Man says entire subdivision threatened by neighbor angry about fireworks
CHESTERFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WJBK) - Police in Chesterfield Township are investigating threats against an entire neighborhood over fireworks.
An angry neighbor sent out a threatening letter, saying they were angry after last year's 4th of July fireworks kept them up too late at night -- and that if it happens again this year there will be consequences.
Tony Ivanaj is one of the neighbors on Dove Lane that got the letter. He posted it in a Chesterfield group on Facebook, saying he and a few other neighbors have gotten the letter and that they've notified police.
The neighbor says in the letter he or she works a 4 a.m. - 2 p.m. shift, and that last year they only got a couple hours of sleep because the fireworks went to almost midnight. The writer has one request for this year's holiday -- no fireworks after 9 p.m.
"If it happens again this year, I don't care who had the party or lights the fireworks this year, I will make yours, and your neighbors' lives miserable for days and months to come. I will take my frustrations out on the whole Dove Lane block, and I'll keep the retaliations lasting forever. You don't know when I'll retaliate, but it WILL happen, and it will happen over and over again. NOTHING will be ruled out in regard to how I retaliate," the letter reads.
The writer even threatened another neighborhood as well.
"I get that they're upset; the fireworks display here and across the neighborhood, they were pretty large. Everything was within guidelines and didn't go past midnight or anything like that, which is the ordinance here in Chesterfield," Ivanaj told FOX 2.
Which is correct. Just hours after Ivanaj shared the letter on Facebook, Chesterfield Township Police posted a reminder of the guidelines in the city.
Fireworks are allowable there July 3-5, just not between midnight and 8 a.m. -- that's a curfew a full three hours later than what the neighbor requested in the letter.
"The letter was just vague enough to make you feel uncomfortable of all of your things, not just vandalizing your car or your house, but your children, your animals, your pets; it's pretty messed up." Ivanaj says. "At first I laughed it off because it was so ridiculous that it was almost funny, but then I thought about it and was like these are some threats that need to get out there as much as possible."
We're told police are investigating who anonymously wrote the letter. The author is also leaving false return addresses.
