By Diana Ghazaryan

A 51-year-old woman residing on Yerevan’s Shengavit Street has neighbors up in arms with her antics.

The seemingly mentally-disturbed woman can often be seen lurking around the neighborhood, half naked, in ripped clothes. She’s been known to pilfer food from area shops and two months ago stole some towels drying outside a beautician’s.

This morning she approached a male waiting for a bus and asked for a knife to peel potatoes with. The man asked to get lost several times but the woman wasn’t done. She did move away but kept asking for the knife.

“Enough’s enough already,” said Gayaneh Hakobyan, also waiting for the bus. “She’s a walking nest of infections. For the love of god. She’s goes and comes as she pleases. One day it’ll get nasty for someone.”

The woman, let’s call her V.T., has two boys now in the care of a boarding school. Looking at her apartment from the street, one sees that the windows are missing. V.T. has been known to throw trash on unsuspecting passersby below.

An employee from the beauticians on the ground floor said she used to live in the building but moved out due to V.T.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, told me that the building’sresidents had contact municipal agencies and a psychiatric hospital about V.T. and her lifestyle. The official response they got was that V.T. doesn’t have mental issues. Months ago, the psychiatric ward said that they didn’t have any free space, advising residents to wait. Residents have given up waiting.

“She goes to the bathroom in the entrance to the building. In the summer, she leaves the house naked. She steals clothing off neighbors’ clotheslines. Kids living in the building are afraid to climb the stairs alone and call their parents to escort them. She doesn’t physically hurt anyone but her uncleanliness is a risk by itself. A few days ago she was walking around carrying a large knife,” said the beauty parlor employee.

The employee said that a few months ago V.T. hit an elderly woman customer coming out of the beauty parlor in the head with a water bottle.

Neighbors say that this was nothing new for V.T. who’s been known to throw chairs and glass bottles out of her apartment. They say that neighborhood drunks also gather in V.T.’s apartment.

Area shopkeeper Sona Davtyan said V.T. would often come by and steal stuff.

“She hasn’t been around for a while. Of course I knew she was shoplifting but I wasn’t about to take anything back that had touched those hands of hers. She just doesn’t listen to anyone,” said Davtyan.

It seems that no one knows what to do about V.T.

“I would get angry, but then you feel sorry for her too. She’s sick. Who’s supposed to take care of her?” asks Davtyan.

(Diana Ghazaryan is a 4th year journalism student at Yerevan State University)