Hey guys, I recently got back from a trip to Mexico, we had some work done on our house while we were gone. I am not blaming the guy as he is a nice guy but he brought his kids over and they ripped apart on of my ho engines! [censored] its safe to say i was more then a little ticked off. Plus a lot of my n scale freight cars had missing wheels. Ahhh i dont like little kids ruining my stuff! This happen to any of you guys/girls?
Tim
Explain the damage to him and if he has any kind of character at all, he will gladly pay you for the damage his kids caused. If it were me and my kids did the same thing, I would have apologized and had the cash in hand to pay you.
“Nice” guys don’t do crap like this without rectifiying the problem.
NO, it has not happened yet. I don’t expect it to. I (or my partner) am always around if people are working on my house. We are not ever gone while they work. Ever.Never. If we can’t be here his father will come. Or mine will. Someone will be there. Always.
I suppose, playing devil’s advocate maybe, that he really did not know what they did/had done.
I mean, remember, many people think we just “play with trains”. Therefore if he was aware he kids had “played” with them, he thought nothing of it, and really may not have notice the breakage they caused. He may not have known the value of what was there.
Explain nicely to him and see what his reaction is.
Hope this helps, but I sincerely mean what I said in the first paragraph.
He needs to know and frankly if he is a good father, he will obligate the kids to own up and apologize to you. They need to learn from this too. That is in addition to his making you whole economically.
Not totally on topic but I have met many fellow model railroaders by having them see my trains while they are in the house to do their work, be it carpentry, electrical, plumbing, HVAC whatever.
Dave Nelson
I would like to believe that the father is not aware of the damage. As a result he would have no reason to say or do anything. As stated earlier: let him know and see how he handles it from there.
Not acceptable but as the others have stated, start working with the “Nice guy” to cover the damages. Seems that the children were destructive and showed no respect for others property.
My trains and layout are in a spare bedroom. To control access, I replaced the bedroom doorknob with an entrance doorknob with a lockset (like a front door). Whenever I am not home the room is locked. This keeps the cat, preachers and small kids out. They will need to damage something to get into the trainroom without a key.
Jim
The moral to this story is to NEVER leave home when you know someone else will be there. I never leave contractors by themselves. They will always cut corners if left alone and even though you may know the guy real well, there may be others in his crew that may not be as reliable or trustworthy. (i.e. his kids)
I watch contractors like a hawk when they work on my house. For example, I live in a hurricane prone area and when I had a new roof put on my house I wanted it to be a very sound roof. I contracted for 6 nails per shingle. I actually had to stand out there and watch them because every chance they got when I went inside the house, they would try to put in only 4 nails per shingle. This may be a small thing, but I trusted the contractor to comply with the deal, do a good job, and he and his crew didn’t until I stood out there and watched them. Everyday there was a new guy on the job site and since I didn’t know him, I just made sure I watched him so that nothing would go wrong.
It’s sad, but trusting others now-a-days is a thing of the past. His kids weren’t watched very well while he was working on your place, and now you’re going to have to live with the consequences because of this guy trusting his kids with your trains while you were away.
Real nice guys have real disiplined children and they are at home not on the job site.
Many years ago my nephew (he was 7 then, he’s 24 now) got into my train room and was messing around with my trains while I was at work. When I got home I discovered that one locomotive (an Athearn PA2) had hit the floor along with three boxcars. He had also spilled paint on the layout which got into two turnouts and irrepairably damaged them. He wasn’t supposed to be there. The room was locked when I left. Clever guy that he is, he had figured out the credit card trick. I told his mother (my older sister) about it anbd he admitted to it. She made good on the damages and the money came out of his allowance. I nailed an additional strip of wood onto the doorjam so that he couldn’t use his little card trick again.
That is too bad. As they say “kids will be kids”. Now having said that, if the father has any respect for you and his kids he should have them pay up or at least the father should pay for any of the broken parts HIS kids have done. As a kid I was told don’t touch things that don’t belong to you, but then again, I was a kid once too.
Ethics would dictate that children would not be allowed on a job site for any reason. Ethics would also dictate that under no circumstances whatsoever would anybody or anything connected with the company be allowed to touch or handle anything in a person’s private home without express permission of the homeowner.
Sure, he probably is a great guy, and he probably will pay for damages, but the bottom line is that the situation NEVER should have happened in the first place. It’s a sad truth that nowadays nobody respects other people’s property anymore.
I am sorry you have to experience this sort of thing and I truly hope you never go through it again.
Well here’s a potential problem:
“I am not blaming the guy as he is a nice guy but …”
Is he a “nice guy” to his kids? Is he familiar with “tough love”?
My guess is “yes” and then “no”.
That sucks. What a way to end a vacation. let us know how it turns out.
What were the kids doing there anyhow? Is this a real contractor or just some guy you know do a side job?
in addition to all of the above this nice guy would never get another invitation to my home . i’d find someone else to provide whatever services he was providing for you
i’ll forgive , but that doesn’t mean i forget
Somewhat along those lines… Several years ago, while I was away working at camp, my brother had some of his buddies over for a “model painting session.” When I came home and saw what they left for me, I was rather upset. Not only was my entire paint selection used up (or left open to harden!) but my expensive brushes were ruined, and several tools were broken. Needless to say, he was forced to not only pay for it, but anything else I wanted as well. Let’s just say I improved my brush selection, as well as finally getting better knives 
I’d contact the BBB and possibly law enforcement to generate a report. What happened is illegal and could be actionable in court.
Ahhh…nice guys dont invite themselves and their kids over to use other peoples property without thier knowledge and permission.
I liken this to finding out that someone has used my car without my permission, damaged it, and now theres a question of who will pay for the repairs. He should of course, he should also apologize and have his kids apologize.
PS I would NEVER let anyone into my house without my being there …NEVER.
Not to be anal but,he would pay the damages his brats did or we would meet in court.His call not mine.
I fully agree never leave contractors alone.Some will cut corners.
I only want family or trusted friends in my house when I am not home.
Well my dad sells building materials, and he sells to him and we have had work done with him before. Its not like anything was broken beyond repair but now I have to go back and fix my stuff! I cant really charge him anything because It wont cost me anything but time to fix the stuff. Oh well I guess when I was younger I ruined stuff also… Happy Model railroading!