Rental Turf War Escalates

Is the real estate market so bad now that the rental companies are fighting over customers? Not really — it should work the other way. Would-be buyers still waiting for the housing market to bottom out are choosing to rent longer, meaning companies like Apartment People and Chicago Apartment Finders should have plenty of business to go around.

Somebody forgot to tell that to Robert Talamine, an Apartment People employee who was arrested for slashing tires on one of the ubiquitous Apartment Finders red PT Cruisers. He has now been linked to similar incidents with several other Apartment Finders cars. An Apartment People spokeswoman says there have been other provocations in the past, like Apartment Finders employees parking their marked PT's in front of Apartment People offices. She warned of further retaliation. "The People don't play," she said. "You step on our turf, and your shit get cut."

’Tis the season to slash someone's tires. This is now the second case we've read about this week, and the third one this year.