Thanks for all of my readers who have alerted me to the news that Penny Boudreau has been arrested in connection with her daughter’s murder. You can read the news here.
I wrote that I didn’t trust Penny Boudreau back in February of this year shortly after her daughter disappeared. You can read my original thoughts here.
I think Penny will likely confess to her involvement.
…when you have a home improvement project?
The reason I wonder is because every time I get quotes for a project, I am astounded at the huge discrepancy in prices I get for the exact same project. If more people checked on the pricing variances, I can only assume the outlandish quoters would dissipate because they couldn’t make a living, but obviously they are, and they aren’t shy about asking for double the price because they know they can get away with it.
Read moreWe have a bathroom remodel project. The first quote we got was $2,600–just to lay the tile. Can you believe it?
We have a 120 square feet for the floor, and we have a 40 x 40 shower. We are doing a little design on the floor and in the shower, but nothing by any means extravagant. We want 7 clipped corners on the tile floor to have inserts put in, and we want a chair rail installed as a frame around the shower fixtures, and we have a niche. That’s all.
We were astounded that laying tile was so expensive so we told this first guy we wanted more quotes. He told us he was only charging $5.00/square foot to lay the tile, but when I put my calculator to the numbers, it came up well over $11.00 square foot. When he saw me run the numbers, he immediately balked that he made an error and dropped his price down to $9.00 a square foot ($500 off). That made me mad, so I called the next guy. Furthermore, this guy only had a PO Box for address, and a cell phone which didn’t sit well with me. I later looked to see if he was licensed, and found he is not. Obviously he is hiding from something. He isn’t publicly advertising anywhere.
The next quote came in at $2600. We couldn’t believe it!! This is just to install the tile. It does not include the price of the tile itself which is also ungodly.
All the contractors tell us the job will require one week’s worth of work. I am not sure college pays off anymore!
The next guy? It only gets worse. He wanted three thousand. I feel taken just thinking about it. But knowing the first guy wasn’t likely honest, and the second guy had no personality, but rather hinted at a being an egotist, I decided to see if I could negotiate this guy down because he seemed reasonable and down-to-earth. So I told him our two previous quotes and asked if he could come down because we flat couldn’t afford to pay his price. The reality is I flat wouldn’t pay his price.
Guess what? Amazingly, he did. He came down on the spot to $2600. I told him I would get back to him, and then I called the next guy– a fourth guy and guess what? He beat them all.
He wanted five thousand for the same job!! Yes, you read that right. It’s not a typo. This guy made me think I was in the wrong profession–that’s for sure.
Can you believe all these quotes I got for the same 176 square feet? What am I missing?? All of these contractors showed us reputable photos of their work, and came from recommendations (via friends or local tile shops). And mind you all of these guys told me they could start my project within 5 days–which means they did have much work.
Why was there such a huge variation in pricing?
I can only surmise three things that could explain this:
What do you think?
I suspect it is a combination of me appearing gullible. Ha! Thank you very much. What can I do about it? You have to admit that it is funny, but potentially true because I have always been told I have an honest and trusting face. Add to that not enough people are likely getting multiple quotes, and hence are way too trusting of any stranger that looks clean cut that comes to quote them.
I had an interesting morning. I was out taking a walk, and when I came back, tucked in the wooded side of our driveway almost secluded from view was a car that I didn’t notice earlier.
It unnerved me. Was there someone in it? Or was it just parked there? There were plenty of other places one could park. Why here? Were they trying to hide the car? Was someone up at the house trying to find me even though the gate was locked? I could not see.
Since it was quiet around the neighborhood, and there wasn’t another soul around, I stood there for a few minutes pondering the situation. I didn’t know what to do.
I didn’t want to walk by the strange car because someone could be hiding outside of my view, and there wouldn’t be much I could do if they tried to grab or assault me. It was unlikely someone would hear me scream. I didn’t want to go to our front door which was a distance from the driveway either because again there wouldn’t be much I could do if someone tried to accost me. So I stood there thought.
