"It's Hooker-Palooza, Kelly!"

So, my place of employment happens to be in a very undesireable part of Phoenix. In fact, my boss actually shot and killed an intruder in our front lobby before I started working here. If you have never been exposed to the underbelly of society, some things can be quite shocking.

For example, it is disturbing when a drug/whore house begins operating directly across the street. I am not even kidding. We used to have an older, African-American buddy living across the street named Jerry. Jerry was kind enough to let me park in his front lot and he would keep an eye on me when I was going in or coming out of the office.

Last week I was parking in my usual spot in front of Jerry's yard when I noticed someone standing in the doorway of the house watching me. I got out of my jeep and the person, who I initially thought was a teenage boy, walked towards me. I was surprised because the person, who I would soon find out was a middle-aged woman, was carrying a Corona beer. This is at 7am. This is not my Jerry.

I politely asked her where Jerry was and she answered back a very confusing babble about a short man. Hmmm. I moved my jeep immediately and walked to our shop, worrying about what had happened to my buddy.

Fast forward to this week. I return to work on Tuesday from a vacation in Utah to find that Jerry's house is now a full-fledged drug/prostitution operation. Jerry has moved in with relatives somewhere and the house is being rented out. My service manager at work that goes by the name, "Hillbilly" announced the neighboring development by exclaiming loudly, "It's Hooker-Palooza, Kelly!"

He wasn't kidding! In one day there were over 55 cars that paid a visit to Jerry's house. One guy comes by 3 times a day and is in and out with whatever he is snorting,shooting or smoking in less than 3 minutes. Cab cars pull up with prostitutes of various ethnicities and ages and people come and go like a subway depot. It is incredible. Have the police been involved, you might ask? Well, yes. Has anything really been done? Well, no. This is also an unfortunately shocking part of this entire thing. Nothing is happening and I am not sure why.

So, in the meantime, my boss has armed the females with pepper spray. Wildfire, it is called. "When your life is on the line..." Well, I hope that I don't have to use this spray on anyone and I hope my life isn't "on the line" anytime soon. What I do know is that these people across the street, their lives ARE on the line. I don't care at all about the dealers, but these prostitutes and these drug addicted lost souls make me very sad. This is one small house in one small city block. Do you know how many Jerry's houses there are? It is terrifying.