New horizons ahead(hopefully)

I don't post very often here, but maybe some of you guys remember how I've posted about how I keep my scrap in a spare room the super next door lets me use in exchange for me keeping the basement relatively clean, helping out with the garbage, tenants moving out, etc. I've had this agreement with him since I started scrapping( for about 2 years now I think) and I had become pretty good friends with the super and often watched the building for him and took over his job when he was away on vacation and once when he was in the hospital. One day someone broke the lock on my door where I keep my stuff and stole one of my wagons, I figured it was either someone in the building(there's more then a few tenants who aren't all there) or some lowlife who broke in from outside. A few months later I was loading stuff up to go to the yard and he came downstairs telling me I couldn't put stuff in the room anymore because the fire marshall came and gave him a month to clear out all the metal because it was a fire hazard. Later in the day he took it back and said I could still keep stuff in there and apologized, and said as long as I keep the room relatively clear so it would pass inspection when they come back next month it would be all right. I thought the story was odd(metal doesn't burn and there's piles of construction debris in the basement that the fire marshall somehow missed yet they complained about the metal) but I had no reason to doubt him so I just started taking stuff to the yard more often.



Well a month passed, the fire marshall never came and he seemed to forget about the whole ordeal. I was starting to get suspicious at this point. That's when I startes noticing tools missing, things being re arranged and messed up. He regularly started complaining that I was keeping too much stuff in there, but later apologized and claimed that he was only complaining because the landlord didn't want the stuff there but they had a talk and now he's ok with me being there. Long story short things started getting worse, he started begging for money constantly, making up outrageous stories, claimed my mom cursed him out in the street, and after some digging I found out he's done this to many people, he lets people store stuff there "out of the kindness of my heart cause I'm a nice guy" and then passive aggressively does stuff like this in the hopes that you'll pay him rent for the room. The home theater installation guys that I work on/off for who also keep stuff in a room down there have had the same problems with him, he stole 3 ladders from them and then told them I stole them and scrapped them(they didn't believe him and he also told me that they were the ones stealing my tools). I was getting ready to go to the yard when 2 guys walked into my room and started looking around and then went to the super and complained to him that there was too much stuff in there, the room was too humid, had no windows, etc I knew what was going on but I asked the super anyway and he told me that they might be renting out the room, I've been there for long enough and he wasnt gonna tell me anything yet cause he didn't want to "hurt my feelings" but that it's just "all about money, everythings always about money". I brought all my shred and heavy steel in today(3,020 lbs!) and I'm going to clear everything of mine out of there tomorrow and start looking for a truck. I've only been there so long because storage space is expensive around here and so is car insurance but it's time for me to move on.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. At least it sounds like you got most of your materials out of there and cashed out. I think its always better to have as much control over a person's own situation as possible. I wish you well in your search for better and more reliable storage conditons.

wow that blows but even if you live out of a truck its still something more so good luck and hope to soon hear from your new place

Thanks for the support guys. Today I got all my non ferrous out as well as some stray bits of steel I still had there, and I ended up picking up 3 metal chairs and a car door on the way to the yard. About the only thing I have left is a portable AC which I'll break down and then that'll be it. I'm getting all my tools, hand trucks, etc out of there, certainly not gonna leave anything behind. There's sort of a sense of loss I'm feeling because that room served me very well and the work I did for the building in exchange for the space was well worth it. I had these baskets that stacked on top of each other I used to store material(Dirty aluminum on top, clean aluminum in the middle and stainless on the bottom) felt sad today cause I have nowhere to store them and had to scrap them, I've had those since I starts scrapping but at least they were starting to get heavily rusted so it wasn't too much of a waste. On the other hand I'm glad to not have to put up with this guys insane stories and gossip anymore and his constant begging for money.