Here's the story directly from one of my agents last weekend....the story is a bit long, but I think the punch line is amazing....And we'd like your input on what our next step should be....
==========Statement as given by my real estate agent =========================
On Saturday January 26th, around 4:20 pm, I completed my open house at 10575 Corte Jardin Del Mar in Carmel Valley. I left this property heading North on E. Ocean Air Drive toward the intersection of E. Ocean Air Drive and Carmel Mountain Road. Upon pulling up to the stop light at the intersection of E. Ocean Air Drive and Carmel Mountain Road, I witnessed a man pull over to the right heading East on Carmel Mountain Road maybe 30 feet before he crossed E. Ocean Air Drive. I saw him get out of his car, walk up to my sign, grab it off the landscaping and then heave it over the concrete wall. I rolled down my window and began honking and yelling that he could not do that. He looked my way and walked back toward his car.
The light changed green and I pulled through the intersection and parked on the right hand side of E. Ocean Air Drive just past Carmel Mountain Road. I jumped out started walking over to the car, which I believe was a new Cadillac SRX Crossover, Red. I motioned for the man to get out of his car and talk to me which he did. I immediately asked him what he thought he was doing. He responded that I couldn't have my sign in the public right of way. I explained that I didn't have it in the right of way and that it was off to the side on the landscaping, completely off the sidewalk and out of the right of way. He responded that I couldn't put it there either, but gave me no other explanation.
I asked "What gives you authority to vandalize my sign?" The man responded that he was a member of the local board. He didn't identify himself, who he represented, or what he meant. At the time, I thought that he must be talking about the local HOA board. I asked if I could give him my contact information so he could send me the rules and that I would be sure to abide by them. He didn't offer me his card, and he wouldn't even take mine. Instead, he just shook his head moving around in a nervous, irritated manner and began saying that he could throw my signs in the trash just as the police could throw my signs in the trash. As he's telling me this, he started acting even more nervous and irritated by my questions and at one point I thought he was going to back up into the traffic on Carmel Mountain Road. He then turned and walked back to his car and began getting into it.
I again offered to give him my contact information to which he responded, "I don't have time for that." I said, "But you have time to trash peoples signs." He just shook his head and got back in the car and started to drive off. Even worse was the manner in which he departed. Instead of dealing with this in the kind of serious manner that it deserved, he just looked at me, smiled and waved good-bye. He never identified himself, and I guess he thought he was just going to drive away....I guess he did not realize that I wrote down his license plate number.
I retrieved my sign and put it in my car. As I was leaving I noticed just across E. Ocean Air, on the same side of Carmel Mountain Road, there was a Keller Williams sign right in the middle of the sidewalk. As I made a right turn down Carmel Mountain Road toward Highway 56, I noticed both a Keller Williams and a Prudential sign on the sidewalk at the corner of Carmel Mountain Road and Senda Luna Llena. These signs were clearly in the public right of way where my signs were not. Why the man decided to single my signs out for his outburst was beyond my comprehension. I then made my way down to the intersection of Carmel Mountain Road where it turns into El Camino Real. Though I had placed a sign on that intersection as well, it was now gone. I assume that the same man did something with it as well. I gathered the rest of my signs and headed home after a long day of real estate.
I contacted John Hokkanen, who heads up the real estate team and told him what had happened and gave him the license plate number. He did some research and said he found a man who used that license plate as his email address and that it looked like the man, a Mr. XXXXXXXXXX, lived in the area. John said that he also sent an email to this email address asking if this was the person involved with the sign or if he knew who had the red vehicle with XXXXXXXX license plate. John gave me a couple of addresses that he said appeared to be related to the email address, and suggested that I might knock on some doors to see if someone might be able to tell me where Mr. XXXXXXXXXXX lived so that I could so advise the police and make it easy for them to go over and talk to Mr. XXXXXXXXXXX and see if he had my sign.
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John was right - he had found the guy that did this. The AMAZING THING? This guy (whose name has been excised to protect the guilty - at least at this point) is a member of the Carmel Valley Planning Board. He was "deputized" by the "Neighborhood Code Enforcement" program to be the eyes and ears of code enforcement for the area. I've reviewed the documents for the neighborhood code enforcement program - they talk about being goodwill ambassadors, and handing business cards to the public when asked for identification. So protocol wasn't followed by a longshot, and further review of the neighborhood program documents doesn't show sign enforcement as being on the list of enforcement priorities for the program. The program appears mainly to be about health and safety and eyes/ears stuff (e.g., someone is mis-grading a slope or there's sewage leaking from a pipe or these trees are dangerously close to power lines, etc.)
WHAT DO YOU THINK MY AGENT SHOULD DO? This guy can't be allowed to run amok and trash the real estate agents' signs. We have not a clue as to why he went beserk with our sign, and he never explained it.
Let us know what you think we should do....We're thinking options might include: 1) going to the press; 2) going to the mayor; 3) going to the city attorney; 4) filing a police report against the guy; 5) ....... (you suggest).
Margaret Hokkanen, Carlsbad Real Estate
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