Story Time: I Just Got Some Neighbors Arrested!

Post Reply New Topic

So my wife and I were hanging out minding our own business when we heard (far from for the first time) some idiot neighbor shooting off guns that regularly shoot too quickly to be anything but automatic weapons. (Possibly selective fire? Not a gun person here, but it sounded like two distinct firing patterns.) Now, we live way out in the country. Nobody bothers anyone for shooting a squirrel or rabbit with a .22 in their yard, but this guy was moving what sounded like a large automatic weapon closer and closer to our little shack in the woods. I went out and yelled at him some. I'll provide a short but mostly precise transcript:

Me: Hey! Knock it off, ***hole! There are kids and pets out here!

Fire another volley of shots.

Me: Knock it the **** off, or I'm gonna call the ****ing cops.

Unintelligible response. Shots continue moving closer.

So my wife called the cops (I can yell angrily; she can calmly speak to dispatch). Someone was out within 20 minutes or so. Another neighbor on the other side was already out waving the cop on We're pretty sure he called too. I could never hear his answer over the gunshots. >_> 10 or so minutes later, a police SUV drove past. There was some degree of commotion (wide spaces between country neighbors) for the next 30-40 minutes, at which point both police vehicles headed out rather quickly, followed by total silence. Eventually another truck followed them out, but we don't know for sure if it was related. We're keeping an eye on the county mugshots. I'll update if we see anything tonight. For now, here is a video of the shots out in the woods. We're not sure how close he got, but it sounded, at its closest, like it could easily have been across the property line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwOphVQcaJ8

Wow man, sounds like a crazy day. I just hope the police leaving first wasn't an indicator of the jackasses runnng the cops off. I'm a little confused, but hope everyone is OK

Don't worry, there was no incoming (in the video). Just sounds like a small caliber semi-automatic pistol or revolver to me regarding the amount of echo. The two distinct noises you heard may have been the echo through the trees (I couldn't pick it up in the video), or perhaps the bullet hitting the target after the shot. Sounds like someone was just plinking/target shooting in his backyard. I highly doubt they were arrested for doing such (unless you live in a country that disallows such).

Here's what it sounds like downrange:

Incoming with a centerfire rifle: crack...boom! Bullet making a supersonic crack, then the muzzle blast catching up
Incoming with a rimfire rifle (.22LR): pow, whack! Small muzzle blast followed by the round hitting nearby (both about the same noise level)
Incoming with a pistol: boom, whack! Same as the rimfire rifle, just with a louder muzzle blast

Just to add, it seems like you overreacted.

If rounds were landing near you (you would have no chance in mistaking such), he was being unsafe and using an inadequate backstop, that's when you'd called the police.

If he's just blasting on his property, well, that's his right and all if it's not at a time that will disturb you (noise laws there).

1) It was much louder than cell phone recording could capture. I could distinctly hear the echo coming back from the three brick houses down the road.

2) These idiots don't do backstops. They shoot off into the woods and at god awful stupid ****. They have hit power and phone lines before. Also, the shots were moving too much (coming closer and closer) to have genuinely been aiming at a stationary target. I don't think they were hitting much of anything, as erratically as most of the shots were coming. We didn't get any good recordings of it, but they were going crazy for a while.

3) Like I said, shooting happens all the time here. I've lived out here my whole life. I know what it sounds like when people are at a safe distance. They started the morning at a safe distance, then played commando until multiple people called the authorities.

4) Also, I don't think anyone who lives behind us but the old, female bus driver has a criminal record that would allow them to own a firearm legally at all. Most of the people who live behind us would be in violation of the law just to have their hands on a gun.

Wow. They're back out there, just as close, trying to goad me. At least it doesn't sound like a ****ing AK again. Maybe having to hide that **** when the cops showed up at least convinced them to stick to legal guns.

