Finders Keepers

By Merle Norman

Here is a book you won't be able to put down! Finders Keepers is filled with intrigue, romance, suspense, and a surprise ending you won't believe! This is the story of J.T. Babcock--the type of man your mother warned you to stay away from!  His only friend is wheelchair-bound Dylan, his Marine Corps squad leader, who came home from Iraq minus his legs. Together, these two cook up a scheme that makes them rich beyond their wildest dreams.  However, as everyone knows, get-rich-quick schemes can often blow up in your face. We also meet Willy, who, after suffering the devastating loss of his wife, stumbles through life with his young daughter, Amanda. He is still trying to put together the pieces of their lives, when he hires Becky to work for him part-time. What he doesn't know is that Becky once dated J.T.--that is until she was arrested during a surprise raid at J.T.'s house. Scared straight, Becky breaks off any association with J.T. and his colleagues, leaving her bad girl ways far behind. As she becomes invaluable to Willy and his new business, she falls deeper and deeper in love with him. Will he ever be able to return her feelings? Keep reading and find out! Written by first-time author, Merle Norman, Finders Keepers shows all the promise of the next bestseller!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Release date: Jul 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781977263575

Merle Norman

Merle Norman was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After graduating from high school, Merle joined the Marine Corps and was stationed in San Diego, CA. Upon completion of his tour of duty, he returned to Minneapolis and attended the University of Minnesota where he received his BA degree. Merle then continued his education at the University of San Diego School of Law, graduating with top honors. With his admission to the Bar, he began a private practice, focusing mainly on criminal defense. Merle’s expert handling of numerous high-profile cases during the course of his career ranks him as one of California’s top attorneys and even as an emerging author, he continues to practice law in San Diego to this day.

Book preview

1

Wilhelm Gustav was a simple man who liked simple things. He had worked diligently as a mechanical engineer for the Honeywell Corporation in Minneapolis and had hoped someday to retire, taking his wife, Sondra, and Amanda, their only child, on extended vacations to Europe. Willy, as he was known among family and friends, was proud of his heritage and wanted to share his homeland with his beloved wife and daughter. While they lived modestly, they were extremely happy.

Willy’s wife was a homemaker who delighted in taking care of Amanda and cooking elaborate midwestern meals for Willy when he arrived home from work each night. They ate a lot of potatoes, meat, and tons of green beans, as that was the only vegetable Willy liked.

Sondra was a quiet woman whom Willy met while attending engineering school at MIT. He was in a study group when a new student asked if she could join them. It was unusual to have women in the engineering department at that time and, consequently, there were rarely any women in the study groups. The other guys in the group were somewhat reluctant to have a woman join them, but Willy immediately welcomed her to the group and chastised the other students for even hesitating to accept her. Willy was smitten at the first sight of Sondra. Standing barely five feet, five inches tall, she was dwarfed by Willy’s six foot, five inch frame. When they shook hands, Sondra’s entire hand and wrist were consumed in Willy’s gentle, but huge paw.

Although he never knew for sure, he felt that Sondra was a little intimidated by his size and perhaps a bit curious about his slight accent. They became instant friends from that first meeting in the study group. Two years later when they both graduated from MIT, Willy asked Sondra to marry him. They had dated throughout the last two years of college but neither thought the relationship would end up with a marriage proposal. They had enjoyed each other’s company but spoke mostly of engineering and future plans, never of being together forever. While they did have sex occasionally, it was very puritan and unimaginative. Willy liked Sondra more than any other person he had ever met. Wilhelm had always dreamed of the day he could find someone that he felt comfortable enough with to marry and raise a family.

Willy never had a family of his own, as both his parents were killed in an automobile accident when he was two years old. He was raised primarily by his grandmother, but by the age of twelve, Willy was pretty much on his own. He worked odd jobs around Minneapolis until his graduation from high school. He did odd jobs, such as shoveling driveways covered in snow for elderly people, delivering fliers, and working on motors for snowmobiles. By the age of fifteen, Willy had taught himself to be a fairly decent mechanic and could repair any small motor. Besides snowmobiles, people had started bringing him lawnmowers, mopeds, snowblowers and a vast array of small motors to work on. He was able to save enough money to buy the books he needed for school. It was during these years that he knew he wanted to be an engineer. He thoroughly enjoyed working on mechanical things, particularly motors. Willy was not going to be denied college for any reason, especially poverty, and knew that the only way he could attend college was if he was granted a scholarship. So, when he graduated from high school, he applied for a scholarship to MIT and, to his surprise, was accepted.

Sondra, on the other hand, came from money. Her parents were very wealthy, sending her to a private boarding school and ultimately to MIT. She always dressed impeccably and seemed to know exactly what she wanted in life. Although she came from money, and had all the finer things in life bestowed upon her, she was not spoiled. Like Willy, she was an only child and her parents doted on her constantly. But in spite of all that attention, Sondra was unaffected and very popular. Why she ever though of going out with Wilhelm was a mystery to him. The old adage opposites attract certainly applied in this situation.

Willy remembers the first time they went to a restaurant; he was slightly intimidated by the array of silverware on the table. It seemed to him that one fork would be sufficient for a meal, but this table setting had four forks. As they sat down he looked over at Sondra and could tell that she was not at all surprised. It seemed, however, that almost instantly she sensed Willy’s uneasiness. Although he knew she was kidding, the first comment she made concerning the restaurant was about the place settings. She looked at her plate and numerous utensils and then looked up at Willy.

My goodness it seems we have more silverware than one could ever imagine needing for a meal.

