Doing This In Duluth, Minnesota Could Get You A Petty Misdemeanor

A few years ago, I ended up with a petty misdemeanor against me because of a neighbor behind the shop I worked at.  The neighbor ended up with one too, and in my opinion, he should have been the only person to get it.

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It was my retaliation for years of being yelled at from him for various reasons.  He claimed we started equipment too early, we idled vehicles across the alley from his house too often, and our company was a loud nuisance.

That's the short list of why he would yell at us off of his deck or out of his window, even though we weren't breaking any laws and the business was zoned residential/commercial.

Many times, the police were called, always on us by him.  He called the Duluth Police Department, Duluth Fire Department, and even the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.  All of this in efforts to get us in trouble for doing our jobs and again, not doing anything wrong or illegal.

After years of him yelling, and swearing at me, I finally started smarting off in reply instead of ignoring him.  Childish on my end, I know, but I could only take so much.  One morning, he got me on particular day that his yelling and swearing made me want to do more than what I did that got me in trouble with the law.

I flipped him off.  Yep, that was my response to being swore at and yelled at while trying to do my job.  The solution the officer came up with, I disagreed with being there is a record of his harassment.

To stop getting calls from him, both of us received petty misdemeanors for disorderly conduct.  The way it was described to me was that flipping someone off is a form of rude and offensive behavior and created a public disturbance.

I fought it (which is what the cop said to do) and was stuck with the offense but with no same of similar ones, told it would drop after six months.  My only win in it, was that the neighbor got the same thing with one year of no same or similar.

Did I learn my lesson?  I don't know, but I did learn someone can scream and swear at you for years and if you flip them off in response, the Duluth court system might screw you over.