A Georgia Couple is Surprised to Find a Vulture in House Upon Returning Home: It Entered 'Through the Doggie Door'

A Georgia couple is surprised to come home and find a vulture in their home alone with their dog named "Georgia." So they get their dog to come outside and grab two umbrellas and open the back door to their deck. The vulture is seen flying away. The encounter was all captured on video.

Vulture (stock photo) by Nick Kwan on Unsplash

ABC 7 News reported that Josh Totri and fiancée Vernalisa Rouguex arrived home in Roswell, Georgia on 10 June 2023. They had only been out for about 15 minutes, and that's when Josh first sees the vulture in his home.

Security Camera Captures Couple's Reaction to Vulture in Home

The security video camera on the front porch captured what happened when they arrived home.

Image by Jacob Totri

Josh enters the home and Vernalisa follows him. They barely get inside and Josh says, "Ohhhh, okay."

Vernalisa replies, "What?" and exits quickly before seeing the vulture. Josh follows her back onto the front porch.

Josh tells her, "There's a vulture in the house."

She says, "A what?"

He says, "A vulture."

Vernalisa says, "Liar." He reconfirms it, and she calls him a "liar" once more.

Vernalisa says, "What are you talking about?"

Josh says, "That scared me."

Vernalisa asks, "Where is Georgia? Is she okay?"

Josh opens the front door again and they call for their dog to come outside on the front porch.

Then Vernalisa says, "What vulture? What are you talking about?" before asking "How did it get into the house?"

Josh replies, "Through the doggie door."

Vernalisa says she is "We're never opening that doggie door again."

Moments later on the security camera, Vernalisa says, "I'm gonna get the umbrellas."

She is seen grabbing two umbrellas in the picture below and they walk around the house to the back deck.

Moments later, the vulture is seen hopping onto their back deck and flying to perch on a neighbor's roof.

The video can be seen below.

A couple vowed to seal their doggie door after a vulture got into their house. Jacob Totri said his fiancée armed herself with two umbrellas and chased the large bird out of their home "in a triumphant Mary Poppins-like stance." https://t.co/YMHjrAMdgZ pic.twitter.com/n91pWQHpyz

— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) June 18, 2023

Thoughts

Have you ever had a bird or wild animal in your home before? What did you do to remove it or get it out?

(Share your experiences in the comments)

Please share this article on social media so others can read about this unusual encounter with a vulture.

Sources

"Caught on camera; Couple vows to seal doggie door after vulture gets into house." ABC 7 News. 17 June 2023.

ABC 7 Chicago on Twitter: @ABC7Chicago

A Realtor Finds a Million Pennies in Crawlspace of his Late Father-in-Law's L.A. Home. He Listed Them on OfferUp for $25K

A Canadian realtor finds over a million pennies after cleaning out his late father-in-law's Los Angeles home. He can't find a bank that will take all of his pennies in one batch, so he has turned to the app OfferUp to sell them. At face value, it would cost a person $10,000 to buy a million pennies, but he has priced this lot of copper pennies at $25,000.

Pennies; credit: KMR Photography (CC BY 2.0)

What would you do with a million pennies? Would you build a vault and swim around in them like the fictional character Scrooge McDuck? Or would you donate them to a worthy cause?

A realtor can't find a bank willing to take all of his pennies at once. In fact, one bank said, "Don't bring them here." Is that even legal?

Man Finds At Least a Million Pennies in Late Father-in-Law's Home

KTLA 5 News reported that realtor John Reyes is in a quandary after going through the belongings in his father-in-law's former home and discovering over a million pennies in the crawlspace. His father-in-law, Fritz had this home that was built in the 1900s and is thought to have been a bed-and-breakfast at one time.

After Fritz passed away, the family went through the belongings in the house, and during that time they found the pennies.

The family would like to renovate this home but first requires the arduous task of going through all of the belongings. This is when they make the discovery of all of the pennies.

John spoke to KTLA 5 News with words that many of us can relate to when speaking about our grandparents' homes.

Pennies found in the crawlspace; credit: John Reyes

He said, “They kept everything,” which is a polite way of not saying his father-in-law was a "hoarder," referring to those that are unwilling to throw away anything in their home.

