The curious mystery of the sporadic lock

[sobrique]

A small puzzle has arisen, that is perplexing me somewhat.
4 housemate share a house. We shall refer to them as 1, 2, 3, 4.
Housemate 1 and 2 attend a gathering, to which housemate 3 is not invited, due to 'history'.
Housemate 1 and 2 return home afterwards, a little before midnight, to find that neither of their keys will turn 'much' in the lock. e.g. not enough to open it.
Housemate 1 and 2 knock lots.
Housemate 1 and 2 acquire ladder to knock on window of housemate 3. There is no response.
Housemate 1 and 2 try and sort locksmith, but are unable to do so at clear of midnight on a saturday, so go to a friends house to crash.
Housemate 1 and 2 return home the next morning, and try keys in lock. All is fine. Out of curiosity they try and flip the catch on the lock, and the lock behaves in the same way.

Housemate 3 is disinterested but was out.
Housemate 4 is in another country.
Housemate 1 is tired, and cancels plans for the day, in favour of a decent sleep.

Ah, but here's the mystery.
Housemate 1's computer was used between 8pm, and 11:30pm. To view Yahoo Games, and to read his livejournal, where the post about the gathering would have been visible.

Clearly, as no one was in, no one could have been doing it. And the lock must be very dodgy to deadlock itself, and undeadlock itself the following morning.

Comments

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Housemate 3 arrives home to find a dead fish in his bed. Housemates 1 & 2 were out.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't tempt housemate 1

[phyrbyrd.livejournal.com]

I would've done the same damn thing had I been Housemate 3, and Housemate 1 should check his computer for annoying new installations and evidence that somebody's sent off for sex toys by mail in his name...

[malal.livejournal.com]

I feel very sorry for any housemates you may have.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Really?
Can I ask uou to help me follow the line of reasoning please?

I don't think using someone elses computer is a particularly nice thing to do. I don't think doing so to read confidential material is right at all.
To my mind, locking someone out of their own house, for anything short of fear that they're about to assault you is out of order.
To do so because a 3rd party doesn't actually like you very much (for various reasons) is ... well somewhat beyond unacceptable behaviour.

I can't actually figure out what line of reasoning would be involved.

[huwjones.livejournal.com]

To be fair, AFAIK Housemate 1's computer is left open for people to check the web on and simiilar, as longs as they don't install things. So the use of yahoo games is only an issue due to the indication of presence.

Everything else is pretty shitty though.

[(Anonymous)]

As stated, Housemate 3 also browsed through housemate 1's friends list on LJ which just happened to include posts that were locked for "friends only".

Housemate 1's computer is now password locked when he's out or asleep.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

"To my mind, locking someone out of their own house, for anything short of fear that they're about to assault you is out of order.
To do so because a 3rd party doesn't actually like you very much (for various reasons) is ... well somewhat beyond unacceptable behaviour."

In Spades.

Plus it's actually very illegal indeed.

[phyrbyrd.livejournal.com]

My line of reasoning is that I am not an overly confident person, whatever the outward image may be, and if everyone in the house went off to a party without me I would be less likely to think 'Well, what happened was rotten, I don't blame them for dwelling on it, I'll just find something else to do'. In fact, I'd certainly think 'That was ages ago. Everybody hates me, I'll just sit here... on my own... and think about how much everyone hates me and how bad that makes me feel.'
Luckily I haven't been involved in many arguments lately as I try to avoid them, so I don't get much chance to think those sorts of thoughts.

[(Anonymous)]

Sure, it sucks to be excluded for whatever reason, but taking it out on people who were in no way responsible?

Hell, I _tried_ to avoid the situation. Housemate 3 visits his mum on a saturday. I went out midafternoon to do some laundry and didn't return home till midnight(ish) because I didn't want to have to lie about where I was going or say "I'm going to something you're not invited to" as that has lead to problems in the past.

[phyrbyrd.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wouldn't take it out on people who weren't involved. That wouldn't be fair. I'd just try and make them feel guilty.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

And that's better?

[the-wood-gnome.livejournal.com]

trying to make someone guilty, isn't that the same as taking it out on them? It's just using a more underhanded method.

emotional blackmail is still blackmail.

[phyrbyrd.livejournal.com]

Stop demonising me - I AM only human, you know.

[the-wood-gnome.livejournal.com]

and so am I, and so are they.

revenge like this in such a situation is just going to make things much worse. Someone slights me so I make them feel bad. If they slighted me because they don't like me, making them 'feel bad' is not going to make them like me any more.

[veremit.livejournal.com]

Surely, housemate 1's computer was passworded, and therefore access wasn't available .....

.. or are some so (naive?)/trustworthy than anyone can free-for-all !

Why don't housemates one and two change the locks?! :D

More seriously, isn't this majorly petty? I mean, surely we;re talking about supposedly 20-something year olds, not early teenagers .. or am I somewhat mistaken ...

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

20+, indeed.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

Almost 30, in fact.

[velvet-nothing.livejournal.com]

I am SOOOOO glad I no longer have housemate issues!

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

What country is Housemate 4 in? Maybe they snuck back?

Where did Housemate 3 claim to be?

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

America

and

"Out"

Respectively.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

America, huh? A likely story, methinks they've been hiding under the floor boards all this time and chose to sneak out and get a dose of Yahoo! Games on this special night. For fear of detection they flipped the door over to deadlock while sneaking out and could not open the door upon the arrival of their unfortunate housemates due to their desire to remain hidden.

That's also why those biscuits keep mysteriously disappearing and the anti-freeze goes so fast.

[huwjones.livejournal.com]

Deja Vu. @_@

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

You've had a housemate pretend to be on holiday but in fact hiding under the floorboards before?!?

*boggle*

[huwjones.livejournal.com]

No. Real Deja Vu.
I had this bizzare feeling I had read that comment befire somewhere else

[crashbarrier.livejournal.com]

All I can say is .. typical.

And highlights the very reasons why housemate 3 is in the position that he is in.

Housemate 3 shall be dealt back what he has dealt out.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

To housemate 1 & 2: if it happens again call the Police, they should help you enter your building. They should also have numerous words with housemate 3 for illegally preventing you from entering your place of residence.

[(Anonymous)]

The police _were_ called. The options they gave were the numbers of some 24 hour locksmiths (none of which answered the phone) or coming over to break the door down. Sad thing is, all I _really_ needed was a really long ladder and I could have got in one of my bedroom windows. Unfortunately, finding a long ladder at 1:30am on a saturday night isn't the easiest of things.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Probably just as well on the ladders, given the neighbourhood.

[(Anonymous)]

(Housemate 2 is attracted to dramabombs like a moth to a light.)

Actually, some incredibly nice neighbors (who I had previously thought were a bit pants due to loud dogs, but were in fact amazingly helpful, standing out with us in the cold for a couple hours, bandaging up my hand when I screwed it up clambering over the house, and giving us cups of tea) did have a decent ladder, which we used at various angles across the house. Unfortunately, it just wasn't quite long enough.