# Katrina family trashes free house in MD **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 3, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875 "2005-12-03T05:23:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/21 "2005-12-04T01:59:25Z")
There’s no excuse for that, regardless of how they thought they were being treated. I meant questions about the area they were living in, when’s the garbage pickup, where’s the nearest grocery store – stuff anybody needs to know in a new place. But you knew that. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/22 "2005-12-04T01:59:35Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Personally, i don’t think there’s any excuse for trashing a house, or writing grafitti on it. > > That said, it’s clear that there’s a lot more to this story than one would think from reading the OP, the author of which apparently only bothered to read half the article. > > What up, **danceswithcats**? Was the 850 word story a bit too long for you? I read the entire article, thank you. When I receive something, whether it’s to my exact liking or not, exhibiting an attitude of gratitude is what most polite adults do. Apparently you feel that common courtesies may be overlooked under extenuating circumstances. As usual, you cannot confine your posts to disagreement with the topic or concept at hand, but have to take a shot at the poster. Feel free to fuck off. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/23 "2005-12-04T02:21:44Z")
Don’t worry - after the next few Katrinas, we won’t have to worry about people like this anymore. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/24 "2005-12-04T02:22:56Z")
> [@VCO3](#): > > Don’t worry - after the next few Katrinas, we won’t have to worry about people like this anymore. 🆒 And _you’re_ just busy as a bee with that shovel, aren’t you? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/25 "2005-12-04T02:23:01Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > I read the entire article, thank you. When I receive something, whether it’s to my exact liking or not, exhibiting an attitude of gratitude is what most polite adults do. Apparently you feel that common courtesies may be overlooked under extenuating circumstances. As usual, you cannot confine your posts to disagreement with the topic or concept at hand, but have to take a shot at the poster. Feel free to fuck off. Actually, i made quite clear, in the first sentence of my post, that the behavior of the Browns was unacceptable under any circumstances. I also believe that common courtesies should be observed. But, apparently unlike you, i believe that in this case those courtesies should have been observed by the recipients and the donors alike, which would include not waltzing into the place in the mornings and dictating when the Brown family should get out of bed. Furthermore, my remark was perfectly topical. It was about the way in which your OP, rather typically, misrepresented the story in a simplistic and cynical manner. If you’re going to pit something, you should at least have the integrity to point out possible mitigating factors or circumstances that might cast doubt on your perenially inane and one-dimensional observations. Happy now, cuntfeatures? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/26 "2005-12-04T02:33:51Z")
> [@VCO3](#): > > Don’t worry - after the next few Katrinas, we won’t have to worry about people like this anymore. 🆒 Dude, seriously, this is assisted suicide. Quit it. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/27 "2005-12-04T03:29:23Z")
**VCO3** has been put on suspension for his inflammatory comments and trolling remarks here, after being warned this morning in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=347729). This suspension is indefinite at this time. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/28 "2005-12-04T04:42:00Z")
> [@Agent Foxtrot](#): > > You assume a heck of a lot. Mind backing up your assertions? > > Adam [Lent house in shambles](http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2005/11/29/news/local_news/news1-xx.txt) Fine, let’s forget about the loaded word “rtailer trash”. I take that specific word back. Whether they felt the church members were being intrusive or not, leaving the donated house in the condition did is trashy, low class behavior. Choose your own descriptor. > [@](#): > > On Sunday, the DiMaggios entered the house after church, at about 1 p.m., said Marge DiMaggio’s son, Brian DiMaggio. The Browns left during church services, between 11 and noon, he said. > > A lamp was smashed on the floor, the lampshade stomped. > > The screen door was torn off the hinges and flung onto the back deck. > > Someone cut a hole in the trampoline that belonged to Joann DiMaggio’s children. > > Curtain rods were ripped from the wall and left bent and dangling from one screw. > > Clothing, potato chip bags, soda cans, socks and empty bags were strewn throughout the house. > > A hole was punched in a bathroom wall. > > In another bathroom, dried toothpaste was smeared on the vanity, a capless toothpaste tube on the windowsill above. > > A big, broken pink plastic car was abandoned on the hill outside the house. > > In a dirty refrigerator upstairs, someone left a coffee mug with an inch or two layer of coffee sludge in the bottom. > > Dirty dishes were stacked in the sink or on the counters. > > But in perhaps the biggest insult, the words “MD Sucks” were emblazoned in black paint on the side of the home. > > “When our eyes caught this, we all stood here and froze,” Marge DiMaggio said. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/29 "2005-12-04T04:54:52Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > The article then quotes a spokesperson for the organization that helped arrange the houosing, as saying that some of the local people treated the Browns as their personal pet project, even entering the home without knocking. :eek: Nobody has ever heard of locking the door? If the churchmembers had keys, changing the locks, or barring that installing slide bolts or chains or something relatively cheap so that they wouldn’t enter when the people were at home? I do know the first time I ever walked in my door and someone was there without 24 hours notice, the cops wopuld be called and they would be charged with tresspass … Tenants _do_ have rights even if they are _charity_ cases. \ ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/30 "2005-12-04T06:58:04Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Choose your own descriptor. That seems to be what the DiMaggios were doing. How exactly do they know that the screen was “flung” and not “laid gently?” Were they there when the curtain rod was “ripped” ansd not “pulled” from the wall? Did they see the Browns “strewing” potato chip bags? Also, I read in the original atricle that there was already a hole in the bathroom wall, but it was bigger when the Browns left. Do you get that this a very un-Christian thing these people are doing? They have every right to be disappointed in the way the Browns behaved, but there is no reason to start a public smear campaign. The quality of mercy is apparently strained to the fucking breaking point. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/31 "2005-12-04T08:01:53Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > Do you get that this a very un-Christian thing these people are doing? Un-_Christian_, but very very _holy_. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/32 "2005-12-04T08:10:11Z")
