..::You're as COLD as ICE::..

I've always been a mover and shaker, never staying in one place of residence for too long. I crave the excitement of moving and the thrill of new adventures. With each move comes a new set of what I've come to refer to as "House Rules." I'm all about the "House Rules" and respecting your neighbors/roommates. Learning the rules of a new apartment building can be difficult at times, but in time you tend to learn what is acceptable and what is not. In my previous residences I've never had trouble with any of the "House Rules." Specifically I've never had any issues with laundry room etiquette.....until NOW.

On Sunday evening I dragged 3 weeks worth of laundry down 4 flights of stairs to the basement laundry room. I opened the two washers and noticed that there was some wet clothes in one of the washers. I decided to wait it out so I could do two loads at once since my time was limited and I had a 6 am flight to catch on Monday. I headed back upstairs and came back a half hour later hoping that in that time the person who belonged to the wet laundry would have come to put it in the dryer. When I returned and the wet laundry was still in the washer I decided to do what I thought was acceptable laundry room etiquette and placed the wet laundry in one of the vacant dryers. Since this has happened to me when I've left laundry unattended in the washer, I figured it was no big deal, especially since it has happened in this particular laundry room I felt I was in line with the "House Rules."

I proceeded to fill the washers with my two loads and went back upstairs. When I returned approximately 38 minutes later right as my washers were finishing up there was a girl standing in the laundry room with her arms folded across her chest furiously texting on her blackberry. We'll call her "Panty Girl." I said hello and introduced myself as I'm still new to the building and I had never seen her before. As I was pulling my stuff out of one of the washers and about to put it in the dryer next to the washer, Panty Girl said, "There's a dirty tissue in that dryer." I bent down, looked inside and found a used "bounce dryer sheet" - hardly a "dirty tissue." I picked it up and walked it over to the trash can and then emptied the lint tray and replaced it in the dryer. As I'm placing my wet laundry in the dryer, Panty Girl says, "Yeah some ASSHOLE came and put my underwear in that dryer with the dirty tissue. I mean there's only so many times you can wash your underwear and now these are totally unwearable because someone touched them. I have to wash them again. I'm so disgusted." At this point I'm mortified because apparently she thinks this person is an ASSHOLE and that person was ME. Then she asks if it was me.....OH HOLY SHIT. I said no it wasn't me at which point she points to the other washer and says, "So that stuff in there isn't yours?" No I lied. Panty Girl then flies into a fit of fury saying, "Oh boy that person is gonna get it when they come down here!" All the while I'm screaming FUUUCK inside my head wondering how in God's name I'm going to get my wet laundry out of that other washer without her seeing me. I left the laundry room pretending that the one load was mine and that I was done after it was in the dryer while Panty Girl proceeded to hop up on the counter and sit with her blackberry - CLEARLY waiting for the culprit to come downstairs and claim the other washer. I resolved that I would leave my wet laundry in the washer until later. I ran into Panty Girl when I got my first load out of the dryer and when I left I said, "Have a good night" to which she said the same back. I went back to the laundry room around 10:15 pm and saw the coast was clear. I threw my other load in the dryer and ran up the stairs figuring that Panty Girl would not be back. When I went back down 38 minutes later -MY DRYER WAS EMPTY!!! My laundry was gone. And that's when I saw that one of the washers was on and in the middle of it's cycle. I furiously ran back to my apartment and called a friend who could not believe the story I told them about Panty Girl. We both prayed that my laundry was inside the washer, which I was unable to open because of the automatic lock during its cycle. At this point I decided to go to bed, since if it was my laundry that she decided to "re-wash" I didn't have any quarters left to dry it anyway so I figured I'd just go down when I got up at 4 am to leave for LAX (less of a chance of getting caught by Panty Girl.) Sure enough, I opened that washer at 4:05 am to find my laundry in the washer, re-washed. I spent the next 10 minutes hanging it all over my apartment to dry while I'm in Texas all week. I'm still in shock that she would waste the time and her quarters to do something so stupid. I mean hey, those clothes went all the way to the Philippines, Korea, Japan and back - they probably could've used the extra wash...just saying.

NOW I ask you....

1. Was I wrong to place her laundry in the empty dryer?

2. Is Panty Girl a complete nut case?

3. What would you have done?

Please advise.