Witnesses Sell Stolen Furniture to Feed Circuit Overseer (page 2)

stevenyc

Terrible story.

BTW - You / or the Mods. should remove the telephone number!

steve

RevFrank

As long as the Elders support it, it can be done. That brings to mine a fellow Bowen.

sf

Appauling, to say the least.

I failed to see where they actually mention it was to feed the C.O. Perhaps I missed it. No matter.

Indeed, what are you going to do about this?

This is theft. No way around it. You must take legal action. They must be held accountable for their crime. I'd start with talking to an attorney.

sKally

greendawn

One wonders what sort of family members they are to act in this way they really betrayed family trust and honour, as some suggested you should sue them, their behaviour is way out of line.

candidlynuts

that is such a horrible thing to do to you guys!
i hope you are able to persue any legal recourse you have.

nilfun

I'm sorry this happened to you, though I'm not surprised that JW family would do that to you, because the same thing happened to me.

Of course it hurt that many things that had a deep personal meaning had been dispersed/disposed of -- but what hurt more was the feeling that somehow, those things that were gotten rid of were somehow serving as a proxy for what they really wanted to do to me.

Take care

TMS

Let me add some detail I didn't have time for this morning: Again, this is Nena, TMS' wife.

TMS and I moved down to Rio Grande Valley of Texas in April of 2004 three months after his retirement. We had sold our home and had all of our furniture in the largest of vans. We left that van full of furniture on our property in Arroyo City and spent the first few nights with my sister Teresa in Brownsville while we looked for an RV. Teresa is a widow of 63, one year older than me. Her husband had been Presiding Overseer of the Brownsville, TX East Congregation for many years and later City Overseer. We stayed with my sister about four nights before finding a park model RV to live in. Teresa lived in the house with her 41 year old impaired son and her 11 year old granddaughter. The house was in great disrepair since her husband had died.

During our stay with my sister, she suggested that TMS and I store all our furniture in her double garage instead of renting a storage unit. This we did. We also started a renovation on her property at no charge to her. No one in the congregation would help her, she said. The large back yard was so overgrown in the subtropical climate that the six foot tall back fence could not be seen. We cleared the entire lot of the tall grass, overgrowth, limbs, a large bees nest and debris. Then we started on the house interior, painting and redecorating all the rooms, installing new molding on the walls, repairing porch screens, laying a carpet, repairing the roof, etc.

Since Teresa's furniture was also well worn, I allowed her to use many of our pieces, making very, very clear that I was absolutely retaining possession. She understood this. Since a book study was held there, the "friends" noticed the changes. Some asked if they could buy our services, which did not interest us. JW's made offers to purchase some furniture items through Teresa, which we declined.

We first noticed a possessiveness toward our things, when TMS mentioned that he preferred the small leather love seat we owned to the Hide-A-Bed in our RV. Teresa said " the love seat looks so good in my living room." She frantically sought another option, even locating a daybed she wanted TMS to buy instead. We decided to reclaim our love seat and offered the hide-a-bed and a matching chair as sort of a room replacement. She seemed semi-content with this, although not totally pleased. Later we used the house key she had given us to recover a few more nicknacks, a picture, a small decorative table, etc. We had used our key to enter her house many times previously without problem, even staying in the home during the summer assembly at her request. But this time struck a nerve. She changed the locks and threatened us with a restraining order.

TMS felt it best to write to her elders since that might be an authority she would respect. We felt law enforcement would simply say "possession is 9/10ths of the law" or something, which they did. We were very foolish to have been in this position and certainly old enough to have known better, so we accept some responsibility for our situation. When approached by her elders, she evidently told them she would return our things, although she predetermined in her own mind that it would be a small portion of our belongings. She also called our lawyer brother in Houston and posed a hypothetical to him: "What if a 'friend' left his furniture and possession in your house for a year and never returned for them?" Lawyer Johnny said: "They're yours!" I learned later that he was angered to learn that the "friend" was his/her own sister and that he had been set up.

