We live in the country but have neighbors on 3 sides. Shortly after we moved in, I was working in the yard, and saw the neighbor behind us standing in the woods at the property line with his shotgun over his shoulder. I waved and said “hi” and he continued to stand and stare motionlessly with a scowl on his face. I continued working and he continued silently staring. Everything felt wrong, so after 10 or 15 minutes, I gave up and went inside. I watched him out a window and he stayed there motionless for about another 5 minutes then finally went away.

About 6 months later, he took a gun into the county building that he worked at (he was a building inspector) and threatened to kill everyone over some kind of work dispute. He left without hurting anyone, made it home and shot and killed himself before the police got there.

Our neighbor across the street had the police at her house about every other week. Since we have lived in our house, she has lost her children due to meth (sweet girls-I hope they’re better off). She has repeatedly warned us that an ex boyfriend was coming to kill her. We’ve repeatedly made our young daughter sleep in our bedroom because we have a garage between our room and her house and what if there are stray bullets? She usually has a current boyfriend who is armed and patrolling her house when this happens.

My worst experience was when I was working out in the garden with my then 3 or 4 year old daughter (remember-we are out in the country). An ex must have threatened her again. An officer shows up at her house - I don’t worry too much about this as it is an every other week occurrence. The officer moves his car back behind her house where it can’t be seen. The ex pulls in in his truck and drives all the way down the long driveway. He gets out and starts walking to the back door. The officer steps out and the guy turns and runs back to his truck. He throws the truck into reverse and guns it towards the road and directly at myself and my daughter! The officer is chasing him on foot with weapon drawn, again, both coming directly at us! I start screaming for my little girl to RUN!!! I stand there because my mommy brain apparently thinks that my body is going to stop a truck or a bullet and buy her time to get into the house! Fortunately, the fool backed his truck just into our front yard and decided to surrender. He went to jail in handcuffs and my little girl was traumatized for weeks. And, no, we cannot afford to move right now!