My neighbor damaged my property...and she's kinda scary. What can I do?

I have a gate that I put by her unit to keep my dogs out. Itâ€™s @ 20 ft from her front door and only impedes her from walking to our laundry area-she has direct access from her back door but walks around.

Wellâ€¦sheâ€™s chucked my $70 gate across the yard 3 times and itâ€™s now broken. I donâ€™t know what to do. She obviously can be violent, and sheâ€™s a lot bigger than me. And I hesitate to say this, but I think itâ€™s a factorâ€¦I am white and she is of another race and I honestly think that has a lot to do with the way my landlady handles things.

So what can I do? And please donâ€™t say MOVE. I otherwise like this place, thereâ€™s a yard for my dogs, a W/D and I wonâ€™t give it up without a (legal) fight. Iâ€™m looking for any legal recourse one can suggest. Iâ€™ve been trying to live peacefully for 16 months to no avail, so I donâ€™t think thatâ€™s an option anymoreâ€¦Can I get her to leave? I can provide more details if needed. Any help you can provide would be sincerely appreciated.
Additional Details
I (we) rent through a private owner. I made a police report, but there's not a lot they can do beyond that. And unfortunately, there's no "insane neighbor clause" in my lease...tho I wish there were!

OK the short answer is the video camera Harbor freight sells a small BW survellience camera that can hookup to any VCR for $29.95,
(if you can find an functional older model with SLP mode you might be able to get 8+ hours of recording time.) I do have the long boring story with a happy ending if you are interested, though... My fiancee and I were renting a small country cottage that shared a lot with a single wide 14x70 3Br mobile home 40 feet across a shared driveway. If one chooses to use examples of uncomplimentary cultural stereotypes, in their front yard was displayed: large nonfunctional household appliances , a new 4 wheel ATV ,
and several old -variably functional- fullsize "Amurrikin" pickups with NASCAR numbers prominantly displayed on the rear windows. You get the picture. We had attempted to keep relations, distantly cordial. Halloween baskets for the unsupervised toddlers, and the occasional loan of a tool to the husband/erstwhile "meckanik" that sort of thing.
Biggest issue with them is that they let their 3/4 and 2/3 year olds run wild and when they thought they weren't being watched they would lure our very friendly White West Highland Terrier Puppy to the edge of his enclosure, and hit him. As a result our otherwise very friendly dog is very indifferent to toddlers.
Then one day they sent their 4 year old across the street with a note asking to borrow $600.00 to help pay for their wedding. God's honest truth I swear! Since I saw the only positive benefit I could foresee from this investment would be the possibility of an appearance on the "Judge Judy Show", and the fact that we didn't actually have a "spare $600.00 " laying about the house we decided against making the loan.
Instead we returned the wedding presents (Bought so we "Didn't" have to attend their wedding) and managed to scrape together another couple hundred bucks and gave them $300.00 outright. Well as Dorothy Parker would have it we got our reward a couple of weeks later, my fiancee had ordered some QVC frozen gourmet meat for Father's Day.
Since you can set a clock by our delvery guy , My fiancee' was expecting his arrival but in the time it took to put on a housecoat the package was removed from our fenced in patio. All my S.O. saw were the 2 kids playing in the street and the neighbor's wife going in the front door carrying in a large package. (I had the dog and her car so the neighbor's wife didn't think anyone was home and that she would be caught.
That weekend they loaded up their 28 foot camping trailer ("You know you are a redneck when your RV is half the size of your rented mobile home".) for their "once-a-year-weekend- camp-out" When they got back the months old pile of trash in front of the broken Camaro had disappeared,
My S.O. feared that they had managed to pull off the perfect caper! I saw that they had only moved the pile of trash to the back of the Camaro, and now there was a bag with the very telltale shape of the styrofoam shipping container. So right out of Alice's Restaurant we took lots of 8" by 10" color glossy photos with lots of lines and arrows of the "QVC Frozen Gourmet Meat Massacre!" (including the shipping invoice with our name on it, (she was not the brightest bulb on the string!) Rather than go to the authorities we went to our mutual landlord, retired UPS Driver and one of the 10 world's nicest people, He said he appreciated us not having a 20 year old mother arrested on federal charges, and explained to them the serious pot of Kim Chee they had opened. They denied everything, we put 4 cameras up with a time delay taping system and the next 2 years were less than entirely pleasant but they at least stayed away from us.
Then the landlord offered to sell us the property, I helped fix the water system and remove over 2000! used tires! and the deal was closed; without informing the other tenants by the way. Imagine their chagrin when they called him to complain about something that needed fixing , and he told them that they should see their new landlords across the driveway.

If she is destroying your landlord's property it is up to your landlady to deal with it. Inform your landlady of her actions. If she doesn't take appropriate action, I would consider reporting this woman to the local authorities.

Have you talked to her. Have you spoken with her. Did you just put up your fence/gate without asking? Maybe she thinks you are picking on her. I know of a lot of people who just seem to be born with a chip on their shoulder. Why don't you take a cuppa coffee out and have a friendly little chat with her. Explain that the fence/gate was to keep your durn dogs in your yard, so they wouldn't be pooping all over her's. Talking with people really does wonders.

Have you spoken to her on how you feel towards what she has done, ask her how would she like it if you do that to her, try to communicate with her first by saying what you have done you have respected her, not been rude to her after what she has done & if she has problems there are the authorities who can also help. I understand you I've gone thru some similar things but don't let her push you over because of her size, plus you don't need to stoop down to her ignorant level, but sometimes necesary to get the point across

Move out is still the best advice. I'm sorry.

I would talk to your management company first and ask them.
Consult your lease for your rights. Or do you own this?
Report the damage to the police and see if any witnesses...

Call police 1st. File small claim action to recover $ TO REPLACE gate yourself.

File restraining order.

Your landlord needs to be put on notice too.

Your lease says you are entitled to quiet enjoyment of the leased property.

Let him fight her off, otherwise you can get out of the lease. I know you don't to move, but let's face facts.

I would get an estimate of how much it cost to fix the gate and send her the bill and have her replace the gate.

A discreetly hidden video camera pointed toward that gate may help. The next time she does anything to it you can have her arrested and then sued in small claims court for the value of both gates if the second one is broken.

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