I know someone who has been having neighbor trouble for over a year. Their door doesn’t work well, and they are sure their neighbors have been coming in while they are out. Now they’ve overheard the neighbor saying they were going to put drugs in the house next time they enter. Is there any way for my friend to get recourse for this or protect himself against it?
The best, easiest, and first thing your friend should do is secure his home. Get a new door, get better locks, make sure that the windows are secure. That would probably solve about 99.9% of the problem right there. Security cameras and/or home security systems would be next.
Is fixing the door an option? Call the police? Nail the door shut? Install security cameras?
Yes, hes been pricing alarm systems, but hopefully he can get them installed before she acts.
As said, fixing the door would solve the problem. Why would the neighbours leave drugs in the house? Doesn’t make sense. Surely they would want to smoke 'em if they’ve got 'em.
The only reason to do it would be to then call the police to get them in trouble. Seems unlikely if they use drugs themselves.
Someone you know believes his neighbors are surreptitiously entering his house, but he doesn’t become concerned until overhearing that Creepy McCreeperson plans to drop off some drugs in the abode? And this acquaintance just happened to be eavesdropping when this evil plot was explained?
I mean, there’s got to be some missing facts here, no?
It sounds more like a half-baked plot to reverse frame the neighbor if the occupant’s stash is ever discovered. Something along the lines of “Nah man, I heard my neighbor say he was going to plant drugs in my sock drawer!” "No, of course I don’t look in my sock drawer every day… “Why, sandals of course.”
I don’t mean to be that guy who gets all skeptical about the OP, I’m just saying it’s hard to propose solution when the basic setup seems so absurd. Are there some more facts you could toss our way, Tamara? What kind of residences are these? What kind of neighborhood? Is your acquaintance an otherwise stable person?
It’s really hard to believe that your friend hasn’t thought of fixing the door so it does work well. I would think that could be done cheaper and quicker than installing an alarm system, and would be more effective to boot.
This don’t make sense. :dubious:
This sure sounds like the person you know is suffering from a mild case of paranoia.
On the two separate occasions I’ve been told such stories the teller has induced paranoia through powered cocaine use. Going through my acquaintances’ stories point by point, with them doing the telling and me the temperate questioning, led to the conclusion they’d been doing drugs. In both cases my “someones” denied the drug use led to their difficulties.
As a warning to you in both cases my “someone” wanted something from me.
Your “someone” may not fit anything I’ve described, if that’s the case why don’t they fix the door? financial problems? why?
Alternatively, why don’t they wait until their neighbors are home (during a time they believe they’ve been trespassed on), call the police and file a report? The trespassing neighbors will surely see the police and understand “someone” knows what they’ve been up to.
Hope this problem goes away for your friends, eventually and with treatment, it did for mine.
as to the doubters, I actually was in the stall in a bathroom in public school a few months before a school trip to Washington DC where they were discussing planting drugs in my suitcase and telling the chaperone. I know they couldn’t see me because the stalls were little tiled rooms with doors that went to the floor. I normally avoided that john because it was the smoking hangout, but I was desperate to pee … and they were discussing who they could get to be my trip roommate that would let them into the room.
They didn’t realize that I had no intention of going on the field trip, they were all small town bumpkins and the trip to DC was a serious event in their lives. I went to NY and DC and other interesting places on vacation regularly so had no interest in going. Major fail. Thank god for private schools after that.
This was the same year that someone tried to plant drugs on a guy that backfired because someone caught them in a snapshot coming out of his room.
I detest public school jackasses.
My friend is normal and stable. The neighbor has bothered them for months, and the police aren’t interested anymore.
If your friend is normal, why didn’t s/he get the door fixed? That would be the normal, stable thing to do.
Old-fashioned manual cocaine is bad enough, but this new stuff that you plug into the wall will really get you out there.
Not to pile on, but “someone’s entering my house/room while I’m away” has got to be one of the fundamental paranoid thoughts. I’ve met several people who’ve thought it was happening despite lack of persuasive evidence. Every small detail becomes a clue…“I’m SURE I didn’t leave that newspaper folded!”
Start with a better door and lock.
IME, normal/stable people do not live in homes without functional doors.
Basically the OP questions seems really a question about “how to defend yourself when someone plants something on you.”
Despite TV and movies, while it’s easy to plant things on people, cops aren’t stupid. They just don’t say “You have Coke, conviction.” Someone who’s never been in trouble with the law isn’t going to have too much troule convincing the cops he didn’t do it.
But it gets dicier, if the person has had law issues. Supponsing this is a woman and she has been involved in prostitution but never drugs. Well even if this is so, it’d be very difficult to convince the cops you didn’t have anything to do with drugs, 'cause so much of prostitution revolves around drugs.
The best temporary solution to this problem is to create a maker. Something like baby powder (or boric acid for roaches) across the door jam. When the person leaves it’s a straight line, if it’s disturbed when he gets home, he knows the flat is tampered with and can check
Or the use the “Best defense is a good offense.” Have the guy go to the cops with a break in complaint. He could say, “they took my stereo and my TV but I found this too.” And then show the cops the drugs and say “They must’ve dropped it.” Of course if the guy has a criminal background he risks being caught out.
So the real question is “how to protect yourself from being set up.”
The only real answer is “avoid putting yourself in a situation where you can be set up.”
Are you suggesting filing a false police report about stolen items? If so, that’s really not a good idea for lots of reasons.
Moved to IMHO.
The real REAL question is “how to protect yourself from being set up by people planting stuff in your home.”
The only real REAL answer is “avoid putting yourself in a situation where people can walk into your home and plant stuff to set you up.”
Otherwise known as “locking the door.”
Ok, OP - is the problem that your friend can’t afford the supplies from the hardware store? Are there no hardware stores in the area?
If it’s not either of those two issues, I can’t honestly see how this is even worth a thread.
He had a new lock put in his back door a bit ago, a friend and her cousin installed it. Its a deadbolt. When he comes home, the hook on the screen door is removed and the door unlocked.
So either the neighbor is a master locksmith, or he’s got another point of entry into your friend’s domicile and is merely exiting via the deadbolted door.
Is your friend living in a free-standing house, or is it a unit in an apartment building, or what?