A New Era

Out with the old & on to the new! We've moved!!! It was something we've been considering due to all the craziness with our scam artist landlord, but I can tell you that we didn't expect the whirlwind that the last 10 days has been. To bring you up to speed, I really need to go back to Easter. It was around that time, that we woke up one morning to discover that we had new neighbors living across the street in another one of our landlord's properties. It was completely sudden & out of the blue. They pretty much moved in overnight, and I mean in the middle of the night. Oh, and they (1 man & 1 woman) have at least 6 vehicles that are all black with dark tinted windows. Oh, and a black bus. A tour bus, people! Say it with me now..."Strange!"

When Anh crossed paths with the new neighbor about a week after they moved in, he decided it would be best to inform them of the pending foreclosure and warn them about the untrustworthy ways of their new landlord. Well, warning signs started to go off when their reaction was to defend the crook. Who in their right mind defends an individual that they've just discovered scammed them out of security deposit money and completely mislead them on the details of their new home? Clearly, they know him somehow. Well, the following day as we were sitting on our patio, we overheard the new neighbor who had introduced himself to us as "Sam," introducing himself to an unknown couple as "Pierre." Turns out, Sam/Pierre was showing the couple the vacant house next door that is also owned by our crooked landlord. So, Pierre/Sam is definitely working for the crook.

The following day, I arranged to have all of the locks on our house changed. I mean, the neighbor lied to us about his name and how he knows the landlord. He moved into his house in the middle of the night with a fleet of black vehicles that they back into the driveway & garages so you can't see the license plates. He has a tour bus that he takes out on specific days for a few hours at a time, and he works for the landlord which means he likely has keys to our house. Oh, and he owns a giant German Shepard that stands guard at the front of his house. Fishy and completely unsettling. Call us paranoid, but in addition to changing the locks, we also loaded our trusty Glock that usually sits unloaded in a locked case. We decided it would serve us better if it was temporarily loaded & housed in our bar cabinet that is secured with a baby lock that neither of the boys can open.

With all the puzzle pieces coming together in our minds, Anh and I started looking for a new house to rent because although we've been touring homes that are for sale, we've yet to find one that we really want. Yes, we're still that nightmare couple that realtors complain about, always shopping, never buying. Well, we found a perfect rental house that only required us to move about two blocks into a new section of the neighborhood! Jackpot! We even tried to negotiate a sale with the owners, but they are still hopeful that today's real market is turning around tomorrow. Renting the place seems like a good way to test drive the house. In another 12 months, we'll see if a deal can be struck.

So back to the shady landlord...There's absolutely no way he would know that we were looking for a new place to call home except for some crooked landlord 6th sense type deal, but somehow as soon as we found our new house, the scam artist started acting crazier than ever. Suddenly, the crook was demanding that we pay him for the termite extermination that I deducted from April's rent. The shady neighbor snuck over in the middle of the night & left us a notice stating that our rent was late & that if we wanted to stay, the rent would be $200 more each month. Nevermind that we had a written lease that prevented the landlord from arbitrarily raising the rent. Nope, in the crook's mind, he could do whatever he pleased.

Unfortunately for landlord, we are aware of our tenant rights. After I didn't send the check he demanded, the scam artist started sending me daily emails riddled with threats of lawsuits. The emails painted him as the victim. I wondered if he was truly that delusional or did he honestly think that I would fall for his warped plot and begin to feel sorry for him and mail him thousands of dollars that he isn't entitled to. In addition to the previous demands for money, the crook said that he would go after us for $8500 because we didn't maintain the lawn. Really? So, who was the landscaper I've been paying for 18 months. Just what was he doing each week when he came by? Was he pretending to mow the lawn & weed the flower beds. Was that fake mulch I paid for?Oh, and the crook said that he was going to sue us for slander. What slander? Everything we shared with the shady neighbor was factual in nature. This nutjob is a real piece of work!

While all of this was going on, I also discovered during a bout of insomnia that the house we were renting from the crook wasn't even his anymore. Oh, the information you can find via the internet! The foreclosure hadn't gone through. We would have been notified if that was the case. Turns out that the crook deeded the property to some disbarred attorney from Texas that now specializes in "foreclosure prevention" scams. The scammer had been scammed! How's that for karma?! The landlord had absolutely no legal ground to stand on. Even if the house was his, we didn't owe him the money he was demanding, and I had all the proof in the world ready for court. However, discovering that the property wasn't even his any longer was the icing on the proverbial cake.

By now, surely you can see why we were eager to get the heck out of there. Luckily, our new home was ready & waiting for us. We decided to move ASAP! We were packed & relocated within a week's time. As soon as we pulled out of the old driveway for the last time, we breathed a huge sigh of relief. I'm sure the drama is far from over. The crook continues to email daily with threats of a civil suit. Bring it on, buddy! I've got a mountain of evidence. Emails from day 1 that document the entire saga, along with receipts and signed statements from everyone under the sun that agrees you are completely off your rocker and spew nothing but lies. In closing, I'll share a bit of proof that sometimes the good guys do win. The security deposit that we had written off is being returned to us in full by the realtor that handled the lease. It has been in her escrow account all along, and she's legally obligated to return it because our lease was null and void the moment the crook deeded the property to the attorney.

So, there you have it, folks. That is the VERY condensed version of what we've been up to and why I suddenly disappeared. I have a feeling that life is about to take a turn towards boring, but that's fine by me. We could definitely use a little less drama around here!