Possibly the worst week I've ever had!
Last week was possibly the WORST week I've ever had! (Great kind of week to follow a week of giving "Thanks", don't you think?!).
The Friday, day after Thanksgiving, my washer stopped working! I had LOADS of laundry that desperately needed to be done, (normally I do at least 1 full load of laundry EVERY DAY) but nothing could be washed the ENTIRE weekend! As Spencer put it clearly, he was forced "to double dip"! Three days later, a service call, 5 minutes of inspecting and tightening the wires in our washers control panel, and an expense of $74 to fix it, my washer was working again! Hallelujah!
On Saturday, the 28TH, we had all of our families over in the morning at our house to watch the baby blessing of Bentley and eat breakfast with us. We told everyone to be at our house no later than 9:30 that morning and not a minute late because someone from our bishopric was going to be at the house to witness the blessing and we didn't want to make him wait... surprisingly, EVERYONE, but the member of the bishopric made it to our house in time that morning. We had a crowded house of 17 hungry kids and 12 adults patiently waiting to begin the blessing, but minutes passed and still no one from our bishopric showed! (this was really the last straw that broke the camels back; our ward here has been nothing but disappointing... it took them a year before they even got our records; despite the fact that they were transferred the first week we moved to our new home last year, and then after wards, we personally requested the records be transferred 2 other times but they never processed the requests! We've never received callings and the bishop and his counselors have neither come or called to visit with us EVER! Flat out discouraging and I'll be glad once we move, hopefully, to a friendlier ward.) Anyhow, Spencer made a few phone calls around 10 o'clock and finally tracked down the bishop; he said his counselors must had forgotten about the blessing and he in turn hurried over to witness the blessing. Thanks Bishop; now I can no longer say that he's never been to our house.
After the baby blessing, I took the boys to swim at the indoor hotel pool where my parents were staying right next to Thanksgiving Point; after which we hopped over in the car to Thanksgiving Point with my mom to renew my family membership. I left all the boys in the car, along with my niece Tori to watch over them while I ran inside for a minute to renew my pass. When I returned to the car, I found Tori standing locked outside of it while the boys were all still inside the car watching a movie! She had hopped out of her seat in front to help Bentley with his pacifier, not knowing that when she closed her door to open his, both doors locked! For about 10 minutes I stood outside of the car, with Tori and my mom, begging Noah to undo his seat belt and unlock the door for us; but each time I'd ask him he'd tell me he was "BUSY" watching his movie and "not to bother him"!!! Seriously?! All together, he finally just ignored me completely! The kid just wasn't going to help out at all! It was FREEZING outside and I was wearing sandals and a light sweater; not appropriately dressed to be in this kind of a predicament. I considered calling Triple A to come and unlock the car for me but didn't want to wait an hour, so instead I called my dad to come pick me up and take me home so I could grab the spare key (b.t.w., we're even lucky we had one- we just had a 2ND copy made a couple months before; it cost an arm and a leg to make because it's one of those keys with the smart chip in it)... anyhow, my mother volunteered to stay behind and brace the cold to keep watch from outside of the car over the boys... bless her heart. I hurried home to get the key, we returned to unlock the car and the boys didn't even bat an eyelash from where they were sitting the whole time watching Robin Hood.
I thought that was as bad as things could get for the week... until...
...this past Thursday, when I was taking Noah to preschool, we arrived late, and just as he was climbing out of the car, he tripped over his boots and did a face plant SMACK onto the asphalt! I was already on the other side of the car, scrambling to unbuckle Bentley, when I heard him fall and I could tell just by the sound of it it wasn't just going to be a small scrape on his hands or knees; instead, when I ran over to help him up, he already had a bump the size of a grapefruit on his forehead, with indentations from the gravel in it, a scraped up nose and a cut lip that was swollen! I cleaned him up the best I could; poor kid, he was pretty shaken up over the whole ordeal; I considered taking him home instead of sending him into class looking a mess, but it was "Polar Express Day" at school that day, and he was wearing pajamas to class and had been looking forward to the party in class as well, so once he was settled and I was sure that his injuries wouldn't worsen, I sent him on his way.
Noah, Daniel & Bella,
after school let out that day;
don't you just love that Bella went to school with curlers in her hair
and I was happy to see Noah smiling in the picture, having forgotten about his mishap earlier.
