07 March 2008

Does This Happen Anywhere Else?

Picture it: I'm driving to the gym and I see a street corner filled with household items. And when I say household items, I mean mattresses, furniture...the works. I think:

a) Garage sale! Better call my mom.
b) Spring cleaning. Hmmm...wonder if they'd come do my house.
c) None of the above.

Definitely (c). Why? Because at least in my county of Maryland, this is what happens when tenants are evicted. After the lengthy period that it takes to actually evict someone, the cops are called and they manually remove all of the tenants' items, leaving the items in a big pile on the street.

Sometimes I want to feel bad for the tenants, but most of the time I don't. My aunt and uncle are very involved in real estate and I've heard horror stories about the things that tenants can do and Do do. It's amazing. Besides, it's not like eviction is an easy process for the landlords. It takes months. So the tenants are fully aware that this is going to happen to them.

Every time that I drive by these "garage sales," there are people going through the items. I'm never sure if these are the actual owners, or people who just want to "purchase" the junk. In fact, the only time I feel bad at all for these people is when I see kids going through the stuff.

I know this post is mostly ramblings, but these occurrences never cease to amaze me. I don't remember ever seeing this in Utah, but I never lived in such apartment-landia like I do now. Anyone else see this where they live?

P.S. I would have posted a picture of this but I've never had the courage to actually take a picture.

3 comments:

Taste of Champaign said...

not a comment about the post (only because I grew up there and saw this quite frequently) but poor Bruno! Why the need for the funnel?

i {heart} hawkes said...

interesting about the people back east. i don't think i have ever seen this in the west. however, i do recall seeing lots of ads in the paper for estate sales. i'm not sure if these sales only apply to people who have died with no relatives to claim their crap .but i guess they could also apply to evictees eh? maybe the owners just haul the loot to the DI rather than dumping it on the street for inquisitive vagrants like us to go through.

Tamara said...

I never saw that in Virginia but I am sure that it happened. I bet that it is an interesting site to see.