Old Fools

CHAPTER 1 - The Phone Call  

 Ed & I are playing Rummikub when DeRay takes a phone call.
   "Hi, Grandpa, do you know who this is?"
   "Isaak?"
   Then he takes it off speaker so we can only hear his end of this very serious conversation.
   "Are you listening?" Brent asks. "Sounds like trouble."
   He talks for quite a while; first with Isaak and then with the Sergeant.
   "What's that all about?" we ask when he hangs up.
   "Can't tell. It's a secret."
   "We can keep a secret."
   "It seems that Isaak is in jail."
   "For what?"
   "He was doing something and someone got hurt so they were on their way to the drug store to buy some band aids and the kid who was driving ran a red-light. The cop stopped him and smelled marijuana (2-1/2 pounds) so they are both in jail. The bail is $4,000 and they won't set a court time until they have the money."
  Brent said when a friend of his landed in jail, he called the Department Head to bail him out and Jerry told him to sit in jail until the hearing. "If the hearing is this afternoon, it won't hurt him to wait in jail." 
   "Drug charges are serious," Brent reminds us. Of course, they tested him and he is clean. The kid who was driving said he loaned his car to his brother yesterday. You never know on drug charges what the judge will do. Isaak doesn't want his mission president to know but they can handle these things. Brent thinks Isaak needs a lawyer. 
   So we call Verla. She isn't home. We call Bryan's law office and no one answers. Finally, DeRay texts Verla, who is in a movie with her grandchildren, and gets Bryan's cell number. He texts him. Bryan, who must be in court, texts back that he will call him within 20 minutes.
   Thinking of poor Isaak sitting in a holding tank and realizing that we will get the $4,000 back after the hearing, knowing that he is innocent, DeRay decides to follow their instructions. He drives to Target to buy two gift cards for $2,000 each. They won't take a credit card. They have to have cash. Before he leaves, he calls the Sergeant back and asks to talk to Isaak but he is only allowed one phone call.
   Why didn't he call his mission president? Why didn't he call his folks with his one phone call?  I think his parents should be involved. They would know what to do.
    This is too much for Grandma.
    To distract myself, I get on the computer. DeLoy (who lives in Santa Barbara) has written a note about my blog so I answer him back and blurt out the whole story because I know he won't tell anyone. It's a secret. There will be nothing on Isaak's record after he is released.

CHAPTER 2 - Exposed

     DeRay has already left for Target when DeLoy calls. "I don't think it was Isaak on the phone. It's a scam," he says. "Don't send any money." Brent checks on the computer, "IT'S A SCAM! IT'S A SCAM!" Why didn't we think of that?
    DeRay doesn't answer the phone when I frantically try to call him before he makes the transaction. I'm scared stiff. I call him again. He answers. "It's a scam." 
   "It didn't sound like Isaak, but he left at age 18. It's been more than a year. He's a man now. When I checked the area code, it wasn't Tucson, Arizona, it was Alberta, Canada," he bemoans when he comes home. "And when Sergeant Davis or whatever his name was answers the phone, why didn't he say 'Tucson Police Station'?"  Hindsight.
    Bryan called him back and said that isn't the way bail works, and explained it to him.
    The reason DeRay didn't answer the first time is because as he sits in Target's parking lot with the engine running, he decides to call Brooke. Brooke calls the Mission President - not until after he called Elizabeth and gave her a heart attack. Isaak was sure surprised to find out he had been in jail all morning!
    I call DeLoy back to thank him profusely for saving us $4,000. He writes back: "I would tell Issak so he can tell the mission president to alert other missionaries or their parents.  I think I would also call your district attorney, or adult protection department, etc." I reply: "DeRay called the Davis County Sheriff.  When you think about it, you realize that it has nothing to do with Isaak or his mission president or his parents." DeRay was the one who assumed it was Isaak because he knew it wasn't Jonathan. "Hi, Grandpa, Do you know who this is?" "Isaak?"

Three more times, the "Sergeant" calls back.

I tell him that I will report him to the police,
and hell will freeze over

before they get any money.

Brent was talking to Jan on the phone:

"Mom just told the crooks off," he tattled.

When Isaak left on his mission,

Karlton inherited his cell phone.

When Karlton calls, it always says "Call from Isaak".

Knowing missionaries can't call,

we're already a little jumpy

when we get a call from Isaak.

.  .  .To further justify our stupidity.

"Where are you?"

"When is your birthday?"
"How do you spell your name?"

"What is your mother's maiden name?"

One of these simple questions would have saved

hours of worry and frustration.
And never ever tell strangers about the time
you were arrested for setting off a firecracker,
even if you think it is your grandchild.
DeLoy was aware because he got a call
about his grandchild awhile back.
When he went to the bank, they told him
they thought it was a scam.
He called Lindi who verified Shane was in school that day;
not at a wedding reception or whatever.

Brooke tells his side of the story in a letter to his kids:

Now I come into the story about the time that Grandpa is sitting in his car outside Target...he’s just about to go into the store and buy 2 $2,000 gift cards to send to some crooks and I get this call:

Grandpa: with a conspiratorial tone in his voice, “You’ll never guess where I am”

Me: “You’re right”

Gpa: “I’m in Centerville”

Me: “What a coincidence....so am I”. I thought he wanted to come visit or take me out to lunch or something.

Gpa: “I’m not supposed to tell you this but I’m going to anyway.  I talked to your son and he’s in jail and I’m going to help him.”

