Brian Corley brought two homeless men to his house because he said he could not ignore his feeling of compassion. But his compassion dissolved into frustration and anger overnight.
Corley, a photographer for the Nevada Appeal, was driving home when he saw two men pushing shopping carts through a parking lot.
He had seen the men drift into town earlier and knew they had no place to stay.
"I remember it being so cold that night," Corley said. "If I had heard the next day that they had died, I would have felt terrible."
After transferring their worldly possessions from their shopping carts into Corley's mini van, the two men - Michael and Eddie - climbed in and went to stay the night with Corley.
They told Corley how they had become tired of living on the streets and were looking for a permanent place to settle down.
"They said it was getting too cold and they were getting too old for it," Corley said.
The next day, the threesome set out to find jobs and housing for Michael and Eddie.
"I didn't want to have roommates for the next month," Corley said. "I didn't want them forever."
He took them to the community service agency, Friends in Service Helping, to get them set up in the homeless shelter. There, he learned they had rejected the shelter the night before.
The next step was to head to various welfare agencies where Michael and Eddie were told they could get into an apartment on a trial basis if they would get jobs.
"They didn't want to work," Corley said. "They made all kinds of excuses and their stories started to conflict."
It was discovered that the two were receiving welfare checks from both Washington and Nevada.
"At that point, I wanted to get rid of them as quickly as possible," Corley said. "They were taking advantage of the situation."
He took them back to the FISH homeless shelter to stay the night. Once again, they refused.
"They had everything lined up for them to get off the streets if they wanted to," Corley said. "They just didn't want to."
If he had to do it all over again, Corley said he would not take them home.
"I felt it was a waste, a total waste."