I had a buyer, Pat, who worked for an airline whose headquarters were situated in Southfield. Pat wanted to live in the same town for an easy commute. So we looked at this one adorable ranch and immediately knew this was her house. We were standing in the family room, gazing out at the back yard where her 10 year old son was already happily playing.

I was leaning on a big piece of furniture and tuned around and realized it was an old Wells Fargo safe. I kiddingly said to my buyer that I wondered if there was anything inside it. I pulled on the wheel lock and the safe opened. We turned our attention to the inside of the safe and gazed in horror as we realized it was filled with guns. There were pistols, revolvers, rifles. We were both so scared. I quickly slammed the door closed and it locked. We couldn’t get it open again.

I said to Pat, “Do you want to continue the tour of this house or get the heck out of here”? She said, “What do you think this is? The Michigan Militia?” “I’m not sure,“ I said. We headed to the basement to finish the tour where we encountered an entire workbench of guns in various stages of dress and undress. At that point we walked quickly back up the stairs. I turned off the lights, locked the door and we left. We did find out from the other realtor that the seller was a state police sergeant. (I wondered if he knew the undercover narcotics man). This officer was in charge of the state police people’s guns and confiscated weapons.

Later that day, I found out that the seller was horrified when he learned the safe had not been locked, as he had two children coming home after school. For a few minutes, the seller tried to “put the blame on Mame” and blamed me for the incident. I shouldn’t have opened the safe but the greater culpability belonged to the seller. It really was the house for Pat so that night we wrote an offer. Thirty days later, we sat at the closing table, finishing the deal, minus any guns. Her son was ecstatic but horribly disappointed when they moved in and he couldn’t find any guns in the house.