abalone shells <6 months collecting off the beach I'm renting an apt on. the landlord is a poacher and sexual predator and I want to vent about it
cat tax included
Elk, Mendocino County, California.
I'm a remote worker and a young single woman - this is relevant because the town I moved to in January - Elk, a town of less than 200 in Mendocino County - doesn't have any other single female tenants.
I checked.
I checked because when I moved here, things were immediately weird. It's a literal oceanfront apartment for less than $3000/month, so I figured there would be some issues, but figured it'd be more than worth it to live in literal paradise: undeveloped oceanfront property on the California coast. I thought I hit the jackpot signing this lease, and mentally prepared for bad weather, no utilities, gossipy neighbors, and the other usual rural bullshit.
What I did not expect was sexual assault and poaching.
The landlord and owner of the property is involved in red abalone poaching - there's a place called Laurel Gulch that's called locally "Poacher's Gulch" that sits on the property. More abalone - pinto, reds - than I have ever seen in my life in the tidepools, inaccessible to anyone except people who risk trespassing or who have explicit permission of the landlord.
The landlord, a local white guy who has groups of random Asian "friends" who come up from the Bay Area to dive on this property at night, without lights. Poached abalone sells for up to $200/lb, and most are more than 3 lbs each.
At first, I had no idea about the poaching, and just thought random people were trespassing onto the property to dive and sleep here at night, and told the landlord about this within the first few weeks I moved in. He confirmed it was probably locals without a place to sleep, told me he knew one of them, and said they were mostly harmless, to not worry about it, but to call him if I saw them on the property.
The very first time I did call him about who I now know were poachers on the property at 2am, he came over, told me he'd "wait in my room while I slept to make sure I was safe", then I woke up to his hands inside my bed. We had not done anything even remotely related to that before - it came out of complete left field, and he has a partner of 9 years.
Since this happened, he's made my life fucking miserable. I didn't report the assault and took weeks to start reporting and defending myself: during that time, itt took about five seconds of digging into the property to figure out the poaching angle. Finding abalone tools and other diving equipment on the property solidified it.
I reported him to the property manager for the inappropriate sexual contact, and he responded by trying to evict my cat (unsuccessful, because he's a service animal, but that gives you a picture of who we're dealing with here) - then when he couldn't evict my cat, he has now started directly trying to make my life worse. Yesterday he had some man I don't know bang on my door during the middle of my presentation to hand me back the rent he charged me 8 days ago, unprompted, and with zero explanation.
I put in a tip to Cal Fish and Wildlife, and an officer came out and spoke to me imemdiately (while I was polishing the shells above, actually) - it's not the first time I've spoken to a law enforcement officer who was lying about who he knew, and I immediately picked up on the fact that this officer - one of only 3 or 4 who patrol the entire County, which is NUTS - is friends with the owner and in tacit approval of the poaching. Like I said - this is a town of 200, the landlord is a city commissioner, and his son is in law enforcement. You cannot make a more untouchable person, and that's why he is so brazen about sexual assault and poaching.
In response to the CFW visit, the landlord left his abalone tool out on the beach for everyone to see for over two weeks starting the day after the visit. They are brazen, because they think they're untouchable.
If anyone wants to actually help me with this poaching problem, contact me.
also - this photo is like 1/5 of the shells I've collected on this beach. because I (and the poachers) are literally the only people with access to the tidepools, and it is absolutely incredible. more life than I've ever seen in one spot.