Even though he knew this was meant to make him feel better, he didn’t know how to respond. All throughout the meal, he would watch her pick up the appropriate utensil and follow suit. He wasn’t sure if she thought he was being polite or was just following her lead. Nonetheless, it didn’t matter, as he had no other recourse. He wasn’t going to blow this first real date at an upscale restaurant, even if it had fifteen pieces of silverware.

When he proposed to Sondra it was about as imaginative as their lovemaking. He had picked her up at her apartment to have a bite to eat after work and on the drive to the restaurant, looked at her and asked her so casually she almost didn’t believe the words.

Would you consider marrying me and moving to Minneapolis? She just stared at him for a moment and at that very second Willy wished he could take back his words. He felt like an absolute fool. They had never discussed anything of this depth. He knew she wanted to be involved with the construction of large buildings and hoped to get a job with an architectural firm doing mechanical drawings for high-rises. While he sat there with his stomach in knots, his heart racing, and his giant hands shaking just a bit, she looked up at him and he just knew these were going to be the worst words he was ever going to hear in his life. He was wrong.

With the softest of voices she said, I would be honored to be your wife.

Willy almost drove the car off the road. He pulled over to the side of the road, reached over with his now trembling, giant hands and kissed her like he had never kissed anyone before.

They were married two weeks later. She did not invite her parents; Willy wasn’t sure she even told her parents. He was afraid she was embarrassed and perhaps wanted a chance for them to get to know him before she told her parents they were married. He was sure they expected something more for their only daughter than Wilhelm Willy Gustav.

They settled into a comfortable apartment in Minneapolis and eighteen months later, their little angel, Amanda, arrived. It was one of the most magnificent moments of his life. Willy had found work at the Honeywell Corporation in Minneapolis and Sondra was doing independent work as a consultant for an architectural firm. She had contemplated working full-time but decided as a consultant she could work at home and take care of Amanda, which she thought was more important than a full-time career. Between them they made enough money to be extremely comfortable. For Amanda’s seventh birthday, they decided to take their angel to Anaheim, California. Willy had been to California one other time and had fallen in love with the climate. It was hard not to love a place where it was deemed to be cold when the temperature dipped to fifty degrees. In Minnesota, there were times during the winter when the temperature never rose above zero.

So, on a Thursday afternoon, Sondra dropped Amanda off with a babysitter so she could go shopping and pick up some presents for the birthday party planned for Saturday. Sondra would never see the birthday party and would never see California. After she completed her shopping, she drove back to their apartment, located in an upscale suburb of Minneapolis, parked her car and began to unload the groceries. Suddenly, she was attacked from behind by three men, all twice her size. Her keys were taken from her and she was dragged to her apartment kicking and screaming, but seemingly unobserved. They entered the house and for the next two hours beat her, raped her, and ultimately killed her. The house was ransacked and anything of value, no matter how small, was taken.

Willy arrived home after work and parked his car outside the apartment. As he looked up at the window, he noticed there weren’t any lights on and couldn’t see any movement inside the apartment. He arrived home at exactly the same time every day and inevitably either Sondra or Amanda would be in the window waiting for him to arrive. Suddenly, Willy felt light-headed while a heavy knot grew quickly in his stomach. He saw the car in the parking lot, but no one in the window of the apartment. Willy sensed that something was terribly wrong, without even entering the apartment.

As he reached the steps, he took them three at a time, toward the door, dreading what he might find. He wasn’t sure how long it actually took him to go up the steps, but it seemed like an eternity. When he reached the front door, he saw it was open. As he rushed through the entrance, it took him only a second to realize his world had been turned upside down. The entire apartment had been destroyed, and in the middle of the floor lie the naked Sondra. There was blood all around her body. Willy dropped to his knees and crawled to his Sondra. He knew immediately she was gone. Willy tried to make sense of the entire scene but everything seemed to be spinning. Then suddenly it hit him.

Where’s my Angel? He screamed out. He jumped up and ran from room-to-room. While the apartment only consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, dining room and living room, it seemed to take forever for him to look in each and every room. There was no sign of Angel. He ran to the door and looked outside in the yard, the parking lot, and across the street where there was a park. Nothing. Then he remembered Sondra had been shopping. He was trying desperately to think. When she went shopping, she always left Angel at a sitter. They only used one sitter and he ran to the phone to call her. Willy realized he didn’t know what to dial or even whom to call and finally found his fingers punching 911. The voice on the other end of the line kept saying, May I help you? May I help you? He just stood there holding the phone. Finally he said, Please, I need help. and gave his address. At that point he sat down on the floor, put his back against the wall and cried uncontrollably.

Several hours later Willy awoke in a strange place. As he sat up and looked around, it took a few minutes to realize he was in a hospital. He had an IV hooked up to his left arm and he saw the babysitter holding Angel’s hand. She looked petrified. Suddenly he began to cry. He reached out and the babysitter brought him his Angel. You could tell the child was surprised and even a little startled. She had never seen her daddy cry and wondered where her mom was. This was going to be a long day for Willy, and an even longer day for Angel. He did the best he could.

About two weeks after he lost Sondra, he was finally able to sit down with the detectives who investigated the crime to learn some of the details. Detective Dembrowsky, who was in charge of the investigation, informed Willy that it appeared the individuals that attacked his wife were druggies. After inquiring whether or not he and his wife had any drugs in the house, to which Willy was offended, they informed him that they had found some meth residue on a piece of glass on the dining room table. The fingerprints on the glass did not belong to either he or Sondra. They surmised that the three individuals who came into the house were high on meth when they attacked his wife. They determined there were three men because of the fingerprints and different footprints found in the house. Most of the footprints were made with blood from Sondra’s body. Detective Dembrowsky spared Willy some of the more gruesome details. When Willy asked if his wife had been raped, the detective told Willy that it did not appear as though she was. It was a lie, and he thought Willy knew it, but appeared to appreciate the sensitivity shown by the detective. Willy did not ask for any other details, as the only detail he needed to know was that she was gone.

