God's way of saying "get renters insurance"

so i woke up this morning, and went through my usual routine. when i turned on the hot water to shave, it got hot faster than it ever had before, and in no time was hot enough to do damage (it'd never been this hot before, i could usually tolerate it). so i adjusted, and barely used any hot to wash my face. in the shower i had to use a lot larger percentage of cold to stand it. i tried to come up with as many reasons why this could be happening as possible. (such as, maybe someone else shares a water heater with me and they didn't get a shower this morning... wait, does that mean i'm paying the power bill on it?) so when i got out i opened the closet that houses the indoor part of the ac/heat and water heater. it smells horrible, like hot plastic and metal. i figured the thermostat was broken and it was working overtime to try to heat this water. so i turned it off at the breaker and called maintenance on the way to work. when i got home, this was sitting right outside my front door:


that smell was melting (maybe burning) plastic on the thermostat. any mechanically inclined folks know why it would do this? needless to say, i'm gonna do everything in my power to get a break at work long enough to get renters insurance, and hopefully come home early enough to sign all the paperwork. sorry, mom, your nagging didn't scare me as much as this. hopefully by the time you read this i've got insurance.