Different Neighbors This Time

So, that happened last Saturday night.

There I was, it was Saturday night, I had no other plans other than sitting there flipping through the television channels instead of doing something productive. I'd finally settled on The Animal Planet, a show called Mermaids: the Body Found.  

My attention was split between the television show, doing something on the computer that wasn't going to change the world and listening to my friend talk about … whatever it was she was talking about. Not that I wasn't listening, it's just that after the rest of the evening played out it really wasn't that important enough to recall.

The clock read 9:40. I know this because my eyes were already drooping and I was wondering if it was too early to crawl into bed, especially on a Saturday evening.

Then we heard it. Between my friend talking and the television trying to convince us that humans were closer to Mermaids than great apes - shouting.

What was that? Was it a BBQ gone wild? Wasn't there a UFC fight going on or something? Maybe one of my neighbors had the fights on and they were screaming for, or against, their favorite fighter? Or, maybe it was an argument from a neighbor that spilled outside? Who knew?

Being the inquisitive person I am, and not sure if one of my neighbors was in a fight, I stepped outside to stars, a quarter moon and silence. Perhaps I hadn't heard anything at all. My friend came out with me, her dog on leash and mine running free.

Then we heard it. Across the grassy yard in the next building screaming. My friend said, “I think they're watching the fight.”

“That didn't sound like fan screaming, that sounded like an argument,” I said.

“No, I think they're watching UFC.”

Then the neighbor's door opened and the wife was pushed out, backwards as though it was against her will. You have to understand, when these people moved into that home there was some sort of commotion with the husband where he was going through the house and slamming every door (including cabinets and drawers) as loud as he could while screaming. I'd gone over there to make sure everything was okay and the wife, at the time, said it was fine. Every once in a while he has fits, she said.

Okay. I didn't have any reason not to believe her. They are young, both under 21, I think. After that first night neither one of them ever made an effort to say “hi” or speak to me. I'd see them coming and going from time to time, but nothing more.

Then tonight she's being shoved out the door amidst yelling. As soon as he shuts the door on her she starts taking of her clothes. My first thought was that she was trying to entice him – see, look at me! We can have sex if you just let me in the door! But he was having none of it. He opened the door just enough to scream at her, “You're not coming back in this house! You're not coming in like that!”

Naked? Or, maybe she was high. Not marijuana high, but perhaps something else. Don't get me wrong, I'm no expert, but I've never heard of anyone getting out of control on pot. At this point I dialed the police.

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When he wouldn't let her in she walked over to the bedroom window and punched through the glass. Yes, she actually punched through the glass with her bare hands. She was still naked as she crawled through, at some point cutting herself, but not letting it stop her. In fact, she didn't cry out or scream or anything.

During all of this, I was standing a dozen yards away verifying the address with the police dispatcher and giving play-by-plays of what I could witness. At one point, the husband came around the building having exited the back of the house. He had a small child in his arms. Now, I can't be sure if it's their child or a child from a previous relationship of one of theirs, but the little girl isn't over there all the time even though they have kid toys out on their patio. She was there earlier in the day, though.

A minute or so later the wife comes running around the building, still naked, and the husband takes off down the sidewalk. He was on the phone with someone. It might have been the police, or a friend or a doctor for all I know. He was telling whomever he was talking to, “Now she's chasing me!”

He apparently ran back into the house through the back and tried to barricade the door to the garage to prevent his wife entry. At some point (I wasn't in the house, so I am going by another witness' story) their positions were reversed and he ran out the garage yelling at the other witness to run. The other witness tried to help the wife by offering her jacket and calming her down but the wife was having none of it. Instead of accepting the assistance she (apparently) started throwing things at the would-be helper, made it past her and then chased her husband and the kid around the building again, this time wrapped in a blanket or sleeping bag or something.

While she wasn't leaking blood very visibly, she was leaving bloody footprints on the sidewalk as she chased her husband around.

The husband was able to get back into the house and lock the door, but the wife just shed her blanket and went back through the window she'd broken earlier. They were in the house yelling at each other, I was still on the phone with dispatch and trying to peer in the window to make sure they weren't getting physical with each other, when the first police officer arrived.

At this point there wasn't much screaming or yelling coming from the house. The police officer who arrived first was a little tentative, looking at the pile of clothes on the ground by the door and the blanket by the window.

Another officer showed up and they both stood by the window trying to get someone's attention inside.

I don't know what happened after that, but the door was unlocked and the two officers went in. Through the window I could see them talking at a door. I knew it was a bathroom door from having been in that house when the previous occupants lived there. One of them, presumably the wife, had locked herself in the bathroom off the dining room.

More cops arrived. And more. Finally the fire department. And then finally an ambulance.

Fast forward about twenty minutes and the paramedics are wheeling the wife out on their gurney. Is it called a gurney? She's protesting a little, or at least she sounds like she's protesting. The firemen leave soon after. The police stayed. Not all of them, but enough.

Fast forward a little longer and it's 11PM(ish). A couple of police officers are outside looking for the building's address and taking pictures of the patio where the clothes, broken window and blanket are everywhere. I flagged one down, told him I'm the guy who called dispatch and reported the whole thing. Did he need my statement? He started to say no but the other officer said go ahead and get it, so he took my statement along with one of the other witnesses – the would-be helper who had things thrown at her in the garage.

I'm not entire sure when the police finally left. One minute their cars were still outside and a little while later they were gone. I also don't know if, or when, the wife will be returning or how this will play out with their landlord, either.