Fires, vandalism and theft. Residents of a flat on Sint Jozefstraat in Boxtel are completely fed up with their confused neighbor. The man was arrested in the night from Wednesday to Thursday after a fire broke out on his balcony. And this was not the first time, according to local residents, the police are at his door every week. “Now they were there on time, next time they will be late and everything is on fire,” says a shocked resident.
In the past two weeks, they had been bothered by the man at least three times. On Friday he was removed from the roof and on June 26 the man disrupted the gala at the Jacob Roeland Lyceum.
“That will go horribly wrong once. They have to take that man with them, it can’t go on like this any longer.”
A neighbor who was walking her dog found the heated man in front of her door on Wednesday evening. “He was standing here on the street shouting that there is a gas bomb and that he would protect us. I didn’t dare go in anymore. It was really quite terrifying.”
After a while, the man ran off and a few hours later threw all kinds of things. “He was screaming and throwing clothes and other things down. Moments later, neighbors saw that the balcony was on fire.”
And that wasn’t the first time. “He has a ladder on his balcony so he can go up to the roof and then he makes a fire there. That once went horribly wrong. They have to take that man with them, it can’t go on like this any longer.”
“My neighbor is getting crazier.”
The confused man’s neighbor is remarkably calm. “It concerns a man of about fifty”, begins the neighbor. “He lives in a world of his own, he really needs extremely good help.”
According to her, it is the fourth time in a month that it is restless. “As residents, we keep a list to get him out. Together we are strong and together we can get him out.”
She says firmly: “My neighbor is getting crazier and crazier. It’s done now. Packages and bicycles have been stolen. A fire is set. There are bad guys walking around here. There is a lot of vandalism and everything is full of junk.” Residents hope that the housing association will intervene, but in the office opposite the flat they do not yet know what will happen.
“It’s really not nice living like that.”
Meanwhile, the local resident with her dog is still frightened. “It’s really not nice living like that. Now they were there on time, next time my house will be on fire. And then I’m on the street with my dog and I have nowhere to go.”