 I’ll stop the blow by blow there because I can’t really remember every word any way but by this time my mind is racing.  The story doesn’t sound quite right....where was his companion? Why would he call grandpa and not me or his mission pres.?  Why would he be alone in a car with one other unless he was on a split?  Why would the guy on the split have drugs if he’s a member?  But a couple of things rang true as well.  Isaak would be out helping someone.  Weird things do happen like that...And finally the fact that grandpa had talked to him.  He had heard his voice.  If I’ve talked to someone I know instantly that it’s them...at least with family members.  Wouldn’t dad have known his voice.  It all came so quickly that I didn’t have time to think...scam or whatever but I did tell dad to hold off and I would call the mission office.  So, I hung up with dad after he talked about lawyers and court dates and long term problems and how Isaak wouldn’t be able to keep it secret anyway and that’s what finally convinced dad to call..These must have been some convincing scammers.  

 Now the next phone conversation.  I find the mission office number and dial it.  Elder West answers and I quickly explain that one of his missionaries is in jail and I need to talk to the mission president and find out what is going on.  I’m sure Elder West’s head was spinning at this point. He assured me he would text Pres. Browning and get back with me.  I hung up and called your mom and only told her a little of what I knew and the first words out of her mouth was to ask if it was a scam.  I hadn’t thought of that but she had heard of it and was on top of it, luckily otherwise a call that her son was in prison would have been even more of a shock.  

 By this time dad had talked to mom and discovered that it was probably a scam and in the middle of that conversation the call from Arizona came in.  This time I think it was the mission pres. But I can’t be sure because I didn’t give him time to identify himself.  I told him quickly that I believed my dad was being scammed and that there probably wasn’t anything to worry about on his end.  I explained it briefly and he agreed.  He told me when he got word he immediately tried to call Elder Higham but hadn’t yet received a response but that he would call me back when he knew for sure.  I hung up, relieved.  I called your mom back and we talked it over for a bit and then I got another call from AZ.  Pres. Browning had finally got in touch with both Elder and wanted to let me know that they were both shocked to have spent time in prison without their knowledge.  We had a nice little chat (he’s a good guy)...he told me that his first month on his mission isn’t like getting his feet wet but his whole body and that he’s very impressed with Isaak and his growth on his mission and he is looking forward to getting to know him better.  And thus ends the panic.  

When I told the story to Alan (my co-worker) he simply said, “You know the moral of the story is that your dad would do anything for any member of your family at a moments notice”. I think that’s a nice moral to the story.  That’s grandpa in a nutshell...

CHAPTER 3 - Innocent

Isaak writes how he found out he’s in jail:

Now as we were wrapping up District meeting we got a text from our Mission President saying "Elders. Please reply that you get this and give me a call asap." Now when you get a text from your Mission President like that instantly you freeze a little bit and your brain rushes off into the many possibilities of why he wants you to call him. But I had no fear because I just gave a training on having no fear. So Elder Higham texted him back and then as soon as the meeting finished we went and called him. Elder Higham had the phone and so when they answered he said "hey President!" and he said "Elders, you might laugh about this, but Elder Hugh, are you in jail?" another moment of being frozen, then I said "Not that I know of" he said "oh good, if you were I was hoping I would have received a call from you much sooner. So it was a scam like we had thought" Then he proceeded to relate why he had asked. Apparently some scammers thought they could trick my grandpa but he's way too sharp for any of them and figured it out. So instead of forking over $4,000 he listened to the promptings of the Spirit that I'm sure guided my family and they made just enough calls to figure it all out before anything truly bad happened.
    Anyways I didn't know much other than that they had tried to get $4,000 from my grandpa and that I had been in prison all morning. We then went back out into the hall of the church and told the District what had happened and we spent a good chunk of time trying to figure out what on earth I'd been sent to prison for. We figured soliciting or trespassing was probably what happened. But yeah. Pretty crazy stuff. We thought it was interesting that my family was being very scared at the same time that I was giving a training on "Fear not" Luckily we all pulled through and got a good story out of the whole thing! Plus now I can say I went to jail on my mission! 
   Have a good one! I'll try to stay out of prison this week! Elder Hugh

CHAPTER 4 - Epilogue

Brent writes in comments: Scammers are smarter than you are, and better at what they are doing than you are, and they get the chance to talk to dozens of people every day, honing their explanations and responses to objections.

By contrast, you only get to talk them once, and you don't even know you're being scammed.

In short, just don't talk to strangers on the phone. There is no reason to--that's what voice mail is for.
Even before this, we had promised ourselves that we would not answer "anonymous" calls. When "Isaak" called and was in so much trouble, DeRay said he thought to himself, "I'm glad I answered this one." Oops.

     I’ve heard of these scams too. I’ve talked about them with my visiting teachers who both have had calls from “grandsons” in an accident who needed to be bailed out; Verla and I were just talking about scams on Saturday; she almost got ensnared in one. She had to close out all her bank accounts and start over. I remember DeLoy’s story of the bank saving him. But when you receive a call from a grandson and in your mind’s eye, it’s him; you don’t think SCAM. You think Grandchild. Looking back, yea, you see signs but at the moment of distress, your mind blocks everything else out. They know this and that’s why they are successful. Jeanette
               Remember: DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS ON THE PHONE. 
    Verla said, "I thought you weren't going to tell anyone and now you write a blog." I changed my mind. I agree with Isaak, it's too good of a story to not share, even if we are exposed as old fools.