They were able to confirm that the pennies found were copper after selecting three random bags and checking through them. After weighing the bags, they estimated that there are at least 1 million pennies in this stash they found, and they moved them to another location for "safekeeping."

The task of moving the pennies took them a whole day.

John said:

“Literally bag-by-bag, we had to take them out of the basement, up the stairs, and into the trucks … it took hours,” Reyes said. “It took a whole day just to get them out of the crawlspace.” -John Reyes

John and his family decided it wouldn't be prudent to take the pennies to a Coinstar machine, after all, they do charge an 8% fee, and also agreed that it wouldn't be possible to take them back to Ontario, Canada.

One Wells Fargo branch manager in California told John:

“‘I don’t even have the room in my vault. ‘Don’t bring them here.'” -Wells Fargo branch manager

After deciding that it would be easier to sell them than to transport them, John listed the pennies on the OfferUp app for $25,000, but KTLA 5 News reported that this is "more than double the $10,000 value in normal currency" at face value (not taking into account any pennies that might be valuable).

The video can be watched below.

Update: Someone Purchases the Pennies

John Reyes found a buyer for the million pennies, but did not disclose how much they were sold for.

Thoughts

What would you do if you found a million pennies? Would you go through them and find rare and valuable coins, or would you sell them like the owner in the story above?

(Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below)

Please share this interesting article with friends and family on social media.

Sources

ABC7 News. "Family finds 1 million pennies while cleaning Los Angeles home." ABC 7. 10 June 2023

Instagram account for John Reyes: @jdreyes01

Schlepp, Travis. "Family finds 1 million copper pennies while leaning out Los Angeles home." KTLA 5 News. Updated 12 June 2023.

Wells Fargo official website.

Companies use Surveillance Software to Monitor their Remote Employees Working from Home

 

Company using surveillance on remote employees

If you are a remote worker, there are some questions you may ask yourself:

"Does my company spy on remote employees with home office surveillance?"

"Does my company spy on me while I am working remotely?"

"Is my company spying on its remote workers using the webcam?"

These are all valid questions a remote worker should consider.

The Pandemic has shifted more Office Workers to Remote Workers

Thanks to the pandemic, we now live in a world where many of us are now working remotely from home or now working a hybrid work schedule, with some days in the office, and other days working from home. Some companies are now willing to hire a person after doing a webcam interview, and will ship a desktop or laptop computer straight to their new employee's address!

Do employers spy on their employees with special software, now dubbed "tattleware?" The answer is: Yes.

Some companies do spy on their employees working remotely from home, to monitor performance.

This type of home office surveillance is not okay with everyone.

A Company was Spying on a Remote Employee without his Permission

The Guardian published an article about a man hired to work for a company in their Digital Marketing department. He was working for home, and after working for them for three weeks, he discovered that the company installed software called Sneek on his company-owned computer. The company used this software to take photos or video clips from the laptop camera on that computer, at their discretion to monitor his performance. The employee found this to be an invasion of his privacy, so he quit. He said, "I signed up to manage their digital marketing...not to livestream my living room."

Source: The Guardian

Is Sneek Software Used to Spy on Remote Workers, or Stay Connected to Teams?

Sneek software co-founder Del Currie says: "We know lots of people will find it an invasion of privacy, we 100% get that, and it's not the solution for those folks...but there's also lot's of teams out there who are good friends and want to stay connected when they're working together."

Sneek is just one example of remote surveillance software companies are using to monitor their remote employees on company-provided desktop and laptop computers.

Source: The Guardian

Why can Remote Workers not be Trusted to Work from Home?

The Washington Post reported that thousands of companies now use monitoring software to record employees' Web browsing and active work hours, dispatching the kinds of tools built for corporate offices into workers' phones, computers and homes. But they have also sought to watch over the workers themselves, mandating always-on webcam rules..."

