ChiKat

We are home. The news about the first floor break-ins is very strange.

First, a little background. There are two units on the first floor. Two years ago, a family moved into the rear unit. They fixed up the unit, painted the place, and seemed pretty nice. They claimed they were leasing-to-own. They wouldn't provide the contact information of the owner to the condo association. Whoever owned the unit never paid association dues. After about six months, the family disappeared and the unit remained empty. Not association dues were paid.

Our management company kept investigating and finally found contact information for the owner. The owner was clearly in financial trouble, but promised to pay the association dues. A couple months ago, a young couple moved into the unit. They have no furniture and are rarely home, but they seem like nice people.

The promised association dues have never arrived.

While we were gone, burglars came to the first floor and tried to break-in via the fire escape. When that didn't work, they pried open the first floor.

The people on the third floor witnessed this and called the police.

The burglars got into the building, used a sledge hammer and a chisel to break into the first floor front unit. They walked past laptops, DVD players and televisions. They went all the way to the back on the condo and tore apart the bedroom. They stole a small safe and some jewelry, neither of which were worth that much.

Then they went back into the building, broke into the rear unit that is home to the non-due-paying people. Then they left.

20 minutes later the police arrived.

Apparently, a burlarly in progress isn't high on their agenda. The third floor tenants saw the whole thing, and gave the police a description of the burglars, including the fact that one of them was wearing a blue hat.

The police did not bother to pick up the blue hat that was left on the front lawn until it was pointed out to them.

The police did point out that the people in the rear unit, despite have their door busted open, never filed a police report. The police believe that the burglars were looking for something that was in the rear unit. They went into the front unit by mistake, took the safe and jewelry box, then when they didn't find what they were looking for, broke into the rear unit, found what they wanted and left.

Ugh. I have no idea how to make this better. How to make this safer. We can't demand that the people in the rear unit move out, because we have no proof that they are doing anything illegal. But the whole situation does seem very strange.

The management company is pursuing legal action to try to get the $6,000+ overdue fees from the owners.

Meanwhile, I'm thankful I have a 110-pound dog.