White Bear Lake woman known as 'Neighbor from Hell' again charged with two counts of stalking
A White Bear Lake woman dubbed as the "Neighbor from Hell" for years of menacing her neighbors was charged Thursday with two counts of stalking after she harassed real estate agents and prospective buyers who came to look at the property next door that had recently been put up for sale.
Lori E. Christensen, 57, took photos of and videotaped clients, put up "No Trespassing" signs facing the home for sale, and loudly made disparaging comments about the house and the people who had lived there. In one case, she swore at a real estate agent, told him to get out of her neighborhood and threatened to call police because of where he parked his car. She slapped her butt in front of him as he drove away, according to charges filed in Ramsey County District Court. Christensen is charged with felony stalking for her third or subsequent violation in 10 years, and gross misdemeanor stalking for following or monitoring another person.
At other times, the charges said, Christensen yelled at potential buyers, telling them "meth users" lived there, the charges said.
"My buyers actually liked the house and really liked the location, but we had an encounter with the neighbor which completely convinced the buyers that they wouldn't make an offer on the house," one real estate agent said, according to charges.
The saga is latest in a series of drama on East Street where Christensen has been menacing those on the 5200 block since the early 2010s. Christensen once mocked a recovering alcoholic who lived across the street by racing a remote-controlled toy car in front of their house and yelling "Drunk driver, drunk driver," as the family held a birthday party for their son.
She has also called the police and city inspectors on her neighbors dozens of times in the past decade, once for an unfounded report of a car with a flat tire sitting in their driveway and another time because paper from their bin blew into her yard, court records show. She violated a restraining order in 2013 that prohibited her from videotaping her neighbors. Christensen was put on probation for her transgressions.
In the current case, the couple who lived next door to Christensen and is now selling the house originally moved there in 2016. Immediately, the complaint says, Christensen began videotaping them. The couple said their daughter stopped playing outside "for fear of getting filmed."
Over the next two years, encounters continued, often with Christensen shouting profanities and making wisecracks about their dogs and the family's ability to care and control them. There also was a dispute over a fence the neighbors put up, the charges said.
In 2019, Christensen e-mailed city officials to report her neighbors were storing items on public property, were parking in no parking zones, and that a new fence the family put up was above city limits and should be torn down. Christensen has the head of female mannequin on a stake on her deck and twice in April 2019 turned it so it faced her neighbors. That summer, Christensen is accused of cutting the cable TV line pass through her property but serving her neighbors. Another time as her neighbors were installing gutter guards, Christensen stood in front of the neighbor's house and starred at them. The neighbors moved out in December and put the home on the market.
"She is not making that easy by trying to sabotage it by causing fear and intimidation in prospective buyers and their agents," the neighbors wrote in a statement included in the charges. "She is harassing and verbally abusing us even to potential buyers and real estate agents. We fear for our lives and for the lives of the renters and prospective home buyers and agents. I am losing sleep. I even experience a physical reaction when I am faced with a situation that involves her. I start shaking and feel very sick to my stomach from fear. This feeling of fear and intimidation has increased significantly of late as we have prepared to sell our house."
Christensen told investigators that she has a First Amendment right to freedom of speech, videotapes conversations to protect herself and always remained on her own property, the charges said.
Christensen, who has previous convictions for domestic assault and violating a harassment restraining order, made her first court appearance remotely Friday. She posted $20,000 bond and is due back in court June 24.
Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768
