The friend who helped put the lock in turns out to be friends with the harrassing neighbor. The locksmith who put the lock on the front door said she probably gave an extra key to her friend.
Its a condo.
nevermind. Answered
OK, new lock needs to be installed yesterday. Also, setting up a hidden camera would be lovely, preferably pointed at that door and one at any other door.
Somebody is being called a “friend” when they are not, in fact, being a friend.
New locks should be installed by a neutral, professional individual from a competent locksmithing company.
Can the condo mngmt get involved?
+1. It’s ridiculously easy to put a new lock in a door, even a deadbolt. Your neighbor is either terminally stupid or terminally clueless. I advise against getting further involved in the melodrama, as it will only lead to tears all around. Even if this issue gets resolved, another issue will happen.
It takes almost no time, and almost no skill, to replace a lock in a door. I’ve done it in 30 minutes, both a deadbolt and a locking doorknob (hence my understanding of the “almost no skill” part). Your friend needs to replace the locks himself. Or there’s more going on, because none of this information makes any sense.
I thought a screen door with a hook latch had to be hooked shut from the inside. (At least, in my experience with them, they do.) So how is a screen door getting hooked shut in the morning to start with?
How often does this happen? I should think that even if someone was going to creep their neighbor’s house, they wouldn’t do it every day.
I’m getting a strong sense of general lameness about this whole deal.
Why not be the skeptical guy? The story doesn’t add up.
I think this is a case where it would be worth getting it done by a master locksmith. If this thing turns into a police matter, then having it done by a professional provides a massive amount of ass-cover.
There’s some BS happening here somewhere. Your friend comes home to find the one door with a deadbolt unlocked and the screen unlatched. But the trespasser(s) may have a key? If they were trying to be sneaky and they had a key, wouldn’t they just go back out the way they came in and lock the door behind them?
He hooks the back screen door, locks the deadbolt and leaves out the front.
As am I. These one and two sentence answers and absolutely no background or context are baffling.
**Tamara+: **Assuming you are being sincere, and I have no reason to doubt you are, can you provide some sort of context? Why do the neighbors want to go into his condo? Is there some kind of history here? Is their some sort of implicit threat – other than the obvious trespassing-- or are they just “messin with his head?” Does he know these neighbors? Can’t your friend get another friend to hang out one day and watch his condo on the sly? Nanny cams are fairly cheap, have him put a few of those in the condo near the doors.
If it were me, I’d get one of those door barricades and lock the front door (can’t find a picture but it is basically a big metal bar from the floor to the door that barricades the door akin to propping a chair under the door) go out the back, drive away, then walk back and find a place to watch and see what my neighbor was up to. Then if I caught him, with photographic evidence of course, go beat the holy hell out of him or call the cops, depending on my mood.
There is a “nutball” factor going on here either on the part of your friend or the neighbor.
To answer your OP: without any sort of proof of foul play or proof that your friend is in any danger there is no legal recourse for him.
So… the neighbor lets himself in the front door then leaves out the back? When will the new deadbolt locks be installed on the front and the back doors?
Hmm. I thought this rang a bell. Searching on the OP’s “threads started by” history, I see she’s had similarly weird issues with a neighbor and complaints about a police officer and his (lack of) response to neighbor problems. Birds of a feather?
I feel like getting information from Tamara is like pulling teeth. Good grief, please for the love of strife, tell us the backstory of the neighbor and your friend.
Why didn’t your friend get the locks changed immediately upon learning that someone was getting in? This is just plain old common sense!
Apparently because it was more cost-effective to shop for an alarm system.
(Seriously, my mother, who still has to call me to ask how to rewind a tape in her VCR, was able to install new deadbolts unassisted.)
Yep, I call bullshit on the whole OP. Thanks for the background links.
On the practical aspects of changing locks (assuming the OP’s friend is in financial hardship or wishes to be frugal.)
The easiest lock change out is replacing the existing deadbolt with one by the same manufacture. IME the only time replacing a deadbolt can possibly be difficult is changing manufactures–so if you have Schlage replace with Schlage, etc.
Cheap change outs for both front and backdoor deadbolts:
-buy 2 keyed the same (these are marked as such at HomeDepot, et.al.)
-if there’s only a turn lock on the front door this can be replaced with a dead bolt, as to save drilling an additional lock space. It won’t look great but who cares?
-your existing backdoor deadbolt can be keyed to match the key of the new deadbolt you buy for your frontdoor. this usually costs ~$5-$10 per cylinder and is done by a locksmith in less than 5 minutes. sometimes the lock does not work as smoothly when this is done (like having a new key made, it may only roughly work) so you may want to repeatedly open and close the lock after you install it. Re-keying is also a bad idea for 2 key deadbolts (deadbolts which require a key to enter or exit) because in case of emergency you need the lock to turn without fail.
Now guard your one key vigilantly. You’ll need to repeat at least the re-keying part if you leave your key with anyone (as your friends are not your friends, this is especially important.) Don’t leave a copy of your key laying around; meaning on your key rack when you have a party, in your unguarded purse at work, in your door as you carry in groceries. For your own peace of mind just don’t.
I hope this all works out for you.
As another poster mentioned I have also just scanned over your previous posts, with the thought of helping you (sorry if my first post several days ago was not helpful, I wrote it knowing nothing of your situation.)
To spare confusion I’ll replace “your friend” with “you”, only to make the whole muddle more readable.
I believe you are safe from any attempt to plant drugs to precipitate a false arrest. Why? Because of the history. The police have been called so many times they’re sick of it. The History means the police won’t believe His Story. They won’t necessarily believe your side either, that’s a given. So chillax on the police end of it.
Next, how exactly did you overhear the neighbors spouting off their evil plan? It sounds like (to me, only to me) the neighbors heard that you thought they’d been in your house, so to add fuel to the neighborly fire they let their evil plan be overhead.
To deescalate the whole situation simply pay your neighbors no mind.
They’re pounding on the shared wall when you turn on your light switch- ignore it. All the other stuff they’ve done that you’ve called the police over- ignore it. Be quite, keep to yourself, and most of all, don’t react. It’ll be tough at first but they’ll tire of harassing you if they get no results.
Your neighbors, your friends-who-aren’t-friends and anyone who is reporting neighborhood gossip (any neighborhood gossip) to you can be shut down. Simply refuse to discuss it with your friends and cheerfully change the subject.
Ignore the hell out of your neighbors. It’ll go away.