Do you turn off your exterior lights? Neighbors giving us grief about ours.

[Anonymous]

Your security light is only allowing the profession thief a needed tool, light, to find their way into your home. A light is useless compared to a home security system. They do not call the cops, they do not stop the real thieves, and they are only a nuance. Why should I become a shut in in my on home? Turn off the light or put a shade on it to keep it off my property. I will apply as many remedies as possible, including suing for trespass on the property. There is president.

[Anonymous]

How the HELL this a nine page thread? Listen OP, don't be a limp-waisted pussy. Tell your neighbor to STFU the next time he mentions this.

[Anonymous]

I live in an apartment complex with neighbors across a narrow drive. One guy must really love his porch light as it is on 24 hours for days at a time. Occasionally he also adds the outside garage light just for fun. My bedroom is directly across from his front door. I have light filtering blinds and blackout curtains and his *$^)&%% lights still disturb my sleep.

I have turned my porch light on less than 5 times in 3 years to step outside at night for some reason. It gets turned off as soon as I step indoors.

I personally wish porch lights were illegal.

[Anonymous]

Everybody in our neighborhood keeps them on, unless it is Halloween and they aren't home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everybody in our neighborhood keeps them on, unless it is Halloween and they aren't home.

Yes, same here. Everyone has their front porch and back deck lights on all night. I'm surprised this is a big deal.

We also have street lights in my neighborhood that turn on when it gets dark, stay on all night long, and don't turn off till the sun comes up. Not only does no one complain about this, but recently when one had burnt out, it turns out that at least three of us sent an email to the electric company letting them know. They were out to put a new bulb in within a week or so.

[Anonymous]

Turn off your exterior lights. If you're scared, put in motion sensors. Night is the time for darkness, and you can turn them on if needed. Grow up, people: save energy, save money, reduce pollution, and make night dark again, like it used to be until the last 100 years of progress.

[Anonymous]

To the right of our rowhouse is a small alley that used to be frequented by random people. They would do drugs, litter, hang out etc. so we installed flood lights. I haven't seen them since, and neither has anyone else. I don't feel bad for the people living near the alley.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]Your security light is only allowing the profession thief a needed tool, light, to find their way into your home. A light is useless compared to a home security system. They do not call the cops, they do not stop the real thieves, and they are only a nuance. Why should I become a shut in in my on home? Turn off the light or put a shade on it to keep it off my property. I will apply as many remedies as possible, including suing for trespass on the property. There is [b]president.[/b][/quote]

It's precedent.

[Anonymous]

I'd find motion lights going on and off all the time to be WAY more of a nuisance than one continuous light. Tell them you will look into it, and then do nothing. Let them bring it up again (if they have the gall) and then explain you looked into motion sensors, but decided those weren't what you wanted. Apologize that the light bothers them, but don't back down.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]Your security light is only allowing the profession thief a needed tool, light, to find their way into your home. A light is useless compared to a home security system. They do not call the cops, they do not stop the real thieves, and they are only a nuance. Why should I become a shut in in my on home? Turn off the light or put a shade on it to keep it off my property. I will apply as many remedies as possible, including suing for trespass on the property. There is president.[/quote]

Your security system isn't stopping a professional thief either. Because of so many false alarms, security systems don't call the police either. They call YOU. I had a friend with one. Her house got broken into while she and her husband were at work. Neither of them had their cell phones on them. Their security company called them and when they got no answer they did nothing. Her house was ransacked. They said they weren't allowed to directly call the police without first contacting the homeowner. So yeah, security systems are useless.

[Anonymous]

I don't really understand why people want it pitch black outside. I've never lived in a country type setting so for me having porch lights on is normal. I also agree that sensitive motion lights that go on/off a lot would be a lot more unsettling to live with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't really understand why people want it pitch black outside. I've never lived in a country type setting so for me having porch lights on is normal. I also agree that sensitive motion lights that go on/off a lot would be a lot more unsettling to live with.

"I'm a sheltered fool who can't imagine not polluting the night with bright light! Polluting is "normal" and therefore my moral right."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really understand why people want it pitch black outside. I've never lived in a country type setting so for me having porch lights on is normal. I also agree that sensitive motion lights that go on/off a lot would be a lot more unsettling to live with.

"I'm a sheltered fool who can't imagine not polluting the night with bright light! Polluting is "normal" and therefore my moral right."

If this is your reaction to someone having their porch light on at night, you are likely mentally ill.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Your security light is only allowing the profession thief a needed tool, light, to find their way into your home. A light is useless compared to a home security system. They do not call the cops, they do not stop the real thieves, and they are only a nuance. Why should I become a shut in in my on home? Turn off the light or put a shade on it to keep it off my property. I will apply as many remedies as possible, including suing for trespass on the property. There is president.[/quote]

Your security system isn't stopping a professional thief either. Because of so many false alarms, security systems don't call the police either. They call YOU. I had a friend with one. Her house got broken into while she and her husband were at work. Neither of them had their cell phones on them. Their security company called them and when they got no answer they did nothing. Her house was ransacked. They said they weren't allowed to directly call the police without first contacting the homeowner. So yeah, security systems are useless.[/quote]

I have a security system and wouldn't imagine not having one. However, they are pretty useless. Because of the door delay (which gives you time to come in and disarm the system), a thief has 45-60 seconds to run through the house before the alarm even goes off. Then there's the time it takes for the monitoring company to try to reach the homeowner at one, two, or even three different phone numbers just to ensure it's not a false alarm. Then, if they can't get you, they are supposed to dispatch the police. Then you have at least several minutes of police response time, and they don't consider security system alarms to be high-priority. So a thief has a good 10 minutes to grab what they want and get out before the cops are there.

So, at most, I hope that my security system encourages a thief to go to another house so that they don't have to deal with the annoyance of the alarm going off. Same with lights. We leave them on, hoping that it makes our house slightly less attractive than another one.

[Anonymous]

I live in SoFla and the houses are so close to each other (only 6' to the property line). The house next door to me foreclosed 6 years ago. Since that time there have been numerous renters living there.

Most recently, a man moved in with a barking dog and likes to have his home lit up inside and out from 7 pm until daylight the next day. He even keeps his vertical blinds open all night with a light on in each room. The worst is that he's changed his back porch light bulb into what looks like a football stadium light. I have no idea what kind of bulb he's using..but it lights up not only his backyard, but the neighbors behind him and on either side of him. A bit of "overkill" if you ask those of us who feel like we're on "display".

In the past, I had to plant bushes to shield lights from my back yard neighbors flood lights, then I planted arborvitaes on the renters side (which btw...had been brutally cut down by the foreclosed owner), I've purchased curtains for the renters side which did not help, and bought a permit to put up a chain link fence with 6' bamboo fencing attached to it. Sadly, the bamboo fence did not work out as the first renter that moved in placed a 7 foot piece of broken metal drain gutter against it and the "wall came tumbling down".

I've owned my home for over 30 years and have no recourse but to sell and get into a home with more space between houses. I've talked to the owner of the foreclosed home (he got the house for only 68 K) and he said "As long as they pay their rent, I don't care what they do".