My great-uncle Harley, as a young man, fell in love with a girl from the midwest. They got married and moved back to Oregon, but she got homesick and they soon divorced and she went back home.
Fifty years later, after they've both had long, happy marriages, raised kids, and lost their spouses, they reunited and remarried. Perfect ending to a love affair.
They have been married a few years now, and she is now dying of cancer. Her children come to spend time at her side, and Harley has welcomed them with open arms. Paid for their plane tickets, fed them, let them stay in his home for weeks.
Three weeks ago, she was on her second week of what her doctor figured would be her last three weeks of life. Harley left the house late in the evening to spend the night at his niece's house (with three extra people visiting, he had nowhere to sleep), and came back early the next morning to find she was gone.
Really gone. As in she was not at the house, and neither were her kids. The house had been ransacked, all valuables gone. Even the pillows and sheets from his bed and the food from his cupboard. His insurance papers, address book, and the front page of his phone book where he had phone numbers written in were taken. Her wheelchair was on the porch. He went to the bank and found that all his money had been withdrawn, his investment accounts cleaned out, and his CDs cashed in. His credit cards were missing, so he checked and found that someone had rented an RV with it the previous day.
Her son, while he was gone earlier the previous day, had gotten a notary to come over and had her sign a paper giving him power of attorney. With this in hand, he proceeded to rob Harley of every dime he had, except for the cash in his pocket.
Police were notified, but they didn't think any crimes had been committed, so they basically have done nothing. They said they would do a welfare check at the home, but took 3 weeks to even call the phone number for one of the daughters that they had all along. This is the first information he got on his wife, he didn't know whether she was dead or alive. Turns out they give her about 3 days to live now.
I can't begin to tell you how angry I am.
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By request, here are my updates/posts (some might not make much sense because they are answers to questions):
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Edit 1: Her kids did it. She was completely bedridden and on IV morphine.
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Edit 2: My mom is going to fight for a law that will require the signature of the other party on any joint accounts before they can be touched by a third party who has power of attorney. As the community property laws of this state go, what the guy did is probably legal. I keep pushing for them to get a lawyer to contest the legality of the paper she signed since she obviously wasn't of "sound body and sound mind." Trouble is, it would take a lot of money to fight it in court, and since he was completely cleaned out, he's left with nothing but social security and a small pension.
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Edit 3: Want to clarify that there is really no possiblity that Harley's wife consented to or was even probably aware of how her husband was robbed so thoroughly by her kids.
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Edit 4: Which would amount to pretty much exactly what was in Harley's accounts, because her kids are welfare cases. Seriously, one of them lives off of insurance settlements. She'll get 90k from a "back injury" at work, then when she runs out of money, she'll conveniently have something else traumatic happen to her.
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Edit 5: That's exactly what I keep telling them. I will not interfere and do it myself given that I am not in the middle of the situation myself. They should have issued a press alert the day she was missing giving license plates, etc. This should have been on the news from the beginning.
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Edit 6: Power of attorney gives someone the ability to make financial decisions on your behalf. There's no law stating your spouse can't close joint accounts, withdraw large amounts of money, etc, so there's no law preventing his/her "representative" from doing so as well. Currently.
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Edit 7: He's 82 and heartbroken over losing his wife. He's having trouble getting the energy to leave the house right now I think. I haven't personally seen or talked to him since this happened. He's my dad's uncle (his mom's brother), and he's being looked after by people I trust to do what's right. Unfortunately the police don't seem to be taking it seriously and I suspect his pride is getting in the way of making this into the media circus that SHOULD happen (believe me, I've been pushing for that since day 1.)
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Edit 8: 4/14/05 Harley's wife died yesterday, at her daughter's home. The fvckers published an obituary that didn't include Harley in the "survived by..." and made no mention of her marriage to him or the last 10-15 years that she lived here in Oregon.
