There are many types of people in the hood. Some are working class people that just cant catch a break and stay in the neighborhood they’ve always know. Others are life long hustlers. Romeo happened to be an opportunist. He was a young man trying to live straight and narrow but exploited any and I mean any angle to get over for any sort of gain. One of his best friends Mel was also an opportunist. Correction, all of people in his world were opportunists.
A once blissfully blind, overly trusting me used to let Romeo borrow my car all the time. Many times I had nothing to worry about but there were too many situations where I would get awoken in the middle of the night from a detective or a frantic Romeo spewing lies in my ear at 4:19 in the morning. I purchased a used Range Rover that was in very good condition. I serviced my car at the dealership from brakes to oil changes to tires. Any dings or dents in the truck would get buffed out and repainted because I wanted to keep my car as pristine as possible. Ok so I know what you are thinking…why let someone borrow a car you took care of so well? Don’t just me! I acknolwleded being blind in the first sentence. Im in recovery.
On my days off he would ask for my truck to go hang out with his friends with the promise of bringing my car back to me in the middle of the night followed by some quality time the following day. We did not live together at this point in our relationship. So the thought of Romeo taking my car to hang with friends I knew, to return to my home, to sleep in my bed, then hang the next day? This was a no brainer for me…at this time in my life…blind…overly trusting.
Romeo asked me to to borrow my car just to hang out at the local hookah bar with a couple of his homeboys. Hanging at the hookah bar was considered pretty safe in my experience because it was so close to his house and there was never an incident that arose from trips to his local spot. Around 11pm this night, I get a frantic phone call from Romeo that began with the words, “Yo the cops just crashed into me!” My heart sinks as yet another tragic thing happens to my truck while in Romeo’s care. The stomach churning nausea, the headache, the audible exhaling I do during these calls are so uncomfortable you would think I would stop putting myself in these situations. You would think!
Romeo told me that the cops were looking on their cell phones and never stopped at the stop sign. During one of the calls I could hear the police talking to Romeo asking him if he needed help changing my tire. Romeo stressed to me that the cops knew they were wrong because in his logic, no cop would every offer to help you if you just ran into them. He told me he was going to change the tire and come to my house and would call me back. When he called me back, he said that they couldn’t get the nuts off the tire and they tire couldn’t be changed on site. The cop told him that the car has to be towed because the law is that they cannot leave a car on the street that is inoperable. Romeo was very upset at this point because he knows that not only do I have to deal with the damage on the vehicle from the accident, now I have to track down my truck and pay tow fees. So the drama of the evening was just escalating by the minute.
While Romeo was waiting for the tow truck to arrive, because he wanted to make sure they didn’t damage the truck further getting towed, he told me Mel was in the passenger seat. I asked if Mel was Ok and he said they were both good and the damage wasn’t that bad. The damage was mostly bumper and fender. Until you have had a foreign car, that you care about, that you want to stay in pristine condition, that has to be fixed by licensed professionals, you have no idea the price tag behind something as small as a bumper. After about 40 minutes of waiting Romeo said the cop had to call another tow truck because something happened to the first one. Romeo urged that I get to the scene of the accident right away because I was the owner and I would have some say so over where the car goes and perhaps could stop the tow if I can prove that roadside assistance was called and on their way. I got dressed and borrowed my mother’s car and drove about 80 mph to his side of town.
When I got to the scene, my car was gone and all I saw was broken headlight on the ground. I felt flames on the side of my face because if my headlight was broken that is an automatic $1,000 to replace alone. My anxiety is through the roof at this point. I was calling Romeo the entire time on my way to the scene and he never answered the phone. I drove the route to his apartment and it was a ghost town. I continued to call him several dozen times before I headed back home. The mere mention of the lack of communication at this point during a situation like this is a glaring red flag for some. For me, it was commonplace. Romeo had a tendency to sort of disappear after an incident because as he explained, he was ashamed of always putting me in situations like this. When I am upset, he doesn’t like to talk to me because even if he wasn’t directly at fault, he understands what it looks like to me and that…makes him uncomfortable so I don’t get clarity. I went home and had the most unsatisfying night of attempted sleep.