Two months later, Wilhelm Gustav decided he could no longer live in Minneapolis, particularly in that apartment. There was only one place he wanted to go and that was California. Just before leaving, he made one last phone call to the detective. He told Detective Dembrowsky he would be moving to California and would call with his new address and phone number. Willy wanted the detective to have his information in case they caught the three individuals who killed his wife, as he would want to know.

Willy wasn’t optimistic they would catch whoever did this, even with fingerprints. He just felt that if they ever did, he would like to know. He would never come back for the trial, but there would be some peace of mind, as well as closure, knowing that those who took his Sondra from him faced some punishment. Willy quit his job, sold all of his belongings, picked up Angel at school, and the two of them moved to California, settling in Lakeside, a suburb of San Diego.

2

After arriving in Lakeside, Willy looked for a house for him and Angel. He had decided he didn’t want an apartment and would prefer to have a single-family residence in which he could install whatever state-of-the art security devices were now available to homeowners.

Willy vowed to himself that he would spend the rest of his life making sure his daughter had everything she could ever want. While nothing could replace the loss of a mother, he would try to make her life as happy as could be.

He finally found a house, in a slightly rundown condition, sitting on a half-acre, fenced lot. It was a small house, three bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths, approximately twenty-two hundred square feet. It had a nice porch on one side and was air-conditioned. He wasn’t sure, but it seemed as if everything in Lakeside was air-conditioned. With a little bit of work, the house could be very comfortable and the price was right.

He put a small deposit on the property and opened escrow. He was a little concerned as to what he was going to show for income, as he no longer had a job but he did have tax returns for the last two years. When he went to the bank to obtain financing, they merely asked him for his tax returns for the last two years, which he provided. One look at his tax returns and he immediately qualified. No one seemed to care that he wasn’t employed at this time. Property values in California seemed to rise every year and no one was worried about who could make the payments, as the lenders knew they were well-secured. Wilhelm Gustav closed escrow and moved into his new home three weeks later. The first thing he did was to hire someone to come in and do a thorough cleaning of the house. The restoration would take place over time, as he would probably do a lot of the work himself.

The next order of business was to figure out what to do for employment. He wasn’t sure he could go to work in an office right now, especially since he didn’t want to be away from his daughter from nine-to-five. He didn’t feel any type of daycare was appropriate after what she had been through. Willy felt he needed to be there for her every day, so he would need to find something that would allow him to work from his home. However, as simple as that sounds, it wouldn’t be easy to find such an opportunity with the declining economy and skyrocketing unemployment. Employers were laying-off workers, not hiring more.

After a month of searching, Willy was still unemployed. Fortunately, he still had a sufficient amount of money to live on from everything he had sold before they left Minneapolis, including some stock investments he had liquidated. Obviously, the money would not last forever, but he was not yet desperate enough to be panicking, although he was growing concerned with each passing day of being unemployed. With no job in sight for the immediate future, Willy needed to be as frugal as possible with the money he did have. So when it came time to buy furniture and furnishings for the house, he decided to check out something he had read about called a swap meet. Apparently, he would be able to find anything in the world there, at very reasonable prices.

The swap meet he had read about was being held at a drive-in theater parking lot in Lakeside. He later learned that there were swap meets throughout the San Diego area. While at the swap meet, he found a stall with household furnishings. They were used, but in great condition. Willy was able to buy most of the furnishings he needed over the next few weekends from the swap meet and was amazed at the money he saved. While at one of these stalls, where he was buying lamps, he inquired where this individual obtained all this used furniture, as it varied greatly from weekend-to-weekend. Willy introduced himself and learned the seller’s name was Scorbo. It would be months before Willy understood why people called him Scorbo. Scorbo explained to Willy that there was a small group of people that traveled around to daily storage auctions. Willy had no idea what Scorbo was talking about. Scorbo explained that people would put things they didn’t need at the moment into mini-lockers or storage lockers. California had numerous storage locker facilities. People would rent storage lockers on a monthly basis and would store excess furniture, or in some cases if they were in the military and being deployed overseas, they would store all their household goods. Sometimes when people would pass away, landlords would remove all of the personal property and put it in storage. Sometimes elderly people would go to homes and their children would put their items in storage. There were a million reasons why people put things in storage. Willy couldn’t imagine having so many things that you didn’t need and then paying to store them. That made no sense to frugal Willy.

It seems that if you don’t need something then you get rid of it, not pay to store it. Willy lamented to himself.

Nevertheless, this seemed to be a common phenomenon in California. Willy wasn’t sure if it was the same around the rest of the country, but presumed it was and was absolutely amazed by the thought!

After several weekends of purchasing items from Scorbo at the swap meet, Scorbo asked Willy if he might be interested in joining the circuit. There was something about Willy that everybody liked. No one would have any idea that this huge likable oaf of a man was an MIT graduate. Scorbo asked Willy if he was available on Monday to tag along with Scorbo and see how these auctions actually worked. Why Scorbo ever asked him was a mystery, as these scavengers, as Willy liked to think of them, were very protective and didn’t want extra competition. Willy was a little reluctant at first but he figured what else did he have to do? He had no job interviews that day, or all week for that matter, so he figured he might as well use the time to learn something.

