METAIRIE – When Terry McCormack’s air conditioner went out and the manager of his apartment complex couldn’t fix it, he started a meme war.
McCormack first noticed things heating up in his apartment on the evening of April 28.
After putting in a call to his property manager, McCormack said he expected one visit from the repairman to cool things off in his apartment, but that’s not what happened.
“As far as my personal property manager goes, he was awesome,” McCormack said. “But I guess they were very short handed and hired a temporary HVAC guy, and he came out Monday and basically said ‘Oh, I don’t know what to do,’ and left.”
From there, things began to really heat up, with temperatures inside McCormack’s apartment exceeding 80 degrees for hours at a time.
Four days later, the air still wasn’t on despite McCormack’s repeated calls for assistance.
1st Lake Properties, the company that owns and manages McCormack’s apartment complex, apologized for the delay in repairing McCormack’s air conditioning.
“We experienced some setbacks along the way and had to purchase some new equipment for him,” a representative said. “Our Property Manager has been in constant contact with him regarding the status of the repair.”
But McCormack wasn’t happy waiting for repairs that never came in his sweltering apartment.
That’s when he turned to social media to vent his frustration.
“Wednesday comes around, it’s my day off, I’m miserable, nobody has called me from the home office like they promised, and I thought I’d just get their attention and post a meme on their page,” McCormack said. “Well, then I got inspired again, and again, and again. I was like, eventually they’re just going to have to answer me.”
What started off with a picture McCormack took of himself sitting in his refrigerator reading a book about how to handle stress as he attempted to cool off soon blossomed into a stream of topical memes.
McCormack’s Facebook friends took up the cause, spreading his memes far and wide.
And McCormack tagged 1st Lake Properties in each meme.
By Thursday, the 1st Lake account had blocked McCormack.
But his air conditioning was still broken on Friday morning.
That’s when he took to the street outside his apartment wearing a Speedo bathing suit and holding a sign that read “Honk if you have AC.”
At this point, McCormack said he’s willing to continue his meme war for as long as it takes, even as the focus shifts from his personal comfort to the principal of the matter.
“I can rough it out,” he said. “I work in a hot shop all day long. I spent almost a year in the desert in the military. I can rough it for a few days, but some communication from the home office would be nice.”
McCormack said his Speedo isn’t comfortable, but he said he’ll continue to wear it until his AC comes back on in his apartment.
He also plans to continue waging his social media war, one meme at a time.