3 years a slave

i want to get a new job but boss owns all my possessions and is going to take everything away if i leave. i dont think this is right but dont know who to call. dallas, tx (self.legaladvice)

submitted 1 day ago * by legalquestiondallas

this is kind of a long story but i am 19 and want to leave my job and go find a new one i can do part time so i can finish school. my boss is okay with me leaving but the problem is that he wont be able to support me anymore if i do which means i will lose everything i own andnow i don’t really know where to turn.

i statred here when i was 16. a guy i knew got a big suite in the hotel which is one of the nicest ones in dallas.we had a party here. we were drinking and it got out of control and people threw up in the room and caused a lot of damage around the hotel and stole a bunch of things. the next morning i woke up to manager and security yelling at me, my “friends” were all gone but left me sleeping.

the manager took me to his office and i was crying and begged him not to call the police so he said i could start coming in after school and helping them clean rooms and do dishes in the kitchen to work off the money from all the damage and he wouldnt call the police.

after a few weeks i told him i couldnt anymore because my parents wouldnt drive me since i wasnt bringing home any money to save and they said he was taking advantage of me, but i just didnt want to tell them i was working to pay off the debt and i didnt listen because i know they didnt know the full story. so he bought me an used bike to use and said he wanted me there every day until the dmage was all paid plus the bike.

over the next couple months he got more and more demanding and every time i asked how much more work i had to do he always just said he'll tell me when i'm finished and if i don't want to he can just call the police. so i just kept working and doing what he said. he changed my hours to 4-12 every night and it was effecting mt school. he is a nice guy and didnt want my grades to suffer and i always had to bring him my report cards but he said do not drop out. but when i turned 18 i stopped going to school and just slept in the day. when he found out he said i had to be here pretty muhc all day if im not going to be in school, which i hate because i dont really have any time for friends or my girlfriend

then things got rocky with the rents and i said i wanted to leave and my boss is house sitting for a family that lives in india, it has been great except a couple months per year i have to move out because they rae coming home. they odnt know that i love there for the rest of the itme.

it's not all bad because i have lived comfortably, he lets me take home food fromi d the hotel that is left over from the very upscale restaurant and the house i live in is really nice and if there are books or other things in the gift shop that noone buys sometimes he lets me take those too.

still i have told him several times that i want to be paid but he always says i owe him and will not tell me how much the damage was or how much i have worked off. i know the statute of limitations is 3 years and after that he acnt press charges against me.

so yesterday was 3 years exactly and i told him that i know he cant have me arreste danymore and that i want to quit. he said that's okay, but he bought my bike, all the good looking clothes i have,and all the essentials i needed since i was 16. now he's saying if i dont work for him anymore that i cant live in the house and i have to give back all the things he bought for me to use during my job.

he has got me a lot of things but i have seriously no money, so theres no way i can leave the job. when i need something i just ask him and if im doing well at work he will buy it for me. so i dont even know where to start to rebuild my life after this place.

are there resources for cases like this? is ther a way to make him let me keeo everything until i am on my own feet?

thank you reddit.

EDIT - MONDAY MORNING: wow i am so overwhlemd to look again this morning and see all the responses. i cant believe how much bigger a deal this is then i realized. i know from an outsider perspective how crazy this must look but it was just so easy to fall into this thing and hard to get away form. i called 2 law offices today and both were closed but i did the conttact form so hopefully they will call me back. i also tried the police but they said it sounds like a civil issue and said i should contact a lawyer also. i told them what you guys said that he was basically using me as a slave but they said unless he was physically detaining me against my will that its nothing they can help with. thakn you so much for all the help.