A Series of Unfortunate Events ~

I mentioned in my post the other day that I had something I wanted to tell you all about.  I don’t know why.  Maybe because I feel like a lot of you are my friends, maybe because it’s therapeutic to spell it out, maybe because it might help someone else, or MAYBE the con artist who took me for the fool-that-I-was will use her fake name again and there will finally be information about it online…right here on my blog.  “Rina Janell Kingsly,” of Ogden, Utah.  Age 41.  Also, known as Ashley Hanson.  Also, known as Kassie Hansen. 

The past couple weeks have been crazy.

Allow me:

While we were building the home we are in now, we purchased a condo to live in.  After moving out of it, we figured we might as well keep it and rent it out.  We’ve done it a couple times, everything was fine and dandy.  We were pretty casual and naive landlords who got lucky with wonderful tenants, they never caused any problems.  Until, 2 weeks ago.  It was back up for rent, and I got a phone call.  A phone call that literally has changed my life and way of thinking.  It went something like this…

“Do you have a job?  The condo is $950 per month, and I require a $950 deposit.  Does that work?”

“Oh, for sure.  I’m actually permanently disabled.  I was recently in a head-on collision, the driver was high.  It was a nightmare.  But, I am supposed to be receiving my first settlement check on the 16th.  $4700 dollars for the next four years, so $950 a month won’t be a problem at all.  That’s why I won’t be able to get the first payment to you until the 19th, that’s a Monday.

“Wow, that’s rough.  Well, I would like to meet you first before I make any decisions.”

So, conversation over.  The next day I had to go meet a carpet cleaner at the condo, so I had Janell come meet me at that time.  She has a taxi drop her off (she said her engine just blew), and as she is walking towards me, I’m thinking…”hmm…she’s kinda scary looking.”  I won’t go into details, because surely I will offend someone.  But, I quickly told myself that I wouldn’t judge her and would give her a chance.  Besides, life has been hard on her, lately.

Janell came inside and was super, super friendly.  She talked up her two nieces (that would supposedly be living with her) and how they mean the world to her.  She even got all emotional while she was telling me how important it was to her that they have some consistency in their lives, they deserve it.  She asked me about homeschooling, saying how now that she is disabled, it might be something she could do for them.  I saw pictures of her nieces on her cell phone, and one of her boyfriend.  Her boyfriend was supposedly working in Vegas, as a construction worker, and she refused to let him live with her until they were married.  She didn’t want men coming in and out of her little nieces lives.  Basically, it was all about her nieces.  It was hard not to be impressed…despite my original/judgemental perception of her.

She met all 5 of my children, chatted with them, and asked if they liked cookies.  I heard all about how she loves to bake and used to be the head baker for a grocery store.  She promised my children that she would have cookies for them the next day, when I came back to have her sign papers.  I heard how she use to manage rental properties.  She had some great landlord web sites for me to check out, for free documents.  She said how she wouldn’t mind doing the touch up painting for me, she had a paint swatch book that she used all the time in her rentals. Furthermore, if you want to read article about property management, just go to this website rentalsinboise.com. It also includes legal information about a property. I was told stories of her previous crappy renters who would mess up places, and she couldn’t imagine someone doing such a thing.  She kept saying, “you can never be too careful.”  I wish I listened to her.  Instead, I decided that I would do this lady a favor, and let her move in with her nieces.  She was nice, and trying to do right by these children.  She filled out an application, signed her name, and I told her I would be back the next day with the lease agreement and promissory note to have her sign those.  “No problem, I’ll be here.”  She took my keys, and I left.

Meanwhile, I go home and get all of my legal documents printed up with her name on them.  I contact her to set a meeting time to have her sign everything.  This was where my apprehension turned into suspicion.  I couldn’t get ahold of her…time and time again.  Then, she would text me to give me an excuse:

– Her purse was stolen, she had to get a new phone.
– She forgot she was supposed to teach a class at the Women’s Shelter.
– She dropped her phone in the toilet.
– She was out of town.
– Her little niece was sick…she was at the doctor’s office, waiting for the cultures to come back.

And, here’s the final lie that slapped me in the face, confirming the fact that I had been taken…“My niece just died.  I’m an emotional wreck, I won’t be able to meet you.  I’ll call you later.”  I got that text the day that her payment and deposit were due.

