Breaking and Entering - Part I

Our building manager was fired yesterday. Apparently the firing did not go well, all sorts of yelling, pleading, etc. The building owner stuck to her guns, reclaimed his keys, key fobs, etc., and told him he had 30 days to vacate his loft. I know this because I'm good friends with the weekend leasing agent, who will now be taking over the manager position. It's a bummer situation, as the fired manager is a very nice guy, he just wasn't doing his job.

Neither the building owner or my friend expected trouble.

They've got trouble.

SO...I'm up at 4:45 a.m., as usual, to walk Oliver. When I get out of the elevator on the first floor of the building, I see that the office door is open, the light is on, and I hear noises coming from inside the office.

Then I see the fired office manager's dog peek it's head out the office door. What's he doing there?

I proceed to walk through the lobby and as I'm going out the front door, I look back and see the fired office manager peeking his head out the office door.

Not good. WTF is he doing in the office at 4:45 a.m.? Trouble.

After I get back into my loft, I sent a text my friend, the new manager, to let her know that the fired office manager was in the office. She calls me back a few minutes later, and tells me that she heard/saw fired manager's car leaving the parking lot.

Couple scenarios here...

1. Fired office manager took building keys, unit keys, etc., and is getting copies made.

2. Fired office manager took personnel files and is having copies made.

3. Fired office manager is generally up to no good.

My friend calls the owner, gets VM. So, my friend is headed down to the office to see what's missing. She said she might gather all of the unit and building keys, extra fobs, etc, and bring them back to her loft with her until the owner can deal properly with this situation.

Just heard back from my friend. She already had all unoccupied unit keys in her possession, including some others (mine, hers, a few more). She checked out the office, everything seems in order. She didn't bother to take any of the remaining keys, but said that she'll go down every hour to check out the situation until the owner calls her back.

The definition of trespass: An unlawful intrusion that interferes with one's person or property.

Kind of a sticky situation. Probably the quickest way to resolve the situation would be to change the locks on the office and maintenance door, and recode all resident key fobs. As for the fired office manager, do you expidite his removal from the property? Call the police and press charges?

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I expect some drama, in light of the fired office manager showing his true colors. Hopefully not too much.