He met Scorbo the next day at seven in the morning to do a day on the circuit. Before going to the first storage facility, Scorbo and Willy stopped at a coffee shop to have a cup of coffee and breakfast. Scorbo was met by another man who was referred to as Toolman. Scorbo introduced Willy to Toolman explaining that Willy was a good friend of his and he had invited him along on the circuit for the day. Willy didn’t correct Scorbo nor remind him they had only known each other for a few weeks. Being someone’s best friend apparently was required for this adventure. You could see the look in Toolman’s eyes that he was not happy that someone new was being invited along on the circuit. Willy later learned that they referred to people like Willy as newbies.

It was not a good thing to be a newbie and he would learn that the rest of the group would do what they could to discourage him from buying and hopefully cause him to quit the circuit. At this point, Willy had no desire to join the circuit, thus he was certainly no threat to their occupation as scavengers.

As they continued with breakfast, Scorbo explained that in California, if you stop paying your rent on your storage locker, the storage facility had the right to sell your locker’s contents at auction. Basically, after missing rent for one month--which amazed Willy they could do so after only one month--a notice would be sent informing you that if your back rent was not paid in full, the storage facility intended to sell your locker’s contents on a certain date, at a given time. There were requirements concerning how many days notice you were to receive and the storage facilities had it down to a science. Every day a locker was full and rent not paid, the storage facility was losing money. They were not in the business to lose money. Auctions were held almost every day of the week, except Saturday and Sunday. Willy wasn’t sure why there weren’t auctions on Saturday or Sunday, but suspected that the scavengers had convinced the auctioneers who conducted the sales for the auction facilities not to have auctions on the weekends so they could take the goods purchased during the week to the swap meet on the weekends to sell.

The facilities that were selling these units wanted as many scavengers there as possible to bid on these lockers and capitulated by not holding auctions on the weekends. It was a good arrangement for both sides. Willy found out that a person could pay for his locker right up until the time the locker was sold. However, the individual was not allowed to come to the sale and bid on his or her own locker. Willy wasn’t sure why, but later found out that if a particular individual owed significant money on his locker, he may be able to purchase it back at auction for a lot less than was owed. Therefore, the laws forbid him from bidding on his own locker. However, often people would have someone bid on their behalf up to a certain amount. Willy never understood why they didn’t just pay the back rent if they wanted the items badly enough to bid on it or have someone else bid on it for them.

How do you know where these auctions are held? Willy inquired.

Scorbo explained that each auctioneer has a schedule of storage facilities in which he holds the auctions. He mails out the schedule monthly and any modifications can be seen on the websites. In addition, most of the facilities will have a schedule printed in some newspaper showing when the auctions are held; legally the auctions must be advertised. Between the monthly mailers from each auctioneer and the publications in the paper, one can find almost all of the auctions.

What happens if there are two auctions at the same time?

That happens occasionally, although the auctioneers try to work with one another so that doesn’t happen since is generally the same people that go to each auction.

Scorbo went on to explain that if there are auctions being held at the same time, you try to pick the auctions from experience that seem to produce better units. Some of the scavengers work together, splitting up to cover all of the different auctions on a given day. Also, when the mailers come out from the auctioneers, they will tell you how many units, or storage lockers, will be sold at each auction. Unfortunately, those numbers are not always accurate. As Scorbo had explained earlier, you have the right to pay off the amount of money owed and your locker will not be auctioned. When the mailers go out at the first of the month, there are usually numerous lockers at each storage facility listed for auction, but by the time the auction is actually held that number will dwindle significantly. In fact, sometimes the auctions are canceled because there is only one or two units left, or in some instances, none.

Scorbo continued to explain that it always good to call the day of the auction to make sure it has not been canceled and to determine how many units are left. However, sometimes the facilities will not tell you how many units are left, because if there is only one or two, they are afraid no one will attend the auction.

Do the storage facilities really care how many people attend the auctions? Willy asked.

Of course. replied Scorbo. The more people that attend the auction, the higher the bidding will go. If there are only one or two bidders, the units will go for very little. If you have 20 or 30 people there bidding on any given unit, it will drive the price up. The storage facility wants to get the highest bid possible.

So basically they can make a lot of money by auctioning off these units? Willy asked.

Toolman finally had something to say. They cannot make any money. Anything the auction brings in over the amount actually owed must be returned to the owner of the unit. The storage facility can only keep the actual amount owed on rent and any fees incurred, such as cost of mailing, auctioneer fees and so forth. They cannot keep any excess.

Willy found all of this fascinating. What time do the auctions usually start?

Again Toolman replied, They usually start at eight or eight-thirty and will go as long as there are units to sell. You can figure each unit is about five to ten minutes at most. Toolman then looked at Willy with a certain amount of contempt and asked, Do you intend to join the circuit?

Willy replied without hesitation, I have no intention of joining the circuit, I was just curious and my friend Scorbo invited me along to see how it worked. I had some extra time today so I thought I would tag along and get an education. This isn’t my cup of tea. Toolman seemed relieved at that answer.

Exactly how is it that you bid on any given unit? Willy asked Scorbo. I think the best way to deal with the rest of your questions is for us to get to the first auction and I’ll explain as we go along. I don’t believe I could adequately explain the whole process without you seeing an auction in progress.

Willy was satisfied with that explanation and they got up to leave. Both Toolman and Scorbo looked at Willy and said simultaneously, You get the check, you’re the newbie.

