My mother, my sister-in-law (Kristi) and I all cooperate in doing [brand] Montessori child care. We each run one of the three [brand] locations. I'll just come right out and say it: We're expensive...but parents are lining up around the corner trying to get in. Why? Because the bar is SO high. Our graduates go to kindergarten reading at a first grade level having mastered all of the basic kindergarten skills already. So, essentially they're bored and have to go to private school to be challenged.
New House
Kristi's landlord is getting a divorce and needs to either move into her house or sell it. He has been fantastic and very supportive of what she's doing so we really appreciate that he gave her so much heads up. Moving can be a hassle. Moving your own personal household AND a fully operational daycare into a new house which requires city zoning permits, fire code inspections, State licensing approval all without causing any lost time for the 19 families that she serves is....much...more...complicated.
We've done it before. When my mom moved from her house on [Name] court the kids left on a Friday, we made the final big push over a WEEKEND, and the kids resumed care as if nothing had happened on Monday. We made it look effortless. HA!
Kristi leased a six bedroom house on a quiet cul-de-sac with an impressive view. I am SO excited for her to have more personal space than just her own bedroom. The whole upstairs has a bedroom twice the size of what she has now. There is an office for my brother, another upstairs bedroom for Kristi's projects and sewing machine and a balcony library area. They will even have space for the baby that they are trying to adopt (another rant entirely...but I digress). The house itself has a LOT of potential and she got it for a deal because it was handed over to them in basically dilapidated condition.
When I say dilapidated, I am being extraordinarily generous. The landscaping was completely overgrown with a non-functional irrigation system. The whole house needed to be painted. Doors, walls, molding. Fixtures are original from the 1970's when it was built. There is an internal window that has vapor intrusion and needs to be replaced.
Kristi has already poured thousands of dollars into this house making it beautiful and well kept. It is not a blight on the neighborhood anymore, but actually has curb appeal. The inside is looking amazing. She has color coordinated the rooms and taken great pains to make all the lines precise and perfect.
Making the Transition
So here's how this works: Kristi has to get the lease and THEN she can submit the application for Benicia zoning. After the zoning is approved the fire marshal comes out to inspect, THEN a state licensing analyst comes out to inspect and either approve or deny her application. The process takes MONTHS. For any of you who is a bean counter you're probably going....WAIT! Doesn't that mean that she has to pay rent on the new place while all of this preparatory stuff is going on? WAIT! Isn't she still living and operating her daycare out of another house which she is ALSO paying rent on? BINGO! You win a cookie.
Double rent.
Let me just say that again and let it sink in: DOUBLE rent.
Rather than paying (and I'll just use generic numbers here) $2500 for one house....she is paying $5000 a month for TWO houses because of all of the regulatory hoops that she is forced to jump through.
Kristi got her lease mid January and immediately submitted the application to get Benicia zoning approval. When I got zoned for our house in Benicia three years ago, the radius for neighbor notification was only 100 feet. Since then the city has increased the radius to 500 feet. Before the notices went out to any of the neighbors, Kristi went around and personally introduced herself to all of the neighbors. She told them that they would be moving into the neighborhood and that she runs a childcare out of her home. They were all very welcoming and gracious...to her face.
The zoning administration meeting was held on Tuesday, March 10th at 3pm. Anyone who wanted to speak was given 5 minutes.
Fortunately Christine, one of Kristi's clients for the last three years and now her personal friend, stood up and spoke of the extraordinary care that she offers. Cleanliness, sanitation, extremely high standards, superb education, self-discipline and respect. She vouched for the families who are enrolled with Kristi. Not only are they all from Benicia, but represent some of Benicia's most respected and successful families.
That matter was settled. There will be no riff-raff. None of the neighbors questioned the quality program that she runs. Fantastic! But the neighbors were undeterred. There shall be no day care HERE!
There were roughly 20 neighbors present and they might as well have had pitch forks and torches. They brought with them signed petitions from the neighborhood watch all objecting to her being there.
