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9th March - 3:43pm
During a brief conversation with Constable Hedworth today, I was advised that keeping this record will be my best course of action for resolving any future grievances or incidents involving the residents of flat two, Northend House.
Today, at 3:07pm, I witnessed Keera Platt (whose mother has been my downstairs neighbour for twelve years) and Keera’s new partner abandon a used two-seater couch on the communal green a few feet to the left of the main entrance.
When I confronted them about this, the new boyfriend denied leaving it there and threatened me with violence when I warned him that I would contact the authorities if it wasn’t removed.
His exact words were, “Do what you f***ing like, mate, but if I get any trouble, I’ll know whose door to knock on.”
The male in question is around six foot with dark hair and wearing a black and white track suit. I took a picture of him standing next to the abandoned item, but Constable Hedworth informed me that there isn’t much they can do about the incident at this time without further evidence.
*****
12th March – 11:02pm
Keera Platt and her younger sister Kerry Foster, as well as Keera’s new partner and several of his associates, have been sitting on the abandoned couch since noon drinking and listening to loud music. Kerry is underage, but when the police arrived, she denied having consumed alcohol.
At 10:33pm, I recorded a video from my front room window of the aforementioned alcohol consumption, but I was forced to stop recording when several of the adult males began shouting obscenities up at me. I have placed the video with the photos from Tuesday onto this USB stick.
*****
14th March – 11:53am
Yvonne Chase (Keera and Kerry’s mother) informed me today that she was moving out indefinitely. It is her intention to leave her flat in the possession of her two children while she is gone. This is totally against the rules of the housing association, but Yvonne said she didn’t see the problem.
I have resolved to purchase some sort of secret surveillance apparatus for when I enter and exit the building, and when I confront Yvonne again, I will try to record her admission and store it on this USB stick ready to send to the housing association.
*****
15th March – 7:24pm
Today, I witnessed Darren York (Keera’s partner) and his two friends remove the cooker from flat two and place it onto a van for Yvonne. These cookers belong to the housing association, but when I asked her about it, Yvonne said that the cooker was hers.
I took a picture of Darren York putting the appliance on the van. The appliance is the same model and colour as the one in my own kitchen. I asked Mrs Connelly at flat one if it was the same as hers, and she said she didn’t want to get involved, but I believe hers is exactly the same too.
I called the housing association and spoke to a person named Simon, but they said they couldn’t get anyone out to check on things for at least a week. I recorded the conversation and placed a copy onto the USB stick along with the other evidence I’ve gathered today.
*****
16th March – 11:02am
Several of Mrs Connelly’s potted plants were taken from outside her door during Yvonne Chase’s move yesterday. Mrs Connelly told Mr Louth from flat four about the theft, and I managed to record most of their conversation, but when I asked whether she believed it to be Darren York or his associates, she departed without further comment.
Mr Louth believes it to be Darren York, and he also believes that the recent increase of thefts and vandalism in the area have been perpetrated by Darren York or his associates. Darren York is now living at flat two permanently. If he is still living there in three day’s time, I will call the housing association again. His presence is a clear violation of the rules.
*****
19th March – 7:52am
Several large branches of the old sycamore situated on the communal green have been torn off during the night. I decided to set up a camera in my front living room window to monitor the green twenty-four hours a day.
This has put a strain on my finances as I have already purchased an expensive mini camera that came disguised as reading glasses, but I’m hoping to be reimbursed at some point by the housing association.
*****
19th March – 8:34pm
The empty flat opposite Mr Louth’s has been broken into. Noticing that the door had been forced and was ajar, I entered the empty property in order to investigate and discovered Kerry Foster and several of Darren’s associates drinking and smoking narcotics.
They were highly belligerent when I confronted them and refused to exit the property they’d broken into. I called the police, but they haven’t arrived yet. It is too late in the evening to call the housing association, but I will do so first thing in the morning.
*****
20th March – 9:20am
I went downstairs to flat three in order to take pictures of the damaged door and any paraphernalia they left behind. As I inspected the kitchen, I found that the cooker had been clumsily removed.
I can only assume that the cooker was removed by Keera and her partner in order to replace the one her mother stole when she moved out and left her teenage children here unsupervised, but that is something the police will have to establish when they inspect the place for themselves.
I checked my new living room camera, and it seems the police didn’t turn up last night in response to my report. I will make a follow up call to gather more information about the case, and I’ve made a note to contact the housing authority once the weekend is finished regarding the forced entry at flat three. The place ought to be properly boarded up if nobody wants to live there, and who can blame them. This USED to be a nice block of flats.