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Edit 9: Harley doesn't even know yet. They're waiting to tell him tomorrow when his neice comes back from a trip. She is closest to him and will help him get through it.
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Edit 10: He got all his cards cancelled. His sister (my dad's mother's sister) and her husband have been helping him sort out his finances and consulted a lawyer. As much as I would like to be involved, I'm not close enough to the situation to do anything but gripe to my parents. My mom is still working on getting a change in state law to prevent this from happening to anyone else.
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Edit 11: I think so too, but it seems that it's difficult to prove the power of attorney isn't valid, and would "cost more than the money he lost" according to my mom. He lost $42,000. In this state, he would inherit everything because he is the surviving spouse. Unfortunately, there is nothing illegal about withdrawing every dime you have and giving it to anyone you want before you die, even without your spouse's approval. So, with the power of attorney, he had the power to do it himself.
They know exactly where these people live. Hell, the police refused to lift a finger until my mom hit the internet and provided them with the addresses and phone numbers of her kids. As if the police don't have more powerful search tools than google. The most the police would do was a "welfare check" on her...and it took weeks to get that accomplished.
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Edit 12: Oh, furthermore, lawyer fees have to be paid if he wins in court (even if the lawyers agree to work for a cut of his win), whether or not he is able to actually collect the money from the people who took it. Chances of him actually recovering money is low (typical), so he'd end up owing money to lawyers when he's completely destitute.
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Edit 13: It would be inappropriate for me to interfere in his personal business. But trust me, my opinion is being heard by people who are more close to the situation, to whom is is appropriate for me to give advice for passing on.
How would you feel if a distant relative you didn't really know that well took a sudden interest in your personal business and did things without your permission? That's what it would be, for me to personally contact the media.
*shrug* I'm doing what I can.
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Edit 14: 6/14/05 The only update I know of right now is that Harley's gotten an attorney who is going after the son for renting the RV in Harley's name with Harley's credit card. That was one thing the prick did that was blatantly illegal. I'll ask my mom what else she's heard lately.
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Edit 15: Ok, Mom says that they have been working (successfully I think) to get bills sent to the son for care that was given to Harley's wife during the time she was abducted. They are also suing banks for allowing charges to credit cards to go through that were signed by the son but that were on stolen cards that his wife was not on (thus the POA was not valid.) They're also suing a bank for allowing accounts to be liquidated with no questions to Harley, when he had just been in there to do business the day before.
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Edit 16: Get this, the prick (his first name is Randy) signed the credit card receipts "Randy (insert Harley's last name)." Shows that he knew he wasn't supposed to be using the cards.
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Edit 17: I asked my mom how the lawsuits are progressing. She wrote back:
"Randy was served papers a couple of weeks ago (as I understand it, a demand for repayment of funds plus some damages), and if he hadn't responded by Sept. 19 there was to be a default, and the courts would begin to attach Randy's assets. So far it appears he did not respond, and I'm not sure exactly how it works except that if Randy ever owned anything, he won't anymore. There is also a Federal charge of elder abuse involved. . .more later as I hear about it."
Excellent news!
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Edit 18: Randy has ignored all summons and attempts to contact him, and failed to show up at court on Monday. Today was the big hearing, and he failed to show up for that too. Harley was suing him for 2/3 of the money that was taken from his accounts, because they discovered that his wife was really only entitled to 1/3 of money in their joint accounts. The judge agreed that she didn't have the right to give away 100% of their assets (and I'm quite sure didn't even know that her son did that.) The judge said that it was a clear case of elder abuse, so Harley was awarded TRIPLE damages ($84,000), plus court costs, lawyer fees, and Randy is liable for all fraudulent use of Harley's credit cards (the motor home rental, etc.) The judge said that there was entirely too many cases like this one, so they're punishing people like Randy to the full extent of the law. The credit card company can (and quite likely will) persue criminal charges against Randy. So what happens next is they will start attaching Randy's assets and garnishing his wages. :beer:
Fifty years later, after they've both had long, happy marriages, raised kids, and lost their spouses, they reunited and remarried. Perfect ending to a love affair.
