I never had any neighbourhood weirdos when I was growing up, but an ex-boyfried of mine lived next door to a real weirdo. This guy was the epitome of the cranky old man, and he was soooo anal about his yard it was hilarious.
One weekend, the neighbour was in his yard mowing the lawn while I was on Mike's driveway, playing basketball with Mike's housemates, when the ball landed in the next door neighbours yard, ...knocking out a few tulips in the process. All the guys freaked, and ran inside the house laughing too scared to ask for the ball back. Yes it was unfortunate that a few flowers got taken out, but I couldn't understand what was so funny or so scary about the prospect of asking the guy for the basketball back, ...especially since I wasn't the one who knocked it into his yard. Apparently there was something about this guys history that everyone in the house knew, ...but wasn't telling me.
Long story short, one day, Mike was coming home carrying his dry cleaning into the house.
His next door neighbour took one look at the dry cleaning and turned pale as a ghost.
Turns out the guy had lived in Nazi Germany, and when he discovered he was living next door to a house full of cops, ...and not just any old cops, ...these were cops he constantly berated and mouthed off to... he shit himself and immediately put his house on the market and moved away. {lol} It's kinda funny, but kinda sad at the same time. One can only imagine the degree of horror he must have experienced to be as deathly afraid of the police as he was. You'd think knowing 3 cops lived in the house next door would have been a bit of a comfort to him, ...but oh nooooo... a cop in a uniform filled this guy with fear beyond belief.