Could someone REALLY have this much bad luck??  What if her niece really died?  What if this was all a lie and she was just trying to live in my place for free, for as long as she could?  Was she a professional squatter?  I couldn’t imagine someone having the capacity to be that dishonest.  I’ve heard of it, but never experienced it first-hand.  I came home and did what I should of done a week and a half earlier, I Googled her name…Rina Janell Kingsly.  NOTHING came up.  Nothing.  I did a search for her nieces, nothing.  I called the police to have them verify her name and social security number, nothing.  Both were fake.

I started to recall all of the things she said to me, all the things I had seen, and realized every single speck of it was a LIE.  She was not disabled, she didn’t have custody of her nieces, her niece never died, nor did they live with her.  Come to think of it, I’m positive that dude in the picture she showed me was NOT her boyfriend.  I would put money on it.

So, I sent her a text…keep in mind, she still lives in my condo.  I was afraid of her ruining the place that I had just made immaculate for the next renter.  “I’m sorry your niece passed away.  However, I still need your payment today by 5:00 or you have to move out tomorrow by noon.”  She immediately wrote back and promised she would leave and the place would be “spotless.”  Oh, how I wish.
Basically, she took off.  She cut and dyed her hair, stole the tv and 2 couch cushions from the furniture store she rented from, and left me with the rest.  And, by “the rest”…let me explain:  she dumped black hair dye on my tan carpet, left a bloody mess all over the toilet, hair dye stains on the sink, food crap everywhere, wadded up soiled underwear in the food pantry, next to her lubrication, and some furniture that belongs to who knows what company, and empty prescription bottles for pain killers, prescribed to another name (besides the fake one she gave me), that has been verified to be fake.  This lady sucks.  And, I’m sure she’s off to do it again, with the exact same stories.

To be able to even touch her stuff required many conversations with the and the police, and some heavy duty gloves.  Luckily, we fell into some legal loopholes that allowed us to do so, and avoid the eviction process (that would have given her at least a couple months more of free rent.)  And, luckily…or not…she likely wants nothing to do with the legal system. I am so relieved to say that she is now out of my life.  I hope.  Now, I just have to figure out who this furniture belongs to and how I’m going to take care of the huge black stain on my carpet.  It takes everything I have not to send her texts telling her to do the world a favor and go shoot herself.  Not very Christ-like, I know.  That’s why I don’t do it.  That’s why I’m trying not to think it.  But, ew…she got to me.

I haven’t slept well since this happened.  I am so disturbed that a human could be so far gone that they have no conscience whatsoever.  I am so disturbed that I was in the presence of such evil, on my property, and with my children.  I am disturbed that I need to question people’s integrity and be more judgmental to prevent things like this from happening again.  I’m sick about it.  Ick.  Ick.

So, here’s my question…what the heck is wrong with people?!?  And, not just this one lady.  I’m talking every day,  people everywhere are doing horrible, disgusting things.  There are people ready to scam you at any given time…on the internet, at the store, on your own front porch.  I have friends whose marriages are falling apart RIGHT NOW because their husbands have turned into s

elfish, adulterous jerks (to put it nicely.)  I know women walking away from their marriages because they’re bored, they miss the single life.  They think they are too good for their husbands and make excuses as to why they need to do this to their children.  I hear of neighbors getting their home broken into, while they are sleeping, because they forget to close their garage just ONE time.  I personally leave my garage open 2 times for a couple hours, both times things were stolen.  And, I live in what is considered a “safe neighborhood.”  I don’t think there is such thing, any more.  My neighbor just got arrested for forgery, stealing from an elderly lady, thousands of dollars.  I hear of kids walking alone, who are kidnapped, molested and/or brutally murdered.  Who doesn’t know someone who was sexually abused in their lives?  Have you ever seen how many people are on the sex offender list??  Imagine all the people we don’t even know about.  It seems like half the population is addicted to some sort of drug, and people are dying all the time because of it.  Overdoses and murder.  I’ve personally known several people who have met that fate.  People are lying their faces off or looking for any excuse to get other people’s money and take great pride in ruining the lives of anyone who wrongs them.  Men are taking the sex fantasies way over the line and women will do anything to get their validation.  Terrorists are killing innocent people every day because they have different beliefs than them.  Etc., etc., etc.  Somebody stop me!

