Beyond just lots of residents, though, we also have visitors and delivery persons and the mail carriers and people who leave fliers hanging on the doorknobs and no telling who else stopping by. Yes, there is a fence surrounding the property, but that's to keep cars out more than people. Anyone can walk into the complex without being stopped or questioned. It happens all the time.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I returned home one day this past week to find the following:
That's right. Godzilla and Hermey apparently leave a set of keys to the front door of her apartment under the tiny little doormat. The keys were just lying on the carpet in front of her door in the middle of the afternoon. Perhaps the maintenance workers for the building accidentally moved the mat while vacuuming or something. I don't know. I was just dumbstruck to see that someone could be so foolish as to leave a set of keys outside the apartment door, available to anyone who might want to use them. I'm surprised the neighbors haven't had every last possession stolen from them. Apparently, they want their friends to be able to enter the apartment at all hours of the day or night whether they are home or not.
Godzilla--or perhaps it's Hermey--has taken precautions since that fateful day last week. No longer are the keys just left under the mat for just anyone to find. No, now they are stuck to the bottom of the doormat. Again, I am just dumbfounded by the lunacy of the neighbors.
I took the second picture because I had to see what had happened to the keys. I mistakenly assumed they'd put them on a key chain and keep them in a safe place after discovering how easily the location of the keys could be revealed. Not Godzilla and Hermey. You'd think that living in a city of several million people would make you a little more reluctant to do something as stupid as leaving the keys to your apartment under a doormat. Who does that nowadays?
I will admit to being torn emotionally when I saw the keys just lying on the carpet. I considered taking them and hiding them or throwing them down the garbage chute just to be spiteful. I didn't, though, so you can rest easy. My conscience go the better of me, I suppose. Momentarily, anyway. Of course, I don't think everyone would be as kind to Godzilla and Hermey as I was. One of these days, if they aren't careful, one of their "friends" or perhaps even a stranger may avail himself or herself of the opportunity to go on a "shopping spree," and maybe then they'll learn that grown-ups have better sense than to leave keys under doormats in a large apartment complex in the middle of a huge metropolitan area.
4 comments:
I loved this entry. You might say I, what do the kids call it? Oh, right: LoL'd
You know, your Harriet the Spy blogging makes me utterly paranoid that some brilliant man somewhere is chronicling all the annoying things I do. It's really a huge fear for me. Someone, somewhere, a brilliant and funny man, one I would probably love to meet, is watching me and going, now there is a horrible specimen.
I would love it if you broke in and did some Amelie type rearranging. I'll be your lookout.
I have tried not to notice their odd behavior, but it's just too obvious and fascinating sometimes. When you come home to keys lying on the carpet, it's tough to ignore. You have to wonder what goes through the mind of someone who does something like that. And it isn't as if I haven't had quite a lot of help from the apartment managers providing me with tenants like this to discuss.
Your ongoing saga of Godzilla and Hermey is my favorite to date, much as I have loved the tales of neighbors past. I found a GREAT "neighbor" cartoon in the newest New Yorker that reminded me of you (and some of them) and will try to put it on FB for you to see...if not, I may actually XEROX it and MAIL it to you!
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