Okay, stuff like this makes me furiously angry

[Tobra]

I have this old guy I have been taking care of for about 3 years. He is an old handyman, disabled now, but is the sort of guy who maintained apartment complexes, schools. If something breaks and he can't get the part, he makes it, that kind of guy. 50 years of doing that stuff, you collect a lot of tools.

He had home health nurses coming out, and one day they got a temp. The temp called the county and had them come out and condemn the trailer where these people lived. Being social workers, they want to help these poor, unfortunate elderly people. The way they did this was packed up everything they owned, except for a few clothes, and put their stuff in storage, you know, until they could find them a new home. Never did find them a new home. They never could find out where their stuff was, but have been trying to get it back the entire time.

A few weeks ago, all their stuff got sold at auction, because the folks "helping" them stopped paying the rental on the storage, without any notice to the people who had been trying to get their stuff back the last 2 years.

I just wrote a letter to their state assembly guy. Might get more action out of the investigative TV reporter though.

Any suggestions on who I can light a fire under?

[Roswell]

^^^

the temp, literally...

[masraum]

Wow! That sucks and is crap on so many levels.

reminds me of this trailer that I saw the other day.


But I assume in this case, it's more about incompetence than maliciousness.

[speedster911]

Find out the " agency" that was providing the care. Was it through a hospital social services , Home Health or Hospice? If it was, there should be a case manager that can be a point of contact. The challenge is many hospitals defer patients to other companies that may serve an outlying area. But a case manager at a hospital should still be a point person.

If it was through county social services, there should still be a case manager assigned, or was assigned.

Did they have a will or a trust? Were you in any way executor of their " estate". Did they have next of kin? I ask because that may be a legal path you use that they didn't contact you or family member.

Ask the storage place who was paying the bill. That may help but if your not related or have legal rights to the info, they may say we aren't telling you.

[911 Rod]

That is terrible. Very sad.
Ya, see if the storage place will give you the name of the person.

[Tobra]

I know the home health agency, they are not the problem. The problem is with county social services. I would be more likely to get the Pope on the phone than any of those people.

These are people that are alive, and lost everything they had due to the county "helping" them.

The stuff is gone, the name of the storage place is not information that it is possible to get, because social services does not answer or return phone calls. Even if they had the name of the storage place, the stuff is gone.

[stevej37]

Originally Posted by masraum

Wow! That sucks and is crap on so many levels.

reminds me of this trailer that I saw the other day.


But I assume in this case, it's more about incompetence than maliciousness.

Best movie of the year for Netflix.
A lot of truth to it.

[javadog]

I would be looking for a lawyer, like pronto.

[rfuerst911sc]

Call ALL the local news programs and tell them your side of the story . You only need one to see the " value " of the story . They will be all over it . I can see why you are angry , horrible story . Good luck and keep us updated .

[masraum]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

Call ALL the local news programs and tell them your side of the story . You only need one to see the " value " of the story . They will be all over it . I can see why you are angry , horrible story . Good luck and keep us updated .

Very public revelation and shaming about how terribly these people were screwed and the monumental cockup that caused it will probably get more results (at a lower cost) than just about anything else.

Yeah, a lawyer will get results, but then the lawyer will take most of the money that they win.

[Eric 951]

get the local investigative journalist on it. They love exposing this type of corruption and people love seeing justice done (think Rob Wolcheck and his "hall of shame")

people who take advantage of the elderly need to be kneecapped

[flatbutt]

+1 on going public. Shame the bastards.

[Tobra]

Well then, Call Curtis it is.

Have to check with the patient to see if he is cool with being on television first.

No way these folks can afford an attorney.

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by stevej37

Best movie of the year for Netflix.
A lot of truth to it.

A movie to watch to the end definitely.

[look 171]

Those county folks still and will always think they are doing the poor or the needy good every day 'til sunday. What BS and may of his items can't be replaced.

MIL was hospitalized for bed sores and has a bad case of virus of some sort. Immediately they someone from Kaiser claimed elder abuse. My wife was pissed and continue to question the guy how the fook he came up with that since wife and mom do not live in the same house hold. Something is really wrong with the system. He told here he must check one of the boxes. People get hurt because of these boxes or they can lose everything.

[RobFrost]

Originally Posted by masraum

But I assume in this case, it's more about incompetence than maliciousness.

*Malice.


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[A930Rocket]

This just plain sucks. Stoopid bureaucrats.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by javadog

I would be looking for a lawyer, like pronto.

Originally Posted by Tobra

No way these folks can afford an attorney.

Tob.....

First off - thank you for trying to help this fellow.

Second - if you can get this resolved without an attorney that's the way to go.

However - if you run into more problems and get stuck - keep in mind that there are attorneys who can help you just by giving you information about who to contact and where to find them. So try to think of them as a resource of information - in addition to whatever you'd normally think of them as.

It's certainly worth a few phone calls and you never know.

I have found having some attorneys as friends that I grew up with has come in very handy at times when I just wanted to know who to turn to for some assistance on something.

The networking they are involved in day to day is usually a great amount.

Good luck and hope you are able to get some relief for this bloke!

[dafischer]

Hi, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you.

[dw1]

Hearing stories like this make me very sad and quite angry. (New word: Saangry ?)

A few thoughts from dealing with lawyers who specialize in elder issues:

Did the elderly gentleman have any family or relatives at all? If so, then I believe by law the people who did this have a legal obligation to notify relatives or at least place public notices regarding the condemnation of the property and disposition of it. If the responsible parties did not do this - lawsuit city.

I also very strongly agree with notifying the media. Don't forget newspapers - many of them have regular "Bamboozled" feature stories and this is the kind of thing that would interest them. Because of their need to fill column-inches, it would likely be much easier to get newspaper reporter's attention than TV reporters.