They have been married a few years now, and she is now dying of cancer. Her children come to spend time at her side, and Harley has welcomed them with open arms. Paid for their plane tickets, fed them, let them stay in his home for weeks.
Three weeks ago, she was on her second week of what her doctor figured would be her last three weeks of life. Harley left the house late in the evening to spend the night at his niece's house (with three extra people visiting, he had nowhere to sleep), and came back early the next morning to find she was gone.
Really gone. As in she was not at the house, and neither were her kids. The house had been ransacked, all valuables gone. Even the pillows and sheets from his bed and the food from his cupboard. His insurance papers, address book, and the front page of his phone book where he had phone numbers written in were taken. Her wheelchair was on the porch. He went to the bank and found that all his money had been withdrawn, his investment accounts cleaned out, and his CDs cashed in. His credit cards were missing, so he checked and found that someone had rented an RV with it the previous day.
Her son, while he was gone earlier the previous day, had gotten a notary to come over and had her sign a paper giving him power of attorney. With this in hand, he proceeded to rob Harley of every dime he had, except for the cash in his pocket.
Police were notified, but they didn't think any crimes had been committed, so they basically have done nothing. They said they would do a welfare check at the home, but took 3 weeks to even call the phone number for one of the daughters that they had all along. This is the first information he got on his wife, he didn't know whether she was dead or alive. Turns out they give her about 3 days to live now.
I can't begin to tell you how angry I am.
=============
By request, here are my updates/posts (some might not make much sense because they are answers to questions):
-----------------
Edit 1: Her kids did it. She was completely bedridden and on IV morphine.
-----------------
Edit 2: My mom is going to fight for a law that will require the signature of the other party on any joint accounts before they can be touched by a third party who has power of attorney. As the community property laws of this state go, what the guy did is probably legal. I keep pushing for them to get a lawyer to contest the legality of the paper she signed since she obviously wasn't of "sound body and sound mind." Trouble is, it would take a lot of money to fight it in court, and since he was completely cleaned out, he's left with nothing but social security and a small pension.
----------------
Edit 3: Want to clarify that there is really no possiblity that Harley's wife consented to or was even probably aware of how her husband was robbed so thoroughly by her kids.
------------------
Edit 4: Which would amount to pretty much exactly what was in Harley's accounts, because her kids are welfare cases. Seriously, one of them lives off of insurance settlements. She'll get 90k from a "back injury" at work, then when she runs out of money, she'll conveniently have something else traumatic happen to her.
-------------------
Edit 5: That's exactly what I keep telling them. I will not interfere and do it myself given that I am not in the middle of the situation myself. They should have issued a press alert the day she was missing giving license plates, etc. This should have been on the news from the beginning.
------------------
Edit 6: Power of attorney gives someone the ability to make financial decisions on your behalf. There's no law stating your spouse can't close joint accounts, withdraw large amounts of money, etc, so there's no law preventing his/her "representative" from doing so as well. Currently.
------------------
Edit 7: He's 82 and heartbroken over losing his wife. He's having trouble getting the energy to leave the house right now I think. I haven't personally seen or talked to him since this happened. He's my dad's uncle (his mom's brother), and he's being looked after by people I trust to do what's right. Unfortunately the police don't seem to be taking it seriously and I suspect his pride is getting in the way of making this into the media circus that SHOULD happen (believe me, I've been pushing for that since day 1.)
------------------
Edit 8: 4/14/05 Harley's wife died yesterday, at her daughter's home. The fvckers published an obituary that didn't include Harley in the "survived by..." and made no mention of her marriage to him or the last 10-15 years that she lived here in Oregon.
------------------
Edit 9: Harley doesn't even know yet. They're waiting to tell him tomorrow when his neice comes back from a trip. She is closest to him and will help him get through it.
