Marilyn and Thomas Cooke own a semi-detached property. They have one year old twins, Timothy and Tina. TheCookesare angry at their neighbour, Oscar Crouch, who occupies the other side of the semi-detached property. For the past three or four weeks Oscar has been playing his television at top volume preventing the twins from sleeping. Thomas tried to talk to Oscar about it a couple of times, but Oscar did not answer his door when Thomas knocked. Thomas thinks Oscar has been avoiding him.

Marilyn believes that Oscar is a heavy drinker because she often sees him stacking crates of empty beer and wine bottles in his garage. One afternoon, Marilyn was taking the twins to the local park to meet mothers from her mothers' group when she saw Oscar lurch unsteadily out of his house and down the steps, get in his car, and drive off. At the park down the street Marilyn told two of the mothers in the group, Amelia Evans and Lois Clarke, that Oscar is a big drinker who regularlydrives under the influence of alcohol. Amelia and Lois encouraged Marilyn to call the police the next time she saw anything suspicious.

Three days later Marilyn saw Oscar stumble down his steps and lurch down the path to his garage. She called his name, but Oscar just got in his car and drove away. Marilyn decided to call 911 to report Oscar as an impaired driver. She gave the 911 operator Oscar's licence plate number.

Constable Joanne Kerr happened to be driving behind a rather slow-moving vehicle when she heard the dispatcher's report of the call and noticed that the licence plate of the car in front of her was a match. She followed the vehicle for two blocks and then had the driver of the vehicle pull over. A breathalyzer test was administered, but according to the roadside breathalyzer results Oscar was not impaired by alcohol. However, during roadside sobriety testing Oscar was unable to walk in a straight line. He also gave the officer answers that did not always relate to the questions the officer had asked. Constable Kerr believed Oscar to be impaired by drugs. As a result, he was charged with impaired driving and was taken to the police station for further testing. After additional testing Oscar was released and charges were withdrawn. Oscar was able to satisfy Constable Kerr that his unsteadiness was a result of an ear infection for which he had been prescribed medication. In fact, when he was stopped by Constable Kerr Oscar was on his way to his doctor's office to have his ear checked because he did not feel the medication he had been prescribed was working. Oscar's doctor, given permission by her patient, confirmed to police that the ear infection of three weeks' duration had affected both Oscar's hearing and his balance. She further confirmed that the ear drops she had prescribed would not have impaired Oscar's ability to drive.

It turns out that Oscar's granddaughter had asked Oscar to collect empty bottles of beer, liquor, and wine for a bottle drive to benefit her baseball team. Oscar had been diligently collecting empty bottles from all his friends and stacking them in his garage.