Rent a Whip - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

This is the continuation of my previous post about Marshawnda Blackwell, that lazy sloth of a person who had no intention of paying me for the Ford Fusion I bought to help her out.

Marshawnda

Marshawnda was so lazy and lacked any drive or interest in working and improving her financial situation that I actually stepped in to try and help her find a job. I scoured the ads on Craigslist and other job sites and by accident came upon an ad that was soliciting car owners to lease their cars. I had vaguely heard about renting one's car out for a fee to the public but didn't know how the whole process worked.

Frankly, I was feeling very stuck with my arrangement with Marshawnda. I really didn't know how I was going to get the car back from her since I couldn't imagine her giving it up voluntarily. I wanted to try something different but I wasn't sure I was ready to just hand over my car to some other company or person. I called the number in the ad and spoke to Mae Schmidt, the owner of  a company called Rent a Whip. The name sounds a little kinky but that didn't bother me in the least. The whole concept actually sounded pretty good. Rent a Whip would maintain the car, keep it insured and lease it from me for a weekly fee.

I was a little wary about handing over the Ford Fusion to this company after my 5 1/2 month ordeal with Marshawnda so I needed to find some way to test them out. That weekend I stopped by the warehouse and saw the minivan just sitting there taking up space that I need for wrestling shoots.

Mae Schmidt

I suddenly came up with a splendid idea. I could take the minivan home, free up some space in the warehouse and then lease the van to this company. Could it be done? Oh yes. I called Mae that Saturday and she said they already had someone who wanted to rent the minivan. What? "Are you kidding?" I asked. Mae assured me that the demand was very strong. In fact, it was so strong she told me that they are desperate for more vehicles to add to their fleet. I wondered how they could be doing such good business and that is when she revealed how the company came into existence and the niche market they seem to have found. It turns out that Mae herself had bad credit and as anyone trying to rent a car from a traditional rent a car company can tell you, it isn't easy to rent a car when you have damaged credit. Car rental companies typically require a functioning credit card with a down payment to be reversed or adjusted at the end of the car rental. For many people with challenged credit, that requirement is a nearly impossible hurdle to overcome. From Mae's personal experience, she thought that there must be others who had the money but not the credit to rent a car and so Rent a Whip was born. Originally operating out of San Diego, Mae and her husband Andrew moved up to Sacramento in January of 2017 to be closer to their relatives and move the company operations here as well.

Andrew Schmidt

Without hesitation, I took the van over to their office in Carmichael. Andrew was there to meet me. He drew up a contract and printed it out but the quality of the print was terrible. I signed and had him email me the text of the contract. On the spot he gave me payment for a one day rental with a weekly rental of $160 guaranteed over the term of the contract which we set at 2 months.

I was a little uncomfortable coming into their office every week to pick up cash so I asked Mae if they could pay me via Google Wallet or Paypal and she said no problem. I also told Mae about the Ford Fusion and my situation with Marshawnda. She assured me that Rent a Whip would arrange to recover the car for me at their expense. This was literally music to my ears since I had no clue how to confiscate the car from Marshawnda. Mae also offered to pay me $250/week rental fee which would cover all of Marshawnda's debt and pay off the auto loan in a little over a year. How could I refuse?

The next day I gave Mae my copy of the car keys to the Ford along with key information about Marshawnda, including her address in Cool, CA and pictures of her. That weekend I was down in Fresno with Pumpkin for the California state taekwondo championship so I couldn't be present when the car was confiscated. I coordinated with Mae and the repo guy she hired by setting a trap for Marwhawnda. I led her to believe I was still in Sacramento when I told her that it was time for her to give the car back to me. I knew in my mind that it was not going to be so easy and as I predicted, Marshawnda missed the agreed upon location of Starbucks on the corner of Fulton and Marconi. All of this drama was being played out in text messages between Mae and me while I was in Fresno. Finally, late Friday night I received a text from Mae that they had recovered the car. What a relief!

I was so grateful that my car had been recovered, I let out a humongous sigh of relief and quietly celebrated by eating a giant bowl of spicy Vietnamese Pho at a hole in the wall restaurant outside of downtown Fresno. I had visions of receiving a weekly payment of $410 every Saturday for the foreseeable future. How desirable such an arrangement would be!

