Today I heard from the owner of a small restaurant, the story of how a Brother in a local congregation ripped him off for thousands. The restaurant owner is not a JW but totally familiar with the cult, as his mother is a long-time baptized sister. She asked him to hire this wonderful Brother from her congregation to do construction work he needed at his house. The Brother asked for a lot of the money up front. The mother kept telling him he could trust the Brother totally, "...just do what he says, you won't regret it."
The job was priced very expensive, but the work turned out shoddy and with the cheapest cruddy materials to be found. While the job was going on, the Brother would send his workers to the restaurant to get meals to go, and told the workers not to pay. Just to tell the owner that he would pay later - of course, he never paid for the food which amounted to several hundred dollars.
The restaurant owner said, at every problem and glitch, his mother begged him to keep going along and not to worry. He says now, they are in a terrible fix because of this Brother, who "acts like he's second to God when he walks into the KH with his wife and children."
Meanwhile, the mother is still an active JW, but now is just a little hurt and puzzled and says she can't believe what the Brother did. She's been in the hospital with some kind of illness lately. It's probably not related to all the upset and upheaval in the family as a result of this thief she recommended.
Marina