CHAPTER 6
(RED FLAGS, LITERALLY)
I didn't think I'd ever find myself back in jail. In fact, I didn't really think it would be possible for me to end up back in jail. Prior to my 58 month Federal sentence I was definitely NOT on any destructive path that would lead me to incarceration. I paid my bills on time. I wasn't anywhere close to losing my job. Why as a matter of fact East Cocalico Police Officer was sure to have it included in my Federal discovery that I was not considered a problem for the local law enforcement in my area. In fact, the female psychiatrist at Allenwood Prison described my federal crime as "this one little boo boo".
As much as I was quite certain I couldn't land myself in prison again that all changed the day I took advice from a noteworthy Manheim Township police officer often praised by WGAL channel 8 news. An officer two years younger than me described by channel 8 news as "lean and fit" despite my sprinting past that officer in the 2013 Susquehanna Valley (SVPS) pregnancy 5k run. It did indeed look good for an older brother such as myself beating my younger brother by a good 20 seconds in that race. In fact. My self discipline was so good back then that even after my jogging partner quit on me I self trained and by the end of that year I ran the 2013 Jingle Bell Run in 23:08 for the 5k run. Did the whole entire 3.1 miles on the slippery icy streets.
So what bad advice could officer of the year Calvin Steidler possibly give his older brother when not one but 3 lawyers had failed big bro with collecting owed wages from a one star company?
Here was his verbatim words. "If somebody owed me money I wouldn't leave until I got paid." - Officer Steidler
Unfortunately when a company steals from their employees they don't get criminal charges or go to jail like the average crackhead stealing gift cards from a store. I don't know why the law doesn't convict these employers for their thefts but to make things worse the government even allows these crooked employer thieves to sit in jury boxes and point the finger at the crackhead that robbed the bank to obtain money for heart medication just to stay alive. It is in fact a commandment in the Bible "Thou Shalt Not Steal" but the rich people are able to skirt these theft laws somehow.
FlaggerForce flagging company is located in Middletown PA. I found these clowns on Craigslist by adhering to my probation officer's advice. One day he freaked out on me because I was completely honest on a job application once I reached that formidable area known by PA governor Tom Wolf as "The Box". It clearly stated if I had ever been convicted of a crime and if so please explain. My religion growing up Baptist had always taught me to be honest so sugar coating according to the Baptist faith was considered lying and frowned upon. So how did I answer "The Box?" I simply put down the gospel truth one day.
Have you EVER been convicted of a crime? Answer- yes I mailed a bomb
Boy if that didn't get my parole officers attention. I could still hear his tongue lashing. "You can't tell them flat out you mailed a bomb! You'll never get a job!"
Never? Lol. Maybe NEVER get a job providing you with a chance of surviving but even with the terrorists charges I had I was a fool to fully believe that EVERY company out there was going to say no to charges like that. Craigslist would be a real game changer for sure. I would learn quickly that if enough spaghetti noodles got thrown against the wall eventually ONE of those noodles was sure to stick. And that one little noodle not nearly heavy enough to fall to the ground like the others found his way sitting in the lobby of FlaggerForce filling out a very succinct one sided application. In fact. If you couldn't get a job at FlaggerForce then chances were good you probably couldn't even spell your first name because holding a stupid red flag really required no skill at all. But was I going into their cruddy little crooked flagging company with NO skills at all? Heck no! I was a straight "A" student fresh out of a very reputable trucking school stuck with school payments that my OVR program didn't cover. I would need this company to allow me to operate their boom truck at least a few times for some sort of commercial trucking experience if I wanted to get my foot in the door with my trucking career. But the Donors that owned the company were sure to make sure that would never happen. In fact. Not only would I never get my chance to drive the boom truck (required a class B) but the Donors somehow felt that I hadn't fully repaid my debt to society and I was to spend much of my flagging jobs working for free! After 14 months with this one star company that Indeed.com ALWAYS shamed I finally called it quits when they refused to Backpay owed wages that they had already promised to pay back. Technically I never told them I quit but merely explained to them I would not be accepting job assignments until owed wages were paid as I had one of their company vehicles I was permitted to take home. These crooked (and many other) construction companies are savvy to the unemployment laws and try to pressure you into resigning to keep you from collecting UC benefits. It's like one big silly game of chess to them. If they don't want you any more they are reluctant to fire you when they know they don't have concrete proof so they find clever ways to oust you and cripple your pay on such a way that you have no other choice but to leave. I would find later in life that there are "FlaggerForce" like trucking companies out there aiming high to beat the system at all costs even if that involves theft and cheating. In fact FlaggerForce stole my CB radios that my uncle had gotten me which pissed me off even more than the money that was owed.