Source: The Washington Post

Other Ways Employers Monitor Remote Workers on Desktop and Laptop Computers

There are other ways employers can monitor remote workers, in addition to or instead of using webcam surveillance. These other methods include:

• An Archive of all web pages viewed on desktop and laptop computers
• Logging keystrokes on employee's desktop and laptop computers
• Monitoring all open applications on an employee's desktop and laptop computer
• Screen captures of the desktop and laptops on the network

Quick statistics:

American Management Association did a survey of companies, and found the following:

- 48% of participating companies use video surveillance to prevent sabotage, violence, and theft.

- Only 7% of these companies use video surveillance monitoring to track on-the-job work performance.

Source: American Management Association

What Laws Protect Remote Employees from Surveillance Software?

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) allows for employers to monitor business-related activities on the company-owned property, but requires the employer to inform the employee of their recording activity.

A company will also typically disclose their surveillance of employees in their Employee Handbook or in disclosures that employees agree to and sign at the initial hire date. This includes their computer and internet policy, and how they monitor their employees using company property (i.e. desktop and laptop computers).

Suggestion for Remote Employees Working from Home with a Webcam

If you take a company-owned computer home, be aware that your employer might be monitoring you. As a suggestion, and unless your company specifically says otherwise, you can take a piece of tape, and tape something like a piece of paper, or use non-transparent electrical tape, and obstruct the view from your front-facing camera. If your employer has a problem with this, they will let you know, but this will ensure that you are not being recorded without your knowledge. Be sure to be careful not to cause damage to the company laptop or webcam while applying the tape. This tape will have to be removed if you have a meeting.

If your company monitors its employees without informing you, would you feel that it is an invasion of your privacy?

I Spent Two Hours Talking to Nine Customer Service Representatives to Discuss One Phone Bill

So the story begins...

The email icon on my Bing Bar notifies me that I have a message awaiting me. It turns out to be my conveniently paperless Home Phone and Internet bill. Click!

Logo

I click the link inside of my email to be transported to the website, to then log into my account. Click!

I sign in, only to find that to my amazement, my bill is incorrect - again.

I pause a moment to reminisce on this common occurrence, when it comes to adding a new ATT service.

See, we just recently added a home phone to our residence, due to the poor cell phone reception in our geographical location. This was to make our lives more simple with the convenience of a home phone. Yet, this notion is quickly dispelled after spending a total of two hours on the phone in the past two days talking to nine different ATT customer service representatives, of which, none have helped me.

Can you sense my frustration yet?

Now, out of all of the representatives, all of them have been nice, and cordial to talk to. None of them have been rude to me in any way, and that was pretty amazing.

But the overall helpfulness of these call center representatives has been lacking.

The most common complaint I have is that they just aren't listening to the customer needs.

Thus beginning my two-hour discussions with nine customer service representatives, and finally, one representative via chat, who ultimately satisfied my bill inquiry.

This is how it went down.

Day One:
I start out on Tuesday, January 11, 2012 from where I left off - on the website - logged in to my account, and wondering why my bill was so high.

So I scoured the website for an easy-to-find number to contact them about my home phone bill.

There was no easy-to-find number readily available within two clicks.

How to Correctly Find the Right Contact Number: After clicking "Contact Us" on the main page, there are then 29 different options to choose from on Step 2. None of which include discussing bill issues. Then select one of several options under one of the four categories provided. Step 3 then tries to help you with Frequently Asked Questions online. Eventually you will get to the contact information, if you have ample time to browse the many options.

Unfortunately, I was not patient enough to go through all of those steps, and I somehow found the Wireless Customer support number ( 1-800-331-0500 ). I figured it was as good enough as any, so I dialed away.

The first Customer Service Representative Megan took my call at the beginning of my lunch break. She was the first to "assist" me in getting nowhere. Megan referred me to the Concessions line, which can be reached at: 1-877-722-0020 . Megan asked me how well she did. I replied, "Good, so far." She did not answer my billing question.

I then talked with Customer Service Representative #2, Gloria. She told me that the Concession line was not the right line. She was absolutely positive that I should call the "Active" or the "Retired" line, regarding my question. These numbers are: 1-877-377-9010 and 1-888-251-0645 . I decided to go with the active line, with no idea why I would need to call either.

