Do you guys wanna' hear a story? Here's one for you . . .
We recently hired a couple of contractors. One to tear out much of the interior of the house and then to install tile flooring. The other was hired to install wood flooring.
Recently the wood flooring installation began. The contractor sent one great crew to do the job. Things were going well. Then, he sent another crew to help out.
The new crew consisted of three guys and an 8 year old little girl. When they arrived, the little girl shot out of their truck and ran into the house. Mind you, the house has no flooring, has sharp tile pieces laying about in piles, has power equipment with sharp blades on rickety stands, and other dangerous debris in the area. It is a contstruction zone.
My first staements to the guys was, "Who belongs to the child?" Once the father was identified, I told him that I can't have the little girl in the house. It is dangerous for her and I will not accept the liability for any injury to her. She had to leave. He had to take her somewhere else.
The worker began to argue with me. As the homeowner, I could not believe that he was argueing with me in my own house. I stopped him and told him to call his boss, the contractor, because no matter what he said, I was not going to allow his child to remain on my property. Well, this sent him through the roof as evidenced by his continued vulgarities, yelling, and more vulgarities.
At this point I called his boss, the contractor I had hired. I explained the child situation, the fact she was in a dangerous construction environment, that the emplyee was refusing to remove the child from the house, and that he was continuing to argue with me. The contractor later told me he could hear the employee yelling in the background.
At the same time the other office phone was ringing. It was the employee who was calling his boss. The contractor advised me he would take care of it, hung up with me, and then took the other call. He told the employee to remove the child from the house and return to the shop.
At this point the employee and the crew started to pack up thier van. During this time a constant barrage of vulgarities were directed towards me. I continued to stand in the area to ensure that only their property was removed from the premises until the point when the employee crossed another line. I was threatened with physical harm. Ther threat was made in tenor of voice, word of deed, and emotion of stance.
I am in no ways a dummy, so I chose to let him make his threats without any overt action on my part. He did not act on them, but attempted to get me to take the first setp. I refused to get down to his level, so instead I again called his boss. I told him of the threat and that I didn't appreciate it. He said he'd handle it so that ended our conversation.
Once the employee left, he returned to the shop with his child. Upon meeting with his boss, he was fired. Well, that doesn't end the story. The boss/contractor called me back and told what happened. The employee had gone through the roof, stolen the van that he was no longer authorized to use since he was fired, and had told the boss that he was coming back to my house to KILL ME.
Holy cow! I don't need this caca! I wasn't raised with the likes of people like the employee and certainly don't need to be involved with them at this point in my life. However, I had to take action so I called the police who responded to my residence.
Well, the employee did not return, but then again there were two police cars in front of my house. He would have been stupid to drive up.
They ended up taking a report, which will be presented to the D/A on Monday morning. A warrant should be issued for the guy's arrest.
I might have expected things to have ended at this point, pending some kind of law enforcement action, however this wasn't the end of things. Yesterday, I went to a large hardware store where I purchased some items. Upon exiting the store, what did I see? There was the idiot standing in the parking lot near my car.
As soon as he saw me, he began again with a barrage of vulgarities and threats. Great, just what I need, right? I ignored him, entered my car, and proceeded directly to the local police station where another report was filed.
Oh, btw, did I mention that the individual that the contractor allowed into my home was well known with the local Sheriff's Office? He was a "frequent flyer" in the overnight accomodations department and, when his name was run over the car compluter, it returned with an "Officer Safety" warning. Apparently the employee had a record for Assualt with a Deadly Weapon and each of the officers I have talked to have known this guy's name.
So, here I sit with a violent idiot knowing where I live, fired because of my actions according to his perspective, upset at me, perhaps even beginning to stalk me. What a nice thing to live with every day?
I do have to say that I have the ability to defend myself if this guy decides to act on his threats. In fact, I had the ability to do so at each step in this process. I just withheld actions until there would be no question of my need of defense. I won't elaborate on what those abilities are other than to say they are there.
However, is this anyway to live? I don't think so. I do know that I have learned a few lessons and that's what I'd like to pass on to you:
First, I will always insist that the contractor be at the job site at the beginning of each day to supervise the arrival of his employees. Once they are working, he can leave for his other duties. Second, I will insist on verification from the contractor that he has done criminal checks on his employees and that none of them are felons (or frequent flyers
). If he can't provide proof, he won't be hired. Those are the lessons I have learned.
That is the reason I have written this post. To tell you of these recent events and provide a couple of the lessons I have learned so that hopefully someone else won't have the same experience as me. It was an experience that could have gone south real fast, and is one that is still hanging over our heads.
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