So guess what? Our contractor and his meth-addict friends did not steal my inherited diamond ring. Jared had multiple heated accusatory conversations with the guy, we filed a police report on him, I spent half a day driving to all pawn shops within a 30-mile radius, and it turns out that we just hadn’t looked hard enough at home.
Ouch.
I feel terrible. I falsely accused someone of something they clearly did not do.
We owe him a HUGE apology, which we are definitely going to give him. We are also going to revise the police report to let them know that we found the missing ring and he has since returned the other items he stole (Like a gas can. A GAS CAN. Really. How stupid of a thing is that to steal?) About that…
The fact remains that the contractor did indeed steal other items of low value out of our garage (which, when confronted, he confessed and ultimately did return them), and he also left shady people with criminal records (including records of burglary) alone at our house for extended periods of time with access to the inside of our house. He also did a crappy job on the work we hired him to do (because he showed up high), and he said some pretty messed up and unintelligible things on the phone to Jared and in person to both of us during the few weeks he was doing work at our house.
Long story short: please follow the advice I gave in the post below about what steps to take to protect yourself BEFORE hiring a contractor. This story has a somewhat happy ending, and I came out of the whole thing feeling like a complete a$$hole, but we still did get screwed over and had to go through an ordeal. I’m happy my ring wasn’t stolen, but I don’t ever want to hire a meth-addict for a contractor again.
I do, however, have a great deal of grace for the guy. Ultimately, I feel really bad for him and a part of me wants to reach out and help him, but considering what has happened with our particular situation recently I don’t think it’s possible for Jared and I to be the ones to do it. It must be extremely difficult to try to stay clean after years of drug offense felonies on your criminal record. The poor guy probably can’t even get a job at McDonald’s. What other kind of work is he going to be able to do now but to mow lawns and paint houses? This is a real life example of the tension of justice vs. mercy in my mind and in my life. It will never be ultimately resolved.
I still feel like a terrible person, though. I want to say I’m sorry 1000 times. This is what humility and personal growth feels like.
