Mrs. Kravitz Has Nothing On Me (or My Adventures as Harriet the Spy)

I've learned a lot about people in the last two years. We bought our first house in an older, Orlando neighborhood. There are about 640 homes in our neighborhood which was build in the early 60's. The demographic is vast...original residents, families with small children, families with teenagers, first-time homebuyers, adults who bought a house streets away from their parents' home...vast. I also serve as my district's (there are 20 total) representative to the neighborhood's association. In becoming a rep, I went around to the people on my street and introduced myself and gave them information from the most recent association meeting. Thankfully, Mr. Fluff came along as my bodyguard. You never know what is going to open a door when you come unannounced. We actually got invited into one house. I would never have gone inside had Fluff not been with me. Anyway, the door-to-door thing was a great experience despite feeling like a Jehovah's Witness. I feel much better about my street now that I know the majority of people on it. The unknown is always more frightening.

One of the houses on my street is a mystery to me...the house next door to us. We live on an odd shaped lot so we only share a back fence with them. We knew nothing about these people other than what the previous homeowners told us. Of course you're never going to hear the real dirt on your neighbors during the home buying process...don't want to break the deal with too much information. The previous homeowners told us the family's back story...military mother with a teenage daughter from previous relationship now lives with Middle Eastern guy; the two of them have one or two children together, the man appears to be a stay-at-home dad. When we first moved in in May, there was a lot of video game playing, loud TV, and yelling. We heard everything clearly because their windows were always wide open and the persistent bass was a reminder that they were there. Being new, we don't want to start off on the wrong foot and have our first conversation with them be negative. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we have one loud neighbor, and we knew that there would be times when we were louder than we should be. We'd each endure each other's noise without incident.

The game playing and loud TV subsided at some point. It's one of those things you don't recognize when it stopped, you just notice that it isn't happening anymore. We still heard the occasional parental tyrade, but overall things seemed to have died down. Then, we noticed that they'd cut the "grass" (the few sprigs that hadn't died from neglect) and started putting household/backyard rubbish by the curb. Giddy with delight, I assumed this meant they were cleaning up the joint in order to move. Weeks went by...no sign in the yard...no more cleaning up.

It was around Thanksgiving that I realized that I hadn't seen them coming or going...hadn't seen their lights...hadn't heard any noise. Their windows were also suspicious. These people left their screenless windows open ALL the time when it was warm outside. There was an AC unit, but they never ran it. When the weather had the slightest chill, the windows were closed. Weird? Yes. But that was their pattern. It was chilly around Thanksgiving, and a window was open. This was highly unusual. It was around that time that I noticed that three of the windows had aluminum foil and plastic sheeting on them while the window to the kid's room (bunkbeds were visible) was wide open. Since Thanksgiving, the state of the house has not changed. A van (their second vehicle) has been in the driveway the whole time...hasn't moved.

I have many theories...dad freaked out and administered Middle Eastern justice by killing them...they abandoned the house because they couldn't pay the bills...the family went on an extended vacation to the Middle East (a fairly common practice based on people I work with). But three months?

So, being unable to curtail my curiousity any longer, I go over to really check things out. I'd knocked on the front door two weeks ago...no answer...looking in the open front window...virtually no furniture...a random kitchen chair...a few wire hangers...a discarded plastic toy. This time I was going to be thorough. Fluff convinced me that their absence was planned because their mailbox wasn't overflowing. So, I opened the mailbox. There was one piece of mail. Obviously, the mail hasn't been stopped or rerouted. I didn't touch the mail because that would be a federal crime. I closed the mailbox and headed through the back yard's open gate. I walked around the back of the house and saw an open door. I peered in and saw that this door led into their garage. Against the garage door was a big screen TV, a few random children's shoes strewn about, and not much else. I went around the house to the open window that faced our backyard fence. There was still a bunkbed in the room, but there were no mattresses on the bed. There was nothing else in the room save the stench of urine {{shudder}}. I walked around to another window trying to get some sense of what is going on. This window was not open but broken. Inside there was a bed stripped of all linen with a suitcase on top of it. There were some wispy curtains but nothing else in the room. There was nothing personal in the house. Any items were those easily left behind when you're done moving and nothing else will fit in the moving truck. I walk back to my house even more confused.

I decided to let all of this go because I figured my overactive imagination had gotten the best of me. These people were just on vacation or something. I should mind my own business.

Then I talked to my neighbor across the street. We were talking about speeding drivers on our street, and he brought up my next door neighboor. He said that he and his wife have noticed people coming and going. I was shocked. I'm uber-observant and hadn't seen anything. Gotta brush up on my skills!! He said that they've seen flashlights in the house early in the morning (6am-ish). They've called the police and were met with little concern or interest.

Immediately my thought is that squaters are living in the place....drug-users, hookers, homeless. Or is it the home owners coming back for stuff? I've given waaaaaay to much thought to this. My next move, if I conjur the nerve, is to call the police anonymously and hope that they figure this out.