The Kirby Invasions Part 1

“DON’T LET THEM IN THE BUILDING”

How about if they’re not a familiar employee, lacking proper indentification and are acting erratic after business hours?

This flyer was installed many times by Kirby Manor staff and many times it was removed by people engaged in illegal activities, so seniors would let them in the building.

Just recently we were again reminded not to let anyone in the building that we don’t know lives here. I must assume that that also goes for apartments, not just the main doors of the building.

How about if the man at my apartment door says he’s from maintenance, yet refuses to give his name, and I’ve never seen him before?

How about the absence of identifying name tag with National Church Residences on it?

How about if he’s also slurring his speech, holding a phone way back so I can’t read the message, claiming there’s an emergency?

Yet this man never asks to come in. It seems he was sent by the National Church Residences office via Kirby Manor office to explain why he entered our apartment a few days prior without notice – with a service dog home alone and when we returned she was beside herself with anxiety, running, jumping back and forth, stopping abruptly each time to turn and run to her bed under the dining table – and was limping – chattering up a storm. She didn’t want to go for a walk outside, which she loves to do.

How about that he shows up after business hours in the dark of the evening, when we didn’t call him?

Why would National Church Residences at Kirby Manor tell him to approach us in that way – unless it was meant to intimidate us?

This is a senior residence under the auspices of National Church Residences that instructs their employees NOT to identify themselves when approaching seniors and while demanding entry into their apartment, even when it’s evening, after business hours, when there was no emergency, so they can’t be reported by name.

If the tenant doesn’t know their name, then the tenant can’t report them. Where’s the proof?

Many employees have been fired for stealing, and many employees enter apartments at will, then when someone complains they’re always told the same thing, “you can’t prove that”, or “you must be senile”. There has been a mass exodus of tenants based on violations of their civil and privacy rights, which were not remedied.

I, personally, have been told over the fourteen years I’ve lived here, always with a service dog, that leasing agents and maintenance can enter any time they want to enter. No notice has to be given. Yet in the lease it states otherwise, that a 24 hour notice is required. We have always been here when we were noticed, even if one of us had to cancel a doctor appointment.

If there is a real emergency, it is the responsibility of the leasing agent to call the police or fire responder units. Yet, they did not. No leasing agent has ever entered a unit on fire or under siege by terrorists or local shooters. They call 911.

How many leasing agents helped in the installation of these devices if it was such an immediate emergency?

The lease states that National Church Residences is not responsible for what leasing agents say. Then who is responsible? No one? The fact that they immediately went into damage control on behalf of the leasing agents and maintenance staff supporting their right to enter without notice, thereby breaking the lease, demonstrates that they, National Church Residences were responsible, otherwise why come up with this exigent circumstance reason after the fact and why after the fact didn’t they explain via a notice to all tenants who received the device?

What kind of people think that they have so much power over seniors that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want? Dictators. Who gives them that authority? Other dictators. They act like they are everybody’s power of attorney and habitually violate banking rules by forcing them to sign papers giving them access to their bank accounts – or they have three months to vacate – always ending with a threat.

Seniors don’t deserve this – neither does anybody deserve this in a so-called free country. Being in affordable housing does not give leasing agents the right to know who has life insurance, the name of the company and the amount of insurance.

Too many seniors have died under suspicious circumstances, but because they’re seniors nothing ever gets reported as suspicious. The police turn the other way, acting as the ‘cheek’ on behalf of all seniors. What right have they? One must wonder how many insurance policies were taken out on seniors by staff members who collected after their deaths and who facilitated these deaths – a different kind of serial killer perhaps.

So a dog, especially in a predominantly black African neighborhood, would not be considered as having any rights. Everybody who lives here knows what black people do to dogs. I learned a lot while living in Cleveland about black people and dogs in particular.

Being a service dog means nothing to them. They’re a nuisance regardless. Why should dogs have rights? I’ve heard that “dumb animal, dumb dog” talk a lot in the last fourteen years. I’ve also been questioned on many occasions regarding Lilly Belle’s worth – “must be a valuable dog, what breed is she?” “How much did you pay for that dog?” One African female once said of Rose, our previous service dog, in the elevator, “you better be a good girl, you don’t know what we do to bad dogs”. A now-past manager was also on the elevator and immediately said, “no, no, Rose is a good dog; she’s a good dog. The woman then replied, “she better be”. That woman still lives here; that manager is long gone. One black woman told Steve, who told her what happened to Lilly Belle when a guy we didn’t know entered without telling us, “he probably kicked her”. She knew something happened; black people know black people.

