need advice outside of credit

Is it only a problem of these people coming to her house, because it is the wrong house? People might disagree, but if you start meddling they could retaliate. If you try and make your grandmother move, she is probably not going to take to it well. From experience, 80 yr olds do not take well to change, and unfamiliar places.

Could it be something as simple as putting HUGE house numbers on her house so nobody is "mistaken"? Or is she in an area where she could fence in her front yard so that the gate could be locked?

Do you feel your grandmother is in danger from these people? What do your parents, or your Aunts and/or Uncles think?

 

How about a sign on the lawn or some place conspicious that says something like

Nothing for sale here.
Don't ask.

or

We don't sell here.
Don't ask!

or

We have no drugs here.
Don't ask!

Also there are anti-drug use signs you can put in your windows.

 

teesha, you do realize if those boys are busted, they will take the mother to jail as well, dont u?

 

On top of that she could lose her house and her pension and everything else she ever had.

That's also why it is so dangerous to pick up a hitchhiker on the highway too. If you get stopped and the passenger has even a sniff of drugs or marijuana on him you go to jail, lose your car and worse.

It use to be that all you had to worry about was whether a hitchhiker might rob, rape or kill but now you have to worry about the drugs too.

 

Bill,

You are referring to the neighbor and not the gmom? Right?

 

The neighbor might want to use signs to keep people from knocking on their door asking for drugs.

 

I'm a more than a little surprised at the answers to this question. I live in a rather large city with a fairly nasty reputation. In the last five years I've seen marvelous growth in previously written off neighborhoods where people thought they should just move and let the crack heads take over. Furthermore, though not here, I experienced a situation almost exactly the same.

SOMEONE HAS TO DO SOMETHING!!! Don't be a afraid of crack dealers, just because of what you see on TV. Most of them are paranoid freaks who the second that they see blue lights will lose all of their connections and clientel. They don't want trouble, they only want money. When they have any trouble, they lose money and they leave.

If the boys' "clients" are knocking on your grandmother's door, they are likely knocking on others' doors in the neighborhood. Go to the other neighbors and confirm this, ask them what they want to do. You just may find that they are all willing to fight for their neighborhood. Someone has got to step up, call the authorities and get stop this crap from happening. The dealers aren't going to know who called the cops.

The cops may not do anything (but you may be pleasantly surprised!) Let's say they don't, then what are you going to do? Well, chances are you will have to do a little more. No big surprise that it will take a little work on someone's part. Then you talk to the alderman or the mayor or the paper or anyone who will listen and tell others. It's important that you not let this crap take over your grandmothers area.

I would say the VERY LAST resort is to move. I'm no where near 80, but I sure as hell wouldn't. That seems to be the real downfall of great neighborhoods is that people take off with the first sign of crabgrass, leaving a large whole in the overall community and perfect places for dealers to live and proliferate.

30ft

 

I used to live in NYC, and I have indeed known what it's like to stare down the gun barrel of a crack addict. Do not give these guys a reason to know you or even suspect you are giving them attention. A call to the cops may work, but if your in an urban area where a drug neighborhood is just that per majority then do not expect the police to do much. I may be jaded by the lack of involvement in this area by the NYCPD, but let me put it this way. I lived in a bad neighborhood just a few blocks away from a VERY bad neighborhood. MY neighborhood was safer because it was protected. And the police wernt the ones protecting it. Suffice to say that John Gotti who was still verticle and not yet in prison, had certain interests in our neighborhood. So the baddies kept thier distance. But after being in a subway station and looking down the wrong end of a big gun with a very unstable individual on the other end of it, I would personally recommend against doing your best Charles Bronson imitation, much less advertising on your lawn that you don't like the drug dealers.
It is true that your average 80 year old wont take rellocating very well, however it has been known to happen and people have lived just fine. But generally the elderly in many drug neighborhoods are either respected or basically seen by the druggies as harmless and not worth getting in a twist over, or they are victimized. Doesn't sound like your Gmother is having to deal with the victimization, just an occasional loony who cant read numbers. The front yard locked gate idea has some merrit. No real easy answers.
I mean no dissrespect to the other postings that may suggest to take a stand, but if you do that you are likely to gain some unwanted attention.
Much as I absolutely love the premise of and watching Death Wish movies, taking a stand is not as easy as mail ordering a LAWS missle launcher and aiming it across the street. Best of luck~

 

I would probably not report anything to the police but continue to work on getting your g'mom to move. We had some neighbors next to our business once that were running a pretty big deal out of their house. We were having to deal with the noise and constant traffic. We reported it to the police and the next day one of the drug dealers came over and told us not to do that again and that we had fair warning. They obviously had friends in high places. It's sad but I think a lot of cops may be more corrupt than we realize.

The story ended a few months later when most of the residents of the house were killed in a bad deal. That led to the demise of our business when the story hit the news and was the reason we filed BK. But that's another story. I was grateful to just get out of there by then.

Kim

 

Scarey but true Kim. Cops tend to like money, and sadly they dont get paid enough. Corruption is natural under those circumstances. You bring up a good point in the respect to drug dealers and houses tend to have their fair share of firepower. I don't even know grandma of course, but a stray bullet in the wrong place would have me concerned for her. All you need is one strung out moron arguing with his dealer over something (usually money) and pulls out a canon and starts blasting all over the place.. It does happen. Dealers or users dont care. they just want their money or their next fix. Everything else is irrelivent to them.

 

Teesha,
How severe is the threat next door? Has the neighborhood become a "bad" neighborhood?

Hypothetically, if your neighbor's sons were arrested, what would happen to the mother they are taking care of and their children? Is this the kind of neighborhood where someone even worse could move in next door?

This is a bad situation with no easy answers. Virtually every option is a "no-win." I would respect your grandmother's wishes to stay in her house. At 80 y/o she deserves whatever comfort she finds.

I like Jlynn's idea of big house numbers.

 

I would say that house numbers are a great idea, and maybe some lawn ornaments that scream elderly lady not drug dealer.

Unfortunately, many drug users are too far gone to notice that they are at the wrong place even if there are pink flamingos and spinning flowers in the yard.