Coming to California was somewhat of a surprise for us. We saw the job online, liked what we saw and were submitted. It being a crisis assignment, we were quickly accepted and were on our way to Modesto and Manteca.
Once we had the job, we started looking at housing. Almost everything we found was almost $2,000 or more a month. After finding a great place on Airbnb, the landlord told us that it would not be available until 12 days after we start, but she has another place we could stay until then.
Then we arrived in Patterson, CA. The people we lived with were very friendly and welcomed us, but it was not the most ideal housing.
Each of us had a 30-40 minute drive to work.
We did not have Wi-Fi, laundry, or a kitchen. Our 'kitchen' consisted of a mini fridge, microwave, and coffee maker.
There were at least 15 people living at this property. Most of which were very friendly, but there was not much of privacy. The shades hardly blocked anything and the wall connecting us with the main house was thin and anything we said or did could easily be heard.
3 days before we were supposed to move to our Airbnb, our landlord said that we were unable to move in because the current tenant is unable to move out. After messaging back and forth, she said we could move into a property in Modesto that she is working on to sell.
We arrived and found ourselves located 2 blocks from the homeless shelter and on a very busy street. Our landlord told us, "Don't go on the other side of the street, only go this way". We later learned we had mice everywhere, the shower does not drain, and the trains and police sirens are our constant noise while sleeping or doing anything for that matter. All these things turned out to be the least of our worries.
The property is a house with a connected apartment. Our landlord told us they are moving out the following week after their 90 day notice since the landlord wants to sell the property. After moving in our stuff, someone knocked on our front door. Aaron answered and the gentleman said, "Did you just move in?". Aaron said, "Yes". He said, "What's your name?". Aaron said, "Aaron". The man then walked away and we learned that he was the son of the woman living in the apartment, let's call him Chuck.
We woke up one day to music playing outside. Out our bedroom window, we saw Chuck dancing and headbanging to rap music at 7:30am and it continued for 2 hours. We messaged our landlord and she said, "I'm sorry, they will be moving out soon". She also informed us that she and Chuck had an issue about a month ago where he kicked in the laundry door, but otherwise she hasn't had any issues. She installed a camera after the incident just to be safe.
The following week, Aaron and I went to the park to go for a walk. We drove his truck and when we got back to it we noticed this:
Aaron was upset of course, but said he doubted the police could figure it out since there were no cameras near by. We asked our landlord to check the tapes from the camera she installed.
The next day we headed to Muir Woods National Monument. If you read that post, you know there was an event that lead us to leave early. After setting up our camp, we headed into Muir Woods where there is absolutely no cell service. We had so much fun exploring the Redwoods and were so excited to explore more, until we got out of the valley and received a messaged from our landlord saying, "911".
Aaron called her and I could hear some of the conversation. The police were called to the property because a neighboring house noticed a man hitting a vehicle with a bat. The man was Chuck and the vehicle was my truck sitting in the driveway...
Following this, the police officer got on the phone to ask me questions and so on. He informed me that due to covid and that he did not attack a person, he may not have to stay in jail. The police officer said he will do the best he can since this isn't the first time he has done something like this. Not only did he kick in the laundry door about a month ago, but his mother called the cops on him that morning because she was afraid of him.
We then made a quick decision to go back to Modesto where we were able to see the damage ourselves.
While looking over my truck, Aaron found the missing piece to his truck in the driveway, indicating to us this probably was also Chuck. So we called the police officer to come back to report this as well. Unfortunately, our landlord did not have the camera hooked up so we do not have proof, but we are pretty sure it was him. The police officer said to us, "This really is not a bad area. You just got stuck with a bad neighbor".
In the end, Chuck was charged with 5 months in prison, 3 years probation and a 3 year restraining order on us, the property, and our landlord. Our landlord believes that he felt they were kicking his family out next door, though she gave them plenty of notice and did everything she could to find them a new place to live.
Aaron's truck was roughly $250 to be fixed and was done in a day. My truck had $5,000 worth of damage and had to be in the shop for 2 weeks. Our landlord paid my deductible, Aaron's damage, and helped me pay for my rental car since it was not covered. All in all, I am so glad we were not home when this happened. It is a blessing we were not. Who knows what he would have done if we walked outside.
If you saw my post from San Francisco, you know that Aaron's truck was broken into while we were there.
That happened less than a week later.
Following all this, we considered moving and or canceling our assignment. We decided to stay for a few reasons, one of them being there were not many jobs available at that time. It was pretty terrifying to feel that everything you own is at risk of being damaged or stolen. Not to mention we both are thousands of miles from home so the belongings we have are all we have to live with. There were a few sleepless nights from fear, and our landlord installed a new camera which helped us feel safer.
In the end, we both are very lucky to have each other and be in good health. I hope none of this ever happens again and we definitely learned a lot from all this. So for anyone traveling, always remember to find safe places to live and hide all of your belongings.
"Welcome to California"
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