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Police reports question

 
 
Reply Mon 17 Sep, 2007 12:53 am
I am currently a caregiver for my 81 year old mother. I live at her house with her I am 38 and single. My younger 37 year old brother moved back home and he refuses to get out. Since he has been back he swore he would only stay for 4 months since his girlfriend kicked him out which it is 2 years later. The problem is he is on drugs. He is verbally and emotionally abusive to us both. He borrowed alot of money from my mom and never paid her back. He will not pay bills or food or help us with anything around the house at all. He is paranoid and regularly freaks out on me about non exsistent things. Seems if something bad happens to him he tries to say what about her and just makes up crazy stuff he says I am doing which I promise you I am not . I know he is just crazy. It's getting to a point of interfering with my caring for my mother and the house. He causes both of us stress beyond belief and half the time I feel like I cannot freely walk around the house to say what I have to say or do what I have to do to be a normal person taking care of my mother. He threatens me repeatedly whenever anything is said to him about his behavior or his lack of rent and bill money . He has maybe given my mother $300.00 total since he has been here but borrowed and swindled over $4,000.00. He throws things at me and rages on me more then I care to mention. My mother is not the kind of mother who would call the police and she has said many times she wants him out but then she makes him dinner washes his clothes and all kinds of things that make it comfortable for him here and then she tries to make me talk to him or care about him which at this point I don't care at all. I want to call the police before he hurts her or me even if by accident during his rages. I know it sounds stupid of me to have not done it by now but I want to make sure he does not get out and bother us because then it will be worse for me he is sick in the head I think and I think he smokes crack. Apparently this went on long before I got here when my father was alive. But my two older brothers just say move but my 81 year old mother does not want to. Anyway my question is if I go to the police station and make reports when he is putting us in hell would it help us and in what way ? I know it could not hurt I do not know what my mother would say or do she seems to get more forgetful with stress and taking her to a police station would be hard she does not want to go and she does not seem to think its as bad as me and my older brothers do sometimes but other times she says she can't stand him and she wants him out. I just cannot see her ever putting him in jail or him ever really leaving us alone especially if we put him on the street or make him lose his job. He is very vindictive towards me because we are close in age and seems to think he can scare me by saying he will plant drugs in my room and call the police on me and stupid stuff like that. I know I should make the reports but I just don't know if he can find out and hurt me or do anything to me or my mom . I am sorry if I lack knowledge or courage on what to do I had no idea what I was getting into when I left my home in California to come take care of my mother in Pa. Any help or advice would be so much appreciated I am at my wits end. I just cannot seem to feel like he will not do something to me if I try to put him in jail and not sure if I could face his sone who does not live with him and just not sure what to do at all. I want to put my mom in a senior community but she does not want to go without me she gets all upset if we even talk about it. I just do not know what to do and have just about exhausted my life savings trying to live around this jerk. I want to work but I cry all the time and fear that with all this stress comes depression and I don't want what he does to me interfering with the care of my mother and my life as well which seems to be all it does. I feel trapped and all the answers are so extreme its hard to see exactly what to do.
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jespah
 
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Reply Mon 17 Sep, 2007 03:54 am
EtaCarinae wrote:
...Anyway my question is if I go to the police station and make reports when he is putting us in hell would it help us and in what way ?...


A police report will not put him in jail. He would have to be arrested, tried and convicted. Just like everyone else in the US. These are rights guaranteed by our Constitution, even to him. And all of that stuff takes time and right now it is just threats. Nothing illegal has happened yet, so far as I can tell, except for the drug-taking which you have no real evidence of. Even with a drug test showing crack in his system the police are going to be far more interested if they can get him busted in the act, preferably the act of buying rather than using.

What you want, I suspect, is a restraining order. This would make it so that your brother would not be able to come within a certain number of feet of the house without risking arrest. The problem is that restraining orders are, by their very nature, temporary. You'd be right back where you started. And, either way, your brother would know. That's another right guaranteed by the Constitution -- the right to face and know your accuser.

You cannot hide from this and your mother is enabling your brother's putative addiction. What may make the most sense is to see if you can get a competency hearing regarding your mother. If she is no longer capable of making good decisions in this area then she may be in others as well. Then you'll be able to move her, etc.

This will, though, also expose you as being the person doing the acting. Essentially what I'm telling you is that you cannot sit on the fence with this and expect it to all work itself out without you being exposed in some way.

I suggest a few things:
1) If you have other siblings, or at least cousins (e. g. your mother's nieces and nephews), talk to them. Find out what they think about your brother's and mother's conditions. They may have insights.
2) If there's no one like that, try the neighbors. You said that this has apparently been going on since before you moved back, so the neighbors probably noticed something or other. You might want to encourage them to call the cops if they see any drug dealing. They should be able to make anonymous reports and, while that might not lead to much, it would at the very least (I hope) show your mother that the problems with your brother can't just be wished away.
3) Contact the police or an attorney and ask what'll happen if you file a report. Get the straight dope straight from the horse's mouth. If they can help you without much danger to yourself, jump at the chance.
4) Take steps to protect yourself and your mother. Your brother may be on the verge of becoming violent and he may also be on the verge of starting to steal in order to support his habit. Protect yourself and protect your assets.
5) If #3 is not appealing, try speaking with your doctor or your mother's doctor or a clergyman. We're sympathetic here but we're not in the midst of your life. Talk to someone you trust. Best of luck to you.
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