by Julie A. Wein

Created on: February 23, 2009   Last Updated: April 29, 2009

Noisy neighbors can be a hassle and may often cause stress and anxiety. However, not everyone who is labeled a "noisy neighbor" actually is one. There are plenty of instances where a neighbor will lie about the noise level of the people living next door to them. In some cases, this is because the neighbors simply have nothing better to do than make up stories about the people who live near them. In other cases, it is done to spite the other party. Neighbor feuds are an old idea often seen in situation comedies and movies, but they do happen in real life as well.

This is the story of a couple who lived in a condo in a quiet community. Only it wasn't so quiet above them. The condo next to theirs was occupied by an older woman, and her husband. They would mainly keep to themselves, and the couple really didn't interact that much with them. However, they seemed to keep rather odd hours. They could be heard stomping around above the couple's heads at all hours of the day and night. When they first moved in, they had to get used to the fact that the neighbors walking around above them sounded like someone was walking through their condo...which was particuarly creepy at times when one or the other was home alone.

As the months progressed, the noises got worse. It sounded like a herd of elephants bowling, they made so much noise. The couple never did figure out how 2 people could make so much noise simply by walking around. At times it sounded like they were purposely dropping heavy objects onto their floor. Yet to them, the couple were the problem neighbors.

After awhile, they started to complain that there was too much noise coming from the couple's condo. They even went so far as to complain to the condo association that said neighbors were making excessive noise by yelling and banging on the walls. They were mystified as to what that meant, because they didn't engage in that kind of behavior. They had no reason to bang on their walls, and even when they had arguments they didn't raise their voices loud enough to be heard outside of the condo. The first time the neighbors complained to the couple, they had just laid down to go to bed for the night when the doorbell began to ring and the neighbors were heard loudly banging on the front door. The couple did agree to keep the noise down, even though they weren't making noise in the first place. They simply wanted their neighbors, who were in fact, pretty noisy themselves, to leave them be.

As if that wasn't bad enough,

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