Early Noisy Sunday with the Neighbors

Today started off a little strange. It all started last night, actually very early this morning. We were up watching TV and lost track of the time. When we noticed it was 1am we turned off the TV and then heard loud bass from music outside the house. I walked to the front of the house and it didn’t seem as loud, in our bedroom, at the rear of the house, it seemed to not be as loud either. Holly said that she could not hear it when we went to bed and then it started to rain and that drowned the sound out.

I remember waking up again to the sound of bass thumping again, but I didn’t look at the clock, I think it was about 3-4am, but again, it started to rain and I fell asleep.

In the morning Holly was the first to wake and she immediately heard the bass. She looked out through the blinds in our bedroom and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary but did see the owner of the house behind us leaning out of his back door looking left and right as if he was also looking to see where the sound was coming from. Holly said he was only wearing shorts and saw Holly looking through the blinds and went back in his house and Holly immediately stopped looking through our blinds. She then went to the front of the house and I think she opened the door and she said it sounded like the sound was coming from the next street over. I got up and decided that I was going to get ready for the day and drive around the neighborhood until I found out who was causing all this noise.

After getting dressed and such, I went out on the back deck and I could hear what sounded like bass thumping from a car subwoofer and then I could hear the bass. It sounded like it could be coming from behind our house but the echo effect made me really think it was in the front. I walked out the front door and the bass was very loud. I started walking up the driveway and was now very certain the sound was coming from the front of the house. As I reached the street it sounded like it was coming from across the street, so I kept walking toward the houses across the street. As I got to the middle of the street I suddenly became aware that the sound was coming from the garage of the house directly across the street from us.

It was shortly after 9am and their garage door was open with two cars inside and the door had been open all night because it was wet in the garage. I walked into the garage and finally found the culprit, a silver VW sedan parked in the garage. I looked in the driver window and didn’t see anybody sitting there or in the passenger seat. I decided I better walk over to the front door since it would be the most appropriate neighborly thing to do. Walking up to the front door I noticed a large cardboard box sitting on the front porch, completely soaked from the overnight rain. It struck me as odd that such a large delivery like that would be left out in the elements. Most people would never do that, right? Was something wrong? I decided to be bold and I rang the doorbell three times and rapped on the door three times with pretty good force. I heard a small dog come to the door barking, but no answer. I looked around the porch and noticed that their outside Christmas light were still up, most people in our neighborhood had already taken them down. That didn’t really mean anything, but I took note. I waited for maybe two minutes and then rang the doorbell and knocked on the door again and waited… no answer. Was foul play involved? I looked at the front door handle and was tempted to try it, but hesitated. Was there a problem inside the house??

I decided I better knock on the door inside the garage that led into the house. I thought that maybe it would be closer to a bedroom. But again there was no answer. I looked at the door handle and was again tempted to try to open the door, but again I stopped. I thought to myself, if something went on, I don’t want to leave my fingerprints around! It’s silly, I know, but I was really getting very cautious. I turned around to look out of the garage and something caught my eye in the car, this time I was looking through the windshield. I could see a figure there, with the seat in the fully reclined position.

I thought to myself, this is really strange. I came up to the window and knocked hard. Nothing. Was this person alive I quickly thought? I knocked harder yet. Nothing! I finally opened the door and the first thing I noticed was the smell of alcohol and cigarettes. Wow! It was starting to make sense. I quickly studied the person in the seat, it was a male and he had his hands tucked under his bottom… it was in the 40’s during the night. If this was our neighbor he didn’t look anything like I remember. I decided it was time to get this over with.

I tapped his leg several times and he didn’t move. I thought to myself, I hope this dude is not dead. I also thought to myself, how can this guy sleep with this loud bass thumping?!? I tapped him harder and he finally woke up slightly startled and looked at me, very confused. First thing I asked him rather loudly was, “Are you okay?” He put his head back and said “Yeah.” I then asked, “Can you turn the music down?” He lurched forward and punched the power button on the car stereo and lay back again. I was a bit amazed… no big deal to him but a big deal to me. I asked him again, “Hey man, are you okay.” Again, he just said, “Yeah.” I then felt obliged to tell him, “You know your music has been on all night?” He replied with, “Awesome.” At this point I didn’t know if he recognized me or not as we had only met a few times in the past. And to tell you the truth, he didn’t exactly look like I remembered him. I said to him, “It kept us up last night.” This time he responded with a less enthusiastic, “Awesome.” Then I can’t exactly remember what I said next. I think I told him that we lived across the street and he told me that he would keep an ‘eye on that next time.’ I then shut the car door and walked away back across the street to my own now noise free house.

I didn’t look back but did check about thirty minutes later and the garage door was now closed. I can only assume that he went out last night, got hammered, drove drunk home from a bar at about 1am and was so wasted he decided to just sit it out in the car for a while. And this punk was driving drunk through our neighborhood. Down my street. In front of my house.

My thoughts… Where the heck was his wife? Maybe he tried to go in and she kicked him out? For some reason I don’t think he ever went in. Another thing, both cars were in the garage, but when I knocked nobody answered the door. Maybe she was out of town? I guess I’ll never know. I kind of want to go over this week and ask about it again to get things straight, but I kind of don’t want to. What do you think?

All I know is that the next time this happens (if it does) I’m calling 911 and letting the police find a drunk man, passed out, blasting music, disturbing the peace, on a Sunday morning, in his car in his garage. At least, I hope it was his garage.