Neighbor’s music leads man to take up air horn
“By JEFF REINITZ, [email protected] | Posted: Sunday, August 1, 2010 6:00 am | (10) Comments
WATERLOO – A Waterloo man upset by a neighbor’s loud music took matters into his own hands.
Carl Herold, 62, said he was tired of constantly calling police to complain about the “hippie tunes” coming from across the street, so Wednesday he got an air horn.
“I just started blasting it,” said Herold, a resident of the Chautauqua Park neighborhood, which is across Conger Street from Exchange Park.
Herold’s cacophony caused Waterloo police to arrest him for disorderly conduct and seize his air horn.
Herold said he’s had a long-standing problem with the music and has filed complaints about the neighbor allegedly building a shed on adjacent city property.
“I don’t have to sit in my house and hear his music,” Herold said. “We called a number of times, and nothing seems to be done.”
He’s also upset about residents who park on the sidewalk.
The problems came to a head earlier this week, and Herold bought an air horn that was taken from an old dump truck.
He set up the horn on his deck facing the neighbor’s home. He ran a hose to an air compressor to power the horn. Another line led to his living room where he could control the contraption from his couch.
Herold said it took a few minutes for residents to get annoyed and call police.
Officer Stephen Crozier was called to investigate shortly before 1 p.m. His report noted he could hear the horn five blocks before he arrived at Herold’s Riverside Drive home. He said it continued to sound every five to 10 seconds.
Crozier noticed the device outside. Herold, still sitting on his couch at the switch, told him to come in.
“I asked him what was going on and the suspect told me he didn’t like the neighbor’s music across the street and so he was sounding the horn. He then sounded the horn,” Crozier wrote in his report on the incident.
“I asked him why he didn’t call the police about his neighbor’s music and he said the police never do anything. He then sounded the horn,” the officer’s report continues.
Herold said he was arrested because he didn’t quit blowing the horn when the officer told him to stop.
“I just blasted the (expletive deleted). I didn’t give a (expletive deleted),” Herold said.
Herold was led away in handcuffs, and police told the neighbor to keep his music down.”
In the Waterloo Courier today, sounds like my dad 
.
