Copper Theft Creates "Water World" Situation at 3119 4th St. N.

Photo by John Hoff

When I house sit at Peter Teachout's home, things at their residence are uneventful but it's the rest of the neighborhoood which ends up needing attention...like the last time I was house sitting and spotted the sex offender moving back into 3024 6th St. N.

We're still dealing with THAT mess.

Well, today was no different...

The neighbor I call "Patty Cake" knew I was house sitting, and she called me about a situation with 3119 4th Street N., now owned by the city and scheduled for demolition but, apparently, no time in the really near future. This morning she noticed a trash can had been pulled up to the front of the house, and a second story window above the trash can was pried open. Since there had been a manhunt in the neighborhood last night with a helicopter and everything, she was afraid somebody was still inside.

The situation was too urgent for 311 but (in this neighborhood) not urgent enough for 911. Oh, sure, the city says to call 911 about this stuff, but that word hasn't filtered down to the dispatchers or the cops on the street. It's NOT urgent and it won't be treated like it is urgent.

THIS IS A JOB FOR JOHNNY NORTHSIDE!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, so I told Patty I'd be right over, but first I had to pop some frozen corn and butter in the microwave, for my 11-year-old. But when I got THAT done I came right over.

Patty Cake was more courageous about going up to the building when another person was there, plus we had Jake and Gabe's video camera. Once we were close to the building we could hear water running inside--a lot of water. Somebody had apparently ripped out pipes. The Polish lady scared us by coming around the corner, so then there were three of us.

Patty called 911 and two police officers came. They said something to the effect REALITY was it's Saturday, and this isn't the only building in Minneapolis with water running inside of it. They offered the opinion the water must be DRAINING, since it wasn't flooding outside the building. I said the water was more likely slowly filling the basement. If nobody was going to go inside, there was no way to prove who was right.

One of them--I probably couldn't remember which one even under hypnosis, and the camera was off, I think, maybe--may have said or hinted something to the effect they wouldn't stop me if I wanted to go inside. The purpose of going inside, of course, would be to find a valve and turn off the water. Well, I was up for that mission, but it would have required a ladder. Patty thought she had a ladder. The Polish woman said her ladder was longer than Patty's.

The officers must have feared it could get ugly, this discussion about whose ladder was bigger and which ladder I would use. They wanted to know why we were so concerned about a building we didn't own, which was going to be knocked down anyway. It's a fair question.

I said something like, "This is our neighborhood. If we don't give a (expletive) about our own neighborhood, who will?" I may have also said, "You don't live here. We do. If nobody will do things for our neighborhood, we're kind of willing to do those things for ourselves."

The Polish woman said, "I have lived here 40 years. I give...a care...about my neighborhood." (She was rephrasing what I said, more delicately, like flowers growing in manure)

The two officers said maybe a police supervisor could advise them about what to do. They made some calls. In the meantime, I called Jeff Skrenes at HACC, who left a message with his regular city contact.

When the police came back, they said somebody had been contacted with the city, who would come out and shut off the water.

They wanted to know if that made us happy. I said it made us very happy, and I would make a point of saying nice things on my blog.

There were a lot of reasons to be concerned. First of all, it's a big waste of water. Second, the building is already apparently full of vermin. Flooding it won't help, at least as far as roaches are concerned. Third, if the entire basement is allowed to fill with water, pumping out all the basement before demolition will be more effort and cost, versus the relatively little effort and cost to simply shut off the water. Fifth, Patty Cake's basement floods even in a minor rainstorm, so a flooded basement next door could create a real mess.

Before leaving, one officer said the Polish woman's house was "the prettiest house on the block."