Hoggle Wants His Keys Back

We've had another run-in with one of the "locals" here. You know, we're just trying to bide our time here; trying to get along, minding our own business for the rest of our days in England.

WHY DO THEY HAVE TO KEEP BOTHERING US?

The neighbor directly across from us on our landing is now on our shit list (and we're probably on his). This kind of came out of the blue. It started about half a year ago when we discovered that, unbeknownst to us, this gentleman had a set of keys to the flat we're renting. At the time, it was fortunate because the lady that we had given a spare set to (at the request of the building "management") was not home and I was locked out. I rang his doorbell on the off-chance that he might have a key. Well, as I said, he did. Hurrah, saved the day. It wasn't until later when I told K -- and her ensuing reaction was one of discomfort -- that I realised that this was indeed a bit strange, but we left it.

Then at some point, when we were away on vacation (I think it was when we were last in Florida) he entered our flat without our permission. We have a bi-weekly delivery of fresh eggs that I had forgotten to cancel before leaving, so our nosy neighbor decided that he needed to go in our flat to put the eggs in our refrigerator. He obviously didn't think of just putting them in his own fridge and then giving them to us when we got back. No, he had to go in. And there was another time when he went in with a package that had been delivered. That wasn't even a time when we were on vacation. It was just during a weekend when we happened to be out for the day. Is it just us or is that just a tiny bit unacceptable?

Cut to several months ago when K had a bit of a "moment" with the tenant below us (I think I mentioned it here, but basically, it was obvious that our actions were being monitored). K got increasingly annoyed and channeled that into reclaiming our keys from the neighbor across the landing in an effort to reclaim a bit more control over our lives in this building.

Cut to yesterday when I was about to go to my martial arts class. This neighbor (who looks a bit like Hoggle from the 80's film Labyrinth, see pic above) was down by the garages and waved for me to stop as I was driving out. He related this story of how we had "borrowed" the keys a while back and asked that we return them to him because "by regulations" someone has to hold a set of keys to the flat in case of emergencies. He added "I only went into your flat that once to put the eggs in your fridge when you were away." Um... yeah... anyway... I explained that we had given a key to the lady below us. Well, he still wanted those keys back I said, "Yeah, OK" and drove off with the intention of "forgetting" to bring them to him.

Well, that didn't put him off because this morning he rang the doorbell. K answered. He basically demanded the keys back and K explained the whole thing again. He said it was in the regulations that he kept a set of keys for our flat and he had been given those keys by the landlord (not true). He persisted. Eventually K let her ire bubble to the surface, "OK, you know what, Tony? You can take the keys back. HERE. But don't you EVER come into our apartment again." He said, "Don't take that tone with me young lady. That's rude." Then he went through the whole thing about the eggs again. K said, "You could have taken them to your flat." Well, he didn't think of that at the time. It kind of devolved from there and eventually he trudged back to his flat and we kind of slammed the door at each other.

So, I immediately sent an email to our rental agent that manages this apartment explaining this whole situation and asking that they contact our landlord to ask who HE would like to hold the spare set of keys. Now we just wait to hear back from them.

Let's see what happens next!