------------------
Edit 10: He got all his cards cancelled. His sister (my dad's mother's sister) and her husband have been helping him sort out his finances and consulted a lawyer. As much as I would like to be involved, I'm not close enough to the situation to do anything but gripe to my parents. My mom is still working on getting a change in state law to prevent this from happening to anyone else.
-------------------
Edit 11: I think so too, but it seems that it's difficult to prove the power of attorney isn't valid, and would "cost more than the money he lost" according to my mom. He lost $42,000. In this state, he would inherit everything because he is the surviving spouse. Unfortunately, there is nothing illegal about withdrawing every dime you have and giving it to anyone you want before you die, even without your spouse's approval. So, with the power of attorney, he had the power to do it himself.
They know exactly where these people live. Hell, the police refused to lift a finger until my mom hit the internet and provided them with the addresses and phone numbers of her kids. As if the police don't have more powerful search tools than google. The most the police would do was a "welfare check" on her...and it took weeks to get that accomplished.
--------------------
Edit 12: Oh, furthermore, lawyer fees have to be paid if he wins in court (even if the lawyers agree to work for a cut of his win), whether or not he is able to actually collect the money from the people who took it. Chances of him actually recovering money is low (typical), so he'd end up owing money to lawyers when he's completely destitute.
--------------------
Edit 13: It would be inappropriate for me to interfere in his personal business. But trust me, my opinion is being heard by people who are more close to the situation, to whom is is appropriate for me to give advice for passing on.
How would you feel if a distant relative you didn't really know that well took a sudden interest in your personal business and did things without your permission? That's what it would be, for me to personally contact the media.
*shrug* I'm doing what I can.
--------------------
Edit 14: 6/14/05 The only update I know of right now is that Harley's gotten an attorney who is going after the son for renting the RV in Harley's name with Harley's credit card. That was one thing the prick did that was blatantly illegal. I'll ask my mom what else she's heard lately.
--------------------
Edit 15: Ok, Mom says that they have been working (successfully I think) to get bills sent to the son for care that was given to Harley's wife during the time she was abducted. They are also suing banks for allowing charges to credit cards to go through that were signed by the son but that were on stolen cards that his wife was not on (thus the POA was not valid.) They're also suing a bank for allowing accounts to be liquidated with no questions to Harley, when he had just been in there to do business the day before.
----------------------
Edit 16: Get this, the prick (his first name is Randy) signed the credit card receipts "Randy (insert Harley's last name)." Shows that he knew he wasn't supposed to be using the cards.
--------------------
Edit 17: I asked my mom how the lawsuits are progressing. She wrote back:
"Randy was served papers a couple of weeks ago (as I understand it, a demand for repayment of funds plus some damages), and if he hadn't responded by Sept. 19 there was to be a default, and the courts would begin to attach Randy's assets. So far it appears he did not respond, and I'm not sure exactly how it works except that if Randy ever owned anything, he won't anymore. There is also a Federal charge of elder abuse involved. . .more later as I hear about it."
Excellent news!
--------------------
Edit 18: Randy has ignored all summons and attempts to contact him, and failed to show up at court on Monday. Today was the big hearing, and he failed to show up for that too. Harley was suing him for 2/3 of the money that was taken from his accounts, because they discovered that his wife was really only entitled to 1/3 of money in their joint accounts. The judge agreed that she didn't have the right to give away 100% of their assets (and I'm quite sure didn't even know that her son did that.) The judge said that it was a clear case of elder abuse, so Harley was awarded TRIPLE damages ($84,000), plus court costs, lawyer fees, and Randy is liable for all fraudulent use of Harley's credit cards (the motor home rental, etc.) The judge said that there was entirely too many cases like this one, so they're punishing people like Randy to the full extent of the law. The credit card company can (and quite likely will) persue criminal charges against Randy. So what happens next is they will start attaching Randy's assets and garnishing his wages. :beer:
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