One thing I’d suggest for the OP is to write down all the pertinent information beforehand - license plate, make and model of car, color of car, name and address of neighbor, brief, physical description of neighbor, etc. Have all that info on a pad next to the phone, so when you call, you have it right there in front of you. You won’t have to wrack your brain for answers, and if you get nervous, you can just read from the pad and don’t have to think.
They will probably ask your name, but you are allowed to tell them you’d prefer to remain anonymous.
Driving while drunk is against the law almost everywhere in the world, even if you don’t cause an accident. This is because driving drunk kills people. Call the police.
Drunk driving killed more people in 2001 than terrorists did. It’s a big deal.
Elbows is right, it’s useless to talk to her when she’s drunk. If you want to talk to her, wait until she’s sober. She won’t remember anything you told her otherwise.
Unanimous? I don’t think so. I you’re too pussy to tell her to her face she’s a big smelly dangerous drunk than you have no business tattling to the cops. She’s an old woman for Christ’s sake. What’s she gonna do, get drunk and beat you up?
Since you’re going to have to live with this neighbor make sure you call the police anonymously. You can’t be assured the police won’t bring your name into it. And you don’t want an mean old drunk after you, after she gets her driving privileges revoked
This advice is beyond foolish. If she were just getting drunk and wandering around her yard, no big deal, but she is getting behind the wheel of car and driving around. She has already nearly hit people and other cars. This woman is a tragedy waiting to happen.
How would you feel is she hits and kills a toddler or an elementary school child walking to school?
Old women, particularly ones with violent ex-husbands, can have weapons in their homes, just like young ones. Why take a chance?
I’ve been in more fights with drunks, regardless of age, than anyone else.
She’s not your friend. No intervention required. Not your job.
However, if I were you, I’d stop helping her out by letting her use your phone and such. It could lead to badness. I understand wanting to help, but some people are beyond your help. She sounds like one of them.
Of course I will. I believe I implied that in my second post, so I’ll be explicit here: yes.
I don’t really appreciate everyone acting like I’m horrible for having been confused or uncertain about this, but I understand the sentiment nonetheless. The next time I see her I will be sure to call.
On the other hand, I will not be confronting her personally, and I do not believe she is a mean drunk or will come gunning for me if I did. I don’t even think she’d trample my flowerbeds. I just don’t think it would be helpful for me to do so, and I don’t feel comfortable doing it.
That’s silly. If you know your neighbor is a wife beater or muderer or arsonist and you’re afraid to confront him, does that mean you shouldn’t go to the police? People should only alert the law when they’re not afraid of the criminal?
Yes, and I’d do it in writing, so that, after she gets out on bail, she can look back at it and see it as an artifact of her drunken consciousness, rather than you punishing her. Just maybe it will lead her to sober up.
Am I the only one here that thinks this is a dick move? First tell the old lady that you would allow her to continue to drive drunk and if she does it again, then it’s on her.
But give her the chance to stop it. Her life is already in the toilet without tacking on an unneeded DWI conviction just because you don’t have the nerve to confront her.