The next day Romeo called me. He explained that he got into an argument with the cops about towing the truck when the tow arrived and he was ordered to go home or he was going to get arrested. He said he and Mel walked home. I asked how come he didn’t answer the phone and he told me he didn’t know what was wrong with his phone and never heard it ring. Ok, once again I know what you are thinking, why wouldn’t he call you when he got home to explain what happened knowing you were on your way? Simple answer is…he’s a liar.
Later that day I picked Romeo up from the projects and we went to find my car. We went to the local police station. They sent us to a second police station, and they sent us to a third. Finally two towns over, we arrive at the police station where the police officers involved in the accident worked. The sergeant gave me the address to where my car was located and showed me the police vehicle also involved. I took a picture of that vehicle because the damage to the front of the car was really bad. I was also given a copy of my police report to give to the insurance company. Of course, the police report stated that my car was at fault. I didn’t expect anything different. During this time, Romeo is very supportive. He gets angry when I’m angry and he calms me down when I get upset again and again. He was very attentive and receptive to whatever I need at the time. I notified the insurance company about the incident and told them where to pick up my truck. At this point, everything was in Progressive’s hands. A benefit of having full coverage is a rental while your car is being fixed and that rental definitely took some of the pain away while dealing with this mess.
Usually after an accident, a dent, a ticket, or an other debt creating incident with my truck, Romeo is on his best behavior. I am usually guaranteed 3-4 months without him asking to use my car. He was very attentive and we had many light-hearted conversations in attempt to brighten my mood overall I guess. It worked for a time. When you have an open claim with the insurance company, they go over your statement and compare it to the accident report. I was at a huge disadvantage because the police statement is always taken as the truth. A few days later, my claims agent called me to give me an update. She wanted to verify how many passengers were in the vehicle at the time of the accident. I said there was only one passenger, Mel. The police report my claims agent had stated there was a third individual in the car that was 24 years old. She said the area of the report where the passengers names should be listed was blank. The agent said that this was an issue that she would have to look into further. I emailed her a copy of my accident report which had the Amended box checked and listed two persons in my vehicle. She reviewed my copy and told me she would get back to me soon.
I called Romeo and asked him how many people were there that night and he told me only two. I called him a liar because the police report said three. He concocted a big story about how the police on the scene knew they were at fault so they falsified everything to make him look bad. He even went as far to say that the police knew he was not the vehicle owner and knew his girlfriend was the vehicle owner so they listed a female in the car to mess up his relationship. huuh…what!
At this point I did not press the issue any longer because I knew he was a boldfaced liar. I needed to do a little detective work on my own. I contacted the Department of Motor Vehicles and got access to the accident report sent to the state. The report I downloaded was a third version of the accident report. This report did not have the Amended box checked so it must have been the first accident report. The version the insurance company received was the first Amended version and the copy I received from the police station was the second Amended version. I sent this to my claims agent and she said in her 12 years with the insurance company she never came across an accident with so many submitted accident reports and assured me that this would probably lean in my favor because it appears there was at the very least some confusion if not out right falsification of official documents. I was pleased but very disturbed because the DMV copy of the accident report listed the passengers as Mel age 29 and Unnamed Female 24. Then it finally hit me that Romeo admitted to the police falsifying the report to add a female to the truck when I never stated the sex of the individual.
Without a doubt I knew Romeo lied about the events of that evening. What eased my heart and mind through this event was the fact that the police were caught, at least by the insurance company, falsifying documents and the claim was granted in my favor. I was not responsible for fixing my truck and the claim was not being held against me causing my insurance premiums to go up. I was so happy that another one of Romeo’s shenanigans didnt cause me to have to shell out cash from my pocket that I got over this incident and continued with him.
But this is far from the end of this story. To be continued…
huuh-what.com 