r/extremelyinfuriating • u/MiserableAccount1020 • 1d ago
Evidence Been renovating a French country house for the past 3 years. The next door neighbour fired his gun at my roof because he is upset I bought the ruin next to him. 50ish impacts shot at close distance thru the fence. It’s been 3 months and Police haven’t done anything 😅
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u/ReddBroccoli 1d ago
Is he shooting a musket at you?
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u/Kalkin93 1d ago
I was going to say, I can picture a guy with a handlebar moustache, priming his musket manually with gunpowder lmao
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u/One-Recognition-1660 1d ago edited 1d ago
Just wait till he and his copains start trebucheting les vaches! https://youtu.be/MiBIMsKVXq0?si=2Ol5xcmT9CbHXdoS
Also, your mother is a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.
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u/Salute-Major-Echidna 1d ago
I thought it was the father who was a hamster
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u/Breeze7206 1d ago
Mother is hamster. Saying she was promiscuous, since rodents reproduce quickly.
Father smelling of elderberries is calling him a drunk.
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u/matthew_yang204 1d ago
Alternatively, these could be lead BB's
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u/ReddBroccoli 1d ago
How close would he have to be to punch them into slate?
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u/matthew_yang204 1d ago
Oh it's slate. Ok it might be handgun bullets that rounded themselves after they hit.
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u/ReddBroccoli 1d ago
OP answered me somewhere else around here.
Shotgun pellets is the answer
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u/MiserableAccount1020 1d ago
Yes likely 2 shotgun blasts. I can see light shining thru in the house on about 10 of the impacts
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u/ReddBroccoli 1d ago
I'm not sure how similarly these kinds of things work in France as to where I am in the US, but I know here you would at least have the option to sue for the damages to replace the roof at the very least. Although the lack of a police report wouldn't be very helpful
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u/PinkyLeopard2922 1d ago
Why is he angry that you bought and are fixing up the ruin? It's wild reading about a random French person going full Florida man.
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u/glytxh 1d ago
Rural France is an odd place.
It gets a bit medieval.
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u/Comminutor 1d ago
All I’m hearing is that equipping the property with cannons is not out of the question.
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u/owzleee 1d ago
A trebuchet is the superior siege weapon.
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u/afrothunda104 1d ago
So glad I found you in the wild! What else can launch a stone over 300m?
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u/Comminutor 1d ago
It can also launch fruit! It’s quite the confusing experience to witness apples and bananas falling from the sky bc the engineering club decided to test their homemade trebuchet in your vicinity
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u/pratorian 23h ago
I dated a girl whose dad had a pirate ship, it had real cannons on it. I second cannons. One or two rounds into his roof and I bet he will cut the shit.
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u/PinkyLeopard2922 1d ago
That is fascinating. I can't wait to get more of the backstory/lore about this. I hope OP comes through for us.
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u/snake_case_captain 1d ago
Why is he angry that you bought and are fixing up the ruin?
It's a way of saying he's either envious or had wanted the property for himself but couldn't buy it (either the seller wouldn't, or it was too expensive). So he resorted to harassment.
In some regions, people can also be hostile towards foreigners buying houses for retirement because they drive the prices up. Typically, I know that in some areas in southern central France ("Lot", "Aveyron"...), people will straight refuse to sell properties to foreigners. I'm not talking racism here, just plain xenophobia.
Finally, people can be jealous, envious. As an example, a friend of mine's parents once bought a house in a small french village. It was a project they had, they renovated it but they had to sell 2 years later du to the hostility from the locals towards them, they were seen as "the rich people from the city".
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u/MiserableAccount1020 1d ago
He tried to buy it back in the day, he made a ridiculous offer which insulted the owners. Didn't go down too well. I work in the big city and go there to renovate it when I can - so you pretty much nailed it on the head
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u/Couscousfan07 1d ago
Waiting for the answer, and to see if OP isn’t French.
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u/PinkyLeopard2922 1d ago
"neighbour" makes me think British or Canadian. Definitely not American.
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u/MiserableAccount1020 1d ago
British indeed
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u/Paindepiceaubeurre 1d ago
Yeah a lot of French people don't like the Brits buying French properties.
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u/digno2 1d ago
Own a 12-bore for home defense, since that's what the founding fathers intended. British ruffian buys my house nextdoor. "What the devil?" As I grab my powdered wig and pellet rifle. Blow a golf ball sized hole through the first window, it's shattered on the spot. Draw my lead pellet shotgun on the shingles, miss it entirely because it's smoothbore and nails the neighbors dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stairs loaded with grape shot, "Tally ho lads" the grape shot shreds two square foot in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel set off car alarms. Just as the founding fathers intended.
