[Captain Walker]

This is the part where we learn that the homeowner has been dead for weeks.

I suspect that there is mail piling up in behind the front door as well.

[frank ballenger]

RE: homeowner dead?

In the old days when landline phones stayed on when picked up instead of quickly beeping and shutting off if you take too much time dialing there was a classic Gahan Wilson cartoon:

Two telephone company repairmen are standing inside the entrance to a house.
“There’s the problem right there. Phone’s off the hook.”

(Man has hanged himself from the ceiling and is dead with the phone cord wrapped around his neck.)