9/13/2011
I stared at the $29.00 paycheck and thought to myself What a bunch of assholes!
An entire two months had passed since I separated from FlaggerForce and they had the audacity to mail me a check for $29.00 when they owed more than ten times that amount? After spending over $800 in attorney fees and still not receiving a civil court date I finally asked some input from WGAL channel 8's favorite pretty boy cop. Officer Calvin Steidler. Officer Steidler didn't even hesitate at the question I asked about how to procure the money. He in fact seemed very adamant about it.
"If somebody owed me money I wouldn't leave until I got paid!" -Officer Steidler
It seemed like a very well fitting idea. I had already spent a small fortune in attorney fees and all three attorneys agreed that FlaggerForce owed me quite a bit of money. Attorney William Chillas described FlaggerForce as "crooked". Attorney Derek Dissinger described my case as a "slam dunk" when I played the voicemail of them promising to pay back the money and also provided him with the signed pay sheets from the contractors. So why two months go by and no justice on my behalf? If truth be told it was because I was literally stuck in between the cross hairs of the system. I wasn't doing anything illegal but my not at fault motorcycle accident was leaving me with quite a bit of goodies when that X-Ray came out showing my grade 3 shoulder separation. In fact. I am of the very few Steidler men that actually HAD a real legit shoulder injury with an X-Ray as proof that something substantial happened. So was it that 9 month "Goodie cart" that evoked the browbeating on my paychecks? My other probation officer definitely seems to think so. Dauphin County police officer Sallada was sure to yank me up from my quiet seat chair by my bad shoulder just to ensure that "Goodie Cart" didn't roll away too fast.
There used to be a manager named Bill at FlaggerForce that tried to bring a level playing field for the workers. It's no secret that women are sneaky so it's always nice when you can have at least one fella working in the FlaggerForce office to keep the women in check. But the Donors said no. Bill had to go. Bill was assigning double shifts to the hard working fellas and was eventually dubbed as a sexist for not sharing more of that work with the prego ladies itching to stand in the sweltering sun for those 19 hour days and would probably never need a pee break.
But Bill was eventually terminated for something silly we just don't know what exactly. What we DO know was that the company was hellbent on turning that office into an all girls book club of some sort.
It was mid September of 2011 and I still didn't have the money that FlaggerForce owed me. I had left home and was living from hotel to hotel and I knew my savings wouldn't hold up forever. I still had my yellow hard hat and plastic stop sign in my trunk that FlaggerForce billed $45 from my first paycheck. After separating from FlaggerForce we could turn our equipment in for our $45.00 refund. I had EVERY right to sit in FlaggerForce lobby and at NO TIME did either Mike or Michelle (owners) Donor instruct me to leave their facility and Michelle was in fact there my day of my arrest for taking advice from Officer Steidler that stated "If Someone owed me money I would not leave".
But none of these facts really mattered to the next rising star Officer Sallada that evidently didn't feel I was entitled to my last paycheck and the other owed wages from months before. In fact. Officer Sallada was sure to accuse me of possibly having "make shift" bombs on my person once he was able to place me into his car with the woo woo lights. So why such a negative attitude with "The-Law"? Where do we turn to when somebody robs us?
Even though FlaggerForce NEVER let me near their boom truck which required a class B CDL I still managed to acquire something positive from my 14 months of flagging with them.
A standing ovation from Dauphin County's female office workers hiding behind the computers of Dauphin County prison. They knew who I was. Officer Steidler's brother. The Penis Bomber still stuck on Federal paper. I was now in violation of my Federal Parole for simply sitting in my quiet seat of the FLAGGERFORCE LOBBY. Never again would I have to listen to the Donor's company pet Justin talk his poppycock nonsense about his thoughts to kill President Obama if he didn't have a child. I had to deal with these cloud talking fishhook stuck in their ball caps nut jobs ALL the time. Perhaps a return to the slammer would be a big break for me so I could be with people that were capable of walking the walk that came with their talk. A little bit of processing and eventually I'd be sitting at the table playing cards with the Fellas and listening to some real O-G's brag about getting the opportunity to change John Gotti's diapers at one point.
FLAGGERFORCE "May the Force be with you"