This is so much bull****. I'm about to have a ****ing meltdown. All these ****ing rednecks care about is their guns and their cronies. I don't know if I should try to get anything real done in the week and a half before I move out of this piece of **** town. I'd probably have to call the cops enough times to press non gun related charges, since they apparently don't really care about guns being fired dangerously close to people and animals.

I wish I could just set this god forsaken state adrift once I got out. Florida is the biggest ****hole in this whole damn country. Anything good about it is entirely coincidence and luck, but still under attack by someone.

The only real advice is to document any incidents that are unsafe and with evidence, like what you mentioned (power poll). If it can be traced back to them, then the police can do something about it.

It sounds like someone was walking through the woods and shooting at natural inanimate objects, which by itself isn't a concern if they're just hitting something like various trees and all shots are moving away from civilization. Did the shots sound about the same noise level as thunder? Could be almost any manual or self-repeating firearm if so, all of which would be legal to own where you are [and in most parts of the world]; you can fire a centerfire bolt-action rifle about one round every second if you want (less actually. 6 shots in 3 seconds is doable), for example (which sounds quite amazingly loud and fast if you aren't used to it).

With the less noisy firearm today, the police probably asked them nicely to utilize something quieter due to your concerns.

I don't think it really matters where you live, i.e., if it's in the country, there's always going to be people shooting. It comes with it. I've had three neighbors indirectly complain about me shooting the loud stuff safely (shotguns and milsurp centerfire rifles), and I stopped using such most of the time and went to a .22LR rifle so they wouldn't notice it, or it wouldn't sound as scary to them (which it doesn't).

But, the main concern is if they're safe or unsafe about it, and again, document anything that's unsafe.

Maybe you could spend the remaining time staying with a friend or relative? Wishing you a safe move, and good riddance to the crazy neighbor.

There were definitely shots fired too quickly to be anything without a fully auto setting. We didn't manage to get any recorded, but there were bursts that the other neighbor who called police described as machine gun fire. It was something with the capability to shoot 3-5 rounds/second.

You see, I live on a long dirt road that dead ends around a quarter of a mile past my place. Behind us has always been a lawless hellhole. We will have strange traffic build up, followed by police flying low overhead, looking for evidence of drug production or selling, followed by less strange traffic. There have been 3 families uprooted and dismantled due to serious drug busts back there in my lifetime.

Also, we're already staying with a relative, and all of our friends are as broke as we are. But whatever, leaving this terrible town (and these terrible relatives) behind forever. My wife and I both have jobs lined up at a wal mart in bowling green missouri. We've even moved the date up two days because our air conditioner might be dying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-nUA52BS3c

Could just be them bumpfiring.

You can own select fire stuff in Florida.

Perhaps speaking with them and asking them if they're being safe (phone call)? Always good to have open lines of communication going.

Here's a video of what downrange is like with a centerfire rifle (.223; small caliber centerfire rifle. Good to know what it's like to tell if rounds are coming your way):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1iXp5m8 ... re=related

Starts at about 2:00. Tracer rounds. Notice the crack (sonic boom) as the bullet passes then the boom of the muzzle blast catch up.

O, and it doesn't sound like an AK-type rifle in the video; the long stroke gas piston gives off a unique firing signature, especially when recorded. The distinct "clack" after the muzzle blast. Though granted, it could be missed due to the low quality recording; I could hear the talking by you and your partner fine though, and the single shots did sound quite clear.

6 rounds a second works out to about...360 rounds a minute (which is too low for a fully automatic for the most part), but it'd be really hard to tell how many shots are in a single burst without recording it.

If they were shooting away from people and properties, the main problem there is to determine if they were just shooting in a direction they deemed as "safe". One thing I know, "safe" means that there's usually a chance of someone walking through the bush in that direction, and a kilometer away isn't a safe enough distance, and that's a risk people shouldn't take when shooting (goes against the rules in the least). Backstop is always needed, and if I were concerned, I'd give them a call and tell them to do such. The police could step in here and tell them to do such.