April 14, 2006
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I've had a strange week involving the mentally ill neighbors. The apartment directly above me is a halfway house for schizophrenics who have been hospitalized, but are trying to get back into the world. Most of them are no trouble & some are even friendly.
There are 3 young guys up there now, one is a big guy who recently returned to alcoholism & is causing a lot of problems. He has the bedroom over Rufus's & lately has been blasting heavy metal music at all hours of the day. On Sunday he had it going from after 4:30 pm until 12:30 am, when I called the cops. The cops warned him that yet another complaint & his stereo etc. would be confiscated.
On Tuesday evening , when I turned on the TV, it didn't work. The cable company sent a repairman out. He replaced the converter box & it still wouldn't work. When he traced the wires into the closet, he found they had been cut. It turned out that the same problem had happened upstairs. Neither apartment had a TV signal because of the snipped wires. On Wednesday, 2 cable guys spent more than 2 hours rewiring both apartments from the outside.
Later, the two friendly guys from upstairs came down & explained to me that the big guy had gone through their apartment cutting any wires he could get ahold of: cable, telephone, etc. When they discovered the damage, he threatened them & waved his fists around.
Before the TV repairs in the afternoon, I saw the big guy outside, walking around in his bare feet, muttering, waving & pointing to someone invisible. He tried to pull a metal "No Parking" sign off the chain link fence in the parking lot, then threw a stone at his own bedroom window & walked back through the garages. Somewhere along the way he'd found a can of paint thinner & was carrying it around looking at the foundations of the building(have I mentioned he smokes?). Later, I found it on the front steps when I took the recycling out & quickly placed it in a bag & hid it in the garbage. He had ripped junk mail up & threw it all over the porch and front yard.
That night, about 10 pm, 3 policemen & a caseworker/shrink spent about 45 minutes up there before taking him away between 2 cops in a patrol car. He was clutcing a large envelope, probably containing the medicines he hadn't been taking. I heaved a sigh of relief.Normally I don't mind the fact that there are schizophrenics in the building, but that guy was out of control & scary. Even if he's not gone permanantly, hopefully by the time he returned in a few weeks or months he will be stabilized.
Comments (7)
That is really scary. After finding that paint thinner you must have been extremely relieved the guy got taken away. It doesn't sound like he's quite ready to re-enter the world just yet.
God Bless
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Wow. What agency screened him and said he was ok to live independently?
That is very scary........you must have been terrified.
Good Lord ... That was a horrific experience, Jacks .... I really hope that they've taken him away for good.
Oh dear, thank heaven that he ONLY cut wires all over the blocks! He might have set fire in the neighbourhood while everyone was sound asleep!!! People like him should be kept away from normal folks.
How terrifying! Unfortunately, scientists seem to be finding that the part of the brain that is involved with schizophrenia is not only the part of the brain that deals with rationality, but also reasoning with one's self about things such as the taking of medication...So that schizophrenics have a problem with the consistent taking of medication. Very frightening for you, living so close to what could easily become a bad situation. I'm kind of glad you're up to all hours; maybe you can notice these things that go on because you *are* up at those times. I'm thrilled you're okay.
-Angel
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