“…The ultimate measure of man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy…”
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I was gonna go ahead and post up some more SEMA coverage for you guys, and what I’m gonna tell you is SEMA-related…but let’s take some time to air out some dirty laundry shall we? Now let me begin by saying that I’ve known Ross for quite awhile now…The guy is a stand-up dude. I don’t really keep large amount of people around me because I’ve been burned in the past and I like to keep my network of friends small. Within that group, Ross is definitely one of the guys in my tight circle of friends. The guy is a self-made business man. Came from nothing and runs a business on his own and does all his own work. He doesn’t take short-cuts and he doesn’t screw people over. It’s not in his nature to do so. The man will stay up for days just to complete a project because that’s the type of guy he is. When I say that he’s a homie, I trust him and I back his business venture. I’m sure you guys have heard me mention Midnight Garage more than once. We worked together to throw his grand opening and it was great. From time to time I’ll try to help him out and give him advice. One of the things I tell him all the time, is to weed out all these extra motherfuckers around him. Sometimes you can tell when their are people around who are of no value. They’re leechers. They cling to you and take everything you have. These people are suspect. What I’ve noticed from hanging out with Ross is that he tends to have some people around him that are these types of people. I don’t own a Scion. I honestly don’t give two shits about them unless my friends own them. I mean like the cars and the things done to them, but the community as a whole, ehhh, I just don’t relate. There are alot of younger cats in there that are these leechers that I speak of. I won’t name names but I noticed this from hanging around at Ross’s shop that there are some people that that just aren’t any good for him. “Weed these people out” I’d tell him….
Two of these individuals, I will name…One is a guy by the name of Martin Trujillo and his girlfriend; Melissa March…Now I name these two because they fucked up. And today, the world will know who they are. When I first met these two, I didn’t give a shit about them. Honestly, I have enough people in my life, plus the guy came off kind of a douche because he constantly made fun of one of the other Scion guys because he swore the guy was gay and was gonna expose him. Whatever. Over time, from hanging out at the shop, I got to know these individuals. At first, homeboy came off better than thou like his shit didn’t stink, but once he found out what I did for a living, he magically became nicer to me. Funny how that works right? Anyways, all good, if you’re cool with me, I’ll talk to you. I got to know them because they were always hanging around at the shop, using Ross’s shop space to eat, hang out, smoke hookah, generally make a mess. They were Ross’s “friends” so I guess it was fine for them to just get in the way and take up space and air at Midnight Garage. They were also apart of a pretty large Scion crew; “Scion Evolution” so they always hung out there because of that, along with a few others. Martin’s Scion xB was also at the shop for a repaint and little repairs here and there in preparation for SEMA 2009. He’s got “big sponsors” apparently and claimed that his car would be high profile and his spot at SEMA was paid for. Now the agreement he made with Ross when he originally brought his car in was that he would help Ross out with the car, afterall they were friends. It was also agreed upon that he would rock the Midnight Garage banner for a year and Ross would hook him up with the price on all the work. This was written and signed by the way. Business is business afterall…
He agreed to fix and repair the bumpers, paint the Scion “Laguna Seca Blue”, and install some gauges along with some NRG stuff Martin got from his sponsorship. Now I’ll be honest with you, the car sat for a while, a couple months to be exact. Why? Because cash is king. Ross needed to do small side jobs here and there to pay the rent, and as a friend, it was okay for both parties. Some where inbetween that time, his girlfriend’s car came into the picture as well, and it was also gonna be apart of SEMA. Mikeyyyy’s car was supposed to be apart of SEMA as well and needed to be repainted but Mikey eventually decided to give Ross the time he needs and told him to just finish the other two cars. There was also some Clazzio shit that was coming in for Martin’s car and the interior pieces needed to be rewrapped and the headliner done. But that stuff was never agreed upon to be done. I guess he just assumed Ross would do it for him, because they were “friends”…
So the month of SEMA rolls by and there was a minor delay in the paint while Ross was finishing up other cars. This whole time, Martin and his chick are there at the shop almost daily, just hanging out, eating, generally not doing shit. I’m no expert on building cars or anything, but if I know I got some interior shit to install and some panels to be rewrapped, I probably would have gotten to it already and started working on it, regardless if the car was being painted or not. the interior has nothing to do with the outside of the car afterall. And if I’m just sitting at Midnight Garage and picking my ass, I probably woulda tried to knock that out first knowing that the paint was gonna come down to the wire…Plus the guy was getting some Memphis Audio sponsorship and it probably would have been a good idea to maybe do the audio stuff to in the meantime, but again, what do I know?…
