I got robbed.
Monday night, on the 21st, John and I were conned, and a guy stole $140 from me. It was all I had while staying in Lafayette.
Let's go back a little. Remember a previous entry of mine when I was stating all the trouble we had trying to get everyone to be here for our final film project? Well we decided to drop it. We were making a serious action-packed film. Now after watching parts of "The Last Samurai", we decided on making one about a stupid Ninja, who knows how that will come out.
So we go to Girard Park at about 9:00pm here in Lafayette, where we are kinda going over stuff for the new Ninja film. We rode in John's car and I was driving it. I'm not used to that park, so I go in the parking lot where there is a sign that says "Do Not Enter". It's dark and not many people were around, so I figured it wasn't a big deal.
After a while of being at the park, a man of about 40 years old walks up to us and he is talking to someone on a phone and has a finger in his ear as if he had an earpiece. He asked John if he drove a car with the license plate number of...and he called out the right plate number. John said Yeah, that it was his car. And the guy would refer back to whoever he was talking too on his phone. Then the guy asked us if we went the wrong way into the parking lot in the park. We told him that I was driving and that I wasn't from around here and that I did go the wrong way. He started talking again to the guy on the phone, he then told us that he was a Marshall and that one of the other Marshalls saw us come in the wrong way, so he called him and told him to keep an eye out for two males driving a white car. He told us that the car would be towed unless I paid the fine of 180 dollars, but he said that I could get my money back if I did 2 hours of community service sometime this week at the park. I didn't see why it would be so much just for going in the wrong way, and he said that they were getting more strict at the park because of the way people had been driving at night, and that a girl had got hit by a car not that long ago. He said that 4 Marshalls watch the park once night comes, and they stay until the park closes at 10pm. I didn't want John's car to get towed or anything being I was the one that was driving, so I told the guy I would pay the money and do the community service so I could get my money back later. The guy started talking to his friend on the phone to find out the days and times I could come that week. As we were talking to him, I kept thinking more and more that this guy was fucking with me, and he wasn't who he said he was.
After we figured out what day and time I would come, I asked the guy one more time who he was with, he told me the City Marshalls. I asked him his name, and he said his name was Pat. Then he started giving other names of the Marshalls who watch the park, thinking we should know them or something. I asked him, Pat, if I could see his I.D.. He showed me his wallet and it wasn't a badge, it was a piece of paper with a Marshall emblem and said some stuff about Marshalls and Louisiana on it. I figured MAYBE he didn't have an actual hard badge because he was a Marshall, and not actually a cop, but still, it was paper regardless. I told him that I could make that on my own computer and it doesn't really prove who he is. Then I asked him if there was anyone I could talk too that could verify that he was who he said he was. He said Yes, that he could call the cops and they could tell us, but if he does, then the cops would have to come, and because of the situation and being they are coming because of us and all this, we would have to sign their paper work, and they would have to take us to jail, then we would have to see the judge, and the car would also be towed. I kept telling him over and over that I didn't want to go through all that and I just wanted to talk to someone to tell me if they knew who he was. He kept saying that the cops would tell us, but we would have to go through all that stuff with them and the car. He also kept wanting to call the cops, like it wasn't a big deal, and he would talk to the other guy on the phone and tell him what's going on.
John and I asked if we could talk about it by ourselves to see what we wanted to do, and Pat said Yeah, that it was fine. John and I were talking, and Pat would kinda butt in, then he said that he will just let the cops come, and he started to talk to his friend saying, Yeah just call them and get the tow truck and stuff. He kept wanting to call the cops, and I would keep telling him, No Pat, wait, let us talk about it.
Then he started rushing us, because it was nearing 10, and that's when the park closed and they had to leave. And he said that any longer and we would be on "his time". Then I said, well why can't we just call the cops on our own, the cops can't do us anything if we call the station just to ask them something. And Pat was saying that it was almost 10 and we were on his time and that he had to go and stuff. So I told him I would just pay the fine being he made it look like we were out of choices. As we were walking away, I told John quietly so Pat wouldn't here, for him to walk away and call the cops and see if they ever heard of Pat, so John walked away. I was going to try and stall as long as possible until John told me what the cops had the say.