Clothing, potato chip bags, soda cans, socks and empty bags were strewn throughout the house. Dried toothpaste was smeared on the vanity. Coffee mug with an inch or two layer of coffee sludge in the bottom. Dirty dishes were stacked in the sink or on the counters. Sounds like my place after I finish cleaning up! Fuckin’ neat freaks! ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/33 "2005-12-04T18:41:19Z")
After that second article, I bet sharing heaven with those particular DiMaggios would be a real treat. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/34 "2005-12-04T21:31:05Z")
This is why I have always thought Muslims have the right idea when it comes to charity. They believe that it is something that everyone is expected to do. It’s one of the five pillars of the faith. And yet it is considered incredibly gauche to talk about it. Everywhere you go in a Muslim area there are little green boxes where you can drop anonymous donations when the mood strikes. Compare that to here where charity is often a matter of public display and status, and hardly expected of all. We spend our time questioning which bums are worthy, emblazon it on our party invitations, constantly seek to assign a name to it (Oh, I donated ten dollars in you name to the Save the Dogs society, doesn’t that make me doubly charitable!) and otherwise bandy it about in various ways that disrespect everyone involved. ---
**Author:** ![xbuckeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9e8a1a/32.png) [@xbuckeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xbuckeye)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/35 "2005-12-04T22:28:03Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Clothing, potato chip bags, soda cans, socks and empty bags were strewn throughout the house. > Dried toothpaste was smeared on the vanity. > Coffee mug with an inch or two layer of coffee sludge in the bottom. > Dirty dishes were stacked in the sink or on the counters. > > Sounds like my place after I finish cleaning up! > Fuckin’ neat freaks! I was thinking the same thing, except change potato chip bags to candy wrappers and soda cans to beer bottles. I know the ‘homes’ around here that were ‘cleaned up’ for Katrina families were condemed apartments that were waiting for the wrecking ball. An empty house is usually empty for a reason, and usually in disrepair. But I’m not defending the spraypaint. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/36 "2005-12-04T23:16:02Z")
> [@xbuckeye](#): > > I know the ‘homes’ around here that were ‘cleaned up’ for Katrina families were condemed apartments that were waiting for the wrecking ball. An empty house is usually empty for a reason, and usually in disrepair. > > But I’m not defending the spraypaint. You’re absolutely right about the house being empty for a reason; you know the congregation wasn’t holding onto a mortgage and property taxes on the off chance someone would be in such dire straits someday that they’d need it. It had a hole in the wall already, maybe it was a rental property donated to the church or a parsonage that had been outgrown. The church has been renting it out, I’d bet. You’re right, and to be fair, \*no one’s \* defending the spraypainting, even the kid who did it stepped up and said they did and apologized for it, promising to clean it up. ---
**Author:** ![xbuckeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9e8a1a/32.png) [@xbuckeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xbuckeye)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/37 "2005-12-05T00:41:36Z")
> [@Portia](#): > > You’re right, and to be fair, \*no one’s \* defending the spraypainting, even the kid who did it stepped up and said they did and apologized for it, promising to clean it up. It sort of amuses me that a Christian congregation has no capacity for forgiveness. The kid said he was sorry and would try to make it right, but the church members go whine to a newspaper? The other thing that struck me when I reread the article was that the natives were mad that the family didn’t take donated clothes? Yeah…if I were moving from MD to LA, I’d wanna pack up a bunch of (probably) used, ill-fitting, out of fashion clothes into my (probably) nonexistant suitcases. It woulda been nice if they would have trucked them to Goodwill, but I’ve learned from experience that too many people giving you stuff you don’t really want is frustration beyond belief. And it sounds like they didn’t get much of a chance to clean up the place once they moved. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/38 "2005-12-05T02:08:46Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Furthermore, my remark was perfectly topical. It was about the way in which your OP, rather typically, misrepresented the story in a simplistic and cynical manner. If you’re going to pit something, you should at least have the integrity to point out possible mitigating factors or circumstances that might cast doubt on your perenially inane and one-dimensional observations. > > Happy now, cuntfeatures? 🙂 I misrepresented nothing, shmucko. I had my take on the article, and other posters are entitled to theirs. Some expressed their opposing thoughts in a manner which gave pause for consideration, which did not include yourself. Rather than continually distressing your delicate sensitivities, why not avoid threads which I post? I’d much rather share thoughts with other dopers than the yob you’ve proven yourself to be. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/39 "2005-12-05T03:10:00Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > I’d much rather share thoughts with other dopers than the yob you’ve proven yourself to be. When you have some thoughts, let me know, and i’ll be the first to offer my congratulations. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875/40 "2005-12-05T04:57:05Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > I misrepresented nothing, shmucko. You must be joking. As I pointed out in the _very first fucking post after your crappy OP_, you stated the Brown family had expressed “no thanks for anything”, when in fact Mrs. was quoted as doing so in the article you linked to. You also left out any mention that the Browns had apparently owned up to their bad behavior and were making amends, I’m supposing because upon reading the article your realized it sort of undermined the point you wanted to make. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-family-trashes-free-house-in-md/333875.md?page=3)