Had a really good friend of mine move to a nearby big city with a new job selling cars. Keep in mind this was 20+ years ago, we were fresh out of high school.
He would show up at my house in brand new cars/trucks all the time and we'd go cruising/bar hopping etc. He always had money and paid the tab wherever we went.
I noticed right away he was fidgety all the time and could drink like a fish and not get hammered. Seemed like he never slept.
Didn't see him for a couple months and he shows up one day asking to borrow some money. Said he just needed like $1500 until the end of the month when he got his big bonus check. Being clueless, I obliged.
As you can imagine, the end of the month came and went and my friend disappeared.
Didn't answer calls, never home, nothing.
After a couple months I went to his parents to see if they knew what was up.
His mom told me he had gotten mixed up with that booger sugar pretty deep. His new "friends" from the dealership got him started and he fell right in.
He had stolen his grandpa's checkbook and had drained the old man's savings to the tune of almost six figures in about six months!(They shared the same name)
He was in rehab at that point but it was just the beginning of a bunch of stints there, relapse, rehab, yada yada.
Tried to get in touch with him many times, only ran into him once at a bar and he couldn't look me in the eye. It was awkward to say the least.
I didn't care about the money, just wanted him to get his *s-word straight but he wasn't ready I guess. Found out later that he had ripped off many many people including other mutual friends.
Just goes to show what kind of grip that stuff
will get on you and make you do things you wouldn't even think about sober.
Haven't seen or thought much about the guy in twenty years but reading this made me think of him.