Larceny by Check, A Renter’s Horror Story

by admin on July 30th, 2009

If you recall, a few months ago I was having an oh-so-awesome time trying to keep my old pad but after a failed attempt to convince the lords of the land not to extract more gold from my satchel, that exposé quickly digressed into me trying to find a new home in a hurry. I hunted all throughout the peninsula, (because the east bay is too ghetto even for me), and because I needed to find a place closer to my job. After two weeks of stalking renters on Craigslist, doing the whole song and dance of “I’m an excellent tenant” I found what I thought was the perfect place, but boy was I mistaken.

In case you were wondering why I hadn’t been around for much of the summer, this in part explains why

I should have known something was up when the guy that was renting the house out told me there was no written lease. To make matters worse there was a “previous tenant” still living in the house that just was not ready to let go yet. I didn’t mind so much because I just wanted to get out of “looking for a place to live mode” and back into “doing what I normally do” mode. I was in a rush and possibly blinded by my love for the picturesque neighborhood that was not unlike my kick-ass community in west downtown San Jose – trees, parks, shops, bars, gym, etc. It was great (and I miss it terribly.)

My old digs in downtown San Jose

I lived here, isnt it nice? (Too expensive!)

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
My new temporary roommate, Mr. Grumpy, on the other hand was not so great. When my friends and I pulled up to the house to unload the moving truck, we sat on the curb for nearly 30 minutes while Mr. Grumpy argued it out with the owner of the house. To my astonishment even one of the roly-poly neighbors came to add his two cents to the argument. Things were getting pretty shady, but my friends and I were both tired and hungry from moving tons of heavy junk down four flights of stairs. En fin, I didn’t pay much attention to what was being said –though, I specifically recall a comment about the “thugs” sitting on the curb “just waiting to throw a drug party” – which couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

Suffice it to say that the tone was set for the nightmare that was to be, but of course that was only the beginning. To save you the pain of reading too much prose, let me summarize my experience with the house by saying that at night that place was straight creepy ya’ll!