Willy wasn’t sure that was really how it worked, but they were only talking about a small tab for their coffee and breakfast. Toolman only had coffee, so it wouldn’t be right for him to pay and Willy thought the education was worth the twenty dollars. As Willy and Scorbo drove to the first auction, Scorbo explained a few of the rules that Willy should know. Toolman followed behind in his own truck to the same auction.

First, when you’re done bidding at this auction on a unit, you have to pay the auctioneer cash on the spot. He will collect your money and give you a receipt before he moves to the next unit to be sold.

By unit, do you mean an individual locker?

Exactly Scorbo replied. Some of the facilities work differently. Some will give a slip to the winning bidder of a particular locker, then at the end of the auction everyone will go to the office and pay up for the slips they received. However, most auctioneers want to get paid on the spot before they move to the next locker. That way, if some one who bid on a locker actually doesn’t have the money to pay the auctioneer, he will cancel that bid and they will start again. Otherwise, if you wait to pay until the end and someone can’t pay, that particular locker will not be auctioned off and will have to wait a month until the next auction. That would create another month’s loss of income for the storage facility. In addition, if someone bids and doesn’t pay, he’ll be banned from future auctions. Some of the bigger companies will actually accept credit cards in the office at the end of the auction, but that is rare. You should always come to the auction with enough cash to buy a unit or units.

So what you are saying is, everybody who comes to these auctions will have a pocket full of cash and be ready to bid on as many lockers as possible.

Not exactly as many lockers as possible, but you are right about a pocket full of cash. I once wondered what would happen if someone decided to come to an auction with guns, hold everybody up and take their cash. Some individuals carry over ten thousand dollars. Figure if you had twenty people, each with ten thousand dollars or more, someone could easily make a nice haul. Of course, I have never heard of that happening, but you often wonder if it could.

How much does each locker sell for?

It all depends on how many people are bidding and what type of merchandise you can see in the locker. I have known lockers that have sold for one dollar and I have seen lockers go for thousands. It all depends on the bidders and the locker.

Willy was just about to ask another question when Scorbo indicated they had arrived at the first storage facility. As they pulled into the facility, they were directed to a particular area where the scavengers were supposed to park. Willy noticed there were approximately twelve to fifteen people milling around in a group and he assumed those were the other bidders. He also noticed most of them were driving some form of truck. There were several pickup trucks and several enclosed vans. One individual actually had a pickup truck pulling a large flatbed trailer. As Scorbo parked his truck, Willy noticed a few more people arriving behind them. There was still about fifteen minutes to go before the auction and Willy wondered how many people would ultimately be there for this one.

It was a beautiful day in Lakeside, but he could tell as the day wore on, it was going to be hot. It was early in the morning and already very warm. As they approached the group, several people said hi to Scorbo, but nobody gave Willy a second look. No one extended a hand to Willy or introduced themselves. All they knew was that there was a newbie was on the premises.

Just then Willy saw Toolman walking toward the group. Toolman said to no one in particular, Scorbo decided to bring a newbie to the group today.

You could hear moans and groans among most of the scavengers. Willy couldn’t help but notice there were a lot of fringe bidders in the group. Scorbo explained that each day there was a core group of scavengers that went on the circuit. He explained ‘the circuit’ was a term they used for moving from one auction to the next in any given day. However, there was another group of individuals who only came sporadically and most of them were up from Mexico. He explained they were looking for cheap lockers with mostly clothes and toys. They would buy the lockers as cheap as they could, load their trucks, and take it back down to Mexico. Most of them sold their goods at a remarte, which was their version of swap meets.

"So how do you know an expensive unit? Willy asked.

You’ll see as we go through these lockers.

Do you get to go through the lockers first? Willy inquired. Before Scorbo could answer, the auctioneer spoke up.

I want to welcome everybody and thank you for coming to the auction. We are about to start.

The auctioneer then read off a set of rules about the bidding. The auctioneer read those rules as though he was already conducting an auction and no one could conceivably understand one word of what he said. For those that were up from Mexico and spoke primarily Spanish, they had no idea what he was saying. Willy looked at Scorbo with an inquisitive look. Scorbo sensed his concern and said, Don’t worry about it. Everybody knows the rules. Basically the auctioneer was saying everything was sold as is, cash had to be paid at the conclusion of each individual sale and any personal items founds in the lockers such as birth certificates, photographs, legal documents, etc. must be returned to the owners of the storage. He also ran off some California code sections which pertain to the sale of storage units.

The one thing Willy did clearly hear was that all of the items in the locker had to be removed by the successful bidder within twenty-four hours. Willy wondered how you could do that if you were on the circuit all week. He figured he would learn about that later if it were really that important. There was an atmosphere among all the individuals that created a certain amount of tension as well as a bit of excitement. The auctioneer was finally done with his spiel and he began to walk toward the first locker. He did not have to say anything to the group as they automatically herded behind him. By this time there were approximately thirty people following the auctioneer and getting ready to bid.

They approached the first locker and Willy found himself getting caught up in the excitement. Why, he didn’t know, since he had no intention of bidding. At the first unit, everybody dropped into a single file line. There was no rhyme or reason as to who stood where and no one seemed to care. It was very orderly and Willy was surprised there was no pushing or complaining, merely thirty people falling into a single file line. Willy stood between Scorbo and Toolman. The auctioneer approached the first locker and read off the locker number, confirming with a representative from the storage facility, who was walking with the auctioneer, that this was the locker to be auctioned off. The auctioneer then took a pair of bolt cutters, cutting the lock that was still on the unit. According to the law, lockers are not supposed to be opened until the time of the auction. Willy leaned over to Scorbo and started to ask a question about how do you know whether or not the storage facility owners had previously been in the locker. But before he could get two words out of his mouth, Scorbo put up his hand and indicated for him to be quiet. He wasn’t sure why, but this must be some sort of protocol, because he didn’t see anyone else talking either. The lock was cut, removed, and the door to the storage unit was pulled open.

