So last night (Monday, Family day) after making 3 x 10111 calls, 3 police officers (er...real ones this time) pitched up about 3 hours after the first call. We sat them down on the couch - this was around 11:30pm and told them our sob story. When all was said they told us they weren't going to do anything, they needed to us to go to the police station personally and make a statement.
So during my lunchbreak I picked my girlfriend up and headed to Norwood Police Station. As I entered the door my phone rang and a voice on the other end said he was from Norwood Police and he wanted to see me on a charge of malicious damage to property. I said, "Well I am right here." I then headed upstairs to find the Lady of the Castle all dolled up and looking like the most well kept Slumlord in Norwood. Quite a change from the towelheaded hag cleaning the pool.
To recap:
- the slumlord accused me of malicious damage to property, particularly to her fridge. In fact she removed the cable of the fridge herself and must have gone to plug it in downstairs last night whilst accompanied by 'the police' (a woman who was in fact her trauma councillor, and who had been misinformed that I had apparently not rescued her after being locked by three thugs in her safe.
- she trespassed last night not for the first time, probably the 6th time this month. This happened by having a person accompanying her misrepresent herself as 'the police'.
The sad irony to the above is my girlfriend says she can't remember me asking her to carry the cable (which was severed by someone) of the refrigerator. This was the only thing I asked her to assist me with - and she doesn't remember. The guard on duty, Wanda, might remember seeing the both of us walking in tandem to the garage. Even so it is a somewhat silly case. If there was any damage it's likely to be covered by insurance, and a severed cable is unlikely to cost more than R50 to fix (I can fix it manually), and an odd broken plate is unlikely to be more than R100. I didn't maliciously damage anything; in fact a pile of dishes in the garage I placed on the sofa in front of her door (this was the most fragile item of all).
The other sad irony is that the same day I replaced locks to the Loft, my girlfriend was manipulated into letting two people in the place. One, a Mrs Kramer, who pretended to be with the police ("we're coming to you after visiting a murder scene in Houghton")and the other the Slumlord. Although I've told my girlfriend not to open the door to anyone, both times the Slumlord has tried to get in she's succeeded. And all she does when she gets inside is screams at my girlfriend, threatens to kick her out and tries to find something else to pin on us. I'm quite frustrated that my girlfriend hasn't really helped the situated, but then she is in a strange place and I guess wouldn't expect this level of evil straight off the bat from an apparently upper class, educated elderly woman.
What have I done?
For every action there is a reaction. My response to last night's game of 'let's pretend we're the police' really infuriated me. I also noticed the cable in the garage and guessed right that this was the real reason she entered the premises.
My response was, during my lunch break, I lugged out half a ton of debris from my garage (yes, there was still a lot of junk and there still is a lot of junk right now).
I lugged out a massive window frame, a huge board on a metal frame that juts sideways and prevents one from opening the car door, and forces one to walk through the garage sideways when the car is parked inside, and then about a dozen boxes and the second refrigerator, and a cupboard.
I feel justified in doing this in the sense that I am still paying for space filled her with garbage and clutter. Have you ever heard of a person who rents out a room and finds it filled with boxes and junk and this stuff has a right to remain there indefinitely? In most proper rental arrangements (where the property is unfurnished) you inherit a functional space, swept clean, and bare. It's basic stuff.
We also went to the police and we told we couldn't make a statement, a unit would be dispatched to our home to take a statement (the opposite to what we were told last night).
And from here...?
So far we haven't been able to make a statement in terms of what happened to us. I am not particularly confident in the police after the way the Slumlord pulled their strings today. One policemen actually came to my work today and later phoned me giving me advice on when I should move etc. Losing thousands of Rand on a deposit obviously hasn't occurred to him.
The local Caxton's Knock and Drop is the North Eastern Tribune. I'll be contacting them and giving them pictures and the story - a cautionary tale - of how a Slumlord can ruin one's living space.
I've also made these YOUTUBE videos but the response and interest has been quite flat. Perhaps an article in the North Eastern Tribune will direct local attention to this festering pustule I once called home.
Then there is the legal route. While I have no problem taking this route, the problem is the Slumlord has no money. This is the real reason behind everything - why she is incapable of moving the junk (she can't afford a removal truck, and she clings to the belief that someone elses rubbish must be worth something). So I am not sure if there is too much point going to the expense of spending additional money on the legal side when I'm quite sure we'll lose our deposit as it is. I'm open to ideas though.
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