Yesterday my 89 year old Grandpa, who is has an amputated leg and is in a wheelchair, was robbed of his medication and $400. His naivity may just have saved his life.
My Grandpa was home alone yesterday afternoon, my Grandma had gone to her Women's Club Meeting, and the door bell rang. He answered the door and two women and one man were standing there and they told him they were there to check on his roof. He got a new roof a few months ago so he said "oh, are you from Fresno Roofing?" and of course they said yes and so he let them in. As soon as they were in the man asked if he could use the restroom while one of the women said she would look around the house for leaks. The other women stayed in the kitchen and distracted him by asking him questions about what medications he took.
Whether or not my grandpa was alarmed by all of this is not clear but he never acted alarmed or showed any fear which probably prevented this from escalating to something violent. Also luckily my Grandma decided to go some errands after her club meeting otherwise she would have walked in on all of this and knowing my Grandma, she would have flipped out.
After they left my Grandpa called my Dad to ask if they had sent someone over to check the roof since my Dad had been responsible for getting the new roof for him, which of course he hadn't. So when my Grandma came home she checked the house to see if anything was missing and they called the police.
They ended up taking $400 cash and my Grandpa's perscription drugs, but it doesn't appear anything else was missing. The police told him he was really lucky that nothing more severe happened. My Grandpa is incredibly vulnerable and would have been defenseless if it had escalated so the fact that he let it all happen was probably a good thing. Times are not what they used to be, sadly. My granparents rarely even lock their doors. I think they learned their lesson though and will now be more vigilant about their safety. I hope these people feel good about taking advantage of a frail old man.
In related news I ordered pepper spray online a few days ago and at the time felt a little paranoid for having done so but now not so much. I am going to take it with me when I go running and leave it by my bed at night. This is the world we live in and I plan on living in it for quite some time, even if I had to blind someone temporarily in the process:)
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8 comments:
Poor Grandpa, what a scary experience!!!
Well it does give him something to talk about at the Coffee Shop;)
i think you having pepper spray, and having it while running/training is a very good idea. good for you.
that fuckin sucks
I'm gonna go on a serious tear about this. Who the F*** robs grandpa it's not like we all don't have one. I'm sure they were druggies but that's no excuse. I understand that society is never going to be perfect but I don't understand what kind of psycho-path preys on the elderly, the disabled and children. If I was in charge there would be more serious punishment for those who prey upon those that we as a society are suposed to protect.
On a side bar it appears that these crooks are taking a cue from our gov. who choose to make more slashes to services for the elderly the sick and kids with special needs. I'm not saying cuts don't need to be made but I for one would sacrifice many other services before I would take away services for these people.
I've heard it said that you can always judge a society by how they treat the youngest and the oldest members. It all just makes me sad.
It makes me sad too Monti.
Gah, that freaks me out. I'm really glad he is ok.
That's terrible. A group of people tried to do that to my mom in Madera too. It seems to be a fairly common tactic.
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