Sounds like you pinpointed the neighbor as an ash hole.
If I had actually written the above story, which I didn't, I might also mention:
In 2002 (Dad's body was still missing), there was a rare alignment of 5 planets, so we took my brothers entire astronomy kit, Celestron telescope, cameras, computer, drive kit, pop-up observatory\shelter to my folks house and set it up on the dormer roof, which is the entire width of the back half of the house. We used that because it's almost flat. I also put up a couple of smaller telescopes for the kids to use. And a popcorn machine. Then my brother, myself and ten kids sat up there and waited for dark.
Martha saw it all. Nothing escapes the ever watchful eye of Martha.
Martha called the police and told them there were terrorists on the roof with cannons and machine guns and a gun turret. Martha knows about these things because Martha sees all and knows all.
The locals, county and state police, complete with SWAT Teams, bomb sniffing dogs and armored vehicles showed up lights and sirens going, guns drawn and ready for a shoot out.
For about 5 minutes things were a little tense, until one of the local pd guys, Officer Doug, (we went all through school together) explained that my brother was an astronomer and we were just taking pictures of the sky.
BUT....
The commander of the SWAT Team insisted that he and his guys had to come up on the roof. Sure says me. "Just climb out the third floor window, onto the 9 inch ledge, follow it around the corner and up the 6 inch wide slope of the old roof line, then crawl onto the dormer."
Funny thing. Not one of the SWAT guys was able to make it to the roof with all their tactical gear on, and they are not taking it off. Period.
Of course, we refused to come down. It being highly irresponsible to leave 10 kids, alone and unsupervised, on the roof four floors off the ground.
Much waving of arms and embarrassment and hilarity ensued amongst the gendarmes while they tried to sort it all out. Meanwhile my brother, myself, and 10 kids sat on the edge of the roof with our feet dangling, eating popcorn.
In the end, Officer Doug, my friend from school, came up and took our statements. Doug had spent many hours up on the roof with us when we were kids, so he knew the drill.