Petty Theft

For several months now I've had a problem tenant. Their rent cheque for August bounced and then they didn't even make an attempt at the September rent. I'm pretty easy going (and the tenant had a story about how her ex cleaned out their chequing account, hence the missing rent) and a soft touch, so I let it slide. After two months, my heart has hardened somewhat. On October 1st I left a note on her door indicating that she needs to pay all of the rent owing or I'm evicting her.

I'm at home playing on the computer and nosarious walks in.

"Have you seen my iPad?"
"Nope."
"I haven't seen it and it's not in any of the usual locations."

Aside from looking around a bit and seeing all the same spots he's already looked in, I've got nothing to add.

"It might be at my office in the University. I hope not - people tend to leave the office door propped open and you can see my desk right there."
"Do you usually leave your expensive gear on your desk?"
"Not usually. I'm going to drive there now and double check."
"You're that worried?"
"Here's the thing - the charger is gone too, and I leave that plugged into an outlet in my room."

Curious.

While nosarious is gone, problem tenant walks in.

"I'm really sorry about the missing rent - I'll have the money for you tomorrow."
"OK."
"Also, I'm getting a new place so I'm moving out at the end of the month."
"End of October?"
"Yes."
"OK."

Awesome, I think, I'm going to get a windfall tomorrow. And I've got a waiting list of people who want to move in who aren't sketchy anti-nerds. Win-win!

Later that night, as I'm heading off to bed, I notice something odd. The charger for my netbook is on the floor. Normally it's either plugged into outlet on the bedside stand, or it's sitting on top of the netbook itself (I don't leave it plugged in because the light bothers me at night). Maybe I just knocked it off the stand when I unplugged it? Possible, but I've never done that before. Anyway, I've been missing sleep because I've been playing on the netbook after going to bed, so I opted to put it away instead. No time like the present to reset a bad habit - the bed should be for sleeping, not farting around on Facebook. Besides, better sleep habits are another piece of breaking my current depressive incident.

Still, it's like someone was in my room. It just doesn't feel right. Now I'm getting a little paranoid - has one of the other tenants, or one of their guests been swiping things? No proof of that - just a niggling feeling in the back of my head combined with an iPad that might simply be misplaced.

This morning nosarious is still looking for his iPad, and he's more convinced that it's been taken - to the point where he's taking precautions with the rest of his stuff. I don't think he's over-reacting.

I go into the bathroom for my morning shower. The soap isn't in the soap dish (it's now in the shower) and some of the towels have been swapped out. Someone has been down using the shower and normally I'm the only one (everyone else uses the bigger bathtub upstairs). Fine, it's not a private shower or anything, but it adds to the someone's been messing with my stuff vibe.

I'm getting dressed in my room and something twings in the back of my mind. I have a large blue vase that I keep on my dresser where I dump my change every night. Last time I checked it was half full (so roughly two litres of change). I pick it up to find that it's empty.

Well now I have proof - someone has been in my room and they have been stealing stuff. Time to confront problem roommate. I go upstairs and knock on her door.

"Yes?"
"See this vase? It was half-full of change last time I checked, and now it's empty."
"..."
"Did you have people over yesterday?"
"Yeah..."
"Someone took my change. And someone took nosarious' iPad, and god knows what else. It needs to all be back here tonight."

Interestingly, there was no denial on her part. She simply said "OK, I'll handle it."

And now I'm at work, wondering if I should have left her there alone. I do know that unless I get the back rent and all the stuff returned, her stuff is going to be on the lawn in short order and I'm going to have the locks changed. Whether that's tonight, tomorrow or October 31st depends on how much gets done.

Thankfully the next tenant is someone I know.