They were super stinky!!!
:O( dont turn on the wrong burnerWednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
EWWWWW something stinks!!!!....oh no its smoking....
Yesterday after work the aerobics class that i attend was cancelled due to the surrounding thunderstorms in the area. So instead of going to the gym to work out i decided to go ahead and start supper since my hubby would be home soon. Our menu for the night was Grilled Pork chops, green beans/butter beans, and potatoes. I had everything set to go on the stove and all of a sudden i look at the stove and the teapot is starting to smoke. I was baffled at first by this because i was not heating any water for tea, coffee, etc, so why was it smoking....and then it hit me I TURNED ON THE WRONG BURNER!!!! I freaked out because i thought i was starting a fire and i didn't have any one there to help me. Plus there was this awful plastic burning smell that i am sure was super toxic. I turned the burner off and let the tea pot and burner covers cool off--yes there were two covers on it because we mainly use two burners so we just stack them on top of each other. I touched the tea pot to make sure it wasn't stuck and tons of smoke came up and an awful smell. So since i am super smart i opened the door to let the kitchen air out and was looking for our box fan but it was no where to be found--Rob told me later its in the man room closet. So while I am trying to get things under control I am still managing to cook supper.
The thing that kept going through my head was "what is rob going to say". I waited for him to come home and when he walked in the door this is what i said....I promise i am not stupid and know my right from my left....His response "What happened?"...I motioned for him to come into the kitchen.....he saw the burnt spot on the burner cover and just giggled at me a little. I told him my teapot was ruined and showed him where i put it outside to "cool down". He removed the burnt covers for me and showed me that nothing was wrong with the cast iron burners that we have....again still kind of giggling at me :O). He gave me a big hug and reassured me that I'm not a dumb blonde.....although its times like this i wonder.
Supper was great and we laughed about my craziness. We were laying on the bed later that evening and he told me that when i told him what happened he said my voice and face was so cute that i could have killed someones puppy and he couldn't have been made at me.....i guess my kid like charm is a blessing.
A picture of the lovely burner cover will follow soon.....
J-Tru
The thing that kept going through my head was "what is rob going to say". I waited for him to come home and when he walked in the door this is what i said....I promise i am not stupid and know my right from my left....His response "What happened?"...I motioned for him to come into the kitchen.....he saw the burnt spot on the burner cover and just giggled at me a little. I told him my teapot was ruined and showed him where i put it outside to "cool down". He removed the burnt covers for me and showed me that nothing was wrong with the cast iron burners that we have....again still kind of giggling at me :O). He gave me a big hug and reassured me that I'm not a dumb blonde.....although its times like this i wonder.
Supper was great and we laughed about my craziness. We were laying on the bed later that evening and he told me that when i told him what happened he said my voice and face was so cute that i could have killed someones puppy and he couldn't have been made at me.....i guess my kid like charm is a blessing.
A picture of the lovely burner cover will follow soon.....
J-Tru
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Everyone Please Exit the Kiddie Pool....
Our vacation this year was a little different from last year. Mom and Dad were not there the whole week b/c mom had to go to a class in Charleston for work and dad didn't want to be there without her....to sweet :O). Gma and Bubba left early in the week because Gma has hurt her back and was not able to handle the pain. So the crew sort of did their own things this year. Rob and I did have plenty though at our beach house and it was the perfect spot for us. It was so quiet and away from the main road in Pirateland. The house was right on a little water way too so it was a nice view to walk out to each morning.
Each morning we woke up to the "terrorist" squirrels, that was what we named them, running across the top of the beach house. It was hilarious because the first morning we didn't know what it was and thought something was falling on the house. One morning our little friends dropped some acorns and it went dink dink dink dink dink all the way off the roof. They were friendly little critters though but when they wake you at 6am on vacation you really don't want to be their friends.
We did try to do some fishing but neither one of us could get a fish a bite. The fish did like to tease us each day by jumping over and over again in front of the house. Even though we didn't catch any fish it was fun throwing the line out a few times.
We love the golf cart and Rob was the main driver. He did share the driver seat every now and then. We cruised around the campground each day and enjoyed taking in the sights and getting a little bit of sun---Rob turned red but i tanned :O). The golf cart was awesome as well because it was blue and orange--wahoo Clemson colors! and the cart had lights underneath that were blue so it was pimped out!! Loved it and had a blast!!
We did go swimming a few times while we were there. We went with Kaitlin and her boyfriend Zac one night. They are super cute and its young love :O) The next night we went with KK and Zac again but also Bud, Dee, and Monk. Monk and Dee were in the kiddie pool for a while put then came back after a little girl (8 years old or so) had decided to leave a little gift--not a baby ruth--in the pool. Oh and before this Charlie and Nic Nic had gotten into the big pool as well and told us that someone had decided to take a dump on the floor in front of the toilet in the women's bathroom--classy!!! After the child had pooped in the pool Bud went and told the workers b/c the child's mother didn't. We then went to the lazy river and heard on the loud speaker " everyone please exit the kiddie pool"---our entire group erupted in laughter!!! The put up caution tape and then proceeded to "clean" it up. So lets just say that the workers at the pool that day had a lot of poo to clean up. After that pool trip we did not go back but others enjoyed it.
Rob and I shopped at every possible place you would want to at the beach. We went to the flea market, the mall (three times), Tanger Outlets (both of them), Broadway at the beach, Barefoot Landing, etc. We ate at House of Blues which is amazing. I love their catfish and sweet potato fries appetizer and banana bread pudding--YUM-O!!!! W bought a few things like cheese dip from the Pepper Palace and chocolate treats from Harry and David. The trips were well worth it.
Not only did we shop, sleep, and eat but we had out Annual Putt Putt Championship Match!!!! This year was a tough one for Team Jill. We had Round One at the Mayan Pyramid Course were Rob spanked Jill by 9 strokes. Jill was not very happy and pouted most of the evening :O) Round Two was at Jurassic Golf where Rob again beat Jill by 3 strokes. He snuck in two hole in ones during the last five holes. So the third round was not played due to the double elimination of Jill. So the winner of the 2010 Putt Putt Championship is Rob. Team Jill will prevail next year!!!!
