Rough Thoughts

My day at work yesterday started out with a somewhat embarrassing tone. I walked into work, flustered from leaving late and the amount of traffic on Kerr and S. College. I work at an apartment complex, so the days are typically similar from day to day. A male resident came into the office and told me he forgot to pick up a package. I told him not to worry, that I’ve handled his package with care. Then, when realizing which package it was, I shouted, “Wow! You have a HUGE PACKAGE!” He gave me an odd look, thanked me, and rushed out the door. As soon as he left, the office erupted with laughter. It was only at that point that I realized that I should choose my words a little more wisely.

Like I said before, my days are usually the same: filing, going on tours, dealing with residents, answering phones, as well as the occasional police report. Well, after succeeding in embarrassing myself, I went to a vacant apartment to “sparkle” it. When “sparkling” an apartment, it just means that we give it a final walk-through, wipe down the dust, and do any other cleaning or maintenance work before someone new moves in. So I went to this apartment, what seems to be a normal one bedroom apartment, actually it looked nicer than others. It had a fresh coat of paint, I think a few extras coats were on the living room walls. It even had brand new carpet.

This apartment was different though, it gave me the chills when I did my normal checks. I could see the crime that took place. I could still picture the blood spatter against the living room wall. Since I’ve worked at different apartment complexes the past few years, I have seen a lot of crime, a lot of craziness. This apartment has been vacant for about two months and I can still picture the fateful day.

There was a girl living in a one bedroom apartment, apparently her boyfriend moved in. She was in the process of eviction, with just a few more days left of being allowed to legally occupy the apartment. Then, a neighbor banged on our maintenance man’s door afraid of the noises coming from the apartment. There was a puppy in there, all the neighbors knew, and it sounded like it was dying. When they entered the apartment, with the Crime Scene Unit quickly arriving, they saw all of the blood on the wall. They moved everything out of the apartment, except a rug in the living room with a puppy laying on it. The puppy was paralyzed, beaten so badly against the wall. They left the puppy, not able to get to food or water, defecating all over itself for about three days.

The search was on for these two terrible people that did this to that puppy. The police were able to find the guy that was involved. I knew the car description, but had never seen the girl before. Well, while my boss was at the salon that day, leaving me alone in the office, one of the maintenance men called the office to let me know they were at the apartment. I called the police, and saw that she pulled up to the mailboxes. I ran outside, told her she needed to come into the office to talk to me about her lease. While stalling her until the police came to arrest her, I was proud of my quick-thinking.

I hope I never have to deal with another crime at work, unlikely, but it gets tiresome. I realize now though, that after never considering myself an animal lover, I do have a soft spot in my heart for animals. I can’t figure out what could ever bring someone to the point of killing an animal, which they basically did since it had to be euthanized.