Should I Report This Bully To The Police?

[Expat1]

I love in Scotland and feel I have just been subjected to threatening behaviour.

A little background :-

I live in a "quiet" street and although I have a driveway there is not enough space for both my wife's and my car so O tend to park on the road. The people across the road also have two cars but more space. On Saturday I was out with my wife in my car. When we returned we found the car belonging to the son from across the road parked outside our house (despite there being no reason for not parking outside his own house) in such a way that I had to park with my car blocking our drive. This is not the problem. Tonight I pulled up and was subjected to a tirade from the boys farther for parking too close to his sons car. I hasten to add that although I was close I did not touch the other car. His exact words were "if you'd hit my boys car you'd f****** know about it" the guy is slightly taller than me and somewhat "larger" when I pointed out that I hadn't hit his son's car his answer was to repeat the above threat and state "you don't own this f****** street".

His son has in he past been reported to the police for threatening my eldest son while he was on his way home from school and (with a group of his pals) trying to force him off the pavement in the path of a passing vehicle. I am not intimidated by this thug but I am worried for my family as I have to work away from home a lot.

Sorry to have rambled on but any advice would be very much appreciated.

Regards

JH.

[Madmonks]

You should report the incident to the police as a threat has been made. They will require evidence of history of threatening behaviour to back up any future complaint should the threat be carried out.

[excelsior-1]

i agree

[lcg]

make sure you document each incident with good detail and keep a record. as madmonks has already said, report it to get the police aware of the situation and in case this continues. keep your head down and try not to respond, easier said than done i know, but you can also report him for blocking your drive if you have a dropped kerb. good luck x

[Smowball]

Same as above - he is a bully x

[albaqwerty]

I'd report it to the police.

[murraymints]

you have to live with your neighbours... so any police involvement may make things worse...have you canvassed the other neighbours for opinions/ thoughts ?

[Expat1]

Thank you for the very quick and supportive response Madmonk. I would have to wait till tomorrow to report it anyway as the police station in my "village" is only manned Mon -Fri 09:00 to 16:30. The thing that concerns me is if the police get involved it could escalate. My life is stressful enough at the moment and I really don't need this thug causing me more. I just want a quiet life and to be left alone.

Cheers

JH

[dotty.]

invite them over for new years and take a leap of faith that it will clear the air, even if they decline the invite

[murraymints]

I would just carry on and say nought..give him the silent treatment and don't even acknowledge his presence..he`'ll get the message... good luck.

[albaqwerty]

agree with Minty, I hadn't thought of that. Is it council housing? If so, that might be another avenue of thought?

[lcg]

if it is a council or housing association property, any anti social behaviour will likely be a breach of their tenancy. you could report it to both the police and landlord. but....you must keep a detailed record of things. if you do that, your case will be supported much better. don't go over the top, but report any incidents and let them deal with it for you.

[Expat1]

WOW you guys are quick. Many thanks for all the answers.

His son wasn't blocking my drive (yes we do have a dropped kerb) but made it impossible for me to park outside my own property without blocking my dive. This was not a problem as I am on holiday so if we go out we do so in my car. Having to live with these people is one of the reasons I am asking where I stand legally. Personally I believe his behaviour was a belated warning shot for having reported his son for his behaviour towards our eldest. We have stopped bringing our caravan out of storage and down to our house to load it up due to having got back from a holiday to find he had parked his car on the road across from our drive and gone away leaving it there (with his drive empty) so we could not put our van outside the house without blocking the road.

We have lived in the street for nearly 20 years (yes I know this means nothing really) but the bully in question only moved in about 5 or 6 years ago and has taken over. Quite often our weekends been disturbed by him and his friends revving motorbikes and quad bikes and often would race up and down the roars on a quad without a helmet (although he hasn't done this recently) in the past I've had to park 3 or 4 houses away because of his friends cars and trailers.

We have two neighbours one across the driveway has only been in residence for a year or so (but seems to be quite a friendly couple) and the one through the wall is actually on friendly terms with the person in question as they share 3 common areas of interest :- motorbikes, golf and the fact that they are local Scots and I am not. Since the person in question moved in the neighbour through the wall has taken to hanging a Scottish flag from his front window in an attempt to annoy me (I just ignore it).

I'm still not sure what action to take as I don't want him to think he can intimidate me but don't want things to get difficult for my wife and kids.

Once again many thanks for the support.

Cheers

JH

[askyourgran]

I would still report it to the police, blocking your drive is a no-no and threatening behaviour could escalate. Very worrying for you, you have my sympathy

[elliemay1]

Best to ignore it and say nothing as, like all bullies, once they think they have annoyed you, they only get worse. I agree that it has all stemmed from reporting the eldest son to police.

[Expat1]

I can't keep up with you guys :0). It's all privately owned housing in the street.

We don't tend to celebrate new year to a great degree so there wouldnt be anything to invite them over to. We are a quiet family and try to keep ourselves to ourselves so just tend to "see in the bells" then retire to bed. In fact this year I have to be at a customer on the south coast of England first thing on the 2nd so will have to drive down on the 1st (yeah rubbish job but someone has to do it).

Cheers

JH

[EcclesCake]

I appreciate how unpleasant this situation must be but am wondering why your neighbour would hang a Saltire from their home in an attempt to annoy you?

That suggests there is something else going on?!?!?

[Expat1]

Hi Ecclescake.

My screen name Expat1 is because I'm an Englishman living in Scotland :0).

The Scottish flag only started being hung outside a year or so ago after the neighbour and the person in question got friendly. Come to think of it I've not seen it for a while. To be honest I found it funny as I'm actually of mixed ancestry, English, Spanish and Austrian. My family name has a Scottish root. We even have our own Tartan.

Cheers

JH

[Captin Kirk]

Not so much advice as experience with a similiar neighbour. The fact you describe you as liking to keep yourself to yourself unnerves these types. You have nothing in common with them which they find strange and the fact they know little about you makes them suspicious. They will try to provoke a response at the first opportunity to gain some control over you. Be carefull and consider your response if you are planning on moving in the near future as you are supposed to declare disputes

[Expat1]

Once again many thanks everyone for the responses. You have all made very good points and have given me a quite bit to think over. I have as little to do with the family across the road as I can so to just ignore them is actually very easy. I can't see us moving before we strike the big six on the lottery so can't see "Disputes" being a problem.

The strange thing (in my opinion) is that I get on we'll with both families on either side of the "offending" person so can't see it being something I've done. Having said that both those families were in the street when we first moved in and we made an effort to fit in and be friendly.

Cheers everyone for your advice

JH

[joko]

did you block his sons car in? by parking too close so he would struggle to drive away?
if so, you did not have to park that close to his car, and that would be seen as being awkward.

you have no rights over anyone else to park outside your house - they are as entitled to park there as you are - you do not own the road outside your house.
a lot of peope believe they have the rights to the bit of road outside their home, but they dont.

regards what to do... keep a diary and wait and see if anything else happens - if this is all happening because you reported them, then how is reporting them again going to help?

he may have got angry with you and mouthed off, but he didnt actually threaten to hurt you or your family or abuse you, so let it go for now, until he does.