Traffic & Safety
The neighbors all (SAVE ONE, who actually spoke on her behalf) stood up and passionately testified that UPS and FedEx trucks were going up and down the street ALL DAY LONG. Every single one complained bitterly about the delivery trucks and the constant traffic on that street.
Golly gee. I've been over there a BUNCH over the last two months to help with landscaping and paining and not ONCE have I seen a single delivery truck. Weird. The way they were describing it, it's a veritable delivery truck parade all day long and all through the night.
Kristi called both UPS and FedEx the next day to ask about their delivery practices. Once per day per company at most. On the rare occasion with UPS if there is a drop off and pick up AND the driver doesn't have room they'll send a pickup truck later. That would be a grand total of THREE. 1...2...3 under the very worst conditions.
So, their problem is not necessarily with Kristi herself, no... no... it will be (and I'm getting these numbers from a neighbor who got up and spoke) the 56 to 70 extra car visits that will be generated by having all of these families dropping off and picking up all day long.
Soooo....drop off is usually between 7:30 am and 9:30 am. Pick up is usually between 4pm to 6pm. All the parents are working according to their own personal schedule and there are no detentions or referrals given for being "late" when the bell rings. There is no bell. There is no traffic other than the one solitary car very calmly pulling into the driveway every 10-15 minutes or so over a two hour period.
The traffic around schools will tie you up for a good 20 minutes. But that's 300 some-odd parents trying to drop off and pick up at the EXACT SAME TIME. (Enrollment at Matthew Turner is approximately 500, so let's just assume there are a few sibling sets).
With childcare, parents will overlap maybe with two crossing paths. For everybody to show up all at once...you'd have to plan that. On purpose. Otherwise it's just not going to happen. Ever.
Andrew, another of Kristi's clients, spoke as an authority on daycare traffic in a court. You see, he was one of my mother's neighbors when she lived on [Name] Court and started doing childcare. His son started attending at 3 months old and is now 4 years old. Andrew assured all the neighbors that large license daycare traffic on a court is hardly noticeable at all. They scoffed and audibly said that he had no idea what he was talking about. All righty then.
As for the 56 to 70 extra cars. I'm not sure what kind of Common Core math he was using but there are only 12 families on any given day. Some days siblings come together so the number of cars would be even less.
LIAR!!! YOU SAID SHE SERVED NINETEEN FAMILIES!!!! SOMEBODY GET A ROPE!!!
Calm down. Not every child comes every day of the week. You could serve 5 families and still only have 1 child on site during the week. That's because each of those families only needs care on one day of the week. It would be a different child each day. You still only have one child on any day and still serve 5 families. See how that works?
One of the other concerns was that with all the traffic that a child could be run over...because the children would all run unsupervised around the entire neighborhood in only their saggy soiled diapers with dirty faces screaming at a volume that is actually louder than full-grown construction workers using power tools (not my analogy, just citing a concerned neighbor here). It would be like Lord of the Flies every day of the week. And children would be getting run over and killed on a daily basis by the parade of delivery trucks that we mentioned earlier. Totally valid concern.
Let me address it with this: Children are not allowed to play in the front yard. Ever.
Noise
People have heard older children. It's because they are bigger and louder. And on a school campus they congregate in MUCH larger numbers. Kristi serves children that are mostly 5 and under. Oh, wait....one six year old in occasional afternoons after kindergarten. You got me.
When the eight toddlers are out playing the four babies are sleeping and visa-versa. Eight toddlers or four babies. Either way I doubt you'd even hear them from the street. The neighbors on either side might hear some tinkling laughter or light bubbly conversation if they stand at the fence. But my own estimation of noise is not a hard fact. I'll take my husband's decibel meter and report back actual numbers. Is comparing a few small children playing to construction workers using power tools fair? Maybe. Only the numbers will tell.
