The long arm of the law

On the 10th of May, 2010 I made a deal with “Jeff Heinz” who wanted to buy my red 2000 Ford Focus. He agreed to $2000 for the car, and gave me $200 down, saying that he will give $500 in two weeks, and another $500 two weeks later, etc. Because I was so anxious to sell the car I didn't see any signs, or didn't care to see, larceny in the deal. Like a dummy I signed over the title (without it being notarized, and without full payment) and they took off. There were three people involved. Two weeks later I tried to call and found out all the information he gave was false.

I went to the police, taking along as much info as I could find; pictures of the car, the VIN number and the note that Jeff wrote. Detective Metcalf checked it out and found that, now two weeks later, the car was still in my name, but it was sold to someone named Steve. Shawn was also mentioned. He was one I had talked to but he never got out of his car during the incident. The whole deal was done by Jeff, not the Jeff Heinz that he indicated on the slip of paper with his information. I should have asked for his driver’s license.

After getting no follow-up after the initial interview, I tried to call Detective Metcalf and even left a message but I didn’t get an answer either way. I finally called the sheriff’s department and told the person there about it and she looked it up, but also said that Metcalf just retired. They assigned the case to Detective Mack who, after I left a phone message, called me back the next day and clarified some details about what was recorded.

He called me Thursday morning and indicated he found the car but it will have to be towed. I told him I have a spare key, could I go with him? He called back later and agreed for me to go with him to Perrysville to hopefully retrieve the car. He would pick me up. On the way he asked a unit from the Ashland Police Department for assistance. He came at a designated spot until the police unit arrived and we drove to each place where the perpetrators lived. At that hour of the day none of them were home but there was enough information gathered to ascertain where the car actually was. It was now owned by Steve who worked in Mansfield. Det. Mack took me home and asked me to go with him the next day to the work place in Mansfield, “and bring your key along”.

But a half hour later I got a phone call from him. Steve himself will be coming to the police station in 20 minutes, could I catch a ride to the police station, second floor? Someone took me to the police station just 3 miles down the road and I waited in Det. Mack’s office and when my car came in it did not have the original license plates, but I was told it was still officially in my name.

Steve was escorted into the office and Det. Mack asked for details about how he got the car, and introduced me as the rightful owner of the vehicle. He had a legitimate reason to not suspect any illegality in the deal and Det. Mack took a statement from him while I was there.

Then word came that Shawn was also arriving. Det. Mack told me to go into the room across the hall and then Shawn came in. He’s a young man around 20 years old, tall, blond hair. Det. Mack had a preliminary interview with him and then had me come into the office. Since he had a lengthy discussion with the detective, Shawn profusely apologized to me for his part in the whole deal, of which he really did not have active part. He was not aware that Jeff, whom I dealt with, did not pay the rest of the money. Then Det. Mack had me go back across the hall again while he took a statement from Shawn. Steve and I waited in the other room.

Det. Mack told Steve that the car would have to be confiscated. He was willing to comply. Shawn, whom he knew for years, would take him home. (It was found that Jeff bought the car, had the title put in Shawn’s name, and then Shawn sold the car to Steve to relieve some debt Shawn owed Steve—so apparently Shawn was victim to Jeff’s scheme too. There was no profit made because they paid me $200 and Steve paid Shawn $200. So there is still a puzzlement in the whole transaction. Maybe a deal that Jeff made with someone else fell through, I don’t know.) Det. Mack said he would find Jeff and charge him for several counts. One of which was taking advantage of the elderly (me) since I’m over 65. (whimper)

We finished in the office and we all went to the parking lot. Det. Mack gave Steve a box and he retrieved all his belongings in the car and I now have my car back. Steve said that the car had a tune-up just a couple weeks ago. When it disappeared it had a little over 100,000 miles on it. It now has 107,000 miles. Det. Mack told me how to handle getting a duplicate title and he would look for the license plates which I originally had. Meanwhile, I am to take off the existing plates and they will be given back to Steve.

When I got home Lucy told me that Shawn had come to the house to ask where the police station was, and he had apologized to her for what happened, which was apparently out of his control.