Me personally, I’m always at the shop because I use Ross’s sticker machine to cut my Chronicles stickers so I’m always around seeing what’s going on and pushing Ross to get these cars done and making sure he stays on track. Not that he’s losing focus or anything but having a bunch of Scion kids hanging around at the shop can be a distraction. The whole time I’m there, I see these two (Martin and Melissa) just sitting there talking the night away and not doing shit. Did it ever occur to you that you should probably be working on the car? The guy says he was gonna come by and help out on the car and just pulls up a chair and sits on his ass and watches the days go by. Wasn’t the agreement made that you would help out to ensure your car would be finished in time?…
Fast forward to the week before SEMA…Martin’s xB is in paint. Door jams done, engine bay done, basically everything but the kit. Melissa’s xD needed a Five:Axis kit painted, done. Interior? Not done. Audio? Nope. Are they at the shop everyday not doing anything? Yup. I’m literally there when Ross is painting Martin’s car so I know it’s getting done. My boy Billy needed his sub enclosure painted for SEMA as well, came up last minute,…DONE. This was Thursday to Friday before SEMA. Melissa’s kit is painted and cleared, installed, etc…car is ready to go, Ross even put the wheels on for them. Melissa is stressing out but where’s Martin? “Ohhh, he’s sick, he’s bed ridden…when’s he’s sick, he can’t even get up.” she says. Alright, but your car needs to be finished and you guys need to do the interior still. “Oh I’m gonna do it for him.” she says. That’s a loyal girlfriend I thought. But you need to wrap the interior and do the headliner in one night….and you’ve never done it before…and you have no tools. Does that make any sense to you? “Oh Ross will do it for us” she says….Uhh, don’t think so. Ross agreed to paint the car and he also did alot of little things that he didn’t have to, but did it out of courtesy, but there’s no fucking way that he’s gonna wrap an entire interior for you when he’s gotta finish the outside of the car, you know, the part that you paid for and he was contracted to do. This is supposed to be a SEMA feature vehicle, and your girlfriend is wrapping your interior and she doesn’t even have a clue how to do anything of the sort. Are you fucking serious? Your car needs to be finished but you have her sitting in the middle of the shop staring at panels waiting for someone to help her, while you’re sleeping at home because you’re sick. Gotcha….It’s so important for this car to get painted but Ross has to lend your girlfriend tools, air compressor, industrial strength interior glue, etc. so that the interior, which should have been done long before, can be finished. Again, by someone who has no experience touching any of that shit….
So I wanted to help out, because I’m not an asshole. I don’t even fucking know them that well but I’m willing to help out so the car is done. So I take time outta my schedule to stand there and teach her how to wrap panels while her boyfriend is sleeping. Somewhere along that time, she mentions that she still has to pack and they want to drive up early Saturday morning because “they don’t want to rush” and want to have a smooth drive up….At this rate, I’m thinking that they won’t even leave by late Saturday night. Needless to say, the interior pieces didn’t come out so well. SEMA car…riiight. Big sponsors but I got a noob wrapping my shit. Man, I just wanted to see these cars finished so as an incentive I agreed to do their vinyl stickers for them. Actually Ross asked me to help them out and I agreed. I’d do what I can. I don’t really know what kind of SEMA feature car has sponsors that can’t supply them with the proper logos and sizing but of course I didn’t get any of that shit until late Friday night. She tells me “YOU BETTER DO THE STICKERS. YOU TOLD ME YOU WOULD AND I’M GONNA BE PISSED IF YOU DON’T DO THEM FOR ME”…..What the fuck? All of a sudden I’m obligated to do that shit? I’m helping them out and I’m not even asking for anything in return and now this chick is fucking yelling at me? Haha…you gotta be kidding me. I said “I’ll do what I can.” I only mention this because I heard them talking shit saying that they paid me and I didn’t come through. No bitch, you didn’t fucking pay me shit. And at SEMA you looked me in my fucking face and hugged me and was cool with me. If you felt I wronged you in some way, speak on it…
