I keep seeing variants of this question and am finally going to have to share this story for the first time.

Years ago I lived in a community of 200-plus townhouses. Most neighbors got along fine, but at some point a unit became occupied by a bunch of guys in their early 20s. Not surprisingly, they played their stereo at a high volume. Their place was a fair distance from mine, and I consider myself pretty reasonable, but the day came when I knocked on the door and asked the guy to turn down the music. He yelled over his shoulder to his friends, "Turn UP the music!" And they did.

Shortly thereafter my car, which was parked outside, happened to have a slashed tire. When I discovered it I heard a hoot of laughter from their unit.

The neighbohood had a security guy, who told me everybody was complaining, and the owner was being fined for numerous violations. But apparently the owner was the mother of one of the guys, and was rich, and didn't care.

In the wee hours one night I was awakened by a very loud, nonstop rant coming from that house. After several minutes I finally got dressed and walked over there. Every window was brightly lit and it seemed pretty clear somebody inside was strung out on drugs. Under normal circumstances nobody could maintain that kind of ranting for any length of time.

I considered my options. The guard didn't work that late. I wasn't going to knock again. But the exterior of the building had a wooden door behind which were the electrical panels for all the units. I threw the main switch for that unit. It made a loud THUNK and the place immediately went dark. At the same moment the voice also went silent, as if he'd been wired into the house current.

I waited a bit to see what would happen, half-expecting somebody to come out and investigate. Nope, I guess they all just sat there in the dark, mystified or scared.

Silence reigned for the rest of that night and thereafter. For whatever reason, I never noticed them again or heard anything about them. Guess they moved out.

But after that, the electrical panels throughout the community were locked.