Gilroy
– A Gilroy couple claims their firefighter neighbor has
repeatedly harassed them, by phoning in false noise complaints,
presenting himself as a city employee to intimidate neighbors, and
possibly poisoning their dog.
Gilroy – A Gilroy couple claims their firefighter neighbor has repeatedly harassed them, by phoning in false noise complaints, presenting himself as a city employee to intimidate neighbors, and possibly poisoning their dog.
Frank and Delica Fielding filed a written complaint with the fire department last week, one month after their dog Jake was poisoned and barely survived, saved by more than $3,500 in emergency veterinary care. Veterinarians identified the poison as a tremorgenic toxin, likely snail bait.
The Fieldings have no proof that firefighter Tim Price committed the crime. The only evidence – a pound-and-a-half ball of meat, laced with poisonous snail bait – is difficult to trace. But their suspicions mounted when a neighbor, Milford West, told them that another dog died of snail bait poisoning a year ago, following similar barking complaints from Price.
Police are investigating the poisoning, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $20,000, up to one year in county jail, or both. Price declined to comment.
Chief Dale Foster said he is currently reviewing the Fieldings’ complaint, in cooperation with the city’s human resources department. If Human Resources finds a substantive allegation relating to a person’s city employment, said LeeAnn McPhillips, the complaint will be pursued. Though McPhillips said she could not speculate on this specific case, Human Resources regulations outline potential penalties ranging from a written reprimand to dismissal.
Frank Fielding originally lodged the complaint Nov. 22, in a phone call to division chief Phil King, who asked him to resubmit it in writing. In his complaint to King, Fielding wrote that Price should be reprimanded and suspended, if not fired.
“Mr. Price has presented himself as a firefighter … in attempt to use this position of power to intimidate my wife and our neighbors,” he wrote.
If so, said King, the complaint falls within the city’s purview. If not, “it could just be a neighbor dispute that we don’t get involved in,” King said.
Noise complaint dismissed
in court
According to Delica Fielding, the trouble began about two years ago when the Fieldings brought home a 6-week-old puppy: Jake, a black Labrador mix. When the Fieldings left him in the back yard one morning, he cried and whined, Delica Fielding said. Within the hour, Tim Price came over to complain, she recalled.
“He said, ‘Your dog has been barking for the last hour … I’m a Gilroy firefighter, and I’m working the graveyard shift, and I need my sleep,’ ” she said. “I told him, ‘I’m sorry, he’s just a little puppy.’ ”
Fielding said that Price insisted, ” ‘You have to do something about it.’ ”
“I said, ‘Okay, I’ll talk to my dog,’ ” Fielding recalled. “Maybe I shouldn’t have been sarcastic.”
Since September 2006, Gilroy police have received 15 animal complaint calls directed at the Fieldings’ address, most between the hours of 8 and 11pm, according to crime analyst Phyllis Ward. Three resulted in warnings; one ended in a citation. The rest were resolved on scene or resulted in no report. Police did not specify which calls came from Tim Price.
Fielding claims that there are far more calls initiated by Price extending back to 2005, and that the family has been cited for barking four times. On Monday, March 5, the Fieldings appeared in court, where Judge Harold Cole dismissed a November 2006 noise complaint, after police officer Royce Heath said he hadn’t heard any barking at the Fieldings’ home.
“Tim Price said the dog had been barking for an hour, then stopped,” Heath testified. “He was adamant that he wanted me to write a citation.”
Neighbors said the Fieldings’ dog hasn’t been noisy, though Price, whose back yard faces the Fieldings, may be better-positioned to hear Jake barking.
“Tim’s always been a good neighbor, and so have the Fieldings,” said Jenny Belcher, a longtime resident. “There’s no one evil in the neighborhood.”
Neighbor’s dog died from the same poison
On Jan. 25, Delica Fielding called to Jake from across the living room, and he didn’t respond. She called again, and he collapsed, shaking and foaming at the mouth. The Fieldings rushed to an emergency veterinary clinic in San Jose – “nothing else was open,” said Delica Fielding – where a veterinarian operated on the dog. Jake required additional care the next day, at Gilroy Veterinary Hospital. The couple said their veterinary bills exceeded $3,500.
“Snail bait essentially causes a dog to bleed to death,” said Brad Webb, a practice manager at Gilroy Veterinary Hospital. Humans are vulnerable to the toxin, too, he said. “Any quantity is dangerous … You’ll start seeing signs within 10 to 15 minutes of eating it.”
Frank Fielding combed his yard for snail bait pellets, and called his gardener to ask if he used the toxin. The gardener said no. A few weeks later, on Feb. 12, Delica Fielding said she heard a thump against the family’s fence. A hunk of ground beef, mixed with poison pellets, lay in the yard. When police arrived, they collected the meat as evidence, along with another, older beef patty covered with snail trails, said Fielding.
To their next-door neighbors, Carolyn and Milford West, the episode was eerily familiar. Before Carolyn West’s mother died in 2005, her dog died of poisoning. A veterinarian identified the toxin as snail bait, Carolyn West recalled, though she never used the poison, preferring to pick off snails by hand. Her mother had often locked horns with Price, who complained about the dog’s barking, West said.
Today, the Fieldings keep Jake inside, except for brief, supervised runs in the backyard. Frank Fielding, a retired Department of Corrections officer, said the noise complaints are one thing, and the poisoning could be another, but by identifying himself as a firefighter, Price crossed a line.
“He’s in a position of public trust,” he said. “But how can we trust someone like that?”
