Oh my freaking GOD!! People are WEIRD

[DRZCatastrophe]

So, my husband went to load up his bike to do a work exchange with a friend. The friend works on the bike while Pete works on his business computer. The ramps were missing. ???

So he goes down to the neighbors house to see if he could borrow their ramp really quick.

Neighbor says, "I wouldn't loan you nothin'." Pete goes ?, thought he was joking. And the neighbor is like, "I'm serious. You threatened to call the cops on my kid." Pete's now really like, "No I didn't. I don't know what the heck you're talking about." So the neighbor tells him to get lost.

So Pete physically picks up his bike. Puts it in the back of his truck. He's got a bit of a drive so he got LOTS of time to try to figure out what's going on.

Back when we USED to be able to ride behind our house, about A FREAKING year ago, these teenagers were zooming up and down our street, doing stoppies and wheelies on their dirt bikes (with no helmets on I might add.) :

"Look at me, look at me, I'm breaking the law!! I'm pissing off all our old retired people who are cranky and have nothing else better to do than call the cops!! YIPPIE!!"

So one day while a couple were riding on the street, I guess Pete stopped one and talked to him. He realized it was our neighbors kid, who usually rides pretty respectfully on the streets. He told him, "You might want to tell your friends, if you guys don't stop this, somebody is going to call the cops, and you're going to ruin it for the rest of us." In typical teen age fashion, what he HEARD was Pete was going to call the cops on HIM. So apparently THAT'S what he told his dad. (AND it seems cops were called as we cannot ride out back anymore. Sucks 'cause it was an awesome little learning area.)

So his dad has been PISSED for a YEAR, over a huge misunderstanding and won't listen to what really happened. Meanwhile, we've been blissfully unaware. What a great example why grudges are STUPID.

What kind of parent doesn't go and ask what the heck is going on??? Especially to a fellow dirt bike rider who's bound to be EXTREMELY sympathetic???

[KimYZ250F]

Not a good parent. 1. He let his kid ride without a helmet. 2. He didn't find out what his kid did wrong that would make someone want to call the cops.

I have a 15 year old. If he came home and told me that I would be at the neighbor's house finding out what my little hellion has done NOW . Then he'd have his bike taken away for not wearing his helmet. ?

Kim

[yogist]

Not a good parent. 1. He let his kid ride without a helmet. 2. He didn't find out what his kid did wrong that would make someone want to call the cops.

I have a 15 year old. If he came home and told me that I would be at the neighbor's house finding out what my little hellion has done NOW . Then he'd have his bike taken away for not wearing his helmet. ?

Kim

As a parent you know when your kid tells you somethin, some details will be missed..At the time , he should have come over and talked to pete..and got the whole skinny on the situation..before just taking the kids word for it..There are always 2 sides to every story...any adult that doesnt know that is an idiot.

[DRZCatastrophe]

As a parent you know when your kid tells you somethin, some details will be missed..At the time , he should have come over and talked to pete..and got the whole skinny on the situation..before just taking the kids word for it..There are always 2 sides to every story...any adult that doesnt know that is an idiot.

Especially when the whole POINT was that we did NOT want the cops to be called!!

KIDS!!

[pkley]

It really irritated me that he just ASSUMED that I'm a total ass wad. I mean, the guy helped me out, gave me a few tips and reassured me when I was replacing my fork oil - even lent me a slimmer wrench to get the nut off!

What kind of jackass would then proceed to threaten to call the cops on his kid? For RIDING IN THE STREET, JUST LIKE I DO! As Cat said, they both ride pretty conservatively on the street (we live on a long L shaped court), warming up a bike or drying a chain off doesn't bother me in the least. It was the stinking kids further down who were wheeling up and down the street non-stop, no helmets, early in the morning sometimes! WHY NOT JUST SIT OUTSIDE YOUR NEIGHBORS WINDOW AND TEST YOUR REV LIMITER! Then get pissed because they called the cops on you! "Man all we wanted to do is ride, maybe we should egg their house, they suck! Why do people hate dirtbikers???"