Even I was a bit shaken up over Noah's fall that day; but I had errands to run in the two hours while he was at school and I needed to get on with things. With the two babies in tow (Cohen & Bentley) I made a quick stop to Best Buy in Orem to inquire about some repairs I needed done on the lens of our digital camera. The parking lot was a bit crowded that afternoon, but I lucked out and found a spot near the entrance to the store. I didn't even bother unstrapping Bentley from his car seat,rather, I opted just to carry him out in it and carry Cohen inside the store on my other hip. Just as I got inside to put the boys in the stroller I realized I left my wallet inside my car, so I retraced my steps back out to the car to grab it. There's nothing better than wasting valuable time! I got back inside, this time with my wallet, asked the Geek Squad about fixing my camera lens then shopped the Disney movie isle for a minute before realizing I already owned all of the new releases available. My errand was complete at Best Buy and so back out to the car I went with both boys. By this time, Bentley was crying and wanted a bottle, so I was half distracted by him, but not enough to not notice that the car, or truck I should say, next to me, was parked SUPER close! Don't you just hate that?! When I'm shopping with kids, usually I like to pull the cart right up next to my door so I can keep an eye on the others, my wallet and my groceries while I buckle one kid into their seat... I didn't have a choice in this instance though because there was no room between my car and the one parked next to mine. So I left the cart, with Cohen sitting in it and right next him my wallet, about 3 feet distance away. It took me only a second to snap Bentley's car seat into place, but it was a second too long, because a thief snatched my wallet out from my cart!!! only, problem was I didn't notice the wallet was gone immediately! I continued by strapping Cohen into his car seat; I closed the doors, pushed my cart across the street into place over by other carts; returned to the car and started it up and proceeded to back out of my tight parking spot... (I still hadn't taken notice of my wallet being gone because it wasn't in the shopping cart when I parked it, so I just assumed it was already in the car)... just as I was pulling out of my spot, I saw from my rear view mirror a man, with a large red gas can run up behind me and along the side of my car; he looked like he was asking for money and generally I don't give money out to strangers... I continued to back out of my parking spot, but just as I put the car into drive, I looked ahead and he was standing in front of my vehicle. He motioned for me to roll my windows down and so reluctantly I did so. He told me a sob story about how he and his wife were out of gas and $$$ and needed a few bucks to get gas so they could get back to Salt Lake... I wanted to just drive away, but I couldn't, he was in my way, and part of me felt bad for the guy; I didn't want to be a scrooge so I went to grab for my wallet but just as I did so I remembered I kept some cash in the little compartment above where I stored my sunglasses... a 5 dollar bill dropped out onto my lap as I opened the compartment and instead of searching for some ones, I handed the 5 over to him. He hopped out of my way, and quickly enough, I was on my way.
I didn't actually realize that my wallet was gone until 2 hours after the fact; by this time, I'd already picked Noah up from school and returned home with Spencer and all the boys. I'd just laid the boys down for naps and started unpacking the car; during which time I went to grab my wallet. I couldn't find it! I searched my bags, the floor and compartments of the car... it was no where to be found! I called my in laws, to see if I had left it there on their kitchen counter or on the seats of their couch- they couldn't find it. By this time Spencer had already left with the car. I was beginning to get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, that's when Spencer called and told me to "call the banks and cancel all of my credit cards"!!! He had just received a call from our bank informing him that there was a large purchase made 15 minutes before at Walmart in Orem! I wanted to throw up! At last I knew what had happened to my wallet and I was pretty sure just who had snatched it; the man I gave $$$ too; though I couldn't be positive because I didn't see it happen.
Nothing could be worse than having your wallet stolen... well, correction, I'm sure there's many worse things that could happen, but that's about one of the worst things that has happened to me in my lifetime thus so far! I just bought that wallet two weeks earlier, and in it I had $60 in cash,my license, my debit card, Spencer's credit card, gift cards to Best Buy, Target & Old Navy, my new membership card to Thanksgiving Point, my membership card to the zoo and the aquarium, my voter registration card, my health insurance card, my Triple A card, my Costco membership card, my Nordstroms card (if the thief were smart he would have used that first because there was no limit on it) and worst of all, Noah & Ian's social security cards were in my wallet! Now let me just clarify; I don't usually store their cards in my wallet but since I just returned from traveling with them two weeks earlier I had to have them since that's the only form of ID I had available for them to go thru the check points at the airports... Forget about all of the money and gift cards; I'm sick about loosing those social security cards to this thief because he could steal their identity with them or damage their credit! I'm just hoping he's NOT smart enough to do something like that; better yet, maybe he didn't see them tucked away in the wallet... It's going to be WEEKS before I get that mess taken care of.
