From Not Always Right: With Security Like That, No Wonder Neighbors Are Nervous(
I’m not sure what’s relevant or not to this story, but in case it’s relevant, I am a big guy; I am about 6’6″ and rather muscular. I work outside all day, so while I am white, I’m pretty darkly tanned, so sometimes people mistake me for different ethnicities.
My wife and I recently moved into a new apartment. One Saturday morning, she leaves to go run some errands for a few hours, so I am home alone doing some odds-and-ends chores. I leave my apartment to go downstairs and collect our mail only to find it hasn’t been delivered yet, and when I return, I realize I have locked myself out. I guess the coffee hasn’t kicked in because I didn’t grab my keys, and because I was just going to the mailbox, I have no wallet, phone, or anything else.
I decide to sit down in the hallway and wait for my wife to come back. While I’m sitting there, after about fifteen minutes, the apartment manager from the new management company comes by. I have never met him before.
Manager: “Hey, uh, can I help you?”
Me: “Not really. I locked myself out, so I’m just waiting for my wife to get back.”
Manager: “Well, you sitting in the hallway is making some people uncomfortable.”
Me: “I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m not bothering anyone, and I don’t have any way to contact my wife to meet somewhere, so I’m just waiting here quietly.”
Manager: “Look. We’ve gotten a number of complaints, and I really need you out of the hallway. How about this?”
He goes to unlock the apartment door.
Me: “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you going to unlock the apartment?”
Manager: “Well, yeah. You said you were locked out. This way, you get out of the hallway, and people stop complaining.”
Me: “I haven’t shown you any ID or any records of any kind. Heck, I don’t even have a piece of mail with the address on it. Would you really let anyone into the apartment just because they said they lived there?”
From Not Always Right: With Security Like That, No Wonder Neighbors Are Nervous(
I’m not sure what’s relevant or not to this story, but in case it’s relevant, I am a big guy; I am about 6’6″ and rather muscular. I work outside all day, so while I am white, I’m pretty darkly tanned, so sometimes people mistake me for different ethnicities.
My wife and I recently moved into a new apartment. One Saturday morning, she leaves to go run some errands for a few hours, so I am home alone doing some odds-and-ends chores. I leave my apartment to go downstairs and collect our mail only to find it hasn’t been delivered yet, and when I return, I realize I have locked myself out. I guess the coffee hasn’t kicked in because I didn’t grab my keys, and because I was just going to the mailbox, I have no wallet, phone, or anything else.
I decide to sit down in the hallway and wait for my wife to come back. While I’m sitting there, after about fifteen minutes, the apartment manager from the new management company comes by. I have never met him before.
Manager: “Hey, uh, can I help you?”
Me: “Not really. I locked myself out, so I’m just waiting for my wife to get back.”
Manager: “Well, you sitting in the hallway is making some people uncomfortable.”
Me: “I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m not bothering anyone, and I don’t have any way to contact my wife to meet somewhere, so I’m just waiting here quietly.”
Manager: “Look. We’ve gotten a number of complaints, and I really need you out of the hallway. How about this?”
He goes to unlock the apartment door.
Me: “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you going to unlock the apartment?”
Manager: “Well, yeah. You said you were locked out. This way, you get out of the hallway, and people stop complaining.”
Me: “I haven’t shown you any ID or any records of any kind. Heck, I don’t even have a piece of mail with the address on it. Would you really let anyone into the apartment just because they said they lived there?”
(Contd)