No, we are not kidding.
This is just getting too bizarre.
And, this kind of incident is becoming too common to be comical, anymore.
The window in question, which was accidentally broken by falling debris during installation of the house guttering on Wednesday, July 21, 2010, is an old-style, exterior storm window, which can ONLY be replaced from the outside.
On the day the damage occurred (at 8:09 pm that evening, to be precise), this situation was calmly explained to the landlords -- via a private blog kept by Marie and her friends to communicate and log the upkeep of the manor house.
The landlords and their eldest daughter arrived the next morning (Thursday), inspected the damaged window and the newly-installed guttering, left a rather nasty letter, and departed in the heavily-laden van, apparently returning to California, after a tortuous month (plus) of renovations on the manor house.
However, this past Friday, August 6, Marie received a letter, dated August 3, from the landlord, Art Martinez, listing four "choices" for repairing the window.
The "choices" are given below (quoted exactly from the letter):
1. Have the police break in (at your expense.)The company has already plainly acknowledged responsibility for the broken window!
2. We call and get help from the local church.
3. Have Randy drive down and pick the lock (at your expense, of course) That's two trips, one to measure and one to install. He charges $40 per hour, plus gas expense.
4. Someone we know in K. C. has a key. He charges same as Randy.
They have made arrangements to replace the single-pane window -- from the outside -- this week.
Remember: no one, including the window company, has ever requested (and certainly was not denied) interior access to repair the exterior storm window.
The four "choices" presented in the August 3 letter were the first communication Marie had concerning the window -- although, as stated, she had already reported the incident in detail (including the exact time and nature of the damage) in the private Manor House blog.
That second "choice" of the four (We call and get help from the local church.) wouldn't be suspiciously manipulative or anything, would it? (Apparently, this refers to the First Baptist Church of Bolivar, the church of former Southwest Baptist University CEO/President, Congressman Roy Blunt, who is currently running for the United States Senate. The landlords are Southern Baptists and current members of Saddleback Church, the largest Southern Baptist Church in the United States, where Rick Warren pastors.)
Just to emphasize the menacing nature of the threat, her landlord added a post script:
P. S.: The window may be in by the time you receive this info. Please note [word underlined]: Without communication, in an emergency, the means of entry is our choice.
It is hard to classify this as a simple misunderstanding; clearly, this is intentional and malicious harassment.
But why?
Simple meanness, or something more calculated, and potentially more ominous ... or dangerous.
We will be updating the situation on a regular basis over the next several weeks.
