Bradley F.
The small-time crook who owns this place rented me a car for 1200 euros, but tied the deal to an accommodation contract that we both signed. It seems he wanted to make money without getting licensed, by pretending he was “lending me the car.” He later broke the agreement anyway, and the police said it was null and void because of his illegal car rental. Crime number 1. He’s a local government property inspector at the Camara in Sao Vicente, which makes the behavior seem unusual, but small-town criminality is old as these hills. I didn’t know he was locally infamous for dodgy deals and conman activities. I do now. People roll their eyes when his name comes up. In early November 2020, I contacted the PSP police after the short man with few scruples took the rental car in the middle of the night. At first he acted like he knew nothing about it, then later admitted to police he had it again. It felt like a clumsy attempt to force me out of my home. The police knew immediately he’d taken the vehicle, but he still lied about it. Crime number 2? The PSP paid particular attention to his putting the rental car into the contract. He may be a crook, but he isn’t a smart one. After making their report, the PSP referred him to two other law enforcement bodies. The teeny chappie is being investigated by ARAE, the economic police, for running a car rental service without a license. Another branch is looking into him breaking our accommodation contract and threatening to show up, cut off my water and power, and turf me out with goons. Crime #3. He has already turned my water off once. Crime #4. He can also switch off the streetlight, working at the camera, and the two streetlights on either side of my car went out permanently the night before my car disappeared. How odd. Crime #5. He’s basically inept, lies a lot, and has gotten away with most things before because, despite being a bit of a narcissist, he keeps a low profile. I’m not sure local law enforcement actually does much, which may help low-level crims like him. I think they see him as an acceptable pain in the foo foo. One of my neighbors is in a similar house and car situation with him, crime #6, but so far the inept Diminutive One hasn’t taken their vehicle or tried to force them out. They did have trouble when a car he rented them in the summer broke down and then vanished for a whole month, with no refunds. We think he started hassling me because he’d heard another tenant wanted to rent my place and was offering considerably more. Weird, greedy, incompetent, and unable to have a rational conversation about it. Messed up is as messed up does. (Edited and reposted, as the subject presumably complained 2 years after my initial post.)
