If you had the money to be able to afford to help out a struggling neighborhood kid, like by letting the kid do odd jobs for you like mowing your yard, that would certainly be a nice thing to do.

The person who tells this story is that kind of nice guy, but when someone crosses him, he quickly takes sides and makes sure the good guy wins.

Let’s see how the story unfolds.

Don’t take my lawn decorations

I had purchased my first home in a slightly lower class area of town, which is pretty close to an even lower class area of town.

(Think slightly ghetto a mile from absolute trailer trash.)

I know most of my immediate neighbors, since most of them are pretty loud and I’d rather be friendly with them than have them be my enemy.

Some local kid likes to go around collecting trash in his free time. A real nice kid, does it for really no reason.

Whenever I see him, I usually get him a drink, lemonade or soda so he can stay hydrated. (California is hot.)

Sometimes I give him a few dollars, I offer the kid $30 a month to mow my lawn 2x a month. So, kid has a gig for small, but consistent income.

He really does sound like a great kid and a hard worker.

The kid takes a lot of pride in his work.

He mows the lawn, pulls weeds, moves rocks out of the driveway, and just makes my place look extra nice, even though I don’t even ask him to do any extra work.

This guy is great.

This goes on for a few years, kid is now a senior in highschool.

The kid didn’t let his family troubles get him down.

Family is not doing so great, dad just lost his main source of income, and mom had accumulated debt which put a lot of stress on their failing marriage.

Mom was abusive verbally and sometimes physically to both the kid, and the Father.

But the kid keeps on walking, doing work, volunteering and being a real happy, up beat dude.

Despite his troubles at home, the kid starts buying lawn decorations.

Mostly small, little gnomes, some decorative rocks, and bird bath, and he decorates my yard.

What a nice thing to do!

It looks amazing, but I knew he must have spent a lot of his own money on that.

I try to reimburse him, and he denies. He won’t take it.

I know he needs a car, and I was about to get a newer one for myself, so I gave my mine for free.

It really was the least I could do for this guy for everything he has done for me.

This is so sad!

A few weeks later, a drunk driver T bones the kid, and he dies on the scene.

I was devastated, his parents were devastated, and they soon after got a divorce.

They were fighting over who gets what, and the father discovers that the mother had a drug addiction she had been hiding.

Straight out of left field.

She wants everything they had, and she lawyers up to fight the battle.

The mother goes after his yard decorations.

Due to the debt the mother had accumulated on the father’s bank account, he had really no money.

And nobody knew where she got her money from.

As sad as it is, it’s not my affair.

Until she sent me a letter claiming that the yard decorations are rightfully hers, and that she will take them “or else”.

Now, this is a problem.

He decided to help the father.

I get it, you lost your only child.

You’re in a lot of pain as a parent.

But you were never a good parent to him. I was closer to him than you, by a long shot.

So, I had a meeting with the father, and told him not to worry about the court costs. I decided I was going to fund him in court.

Long story short about their divorce battle, but he wins, and gets to keep everything, and even gets a restraining order on her.

He then files for credit card fraud, and puts all the debt on her.

It worked out okay for the dad.

I heard from the father that she was recently arrested for driving while drunk, and was search and has a decent stash of meth on her.

She is currently awaiting trial for that, while the father is living a life now relatively stress free.

And I got to keep my lawn decorations.

RIP Johnathan. You are missed.

That is such a sad story! I’m glad it worked out okay for the dad considering the circumstances.

He sounds like a really nice guy.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This really was a very sad story.

OP was very kind and generous.

Yes, they both sound like good people.

He was kind of like a parent figure.

This is a really sad story.

Thank goodness there are good people out there.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.