Jitters & Jobs

If you've read this far I can't tell you how much we appreciate it. We want this story to be heard by anyone that will listen. These last few posts, in the scheme of things are very minor to the detail we will reveal in the upcoming reads. So, please stick with us, you're not going to want to miss it, but we have to tell you some of these things so you can get the idea and context of all that is coming. This post is a little longer than the last few so bare with me. There's lots to tell.

If you had ever been around Rhoda she's always wound up. She bounces her leg quickly and is always on the move. Dad used to complain that she wouldn't just sit still to watch a movie. Hindsight is always 20/20, but she always looked nervous and on edge. Little did we know, with all the schemes she had going it's a wonder how she even slept.

I had previously mentioned that she worked at a dermatology clinic. She had worked there a long time even before she met my dad, and I can't tell you exactly when but she "quit" the dermatology clinic. I don't remember what reason was given to us but there was talk that she hadn't quit at all.

At one point in time, my dad & Rhoda went on vacation with my grandpa and his wife. They went cross country and visited several casinos and National Parks and had a great time. While stopping to fuel up, she offered to pay. She pulls out a credit card and my grandpa notices that it wasn't her name on the card but one of the doctors that she works for. He asked her about it and she told him that the doctor said that she had been with them so long and worked so hard for him that he told her to use the card and enjoy her vacation, she deserved it. We asked her point blank about this at one point and she still denies it. But one day it made sense to me, if you were going to steal a card and use it... wouldn't you want it to be at random locations across the country so that when the charges appeared, it would just look like some unknown thief.

My grandpa who sees that dermatologist on a regular basis asked the doctor about the situation and told him he had seen her with the card. The story according to my grandpa, (again we have no proof of this story just word of mouth) was the doctor said they made her work for the remainder of the year to pay back the debt and then at the Christmas party while handing out bonuses, they gave her a pink slip. The timing of when she "quit" her job does fall in line with this story, but again I don't have any hard proof of this story.

She quickly found another job with a well established real estate company. She was the receptionist. She worked there for several years and began taking on more responsibilities like delivering their magazines and going and taking photos for the online tours. She would regularly bring home some of the bulk mailing items and said it was just to help out financially (they still never had any money). Dad would sometimes gripe and say that it wasn't fair that they had to use their own car and they didn't pay her any extra for her mileage or wear and tear on their car. She quit that job In 2009 saying that they wanted to promote her to the "back" and she didn't want that so she left.

She filed their taxes in 2009 and decided to deduct all of the car usage on their taxes that she had accumulated while delivering magazines and taking pictures. The IRS came back and asked for proof and records for mileage and usage. Of course she had none. So she writes a letter to the IRS (I have the tax return as well as the letter) it reads:

"Dear Sirs;

Here are the records I have. I lost some of my original paperwork due to the fact

that a filing cabinet I had my paperwork in got soaked during a bad leak we had in

our roof. I do apologize for this.

I have a list of the stops I made delivering magazines for (name of company). I

have the total miles per trip (But not between individual stops, all were in Lubbock

and I just went in order of doing them one by one as closely as possible). I did this

route twice a week. The total miles each time were 164.25 miles twice a week. The

magazines were stored at (name of company), so I went there to pick up

magazines and then start delivering. I was not reimbursed for the mileage on the

car.

I also did real estate photography for (name of company), driving my own car on

Tuesdays and Thursdays taking pictures of homes that were listed. Sometimes

there were a only a few home (1-5) and other times there were up to 15 or twenty

homes. These homes were scattered throughout Lubbock, Slaton, Idalou,

Wolfforth, sometimes Abernathy, Shallowater, Lake Ransom Canyon. I apologize

but I do not have the lists of these homes, I have left employment at (name of

company) in October of 2009 (due to the fact my husband was adamant that I had

to stop using my car for all this work - it was racking up too many miles and the

wear and tear on it as not being reimbursed) and each time pictures were taken

the lists were left with (company name). I also worked full time for them doing all

advertising and virtual tour work for their website. I was paid a salary but never

reimbursed for the mileage. At times I would also take pictures after hours or on

weekends for individual agents.

I am enclosing the mileage statement showing the date I purchased my car and

the odometer reading at that time (December 30, 2008, mileage of 48,812). I am

apologizing for the fact that I did make a mistake when calculating mileage - I

thought until I had to find this paper that my car had only 32,768 miles on it when I

bought it. I was very surprised when I pulled this out to send to you and saw the

difference. This is my ignorance and I am fully at fault as far as this goes."

Just a little note, there was no leak at dad's house. If there was a leak it certainly wasn't enough to destroy a filing cabinet and documents. And while the mileage might have been an irritant to my dad, he didn't make her quit her job because of it. Honestly, with what we know now, the likelihood of her not being paid for the extras is slim.

We asked her in a sit down meeting that Justin and I had with her earlier this year (more on that later) and I asked her why she left the real estate company and what she said to us was "I was turning in invoices for work I hadn't done." Why they didn't press charges I will never understand.

She told dad she "messed up on the taxes" and so they owed the IRS. Again, because she handled all the business, she spun the narrative how she wanted. The way Dad would tell the story is that the IRS didn't accept the mileage or something to the affect of she didn't turn something in right. So as a result of that ... there was a hold on Dad's savings account.

Her next job she went to a property management company. She was the receptionist and helped in the front office and worked there for 2-3 years I believe. But I remember the day she let us know that she didn't have a job there anymore because "they were bought out and were closing." The story didn't make sense to me that day, it didn't sit well with the details she was giving. A simple google search later would prove that it was another lie. (more details on this to come)

She now works at a local television station and no word of how it's going there.

So are you starting to see a pattern. You think you've got it figured out right? There can't be much more to the story right?

You are wrong.

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