I have the recipe(s) for making whoopie(s)...

Friday, October 4, 2013

When National News Hit Home

  
Blurb from the online Stamford Advocate that made me
Decide to ask around what is going on in my condo!

Here is the video

    So normally I write about: ways to reduce spending, vacations, my kitchen disasters or baking projects. All of a sudden my condo complex was not going to be the place I baked cookies as a thank you. Yeah I had planned to bake a giant cookie as a Thank You to one of my husband's friend who gave us a tour around Martha's Vineyard. So to my hubby's friend the cookies are coming next week!

  All of a sudden my condo complex turned into the Dakota! My condo is actually a very nice condo complex to the untrained eye with a gazebo and plenty of green space. Lately I have felt like we are never going to sell this place and like a Rosemary situation was happening! Now well I am not sure we can ever! I should have know when the NIGHT BEFORE my hubby and I were talking about selling the place. He said to me "you know the condos seems to be going up in price and it might not be a problem selling our place!" That is what sealed the deal! 

   We had problems with the previous tenants in 3B of my condo complex with section 8, drug dealing, prostitution and undesirables. At one time there was a revolving stint of people staying there under the same section 8 person who vacationed at another place and it was so weird it seemed to be a lifetime movie! Random men would loudly talk and slam the door to the condo door entrance from 10:00 pm until about 3:00 am! People kept thinking I was joking when I said there is someone smoking crack, selling drugs and turning tricks upstairs in my condo. 

     I had a running log of what happened in that apartment. I have listed them here:


*There have been other times but I have not written them done or they were erased when my computer broke/got the hard drive erased. You cannot call the police because of a slammed door but they are just loud as they come and go at all hours.

January 2010 and at least one other time in the fall/winter 2009: Tenant from 3B or a female is taken from 3B in a stretcher presuming for psychiatric helps since there were no sirens when the medics came to the condo. Tenant/female Patient appeared to be gone for a good stretch of time but is back in late March/early April 2010 after the January 2010 incident. 

In early April 2010: in the mid-morning a male hit all the buzzers to get in. I asked him kindly that since I did not know him not to hit my buzzer. He was nice about it and then went upstairs and the tenant/the male got in a screaming match. This is not an uncommon scene when this male visits Tenant 3B but normally she screams at him outside the window.

April 13th 2010: A woman was yelling at tenant 3B about pants. Not sure how they know each other or relation. Just a long argument about pants about 10 to 15 mins.

Friday, April 16th, 2010: the hours between 8:40 and 8:55 pm the tenant of 3B was screaming at the top of her lungs. The argument ended with "take you F---ing meds" and the other person arguing stomped down the stairs and slammed the door.  Sounded like the same woman on April 13th who was yelling at tenant 3B about pants.

April 20 2010: 7:30 am to 7:45 am Tenant of 3B screams out the window "Lisa, Lisa" with a shrill voice like she is being tortured. At first we were going to call the police because we thought that someone was attacking her. You could hear other people in the condo waking up or being disturbed. We hear her buzz in someone for 3 minutes (three minutes at 7:30 am!). Then the tenant of 3B runs down the stairs with a jingling sound and starts screaming. The tenant of 3B does not stop screaming with a shrill voice for 15 minutes! Someone outside the apartment questions the tenant of 3B and asks why the Tenant of 3B is screaming.  We could hear the tenant of 3B tell the mystery women to "shut up" and calls her a "bitch" in a stage whisper. Then the tenant of 3B thuds up the stairs again and screams that she probably sprained her ankle but yet she can thud up the stairs. Then we hear a slamming of the door and still can hear loud conversation but we have to get on with our day.

