Landlords

While we were busy moving out of our apartment in Shenzhen, it became apparent that our landlord was an idiot.

Months back Jia got the idea that we should pay the landlord rent from our deposit. We managed to convince him to use half the deposit, so we got out of one-month's rent. He seemed to also agree that he'd give back some of the other half after inspecting the apartment.

In the days running up to our departure the landlord decided he wouldn't give us anything back. Not only that, but he was demanding the keys to the apartment before we left. He went so far as to visit my mother-in-law and wife at 10pm the night before we were leaving to demand the keys. He was screaming up a storm as I entered with my friends who were going to take some of our stuff. Just to shut him up, we gave him one key and told him to get the rest after we left.

He left unhappy. He even tried to threaten my mother-in-law and wife by claiming that he's part of some dangerous gang in Shenzhen (takes a big man to intimidate two women). My comment was that I'm from New Jersey and I could probably get him fitted with some cement shoes. I also figured he was just being a blowhard since no one in an illegal gang would actually claim to be in one. I was tempted to call the cops on him--I'm sure they'd love to get a criminal off the streets.

Fortunately, we all departed from the apartment well before the idiot returned. My mother-in-law didn't even bother to stick around to see if he'd change his mind and return part of the deposit. I don't blame her for not wanting to deal with that scum.