Good Times in the Neighborhood

Our neighborhood is a weird mix of middle-class middle aged or elderly white people who lost their jobs and had to sell their houses and cars and move down the ladder and Mexican or African-American people who worked hard to fight their way up the ladder.  A lot of the Mexican and African-American people have been leaving as the white people have been coming in.  I know this sounds stereotypical, but I promise it's true.
Our apartment complex is up on a hill, and down the hill there are four or five other apartment complexes.  These other ones are a lot more like our first apartment in the dangerous part of town.  We can see everything that goes on down there from our (small, but awesome!) patio.

Today was weird.  A lot of strange things happened.

First, we came home from running some errands and were stopped by our (awesome!) maintenance man.

MM (Maintenance Man): "Did you see that truck that just left?"


Justin: "Yeah, why?"


MM: "Well, have you ever seen him before?"


Justin: "No, there aren't any cars like that that belong here."


MM: "Well, I took down the tag number and am going to call the police, because I saw the same man drive away in a different car not too long ago.  If you see him again, let me know, okay?"

So apparently we have a car thief in our apartment complex?  I know I saw a police cruiser going through yesterday and stop at the office, but I just figured it was a "show of power" to help keep the neighborhood from becoming crime-ridden, as it's prone to do.

We went inside, hoping this car thief wasn't also a thief of old, well-used, cheap furniture or mostly broken computers.  He wasn't - all our stuff was where we left it.  He hadn't even taken our cat, which I consider to be his loss.  :-)

Not five minutes later, we heard a squealing of tires and a CRASH, followed by the sound of a horn that was stuck honking.  I was in the living room putting the flowers back out on the patio (I had taken them in to protect them from the frost) so I got to see the whole show.

Basically, some idiot (ahem) had driven straight into the curb near a mail box and light post (he missed both of those).  Several of the people from the neighborhood below us laughed, jogged over, questioned the man's sexuality, and taught me several new swears.  Apparently the guy who wrecked his car was fine.  :-)  Someone figured out how to make the horn stop honking and then I heard a tow truck come later.

Last, but certainly not least, some young teenagers think it's hilarious to sneak up to our apartment and scare Benny.  They did it for the first time on Halloween, when Benny almost ripped down the curtains in our bedroom through sheer terror.  Justin said that they were yelling at him through the patio fence and screen door.  It makes me sad!  Benny has enough problems without being afraid of people in addition to everything technological.