The auctioneer stood next to the open door and the line began to move forward. The first thing Willy noticed was no one entered the locker. He later found out one of the rules is no one can go into the locker or reach into the locker. You cannot open anything that is in the locker or move anything around. You must stand at the threshold of the doorway and merely look into the locker.

He noticed almost everyone was carrying high beam flashlights. Most of the lockers had no lights inside. If there was a light inside, the auctioneer turned it on. If not, one would have to shine a flashlight into the locker to see the best he could as to what was in there. There was no set time that you could take looking at the locker contents but everyone seemed to spend only a few minutes and then moved on. The next person in line would then walk up to the door and take their turn looking inside. No one pushed or shoved to get to the front of the line. Everyone waited their turn knowing that nothing would happen until each and every potential bidder had an opportunity to look into the unit.

Once everyone had passed by and had their opportunity to see the contents of the unit, the best they could, the auctioneer would close the door and the auction began.

Do I have an opening bid?

Someone yelled out Ten dollars.

The auctioneer continued, I have ten dollars. Do I have twenty dollars? I have twenty dollars. Do I have thirty dollars?

Willy wondered who bid twenty dollars, as he didn’t hear anything. Then he heard the auctioneer say he had thirty and then forty and then fifty. Willy had no idea who was bidding, since he didn’t hear anybody say anything or even see anyone raise a hand. The group of people must have had some silent way of notifying the auctioneer that they were bidding. It was as if no one wanted anyone else to know who it was that was bidding. This was absolutely fascinating to Willy as he watched in silent amazement. Finally the auctioneer reached a hundred dollars. The next bid had to be one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Apparently the auctioneer took bids in increments of ten until he reached a hundred. After a hundred dollars, he took bids in increments of twenty-five dollars. The bid was now at two hundred and fifty. It appeared to Willy that the bidding was slowing down. The auctioneer said he had two hundred and fifty. It was two hundred fifty going once, two hundred fifty going twice, I have two hundred and seventy-five now. Do I have do I have three hundred?

The bidding finally closed at three hundred and seventy-five. The minute the bidding closed, someone from the scavenger group walked up and put his own lock on the locker. Apparently, that was how it was done. The auctioneer then handed the individual a piece of paper that had the three hundred and seventy-five dollars written on it, the locker number, and the name of the successful bidder. The scavenger reached into his pocket and took out his three hundred and seventy-five dollars and paid the auctioneer on the spot.

Scorbo turned to Willy and said, And that’s how it’s done.

What about sales tax? Willy asked.

Scorbo said that most of the people had a resale number issued by the State of California. A resale number is something that is issued to retailers so they do not have to pay sales tax on the merchandise they purchase for resale. The merchant has to collect the sales tax at the time he sells the merchandise and remit it to the state. If you didn’t have a resale number, the auctioneer will add sales tax to the purchase. Thus, if you were buying something for yourself, and it was not intended for resale, you would have to pay the sales tax.

The auctioneer was headed to the next locker and everyone followed along. This was the most extraordinary type of sale Willy had ever witnessed. He had no idea that such a thing existed. You could actually buy an entire storage bin full of a stranger’s personal property. You had no idea, for the most part, what was even contained in the storage unit.

Willy looked at Scorbo, How do you know what is in that unit and that it is worth three hundred and seventy-five dollars? I didn’t see anything that I was interested in.

Toolman overheard Willy and responded, That’s because you don’t know what you are looking for. That’s why newbies never make it in this business. They don’t bid from any point of knowledge, they just bid because they want to bid. They have no idea what resale value is on anything and they end up over-paying. That’s one of the reasons newbies are so disliked. They will bid too much for a unit and thereby precluding those of us who make a living doing this from obtaining the unit at a reasonable price so a profit can be made on the resale. Those of us on the circuit know what a unit is worth and we only pay what a unit is worth. Newbies will pay anything.

And he walked away.

Willy could understand a bit of Toolman’s frustration, but he didn’t understand why he was taking it out on Willy. Willy had no intention of being a scavenger and was no threat to Toolman. He was just there at the invitation of Scorbo. Nevertheless, it seemed that everyone else in the scavenger group looked at Willy the same way. Nobody was cordial and nobody had a conversation with Willy throughout the entire day. The line now moved to the second floor of the storage facility. The day was getting hotter and the circulation of air was virtually non-existent inside the facility. There were no windows or fans to help and everyone was beginning to sweat. The smell of old lockers, sweating people, plus dust and dirt swirling around, was almost unbearable. Willy couldn’t imagine what it must be like at noon in this facility. Willy also noticed they walked upstairs to the second floor. He wondered if there was an elevator in the building? If there wasn’t, he didn’t understand how one would get all the merchandise up and down, certainly not on the stairs.

Willy was about to ask Scorbo about the elevator when the auctioneer cut the lock on the unit on the second floor. Suddenly, you could feel the excitement of anticipation. Forgetting about the heat, the dust, the lack of air, it almost seemed like everyone was holding his or her breath, although no one really was. As the door swung open and the auctioneer stepped back, the line moved forward again. The first two or three in line looked in, flashlights on with beams of light dancing quickly from one side to the other. No one lingered more than a second or two at this locker and the line moved very quickly past the door. Scorbo looked at Willy, No good.