We received a certified letter to pick up our things in 24 hours. We had to wait over the weekend to pick up and sign for the letter since we weren't home when the carrier first attempted to deliver it. The letter requested that we call first so that the side gate could be unlocked and we could recover our possessions from the screened porch area. We immediately began calling, but for nearly two days the calls were not answered. That's when we decided to go by the house and found my sisters and their young ones selling our possessions at a garage sale. My older sister came out with a large smile: "What would you like to buy?" My younger 45 year old sister said: "You came too late! This is all legally ours now!" I was shocked and began picking up as many of my smaller items as I could and throwing them into our van. My older sister began ordering us off the property and threatened to call the police. I ran up to my slightly retarded 41 year old nephew, Rene, and tried to get his reaction.(Rene has brain damage from a childhood case of spinal menengitus. I had retaught to talk, and walk and potty trained him at the age of 4 when he got sick. I just knew that "Jehovah" was real to him and didn't think he would lie.) "Rene", I said, "you know these things belong to us!" I tried to hold him and he stiffened his arms and said: " You know I have to say what my mother wants me to say."

As I walked through the side gate, I screamed as I saw an antique chest of drawers had been left out to ruin during Hurricane Emily, along with four mattresses and other things. Reaching the back porch I saw a few more of our items and retrieved what I could. Most of our more valuable furniture was still in the house. Teresa then began to call the police and report an assault. TMS began to urge me to leave. We were met at the end of the street by 5 Cameron County Sheriff's vehicles. TMS and I were eventually handcuffed and arrested and charged with domestic violence. I had absolutely not touched anyone, except to hold my nephew Rene for a moment and, of course, the laid back TMS touched no one.

We were placed in the back seat of separate police vehicles with our hands at our backs, handcuffed. Both vehicles had the windows sealed tight with the A/C off. The temperature outside was 100 degrees. I'm a diabetic and could feel myself getting weak. I asked for water, which was denied. After about 30 minutes TMS and I were taken to a locked, unoccupied substation for individual questioning.

They interviewed me first. I surprised myself by blurting out to the officers: "Do you believe in God?" The three of them shook their heads affirmative. "I don't" "At least not in the sense of an active God who still cares for us Oh, I believe a god created all things, but I don't believe he cares about us any more. Do you know why?" One officer asked "why?" "Because there is no justice!" One officer agreed that there is no justice, but he implied that I should still believe in God. Then, I totally surprised myself by telling them the real contention between my sisters and I -- that I was no longer one of Jehovah"s Witnesses. I explained how twelve years ago our son had been disfellowshipped for some foolish things he had done and that we as parents had been ordered not to speak to him. Instead, we had invited him back into our home so that we could more closely guide and help him. For this, the congregation had treated us shabbily and my husband, TMS, who had been very prominent among Jehovah's Witnesses had lost all of us privileges. All of the officers shook their heads. One officer said he had heard about this type of action among JW's and that it was wrong. What surprised me is that in the ten or so years since I had left the witnesses I had NEVER, EVER talked about it. This was the first time and it felt so good. My "statement" took about an hour and a half while TMS was still handcuffed, isolated in another room. I noticed a softening of attitude towards me by the officers.

By the time the officers got to TMS, it was getting late. The officers had decided not to take us to jail, but instead to try to find a judge in Brownsville to arraign us and release us. No judge in Brownsville could be found. Finally a judge was located in the small town of Los Fresnos, twenty miles away. We were rushed up their by another young officer, while the principle officer followed in his car. "Don't handcuff them!" he yelled out to our driver.

At Los Fresnos, we were arraigned and afterward I asked the officer how we would get home since our car was impounded. He said: "Don't worry. I'm not leaving you in the lurch." He began to drive us back to Brownsville, while calling the impound service. He looked back at me: "Do you know someone in the department?" I hesitated. "Do you know a dispatcher?" I could only think of my nephew's ex-wife. "Janie!" I blurted out. Well, she has your vehicle. She's going to meet us at designated location. When I saw Janie and another sister Annalee, I burst into tears, terrible sobbing. I had not been remotely close to crying during the entire ordeal, but all at once my emotions flowed out.

There is much, much more. Of course I'm leaving out many things. SF, I will explain the connection with feeding the circuit overseer in another sequence, but it's getting very late.

Nena

TMS

I forgot to say "thank you" for all of your suggestions and encouragement. Yes, we do plan to take them to Small Claims Court. I have pictures of almost all of my possessions.

Good Night, Nena

Tahoe

Hi Nena,

Sorry to read of your troubles. How awful to be treated like that by your own flesh and blood!

Haven't seen much of TMS around lately and wondered how he was getting on.

Take care,

T

nilfun

Sick, sick, sick.

OMG, these people make me ill.

((Nena & TMS)))

Witnesses Sell Stolen Furniture to Feed Circuit Overseer

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