My car needs a good fixin’!

Hello everyone, my name is Jocelyn Davis and I am in a real pickle. You see, my 1994 Toyota Camry (she's my Joombie) has become the victim of too much 'sweetness' - literally.

My story begins in Maywood, IL where I live, with my 3 adorable children (Jessica-9, Janet-6, and Jori-4). We are known by family and friends as the 'J' crew, and attention usually finds it's way to us regardless of what's going on at the time.  Being a young mother of 3 children is a wonderful, yet frightening experience for me.  Despite being a huge challenge, raising children has been the most rewarding and blessed gift that I could imagine, and I would not go back and change a single thing.  Occasionally though, you do entertain the thought of having someone to be with, but you realize how scary it can be as you try to get to know someone new.  My kids father and I are fairly good friends but we gradually realized that we could not make our relationship work, because of a very rocky start, trust issues, and more than our fair share of lies.

I began seeing someone around the beginning of May, and everything was going just fine. This was someone who I was starting to see potential as far as a friend or maybe more. We ladies have to be a little cautious these days, especially when it comes to who we allow around our children. We went out a few times and I was starting to feel so comfortable with him that I let some of my family and friends meet him, and I even arranged a quick 'hello' with my 3 little angels. They all thought he was very nice and friendly, but as I feared, this came at a price. 

One day he took me to a local festival and I got a text from a friend of mine. Since my friend's picture showed up on my phone, he asked me who that guy was. I told him that was just one of my friends telling me the latest news, and then he began grilling me. Wanting to know if I'd slept with my friend, and he kept asking all sorts of bizarre questions. But I reassured him that absolutely nothing was, or had ever been going on and that he had nothing to worry about. Even with that, he insisted that I call my friend at that very moment, and I can only assume that he wanted to grill him as well. So I respectfully rejected that request and added that this was all very unnecessary and that we may need to step back and re-evaluate this situation. At that moment I reminded myself that I simply would not tolerate this type of tantrum everytime something comes up. I was used to my girls pouting and stomping when they don't get their way, but I was certainly not going to put up with this nonsense from a grown man!

That's when he dropped the bomb on me, and blew up all of my hopes and plans for this situation. He told me that it was either them, or him, that I had to choose, right then and there. Either get rid of all of my male friends, or it was over between us (before it even really began!) I was so horrified by what was happening that I simply could not speak, I didn't know what to say. I guess it was all being said right then, and I was probably just in too much denial to process or accept it all. So I just stood there, staring at the ground as he continued mumbling, something about how women nowadays can't be trusted around other men and so on and so on. As the tears started to form in my eyes, I just turned and started walking. I heard him calling me, then he started following me and calling me, and saying what a bitch I was for walking away from him. Then I heard him running to me, yelling at me, and I turned and said that I had to just leave, that I was just going home. Even though he drove us both to the festival, I simply could not ride with him after all of this, so I found a cab and went home. I was so disappointed with the whole ordeal that I just cried all the way home.

As I arrived at my apartment I tried to fix myself a bit and pretend that I was fine, but as soon as I came through the door my kids all looked at me at once, and their little faces started to turn sad. So I faked a smile, trying to appear as if nothing was wrong and said, 'Hi guys, what are yall watching?' Then Jessica came over to me as I made my way to the kitchen, and her sisters followed, then she asked, 'what happened mommy?' Their sad faces all looking up at me was too much for me to handle, so I fought back my tears as hard as I could and said, 'well, we just didn't agree on some things, that's all.' They started looking at each other, then looked up at me with tears forming, so I tried to appear happy as I said to them, 'It's OK, everything is alright.'  But I really don't know how they could have known that I was so upset deep down, or maybe they sensed something in me that was different, but it was when Jessica started crying and said, 'we're sorry mommy', that's when tears started flowing from my eyes again, and I started pouting, and had to cover my face with my hands. We all just stood there in the kitchen, holding each other, sobbing and weeping, and not exactly knowing why.