Fall 2009-Winter 2011: At least  once a week the woman tenant in 3B would take a commercial shopping cart upstairs (not a personal shopping cart but one from Party City or Stop and Shop) to 3B after midnight. The shopping card would thud on every stair and we would hear her complain in a shrill voice as she took the cart upstairs. Then around 3 am or 4 am would instead of lifting the cart downstairs quietly would just throw(or just let go of the cart at the top of the stairs) the carts down from 3rd floor to the front door . Then throw or just let go of the cart in the stair in front of the door to 104. She would leave her cart right in front of the door. They have been greatly disturbing us. Plus as policy of our condo it is frowned upon to steal a cart and the fine is $100.00 (?) Per cart.  This is not an occasional brought a shopping cart home, took out the items and then brought the shopping cart back. This woman appears not to live in 3B anymore.

Spring 2011: At some point after I returned from a midnight shift at 10:00 am from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm someone was banging and ringing the door to get in. We called manager to rectify it. Apparently the tenant in 3B had lost her keys so that is why she was kicking the front door, screaming and ringing all the door bells. This was done instead of calling a land lord.
Sometime during the week of August 18, 2011: Female tenant or guest of tenant demands to use our bathroom while waiting to get into 3B. My husband refuses knowing that the female wants more than to use our bathroom. He does not feel comfortable in even being asked. The tenant still tries to get him to let her in despite his refusal.

I have started to keep a better record starting June 9th 2012and since I have different hours at work I notice more disturbances. I used to work rotating hours/day both evenings and midnights and now I work days. I also have not been able to record all the dates or sometimes I have left in the middle of the night to sleep at my mother in law's.

June 9th/June 10th 2012: At 1:45-2:00 am man busted in and started screaming with blood in his voice "Bitch you better get up there" right outside my door.  (You see when you open the main access door it leads you to the steps and up the steps is my condo. It does not direct you to the people that live on the first floor). I text my husband to have him call the police and afraid that the man might hear me and retaliate. This man was also screaming other swears and nonsense. I call the police they arrive too late to catch the man. The door however is ruined and cannot be locked.
June 10th into Monday June 11th 2012: Sunday night into Monday morning at 2 am the police arrested a woman upstairs. Someone else had called the police for domestic violence and the woman punched the officer so she got arrested. It appeared in the Stamford Advocate.  - Name has been omitted 27, of 104 Woodside Green, Stamford, was charged Monday with interfering with police, third-degree assault and disorderly conduct.
http://www.greenwichtime.com/policereports/article/Police-blotter-3624532.php
This is not the first arrest on files she had been arrested elsewhere: Sept 17 2011 Name has been omitted, 26, 38 Bellmere Ave., Stamford, was arrested Saturday for disorderly conduct. Not sure if she actually lives  here? does she lives in many areas?  http://stamford.patch.com/articles/articles-first-degree-assault-criminal-trespass-sale-of-certain-illegal-drugs
June 11, 2012: Screaming man at 7:40 pm. He is hitting the door and kicking at it. A female clunks down the stairs to let them in and the argue in the stairwell. They go up to 3B. They proceed to go up and downstairs slamming the door repeatedly.  Later at 10:40 pm taxi drives up. Man is screaming out loud outside the door to 3B to let him in.  Screams for 3 mins and then slams door when he enters and goes upstairs then slams the door again to 3B.
June 12th 2012: At 4:15 am slamming of door of 3B. Arguments with a male and female  in the hall and slamming of the front door to 104. The a female and male argue outside of the door and get into a car that speeds off. It wakes my husband and I up.
June 13th 2012: A black car (black Chevy sedan styled car we could not get the license plate) appears @ 7:00 pm gentleman from 3B slams door to meet  the male in the car. 15 minutes later 10 people at different intervals (one rings all the door bells for 3 mins) with each one there is slamming of the front door and the 3B door. This continues even at until into the late evening past 9:00 pm with people coming and going at 10 minute intervals. We suspect that the black Chevy is the supplier and the gentleman in 3B is the dealer of drugs. The people that came over are the clients. For we have seen this car before and then have had the same results of flood of people coming in after this car has visited the condo.  The gentleman in the car never goes into the house and only stays for 15 minutes as the gentleman from 3B sits in the front seat of the car. 

