Have you ever had that roommate from hell experience? If so, I would like to hear from you.
I just had my first experience with someone like that. I’m convinced that this person is Satan’s younger brother or first cousin, at least. By way of a warning and lesson learned, let me tell you what happened.
When I call him a “roommate from hell,” I don’t mean a roommate who borrows your clothes without asking, eats your food, comes in late and noisy, borrows money constantly, won’t do his share of cleaning or has wild passionate sex through paper thin walls when you’ve been suffering a sexual drought.
No, my roommate did all of that and more, but the worst part of it was that he turned out to be a sociopathic liar. What I’ve learned about “Bill” (not his real name) over the past week, just about turned the hair on my head gray. (OK, more gray!)
I would have found out too late that he planned to steal things from me so he could sell them for more “drinking” money and who knows what else.
The only thing that saved me was that Salt Lake County Sheriff’s deputies picked him up after having a fight in a bar last Tuesday evening with his wife (they are separated).
According to the police blotter, Bill had verbally and physically abused her in front of the patrons and staff at the bar. She ran out to her car and called the cops. They responded to the disturbance.
While there, they checked his record for warrants and found four outstanding warrants in Utah. He was arrested and booked into the county jail, which is where he called me from at 1:30 in the morning on Wednesday.
That was the first I knew of it. He begged me to lend him bail money and sign the note with the bail bondsman to get him out of that “hellhole.” He had really good, plausible stories for what had happened and disavowed any prior knowledge of the warrants.
This time I checked out the stories with the courts and couldn’t believe the BS he was spewing my way yet again.
I made a few calls to the jail to see what was going on. I was told it would take about $700 cash bail to spring Bill, plus I would have to sign a note for around $7,000 to guarantee his appearance in court within two to three weeks.
That was a pretty large request considering that he still owed me $550 for past due rent and utilities. He also owed me another $100 or so for food, phone calls and having his little dog groomed when he was yet again “short.”
It turns out that the warrants were for assault on his wife, driving on a suspended license and speeding in Payson, Utah, and two warrants for theft by deception. In one case, Bill had apparently bought a truck and his check had bounced. In another case, he had sold a vehicle to a buyer, but could never produce a valid title because he owed money to a third party on the vehicle.
While checking him out further, I found there were two more warrants out for Bill’s arrest, one from Nevada for speeding and no driver’s license, and the other from Sandy for theft by deception.
Both courts were really happy when I called them for information and told them he was in the Salt Lake County jail. They plan to serve their warrants on Bill while he’s in jail this week.
As I went through my roommate’s personal effects, I discovered that he didn’t even have a driver’s license in any state. He had obtained an Oregon State picture ID card good through 2005. On the card was printed, “Not A Valid Driver License.”
My roommate had punched out the word “Not,” leaving the words “A Valid Driver’s License,” and had made multiple copies of the altered ID card, his social security card and his Utah medical exam card, all on one page.
These photocopies were what he gave to prospective employers in the trucking industry to con them into letting him drive large tractor trailers.
As it turned out, Bill had actually had his commercial (CDL) license revoked for other infractions several years ago. It’s scary to think that there are people like this driving large rigs on our public roads.
Every stone I overturned exposed more of Bill’s deep, dark secrets and lies. I was truly fortunate that he was arrested.
His wife stopped by to pick up his small dog and to tell me Bill had pleaded with her for bail money and promised to repay her by pawning my laptop and other computer gear when he got out of jail on bail. That would have been a major disaster for me.
Bill’s still trying to call me “collect” from jail every day at $2.86 per call. He’s trying to call his wife and everyone else he can think of to help him get out on bail. Nobody will help him because he has lied to and taken advantage of just about everyone in his circle of acquaintances. It’s truly sad.
Another “friend” of his asked me yesterday, “Do you know how you can tell when Bill’s lying?”
I answered, “No, that’s how I got sucked in by all his stories, he’s so good at it!”
The friend answered, “He’s lying whenever his lips are moving!”
We chuckled over that, but it wasn’t really very funny. It turns out that just about everything he ever told me was an exaggeration or an outright lie.
What can we do as tenants or property owners to check out prospective tenants we let into our homes, condos or apartments?
As I found out the hard way, we can’t just assume everyone is honest until proven otherwise. At the very least, that new tenant may be extremely annoying.
Call or write me if you’ve got a similar story to share. [email protected]