Help Overcome Two Years of Hardship and Injustice

Thank you everyone who is taking time to read this! I'm gonna break down how I'm arriving at $62000 before we get to the summary of events (and the full length after that for those that want the nitty gritty:

Initial price of Car - 11804

Sal’s visit 1 – 2412.60

Sal’s visit 2 – 2314.48

Sal’s visit 3 – 2206.57

Total Spent on Car – $18737.65

Remainder of original loan – 7908.85

Further repair costs: Catalytic Converter – 3354.38

Further repair costs: Strut Assembly, front – 1467.10

Further repair costs, Shock Absorber Rear – 599.22

Possibly illegal bank charge 5-22-2025 (Journal Entry; CPI) – 1373

Amount still to be spent 14702.65

Total: $33440.30

Combine that with $25K for a new or like new car and we have $58440.30

The rest comes from catching up on bills and a little bit of cash to entice a lawyer to help me fight the parties who have forced these injustices upon me.

SUMMARY:

So here is the short version for those of you that don’t have time to read a full novella (I get it, this is a LONG story, and I even left stuff out else wise I’d have been typing for the next day and a half): I have experienced a profoundly difficult two years, culminating in my erroneous firing from Hand and Stone Spa (H&S) in April 2025, which, combined with delayed student aid, has led to severe financial distress.

My troubles began shortly after joining H&S in June 2021 when I was sexually assaulted by a client, an incident that was grossly mishandled by management and law enforcement. Later, from November 2023 to June 2024, I was financially and emotionally exploited by a former coworker who lured me into a problematic living and working situation under the guise of a new spa venture, only to evict me after I had invested personal funds and labor. Compounding these professional and personal betrayals were significant issues with a used 2018 Kia Soul I purchased in May 2023. The car immediately presented numerous problems, including a major engine failure and an accident where I was deemed at fault due to nonsensical Florida law, resulting in losing my insurance and being nearly unable to find another agency because certain Kia’s are almost impossible to insure because they are so easy to steal, and a series of expensive repairs totaling over $6900 by February 2025, with an additional $5420 in repairs still needed. This vehicle nightmare occurred alongside escalating issues at H&S.

Back at H&S, I faced a persistently hostile work environment, including ongoing harassment by a coworker I had spoken on behalf of for a job referral to management, with management dismissing my complaints. This stressful situation, combined with my involvement in unionization efforts due to wage theft by the franchisee, ultimately led to an altercation with another therapist where I was shoved and called a racial slur. This incident resulted in my termination in April 2025, without official notice, complicating my efforts to secure unemployment and other aid. I am here reaching out for any help from any kind and generous souls in my time of need. I am looking for both financial assistance (I want to be rid of this cursed car, I want all the money I have put into it back, and I want a new one that isn’t broken down, and a little bit more so I can cover my now backed up bills) and any lawyer referrals, as I do intend to take the guilty parties of all this to court.

Engine Leaking and Spraying Oil + Serpentine Belt Soaked in Oil 6/16/24

FULL DETAILS:

And if you want the full details, I apologize for the long read, but I have you covered: I have had a tumultuous two years. But to explain that to you I need to first tell you what I'm going through right now, in May of 2025. In April of 2025, I was erroneously fired from my position as a Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) at Hand and Stone Spa (H&S). This hit to my income combined with whatever in the world is going on with Student Aid Disbursements right now, has left me financially spiraling, and nearly destitute (as of now). Now that you know that, let me tell you how I got here.

I joined H&S in June 2021 (I promise this is relevant to 2023 through present) My second week officially on the job (I had been in training for a few months), I was sexually assaulted and propositioned by a client at the H&S location in Gainesville. She was what I can most charitably describe as an "old money Karen". For reference I am a gay man. All throughout the session she was gyrating, and eventually she would remove her sheet, not once, but twice. Each time I replaced it to spare her her modesty, however after the second time I replaced it, she threw it off again, rolled over, splayed her legs, and said "Are you gonna get in this pussy or not?" At this point I stopped the session and left the room and I went to front desk and front desk called the manager and the manger called the police. The client went to leave the spa, but she could not leave because her daughter was in a session, so she waited outside. When the police arrived she ran to them crying and claiming she had no idea what had happened because she was asleep. When the officers spoke with me, they were visibly disinterested and just wanted the interaction to be over with. Furthermore when I attempted to press charges GPD made it as difficult as possible. I would come to find out later her husband donated to them. Her son attempted to threaten the spa and myself with defamation, claiming it was his mother who had been assaulted. So for reference underneath all the tables we have what are called "attention buttons", basically you push it to stop the session if for whatever reason you are feeling uncomfortable. I informed her, as I do all my clients, that it was there. She responded in jest "I'm not worried about that". I assured her she was right not to, as I am a professional, and gay on top of that. This button was not pressed, so if I assaulted her, why didn't she press the button I told her was there for that very purpose? And if all of that wasn’t enough, when I requested to not be booked in the room this happened in the general manager refused to comply, and would even purposefully book me in the room as retaliation, until the manager of the massage therapists (MT) stepped in and told her that that was unacceptable. The manager that stood up for me, would later be chased out of the job by the former MT manager, who I found out later was dating the general manager.

