KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City man who overcame one battle is now facing another. He’s three years clean and sober and had moved from a shelter to his own home, but the vehicle he relies on to pay the bills is failing him, all because he put his trust and last dollar in a used transmission that didn’t last the week.
Lamont Wells does some serious praying every time he starts up his truck. It goes forward, but you really have to gun it to go in reverse and then it will move only a few feet at most.
“I’m stuck with a transmission that’s not working,” Wells said.
That’s something he discovered just days after he bought the transmission from All Star Used Parts. The used $450 transmission came with a one-month warranty and All Star has said it would give him his money back. But that still leaves Wells in a bind.
He doesn’t have the $150 it will cost him to have the bad transmission removed, or the $150 he’ll need to put in another one. He used his last dollar putting the bad one in.
Without a working transmission, his income is also down.
“My truck is my business,” Wells said.
But Wells isn’t one to ask for help. FOX 4 Problem Solvers heard about him from a woman who volunteers at a homeless shelter he once stayed in. She has watched as Wells has turned his life around. He’s been clean and sober for three years, moved into a home, started a business, completed his high school degree and is working on a heating and cooling certification.
Wells credits a higher power.
“I believe in Christ,” Wells said. “I believe he has delivered me from the bondage I was in.”
Now he’s praying that this latest crisis will have a happy ending.
And it might. When FOX 4 Problem Solvers mentioned Wells on our Problem Solver Facebook page, Jowana Johnston posted a response offering to help.
“It just touched my heartstrings,” said Johnston, who 20 years ago found herself in a similar situation also wondering how she would pay her bills. She said a stranger came to her rescue.
“Somebody was there for me and asked nothing in return,” Johnston said. “I didn’t even get their name so I could pay them back later, so 20 years later and I’m paying it forward through him.”
Johnson gave us the $150 Wells needs to take out his bad transmission, apologetic that she couldn’t afford to give more.
“I’m crossing my fingers that he gets help with the other part,” Johnston said.
When we delivered her gift to Wells, he was overcome with emotion.
“That’s wonderful,” he said.
Finally some good news for a hard-working man just looking for a way to keep on working.
However, All Star, which promised Wells it would give him a replacement transmission still hasn’t found one. Wells is now looking for one at another shop as he works to raise the additional money he’ll need to put it in.
