On Sunday night, at about 10.30, the mad couple next door started another big row. We couldn't hear the bloke but the girl was screaming like crazy and there was a lot of banging. We were tired of it by now and concerned about the violence. When I threatened to call the police last time the girl said she didn't want that. I didn't threaten this time, I just called them, and they came about 20 minutes later.
Between the time I called the police and the time they arrived, the couple on the other side of the mad couple complained about the noise. I went out to have a nose and lend my support and the guy was outside saying that he wasn't hitting her and his girlfriend was hitting him. I really don't know what to believe, but was getting sick of it. He was very desperate for us not to call the police (I didn't tell him they were on their way) but when he went back in the rowing didn't stop.
When four policemen arrived (we buzzed them in when we saw them on the security camera channel on our telly!) Anne and I stood by our door listening in, and it was one of the weirdest conversations we'd heard. Certainly not the sort of thing you hear on The Bill (which The Aussies adore!) Two talked to the guy inside the flat, and two brought the girl out into the hall and talked to her. They were both drunk, though she was speaking clearly. She moaned about her man for a while, and said that he goes out wearing one shirt and comes back in another. She said he's seeing another woman in the building - a "55 year old big Italian Mama" (they're both in their early thirties, maybe late twenties). When the police asked if she worked she said she didn't as there was no point, then went into a tirade about wages in coffee shops.
We then heard a foul-mouthed outburst when another resident came out of the lift. She screamed at him, calling him a "troublemaker" for calling the police and suggested he was homosexual. This was all while the police were there! Those poor coppers had the patience of saints.
The policeman said they'd have to keep the noise down, else they'll be back. He said, "if we go are you going to keep on rowing?" Our jaws dropped when she said she may murder him. The policeman paused before saying, "don't say that. You're not serious are you?" and she went into a long speech about how she'd thought about it, but then everyone wants to murder someone at times. We expected her to be carted off at this point, but amazingly she wasn't.
The policeman suggested she seek help, and try to find somewhere else to live, but she refused, saying that she'd end up in "the projects" (state funded housing) and the people who lived there were absolute scum. I couldn't believe she was saying this and would pity anyone who had to live next door to her.
I say the girl was speaking clearly, but at times she was talking absolute rubbish. She started telling the police about the angels in heaven at one point (not connecting it at all with her situation) and at one point said that she was so angry that she was shivering her timbers. I think I nearly revealed my location at this point by laughing out loud.
It was a nasty experience, and though some of it was very funny, we felt very sorry for the situation these people were in and sad that they seemed to have accepted it and had no intention of doing anything about it. Sad sods.
Mind you, we were the ones cowering behind our door in turns giggling and being horrified at what we were hearing. Who are the sad sods?
The police came to our flat afterwards (giving the game away quite spectacularly - our neighbours will now know for sure who called them!) and told us to call if there was any more trouble and that the couple were well known to them. To be fair, whilst we hear them a fair bit it only explodes like that about once a fortnight. We didn't hear much more from next door for the rest of the night, and will be out of there in a week. Yay!