Lock Up!

In between two funerals in the last week and preparing for her daughter’s wedding within the next two weeks, Eldest Daughter and her husband are rehabbing a townhouse to rent out.

When they went over last night, the door frame and door were all kicked and broken, and new locks had been installed.

They immediately called the police, who helped them get into the house – using a credit card. With all sorts of equipment sitting around – power saws, paint, ladders, and all the stuff that goes with it, nothing appeared to have been stolen, except my son-in-law’s framing hammer, which seems to have been used to “repair” the damage done to the exterior frame, and then pocketed on the way out.

Who ever broke in had managed to thwart the door knob, but not the dead bolt, which is why they had the knock down the door. They installed a new lock and deadbolt, but they were so busy pocketing the hammer they forgot to lock their own deadbolt, so it was easy to get back into the house.

Son-in-law went off and bought a new, new door set, which he installed, and also put up a “No Trespassing” sign, on which he wrote “New Owners” and his office phone number.

They had bought the house as a short sale so there was no mortgage, but sometimes banks send people out on foreclosure details who get the wrong number, going to 316 instead of 326, or get the wrong street and scare the daylights out of somebody who lives in the next block. The next door neighbor is home all the time, and has promised to call both Eldest Daughter and the police at once if he sees anybody strange hanging around.

Never a dull…