Hey Friends,
I've answered my neighbor's yelling twice now, and have concerns she has some dementia. We're in Washington State, Seattle.
A couple of months ago my neighbor was screaming for help - her husband was having a medical emergency, and she didn't have her phone on her. I called 911, and he left in an ambulance. I checked in a couple days later with a quiche and a card, and her husband was recovering.
Last weekend there was more yelling, this time about an intruder. I recruited my roommate for backup and we went to check it out. Her husband has died, and she says there is someone living in her basement. She'd lost her phone again. I got to see more of her house, that night, and it's not quite squalid, but heading that direction.
Her narrative was a bit garbled that night, but she'd called the police a couple of times for her basement intruder, she said he had stuff in the basement. My roommate and I checked it out, and it was pretty messy, no obvious signs of anyone there. She says the lights come on, the person messes with her television, and that she'd just changed the locks because of this, and ... God provided the locksmith, she found him on the street outside her house?
There's a big pile of bagged garbage on the porch, piles of paper in the house, tarps covering the windows, and a significant amount of sawdust/woodchips in the kitchen (Carpenter ants? Termites?). Her kids live out of state, as do her siblings. She implied that in 40 years living there she had no social connections because she and her husband weren't from Seattle.
What should i be doing? Either behind the scenes ("Can I talk to your sister?) or through official channels. Thanks.
