My Grandmother Lost Her Money, I Lost My Job, Double Swindle, Thanks To Me.

Trying to be something I wasn't...Issue #51

ifOnlyi…hadn’t taken the phone when my Grandmother handed it to me or innocently given the person on the other end of the phone the information they asked for, things would have ended differently.

My Grandmother (Grammy) was staying in our home for a long weekend and, by now, was getting to a point where she was in need of care. Her hearing was nearly gone, her health was suffering, and she had a series of strokes.

This was the only Grandparent I ever knew or met. Emmy was on my Mom’s side of the family, and she was passionate about business. In fact, my Mom's parents were in the car sales business way back then and set up the Universal Motor Car company in Los Angeles to sell used cars initially.

Grammy Emmy and Grandpa Ernest, immigrants from Sweden and Germany, were among the first to have a Volkswagen Dealership in Los Angeles, California. They also traveled to Germany and met with the Porsche factory to discuss adding a dealership to their already successful VW line.

As I learned later in life, Porsche offered them the right to fully distribute and set up dealerships throughout the country.

WOW, holly shit biscuits, I’m still in awe writing this. It helped that Emmy was born in Germany, a native German speaker, so a bond was easily built. Grammy spoke several languages fluently.

My Grandpa Ernest also ran a successful Chiropractic and massage clinic in the renowned Beverly Hills, Wilshire Country Club, so they bowed out of the Porche National business opportunity. I never had a chance to meet him, as he died the day I was conceived. So sad!

Porsche came back and asked them to take all of California, but being the honorable people they both were, they had to turn that offer down as well and just hoped they could have their one and only dealership added to their VW lineup.

It happened! YEA!!!

The amount of work they both were doing was incredible. My Aunt Karin was married, and her husband Bob worked for the dealership as well; then, when my Grandfather passed away from a busted appendix on the operating table, my Dad also started working there as well. It became a family affair. LOL

From everything I've learned, Emmy was a very hard person to work for, tough all the way around. So Uncle Bob wanted to move on and open a dealership of his own. With the help of Emmy and Dad, he secured and opened a Datsun Dealership, which later became Nissan.

Uncle Bob grew this business to multiple dealerships and it soon became America's number one Nissan dealership. Enough about that!

Back to Grammy.

The house phone rang while Grammy was with us, and she loved to grab it before anyone else. It's funny how people have their quirks. She kept saying hello, and then the other party started chatting, and I heard, "OK, ok, sure.” She handed me the phone and asked me to help with the rest of the details.

“Hi, what’s this all about?” I asked. “It’s about the investment your Grandmother wants to make.” The voice on the other end of the phone uttered. Next, he told me all about the deal. It was way over my teenage head, but it sounded fantastic. Grammy. obviously was not mentally fit at 73 years old. She thought it might be a good investment to increase her retirement pot. He asked if I could get her checkbook, and we would close the deal that day.

Grammy agreed and told me where the checkbook was, so I went and brought it back so I could finish the deal for her. Having never done anything like this before, I thought I was doing her a good deed by helping.

Boys and Girls, Ladies and Gentlemen, did I ever F*ck up?

The man on the other end of the phone asked me to read all the numbers on the check, and that is what I did. He then said, “All the paperwork and further details will arrive in the mail.” He offered congratulations and all the niceties that a first-class scammer would proffer.

My mother arrived home on time, and we shared what happened during the afternoon call. Fire was beginning to fly out of Mom’s eyes, and it was about to blow out of her mouth right in my face. I could tell she was fuming. She shouted, "You let my Mother get scammed, and you helped make it all happen, Ollie, instead of protecting her! Why would you do that? What were you thinking.”

I was shaking, thinking, what have I done? I thought I was being helpful, knowing absolutely zero about scammers on phone calls. I decided, there and then, that was the last time I would help when asked and certainly the last time I would get the belt whipping on my ass.

As it turned out, the scammer cashed the check within minutes of me giving them the bank account numbers, and there was no recall. However, I was told later down the road that the bank had refunded the money to Grandma with the help of Mom and her attorneys. Ollie never learned of the positive news when it happened. I carried that guilt for years longer than I needed to.

My job in the computer room

That same day, Mom fired me from my job in computer operations in the family business. This became a pattern between me and my Mom. Whenever I did something she believed was wrong at home, my punishment would always affect my right to work for the family company. Control, control, control...

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#…ifOnlyi… short stories are published chronologically and follow my life growing up in California from 4 years old. If you’ve just found me, the stories will come together when you start reading from...Issue #1