[legion]

In May 2010, I contracted with a "no service" realtor to put my house on the MLS. He slapped up a quickie listing in text-message speak with half the pictures I sent him and none of the wording.

After 5 months of back-and-forth (me requesting changes to the listing and him not doing them) and a dead lock box which he wouldn't service, I terminated my agreement with him, contracted with another realtor, and requested a full refund, per the contract. I ended up having to cut off his lock box with bolt cutters and have a lock smith get my key out. I filed complaints with the local realty board and the state board of professional regulation. Neither of these yielded any results.

I filed a suit in small claims court in February 2011. He failed to show, I won a default judgement. I try to seize the money from his bank account, but I find out that he cashed my check at a check-cashing place. He failed to show for the next 4 court appearances. I had him served by Champaign County's finest each time. I filed a rule to show cause to get a warrant issued for him, he showed up for that appearance and agreed to pay me $100 a month. The judge finalized the agreement at the next appearance (which brings us to July 2011), and issued an order to pay. I received payments of $100 as postal money orders in August, September, and October. I received no payment in November, and sent him a sternly-worded letter demanding $200 by December 5th or I would file another rule to show cause. I got a $100 payment in December.

In January he contacts me by e-mail and offers to pay the full amount owed, and asks for the balance. I tell him it is $322. In early February he tells me that if I sent him a PayPal request for the $322, he will send me the money. I tell him that I do not have a PayPal account and to please send a check. He agrees. I figure he is planning to at the very least screw me with PayPal fees, and possibly file a dispute so that PayPal will refund his money. Either way, I don't want this clown having my PayPal information.

When I do not receive payment by March 5th, the date by which he is supposed to have paid me in full, I file for another rule to show cause. I went to court last Friday and he failed to appear, and the judge stated that he will issue a warrant on my completion of a warrant information form.

The warrant information form requires that I give the court his date of birth, social security number, or driver's license number. I ask the clerk how the heck am I supposed to get that information? He tells me to check with the traffic desk for any citations, as they are public record. It turns out that he last had a traffic citation in McLean Country in 2002, but being over 10 years old, the original citation has been destroyed so the information in the computer is not public record. I drive out to Danvers to talk with their PD to see if they still have the ticket. It turns out that Danvers has a police officer and no police station. (I literally flagged down the cop driving around town.) He tells me that he won't be able to find a ticket that old.

I do an online search and find the court records from ticket in question, and find out his date of birth from that. I then decide to search Champaign County where he lives and find that he has over 30 traffic citations on record and has been sued 10 other times, including a $20,000 judgement for Capital One. He has no other traffic tickets after that judgement, and they are all over 10 years old.

So today I go to the court and fill out the warrant information sheet. When I get home I find a strange letter from Ft. Meyers Florida. In it, some lady from Ft. Meyers has written me a $500 check and put in the memo "Hayes Refund". John J. "Jack" Hayes is the name of the realtor I sued.

I'm not sure what to do with this check. I figure it could be one of several things:

1) He got his mom to write him the check.
2) He conned some customer that moved to Florida into writing me the check.
3) Some other scam I haven't yet imagined.

I'm super-hesitant to deposit the check. I don't want my back account information going back to the lady who wrote the check. What if he counter-sues me in Florida, I never get notification (and therefore fail to appear) and suddenly money gets seized from my back account? I figure at the very least it might be no good and I get charged a $25 service fee for depositing it. If I take it to a check-cashing place and it's no good, they will come after me for the money.

Meanwhile, the court is gearing up to issue a warrant for this guy.

I plan on calling my real-estate attorney (who also deals in contracts and fraud) on Monday, but I'm curious what the peanut gallery has to offer. I won't notify the court of payment until I know I have the money without issue, but I'm not sure how to do that.