So our vacation was wonderful and we hated to return home but all good things must come to and end--plus i don't have a lot of leave left and would like to go on a mini vacation in the fall :O)
Remember: Don't POO in the POOL!!!! :O)
J-Tru
Each morning we woke up to the "terrorist" squirrels, that was what we named them, running across the top of the beach house. It was hilarious because the first morning we didn't know what it was and thought something was falling on the house. One morning our little friends dropped some acorns and it went dink dink dink dink dink all the way off the roof. They were friendly little critters though but when they wake you at 6am on vacation you really don't want to be their friends.
We did try to do some fishing but neither one of us could get a fish a bite. The fish did like to tease us each day by jumping over and over again in front of the house. Even though we didn't catch any fish it was fun throwing the line out a few times.
We love the golf cart and Rob was the main driver. He did share the driver seat every now and then. We cruised around the campground each day and enjoyed taking in the sights and getting a little bit of sun---Rob turned red but i tanned :O). The golf cart was awesome as well because it was blue and orange--wahoo Clemson colors! and the cart had lights underneath that were blue so it was pimped out!! Loved it and had a blast!!
We did go swimming a few times while we were there. We went with Kaitlin and her boyfriend Zac one night. They are super cute and its young love :O) The next night we went with KK and Zac again but also Bud, Dee, and Monk. Monk and Dee were in the kiddie pool for a while put then came back after a little girl (8 years old or so) had decided to leave a little gift--not a baby ruth--in the pool. Oh and before this Charlie and Nic Nic had gotten into the big pool as well and told us that someone had decided to take a dump on the floor in front of the toilet in the women's bathroom--classy!!! After the child had pooped in the pool Bud went and told the workers b/c the child's mother didn't. We then went to the lazy river and heard on the loud speaker " everyone please exit the kiddie pool"---our entire group erupted in laughter!!! The put up caution tape and then proceeded to "clean" it up. So lets just say that the workers at the pool that day had a lot of poo to clean up. After that pool trip we did not go back but others enjoyed it.
Rob and I shopped at every possible place you would want to at the beach. We went to the flea market, the mall (three times), Tanger Outlets (both of them), Broadway at the beach, Barefoot Landing, etc. We ate at House of Blues which is amazing. I love their catfish and sweet potato fries appetizer and banana bread pudding--YUM-O!!!! W bought a few things like cheese dip from the Pepper Palace and chocolate treats from Harry and David. The trips were well worth it.
Not only did we shop, sleep, and eat but we had out Annual Putt Putt Championship Match!!!! This year was a tough one for Team Jill. We had Round One at the Mayan Pyramid Course were Rob spanked Jill by 9 strokes. Jill was not very happy and pouted most of the evening :O) Round Two was at Jurassic Golf where Rob again beat Jill by 3 strokes. He snuck in two hole in ones during the last five holes. So the third round was not played due to the double elimination of Jill. So the winner of the 2010 Putt Putt Championship is Rob. Team Jill will prevail next year!!!!
So our vacation was wonderful and we hated to return home but all good things must come to and end--plus i don't have a lot of leave left and would like to go on a mini vacation in the fall :O)
Remember: Don't POO in the POOL!!!! :O)
J-Tru
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Tip-toeing through the mine field...
Reader's Note: This blog is associated with Jill's post from May 26, 2010 - link.
I’ve always been finicky when it comes to my money, and as such like many people do these days (or so I assume they do; surely I can’t be the only one this anal about record keeping) I maintain a spreadsheet with a running total of all transactions corresponding to my various bank accounts, credit cards, and what have you. The week after Jill (um, J-Tru) and I returned from our honeymoon, I logged in to my online banking system to see about my checking account balance and immediately I recognized that something was wrong because – thanks to my bookkeeping skills – I already had a ballpark figure in my head as to what my balance should’ve been, and the number I saw was significantly less than the amount I had in mind.
I don’t want to come off as sounding like a weirdo but I feel like I’ve had a clairvoyant vision once or twice in my life. Having just returned from the Bahamas and having used my debit card in a lot of strange places, I had a gut feeling that something might go wrong with my billing information.
I really hate being right sometimes…
Looking further into the matter, I recognized a transaction valued at $749.00 that was charged to my account by a PayPal vendor named HG Tickets. I can only think of two events that would warrant my paying that kind of money for tickets: 1 – WrestleMania, and 2 – an NCAA championship game featuring the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. Mania is held in March and football season is a few months away. What I’m getting at is that this was clearly a fraudulent charge and as such I immediately contacted my bank about having the transaction rescinded. The bank was very helpful in assisting me as they immediately refunded the money to my account. I was asked to sign an affidavit confirming that the transaction was fraudulent, and I did so without hesitation. As a precautionary measure my debit card was disabled and a new card as well as a new PIN was issued to me within a week’s time. In the days following my contact with the bank I received several pieces of correspondence updating me to the progress of their investigation, the final item I got from them let me know that their inquiry was complete and that they regretted any inconvenience I might have experienced. They were satisfied and at that moment so was I – but there was another party involved who wasn’t the least bit satiated by this turn of events.
Jump ahead to Tuesday, May 25, 2010. It’s around 8:20 AM and I’m about to leave home and head in to the office. As I’m about to open the front door our home phone rings; caller ID let me know that the call was coming from a “private caller”, which should’ve triggered an automatic reaction from me to ignore it. Even so, there have been a few occasions where my parents’ phone number has come up as private and given the fact that my Mom has had a major surgery performed in the past month I felt as though I should answer it. I did, but instead of hearing the voice of my Mom or Grandma I hear that of an unfamiliar man asking to speak to Robert Truesdale. “That’s me…”, I said, which was the second mistake I’d made in as many minutes.
The person I was speaking to identified himself as Mike Helco, an Ohioan and a representative of HG Tickets. He asked about a transaction involving the sum of $749.00 and, more specifically, wanted to know why I’d backed out of it. I told him the basics of the story as it pertains to me – that the transaction was fraudulent, that I’d contacted my bank about it, and that they’d refunded my money accordingly. And it was at that point that any semblance of cordiality this conversation might have contained flew out the window.
Have you ever been threatened with a lawsuit by some random person you wouldn’t know if they walked up and punched you in the face? Because I have!
For the sake of brevity, I’m going to try and condense what was said in the conversations that followed between me and Helco. Apparently someone was able to obtain my debit card number and establish a PayPal account (that was tied to an email address that uses my name but is not an address I own or have access to) which was then used to purchase a pair of NHL playoff game tickets.
