Cheaters Never Prosper

21 Apr 2000 - Cheaters Never Prosper
Calvin and I have a duplex that we rent out. When we first bought it we knew it needed a good deal of work. We started with the smaller apartment. It needed less work and by being smaller we knew could be finished faster. We needed to get it ready to rent so some money would be coming in. Within a couple months it was finished and rented. Then Calvin began work on the larger apartment. Working full-time as a chemist and over time a good bit, it took him several months to finish the inside. Once the inside was done we decided to go ahead and rent it while Calvin worked on the outside. The inside was pretty with new paint, carpet and fixtures. The first ones to see it rented it. It was a young couple both 21 years old. They had a daughter that was 1 year old and another baby on the way. They were just starting out on their own. They hadn’t been married long and had lived with his father. They got social services help with the deposit and first months rent. They didn’t have much materially. They had a bed and a chest, a crib, 2 mismatched couches and a few end tables, a small kitchen table, and a TV and stereo. And she told me as they moved in that it had all been given to them, second hand from family. That was just the way it had been with us. To begin with it was all second hand gifts and yard sale furniture. Of course they also had their clothes. The house didn’t have a refrigerator. Calvin told them that we would buy one by moving day. The next day the renter called and said that he had been given an old refrigerator and would we want to buy it for $50. Calvin told them that would be fine and we paid them $50 for an old 30-year-old refrigerator. Through conversations with her I learned that she was on Medicaid for her pregnancy and they used food stamps. We told them when they moved in that our insurance only covered the house, and that they needed to get renter’s insurance to cover any of their things. (In NC the law will not let the owner insure the renter’s property.) They said they would do that. I remember asking him at least twice if he had gotten that insurance yet. Both times he said no but that he was going to next week. During their 5 months there Calvin worked on the outside. Inside and out it was almost like new. It had become a nice place.
One week after Calvin finished it caught on fire and burned. It came within $5000 of the insurance totaling it. Thankfully no one was hurt. But both families lost almost all of their possessions. The 2 in the smaller apartment really had very little to lose and they moved on without much but their clothes lost. The family in the larger apartment lost more and having a child I worried about them. We offered them some children’s clothes, and a set of dishes and a set of pots and pan. They said no thanks that some area church had really given them all they needed. Then the next day it was in the newspaper and on TV and more donations came in. They ended up with almost all-new much better stuff than they lost. Among other things a brand new large screen TV. I was glad for them. A couple of weeks later they were in the paper again and she said that they had everything except a car seat and a microwave. I remember saying to Calvin, “ I saw their car seat in the car after the fire, and they didn’t have a microwave before.”
A few months after the fire a policeman drove into our driveway. We were being sued for what they lost in the fire. If they had gotten insurance like I told them this wouldn’t have been an issue. I am a worrier. So I did my job and worried. After several days Calvin reminded me of a piece of land that we own and don’t use. He felt sure that we wouldn’t lose but even if we did it would be well under $10,000 and the lot was worth $15,000. So the worst case scenario would be that we would have to sale that lot. That helped. But I was still mad.
As lawsuits do, it drug on and on. They we got more paperwork from their lawyer. The amount we were being sued for was $50,000+. We got a list of all that they had lost in the fire. I still have that list. It said that they lost $1,000 worth of baby shoes, $3,000 worth of baby cloths, $500 worth of men’s tee shirts, thousands and thousands worth of furniture, and a $600 refrigerator. Hey wait a minute! That fridge was almost junk, and it belonged to us anyway! The list was page after page of lies. Our lawyer called when he saw it and asked, “Who did you rent to? The Rockerfellers.” LOL.
This went on for 2 years. We finally, at the advice of a judge, settled and gave them $5000. That was mainly because it would cost at least $4000 to fight it. It really bothered me. People would say to me things like, “well no good will come from that money they stole from you” and “cheaters never prosper”.
Well the night after they got our money the husband went out and bought cocaine. Used it. Came home and beat the wife very badly. He is now in prison for 24 years with no chance of parole. I can’t help but think that he used our money, that he shouldn’t have had in the first place, to buy the cocaine.
As a sidebar to this; that same week Calvin’s uncle came to visit us with an unexpected gift, a car. And then the next day we got a check for $7000 that we didn’t think we would ever get from an insurance company. (Trust me. I’m not grinning too big. LOL)