When Willy finally arrived at the locker door just behind Scorbo, he saw what he meant. When he looked in the door, even he could tell it was worth nothing. There were a few trash bags laying on the floor in the locker, an old liquor box with some old shoes inside and some miscellaneous items lying around. Obviously, someone had moved out and took what they wanted, leaving behind junk. No one really paid much attention once they passed the locker and people were beginning to visit with one another while they waited for the line to go quickly by. The auctioneer closed the locker after the last looker went past, and asked if anybody was willing to bid anything. One of the fringe bidders raised his hand and said one dollar. The auctioneer said, sold before the man could change his mind. The man walked up, put a lock on the locker and gave the auctioneer one dollar. Willy didn’t know if the individual had a resale license, but the auctioneer wasn’t going to bother to collect eight or nine cents from him. He took his dollar and they moved on to the next locker.

The rest of this auction went pretty much the same way. There were a total of six lockers and all of them sold. Scorbo and Willy went back to Scorbo’s truck and headed to the next auction. Scorbo hadn’t purchased anything at this facility.

As they were driving, Scorbo looked at Willy, You must have a million questions now!

Well, I do have a few. But first, why do they call your friend Toolman?

Scorbo explained, Primarily because he is only interested in lockers that contain tools. While he will buy other lockers, his primary focus is on tools. If we see a locker that is primarily tools we try not to bid against him. It’s sort of a courtesy we extend among those of us that are on the circuit. We know who likes what and we try to accommodate them if we can. Needless to say, if a unit has tools and a lot of furniture, those that are into furniture will certainly bid. But if its only tools, we’ll generally let Toolman have the locker. On the other hand, if a unit has mostly furniture and no tools, Toolman won’t bid on the locker and lets the furniture guys bid. It helps us keep the price down.

What about those that are not in the group? You still have to bid against them.

We do, but most of the fringe bidders are not big spenders. They are looking for units they can buy for $100 or less. Those are usually trash units that we’re not interested in anyway. If they are good units with furniture and tools, they usually can’t afford to bid against the scavengers.

How do you know what is a good unit?

"That’s the beauty of it. You don’t. But there are some things that you learn over the years from experience. The first thing is you look for the obvious. You try to find things like tools, boxes of videos, stereos and speakers, small appliances and sports equipment, especially fishing rods and reels. You always look for lockers that have boxes that are neat, clean, and labeled. You also look for furniture and large appliances. Those are usually good units. You stay away from units that have their items stored in trash bags. If you see a locker where people used black trash bags to store their items, its likely going to be trash. Trash bags in a locker are not a good sign. You also try to stay away from an assortment of used cardboard boxes. Those that go to the back of liquor stores or grocery stores and collect discarded boxes, mostly without lids, probably don’t have items worth caring for. On the other hand, those who care enough about their property to purchase new boxes, usually have nice items, or, at least, better goods worth investing the money in the purchase of new boxes. And boxes are not cheap. For example, a book box sells for about a dollar fifty, a large box for around two fifty, a wardrobe box is usually twelve dollars, if not more, and a dish barrel box is around fifteen dollars.

The larger the box, obviously, the more expensive it is. However, a large box doesn’t hold nearly as much as a small box. Newbies never quite understand that concept, but it’s true. A small cardboard box could hold two shelves of knickknacks or collectibles, videotapes or jewelry. But a large box would be far to heavy to lift if it was filled with those items. For example, the larger boxes hold things like clothing, pillows, stuffed animals and linens. Here’s another thing you’ll notice. If the contents of the storage locker are all wrapped in some kind of protective paper, it’s what we call a military move. When the military packs and stores your items, they wrap everything in some protective paper work such as bubble wrap. Most young, single military personnel don’t have a lot of things of value.

Another thing to look for is how dirty the unit is. By dirty, I don’t mean the items in the unit, but the dust and dirt within the unit itself. Are the floors dusty and dirty? Do the boxes and items have a layer of dust on them? If so, they’ve been stored for a long time. That usually leads one to believe it’s a better unit because it’s been there for a long time and people may have paid money over several years to keep those items. It’s usually not someone who was recently evicted and had to store their items quickly. Now all of these are just general rules to keep in mind, as often there are surprises. People have been known to buy what is often referred to as tweeker units, units filled with black trash bags, boxes from behind the liquor store, bundled clothing and discovered treasures. ‘Tweekers’ have a tendency to spend all the money they have on collectible type items, then, when they run out of money to pay the storage fees, they lose their units. So to make a long story short, you really never know what you are getting."

Willy thought there was an awful lot to learn if you were going to make a living at this. Willy was about to ask a few more questions when they arrived at the second auction. Willy noticed they were one of the first to arrive.

When will this auction start? Willy inquired.

Soon as the auctioneer gets here.

They parked the truck and walked over to the vending machine. Willy got some spring water and Scorbo punched the button for a cola. They stood in the shade outside in the parking lot and Willy asked Scorbo How long have you been doing this?

Nearly twenty years.

How did you ever get into this business?

Scorbo thought for a moment, It’s a long story but I had some personal setbacks in my life that made it impossible for me to obtain normal employment. Someone introduced me to this business. I found it to be to my liking and I’ve been doing it ever since.

You’re obviously making a good living at it.

I make a living at it. I’m not rich but I’m comfortable. The amount of money you make depends on how hard you want to work. If you work the circuit every day and sell every weekend, you can make good money. Many of the people on the circuit have wives with regular nine-to-five jobs, which lets them devote all their time to the circuit and also evens out the times when things are slow.