It used to seem that I only saw these things on the news.  They happened in the slums, big cities, anywhere that I wasn’t.  But, now I feel like everywhere I turn there is crap going on.  It’s the guy across the street, it’s the lady up the road, and the dude on the other side of the street.  It’s my closest friends, family members, and so on.  There is always a new outrageous something-or-other going on, that all boils down to selfishness.  To a lack of integrity.  Maybe its because I’m an adult now and hear more, or maybe its because its getting worse every day.  Do you ever feel that way??

Really.  Granted, we all mess up here and there (I know I do!), but to me, the point of life is to keep trying our best.  That’s what matters.  Nobody can fault you for doing your best.  But, succumbing to a destructive life is inexcusable.   Ah, excuses.  Yea, maybe the squatter in my condo had a rough life.  Maybe the dude that molests the neighborhood children was sexually abused when he was younger.  Maybe the guy who shoves his wife around struggles with depression.  Hard-knocks and setbacks are not an excuse for bad behavior.  They might make one more prone to bad behavior, but we’re not helpless animals.  We have the ability to say no, change our lives, be honest, selfless, etc.  Plenty of people have proven that.

I’m not trying to be all poopie-attitude…I think I have been blessed so much and I personally am so happy with my life.  But, happiness doesn’t just come to some of us and not to others.  We have to work for it.  We have to find it.  And, it can’t be found with sex, drugs, money, pride, or possessions…no matter what anyone says.  So, why are people so focused on those things and let them rule their lives?  I don’t know.  I don’t understand it.  (I know I’m probably preaching to the choir, but it’s therapeutic.  Thanks.) 

My focus in life is to be a really good person.  For most of y’all, I know it’s the same for you.  I want to be honest, kind, giving, hard working, spiritual, and always improving.  I make plenty of mistakes in my life, but I dust of my feet and try again.  As a mother, my focus is to raise my children to be the same.  So, every day, I try to spend my time doing things that revolve around my focus.  Anything else, may or may not be “somewhat important” to me.

So, when I get emails telling me that it’s only right to be fully concerned with using all-natural and organic products and how dare I only half-support.  I say, “I’m sorry, I can only devote so much of my time and energy to that.”  Or, that my kids playing with marshmallow guns will possibly lead to their future of killing people, I say, “Don’t be ridiculous.”  Or, that it’s wrong to nurse my babies anything less than one year, I think “Honestly.  Isn’t there something better to concern yourself with?”  Because, there is.  There are things that really make sense and matter a lot more.  Things that matter a lot more than going green, the existence of mink farms, global warming, a blog rant, politics, the economy, and babies being breastfed.  It’s called the state of mankind.  It’s the fact that people are seriously messed up.   They are giving in to their carnal desires and destroying themselves and their families.  THAT is more detrimental to our world, children, and future than anything else.  Do we really want our kids to have a better future?  Then be a good person…and, not just a “pretty good” person or a good person “in comparison”.  I’m talking a person of integrity.  A person that doesn’t make excuses for bad behavior, but owns it and changes it.  Other things deserve our attention, but they should come second, third, fourth, fifth…to our efforts of being a good person of integrity, raising children to be the same, and encouraging those around us.  I don’t know about you, but that sure takes up lots of my time.  Integrity basically means, ‘if you know it’s right, do it.  If you know it’s wrong, don’t do it.’

I’ve been somewhat perturbed all week, as you can clearly tell.  So, when I walked in on a school assembly today, and what I saw melted my heart.  I was literally like, “Don’t cry.  Everyone will think you’re nuts.  Don’t cry, don’t cry…”  Little elementary school kids singing and dancing together, having soooo much fun.  They all had their hands in the air, going nuts over some Taylor Swift song.  I swear, every kid in their knew every word…it was like a crazy concert!  It was so cute…I had to pull out my iPad and get it on video.  I just sat there thinking that all of these kids deserve happiness.  They deserve a good life.  They deserve to feel safe in their neighborhoods and homes.  They deserve to feel safe in their marriages and relationships.  They deserve to be dealt with fairly by their fellow men.  They deserve so much!  I really, really hope that for them.  May they be surrounded by good, self-less people, who have their best interest in mind.  May they learn and grow to be fabulous people, who make the world a better and safer place.

That’s all.  Amen.  Thanks for listening.  Have a good day.  You’re awesome.