Packing in Key West

This is a retelling of a true story imparted to me by a lady lawyer who purchased an Old Town  home from me. She lives in a big eastern city throughout most of the year, but spends her winters in Key West. She enjoys the ability to practice her profession in the comfortable environment of her tropical home. She is single and shares her life in Key West with her two dogs which she calls her "puppies".  

My buyer. who I'll call "Annie", told me about a recent event which occurred while she was on a scheduled conference call with various "principles". She said that particular phone call was more productive than she had expected, inferring that not all conference calls work out well.  Annie set the stage for the events that followed. She said she normally leaves all the doors open when she is at home. She loves the fresh air and sunshine, the elements she can't enjoy up north during the winter. She said the conference call principles were making their points when all of a sudden the puppies started barking loudly - the angrily. An unknown woman walked right into Annie's front door with a piece of paper in hand. Annie did not who this woman was or why she was standing inside Annie's house.

Annie told the principles she needed to excuse herself from the phone call and put the telephone on hold. She walked to the woman and asked who she was and why she was inside her house. The lady said "This is my house!" Annie told me she immediately wondered if the precious owner had pulled a maneuver sold the house a second time to someone else. She remembered how tight he was and wondered if he would have tried something like that. She dismissed that thought. The woman then said something about having proof the house was hers. Annie examined the piece of paper. It was some type of rental agreement for Annie's home.

The woman told Annie she had seen the house advertised on Craigslist where she saw a lot of photos. The lady loved the place and paid the $3500 for her upcoming vacation.  Upon first arriving at the house lady could see someone was inside. She called the rental agent who said the last "tenant" had not left the house and was an illegal holdover. The agent said there was nothing he could do. The lady was not deterred and decided to confront the illegal holdover tenant herself whereupon the lady and Annie were facing each other down in the living room. Annie said "I am the owner. I do not rent my house".   The lady realized she had become another victim of a Craigslist rental scam. She agreed to leave.

Before existing, the door still opened, the lady asked Annie a favor.  She said she was expecting a package which was to be shipped to the vacation house address. She asked Annie to call her when the package arrived. Annie agreed. The package was delivered a couple of days later.  Annie looked at the sender's return address: it was a firearms and ammunition dealer. Annie surmised the package contained either a gun or ammunition.

Annie called the lady who returned to Annie's home to retrieve her package. This time the lady waited to be invited inside the house. The two ladies exchanged pleasantries. Annie looked at the box as she handed it over to the lady and said "I'm packing!" The lady said "I'm packing, too!"  They laughed.

Annie told me under other circumstances the day of the telephone conference call could have ended quite differently. She said she might have responded to seeing a stranger walking around in her living room not with a question but with action, and under Florida law that would have been her legal right. Remember the terrible consequences in the Trayvon Martin killing. Florida law gives property owners the right to stand their ground and kill an intruder.

I get phone calls every few weeks from folks who have seen a Craigslist ad for a house which I have written about. The caller often starts out telling me they are a bit suspicious about an ad that sounds to good to be true. Or the tell me the rental agent insists that the renter remit payment by Paypal instead of credit card. I always tell each caller to do a Google search for real estate companies or property management companies that rent vacation rental homes.