There were a few God moments in the whole thing and it was marvelous seeing it all come together like it did.

Now, the job is to find the real culprit--Jeff. It may take some doing but Jeff had bragged to others about how he fleeced the owner of the vehicle. Loose lips will eventually sink a ship.

Another problem presented itself. I took the report of theft to Auto Title and it wasn't good enough. I would have to obtain the title of the car from the last owner, Steve. Since I was not really on close terms with him I would have to have Det. Mack work it out.

He had the title which Steve gave him and then he called Steve to come to police headquarters to sign the title over to me. I had an appointment for Tuesday and I called him up to alert him that I would not be available at the transfer. He thought it was OK, all he needed was the mileage on the car. It turned out to be 107,118 miles. As it turned out, I should have gone to the transfer meeting.

The next day I went to the police station to retrieve the title which was notarized but without my signature. Det. Mack witnessed my signature and then I was free to go to Auto Title to get a new title.

At Auto Title in downtown Mansfield, the agent noticed that the seller had put his name and address where the buyer's should be. Another bureaucratic fumble. She gave me a sheet of paper indicating that an error was made on the title and that the owner would have to have a notarized signature to indicate it. I was not a happy camper. I called the Records Department at the police station and complained about it. Bonnie suggested I call Det. Mack but I said he was probably not in his office. I called his number anyway. He was not in his office but he said I should take the title back and he would take care of it. I went to the police station again and gave the papers to Bonnie, and left. I was rather bewildered by the complications of it. I should have mentioned, why don't they just white out the address and put my address in its place.

Anyway, a few days later I called up Mack and he had it ready for me. I took the papers to Auto Title again and the agent made up another title. But she gave me two receipts. She had to do it over because of a mistake she made on the title. As I went out the door I looked it over and found F. as the middle initial. I don't use a middle initial in my name. I went back and showed it to her and she to out the offending letter and everything was back to normal. She charged me $16.00 for the title.

The car sat in the lawn for awhile again. Finally someone came along and offered to buy the car. I asked $1500 for it. Maybe it was too low, but I have a karmic conscience about selling cars with high mileage so I ended up selling it for $1200. With the $200 the first "buyer" gave me, plus the $1200, I received $1400 for it and felt happy that it was finally gone. Now, when my ship comes in I'll be sure to get a brand new vehicle. Meanwhile, I have a 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan which suits our traveling purposes. It is a RampVan. Lucy needs a wheelchair accessible vehicle and that's what we have.

I must admit, I learned my lesson in leaving the car go. I went to the bank to get the title notarized, filling out my part, and when the buyer came for the car, we sat down at my kitchen table and she started to fill out the title. I quickly said, "Would you first write out the check please." She obliged and I felt better that I didn't have to say to anyone that the car was hers before she paid for it.

Second Kidney Transplant 2010

At the end of March 2010 I took a trip East to Pennsylvania and New Jersey to visit with my brothers and sisters for a week. Lucy didn’t want to go on the 500-mile trip so I went by myself. It was a trip that had many God moments, as I call it. Visiting people and even having my dialysis time changed to make things easier for the rest of the trip.

My dialysis times were Saturday and Tuesday but on Monday I called early in the morning and they had a vacancy so I had dialysis that day which let me freely visit for the rest of the day and then go home on Wednesday. It was a worthwhile trip and I felt that God was with me many times throughout.

The trip home was at night so there was not much traffic. I got home around 8 o’clock Wednesday morning.

A week later, on Saturday, April 10, I got a phone call at 7:30 a.m. from Diane, a nurse at OSU Medical Center in Columbus. There was a kidney available and Dr. Rajab says it’s a perfect match, would I be interested?

I hesitated, and Diane noticed it. I told her I was still stinging from last year’s experience when I had a transplant which failed due to complications. I was in the hospital for four months. I don’t know if I’m ready for another go.

But by the end of the conversation I agreed to have them go through with it. She didn’t know all the particulars about it but would let us know when she got more information. She called later and gave us more info and then I gave her my cell phone number.

