Day twenty-three in the 29 in 29 photo adventure.
Today's pictures are brought to you by the fricken little bugger who glued our locks closed at the office sometime during the night Tuesday night.
My boss and I arrived at work at about 7:50 am yesterday morning. What we discovered was that someone had used some type of glue or silicone to glue the locks and deadbolts closed on both our front and back doors. Trust me, many bad words were said, most of them starting with the letter F.
We were outside and flagged down a police officer (police station is only a block away) and he said concentrate on getting into the office and file a report later. Okay.......my boss had to be in court first thing and left me to find a locksmith and handle things. Have I mentioned it was pouring rain outside? I went and sat in the car to figure out what to do.
My cell phone is pretty basic and makes calls and sends text messages. I don't surf the net or anything on it, and had no access to a phone book, so I had to call the other secretary at home and get her to locate a locksmith. At 8:20 she called me back and said a locksmith would be at the office shortly after 9:00. Talk about delegating.
I figured I had about an hour of wait time. I had the camera with me so I started looking around to see what I could see from the car.
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| (View while I waited) |
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| (The offending locks - rain on the windshield makes the door look warped) |
In looking around I noticed the building across the alley had the words Penny's stenciled on it. I knew that it used to be a J.C. Penny's store back in the day, but after working and parking in that exact same spot for 11 years, I just now noticed the writing on the wall.....
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| (A little blurry through the rain on the window) |
My morning coffee was begging for a hasty exit so I walked to Starbucks to use the loo. Of course while there I had to purchase a coffee to hold me over until I could get into the office. Was I smart enough to get an extra hot coffee? Of course not, I got the usual - iced.
Back to wait in the car. By 9:00 I had to use the facilities again, damn coffee, so I returned to Starbucks. I then waited outside the front door of the office under the awning for the locksmith.
Eventually my boss came back from court, the other attorney and his wife (aka, his secretary) arrived and still no locksmith. Both attorney's had to be in court by 10:00 so they headed over early with no files and no plea petitions. Finally the locksmith arrived around 10:00 and was able to drill out the lock in the deadbolt on the front door.
By this time we were running two hours behind and my feet were little icicles in my Keens.
I called our handyman and he was able to replace the two locks on the back door. By 3:30 pm we had all new locks and were back in business. Total fix $400.
I submitted an online police report later in the day, but I am sure we won't ever discover who did it.
You just never know what kind of day it is going to be when you get up in the morning. On the flip, side it gave me an excuse to take some photos.
- Au Revoir
"Every path hath a puddle." - George Herbert
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I LOVE this post, but I'm SO sorry this happened! You got some excellent photos of the Penney's building! Awesome!
ReplyDeleteWarm and dry is such a good thing, isn't it.
Glad you liked the pics. No worries on the weird day. We've come in to broken windows before too.
DeleteWe all have a pretty good sense of humor, but wonder which disgruntled criminal client it could be and whether it is ours or the other attorney's. hmmmmm
Trobairtiz:
ReplyDeleteKEENS !! I thought I only wore Keens in the winter. Sorry for the inconvenience. Perhaps I should write about what happened at our office on Monday morning.
At least you got everything fixed in time to go home
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
Sorry to disappoint you Bob, but my winter Keens are like loafers or dress shoes. I'd much prefer sandals so I don't have to wear socks (free range toes are the best) but I'd freeze with my poor circulation.
DeleteUh oh, what happened with your office on Monday.
Trobairitz:
Deletethe wire thieves cut a 200 wire telephone cable up the street and took all the wire out of the conduit. It was discovered on the weekend but they could not repair it because it was near the railway tracks and they had to stop the trains. Monday morning we came to work and, NO phones, NO internet, NO credit card machine. basically we lost a day's worth of business.
They couldn't repair the line right away as it was down an embankment and they needed a truck to come and cut down some trees. They because the wires were not colour coded, Telus had to wire each one, "one by one" using a signal generator and replace a blocks worth of wire in the conduit.
can you imagine a days worth of non-internet activity ?
