So frustrated

[wdfifteen]

I'm trying to buy my parent's house from their trust. The house is a wreck and needs a complete renovation. This house is just frustrating the heck out of me. Money pit doesn't even begin to describe it. I wish all the problems were financial.

The state has a lien on the house because my father was on medicaide for 6 years. I made a deal with the AG and we had a closing scheduled. I scheduled the big jobs so I can get the house secure and liveable by winter. At the last minute, instead sending of a simple release of the lien, the AG sent a document that essentially said, "this is good enough for now but we reserve the right to come after you for more money if we want to." My attorney said I'd be crazy to sign it as it would be nearly impossible to ever sell the house with title that has an encumbrance that can never be lifted. So I'm fighting with the AG. In the mean time I had to put the new furnace installation (scheduled for Monday) on hold, as well as the tree removal, window replacement, and septic system installation. I don't want the house to sit all winter, but I don't want to put a lot of money into the house until the AG gives me a clear title to it.

I think one of the neighbors had a key to the back door of the house. It appears that someone has been in it daily for who knows how long. Things that seemed kind of odd in the past - finding the door unlocked when I thought I had locked it and things that I thought I left in the house disappearing - have come to a head. Tuesday my workman left a radio in the kitchen when he went to lunch. He was gone about 30 minutes. When he came back the back door was open and the radio was gone. The house is three miles from my home and I've been keeping an eye on it since, driving over to see if the doors are closed and stopping a few yards away and watching it before going in. Yesterday I drove by the front of the house and the front door was closed. I parked in the driveway at the back of the house when I walked into the house through the back door I found the front door wide open. Someone had been in the house. Because the latch on the front door barely works, when I'd found it open in the past I thought the wind or something was blowing it open, but now I think not. Since I'm going to replace it anyway I just nailed the door shut. When I left I KNOW I locked the back door. As I left I noticed some guys building the church half a block away and I stopped to to talk to them on my way home. I drove back by the house after talking to them and the back door was wide open! I had been gone less than 10 minutes. I called the police again and they came out and went through the house with guns drawn and I was really hoping to hear shots but they found no one. There is no evidence that anyone broke into the house or jimmied the lock. The police and sheriff are keeping an eye open (the house literally within sight of the police station) and checking the doors for me. It is kind of creepy to know when we are over there someone is watching and waiting to go in and steal anything we've left. I have no idea what all was been stolen when my mother lived there, but with free access to the place they certainly took everything they wanted. I suspect the kid next door, since the back of their house is about 50 feet from mother's house but the police talked to him and his mother and they aren't convinced.
I have a feeling I'm really going to regret trying to hang on the the old "home place."
Thanks for letting me vent.

[VINMAN]

That has to be frustrating as hell. Pat, I think i would hold off doing anything to it until the title is clear.

[DonDavis]

Aside from the cost, are changing the locks an option?

[onlycafe]

covert video surveillance?

[mreid]

Change the locks. Also, you can get an Internet link camera(s) for cheap with an app for your phone to monitor the place. It's very exciting to get an alert on your phone, check it, and be able to watch the camera view while you head over there to dispatch the idiot. Better yet, save the video file to your phone and email it to the police. I have several and have used them to see who was breaking into my shed (racoon), monitor my car and trailer when traveling, and keep an eye on the house when traveling. They are cheap, reliable, and effective. Everyone should have a few! Check amazon and good luck, I hate thieves.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Change locks and if you're really brave (or crazy) stake the place out from the inside for a couple of days - in other words hole up in there and wait for whoever is breaking in to show up so you can confront them. Personally I never would but I might hire someone to.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by mreid

Change the locks. Also, you can get an Internet link camera(s) for cheap with an app for your phone to monitor the place. It's very exciting to get an alert on your phone, check it, and be able to watch the camera view while you head over there to dispatch the idiot. Better yet, save the video file to your phone and email it to the police. I have several and have used them to see who was breaking into my shed (racoon), monitor my car and trailer when traveling, and keep an eye on the house when traveling. They are cheap, reliable, and effective. Everyone should have a few! Check amazon and good luck, I hate thieves.

Wow! That sounds like fun!
What we're going to do is this. Both my helper and I are going to be there with our vehicles and an old boom box I have that I don't care about. We'll put it in the same place the stolen radio was in. Then I'll leave, drive over to the police department and tell them to be ready. I'll park the truck there and walk back to the house using a route that he won't be able to see me. Then my helper will get in his truck and leave while I watch the front door. When the guy shows up, I call the police and they'll be there in 2 minutes.
I changed the lock yesterday, so my guy will have to leave the door unlocked.