Since the payment cleared my bank account, Helco shipped the tickets to the guilty party and the tickets were used by someone because he told me that he had a tape of the game and that he could physically identify who was there in those specific seats. I made the statement that it definitely wasn’t me, and he rather astutely fired back that I could’ve turned around and sold them to another individual – good theory, but he was still accusing me even though we’re both victims in this situation (a fact I never could get him to understand). I would later bring up the idea of tracking who received the tickets through whatever shipping company he’d used because certainly he would’ve wanted verification of such a valuable item being delivered. This wasn’t possible because he sent the tickets not through the post office and not by way of UPS or FedEx – he sent them via email (made possible by the fact that certain ticketing systems nowadays generate PDF files that the purchaser can then print at home, or forward to someone who then buys the tickets from them). It must be nice to be so trusting of technology.
Helco claimed to be a part of a larger company with offices around the U.S. My impression is that he’s a lone ticket broker (e.g., scalper) who lists his wares on auction sites like eBay and deals one-to-one with customers. I say this for several reasons. First and foremost, vendors like Ticket Master and Stub Hub allow ticket holders to sell their property but they do so through their own intermediary billing methods, not through PayPal. Jill and I searched the web for his company and found no information on it. What’s more, outside of collections agencies I’ve never heard of a legitimate company trying to sick a representative on an individual. For all these reasons, I think he’s on his own and that he’s trying to strong-arm someone (aka, me) into forking over the $749.
He called the house at least 6 times that day and his threats escalated from hitting me with civil action to saying that he would be alerting the FBI. His big piece of evidence was that he had obtained an IP address from the emails he had exchanged with whoever purchased the tickets and that this IP came back as being located in Great Falls, South Carolina. (I am from South Carolina but I don’t live in Great Falls nor have I ever had a residence in that city.) Fortunately, being an information technology professional, I know full well how easy it is to spoof (or forge) header information in an email. (If you weren’t aware, every email has a small set of data attached to it that allows for a certain amount of tracking; of course some evil genius figured out how to take advantage of this by inserting fake data into these fields so as to make the messages seem as if they’re coming from somewhere that they actually aren’t.) Those emails could’ve originated from Osaka, Japan for all he knows.
In the last conversation I had with Helco, he wanted to know why I didn’t file a police report. (A better question would be why he was so busy calling me instead of the police in his neck of the woods!) The way I see it, there was no point in doing so. I called the bank because I’m their customer and part of that relationship involves them being willing and able to analyze circumstances like these then possibly recommend criminal charges to the proper authorities. Besides, my concern was getting my money back, and going through the bank was the correct channel to take towards reaching that end.
Keep in mind I was supposed to have gone to work that day. I wound up having to call my employer and let them know that I was going to be out because I needed to take the time to cover my rear end, which is exactly what I did. I made contact with my bank, his bank, PayPal, the local municipal police department and the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, and sought legal advice from a friend of my Uncle who is an attorney with the Social Security Administration in the state of South Carolina. They all basically told me the same thing: If this guy wants to expend the time, money, and effort to come down here and prosecute me given that I have the benefit of my bank standing behind me with results of their investigation – LET HIM! He’ll only wind up further in the hole and chances are once the smoke clears I’d be able to sue him for a range of offenses.
After the day I had dealing with this, I’d have settled for 5 minutes alone with Mr. Helco. I’m normally a laid back individual but I was beyond furious, so much so that if I’d have had him within arm’s reach I’d have gladly wrung his neck. But as it would turn out, I was reminded via a Facebook status message made by a very good friend of mine that the ways of wicked men shall not go unpunished.
Psalm 37: 27-29
Turn from evil and do good;
then you will dwell in the land forever.
For the LORD loves the just
and will not forsake his faithful ones.
They will be protected forever,
but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off;
the righteous will inherit the land
and dwell in it forever.
It’s amazing to me that just when we mere mortals feel disconnected from God, He reminds us of His presence. I tried to remind myself that Helco wasn’t the true villain in this series of events, even though he was doing a good job of coming off as one by persisting in his persecution of me, and that the truth of the matter would come out during whatever strife I might endure.
More or less for our own peace of mind, Jill and I decided it was best to have our home phone number changed so as to prevent further harassment from Helco. We contacted Time-Warner Cable, our provider for most things telecom related, and put in the order but were told that the processing time for a number change is 4 days and costs $25. Word to the wise, if a service provider wants to tack on a fee for performing a duty that is as basic as this there’s more than likely a way out of it, you just have to know what questions to ask. I mentioned to the operator that we’d been receiving harassing calls and she said the fee would not apply. Still, the 4 day wait wasn’t something she could pass over. Why it takes them 4 days to change a number is beyond me; I worked for Alltel several years ago and we could change someone’s number in a matter of minutes. Perhaps there’s more involved in doing so with landline connections, but regardless of the reasoning for the delay we went ahead and unplugged the phones in our house.
Suffice it to say that we felt like captives, almost as if we were being held hostage by this individual who was completely off kilter in his pursuit of reparations for a deed neither of us had anything to do with. I was hoping that we’d gotten to the end of this process now that the primary method of communication Helco had with us had been severed – just like a horror movie villain, he would rear his ugly head again despite our efforts.
Later that same week I pulled a notification from the United States Postal Service out of our mailbox that stated a package which required a signature for pick up was waiting for me at the local branch office. It goes without saying that this seemed highly suspicious given the events of the past few days. There was an article tracking number on the notice and when I looked it up on USPS.com, sure enough the shipment originated from Mc Donald, Ohio – Helco’s base of operations. (We knew this because Jill & I had tracked Helco down so as to try and learn more about this phantom menace; that phrase didn’t make sense when the movie first came out but it does now.) My immediate thought was that he’d followed through on his threats of legal action and that I was about to be drawn into the next step of the process by being served with some sort of paperwork notifying me of an impending court battle. What didn’t make sense to me was the timing of the shipment. According to data associated with the tracking number, the shipment was generated the morning Helco initially made contact with me, not long after our first conversation over the phone. He’d said that he was willing to give me time enough to look into the matter before engaging in any proceedings; not that I trusted him but the timetable didn’t seem to allow for that type of maneuvering.