[Inner Voice]
"Bad David! Naive David! How could you think life would go so smoothly? Don't you know about the law of life's train crashes? It doesn't make any difference how much good karma you spread in this world, you need to go through 10 train wrecks to arrive at a one pleasant stop along the way." [Casey Crupper Words of Wisdom Chapter 2]

Ok, so I ignored my inner voice. But after 5 1/2 months of a grueling slog through the swamps of Marshawnda Blackwell, I really needed to feel optimistic that the money was just going to roll in on a German train schedule, every Saturday at 6 PM. But nope, that wasn't going to be the case as I would soon find out.

I made an appointment for the Sunday after I returned from Fresno to inspect the car and sign the paperwork for the lease agreement. When I arrived, the first order of business was to inspect the car. Thankfully, the car looked just fine, except for a cigarette burn in the back seat upholstery. I also noticed a new tire installed on the right front passenger side. Apparently, Marwhawnda decided to leave a parting gift by slashing one of the tires just before the heavily tattooed repo man grabbed the keys and took the car away from her.

Being the detailed oriented, anal person that I am, the thought of having to sign a contract printed so that only 1/3 of the words are actually readable was patently unacceptable to me. The day before, I spent hours redoing the leasing contracts for both the minivan and the Ford Fusion, putting the whole thing in Google Docs. I even brought my laptop just to show them how its done. Mae fumbled a little bit but seemed to get the hang of it after I guided her on how to upload a document into DocHub for electronic signature. So all is good so far. I got my 2nd payment on the minivan plus a one day rental fee for the Fusion in cash.

The next Saturday I was expecting the payment for both cars through Paypal but there was some problem with Mae's credit card and the bank had put some kind of hold on her account. Ok, that was somewhat believable though not anything I ever experienced. In hindsight, this trivial glitch represented the calm before the storm that was about to arrive that evening.

Sometime Saturday evening, I received a text from Mae telling me that her son Justin had slipped in the bathroom and hit his head on the toilet, creating a large gash on the side of his head. She even showed me a picture of the side of Justin's head.

She told me that she had to immediately rushed him to Sutter Roseville to evaluate him for a concussion. By the next day, she informed me that the hospital had him moved to Oakland Children's Hospital. I knew at this point that his condition must be serious because Mae told me that he was having having seizures.

Throughout the early part of the week, I kept in contact with Mae, hoping for some good news, that it was just a concussion. I had already looked up brain injuries to the head and it didn't look good. There is an artery that runs along the side of the head that is vulnerable to head trauma. There is a medical term called epidural hematoma which refers to hemorrhage of the brain. The good news was that when this medical condition is detected early and treated immediately, the recovery rate is 96%.

I didn't receive much news from Mae both Tuesday, April 10th and Wednesday the 11th and I didn't want to bother her knowing she must be focused on her son. But by Thursday, I decided to contact her again in the morning via text and she unexpectedly called me back telling me in a frantic voice that the doctors just whisked Justin away into the operating room without telling her much. I could tell that she was very upset from the uncertainty. I tried to calm her down and told her to please get back to me when she could.

That afternoon, I took Sammy for a walk along the American River Parkway. I knew in my mind that things were looking pretty bad and I began to contemplate the worst case scenario. "What if the boy dies?" I thought to myself. I knew that Mae was the driving force behind Rent a Whip and I wasn't sure how she would react if Justin died but I knew that if that was the case, it would represent a major setback for the operation of Rent a Whip and by association a big blow to this carefully arranged plan of mine to get a nice weekly income. I couldn't imagine Andrew taking over the business because Mae told me herself that he was just a courier for the company, someone Mae used to run errands but not run a business. And he certainly wasn't very tech savvy as he struggled to use Paypal to send me a payment.

I tried to remain positive the rest of the afternoon until I received a text at about 4 PM from Mae's phone number but it wasn't Mae. It was her mom, Claire sending out a text blast to Mae's contacts informing everyone that Justin passed away at 1:27 PM.

"I hope this mass message reaches everyone in my daughters contacts ok because I am not sure who is who. But thank you all for your thoughts and prayers but I'm sad to announce that Justin passed away at 1:27 this afternoon. We are beyond words at this point and my daughter and her husband Andrew ask for prayer at this most difficult time. Please message or call me for anything, when service time and date becomes available all will be welcome to attend, Claire."