[Gogar]

I thought about the internet camera as well, but I realized that means you need to have

1. Electricity turned on
2. Internet (preferably wireless) at your parent's house.


I have a few of those "DLink" cameras at my house and it really is awesome for $99. You can have it send you an email with a still picture every time the motion detector is set off. It works great if you have "Push" email set up on your phone.

dlink 942 - Google Search

[tharbert]

There are game cameras that start shooting as soon as something moves within range. They are self contained.

Don't set any traps that could hurt somone. That's illegal.

[chocolatelab]

I would change the locks and board all the windows on the bottom floor until the situation with AG is cleared.

[lane912]

use the house to store your mountain lion-
you do have a mountain lion?

[wdfifteen]

Update - I called Mike Dewine (Ohio AG and acquaintance - we have some mutual friends) and told him my problem and something happened and now we have a deal again and a closing tomorrow.
I caught one of the people who were stealing from me - it was my employee (hired through a temp agency).
I was in my shop Monday AM and all was well. There was a period of about two hours where he was on the property alone doing work that would not give him any reason to be in the shop. I came back and a number of small tools were gone. They hang on pegboard so it's pretty obvious if something is missing.
So Tuesday I set up a video camera in the shop and "left" for an hour. Actually, I drove down the street, parked and walked back to the house. By the time I got back he had moved his truck to the shop building and I sat in the house and watched through the window at him carrying my stuff to his truck as I called the sheriff. He had finished and moved his truck back to his parking space by the time they arrived. They talked to him while I retrieved the video. He was swearing the stuff was all his and the cops were buying it. They left him in their car and came into the house to watch the tape. They went out, got him out of the car, and arrested and handcuffed him. YESSS!
Then it got interesting. The guy didn't take anything all that valuable. He reached right over a $200 electric impact wrench to get a screwdriver off the wall. He even moved a new torque wrench out of the way to get a strip of sockets. He actually took less than $75 dollars worth of tools. The officer said I could press charges if I wanted, but the prosecutor isn't likely to work real hard for a $75 theft and he'll probably walk.

In the mean time our HR person did a background check on him and came up with 2 theft convictions, a criminal destruction of property, carrying a weapon while on parole, and found out he was still on parole from his last conviction. She brought this to our attention while the police and I were talking and I said, "How much does he have to steal to get his parole taken away?" and the officer said something like, "A toothpick or two." So I said hell yes let's prosecute.

I told the temp agency I wasn't going to pay them for any more of the guy's work because they advertise that they do background checks and don't hire criminals. They said his record was clean and just to be sure they called whoever they hire to do background checks and ran him again and he came back clean again. Our HR person found court records and even a newspaper story about his crimes. I told them they'd better get a new company to do background checks for them and I sure as hell wasn't going to pay this sumbich for the time he spent stealing my stuff from me. Their response was "we'll talk."

[id10t]

Game cam

And, any particular reason you want to buy the house? Between the stuff that needs fixing and the AG & lein, is it really worth it?

[GH85Carrera]

That parole violation will be worth pressing charges. That and another conviction on the record.

It is nice when the bad guys get caught. Good work.

[1990C4S]

The agency is on the hook for all the thefts. They are responsible for their employees actions.

And they likely have insurance to cover it.

[stomachmonkey]

Nice!!!!!!

As far as the agency and "we'll talk" goes just give them your attorneys number.

[wdfifteen]

Update.
About a week after the guy got caught I discovered that he had taken my grandson's RC truck from the shop too. This morning I opened my drug safe for the first time in about a month and every Vicodin and Norco that I had was gone. I did some checking and discovered that the SOB had gone through my housemate's medicine closet and took all of her pain meds too. I don't know how I'm going to tell my grandson that some bastard stole his truck. I'm sure as hell never again letting an employee on my property unless I'm there.

[GH85Carrera]

I sure hope you pressed charges.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I sure hope you pressed charges.

Oh yeah. He's been arraigned and I've talked to the county prosecutor twice. The only thing we have proof of him taking is a pair of sunglasses. The CP said the petty theft charge isn't much in itself, but it will trigger revocation of his probation because he has a long criminal history including a weapons charge. He'll almost certainly go to jail.
And the temp agency is waving all the charges to me, so I don't have to suffer the insult of paying him for the time he spent robbing me.

[wdfifteen]

I discovered a few days ago that 5 checks were randomly taken from my checkbook. I put a stop payment on them (cost me another $30) and the bank says none of them have been presented for payment. If one ever is, I'll really have his ass.
Here's a picture I took of he creep leaving my shop with the stolen sunglasses on his head.