Two Years of Relentless Wall Hammering Forces Elderly Couple Out of Their Home
Sit back folks, we have yet another instalment of the Whacky Neighbours saga.
Only this time, our protagonist took the word “whacky” a little too literally.
For the past two years, a man has been hammering on the wall day and night, even creating a large hole at one point.
The noise has driven the person living next door, a 63-year-old private hire car driver, to sleep in his car every day.
This incident occurred at Block 44, Beo Crescent.
Neighbour has Caused Man and Wife Mental and Physical Stress
63-year-old Mr Xu told Lianhe Zaobao that the neighbour next door moved in two years ago and initially used hands to knock on the wall.
A week later, he started using a tool, suspected to be a hammer, to forcefully knock on the wall.
According to Mr Xu, the neighbour knocks at his living room and bedroom walls during the day to even late at night.
Sometimes, he would suddenly knock after a few hours of silence, deafening and scaring him and his wife.
The crimes do not just stop at noise pollution, however.
The neighbour had also allegedly splashed urine outside of Mr Xu’s apartment, and when confronted by Mr Xu, he had hurled vulgarities at him and spat at his face.
When confronted by the authorities, the neighbour had denied all accusations.
Mr Xu said that he had endured the neighbour’s behaviour for two years because of the neighbour’s aggressive nature and he feared that it might escalate into a physical conflict.
Under mental stress, Mr Xu went from 70 kilograms to 64 kilograms over two years and developed symptoms of anxiety.
The stress caused by his neighbour had also driven him to see a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, who advised him to buy supplements for heart protection.
The man further stressed that the noise rendered him unable to sleep at night, affecting his driving during the day as a result.
Mr Xu’s wife, who was diagnosed with depression in 2016, seemingly suffered a relapse as the noise had driven her to hide in the corner of the flat with headphones on.
The Breaking Point
On 16 October this year, Mr Xu’s neighbour had allegedly knocked on the wall for four hours without stopping.
Unable to bear it, Mr Xu called the police and even called for an ambulance. He and his wife had not returned home since in fear of confrontation.
Mr Xu works during the day and sleeps in his car at night, while his wife stays with her siblings.
He sadly describes their situation as living “like nomads, with no place to call home”.
Mr Xu recounted a day when his wife returned home, she found a hole about eight centimetres in diameter in the living room wall, with a large piece of lime laying on the ground.
It turned out that the neighbour from hell had directly knocked through the wall, sending shivers down their spines.
Mr Xu worried that if they were at home at that time, they might have been hit.
He also admitted to feeling very scared that the neighbour’s continuous knocking throughout the two years might have caused faults in the building structure.
Mr Xu had also returned to his flat with a police officer, only to find that his window was broken, and that there was a puddle of urine on the floor.
Mr Xu and his wife had already sought help from the Housing and Development Board (HDB) and the police.
However, due to the neighbour’s refusal to open the door, the relevant authorities have been unable to take action.
Resigned to their fate, the couple simply expressed their wish to not be homeless anymore, and are now hoping to find another house to rent as soon as possible.