I spent 4 hours on the phone that afternoon and evening canceling cards and ordering new ones; I spent another 3 hours the following morning following up on the stolen social security cards. What a HUGE inconvenience this matter has been!
Spencer filed a police report within minutes of receiving the notification from the bank. The thief, along with a lady accomplice, purchased a meal at McDonalds in Orem, courtesy of my stolen bank card and they ALSO purchased a new television at Walmart worth nearly $600, paying for it with our $$$! Spencer met a police officer down at Walmart in Orem to watch taped footage of the thieves shopping with our stolen cards... he described the guy to me over the phone, and his description matched that of the guy who asked me in the parking lot of Best Buy for gas $$$! I knew it, I KNEW he was the theif! I just had that sick feeling about him after I helped him! Spencer said he could see on the stores video footage, the couple who stole my wallet, make their purchase with the store clerk; he said the girl handed my stolen debit/credit card to the clerk, the clerk asked for identification, and so the girl showed her MY liscense! Yes, you read that correctly, MY liscense! It makes me SO LIVID, thinking that this chick had the NERVE to try and pass herself off as ME! The worst part about the story is that the clerk thought not to really look at the picture in the id and proceeded to sell them the television!!! The couple walked out of the store with the tv, straight to their car, a silver/grey chevy truck and took off! Thank goodness Walmart had a survellence video system thru out their store and parking lot; too bad their store clerks aren't better equipped to keep an eye out for customers using stolen credit cards, and it's a SHAME the video couldn't capture their liscense plate number!
I was in shock on Thursday over the whole matter; even upset by it... but Friday morning I woke up determined to do something about it. Surely I can't be the only victim this creep has stollen from; my sister Tricia shared a similar encounter she had with her kids a few days earlier while in the parking lot of Costco in Orem; the same guy, same type description, approached her while she was carting her kids into the store and told her he needed some $$$ for gas to get up to Ogden, again he had the big empty red gas can in hand... then on Saturday while I was at Thanksgiving Point getting a new membership card, another girl told me about a similar encounter she had with a man carrying an empty red gas can in the parking lot of Ross in Orem; he asked her for $$$ so he could get to Salt Lake. She described the same man that stole from me to the "t"!
This guy has some nerve, to decieve and steal from good honest citazens, especially during this particular holiday season! Better yet, his girl friend has some nerve too and I'd like to run her face over for stealing my identity! (that's a bit much huh? Oh well, what can I say, I want vengence!)
I'm going to follow up on this police report; the guy is targeting holiday shoppers in Orem parking lots; he can't be that difficult NOT to spot... he's carrying a huge red empty gas tank, it's just the matter of being at the right place at the right time. I'm trying to spread the word via facebook and thru friends about him and tell people NOT to help him, to take his picture if they can with their cell phone cameras and CALL the Orem police immediately. I've even considered calling the local news stations to have them warn people about him and his scam. I'm going to file a complaint with Walmart; someone should talk to that clerk that asked for identification, saw MY picture and clearly not a face that matched from the woman presenting it to her... If you're reading this and live in Utah County and/or have family who does, tell them to keep watch for this man too! He deserves to be locked up this Christmas- he's definitely on Santa's "NAUGHTY" list and my "eat crap and die" list.
when I enjoyed a day out with all 4 of my boys,
visiting the fish aquarium in Sandy...
we dined out at the cafe there and sipped hot cocoa
before & after
petting Santa's reindeer corraled outside by the water tower.
I thought I'd add these last two pics...
See all things weren't so bad last week!
...seeing his little smiling face can always turn my frown upside down!
1 comments:
Oh, Steph! I'm so sorry!!! That is awful. I'm just sick for you. I would MOST DEFINITELY call the news. Why not? If all these people have already seen this guy, here's hoping the news will do a story, and someone will see him and call the cops. Plus, they could publish the surveillance pics and maybe someone will turn them in. The sooner they are caught the better, and the less likely they'll sell your kids SS cards. I'm crossing my fingers for ya!
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