So the stickers weren’t done….and well, neither was Martin’s car. Obviously they were gonna talk shit. This is being written so that everyone knows the real story as to why it wasn’t finished. I’m gonna beat them to the punch before they can run their fucking mouths. Honestly, if anything the car would have been finished, it would have been done maybe early Sunday/late Saturday, but it would have been finished. It didn’t get finished because that night, around 3am, Ross and his girlfriend Sara’s puppy got loose and ran into the street. They just got this dog not too long ago and it was just a puppy. I was still there as well as a couple other homies because we were helping out trying to get shit done, and my ass was cutting stickers still. Well I see Ross come back with his dog clinched super tight in his grasps. I thought he was just holding onto it because he didn’t want it to get away. Something was definitely wrong. he walks to the back of the shop with the dog and he has blood on his face. We thought the dog had bit him or some shit, so we walk back there to check what was going on. What I saw next was pretty fucking gruesome. The dog was hit by a car and it died in Ross’s arms as he carried it back. There was blood everywhere. On the carpet, floors, all over Ross. I can’t even recall the last time I saw so much blood. Ross laid it down on the table and blood was just everywhere. Me and the homies just stood there not knowing what to do as Ross placed his face on his dog and was just shaking. Like he was in shock. His girlfriend Sara, was hysterical. At this point, car shit didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered. We cleaned the blood up, placed the dog in a box and they had to take the dog to the animal hospital to take care of the corpse. We were kinda speechless after that. I don’t know about you guys, but I kinda don’t feel like doing shit after that especially cutting stickers. Sara was crying, Ross was in shock…car shit, didn’t matter. He even tried to get back to work on the cars and we told him to stop. The rest of us took off and gave Ross and Sara their space. That dog was like a child to them. Fuck some car shit. Martin and Melissa came back a couple hours to check on their car…remarkably, Martin’s crazy illness had passed apparently, and he was able to walk again…and Ross explained the situation to them and what had happened. They knew the dog well and Melissa was always there to play with the dog and she had a dog herself, so it was understood….so we thought anyway….
So her car is ready and is off to SEMA. The week of SEMA (last week), Martin doesn’t hit up Ross or anything, doesn’t say what’s up, anything…Guess he was mad about his car not being finished. Understandable, but considering he didn’t lift a finger to try to finish his own car, he can’t really say. I run into him and he seems fine, says what’s up, whatever… We get word that he’s talking shit about why his car wasn’t finished. We also understand. We know he’s upset with the car not being finished. He goes to everyone within their Scion community and bad mouths Ross and his shop to anyone that would listen. Ross hits me up about it and I tell him…”It’s expected. I mean, it’s easier to tell people that you didn’t finish his car and that you fucked up, then for him to tell the story about what really happened and the circumstances that came about.” Clearly, knowing that weak-minded kid, he would talk shit…it wasn’t a surprise to us. We knew he would talk, but we didn’t know the extent of it. This dude and his girl went and put Midnight Garage on blast to EVERYBODY. Ross takes exception to it, considering all he’s done for Martin, but he understands that he’s got a business to run, so as soon as he comes back from SEMA, he got right back to work on it…
I get back from Vegas and I hit up Ross to see what’s going on, and he tells me he’s sick, as most of us are lately, and has a bit of a sore throat so our conversation is short. Monday and Tuesday, dude is pretty sick, I talked to him today and he’s still sick. But he knows he’s gotta grind so he locks himself in his shop and gets to work. At this point he’s a little tired of all the shit talking that Martin and Melissa are doing so he deletes them from his Facebook, along with a couple of other individuals that were talking. Facebook is serious business of course, so these two flip out. Being deleted from facebook is the end of the world. A bunch of other Scion people get involved when they shouldn’t be, and some guys try to mediate the situation and try to arrange for a dinner to occur where both parties and talk. Ross says he’s got nothing to say to them so he passes on it, just says that he’ll finish the car and it’ll be the end of it. The car is probably 70% done. It’s in the middle of wetsanding and the kit had to be painted, and the contract would be fulfilled…
I’ll even post a pic of the car as they were waiting to tow it home…Just for reference and to prove that they didn’t allow Ross to finish the car before they took it away…
What happened next, is probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard and what they did to Ross, well, let’s just say that it caused irreversible damage…
After the whole Facebook ordeal, Melissa and Martin hit up Ross about the car….Ross is sick, dude doesn’t want to talk to people, especially these two clowns. So they actually go as far as to come to the shop and bang on the door and shit. Real classy individuals you know?….Funny how when Ross is sick, they come banging on the door asking for shit to be done, but when it came down to crunch time for SEMA, Martin was apparently so sick and bed-ridden that he didn’t even come by to finish his own car. It’s funny how that works, right?
