Page 17 - Bee-MAR2023

March 2023 www.ThriftyBee.biz
year’s event. She said the awards presentations
are always well received. The awards are all
beautiful, hand made with ribbons and other
do-it-yourself materials. There are various
award categories including for design, embroi-
dery, knitting and related topics.
Admission to the Rainbow Express show is $5
for a two-day wristband. Children under 12 are
free, and husbands are free when they accom-
pany their wives. To enter items or for more in-
formation, contact shadowmountainquilters@
gmail.com.
A 48-Year Theft
Forty-eight years is a long time to pull off a
scam, but one woman managed to keep it going
for that long. The crime: forging her mother’s
signature on the back of checks for widows’ ben- filed for bankruptcy and claimed she had no
efits ... for 48 years.
During all those years she continued to send in
fraudulent paperwork while impersonating her
mother -- who died in 1973 -- and continued
to collect the money. Her excuse, when finally
caught, was that her abusive husband told her
to keep cashing the checks. She divorced him
and was then out from under his control, yet she
continued to cash the checks.
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Yes, when her mother died she had to take in VA not demand proof of life or some type of
and raise her younger siblings, so it’s possibly verification about where the money is going
understandable that she assumed she could when benefits are paid year after year, decade
take the money that had been meant for her after decade?
mother. But eventually those children grew up Surely someone could have done the math. If
and were no longer minors living at home. the mother was X years old when she started
In the middle of the decades-long theft, she collecting the widow benefits, what were the
odds she was still living 20 years, 30 years or 40
income, even though she was receiving the De- years later? Couldn’t someone have asked for
partment of Veterans Affairs benefits checks all verification? Or gone to the door? Just receiv-
along. ing handwritten forms over the years doesn’t
She’ll need to repay the $416,000 that she stole seem like much of an effort to safeguard the
(not likely to happen), but there’s no jail sen- funds that are sent out.
tence, only a year of home confinement, be- That $416,000 (that they’ll likely never see
cause the perp in this case is now 76 years old. again) is a lot of money.
Why, inquiring minds want to know, does the (c) 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.