Syreeta Dean moved her family to a cul-de-sac in Lockport three years ago, and she said things were fine until last summer, when her next-door neighbor told her and her teenage children to shut up, reported WKBW-TV.
"We looked around like, “Who said that?” Dean recalled, and said she saw her neighbors up on their deck. "'You shut up!' She yelled it -- 'you n*gger' -- just like that, and then she ran back into her house."
“For racism or racists to be right in my back yard — it was shocking," she added.
This summer, she said flyers went around the neighborhood accusing the same neighbor of calling someone else the N-word, but Dean said she doesn't know anything about the flyers or the incident they describe.
Her mail carrier, however, confronted Dean's teenage son over the flyers while the boy was outside listening to music in the driveway.
“I heard this screaming outside," Dean said, "so when I looked out the window, I saw this mail carrier parked outside my driveway, walking up my driveway, yelling at my son.”
Dean confronted the mail carrier, who falsely accused the teen of breaking the law by putting non-posted flyers into mailboxes, and she said the postal employee flipped her off as she left -- and the next time they saw each other.
“When I drove by her, she turned and looked at me — gave me the finger again," Dean said.
Dean reported the incident to the postmaster and State Police, and the U.S. Postal Service says the incident was investigated and an unspecified action would be taken, but State Police closed the case without filing charges.
Last week, a man who lives in the same home as the racist woman tossed something into Dean's back yard while she was outside with her pit bull terrier.
“What are you doing back there?" Dean said she asked the neighbor. "What did you throw in my yard? And my dog was nibbling and sniffing or whatever … not even five minutes later she started throwing up.”
Dean said the dog threw up the rest of the night and was later taken to the veterinarian, which cost nearly $700, and she's awaiting tests on pellets she found later in the back yard.
She called the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office to report the incident, but Dean said the officer who responded threatened to call animal control to ensure the dog had been properly cared for and notified her of an expired car inspection.
Dean said she received a letter this week from town officials notifying her that the dog was not registered, as required by state law, but it's not clear who reported the animal.
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