Then, one night, we saw Josh being taken away in handcuffs along with Keg.

You know it’s funny how the older you get, the more you look back and realize how stupid a lot of things were that you did in college. This story is not just a classic example but I’m sure definitely takes the cake.

The year was 2003 and I was a senior at Livingstone College. There was this young man who called himself “Keg,” because he had a temper like a powder keg. Anyway, my cousin whom I’ll call Donny came to visit me that weekend and as luck would have it, my brother, Tom, who was also my roommate befriended Keg.

For starters, when I came to my house on this on evening, Keg was there and he was snorting a line of coke (not the kind you drink). He was also asking my brother if he could drop him off so that he could make a run. One of his “clients” needed some heroin and others needed pills. My brother obliged this idiot and took him for a ride.

BUT . . . it gets worse than that. I told you Donny was visiting me so he and I went with some of my fraternity brothers to this party. It was about 12:00 a.m. and he and I return to the house and now Keg has all these people there with him and some of them I recognize because me being a criminal justice major, some of them are from the same parole office that I was interning in. These people were not employees either they were on probation and parole.

“Tom, can I talk to you real quick?” I asked thoroughly convinced that my poor freshman brother had totally lost his mind. “In the back,” I added pulling him into my bedroom where Donny and I were.

“Who the hell are these people?” asked Donny before I could even get it out. I guess that’s why he and I were such close cousins because he knew what I was thinking.

“Oh, they’re just friends of mine,” replied Tom looking like he was intoxicated way past the point of coherence. “It’s cool,” he managed to get out

Despite our protests and even my demanding that he not go, Tom decided that he was going to leave with this pack of thugs. So Donny and I called my fraternity brother Pat and decide to go to the Waffle House since both of us are totally drunk and need to get some food in our stomachs quickly, which was the same case for Pat.

While we were in the middle of eating our food, we got a call from a number that we did not recognize on my cell phone.

“Hello,” I said puzzled that someone is calling me at 3:00 a.m.

“This is the Rowan County Police, is this Kyle Cob?” I heard a gruff voice ask me.

“Yes it is, what’s wrong,” I yelled totally panicked.

“We have your brother, Tom Cob in custody here at the station,” she informed me.

“Oh Lord,” I grumbled. “What is bail?”

“Two thousand dollars,” she replied.

“Thank you,” I replied hanging up.

So immediately, we had to ask for carrying boxes and try to scrape up some money to bail him out. On the way home he told us how Keg had robbed someone and then they took off. They went to a bar and had a few drinks, when lo and behold, someone who had seen the robbery walked in. Without saying a word this person (the police wouldn’t tell them who it was) made an anonymous call saying that four men matching the description of the perpetrators were seen in the bar. They were all arrested without incident. It was only a divine heavenly power looking out for him that night because later on, the charges against him were dropped because Keg had confessed that Tom knew nothing of his plans of robbery and just happened to be there.

You would have thought Tom would have left Keg alone after that night but it gets worse. Keg had nowhere to live, so he asked Tom and I if he could stay at our apartment for a few months until he got back on his feet.

Never mind that he is 31, Tom is 18 and I am 22. Only five words came to my mind “Is this man frickin crazy?” But Tom decided to tell him okay, despite my protests. But, this time, I was adamant. See, I’m usually pretty easy going and will give people the benefit of the doubt. I called the landlord that day and informed her of my brother’s intentions and that I had some serious concerns about this guy’s character.

She stated that according to the lease agreement, if Keg stayed there we would be evicted. Despite this, Tom moved Keg in anyway and he and I were at odds for about a week concerning this issue. Then, when I saw him sell cocaine out of my house I had had enough. I immediately took all of his things and threw them out. Then, I called the police and told him that if everything wasn’t out before they got there I was telling them everything. I knew he carried multiple guns, so I stayed over Pat’s (my frat brother) house for the evening. Keg left with his things and went to stay with another freshman friend of my brother’s whom I’ll call Josh.

Josh seemed pretty cool. His only problem was that he was mostly book smart and seriously lacked common sense. My girlfriend at the time whom I’ll call Kathy took classes with me and said she was amazed at how someone so intelligent could be so dumb.

So, long story short he moved Keg into his house. A couple months later Keg had taken over Josh’s house. He had thrown these wild parties whenever he wanted to. He took Josh’s car without asking. He even went as far as to take his ATM card & withdraw money without permission.

Then, one night, we saw Josh being taken away in handcuffs along with Keg. Apparently, Keg and his brother had murdered someone. They hid their guns in Josh’s house. They also were selling drugs out of his house. The police found the gun used in the murder, key loads of crack, and cocaine, and even evidence that Keg had been participating in a male prostitution ring (how gross).

For being there with them, Josh lost his apartment, lost his scholarship, and received 3-6 years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea and his testimony. Keg, received 15 to life for the murder in exchange for a guilty plea and the drug charges were dismissed. His received 3 consecutive life sentences when he went to trial.

When I got this news, I was absolutely mortified. I thought instantly to when Tom had told him he could stay with us. If I hadn’t been there to save his dumb ass, he might have gone down the same way Josh did.


1. Everyone who says they are a friend might not be.
2. Don’t be stupid. Book smarts alone will not carry you through life, you must have some common sense.
3. DO NOT TRUST PEOPLE EASILY
4. There is no such thing as the “easy way out.” The easy way out will only lead back in.

* Please don’t end up like Josh. He was just released from prison and as you can probably guess he is extremely screwed up mentally. It’s sad.