by Lisa Miller

Created on: October 07, 2009   Last Updated: October 08, 2009

Living in an apartment can be suitable for many lifestyle situations. However, finding a good neighbor in an apartment living situation may be very trying. Trust me, I've been in this situation and could not wait to get out of my lease. It seemed like someone was always moving in and out of the five apartment building and we always had new neighbors. What seemed like such a nice safe neighborhood to move into, became a complete nightmare. I learned to trust no one and to always have my guard up.

I was newly engaged to my now husband when we decided to move out. There were some newer apartments on a decent side of town that seemed quiet. We researched, and it really did not seem like a bad place to live. The apartment itself was nice, less than three years old. We signed the lease and within a week, we were moving in.

Upon moving in, the very first night we stayed at the apartment, our neighbors threw a big loud party that lasted most of the night. We were tired from moving so we dealt with it, and just tried to sleep. A week later we had a family and friends' only house warming type party. A family member found a syringe in our yard with a small clear bag of pills. That is when I knew we were in for a long year, and from then on out, I did not feel safe.

Things only got worse from there. What we thought was a middle class family friendly neighborhood was full of people who did not work and sat around drinking in their pajamas all day. The building constantly smelled like marijuana. I was scared out of my mind to live there. We started noticing strange trends such as gas missing out of our vehicles, yard decorations coming up missing, even our trash had been gone through. Our neighbors fought regularly, we could hear them yelling and throwing things. Police cars were a weekend fixture within our neighborhood. We had a new policy at our apartment, neither my fiancee or I would be there alone unless we had to.

As the year went on, things got worse. We arrived home one night to find a man sitting on our back deck. He told my husband his wife was chasing him with a frying pan and he needed a ride away from here. We called the police, got in our car and left. We purchased locking gas caps for our cars, which they still managed to steal gas from (I don't even want to know how they did it!) We also had our female neighbor come and ask for help, due to her boyfriend physically fighting with her. My car got hit by another car parking at our neighbors, and someone broke into my husband's truck and took change out of it.

All in all, I did not feel safe in my apartment at all. If you are looking for an apartment to live in, investigate your neighborhood and neighbors completely before moving. A lot of times, looks of a neighborhood can be decieving. A nice neighborhood doesn't always have the best tennants. Landlords can do a good job at hiding bad apples and sugar coating things. Be cautious at all times, and lock your doors and windows. Keep your guard up at all times. I never wish an apartment experience like this on anyone, it was a complete disaster.

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