Pat told me that I would have to meet him at the City Marshall Substation which wasn't far from there, that I just had to sign something. Again, he kept rushing me. I started to put my camera away and stuff, still trying to wait for John. Then Pat said that we had to go and for me to tell John to come. I walked to John, and Pat followed, he probably was worried that John was on the phone with someone. We told him about going to the Substation and Pat and I walked away again. I was talking with Pat still, but I was running out of things to stall with, all I had else to do was give him the money, there was nothing else to talk about, and he was trying to get out of there by 10. I looked through my wallet, I had $140, not $180. We went see if John had some money, John didn't have his wallet on him. Pat and I walked away again. Pat was still on the phone talking to the other guy and saying I didn't have the money. Another thing that was on my mine was, just incase if Pat was really a Marshall, I didn't want to chance getting John's car towed when it was MY fault. So I asked Pat if I could give him $140 and get the rest when I do the community service. Pat ran that by the guy on the phone, and he said it would be fine. John still wasn't back and I had nothing else to do, so I gave him the money and my license and he put my name down.
Soon after that, John had finally got off the phone, he came up to me and said that the cops didn't know who Pat was. I told that back to Pat. Pat told John that he found that hard to believe and that he could get in trouble for lying about that. I knew John wasn't lying, and he said that the cops were sending a unit over there. Then, still rushing, Pat told us to meet him at the Substation. I asked him why he still had my license, and if he even had a right to take that, and asked why I couldn't bring it with me to the Substation, so he gave me my license back. I asked him the same thing about my money, being I wanted it back because the cops didn't know who Pat was. He told me that he would have to keep it so they knew I wouldn't "run". He told us to meet him at the Substation, and he started to walk away. Right about now, John and I were like, fuck, we can't let him leave. We started to follow him and calling out his name telling him that we wanted to just wait for the cops being they were on their way. Pat was saying that I would get arrested for not going to the Substation and some bullshit, and he kept walking and talking to the guy on the phone. I told John that I would go look for this "Substation", and I told him to follow Pat and watch where he goes. So we parted.
John and I were both walking and we were on the phone with each other. John eventually lost Pat and said that he was turning around to wait for the cops, and that he didn't want to keep following Pat in case Pat met up with some people and they pulled a gun on him, John, or something. I saw a ways away, a cop car coming to the park, so I turned around too. We told the cops what had happened, and I asked if they could go look for Pat, and the cop was all like, "oh if he was a fake, he's gone by now", and I thought, wtf? if you DON'T go after him then he definitely will get away, besides, all of this had JUST happened, and Pat was on foot. Then they decided to go look for him, John asked the cop if he wanted him, John, to go with him because he saw which way Pat had gone. The cop was then like, "no, that's good, we'll look for him"...some help they were, they had someone who seen which way Pat went, and they didn't even care to bring him along. We filled out a report and whatnot. Afterwards, I look at the next parking lot, and there are the other two cop cars, parked and talking to each other. What do they think will happen? Pat will come running up to them? Fuck that, so John and I left and we searched for Pat for about 40 mins. We had a knife and fake gun. So if we found him, we would pull over, kick his ass, and get my money back. Yeah, we didn't find him.
Sorry for the really long and detailed story. I either tell the story in detail, or I don't like to tell it at all. Because without the detail, it makes people think I'm stupid and they say, "Why did you give him the money?", or "I wouldn't have gave him the money". It's easy for someone to say that if they weren't even in the situation. No shit, I'm not just going to GIVE someone my money. And it's not like I completely fell for Pat's act. Seeing the story in detail, you can understand more: It was the time, the situation, he kept saying he would call the cops, incase he was real I didn't want John's car getting towed because of ME, and we argued with him for about 30 minutes BECAUSE WE DIDN'T think he was really a Marshall. And I was waiting and stalling to hear from John about what the cops said, but he took too long on the phone and Pat was rushing me and being demanding, and everything just happened so fast. And by the time John told me the cops had never heard of Pat, it was too late.
The next day, a detective called us and asked us what had happened. Stuff like that had been going on around here already, and the detective wanted us to go and do a photo line-up. It was pretty cool, heh. None of the people were Pat though. The detective said he would probably be calling us for another line-up, because they had one coming up soon. A couple of people even said we could just make our film based on what happened to us at the park...heh, not that bad of an idea.