Wed Jan 14, 2004 1:55 am
More Tales From My Flat
I dont know if ive mentioned it before but we live on the ground floor. An attribute of our living condition i was very eager not to obtain when we applied for the flat last year. So eager, in fact, that our accomidation forms should have in big-bastard capital letters "NOT ON THE GROUND FLOOR PLEASE". We figured if people we know have had their rooms broken into and thousands of pounds worth of computing equiptment and priceless data have been stolen, then were just the unlucky bunch of kids that would suffer in kind.
So being placed on the ground floor kinda sucks. It maens you have to keep your curtains drawn so no one can peek at you in many stages of undress. You cant leave your window open all night if its hot, or even if your just popping to the shops like you could on a 1st floor building, because, lets face it, its a bit of a climb for thieves. That in mind youve gotta keep constantly checking your window in case you, in a moment of mental abscence, left it open and went out.
Our flatmate Chris did just such a thing yesterday, heading out to work and then lectures with his room window open. Now his room looks out on the back of the block, the view is of a fence and an unkemp patch of grass and is the prime area for guys to break in without drawing too much attention to themselves. Its also not somewhere we'd go often, so in a strange off-chance, we went back there to knock on another flatmate's window to scare them ****-less (it didnt work, he was in the bathroom i think) they saw Chris' window open so poked their head through and saw that it was empty. For a joke, thinking Chris was in the kitchen, my flatmate Dan pinched his printer and brought it back round into the flat. When we found out that Chris wasnt even in the building, we decided to teach him a lesson for being careless. We moved about 5 to £600 worth of stuff into the next room, which we nicknamed the 'den' and locked his room back up, escaping once again through the window.
Its probably a good idea now to explain the importance of the 'Den' to you. About 2/3 months ago, we realised that the spare room in our flat wasnt going to be occupied until next semester, meaning we could turn it into a party room, of sorts, if we could only get in. We decided that the best way to get in would be to just ask. That didnt get us very far. The next idea was to get in through the window. The window is locked though, so we needed to actually get in there and take the window off the latch. We settled on posting some mail under the door and getting the caretaker to unlock the door to retrieve it. While the door was unlocked, we barged into the room and looked around. Were talking 3 or 4 guys in the room now, and 1 outside with the caretaker talking and hopefully distracting her. Eventually, one of us did get the latch off and after the caretaker had gone, we moved a stereo and some seats in there and played some cards in our new room. The 'Den' was the place where we put anyone that was staying over, or to play some games etc. but the novelty wore off after a while and so we stopped using it.
We moved all of Chris' stuff into the Den and forgot about the whole thing, we went out to the Pub and enjoyed the evening.
We got a phone call at about 9 last night from Chris, claiming he'd been robbed. Smiles all round as we explained what we'd done and that he could find his gear in the next room and he shouldnt leave his window open. The joy lasted for all of about 3 seconds until Chris explained that the police were bagging and fingerprinting the place, taking a photograph of a bootprint they lifted from the desk and removing the window lock for evidence.
Chris then made matters worse by opening the door to the Den and informing the Warden that it was a false alarm. False alarm maybe, but now we had to explain how we got into the unused room in our flat. To cut a long story short ("too late"
, we were roused from a particularly deep, alcohol fueld sleep that we're now all on report, a matter not helped that we already have a strike next to our names for failing to turn up to the dreaded "fire lectures". We were told we should expect a visit from the dragon who runs the residential services department later on today regarding the matter. So now i'm hung over, tired and on report. And i've only been back since Saturday.
- "ive got an attitude of everything i've ever wanted"
- Zeroing TIE's In An X-Wing Since 1993
Edited by - Arcon on 1/14/2004 1:57:15 AM
So being placed on the ground floor kinda sucks. It maens you have to keep your curtains drawn so no one can peek at you in many stages of undress. You cant leave your window open all night if its hot, or even if your just popping to the shops like you could on a 1st floor building, because, lets face it, its a bit of a climb for thieves. That in mind youve gotta keep constantly checking your window in case you, in a moment of mental abscence, left it open and went out.
Our flatmate Chris did just such a thing yesterday, heading out to work and then lectures with his room window open. Now his room looks out on the back of the block, the view is of a fence and an unkemp patch of grass and is the prime area for guys to break in without drawing too much attention to themselves. Its also not somewhere we'd go often, so in a strange off-chance, we went back there to knock on another flatmate's window to scare them ****-less (it didnt work, he was in the bathroom i think) they saw Chris' window open so poked their head through and saw that it was empty. For a joke, thinking Chris was in the kitchen, my flatmate Dan pinched his printer and brought it back round into the flat. When we found out that Chris wasnt even in the building, we decided to teach him a lesson for being careless. We moved about 5 to £600 worth of stuff into the next room, which we nicknamed the 'den' and locked his room back up, escaping once again through the window.
Its probably a good idea now to explain the importance of the 'Den' to you. About 2/3 months ago, we realised that the spare room in our flat wasnt going to be occupied until next semester, meaning we could turn it into a party room, of sorts, if we could only get in. We decided that the best way to get in would be to just ask. That didnt get us very far. The next idea was to get in through the window. The window is locked though, so we needed to actually get in there and take the window off the latch. We settled on posting some mail under the door and getting the caretaker to unlock the door to retrieve it. While the door was unlocked, we barged into the room and looked around. Were talking 3 or 4 guys in the room now, and 1 outside with the caretaker talking and hopefully distracting her. Eventually, one of us did get the latch off and after the caretaker had gone, we moved a stereo and some seats in there and played some cards in our new room. The 'Den' was the place where we put anyone that was staying over, or to play some games etc. but the novelty wore off after a while and so we stopped using it.
We moved all of Chris' stuff into the Den and forgot about the whole thing, we went out to the Pub and enjoyed the evening.
We got a phone call at about 9 last night from Chris, claiming he'd been robbed. Smiles all round as we explained what we'd done and that he could find his gear in the next room and he shouldnt leave his window open. The joy lasted for all of about 3 seconds until Chris explained that the police were bagging and fingerprinting the place, taking a photograph of a bootprint they lifted from the desk and removing the window lock for evidence.
Chris then made matters worse by opening the door to the Den and informing the Warden that it was a false alarm. False alarm maybe, but now we had to explain how we got into the unused room in our flat. To cut a long story short ("too late"
, we were roused from a particularly deep, alcohol fueld sleep that we're now all on report, a matter not helped that we already have a strike next to our names for failing to turn up to the dreaded "fire lectures". We were told we should expect a visit from the dragon who runs the residential services department later on today regarding the matter. So now i'm hung over, tired and on report. And i've only been back since Saturday.
- "ive got an attitude of everything i've ever wanted"
- Zeroing TIE's In An X-Wing Since 1993
Edited by - Arcon on 1/14/2004 1:57:15 AM
lol.
