BUSTED!

Yesterday started with a call about a frozen water line in one of my apartment buildings. It has been VERY cold here this past few days with temperatures in the single digits. This was a building that I bought last May and I therefore haven't been through a winter with it. To thaw the frozen pipes, I went to my shop to pickup my big kerosene torpedo heater. Just after leaving my shop, I had a guy pull right in front of me, necessitating a rapid stop to keep from hitting him. Although I was thinking a very unkind thought about this idiot driver, it wasn't that big of a deal. However, as I proceeded down the road behind this idiot, he began swerving all over the road. He would go completely off the right side of the road and then off the left side of the road (a 2 lane road). This was VERY dangerous on a slightly hilly road and I was sure that he would kill someone. I called 911 to report this moron. As we proceeded down the road, he ran one car off the road. At the end of this road is a 90 degree turn, where this road merges with a highway. About 200 yards from the intersection, he was still going about 60 mph. As he entered the intersection at a high rate of speed, I was sure his truck was going to flip. Fortunately for him (and unfortunately for the rest of us), the truck did not flip and instead slid sideways into the intersection, up on two wheels at one point. He'll live to drive drunk (or drugged up) another day to kill some innocent family!!!

After this wild turn, he drove another 1/4 of a mile and then pulled off the right side of the road. There was NO WAY that I was allowing this scumbag to kill someone, so I pulled off about 200 yeard behind him and continued to tell the highway patrol where we were. The guy got out of his truck, stumbled around, and at one point crawled under his truck (VERY STRANGE). However, that was only the beginning of the bizarre behavior. He then started walking toward my truck. I was unhappy with that considering his very bizarre behavior. I backed up a little and he kept coming. I backed up a little more and he kept coming. He finally gave up and headed back to his truck. To my amazement, he then started backing his truck toward mine. At this point, I quickly got my handgun out of my gunsafe. I told the highway patrol that this guy was acting crazy and to hurry up. I felt VERY unfortable with this guy backing toward me and I was NOT going to have a confrontation with him. When his truck got within about 2 or 3 car lengths of my truck, I quickly pulled around him. Unfortunately, I was now in front of him, which is where I did not want to be. I pulled forward about 200 yards and stopped. He then started driving forward on the berm toward my truck. I started driving slowly forward and within a few seconds he stopped. I pulled forward another 200 yards and stopped. He got out of his car and walked toward me again. This went on for a couple of minutes and then he got back into his truck and moved toward me again. Finally, he went around me and then once again pulled over and stopped. I backed up about 200 yards and stopped. For a third time, he got out of his truck and walked toward me. I backed up. He came toward me again. I backed up more. He gave up and stumbled back toward his truck which is when the first highway patrol officer arrived. FINALLY! Within a couple of minutes, there were five cruisers on the scene. The scumbag was arrested and taken to jail. His truck was impounded. I filled out a report and headed to fix my water line problem. My little bit of excitement for the day was over. No-one was hurt and another scumbag was in jail.

My frozen water line problems also ended well. I put the torpedo heater in the basement and within a couple hours, everything was back to normal.

My recent purchase of 11 rentals included 9 rented units and 2 vacant units. One of the vacant units is a 2-3 bedroom house. My goal for yesterday was to put miniblinds up in the house and get the furnace started. I like to put miniblinds up right away and leave a light on along with a radio playing. That helps keep the criminals away.

As I was finishing up the mini-blinds, I received a call from one of the tenants in my new 7-unit apartment building. She said that her fuse box was very hot. I told her to turn off everything possible and that I would be right down. I was shocked at what I discovered. This is one of two apartments with a 100 amp Wadsworth fuse box instead of circuit breakers. When I pulled the main fuse, there were no fuses in there at all, someone had put copper jumper bars in place of the fuses!!! In addition, one of the screw-in fuse sockets was broken and someone had used a penny in place of a fuse. I simply couldn't believe it!!! What a hazard. Since the electric in this fuse panel was not right, I went directly to the other apartment that had a fuse panel. Same thing, except this time it was the range fuse that had the jumpers!!!

Fortunately, I carry a good selection of electrical stuff in my truck and I had the fuses to fix the primary problem. We are planning to replace the fuse panel tomorrow with a circuit breaker panel.

The police were at the building twice more last night, so I still got a lot of work to do getting rid of the riff-raff.