Real Fucking Mature, Motherfuckers

The BBQ Pit
1

So, anyway, back in June our real estate agent and the neighbours had a bit of a run-in. I forgot to follow up here, but nothing ever came of the threat for legal action to collect on the bill for the water meter, and the neighbours didn’t come over to pound our heads in for ratting them out. So it was all good.

Until last night, after ordering some pizza, we had another delivery of pizza from a different company, and an order of chinese food turn up on our doorstep. WTF? But we didn’t think about it too much. There’s another street nearby that has a similar name, and from time to time we’ve gotten takeaway food orders for them turning up at our door, as well as some of their mail (though never mind that this was two orders within a maximum of two hours)

But this morning, I finished work at seven am. I called Mr.Indigo at about half past seven when he was on his way out the door - “By the way sweetie, there’s no running water in the house”

Now, after working an overnight shift, they’re the last words I want to hear. I need a shower before I go to bed, or smelliness happens. And if I have to call the estate agent and get a plumber out, I don’t want to be waiting up for one when I’ve got to sleep sometime between now and tonight. So as you can imagine, I was a little less than happy.

So I’m on my bike, riding home. Stressing because I think there’s been a water bill we haven’t paid, or we’re about to be evicted or something (I worry a lot). When it hits me - prank takeaway orders last night, no water working this morning? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…

So I get home, and check the tap out the front. No water. Dry as a bone. Check the water meter. The tap handle for the water meter is mushed pretty far into the grass, thanks in part to our lax mowing skillz, and the wonderfulness of our neighbours running over it about four months ago. I dig it out and fiddle for a bit.

Sure enough, the water’s been cut off at the meter. And it’s not someone’s kid having a larf. This fucker’s mushed into the ground, and hard as a bastard to turn. I turn the tap back on, and all our water’s running again. Fucking miraculous.

I’m hoping in my heart of hearts that this all was someone who was pissed last night, deciding it would be funny to send us some pizzas and turn off our water. I’m hoping like hell it’s not the beginning of a protracted campaign of harassment to get us out, so they can move another of their white-trash friends/family into our house and have the whole street ‘belonging’ to them. We don’t have the resources to move at the moment, and I don’t need this stress on top of everything else I’m dealing with.

So, in short, fuck you motherfuckers.

2

Well that fucking sucks, pranks such as these are the worst because there really is almost no way to defend against it. Maybe just set up some video cameras or if you find out who did it fight fire with fire.

3

I’d really rather not get into a pranking war. I don’t love this house enough to get into that sort of a fight. If push came to shove, I really would get the real estate agent to terminate the lease for us, and let us go due to a hostile living situation. I don’t need that kind of stress at home with what I do for a job.

I’m considering the video camera route for evidence reasons, but I’d need one with night-vision, and I don’t know if there’s anywhere around here that I could rent one for a reasonable price.

I’ve got a pretty good idea of who did it, or at least on whose behalf it would have been done. But as you said, without evidence there’s no way to prevent it.

4

Wait, they sent you a free pizza and Chinese food?

Best. Pranksters. Ever.

5

Unfortunately, the fact that the previous conflict with the neighbors was over the water meter makes it rather likely that further messing with the water meter is related. I’m not sure there’s much you can do unless you catch them in the act, though. If it happens a couple of times, maybe you can ask the agent to put a lock on the meter.

6

Ha, I wish it were free. Then I would have had food for my overnight shift :wink: But they both expected paying when it got to the door.

I’d love to put a lock or something on the meter, but unfortunately all it is is a meter in the ground with a small bar-type faucet handle thingy on the top (kinda like this faucet). There’s no way I can conceive of locking it, short of getting the water company out to remove the tap handle and replace it with some kind of locking nut or something you need an allen key to lock or unlock.

7

Then call the water company, explain that your meter was vandalized and that you have reason to believe it could happen again, and ask them to secure it. They should absorb the cost and they’ll know how. I betcha it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve had to protect their equipment from being vandalized.

8

I don’t remember where, but I feel like I’ve seen meter locks that are basically a Lucite box that goes around the meter with a padlock on the door. It seems like that would work.

9

Good thought. I’m a bit too out of it to consider anything as straightforward as that. It’ll have to be done via the Real Estate, tho’. God knows if we actually did it ourselves, they’d probably try to find us in breach of our lease or something.

10

If the water service is being paid for by the real estate folks, then yes, they’d be the ones that ought to call the water company. If the water service is being paid for directly by you, then you are the utility’s customer and you have the right – indeed, one could argue the duty – to report vandalism to the utility. Based on what I know of utility law and regulation, that meter most likely belongs to the water company, not the owner of the property it serves.

I would certainly alert the real estate people as well as the water company, but I wouldn’t rely on them to seek protection for the meter.

11

I would assume the water’s in the landowner’s name. I think it’s one of those things, like council rates, that have to be in the name of the person who owns it. But it’s a bit difficult, in that we don’t actually have to pay for anything except if we go into excess, which we’ve never done.

Nothing else has happened in the last 24 hours, so we’re going to see how it goes over the weekend, and if anything else continues we’re going to start documenting and reporting every damned thing.

12

What kind of Stiffly Stiffersons are you?

13

So what did you do with the pizzas and Chinese food your neighbor “thoughtfully” sent to you? I find it odd that there are delivery places still fall for this old prank since most now require you to give them your phone number when you order so they can check to see if it matches the street address (at least they do where I live).

14

I told them we didn’t order it, and they took it back to the store. But by the time the second incorrect order came around, I asked them what telephone number the person left…

Shits didn’t leave one. God only knows why the restaurants even took these orders and tried to deliver them when the people didn’t leave contact details, but they did.