The gift of giving: Sacramento property owner helps tenant recoup $3,000 of stolen tools

Peter Kelley is a handyman with a specialty in craftsmanship and attention to detail.

He is 80 but you’d never know to look at him. Maybe 70, tops. He has a lot of actor Gene Hackman to him, the shock of curly gray hair, the warm smile, the look of a life lived. Kelley is a kindly fellow, a Boston native once assigned to the aircraft carrier Coral Sea.

On a recent Sunday, Kelley pulled up to a downtown alley in his 1985 Ford diesel truck that he said looks and smells a lot like him. A stout man, Kelley eased out of the rig, landing on boots that have taken him all across town for any sort of jobs or projects for 56 years, particularly Victorian homes.

“Sometimes,” Kelley explained, “It takes an old timer to appreciate and work on an old-timer.”

Kelley wore a weathered button-down shirt and jeans with speckles of paint and dirt. He wears his craft like a butcher wears blood. Kelley pulled up the wide wooden door of his rented garage space. With wood walls and ceiling, the place was not orderly. It had been ransacked. The contents included lawn tools and buckets but very little else. Kelley had his vast stash of power tools stolen the previous weekend, on Easter Sunday.

He is certain that he was targeted, scoped out. The locks were cut, his prized possessions and identity cleaned out in quick order.

Kelley estimated the losses at some $3,000, including seven cordless drills, two power saws, a new welder, a chop saw, a pipe threader, an assortment of other saws and supplies and a tool box “that was full and weighs 300 hamburgers,” Kelley said, laughing at his own measurements. “So heavy that one man couldn’t lift it.”

“I don’t understand people sometimes,” Kelley said, standing outside the garage space. “A handyman, a craftsman, has to have his tools otherwise he’s neither. It’s really upset me and it really hurts me. And I’m ticked off.”

Mike Morley could feel Kelley’s pain. Could see it, too. Morley owns and manages the garage units. He has known Kelley for five years. Swears by the man and considers him a trusted friend of the community.

Morley created a GoFundMe page to help recoup the losses. The goal was $3,000. Then Morley raised it to $5,000 after concluding the items were worth more than the original estimate. The fundraiser has exceeded $3,000. Kelley was reluctant to go public with his anguish. He doesn’t do social media and he wasn’t even sure what GoFundMe was. But he has been moved by the gift of giving, of feeling of being important again.

In this era of the coronavirus pandemic, Kelley is a feel-good story. So are those who contributed funds to keep Kelley feeling essential.

“I’m honored that people care so much,” Kelley said. “It’s a good deed. There are good people out there. I’m seeing the best in total strangers. It makes me good. I hope it does for others.”

Morley describes Kelley as good people, which prompted his good deed.

“I thought this could be a good ray of hope, to help out, and I started by giving Peter $500 in cash,” said Morley, a native of Southern California who has lived in Sacramento for eight years and works at a small doctor’s office in town.

“Peter’s classic old-school, proud. I was so heartbroken to find out what happened. He was targeted, clearly, and it makes you just boil. It is so wrong on so many levels. You can focus on that and be angry and have this view on the world that people can’t be trusted. It’s not all true. That’s not a message to have. I’m hoping this has a good ending, and it looks like it will. Peter has a Ph.D. in life and he cares about what he does and about people.”

A need to work

Kelley said he lives in subsidized housing in North Sacramento. Money is tight. Kelley said he needs to work “every day” because he needs to financially, physically and spiritually. He dabbles in plumbing, electrical, tile, painting, carpentry and conversation. Just about anything, “Except cement. Not my thing,” Kelley said.

Kelley has done this for so long that he has gone from rotary phones to cellphones. And yes, he can text in a flurry about why the light is flickering, why the faucet is fussy or why the water heater no longer heats.

Vicki Schwantes has hired Kelley multiple times for odd gigs, including venting and electrical.

“He has such a wealth of knowledge, is such a sweet man,” said Schwantes, a budget analyst. “I love how fast he texts me back with an answer for me. I had a venting problem once. Why does my bathroom stink? I have a masters from Michigan but I don’t understand how a house works. He does.”

Schwantes stopped by the garage on this Sunday to say hello to Kelley. So did another downtown Kelley client in Devin Higgins, an electrical engineer. Along with Morley, they all talk to each other like old friends because they are.

“Peter’s good, he’s honest, he doesn’t BS you,” Higgins said. “Everyone knows Peter around here, and it’s great to see what Mike is doing for Peter.”

Higgins and Schwantes both contributed to the GoFundMe account.

Doctor says to keep doing what you do

Kelley grew up the fourth-oldest of 13 kids in Boston. It was a competition for every meal, every shower and any good spot on the couch or floor.

“At first, we lived in a two-bedroom, one-bath house, and when you have that many sisters and that few bathrooms, you become an expert on mixed emotions,” Kelley said with a laugh. “Then we moved into a 16-room Victorian. My grandfather built it. My dad was a painter and worked on all the court houses. That’s where I got this all from. It’s in me.”

Kelley said theft won’t slow him down. He explained that his mind and body are sound because of activity.

“I work six days a week and It keeps me going,” Kelley said. “I have a son, disabled, that I take care of. I have a girlfriend, 20 years younger than me, that means a lot to me. I need to work.

“I visit a doctor and he tells me that I don’t look my age. Asks me what I do? I work. Keep on working, he said.”

He added with a laugh. “This is how stubborn and how much of a fool I am. Awhile ago, I fell off a ladder moving a staircase. Broke my hip. I was sent to the hospital, where I was told that normally they don’t give a hip replacement to someone my age. Then was told I was in better shape than the doctors working on me. OK, good. Got the new hip. That surgery was done on a Friday. I was back to work at the end of the following week.”

More of that Kelley spirit: When he went down off that ladder, Peter was alone. He crawled to his truck, his eyes welling in tears from searing pain, to phone for help.

That old Ford 250 can be heard a half-block away. Those who know him downtown will say, “Oh, here comes Peter!”

“This old truck,” Morley the fundraiser said, pointing to the ride with a laugh, “it’s just like Peter. They’re the same. Built like an old brick house. Some rust, some dings, some mileage, but so reliable. And still going.”