While writing this blog so many thoughts are rushing through my mind. Unfortunately they are not necessarily rushing back in order of events. That is the story of my life. I can (eventually) finish a project but generally not without several detours. For example: when cleaning - I will start in one room and find something in that room that belongs in another. I take that item to the correct room then either stop along the way to do something else (eventually making it to my original destination) or begin cleaning that room.....until.......well, you get the point.
Okay now back to my stories of FRAUD. There are several cases of fraud that happened to my parents. Each leading to a lives being changed.
YARD WORK - My parents lived in a log cabin (well, the front part was an original log cabin) set back off a main road. A man had apparently been watching the goings on of cars and activity around my parents house. One day this man came to my parents door stating that he noticed that their grass was tall and that some bushes were overgrown. He would be glad to help them out for a fee and if he could use their lawn mowers. They agreed and gave him the keys to the riding lawn mower and a few dollars for gas. He said that it was too late to begin that night but that he would start early the next day.
Well, sometime during the night, the man came back to my parents house and took their riding lawn mower (the other was bolted). He never returned.
My parents called the police. Unfortunately the police were 99.9% sure of who took it (he had a history of taking advantage of people) but there was no real proof and they were not sure where he was. He was good about evading the law.
NEW ROOF - A different man came knocking on my parents door to say that he was a roofer and noticed that their roof needed repair. He said he was going to house to check out roofs then knocking on doors to offer his services. He gave my parents a quote. It seems reasonable however he would need all of the money up front. He said that he would ride with my mom to the bank and wait outside (he even suggested where she park - out of the view of outside video cameras). He said he had to have cash (I never found out what he said to make them believe he needed to have cash but he was clever). My mom withdrew $4000 of their hard earned money and gave it to this man. Very pleased he said he would start immediately the next day and that the job would be finished within a short period of time.
Well, as you can guess that man was never seen or heard from again. My parents were very intelligent but as they got older and suffered strokes, their reasoning process became cloudy with certain issues. They trusted when they should not have. They said yes when they should have said NO.
MOTORIZED SCOOTER - This one really got me upset for a few reasons. A seemingly reputable company sold my parents a motorized scooter even seeing that they already had one in the house. Okay let me set the scene. Their yard was large but extremely uneven. They had a gravel and dirt driveway. Their house was located on a main (busy traffic) road without sidewalks. The nearest store was at least a mile plus away. Their house was a combination of built rooms. The front part of the house was an original log cabin which had several different additions made over the years. What this meant was that there were step downs/ups, uneven floor surfaces, door jams, and irregular paths through the house (they had a lot of furniture which made it a challenge to move around the house). Any intelligent and honest person could tell that a scooter would not be able to be used in the house. NOTE: the other scooter ended being a storage place for pillows and blankets - it had only been used.....well, never). Well, the salesperson still sold my parents two scooters for about $4000 or $5000. He said he would follow up with Medicare for them but never did which left them with a purchase of these scooters that were impossible to be used in or out of their home.
It took a long time (about 2 years) but I filed a grievance on their behalf and won the arbitration. The company took the unused scooters back and refunded my parents their money.
I, unfortunately, was not aware of any of the incidents until it was too late. Deals had been made. The scooter incident happened before the roof one. I thought it was an isolated case but once the roof fraud happened I spoke with my parents about their letting me help them manage their finances. I took possession of the checkbook, debit cards, and charge cards and left them with only a small amount of cash (on hand). Since neither of them drove it did not seem to be a big deal. I was usually the one with them whenever they needed/wanted to spend money.
It was a lot of work but I did not want to see them lose any more money from dishonest people.
How dare people take advantage of such nice people.
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