…Mr. Richard Hale. Your daughter-in-law’s father. He submitted a document naming himself as successor trustee.”
I had never met Richard Hale more than twice. He was a retired bank officer. He knew exactly how education accounts worked.
The representative, Ms. Patel, explained. Richard had submitted a forged form claiming I’d appointed him as “successor trustee” in case I became unable to manage the accounts. Along with it was a letter, supposedly from my doctor, saying I’d had a stroke.
“The request was set to process on Friday,” Ms. Patel said. “But your accounts require a verbal confirmation call to you for any transfer over ten thousand dollars. When we called the phone number on the form, a man answered and said he was your son. We weren’t satisfied. So we put a hold on it.”
The phone number was Richard’s.
I filed a fraud report that day. The financial institution locked all three accounts and changed the trustee rules so that only I, in person, could authorize any change.
Then I told my son, Paul. He hadn’t known his father-in-law was involved. He’d known his wife, Diana, was “looking into” the college funds. He’d told her to leave them alone.
“She said her dad would ‘take care of it,'” Paul said. “I thought she meant he’d talk to her about it.”
Richard Hale was charged with forgery and attempted theft. Diana was charged as an accomplice. The Dubai trip was cancelled.
My oldest granddaughter, Emily, applied to college that fall. When her acceptance letter came, she called me before she called her parents. “Grandma,” she said, “is the money still there?” I told her every single dollar was waiting for her. She cried. So did I.
