Wednesday, November 19, 2008

A CALL TO ARMS: YOU HAVE SOMETHING OF MINE JANAUL

A former friend of mine has stolen property of mine and has had it for two quarters.

Janaul Blount, the friend in question, has his claims and disputes but this is what happened:

I had a Dreamcast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast). I carried it with me wherever I went. Causing many a turmoil but never worse for the wear. I snuck it into my college dorm hiding it from my anti-video game parents ("Is that a Game-Boy!?" "Mom, it's a cellphone" "How come there's games on it?" "Phones can have games on them." "No they can't. They are meant to call people ONLY" "SIGH...").
I would play it, not in my room as it was prestinely devoid of a tv, in a friends room (we'll call this friend: Jamil). So much so, that I ended up asking him to keep it there instead of lugging it with me whenever someone got the itch to play "Marvel Vs. Capcom 2". What surprised me, and should have been a red flag, is that he said he would allow it in his room but promised that he held to responsibilty if anything happened to my system. I balked at the idea of him allowing something to happened without telling me and proceeded to not have it with me in my room.

Next quarter, I come straight to Jamil and ask for my Dreamcast back from his room.
He resoundly says he disavows knowledge of ever keeping the Dreamcast in his room (Def Con 2). He allows me to search the room feeling sorry for me and keeps telling me that my proposition never was... propositioned.
I freak for a week.
No leads.
No witnesses.
Nothing.
(I realized I'm putting a lot of theatre into this But it means a lot to me to get this back in my hands. I won't be able to be transported back to when I was 15 by plugging in my Dreamcast if I have no Dreamcast. There is a strong feeling there and I would rather lose it through the thought of me doing something wrong to my system then someone else keeping it and thinking it's theirs when it isn't.)

Janaul has my SCAD card. I'm a big pushover when it comes to wanting to help people with their money problems and Janaul convinces me to use my card to pay for his laundry that he can't seem to afford card-wise.
It begins to get late and he isn't answering his phone or appearing where he said he would to give me back my SCAD card (I get it back but this leads to the Dreamcast so hang on). I ask around and I find his begotten room. He's in there. Why won't he answer my calls then? I see people I know in his room (there not in SCAD anymore so I don't feel the need to include their pseudonyms) so I call one of them and look in at the reaction. He/She ignores my call!
I start to become very paranoid then I see something that looks like Son Son fighting something that looks like Cyclops on Janaul's television screen. "Marvel vs Capcom 2". He has it. Why wouldn't he let me in on it if he had a console that played the game I used to play? After all, he and I were friends who mostly battled each other in fighting games such as MvC2 on my Dreamcast. What if the reason they won't pick up the call so that I can come and get my SCAD card is so that I don't come into the room? And what if they don't want me in the room playing MvC2 because they are doing it on a Dreamcast they stole from me?
I knock.
I rudely ask to come in and see what they're doing and accuse Janaul of theivery (Not the move I would have done in hindsight)
Janaul pushes the door close on my footgiving me my card back while he does.
I threaten to call security if I'm not let in, I scream.
"Go ahead" is Janaul's retort. (This puzzled me. Wouldn't he just want to avoid getting kicked off campus in favor of swallowing his pride?)
Long story short; I didn't stay by the door to keep watch of who comes out. Security comes along with two RAs and search his room and find two Dreamcast controllers that are not mine but his. I have a meltdown, having felt as if I destroyed a friendship and wondered why Janaul just didn't let me in and prove me wrong instead of going through a two and a half hour ordeal.

This happened last quarter.
I trust what I saw. That was my game in that room. Janaul kept me out so I wouldn't catch him red handed. There were Dreamcast controllers in his room for what oher purpose? Why would I keep this up if this all didn't happen?

I would like to have a meeting with Janaul and a RD moderator before Friday.
He thinks it's his I hear. Well, if he can hold up a decent argument without closing a door I may think differently. For now, the man is a cheat, a liar, and a manipulator.

No comments: