Neighbor Feud

My neighbors have been feuding. A bit of background:

1. Top floor neighbor - TFN - lived in building for something like 15 years. A busybody, but nice enough. Got Audrey some dog biscuits when I moved in. A few months later her insane dogs attacked Audrey. I stay out of her way for the most part because thats how I roll with my neighbors - I'd rather not know them.

2. New neighbors on main floor - NN - moved in maybe 1-2 months ago. I'm not exactly sure who lives there because there's a constant stream of people going in and out. Sometimes I think it's these stylish gay guys with a Jack Russell Terrier. Other times I think its this lady. They always have all these youth-types coming in and out. They don't bother me at all, so I just leave them alone. The one I met seemed really nice.

So TFN hates NN because NN's pals always ring TFN's buzzer. This mistake is understandable as our buzzers aren't marked. Irritating yes, but also an honest mistake. So one day she went downstairs and flipped out on them. It was pretty exciting. Resolution: marked her buzzer clearly (duh).

It should be mentioned here that New Neighbs are African American. I'm concerned that she's only being this vigilant with them because of racial stereotypes. As in, I'm not sure she'd treat a white couple the same way in this situation. She always seems to be yelling at them for something, which I don't really understand because they aren't noisy. So it's sort of a delicate situation. I don't want to label her that way, but I also don't think she's being very fair to them. She has called the cops on them before, for reasons I don't know.

Cut to this past Monday. I walked Audrey one last time just minutes before 11 pm. While out there, I see a car full of people yelling at a woman-NN (NN was holding the door open to yell at them). I didn't think much of it. Audrey pees, I return indoors. Only a few minutes later I hear door slams, sort of a scuffle...I'm starting to get irritated because the noise puts Audrey on edge. Then a few minutes later 3 cop cars show up. I assumed that TFN got pissed again about the noise and called the cops. I thought it odd that so many cops would come for a noise complaint. I see TFN out there gesticulating wildly to the cops, giving a statement. The cops were here for an hour, which I found odd for a simple dispute between neighbors. I couldn't really hear through the window, and I couldn't open the window because it would be so obvious. I did, however, hear TFN say something about an armed robbery in the building. Now this freaks me out, and reminds me a little too closely of my robbery in SF a few years ago. I live alone in a 'garden' apartment. I have to go in and out of the building all the time with the dog. I was just minutes off from the alleged robbery time. I tried to calm down because I didn't really know what had happened, and I knew TFN was already all up in NN's business.

So a few days go by, no landlord call to be like "uh what happened," no new developments. I assumed that nothing happened, and that TFN was indeed being a douche.

Then this morning I am walking Audrey and TFN is leaving the building. She stops me and says "did you see all the cops here Monday?" I tell her yes and ask what happened. She told me "armed robbery," and I asked her for more info.

Apparently, in her words (further confirming my fears of her racism) "two women and a huge black guy that know NN rang my [TFN] buzzer over and over, and when they couldn't get in they [somehow got inside I forgot what she said] came into NNs apartment, stole their car keys then stole their car. Those new neighbors are trouble."

!!!!

So a few things: 1 - she didn't mention any weapon...2 - the robbery was between people who knew each other, not some random scary dude hiding in the hallway waiting to get any random who came in.

Seems like maybe TFN is blowing the incident out of proportion a bit, and I was calmed to know that it was between people who knew each other. BUT, it is a bit unsettling that my new neighbors associate with people who would do that, and makes me more wary of all the people they have coming in and out of the building. That said, they still really don't bother me at all so in the end I sort of don't care. I'll probably pay a bit more attention to my surroundings when I'm outside with Audrey late at night though. Don't want to walk into the wrong situation.