By Tim Binnall
Locked in a bitter feud with his neighbor, a Chinese man came up with a rather spooky scheme to get under his skin: tormenting him with ghostly sounds that he played for hours every day. According to a local media report, the bizarre dispute came to light last week when a court was compelled to intervene in the strange case. Although it is uncertain what initially sparked the feud between the two neighbors, identified by their surnames Lu and Xie, what is known is that the rivalry escalated to the point that the showdown took a particularly weird turn toward the paranormal.
Determined to win the war with his neighbor, Lu strategically placed a stereo speaker against their shared wall and played ghostly sounds for around four hours every morning, followed by another six hours in the late afternoon and evening. Unfortunately, caught in the crossfire of the daily barrage of spooky audio was another resident of the building, identified as Cui. From his apartment two floors away from the feuding neighbors, the man was also forced to endure the ghostly sounds until he finally grew so fed up that he reported the situation to the police.
Alas, a subsequent investigation by authorities found that Lu had been cleverly playing the audio with the speaker pressed against the wall, but at a level considerably lower than the legal noise threshold. While the technique initially allowed the man to evade any legal trouble, Cui eventually argued that deliberately playing the ghost sounds for ten hours a day constituted a purposeful disturbance to his life, regardless of the volume. A court overseeing the case agreed with his assessment, and Lu was ordered to put an end to the proverbial paranormal party by ceasing the daily 'broadcasts' and dismantling the equipment he used for them.