Steve Burson, a resident of Pahrump, has decided to take matters into his own hands.

Burson, who has lived at his current residence on Kings Way since March 2003, believes that his neighbors have been continually vandalizing his property, particularly when he is away on weekends during frequent trips to Las Vegas to visit family there.

Burson said the neighbors moved in about a year ago and that his property has been increasingly vandalized for the past six or seven months.

The first incident occurred in May and concerned a broken window of a mobile home that Burson has in the back of his property. Burson said he called the Nye County Sheriff's Office about the incident at the time but was told that because he did not see the actual vandalism take place there was little they had the authority to do.

Following the broken window, Burson left again for the weekend and found the mobile home had two additional windows that had been broken and said there were rocks inside the mobile home, leading him to believe they had been thrown deliberately.

Other incidents followed, usually while Burson was in Las Vegas for the weekend.

"Every time I go to Vegas, there's something new," he said.

Burson also has a collection of baseballs that he said he has found in his yard and on occasion beneath broken windows.

Burson, who lives in a single-wide mobile home, has also returned to find his home's exterior walls egged and the mirror broken on another vehicle he had parked on his property.

He said that he has had no contact or confrontations with the neighbors that might have inspired the vandalism. He attempted to speak to the neighbors about the issue once when they were outside in their yard, but when Burson reached his fence he said the neighbors scattered and hid, replying to his accusations only with taunts of, "Did you see us do it?"

"It's got nothing to do with me," exclaimed a frustrated Burson. "This isn't face to face. I live alone, how much trouble can I be?"

Burson also said that another neighbor told him that he saw the neighbors that Burson believes are vandalizing his home throwing rocks at his residence while he was away.

Finally, Burson decided that enough was enough, and that if the Sheriff's Office could not help him, then he would take action himself.

Last Friday, Burson erected a large, lighted sign with day-glow orange spray paint that says "Vandals" and has an arrow pointing to the neighbors' residence and gives their address.

In addition to that, Burson has also constructed a large, red "X" and posted it against the fence he shares with the neighbors.

Burson said he took these actions "so people will know and have a warning that they will be vandalized."

He also went to the assessors' office to get the names of his neighbors so that he could pursue litigation against them for destruction of private property. He is currently in the process of securing an attorney.

Sept. 21, Burson once again called the Nye County Sheriff's Office. He said that an officer came to his residence, was shown all the examples of vandalism, and finally got one of the neighbors to come outside. The officer spoke to the neighbor and told Burson that the neighbor claimed her children's friends were playing baseball and accidentally may have hit some of the windows.

Burson finds this to be preposterous, and angrily reiterated the egged house and rocks he found under his broken windows.