The Strangler

They moved in late at night and left a trail of broken furniture on the front porch and on the steps and in the shrubs.

They left the front hallway door wide open for months even in zero degree weather.

There must be an advantage to leaving things open, I thought. There must be a reason.

We eventually heard from the neighbors that the tenants were dealing drugs all night out of their open hallway, conveniently situated at one of the city's most important intersection, The Crossroads.

One Saturday night in February a young woman came to us for help. She rang and rang our back-door bell.

He said he lives with his mother. We were just hanging out and then he tried to strangle me when I tried to leave. I just escaped! I ran out the back door and came to your house.

We weren't sure which apartment she meant, but we called the police and she went with them to headquarters. It turned out that the man who assaulted this woman was our disturbed neighbor next door, and later I learned that the young woman lived in the apartment house behind us. She didn't want him to know that she lived right there so she ran to our house for help.

Our neighbor is a strangler, I told my husband.

Great.

Last week The Strangler and his family were evicted. They started moving out the same way they had arrived - in the middle of the night. They broke liquor bottles on the sidewalk. They clogged the drains and turned on the water full blast upon leaving.

The top floor neighbors heard the water running after the family drove off. They tried to get into the apartment knowing something was amiss. The front and back apartment doors were locked. They climbed down the fire escape in the alley, went in through an open window, and shut off the water before it flooded the first floor apartment.  

Along with the clogged drains and running water the family had left huge bags of garbage everywhere. Bags of trash were inside closets. Piles of filth and broken furniture filled the rooms. All the lights were on, and the ceiling fans were running.

The rescuing neighbors took photos, documenting the damage. I told them about the previous tenant in that apartment. She had abandoned her three small children and kept them from school while she lived with her boyfriend in another city.

At this point I think the landlord needs a ritualized sage rub to banish the evil spirits, I said.

The landlord from hell rents to the tenants from hell, my husband said.