I had a neighbor who it turns out was calling the police on me for kicks for several years. I found-out that I could pick-up his cordless phone on my police scanner and recorded him talking trash about me and everyone in the neighborhood. I turned tapes over to detectives hoping that they'd fine him for abusing 911. They didn't do shit other than tell him that I could listen in, which is totally legal.

So then since my secret was blown, I hooked-up a big speaker and ran a line all the way back to my house. Whenever I'd see him outside on my CCTV system, I blasted the neighborhood with all of this crazy trash talk I had on tape. One of the recordings had him talking shit about the neighbor across the street....

"Smoking dope makes you gay. That guy smokes alot of dope so he's probibly turning gay".

I did this for weeks and every time the neighbors would hear the speaker they'd come out of their houses to see if it was some other crazy shit they hadn't heard before and laugh their asses off. That didn't drive him out, but he was hesitant to show his face in the neighborhood afterwards. I finally got his "house" inspected by the county and they forced him to sell it for 20 grand because their was no toilet, shower or kitchen. The guy was just this fucked-up hillbilly.

I could have aligator-clipped a FM transmitter at his phone box (very illegal), or bounced a laser off of his window to record conversations in his house (completely legal), but never bothered with that cause the County took care of him.

The compilation tape which I put in everyone's mailbox in the neighborhood, are like a collectors item now. I wonder if someday I'll hear cuts on one of the local college stations. So the short of it is yes. I've done active surveillance.


Swaz