Talking to a friend about my experiences with political mail, how it targets the elderly, entices them to send money then continues to suck money from them with more beligured tales of woe bemoaning issues on how Social Security is coming to an end, Gun Control, Immigrants, Impeachment...the list goes on and on.
My friend said she'd been wanting to talk to me about another scam she believed was being initiated by one hairdresser that did hair for elderly ladies. As it turned out, it was a lot more that one lady that did hair for those in their 70s and up. She was the common thread however, in all three cases of these older ladies, all within a 15 mile distance of one another, all in L.A. County, who did not know one another but the same thing happened to all of them and all had the same hairdresser.
Heavy drum roll...... to be continued...Dum DUH DUM DUM...
All three ladies lived in their own home, one of the ladies, we'll call her Betty, had a male caregiver we'll call him Tom, who had been taking care of her and her property for about 15 years (Tom was the reason my friend came to know about this). One day, out of the blue, the hair dresser shows up at the residence to do Betty's hair. The very next day, she's back with a LosAngeles County Social Worker and carrying various documents consisting of Power of Attorney, other legal documents indicating the County &/or Social Worker were appointed as Conservators of the Estate. She also had an order for Tom to vacate the premesis. She brisquely waived this in Tom's face and stated he needed to be out of there before the end of the week. He was given 3 days to move from a residence he'd been living in for 15 years. At the end of that week, Betty was moved to a nursing home - details such as name and address were not provided to Tom. Then these women proceeded to gather all of the contents of the home, they held a garage sale, sold as much as they could, had the rest moved out and completely emptied the home that Tom knew. The next move was to list the property and it was sold in a very short time. Tom was not informed where Betty had been taken to, only that she would be looked after in a licensed nursing home. After all, he was only a "friend". Betty had no heirs, no living relatives and the documents she had concerning her "elder care", were not formal or strong enough as evidenced by her being taken from her home and placed in a nursing home. She was in her early 80s . Tom never learned of where Betty was, who got the proceeds from the sale of the household items, who bought the home nor did he know how much it sold for. All of this was done very fast, I believe in about 1 week.
My friend found two other cases of elderly ladies having no relatives caring for them, who were simply whisked away, their belongings and property sold; they more or less just dissappeared. Neighbors didn't know what happened to them, no one did. No one ever would.
I can see the twisted reasoning behind this practice. It reeks of cold hearted greed and is barbaric to say the least. It also points out how difficult it is to grow old and retain any sense of dignity or self-protection if you happen to be over 80 and alone. You can be a healthy 80 year old also, able to feed and keep yourself clean, potter about in your garden, take care of a cat or dog - you still have a life but it is simply taken away and there is no one that gives a hoot, just none of nobody's business.
What a sad state of affairs our communities and society has fallen into where a person can live their whole life and wind up alone with just enough to last to the end - unless the County gets the word and you have just enough property and money to interest them. You're just a shadow in the wind, not important enough for anyone to take interest in - just gone. That lady they found in her apartment sitting in her chair in front of her TV, she'd been dead about two months was very lucky to go out like that. At least it was on her own terms. Many felt so sorry for her, when in fact it actually scares them enough to create this kind of remedy, enact these powers and give the elderly person no choice except to die in a nursing home. Not many comforts in these places, they are big on sedatives, usually overmedicate their residents, allow for nothing familiar, no personal mementos, no purring kitty or companion dog to lay with you. To add insult to injury, it's my guess all the nursing home bills are most likely billed and paid for by the person who was interred in the facility and it wouldn't surprise me if those individuals such as the hair dresser and the Social Worker got a financial bump from their vidtim's proceeds as well to pay for their "care and trouble."
It's such a shame, such a sham, so invisible. No one cares.