i called the cops...should i not have?

okay I feel kinda bad but i don't at the same time. I called the cops on my neighbors tonight b/c they came home about 20 minutes ago yelling at each other. he was yelling at her (its actually his apartmnet and i'm assuming it was his g/f) to let him into the apartment. liek it wasn't just a one time request, it was repeated and angry. once they got in I coudl still hear yelling and what sounded like stuff banging around. so i called 911. i figured i'd rather have the cops come out adn have it be nothing than to have someone end up hurt. so while i'm waiting for the cops i'm listening to them czu i acn hear them arguing from my bedroom. they are pretty heated and i heard them talking about how he was choking her earlier in teh night and he said it was to keep her from doing "that" (which i assume was hitting him or something cuz i heard something slap but i don't knwo what it was). the cops just left and i have no idea what happened. i think they took the girl w/ them, probably just to take her home. but i feel kinda bad if it was just an argument and nothing more. i don't know. where do you draw the line for when to not get involved in people's business?

You did the right thing.

First off, you had the right to report them, because it is a disturbance.

Second, how would you have felt if your neighbor killed his girlfriend? You would have felt horrible if he had, and you'd not acted on your suspicions.

From your description, it sounded pretty violent. Even if it was just an argument with no violence involved, then perhaps they ought to learn to argue more quietly and not wake the whole neighborhood!

Now, an unhealthy degree of involvement is if you came pounding at their door, wielding a baseball ball, breaking in and going after the guy!

You did well.

I wouldn't worry about it -- what's done is done. It's hard to know when to get involved. I don't like to see people going overboard and they do tend to nowdays but if it was "nothing" then no harm done. They're not going to get into any kind of trouble if it's nothing. When my brother and I were kids we were fighting -- just yelling and screaming at each other. Well, somebody called the cops and they called the house and asked if everything was ok, and that was the end of it. Nowdays it might have been different -- who knows. It really wasn't necessary though ... but nobody got into any trouble. If what you heard scared you, then you did what you thought was right and that's ok.

That's just being a responsible neighbour. Don't worry about it. In fact, it is good to make a habit of being attentive to alarming noises coming from next door - too many people ignore these signs of trouble, and the result is only too often tragedy. You never know what is just a harmless quarrel and what is the beginnings of a major drama. You did the right thing.

You did the right thing.  I agree with the others that you never know if what you think is just a quarrel will turn into something more. If there was choking, then that's abuse so it was something rather than nothing. A simple arguement does not involve physical violence. Maybe the cops being called will be a wake up call to them to change their ways.

Always go with your gut. Something told you to call and you did. If it wasn't as bad as it sounded - good. If it was - great.

ok i don't feel so bad now. i just don't want to be like a nosey neighbor or anything. thanks for your input!

wow i just went out to the trash and the guy's car windshield is totally smashed. someone either threw something into it or something flew onto it. i had heard a car peeling out last nigth adn assumed it was him but i dont know if he went to her place and they continued to fight or what but damn. i'm really glad i called the cops now.

Yeah you definately did the right thing. 

A similar but not so similar situation, a month or 2 ago, my power kept going off and on (no storms or anything, and all my neighbors had power)  i called the electric company and they said that there were no outages.  Then I started hearing things in my garage (where my circuit box is), like someone was down there, my dog was going bizzerk and it was like 2am.  So I finally was so scared I called the cops.  They gave me the run around, and the dispatch told me there were 7 calls ahead of me for bumps in the night. 

They finally get here, and check outside the house, they didn't even check inside. 