Home Value
One of the neighbors accused Kristi of trying to take money out of their pockets because housing prices would inevitably drop with her being there.
When I got zoned for my location the neighbors sent letters in opposition saying that the housing prices would plummet because nobody wants to live next to a daycare that is running 24-hours a day all week long with 14 children and all the excessive traffic that would generate.
Because I have children of my own I was required to get zoned as a large license day care. I took care of 3 extra babies in addition to my own.
I was approved in the first hearing despite minor opposition. My mother has since taken over my location and is now operating with 12 children. Since we bought three years ago the home values on our street have all gone up over $100K and the neighbors still haven't made a peep about traffic.
Welcome to the Neighborhood
My mother got up near the end and in true Claudia form, flatly pointed out that the state of California has passed legislation prohibiting cities from preventing in-home day care. The city can place reasonable stipulations regarding parking availability and noise limits, but they cannot deny the use/zoning permit.
Many of the neighbors, who were already showing a great deal of respect and class by heckling any speaker who rose on behalf of Kristi, roared in unison at the very presumptuous notion that they did not actually have the power or authority to ban such unsavory types from their neighborhood. Ah, for the good ol' days when arbitrary discrimination was the way to keep your area pure.
One of the neighbors, an elderly African American woman (that part is relevant, stay with me), stood up and angrily pointing to Kristi growled, "I can't believe the landlord would rent to people like them!" Wow. Really? Do you not see the irony here?
Landlords cannot discriminate. The city cannot prohibit. Gerry Raycraft will be on the scene shortly to educate and ensure that California State Codes are followed. Google him. I dare you.
The city, for whatever reason, thinks that sending out notifications to all the neighbors is a good idea. Let's just take a baseball bat to a beehive, shall we? Giving them a false sense of power over the fate of a young, hardworking housewife doing daycare is too tantalizing to pass up. Delusions of grandeur regarding parades of traffic, constant deafening noise, children running unsupervised through the streets... no matter how well articulated, will never, in any realm of reality, actually happen.
After Claudia told the neighbors that the zoning approval was inevitable no matter how long they drug it out, someone indignantly shouted, "Welcome to the neighborhood!"
Yes, welcome to the neighborhood where we will try to destroy your livelihood, cost you thousands of dollars more in ongoing rent for a vacant house that cannot be occupied until certain stipulations are met, and sign petitions with the intent purpose of prohibiting you from living here.
Which Would You Prefer?
Well, guess what neighbors? Since you have all been so welcoming and charming in so many fantastical ways....Day care is not the only option on the table.
You see... Kristi has been a foster parent in the past. She is legally allowed to have 2 foster children in every bedroom. She has six bedrooms. You do the math. Foster children are usually much older...we are talking teenagers now, who cannot be confined to the backyard for quiet play in the sandbox and have afternoon naps. They would be LIVING on your street 24/7. There is no zoning requirement to do foster care. You could squawk and scream all you wanted without a single wisp of recourse. Because rather than having the sweet babies and toddlers from upstanding Benicia citizens, you would be guaranteed to have just as many teenagers all from troubled backgrounds roaming the neighborhood. With equally unsavory parents coming to visit them while they work through their personal demons with drugs, alcohol, abuse or whatever the vice may be.
Kristi and James WILL be living in the neighborhood. They have signed a lease. They have been given plenty of notice from their current landlord who has extenuating personal circumstances.
You don't want daycare in your neighborhood. Fine. Well, consider the alternative for a moment and then think really hard what you REALLY want for yourselves.
In Conclusion
Of course, Kristi is far too kind to say any of this. But I am angry. Because this whole process is ridiculous, overly burdensome and completely unnecessary given the California codes that states that it cannot be restricted anyway. Why rile the neighbors up at all? They probably wouldn't have even noticed that the day care was in operation except seeing the babies going out for their morning walk in the 4 passenger stroller.
