911...Please State Your Emergency

Me- "Yes, I'd like to file a noise complaint."

I debated whether or not to post this particular story for all to judge see and know we've called 911 at my house once twice.  Jana convinced me though, so here it goes.  Remember sleep diva?  That's me...who has been sleeping like a champ the past several weeks! (Yay)  Until the neighbors behind us, we're talking across the back street and a good 500 feet behind us, have started to party hard into the wee hours of the night with very loud, bass bumping music.  Said music vibrates our walls and can even be heard clearly in our basement!!  Bump, bump bump...bumpin bump..bumpity bump. For hours. And hours. And hours.

Now don't start jumping to conclusions of, "You're crazy! You can't call 911 for that." I had these same conclusions the first couple of times we had the lovely privilege of listening to this until nearly 2am on week nights.  (I shouldn't remind you at this point that I don't even have to wake up in the mornings for work right now...but it's the principle of the matter.)  We tried looking up local police numbers before resulting to 911.  I even found one where noise complaints was specifically listed under things they take care of.  Lovely.  Problem solved.  I called only to hear this, "We're sorry.  Our business hours are 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday."  Um...what?! Who is going to make a noise complaint before 5pm on a week day.  Unbelievable.  So that left us with nothing but 911. 

And good thing I wasn't really dying or being attacked in some scary, abandoned park, because it took eight rings for 911 to answer.  Eight.  Wow.  I'd never called 911 before and they sure do have a list of standardized questions they want to ask. 

-Do you see weapons?   No.
-Do you hear violence or fighting?   No.
-Are you in danger?        No.
-Do you want a police officer to come out to your house and file a police report?  Ummm....I'm not sure.  I just want the music to stop. 

They say they'll put the house location out on the broadcaster and if someone has time they'll check on it.  It is not a high priority.  (I understand that, it shouldn't be, that's fine.)  So I'm not sure what good it does to call 911, but call we did.  Judge all you want, but this would have driven you crazy too.  Moral of the story? Don't be our neighbor.....no, just be a good neighbor.  Where's Mr. Rogers when you need him?