Strange Footsteps

[FleetsidePaul]

My new to me house is still vacant. The pool pump quit on me. I asked my electrician to take a look at it. He told me that the wires had been cut. Deliberately cut. The guy that cleans the pool came and he told me that they were most defiantly not cut the last time that he was there.

Now you might think it was one of those guys trying to get some money to fix it but my electrician fixed it for free since he was at the house anyway. And the pool guy won't do any kind of electrical work. So that kind of rules that out. But somebody did and they had to walk to the back of a one acre lot in the snow to do it. Nothing else was touched.

So I don't know who would go through all that trouble but the lady that I bought the house is a little strange. But she should have no beef with me because I just paid her a lot of money for that place. I don't know the neighbors yet so I have no clue.

Fast forward about 2 weeks. One of the painters got there early. Mother Nature called and he was sitting on the toilet. He heard someone walking on the patio. He thought that one of the other guys had shown up. But he was busy and obviously couldn't get up at the time.

When he finished his business he went to see who was there so they could get started but no one was there. He didn't see anything. The other guys showed up about 10 minutes later and didn't know what he was talking about. It wasn't them. They have tools laying all over the place and nothing was taken and nothing was disturbed. So I don't know what to think of this. Somebody's obviously going on the property. But why? It's a big property, it's a long walk to make without being seen and the painters truck was parked in front so they had to know that he was there. How would they know that he was on the pot at the time?

It just doesn't make sense.

[Greg58]

Sounds like you need some surveillance cameras. Or a few trail cams.

[Stocker]

Maybe that place is haunted. Park the hearse there. Check the odometer, maybe "someone" will take it for a midnight joy ride.

Yeah, cameras are a good idea. If whatever shows up will appear on a camera.

[tutone]

Originally Posted by Stocker

Maybe that place is haunted. Park the hearse there. Check the odometer, maybe "someone" will take it for a midnight joy ride.

Yeah, cameras are a good idea. If whatever shows up will appear on a camera.

When I was 10 in 1971, we lived in an old two story house that was built in 1927. My Grand dad and his family bought it and the farm from the org owner in 1947. He and my Granny got a divorce in 1968 and it sold at auction. We lived there,
[rented}
for a year while Mom and Dad built a house. Everybody slept downstairs. Once or twice a week, the distinct sound of footsteps would happen upstairs in the back bedroom. As if someone were pacing the floor. Always at night. My Dad would grab the pistol and run up the stairs. Nothing.

Some things are hard to explain.

[pjmoreland]

A neighbor of mine had a pool pump that was excessively noisy to the point that it was keeping my daughter up at night because her bedroom faces the neighbor's house. I was planning on going to talk to the neighbor about it, but thankfully the noise went away. I can only assume the noise bothered him as well. Either that, or some other neighbor who was bothered went and cut the lines...

[FleetsidePaul]

I just think it's someone screwing with me. I don't know why. But My new wrought iron fencing is done so I can secure the place and get cameras. The hold up on the fence getting installed is just the weather and the road closures. They are having trouble getting here to put it in. Once that's in and I can put my German Shepherd in the yard nobody's getting in.

Can anyone recommend a good security company because I'm going to need a lot of cameras. This place is big. One or two just isn't going to cut it.

When I was a kid, we left our bikes on the front lawn and didn't lock the front door. Funny how times have changed.

[3757chevy]

Now days you leave anything out front and they think you left it out for free for the pickin.

[Ol Blue K20]

I'm voting it's one of your ex wifes!! Or the ghost of a 3 day old chili dog.....

[Stocker]

^^^^

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

I'm voting it's one of your ex wifes!! Or the ghost of a 3 day old chili dog.....

No. One of my ex wives would have definealty taken something and then say it was hers. Cutting the wires? Oh yeah. Not taking or breaking anything? That's a no.

And the chili dogs made their presence known right away. Trust me on that one. No mystery there.

[Steeveedee]

You can buy remote cameras that are battery operated and communicate with your cell phone or laptop. I hard-wired in a set of cameras from Harbor Freight many years ago after our vehicles were vandalized. Amazing what cameras do for you. In our case it was the female of canine heredity next door. We couldn't prove it, but it stopped when the cameras went up. Next, some are going up in the back yard. There's a lot more dog squeezins out there than our dogs can produce. They used to let the previous dog run loose in the morning so it wouldn't mess up their yard. I suspect that they are tossing it over the fence. I'll record for several days to prove that it's an ongoing thing.

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

it was the female of canine heredity

I am so stealing that line.

