Land of the Lost

(Due to recent events, some names have been excluded to protect the guilty)

The foundation has been laid. There might me some additional details that are added here and there, but here is where we get into the thick of things. I hope you are already have a lot of questions. Get ready to add to them. This is going to blow your mind, at least I hope it does.

This land has always been something that Dad has been proud of. It's a part of his identity. He's lived there since 1991, so almost 30 years of his life. He's built buildings, laid concrete, planted gardens, and created a pond. He loves that land.

As Justin mentioned before, I have horses out at Dad's. During the summer of 2018, one of the horses was injured pretty severely and required us to be out there tending to her twice a day for several hours at a time, so we were out there a lot. Because Dad is now retired, he was there most of the time and would come out and sit with us on the patio while we tended to Daisy.

In August, on one of the late afternoons, we were sitting out on the patio after caring for the horse, and just hanging out which was a very regular occurrence. We knew it was going to be a rough conversation, but Johnathon (my husband) mentions to Dad that he had started getting calls from creditors on his work phone and it was becoming a bit of a problem. Dad swore that there was no way she had any loans out, so I played him a voicemail I had on my phone from just the day before. This upset Dad quite a bit, but he wasn't completely surprised. He said "I told her if she ever did this again I was going to divorce her." This was not a unique comment, he would say things like that quite often.

So in the progression of the conversation where we tell him how often the phone calls would happen and him being insistent on this being the final straw, he says "I wonder whose name this land is in. I don't want to lose my land." And with the very next sentence he says, oh and she's on probation again for $20,000 from her last job.

He said what she had told him was that the office manager at the property management company she was working at previously, knew her past with the conviction in the 80s and stole the $20,000 and framed her for it.

With those two comments, this whole story becomes unraveled.

That night after I returned home, I received a phone call from Dad. He said he talked to her and she said that the loans were not hers but her daughter-in-law's. That she had called the daughter-in-law and confronted her for it, and that she (the daughter in law) was sobbing and apologizing. The story goes, the daughter in law had listed her as a reference and when the loan companies couldn't reach either of them that they in turn would call us trying to reach her, in order to reach the daughter-in-law. With an eye roll, I explained to Dad that was a lie. She had to be lying, because I'm 97% sure the daughter-in-law didn't have mine, Justin's or Johnathon's personal or work number. How would they have gotten that info. Dad didn't know how to respond. He was so disconnected with any financial dealings or how the process for these small loans worked, he didn't know what to believe.

The following day, I decided to do a little research based on Dad's comment out on the porch about whose name the land was listed under. It's public record at the county appraisal district. After doing a quick search for the address, my stomach dropped. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and my mind raced with questions.

The name listed as the owner of the land was neither my dad nor her, but some random name I had never heard before. I called the appraisal district just to verify what I was reading and they told me the information was correct. I called Justin and told him what I found, he pulled up the same information.

On the appraisal district site, you can see the deed history. The listing went from

"Blue Goose Mfg., to her name, and then a the same gentleman's name now listed as the owner. We had to be certain. This was going to crush dad.

He didn't own the land.

In trying to be careful with all the implications, Justin looked up the gentleman listed as the property owner and found out that he has a real estate business in Lubbock, and decided to make a phone call. He spoke with the gentleman himself. His statement was "oh, yeah I remember her. We foreclosed on that land a long time ago and she came in here bawling and squalling begging me to not kick them off the land so she's been paying $150 a month rent on it since."

I hope your jaw just dropped the way ours did on hearing this. It took Justin and me a while to wrap our brains around what the land owner had told us. What do we do? We knew this was a game changer, and we also knew... someone had to tell Dad. Since it was still in the middle of the day, Justin was at work, and we still had to go out there for the horse... I drew the short straw.

I sent my kids out to tend to things and I sat to tell Dad what we had found out. I will never forget that day or the look on his face. He didn't quite understand it all. He had been so disconnected with everything for so long, it took some explaining. She had taken care of things for so long he didn't know how any of this worked. It was one of the longest afternoons of my life. I pulled up the website and the deed history for him to see for himself and I still don't think any of it sank in for him, he was in shock.