*****
21st March – 4:17pm
I have been attacked. I have already called the police, but while I am waiting, I will transcribe what happened here as a back up to the footage I’ve collected. When I returned home a short time ago, there were several youths blocking the main door and stairs on the ground floor. This is what two of them said to me.
Male 1: “Nice glasses, mate.”
Male 2: “Nice camera more like.”
Male 1: “You’ve not really bought camera glasses, have ya?”
Male 2: “Yeah. He uses them when he has a w*nk.”
As I politely squeezed past, one of them threw an open can of fizzy soft drink at the back of my head. I checked the footage from my front window camera, but it was not angled towards the main door, so I don’t know which of them was responsible. However, I managed to collect the can before things escalated, so the police should be able to retrieve the fingerprints of the culprit from that.
*****
21st March – 5:52pm
The police’s lackadaisical attitude towards this entire affair has been intolerable! The two youngsters they sent round to take my statement refused to take the can with them, nor did they read my anti-social record or pay any real attention to the footage I’ve collected at great risk to my person. This country has a severe lack of accountability these days, and it starts at the top with figures of authority who no longer give half a damn as long as they’re overpaid and undertrained! If I thought it would make the slightest bit of difference, I would write my MP, but she’s probably one of the thugs’ mothers for all I know because that’s how far standards have dropped. It’s outrageous that a hardworking, retired person like myself should be subjected to harassment on a daily basis without recourse to protection or even acknowledgment to the dangers of my situation.
*****
22nd March – 12:45pm
I’ve spoken with the housing association, and they’ve promised to send someone round to inspect the damaged door at number three, although they didn’t seem to care about the game of pass the parcel these people are playing with the kitchen appliances.
Earlier, Mrs Connelly announced her intention to leave next week, and apparently Mr Louth is following suit. When I pressed them about the cause, they refused to name names because the yobs responsible were within earshot. The whole building ought to be gassed with them locked inside for driving decent people away from their homes.
When Connelly and Louth leave, almost every flat will be vacant. There’s old Mrs Grady opposite me at number six, but she doesn’t get out much and probably doesn’t know how circumstances have changed at Northend God bless her.
*****
25th March – 7:33am
I’ve finally caught them on tape red-handed. The front window camera recorded five of the boys committing multiple crimes late last night. I’ve already emailed the footage to Constable Hedworth along with a list of their crimes I hastily compiled.
*Urinating in public.
*Indecent exposure.
*Littering.
*Underage drinking.
*Drug use.
*Arson.
*****
25th March – 4:43pm
The housing association sent two men to board up flat three at last. They didn’t bother inspecting the damage or the theft of the cooker, but they did spend forty minutes standing around chatting with Darren York. Unsurprisingly, one of them was an old school friend of his.
When I called the housing association to report this behaviour, there was no answer, so I emailed them and attached a copy of the footage I captured. It was too risky to procure a video of the workmen, but I recorded the audio and you can clearly hear them talking discriminatorily about myself with Darren.
I am furious that a representative of the housing association feels they can slander tenants so casually in public. If there is no disciplinary action against these men, I will be forced to take the matter as far as necessary to see that they pay for their indiscretions. It is intolerable that I should be gossiped about in the entranceway to my own home by lazy simpletons.
*****
26th March – 7pm
By reviewing the footage collected from the front window camera each night since I reported the multiple squatters downstairs for underage drinking, drug use and urinating in public, I have been able to determine that no police have visited Northend House to arrest the suspects involved.
There has been no response from the housing association regarding my complaint about their workers’ attitude towards their tenants. Mr Louth was relocated by the housing association today. Mrs Connelly leaves on Monday. This will be my last entry in this record.
*****
29th March – 6pm
During Connelly’s move, I overheard Keera and her cretinous boyfriend vociferously state to Mrs Connelly that they wished I was going instead of her. When I went to the shops an hour and a half ago, I noticed that they had already broken into her now empty flat to scavenge whatever she left behind.
I didn’t bother to contact the housing association. If they didn’t want the copper torn out of the walls and faeces smeared across every surface, they should have sent one of their ignorant monkey men to board it up the moment Connelly vacated the property.
*****
30th March - 1am
I am writing this in the middle of the night moments after a substance was posted through my letter box. I haven’t identified it yet, but it looks as if it might be some sort of cleaning fluid from Connelly’s place. I’m going back to bed now.
