So... The house next door is a rental with a slum lord style landlord. It's sat empty and rotting for three years now. The slum lord only comes by once a month in the summer to mow the lawn (yes, that's it), but with the drought this year scorching the lawn he hasn't come by much at all.Yesterday, Dave went to the store and on his way back he noticed the house's front door was open, as well as the door on the side. He called the Sheriff and it turns out that someone had stripped the copper piping from the basement. This neighborhood is heated by fuel oil, and most homes have a 250-500 gallon tank in the basement. Apparently the thieves ruptured the tank, leaving six inches of standing oil.
The sheriffs called the fire department, and three cruisers, a fire truck, a squad and a haz-mat crew were in front of the house for a few hours while they pumped all the fuel out. The opened the basement windows, so every time the wind changes there is now a very strong smell in the air, and the whole place is yellow-taped off like a crime scene.
Interestingly, an officer tried to serve a warrant last week and asked us who lived there. I don't know if it was for the previous occupant or the slum lord.
With all of the dried leaves and scorched lawn, it would have taken little more than a carelessly flicked cigarette butt from the sidewalk to set the place off. That hole is only about seven or eight feet from us, being on the side without the driveway.
I hope to God they make that bastard land lord demolish the whole place. Ugh.
6 comments:
No pictures of the emergency crews?
Glad your house is safe :) The house across the road(that wanted to borrow our wireless) is a rental - nuff said.
You almost wonder if, with environmental laws now, they will condemn it as a brown field site?
Glad you guys are safe though.
And to think there's the largest untapped copper lodes in the world down in Mexico under the feet of people who will do the work Americans won't do.
What a situation next door to you, Brooke!
And I thought that my neighbors were bad. I guess not.
Jeff: It didn't occur to me to take pics! The kids were pretty excited, and most of my time was spent telling them to stop jumping around, and NO you can't go outside while those men are working, ect. That was like the event of the century to them. Heh.
:)
Chuck: I wonder.
I do have to call the fire dept. today. It still reeks of oil; I'd like to know if they have any plans of further cleaning.
Beamish: I support your DKP proposal to annex all of Mexico. :)
AOW: The people that moved out three years ago left a pitt bull abandoned in the back yard. He dug a hole under the shed and we didn't even know he was there until a week later when rail flooded him out. We had to take care of him until animal control could come and get him.
The landlord also used the house to store vinyl siding, ect., while doing absolutely no maintenance to the property whatsoever. According to the sheriff on the scene, all of that was taken, too.
Heh.
Really, with the house being a rental I'd prefer it empty. The last people that lived there got into a fight in the front yard. When the guy screamed that he was going to kill the woman, you should've seen it! Every man for the surrounding four houses ran outside, including Dave. That guy ran away and when he came back he was pretty quiet. :)
Holy Cow! I'm glad it ended well for you all. We had a nice family vacate the house next door and it was vandalized, but they only stole the A/C unit.
Then a bunch of creeps moved in, but luckily, they didn't last long. Something about paying the rent didn't agree with them.
We are living in interesting times and I don't mean that in a good way.
Post a Comment