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
ps: I'm going to recycle your term "free range toes", cause that's what I like. My Keens are like sandals, but in cold weather I wear socks and they look like regular running shoes. You need to build up your "cold weather" endurance. I went for a barefoot walk in the snow a couple of weeks ago . . .
Yikes. that isn't a good dy. Wire thieves are a problem down here too, but luckily none directly effecting us.
DeleteNo internet/email for a whole day. You poor soul. We'd be lost at the office. We use it for communicating with the court and jail, scheduling all court appearances, etc.
Glad you liked the 'free range toes' comment. I have moments of wit every now and then. If I had heated sandals then I wouldn't need socks for cold weather endurance, lol. I saw your barefoot in the snow picture. My feet went white just thinking of it.
Reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window movie. The locked doors represented the cast on James Stewart leg. The window was your view out of the car. All you needed was a strange man dragging a large bag out of the Penney's door.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever seen that movie, but now I am intrigued..... there was a man dragging cut plywood into the Penny's door....does that count?
DeleteRotten dirty bast@rds! I hate it when people do bad things. You may have to put up a sign that says "This area under video surveillance" maybe that would be a good deterrent.
ReplyDeleteAs for free range toes, I think I will keep mine coralled with socks still.
Most of what we do is criminal defense. Trust me threats of surveillance do nothing to deter the criminally inclined in these parts.
DeleteI don't think it was a disgruntled client though as those are usually the ones still in jail or prison. The ones that are out are usually happy to be out.
I was wondering the same thing, if it was a disgruntled someone. Doesnt have to be that person, could be an unhappy family member too. I'm just happy it is broken windows and glued locks and not worse...
DeleteBut you turned it into a nice morning. Did you have a book on you as well? And I agree with the iced. :)
I didn't have a book with me. for some reason I thought about bringing my iPad, but then dismissed it since I have the iMac at work. Then when the lock incident happened I wished I did have it.
DeleteOne of our divorce clients was in late that morning and she said her husband is crazy enough he could have done it. They go to trial on Friday, lol.
But something changed, and you got to see the Penny's sign (a wee touch of history that you'd looked at so often and hadn't seen.) Good to know you all could keep your sense of humor but more importantly, glad that there was a Starbucks with a loo in the vicinity.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can't believe I'd never noticed it after all this time. Now I can't stop looking at it.
DeleteStarbucks is about five doors down. It is a good thing when they know you by name and by your drink. They don't mind when we need the facilities. Their managed rents a parking space in our back lot too so we have an in there.
WTF is wrong with some people? ::shakes head::
ReplyDeletei love the ghost Penney's sign :)
Most days we read the crime report and think of it as job security. This hit a little closer. Luckily the locks were fine this morning.
DeleteWow. Now that's a day. I also enjoyed the post. Good thing y'all had a sense of humor about it all. And, Bob, wire thieves? Jeez.
ReplyDeleteI knew it was going to be a bad day when the boss man came around the corner from checking the front door locks and the first words out of his mouth were: "we're fucked".
DeleteIt could only get better from there.
It was the cone. Cones are insidious, devils. You should search it for glue. (okay, I really need to get over my cone fixation)
ReplyDeleteThank God there is a Starbucks nearby. Wait a minute...there is always a Starbucks near by.
Seriously, WTF are people thinking sometimes!
That's it. Must have been the cone. Good thinking Bluekat. And I think most times there is a Starbucks around, unless of course you are riding through rural central Oregon in the summer, in which case it is usually a mirage when you are dreaming of an iced coffee.
DeletePeople suck (well, obviously some do). I am glad that you got your cravings fixed at the nearby Starbucks. Didn't you feel a bit like a detective taking pictures out of your car?
ReplyDeleteYes, some people really do suck. I don't know if I felt like a detective. Either that or a stalker perhaps, lol.
Delete