Kristi told me that after the meeting she felt like she was in shock. She had never felt so much animosity and hatred all directed at her. She felt sick that her entire life savings would be wiped out in the next few months because neighbors have taken their grievances with another neighbor's home based business out on her.
How is that fair, exactly?
Anyway this is my blog so I'll rant if I want to.
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Sunday, August 22, 2010
People are Horrible
Well, not everybody. People I know are OK. But that's going to be my policy from now on for anybody I don't know. I haven't been on my blog in...well, too long, but right now I just need to vent.
Last summer I started taking some courses to get a California brokerage license and in conjunction with that I had a course in tax deed sales. In that class I learned a little known fact about tax deed sales. When a person doesn't pay their property taxes it gets sold at auction for the taxes owed. Anything above and beyond the opening bid is called the overbid and is due back to the delinquent owner. They probably don't know this and if they don't claim it after 1 year (in CA, other places it's as much as two years) then the money goes into the general fund of the county. The county isn't in a very big hurry to let the owners know this, but they are required, by law, to send a notice to the last known address. Which is usually the property that they just lost. Nice, huh?
Also, every state has a database of unclaimed funds for people who moved or died or for whatever reason the company can't return the money to the people. They are also required, by law, to turn those funds over to the state. The state collects interest on the money and they aren't in any big hurry either to help people find their money. California is better than most. They put the names and amounts on their online database.
So I signed up for a people finding service at $130 a month that required a business license and a background check. At first I started looking up and calling people with amounts over $100 just to let them know that the money was there for them to claim. There were a few times when I was just trying to get in touch with the person and the intermediary thought I was trying to pull a scam. Some random stranger calls with free money? Never happens!
Most people to whom the money was due were really friendly and thanked me. It felt good, and I liked getting the practice of talking to people. Besides, sorting through the thousands of names looking for a big amount was paramount to looking for a needle in a haystack.
I was only going to charge 10% for helping people find lost funds. One guy I called was being charged 30% to recover the overbid on a CA property he lost while living in Wyoming. CRAZY!
I started looking through unclaimed funds in last names that I was familiar with. Family names, last names of people in the ward. I was looking through all the Barlow's when I came across a Bertha Barlow who had quite a few on the page that weren't very much but one was $700 something . When I looked her up, the address returned a PO box was the only known address and she died in 1987. Too bad Bertha, on to the next. Well, the next page was filled with Bertha Barlow stuff. And they seemed to get bigger. The next page was also dedicated to her. On and on this went. I found 190 different claims totaling $394,905.86 in cash and $1,534,787 (approx) in stocks. OH. MY. GOSH.
Because the amount in question was so large I made a much more valiant effort to figure out who the heirs might be. My best lead was a few of the accounts had a Patricia Griffin associated with them. I spent about two months working on the accounts. I searched death records, the social security index, birth records. I went after the maiden name to see if I could identify the next of kin. I called a guy out in Kentucky who had a remarkable number of matching pieces of information, but he said he had no idea who Bertha was.
So I searched on the name Patricia Griffin. I found several and looked into each to see if I could find any connection. Low and behold I found a Patricia Griffin at the same address with a Bertha S. Barlow. The Bertha I was looking for had a different middle initial, but the two names Patricia and Bertha together was too much of a coincidence to be wrong.
Before I attempted to contact them I tried working some of the smaller accounts. I noticed that people's friendliness entirely disappeared as soon as I expected something from them. One guy in OH thought I was running a scam. He returned the contract to me, but when I sent him the claim forms that wanted a SS# to verify his identity, I didn't hear from him again. Another guy, who's parents estate it was, knew about the money but hadn't done anything to claim it. He asked for a contract, but then never returned it. Not so much success. The overbid refunds, I learned, is EXTREMELY competitive and the SECOND the auction is over the owners were getting called. While the unclaimed funds seemed like an easier option, turning out to be extremely time consuming. I was spending far too much time away from my kids.
