Wannabe Guard

Much to my surprise, we have a wannabe guard in residence here. Needing to take the dog out rather late one night, I was surprised by what I saw once I had walked down the three flights of stairs to the ground floor – so surprised in fact that I walked back up those stairs in order to retrieve my camera, then back down, so that I could take photographs before proceeding any further.

There was one rope tied to the door at the bottom of the stairs which ran the entire length of the hallway, securely attached to the main exit. Another rope was attached to the railing across from the door at the bottom of the stairs, also running the entire length of the hallway and also attached to the main exit. There was no signage along the hallway, nor along the ropes, to alert residents that their ability to pass through our hallways was obstructed, and there was no sign to warn us that our main exit was securely tied shut.Earlier in the week, I had discovered that this same door had been barricaded shut. Our wannabe guard was sitting in the lobby that night, as if on duty, and had placed two large boards, and a chair, in front of the main exit as a barricade and forbid my exit through that door. Yet another night, I found our wannabe guard sitting there, once again guarding our exit - this time, he had set the doorstop at the bottom of the door in such a position that it restricted the door from opening. He did come to my assistance and released the doorstop for me that night so that I could at least exit the building.

Our wannabe guard is getting old - most likely well into his eighties. I suspect perhaps a touch of dementia creeping in. In his mind, he sincerely feels that he is protecting his neighbors from the possibility of "bad guys" sneaking into our building in the middle of the night. He really does think he is doing us all a great service! Yet he is actually doing quite the opposite and endangering our lives as our emergency exits and hallways are blocked. Perhaps it is time for him to move on to one of those other "homes" where he could receive adequate supervision.

Neighbors have complained, I have complained, to our powers-that-be about this wannabe guard and his nightly shenanigans - yet he persists. This time, however, I put my concerns in writing and sent them off to those powers-that-be. Sent them off, in fact, with a nice selection of big, glossy photographs!
Let's see if a picture really does say a thousand words - these pictures, perhaps a million! If our powers-that-be do not resolve this issue, it will be the Channel 5 news that I contact next.

Don't worry, as our wannabe guard was not standing guard the night that I discovered those ropes running throughout our hallways, I tugged and pulled, tugged and pulled with all my might, taking it upon myself to remove those ropes from our exit so that my dog and I could finally step outside . . .