Later that evening, around 6:30, she called again and said that the surgery would be at 8:00 a.m. Sunday, and I was to come to OSU tonight. It just so happened that Minerva, Lucy’s niece, had some business in Columbus and she took me down to the hospital, a 75 mile trip.

I checked in and soon got a room. Doctors, nurses, technicians, and aides came to get my medical history, which is extensive, and get vials of blood.

I had a Permcath placed a couple months ago which was used for dialysis and they used it to take blood from my system. I did not have a needle stick throughout my stay at the hospital.

Lucy wanted to be with me before surgery but didn’t know if she would be able to be there before 8:00 a.m. but then I got word that there was a delay until 10:30 and I relayed the news to her. She was on her way and relieved that she could be here to be with me, and then there was another delay, until noon. We just waited.
Dr. Rajab’s assistant came to tell me about the latest delay and I asked him about the kidney. He said he wasn’t at liberty to talk about it but he did say that it was from a young man about a third my age, and it was a perfect match. The kidney was coming from Florida and would be at the airport at 11:30 and a helicopter would bring it to the hospital.

Finally, I was taken down to the OR. Dr. Rajab was asked what the delay was and he commented about red tape. Where did that kidney come from? I never found out but later he did tell me it was imported. From where, he wouldn’t or couldn’t say.
I was wheeled into the OR and I don’t remember falling asleep but I woke up over three hours later and then was taken to the “Presidential Suite”, actually two rooms where one had the bed and the other had a cabinet with a large TV, a sofa and side table with a telephone. I was taken into the second room to the hospital bed. I don’t know if there are any other suites like that in the hospital.

The next step was administering the immuno suppressant medicine—intravenously. During the process my whole body contracted and I had almost excruciating pain, which they said is common during the first dose. There were three doses over the day and by that time there was no pain during the process. The next step would be to take pills for the rest of my life in order to keep the kidney from being rejected.
A nurse coordinator told me that, since the kidney is a perfect match, in a year I should be able to have the immuno suppressant medicine reduced quite a bit.

I met a number of nurses that I had seen the year before and they were glad to see me. To them, I am a model patient, their favorite, some said. They were quite pleased with the progress I was making and by Friday I was ready to go home. They took the Permcath out of my left shoulder, and then holding the site for a half hour to prevent bleeding, placed a bandage over where it had been.

On Friday they got a wheelchair to take me down to the lobby to go home and as I passed by the nurses’ station, they all—all 10 of them—stood up and wished me well. I almost cried.

Lucy was waiting with Minerva, her niece, who was driving, and I finally was home and starting a new life, as it were. Retired, no dialysis, and trying to find how to handle it all.

Trip East

I had a hankering to visit family sometime in March or April. My brothers and sisters are in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Traveling east I could at least accomplish two out of three. Since I was on dialysis it meant I had to have arrangements for dialysis in New Jersey. I could have opted for Pennsylvania at Grandview Hospital in Sellersville, PA, where I was born, but I settled for two treatments in New Jersey. My usual treatments are on Monday, Wednesday, Friday but the Social Worker told me that there was only room on Saturday and Tuesday. It was OK with me. I had initially asked for a Friday morning treatment because I wanted to attend a Passover commemoration at the church I used to belong to before I came to Ohio.

On March 31 I took off. Since Lucy didn't really want to go that far I rented a car, a 2009 Mazda, and took off around noon Wednesday. I had had dialysis in the morning that day so I was ready to travel. The next treatment would be Saturday, rather far away from Wednesday for a dialysis patient but I did it before. I just have to watch my fluid intake.

My wife Lucy had given me a GPS unit for Christmas and I took it along. It was great to just put in the address to which I wanted to go and it would take me right there. I traveled east from my place on Park Avenue East and took Koogle Road toward I-71 and it took me all the way to I-76 to the Pennsylvania border. I wanted to take Route 80 so I wondered what the GPS would say. When I arrived at the junction of 80 and 76 it told me to continue I-76. I ignored it and took Route 80. Route 80 has no tolls, I-76 had loads of tolls.

