Foothills Area
August 20, 11:53 p.m.
A laser pointer was the last straw for a local woman having problems with her neighbor—who also apparently liked to jump in front of the woman's slow-moving car—according to a Pima County Sheriff's Department report.
The reportee told sheriff's deputies that when she'd arrived home that evening, she'd just pulled into her garage and saw a red light pointing at her cars' rearview mirror as she exited—probably an alarming sight, as it likely resembled a laser point from certain guns.
She said she then saw that the light was coming from a laser pointer held by a person a short distance away, near where her community's mailboxes were located. She said she knew it was a certain female neighbor with whom she'd had "issues" for the past five weeks.
Specifically, she said, for more than a month, whenever she'd driven past the woman's house—which was at the end of the cul-de-sac where the reportee lived—the woman would jump out in front of her vehicle, as if to try to make her slow down. But, said the reportee, she always only drove about 15 miles per hour (the local speed limit) on her street, so she didn't understand why her neighbor would do this.
She hadn't bothered to report the neighbor's actions before, she stated, but the laser pointer particularly disturbed her. She admitted that night she'd given her harassing neighbor the finger after she'd exited her vehicle, after which the woman dove behind some bushes.
When deputies rang the doorbell of the neighbor's house, they heard a boy yell, and then a woman answered the door. At first she acted confused, saying she had no idea why they were there. After a pause, however, she pointed toward the reportee's house and asked, "Is it because of the neighbor down the cul-de-sac ... who (speeds) through the neighborhood?"
Deputies affirmed that indeed that was the reportee's house and asked if the subject had ever jumped in front of her car—which the subject adamantly denied, though she did say she'd "tried to wave (the reportee) down as she drives by on occasion."
The woman denied owning a laser pointer, but eventually conceded that her 10-year-old nephew (presumably the boy deputies heard earlier) had an airsoft gun with a laser.
She then became defensive, saying, "Why do you believe (the reportee), but not me?" One deputy replied that the neighbor's statements weren't "adding up." He asked her why the reportee would make up such an odd story if it weren't true—to which the subject said "she did not know why, but it seems like people just make up stories and contact the police for no reason."
Deputies said if she'd had a problem with the reportee's driving, she should've contacted them first. They then commanded her to stay away from the reportee.
