So Allison wrote about revenge and doing things not-quite-legal to get it.  She also mentioned apartment complex revenge, and it reminded me of a story.  I was going to type it in an email to her, but then I decided to type it here, since I never do anymore.

A few years ago, I moved to a very nice and very expensive apartment complex in Houston.  The manager acted like I was lucky they were letting the likes of me live there... you know the Upscale Apartment Manager Attitude... but let me move in, they did.  I even rented a covered parking space near my apartment, and was given a 4 cent "parking permit" to hang on my rearview mirror.  I also filled out a card that had the make, model and license plate information on it.

By now, you probably know what happened.  I woke up, and went out to my car, right to my parking space which was... empty.

A call to the office confirmed that my car had been towed the night before.  The driver didn't feel that he was in the wrong, because I didn't have the four cent "parking permit" on the car, and they were sorry, but that's just how it is... go pay 112 dollars, and you can have your car back.

The asked if they had my information on file that I'd given them, you know, the make, model and license info about my car?  And they said they had, and the tow truck driver had it, but since I didn't have the stupid piece of cardboard hanging on my car, it was towed.  I have never been so mad, and revenge was called for.

Once I got my car back, I took a good look at the permit, and it said on the back, "For reorders, please call..." so I did.

I then took the 500 parking permits I had, and used my rock 'em, sock 'em Xerox doctoring skills (honed on many, many Junior High progress reports) to make a fake letter, on letterhead and with Bitchy Upscale Apartment Manager's signature on it, that said "Congratulations, for paying your rent on time, you have won one months worth of covered parking in ANY space.  Just make sure you have this "parking permit" in place."

In the still of the night, I put these letters on every door of the apartment complex, and then left town for a week.  When I got back, there was a memo on my door: "Please be advised that we are no longer using parking permits.  You will have to register your car with the office if you wish to park in your covered space."

I know they knew I did it, but there was no real proof, and I didn't do anything that caused any damage, or at least not more than 112 dollars worth.  They were always very nice to me after that... perhaps deep down inside, they thought it was funny.  I'd like to think so.

Brilliant! I'll have to remember that one! Heh heh... ;-)

You might be my hero.

Where are you? You have been MIA too damn long.