Canadutch
Well I think it’s safe to say I’m definately never going to see the money. I phoned her about a half hour ago to get her postal code to send back her keys. Before I could even say anything she said “Is this Tammy” then went on to tell me how I’ve caused them so much trouble. ( !!!! )She screamed and she screamed, telling me that they arrived home at 3am in the morning and couldn’t get in the house. When she left, she told me not to use the front door, that she was going to bolt it and for us to just come and go through the back. I had to use the front door once or twice when I answered it while I was there so before I left I made sure it was bolted the way she said when she left. Then I locked the back door and walked around and left. I left a note for her saying that I took the keys to lock up and would mail them back after I recieved her payment the next day.
According to her during her screaming, they couldn’t get in the house because *I* bolted the front door to keep them out and they had no keys to the back. I asked her what I was supposed to do as she had hung up on me and turned her phone off that night. (I’m sure my mobile company has records of the 100 times I tried to call her over the next 3 hours or so). Was I just supposed to leave and leave her house open? If I did that maybe she’d be screaming at me now because people had stolen things from her house!
Anyhow, I tried to get her to calm down and listen to me. I explained that I didn’t know what else to do and after the way she reacted on the phone I sure as heck didn’t want to be there when they got home, umm not to mention the fact that she told me to be GONE. She wasn’t hearing any of it though, she kept screaming at me.
Then she told me how it cost her 300 euros to change the locks to get into the house, that her kids both missed a day’s work (which I also found strange because when I was there before she left her daughter told me she was unemployed) and that she was going to send the bill to my house (whatever.. good luck) and that her kids were going to KILL ME!!!
Now, ordinarily one would just laugh off idle threats but with this woman? She’s already proven to be quite off her rocker just in the way she’s dealt with me. When she had me on the phone she told me to throw away the keys because she had to have the locks changed, but I didn’t really trust that. For one she rents the place she lives in, it would have been easier to contact the person she rents from than to get a locksmith (not to mention cheaper). Also I remember them discussing WHO’s keys they would give me before they left, so clearly there was another set of keys for the back. All things pointed to it just being an excuse for her to be able to yell at me, make me the bad guy so she wouldn’t have to pay.
So I wasn’t going to throw away the keys and then later have her say her house was broken into and that I did it, that the locks really weren’t changed at all. Nor was I going to just send them back because then what proof do I have that I actually did? If she’s this crazy, her two grown children living with her can’t be far off either, which I saw evidence of when the daughter took the phone from her during her screaming tantrum and told me how much she and her brother would love to “Talk” to me.
So I phoned my local police and they put me through to the police in her city. I was kind of shaken and I told them the whole story. I told her about her threatening my life, the payment that was owed to me, about me locking up and taking the keys and asked what I should do with these keys. She took the information to her chief and called me back about 20 minutes later and said I should not be worried about any violence but apparently this woman is no stranger to the local police. I was disappointed to hear this, because that means I spent almost a week helping this woman for nothing, but glad to hear it at the same time because I knew the police will believe me when I give my side of the situation.
Also, the people at expatica.com where I advertise my services, as she’s threatened to go there and “tell everyone about me”. Of course, thanks to the advice of a good friend we called before we left.. we took photos of everything before we left the house. How we left each room, the letter I left for her, the keys I took, the letters from the collection agencies I saw. I would have taken a picture of the bag of drugs the dog dug out from the cupboard and brought to me (she loved to bring you “gifts”) but I mean, this is Holland. In any case I have more than enough evidence to support my side of this whole episode.. so I won’t worry too much. Thank god for Padraig who suggested the photos!
Anyhow, they told me to come by the station sometime in the next few days and they will go to her house with the keys and ask her for my payment. I doubt they’ll get it but at least then she’ll know that she won’t totally get away with what she’s done.
Holland suddenly seems so much smaller now that I know I’m sharing it with these people *sigh* .. but on the other hand it’s nice knowing there are people like our friend Padraig. He helped us out big by coming to get us Sunday night and helping to advise us on what to do with this whole fiasco. He is officially my favorite Irishman!
