THE SAD CASE

I know most the stories I have shared with you have been somewhat funny or strange things that had happened over the years. This is a very sad case that I thought I would share. I had these customers who lived outside of Macon, ga and I hated going out there because it would take me sometimes 25 or 30 minutes just to get to the house so these people didn’t get ran as much as needed. They were a young couple I’d say both in their late 20’s and they had two very pretty little girls , if I remember one was 3 yrs old and the other was 5yrs old. This couple was always behind on the payments for a Curtis Mathes 25”console TV “For those who has no idea what a console TV is remember the wooden box TV’s that where on the floor ? Your mother always had a plant on top of them” anyway they were always late on the payments but they would pay. They had no phone so after a few weeks I would have to go out and either hang a note on the door or if they where home they would give me a date they could pay the bill and for the most part they always kept the promise to pay. I think a little background on this couple is needed, you see I had been going out collecting on them for about a year and on many of these trips I had seen or heard them fighting and when I say fighting they were fighting, I could hear things being busted in the house yelling and always the kids would be crying. Sometimes when I went out the young woman would have black eyes, busted lips and bruises all over her. The young woman was very pretty but her husband was a true redneck jerk always cussing and I never had seen him without a beer in his hands. When I came out he was always trying to get me pissed off, for the most part I ignored him but sometimes I would smile or wink and that would piss him off.  This day as I pulled up to the house I seen the jerk pulling out of his dirt driveway and he was slinging dirt and rocks everywhere as he was spinning the tires I could hear the engine he had the old ford floored, he was heading my way I just slowed down a bit and moved a little to the right to let him pass he never looked my way. I turned into the yard as I did  the young woman was standing at the foot of the steps at the front door, I could see she was crying as I got out of the van and when I got closer to her , I want to tell you it looked like someone had beat her with a pipe! One eye was black and shut, she was bleeding from her nose and lip her hair looked like someone had tried to pull it out, she had scratches and bruises all over her. I looked up and saw the kids crying at the glass door. I will tell you this was a very sad scene. I went up to the young woman and asked her if she wanted me to take her to the medical center in Macon, Ga? I knew they only had the one auto, I told her I could radio my store and have them send some help out! She asked me to please not to do this she couldn’t handle it at the moment, as she was talking I could see her getting upset again. I told her if there was anything I could for her just asks. She started telling me again she would be fine then she said can I ask you for one thing?  Would you mind taking the kids and me just up the road to her mother’s house? I told her I didn’t mind at all that I really didn’t feel good about leaving her and the kids alone. So she got the kids and took them into the house after about 10 minutes she came out with what looked like some things for the kids and it also looked like she had washed her face an brushed her hair a little. I looked at the lady she still looked beaten but she looked better with the blood gone from her face.

I helped get the kids in the van; it was a cargo van so it had no back seats so I put some furniture blankets out on the floor and gave them each a hooked tie down strap, I told them now hang on tight! They looked at me and was smiling I could see they were enjoying this. The young lady got into the van it was a bit hard for her the van was kind of high up, you could see from her face she must be bruised all over not just on her face an arms. As we were driving she said I’m so sorry for all this, I told her it was not a problem at all, I said anyway it’s good for me If you don’t pay I know how to find you! She started laughing but you could see it hurt, she said I guess now I will be known as one of your Bad customers! I just smiled back and told her no but I did wish she would get a phone! She was laughing and told me, I will drop a payment off this weekend under the door, I told her if she couldn’t just call me and we would work it out, she said that it would be no problem. The kids now they had a good time on the ride over they were swinging all around on them straps I gave them for safety. We got to her mothers in 15 minutes, I pulled in and went around and slid the van door open to get the kids out and they were still laughing it was cute to see.  I helped the young woman out of the van she was having a harder time getting out of the van than she had getting into it, she was standing on the ground about the time her mother came out of the house an when she saw her daughter she said “that bastard” at this time she took her daughters arm and was helping her she said he needs to go to jail for this baby that this couldn’t keep happening “the young woman said, while crying again, it won’t mom I’m done the kids and I will not be going back! About this time two young men came out they started yelling that they were going to kick his Ass and all the stuff you would expect when someone does a thing like this guy did to a young woman with kids in the house, to be honest I felt like kicking his ass at this point. I told them goodbye, she said thank you and I went on to finish my route for the day. I came to work Monday and as I always did went through the door payments dropped over the weekend, and then I would post them.  I got ready to leave on my collection route by pulling all the people who broke a promise to pay over the weekend, I would go after them 1^st thing!  