Read more Not knowing what to do, I decided to see if anyone was in the car. I walked on the far side of the street getting only as close as was required to see inside the car, and the car was empty. I could see the license plate, and it was not a local vehicle.
In the past, cars have been dumped in our area — as was a body — when we first moved in — within 5 miles of here. So was this foul play? That’s all I could think about.
I thought about which neighbor to approach. The one on my side of the car was too elderly to help. She is alone and in her mid 80s, and just as I contemplated going past the car to get to my other neighbors, he drove by and was I ever happy to see him!! At least I wouldn’t have to walk up to the house alone.
I ran down his driveway and ask him to walk me to my door. On the walk back, he told me he spotted the car at 6:00 a.m. this morning and figured we had a visitor. I told him I didn’t know the car, and then he suggested I call the police.
We looked the car over. It had a sticker that said in Spanish that it was imported from Mexico or something to that effect. It was a newer model Nissan (within the past five years), in good condition and all that was visible inside the car were napkins, which looked slightly used. Otherwise all was in order. The doors were locked.
I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a stolen car, or if someone was disposing of a car and something way more sinister. Honestly, I was rattled to the core. The car was clearly parked so a person could have exited without being seen if there was a security camera present. The trees were perfectly position to the car to provide cover on exiting. That bothered me!
Who was this?
I went into the house and called my husband who didn’t answer at work. I left him a message and told him I was calling the police. My husband never called back before the police arrived.
The police came, took a report and told me if I didn’t want to pay to have it towed now, that they would “red tag it” and leave it for 48 hours after which time they would impound it.
I thought ‘oh yuck’. What if this is sinister?! I have to look at that car for the next two days…but I didn’t have any other options because I wasn’t going to pay for the towing.
The police suggested that perhaps someone’s car broke down. Of course, it was plausible. They looked up the owners name and share it with me. It was Oscar and X XXXX. I didn’t know an Oscar. Never met a man with that name in my life. I asked them from what town, and they said they didn’t remember.
I was really rattled. I let my emotions run away with me, and I feared someone with sinister intentions was walking around my neighborhood. When would they be back? Was I safe out in the yard? The police walked the neigbhorhood to make sure everything was in place.
And then when I went back into the house after talking to the police, there was a message on my answering machine. My husband was talking and his tone was visibly annoyed. He said I needed to call him right away — that the car was Oscars — his co-worker! He reminded me they were sharing a ride starting today. Today was the first day they were car pooling!!! He feared I towed away poor Oscar’s car on their first day of a shared ride. My husband wasn’t happy contemplating what he might have to tell Oscar about what happened to his car.
Thankfully, I didn’t tow the car away so his worries were dissolved and the humor of the situation hit the both of us when I answered the phone as he tried to reach me again.
I completely forgot!
I immediately called the police and the neighbors to explain my forgetfulness! I never envisioned a car in the driveway when my husband told me he was carpooling.
I also high-tailed it out to the driveway, and I removed the big red sticker threatening the impounding of Oscar’s car. Was I ever embarrassed!!
I sure let fear and my emotions overcome my calm logical thinking. I think I’ve been reading too many crime stories.
Thanks to Asai for sharing this breaking story. Read more here.
I guess that would definitely tell us the truth in this case, and leave no more doubts.
I always struggle determining which cases I should put into the “Dishonesty caught to date before the truth was known” column on the right. With that, I would like your opinion.
Which of the following cases do you believe falls into this category? You can choose more than one option in the poll below, if desired. I have linked to my original posts so you can be the judge.
While I believe Joran Van der Sloot has confessed, can we say it is the truth now?
With Matthew Gretz, I give reasons why I had my doubts about him in my original post, but for some reason I didn’t out-and-out say that I didn’t trust him. I did, however, write enough that if Gretz was found to be innocent, I would have been told I missed it and I clearly would have, but I didn’t.
And with Hans Reiser, he was simply convicted of murder, but does that mean we know the truth?
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Update Added on July 8, 2008:
On July 7th, 2008, Hans Reiser led police to Nina Reiser’s body.
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