Diary of a Triplex Part 3 - Side Stories

1) The very first day after signing the title of the house over we had a break-in. The back door of the triplex was broken open and the intruder went upstairs to the top apartment and completely shattered the heavy wooden door of the apartment. After entering, he destroy all the furniture left behind and the cabinets leaving smashed glass everywhere.

I called the cops to document the break-in and they suggested that someone probably was looking for drugs that was stashed somewhere in the apartment.

2) I started moving equipment into the vacant apartment to start my work. Part of my inventory was an air compressor, air hose, pry bars, hammers, saws, and nail guns.. The first project I started working on was demoing the rotten bathroom floor. By the time I was done the only thing that was left was the joists.

I went to the apartment one morning looked in the apartment and all my tools were gone. Two possibilities could have happened. Either someone entered into the crawlspace and up through the floor to steal the tools or Sam had an unknown spare key and entered the apartment and stole the tools.

We called the cops and documented the theft. Savannah went to a couple pawn shops looking for the tools but most of the shop owners were antagonistic.

3) Eric the previous owner came by to pay an unwelcomed visit and let me know that a prostitute had been living upstairs and gave birth on the floor while we were in the middle of the sale.

I'm not sure why Eric felt the need to tell me this. He viewed this as good news and even a omen for good luck. Meanwhile I was sweeping up prepaid debit cards from the blood donation center in town that were scattered all over the floor of the upstairs apartment.

4) Cars were starting to show up again at a steady rate at the house. The passengers would get out, go into Sam and Sherry's, and exit within minutes. Also several times a week, a very expensive BMW with gold rims and a stocky gentleman with a oversized Yankees ball cap would show up and stay a while inside Sam and Sherry's apartment.

One day, I was on top of the garage installing a new roof and the BMW owner pulled up in the driveway got out of the car, went to the back door of the Triplex, banged on the door and yelled, "Sam, Open Up!"

After breathing a sigh of frustration with the ongoing drug traffic. I went back to work nailing shingles to the deck of the garage. Within 15 min or so he exited the house with a soft walk and unsteady gait. He looked up at me, walked over to the garage and said, "Why you gotta kick Sam and Sherry out?"

"I'm not happy about asking anyone to leave but I have to repair the house which means shutting off the electricity to the house so I can rewire it," I replied.

"But where are they going to go?" he said in slurred speech.

"I'm not sure, but hopefully they have some family that can help them out," I suggested. "Unfortunately, I have to keep making progress on this place as the bills are starting to add up."

"I like what your doing, it looks good," pointing to the freshly painted garage.

"Thank you," I said eagerly wanting to get back to work.

"You know, I'm not a bad guy." he said unexpectedly.

"I never said you were," I responded curiously.

"You probably think the way I'm dressed and the car I drive that I'm a drug dealer," he said.

"Well you do look the part," I laughed.

"Well I'm not, in fact I work with computers."

"Really, what do you do with them." Now I was really curious.

"I program, C++, Java, etcetera."

"You do that currently?" I reiterated.

He slowly rolled his head stretching his neck slightly, obviously feeling the drugs more deeply that he took in Sam's apartment. "Man, you seem like a pretty cool dude. I'm going to level with you. I'm a drug dealer."

I paused before speaking but finally asked, "Really? What do you deal?"

"Heroin, I'm currently out on bail for $100,000 grand."

Thinking to myself sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, I said, "Wow, what are you going to do?"

He looked up at my tools and the loose shingles, "Keep grinding just like you."

After that he got into the BMW and drove off.