This update has been slow in coming, apologies – I was having a relaxing weekend away and my ADSL router decided to route the world up its own ass.
So, on Thursday, Alex asked for a lift into Cardiff. When pressed, he admitted it was to buy heroin. Colour me unimpressed, I refused. He then asked for a lift back from Cardiff, to which I decided to agree, telling him to meet me at a pre-arranged location and a pre-arranged time. I dropped him off at the Job Center where he was going to get personal loans online (well, as Taffytails said, I’m being a bit harsh – being out of heroin and money probably is a crisis…) and then take the train into Cardiff. After dropping him off, I headed up to the police station where I had a nice long chat with their intelligence officer who took all the details and advised me to get rid of him as soon as possible. He also gave his opinion that with 23 years of policing experience, he didn’t expect the “taxi driver” to turn up, if he existed.
So, after checking the situation with my solicitor and a friendly local authority housing officer, I changed the Romford Locks on the doors and collected his things in a bag, which I placed outside along with a letter informing him that he’d been evicted. I didn’t however give him back his drug-related “paraphernalia” (as the police apparently call it), nor did I give him the wireless card to my laptop that I found in his stuff. More astute readers will now make the connection to the alleged theft of my laptop a few weeks ago (while he was upstairs someone came in and nicked it, apparently). Of course, this throws a different light on the situation.
Friday morning I headed down the police station with two sealed bags of presents for the police, which I’d carefully collected according to my superSOCO training, and spent a few hours filling in evidence bags and giving statements. The officers in question indicated that they’d need to talk to Alex so I said I’d keep an eye out for him. I popped down to West Wales to see family…where I had a phone call from the office. Alex was sat outside. Joy.
A quick phone call to South Wales Police and they were driving up the street outside the office….and driving back down again, sans Alex.
Another phone call to South Wales Police saw them driving up the street again….and back down again, still without actually getting out to pick him up.
By the time they came around the third time, he’d legged it. A bit unimpressed with that performance, lads.
The rest of the weekend went quite well, apart from being told that my car needs £1600 worth of work to pass the MOT, so tonight I’m looking for a run-around to use for the next few months while I collect money to pay for fixing the Landy before I sell it.
Thanks to all of those who sent messasges of support, not all of which I’ve made public. Stay tuned for the saga of trying to get money out of his Dad to pay for things…
Ugh. Sorry to hear it. Not sure what to say but have known people die from heroin, not a good thing at all 🙁
Heroin. Bad news. Especially if they think they can ‘control’ it. Downtown eastside Vancouver is full of people who thought they could ‘control’ their addictions and ended up living on the fringes of society, worried only about where they’re going to get their next fix.
Alex may no longer be your specific problem, but I hope his father realises that this is not a problem that is going to fix itself through application of money. I hope you, or the police, have a frank discussion with him – not only about the theft, but the cause of it. If this isn’t dealt with soon the prognosis is not good. Things are things, but a life wasted is truly a tragedy.