3:44 a.m. My cell phone rings. As I blurily try to make out the time and phone number I think I should answer this as the area code indicates Shreveport....I should know this number right?
After a few moments I realize the hysterical person on the other line is our 84 year old neighbor who, not speaking very coherently, I might add, is calling to tell me that the tenants that JUST MOVED IN THAT WEEKEND have been hauled off to jail. She said they were all "drunker than goats" and firing off shotguns in the backyard. Now one might expect this in redneck country...but not in the middle of a middle class neighborhood filled with families...between two schools, a park and three churches!!!!!9:00 call and leave a message for the property manager.
11:30 home from church, find message from property manager promising to get to the bottom of this (sounding very upset about this whole ordeal).
11:45 Wrangle the computer from the kids and find email after email from neighbors in Shreveport telling us what happened and what excitement that neighborhood had! 7-9 police cars with lights flashing!
5pm Property manager calls again...cannot locate tenants...I suggest looking in jail.
Monday morning I am still trying to figure out what is going on and how we are going to handle this. I look up police reports and find only two tenants were arrested and both for interference with an officer's investigation...no felony charges for discharge of a weapon in city limits, gun-free zone violation, public endangerment, anything like that...so I wonder, can we evict?
yeah, not the type of people you find good enough to be in YOUR house. I worry about that since we are trying to also lease out our Memphis house. good luck!
ReplyDeleteI guess I should follow this up. A friend of one of the tenants admitted to firing the shotgun upstairs...the two tenants were downstairs unpacking with music blaring and had no idea what had happened when police burst thru the back door, guns drawn, "raiding" our house! That is why they got interference because they kept denying anything has happened, that is when the friend came down and admitted his stupidity. They had to submit a letter of agreement stating they would be forcibly evicted if we got one more phone call complaint on them from the neighbors (or any infraction)...so far so good. We didn't want the house empty again. One tenant hadn't even moved in yet, so we really, really didn't want to punish him. They all have good jobs and are college educated guys, just stupid moment I guess.
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