Thread by @MalikThaElite

So my cowoker passed away a couple days ago and that shit really has me REELING. I’m going to tell a brief story about how cheating can LITERALLY cost you your life.

*Names have been changed to protect the identities and this is all “alleged”*

So about a month ago this guy we’ll call “Freddie” joined my IT team at work. Unlike a few of our team members, Freddie showed great promise and clear foundationial knowledge of IT. I (along with my supervisor) was very impressed with his skill set.

Now Freedie shared with some of the team that he had a girlfriend and they had been together for some time. Their relationship had its bumps but overall was pretty good.

Now the thing about my job is we are currently providing IT support to several hundred temporary employees that just started and will be with the company until around spring. Of these hundreds of employees, i’d say that about 80% of them are black women. 🙃

So this makes the ratio breakdown at my office about 15:1 women vs men. Plus most of the roughly 5,000 employees at my sight are black. This was kinda suprising to me with it being an upscale pharmaceutical company.

Because there are so many Black Women of all shapes, sizes, hues & varieties and men are severely out numbered, it can feel like a buffet to some of the guys. For this reason, some of the male supervisors have warned us to be very cautious of how we look at & interact with them.

Plus we have that added layer of being IT and VERY visible to all these temporary employees. Some wilk openly flirt with us just for whatever perks they think we can provide or because of other varied interest. It takes A LOT of self control to keep things professional.

Now my personal philosophy is to not get my honey where I get my money so even when the options are VAST I may look but i’m not CHECKING for anybody because my mindset is completely on work. If they try to flirt with me, I am completely oblivious to it (or at least pretend to be)

Apparently Freddie did not share this same mindset. It’s my understanding that Freedie caught the eye of somebody (possibly a couple somebodies) and he somehow started to engage with this individual through some private communications. Keep in mind he has a whole ass girlfriend.

Slight sidenote: Freedie is from upstate NY. He’s seemed like a real down to earth guy. Decent looking, well put together, average dude. The only thing that stood out about him in my mind was the way he spoke I noticed had a slight caucasian twang but it was subtle.

I guess Freedie had really been intrigued by this woman he met because he made plans to meet up with her outside of work very shortly after interacting with her. At least he told a few of my coworkers as much.

The last anyone on my team hears from or sees Freedie is on Wensday as we’re heading home for the day. Thursday comes, Freedie is a no call no show. Friday, same thing. MONDAY, same thing...

Now by Monday something in my GUT tells me something is wrong. I had been working with and training Freedie for the past couple weeks so I got a pretty solid idea of who he was. He didn’t seem like the type to just not show up to work for DAYS without calling. Something is OFF.

Then his girlfriend comes up to the job looking for him because she hasn’t heard from him either. Some of my team thought he was just dodging her and avoiding her. I know better. She then says she even spoke with his roommates and no one has seen or heard from him in days.

At this point she is panicking and files a missing persons report. My coworkers still aren’t really buying into the something is wrong philosophy but I FEEL it. The entire situation already has played out in my mind but I don’t say anything hoping I’m wrong.

Anyone that knows anything about a missing persons report knows the first place they check are the hospitals and the jails.

After being missing for over 4 days he is found in a hospital ICU unresponsive as a John Doe.

The timeline of what happened and when at this point is a little cloudy but sometime between Freedie making plans to meet with the woman at work and actually meeting up with her, Freedie is allegedly attacked, beatened and robbed. He was said to be found unresponsive in his car.

Freedie’s Family pulled the plug on him last week. He was a young guy in his 30’s with children and a bright future. Somebody stole all that away. It’s heartbreaking.

Please folks be aware of WHO you interact with. Remember If it seems too good to be true it probably is.

#RIP

The saddest part is that what appears to have happened to him is exactly what I felt in my spirit before I knew. I don’t want to speculate but it’s my belief that Freedie was a “mark”. And someone saw the way he carried himself and thought they could come up easy. It’s really sad

It’s possible that the end result was not the intention. It’s also possible the woman in question isn’t involved at all and he just ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time. We may never know. All we do know is a good man, son, and Father lost his life unnecessarily.

The end.

(I apologize for the typos btw. I was processing everything at once and wasn’t paying attention. I promise I’m not illiterate 🤦🏽‍♂️)