Sign of the Times

Yesterday, as Audrey and I were showing property to a client, my cell phone rang. Normally, I don't answer my cell phone when I'm with a client, but this was different. The caller and the client to whom we were currently showing property know each other. I said, "Hey, it's Jason. I wonder why he's calling."

Jason is a friend and a client. He purchased a lovely home in a nice pocket of North Hollywood. As soon as Jason started talking, it was clear he was not in as jovial a mood as the rest of us. He seemed a little anxious, so I knew something was wrong. He had an issue and he wasn't sure what to do about it, so he decided to call me, a local friend and his real estate agent. There was a beat up designer gym bag on his front stoop when he went out to get the mail that day. My first thought was if he felt comfortable opening it, he would have done so already and not called me. I said, "Call the police."

Jason seemed a little shocked by my immediate and direct advice. I told him not to call 911 or anything like that. Instead, I advised him to look in his yellow pages and call his local police station. I figured he could ask them for advice on what to do. I then asked him to keep me posted. Well, the police came, called the bomb squad, and evacuated some houses around the neighborhood. You can read Jason's account of events on his blog.


I got the sense that Jason felt a little silly about all the hoopla he caused, especially since it turned out there was no nefarious intent and the bag was probably dumped by a transient. It's important to note the police called the bomb squad after coming out and determining they did not want to attempt to open the bag themselves. If the police wouldn't touch the bag, it's a good thing Jason didn't either.

All in all, it was a exciting AND productive day yesterday. In addition to Jason's bomb squad adventure, we also wrote an offer (which looks quite promising) for our client.

UPDATE: It turns out the bag had some shoes in it that were dropped off at the wrong address by a shoe repair person. A man knocked on Jason's door late the next evening looking for the bag. Jason, who was still a little shaken up by the previous day's events, initially told him that he had not seen a bag. When the the man insisted, Jason said he would look to see if his gardeners had thrown it out. The shoes were retrieved from the trash and returned to the shoe repair guy.