Shaun Eli wrote:
I've never lived with forced-air heat so I can't compare. The only
complaint I have about my hot water system is that the pipes clang and
nobody's been able to do anything about it (and there's no air bleed
anywhere I can find, if air has anything to do with it-- last year a
plumber flushed the system and all that did was lead to more water-
rushing noises).

To get back to the original issue-- it happened two months ago and I
just now got around to posting because I've been busy and it hasn't
been a high priority. Regardless, the timing wouldn't affect whether
I'm making this all up (which I'm not).

Some more details:

The house behind me was a two-story house and they added a third
story. The construction took quite a long time-- I think the
contractors were probably only working there part-time.

My back yard slopes down towards their house, but their yard slopes
down toward the back also, so their first floor windows are roughly
the same elevation as mine-- or at least it looks that way from my
living room window.

The houses are in lower Westchester County, NY. My house is a
colonial style built in the mid sixties. I don't know when the house
behind me was first built. I can't comment on any saw marks on the
molding since I don't have it (the detective pulled it out of my house
when he investigated, and took it away-- I'm hoping he still has it).
Since he worked construction he probably would remember whether it was
wood or plastic, and whether it was cut (which I think it was). I
don't particularly remember any saw marks.

Also, I had to shrink the photos to fit them onto the website, but if
anybody really wants photos with more resolution feel free to contact
me through the website I posted the photos on-- but be prepared
because I think they're around 5 meg each, on average.

So it is very likely that in fact the piece was launched from well above
where it landed and gravity did do quite a lot of the work.

The detail on your house would need to be the actual construction detail
at the penetration location, not the generalities.

The detail in the photographs needs to be close ups of the edges,
showing the markings made by whatever it was that was being done. The
same pictures in larger detail probably won't help.

Again, I'm willing to believe it _could_ happen, the _how_ is at least a
little more "conjecturable" now, but really would like to have a chance
to look at the piece itself closely--I bet it would tell quite a bit one
way or another. If it was actually a kickback, there's bound to be a
good gouge mark somewhere. If there are no signs at all of that, then
I'd lean back towards the prank/play aspect of somebody trying out a
bungie slingshot as a lark and getting more than they ever expected--or
could probably do again...

If this "detective" is really very experienced in construction, it
shouldn't have taken him more than a couple of minutes to figure out
what was likely to have happened when he could see the whole thing in
situ plus handle the piece itself, walk over to the construction site,
etc., etc., ...

imo, $0.02, etc., ...

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