I decided to hang it up, so I canceled the people finding service. However, before totally walking away I wanted to follow through on the Bertha Barlow estate. The big numbers made me nervous, but I figured that what I could do was fly down and meet them in person once making initial contact so that I could get all the paperwork signed, notarized and the documents together. I would have them sign the contract with me and then show them the assets online. It seemed like a good plan.
I called the number I had, but it just rang and rang. So I started calling the other numbers to see if I could reach a live person. Many of them were disconnected. Finally one of them answered and was a lady who had lived with one of Patricia's daughters. She had her number, but had to look it up. She said she would get back to me when she found it. A couple of days later I got a call from Kathleen Griffin (aka Griffin Irving). She changed her first name to her maiden name. Whatever. She was living in Hawaii and said in her message that Patricia was Bertha's daughter. She said that her mother turns the answering machine off when they leave town, but didn't leave the number for her mom. At the time I didn't realize that I already had Patricia's number.
When I called Griffin back she said it sounded like a scam (gee, haven't heard that one before). I tried to be as friendly as possible. She gave me her mother's number, but then kept me on the phone even though I tried to get off several times. She kept asking questions and ME being friendly and probably too honest and forthcoming I said something about sorting through the database. She asked if it was a public database. At that point I knew I was done.
That night I couldn't sleep. I kept replaying the conversation over and over knowing that I had said too much. It would be a race who could get a hold of her mother first. Since she was in Hawaii, I managed to call Patricia first, but she had just gotten back from a 22 hour drive the night before and was too tired to talk. She took my number and said she would call back.
That was on Tuesday, July 20th. On Thursday morning I called and left a message. On Friday afternoon I called and she answered. She was very short with me and said that she didn't have time to talk that she was busy working on the computer. I knew at that point that she was at that very moment looking up all the assets it had taken me so long to put together. I asked her if she had talked to her daughter and she got mad and said, "She's got nothing to do with this!"
I felt like I should wait until Wednesday (July 28th) to call again. When I did, her phone was off and I knew she was out of town again. I didn't know it then, but she was up in Sacramento processing all of the claims. The next week Mikey was in town and we were all busy spending time with him and enjoying his company.
The following Sunday, August 8th, I felt like I should check the claims online. When I looked them up all but a handful were gone. My heart sunk. I called her right then. She pretended not to know who I was. She was very short with me, but in a good mood because she knew that I couldn't do anything about the claims she had already turned in. She accused me of being reproachful with her when I called that last Friday and besides she ALREADY knew about the money. Funny, she had no idea when I first called. I wonder if she wasn't feeling guilty because she knew she was screwing me. I told her I found it very unusual that she had waited 23 years to process the claims if she already knew about them. Then she came back with, "Well, we'd been contacted by other people." Ya right. That's why as soon as I call everybody makes last minute trips to Sacramento. It bothers me that she's lying about my having to do anything with her getting this inheritance. It bothers me that I worked harder than I would have otherwise in the hopes of being compensated only to have them stab me in the back. I was trying so hard to convince them that I wasn't a scam, that I didn't realize that they scammed me. Ten percent for all my effort is such a small amount considering the almost two million they wouldn't have even known about.
What's ironic is that after talking to Griffin/Kathleen (horrible, horrible person) I went looking in a few other places and found several hundred thousand more NOT being held by the SCO. I didn't mention the money to the daughter because I hadn't found it yet. They would have ended up with more money even with my10% consideration by honestly working with me rather than stabbing me in the back. I've kept checking back with the other places with no changes. I tried to tell Mrs. Griffin that she hadn't found all of it, but she couldn't be convinced otherwise.
The first night I had fantasies reflecting my own "horrible" coming out. I'm working really hard to forgive them. For MY sake and sanity, NOT theirs. However, I'm hoping REALLY hard that Karma rewards their behavior.
