“I recently listed and staged a condo in a not-so-good neighborhood. Buyers often complained about the neighbor’s music being too loud making the listing sit longer on the market than it should have.

“Well, it finally sold after several flips so I was excited to be able to finally clean out my staging items to use at other listings. I noticed the neighbors next door coming and going into their vehicle (parked right next to mine) and just smiled at them, glad to be finally wrapping up the sale.

“As I was hauling out chairs, tables, and tons of boxes of staging materials, making several trips back and forth to my car, I was suddenly surrounded by several police cars and 10 policeman with guns aimed. They told me to quickly go back into the unit and lock the door.

“As it turns out the neighbors were driving stolen vehicles and selling drugs. The police moved in and arrested everyone in the unit. They then came through my client’s unit to check out the back yard making sure there wasn’t anyone hiding back there.

“The whole thing happened so quickly I didn’t have time to panic. Afterwards I realized how frustrated the police must have been trying to make the arrest with me in the way the whole time. They probably rolled their eyes and swore the whole time while I loaded my car. I had a good laugh after it was all over but was thankful it happened so quickly and without any incidents.

“Needless to say, I didn’t send out any ‘just sold’ postcards to the neighborhood.”