I was going through them when I noticed the young woman didn’t drop her payment as she said they would. I decided I had enough people to run around the Macon,ga area I would give her a few days after all she had been through hell. Three days later and she had yet to pay or call me as she told me she would so I figured I would go ahead and head out to the house, I liked to be closer to macon,ga by the weekend where I had the bulk of my late customers. I got there I think it was around 3pm I wanted to avoid the jerk if possible, but as I pulled up to the house I could see what looked like someone had kicked the front door in it had new looking wood around the trim and it was cracked in the center. The glass on the storm door was busted completely out and it was all over the porch. I walked out from the porch I could see some of the windows had glass panes busted out and looking around I seen where it looked like he had drove all over the yard, the tire tracks were all over it. I was thinking that bastard had beaten her up again so I just put a note with my name and number on it and left. I was driving down the road and thought about going to her mother’s but it didn’t seem like the time. A few days later I came into the store and had a message to call her mother she told the girl in the office to tell me not to go back to her daughter’s house without calling her first. The next day I called her mother and what she told me I never expected in a million years, she picked up the phone and I told her who I was and at that moment she started to cry then she said Tony my daughter is dead……..and for a moment it was like by brain froze, me who always had something to say was speechless after a minute, I asked her what happened? She said “That bastard called her  said he had some money for the kids and her he told her she needed to come to the house and get it he wasn’t going to come up to her mothers , then he asked her to bring the kids also she told him no way. The mother told me she asked her if she could use her car to down and pick up the money, she told sure but wait a bit and let her older brother go with her, the young lady said no I would just start trouble she was just going to the house and blow the horn she wasn’t even going to get out of the car, she said I told her I didn’t feel good about this but ok. The mother told me it got to be over an hour since she left to go down to the house so she asked her oldest son to drive her over there. She said when they arrived her car and his truck was in the drive they got out and went to the door, as they got up to the door she noticed the storm door was busted out her son reached over her and started knocking on the door hard but not a sound came from the house. The son started going around the house looking  into the windows and seeing if they were any open or if  the back door was unlocked but no luck, he came back around the house and told her ”F” this he was kicking the door open something is wrong ! She said he kicked the door open then turned to her and said stay out here until I come get you, I want to make sure it’s ok first. He went into the house while she waited on the porch; she said a few minutes her son yelled DAMN! At this point she said I’m going in as she was her son was coming out he stopped her and he was crying then he told her mom she is dead! That bastard killed her and then shot himself! She said when she heard this everything went black. She told me that when she nexted opened her eyes she was at her house with her son, he told her he carried her home and called the police and dad and her other son was down at the house with the police. He told her she wasn’t going down there that she was needed at home to be with the baby girls. She told me all she can do now is cry all the time. I told her how sorry I was, and asked her if there was anything I could do for them? She told me yes” she asked if I could wait till the next week to get the TV back? I said God yes! That would not be a problem at all, and I also said that her daughter only had about three months remaining on the TV and if they wanted to pay just the remaining payments they can. She told me she was grateful for the offer but “no thank you” she said they didn’t need another TV and besides every time she looked at the TV it would only remind her of this and she couldn’t handle that. I told her I understood completely but if they changed their minds to just let me know, I gave her my number and told her when she ready for us to come out and get the TV just call, she told me thank you and goodbye. I think it was about a week later she called me back and asked me to come to her house first and they would take us down to the house and let us in, told her that was fine and we would be there in a few hours. I got a guy named Bill and we went out to the mothers house as we pulled up I seen the girls playing in the yard the mother was sitting on the porch with a man I guessed was her husband, as we pulled up she got up and came to the van and told me to follow her son, who was coming out the door about the same time. The guy got into his truck and we followed him down to house as we pulled up to the house it kind of looked spooky now with all the new wood around the door and windows busted out not to mention how dark it looked inside the house it wasn’t night but it was in the twilight of the day. We all got out and went to the door you could see where someone had put the wood up so they could put a padlock on the door, the young man unlocked the door and pushed the door open as he did he stepped back, he said you can go in I don’t want to go back in this house ever again. I looked over at Bill he also looked like he didn’t really want to go in the house, you see I had told him all that happened and as you read my stories you will know Bill isn’t the bravest person in the world. I stepped through the open door with bill behind me, the house inside looked like a bomb had gone off the sofa was turned over in the livivngroom the coffee table was busted to hell with glass all over the floor, papers , pictures and just all kind of stuff was strewn all over everywhere. It looked like to me he had punched holes all over the walls but the worst thing I saw as we went into the livivngroom area further was the doorway to the kitchen all over the door frame and on the floor underneath was blood it was everywhere! It made think of that poor young woman again it was very hard to look at, as I was standing there I heard Bill say “Man can we just get the TV and get out of here please this is making me feel sick. Bill and I saw the floor model TV under the window to the left of all that blood so as we walked toward the TV I had to make a path with my foot so neither he nor I would fall while we picked up and carried the set out. We got the TV into the van and after I turned to the young man and told him how sorry I was for what has happened to his family and to please tell his mother that for me, he said he would. I will tell you I’d seen some bad crap up to this point but I will tell you this was the worst thing I have ever seen, just a sad waste of life.