Friend turned stranger

I had the unfortunate experience of having a friend become a stranger. My friend Rob was not always truthful but you learned to take his little white lies with a grain of salt and move right on past them. However, I began to notice a change in him. He seemed to be on edge a lot. He would constantly complain to me about not having enough money. This is a man who gets quite a bit of money from SSI every month. He is also employed with a construction company so he makes a good amount of money.

A couple months passed since his request to send him money, which I did not have, and he called very angry about it. He was so angry that he turned around and called my husband and told him that I had cheated. Of course, this is not true. I called Rob immediately and told him never to contact us again. Rob continued to send messages containing lies about me to my husband. It got so bad that we had to block his number so that he would not be able to contact us and for a time he seemed to get the point.

A few months later I received a phone call from his fiance explaining to me that Rob had left her for another woman and as he left he struck her and knocked her over. I told her to hang up with me and call the police which she did. I then told her to pack her things and come stay with me for a while. She decided to come to stay and start over.

I came to find out that he has been committing SSI fraud and had been cheating on this girl for 6 months. Michelle, his fiance, had also come to believe that he was under the influence of narcotics. He had even begun to write fraudulent checks under her name. I could not believe all the evidence she presented me with.

However, the more I thought about his changing patterns, it made sense that this be the reason behind it all. I have known Rob for so long and it is so hard accept all this. My once friend has become a total stranger to me. Have you ever had this happen to you?