fingers crossed...

[T0Mi]

In exactly one week we will stand trial in an attempt to get rid of one of our neighbours, forcing him to leave the house after he had been terrorizing us for more than 4 years. The last months I've been collecting "coffin nails" to make our success more likely to happen. Doesn't feel exactly great to do such things, I can tell...

However, that guy has threatened to cut my hands off with his samurai sword, has beaten up one other neighbour, has threatened several women in the house, and said the house will "make boom" if we go to the court. You should see my front door. Looks more like the entrance to a fortress.

Since that rampage that happened here a year ago the media keeps telling the people to "look for signs" and to "react early" to prevent such things, but if someone openly threats other people, all the authorities do is saying "we can't do anything until something real happens". The weapons of course also had to stay in his house because of their "decoration character". Yeah, sure...

If we loose, I will have to sell my flat, which me and my father have been restoring from scratch for more than 1,5 years.

Fuck! Wish me luck!

[ian_scho]

Wow - sounds like a horrible situation to be in. Suerte!

[beowuuf]

O.O good luck?

[Jan]

Oh, my, that does sound horrible! Good luck, we're having our fingers crossed!

We also have very bad experiences with our neighbours - one of them tried to poison our new doggie yesterday. The poor doggie (we've had him for one month now) has been vomiting for the whole night, and now he's in the dog-hospital and we don't know if he survives, his whole stomach is severly damaged.

Anyway, your case is much more serious, of course - so, once again, good luck! And keep us informed!

[oh_brother]

That is awful TOMi, what bad luck to end up near someone like that.

Anyway good luck in the court case - it cannot be easy to do that so I hope the judge takes action.

[Zyx]

Courage. Don't let this kind of people win.

[ian_scho]

What a nightmare. Neighbours with samurai swords and poison... I really cannot image your situations.

¡Suerte! == Luck!

[cowsmanaut]

Yes, I love that about police. I had a roomate threaten to kill me if I went to sleep, right after trying to kick the crap out of my other roomate. I called the police and they were mad I called them.. ok, what part about he physically attacked someone and then threatened to kill me don't you get?? They didn't take him So I locked him in his room after he closed his door by tying the handle to the handle of another door. He was pissed off, but I reminded him that he threatened to kill me in my sleep. He left middle of the day and stole my shoes.. never came back. Odd how it ended.. but still.. how many times have the police said no to someone asking for help and then had to go back to clean up the blood?

Horrible! I hope your case is resolved and leads to you having a safer home environment!

[T0Mi]

Thank you for your supportive words. It does help. I will keep you updated. Still almost a week to go. Cannot concentrate on my work. Can't find much sleep. Keeping the door severely shut. Also have a rope attached to a radiator to leave ("CLIMB DOWN") the house if it bursts into flames.

Had another meeting with the other 'inmates' yesterday... nerves are raw. Strangly enough I've noticed people are suffering from the "Stockholm Syndrom". We are no more owners of our homes. We are hostages.

And screwed either way. Multiple if we loose and only double if we win. He has a huge family (russian), and some of his drinking mates don't look exactly friendly. In the end, I will be with those leaving. Maybe I should have much more early.

Somewhere I've read 2/3 of the laws worldwide are written in German. If thats true it still doesn't really seem to help.

[Jan]

He has a huge family (russian)

Ah, I see.

[MasterWuuf]

...and I have complained about the constant barking of the neighbors' dogs.
I feel almost ashamed.

All the best TOMi. Please keep us updated, as you mentioned.

P.S. Jan: Those 'gutter snipe' offsprings of a rabid tarantula! I hope your dog doesn't suffer much.

[T0Mi]

First date at the court.

He didn't show up, only his lawyer. Brought a sick note with him. (Yeah, sure. Drunk in front of the TV is now offically declared a disease)

At least we had some time to have a initial chat with the judge and he said it will be checked if he's really ill.
Maybe too much wine from tetrapacks.

As it turned out (backhandedly), he already has been convicted for homicide (a snickersnee totally drunk) 20 years ago and sat in jail for 7 years already. As this will be a public trial with the room full of relatives (my parents will be there too), we requested to have 2 armed police officers for the next date watching the whole thing. Also all visitors will be checked for weapons.

Hoping this will be done quickly now, I'm not eager to wait for another month, not even a week...

[beowuuf]

Good luck, hope he shows next time, or the judge catches him and charges him with contempt

[ian_scho]

Do they pay (reimburse) you for this? I have no idea in the UK (or Spain for that matter) either.

[Jan]

Oh my, this sounds awful. Good luck and have this guy kicked out of the house as fast as possible!

[Lord_BoNes]

House? I'd say out of the country! DEPORT HIS SORRY ASS!
I'm sad to hear such bad tidings, T0Mi... good luck for the future.
If all else fails, buy a nailgun, it's a "household appliance"... so you can keep it in your bedroom. They can do a hell of a lot of harm, and lethal force is not neccessarily required when you're using one (go for a arms/hands/feet, they slow down pretty quick ).

