Out of the country - but still in the Hall of Shame

(WJBK) - Every time Deborah thinks her ordeal is over she says she gets another message from the man that is tormenting her.

One message, a kicked in door. Another message a mean spirited text. "You are empty with no family.  Deep depression.  Yes, I am Kledi Pllumaj."

Kledi Pllumaj is Deborah's tormentor - and she's just the latest victim of "King Kledi's" carnage.

"He threatened to kill me and said I was a dead man," said one customer.

Kledi is cunning and conniving. He's so bad he made it to the Hall of Shame 10 years ago.  And in May of this year, I did yet another story on him. This time he was making his landlord Deborah's life a drama when she said he broke his lease and wouldn't pay his rent.

"I don't know what he's capable of," Deborah said at the time.

Deborah tried to evict Kledi but he wouldn't leave the house. And Kledi wouldn't leave the country - even though the U.S. government evicted him 15 years ago.

But, since my last story aired, a lot has happened. We're going to hear from him calling all the way from Albania.

But first, let's go back. According to federal court papers in 2001 Kledi Pllumaj and his wife Aurora entered the U.S. illegally.
 
Aurora applied for asylum claiming she'd been attacked in her home country of Albania for her involvement in a political group. But in 2008, an immigration judge determined Plumaj was not credible noting internal inconsistencies in her testimony.

She and Kledi got the boot, but didn't leave. Kledi started calling himself Gino and started a construction company called Italian Remodeling.  Gino was unlicensed and undocumented and his work was just plain bad. When his customers complained, Gino got mad. 

"He said don't (blank) with me; play with fire but not with Gino," said one customer. "He is harassing me and threatening me."

But Mr. Tough Guy didn't do much talking when I confronted him about his business. He drove off into the Hall of Shame.

Then, Kledi and Aurora filed for bankruptcy.  They racked up more than a half a million dollars in debt and were broke. I didn't even know an illegal alien could file for bankruptcy but 
they did and their debts were discharged.  How's that for the American Dream?

Next, Kledi changed his name again and claimed he was a boxer named Crazy G.  He opened and closed a string of kickboxing businesses and racked up more new debt and civil judgments.

Next Kledi opened a property management business.  That's how he ended up calling Deborah. She thought he was a real estate agent looking for a client to rent her Birmingham home.  

Instead, Kledi and his wife moved in and started making changes, like ripping out her carpeting. She says they were behind on the rent and they got a dog. That in itself, is against the rules on the lease.  

Kledi then somehow took out a lien on Deborah's property for repairs he claimed to have done. Deborah sued to get them evicted. Kledi denied everything - being late on rent even owning a dog. Then the undocumented foreigners used the American court system again! 

They counter-sued Deborah saying her house caused them “physical and emotional distress and anguish, humiliation and mortification, sleeplessness and anxiety."

I contacted the immigration service and told them I was going to do another story about Kledi and what do you know, he was picked up and detained by ICE.

That's how our last story ended. Kledi was in Calhoun County Jail. Aurora was still in Deborah's house refusing to leave.

When I called Aurora she wasn't very happy. She's probably not a fan of our current president who detained her husband. But she is a fan of Trump's phrase "fake news."

Aurora: "If you want to put more fake stories into this."

Wolchel "What's fake about it?  My God."

Aurora: "That is everything that you are saying that doesn't have not even a true thing in there."

Kledi was escorted by ICE agents back to Albania. But the eviction and counter suit were still on the docket. The Pllumaj's were no shows in court and it was finally agreed upon that the family had to leave Deborah's home by July 1.  

But they didn't drop their lawsuit against Deborah claiming they would be in court last Friday. Deborah again showed up.  The Pllumaj's were again no shows. By this time, word was out that Aurora had left the country too.

I met Deborah at the house where she had just changed the locks the night before.  But someone had already kicked in the back door.  The house was a mess, some of the rugs and furniture were covered in dog urine. 

"This at one time was set up very nice," Deborah said. "This was beautiful."

Wolchek: "And now you've got to pay to get all of this cleaned up."

Deborah: "True."

And so it's over. Or so I thought. My phone rang and it was Kledi Pllumaj.

Kledi Pllumaj: "Why don't you tell your audience since 1994 this guy's never been arrested in his life? Why you lie. Why you lying?"

Wolchek: "What am I lying about?  I never said you were arrested.  When did I say you were arrested?"

Kledi does a lot of talking. For 20 minutes he called me a liar but won't answer even simple questions.

Kledi: "You should be embarrassed. FOX News should fire you."

Wolchek: "Look, if you're not going to answer any of my questions I'm letting you have your chance to talk here and then I'm going to hang up."

Kledi: "You're just a liar, you make things up. You propagate things."

Now Kledi sent 100 texts seeming to back up complaints he had about problems at the house like code violations. But he should have known about those when he rented the place especially since he claimed to be a contractor and property management business. Kledi did not personally kick down Deborah's door last week but she thinks it is someone involved with him.

Kledi has been deported back to Albania and Aurora left voluntarily. Their court case against Deborah is dismissed but she is suing for damages she said they did to the house.

Kledi claims he will be back in the US soon.