
12. Years of Suffering
I’ve told bits and pieces of this story before, but in short, several years ago I moved to Florida. Almost immediately after I met a friend, he was a great guy (or so I thought) and we’d constantly hang out/ he’d show me around the town/this state, etc.
After about a year and a half of knowing him, he stole a couple of my credit cards and racked up really big bills. Unfortunately for me, and I know this now but didn’t then, I simply thought calling the credit card company to report your card stolen and cancelling the account also vacated the charges. That’s not true, you actually have to formally contest the charges separately, and you only have 60 days.
By the time I realized this it was too late. I tried, in vain, to semi-reconcile with him to try to get a payment plan. He begged me not to call the police. I regret now that I didn’t. I did believe that he had fallen on hard times, and he would get back on his feet, and try to repay me. That didn’t happen. Although, later on, he did get arrested for something else and was put on probation.
I figured that would have been the best time to try to recoup the money lost (I had fallen behind on these payments and my credit was starting to suffer. I had to drop out of college because of that). I did try instead to take him to small claims court. I do realize that civil court is not criminal, but with him now being a convicted felon I might stand a better chance at looking much better.
Instead, when we got to court he denied everything, said everything was a gift, and completely slandered me in open court. Why he was allowed to get away with it is beyond me, but that case was dismissed: I got nothing.
My credit suffered for years because of that. I eventually did save up enough money to file for bankruptcy to just get rid of that debt that I couldn’t repay (nor should I have had to). I have never really forgiven him for what he did to me. AFAIK he still lives around, luckily I haven’t seen him in several years. IDK what I’d even say if I ever did encounter him. The bankruptcy did eliminate that debt so I cannot (and will not) ever say he owes me anything monetarily. But, he owes me a huge apology. But like I said I would seriously doubt the sincerity of it and likely wouldn’t accept it anyway. I think the best is as it is now: he just stays away from me.