I Clean Out Foreclosed Houses in Kansas. This One is Very Strange.

The work order had four rules printed on it. The fourth said the freezer had to stay in the house, no matter what else I removed. The third said if the humming stopped, I had to leave and call the number on the sheet instead of calling 911. The first two said not to open it and not to unplug it. Jace, a young man clearing out foreclosed properties for cash to pay his mother's hospital bills, read the rules twice before opening the truck door. Outside the ranch house in rural Kansas, the morning was cool and bright, with a thin wind moving across the fields. Elijah, the contractor who hired him, made him repeat the last rule aloud: "The freezer stays in the house." When Jace asked why the bank had been paying the electric bill on an empty house for six years—just to keep one appliance running—Elijah looked at him for a long moment and said only, "That is the job."

What Was Taped Beside the Basement Door