What would you do?

[Ranger]

If it only cost you a few hundred bucks to find out what kind of friend he is, consider it money well spent, and move on. I wish I had taken that advice years ago.

After I lost money to a friend the first time, this was my outlook as well. It only cost me a thousand bucks to never see the prick again. I've been down that road with family too and now I don't loan money to anyone.

He can be a great guy and a good friend but just may have no sense of responsibility or just be a deadbeat when it comes to paying bills and you have to find that out the hard way.

You have one option, though, that you can try as a last ditch effort. It's a dick move, but since you are writing off the friendship anyway and he's not really a friend any longer you might consider posting to his facebook wall something that DOES cause him to lose face with people - nothing derogatory, but maybe along the lines of "glad to see you are back on your feet again, perhaps you can finally pay me for the rifle I bought you or just give it back to me". When all diplomacy fails you can resort to this kind of tactic.

I think you're pretty much out the money bud!

[Irving]

Call his boss and tell him that you are trying to find him because he owes you money for a gun. Once you mention that a gun is involved, the police will probably be brought into it.

[spleify]

Along the lines of a couple of the previous posts, I have always lived by this:

If a "friend" is worth losing over money, then they are a "friend" worth losing...

Look at it this way, it only cost you a couple/few hundred bucks and you will never have to see this guy again, in fact, he will avoid you at all costs. He will be the one that is uncomfortable, and have to constantly think about it. If there are mutual situations where you both might be there, a birthday part, a BBQ, etc. he will be the one sweating it and worrying the whole time...

I have been bitten before by "friends" I'm an old softy and people mistake my kindness for foolishness. Shame on them.

Move on and consider it a loss, or the gain of one less dead beet person in your life.

[alxone]

its a hard call , where im from 200 bucks is a death sentence (baltimore) . but you can ether walk away and consider it payment for him to stay away forever or get sneaky and duff dude in the eye . not that im saying that you should go and beat his ass , but maybe you should . remember if you take the low road that puts you in the same bucket as the thief . granted you will feel better in the moment but you wont get your money back .its really up to you good luck and i hope you make the right choice.

[rockhound]

you should report yourself to the CBI for participating in a straw purchase


seriously though just forget about him or you could invite him to the range and when you are all done just pack his gun up in your rig and go home with it.

[CrufflerSteve]

I'd walk away. You now know he is no friend but it simply isn't worth getting into trouble over it. If I owed money to a friend, I'd be giving money back before even thinking of going out on the town.

You could make some sort of attempt to get a payment plan out of him and if he won't write him off as a lowlife scumbag mooch. Legal attempts to get it back are going to cost you money, time and aggravation. Other methods can end badly.

If the paperwork for the gun is in his name, sorry.

Steve

[sandman76]

I see that you want your money. If he is still someone you consider a friend maybe you could have a range session with him. Theres a chance he doesn't even have the rifle anymore. Be good to find that out.

If there is no action on his part to keep the friendship going then it would probably be best to write off the of the money and the friend. Fighting ovber a few hundred bucks just ain't worth it. JMO.

[islandermyk]

Sorry to hear about your situation. I agree with a lot of the post here... $200, a scope, and part of the rifle ain't worth any trouble... these things are something you can make back in no time! I hope that the rifle is under your name, cause I believe it is a felony if you tell the authorities that he stole it from you... that would make him shit his pants!
Good luck with your case... but IMHO, I would just move on and avoid this guy as he ain't worth another round of headache

[BlasterBob]

I think that if it were me, I'd tell your "friend" that you are suddenly in a tight spot/situation where you really have to have your money now. If he's still your friend, I believe he'd bust his ass to hand you some cash or hand the gun over to you. That's the old school way of doing things. If his word is no good then he's not worth a good shit either.

[ldmaster]

In the past five years I've loaned money to a lot of people, "friends" if you will that were in a financial bind...

I can remember getting paid back exactly TWICE. Both were women, one DIED and he husband paid me back (really tragic story) and one is a welfare mom of four children.

Five loans to "ex military" guys who now avoid me like the plague.j

One loan was always getting "redone" by an ex-marine who put up his garand with me as collateral. He got it back, came and got a loan again - did this about three times. The LAST time he just paid me part back, and said keep the rifle - which I have. Like with any collateralized loan I've made, the person can ALWAYS get the item back, just pay me what I loaned you. I've done a lot like this, mostly I kept the items. I don't charge interest BTW. As it turns out he was simply an alcoholic who couldn't hold a job, he's a nice guy - but alcoholism owns him at the moment. It made his prior history of "making a loan good" irrelevant. just thinking, but if a lot of what he does on facebook or with friends is DRINK ALCOHOL, then there's that explanation too. Doesn't make him a douchebag, just makes him an alcoholic.


having been in any branch of the service does NOT make one more trustworthy, and being on welfare doesn't seem to make one LESS trustworthy.

LEO's don't give legal advice simply because people that ask for it, are seldom being 100 percent truthful and civil law isn't something we're trained on, except how to recognize it, and free legal advice is worth exactly what you pay for it, else you get badgered constantly for your advice.

He's a thief, pure and simple - whether he's actually taken the money OR deprived you of some property with no intention to pay for it - he's a thief. The law will see it as "civil" but remember, OJ Simpson was convicted of murder in CIVIL court, and had to pay money. Criminal court is simply a different division of the law with it's own set of rules and procedures.

So sue him in small claims court. It's easy, but not free, you have to pay the filing fee - but you can get that back at trial IF you win. Some counties have the paperwork online, you just have to go down in person to file it.

Lots of people get the wake-up call when they get served with small claims paperwork, and work out the problem without court - in which case there's a check off on the original paperwork to indicate you have settled the claim out of court.

It doesn't matter that he put some scope or money into the rifle. If someone buys a car, puts new rims on it, a new stereo and all that fancy stuff - and he doesn't pay the original lender for the car - the entire CAR is forfeited in the subsequent repossession - including any improvements to the car. Entirely irrelevant that he has "an investment" in the car. Give him his scope back, since you don't consider it to be yours - fair enough.

Odds are he'll get all huffy and just pay you what he owes - the odds are even BIGGER that this thief will go whining to his girlfriend for the money (which, like and idiot, she will give to him) about how you "used him" or deceived him. You have to be ready to be painted by him as a "bad guy" - so be it, it's what ALL thieves do - redirect blame elsewhere.

I mean, you threatened him with bodily harm to get him to take the money, right?

it's not like you loaned him money for FOOD for his children, you loaned him the money (or goods) because he WANTED something, not because he NEEDED it to survive.

Hold him up to the standard, I wish I had done so.