How to drive one family crazy (7 photos)

In America, married couples, when they have children, often like to move from noisy cities to the suburbs. You've seen them in the movies: clean houses without fences, lawns, swimming pools, and children playing in the yard, accompanied by a golden retriever. That same American dream. Only if some crazy neighbor doesn't turn on the family...





In 2014, the Broads family finally saved up money for a down payment and found a real “dream home” in New Jersey. The cost of this house was quite steep: $1.3 million (Westfield, New Jersey). A large and cozy beige mansion was located at 657 Boulevard. It is worth noting that the home was worth the money, it was well made and of high quality, both inside and out.



Derek

The house was not far from the block where Maria Broads grew up, and Derek himself, who came from Maine to New Jersey, worked for an insurance company. His office was located in Manhattan and the man made a lot of efforts to ensure that his three children and wife lived in a comfortable, according to reviews safe, and prestigious area.

Already in June 2014, when renovations had just begun on the house, the head of the family went outside in the evening to check the mailbox. Among all the advertising debris, Derek found a white envelope on which was written in jagged letters: “To the new owner of the house.” The note inside the envelope began very cordially, but the continuation gave Derek goosebumps:

“Dear new owner of 657 Boulevard, Let me welcome you to your new neighborhood.

657 Boulevard has been in my family for many decades. On the 110th anniversary of the house, I was appointed chief Observer and will monitor this house until the Second Coming. My grandfather has looked after this house since the 1920s and my father has looked after it since the 1960s.

Now is my time. Do you know the history of this house? Do you know what is within its walls? What are you doing here? I'll recognize it anyway. I already see that you have begun to carry out work in the house, are you destroying something there? Ay-ay-ay, this is a bad thing."

The observer further clarified that he saw how a few days ago the Broads met neighbors who also had children and how the children played together.

"You have children, I saw them. Why did you fill this house with young blood? I ask you. Was your old house too small for you? Or did you want to bring your children to me? After I find out their names, I I will call them and make them like me."

Of course, the note had no return address, and it ended with the words that hundreds of cars drive past the house of the new residents every day and, perhaps, the author of the message will be in one of them. He signed himself "Observer".





Broads family

Creepy horror, in a word. That evening Derek was alone at home and he immediately went into the house to turn off the lights everywhere, and then called 911. The officer studied the letter, clarified whether the Broads couple had any ill-wishers and recommended clearing the surrounding area of construction debris so that the author of the message would not It occurred to me to throw it out the window.

The very next day, Derek contacted the Woods couple, who had lived in the house before them for 23 years, and told them about the mysterious letter. The previous owners assured Derek that nothing like this had ever come their way.

When the Woods later gave statements to the police, they were warned that they could not tell any of the neighbors about what was happening, since they were all under suspicion.



House 657

The Broads lived like a minefield for the next two weeks. One night, someone pulled out of the ground a heavy block that had been driven there by builders. The observer wrote a letter saying that he watched movers bring the Broads' belongings into the house.

By the way, he wrote his last name the same way the workers called it (with a slight mistake). It became clear that he was close enough to hear what they were saying.

Another letter:

"I found out the names of your children and one of them likes to draw pictures. It's been a long time since there was any young blood in this house. Have you found all the secrets inside the house yet? Will the young blood play in the basement? Or are they too cowardly to go there alone? I would really scare them. The basement is far away from other parts of the house and if you are upstairs you will never hear the screams in the basement.

Will yours bechildren sleep in the attic? Or do they have a bedroom on the second floor? Which one of them has a window overlooking the street? I'll find out when they finally move. And I will be able to plan everything better. All the windows and doors in your home allow me to easily observe you and follow you as you move around the house.

Who am I? I am an Observer. I looked after the house for two decades when the Woods lived there and they were very kind to sell the house to you when I asked them to do so. I pass by 657 Boulevard many times a day. This is my job. This is my life. And now you're in it, the Broads family. Welcome to the product of your greed. It was greed that brought the previous three families here, and now it has handed you over to me. One day you will go and I will see it."



Needless to say, in what psychological state Maria and Derek were. They strictly forbade the children to move from their previous home to the new one, and they themselves began to visit it very rarely. The observer responded with a note: “Where did you go?”

House 657 was the most beautiful house on the block, even though it was built in 1905. The previous owners, after putting the house up for sale, received a number of requests indicating an amount greater than they themselves indicated. The Broads, having learned about this, began to suspect that the Observer asked the Woods to sell the house to them, but it turned out that one buyer preferred another mansion, and the second fell ill.

The police carefully studied the notes themselves, stamps, envelopes, interviewed everyone who once owned house 657 (of those who were alive) and they swore that they had no idea what was going on and that they had never received anything similar.

Then the police began to take suspicion from the neighbors, and they were the first to pay attention to the property of the Langford family, who lived across the house from the Broads. Based on a number of signs, the police found Michael Langford, who suffered from schizophrenia and sat at home or in the yard all day. But he vehemently denied all the insinuations against him and claimed that he never wrote anything.



Exhausted, the Broads tried to start their own investigation, but this also led nowhere. CCTV cameras and night ambushes of the spouses also did not help to locate the author of the letters. Derek and Maria first asked private detectives for help, and then even an ex-FBI agent.

And nothing. At the end of 2014, the investigation reached a dead end. December came and Derek, in desperation, called a priest to help cleanse the “dream house” of evil spirits. A new message was not long in coming.

"You did something to this house. It is turning away from me. What spell did you put on it? He used to be my friend, but now he is like my enemy. I am responsible for this house. I reject all bad things and will wait, when he becomes good again. He will not punish me. I will rise again. I will be patient and I will wait for you to return and bring young blood. The house needs you. Let the young blood play in it as I once did. Don’t change anything in this house."

After this, the Broadses could no longer stand it, put the house up for sale and moved into the house of Maria’s parents. Even the need to continue paying part of the taxes and the mortgage on the house could not deter them. Derek and Maria looked like hunted animals, they had more frequent nervous breakdowns, and the spouses were depressed. They only had the chance to live in house 657 for six months, and these were mostly months of fear and sleepless nights.



The house had to be fenced

In 2016, the story about the Observer appeared in the media and curious people began to come to the Boulevard. Soon the story with the letters became some kind of urban horror story. The house was either put up for sale or the ads were removed. The Broads began to suspect that it was they who wrote letters to themselves and pretended to be scared. This drove the couple crazy and they wanted to demolish the house. But then the neighbors stood up and began to challenge their decision, arguing that the house was a real landmark that had been decorating the Boulevard for more than half a century and could not be demolished.

In 2017, the Broads were lucky enough to finally rent out a house to a family with children, and when Derek came to check something on the property a few days later, an angry message was waiting for him in his mailbox, beginning like this: “Evil winds and bitter cold from- for the scoundrel Derek and his wench Maria."

Well, everything continues in the same spirit. The observer threatened to take revenge on the Broads for their idea of demolishing the house.

Without hoping for anything (and rightly so), Derek and Maria came with a letter to the police, but to no avail. The family who rented it continues to live in the house and they have no complaints.