People in Washington State who have ever encountered a challenging neighbor know that it can be tough to know exactly how to deal with a problem that involves the person living next door to them. While most people make efforts to be civil, at least initially, tensions can flare and situations can become very unpleasant or even dangerous. That is what ended up happening in one dispute between two neighbors in Puyallup in Pierce County recently.
According to a report by Patch.com, one man had hired some workers to build a new fence along the property line with his adjacent neighbor. It is not known whether or not the neighbors discussed the fence prior to the work commencing. The neighbor was allegedly drunk at some point in the day and reported to have been bothering the people building the fence. The man who hired the workers became annoyed at his neighbor and the situation escalated to the point where authorities were called to the properties in the late afternoon.
Officers left about spending about an hour with the men and ordered them to stay away from each other. Later, the neighbor who had been drinking earlier in the day told officers he went to the other man’s house to apologize. When he arrived, the other man threatened to shoot him and instructed him to leave the property. The first neighbor heeded the warnings and proceeded to return to his own home. Along the way, the fence-building neighbor shot his gun town the other man, missing him.
The man who shot the gun has been arrested and is awaiting a trial that will begin in the fall.