So I have a bit of a problem. I just got a message on Facebook this morning from an old friend, asking me for money to help him pay off his debt to some 'bad people' that he acquired from some sort of drug problem.
Here's the background info, might be a little important to fully explain the situation..
So last year in March I met this fellow (let's call him Jim) at a drum n bass show, and so we chatted for a bit before exchanging names and adding one another on FB. I saw him at a lot of events, and naturally we'd hang out, chat, and dance. I only hung out with him once or twice outside of 'party atmospheres.' He was a bit of a strange guy, but he was entertaining and he was someone to chill with at events. I found out soon that he was a bit of an alcoholic and a ketamine addict, but I'm not extremely judgmental and since he seemed pretty cool I didn't really care.
So anyways, one night in May/June we were at this show with some of my friends, and he was drunk (as always) and doing whatever. He came up to me midway through the night and complained to me about how this one rich 'chunky' chick always followed him to clubs/bars and tried to get him drunk so she could take him home. Of course, he didn't like her, so he just used her as a free source of alcohol, lol. He told me that he was going to get revenge on her of some sort, idk why, but apparently he was pretty annoyed by her because she constantly and heavily hit on him to the point that he was actually starting to get a bit pissed about it.
An hour before the show ended, he came up to me and excitedly shoved an iPhone4 into my hands and asked me if I knew how to get the sim card out. He told me that he had found it on the ground. I told him that we should try to return it to lost and found.. but he insisted that I do it, so I did. Call me a bad person, whatever... anyways.. I flushed the sim down a toilet and then brought the phone back to him. Once the show ended and we had walked a bit of a ways away, he thanked me profusely for helping him and then said that I could just keep it, since he already had two phones. He said that I had been a decent friend to him and that since my normal phone was a piece of shit I deserved an upgrade. So, ok, I accepted the offer..
A few days later he told me that he had stolen it from the fat rich chick, and that she had told him that she must have lost her phone at the club, oblivious to the fact that he had actually stolen it. I wasn't really sure what to think of this.. lol.. wasn't really that impressed by the fact that he had actually stolen a phone as 'revenge.' Anyways, he told me that he was kind of broke at the moment and needed cash, and that he would like to sell the iPhone that he'd given to me, but that since he said I could keep it and saw that I was happy with it, he'd let me have it for keeps.
I saw him a few times after that, but since the summer he kind of just disappeared and we haven't really spoken much at all.
However, today, randomly, he sends me this message (edited a bit)
Now, I REALLY don't know what to think of this.
At first, I felt really bad. I haven't talked to him in a while, as I said, but he was still a decent friend (albeit for a short period of time) and I don't want anyone to get hurt. However, it's not really my problem that he got into drugs that caused him to fall into debt. I'm 18 years old, he is in his mid 20s. I work a minimum wage job on the weekends and I don't make enough to 'compensate' him. I don't plan on giving him the phone, since I'm currently using it and it has lots of my stuff on it that would be a pain in the ass to transfer, etc. I never made his bad decisions for him.
He messages me out of the blue after not speaking to me for months, and like I said, we weren't the best of friends, we would just chill now and then at clubs, pretty much. Now it is my problem that he owes people because of the phone that he stole and gave to me. Yeah, maybe that's karma for accepting a stolen item, but at the time I didn't know it was stolen until it was too late. And that is in the past and besides the point right now.
There are some fishy parts to the story.
An iPhone 4 can probably be sold on the internet for around $3-400 (it's a 16gig). If he wants compensation, or to sell the phone.. well.. what kind of drug dealers kill others over such small sums? It's not worth their while. Why would they want to have to deal with disposing of a body, as well as attracting more attention to themselves, seeing as they already partake in illegal activities? It doesn't really add up.
And since I know he is a drug addict and an alcoholic, there is also the chance that he is just trying to make me feel sorry for him so he can obtain some money to score more drugs. He has been known to steal things.. I believe I remember him telling me he stole a wallet and another phone, plus he's "found" many other electronic devices and money at parties before.
So my question is.. what do I do? Is he trying to trick me into giving him money to support a habit, or is he actually in need of my help? Am I a bitch for thinking that he might not be in trouble? Should I give him a bit of cash as a thanks at least, for giving me the phone in the first place? Idfk what to think of this or what to do. So you tell me..