    It was not just me being a timid white girl this really happened and I was terrorized. There were a couple of days when I never left the condo except to take my dog out. One day when my husband was at work and it was really bad I waited the 8 hours to take out my dog and waited to take my dog out with my husband (who has a permit to carry a firearm). It took us 3 years to get people that terrorized me at night out of the condo then a year later this happens. So when I saw the bomb squad and the News Helicopter was so loud over head. I had to get out!  The sounds of the above News Helicopter were so loud above my condo it was hard to ignore! 


News  Helicopter

  Then when looking at the news later with my husband he noticed one of the guys they interviewed. (I cannot find the news clip  with the man and also that would be libel if I posted the clip). The one guy that we saw on one of the channels is a creepy middle aged man that watches people in his car. In the winter this guy they interviewed runs shirtless in short, shorts and just gloves down at Cove, Island. What is it about the people that they always interview? Never is it a person on the news that the reports interview actually have something good to say. Either it is waving kids in the background, the crackhead, the person who always says 'but he/she was so quiet,' The family always says 'he/she was such a good boy/girl' and you get the person who just wants to go back home! These people the interview never add to the story. It was frustrating we had no information about what was going on in the unit. Our local news channel 12 which just does Fairfield, CT news had nothing about the event! So we were just without good information until Friday afternoon.

  I do say in the spirit of October and chilling stories the man who wrote Rosemary's Baby Ira Levin also wrote The Stepford Wives. Ira Levin wrote in the Fairfield County area as well. Stepford is known to be based in Fairfield County, CT perhaps Greenwich or Darien which are our neighboring towns. The fictional town of Stepford gets its name because it is the step from Stamford. It was a play on words just like Roman Castevets was an anagram of  Steven Marcato. Ira Levin was very playful with his words. There are actually a lot of famous people that live/lived here and a lot of books that were written in Stamford CT.

  I got an email from my brother just kidding about how since I moved to Stamford, CT how it has been cursed. Recently a couple days ago  there was a bully issue in StamfordBut I just saw on E! Fashion police and Joan Rivers talked about the woman who got her face ripped off by a chimp. That was a woman from Stamford, CT! There was a crazy incident where a Stamford man stabbed a man while he was getting a haircut. Last year a woman  house burned down with her kids and parent's were in it while she was out shopping.  Apparently there was a lesser know witch trials that took place in the city in 1692! Plus the Native Americans named originally named this area Rippowam so probably this place is built on an "Indian Burial Ground" alla Steven King if you want to go the scary it is October/Halloween is soon route. Also "Catcher in the Rye" was also written in Stamford, CT and the writer J.D Salinger was a bit off! This past year there a documentary on J.D. Salinger. So Stamford has its ghost stories and crazy stories. 

    Thursday I had falling asleep ten minutes due to the fact that I had over done it at the gym and I had low blood sugars. I woke up to the sounds of helicopters.  One of the helicopters was the news station helicopter and the other was from the FBI and it landed elsewhere. I had been watching Ellen so channel 4 was on and I hear on the new "The woman was identified from Stamford, CT." Then I saw the clips of woman in an infinity and something about Washington DC. It was pretty surreal. I was thinking to myself "wouldn't it be odd if she lived in my condo?" Then I heard sirens and I saw the FBI cars but I was in denial. Many times Obama has rode past our condo on his way to campaign. I figured after the situation in Washington,D.C they were getting him out of there. Not yet had their been any reports on the fact that this woman (at the time unidentified) Miriam Carey lived in my condo complex. In fact she lives 5 condo units down from me and she had lived by the mail boxes. 

  I felt like the woman that one time slow danced with a famed serial killer and lived to tell the story. The story of dancing with a serial killer could just an urban legend. Either way I had seen her! She was nothing out of the ordinary and three weeks ago I know I smiled at her little girl in passing. Which I remember feeling something odd like it was in slow motion while I was doing it! 