Updated 9/9/2012
Seeing as how I was still bothered by this too many months later I decided to call Patricia and tell her about the approximately $200,000 that was being held in Florida. I did it for my sake not hers. As a token that I forgive her for being dishonest with me. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that spitefully use you and persecute you. I told her about all the different accounts in her name, her mother's name, her father's name. There you go. You're welcome. Have a nice day.
Last summer I started taking some courses to get a California brokerage license and in conjunction with that I had a course in tax deed sales. In that class I learned a little known fact about tax deed sales. When a person doesn't pay their property taxes it gets sold at auction for the taxes owed. Anything above and beyond the opening bid is called the overbid and is due back to the delinquent owner. They probably don't know this and if they don't claim it after 1 year (in CA, other places it's as much as two years) then the money goes into the general fund of the county. The county isn't in a very big hurry to let the owners know this, but they are required, by law, to send a notice to the last known address. Which is usually the property that they just lost. Nice, huh?
Also, every state has a database of unclaimed funds for people who moved or died or for whatever reason the company can't return the money to the people. They are also required, by law, to turn those funds over to the state. The state collects interest on the money and they aren't in any big hurry either to help people find their money. California is better than most. They put the names and amounts on their online database.
So I signed up for a people finding service at $130 a month that required a business license and a background check. At first I started looking up and calling people with amounts over $100 just to let them know that the money was there for them to claim. There were a few times when I was just trying to get in touch with the person and the intermediary thought I was trying to pull a scam. Some random stranger calls with free money? Never happens!
Most people to whom the money was due were really friendly and thanked me. It felt good, and I liked getting the practice of talking to people. Besides, sorting through the thousands of names looking for a big amount was paramount to looking for a needle in a haystack.
I was only going to charge 10% for helping people find lost funds. One guy I called was being charged 30% to recover the overbid on a CA property he lost while living in Wyoming. CRAZY!
I started looking through unclaimed funds in last names that I was familiar with. Family names, last names of people in the ward. I was looking through all the Barlow's when I came across a Bertha Barlow who had quite a few on the page that weren't very much but one was $700 something . When I looked her up, the address returned a PO box was the only known address and she died in 1987. Too bad Bertha, on to the next. Well, the next page was filled with Bertha Barlow stuff. And they seemed to get bigger. The next page was also dedicated to her. On and on this went. I found 190 different claims totaling $394,905.86 in cash and $1,534,787 (approx) in stocks. OH. MY. GOSH.
Because the amount in question was so large I made a much more valiant effort to figure out who the heirs might be. My best lead was a few of the accounts had a Patricia Griffin associated with them. I spent about two months working on the accounts. I searched death records, the social security index, birth records. I went after the maiden name to see if I could identify the next of kin. I called a guy out in Kentucky who had a remarkable number of matching pieces of information, but he said he had no idea who Bertha was.
So I searched on the name Patricia Griffin. I found several and looked into each to see if I could find any connection. Low and behold I found a Patricia Griffin at the same address with a Bertha S. Barlow. The Bertha I was looking for had a different middle initial, but the two names Patricia and Bertha together was too much of a coincidence to be wrong.
Before I attempted to contact them I tried working some of the smaller accounts. I noticed that people's friendliness entirely disappeared as soon as I expected something from them. One guy in OH thought I was running a scam. He returned the contract to me, but when I sent him the claim forms that wanted a SS# to verify his identity, I didn't hear from him again. Another guy, who's parents estate it was, knew about the money but hadn't done anything to claim it. He asked for a contract, but then never returned it. Not so much success. The overbid refunds, I learned, is EXTREMELY competitive and the SECOND the auction is over the owners were getting called. While the unclaimed funds seemed like an easier option, turning out to be extremely time consuming. I was spending far too much time away from my kids.
I decided to hang it up, so I canceled the people finding service. However, before totally walking away I wanted to follow through on the Bertha Barlow estate. The big numbers made me nervous, but I figured that what I could do was fly down and meet them in person once making initial contact so that I could get all the paperwork signed, notarized and the documents together. I would have them sign the contract with me and then show them the assets online. It seemed like a good plan.
