When Death Came Knocking

Pretty sure I haven't mentioned this, but a couple of weeks ago, our upstairs neighbor got really upset with the weekend staff. We have a locked cover over our thermostat and he wanted the key to it(not because he wanted to change the temperature, but just because he had the "right to have the key") and staff wouldn't let him have it. So he gets really upset and we go over to try and calm him down, but since we are backing up our staff, he doesn't want us around. We come back to our side of the house and turn on our monitor so we can watch and make sure things don't get out of hand. We soon noticed that he has this huge stick (turns out to be a wooden closet rod) and is swinging it around. So, we head on back over. He hits the countertops several times and threatens to hit the weekend guy and to knock the cover off the thermostat. He doesn't (he waits until the next day when he is mad at us about something unrelated and knocked it off with his hand, but alas, that's another story).

Anyway, the next day we are trying to reason with him and he apologizes and we convince him to hand over the rod (since he clearly isn't using it to hang his clothes). He swears it is a part of his Halloween costume and doesn't want to give it up. After several questions about what kind of costume requires a closet rod, he makes up some story about dressing up as death and needing it. But he finally hands it over, with the stipulation that he gets it back Halloween night. We don't really agree to this, but he left thinking that was the deal.

So nothing is said any more about Halloween. He was gone all day to a local video game parlor (is it still called that?) and we don't think he will even be home. However, I stepped next door for a brief moment tonight and saw "death" standing there in his black hood and cape. I quickly exited back to my side. It wasn't too long before he began knocking. We knew he wanted the rod, so we decided that if we just pretended not to be home, he would get the clue and go away.

Boy were we ever wrong. He knocked, and knocked, and knocked. Then he walked around to our front door, and knocked and knocked, and rang the doorbell, and knocked some more. Lest you think I exaggerate, we began to time this. Around one hour later, the knocking stopped. I thought, "whew, he realized we are not here." Again I was wrong. He had borrowed another neighbor's phone to try to call us. When we didn't answer, the knocking began again. Then we hear him yelling, "Yoo hoo, yoo hoo, anyone home?" over and over again. This literally went on for an hour and a half. Crazy huh? But we just went on with our evening as usual.

Just a minute ago, I was checking my Facebook status updates and noticed a friend commenting that they hadn't had a single trick or treater tonight. I was telling Lowell that maybe trick or treating is dying down, because we hadn't had a single one either. And then the realization slapped us in the face, that maybe, just maybe, we didn't have any little ghosts or goblins because there was a six foot man dressed as death banging on our door and yelling "Yoo Hoo" at the top of his lungs.

Think THAT might deter a parent from letting their little ones come up our walk??? We have lots of candy if anybody needs some...