Monday, August 24, 2009

Honest, Officer: I paid for the sheetrock

For Thanksgiving of 1998 Dave came back to Narragansett from Houston, where he was working to help finance the remodeling. In addition to some quality time together, he got to help out with some construction. This was our second episode of having a "commuter marriage" (the first was when Seely was in grad school).

Our biggest task was to move 20 sheets of wall board from the front porch to the third floor. It was a tricky job, as 8-foot long rectangles aren't the easiest thing to maneuver up two flights of steps and around corners in the hall.

About the time we got to the sixth board we stopped on the second floor landing to take a break. Glancing out the front window, Seely noticed police cars in the road. A few officers were going around toward the back of the house. Two others were headed up the front walk. All had their weapons drawn.


It turns out that one of the tenants we inherited from the previous management had been knocking over ATM machines and Narragansett's finest wanted to relocate him to a new place of residence. We should have suspected something was up when he gave us two weeks rent in advance. (Demonstrating a keen sense of priorities, Seely's first question was whether we got to keep the advance rent he'd paid us.) We never saw him again, though the police did let us know after they picked him up. He would get his lodging from the state for the next 2-7 years.

We attract a much better quality of guest these days.