Which brings me to Friday night. I pulled out a tablet and queued up the security footage. This is my property, my cameras. Friday evening around 6:15 p.m. I hit play. The large screen showed crystal clear footage of Brandon’s BMW pulling up to my house. Then Brandon and about 20 teenagers piling out, jumping my fence, and proceeding to throw a party in my pool area.
The timestamp was clear. The faces were clear. Everything was clear. The room went dead silent as we watched Brandon and his friends trash my property. You could hear the bottles breaking, the furniture being thrown around, someone yelling about pushing the grill into the pool. This lasted for approximately 4 hours, I said, letting the footage play.
Trespassing, vandalism, destruction of property. There’s also underage drinking, but we’ll get to that. Karen’s face had gone from pale to red. That that’s taken out of context. There’s 6 hours of footage. Karen, would you like me to play all of it? Brandon had stopped recording. He was staring at the screen, finally realizing that his pranks had been documented in perfect high definition.
But that’s not all. I continued pulling out more documents. Let’s talk about the pattern of behavior. Monday night, trash dumped on my lawn. Tuesday, constant harassment with car horns. Wednesday, more trash. Thursday, my truck tires slashed. I showed the footage for each incident. Brandon’s BMW was visible in every single one. Now, here’s where it gets interesting, I said.
My voice still calm, still measured. I started documenting everything about 6 months ago. Not just incidents involving me, but incidents involving other residents. I looked around the room. Mrs. Patterson, would you like to tell everyone about your garden gnomes? Mrs. Patterson stood up, trembling, but determined. Karen fined me $200 because she said they violated aesthetic standards.
But those gnomes had been there for 15 years before she became president. And the Johnson’s, I continued. Tom, Sarah, tell everyone about your car. Tom stood. We got fined $500 because our Honda was supposedly 3 in over the parking line. Karen measured it herself. Marcus Webb, your fence, Marcus stepped forward. Someone spray painted it. I have security footage showing Brandon’s car that night.
