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| Trust Your Gut |
Inga (to refresh your memory, click here, here and here) called me Saturday morning (in the middle of my other drama). She had someone living at her home who wants to buy it. Could I come over?
I am going to see about condensing down the rest. The drama is still unfolding, and as it is a holiday, I doubt she will get any resolution today. I also suspect this will not turn out well for Inga unless she fights back.
I arrived to Inga's home Saturday afternoon. I was told Shane (her roommate) wanted to buy Inga's place. I was also told by Inga it was a hostile situation. She was anxious and Liam showed up some time as well when we were chatting.
Her roommate came out, and sweet as honey said, "There is no hostility" (telling me he was eavesdropping). Shane said he just bought a condo for $400k in cash on "Thomas and Encanto*" he was going to rent out to his nephew. However, his nephew can't afford the $2,300 a month rent, so Inga's modest little home, 20 miles from this condo, would be a great alternative.
Shane, unprompted, proceeded to hand me an envelope as proof he purchased this condo. It included a smattering of real estate documents. None had first pages, his name on them, or were complete. Imagine if you will, proving you paid your taxes by handing the IRS the second page of the 1040, the third page of a Schedule C, the first page of a Minnesota State tax return and a few pages of tax code thrown in for good measure. Once Shane saw me rifling through these documents, he took them back, telling me he was a stock broker and had a trust fund and had "millions" of dollars available.
Shane said he worked with two agents on a regular basis. I directed him to talk with one of the two (he handed me both cards), and if they were going to be under contract, not to discuss the sale between Shane, Inga and Liam. He agreed, sagely saying he understood--as he had been in many sales like this before.
He asked me for a price and I turned to Liam and Inga and said, "It was on the market last time for what? $250,000?" Last time it was not that high, but hell would freeze over before I gave him my client's bottom line. Plus, something just wasn't sitting right with him. I knew darn well what they wanted for the house.
I suggested his agent could run his own comps and offer a fair price. I would present anything that came across my desk and encourage my clients to see if it would work for them. Shane made a call and told the person on the other line he wanted to put an offer in on a house. He did not give the address or any particulars. Nor did he give my name and phone number to the agent. After his phone call, he smiled at me and said the offer would be in my in-box in an hour.
The whole thing made me sick, but I did not know why at the time. I was a mile away from their house when Inga called. Liam had just left (they are separated) and she was frantic. Shane had just threatened her with, "If you F'n think I am paying that much for this piece of S*** you have another thing coming, you whore." He apparently said a lot of other things and threw papers. He is a big man, well over 6 foot and about 250 pounds of solid muscle. Inga is about five feet, in her sixties and also in a wheelchair.
He didn't hurt her, but I said, "GET OUT OF THERE."
With the help of the Phoenix police Inga did. She went to a hotel Saturday night. The police did nothing but Shane told her that calling the police on him was a "bad idea."
Jane tells me I need to stop being a drama magnet. I don't feel like I am sucked into this drama, other than the blog fodder it presents and to show compassion for another human being. That is, I don't feel like I have to (or even have the ability to) save her from the series of bad choices she has made up to this point which has brought out this ugly situation.
Shane is a felon who got out of prison in August. He served time on and off (mostly on) since 1996 for fraud and other types of ugly things. I have told Inga several times he is not buying the house. He was never buying the house. In fact, I even pulled up the tax records and looked up the address on the papers he handed me. Shane does not own any real estate. Not at the address he gave me on the hodge-podge of papers, not anywhere in the state of Arizona.
There is so much more to this ugliness. There is no lease where Shane is living. Shane forged one. The police went to Inga's home twice on Sunday. Shane called them, saying he owned the house and Inga wouldn't leave. Officer Friendly said he was going to arrest Inga for trespassing and that's why I got sucked into that phone call. I sent over the tax records to show him. However, he did nothing to Shane. That was the second call. The first call was from me, because Inga sent me the secret code we now have saying she was in danger. The police did nothing then either.
Inga tells me she feels like she is losing her mind. Gas-lighters, flim-flam artist, and master manipulators do these kinds of things. They make their prey think they are right, the prey is wrong. Shane has told Inga he will leave if she gives him money. I told her call his parole officer. She is afraid to stir anything up.
Apparently Inga tells me Shane has threatened me as well, and even used the phrase, "going after her." I am not frightened, just more annoyed. I don't need to ride someone else's karma.
Meanwhile, I live 50 miles away and have asked her to text me a few times a day, making sure she is fine. She has a call into three attorneys (today is Monday) and I have suggested she leave the home tonight and not go back until she sees one of these lawyers.
On a side note, I have had a beautiful chat with Polly about the dangers of making decisions--and how those decisions tend to spiral--when one is angry, anxious or scared.
*Thomas and Encanto don't intersect
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