Cher Fan's CDs, Stereo Seized and Destroyed for Waking the Neighbours
8/14/2008 By Brock Thiessen

For all those who hate noisy neighbours, the law is on your side. Or at least it is in Wales, where a hi-fi-cranking music listener — and Cher fan — had his stereo, CDs and tapes seized and destroyed after waking up the neighbours one too many times.

Along with the search and seizure, Karl Wiosna, a 44-year-old of Graig, Pontypridd, was recently fined more than $500 for his rude listening habits. But apparently, he’s just as upset for being pegged as a Cher fan as he is being charged. "I didn't play the music that loud," Wiosna told the UK newspaper Wales on Sunday, "and it wasn't just Cher, I used to play heavy metal as well."

The legal action against Wiosna came after several neighbours complained to the town council about his repeated aural assaults. "A legal notice under the Environmental Protection Act was served on Wiosna demanding he reduce the volume or stop playing music," explained a council statement. "Just a week after the legal notice was received, officers were called to the address during an out-of-hours emergency by a neighbour. Environmental health staff in the front room of the property next to Wiosna's could hear the music so clearly they could pick out the lyrics." (Presumably those lyrics contained the vocoder-driven line “Do you believe in love after love?”)

After health officials determined the volume levels to be unacceptable and Wiosna breached the noise abatement notice, officials seized all the resident’s audio equipment, CDs and cassettes.

"They took £500 to £600 worth of stuff," complained Wiosna. "I don't think they should be able to do it, it isn't right."

All Wiosna’s albums have since been destroyed, and many would say, now off to a better place.

Cher "Believe"
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