Quieting A Noisy Neighbor

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - What can you do about your noisy neighbor? Not what one Colorado woman did.

Sheriff's deputies arrested a 60-year-old Colorado woman after she pulled a shotgun on her neighbor's 11-year-old son who was practicing his clarinet in their adjoining yards. When police arrived they found her with a rifle in her hand, drunk. Hm. Go figure.

While anyone who has to sit through a middle schooler's clarinet practice can kinda sympathize, threatening to kill is probably over the top. So what can you do about a noisy neighbor?

If you live in an apartment, check your lease and require your landlord uphold the rules for all tenants. Condo associations can force condo owners to comply with their bylaws.

For private homes, check zoning ordinances on the township's website to see what acceptable noise levels are at which times of day, and call the township if you believe the noise violates the ordinance.

But before you do that - or take matters into your own gun-toting hands, go over to the offending neighbor and ask him if you can sign his practice chart so he can go play elsewhere.