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You never really truly know who your neighbors are at their core, but sometimes you catch a glimpse of them, and it can be surprising.

That was the case in this story when they found out that their neighbor was not just a fugitive, but an international fugitive who was quite dangerous.

When her downward spiral began, they really discovered who she was and, to put it mildly, they are happy that she doesn’t live next door anymore.

Read through the full story below and imagine what you would do in their situation.

My neighbor was a fugitive

This situation involved myself (28F), my roommate Cooper (30M), our landlady Renee, and our neighbor Lucy, who was probably in her mid 60’s.

This seems like a great place to live.

I rented a cute little house in a rural area in the southeastern US with Cooper from 2023-2025. Renee was wonderful to us. She was a longtime friendly professional acquaintance of mine.

She owned another rental up the hill and through the woods from us, which shared our driveway. About a month after we moved in, the tenants who lived there moved out and our new neighbor, who we’ll call Lucy, moved in.

What is she doing?

My first interaction with her was strange, but not overly alarming. The two houses on the property shared a storage building, which sat in our backyard. I came home from work one day and found her in our yard, putting things in storage.

I had just finished parking and opening my car door when she walked directly up to my car and stood barely far enough away for me to get out. When I got out she continued standing uncomfortably close to me while she introduced herself. Her demeanor was off putting. She didn’t seem threatening, per se, just very weirdly intense.

Why is she freaking out on him?

The next time we had an interaction with her was about a month later. She called me while I was at work (Renee had had us exchange numbers) and immediately started screaming in my ear.

It was so loud I couldn’t understand what she was saying at first and had to ask her to slow down and repeat herself twice. I eventually determined that her dog was having some sort of medical event and she needed to get it to the vet, but for some indiscernible reason couldn’t go herself.

Wow, things are getting dangerous.

I apologized and told her I was at work and couldn’t leave. I said if it was an emergency she could try Cooper since he was home, but that he needed to leave for work soon too.

I then called Renee to ask if this woman had any friends or family in the area who could help. She said she didn’t, and not to let Cooper get in the vehicle with the dog because she’d recently learned it was a very aggressive attack dog who had bitten strangers in the past.

This lady is going nuts.

I called Cooper three times before he answered. When he finally picked up he said that Lucy had just showed up bashing on the front door and screaming bloody murder until he opened it, before demanding he drive her and her dog to the vet.

She said she’d recently had surgery and couldn’t drive. He said the only thing that appeared to be wrong with her was a small brace on her wrist. When he said he couldn’t because he needed to leave for work, she stormed off angrily to her car and tore out of the driveway.

What else is going to happen here?

I explained to him what I’d just learned from Renee, and we had a moment of “well ****” silence when it set in who we’d be sharing a driveway with for the next year.

Not too long after the dog incident, I ordered groceries through Instacart. I messaged the driver that ours was the first house on the driveway but he didn’t see it and drove past us and up to Lucy’s.

Who would feel safe living like this?

He pulled up at our house a minute later and got out looking extremely flustered. As he handed me my groceries with shaking hands, he told me he had barely pulled up to the other house when Lucy came outside pointing a shotgun at his face.

I felt horrible and gave him a great tip. I let Renee know what happened and she said that Lucy was extremely paranoid because someone allegedly took out a hit on her over a real estate deal gone wrong in Panama. Hence the dog.

It didn’t really make me feel any better about living next to her, but at least with that context she made more sense.

And things just kept getting crazier.

Then all heck broke loose. It’s a very long story, but over the course of a month, Lucy:

– Renovated a bathroom in the home without permission
– Physically assaulted Renee when confronted about the renovation
– Accused Renee of harassment
– Retained a lawyer, who contacted Renee to say that she could only communicate with Lucy through him now and was no longer permitted on “Lucy’s” property due to said harassment
– Abandoned the property under cover of night, in the middle of her lease without giving notice

What a rollercoaster.

So, here’s where it gets interesting. About 3 months after abandoning the property, Lucy sued Renee for her security deposit, plus “damages”. Her deposit was less than half of the amount she was suing for.

The damages she was claiming were a pair of silk underwear that the dryer ruined and her broccoli that spoiled when the freezer went out for two days. I swear on my beloved grandmother’s grave that I’m not making this up.

Oh man, now what?

Renee asked me to write a character witness statement and I gladly agreed. Lucy lost the case. Somehow it was a much closer call than anyone expected, despite the ludicrous claims she was making. It ended up coming down to old texts Renee had saved.

A week after the lawsuit business was put to rest, I got a text from Renee that said “LUCY IS NOT WHO WE THOUGHT SHE WAS. YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS.”

Her story is really falling apart now.

She then called me and explained that over the course of the court proceedings, it was discovered that Lucy had not, in fact, been the victim of an attempted murder in Panama.

She had defrauded someone for a very large amount of money while she lived in Panama and then fled the country. The victim of her crime had followed her to the US and had the case domesticated, so now the FBI was investigating her.

What a weird situation.

She had spent the past several years moving between rural towns in the southern US every year or so, trying to avoid detection.

Unfortunately that’s all I know at this point. Last I heard she was living not far from where I am now.

Finally, some good neighbors.

So yeah. That was interesting. I’m really thankful for my neighbors now.

Their dog is chill and they only knock on my door when their kid comes to mow my lawn.

You really never fully know who your neighbors are. In this case, it was pretty crazy.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say.

Yes. Renee needs to get background checks.

It is almost like she wanted to get caught.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a resident who is not amused by new parking rules, so locks a lot gate to teach management a lesson.

Yeah, this was just crazy.

A good background check is worth the money.

They are lucky things didn’t become worse than they did. That being said, this lady did a horrible job at trying to stay hidden away.

She wouldn’t have had to move all the time if she had just acted normally.