Thursday, December 22, 2011

Being Harassed/Threatened by an old landlord.

I don't even know what to say about this. I have this old landlord that keeps harassing me for money. I made a deal with him to break a lease so we could move to California. I had a guy that was going to be our business manager out there pay what we owed for rent. I told him we'd get him one more month to call it even. It's this dead that I haven't been able to uphold. This is the reason I'm being harassed. It's more than looking for money. It's being a bully, it's being downright violent in words, and intimidating. This is the email I just received word for word.

From:     Shawn Wylie <1phatboycane@********.***
Subject:     You not being a man!!!
Date:     December 22, 2011 2:27:47 AM EST
To:     Jeremy Treece <crisis.hour@gmail.com>

You owe me money and your little punk ass cant even effing respond to me MAN up cuz!! Handle your buisiness!! I will get it out all over the net and through the entire comic book community (I have all day every day to call, write or post all about you and everything I know or have heard about you)what a piece of shit you are and wouldn't doub't from what I've been hearing that your a child molester to!! I'm telling you Mr. Treece if you do not contact me back i'm going to do my best to destroy your life G.O.D.!!!(and i have 24hours a day to do it)!!! You owe me money and all I can say is I feel sorry for you, Lisa, your kids and crisis hour if you don't call me and make arrangements to pay me!! 734-469-****  Sorry bro but I will destroy you, I liked you so much and thought you were such a great person, but you proved me wrong. contact me and show me i'm wrong, this is the last chance, please Jeremy just make some attempt to make things right, because i'm telling you in this message you can save and bring to court with you, if you do not contact me and make things right I am going to destroy you G.O.D ya dig... sincerely Shawn Wylie

When we lived out in California, he would drunk dial a couple times, and talk. About how hard stuff is. About life, and how cool we were as people and how he knew that this deal with the Californian businessman was not a good deal and we should run away from it.

Dead to rights from the moment we decided to move to California haven't been in a financially stable job since. Freelancing is all I got. I basically live off commission. I have $80 to my name at any given time. Bills come and go. I hold off until I absolutely have to pay to avoid a shut off. Rent is usually 1 to 2 months late, and I make it work by whatever strings, and support I get from fans.

I really do not know what to say about this. I really do feel like this is crossing a line that doesn't need to be crossed. I'd thought I would post this up just in case some bad stuff went down. Also to show that I'm not afraid.

Any advice on what I should do about this guy? I would have assumed if it was about the money he would have sued me and then that would be it already. But he's trying to bully/harass/force me to pay him money I don't have for him at this time. Anything on the subject would be helpful. Thanks guys!!



7 comments:

Karine said...

Okay. Take this with a grain of salt, because I don't know you or the situation enough.
1- How much money do you actually owe him?
2- If it's a substantial amount (despite the fact that your post reads like you've given conpensation for breaking your lease), how much can you spare to send over every month, until your debt is taken care of? Do you feel you can make an installment arrangement with him?
3- I can't believe how his letter is both insanely threatening (I'll destroy you) and coddling (calling you bro, please do the right thing) and you had better keep this email in permanent record, heck, print it and file it, as proof of harassment and threats to your livelihood and that of your whole family.

Heck, I would even go to the police with an email like this. It's THREATS. Threats to ruin you for back rent. Threats not only towards you, but also towards your wife, and your KIDS for Pete's sake. Yeah. Before you even think of paying him, go to the police. They might have a good idea what you should do next.

Unknown said...

Yea, I would call the police and ask how you should handle this. From the email, the guy seems pretty ignorant and won't take you to court (he would have already, if that was the case). He's just threatening you because he wants his money and thinks this is the best way.

Renae De Liz said...

Yikes! I'm so sorry you're dealing with this! Here's a quote that helps me when dealing with people acting badly " Rudeness (or craziness in this case) is the weak man's imitation of strength" To me this sounds like a weak man who was "hurt" in some way we can't understand by this situation therefore he's trying to take control of the situation by acting tough. Often times people will funnel ALL of their stress/anxiety towards one problem. I've come across this with commissions, where they'll suddenly blame me for their financial problems, or start talking about their marital stress (which a sketch card commission has absolutely no bearing on). So this guy has a lot more going on than just being upset at you.

The way *I* would handle this is be sincere and calm and apologetic (even if he doesn't deserve it and it kills you on the inside) Let him know you'r sorry for any grief this may have caused him and you want badly to work it out with him and fix it. If it's true, let him know you really liked the good times hanging out with him. Try to think of an amount you can pay monthly and let him know you'd like to start early next month with the first payment (now if you can) and start on your journey to get him out of your life.

Yes, he's a jerk who should not be acting that way, and yes it's over the line, but the only way to get him out of your life completely is to pay him, and to do so hopefully in a kindly manner this is the best bet. He may respond like a jerk to you again, but just send him the first payment and I bet seeing movement will placate him.