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u/Breeze7206 1d ago
I’m American and I say neighbor or next door neighbor
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u/PinkyLeopard2922 1d ago
It's the spelling it with a letter "u", not the use of the word. I'm American and I too have neighbors. I I were in Canada or the UK, I would have neighbours.
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u/Breeze7206 1d ago
Didn’t even catch that! My brain just read it normal.
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u/PinkyLeopard2922 1d ago
Eh, it happens. I am always looking for stuff like that to determine if something is AI, especially posts on reddit. Posts from supposedly American users that use UK/Canada spellings or metric units in the post are highly suspect.
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u/WilcoHistBuff 1d ago
I was educated in both countries and my spelling at 64 is still considered confused.
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u/Alexatypemypassword 1d ago edited 1d ago
Don't know if it's the reason here but in some countries, including France, there is a legal concept called prescriptive acquisition. It allows for someone who continuously occupy an unclaimed piece of land to claim ownership of it after a set amount of time (usually it's around 20 years if I remember properly). It helps rehabilitating lands whose owners are nowhere to be found, after wars for instance. It's likely the neighbor was hoping for the land to stay untouched long enough for him to claim ownership of it.
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u/PinkyLeopard2922 1d ago
Interesting. We have something similar although I'm not sure what it is called. Like if your neighbor fences his property but the fence is 3 feet over the property line onto your property. After a certain amount of time, if you do not complain/contest it your neighbor may be able to claim it as his property.
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u/Chuck_Loads 1d ago
It's called squatters rights some places
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u/TigerShark_524 20h ago
No, Squatting is when someone unlawfully resides in your unoccupied home or other vacant building. Taking over part of your land, say for fencing or for planting, is called Adverse Possession.
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u/Imnotspartacuseither 1d ago
.... is that grapeshot?
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u/OrnerySnoflake 1d ago
My first thought was birdshot
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u/Imnotspartacuseither 1d ago
Looks big for birdshot. Could be buck shot, but pattern is oddly shaped.
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u/SgtDusty 1d ago
Too small to be birdshot . Could be buckshot but the pellets are usually stainless, whereas this looks like lead? Could be dirt from impacting the roof?
Then again if it was buckshot - it would have likely gone THROUGH the roof, not getting stuck in it?
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u/Imnotspartacuseither 1d ago
Depends on range, firing angle, etc... also, those look like slate shingles, but I would think those would shatter instead of get embedded shot.
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u/lildobe 14h ago
Old slate becomes soft and a little malleable. I used to live in a 100+ year old house with a slate roof, and the tiles that would get knocked off in storms were really soft and crumbly, almost the texture of overcooked pastry dough, just more dense.
I could absolutely see lead shotgun pellets embedding themselves like this in it, if they were fired from an oblique angle as the pictures suggest
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u/Imnotspartacuseither 14h ago
That is crazy! I learned something new!
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u/lildobe 14h ago
It's because slate is hydrophilic. It absorbs a LOT of water and then over time, wet/dry and freeze/thaw cycles it starts to expand and get less dense and it slowly turns into mud. In another 100 years the slate on that roof will wash away.
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u/Imnotspartacuseither 14h ago
Love learning stuff like this. I may never use this tidbit again, but such great information!
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u/lildobe 14h ago
Fun fact, that slight bit of malleability is how slate roofs survive hail storms with less damage than a metal roof, which deforms permanently.
However the hydrophilic properties of slate make insulating under it a pain because there needs to be an air gap and air circulation under the tiles so that they don't grow mold and mildew.
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u/kormonanreublicguy 1d ago
is he shooting buckshot or a musket im so curious😭. also fuck that neighbour, he should not own a gun and he clearly dosnt know firearm safety
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u/Red_Eye_Insomniac 1d ago
I think the solution is to take him to court and then take his house. Set up a camera, get it on video, and make it open and shut. Beyond the roof damage, the harassment and threat to your life should allow you to take everything this bumpkin has. I am not a lawyer.
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u/gaycyclops 18h ago
I’m not sure he’s gonna be able to American his way through this, you gotta meet people like this where they’re at, they’ve got the home-field advantage. Time for fight style adoption and integration.
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u/AnyBlueberry4406 1d ago
Stop waiting for the police to do something and sue him for a roof replacement and other damages (fear of safety, emotional distress, time loss for having to deal with all this, etc.)
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u/TheRepublicbyPlato 1d ago
You got a little over 5 years for the police to do something if this house is in France
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u/SadisticChipmunk 1d ago
Own a musket for home defense, since that's what the founding fathers intended. Four ruffians break into my house. "What the devil?" As I grab my powdered wig and Kentucky rifle. Blow a golf ball sized hole through the first man, he's dead on the spot. Draw my pistol on the second man, miss him entirely because it's smoothbore and nails the neighbors dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stairs loaded with grape shot, "Tally ho lads" the grape shot shreds two men in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel set off car alarms. Fix bayonet and charge the last terrified rapscallion. He Bleeds out waiting on the police to arrive since triangular bayonet wounds are impossible to stitch up. Just as the founding fathers intended.
