Landlord Responds

Spoke with the insurance who said that the Bedford Police Department is notorious for claiming crimes are civil manners and that I would have to get a little abrasive in order to get what I wanted.

I did just that citing several examples of places I have access to that I can not steal from. That didn't get me very far until I asked the office on the phone if I had access to his house could I take all his possessions and it not be a crime. I was transferred to dispatch who then said "if an officer is available, we will send one out."

15 minutes later the police arrive and we get the police report filled out. You have to obtain this to file a theft claim from your insurance.

We find a bag that has less than a third of the stolen items. Contact the landlord who informs us that it is our fault that we didn't tell her what else was stolen. I asked her if she thought victims had to give lists of their stolen possessions to a burglar in order to get them back... Finally I said "Look, have your son or whoever was at my house look through their things, anything that doesn't belong to him bring it back here and I will go through it since I am the only honest one here."

She hung up.

Called her back to tell her about the police report just so she was aware. Also asked for when we can do a walk through on the home. No response.

Next day (Saturday) no items returned to the house, paid a cleaning lady to wipe it down top to bottom. House looks great.

Sunday we call the landlord, who hangs up on Sally after less than 30 seconds. "Just throw the key in the house and lock the door." She also claims we are stealing her $5 curtain rods that we purchased when we moved in. With a heavy sigh we take out the 2nd mortgage on our home and spend the $5 at home depot and place new rods for her in her window.

Asked again for when we can perform the walk through, no response. Receive a nasty hate filled e-mail about the condition of the home and further justification of why they took our things. Nothing in the e-mail about when or how they will be returned.

Cleaned the carpets with a steam cleaner. Sent a quick professional e-mail to the landlord about her threat on the deposit and the so called condition of the house. Still waiting for a response.

Definitely going to take some pictures on this one, can't put anything past this lady.

Landlord Theft!

Update on the situation with our landlord:
We went to visit the house on Wednesday to get the remaining items and do some cleaning. When we arrived we found that the house had been "visited" by either kids, vandals, or someone else.

Items inside the garage were placed in the living room and taken apart. Items were missing from our closets. And most importantly a priceless item from Sally's grandma, a jewelry box, was destroyed and its contents stolen.

Contacting the landlord we learned that she allowed someone into the house on Tuesday night and they are the ones that took our things. She would not say who it was or why they were in our house that we are still paying rent on, but that she would "get it all back."

Since then there have been no responses to phone calls or texts and the items have not been returned. No real surprise that when contacting the police they said it was a civil matter and that we needed to find an attorney. I wasn't aware that a landlord could steal all your possessions from your house and it isn't a crime, its a civil matter.

We are discussing our options with our rental insurance provider tomorrow and hopefully will make some headway in this very sticky situation. Wish us luck.

Why I Buy Dice

I recently purchased another two sets of dice from a local game store. My logical side of my brain said no, but for some reason I couldn't resist. After my purchase, my logical brain analyzed why it could not override my spontaneous "wasteful" purchase.

Most likely I will roll a particular set of dice in an actual game less than 100 times before I die. Therefore there is not much utility in a purchase of a set of dice, if you already have several sets.

I have too many dice as it is. Filling two dice bags for my playing dice, and one dice bag for when I run games. My "DM" dice, that is, dice that do not roll very well. So it isn't a lack of dice that made me purchase these two sets.

Dice worn out? Nope. Don't like the colors of the current dice? Yes, I still like them. Current dice don't roll well? Yep, they roll just fine, if they don't they go into my DM bag.

As I sat there rolling the d20 (Always have to start with the D20, its the QB of dice) verifying randomness in a very unscientific way I traveled back in time.

I thought of my first D&D game where I taught myself to play, made characters, and ran a game against a party of me, myself and I in the Keep on the Borderlands. I remembered how the dice looked back then, and how now they look faded, chipped, worn down.

I glanced at my new D4 remembered how it used to actually be sharp, learning this first hand when I stepped on one and it made me bleed.

I remembered taking the books to school before I knew about the stereotypes of Devil worship, suicides, drug use, and social ineptitude. To me it was just a game, the greatest game on the planet.

I remembered when I ventured out into other role-playing games, Marvel Super Heroes, Car Wars, Shadowrun, Judge Dredd, DC Super Heroes, Champions, Cyberpunk, Traveller (for about 5 seconds), Ninjas and Superspies, Rifts and many more. Each time I would pick up a different sided dice, I would remember a different gaming system.

I thought to recent memories of the first time I tried D&D 3.0 after a decade plus hiatus. I remembered how much I enjoyed D&D and how much I loved the new edition. I remember the first time we confirmed a critical hit, thinking at the time you had to roll two consecitive 20s to do so.

As I looked at the D10s I thought about Jimmy blowing up Erik's character in Cyberpunk. And Erik's subsequent revenge.

When I looked at the percentile D10, I thought about the first time I ran a game where the players were "outdoors" in D&D. What a concept!

I thought about Beefcake, my ultimate tank superhero, using his shoe sent at a high velocity to knock out a fast moving superhero (Ie, flash).

I thought about Erik tackling two animated chairs at the same time, and the quote that would stick with him forever because of it.

I looked at the D6s and remembered Shadowrun and my trash talking coward hacker.

And most recetly, I thought about when I talked Seo's character into giving me a boost to grab a gun from a guard while I was in mid air, knowing I had to make 3 DC checks in a row to do so.

The openess of these games, and how enjoyable it is to both run and play them, all boils down to the dice. A string of luck, bad or good, can change everything in a game.

Dice are one of the important cornerstones to enjoying an RPG. They represent endless possibilities, catastrophic failures in TPK (Total Party Kills), and against the odds triumphs.

As I continued to roll my new dice, I realized that they represent a hope for new upcoming games. New experiences to forge with my friends and family.

I also realized that although these dice have not been used for any real games yet, their familar shapes provide a link to those dice used in the past.

Here's looking at you, Borealis Green and Phantom Orange, I look forward to crafting memories with you in the future.