I remember years ago when I called a listing agent to show his occupied property 
in Palm Bay. He said he would call me back when he could confirm the time with the owner. I didn't get a confirmation to show, so I called back. "They're not returning my calls, so just go ahead and use the combination lockbox, show it and leave your card. No one will be home," he said, so I proceeded to the house with my buyers.
We pulled in the driveway, got out and headed for the door. I spun the dial on the lockbox, I rang the doorbell and knocked. No car. No answer. I unlocked the door and carefully stuck my head in, calling out "Hello," as I always do before entering any house to show. No answer. It was dark inside. All shades were drawn. I began searching for the light switch, when I noticed a large stew pot simmering on the stove. Someone was cooking, but they were nowhere in sight. "Hello?" I called out again. No answer. We began sticking our heads in the open doorways. "Is anybody home?" I grabbed my cell phone and hit redial to get the listing agent back on the phone. "Is someone supposed to be home?" I asked. 'You're fine, just go ahead and show it.' Right then, my buyer, Mandy screamed. She went running past her husband and I, heading for the front door. "There's someone in there. There's a woman in that bed, but she's not moving." The front door slammed and she left the house.
"Hello" I called, "is anyone home?" No answer. I stuck my head in the bedroom door. She was right. There was a woman, laying in the bed, not responding. "We should go outside," I said, " we're going to scare her, if she wakes up to find us here." We started making our way back down the hall. I heard screaming in a foreign language coming from the bedroom. As I turned on my heel, the woman was heading down the hall towards us, wielding a baseball bat over her head. I'm not sure what she was saying, but judging by the look in her eyes she had every intention of using that bat.
Chris went running. I heard the front door slam again as he scurried outside.
I started backing up as I was trying to explain that I was sorry we had startled her and woken her up. I told her I had spoken to her Realtor and he didn't think that anyone would be home. She was still yelling, waving the bat towards me. I was pretty sure she had no idea what I was saying, nor did she care. So, I backed up towards the front door and slithered out, slamming it behind me. My heart was racing. I ran down to the end of the driveway to find Mandy and Chris hiding behind my van. Mandy was terrified.
I'm pretty sure that the crack of that bat against the side of my head would have been pretty painful.
Mandy and Chris did find a house to buy. This one was vacant. To this day, we still talk about the lady with the baseball bat that scared us half to death. Thank goodness she didn't have a gun.
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