I have had a lot closings with DRAMA before, but this recent
one was so crazy that I just had to share this story with others – if not to
warn people buying/selling/renting/moving in general, but at least to get you
to shake your head and mutter, “are you kidding me?”
Last month, I had a closing on a lovely split level in
Westfield – the transaction itself was smooth as silk. The sellers were dreamy and responsive to
remediatory requests. The buyers were
financial stalwarts – inspector was fantastic…heck even the mortgage guys were
able to watch the rates and shortly before closing, they RE-LOCKED for a LOWER
RATE! (Mortgage Master in Fairfield, by
the way – amazing…). Aglow with an
over-inflated sense of accomplishment and security, I told me client, “this has
been the best transaction – literally nothing but cotton candy and puppy dog
tails…I would hate to see the other shoe drop!”
We laughed and laughed…
…Until we stopped laughing.
2 days prior to closing, the owners of the house had made arrangements
with movers – a company that they and other in their family apparently had used
before. To make a long story short,
during the process of the move, the homeowner was dismayed to discover that
their bathroom light fixture had stopped working – after all, the buyer walk
through was only 2 days away – how quickly could he find an electrician to fix
the problem? In a fit of frustration,
the homeowner removed the sconce from the wall, and was shocked to find that
behind the fixture was a string, tied to a plastic bag hidden behind the wall
of his bathroom. In that plastic bag was
family jewelry, his camera and other sundry small valuables. Items that were being moved that day.
Needless to say, there was much consternation and
hand-wringing. The supervisor on the
move was called forward to explain, he said he knew nothing about it, and that
it was best to call the owner of the moving company. When the owner had no explanation (and I
credit the supervisor of the job for his upstanding decision), the supervisor
then strongly advised that the homeowner call the police.
When the police arrived, an immediate search turned up a
second hiding spot with yet another bag of goodies, secreted away behind the
bathroom vanity. Police made off with
some bath fixtures to be dusted for fingerprints and used as evidence – the
attornies had to escrow some small amount to cover some costs in case those
items were never returned to the house by the authorities. They also made off with a young employee who,
when searched, turned up carrying some amount of marijuana – whether or not
that had any connection with the theft, who knows? What I do know is that the police haven’t yet
returned the fixtures, so I am really glad we left some escrow! Oh, and in case you are wondering which moving company it was? Well, innocent until proven guilty so I don't want to potentially malign a business...but I suppose if you really want to know, give me a call.