I called the number I had, but it just rang and rang. So I started calling the other numbers to see if I could reach a live person. Many of them were disconnected. Finally one of them answered and was a lady who had lived with one of Patricia's daughters. She had her number, but had to look it up. She said she would get back to me when she found it. A couple of days later I got a call from Kathleen Griffin (aka Griffin Irving). She changed her first name to her maiden name. Whatever. She was living in Hawaii and said in her message that Patricia was Bertha's daughter. She said that her mother turns the answering machine off when they leave town, but didn't leave the number for her mom. At the time I didn't realize that I already had Patricia's number.
When I called Griffin back she said it sounded like a scam (gee, haven't heard that one before). I tried to be as friendly as possible. She gave me her mother's number, but then kept me on the phone even though I tried to get off several times. She kept asking questions and ME being friendly and probably too honest and forthcoming I said something about sorting through the database. She asked if it was a public database. At that point I knew I was done.
That night I couldn't sleep. I kept replaying the conversation over and over knowing that I had said too much. It would be a race who could get a hold of her mother first. Since she was in Hawaii, I managed to call Patricia first, but she had just gotten back from a 22 hour drive the night before and was too tired to talk. She took my number and said she would call back.
That was on Tuesday, July 20th. On Thursday morning I called and left a message. On Friday afternoon I called and she answered. She was very short with me and said that she didn't have time to talk that she was busy working on the computer. I knew at that point that she was at that very moment looking up all the assets it had taken me so long to put together. I asked her if she had talked to her daughter and she got mad and said, "She's got nothing to do with this!"I felt like I should wait until Wednesday (July 28th) to call again. When I did, her phone was off and I knew she was out of town again. I didn't know it then, but she was up in Sacramento processing all of the claims. The next week Mikey was in town and we were all busy spending time with him and enjoying his company.
The following Sunday, August 8th, I felt like I should check the claims online. When I looked them up all but a handful were gone. My heart sunk. I called her right then. She pretended not to know who I was. She was very short with me, but in a good mood because she knew that I couldn't do anything about the claims she had already turned in. She accused me of being reproachful with her when I called that last Friday and besides she ALREADY knew about the money. Funny, she had no idea when I first called. I wonder if she wasn't feeling guilty because she knew she was screwing me. I told her I found it very unusual that she had waited 23 years to process the claims if she already knew about them. Then she came back with, "Well, we'd been contacted by other people." Ya right. That's why as soon as I call everybody makes last minute trips to Sacramento. It bothers me that she's lying about my having to do anything with her getting this inheritance. It bothers me that I worked harder than I would have otherwise in the hopes of being compensated only to have them stab me in the back. I was trying so hard to convince them that I wasn't a scam, that I didn't realize that they scammed me. Ten percent for all my effort is such a small amount considering the almost two million they wouldn't have even known about.
What's ironic is that after talking to Griffin/Kathleen (horrible, horrible person) I went looking in a few other places and found several hundred thousand more NOT being held by the SCO. I didn't mention the money to the daughter because I hadn't found it yet. They would have ended up with more money even with my10% consideration by honestly working with me rather than stabbing me in the back. I've kept checking back with the other places with no changes. I tried to tell Mrs. Griffin that she hadn't found all of it, but she couldn't be convinced otherwise.
The first night I had fantasies reflecting my own "horrible" coming out. I'm working really hard to forgive them. For MY sake and sanity, NOT theirs. However, I'm hoping REALLY hard that Karma rewards their behavior.
Updated 9/9/2012
Seeing as how I was still bothered by this too many months later I decided to call Patricia and tell her about the approximately $200,000 that was being held in Florida. I did it for my sake not hers. As a token that I forgive her for being dishonest with me. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that spitefully use you and persecute you. I told her about all the different accounts in her name, her mother's name, her father's name. There you go. You're welcome. Have a nice day.
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