"Oh no!" I thought to myself as I read the text over and over again. This was the worst case scenario. I tried to imagine how Mae was doing and what was going on. The next day, I received a text from Mae:

"David it's Mae, my son passed away yesterday and I am a complete mess right now! Thank you for your condolences, we would love to have you at the services if it wouldn't be asking too much. I'm still in Oakland I have to wait until tomorrow for the social worker to have me sign paperwork for releasing my son's body...oh god I can't believe he is just a body now :'( to the Sacramento coroner. I have funeral costs that I have been told are astronomical now and was not expecting this at all. He had a blood clot that broke within his brain and he hemorrhaged and the doctors could not stop it in time and it took him. I'm so lost right now and haven't even informed my other children."

On Saturday the 15th of April, I received a text from Andrew as the weight of the tragedy began to sink in:

"Hey David it's Andrew I was just about to message you, Mae has been a wreck, and the kids inconsolable. We have to meet up with a funeral director on Wednesday and I think Mae is going to lose it. The social worker was great but I felt like I was in the twilight zone and just zoned out and Mae just about passed out from the pain of it all. We are a mess and I spoke in private to the worker this is going to be almost 10 grand if we bury him and 3 to 4 for cremation. I haven't even brought it up to her but I guess her mom is going to try to handle that part. I'm just barely hanging on myself. Happy Easter though to your family I hope you're in a better state than we are."

Any mother who just lost her son would be devastated and I could only imagine the grief and pain this woman was feeling. As the new week progressed, I kept in contact with Andrew as he relayed Mae's deteriorating depression. She began to talk about wanting to be with her son. I told Andrew that kind of talk must be taken very seriously and that she may need outside intervention. I also gave him the number to the National Suicide Hotline.

On Saturday, I reached out to Andrew again and the news wasn't good. Mae had been admitted into the Napa State Mental hospital and was self-inducing vomiting in an apparent desire to starve herself to death. They medical personnel had to put her in a suicide suit so she wouldn't hurt herself and she was just not very responsive. At this point, I had that sinking feeling that she may never fully recover from this tragedy.

Though I knew things were about as grim as they could be, I had resolved to do whatever I can to help them keep the business going. I made it clear to Andrew that I am willing to help out any way I can to make sure the business doesn't go under but I know that I may not be able to do much with Mae in the condition that she is in.

Such is life. I really wanted to turn the bitter lemon of my ordeal with Marshwanda into a refreshing glass of lemonade but it looks like that is not going to happen anytime soon. I think I have a few more train wrecks ahead of me.😟

The Story of Marshawnda

I never regret being generous to people. I only regret not reacting quickly enough when they take advantage of me. And (sigh), such is the case with Marshawnda. I kept hoping in the back of my mind that she would somehow turn her life around. There is a letter that I wrote to her that I posted on this blog but it does not tell the whole story. This whole ordeal started back in September of 2016.

Marshawnda Blackwell

I had posted a casting call for female wrestlers in a number of different places, including Craigslist, ExploreTalent and Casting360. Marshawnda contacted me through Casting360. I actually interviewed her at The Olive Garden across from the Arden Mall. She presented herself as an aspiring model but someone who was most definitely struggling financially. She was studying to be a social worker and taking online courses in pursuit of a two year degree. I found out that she was also living out of her car  and recently arrived here in Sacramento from Minnesota via her boyfriend who just dumped her here and then disappeared.

I have not spent much time with people who live on the edge like this and honestly felt sorry for her plight. I thought I could help her get on her feet and seeing how diligent she was about studying, I felt that helping her out with a car would enable her to find a job. I justified doing something like this by imagining the worst case scenario. If she couldn't pay me back, I would just take the car back from her and keep it for myself.

In the middle of October, we checked out cars together at Harrold Ford on Howe Ave near Arden. There was a particular car she liked - a 2011 Ford Fusion SEL. Suddenly in a split second I decided to buy the car and rent it to her with the understanding that she would pay me back once she found a job.

So much for plans. As it became painfully clear, Marshawnda was either striking out and not finding any meaningful employment or she was just plain lazy. I began to suspect the latter. She kept insisting that it must be because people don't like to hire black people but that argument only goes so far. There are plenty of people of color who are working and I see them everyday with my own eyes.

By this time, I knew that Marshawnda was a habitual liar. The problem then became how to get the car back from her. However I knew that if I took the car there was no chance at all of getting anything from her. My thinking was that at least if she had the car, I had some leverage over her. In February, she finally paid me for one month by borrowing from her friend, but not until I had threatened to confiscate the car from her.

By this time, I was getting tired of her ambivalence and laziness. I decided that I would make one last attempt to help her find a job so she could pay me back. I started searching Craigslist for any part time jobs and that is when I found Rent a Whip.

This story continues in the next blog posting titled "Rent a Whip"