From the large assortment of NASCAR hats on the dash and the colourful assortment of food wrappers growing mold on the floor I could tell this native was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. After spending an afternoon in the blistering sun walking through two North Las Vegas neighbourhoods my curiosity had clearly evoked the rage of some.

          The man in the van had come out of literally nowhere and at first I thought he was going to ask me for directions. Little did I know that I was going to be accused of being part of a syndicated crime outfit to burglarize foreclosed homes in his neighbourhood. As my explanation of being an academic from Canada fell on deaf ears (despite giving proof of my Canadian and academic citizenship) I finally gave up and begged him to call the cops. As his theory of an international housing crime syndicate fell apart he did what most do in such situations; he told me to 'Fuck Off and watch your back' while proceeding to drive away.

          When I wasn't being accused of aiding organized crime I was observing the neighbourhoods and houses affected by one of America's greatest economic failures. What I found, contrary to the images of the major news outlets,  was that foreclosure didn't just affect families buying large 2500  sq. ft. plus houses. In fact many of the vacant houses I found were much smaller and averaged probably around 1100 sq. ft. It became painfully clear that every economic and social class was being affected by the tragedy.

           Finding houses in foreclosure was not as simple as spotting for a for-sale sign. For every house that had an official 'Auction' or 'For Sale' sign in the lawn, four more did not. The most common way to verify the status of a house in suspicion was the presence of a pad-lock, a power meter that was not turned on or a radio set on an AM station blared inside the house (Seriously, who listens to AM anymore). Looking at the condition of the yard was not a sure-fire method as many lawns are watered and cut by a bank and many of the occupied houses have severely un-kept yards (There was an awkward tension when a man in his underwear came outside and asked me why I was taking pictures of the garbage on his front lawn)

           And while I was exhausted after walking for three hours in the 100 degree heat I knew that I had not even witnessed the tip of the ice burg. A visit to a mortgage office specializing in foreclosures printed off a list of foreclosures nearly 35 pages, front and back. What this neighbourhood represented in the foreclosure cluster fuck, even in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area, was a mere chip of ice.