He kept both hands on the wheel and finally said, “I thought you knew about that.” I asked what he meant, and he said his mother had given him permission to use the card when he needed groceries or gas. I told him his mother had been dead for seventeen years. He stared straight ahead and admitted he had been using her name when signing for the charges. The four purchases were for expensive electronics from the same store, not groceries or anything I would have needed. Then he said something that made me realize the charges weren’t the part he was most afraid of.
He told me he’d been selling the electronics online to pay off a debt he’d accumulated over the past year. I asked why he had taken my emergency card instead of asking me for help. He said he knew I would ask questions, and he didn’t want me to know he’d been struggling financially. I told him embarrassment was one thing, but using a dead woman’s name to authorize purchases was another. Then he admitted he’d taken the card months earlier while helping me organize my wallet and had been waiting for the right opportunity to return it. I asked whether there were any other charges I hadn’t found yet. He finally said, “There are five more.”
I called the card company immediately and reported the card stolen, then gave them the dates my grandson had been driving me to appointments. They opened an investigation and confirmed the additional charges were made using the same signature. My grandson eventually admitted everything and agreed to repay every dollar. I didn’t press charges, but I told him he could no longer drive me anywhere or have access to my belongings. A month later, he came to my house with the first repayment and apologized without making excuses. He had spent eighteen months taking care of me, and in a few minutes I realized I had never actually known how much he was hiding from me.