But at the next exit it told me to take it. Curious, I took the exit and then realized it wanted me to turn around. I got back onto 80 and ignored its pleas to turn off at several exits I passed. I then called my cousin Warren and asked what exit I should take off of 80. It was a couple hundred miles away. I told him I should be there by 8 p.m.

It was a long drive and I came to the exit indicated and traveled another 100 miles through towns and over hill and dale. It was quite scenic but I grew a little tired of driving but I kept going. I stopped for a bite to eat at a drive-through.

At long last, as it was almost dark, I arrived at my destination, Hackman Paving, and looked at the clock. It was 8:00 o'clock. Warren told me he was going to be in church so I made myself comfortable in his house and waited for him to arrive, and fell asleep. It had been a long day.

He finally showed up around 10 p.m. and we sat and talked until midnight. I then slept in the guest room and had a good night's sleep. My itinerary was to visit a couple places while in Lancaster County, but first Warren got his crews off to their asphalt paving jobs and then we went out for a leisurely breakfast.

The Martin's Pretzel Bakery in Akron is owned by Warren's brother-in-law and sister and I went there to visit with cousin Kathryn. We had a nice conversation and then I took off to visit with another family before heading for New Jersey by way of I-76 which is the toll road.

I don't know what time of day would have been best but when I got off the Turnpike I had bumper-to-bumper traffic for miles to the Ben Franklin Bridge to New Jersey. My brother-in-law told me later that the Schuylkill Expressway is always crowded. I don't wonder, there are more cars on the road than ever before and the existing roadways just can't take the volume.

I finally arrived at my sister Jane's house and settled in. My parents had lived there before they passed on and the rooms were about the same as what I remembered when I had visited with them.

This was Thursday and one thing I wanted to do was to have a haircut. Years ago I got the best haircut in Maple Shade and I looked in the phone book for barbers and hair dressers and found one that had been near the place where I had the haircut before.

I was not disappointed. I finally looked decent, with the hair dresser trimming my hair not too short. I would look better for the get-together Friday evening. I spent the rest of the day visiting with friends. One was in a retirement home and she was so glad to see me. I believe it was about 25 years since I saw her last and I didn't recognize her anymore, but she said I looked familiar and when I said my name she gave me a hug, glad to see me. My sister Jane had visited with her a few times.

The next evening we attended the Passover commemoration at a resort and I met more friends I hadn't seen for years. I was rather popular with them when I had the kidney transplant last year and they were quite supportive with their prayers and best wishes in spite of the outcome, which was kidney failure due to a huge blood clot that could have done me in.

The dialysis was scheduled for 11 a.m. I woke up at around 6:30 and thought about the plans for the day. Then I noticed the cell phone blinking. It was a voicemail wondering where I was. I had an appointment at 6:00 a.m. and I was nowhere to be seen, he said.

Six a.m.?! I quickly got everything together and, thanks to my GPS found the place pretty quickly. I stopped at a 7/11 for a sandwich and figured to have breakfast during the treatment. I sat in the waiting room and took a couple bites of my sandwich; and that's all I was able to have until after the treatment.

I was escorted to my place in a large room where there were dozens of chairs and dialysis units, with people having their treatment. I was hooked up and then given papers to fill out for insurance. I asked if I could eat the rest of my sandwich and the answer was no, and he explained. One time a woman was eating something and she passed out during treatment. They had quite a time clearing things out so she would not choke and they made the rule, no more eating during treatment. I figured I could live with it.

When treatment was finished I weighed myself and found that I lost about 10 pounds! That must have been a record. I usually get cramps if too much fluid is taken out. But I did not feel any ill effects and I left feeling pretty good.

The rest of the trip was a series of events, God moments, and one bedeviled moment when I was tinkering with my camera at my brother Ron's house in Harleysville, PA and all the pictures I took in New Jersey disappeared...forever. (sigh)

After visiting with Ron I left for home, stopping at Newmanstown to stay overnight at cousin Warren's place. I left there around 1:30 in the morning and the trip was pleasantly uneventful. Little traffic. Good weather. And by around 8 a.m. I arrived at home safe and sound.

I told Lucy I would like to make these trips twice a year. She does not wish to travel so far but I can always rent a car.