Today the phone rang.  David and I were getting ready to go buy some apple cider and then go out to eat.  But the phone rang and David answered it.  Let me say this first before I go on.  I don’t always answer the phone if I am busy or think it might be a salesman.  We do get sales calls at about the same time every day and I stopped answering the phone at those times.  But David cannot stand to hear the phone ring and always answers.Then he will engage with the sales person to tell them to take our phone number off their list, but they never do.

Anyway, the phone rang just as we were getting ready to leave and David answered it. He came carrying the phone to me saying it was my sister on the phone with an emergency.  I took the phone and my sister was sobbing on the other end.  It seems she and her daughter, my niece,were in a car accident.  She kept talking through her sobs so I asked her if someone else could talk.
Then a policeman came on the phone and told me they had been in an accident and that they both did not have life threatening injuries.  Then he said that my niece had alcohol in her and I told him she did not drink.  Then he said she had told him she had not been feeling well and was taking cold medicine that had alcohol in it.  She was going to be taken to jail nevertheless for wreckless driving and would I like to speak with her?  Of course and she got on the line still sobbing saying she didn’t want to spend the night in jail so they had a lawyer to talk to me. Now this is where my spidey  senses should have been alerted, but no.  The lawyer got on and I asked him what happened and that my niece said the accident was not her fault.  That the lady had pulled out in front  of her.  I asked about the other driver and the lawyer said she was a pregnant lady.  My heart sank. Back on line to my niece.

I then asked my niece where my sister was and she said she had been taken to the hospital.  She was hysterical about spending a night in jail and the lawyer said she needed bond money.  I asked her where her Dad was.  She said he was out of town. My sister and her husband never go anywhere without the other.  Again, my spidey senses should have been alerted, but they were not. Then I asked her why she didn’t call her brother and she said something I did not understand and then the  lawyer got back on the phone to explain to me the circumstances that she would need bail to stay out of jail.  I asked him how much was bail and he said, $90,000 and my heart sank  again.But then the court would take ten per cent which was $9,000.  Then he asked, well,how much could you send? Now, dear reader, my spidey senses should have been jumping off the charts, but nooooo.  I said I would have to talk to my husband and I asked the lawyer for his call back number.  The phone suddenly went dead.

I told David we were going up there, a one and a half hour drive.  My sister and niece needed me!  We both packed bags expecting to spend the night and off we went.  I proceeded to tell David what the lawyer had told me.  I had even taken notes!  We had to make a stop for gas out of town when David told me, “Call your sister.”  I said, “ What, she is in the hospital!”  “Call your sister,” he repeated so while he pumped gas, I typed in my sister’s number and it rang and rang and my brother-in-law answered.  I said,”Are you home?”  “Yes,” he said.  “Is(my sister’s name) there?  By that time something was dawning on me.  He seemed confused by my questions.  Then my spidey senses finally started working and I realized we almost were scammed.  If not for David thinking maybe things weren’t exactly kosher we would have continued on to see my sister in the hospital where she obviously was not!

When we started putting the pieces together I noticed that things did not add up.  How was the lawyer at the accident so quickly?   How did they know my niece and sister’s names and I realize I had given them to the person on the phone. And why did the lawyer hang up when I asked for his callback number?  I think they knew the jig was up when I wanted the fake lawyer’s phone number! I was so thankful that my sister was well and at home, that my niece was not going to jail , that there was no pregnant lady. All there was were some very good actors on the phone. The girl who played  my niece deserves an Academy Award!

I am writing this as a warning.  I never thought I could be easily tricked like I was today.  These thieves are good at their work.  They know how to play  on people’s emotions.  All I could think at the time was my loved ones needed help. I was an easy prey.  Thank God for a husband who sensed something was not right.  Don’t let this happen to you. Never send money, we didn’t.  Ask for a callback number, I did do that. And never offer up too much information to a stranger on the phone.  I unwittingly did just that,  I learned valuable lessons today and will never be that gullible again.  I do know never to send money or give credit card numbers or bank account numbers to people you do hot know or have not called yourself.

I hope you have learned something from what happened to us today. There are very scary people waiting to prey on us.  Bye.