*****
30th March – 10am
I was on my way out when I noticed the mail for flat two was protruding from the letter box slightly. Nobody was around (probably still in bed), so I took it and threw it in a dog bin. One of the letters looked important.
*****
It isn’t easy to punish these sorts of people because they don’t care about anything. Take away their things and it costs next to nothing to replace them. Take away their money and they merely beg for more. The justice system overlooks them like a landlord overlooking black mould under the wallpaper, and prison is like a free holiday for them. I went to retrieve the letters from the dog bin in order to read them. I need more information if I’m going to hurt them.
*****
Early this morning, I crept down the stairs and placed the disguised mini camera on one of Mrs Connelly’s shelves behind a worthless knickknack she didn’t bother packing. This way I can watch them through my phone while they trespass nightly in her old living room.
*****
I got up early to charge the camera. Last night, I learned that Darren has a beloved car he parks two streets away to stymie any bailiffs that come knocking. I went to look at it, but I didn’t know which vehicle was his. I waited for a while to see if he might come out for a drive, but it was too cold to stay for long. When I passed their front door, I withdrew their mail again.
*****
I tailed the happy couple to their vehicle, but Darren spotted me and asked why I was following them. I told them I wasn’t. Keera asked me where I was going, and I told her it was none of her business. Darren became belligerent, but I ignored him and carried on walking. It was exhilarating, but targeting his car is no longer an option.
*****
Constable Hedworth came to see me today. He said he’d spoken to the people downstairs, and they’d told him I’d been harassing them. I told him that was nonsense, which it is, and he believed me. He also asked if I’d been taking their mail, but I could tell that he didn’t really think I was capable of such a thing, yet I have to expel them all from my home somehow. What else am I supposed to do?
*****
I think young Kerry might be dead. I watched her on the concealed mini cam drinking in Connelly’s empty flat with two of Darren’s friends. The boys left when she passed out, but she hasn’t moved for half an hour. It’s late, and she’s all alone down there. If she doesn’t move in the next ten minutes, I’ll go check on her.
*****
It’s been a long night! When I went to check on her, there was vomit all over her outfit, and she was barely breathing. I didn’t want to touch her or leave any sign that I’d been there after her family accused me of harassment, but I couldn’t ignore the situation.
I found some black bin liners under Connelly’s sink, so I covered my clothes with them and tied one around my hair to ensure I’d leave no proof, either in the flat or on Kerry’s person, of my presence.
It was very late, and the streets were empty, but if someone spotted me from their window, I’d have been nothing but a vague shadow to them. There’s not much lighting around Northend House.
I left the girl propped up against Darren’s car. Hopefully, someone else will discover her and call an ambulance. She began to breathe heavily as I dragged her along, but there was no way she could have recognised me with most of my face concealed. My heart’s still beating fast.
*****
Hedworth’s just been round asking questions about Kerry. Some idiot in a van ran her over early this morning, and police are combing the area looking for those two boys she was drinking with last night. They think someone dragged her into the middle of the main road and intentionally left her to be flattened. She must have woken up after I left and collapsed there in the dark.
Hedworth asked me for a copy of the tape from my living room window cam, but I haven’t bothered recording anything for the last three days. I told him if he’d taken my complaints more seriously, maybe I’d have footage of the two lads leaving last night.
There was something about his expression as I said this that I didn’t like. He even asked me if I knew anything that I wasn’t telling him. I told him no.
I refuse to feel guilty about this. All I did was try to help, and that was more than she deserved. Her death was an avoidable tragedy, I suppose, but it was an accident nonetheless.
When Hedworth left, I took the black bags I was wearing last night from my kitchen bin, as well as the letters for flat two I’ve been collecting, and I burnt it all in the sink. I’m also going to have to dispose of this record too, but I’m reluctant to do so.
It’s proof that I lied to Constable Hedworth, but if they find out I had anything to do with the girl’s death, it may be the only thing I have to corroborate my version of events. Even now, I can hear the police combing the building for clues. What if I left prints, hairs or other evidence of my involvement I couldn’t account for?
It probably won’t matter. They have two likely suspects to track down (the boys who plied her with alcohol and drugs in the first place). Though I am loath to do so, I shall delete this file along with all the pictures and footage I’ve collected. I feel like a fool now for spending all my money on those cameras, for what good did they do me in the end.
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