It was bad enough that they were the ones that pretty much got us kicked out of our little riding area due to their incessant zipping past this house on a dusty dirt road - back and forth! JUST GO RIDE, YOU DON'T NEED TO ZIP PAST THEIR HOUSE A MILLION TIMES UNTIL THEY CALL THE COPS! MOVE AWAY FROM THE PEOPLE! PLENTY OF SPACE IN THE BACK!

The only good news about all this is that they all actually stopped riding on the street. The bad news is that his son COULD HAVE BEEN tooling/testing a whole year if he'd just talked to me. ?

[a_gunslinger]

I would actually make one other (calm and friendly) attempt to explain it to the guy.

[IamKazam]

I feel you man. People like that sometimes get on my nerves. I like to cruise around the neighborhood on my bike instead of riding up and down the same street all day. People are less likely to call the cops if you only pass their house once compared to passing it 6 or 7 times.

[pkley]

I feel you man. People like that sometimes get on my nerves. I like to cruise around the neighborhood on my bike instead of riding up and down the same street all day. People are less likely to call the cops if you only pass their house once compared to passing it 6 or 7 times.

Pretty much my thought also.

I am planning on trying one more time to straighten all this out. I just don't like it when someone's pissed at me for no reason...

[Thorina]

We ride in our neighborhood, but only to test bikes or leave for a dual sport ride. The neighbors all know us, kinda helps being on the radio all the time.

But.....we've always tried to keep a "friendship" with them all so they feel comfortable to tell us if we're doing something they don't like.

We regularly leave at ungodly hours of the early, early morning and try to keep the noise to a minimum.

We have kids buzzing the neighborhood off and on.....but the neighbors know it's not us. We WILL hollar at kids for buzzing the neighborhood. Hey, punk, ya screw up my right to test bikes out when I need to....I will haunt you.

One kid....I finally stood outside with a broom and played like I was gonna stick it in his front spokes. Yeah....think about that for a minute, kid.

We do have riding area close by.....go THERE.....riding up and down the street doesn't prove you're a bad azz.

I won't call the cops....but the cops *do* show up here when a report is made about riding....EVERYONE in town knows we've got a yard full. If the cops show up here.....I'll tell them anything they want to know about who *is* buzzing the streets.

The dude that listened to his kid....what a joke. I have 3 teens in the house at the moment....and ya can't beleive their side of it 99.999999% of the time. The *tend* to omit key details. Even stupider to let the kid buzz up and down the street and do nothing about it.

I'd still go talk to the guy again one more time. If he's still an azz, then forget him. But, it's the right thing to do to try to work it out and tell him what the real deal was.

I'll admit, we have it good. We're on a "borrow a cup of sugar" basis with most of our neighbors.

peace,

janette

[Guest Bstropp]

I'll bet if you try this. It will work.

Write the family a letter, and put it in there mailbox. Enclose the same type of calm sincere behavior that you have done here. Don't leave one detail out. How your on his side, and this is clearly a misunderstanding, and don't want this to just be swept under the carpet. And that if someone did this to you, you would be equally as pissed as he is. But it wasn't you who called the cops.

By writing the letter.

You get to.

A: Think about what you want to say before you put it on paper.

And B: He cant interrupt you, or walk away.

Good luck, Bruce

[hilltopper114]

Leave the letter on the porch with a good 6-pack, if he invites you over for a cold one, you both could have a laugh out of the misunderstanding, if not your only out a little bit but know what kind of neighbor he really is.

[CRazywolF450R]

Leave the letter on the porch with a good 6-pack, if he invites you over for a cold one, you both could have a laugh out of the misunderstanding, if not your only out a little bit but know what kind of neighbor he really is.

?

Great idea!

btw - dont put it in the mailbox because it is a federal crime to touch another persons mailbox. ...

[zicazoo]

Leave the letter on the porch with a good 6-pack, if he invites you over for a cold one, you both could have a laugh out of the misunderstanding, if not your only out a little bit but know what kind of neighbor he really is.

**** that guy, he's an idiot. who even wants a friend like that. who has time for someone like that.there are too many good people to wast anymore time on that jack ars. I know he is your neighbor, but i'd let him come around if he wants to, other wise foget it. (or if you are vendictive, you could spend that time making his life hell. hehehe...)