I knew that a person has the right to refuse the delivery of mail, which was what lead me to believe that the best course of action would be to ignore it, whatever it was, and allow it to be sent back on its own. Just for the sake of security, I checked with my borrowed legal counsel and they recommended the contrary, that I pick up the package because doing so would make me seem less guilty (even though I wasn’t guilty at all).
I went to pick up the item the next day. There were only two cashiers working the front desk and they were incredibly busy seeing as how it was near the end of the month. The wait was excruciating in that it allowed my brain, which has always been good at making me feel paranoia even in the most innocuous of circumstances, to fumble through all the possible scenarios that might be about to unfold. By the time I got to the counter I was sweating profusely and wondering whether or not I was doing the right thing by accepting this package. After confirming my identity with the cashier, she handed me the envelope and I walked with it in hand down a relatively private hallway in the post office as I wanted to open the thing on the spot. I peeled back the security tab and looked inside.
In considering the possibilities of what might be in that envelope, I had of course thought that there could be something incriminating to it. I was dealing with someone who had already threatened to bring charges against me; surely it would then be in his realm of consideration to try and bolster his position by putting me deeper into the circumstances by making it look as if I had something to hide or was in any way involved. As it would turn out, the envelope contained the tickets that this whole ordeal centered upon.
I remember being completely aghast at the sight of them, even though they were quite beautiful in their pristine and unused condition. Looking at them, I could tell why someone had paid almost $800 for them – they were front row seats. I don’t know much of anything about the Pittsburg Penguins franchise but in doing some research I discovered that the tickets wound up being to the final game that would ever be played in Mellon Arena, which I understand is something of an iconic building to Penguins fans. I stood there in the post office thinking to myself that I had just accepted stolen property through the mail and that I should’ve trusted my instincts to ignore the shipment instead. I have honestly never felt as unnerved as I did in that instant.
It took some time but logic soon took over from paranoia and my head got clear enough that I was able to reason things out. Not so much why Helco had went through the expense of mailing me the tickets (it cost him $18), rather why my having them at that point in time didn’t actually mean very much. The game the tickets were for was played on May 12, 2010 – they were shipped to me on May 25, 2010 and I also had proof of my having taken possession of them after that date. Yes, I had the tickets at that point in time but I might as well have been holding two used hot dog wrappers. What I mean by that is that they may have been worth $749 on May 12 but on May 25 they weren’t worth squat because the game to which they corresponded had already been played. Hence the question, how could something with no value be incriminating?
My next move was to document everything. I’ve always been hyper-organized, which is why if you look in my personal file cabinet you’ll find roughly 3 years worth of receipts for everything from my utility payments on down to my Sears charge account. I’d already started a file with documentation pertaining to the fraudulent charge investigation, and this file was augmented into what I hoped would not wind up being my defense in any sort of litigation that might come about as a result of my having gotten roped into this mess. I took pictures and made scans of the envelope and the tickets. I’d already made copies of all of my other documentation, so I went about putting the copies back into my file cabinet for ease of access and then secured the originals as well as the envelope used to send me the tickets in our fire safe. The tickets were going back to Ohio, but they would have company on their trip.
If you’ve never written a “cease & desist” type letter, I can tell you that it’s oddly liberating. I couldn’t be as venomous as I would’ve liked to have been (I decided it was best to omit the part I’d written about hoping that Helco would contract syphilis, chronic diarrhea, testicular and rectal cancer, leprosy, and the black plague) but I was firm in laying out the facts as well as letting him know that I didn’t appreciate having been accused of a crime I did not commit and that if he tried to contact me or anyone associated with me ever again that I’d make sure he was brought up on harassment charges.
I’d picked up the tickets on May 28, 2010, the Friday before Memorial Day. With postal services being limited on weekends, I made the decision to ship them to Helco via UPS second-day air. I had a fleeting idea to enquire about a shipping option that would require him to pay for it upon delivery; that would’ve been too bold, at least for me, and it probably would’ve backfired somehow anyway. With signature confirmation, it cost me just shy of $22 to ship the tickets and the letter. This fiasco had already cost me a day’s work and untold hours of stress, now it was literally costing me even more.
Because I watch too many crime drama television shows, I had to try and figure out where the lapse in security happened that lead to my banking information being available to whatever waste of skin managed to get hold of it (not that it would do any good, ultimately; I guess I wanted someone to blame more than anything). I knew that the perpetrator had my name, home mailing address, home phone number, and my debit card number. The only two entities I can think of that I have given those bits of data to are Time-Warner Cable and Carnival Cruise Lines. Sure, it's possible it could've come from somewhere else but I highly doubt it. That said, if anyone from those institutions would like to step up and apologize to me for having fumbled some of the most sensitive data a person has, I'd accept it.
My UPS shipment was confirmed the following Tuesday. It’s been close to two weeks since then and I have yet to hear anything else from him or anyone associated with this matter. That said, I’m hoping that I’m done with this chaos. Needless to say, the last thing I hoped for coming off of our wedding and honeymoon was to spend the better part of a week worrying about whether or not I was going to be pegged as the fall guy in a scam of this nature. The only positives to come from this are my having sympathy for anyone who’s been the victim of identity theft because I can now be counted amongst those poor schmucks and a newfound sense of dread when it comes to electronic transactions.
I know what you’re saying, “How can a newfound sense of dread be perceived as positive?” I relate it to how I’m sure soldiers in World War II felt after having seen one of their buddies wind up being the victim of a landmine; when you’ve experienced that kind of damage first hand, it makes you even more hesitant to take your next step. Likewise, this incident has made me much more considerate of the dangers of handing over your banking information to a merchant, expecting it to be managed securely. It hasn’t made me want to bury all my money in a coffee can in the back yard, but it has made me more wary and seeing as how a majority of all transactions are conducted electronically anymore I believe that’s the best I can achieve. Indeed, with risks like this looming, almost every modern marketplace is a minefield – you just have to hope you aren’t the one who sets one off.
- Rob
I’ve always been finicky when it comes to my money, and as such like many people do these days (or so I assume they do; surely I can’t be the only one this anal about record keeping) I maintain a spreadsheet with a running total of all transactions corresponding to my various bank accounts, credit cards, and what have you. The week after Jill (um, J-Tru) and I returned from our honeymoon, I logged in to my online banking system to see about my checking account balance and immediately I recognized that something was wrong because – thanks to my bookkeeping skills – I already had a ballpark figure in my head as to what my balance should’ve been, and the number I saw was significantly less than the amount I had in mind.
