Dateline: 2015-16. The screams from the next door neighbor were so bad the 2nd time that I called 911. A month earlier the weird moaning & yelling around midnight was, through the walls, audible in my place, a new dt loft I properly signed lease for. I didn't think much of it then other than it was weird as hell. A few days later 2 police came to his door, I popped my head into the hallway as they were banging on his door for several minutes. Pounding on it actually. His workplace had called the police for a welfare check as he no-showed at work for 3 days. No calls, nothing. He finally answered the door and talked to the gendarme. An ambulance came and actually rolled him away on a stretcher.
An officer knocked on my door and gave me the skinny. He was 'self-medicating' due to major dental work (booze & pills). Not sure why the stretcher was needed; maybe because he had vanished for 3 days. For an eval. Mental? Physical? Who cares. Well, I did a little, partly over the wailing but mostly as we shared a wall, and I was hoping he didn't own guns.
I saw him in the hallway often, returning from work with his big bag of fast food, as I was leaving for my evening bikey rides. Nice office clothes. He never mentioned the incident, just nodded & kept walking. Actually, before this happened, he recruited me to try to fix his apple laptop. Must have mentioned I was a tech guy. Not only do I not know apple tech but I don't even like touching their shite. You're a prisoner if you buy apple products. Let's focus. So I go over there, he's around my age. His elderly mum is there also. I spent 2 hours trying to fix his macbook. I used my phone to search for fixes, but not knowing how to get at the guts of apple shite I couldn't fix it. I saw his mum in the parking lot later, struggling with a bunch of groceries. Maybe she lived there? So I help bring her/their groceries into the building, up the elevator, etc. She had a wagon thing, which was fortunate. Why you ask? Because there were cases & cases of cheap arse generic soda loaded on the wagon. Multiple bags of various chips; entire bags filled with chips. It was surreal, to me. Or maybe it's the south.
Ok so: the 911 call. To review: this was a month after he was rolled away on a stretcher. This time, he was screaming. Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Over & over & over. He wouldn't stop. Several minutes. Sounded like he had tripped, banged his head, something major. So I called 911. The dispatcher could hear him through my phone, through my wall. That's how loud he was. So she sent the troops over. More endless banging on the door. Once again, he came to the door eventually. The gendarme debriefed my after: lotsa booze & pills due to round 2 of his 'dental work.' Once again when I saw him in hallway: nothing, just a nod. I'da thunk he would have popped over & explained / apologized for his fucking meltdowns 2x, but that's just me.
Speaking of emergency services: I made a call for my own place one time. But 1st, called my property management contact to figure out what to do. Nice person, very helpful. So my 1st loft, my own lease, was on top floor of 4 story building. Awesome converted tobacco warehouse. The top floor had whopping 15 foot ceilings. It was like a basketball court inside my place (well, height-wise) with those ceilings.
Ergo, here's the pickle.
The smoke detectors are hard wired into the walls. So that's all fine, but someone way back made the fucktard decision to install them next to the ceiling. Yes: 14ft up. Ya that's dandy if there actually is a fire, I reckon. However! If they ever malfunction, what are you supposed to do? Normal household ladders are 6ft tall total. Even if you do the suicide move of standing on the very top step, you maybe could reach. But again: hardwired. There are no batteries to pop out.
So one afternoon mine started shrieking. No, there wasn't a fire. Or smoke. Or anything. Just shrieking commercial grade fire alarms in my loft. One, then both. You cannot imagine how loud this is. I called the property mgmt co yet again and she told me nothing we can do you need to call fire department. I said sweet jebus really? So I call 911, again, and a full size fire truck arrives at the loft. 3 firefighters in the full firesuits, helmets, etc arrive at my door (easy to locate via the shrieking). I'm apologizing over the din, saying no idea what else to do. They do their thing, disable the shrieking & split. Anyone else ever have this happen? Why my unit? wtf?
I had been waiting seemingly forever for my MN house to sell, which it finally did after 6 months on market. This is in a nice area of Mpls, a mile south of Lake Harriet. 6 blocks south of Mt. Olivet church aka the Lutheran Mothership. Had an earlier offer back out, for well over asking. That one hurt. I live there 12 years. There was a giant Chinese Elm next to house. Had to hire a trimmer as it went way over the neighbor's land. He told me he had injection for this tree that would prevent Elm disease. Cost $400. Lasted forever. He also said Chinese Elms are more resistant to the disease but not immune. I declined. Big mistake. Years later, actually the very year I put on market, 2015, one day appeared a giant orange X on the tree, 4 feet tall. The city tagged it. Letter in the mail said: 'either you chop it down or we will and you'll be charged many thousands via your property taxes.'
Ergo, I got a few bids, ranging from $3k-$9k. Went with the $3k bid. Removal went fine other than they left 4 ft of stump. I didn't care but my buyer freaked the fuck right out the day before closing according to my agent. Had to have them return and remove, and of course pay another $500. Why the fuck couldn't the city have tagged this the next year? Do they go examine house for sale listings? Anyone know?