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So I recently got a part-time job in the leasing office of the apartment complex where I live. I'm friends with my co-workers, I love 99% of the residents, and it's fun to take prospective residents on apartment tours. After surviving quite a few crappy jobs, I am fortunate to have little to complain about. We did have a little excitement recently, though.
Some brief background: residents are required to keep their cars registered; it's in their lease as well as in a copy of community policies that everyone signs. It's basically to prevent people from storing hideous, rotting, nonoperational vehicles indefinitely on the property.
The manager noticed that the registration on a car in our lot had expired many moons ago. He contacted the resident, who explained that he was attempting to sell the car (mind you, this car was extremely old and utterly hideous and was clearly not worth $50). Fine. The manager reiterated the policy on keeping the car registered and told him to sell it or register it, ASAP.
Some weeks pass and the car is still not registered. The manager notifies him that the car needs to be either gone or registered by the end of the month. A week or two into the next month, the car is STILL not registered and, having been generous, the manager finally notifies the resident that he has 48 hours to register the car or it will be towed at his expense. At this point the resident becomes irate, but the manager reminds him that this policy is in two legal documents that he has signed.
The resident comes in the next day and lets me know he has updated his registration and that it will not be necessary to tow the car. We check and see a new sticker on his plate. Fabulous.
A couple of weeks later one of our service techs (i.e., maintenance guys) is preparing the lot for repaving and notices that this guy's registration stickers expires only in a few months. Knowing that the resident had supposedly *just* renewed it, this raises his suspicions. He calls over our other service tech, whose brother is a police officer, and they have the license plate run. ST2's brother calls back and says that this plate did not belong to this car.
Oh, but it gets better.
ST1 notices that the plate on the car looked suspiciously thick, and also that there is only one screw holding the plate in place, so he gently nudges it with his finger. It moves aside and, lo and behold, there is another plate underneath. ST2 calls his brother one more time and, sure enough, the second plate does not belong to the car either.
We have the car towed immediately.
A couple of days later, when the manager has the day off and I am in the office by myself, the resident storms in, cussing at me and freaking out, demanding to know why we have towed his car. I calmly explain that we enforced the parking policy after repeated warnings and (in nicer terms) that he lied about registering the car. (I avoid anything that could have sounded like an accusation of stealing the plates.) Seemingly impossibly, he just gets madder and now demands to speak to the manager. I try to call the manager but no answer. Meanwhile, the resident is making me VERY nervous, so I call ST1, who is my dear friend and also happens to be a former cage fighter.
ST1 rushes from his home and is there in 5 minutes flat. The conversation that follows is held outside the office and away from other residents, but I can hear a good deal of yelling from quite some distance away. In the end ST1 says that if he can prove that one of the plates was his that we will pay for everything and get the car back from him and the manager (later) concurrs.
Res swears this won't be the end of this.
This was a few weeks ago and the res still remains carless. No doubt more drama will follow. Le sigh.
Some brief background: residents are required to keep their cars registered; it's in their lease as well as in a copy of community policies that everyone signs. It's basically to prevent people from storing hideous, rotting, nonoperational vehicles indefinitely on the property.
The manager noticed that the registration on a car in our lot had expired many moons ago. He contacted the resident, who explained that he was attempting to sell the car (mind you, this car was extremely old and utterly hideous and was clearly not worth $50). Fine. The manager reiterated the policy on keeping the car registered and told him to sell it or register it, ASAP.
Some weeks pass and the car is still not registered. The manager notifies him that the car needs to be either gone or registered by the end of the month. A week or two into the next month, the car is STILL not registered and, having been generous, the manager finally notifies the resident that he has 48 hours to register the car or it will be towed at his expense. At this point the resident becomes irate, but the manager reminds him that this policy is in two legal documents that he has signed.
The resident comes in the next day and lets me know he has updated his registration and that it will not be necessary to tow the car. We check and see a new sticker on his plate. Fabulous.
A couple of weeks later one of our service techs (i.e., maintenance guys) is preparing the lot for repaving and notices that this guy's registration stickers expires only in a few months. Knowing that the resident had supposedly *just* renewed it, this raises his suspicions. He calls over our other service tech, whose brother is a police officer, and they have the license plate run. ST2's brother calls back and says that this plate did not belong to this car.
Oh, but it gets better.
ST1 notices that the plate on the car looked suspiciously thick, and also that there is only one screw holding the plate in place, so he gently nudges it with his finger. It moves aside and, lo and behold, there is another plate underneath. ST2 calls his brother one more time and, sure enough, the second plate does not belong to the car either.
We have the car towed immediately.
A couple of days later, when the manager has the day off and I am in the office by myself, the resident storms in, cussing at me and freaking out, demanding to know why we have towed his car. I calmly explain that we enforced the parking policy after repeated warnings and (in nicer terms) that he lied about registering the car. (I avoid anything that could have sounded like an accusation of stealing the plates.) Seemingly impossibly, he just gets madder and now demands to speak to the manager. I try to call the manager but no answer. Meanwhile, the resident is making me VERY nervous, so I call ST1, who is my dear friend and also happens to be a former cage fighter.
ST1 rushes from his home and is there in 5 minutes flat. The conversation that follows is held outside the office and away from other residents, but I can hear a good deal of yelling from quite some distance away. In the end ST1 says that if he can prove that one of the plates was his that we will pay for everything and get the car back from him and the manager (later) concurrs.
Res swears this won't be the end of this.
This was a few weeks ago and the res still remains carless. No doubt more drama will follow. Le sigh.
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