I dropped my rent in the rent drop box this evening. Since it was cash, I called the landlord so he’d come pick it up immediately, and leave a receipt in my box. I’ve never had a problem using the drop box before, although I don’t make a habit of leaving cash in there it was necessary for reasons I won’t get into right now.
Just got a call from him a little while ago. It wasn’t in there. :eek:
Now, the box is locked, but there’s a slit you drop it in, and you can fit your hand in there a little. I made sure to push the envelope down so it wasn’t visible, but someone theoretically could have gotten their hand in there and pulled it out.
It was only in there for a few short hours. My building is a secure building, the front door is locked and only tenants have they key. There are only 4 others in this building, the 3 guys upstairs are friendly and trustworthy neighbors, really great people.
The guy across the hall is a meth addict, hasn’t paid rent in months and is getting evicted (though it’ll take another month or two in court since he’s contesting the eviction). He’s never been friendly, and just seems like the type who’d steal from his neighbors.
So, now I’m royally fucked. I am completely broke until I get my financial aid for school, but that’s not for another week.
Whoever stole it (although I’m fairly certain it’s the asshole across the hall) knew that was the rent drop, and that they were fucking their neighbor over. I am so pissed off, I want to break down this asshole’s door and beat him in the kneecaps until he gives me back my money.
On a less ranty note, is there anything, legally, I can do about this? I’m sure there isn’t, because this is cash we’re talking about, but… I paid with 2 $2 bills and a dollar coin (among other bills), that’s how hard up for money I am. That’s not usual at all, if my neighbor has 2 $2 bills and a dollar coin in his possession, that would be incredibly coincidental.
Let me get this straight: You knew the guy across the hall is a broke meth addict getting evicted and you STILL left cash in a drop box with obvious security issues? Look, this doesn’t excuse the thief by any means, but that was…not smart.
You should file a police report. Never know what can turn up from that. Most likely nothing, but maybe you’ll be lucky and the cop will say “We just arrested someone a few hours ago breaking into rent boxes across town” or maybe the cops will come and take the report just as the meth addict lights a joint and the cops notice the smell and enter the apartment and, hey, there’s your money on his kitchen counter.
Probably won’t happen, but certainly worth filing a report.
Oh, and I know you don’t want to hear this, but next time you’re in this situation, call your landlord and make arrangements to drop it off with him in person or tell him that it’s cash and if he could swing by your apartment and grab it.
Look, I know it was dumb, but 1) this guy never leaves his apartment, and even less frequently by the front door, 2) I honestly didn’t think you could get the envelope out of there, I made sure to push it far down 3) my landlord is Johnny-on-the-spot when you call him, plus we had a pre-arranged meeting for this evening so I thought it’d be in there for 20 minutes, tops. It was in there for more like 2 hours, but I was waiting for the landlord, had to leave, and dropped it in his box with the expectation that he’d be there in 5 minutes.
I admit that the meth addict is an attractive suspect, however, it assumes that he either happened to notice the one small piece of time when you made the rent drop or has the time to simply check the rent box every few minutes, or maybe is the luckiest bastid in the world.
it’s also possible that the manager, who has legitimate access would simply take the cash they knew was there.
You might be able to work something out with the landlord. He’s evicting the tweaker, so he knows the score. I doubt if he’ll let it slide, but perhaps he’ll let you pay it back over time. I feel bad for your situation, I really do, but NEVER leave cash unattended where someone could conceivably get at it; you see what can happen.
No camera (that I know of anyway glances around nervously).
My landlord and his partner are 2 of the nicest, most honest men I’ve ever met. They are the greatest landlords I’ve ever had, and I doubt that they would intentionally fuck me over. For example: I’m extremely hard up for money until I get my school money, so I talked to the landlord last month when it became obvious I wasn’t going to make rent. Instead of being an asshole and evicting me, which he could have done, he worked out a payment plan so I’ve been paying him a small amount every week. Hence the standing arrangement to pick up my rent Wednesday at 5:00 (and the reason it was cash).
This was my last payment and I’d be all caught up. Asshole across the hall might have noticed that I’d been paying the landlord weekly. Could have checked the box on the off chance someone paid September’s rent a couple days early, or something. It’s a small, tiny, itty bitty chance, but no one else can get in the building besides me, asshole, and the really wonderful neighbors upstairs. The upstairs neighbors are likewise really great people, the kind that lend movies and invite you over for drinks or drive you to the pharmacy to pick up your prescription. So I really doubt it could be them either.
I’m not being a wiseass, really- but if all you had was cash to pay the rent, why couldn’t you buy a money order so at least you could stop payment on it? For future reference, you can get one at the post office for about a dollar or so, and you’ll have a receipt with the amount on it and it’s traceable.
Just for future reference, the post office sells money orders, they aren’t very expensive to purchase, and are very reliable. Sorry to hear you got robbed, I hope you and your landlord get it straightened out. Do file a police report, your landlord also might have to, since it was taken from the drop box. Good luck. (Maybe they’ll catch him with the bills and coin, with luck!)
I’d like to take another look at the landlord. Nice guy or not (or desperate to not have to try to get a new tenant while the anti-social drug addict is around), he was stuck with one third of the units in the building generating nothing but legal fees for the foreseeable future. If he can score a little rent, get the cops on Tweaky McTweakerson, and expedite the eviction, he’s looking at win-win.
This is one of those life lessons. Learn from it and move on. I know it’s hard. I know that a dollar to you is like a hundred dollars to me or whatever. But don’t get so caught up in oh-the-humanity that you lose sight of the lesson you need to learn: for rent and other such financial transactions, don’t use cash unless you hand it over in person and get an immediate receipt.
Even if they did, I’m not sure it would help much. I don’t think this would be compelling enough for an arrest, unless one or both of the bills had some sort of unique marking(s) on them that the OP could attest to. Otherwise, it’s an odd coincidence, but hardly probative.
re: searching the guy for the odd money - Doubt there’s enough cause for a search warrent, but more specifically, he’s an addict - what makes you think the money was there 30 seconds later anyhow?
