I had an interesting and exciting week-end.
Starting onFriday, we (the people living in the house) noticed an extension cord laying on the ground under one of our outlets on the side of the house. the cord lead into the next door neighbors backyard. We kindly returned the rest of their cord to them by tossing it on their roof. Saturday, the power company turned off the electricity around 9 am, to do some maintenance in the neighborhood. Around 6:30 pm, they turned it back on. Which caused the transformer on the pole behind our house to spark and catch the trees that belog to the neighbors behind our house on fire. Which, in turn, lead to the tin building in our back yard to catch on fire. Fortunately, some alert friendly neighbors saw it in time to help contain the blaze before the fire department got there and put the fire out. My brother and I were out at the time, doing some last minute Halloween shopping. The fire department finally left around 8:30. Some of them liked the decorations we had done in our front yard, and we even demonstrated the water effect we had with lighting (using the same outlet that was being hijacked the day before). Around the time the fire department left, we went to unplug the lights and noticed the next door neighbors had hijacked the outlet again. We took some photos and called the police. When the police finally arrived, we pointed out the extension cord and where it led. There wasn't really all that much that they could do but unplug the extension cord and return it to the neighbors side of the fence. Although, I dpn't think the cord was in the same condition after it was returned this time. They also said that if we had any more issues to call them again. Which I did this morning. the next door neighbors run an assisted living hostel, or something like that. Apparently, the owner of the place didn't know that one of the tenents was stealing electricity from us, because they acted all surprised when the police officer asked them about it. Hopefully, there wonb't be any more un-authorized extension cord usage from them for the foreseeable future.
Also, did I mention that the fire that tirched our tin building also knocked out the cable and internet for most of the block? They didn't get that fixed until this afternoon. Then there were all the Trick or Treaters coming by to walk the plank and loot our dead man's chest.
Thank goodness we got the internet back.