I don’t want to come off as sounding like a weirdo but I feel like I’ve had a clairvoyant vision once or twice in my life. Having just returned from the Bahamas and having used my debit card in a lot of strange places, I had a gut feeling that something might go wrong with my billing information.
I really hate being right sometimes…
Looking further into the matter, I recognized a transaction valued at $749.00 that was charged to my account by a PayPal vendor named HG Tickets. I can only think of two events that would warrant my paying that kind of money for tickets: 1 – WrestleMania, and 2 – an NCAA championship game featuring the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. Mania is held in March and football season is a few months away. What I’m getting at is that this was clearly a fraudulent charge and as such I immediately contacted my bank about having the transaction rescinded. The bank was very helpful in assisting me as they immediately refunded the money to my account. I was asked to sign an affidavit confirming that the transaction was fraudulent, and I did so without hesitation. As a precautionary measure my debit card was disabled and a new card as well as a new PIN was issued to me within a week’s time. In the days following my contact with the bank I received several pieces of correspondence updating me to the progress of their investigation, the final item I got from them let me know that their inquiry was complete and that they regretted any inconvenience I might have experienced. They were satisfied and at that moment so was I – but there was another party involved who wasn’t the least bit satiated by this turn of events.
Jump ahead to Tuesday, May 25, 2010. It’s around 8:20 AM and I’m about to leave home and head in to the office. As I’m about to open the front door our home phone rings; caller ID let me know that the call was coming from a “private caller”, which should’ve triggered an automatic reaction from me to ignore it. Even so, there have been a few occasions where my parents’ phone number has come up as private and given the fact that my Mom has had a major surgery performed in the past month I felt as though I should answer it. I did, but instead of hearing the voice of my Mom or Grandma I hear that of an unfamiliar man asking to speak to Robert Truesdale. “That’s me…”, I said, which was the second mistake I’d made in as many minutes.
The person I was speaking to identified himself as Mike Helco, an Ohioan and a representative of HG Tickets. He asked about a transaction involving the sum of $749.00 and, more specifically, wanted to know why I’d backed out of it. I told him the basics of the story as it pertains to me – that the transaction was fraudulent, that I’d contacted my bank about it, and that they’d refunded my money accordingly. And it was at that point that any semblance of cordiality this conversation might have contained flew out the window.
Have you ever been threatened with a lawsuit by some random person you wouldn’t know if they walked up and punched you in the face? Because I have!
For the sake of brevity, I’m going to try and condense what was said in the conversations that followed between me and Helco. Apparently someone was able to obtain my debit card number and establish a PayPal account (that was tied to an email address that uses my name but is not an address I own or have access to) which was then used to purchase a pair of NHL playoff game tickets.
Since the payment cleared my bank account, Helco shipped the tickets to the guilty party and the tickets were used by someone because he told me that he had a tape of the game and that he could physically identify who was there in those specific seats. I made the statement that it definitely wasn’t me, and he rather astutely fired back that I could’ve turned around and sold them to another individual – good theory, but he was still accusing me even though we’re both victims in this situation (a fact I never could get him to understand). I would later bring up the idea of tracking who received the tickets through whatever shipping company he’d used because certainly he would’ve wanted verification of such a valuable item being delivered. This wasn’t possible because he sent the tickets not through the post office and not by way of UPS or FedEx – he sent them via email (made possible by the fact that certain ticketing systems nowadays generate PDF files that the purchaser can then print at home, or forward to someone who then buys the tickets from them). It must be nice to be so trusting of technology.
Helco claimed to be a part of a larger company with offices around the U.S. My impression is that he’s a lone ticket broker (e.g., scalper) who lists his wares on auction sites like eBay and deals one-to-one with customers. I say this for several reasons. First and foremost, vendors like Ticket Master and Stub Hub allow ticket holders to sell their property but they do so through their own intermediary billing methods, not through PayPal. Jill and I searched the web for his company and found no information on it. What’s more, outside of collections agencies I’ve never heard of a legitimate company trying to sick a representative on an individual. For all these reasons, I think he’s on his own and that he’s trying to strong-arm someone (aka, me) into forking over the $749.
He called the house at least 6 times that day and his threats escalated from hitting me with civil action to saying that he would be alerting the FBI. His big piece of evidence was that he had obtained an IP address from the emails he had exchanged with whoever purchased the tickets and that this IP came back as being located in Great Falls, South Carolina. (I am from South Carolina but I don’t live in Great Falls nor have I ever had a residence in that city.) Fortunately, being an information technology professional, I know full well how easy it is to spoof (or forge) header information in an email. (If you weren’t aware, every email has a small set of data attached to it that allows for a certain amount of tracking; of course some evil genius figured out how to take advantage of this by inserting fake data into these fields so as to make the messages seem as if they’re coming from somewhere that they actually aren’t.) Those emails could’ve originated from Osaka, Japan for all he knows.
In the last conversation I had with Helco, he wanted to know why I didn’t file a police report. (A better question would be why he was so busy calling me instead of the police in his neck of the woods!) The way I see it, there was no point in doing so. I called the bank because I’m their customer and part of that relationship involves them being willing and able to analyze circumstances like these then possibly recommend criminal charges to the proper authorities. Besides, my concern was getting my money back, and going through the bank was the correct channel to take towards reaching that end.
Keep in mind I was supposed to have gone to work that day. I wound up having to call my employer and let them know that I was going to be out because I needed to take the time to cover my rear end, which is exactly what I did. I made contact with my bank, his bank, PayPal, the local municipal police department and the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, and sought legal advice from a friend of my Uncle who is an attorney with the Social Security Administration in the state of South Carolina. They all basically told me the same thing: If this guy wants to expend the time, money, and effort to come down here and prosecute me given that I have the benefit of my bank standing behind me with results of their investigation – LET HIM! He’ll only wind up further in the hole and chances are once the smoke clears I’d be able to sue him for a range of offenses.
After the day I had dealing with this, I’d have settled for 5 minutes alone with Mr. Helco. I’m normally a laid back individual but I was beyond furious, so much so that if I’d have had him within arm’s reach I’d have gladly wrung his neck. But as it would turn out, I was reminded via a Facebook status message made by a very good friend of mine that the ways of wicked men shall not go unpunished.