I wanted to wait until the house is painted before I put up cameras because they got overspray on them on my other place the last time and it screwed them up and I can only get so much done at once. This is a total remodel and it's a ton of work. I've got a list a mile long.

[Steeveedee]

If you weren't so far away, I could recommend some painters. They are really good, but I don't think that they want to drive out to Timbukthree to paint a house. But they do great work. No overspray or drips anywhere, and they get in and get it done...and clean up after, not leaving it in your trash barrel. We hired them in '05, by recommendation, to paint our house. They painted two more houses just on our street when our neighbors saw what a great job they did. Almost time to paint again, after 18 years. That's good work.

[FleetsidePaul]

Trust me they don't want to drive to Timbukthree. I wouldn't either. One of my biggest obstacles is getting people to come up here. And the weather is not helping that at all. I picked the wrong season to move. Such is life.

[joedoh]

have you bought a CO detector yet? dont rule yourself out. I wouldnt be surprised if a trail cam showed you wandering around high on CO and 3 day old chili.

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by joedoh

have you bought a CO detector yet? dont rule yourself out. I wouldnt be surprised if a trail cam showed you wandering around high on CO and 3 day old chili.

Nah, I was wandering around high someplace else at the time.

The place has 2 CO detectors. It's required by the state to sell the place. They left 2 of them probably because of the square footage. They're still new in the packages. I guess that you have to include them in the sale but they don't necessarily have to be plugged in.

I'm surprised that this place passed the regulations. The water heater is mounted on the floor and my contractor said it's supposed to be 18" high or something like that. And the fence around the pool was half gone. 2 big no no's.

The funny thing about the pool is that the gates were locked and most of the fence was long gone. That's what you call security right there. And no keys to the gates. Not a problem because you can walk right in and just for sh!tz and giggles you can cut the wires to the pool pump. Easy peasy.

[special-K]

Is nothing grandfathered in CA? My house doesn't need to fulfill any codes that came after it's construction, which was over 100 years before building codes existed. The well is about 3' from the house, hand dug. Guys on the jobsites who drank the water from my cooler always raved on how good it was, like spring water. Today's standards call it surface water, which is what they also call spring water... the water people pay so much for. Of course, to sell water it all must be tested. The old-timers found water, then built. And the closer the better.

[FleetsidePaul]

I don't think that you can grandfather pool fences. And I know the CO detectors are mandatory because all you have to do is plug them in. I don't know about the water heater. It might be exempt because it's been there since 1957. I'm going to raise it anyway so I don't care.

Funny how you must have a fence around a pool but if you have a pond then you don't need one. Couldn't you drown in either one?

[Stocker]

Originally Posted by FleetsidePaul

The water heater is mounted on the floor and my contractor said it's supposed to be 18" high or something like that.

And the water heater is supposed to be anchored to the wall, for earthquake protection. Or so I've been told.

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by Stocker

And the water heater is supposed to be anchored to the wall, for earthquake protection. Or so I've been told.

Absolutely. You cannot sell your house without the straps on the water heater. I don't mind that regulation because I've been through a few earthquakes. Stuff starts jumping around. I wouldn't want my water heater to take a nosedive. That would be a mess and expensive. I'll take the straps as some insurance.

[Steeveedee]

The water heater must be 18" off the floor if it is in the garage, because of fuel vapors. I don't know about Kern County, but smoke and CO detectors are the law here. Can't pass an inspection without them. We put a new roof on the rental house, and had to certify that we had them and safety glazing on the windows. What those have to do with a new roof is beyond me, but that's LA for you. If you're parked on the street on street sweeping day, you get a ticket, even though the street sweeper seldom comes by.

[Stocker]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

The water heater must be 18" off the floor if it is in the garage, because of fuel vapors.

So that's for propane only? Shouldn't be required for electric water heaters.

[jeffahart]

Originally Posted by FleetsidePaul

My new to me house is still vacant. The pool pump quit on me. I asked my electrician to take a look at it. He told me that the wires had been cut. Deliberately cut.

Probably one of your neighbors. Why? If your pump is going out and it is really loud and you run it at night, it can be really annoying. Plus some pumps are just really loud anyway. No excuse for cutting someone elses equipment off. But just my theory.

j

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by Stocker

So that's for propane only? Shouldn't be required for electric water heaters.

Yes, gas-fueled. If his is on the floor, electric would be why.

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by jeffahart

Probably one of your neighbors. Why? If your pump is going out and it is really loud and you run it at night, it can be really annoying. Plus some pumps are just really loud anyway. No excuse for cutting someone elses equipment off. But just my theory.

j

There should be a switch on it for service reasons, right? Either the vandal didn't know that, or they were just being malicious.