  So my husband was clamming with one of his friends during these events and his phone had a low battery. I decided that I had to evacuate. I originally was going to wait for my husband but I saw the traffic, the swarm of news reporter vans and after I saw our condo on the TV news. I was very nervous so I called people to see if they had any other news about the situation. I was upset that before 5:00 pm that our condo group was not answering phones. It was not until 7:00 pm that I got a phone call explaining what was going on in the Condo. The message said that everything was okay and we could stay but that was in fact wrong. 


Bomb Squad with robots
   I however decided to evacuate on my own when I saw the bomb cars. I did not know that they blocked off the driveway (at this point it was not roped off Bridge Street/Summer Street). Stamford Police was trying to see if I could leave in my car. I had to re-park my car because there was no room to pass through the FBI/Police/Bomb Squad official vehicles. They were kind about it and just doing their job. The Stamford Policeman thought it was wise I was trying to leave at that point and they were waiting for the FBI to get warrants to search the condo! He told me it could take a while but no one knew the exact time it would take or that we would have to evacuate. So with my dog Penny and a quick grab bag of: chargers, dog medication, kindle, iphone and a book off I went. I went through a sea of Policemen, Green Camo dressed FBI men and the traditional dressed in black FBI men. I have to say as a married woman those furloughed FBI men were quiet handsome! In fact I have to say the brought out the calendar men of FBI to help us with our situation. As I walked by in fear realizing that this is really happening. I started off thinking okay I have to get to my grandmother in law's. Penny started to flirt with the men in uniform because lets face it everyone loves men in uniforms. As I realized they are wearing bullet proof vest, protective helmets and I should have packed an overnight bag but there was no turning back. The bag was getting heavy and I started to rethink walking the  3+ miles to my grandmother in law's. 

  I had made arrangements with my grandmother in law but I was not able to leave in my car and Penny was too excited. So I actually went to the house of the friends that are close by and was the house of the person my husband was clamming with. It was nice to catch up with the wife and it made sense that my husband with a car would be meeting up there. My husband of course had no battery power left when I called him in a panic earlier around 5:00 pm. But it worked out and we were safe. After spending time with friends we tried to go back at 10:00 pm and that is when we talked to Stamford police after dodging 7! news vans and 2 news reporters. They told us that they had to evacuate the building and that the FBI took over. We then took my husband's truck and slept at my grandmother in laws. I could not sleep at all that night although I did try! Judd, my grandmother's dog, was so happy to see us and every hour on the hour he tried to snuggle with us on the bed! Then my grandmother would come in and shoo him away with a broom! So I am guessing poor Grandma did not sleep well either! We got to come home overly tired the next day on Friday at 9:00 am. 


Cops before the Bomb Squad and the FBI moved in


 It was scary there were Bomb Squad robots, bomb squads, Stamford Police and FBI! Later on the news I saw that Hazmat team was there as well!  A lot of them! And they were doing their job and some were on overtime/furlough! I would like to thank the FBI, Bomb Squad and the Stamford Cops who waited for a warrant to search . They were there to keep the peace and keep us safe! I hope all the furloughed cops etc get retroactively paid with a raise. To all those Congress people getting paid/donating. I saw last night about how some of the the Congress men/women are donating their money to charities. How about donating a fund for the cops that were injured and get a raise for all those that risked their lives yesterday!


  To the New Crews that parked by our friend's neighbor's house (one on a median and two blocking a house!) I just ask that you leave us alone. The news stations need to just get off our private property because they were trying to walk on our property and they are blocking traffic because they park where we walk our dogs! Miriam Carey is dead, the police and FBI  got their evidence and you heard what her former bosses said! Although I think that the former dentist should not have said anything about the woman to feed the News Vultures! Now let us who did not sleep last night and who want to pretend like everything is "normal" 

again! In other news Penny might be on TV or in the paper... So if you see her clip it or send it to me!

 
Penny in the leaves September 2013