A Menacing Resident

I am President of an HOA with a mix of townhouses and semi-attached.

One morning, a couple of weeks ago my front door was open and I was looking out through the screen in my storm door. Suddenly a car pulled up to the curb in front of my house facing the wrong way. The driver, who is a resident of one of the townhouses around the corner from me, jumped out of his car and came charging up my front lawn to my front door angrily yelling that the cops were giving parking tickets on his street and he accused me of calling the cops. When I told him I hadn’t called the cops he yelled “If I find out that you called the cops”……then he caught himself and said that he would be parking his car in front of my house.

He came to my house because he knows I’m Board President and apparently thinks that anything like this is the Board’s, or especially, the Board President’s fault.

FYI – No one on the Board called the cops. We (the Board) know where he lives. He is not listed as an owner on the County Assessor’s website but we think he is married to the owner.

Does anyone have advice on what if anything the Board can do about a menacing resident?

I agree on call the cops. Also if you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

It's not a board problem or an association problem. It is your problem.

You are now the target of an angry and irrational person through no apparent fault of your own. Some will tell you not to worry; you should be worried but not to the point of panic. Call the police and put it on record that this guy accosted you.

If you lived in my state I would recommend seeking an injunction to prohibit harassment; find out what might be available in your area to keep him away from your home. (Injunctions won't stop the problem but it gives the police grounds to arrest the guy if he violates the terms.)

You might also want to consider installing some sort of simple audio-video recorder to document future problems because he may be back the next time he imagines you have caused him grief.

One of the reasons I do not take matters like this lightly is that a number of years ago in my area there was a resident/member of an association who accused the board and his neighbors of working against him. He showed up at meeting armed to the teeth and killed at least one person before he was subdued. Irrational people do irrational things.

By all means allow the actions of a mentally disturbed individual 15 years ago cower you into a state of abject fear.

At least one major city has a walk-in style community mediation centre where free or lowprice neutral help can avoid turning "something small" into "something really big".

Maybe Joseph H2 (Penn)'s police dept can direct to something like that. Not everyone in Pennsylvania is a Quaker, but small gaps in factuals & restrictions might be worth trying to resolve to diffuse whatever happened.

We have heard only Joseph H2 (Penn)'s account. Maybe it was scarey. Many of my former city mates might have considered it routine, like lovetalk in the Bronx. The 'menacer' threatened to start parking his car on the public street in front of Joseph's house. Some of the commenters pointed to helping the 'menacer' to get the correct story.

Escalation is such a slippery slope that some form of neutral community mediation might ( ? ) be better tried upfront than T.R.O. restraining orders.

Everybody knows horror stories. Here are a couple that might have been avoided by community mediation :

A harmless dispute about height of grass-cutting on a laneway-dividing grassed area (70 ft2) , next triggered videotaped threats to the victims' remedial fence-builder totally within lawful boundary, plus a police visit that preceded acts of vandalism persuasively caught on videotape. Flash forward six years after the vandal was jailed a week and TRO'd for 6 months to allow the victims time to sell and move away ( which they did by 10 miles). The TRO had ordered the vandal totally out of his own home next door for the full 6 month period.

Using only litigation the vandal spent the next 5 years pursuing in court his now departed neighbours for what the police did, losing each time but leaving the victims with over $400 K in costs awards against the vandal - STILL UNPAID.

Another ? :

to save a mere couple of hundred dollars in mid 1970s boundary survey costs, one rural neighbour built a garage whose rural eavestrough trespassed by five inches.

Over the next thirty plus years the dispute escalated wildly but below direct physical assault. Once both neighbours retired, the disputed five inch overhang between these low density rural properties got their undivided attention. Ironically the trespasser prevailed in court after both sets of retirors had frittered away in total almost $ 130 K instead of enjoying their retirement as friends. Was saving the $300 in mid-1970s survey costs, worth all this ?

"for 'perspective': The 'menacer' threatened to legally park his vehicle on a public street.
. . . . the horror - the horror . . . "

but without being there & picking up the "menacer's" whole message with all 5 senses . . . Could it have been a quick cool down & totally empty threat ?

There are enough violent outcomes that I would try to mend fences but quietly remedy any lack of exterior surveillance devices not intruding onto privacy rights of others. ( My low density neighbours & I all have guns but locked away. Most of us are elderly enough to cool down. )

We have all the old Neo-Nazi's in Sun City to thank for Sheriff Joe. He is presently fighting a federal contempt-of-court citation when he continued his Hispano-phobic roundups of anyone darker than himself. Among his latest antics was that the judge found out that during a period when Sheriff Joe said he had no money to implement earlier court-ordered reforms he hired investigators to see if they could dig up some dirt on the judge's wife.



Not too many years ago Arizona was said to have had the nation's second-highest per capita boat ownership. Go figure.



Glassel's first psychotic act was not shooting up his HOA meeting. He had done plenty before that. When he showed up at the meeting someone should have been on the phone to the police immediately instead of waiting for him to make the first move.

In the case in this thread where a non-owner ran up to the front door of the president's personal residence and began yelling accusations that the president caused the police to issue a parking ticket, the OP would be right to be worried for his personal safety. The action was textbook psychotic, an irrational response to a common situation.

Most on here are willing to gamble the OP's life on the proposition that the other guy was just having a bad day. I am not suggesting that this gives the OP grounds for blowing him away but I would recommend keeping eyes wide open and some form of personal protection handy any time this guy is around.

Take note. AZ is an Open Carry state. Too bad the board was vulnerable. I've heard about Sheriff Joe ... I love the man. Don't prisoners in AZ wear pink and eat baloney? Boards need to be prepared for the worst offender at any time. We don't have open carry in Michigan and I sure wish we did.

Stay safe.

Is Florida not a "stand your ground state"?

Actually, it is now a concealed-carry state. Anyone who may legally own a firearm may carry it concealed without a permit.

So far, I am unaware of any major problems. I think this came about because most people arrested in the past for carrying concealed weapons were otherwise innocent folks concerned for their safety. The bad guy would fire a few shots and run but the victim would stick around and be arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.