I was working for this guy that is well known in the area he told me since I started in the last month of the year he would pay me with cash I worked 58 hrs the first week 64 the next and like 38 the last week. After the first week all he gave me was a hundo on fri he said that should hold me over then another hundred every few days as he was paid for a total of 400 in two weeks then nothing for a week I told him I needed my money cause my bills were due and he gave me 250 and said he was doing me a favor by giving me that now I have stopped going to work for him and he still owes me about 6 or 7 hundred bucks and won't answer my calls I have keys to his shop and his backhoes & bull dozer and pics of everything in his shop and sum of the jobs I was on what can I do

Small claims court might be most quick since talking didn't work too well... assuming you can prove you worked the hours and how much he owes you. As YOU will have the burden of proof to make.

The fact he was paying cash was ringing a lot of bells... also means likely no taxes were being withheld either. And he might have planned jumping as an option before you ever started.

Yes, since you agreed to basically work under the table ( illegally) is not really a great start to this.

First you return all of his keys, to him ASAP, so he can not claim costs in having to replace or change locks.

Then you sue him for what he owes you.

Keep in mind... if he wants to be nasty (and is smart enough to do it)... he can file a 1099 on you with the IRS after he pays you... then if you failed to pay your required taxes it might come back to bite you as it will trigger a red flag on the Tax returns prompting an audit on YOU by the IRS. Because as a 1099 empoyee YOU are responsible for those taxes. Get all your ducks in a row...

There is doing what's right (paying you)... and then there is doing what's RIGHT (paying you AND filing proper tax forms). If you catch the drift I'm making.