Disclaimer: If you're offended by discussions of personal finances, move along. Nothing to see here. This is not about a hand-out. It's about dealing with someone who's only cookin' on 2.5 burners. This is just sad, so get out yer Kleeniex boxes and hankies......
As yall know, Crabby Pants bought himself a Corvette to share the garage with his Ford F150. So now he has the Corvette pmt on top of everything else even though he stays in the hole with his bank every month to the tune of about 1k in hot checks and his overdraft privilege.
Well guess what? A coupla weeks ago, he got notification that he'd won The New York Power Ball Lottery to the tune of.....$285,000!!! It was a letter, in which there was a check for over 5k and a request from the parties that sent the letter for him to send them their 1% fee of the total winnings for "processing" and they would make sure he got the balance of the 285k.
This is just one of the many lottery scams that are going on all over the world. I know he must receive about 20 of these types of letters each month telling him his chance to win is just around the corner and to just send them a $20 processing fee and they'll make sure that IF he wins, he'll get his. He always sends the 20 bucks, which is just one of the many reasons why he's always in the hole. You cannot tell him anything. While he might agree with you to your face, he'll just turn around and send it to 'em anyway.
So I told him that while it wasn't any of my business, it sounded like something he should run past his attorney before he deposited it in the bank. He agreed, but since it was the weekend, he would have to wait till Monday.
By Monday morning, Crabby Pants was salivating to get that check in the bank and send them their processing fee via Western Union. WU called him back later to tell him that it was an illegal scam and that they would NOT send those people the wired money and to come back down and pick up his money. He did and put the money BACK in his bank account! THEN he went to his attorney and showed him the letter and his atty told him to take it to the fraud dept. at the police station. He dropped off the copy of the letter at the police dept. thinking it has been taken care of.
And then Crabby Pants proceeded to begin spending that over 5k in his bank account that's just sitting there waiting to bite him on the butt. I advised him not to, that the bank will be coming back on him about it. Didn't do any good. He's been be-boppin' along fine-dining at his favorite restaurants, having new details and accessories added to his truck and Corvette, etc. (which Corvette is consistently breaking down and needing repairs) The a/c for the house is sitting there gasping and shuddering on its compressor's last breath and we are in for a very hot, lonnnnnngggg summer, but no new a/c was even considered during all this free-wheeling spending of the illicit funds.
I asked him yesterday if he'd heard back from the bank about the bad check he'd deposited. He said no. BUT....
Crabby Pants just left the house about 1 1/2 hrs ago to do his volunteer stint at the police substation at the mall and he just called me to cry on my shoulder that he is 2.8k in the hole at the bank right now and wouldn't even have enough to pay his bills this next month. I told him that for my part, he wouldn't have to worry about where his next meal is coming from, but I have a feeling that I'll be visiting him at the County Jail within a coupla months for hot checks.
AAARRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (beating head against wall repeatedly)
There isn't anything I could have done to prevent him from doing this. First of all, he's my ex, so I have no legal standing. Second, Crabby Pants talks a good enough game to prevent anyone from realizing he's a loaf of bread short of makin' a sandwich when it comes to common sense. Third, he has an attorney that will probably pull his fat outta the fire......for a fee.
