I have 1st floor people that NO ONE in the building likes. They smell, they let their dog pee on the floor out back, they’re loud … And they’ve been missing since Thanksgiving.
I assumed they went on some massive family vacation, as people sometimes do. And since I never see them except when I have to tell them their AC is broken again, and could they please turn it off and get the freon thing checked because the pipe is frosting an INCH of ice on my floor, I don’t think about it. Couple weeks ago, I notice they don’t have their collection of bikes chained up in the back stairwell and I think ‘Well finally.’
Today, I get up at 6, feed cats, go back to bed because it’s MLK Day (thank you, Rev. King, I hope you appreciate tomorrow), and suddenly there is a POUNDING on the building. I think ‘Oh god, the hot water is out, and there’s something running that uses it!’ So I run to turn off the washing machine, since I know the boiler broke last night. Only that’s not it, and there’s a lot of flashing lights in the alley. Cops. More pounding. Fire department. More pounding. Pants and shoes on, I go look.
Lo, the first floor apartment has a pipe leak (which may be why the boiler broke…) and not a STITCH of furniture. Empty. Cold. They done run off!
I have no idea what happened, the police left moments later, and I guess the water has been shut off. But the mysterious first floor people are indeed missing. One hopes it’s nothing horrid, like a loss of jobs, or a carefully covered up murder. My thought was that they were here illegally back when I met them. Something about them struck me as ‘odd.’ Maybe I’ll never know.