Psalm 37: 27-29
Turn from evil and do good;
then you will dwell in the land forever.
For the LORD loves the just
and will not forsake his faithful ones.
They will be protected forever,
but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off;
the righteous will inherit the land
and dwell in it forever.
It’s amazing to me that just when we mere mortals feel disconnected from God, He reminds us of His presence. I tried to remind myself that Helco wasn’t the true villain in this series of events, even though he was doing a good job of coming off as one by persisting in his persecution of me, and that the truth of the matter would come out during whatever strife I might endure.
More or less for our own peace of mind, Jill and I decided it was best to have our home phone number changed so as to prevent further harassment from Helco. We contacted Time-Warner Cable, our provider for most things telecom related, and put in the order but were told that the processing time for a number change is 4 days and costs $25. Word to the wise, if a service provider wants to tack on a fee for performing a duty that is as basic as this there’s more than likely a way out of it, you just have to know what questions to ask. I mentioned to the operator that we’d been receiving harassing calls and she said the fee would not apply. Still, the 4 day wait wasn’t something she could pass over. Why it takes them 4 days to change a number is beyond me; I worked for Alltel several years ago and we could change someone’s number in a matter of minutes. Perhaps there’s more involved in doing so with landline connections, but regardless of the reasoning for the delay we went ahead and unplugged the phones in our house.
Suffice it to say that we felt like captives, almost as if we were being held hostage by this individual who was completely off kilter in his pursuit of reparations for a deed neither of us had anything to do with. I was hoping that we’d gotten to the end of this process now that the primary method of communication Helco had with us had been severed – just like a horror movie villain, he would rear his ugly head again despite our efforts.
Later that same week I pulled a notification from the United States Postal Service out of our mailbox that stated a package which required a signature for pick up was waiting for me at the local branch office. It goes without saying that this seemed highly suspicious given the events of the past few days. There was an article tracking number on the notice and when I looked it up on USPS.com, sure enough the shipment originated from Mc Donald, Ohio – Helco’s base of operations. (We knew this because Jill & I had tracked Helco down so as to try and learn more about this phantom menace; that phrase didn’t make sense when the movie first came out but it does now.) My immediate thought was that he’d followed through on his threats of legal action and that I was about to be drawn into the next step of the process by being served with some sort of paperwork notifying me of an impending court battle. What didn’t make sense to me was the timing of the shipment. According to data associated with the tracking number, the shipment was generated the morning Helco initially made contact with me, not long after our first conversation over the phone. He’d said that he was willing to give me time enough to look into the matter before engaging in any proceedings; not that I trusted him but the timetable didn’t seem to allow for that type of maneuvering.
I knew that a person has the right to refuse the delivery of mail, which was what lead me to believe that the best course of action would be to ignore it, whatever it was, and allow it to be sent back on its own. Just for the sake of security, I checked with my borrowed legal counsel and they recommended the contrary, that I pick up the package because doing so would make me seem less guilty (even though I wasn’t guilty at all).
I went to pick up the item the next day. There were only two cashiers working the front desk and they were incredibly busy seeing as how it was near the end of the month. The wait was excruciating in that it allowed my brain, which has always been good at making me feel paranoia even in the most innocuous of circumstances, to fumble through all the possible scenarios that might be about to unfold. By the time I got to the counter I was sweating profusely and wondering whether or not I was doing the right thing by accepting this package. After confirming my identity with the cashier, she handed me the envelope and I walked with it in hand down a relatively private hallway in the post office as I wanted to open the thing on the spot. I peeled back the security tab and looked inside.
In considering the possibilities of what might be in that envelope, I had of course thought that there could be something incriminating to it. I was dealing with someone who had already threatened to bring charges against me; surely it would then be in his realm of consideration to try and bolster his position by putting me deeper into the circumstances by making it look as if I had something to hide or was in any way involved. As it would turn out, the envelope contained the tickets that this whole ordeal centered upon.
I remember being completely aghast at the sight of them, even though they were quite beautiful in their pristine and unused condition. Looking at them, I could tell why someone had paid almost $800 for them – they were front row seats. I don’t know much of anything about the Pittsburg Penguins franchise but in doing some research I discovered that the tickets wound up being to the final game that would ever be played in Mellon Arena, which I understand is something of an iconic building to Penguins fans. I stood there in the post office thinking to myself that I had just accepted stolen property through the mail and that I should’ve trusted my instincts to ignore the shipment instead. I have honestly never felt as unnerved as I did in that instant.
It took some time but logic soon took over from paranoia and my head got clear enough that I was able to reason things out. Not so much why Helco had went through the expense of mailing me the tickets (it cost him $18), rather why my having them at that point in time didn’t actually mean very much. The game the tickets were for was played on May 12, 2010 – they were shipped to me on May 25, 2010 and I also had proof of my having taken possession of them after that date. Yes, I had the tickets at that point in time but I might as well have been holding two used hot dog wrappers. What I mean by that is that they may have been worth $749 on May 12 but on May 25 they weren’t worth squat because the game to which they corresponded had already been played. Hence the question, how could something with no value be incriminating?
My next move was to document everything. I’ve always been hyper-organized, which is why if you look in my personal file cabinet you’ll find roughly 3 years worth of receipts for everything from my utility payments on down to my Sears charge account. I’d already started a file with documentation pertaining to the fraudulent charge investigation, and this file was augmented into what I hoped would not wind up being my defense in any sort of litigation that might come about as a result of my having gotten roped into this mess. I took pictures and made scans of the envelope and the tickets. I’d already made copies of all of my other documentation, so I went about putting the copies back into my file cabinet for ease of access and then secured the originals as well as the envelope used to send me the tickets in our fire safe. The tickets were going back to Ohio, but they would have company on their trip.
If you’ve never written a “cease & desist” type letter, I can tell you that it’s oddly liberating. I couldn’t be as venomous as I would’ve liked to have been (I decided it was best to omit the part I’d written about hoping that Helco would contract syphilis, chronic diarrhea, testicular and rectal cancer, leprosy, and the black plague) but I was firm in laying out the facts as well as letting him know that I didn’t appreciate having been accused of a crime I did not commit and that if he tried to contact me or anyone associated with me ever again that I’d make sure he was brought up on harassment charges.
