[fastfredracing]

Heck, I had pizza with an ex con on Thursday , why not.
I swear , I am not making this stuff up , this is exactly how it happened.
Back to work at rental house this am. Nearly done, and have a bunch of people coming to view it today. Get there at about 7:30 am, start unloading trucks, and taking tools in. We right away notice that our side entrance has been breached. We had it screwed shut with 4 3'' deck screws, and one dead bolt. They just forced it open, and broke all the wood trim. The good news, is, there was zero damage other than this. There is no more copper plumbing in the house, and when we left before the holidays, we took everything with us. They stole nothing, and vandalized nothing. We walked the perimeter of the house looking for fresh prints in the snow, and there are none, but we notice that the vacant house down the street ( remember the one we found the sawed off shotgun in?) had all of its siding stolen. We call the police, just to file a report, and let them know of the activity
So we work the whole day away, show the place and have a few promising tenants look at it. We had a few little things to do at one of out other houses around the corner, and we wanted to get it done before dinner time ( tenant occupied) , so at about 3:30 we run up there, all three of us take our own trucks . We come back at about 4:45 and I don't know why but I park at the bottom of the street where I never park ( in front of the abandoned house with the sawed of gat in it) . As Kenny ( our 21 year old lackey) and Me are walking up the stairs I hear banging in the empty house. I start to head back the alley to see what is going on, and I hear a loud creak. I am thinking the place is caving in on me, then I hear a voice that says " get the fvk out of here" I am startled, and I see him peeking out the partially opened door. I instantly back track, and tell him, that I am not a robber, I started saying that I was the landlord two houses up, and that we were hit last week, and I heard the noises and wanted to investigate. He then told me that they were gutting for the landlord and again" get the fvk out of here" Big ugly white guy , stereotypical trashy Pittsburgh Northside type guy, of course , with a Steelers hat on. I am now backtracking , kind of scared , and I tell him, "seriously, I own the place two houses up, and was just looking out for the nieghborhood, when you guys are done come on up and have a coffee with us ". We later laughed about this.
But I only get about 5 steps back towards our house when I wonder, " if they are gutting for the landlord, where are their work trucks/cars?" It kind of dawned on me, at that instant, that they were the bad guys, and most likely the same pricks who were in our house this week. I grab my big pry bar, and my cell phone, and dialed 911, and sat on my porch watching the place while waiting for the police to show up . I never saw them leave, but it is heavily wooded on the back side , and in a valley.
Two squad cars , and four officers are there within minutes , and they go in and search, but they guys are already gone. The police said that they had all of the cast iron radiators piled up on the first floor, and had all the iron, and wood railings removed, and piled up. The place was so blown out, that even the officers would not go into the basement, and uppermost floors
Exciting day, I was really hoping they police would come out with a few guys in cuffs, but no such luck. I am sure that after I invited them over for coffee, they knew they had been had, and made a run for it.
I promise I am not making this stuff up, just another day in the life of FastFred.