Sammy’s Story, Part 4

If you haven’t been following along with Sammy’s story, please take a few minutes to do so here, here, and here.

We left off in September, with the yard done and the house almost ready to rent.  Sammy and his guys worked their butts off getting the work done.  It cost more than we had expected, but it got done.

Over the winter, we hired the crew to handle the snow at both of our properties.  We paid Sammy a flat fee and he made sure the driveways and sidewalks were clear every time it snowed.   We started paying him in November, and ran through until March, so he got a pretty good deal and we didn’t have to worry about the snow.

When spring came, Sammy told me he needed to take a break from his business.   Putting a yard care business on hold when spring hits is a bad idea, but it happened.  He was dealing with some problems with his housing and couldn’t focus on anything else, even though the money would have helped him a lot.

When he lost his apartment, we let him store some of his things in the extra garage stall at the rental.  This stall was reserved in the lease for us to use, and was the base of operations for the yard care business, since he was using our lawn mower and snow blower anyway.

And that was the last we saw of him for a month.

When we started nagging him to take care of his stuff, he kept telling us that he wanted to keep his business going, but he couldn’t, yet.

Then he’d leave his stuff for another month.

By the end of the summer, he’d gotten most of his stuff out and we’d only hear from him if he thought he could borrow money from us, which didn’t happen.

Finally, my wife called him and told him to get his crap out by the end of September.

Or else.

A week into October, we found out that he’d spent September in jail.  Supposedly, he broke up with his(literal) crackhead girlfriend and she called the police and made up stories.  He got arrested and couldn’t make bail.

Last week, he came to borrow our trailer to get the last of his stuff out, then returned it in the evening without moving any of his stuff.  He said he was moving the stuff he had stored elsewhere and he’d be back on Monday.

Monday?  Nothing.

Our relationship with Sammy has gone from helping him launch a business that helps fatherless teens, recovering crackheads, and the homeless to lies and getting begged for money.

My wife is ready to put his stuff on the curb.

What would you do?  Toss his stuff?  Give him another chance?