Brief bit of background for this: I live in an apartment which is exclusively for university students attending the school I'm at, but which is not in any official capacity affiliated with the school. Essentially, the principle behind the place is "only students would be broke enough to live in a hellhole like this." And it is a hellhole--there's two(!) different bars in the building, mice (fortunately none left in my room, thanks to some traps I put out back in September), constant noise abuse, and the place is trashed on a regular basis. By some of the other tenants.
This place is ghetto.
Anyway, another problem we've been suffering of late is that in the communal freezers, there've been thefts. And I'm not talking about someone taking, say, a can of lemonade, or a pizza-pop...ohhhh, no. People in this building KNOW we're in a ghetto place, so anyone using the communal food storage takes steps to prevent theft. Locked toolboxes or tackleboxes in which food is placed seems to be the way to go around here. I myself, having lived here last year (and not trusting the communal freezer even then) know better than to put anything in there...but even I never thought anyone would bother stealing those big, bulky, LOCKED boxes of dubious nutritional value.
Boy was I wrong.
For the past month or so, someone had been stealing food from the freezer. Tackleboxes and all. At least seven people had their food stolen right out of the kitchen, including a good friend of mine (and fellow PSO player, since I talked him into buying a dreamcast and a copy of the game back in September, 'cause it was cheap)
'course, there's no surveillance in the kitchens, and with so many people in the building, it's hard to keep an eye on everyone, especially with the hours we university kids keep. (in regards to said hours, look at the time this was posted at.) So, the most that's been done, up until today, was a sign was placed above the freezer, asking people not to steal food plzkthnks. Exclamation points galore, too. By the Pratchett Insanity Index, whoever runs this place is definitely in need of some dried frog pills.
All that changed tonight. As I was in the washroom brushing my teeth, I heard the slams and the whams and the shouting associated with the people who live on other floors (The floor on which I live is a nice, quiet place, with happy, friendly people who make good neighbors and who would seriously fit better in any normal apartment than a ghetto like this...if you ignore the pot-smoker, anyway, but he's cool when he's not setting off the fire alarm with his doobies.)
Well, I figured something was going down, so I finished up with my teeth (dental hygeine is important. Cavities aren't fun. Nitrous Oxide is, but that's a story for another day) and I headed out to the kitchen to see what was going down. Well, I'd just missed the girls, but the pothead and a friend had got the late night munchies, and had witnessed these girls leaving with a couple of boxes of food from the freezer--and had caught them more or less in the act. They only caught the end, though, so they didn't know whether or not they HAD stolen them. Just a glimpse, and all.
So as we sat discussing what to do about it, the RA for the floor above us comes downstairs with the tackleboxes. Apparently he'd heard some thuds, followed the girls to their room, and walked in on them saying 'Jesus, that's enough!' or something similar. The girls protested that they'd "found them on the landing" but given the witnesses...
...well, I can't wait for the arrest/eviction.
Anyway. This probably belongs in rants or something but I figured it was an amusing enough anecdote that I should share it. If you think it's funny, ask me nice and I might post some of the other amusing and crazy stuff that happens here...and good lord, is there ever a large pile of stories to go with that.