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u/WowWataGreatAudience 1d ago
RIP Neighbours doggo, poor guy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time
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u/PlatypusDream 1d ago
WTF uses a spherical bullet?? Or maybe he had a shotgun?
What kind of shingles are they? They're nicely showing the impact / directional scrapes. Would slate be appropriate to the house, because it would probably be more bullet-resistant.
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u/MiserableAccount1020 1d ago
I think it was shotgun with DIY cartridges filled with these different sizes lead pellets. Lead pellets been outlawed in France I believe
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u/Abject-Shallot-7477 1d ago
French here. Lead pellets are totally legal. Permit is needed only if gun power > 20 Joules
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u/DarthBen_in_Chicago 1d ago
American elementary school child here: get a lighter-weighted BB if you’re restricted
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u/Monkfich 1d ago
Do tell then, what’s the police’s stance?
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u/MiserableAccount1020 1d ago
police said he was unstable and would be going round to his the same day. Never saw them
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u/No-Mathematician8692 20h ago
Return the favour. Fk him. File an attempted murder charge with the cops. Get a lawyer. Go heavy on him..
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u/Willie_Phisterbum 1d ago
That looks like either a muzzleloader round or possibly an air rifle…..??
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u/Salute-Major-Echidna 1d ago
Guns are very regulated there. It's probably something really old
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u/AtlasNL 1d ago
Or just a hunting shotgun loaded with buckshot. France has got plenty of hunters, especially in the countryside.
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u/Ootek_Ohoto 1d ago
The gun illiteracy in this thread is staggering. Like people don't know what a shotgun is.
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u/Cyber_Data_Trail 1d ago
2nd pic shows a whole bunch of holes. Im guessing birdshot... or a bulnderbuss.
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u/lildobe 14h ago edited 14h ago
Geez, even over here in the gun-happy United States, you'll get the police on your ass if you're shooting a gun at your neighbor's house, and even moreso if it's fully intentional.
With guns as heavily restricted as they are in Europe, you'd think they'd actually enforce safe usage.
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u/Delicious_Pain_1 1d ago
Order cockroachs online and release them in their house. Termites would be better. Play the long game.
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u/ChaoticMutant 1d ago
Take a page out of the Hunter S. Thompson handbook and erect a giant middle finger facing his property
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u/LadyGrey_oftheAbyss 1d ago
Maybe this is the American in me but way don't you get a restraining order and sue him for property damage?
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u/k_a_scheffer 4h ago
I don't know what the legal process for this kind of thing is like over there, or the legal system in general, but please please PLEASE keep extensive documents of every instance where this man complains or does stuff like this.
My mom and step dad bought an old farmhouse in a town that didn't like outsiders. The locals tried to force the original owner to sell to someone in town but she refused. The people in town started shit with my step dad which ended in them burning the house down. I don't know how unhinged your neighbor is, but if he's willing to shoot at the house, I wouldn't put something like arson past him.
Please stay safe and escalate it if you have to.
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u/Mickxalix 1d ago
Firing buckshot eh ? Not enough to kill but will surely hurt if a citizen is caugh in the shot. Or could go through the eye and be fatal.
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u/Quirky-Associate-437 1d ago
I think cap and ball and black powder pistols are allowed in France but do keep in mind they could easily kill you if you get hit in the correct spot
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u/daftcracker81 9h ago
We dont call the police around here. They were defunded. So now we take care of our own justice
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u/angrycanadianguy 8h ago
What level of police have you called? If my local police didn't care, I'd be calling the provincial police, and possibly the crown attorney (I'm guessing it's not called that in France 😅). The prosecutors might be excited to get such slam dunk case 🤔
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u/lesbophobia_hammer 1d ago
Wtf
You need to put something over the roof that temporarily acts like a trampoline for bullets.
And then keep animals and non-neighbour humans away.
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u/Salute-Major-Echidna 1d ago
You need a camera, although harassment from neighbors would definitely be ignored by the local police because you're not one of them. You need to come up with something that makes them look bad but wouldn't put off anyone foreign from also buying there.
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u/SadDingo7070 1d ago
He shot your house and the police refused to help? Maybe try calling the FBI and tell them that your cops are worthless…. Lol
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u/Large_Camel_773 1d ago
That’s kind of on you for moving to that terrible country full of dirt bags!
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u/No_Luck_374 1d ago
If the neighbor gets by with it, why can't you? Gather funds to get yourself out of the local slammer then get the same weapon and do the exact same thing.
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