Thursday, June 28, 2007

Lightning and crack-face

Last evening, the sky was lit up for hours by lightning. The storm finally came through after I went to bed, but not before some spectacular displays from passing storm cells. At 10, the second competitor (England) in the fireworks competition put on their display. Mother nature augmented the show with her own explosions making for quite a show. (I wonder if they get extra points for that.)

While I was hanging out on the balcony watching, I became more and more troubled by the comings and goings of the guy downstairs and his "friends". This guy has lived there for 5 months and never makes a peep. He often goes to Toronto for a week at a time and we really like this. But last week, some shifty looking characters started spending large amounts of time at his place. Yesterday, they brought the most crack-faced women (with open sores!) I've ever seen over, and a couple hours after (what fucking them? shooting them up with heroin? filming them?) they emerged looking more doped out than ever (and carrying some kind of pipe). I was lucky actually as I had to show the upstairs apartment twice last evening. If any prospective renters had got a look at them, they would have fled grimacing. Thankfully, the crack-faces didn't come out during the showing.

Serge and I are both quite worried over this latest development. But what do you say? "You sure have some scary looking friends. Can you not invite them over anymore?" I'm trying to be open and benefit-of-the-doubt giving, but I don't want freaks in the building. Sigh. Let's hope this is only temporary.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds like the guy may be buying drugs in Toronto and selling them at your place. It wouldn't be good if your Apartment building is on the local news being raided as a crack den. I don't know what you should do. What can you do? You can't walk up to him and say your friends look like crack whores. Maybe he'll get caught with drugs in Toronto and you can pack away his things and rent out his place. Hmmm why does this sound familiar?

Anonymous said...

I would suggest keeping a close watch. If the suspicious activity continues, I would be tempted to speak with the local drug enforcement folks to see if they could confirm your suspicions via some kind of surveillance. Sadly, I think you are looking at a drug bust on your property short of Ed's "maybe".

Snooze said...

Ugh. I have no idea what you should do about your tenants. I had a drug dealer live down the hall from me for years. He was high-end though so just the club kids and middle-aged men went by his apartment. It was no big deal. Maybe your tenant (if he is in fact dealing) will have rough looking friends, but they won't cause problems.

dpaste said...

Sounds like being a landlord is worse than having kids. You worry all the time but you have even less control over the situation. No thanks.

publius100 said...

You need to find out what your liability may be as a landlord who knows or suspects felony-level crime is being committed on your property. Don't know Canadian law, but here the terms "co-conspirator", and "aiding and abetting" are not unheard of. That type of behavior endangers your other tenants, which might give rise to a claim by them against you, should anything untoward happen. The commentators above have the best recommendation: enlist the cooperation of the authorities.

Jason said...

Too funny, I thought this post was going to be about Facebook (crackface).

r said...

(smiling at jason's comment)

I'm kinda with the folks who are worried about your legal stuff. You don't just live down the hall from this guy, you rent to him.

Being a landlord must stink.

Chunks said...

I was thinking like Jason too! BTW saw you on there. Took me a minute to find you. I laughed when I did, clever boy!

You need a cop to come visiting a few times. Even an off duty one. Hell, find a stripper who dresses like a cop and invite him by. If crack-face thinks the heat is on, he may give you his notice. Start documenting EVERYTHING!

A Lewis said...

I absolutely hate these kind of little twists and turns that make everyone else around scratch their heads (balls?) and wonder what's going on. Me who keeps an eye on everything, would document, document, document. I'd also involve my local neighborhood police community/neighborhood involvement person.....I know ours by first name and have her phone number. She's been a wealth of knowledge for us. I can't stand the ill of one becoming the ill of all.

GayProf said...

With open sores on their faces, it could be meth. Beyond involving the police, I am not sure what one could do in these situations.

Sorry to hear about it, though. A new thing to stress out about is not what you were looking to find this summer.

Polt said...

Hehehe, I have NEVER heard anyone called crack-faced. Course, it DOES seem entirely appropriate, makes it easy to picture them.

HUGS...

dantallion said...

LOL @ Jason.

I'm sure you know this already, but if you think there's a problem emerging, document EVERYTHING as it happens. Especially seeing as how the Régie is so geared in favour of the tenant.

Anonymous said...

My thoughts are the same as Publius...
I'd also suggest keeping an eye out, and writing things down (including dates, times and descriptions) that you see. You never know when you'll need that information to assist authorities... just incase.
Hopefully it will just blow over on its own...
But I'm a "hope for the best, plan for the worst" kind of girl.

Patricia said...

i kept reading along, just certain that somehow nude dancer was gonna be involved in all this. i think he should be made to go in and see what's going on. he owes you.

Anonymous said...

I concur with everyone's advice regarding getting the authorities involved at arm's length to start. But remember as well how the Régie was a stickler in your case with ND about giving the tenant reasonable notification. So, in addition to advice from police and documenting all suspicious comings and goings, you might want to check with the Régie as to what they deem your responsibilities are and if there's a line you're not allowed to cross as a landlord (since, as dantallion points out, it seems in Quebec the Régie leans more in favour of tenants' rights ...unlike Nova Scotia, I might say).

tworabbitshow said...

Hey, some of my best friends are scary-looking.

Not with open sores though, ick. Hope they go away soon.

Enemy of the Republic said...

Give it a little more time, but I think your intuition is right on--smells like drug dealing and drug doing spirit. I had one of those in a building where I rented. All hours, all kinds of unpleasant faces, all the time. The real odd thing was that the renters loved the theme from Love Boat and would crank it at all hours. We finally called the police--I mean Love Boat!

Adam said...

We had a similar issue where we thought one of our condo neighbors was dealing drugs, perhaps even cooking them in his unit which is next to ours. The bottom line for us was that unless we had some kind of proof that he was engaged in illegal behavior we had no legal recourse. Your case is special though, you are the landlords.

A Bear in the Woods said...

I would definitely get in the program with the local police. I would also definitely not give them the benefit of the doubt. You could find Crack Face girl dead on your doorstep.

I know exactly what you mean by crack faced.

The Wisdom of Wislon said...

Sounds like an episode from The Shield, sorry this is not funny... suppose best to report any weird goings on

Tipped down here last night, some flooding too over here in the UK and in n'am where I am but fortunately not near my flat.

Sh@ney said...

Ominous indeed...Be careful & watchful!.xoxo