Earlier tonight, they lost their fucking minds. They show up at the shop in a fury looking for Ross…It’s not just them two though, Martin’s mother is there as well as Melissa’s brothers. Yes, Martin’s MOM. What they plan on doing with two extra guys there, I don’t know. But I assume they wanted to appear like they had the numbers to make Ross feel intimidated. Another wise choice… Ross isn’t at the shop at the time and Sara comes back from work to see these characters waiting at the shop. She rolls up and Martin’s mom is ranting and raving calling Sara a “slut” or “ho” and cussing her out. That’s a real classy mother I guess. I don’t know what being a slut has to do with painting a car, but then again, why is the guy’s mother there? Sara doesn’t want to deal with the bullshit so she tries to leave and they block her car in! Threatening her and repeatedly asking her where Ross is….It got so bad that Sara had to call the police to get involved…
Ross arrives and Martin, like his mother, also goes on a tirade claiming that he’s gonna ruin Ross and report him to the BBB. He also claims he’s gonna take Ross to small claims court. Report what? Gonna take him to court for what? Because he was still finishing the car? I’m no lawyer, but you can’t sue someone for nothing. Midnight Garage didn’t deliver the car in that condition. Work was still being done on it. Martin tells Ross that he wants the car back and he’s pulling it out of Midnight Garage. Good luck with that lawsuit…You do know that you can’t sue someone for not finishing a car when you pulled the car yourself and took it home and didn’t allow it to be finished, right?
While they wait for the flatbed to take the car, Ross and Sara go back into the shop because they have nothing else to say to them…When they walk back out after they leave, this is what they have to greet them…
Wow…..you dumb motherfuckers…
I can understand being unhappy about a car not being finished in time, but to go and vandalize another man’s car….is on a totally different level of stupid…
It’s unbelieable the levels these people will stoop to….and for what? Martin mentioned that his SEMA sponsors were mad at him because his car wasn’t finished…
Homie, your car ain’t that special. Nobody would have cared either way if that shit made it to SEMA or not. You got a Memphis sponsorship, and you would have arrived with no audio…You have a Clazzio-sponsorship, and you have door panels hand wrapped by your girl who doesn’t know the first thing about wrapping anything. You have a Hankook sponsorship, but they didn’t feel you were important enough to give you four matching tires. You had a SEMA deadline to meet, but you couldn’t even get out of bed to lift a finger to finish your car. Your shit ain’t that important. Trust me. The automotive world would have been fine without your car. And if you think you disappointed your sponsors, imagine what they’ll think of you now when they see this. A cowardly kid who brings his mom to fight his battles for him and vandalizes people’s cars. That’s a real good look for you. You do realize what car you messed with and the people associated with that name it represents right? Whoever decides to finish your car, make sure to let them know that if they dont do a good job in the right amount of time, that your mother will be there to talk shit to their significant others.
I hope the best for you because you’ll need all the help you can get.
You, your girl, her brothers, your mother, whoever decided to carve the “fuck you” on the hood… FUCK YOU too, you insignificant fucks. Go facebook about it. We know you planned on “exposing” Ross or talking shit about him to the Scion community or whoever wants to listen to your dumbass. We got you.
Got your plates too….smile….
Everybody be on the look-out for these vandals…
Kids these days….
Gonna miss this look…Phaze2 Ross bB gonna come back better than ever in 2010…