As some of you know, my fiance and I own and live in an appartment building in one of San Diego's inner city neighborhoods. It is the cities most ethnically diverse area and has some interesting human drama.
Our building, along with two single family houses, is isolated on the edge of a canyon. I and the two neighboring families maintain our section of the street. Keeping the right of way mowed, free of trash, grafitte, and hookers. Two years ago, while picking up trash, I found a gang member shot to death. Because of the nature of our area, we and both the nieghboring houses have watch dogs. They let us know when strangers are around.
Occasionaly someone will mine the trash cans for refundable beverage containers. I'm all for recycling and have a separate container just for recycling. While I normally return these myself and pocket the small change for my efforts, I don't begrudge those less fortunate than myself access to the trash cans provided they don't make a mess. I've even encouraged one elderly man to take the collected refundables in the past.
Lately an older woman has been making the rounds. The first time the dogs brought her to my attention, she came right after trash pick up and left after finding the cans empty. A few days later, I was alerted to her presence and I watched her from a distance as she made a mess including taking the tops off the plastic bottles and throwing them on the ground. The next time she returned, I confronted her and simply stated that she made a mess on her last visit. This she denied, stating that she had been there before but made no mess.
I took a plastic bottle from her bag and pointed out that it had no top and last time she threw caps on the ground. If she would have fessed up to her previous actions and merely indicated that she would be more careful in the future, I would have invited her to pick away. Guess what, rather than admit her past actions, she again stated that she made no mess AND stated that she wasn't lying BECAUSE SHE WAS A CHRISTIAN. I lost it and could only shout that I had seen her with my own eyes. I guess she decided I'd believe them over her resort to a religious lie and left before I went beserk. Lying religion, created by liars for liars. Got any in your hood?