Party In the Shower
A Day In The Life...
We had a cranky retired lady, Mrs. Jones, who’d leased an apartment directly above our one-bedroom model unit. She rarely left her abode and made it her business to keep up with the comings and goings of her surrounding neighbors.
Mrs. Jones also constantly submitted work orders and filed numerous noise complaints. Suffice it to say, she kept us on our toes. We decided to use her as part of our plot to pull the ultimate prank on our friend and maintenance man, Jimmy.
Here’s How It Went Down...
We contacted Jimmy and told him that Mrs. Jones had just called the office and reported people were making a lot of noise in our model. We told Jimmy that he needed to go over there right away and check things out.
Arriving at the model, Jimmy saw the front door was ajar, so he cautiously stepped inside. He was met with an alarming sight: there were clothes—shirts, jeans, underwear— strewn across the floor and down the hallway. An open bottle of champagne with some half-filled glasses sat on the coffee table in the living room. In the bedroom, the comforter and sheets were tousled.
When he approached the bathroom, Jimmy could hear the shower running as well as several loud voices—male and female, laughing and carrying on in the bathroom.
Totally Trysted
Wanting to stay in the area, Jimmy exited the model and excitedly called the office from just outside the front door.
“Get over here quick!” he shouted into the phone. “There are people in the model and they’re all in the shower together! It sounds like there’s at least three of them in there!”
I told him to stay put and me and the rest of our crew locked up the leasing office and hurried over to assist with the situation, laughing that our prank was going off as planned.
Jimmy could hardly wait for us to follow him into the model. “You guys are not going to believe this!” he told us as he pointed out the discarded clothing along the floor along with the messy bedding. He cocked his head to the bathroom door, inviting us to come over and listen, too.
We all took a turn listening to our “mystery guests” in the shower, trying our hardest not to laugh.
Jimmy had finally had enough. “That’s it!” he cried. “Step away from the door!” With that, he began pounding on the locked door insisting that the perpetrators come out immediately.
Of course, the noisy party in the shower kept on going, causing Jimmy to become even more worked up. We watched in horror as he took a couple of steps backward and prepared to body slam the door.
“Jimmy, stop! It’s a joke! It's a joke!” we all shouted in an attempt to calm him down.
It took a couple of beats for this to register with him. Finally, he turned around and regarded us in confusion. When Jimmy saw the amusement on our faces he looked completely baffled. “What’s going in there?” he asked.
Some Sexy Conversation
What Jimmy didn’t know was that earlier that day, the girls and I had set the stage in the model. We’d also created a cassette tape with the three of us and our mailman Fred, along with a couple of fun-loving residents), saying things like: “Ooh, that feels good!” and, “Do that again!” And of course, there was plenty of giggling.
I must admit, it really did sound like there was a party going on in the bathroom. After explaining to Jimmy that we’d played an April Fool’s Day joke on him, we unlocked the door and exposed the blaring tape player sitting on the bathroom counter.
One of us then pulled back the shower curtain so he could see for himself there was no one in there.
In the steam-filled bathroom, the sounds of our “sex tape” still bouncing off the walls, Jimmy shook his head in bemused disbelief. To his credit, he was a great sport, and we all got a good chuckle out of the best April Fool's joke ever!
From the book "I Have a Complex, But I'm Managing It!", stories from property managers compiled by Monica E. Simmons.
Monica E. Simmons, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for JDC Enterprises, LLC, has worked in the multi-family industry in several different capacities since 1987. She is a published author whose books include; I Have A Complex, But I’m Managing It!, It Happened in The Hill Country, 30-Love and it's sequel, Match Point.
Contact her at: Monica@TheVendorGuide.com