I live in an area that is run by an HOA. I grew up in the house that I live in now. There are a lot of reasons as to why, but my main two are because one, houses are extremely expensive right now, and two, I wanted to be near my parents to take care of them. Of course, since they still live here, the best option for me was to stay at this house.
I'm not a bum or anything, of course. I pay my bills and I take care of myself, but anyways, that's not the point. The point is, I've been living here all my life. I love this neighborhood. Everyone is so incredibly friendly and supportive of each other. I really would not trade the people that I grew up with and who live with me now for the world.
Ever since I was a kid, this neighborhood has had an HOA. I never really thought anything of it because the HOA never really caused any problems. From what I could remember, they were generally pretty useful, always making sure any problems the community had were resolved, fixing any physical problems like potholes, and just generally making sure that everyone in the neighborhood was okay.
But recently, there has been a big problem with the HOA. The biggest problem was honestly with the president. Every two years, the board is switched out and changed, ensuring that new people are allowed a chance to dip their feet in the HOA. Recently, this woman who we will call Karen was chosen as the president. She had been trying to run for a few years now, but each time someone else was chosen over her. But finally, this time she was able to become president.
Immediately, things started going downhill. Karen became extremely strict and started fining people for rules that didn't even exist. She would constantly use her new power as HOA president to threaten people. If someone was doing something that she wasn't a fan of, even if it was something that probably was not even harmful to anyone, she would try to use her role as the president to get them to stop.
For example, some kids were playing on the street, as kids often do, and they were not being reckless or anything. They were literally just playing in their yards. She threatened them and their parents with fines and dues if they didn't shut up. She's even had trouble with me sometimes.
She has tried to call the cops on me several times for stupid things. I don't remember everything, but one specific incident I do recall was when she called the cops on me for where I was parked. I was parked on the street in front of my house, which is perfectly legal. Karen claimed that I was parked in a red curb zone, but when the cops arrived, they confirmed that there was no red curb and no parking restriction on that street.
Still though, Karen called the cops on me. And after they realized that I hadn't done anything wrong, they apologized to me and told Karen to calm down. I was honestly surprised that, considering how much she called them for non-emergencies, they hadn't given her a warning about misusing 911 or wasting police resources. As you can tell, she is not the greatest president.
Recently, I've bought myself a new car. It's nothing too fancy. I certainly cannot afford any luxury vehicles. And I mean, I had been driving my parents' old Toyota Camry for some time now. It's a car that I've been driving since I got my license. I was 18 at the time, and now I'm 32, so imagine that. I love that car, and I really drove it until the wheels practically fell off. But it had gotten to the point now where I could barely use it. The AC and heater didn't work. The ignition sometimes didn't start for minutes at a time. And I had so many miles on the damn thing.
I decided that it was finally time to retire the Camry and get another car in its place. Luckily, I had some money saved up. So, after a bit of shopping, I finally landed on a newer model Toyota Highlander. I always liked driving bigger cars, even though I was so used to the Camry. So, this was a fun change. I gave away the Camry and of course started driving around the Highlander.
A few weeks later, I saw that Karen bought the exact same Highlander. Now, the Toyota Highlander is a pretty common, well-liked car, so it wasn't exactly weird to see that Karen had also bought a new Highlander. But not only was it the exact same model, it was also the same color, and I was sure that it had the same specs, too. Not only that, though, it was also even weirder because she and her family don't normally drive Toyotas. That entire house is full of Hondas. As weird as it was though, I didn't really think anything of it until everything all happened.
About 3 or 4 weeks after Karen had bought her car, the break-in happened at my house. Looking back, I think she needed that time to make her plan seem legitimate. If she had reported her car stolen the same week she bought it, that would have been suspicious. She probably waited long enough to make it seem like a real theft could have happened.