Those of you who follow this blog may remember hubby’s and my struggle early last year to get mom-in-law (Bub) into assisted living before evil niece and her boyfriend bled her of every last cent. Things have been going pretty smoothly since then, up until today.
Bub’s granddaughter Katie (hubby’s niece) is currently serving a six-month jail term for stolen credit cards in San Diego. She and her worthless boyfriend are serving their terms at the same time. She’s due out in August.
She calls and writes Bub occasionally, telling her all sorts of ridiculous lies about getting her GED and taking college-level courses. In jail. We hear she writes THE MOST brilliant, well-composed, intelligent, and lyrically beautiful letters ever written in HISTORY. It’s so sad. But mostly harmless.
Until recently. Bub asked Rich about giving Katie a small sum of money, and he sort of let it blow by. Later she asked about it again. Then she called me and asked me about it. Katie says she wants $5 (really?) for stamps, a couple of books, and a birthday present for her 4-year-old daughter. We got her a book of stamps recently; she’d only sent two letters to Bub, though. There are no books for sale in jail. And I suggested in might be nice if Katie made something for her daughter. These requests should really have been a warning sign.
Apparently, Katie and boyfriend has been calling Bub from jail, collect, EVERY DAY, begging her for money. Which Bub no longer has control over. Rich got the phone bill today and just about blew a gasket. Each call averages around $10. Rich tried calling Bub all day – no answer.
Bub is now hysterical with worry that Katie needs money, and how can she get it to her? Last week, Rich agreed to send her $20, cash, in a letter. Apparently it doesn’t work that way. One has to make a deposit to an inmate’s account.
Bub finally called this evening, literally breathless, she was so anxious to get some money to this parasite. Rich calmed her down, promised to figure out how to deposit money to Katie’s jail account. Called her back later to reassure her this was in the works. We’ll send $20 – that should buy her about ten cigarettes.
AT&T was nice enough to simply reject the third-party charges incurred. We explained that Bub has dementia, has no idea what she’s agreeing to, is being harassed from jail for money from the perpetrator of elder-abuse crimes against her, and that if we had to pay these charges we’d be forced to file YET ANOTHER elder-abuse charge against Katie, this time in La Mesa courts. (She’s got records in Riverside County and San Diego already.) They didn’t want any part of that.
There just seems to be no end to the evil that girl is capable of, even from inside jail.
*UPDATE* We’ve also gotten the number from jail blocked, and we’re not sending SQUAT.
RESTRAINING ORDER.
In which jurisdiction? Easier said than done. Beside? Here’s the real problem:
As sad as it is, it would break Bub’s heart to never be able to hear from Katie again. She sees her deceased daughter Kathy, whenever she looks at or even thinks of Katie. It’s really a terrible disservice to Kathy’s memory, but this is how the mind works sometimes. She also adores her great-granddaughter, who she never gets to see anymore. Katie is her one and only link to that 4-year-old. And how many people get to meet their great-grandchildren?
So we’d like to keep her at arm’s length, so to speak, to the point where she can call or visit, but there being no danger of her getting any more money.
Get Bub to change her phone number.
This makes me so angry I could spit. I could SPIT. Gaaaaaah.
That’s the next step. AT&T seems to cooperating, so far.
Can you get those calls blocked?
Or maybe hire someone in the jail to … well, never mind.
They all come from a third party, LDS. They’re probably the Wackenhut of telecommunications services. Lots of negative reviews on the net about them being a scam. You call to ask about the charges, and the line transfers over to a whole ‘nother company, who CHARGES YOU TO TALK TO THEM. F**k that. AT&T was happy to just reverse their charges back to them. We may have to do this once a month, but that’s okay.
She’s at Las Colinas, which is notorious for… well… never mind.
Ok, tell me what is Las Colinas notorious for? I happen to know that Katy has violates several parole hearings, etc. I thought this in itself is ANOTHER felony crime?
It’s notorious for lesbian activity.
This is family? Where are Katie’s parents? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but you have to be a sociopath or a druggie to bleed your own grandmother like that.
Is Bub still in an assisted living facility? I wonder if you can have her calls monitored, or have an aide keep an eye on her. But in the meantime, yeah, restraining order and maybe a letter to the warden of her prison. They’re supposed to make sure inmates can’t make those sort of calls on prison phones.
The ironic part is, Katie wanted to convince Bub to sell her house and use the proceeds to rent a three-bedroom apartment for Katie and Bub and boyfriend and toddler and God knows how many worthless friends, smoking cigs and doing drugs, TV on all hours of day and night, fights every day, financial “emergencies” every other day…
Because she thinks that Bub “should be with family.”
What are we, then?
Yes, Bub is in a nice place. But she has her own private phone line, which is not monitored by staff. They look in on her every few hours, but otherwise she has a lot of freedom. And we want that for her. We had not considered a letter to the warden, but that’s a good idea. Thanks.
It’s sad when we have to be so careful and distrustful of one’s own family – they’re the ones we’re supposed to be able to rely on.
Not when there’s a sociopath in the family…
There seems to be one in every family. My brother in Canada never bothered to notify me of our mother’s death — until a month later by letter!!
His mental capacity is going, so maybe give him the benefit of the doubt?
When I reply to you, why isn’t my pic (the one you set up for me) included in my post?
That’s only for Facebook. For your picture to appear here, you’d have to set up something called a Gravatar. Not worth the trouble, for your purposes.
Gosh Kim, I hope this situation has gotten straightened out by now. What a nightmare that girl is.
We got the charges reversed (AT&T doesn’t care, because they’re third-party charges), and the incoming number blocked. Apparently, she’s still calling, but nowhere near as much, because she’s now doing it off of a pre-paid phone card. Gee… I wonder where she got the money for that?