Willy noticed the auctioneer pulling up with five or six cars directly behind him. Willy wondered if people who bought a locker at one facility continued on to the next, or were they satisfied with the one they purchased. It seemed that everyone that was at the first auction, was now at the second one, including those who had winning bids on the six units sold at the previous auction. The auctioneer went into the office of the facility and did whatever paperwork he was going to do. He then came out and announced that this auction was canceled. They only had one unit left and the facility did not want to go forward with the auction. Willy looked at Scorbo with an inquisitive look.

Sometimes all the units are paid up, or for whatever reason are not going to be sold. The auctioneer gets a minimum fee against a percentage of the take on the auctions. When there is only one unit to sell, obviously the facility doesn’t want to pay the auctioneer the minimum fee so they cancel the auction and this unit, if it is still available, will be added next month. That happens sometimes.

Scorbo told Willy the next auction wasn’t for another two hours and he had a couple of things he needed to do in between, so would he mind if he dropped Willy off at his car. Willy said that was fine as he had some things to do at the house and had to be available when his daughter needed to be picked up from school. As they pulled up to Willy’s car, he leaned over and shook Scorbo’s hand, thanking him for the education.

Just as he was exiting, Willy looked back and said to Scorbo, Would you mind if I tagged along on another day?

Scorbo looked a little surprised, but hesitantly said That’ll be okay.

I’ll probably see you this weekend at the swap meet.

Scorbo didn’t respond.

Willy walked back to his truck thinking, Maybe I could get into this. It surprised even Willy that he had these thoughts.

Willy went back to his house and made some phone calls. He saw a couple of potential job opportunities in the paper, but thought he would call before he wasted his time sending in an application. One job was already taken but the other was still accepting applications. Willy was able to get the secretary on the phone and learned that they had already received over 50 applications. After a brief phone interview, Willy was deemed extremely over-qualified for the position and wouldn’t be considered as a candidate. He decided not to waste his time on another useless application. Willy went into his den and sat at the computer looking at different websites, but his mind was on the auction. He kept thinking it would be the perfect job for him. He could go on the circuit during the day when Angel was in school, unload the lockers, and bring the merchandise to his home. He had over half an acre, which was all usable. The property was fenced in and the house sat on a very small portion of the lot. He would have plenty of room to unload a truck and go through the merchandise. He wasn’t sure what he would do with the merchandise, however. He never got to ask Scorbo how he unloaded the merchandise that didn’t sell at the swap meet. Even if he didn’t make a lot of money, he was sure he could make enough to be comfortable. He had very little overhead and thought he could start out slowly until he learned the ropes.

Although Willy hadn’t decided for sure, he was definitely leaning that way. He wondered how Scorbo would feel when he told him he might join the circuit. The one thing that did bother Willy was the fact he was trading on other people’s misfortunes. It seemed sad that people would lose the entire contents of their house or things they had placed in storage because they couldn’t make the payments on the locker. Some units stored collector items from generations of a family. The more valuable the contents, the more likely they would be purchased by a scavenger and sold for a profit. It seemed a little wrong somehow. But that’s the way it was. People didn’t pay their bills; they lost their units.

Willy decided he would tag along with Scorbo one more time before really making up his mind. He didn’t really see anything in the six lockers he looked at that he was interested in buying, and no one on the circuit seemed that interested, either. He wondered how many days a scavenger could go without purchasing a locker. That could be a problem. Also, there were a limited number of lockers and a great number of people bidding. He wondered how much he would have to pay to buy a locker if the scavenger group was more interested. There were an awful lot of questions and Willy didn’t have very many answers.

Willy spent the rest of the morning trying to absorb all that he had learned earlier that day, and before he knew it, it was time to pick Angel up from school. He shut off the computer, locked the house, and drove over to the school to pick up Angel. He was always there early and always parked in the same location. Every day, Amanda came out of school in the first group, and seeing his car, would run to it. She always had a smile on her face and seemed as though she enjoyed her day. Willy would run around by the passenger side of the car and she would jump in his arms as she reached him. He always gave her a hug and said, How’s my Angel? She would look at him and say, "My name is Amanda."

He’d smile and say, Your name might be Amanda, but you are still my Angel.

She just looked at him with those eyes that always melted Willy and she knew there was no sense in arguing with him. She was always going to be called Angel by her dad and she knew it. He put her in the front seat with him and she fastened her seat belt.

On the way home she looked at her dad and asked, Did you find a job today?

Willy looked at her and thought for a second and said Maybe.

Really? What kind of job? When do you start?

At that very moment, Willy knew he was going to become a scavenger.

I start tomorrow.

Yeah!! she yelled in his ear. What kind of job is it? What will you be doing?

I tell you what, I will explain it all to you later. It’s a little complicated.

Can I go to your office sometime?

Willy looked at her and said, I am going to be working from the house. My office will be in the house.

Oh goodie! So you’ll be home all the time!

"Yes. All the time."

She seemed truly delighted. Willy was scared to death. As they were nearing the house Willy asked Amanda, What would you like for dinner?

She looked at her dad and said Pizza. We should go out and celebrate your new job, Daddy. Anytime she could find an excuse for her dad to take her out to eat; she never hesitated to voice it.

So, you want to celebrate. Let me guess where you would like to go...Pizza & Play?

Yes! That would be a great place to celebrate.

That was her favorite place of all to go. Not because of the pizza, but she loved all the games and things to do. Willy felt like she should have that opportunity, as she didn’t know very many people and their neighborhood was not conducive to having small children over to play. None of the neighbors had