Painful Daily Assault

This is something that, until recently, I haven't even been able to tell my friends about, so I'm hoping you reading this can be a friend for just a minute or two. 

My husband and I live in an apartment in the Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles.  We’ve lived here happily for almost 20 years and have never had any problem with any of our neighbors.  Until now.

When the guys that live in the apartment above us initially moved in my husband and I were a little surprised at how loudly they walked around.  We had never noticed this from any of our previous tenants and chalked it up to the floors up there being newly changed over from carpet to hardwood and the fact that they were in their 20’sliving on their own.

After they had lived up there for about 5 months my husband wrote them a very polite and cordial note, asking if they could walk a little bit more gently in the bedroom area so as not to awaken us in the middle of the night and/or morning, as had been the pattern.  After a brief conversation with one of the guys, to whom I’ll refer to as Steve, the footsteps above seemed to lessen in force slightly.  We also bought an industrial strength fan and foam earplugs and would employ them each night along with our sound machine.  This was in the fall of last year.

Approximately 6 months ago, however, the force of their footsteps increased even more and it became impossible to live peacefully in our apartment, never mind concentrate, have a conversation, watch TV or listen to music.  My husband decided to go speak to them again.  Steve was polite and seemingly unaware of how much his footsteps were disturbing us.  He agreed to keep it down and we thought that was the end of it.

However, one day later, Steve began to use a subwoofer in his apartment and the stomping had not decreased.  He played it fairly loudly and after the 3rd or 4th time I started to notice that it was hurting my ears.  My husband confronted Steve and asked him to refrain from using it as it was hurting my ears and Steve agreed.  I did, however, hear the subwoofer again approximately one day later and feel the pain. 

From that point on, my and my husband’s existence in our apartment has changed dramatically.  Soon after my husband talked to them about the subwoofer, I started to feel a different type of pain in my ears, face, jaw and head.  This pain would sometimes be accompanied by nausea.  It felt like a wave of pressure would come over me at certain times of the day and when it would subside it would leave me with a residual headache and painful earaches. 

After copious amounts of research and consultations with two sound technicians, I discovered that the pressure that I was feeling was most likely caused by ultrasound.  The sound technicians directed me to an app that could sort out if that was the case.  We quickly determined that it was in fact ultrasound and also found out that some women and most children are especially sensitive to ultrasound at high levels.  The symptoms were identical to the ones that I was experiencing.   And, to our horror, we discovered that it was coming directly from the apartment above us. 

But why would ultrasound waves be coming from the unit 1 floor up?  The tenants above us, 3 frat boy types, in their mid to late twenties, had no use for an ultrasound device or so we thought.  Could they possibly be utilizing such a device on purpose to upset us?  Unfortunately, this is not so uncommon, as there are ultrasound devices readily available online that one can buy specifically to use against one’s neighbors.  These devices are even advertised as a “toy” with which to “play a prank on your neighbors!”  We gradually realized that they must have procured some sort of device like this and were aiming it at my head from their apartment above us, seemingly deliberately. 

And their attacks were freakishly accurate.  They always seem to know which room I was in, which made us realize that they were listening in on us, which isn’t hard since the floor and ceilings are so thin.  We wondered to ourselves, why are they doing this?  Are they just angry about the requests to decrease noise?  Are they bored?  Do they want us to move?  Do they just hate women?  We surmised that it was probably a combination of all four and that they chose me as their target because of my husband letting them know that the subwoofer hurt my ears. 

If all of this sounds like something out of a spy novel, you’re not alone.  We had trouble believing that it was happening too but after all of our research and investigative testing, there was no other explanation other than our neighbors using ultrasonic waves as a weapon against me.  Convinced of this my husband confronted Steve twice and Steve swore that neither he nor his roommates had any such device.

