Bob Ray had to climb through a window to his Westbrook office last week after the new owner changed the locks on the tenants.
Ray shares a space with Fred Writt, owner of Postal Express, a bulk mailing service, located – for the moment – in the old Sebago Moccasin building off Bridge Street, next to the Dana Warp Mill.
Ray said he was in the middle of the workday Oct. 17 when Nicholas Kampf, a man who has recently been in the news after being charged with kidnapping his daughter, came in with a locksmith and identified himself as the new owner of the building. Ray said Kampf told him he was changing the locks and Ray had to vacate the space.
“It totally caught me off guard,” said Ray, when Kampf walked in. “You’re in the middle of a phone conversation, and a guy comes in and tells you he’s the new building owner and he’s changing the locks.”
Kampf, a real estate developer from North Yarmouth, was recently arrested, along with his wife, Lola, on charges of kidnapping their daughter in an attempt to force her into an abortion. Kampf bought the building about two months ago from Dana Warp Mill owner Tim Flannery, according to Ray.
Ray said Kampf had the locks to the outside of the building changed during the day Oct. 17. After working the rest of the day, Ray left the door to the building unlocked when he left. When he came in the next morning, he said, the door had been chained shut.
Writt said he and Ray and their two employees had to crawl through the window to get in. Afterwards, they called Westbrook police, who told him there wasn’t anything they could do because it was a civil matter and not a criminal matter. He said he also called City Hall to complain about being locked out and the conditions in the building.
Westbrook Code Enforcement Officer Rick Gouzie said he and Fire Inspector Chuck Jarrett went to the building and had a look around. He said there was no heat in the building, no light in the hallways and the alarm system wasn’t being monitored. However, the alarm was still working, along with the emergency lighting system.
“We didn’t really find any real code violaions,” said Gouzie. “It was more of a tenant-owner complaint.”
Gouzie said he called Kampf last week to ask him about monitoring the alarm system, and Kampf told him he’d call him back at the end of the week. He said he was planning to send an electrician to the building on Friday to estimate how much it would cost to bring power to the building, which he is planning to make into apartments. Gouzie said as of this Wednesday, Kampf had not called him back.
The morning of Oct. 20, Writt and Ray had to crawl in through the window again. On Oct. 21, an attorney for Kampf told Ray the whole thing was a misunderstanding. Now, the building is open, so Writt and Ray are free to come and go as they please. If the building is locked again, though, Ray said he only has a key to his space, so he’ll be climbing in through the window.
Flannery and Thomas Hallett, attorney for Kampf, did not return calls seeking comment for this story by the American Journal deadline.
“Mr. Kampf has other fish to fry,” said Writt, referring to Kampf’s recent arrest, for which he was arraigned in Portland on Monday.
Ray said his lease with Flannery doesn’t end until March 2007, but he said he made an accommodation with the new owner to be out by the end of October. He will be moving the business into the Dana Warp Mill, into the space formerly occupied by a woodworking shop where a fire began in the spring.
“We’re in the middle of making plans to move anyway, which was the original plan,” said Ray. “It’s just all very bizarre.”
Beyond being locked out, Writt and Ray have some other complaints about the building’s new owner. Ray said, in the two months since Kampf bought the building, the electricity in the common areas such as the hallways has been off. The bathrooms haven’t been cleaned in that time either, he said, and the heat hasn’t been turned on yet. He’s had to run space heaters in his office.
In the hallways, even on a sunny day, the air is cold when it’s chilly outside. The bathrooms don’t have paper towels in the dispensers or soap. The trashcans are overflowing, and the bathrooms are filthy and smelly. Certain rooms in the building without windows are completely dark during the day.
Writt said he might have contacted Kampf to complain about the conditions in the building, but he didn’t have a contact number. He said the only contact he’s ever had with Kampf was when Kampf came in with the locksmith last week and told him he had to vacate the premises or be prosecuted.
“He’s the new owner, and he’s not keeping up with the bargain,” said Ray. “We’re just putting up with it because we’re moving.”
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