Years ago I was called to schedule a consult in the Newport Hills neighborhood of Bellevue. A nice neighborhood, so I didn't think twice about the consult. The home owners son wanted to meet at the house to discuss selling items. His mother had passed away and he needed to get the home empty; a pretty straight forward scenario for us.
We scheduled the meeting for 5:30pm after he got off work. It was winter time so it was already dark. Not a big deal, nice neighborhood and people were home in neighboring houses.
The meeting started off just like all others. We walked the home, discussed various items in the home, then discussed options for the remaining items. Again, pretty straight forward.
As I was leving the home, the son stopped me and said "I have one last thing to ask you about." He said that there were items in the garage that we had missed. We walked into the garage and he walked over to a shelf and picked up a hatchet. He held the handle in one hand and was slapping the blade in his other hand. He looked at me and said, "What do you think we could do with this?"
Okay, to say I wasn't scared would be a lie. I kept calm and started thinking of my options. This person was obviously trying to scare or intimidate me. Did he not like my suggestions for his mothers home? This felt a bit extreme.
I had a thick leather binder in my hand and was thinking I could use that, if needed, if he came at me with the hatchet. I began moving backwards to provide as much distance between the two of us; crazy.
As he kept hitting his hand with the hatchet I responded to his question by saying "Well, my husband uses his hatchet to chop kindling." He just kept looking at me and didn't say a word. At this point I said, "It is time for me to go home to my family. Please open the garage door." He looked at me, slowly walked over to the garage door opener and pressed the button.
I backed out of the garage, walked to my car and prompty drove away. I called my husband, hysterical, about what had just happened. We discussed what to do. I considered calling the police but didn't. Is intimidating someone in your home with a hatchet a crime?
Obviously, we did not work with the family.
To this day I regret not having called the police. I have always wondered what else this person may have done to other people coming into the home.
Downsizing should never be dangerous. Often there are high emotions from family members. We do our best to address these emotions and make the transitions as smooth as possible.