A few days later I started to think that this situation was over, and I'd hoped that he had moved on, because I hadn't heard from him. Unfortunately though, he did call again, and when he did, I didn't answer. He called a few more times over the next couple of days, and when he kept eating voicemail he evidently became furious. The last time he called he left a message that said: 'I know you see me calling but you probably too stupid to answer - I knew you was a bitch just like all the rest, but I know how to make bitches regret crossing me'. After hearing that I began to tremble, and a cold chill ran down my spine as I had to sit down. I always hear about people getting a chill down their spine, and now I know exactly what that horrible, rippling sensation feels like. I try to pay attention, and learn from others mistakes so that I don't make so many of my own, and I know better than to provoke people nowadays because you never know how far someone will go if they become vengeful. So I just sat there, paralyzed with fear, not knowing what that meant, if anything, not knowing if I should call and try to diffuse this ticking timebomb, then wondering if that might make things worse. Should I call my family, my brother, my ex, the police - it was all becoming so frightening for me.

I started thinking about my children, and how precious they are to me, and then I started getting angry. I decided to do what I could to end this thing because people shouldn't have to put up with this type of foolishness. So I went right down to the police station and let them hear the message, then I filled out a report. They said they'd take care of it from there and told me not to worry about this anymore. I left the station feeling a bit of relief, but I still didn't know how this would all end, or what, if anything would happen from that point. Well I didn't have to wait long to find out, because he more than made good on his threat.

A week or so later my girls and I were off to church on a bright Sunday morning for the 10am service, and had gotten no more than 2 blocks down the road when my 'Joombie' started running very rough, and began shaking and rattling, and making all kinds of noises. My girls began looking around, and at each other and started asking me what was going on. I squealed, 'What's wrong with my car!', and just as I pulled over to the curb, my Joombie gave out. She just shut off completely. There was thick, black smoke coming from under the hood and there was this awful odor. As I hurried us all out of the car I was overcome by this sinking feeling of despair, because I just knew that idiot, somehow had something to do with this because this type of thing never happened before I met him. Well my mechanic towed my car to his shop and later confirmed my awful suspicion.

He told me the first thing he did was try to start the car, and when it didn't start he examined one of the spark plugs. He described a sticky, gummy substance, and then found the same on all of them. At that point he got a hunch about what it could possibly be, and so without even checking anything else he came right over and asked me where my car had been parked, and which way it was facing. When we got to the spot we noticed a white powder on the ground, and I saw his face change to shock and concern, and I just knew that it was bad. He collected a sample of the powder and asked if we could go to my kitchen. We went to the kitchen and he asked me for a tiny serving of sugar, and when he started comparing the sugar to the other powder, it was nearly impossible to tell the difference. This meant that the powder could likely be sugar, and as I discovered, a car engines worst enemy. 

He insisted that I call the police at once, and when they arrived, they examined the spot where my car was, and they compared the powders too. It may have been a little difficult to prove that this guy was responsible, but fortunately my complex has cameras everywhere and when the police reviewed the video, they saw a car pull up next to mine at around 3am Sunday morning, and they saw a guy run over to my car right where the gas door was. It wasn't clear what he was doing but I could see that it was him, making good on his threat to make me regret crossing him. After a moment he ran back to his car and took off. The police then took fingerprints from my car's gas door, and when they caught him, I am told that they had everything that they needed, and so they pressed charges against him themselves. I'm told that you have to do something especially malicious to have the police themselves press charges against you. So now he sits behind bars, no money to help fix what he messed up, no apology, while my Joombie sits at the shop, no life in her at the moment, and I sit here weeping as I type this to all of you.

Later, my mechanic told me he could have my car fixed in about 2 weeks, but due to all of the damage, it would cost me roughly $940. After he took everything apart, he said that the sugar went into the fuel lines and started clogging up the fuel filter, fuel pump and the injectors. This sticky taffy-like stuff was all over the valves and piston rings, and he started describing other damage, but it was all rocket science to me. I have no idea what any of those things are but obviously taffy shouldn't be on them. To replace the motor would cost around $1700, which he says would be the easiest way to go but since I didn't have either amount there was no need to try to decide anything. Since I work in Elgin, which is about 30 miles from Maywood, my car was my only way to get back and forth. 

My great friend Mary has been saving the day by allowing me to ride with her, but she goes a little out of her way to drop me at work and pick me up because our jobs are not very close to one another. One day as we headed for work, she told me that this site was a great community of people who look out for each other, and that I may be able to raise funds to help get my Joombie on the road again. I had no idea this type of site existed, and so I had to sign up, and I am very excited about becoming a member. When I am back on my feet I look forward to doing what I can to help others here as well. Thank you all for taking a moment to read about my unfortunate predicament.

Sincerely,  Jocelyn Davis

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