We reported to the National Church Residences Helpline that someone, we didn’t know who, entered our apartment without prior notice when we were not home while our service dog was home alone, to install an anti-incendiary device, under the hood of the stove without our knowledge. We also explained Lilly’s behavior.

Instead of addressing the WHY, they went into damage control and made up this story that they waived everybody’s right to prior notice before entering to install these devices that had been sitting in their supply room for a long time based on ‘exigent’ circumstances. After the fact, after we complained, NCR came up with a legal theory of WHY. This is the meaning of the word exigent, which only lawyers use, by the way.

What does it mean to be exigent?
requiring immediate aid or action
exigent \EK-suh-junt\ adjective. 1 : requiring immediate aid or action. 2 : requiring or calling for much : demanding. Examples: The patients were triaged so that exigent cases would be given immediate care.

The man at the door said Kirby Manor did not tell him to install them, someone else did, then said no, no, he did it on his own to make everybody safe. “EVERYBODY” as he spread his long arms wide over the whole building. He could hardly talk, flailing his arms, making noises instead of words. “I WANT EVERYBODY SAFE. What was I to conclude except that he acted on his own with a bunch of devices he found in “SUPPLY”.

I told him that our service dog is protected by Federal law and that when we came home she was upset and limping. I asked him what happened. He slumped forward in resignation, then raised up his arms and body, and while pointing and reaching toward the bedroom she was in that day, said no, no, nothing like that happened. Then he started groaning and making exaggerated facial expressions, bending over and miming something.

He is a large man.

Our service dog, while he was going through all these antics was standing right behind us, not moving. Usually when we talk to people at the door, she runs up to them waging her tail, and we have to take her to the bedroom, because she’s that friendly.

That day when we came home and she was beside herself, she didn’t want to go for a walk like she usually does; she kept motioning for us to go under the dining table where she has a bed that she lays sometimes. It’s also a safe place where she could hide and no one could see her.

When installations of any type are mandated by the government, then proper notice needs to be given, especially since there are 140 apartments, and especially because it was not an emergency.

Where was the office when these were installed? Not working that day? Later they said it took two days to complete.

In the past, they sent notices when something this major was being done. Even now, days later, there has been no notice sent out explaining why they did what they did and equally importantly, what to do when this device. It says clearly on the unit to read instructions carefully before installing, which also would mean how to treat the device and what to do when it goes off. What are the hazards? Nobody knows. The office still remains silent.

We didn’t know at the time when Lilly was acting strange that day, that anyone had entered our apartment. It wasn’t till a couple days later, when I went to turn the stove light on before we left to go for an early supper at a restaurant across the street on St. Patrick’s day that I saw this disk device with a fuse on it, hanging by a metal pin with a magnet attached to it under the hood of my stove.

What would you have done?

Let it slide? That’s what every other tenant did, except us, because we were not at home and our Service Dog Lilly Belle was home alone. We have never asked anybody to make an exception for us – no matter how inconvenient, one of us would always be there when given 24 hour notice.

That tells you something, when no one complains about their privacy rights and their lease being broken willy nilly by management for their convenience only.

Installing 140 of these units was not an emergency.

How could not one person from 140 units at Kirby Manor stand up against and resist senior oppression, except us?

What does that tell you?

A BOMB is what I immediately thought. Although on closer examination I saw that it was an anti-incendiary device, at first glance I thought it was an incendiary device – that then took me back to Waco Texas. Branch Davidian. Janet Reno.

I know I didn’t put it there. I know Steve didn’t put it there.

WHO put it there and WHY?

Like Dominick, the manager who originally rented to us, said, “there are two types of people at Kirby Manor – microwaves and toaster ovens”.

Most people don’t use their stoves, because they’re electric and electricity is too expensive. For the same reason they don’t use their heat or their air conditioning – because they’re electric and they’re too expensive.

How many people still deep-fry? How many seniors in senior residences still deep fry?

Although the print on the can is enlarged here, it’s actually hard to read. I have magnifying glasses and still had to use a hand-held magnifyer, plus the silver on black was not a good color contrast. It’s barely noticeable. My nagging questions are 1- who provided these devices, and 2- how long did they set in the supply room and 3- who delivered them?

I have a recommended course of action, but I don’t want to make that public.