I’d picked up the tickets on May 28, 2010, the Friday before Memorial Day. With postal services being limited on weekends, I made the decision to ship them to Helco via UPS second-day air. I had a fleeting idea to enquire about a shipping option that would require him to pay for it upon delivery; that would’ve been too bold, at least for me, and it probably would’ve backfired somehow anyway. With signature confirmation, it cost me just shy of $22 to ship the tickets and the letter. This fiasco had already cost me a day’s work and untold hours of stress, now it was literally costing me even more.
Because I watch too many crime drama television shows, I had to try and figure out where the lapse in security happened that lead to my banking information being available to whatever waste of skin managed to get hold of it (not that it would do any good, ultimately; I guess I wanted someone to blame more than anything). I knew that the perpetrator had my name, home mailing address, home phone number, and my debit card number. The only two entities I can think of that I have given those bits of data to are Time-Warner Cable and Carnival Cruise Lines. Sure, it's possible it could've come from somewhere else but I highly doubt it. That said, if anyone from those institutions would like to step up and apologize to me for having fumbled some of the most sensitive data a person has, I'd accept it.
My UPS shipment was confirmed the following Tuesday. It’s been close to two weeks since then and I have yet to hear anything else from him or anyone associated with this matter. That said, I’m hoping that I’m done with this chaos. Needless to say, the last thing I hoped for coming off of our wedding and honeymoon was to spend the better part of a week worrying about whether or not I was going to be pegged as the fall guy in a scam of this nature. The only positives to come from this are my having sympathy for anyone who’s been the victim of identity theft because I can now be counted amongst those poor schmucks and a newfound sense of dread when it comes to electronic transactions.
I know what you’re saying, “How can a newfound sense of dread be perceived as positive?” I relate it to how I’m sure soldiers in World War II felt after having seen one of their buddies wind up being the victim of a landmine; when you’ve experienced that kind of damage first hand, it makes you even more hesitant to take your next step. Likewise, this incident has made me much more considerate of the dangers of handing over your banking information to a merchant, expecting it to be managed securely. It hasn’t made me want to bury all my money in a coffee can in the back yard, but it has made me more wary and seeing as how a majority of all transactions are conducted electronically anymore I believe that’s the best I can achieve. Indeed, with risks like this looming, almost every modern marketplace is a minefield – you just have to hope you aren’t the one who sets one off.
- Rob
Monday, June 14, 2010
on the road again.....
My dad told me a week or two ago that i take pictures of the most random things. Well this is true. I drive about an hour and fifteen minutes to work daily and on my trek i sometimes encounter SLOW moving vehicles. For instance...
On 05/28/2010, I was on my way to work and a lovely tractor trailer decided to go very slow. So i took his picture....
Well that is all for now. I'm sure ill find more random things to show you on the road soon!!! :O)
Safe Driving..
J-Tru
On 05/28/2010, I was on my way to work and a lovely tractor trailer decided to go very slow. So i took his picture....
Thank you Mister Food Lion truck driver man for going super slow and almost making me late for work.
On to my next on the road picture....
on 05/26/10, yes i know I'm going backwards, i was on my way home to eat dinner with ed and Debra, robs aunt and uncle. Well of course something would hinder my progress.....and what do you think it was this time...YOU GUESSED IT, another tractor trailer incident. This time though it was quite comical. Some how the driver got stuck and ended up across HWY 601 blocking both lanes of traffic. Thankfully, pedestrians who have education in directing traffic helped us out. I went through a ball field to get around him and on my way again....here is a pic of the silliness :O)
Well that is all for now. I'm sure ill find more random things to show you on the road soon!!! :O)
Safe Driving..
J-Tru
Monday, June 7, 2010
wow, that child has lots of energy!!!.....
This past weekend, Rob and I had a 6 year old little girl named Carli Marie stay with us. Carli is a cute little blonde that looks like me a little :O) She is my little cousin who I adore and miss lots since moving to oburg with my hunny. Carli was also our flower girl in the wedding and she did a great job throwing out the petals before I came down the aisle.
So here is our journey with Carli----
Friday: I got off early and picked her up to head off to oburg. We went to mcdonalds to get some grub before we headed on our way. We started down Hwy 601 and she asked me how long it took to get ot my house. I said a little while but it wont be too long. We drove on for a while and she told me how excited she was to sleep in the big bed---she wanted to kick rob out---and about going to the water park. We got about 30 minutes down the road and we ran into some construction.....oh and by this time she told me she was freezing so i turned off the AC and we rolled down the windows....she liked putting her hand out the window and letting the air push it back.....oh she laughed about this the whole time she did it. We sat still for a few minutes and she did not care for that but once we were on our way she was ok. We drove a little farther and it started to rain so we had to hurry and put up our windows. We saw a helicopter low to the ground too and we tried to figure out what it was doing but we couldn't. After a little while longer we made it to St Matthews and she fell asleep.........I kept on driving until we go to out little home and then told woke her up. We got in the house and she said "Jill your house is small. are you going to living her until you have kids?"---she is too smart for her own good. She took in each and every room in our house and made herself very comfortable in the recliner. Her "room" was robs man room and she girlied it up very well. Her clothes took over the room throughout the course of the weekend. When Rob got home from work we then went to Tokyo and she got to watch the men cook with fire and act crazy...she ate some but not much since she had snacked throughout the day :O) After eating we headed back to the house and played for a little while....then it was off to dreamland.
Saturday--
Today is the day that we went to the YMCA Orangeburg County Aquatics Center :O) Before we went though be had some yummy waffles and we caked ourselves in sun screen--SPF 100. Oh my goodness it was so much fun. Carli loved it. We swam indoors until the park opened and then it was full speed ahead playing in the water park for 5 hours!!!! She loved the slides and the big bucket that dumps water on you. She and i also went
on the lazy river a few times...once we almost flipped :O) While there we ate lunch hamburgers and hot dogs, chips, and Carli had some dip n dots. Here are a few pics from the fun day at the water park :O)
on the lazy river a few times...once we almost flipped :O) While there we ate lunch hamburgers and hot dogs, chips, and Carli had some dip n dots. Here are a few pics from the fun day at the water park :O)
After the water park we went to Sonic and enjoyed some yumminess and looked for "punch bugs" :O)
Sunday--
Today we took Carli to her first wrestling show ever!!! It was a RAW world tour--not on tv though. At first she didn't do anything but sit there and I was getting concerned that she didn't like it but soon after a match between the HART dynasty and the USO Bothers she couldn't stop clapping, booing, and talking to me and rob. It was great!!!! After the match her parents came and picked her up.
