By LEAH WEATHERSBY

Fist-fighting neighbors:

On the evening of Friday, Sept. 13, police responded to a new incident in what appears to be a long-running dispute between Ballard neighbors.

At 5:30 p.m., a man in his 70s returned home to discover his neighbor on a ladder pruning her bushes and, he said, his as well. (A cut branch was found on the man's driveway.) He asked her to stop at which point, he told police, she became verbally abusive to him. The woman was quickly joined by her husband, who is in his 50s. The couple followed the older man to his front door. When the older man turned around to confront his neighbors, fists started flying. He said his neighbor hit him a couple of times but he didn't think his own punches connected. When police arrived the couple said that the older man had called the wife names. The husband said when he came out of the house to see what was going on, he saw his neighbor trying to push his wife off her ladder with a metal pole. He responded by going around to the neighbor's yard to protect his wife. The husband said the older man began throwing punches and landed one on his chin - although he almost forgot about it because the older man hit like a "girl."

I think he heard you...

On Sunday, Sept. 15 at 2: 27 a.m., group of people where standing in front of a U-District fraternity house when three young men, all appearing to be in their late teens, walked up to them. The first one asked, "is this where the party is?" The group told him there was no party on the premises and the men started to leave. However, as the visitors walked away, one of the men in the fraternity group shouted: "That guy looks like a hood!"

Having heard the comment, the "hood" turned around and confronted his critic by saying "Give me your money." He then pulled out a butterfly knife and brandished it at the man and a female guest. The woman went to call 911, at which point one of the other visitors urged his companion to leave the scene. The "hood" complied, amid threats that he would "come back."

Get off the phone:

On Monday, Sept. 16, police responded to a theft-of-service call from a North Seattle mortgage company. The business's computer technician, a man in his 30s, said unknown persons had accessed the firm's voice-mail system from a remote location over the weekend and changed their greetings and prompts. The suspects also made international calls by forwarding them through the company's lines.

The technician said he believed the system was taken over at about 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14, and was used until 9 p.m. the following night. He said he came into work on Sunday evening and found all four outgoing lines in use and they appeared (based on the area code) to be calling the Philippines. The company's receptionist, a woman in her early 20s, had also come into work Sunday afternoon and gotten a couple of calls from a well-spoken man who wanted to be forwarded to voice mail, but didn't know which person or extension he wanted. After the first time, the receptionist refused to put the calls through and informed the man they were being traced.

There were several phone messages left by callers over the weekend in a language that no one at the company could understand. They thought it might be Asian or Middle Eastern. The police report stated that the technician had also contacted the FBI, but without result.

Stealing work clothes:

On Sunday, Sept. 15, at 3:15 p.m., a woman in her 30s entered an Aurora Avenue purveyor of erotica and began shopping for undergarments. At one point she disappeared from the clerk's view, behind a pillar. The clerk told police that when the visitor reappeared she said "goodbye" and left. Upon inspecting the area behind the pillar, the clerk noted that several pairs of panties and boxers were missing. When asked to describe the shoplifter, the clerk simply said she looked like a regular prostitute on Aurora.