Craziest investor stories

[David Dey]

You know you've said it, "I could write a book with all the things that have happened to me in my business!"

In this business, you come up on all sorts of situations.  Some amazing, some heartbreaking, and some outright hilarious!!

I wanted to start a thread with some of the craziest, funniest, most life changing things that have happened to you in your investing career.

So without further ado, here is my submission.

I used to own a Mobile Home Park in Tampa Fl. It was a large park with lots of units but not in a good area and as a weekly rental not your top end renters.

This caused for a number of interesting situations, one of which I will tell you now.

This is the one where I was robbed at gunpoint by the 2 stooges (or so it seemed) Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

So, as I mentioned, large park, weekly rentals, So it was nothing for me to leave on any given Friday evening with anywhere between 5-10k cash in my pockets.

On a normal Friday I would leave the manager to collect the rent while I ran errands, ran collection calls, and handled repairs.

When I would get back, the money or most of it would be waiting. (turns out the manager was stealing more than the crooks ever could have taken)

On this particular Friday, I don’t know why but, I decided to stay in the office with the manager and when she collected rent I took it from her and put it in my pocket.

By the end of the day I had over 7k in my pocket in 20’s and 100’s.

Come evening,there was a lady who had just rented a MH from us and needed help getting her power turned on. SO I called TECO for her. (That’s Tampa Electric Company for those who don’t know.)

Now there were 5 people in the office at the time. The manager, her friend, the tenant who needed the power turned on, myself, and… shall we call him Jonathan the idiot security guard? (The managers husband)

So I’m on the phone, on hold with TECO when two men run into the cramped office space waving their guns and yelling for us to put our hands up.

One is wearing a skull cap with the extra fabric in back wrapping around his face. The other is wearing a scream mask. (You know the long ghost mask from the movie Scream? or in this case more like “Scary Movie 1&2″)

Now I’m thinking these are some of the teens from the park playing a joke on us. (I’ll tell you another time about when I went scaring them with a gorilla mask) So I tell the guys with the guns, “Hold on a second. I’m on the phone with TECO.” And wouldn’t you know it, for a couple of seconds they put their gun down.

For a couple of seconds they were so confused they actually put their guns down.

The Scream mask gunman regains his wits, points the gun at me and screams at me, “You think this is a joke?”

Ever hear about someone saying that they felt a tingle go down their spine telling them they were in danger? Well that is exactly what happened to me. That tingle went down my spine and told me this was for real.

Just then, the TECO representative comes on the phone. ” TECO Customer service, how may I make your day better?”

“Well, I Have to go,” I replied. “I’m being robbed.”

“Thank you and have a nice day,” I hear as I’m putting down the phone.

So the robbers are checking out the room and they spy Jonathan the idiot security guard smiling like a cheshire cat.

“What’s so funny?” the gunman asked.

“Your guns not even loaded,” was the idiots reply.

>Cha-CHIK< was the sound as the man loaded the chamber.

"Gee, Thanks Jonathan," I thought. "If anyone needs a hostage please take him!"

So the gunman turns his attention to the manager and tells her to give him all the money in the money drawer. (How he knew there was a money drawer is beyond me)

Just remember, I have been collecting the money from her as she went so when the manager looked at me. I nodded and said, "Go ahead and give him all the money in the drawer!"

So with 6-7k in my pocket she pulls out what is left in the drawer, a lone 100 dollar bill and a personal check for 125.

She asks the robber,"Do you want the check too?"

"Nah," he replied. "Just gimme the cash!"

She reached out her hand with the bill. and he said, "Toss it over!"

Well you know what a lone piece of paper does when it is thrown? Just like a leaf in the wind it zig zaged gracefully to the ground not 6 inches from where she threw it and directly at my feet.

You'll pardon my vernacular but I am just repeating what the man said.

"AAW SH*T!!"

I looked at him as genuinely as possible and said, "Don't worry, I'm not a hero."

So he reached down and grabbed the bill. As he was coming back up he spied the idiot security guard reaching behind him.

He aims his gun at us (Jonathan was sitting behind me so to get to him they had to get through me, Gee thanx J) and says, "What are you doin?"

"Nuttin'" was Jonathans response.

"Finish your move but make it slow!!" Yelled the gunman.

From behind his back Jonathan pulls out…….. An extendable umbrella!!

AN EXTENDABLE UMBRELLA?!! WHAT THE HECK WAS HE PLANNING TO DO WITH THAT??!! BIFF THEM WITH IT?!!

Now the 2 robbers had had enough of Jonathan, (So had we) They tell him to get on the ground, face down, execution style. (Now it was getting serious)

As he was laying there they made their escape and off they went.

A minute later Jonathan jumps up and screams, "Where's my bee bee gun?"

That was the last straw!! The managers friend broke into tears and cussed Jonathan out, up one side and down the other.

"You could have gotten us killed!!" she screamed.

So of course we call the cops and they show up a little later. While they were taking our statement a friend called just to check in.

"I can't talk right now," I said. "I've just been robbed and the cops are here right now."

"Robbed?!! How much did they get?"

"100 bucks," I replied.

"100 bucks??" he replied. "You didn't get robbed." "You just paid a toll."

And so I had. I almost consider it worth it for the conversation piece.

Now gimme YOUR best story!!