Meth addicts? I am so glad you got your mother out of that house before they tried to rob it. Very lucky.
Indeed. We had moved her to a very nice assisted living facility after she broke her leg at 98 in May 2012. She was quite unwilling to go, but her doctors, nurses, and an attorney prevailed upon her. We live 2000 miles away, so we just locked up her house and got power of attorney to pay all of her bills, etc. She was lucid enough, at the time, to sign all those papers.
We hired a neighbor to water her grass. Unfortunately, he died in the intervening year and the grass died, providing a major clue that the house was empty. The meth addicts came along and set up camp in the back yard. Eventually they broke into the house and started stealing what we had left behind to feed their habit. They also left quite a bit of their own mess. I thought that we had removed most of the valuables the year before, but they managed to pawn $1000 worth of goods. At the rates that pawn shops pay, that’s probably $5000 in replacement value.
In the mean time, we went out in August for her birthday, held an estate sale, and sold her house. She doesn’t have to worry about that house any more, and neither do I.
While we were out there, we hired a dumpster to help in cleaning out her house and homeless wanderers would come along and sleep in the dumpster every night. It was spooky. I’m glad that it is all over.