[T0Mi]

Funny somewhat. When you at least expect it, stupidity of people jumps in to help.
Seemingly he was dumb enough to open the door when they checked. Oh my...

New date: 25.3. This Thursday. That was quick!

Now he has to pay 1000 Euros (thats what it says in the summons it'll costs when you ignore the date) for trying to cheat the court. I guess there is some trouble in this for the doc too who signed that sick note. My only real fear is him allowed to return to the house after the sentence has been spoken, as he has treatened to set it on fire.

Strangly enough, I do feel pity for him. And pity has been the most common objection when we were about to sue him. This is the second time actually, the first time he guaranteed to not be an ass again and payed more than 2000 bucks as penalty.

I've heard he has been in the army and has seen war. And in order to survive in a society in which such things belong to the daily order, it may be needed to adopt oneself a egocentric view of the world, simply because it is needed to survive. However, moving to a country that is (supposedly) based on equal rights and democracy, such an attitude is no more needed. Obviously he didn't learn this in all those years he is already here. What a poor wretch.

[Lord_BoNes]

HA HA to him!
It's good when people get what's coming to them. I still vote for having him deported back to Russia.

Where pity is concerned, you need to try to think "Would they pity me if..."
EG: "Would they pity me if I was terrorising them?" or "Would they pity me if they had to sue me to shut me up?"
I know that this is sounding VERY self centered, but when it comes to handling certain people, you've got to be self centered or they walk all over you. This bloke sounds like one such example.
Especially if he is a war-veteran, he should know manners and respect. He has shown you great disrespect by even slightly threatening you. He would have been trained to show DISIPLINE and he obviously has none. What would happen if he spoke to his superior officer they way he has spoken to you??? They'd probably shoot him for it.

[T0Mi]

Can't really hate him. Just don't really like what I have (kindof) become - because of him. (Ouh! ST.)
Sneaking around the house taking photos, gathering signatures for the witness statements, reviewing the plaint for the court.
Informing the others. Really feels like being a ... now what's the 'elder' word for "Hauswart"??. Thats what I called collecting coffin nails. Don't mess with a German. Yeah, sure...
Hoping I can laugh about all this in a year or so..

[Lord_BoNes]

You most likely will laugh about it once it's over and done with. But, until then, just hang in there...

[Jan]

I still vote for having him deported back to Russia.

Me too.

Do you know which war he was in - the first Chechnyan war? It must have been a terrible experience for the young Russian conscripts, but they were doing so horrible things there that I generally don't feel any pity for them - although I don't know this guy. Unfortunately, I know too many details about the Russian behaviour in Chechnya and the rest of the Caucasus (not talking about the Czech experiences).

I really hope that the Germany judiciary system will work and you will get him out, Tomi! Be careful, please!

[Zyx]

Keep believing in what you're doing, TOMi.

[T0Mi]

Texas. Lonely farm. I'll love it there.

Will report back, when I'm in a better mood.
For now: get madly drunk. ACAB.

[T0Mi]

So, yesterday has been the big day.

According to our lawyer it should have taken less than a hour for the judge to decide in such a clear case.
It took 4, and there will be at least 2 other dates. Next will be 30.04. So as you can guess, it didn't work out very well. They had a -very- good lawyer (he looked a lot like Columbo), knowing the law in each and every detail, making ours look like a schoolar (and she's got a doctoral degree). As a little example: in our plaint the videos I took while my neighbour was arguing with the house management were offered on a CD as evidence (him insulting the house management and me, claiming the whole house would be his property, clearly threatening me and going nuts in a general way). Plucking our plaint into pieces, the first thing he did was preventing that the videos could be shown to the judge and announcing to sue me according to §201. She should have known, really...

I'm very angry with her. I've been putting ~100-150 hours of work into this. For what? For a lawyer to screw who didn't even do his damned homework? She really looked like a Screamer next to a golem.

So the next thing to do is getting someone who actually -IS- a lawyer.

Shit.

[beowuuf]

This is not good news I hope you find someone to defend you better, it is unfair if the facts cannot be presented, and it degenerates into legal trickery

[Gambit37]

Man, that sounds terrible. As noted in the thread title, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things will work out better for you soon.

[Bit]

In germany is no law anymore.
Yesterday a high female judge quit the job because her man (a lawyer) was caught avoiding the taxes for a million euro. That was *one*. But corruption is everywhere. At least since we got flooded by russians.

[T0Mi]

I'm taking a good deal of energy from the support I receive on this board.
Thank you for this. I would love to keep it up till the very end of this ordeal.

However, I do not at all like the overall direction this thread has been heading right from the start.
My fault probably. I feel sad about it and am angry with myself, knowing my posts provoked most of it.

Therefore I ask this topic to be closed and moved to the "for pruning" section.
Thank you.

If things turn out the way they should (and they will, I'm now putting every free minute into this), I will report.

[beowuuf]

For pruning is for undecided topics to be placed by one admin (or a mod) waiting the collective decision to get rid of. I'll put this in general archive instead, locked as per your wishes.