Moving to a New Town
When I first moved to the Detroit, Michigan area to start my professional career as a computer programmer, I did not have much money to start with. I had to find a cheap apartment to rent. This led me to a small, old railroad town (South Lyon, Michigan), 21 miles away from work (Farmington Hills, Michigan). It was a run-down apartment complex called Pontrail Apartments. I rented a 2nd floor room. I found an old couch for $10 and borrowed a black-and-white TV. For the first month, I slept on the living room floor in my sleeping bag.
Sketchy Neighbors
My neighbors tended to be unemployed or not well off. They were mainly young couples just starting out in life. One couple and their friends spent most of their time drinking and smoking outside their apartment. I got to know them a bit – and that was my mistake.
DON’T MOVE!
One night, I heard a noise outside the apartment building. I saw the hood of my car was up and one of my neighbors trying to steal the battery. I quickly opened my door and yelled “DON’T MOVE!”. (which was silly because when you are caught at something, typically you run away!) I ran to the phone and called the police. When I got back to my door, the neighbor was still standing by my car! He must have been high, or on drugs. I went down stairs and met the cop. He did a short search of the area and found the wire cutters my neighbor was using to try to cut the power cables to the battery. One think that prevented him from getting the battery out was the fact there was a wire cage around the battery that he would have to remove, first.
Press Charges?
The policeman asked if I wanted to press charges. In a moment of weakness, I said no, as long as he replaced my battery wires. That was a mistake in that it took him two days to replace the wires and put on even crappier wire than what he cut! I ended up taking my car to a mechanic and have the wires replaced with new ones.
Aftermath
Since that incident, I still was cordial to my neighbors, but they took advantage of me again when they tried to break into my apartment through the front window. Luckily I had a stick in the channel to prevent it from being opened from the outside. That was the sign I needed to decide to find a better place to live. After a few months of work I had money in my bank account and could afford a better apartment complex closer to work.