Our weekend was jam packed but so much fun!!! We love Carli bear so much!!!
SO after a weekend super busy the only thing left was to go to bed....and we did :O)
J-Tru
Sunday--
Today we took Carli to her first wrestling show ever!!! It was a RAW world tour--not on tv though. At first she didn't do anything but sit there and I was getting concerned that she didn't like it but soon after a match between the HART dynasty and the USO Bothers she couldn't stop clapping, booing, and talking to me and rob. It was great!!!! After the match her parents came and picked her up.
Our weekend was jam packed but so much fun!!! We love Carli bear so much!!!
SO after a weekend super busy the only thing left was to go to bed....and we did :O)
J-Tru
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
A whirlwind kind of weekend....
So last Friday 05/28/10, i went on call for work which means i get a nice little beeper to carry around and if someone decides to abuse or neglect an adult or child i get called about it and have to go out at any time of the day to address the concern. Due to the lovely full moon we are having the crazies decide to come and i got a call each night this weekend!!! UGH i needed sleep but nope I did my duty as a wonderful employee. So that was my rant...now to the lovely weekend stuff....
On Saturday my hunny and I decided to go look at grills at Lowe's since we got a tone of gift cards for the wedding....thank you to all who contributed!!! We chose one that was on sale on til Monday 05/31/10. Well silly ole me forgot to bring the cards to Lugoff to Rob had to wait til Monday to get the lovely piece of stainless steel!!! So when he returned home,HE GOT IT!!!!! I cant wait to cook some burgers, hot dogs, and STEAK :O) well Rob will cook them!!! Super excited!!! After we looked around Lowe's, we headed to wally world printed some of our wedding pics and picked out frames. We have an empty wall in our house and its time to dress it up a bit. After wally world and Lowe's we went back to my parents and ate a wonderful meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, baked beans, and slaw.....Yum-O!!!! We then headed to see the lovely princess Rachel Catoe and her mom and dad!!! Rachel was not loving Aunt Jill today b/c every time i held her or looked at her she cried----i guess she doesn't like me very much!!!! I will buy her some shoes and a purse then that will change!!!! We stayed for a while then headed to HH Gregg to look at a camera. We didn't buy anything but we did have Ritas and it was amazing!!! After that we headed home and had some much needed us time :O)
On Sunday we headed to church and enjoyed seeing everyone again since the wedding. After church we went to G-Ma and Bubba's for the weekly buffet!!!! As always the food was amazing!!! After eating til I busted a seam in my pants we then went home. I took a much deserved six hour nap and Rob watched tv. We then played some Wii and then went to eat again at gma and bubbas for supper. A good nights sleep came soon after......
On Monday, we had bbq ribs and leftovers from Saturday!!! YUMMMMMMY but my waist line is feeling the damage!!!!Rob and I played on the Wii again and beat Super Mario Brothers!!! wahoo!!!! We watched it rain all day long pretty much until my hunny had to leave to go back to oburg for the week. He left around 3:30pm and i pretty much hibernated in my old room. I did start read the third book of the Twilight Series and got to the ninth chapter. Carli came over then and wanted me to come outside and talk so i did. She is coming to visit this weekend at Jill and "Robbies" house and we are super excited!!!! We are going to break in the new water slides in oburg!!!
Well that's the update from the weekend....not too eventful but it was a long weekend.....
I'm going to try to make it through to Friday so i can see my husband again.....:O)
Happy One Month Anniversary my love!!! You are the most amazing man in the world and i love you to the moon and back!!!!
J-Tru
On Saturday my hunny and I decided to go look at grills at Lowe's since we got a tone of gift cards for the wedding....thank you to all who contributed!!! We chose one that was on sale on til Monday 05/31/10. Well silly ole me forgot to bring the cards to Lugoff to Rob had to wait til Monday to get the lovely piece of stainless steel!!! So when he returned home,HE GOT IT!!!!! I cant wait to cook some burgers, hot dogs, and STEAK :O) well Rob will cook them!!! Super excited!!! After we looked around Lowe's, we headed to wally world printed some of our wedding pics and picked out frames. We have an empty wall in our house and its time to dress it up a bit. After wally world and Lowe's we went back to my parents and ate a wonderful meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, baked beans, and slaw.....Yum-O!!!! We then headed to see the lovely princess Rachel Catoe and her mom and dad!!! Rachel was not loving Aunt Jill today b/c every time i held her or looked at her she cried----i guess she doesn't like me very much!!!! I will buy her some shoes and a purse then that will change!!!! We stayed for a while then headed to HH Gregg to look at a camera. We didn't buy anything but we did have Ritas and it was amazing!!! After that we headed home and had some much needed us time :O)
On Sunday we headed to church and enjoyed seeing everyone again since the wedding. After church we went to G-Ma and Bubba's for the weekly buffet!!!! As always the food was amazing!!! After eating til I busted a seam in my pants we then went home. I took a much deserved six hour nap and Rob watched tv. We then played some Wii and then went to eat again at gma and bubbas for supper. A good nights sleep came soon after......
On Monday, we had bbq ribs and leftovers from Saturday!!! YUMMMMMMY but my waist line is feeling the damage!!!!Rob and I played on the Wii again and beat Super Mario Brothers!!! wahoo!!!! We watched it rain all day long pretty much until my hunny had to leave to go back to oburg for the week. He left around 3:30pm and i pretty much hibernated in my old room. I did start read the third book of the Twilight Series and got to the ninth chapter. Carli came over then and wanted me to come outside and talk so i did. She is coming to visit this weekend at Jill and "Robbies" house and we are super excited!!!! We are going to break in the new water slides in oburg!!!
Well that's the update from the weekend....not too eventful but it was a long weekend.....
I'm going to try to make it through to Friday so i can see my husband again.....:O)
Happy One Month Anniversary my love!!! You are the most amazing man in the world and i love you to the moon and back!!!!
J-Tru
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)