Someone turned on the idiot magnet at work. There have been a long string of robberies in Anchorage recently One of which was a property that we manage. We have a NO CASH policy, but anybody that is not a customer would not no that. Hell, many long term customers have to be told repeatedly. As a deterrent we have a large brightly colored sign at the entrance to the building at eye level for most people. It says No cash accepted on premises”. I had 5 people just today come in and try to pay large rents with cash. Until this week we would get someone maybe 3 times a month. We explain that there is a large bright pink sign on the door. My favorite answer was “I didn’t think that meant me.”
Last Saturday I installed security cameras in the office. We have a monitor on the desk so people coming in can see that they are on camera. After tuning the settings so that it stopped recording the spider running across my desk I think I have it set up decently. So people came into the office and see the cameras, see the monitor, see themselves in the monitor, and all is well. They have been entertaining. One young lady even said, “is that me?”. This sweet old native woman came in, saw the cameras, “ooh, I can put on a show” did a little jig and I said “dance like no one’s watching.” To my surprise she said “why, you gonna put money down my pants?”
This week we discovered that our local paper has outsourced it’s circulation department overseas. Somehow we’ve been getting the paper everyday at our door, when we only want weekend (Just Sunday really) service. When I called a local number this morning (there is only an 888 number listed in the paper now) I got a girl with a bit of an accent, and the unmistakable hollowness of a cheap long distance call. I asked if she was local and she said yes. I asked her where she was and she said Malaysia. I said I’m in Anchorage Alaska, that’s not really local. “It’s not that far” “It’s over 4000 miles as the crow flies!” …”what’s a crowe?” “a large black bird that likes corn and trash” “They fly across the ocean? WOW!” “Um, no. no they don’t. Tell you what, I’ll go down to the circulation desk in person.”