H&S Incident Write Up (Front)

H&S Incident Write Up (Back)

H&S Incident Report

Police Report

So that's how my tenure there began. And this tale is nowhere close to over. Moving on from this incident, we must introduce a former coworker. He worked at H&S from about late 2021 to early 2022. He was fired for (allegedly) poaching clients. The aforementioned general manager publicly fired and shamed him to the point of tears over this. This coworker would go on to hold a grudge against H&S. Now lets jump to Nov 2023. That disgraced coworker had founded a rival spa called 5 Branch Massage & Wellness. He said he saw my value as an MT and thought I deserved better than working at H&S. So I started working with him in my free time with hopes of working with him full time as the pay was much better. However this situation quickly grew wildly out of control, and his true colors were revealed. He began to subtly incentivize me to come live with him, using the fact I had a crush on him against my better judgment, and not only to live with him, but to share a room with him. How did he do this? By telling me my rent would be less if I shared a room with him. Weird, but I had a crush and it seemed like he might too, if he wanted me sharing a room with him. While I was living there he would tell me he wanted us to be partners (implying I would not be just another employee), however whenever I would bring this up with him, he would change the subject, or say we would talk about it later, and by the time "later" came about, he claimed he never said we would be partners, and tried to gaslight me into thinking he never said that. This was just the beginning of him saying one thing, doing another, and acting like I was crazy when I heard him correctly the first time. As a reminder, this man was my landlord/literal roommate/employer, causing quite the power imbalance in the dynamic of our professional and personal relationships. Over the course of six months, I would not only help him set up his new house, and the new spa, but I would invest more money into him than I was even making. This may or may not be because he was not paying me as much as he said he would. Eventually after I had multiple times lost my cool and told him how his actions were making me feel, he would kick me out of the house because I was "causing strife" to the other roommates. The same roommates who told me they had told him no such thing, and he would admit he hadn't even asked. He then refused to give me my rent back from May (which I spent nearly the entirety of house sitting for and living at a friends house), though he did give me June's at least. The day he kicked me out in early June 2024 my car died... for the second time.

Lets take a step back to May 2023. I purchased a used 2018 Kia Soul from Paul West Used Car Dealership. I thought my credit wouldn't be good enough to get a new car without excessive interest, so to build up credit, I opted to buy a (seemingly) decent used car. The dealership told me it was in great shape, and me being inexperienced (I had never bought from a dealership before) I believed them, much to my eternal shame. That car cost me $11804 (at point of purchase). I would come to find within a few days, it was infested with roaches, and had electrical problems. When I called the dealership I was told the warranty only covered the engine and the mechanical issues, and I was SOL. A little less than three months into owning the car, my timing chain broke in the middle of traffic. I had to get out of my car, turn the hazards on, and attempt to push the car to safety. While I was doing this a blonde woman had the brilliant idea to back into my car. Fun fact. In the state of the Florida, if your car dies in the middle of traffic, and you have to turn the hazards on and push it, you are at fault no matter what, if you weren't fortunate enough to have a second person in the car to help you push it. So rather than call the police, she called her father, who called progressive, who told me what I just told you, and then upped my premium to $500. So I left Progressive because that was outrageous. Little did I know besides being a lemon, this car was nearly uninsurable in the state of Florida. No one had thought to tell me Kias and Hyundais that were not push to start were almost impossible to insure because they are easily stolen, and yet I had to find a way, or the $11804 car I had jut bought would not be street legal. I called Paul West, they told me the car was out of warranty (the warranty was apparently only 30 days). I found out my car had a recall on the engine, so I called Kia, they would go on to charge me for diagnostics, only to tell me the only part of the engine that wasn't broken was what the recall was about. After much nonsense, I found someone willing to fix it, rather than having to buy a new one. This person would however miss the oil leak that not only caused the initial engine failure, but would go on to cost me thousands just (key word) to repair multiple oil leaks, and there were many, many more failures than just oil leaks. But I get ahead of myself, we're back to June 2024, and my car has died for the second time. I would not be able to drive my car again until late July of 2024, and somehow I still needed to get work. Well after a $2412.60 mechanic visit in July 2024, my car finally started behaving for a little bit. Until October of 2024. When it would cost me another $2314.48 in repairs, and then again until February of 2025, when it would cost me another $2206.57. And yet I still have to pay another $5420.80 in further repairs. over 3000 of which, is just for the catalytic converter, which is wasting my gas, and has resulted in me getting my first ever ticket in 20 years of driving, because to get the RPM high enough to actually shift gears the car has to speed so its internal parts catch up and function, before I can make it slow down to the proper speed limit. So to date I have spent $22092.13 on a car that was supposed to cost $11804, and will need to provide another $5420.80 as I mentioned earlier.