They made me feel so stupid, granted, it was nothing apparently, but still at the time, i was terrefied.  guh. 

i actually have similar neighbors and it is something difficult to deal with. Mine are in their late teens, perhaps 20 years old, but not more. Very immature, yelling at one another all the time, she locks him out regularly and they let the all neighborhood know they "f..ing love each other", which is a weird way of saying it I think. Ive never called the cops on them but we've been close to doing it. It's hard to now when the line is crossed. Don't feel bad about it.You did what you thought was right

Good thing for me is, they are moving in a few days. Woohoo!  

plume i had a roommate that was like that (she basically moved her b/f in). they fought all the time and it drove me up the wall!

unfortunately this guy just moved in less than a month ago so i'm hoping this willnot be a regular thing.

i used to call the cops all the time on my upstairs neighbors. they were all college kids. it wasnt a relationship type issue but they didnt haev any respect. i quit a job on the first day cuz they had a party on a wednesday night up until 6 am or so. i didnt get any sleep and was late for work cuz i slept through the alarm and i couldnt keep up with what i was supposed to do (UPS).  i just knew they were gonna do this all the time and they did... until i kept calling on them.

we obviosly didnt get along after that ...several things happened between us but the best aprt was when it felt like i was watching Cops. the police came and arrested everyone and threw them on the ground and handcuffed them....very rough like. i laughed through the whole thing =[

it is sad when one has inconsiderate neigbors like that, who don't care about others and think they can do watever they want. It is sad because there is no way one can have a good relationship with neigbors like that. Once they start bothering the rest of the neighborhood, whether you do something about it or not, you can't be friendly with them. 

I'm glad there are people like you out there.  There was a very famous incident in New York where a woman named Kitty Genovese was murdered on the streets.  Over a hundred people heard her screaming; not a single person called the police.  Being nosy is so much better than minding your own business when somebody could wind up dead.

o trust me lysistrata...i'm a psych major and we have gone over the kitty genovese case so many times. It breaks my heart that so many people coul dhave let htat happen. She was raped and murdered for a while and even made direct eye contact w/ one of hte neighbors but he did nothing. they all just assumed someone else would do it! just crazy

You did the right thing.  Do it again if you have to .

Be proud.  You did the right thing.  So many people just do not want to get involved anymore.  People have been murdered in plain sight of neighbours who do nothing about it. 

You did the right thing.  Do it again if you have to.

for your safety you dont want people that act like that around you.

F*** them...who cares...
a gun enters the equation and goes off in the wrong direction it could hit you or a guest of yours.
call every single time it happens.

call your landlord too. they have a right to evict because of the cop's action and witness to the event.

we are moving because there is a trashy moron below me that got in a fight last week screaming racial slurs in the hall and i heard hitting and slamming. i also called the cops. but they were quiet when they showed up and wouldnt answer the door. im not waiting for next time.

my guy and i fight - never had a cop come to my door...oh yeh...because you can fight without being INSANE or choking or throwing stuff around.

you shouldnt question the safety of yourself no matter how annoying it might be to the person you are complaining about. they obviously dont care about your peace and quite and safety.

When my fiance and I first moved in together, we lived in a rough neighborhood. There were many times I wanted to call the cops on the neighbors and didn't. The last straw was the night that my next door neighbor came home at 2 am and his wife had locked him out. He was screaming and pounding on the door, which woke me up, so I went to the window and saw him go get a hatchet, which he started hurling at his front door, repeatedly. He was also screaming "I am going to kill you, B**ch" in spanish, repeatedly. I called the cops and told them they better get there before the hatchet got through the door. In the meantime my fiance got dressed and went outside so he knew someone was there watching. It didn't stop him from throwing the hatchet but it did make him stop screaming. The cops made it and disaster was averted, and Thankfully, his wife filed for divorce and he has not been back to my knowledge, although I don't live there anymore. Lucky me!

I know how inconsiderate neighbors can be! When my family & I first moved, there literally was a crack house next door! There would be people there @ 2AM, and one time some idiot was honking the horn at 2-3AM!!! Let's just say the neighborhood was singing praises when they all moved out thanks to the local PD. :)

You did what you had to do! An interesting movie on this is "Rear Window" starring Jimmy Stewart & Grace Kelly (Directed by Hitchcock). They remade it this past year w/ Shia LaBeouf.

rissy - I've seen Rear Window (the Hitchcock classic) it was GREAT! Very interesting... yet, so true!