First attempt

So, as I said before, I used Craigslist to find the help I needed to get it started. I put an ad on there that basically said I needed a LOT of demolition done to my backyard. I wanted it all chopped down, scooped up, scraped away, and hauled off. I got a number of responses pretty quickly. One guy gave me a really good price and he could start before Christmas so he got the first shot.

The first day he showed up to work, he had 3 guys with him. I walked him through what I wanted done. I used marker paint to outline the borders. He then told the workers what to do, dropped them off and took off. He would come back every few hours to pick up a load of rocks, dirt, and whatever and be gone for another 2 hours. It wasn't until after lunch that I realized they had nothing to drink or eat. I walked out and asked them if their boss, I'll call him Bob, had gone to get them food and water. They told me he had bought them all a Gatorade and bag of sunflower seeds for the day. THE DAY.

At that point I was pretty pissed at Bob. But it was about to get worse.

I went and got the guys a few gallons of water, some more Gatorade, and some food. While they took a little break, we got to talking. One of them, "Sam", noticed my LSU cap and asked if I was from Louisiana. I told him I was and that got the ball rolling. Turns out Sam was from New Orleans and had lost his home in Katrina. He told me he got a new start from a local church program that provided him food and shelter in exchange for doing charity work and spreading the gospel. Bob apparently heard of the program and decided to turn a profit by exploiting it.

Sam told me Bob came to the program looking for three or four men to help him do a job. He would in turn donate a large portion of the money to the program. Awesome right? Except Bob had no intention of donating anything to anybody. So, I paid them all $40 and said if Bob brought them back the next day, I would do the same.

When I saw Bob later that day, he even asked for more money because he'd "bitten off more than he could chew" with this job. I told him I understood but if I agreed to give him more money, he better get the job done on-time, which was in one week. He said he would, so I bit my tongue about the other stuff and let him stand by his word.

Well, a week came and went and Bob was showing up at random times...always by himself. He'd do a little work, take off and that would be it. Two weeks later, he finally threw in the towel and stopped coming all together. When I called him, he said he thought he was done. OK. I chalked it all up to learning experience. For the amount of work he did, I actually got a good deal, so I wasn't going to fight it. I would just have to find someone to finish the job that ol' Bob started.