A Secret Spy Quandry

Let's say, hypothetically speaking, that you had some neighbors move in next door about a year ago. Renters. Three older men, brothers (ages 50-60). They're quiet, unassuming guys. They have a dog who barks occasionally at passers by, but mostly they keep to themselves, take care of the yard, and don't bother anyone. Imagine they are the father and two uncles of a lady you know by acquaintance. She had told you, long before they coincidentally moved in next door, that her father was on methadone and had been for years. He's ashy-skinned, hunched, sickly looking, scrawny...completely the type you'd suspect of having a prescribed drug addiction. The youngest brother also looks sickly, but he has lesions on his skin, rotting out teeth, and a sunken face. Though you won't see him for days at a time, he'll come out of the 2 bedroom house once in a while either hyper and manic or in a sort of coma, sitting or standing hunched over, nearly frozen in place, for an hour or more at a time. You suspect that he might be a meth addict. He has all the telltale signs. But you have no proof of this. The middle brother is grey-skinned, hunched, and sickly looking too. But you know now anything about him other than that he says hello when he takes out the garbage. Again, they're nice, unassuming, mild mannered guys. They compliment you on your lawn, say hello to your kids, and wave as you drive into or out of the driveway. None of them works. How they pay the rent, I don' t know. Probably wellfare.

Now imagine, a little less than a year later, as the summer weather starts getting warm, you start noticing cars drive up to the house, stop briefly (maybe 30 seconds or a minute) as one of the men, usually your acquaintance's father, goes to the car door and exchanges a few words, and then drives off. Would you suspect drugs? Would you call the police? And what would you say? What lengths would you be willing to go to to find out or prove that these guys are selling drugs?

Because this story is not hypothetical. It's a true story of my next door neighbors. I do think they're selling drugs. Yesterday I even saw my neighbor walk out to a car with three small white baggies in his hand, money exchanged, and the car drove off. Classic drug deal. I don't know what they're selling. Maybe the guy is only selling his methadone pills. Maybe it's the other brother's methamphetamine. Maybe I'm totally wrong (but I don't think so). I have already called the police. They said they'd covertly observe the house. But from what I can tell, this stuff isn't going on dozens of times a day. (Granted, I'm not sitting around watching all day either. I've got kids. I only see this stuff if I'm out in the yard, taking a walk, or happen to glance out my front window at the right time). So maybe the police will never see what I see, never catch them in the act. What then? And what if they do catch them? Will I be asked to testify? Will it put my family in danger? Will it alienate the woman I'm acquainted with and whose aunt, the men's sister, is in my ward? Should I talk to the woman I know first? To the aunt? Call the landlord with my unfounded suspicions and hope that he throws them out so I don't have to get involved? Or just stay anonymous and let the police hope to catch it? I've set my camera near the front window where I have a clear view of their driveway and front yard thinking I might catch the actual act on film. And then what? I really don't want to get personally involved. But I also don't want drug dealers, however innocuous they might seem, living next to me. Plus, recently the youngest brother's high school senior daughter and older daughter with an 18 month old son also moved in. So now there are two minors on the property who are in circumstances that might put them at risk. That one detail makes me more determined that something needs to be done. But what exactly?

I'm really not sure what to do.