Who Did It? Scare Tactics

“Who did this?” Becky wondered. Her china cabinet had just become the object of senseless destruction. “Why? Is this scare tactics?”

“If you have problems related to break and entry, report them to your insurance company,” the owner of her rental unit suggested, when she complained about the damage.

“Someone is stealing,” said Becky. “You promised to change the locks, but didn’t.”

“I’m sorry,” the owner replied, but made no effort to have the locks changed. “Do the police know?”

“Yes.”

There were other tenancy-related problems, too.     

“Watch that dog!” Becky's inner voice told her one morning, as the neighbor's golden lab stood on his hind legs up against the wooden deck. He was sniffing something under the corner of the patio deck. The wood on the deck looked either wet or charred.

“Is it smoke the dog is concerned about?” 

If dogs could talk, this one certainly acted as if he smelled smoke because he kept on sniffing the air. Something was not right. Becky had smelled smoke during the night, too.

“Maybe it came from neighborhood fireplaces?” 

The obnoxious, pungent smoke smell lingered in the immediate area for several days. There were often other smoke-related odors, usually in the early morning hours.

“Are they doing drugs next door?” she wondered, turning on her fan and opening her window to eliminate the nauseating odor coming through her ventilation system. “This is making me dizzy!”

Shortly thereafter, Becky received an eviction notice. It seemed proper and innocent enough, but the signature on it was that of the owner’s family member living next door. Two months and the other family members would be moving into her unit.

“I am getting smoked out,” Becky told a neighbor who was standing in his yard smoking. He seemed to be in a daze.

“Is this substance abuse too?” she wondered when he did not reply.

It became increasingly apparent that the family members of the owner were anything but innocent, but how to prove that they were stealing, doing damage and on drugs, was the question. Evidence was growing fast.

Clue number one: Who comes home in the middle of the night?