It was midnight on a cold November day...and there was a knock on the door...which frightened me! It was a Tuesday...and who could be knocking on the door at this hour? "Who is it?" I yelled out! The police was the answer. "How do I know it's the police?' I asked. I wouldn't open the door to anyone at that hour! The policeman slipped me a business card under the door, so I opened it.
Sleepy-eyed, I saw a uniformed police officer, and he quickly motioned me to look down the hallway...that he and his partner were trying to get into the apartment next door, but the woman wouldn't answer. So, they wanted to get to her apartment through another appartment to arrest her. Needless to say, it was a scary situation!
The officer asked my permission to go through my apartment, and I showed him to the back sliding glass doors on onto the balcony. He quickly went out on the balcony and jumped over the railing and the wall section dividing the apartments. When I went back to close the front door, I looked down the hallway, and saw the woman sitting on the carpet in the hall and a police officer watching over her!
I knew something serious was going on here, and I hoped I would not get caught in the middle of is. When I went back to close the back sliding glass doors on the balcony, I noticed something that was incredible! On a week-end you expect to see people out and about at midnight...I saw about 15-17 people around the swimming pool; on the second and third floor...all looking THIS way. Apparently this woman was going to jump off the balcony; she had been making a speech of some kind, etc. She was apparently threatening with some kind of behavior, because somebody called the police at midnight!
About 30 minutes later, I saw the police and the woman walking down the hall. But, I don't think the police took her to jail...I think they took her to a mental institution to get evaluated for this behavior! She was obviously a threat to everyone! This is a woman I never met, and all I knew about her was she was young...under 25 years of age.
Going back about a year when this woman moved in is when my problems began with the bugs, etc. As time went on, the bug problem got worse. In my first and second year I didn't see any bugs at all. But, after that woman moved in...I started noticing more and more bugs. In my first two years, I didn't use any of the tall bug spray can...but in the last year...I went through 5 cans of bug spray! I couldn't control the bugs that were coming from somewhere...where was the question!
I started noticing bugs in the kitchen area; then in the cabinets in the hall; the closet; the bed area; around picture frames in the living room...when I turned the light on in the kitchen in the morning...bugs would scatter everywhere! I was furious! But, at the time, long before the incident with the woman next door...I didn't know where the bugs were coming from. They weren't coming from my place, because I had just completed two years without bugs...and I don't want bugs where I live!
Bugs were everywhere, and one morning I turned on the kitchen light, and bugs scattered as usual, but I noticed a bug coming out of the toaster! I was furious! The toaster was about three years old, so I threw it away, and bought a new one! The only difference, was that I would now leave the toaster in the plastic bag and take off the plastic when I used it. At the time, I didn't know it would be a way of life for me for the next year, as I had to battle the bug situation.
I didn't know where the bugs were coming from, but I complained to the manager, and everything fell on deaf ears! I had to do with everything that I did with the toaster...put everything in plastic! Silver-ware; plates; pots and pans; opened boxes like cereal; flour; all were in plastic bags. If not in a plastic bag...a plastic container until I could solve this bug problem! Every time I wanted to make a couple of pieces of toast, I had to take the toaster out of a plastic bag. If I wanted to cook something, the pan had to come out of a plastic bag!
This is about the time the fighting with management and maintenence began. I wanted somebody to go into these apartments to check them...to find out where all these bugs were coming from! All of it fell on deaf ears again...and again and again...
When I was 27 years old, I managed some apartments. I had a full time job at the time, and this was a part-time job for the rent and the phone. One of the first things I did, was to go in every apartment to check for cleaniness...some people live like pigs and are a health danger to others. I found two filthy apartments that had to be cleaned up, and I give the two tenants 30 days to clean up their apartments or they would get evicted.
In one of the apartments, there lived a couple with a little one year old baby...and I didn't think this was a safe enviornment for a baby! I was threatened and called out. I couldn't believe people live in filth like this!
When the 30 days came, I went back to check on the apartments, and I got the surprise of my life! Both apartments were squeaky-clean and looked great...and I was really releived...especially for the sake of the baby! These two people turned out to be my two best tenants! They just needed a kick in the ass...you know how snot-nosed 25 year olds are...they think they know everything!
The fight with management went all year long, to check where all of these bugs were coming from...and all I got was YAWN! Management can check apartments, and the law gives them the right to do so, etc.
After the woman next door was arrested and taken away, and after the workmen finished their repairs...I noticed less and less bugs in my apartment! So, about the time I was moving out...about three months later...I didn't see any bugs at all. In the end, the apartments lost out, because they had to pay thousands of dollars in damages to the apartment. $250.00 deposit money doesn't pay much in today's dollars.
I cannot explain the urgency to the reader by the police when they knocked on the door that night! This woman must have doing some kind of last-rite behavior...playing with matches...or even had a can of gasoline out there on the balcony. She could have thrown gas all over the living room...torched it and set everything on fire...and then jumped off the balcony! I think I dodged a bullet that awful night, and I could have been running for my life! I was grateful to whoever called the police...
The only thing I regret about the entire situation...is that I didn't go to the health department...break the lease (right away), which I am entitled to do under the law...and move to another place...
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Copyright; 2010; Jerry Aragon/The Humor Doctor
Website name; humordoctormd
http://humordoctormd.homestead.com