Initial Price of Car

First visit to Sal's Auto ER 7/18/24

Second visit to Sal's Auto ER 10/04/24

Third visit to Sal's Auto ER 02/06/25

Quotes on further needed repairs (Items 1 and 2 were taken care of on subsequent visits)

Remaining original loan + odd bank charge (notice how $1373 is suddenly added to the value of the loan on May 22. I was not informed of this by the bank and only saw it when reviewing my papers today.

Well its good thing I had a decent paying job at H&S right? Surely there was no more problems after that initial issue the second week right? Well... let's pull back to when I was still living with that former employer. I had met my best friend's half-brother who I had until that moment been convinced was a long running joke, because in 15+ years knowing my friend, I had never met him. Well I did, and after he approached me to talk about amateur wrestling one day, we started talking and occasionally hanging out casually. This was before all the stuff the former employer had done to me so I put the two in contact, because he was also training to be an MT. Around the time he graduated from massage school he asked me if I would vouch for a friend of his, to get her a job. Because we had been friendly up to this point, I obliged. From the first time I saw her she was nothing but rude to me, and she knew I had gotten her the job. After she left my room in disarray, I requested she not be allowed to use my room. This would begin a long series of events were someone would enter my room off schedule only to mess with things, take stocks, change the elevation my chair, and just generally mess with my state of mind. I always cleaned and restocked the room when I left the previous night, and despite the fact no one was supposed to be in there between the end of my previous shift, and the start of my next, someone had been in there a messed with things. This would continue every day for months. Management wouldn't do anything about it, and I was told it wasn't a big deal. Though I suspected the self-centered girl I wouldn't get confirmation it was her for several months. I told management, and nothing was done. During this time my relationship with my friends brother had grown complicated. He was sending mixed (and occasionally not so mixed) signals about wanting a deeper relationship. Well this process involved a lot of him venting about his long distance girlfriend, and keeping me up at all hours of the night just to talk about her, which I was okay with, but it was weird he never wanted his brother to hang out with us, to the point he would call me right after I left the house, despite it already being midnight or later. This would culminate in him drunkenly throwing himself at me, and I rejecting him because I didn't appreciate how he had treated me up to that point. Fast forward a couple months, and he gets hired at H&S. At this point the work harassment combined with always seeing him, both around work (thankfully only rarely) and whenever I went to see my friend, was ever an impact on my peace of mind. The work environment was actively hostile, and I couldn't even escape thinking about it, because every time I saw his car at my friend's house, it would remind me I vouched for her for him. This and my concerns being dismissed by management would lead to an altercation with a newly hired black male therapist, who would go on to shove me, call me a racial slur in front of coworkers and clients, and ultimately get me fired. Management by all indications thought I was problematic because I wouldn't stand for how I was being treated, and the franchisee was already looking to get rid of me because I was involved in the effort to unionize the store (she was stealing money from us, that's what led to the unionization efforts). So after no investigation whatsoever, I was told through voice mail by a client H&S was saying I left. When I called I was told I was being let go. No official notice of termination was given (interfering with my attempts to get food stamps, and unemployment while I looked for new income). At the same time as this I am waiting on my College Financial Aid to help me pay some bills while I start school and look for new income. As I alluded to earlier, this money has not been forthcoming, and now without that promised money, I am now a month behind in all my bills, and had to ask for a personal loan just to cover my rent for this month.

And now I am asking any generous souls reading this if they can help me out. If not financially, I would also appreciate lawyer referrals, both civil and criminal. And if any of you are thinking "no one can possibly be that unlucky", well you already saw just some of the extensive documentation I have of this, and I have more.