After connecting through the active line, I learned this line was for employees. My wife and I are not employees. I spoke with Customer Service Representative #3, Jodi. Jodi said I was at the wrong place. What a surprise! Jodi said she was going to ensure that I got to the right place. She would personally dial it and get me to the right place. I sat on the phone listening to elevator music for 10 minutes, and decided I couldn't wait any longer because my hour-long lunch break was almost over. Jodi did tell me before the lengthy transfer that I needed to call the Customer Care main number, reached at: 1-800-288-2020 .

I looked at the clock and had 5 minutes left to my lunch. I decided to take a gamble and call Customer Care one last time. I reached another female Customer Service Representative. She did not greet me with her name, but I asked because of the past hour of non-assistance. Her name was Lauren. She told me that she could not help me with my question, that I needed to call Lifeline - another division of ATT - that identifies themselves as LifeLine Support. I was given the number 1-800-664-5417 .

At this point, I was out of time. I took down this number. I closed by asking Lauren if I could have someone directly call me back regarding my bad experience of excessive call transfers. She told me that this was not possible. That I could only give my feedback through a survey, on which I could request that someone call me back.

I then thought of the very likely possibility that I would never see this survey. I asked what email they have on file, she responded that they call me back for the survey. I have not received a telephone survey regarding the first four representatives that "helped" me on day one.

Day Two:
The following day, I decided to pursue the answer to my home phone bill question. I had already invested so much time already, I still needed an answer before I could pay my bill.

Today I was going to try a different strategy: Attempt to avoid a wait by trying an undisclosed Customer Service line. I found this number with a Google search. That number is:1-888-387-6270. I called this line, did not have the excessive key punches with "options" and told me up front that the wait time was one minute. I thought I had won the lottery.

I spoke with Kristi, Customer Service Representative #5. She told me that she only serviced the states of TX, MO, and OK. She transferred me to a phone line for my region.

After the hold, I now spoke with Ruby (Customer Service Rep. #6), who was in my "region" for Alabama. Ruby spoke English, but her sentences did not make sense, which told me English was not her first language. I told Ruby my billing question, and she said I needed to call Lifeline. She gave me a second number for Lifeline. Did I forget to mention that the first number I was given by ATT, was not a working number. Ruby gave me a number to write down. This number was: 1-800-295-7495 . Before we got off, Ruby wanted to make sure to put a notation on my profile that I wanted to apply for the discount, but she did not tell me exactly the wording - because we had already mailed in our registration form. I was inquiring as to when the credit would be applied to our account.

After Ruby, I tried to call LifeLine. After dialing, I heard the all-too-common digital buzz from a fax machine. I was provided the fax number by Ruby.

I then called LifeLine at a number I found doing a web search, and reached Kristina (Customer Service Rep. #7). I told her my question, and she wanted to personally transfer me and do the talking for me, since I've been tossed around more than a Caesar salad at Olive Garden. I ate my lunch hurriedly as I downed my lunch. She finally got me on the phone with Reginald (Customer Service Rep. #8), someone from my region. After the transfer, Reginald told me that Kristina told him that I still need to apply for the discount, because that is what someone (named Ruby) notated on our account. Reginald apologized that he couldn't help me, but confirmed that I needed to call a LifeLine Support Representative for my region.

I was now approaching the time where I was nearing the end of my second, hour-long lunch break with no results. I decided to call Customer Care one last time. I spoke with Tamika (Customer Service Rep. #9). Tamika shared with me a new tidbit of information: LifeLine for my region does not have a direct phone number. They only have a fax number, and that's it. Sounds strange if you ask me, but it sounds like the norm for this company at this point. Tamika mailed us another form to fill out, because she threw out the idea that our first form (mailed in over a month ago) was lost in the mail.

My lunch break was over and I got off the phone. I was two hours in, and made no real headway on the billing question. Does persistence pay off? Not in this situation.

As the day neared its end, I went back on the ATT website, and clicked to chat with a Customer Service Representative online. Corey logged in. Corey told me that our credit would not apply until 2-3 bills later, and I just needed to wait. This was contrary to what the Customer Service Representative told me a month ago.

So I decide to wait a little longer, in hopes that the credit will be applied in the future to our home phone bill.

So what's the moral to my story? If you want real results, skip the call centers, and go straight to chat support.