1/2 The municipality has placed a camera in the street (photo: Noël van Hooft)
They are terrified, the residents of Bernard Zweerstraat in Waalwijk. That’s because of a man in their street who keeps going crazy. His neighbors see him vandalizing cars and breaking windows and say he threatens them with hammers and knives. “We are afraid that someone will die soon,” says a neighbor. The municipality of Waalwijk is aware of the situation but says it cannot do much.
Emotions are visibly high among the local residents who have gathered in an app group. Four of them tell their stories anonymously to Omroep Brabant because they are afraid of revenge attacks from their ‘disturbed neighbor’.
“He is a psychotic man of around thirty years old,” begins local resident Marie. According to Marie, the man has been causing a lot of unrest in the neighborhood for months and the residents of the apartment complex where he lives feel very unsafe.
Neighbor Sanne no longer sleeps or even eats normally. Her shutters have been smashed and her windows are regularly hit with a hammer. “Every sound makes me sit up and I’m afraid that something will happen again,” says Sanne as she sits inside, trembling. “I hardly dare leave my house, I’m afraid I’ll run into him and he’ll do something to me.”
“If you don’t move out of the way now, I’m going to kick your ass.”
Another resident of the complex, Sofie, had a confrontation with the man on Friday. “He came towards me in the hallway with a fist. “If you don’t get out of the way now, I’ll kick you in,” he shouted at me.”
Not much later it escalated completely. The man threatened his ex with a knife, fled into the neighborhood and was eventually arrested by the police who needed an electroshock weapon. The man was locked up over the weekend and local residents had some peace and quiet.
“I was able to sleep again over the weekend,” says neighbor Lotte, who adds that she has not slept more than three hours a night for months. “But then they will just release him on Monday.”
The municipality of Waalwijk is aware of the situation, but states that there is little it can do. There are no legal grounds to evict the man from his home. “He was arrested on Friday, but the judge decided that he could go home again. We can’t do anything about that.”
“He even threatens officers with a knife, how can he still walk around freely?”
The municipality is in discussions with the police, mental health care and the housing association to do something about the problem. A camera has already been installed
Local residents don’t understand it at all. “He causes so much trouble and he even threatens officers with a knife! How can he still walk around freely?” says Marie, frustrated. “He urgently needs help, but he is not getting it. The Mental Health Service tells us to keep calling if there is something wrong, but they do nothing.”
According to the neighbors, his immediate neighbor moved after all her windows were smashed by the man. His downstairs neighbor has moved elsewhere for the time being.
“We live in hell, but he won’t drive me out of my house,” Sofie concludes, after which she bursts into tears. “They only take action when someone has died,” Lotte concludes.
*The names in this story are not the real names of the local residents. The names have been changed for security reasons.