michellereno[dot]com

When a down-and-out looking guy knocked on my door a couple weeks ago, saying he was short on money for diapers for his baby, my heart cried out to him. He said he would cut my lawn for whatever change I could give him. We asked if he could pull the weeds, and he said he would. Two hours later, we gave him $30 and a bottle of rum leftover from a previous cocktail party. We felt good about helping out someone in need, especially since he had a baby at home.

A couple days later, he came by the house again. This time, he said his lawnmower was broken and asked if he could use ours. (Our lawnmower has an attachment that catches the clippings instead of strewing them about the lawn.) My husband didn’t really want to but wanted to ask me since I’m the one with the “heart of gold” as he puts it. Since we didn’t know where he lived and couldn’t find him if he ran off with our lawnmower, I said no. The guy seemed okay with that.

A couple days after that, he knocked on the door, asking if my husband was home. Since he thought I was the one who said he couldn’t use our lawnmower, he didn’t want to deal with me. I told him my husband was sleeping - it was 10pm on a Sunday night - and asked what he wanted. He said he needed money to catch a bus somewhere. I couldn’t really understand him because our 115lb American Bulldog, Doug, was barking like crazy. I told him we didn’t have extra cash because we had to pay rent this week. He said okay and left.

Not even 24 hours passed, and he knocked on the door again, asking for my husband. This time, he said he needed money to fix his car and blah, blah, blah. I was pretty upset because I had told him a few hours before that I didn’t have any extra money to give him, yet here we was, begging on my doorstep for more money.

I like to think of myself as a good person who likes to help people. But I feel that this guy has completely taken advantage of mine and my husband’s generosity. It’s come to the point that I don’t feel safe in my house alone anymore. What has society come to when helping a person can make you feel like a prisoner in your own home?