out the DIRECT TV death rays.
The Sheriff's continued gather evidence until after 10:00 PM.
During the time the Sheriff deputies were on site, neighbors would drive by cheer, one yelled, "It's about time".
Yes it was, and a BIG THANKS to the MARION COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPT for a good well done.
