Karma

America is beautiful and ugly at the same time. Our financial aid system provides a great example of this. Many low-income students who attend Community Colleges are able to do so because a Federal Pell Grant covers the cost of attendance and other educational expenses, like books or a laptop. Unlike loans, grants don't have to be repaid. A full Pell Grant recipient at my college who's enrolled full-time will get a refund check of $1100, for example. The gross aspect of this very generous arrangement is that some Pell Grant recipients misuse the money.

Speedy got robbed twice in the span of two weeks. Given that Speedy lived in an apartment complex on a residential street, it seemed odd that this could happen to him twice during the late morning hours without somebody noticing. The other curious detail about the robberies was that both of the heists occurred while Speedy was in class.

The police didn't offer much help according to Speedy. They did their due diligence by showing up to the scene, but Speedy felt like his family was being accused given the line of questioning. Without the police on their side, his family stood to lose thousands of dollars in stolen electronics. Speedy was at a loss for what to do.

Speedy reached out to me, but I couldn't do anything to help. He suspected somebody at school was involved (re: Best Buds), but since the crime occurred off campus I couldn't get Campus Police involved. I tried to get every possible detail of the situation hoping to glean some information that could help him crack the case.

Me: So you really think somebody from school did it?
Speedy: Yeh.
Me: Why though?
Speedy: I just have a feeling.
Me: I can't tell Campus Police that you have a feeling somebody on campus broke into your crib. That doesn't hold any weight. What did they steal the second time?
Speedy: They took my new flat screen, all my sneakers, and my new X-Box.
Me: I thought you said your X-Box and flat screen got stolen the first time?
Speedy: Yeh. They did. With my financial aid refund check I went out and bought a new flat screen and X-Box after I got robbed the first time.

Two weeks before this all occurred, Speedy had to drop his Spanish class because he didn't buy the books that were required for the course.