Of course, he called her and told her what we found out. She said that it wasn't right and she would find out what was going on. Within a matter of a few moments she calls back and said she had spoken to the secretary at the land owner's office and they said they had made a mistake and filed their paperwork in the wrong county. That is was supposed to be filed in Hockley County and they filed it in Lubbock. Dad didn't know what to believe. At this point, it was her word against ours.

This all happened on a Wednesday and that same Friday they had already planned a trip to Cloudcroft, NM with other family members and Dad said he didn't know what to do but he didn't want to just leave her at the house so they would just go ahead with the plans as is. Justin and I knew that she would "win him over" while they were gone so we decided to take action to see if we could protect Dad.

One of Johnathon's cousins was married to an amazing woman and lawyer named Tina. We decided to go sit with her and see if she had any advice for us. She decided to pull up what she could and found the court case. She says she's on probation for theft but not for $20,000, but for a LOT more.

She and Dad were set to come back from Cloudcroft, NM on Wednesday, August 15th, 2018. I was putting gas in my car to head out to once again take care of the horse when Dad calls. He says, we got it figured out, she talked to them and I only owe $10,000 on the land and it will be mine. I had to stop him. I said "no Dad, you don't own anything, you are renting that land!" I went on to tell him that we had also found out that her theft charge wasn't for $20,000 it was for the much larger amount. He was silent.

I guess, he was determined to verify what she was the truth or have someone on their side, and so he called Justin too and told him that they called the landowner's office and figured it out and Justin's reply was "did you talk to them or did she"? Of course, she was the one who "made the phone call." So what did Justin do? He hung up and called the landowner's office and asked if they had spoken to her. It's only the one secretary and the landowner in the entire office. They confirm that no one had talked to her. Justin calls Dad back and says "she lying to you." He went on to tell them that he called over there and no one had talked to her. Dad says "you're shitting me" and politely Justin replies "no sir."

By the time I made it to his house, he had told her to leave the house. Still in confusion with all that was unfolding Dad said "but she brought me this on Friday from (land owner's name)." I read the letter and again was stunned. I'm would love to attach a picture of this letter, but to protect the property owner's name, I won't. But let me tell you what it says. It looks like a sloppy Word document letterhead with the landowner's company name and address. It then says, included the typos:

To Whom this may concern:

(landowner's name) dba Blue Goose LTD a Limited Liability Company has conveyed to (Dad) and (her)

P roperty described as (legal description) IN Hockley County.

According to tax records this has never been changed to Mr. and Mrs. (last name).

I or my representative will address this issue on Monday, August 13th, 2018 with the abstract company and the taxing office in Hockley County.

My apologies to Mr. and Mrs. (last name) for the issues regarding their property.

"Landowner's Signature"

by

Karen Mc Bee, Secretary Representative

The letter is then stamped at the bottom with a flying Blue Goose.

First of all the landowner's signature is without a doubt her handwriting. What we also know, having a couple of conversations with her at this point, is that the secretary - the only secretary at his office is not named Karen McBee. Oh and the dumb blue goose stamp. Blue Goose Manufacturing is the name of the manufacturing company of the trailer house they live in and had absolutely nothing to do with the landowner's office.

I told Dad all these facts we knew. Showed him the court paperwork and he just shook his head and didn't know what to say. I don't blame him. What can you say? Of course, the whole time she was blowing up his phone saying that we were wrong and she was innocent, but we had too much in black in white already.

The next day Dad had a dentist appointment to get a tooth extracted and was going to need a ride. I told him I would take him and then we would go take care of changing information and things he needed to start the separation/divorce process.

I don't think any of us slept a wink that night, how could someone do that. Especially, to some one you say you love. We knew tomorrow would be a hard and emotional day but the worst was behind us and we were just going to move forward.

But.... we were wrong.

Next