Despite Steve’s denials my husband and I knew that the guys above us were on the attack; they were committing assault and battery and I was their victim.  We decided to call the police and spoke with an officer who told us that there isn’t much that the police can do about sonic weaponry.  We would have to first prove that they were, in fact, using a device in their apartment and that their intent was to cause pain.  He said that the police could come out to do a wellness check and so we decided that we would put that approach on the back burner to consider in the future. 

Determined to put a stop to this we collected our copious notes with daily entries about everything that had gone on over the past month and we met with our apartment manager, Patrick.  He listened intently and was so shocked and disturbed by what he heard that he graciously offered me an empty unit in which to sleep so as to avoid the pain.  I stayed in this empty unit for about a week and then came back to our apartment. (It’s interesting to note that while I stayed in the unit, I felt absolutely no pain whatsoever.) 

Upon my return I found that I was feeling pain during the day as well as at night.  We decided to employ some acoustic foam to absorb the sound waves and protect my body.  I’ve constructed a tent of sorts in our living room (see photos) that is made of foam, sleeping bags and moving blankets.  These certainly help to some degree but I still wake up with pain and pressure in the middle of the night and can hear the device above my head and the tenants moving around up there, giggling.  I also bought two felt hats to absorb more sound, which I’m forced to wear whenever I’m at home.

My husband is in a constantly furious, not being able to physically deal with or even verbally threaten these neighbors, as I’ve pleaded with him to not give them any leverage against us until we can secure the proof of what we already know.  I’m increasingly afraid he’s going to snap, having to see his wife in pain and not being able to protect her.

And so that leads us to today.  My husband and I are at a loss as to what to do next.  We’ve both relocated here from New England and haven’t any family in the area.  We’ve reached out to friends for a pain-free place to stay but with the pandemic, our friends are reluctant to have someone staying in their home, potentially infecting their family, which I completely understand.  Unfortunately, we don’t know anyone with a vacant guest house in their backyard or converted detached garage that could accommodate an overnight stay. 

What I’m hoping for from this Go Fund Me Page is to obtain either accommodations for free (or in exchange for work) or funds with which I can stay in an Air BNB for about a month to escape the assaults.  There's an Air BNB near to my work that would cost about $25 per night.  I would also have to rent a car and would like to seek medical care because we're not sure what sort of lasting effect these assaults may have on my hearing as I'm experiencing some ringing in my ears.  These additional expenses are what the remaining funding request is for.  

This funding and a safe haven would give my husband and I time to build evidence against them and plan our next move.  I’m not crazy about asking for money and have always been a go-getter type with numerous skills who has always worked hard for the reputation that I have build but my husband and I have reached the end of our rope and our expendable funds and sadly, we need a helping hand.

Can you please help?  I am happy to offer skills in exchange for a place to stay.  I’ve listed my skills below and can say, in all modestly, that I excel at all of those things.  I’m a people person and have worked with the public in just about every job that I’ve had so I would be happy to be the contact person for whatever project you might need assistance with.  I’m also happy to work behind the scenes with whatever organization you might need assistance or want help. 

Life's unfair and that's a fact but we're just getting hit with injustices wherever we turn with this.  We know it's futile to fight anymore and all I want to do is move.  If we could cover the costs I wouldn't be here.  Even just getting all this all out has helped, so thank you for reading this.

This article perfectly describes this unique and painful phenomena  

Skills
Microsoft Word (Professional Knowledge)
Microsoft PowerPoint (working knowledge)
Microsoft Excel (working knowledge)
Organizational Expert
Professional Event Facilitator (have worked in this capacity for a major Los Angeles Charity for the past 4 years)
Professional Bartender
Professional Server
Professional Presenter (Have worked at trade shows in that capacity for the past 7 years)
Professional Actress (Professionally for 30 years)
Certified Substitute Teacher in the States of California and Oregon
Great interior designer
Professional Interior painter (worked in that capacity during a summer break in college)
Former professional babysitter
Hold a teaching degree in Theater Education from a major institution (magna cum laude)
Acting coach