Again I'm so sorry you're dealing with this jerk. I & Ray have had our share too. Just remember the stress this guy is causing you is temporary and in the long run he'll be a distant memory that has no bearing on your life.

Good luck! :) let us know how it goes!

Donna Hutt Stapfer Bell said...

*sigh* The biggest fights are over the smallest amounts of money. Tuck that away - and if this guy is really causing you to lose sleep, walk into someplace like Legal Grounds over near here in Los Angeles on La Cienega and talk it over with a legal widget.

You can't NOT talk to this guy. If you owe, you owe - avoiding him only makes him madder, and will likely make him take steps you'll both regret. If you're making your way on freelance work, set aside a slot a week, month, what have you - and those proceeds go directly to pay this twiddlehead off. I'd pop for that.

But there are laws - federal laws - regarding harassment in the process of collecting a debt, and you need to know what the boundaries are and how to enforce them. Go get a cup of coffee and some advice. Good luck!

Graham Stinson said...

Hey man, I feel for you. Clearly there's plenty of backstory here.

I totally agree with kyburg: you have to talk to this dude. If you've been 'dealing' with this problem in the same way you say you're dealing with your bills - ignoring them until threat of shut-off - ignoring him will (and has) just made this worse.

If you said you will do something (like having a month to make it right), and that month came and went without you owning up and changing the plan, this dude is a little bit right in that you need to man up and own your failure to keep your word.

He's incredibly wrong in the way he's treating you, and threatening to destroy you, though - for that I'm sorry you need to deal with this guy. Not sure if bringing in the cops is the right thing right now, but it's definitely wise to hang on to this as evidence if it comes down to that - maybe calling the cops for advice is a good idea too.

What you need to do is get him off your back. Make a plan, pay consistently and sacrificially until it's done, and then thank the Good Lord you never have to talk to him or hear from him again. If you do anything else, you're asking for trouble. Make this a priority. Get it done.

JRtist said...

It's pretty obvious that he's pissed because you haven't paid him the amount you owe. And he's tired of being put off or ignored.
Some people handle this situation differently and with more tact.
Others have no understanding or their actions and don't think before they act.

In order to sue someone, in many states, you have to show proof you've tried to collect on your own, for not less than 90 days consecutively. That means, once a month you can contact said person, usually with documentation, with an invoice sometimes, dictating what needs to be paid. Knowing that you left Cali like what, last year? he HAS had the chance to sue, but perhaps he doesn't want to take it to that level. Hoping he doesn't have to pay lawyer fees and court fees just to get some money. Also, the laws are different state to state, but if the amount is under 500.00, sometimes you can't even take the person to small claims court. I know where I live, that's the case. You should be happy he hasn't tried to sue you yet. You may have to pay back rent AND court fees if he decided to.

On the other side of the coin, he did eff himself by threatening you. Contact authorities about the threats. Usually the FBI handles internet threats. Local cops are always a good place to start however and they will tell you sometimes, where you need to go to get something going. This doesn't make it alright NOT to pay him though.

shawn said...

Hi this is the old landlord of Jeremy and Lisa Treece. People let me just say the threats are not at all threats of violence but are threats to destroy them by letting ppl such as his business associates, his fans, their family and friends, future landlords ect... You see Jeremy didn't mention that I am disabled from a nerve injury in my spinal cord do I not physically harm anyone! As for the money they were already three months behind at $850/month and yes the so called buisiness manager sent me a check for like $400 which was suppose to be the start of this "millionaire" paying off their lease, which he later decided he could no longer do. And then after not ever paying me another dime, as i'm at the Ford dealership I see a Budget rental truck and drove up and asked to speek to them and they informed me they were packing the truck to leave in the morning for Cali, mind you the week before they had asked me if I would take all their new appliances as partial payment for what they owed and I told them I would rather have the cash but the appliances would be better then nothing, well even though they were planning on skipping out without even telling me, the appliances were the first things packed in the truck even after I offered to let them out of thier lease if they just payed me what they owed they didn't even leave the appliances they had offered?They promised time and time again to pay me, but I guess they had to do that because when they got to Cali they found that they couldn't rent a house there without there last landlords reference which I gladly gave because they had two babies and seem to be good ppl. As far as never having any money if you keep up on their Web pages you know they beg money from fans to pay rent yet they are writing about purchasing brand new Apple laptops, these ppl are a joke they rent house after house and don't pay!! I just don't want to sue them because if it goes that far they are responsible for what was left of their year lease like seven months plus interest, I don't want it to go there I just want them to make an effort to pay me what they owe infact I would settle for 2 months and they owed a little less then 4.... So $1700.00 and Jeremy and Lisa Treece will never have to deal with me ever again!!