for your parents or for anybody, keep an eye on them. My sister and niece went up to Mom's apartment so my niece could take home what she wanted. She had wanted the dining room set because she doesn't have one right now. Their kitchen is still gutted, they are remodeling, and they have pretty much nothing in there but their appliances.
And she also chose Tony. Tony is a decades-old plastic Tony the Esso Tiger cookie jar that has been sitting on Mom's counters for decades. He was a give-away from a local gas station (remember the Esso gas stations? "Put a tiger in your tank") so many years ago, we don't really know just how old Tony is. But he's missing. Tony is missing.
My sister had a key to the apartment and I had a key. It turns out, too, that one of Mom's caregivers also had a key. Mom told me about a week or so after she was admitted to the nursing home that Kim had a key to the apartment. When I asked her why, she said it was because Kim got evicted from her apartment and was using Mom's place to crash. Mom trusted Kim, even though both my sister, brother, and I told her this was no good. She had asked Kim to give her the key back and to please start paying her back the money and, of course, Kim then stopped even going to visit Mom. I should add that Kim had also gotten fired from the organization she was working for as a caregiver. So she would "visit" with Mom. As far as we know, she still has a key to the apartment. In addition, Mom had loaned her money....she told me the amount was probably around $200, which means that it's more likely around $600 or so. She would borrow money in little amounts, never pay it back, and Mom just kept loaning her more. Kim was kind of skanky....always showing up in really short shorts and tube tops with no bra. Very unprofessional. Not to mention way too old to be wearing those clothes. We tried to get Mom to call the agency to get her to stop coming there because neither my sister nor I trusted Kim in the slightest. But Mom did. Unfortunately.
I wanted to have the locks on the door changed as soon as we heard about Kim having the key, but my sister said it wasn't really an issue, that Mom really didn't have anything worth taking. And she really doesn't. Tony probably doesn't have any serious value (although he might to a collector), but he's been part of our family for so long. But as soon as we realized that Kim had a key, we should have changed the locks. Right then and there. That's our fault.
My sister called me and asked me where Tony was. I said he was on the kitchen counter. "No, he's not!" They checked the entire apartment. No Tony. There are some other things missing now, too, some crystal bowls that Mom had way on the top of the kitchen cabinets. We were so busy with other things when we were up there that we didn't realize. We were there one time, looking for Dad's discharge papers (from the Marines), we were looking for information on the car that Mom had sold, we've been there. But we don't remember exactly when Tony went missing....we never really looked. I was there for the first two weeks or so right after Mom was admitted to the nursing home; I'd go in twice a day to spend time with Muffin. And then when one of the ladies came over to me (Muffin and I were out for a walk in her stroller) and said that it was really lucky that nobody had called the SPCA about Muffin being alone in the apartment, the next day I went up and brought Muffin home. And I didn't really go back to the apartment all that much until we needed papers and we needed information to complete paperwork for Medicare and such. We didn't check on Tony, why would we?
We're going to completely clean out the apartment this weekend and go through her things to see what all is there.
It's a shame. There's nothing we can do. We can't prove it was Kim, although who else would it have been? Nobody else has a key. She really took advantage of Mom.
So keep an eye on your caregivers....it never hurts to be watchful.
And she also chose Tony. Tony is a decades-old plastic Tony the Esso Tiger cookie jar that has been sitting on Mom's counters for decades. He was a give-away from a local gas station (remember the Esso gas stations? "Put a tiger in your tank") so many years ago, we don't really know just how old Tony is. But he's missing. Tony is missing.
My sister had a key to the apartment and I had a key. It turns out, too, that one of Mom's caregivers also had a key. Mom told me about a week or so after she was admitted to the nursing home that Kim had a key to the apartment. When I asked her why, she said it was because Kim got evicted from her apartment and was using Mom's place to crash. Mom trusted Kim, even though both my sister, brother, and I told her this was no good. She had asked Kim to give her the key back and to please start paying her back the money and, of course, Kim then stopped even going to visit Mom. I should add that Kim had also gotten fired from the organization she was working for as a caregiver. So she would "visit" with Mom. As far as we know, she still has a key to the apartment. In addition, Mom had loaned her money....she told me the amount was probably around $200, which means that it's more likely around $600 or so. She would borrow money in little amounts, never pay it back, and Mom just kept loaning her more. Kim was kind of skanky....always showing up in really short shorts and tube tops with no bra. Very unprofessional. Not to mention way too old to be wearing those clothes. We tried to get Mom to call the agency to get her to stop coming there because neither my sister nor I trusted Kim in the slightest. But Mom did. Unfortunately.
I wanted to have the locks on the door changed as soon as we heard about Kim having the key, but my sister said it wasn't really an issue, that Mom really didn't have anything worth taking. And she really doesn't. Tony probably doesn't have any serious value (although he might to a collector), but he's been part of our family for so long. But as soon as we realized that Kim had a key, we should have changed the locks. Right then and there. That's our fault.
My sister called me and asked me where Tony was. I said he was on the kitchen counter. "No, he's not!" They checked the entire apartment. No Tony. There are some other things missing now, too, some crystal bowls that Mom had way on the top of the kitchen cabinets. We were so busy with other things when we were up there that we didn't realize. We were there one time, looking for Dad's discharge papers (from the Marines), we were looking for information on the car that Mom had sold, we've been there. But we don't remember exactly when Tony went missing....we never really looked. I was there for the first two weeks or so right after Mom was admitted to the nursing home; I'd go in twice a day to spend time with Muffin. And then when one of the ladies came over to me (Muffin and I were out for a walk in her stroller) and said that it was really lucky that nobody had called the SPCA about Muffin being alone in the apartment, the next day I went up and brought Muffin home. And I didn't really go back to the apartment all that much until we needed papers and we needed information to complete paperwork for Medicare and such. We didn't check on Tony, why would we?
We're going to completely clean out the apartment this weekend and go through her things to see what all is there.
It's a shame. There's nothing we can do. We can't prove it was Kim, although who else would it have been? Nobody else has a key. She really took advantage of Mom.
So keep an eye on your caregivers....it never hurts to be watchful.
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Being in the profession myself, it hurts me to see stories like this. I know it happens.
