My family lives in a pretty nice neighborhood. But 2 houses down from us, a legally insane schizophrenic used to live with his dad. He died a few months ago and his family sold the house. I think he lived only with his dad for a while, and it was pretty bad. Like 10+ years ago the guy got into a car chase with the police. He ended up crashing into another car, causing burns on over half of the woman's body who was driving the other car. When the cops following him approached his car he waved a bible at them (WTF???). Anyway, after a few years (6-9+?) of being in some sort of institution, he was released after I think his mother wrote a letter to the governor or something. The story of the car accident was first told to me by my other neighbor and was confirmed by an old news article I found online.
His mother must have died because I only remember him living with his dad. He had medications, but I don't think he dad really forced him to take them. His would do things like water his yard with gasoline, shout at random people on the street (often kids walking home from the elementary school/park on the corner), have loud, obscene conversations with imaginary people in his backyard, shoot off fireworks, etc. He was once caught with a knife in his pocket at this park, but the charges were dropped. He thought Madonna was his sister, he thought they shot Hollywood movies 2 houses down from him(4 houses down from me). He once called the cops and said that the neighbor next to him ( 3 doors down from me) was burying bones in his backyard... The guy was really insane. Like, really insane. I could go on and on about the insanity of this guy (you ever have your neighbor knock and your door and ask if the woman who died in your house 20 years ago talks to you regularly??).
So anyway, my family adopted a stray cat shortly after moving to this house, which lived in our old neighborhood. We really bonded with his cat, especially me. At first I couldn't even get near this car, but eventually every night when I went to bed this cat would lie on my back or stomach and would always beg for attention. Then I went off to college, and my family reported to me that the cat was going missing for weeks at a time but would sometimes show up at the house. It was my first time away from home for a significant amount of time, so I wasn't too interested in what this cat was doing(obv.).
But then once, when the cat had shown back up in our backyard after being missing for 2 weeks, the crazy guy comes to my front door and rambles about a cat or something. Only my older brother was home, with my grandma who could barely walk, so he just told the guy to chill out while he checked out the backyard. Then the crazy guy opens the gate on the side of the house, comes into the backyard, grabs the cat and storms off. My brother, thinking that it would not be a good idea to physically stop the guy, basically lets him go and calls the police and tells them what happened in a panicked voice. About 45 minutes later a cop shows up but does absolutely nothing except basically act like a huge d1ck. We get another cop over a few days later, but unfortunately he can't, or is unwilling, to actually do anything that made any sort of difference. The police department did offer an official apology to my brother for the first cop but nothing ever happens except for the cops knocking on the crazy guy's door multiple times and just asking if a cat was there. They lied of course. This guy's dad was not insane, but was just as bad as the crazy guy.
So about 10 months later, I am home for summer and we finally get the cat back. It seems OK, but it has brown stains all over the back/bottom of it like it had been living in a small cage with its own **** for a long time. After a couple days of it being back, my family goes on vacation and we hire someone to take care of the cat. But 2/3 through our vacation, the cat's heart fails and it dies on my bed. Most likely because of the terrible treatment it received from the crazy guy.
Eventually this guy's brother moves in, and I think the crazy guy began to regularly take his medication, resulting in much less mayhem. I hated the crazy guy, but I really did feel bad for him. Personal experiences have taught me that being 'sane' is a very delicate thing, and it only takes a very small change in brain chemistry to completely alter your perception of reality. It is extremely sad that this man had to go through what he did for basically his whole life, although I am fairly sure he knew what he was doing some percentage of the time and he knew that it was wrong. His behavior often changed when in the presence of police, which was often (sometimes with guns drawn on his house).
But then a cat shows up in our backyard with a litter of maybe 7 kittens! We ended up raising the kittens, because what else are you supposed to do, especially with a crazy guy 2 doors down?? We kept the momma cat and 2 of the kittens. We also ended up with a rabbit that lived in our neighborhood! Only the rabbit and one of the kittens are left now, the other 2 cats have been killed by coyotes. These animals just seem so.. helpless, it is hard to turn them down!!
