So, I live in a house where I have rooms on the second and third floors. My landlord, an older man, lives with his wife on the first floor of the house.
Until now, I have thought of this man as being completely trustworthy. When I moved in, I told him that one of the reasons I left my last apartment was that the landlord kept walking in on me. He seemed reasonably and appropriately disgusted by the idea of a man walking in on a single woman. I have enjoyed feeling respected and generally left alone in this apartment.
I have doors leading to my apartment on both the second and third floors of the house. I rarely lock either door, but I do always have them shut. There have been instances where I have heard my landlord knocking on the door, but have not gotten to the door right away. There have been times when it has taken me a couple of minutes to get to the door. He had NEVER simply let himself in.
Anyway, I came home today and took a shower, put some groceries away, and just settled in. When I went to leave my living room (on the second floor) to go up to the bedroom (third floor), the door would not budge. I thought it must be stuck. I had also just blown the lightbulb in my overhead light in the living room and was on the way up to get a replacement, so I could not really see what was going on.
I seriously stood there for several seconds, pulling at the door, turning the knob this way and that and wondering what in the hell was going on. I had all these scenarios of my not being able to get up to my room to get to bed or get clean clothes for tomorrow.
Then it dawned on me that perhaps the door was locked...as in, locked with the key. I figured that could not possibly be the case as I had not locked my door. I went and grabbed my key, inserted it into the lock, turned, and bam...the door opened. I was duely freaked out. I went upstairs to my room to discover my bedroom door unlocked, too. I had to go back downstairs and retrieve the keys again to unlock my bedroom door.
Now, even if I thought I had, in a total flight of consciousness, locked the living room door, all suspicion of yours truly was lifted when I discovered the bedroom door locked. I cannot even tell you the last time I had my keys on the third floor. I usually come in, place them on the key rack next to my entrance door, and forget about them until the next time I leave the apartment and lock the outside door.
What does all this mean? My landlord must have come into my place and then, as a matter of routine, locked the door behind himself. Now, you might ask why I would care if he came in my apartment when I leave the door unlocked in the first place.
It does not even matter whether I lock it or leave it unlocked. He apparently was in my space and obviously has keys so he would have come in whether the doors were locked or not.
I really hate this shit and think that my next apartment is going to have to be some thing in a big apartment building. My last apartment was also in a house, and the landlord there took quite a few liberties, too. This totally sucks.
I am going to have to ask my landlord tomorrow what possibly prompted him to lock me out of my own space!
Total bullshit!!
4 comments:
Holy crap! That is SO wrong! He'd better have a damn good reason. Don't let me burst your bubble, but one time, when I was in college, I lived in a large apartment building. The landlords were this old couple with the creepiest son you ever saw. He was at least 40, still had acne, greased back hair, horn-rim glasses, and 50 pounds of excess blubber. He never really said anything either, just stared. So one day, I heard their voices and I thought they were outside my bedroom in the driveway. I was in my underwear ONLY, and I was afraid they'd peek in the window and see me, so I walked out into the living room until they passed by my window. Surprise! They weren't outside in the driveway, they were all three in my freaking living room!!!!!!! OH MY GOD! I hate to say it, but I bet that creep is still, um, "thinking" about me in the shower and late at night, if you know what I mean.
Wow, what a freaky occurance. I would have died if I were alone and all the doors were locked that never were. (BTW you now must lock all your doors for the mere fact that you told the whole world, you don't.) I would think the guy would have atleast left a note or a voicemail saying, I checked something out, blah blah blah. People are so random. When I lived in my apartment down here in Tampa, it was a huge apartment complex. I worked night shift for the hospital and slept during the day. I sleep with my bedroom door open so that my cats have free terrain of the place. Let me tell you, on more than 10 occasions I woke up to someone staring at me standing in my doorway. "Miss, Miss, we rang and you didn't answer." Holy crap, it used to freak me out. We requested that we only ever have Saturday maitanence hours due to my schedule, but it never failed. Luckily I wear a snow suit to bed. (i'm sure in Florida some people sleep in their birthday suits....or anywhere for that matter.) Now that I live in a house, sometimes, I walk around naked....just for a second. Like if Wes is at work, and I'm doing laundry, I rip of the clothes I have, and throw them in. ( I know, bad habbit) I would never have been able to do that at my old place, since they frequently just barged in and apparently you can't either. I'd bust him on this one.
Girls, I did leave a note for him, under the pretense that I was very concerned that perhaps the doors were locked by somebody other than him. I told him that I was very worried and naturally frightened since I live on my own. I am really distrustful of him now. Sadly, even when the rent is really low in a place, as mine is now, it just isn't worth the few bucks saved when you think (no, when you KNOW) that somebody was pawing through your apartment. If he had left a note saying that, for some emergency reason (gas, water, etc) he had to come in, then I would understand completely. But there was no evident emergency that I could see, and no explanation forthcoming. I'm bummed out!
Hopefully when he responds to the note he will have a decent reason, so that you can continue to trust him. Men can be like that. I could see my Dad doing that if he were a landlord, and he is the most trustworthy guy anyone could meet. Perhaps it was innocent.
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