The Caretaker Thief

This is the true story of the time I caught my elderly landlord's at home caretaker stealing from the poor woman.

Over 10 years ago I got divorced and lost my job as a systems analyst. One of the many changes in my life during that period involved moving into a smaller place. I decided that the best option for me, instead of moving into a tiny apartment, would be to rent a room in a house that would allow full privileges to the entire facility.

I found a room for rent that seemed great. An elderly lady named Georgia that was living on her own was looking to rent a room in her house in order to supplement her fixed income. The price was right and it was a perfect opportunity for me, so I jumped on it.

Everything went well for several years. She and I got along, I paid my rent on time, and there were no problems at all. Until one day when my landlord started to lose some of her faculties.

At that point her son who lived in another state decided to hire an in-home nanny for her. This caretaker came just as I was leaving in the morning and stayed for about eight hours a day..... well into the afternoon. I usually didn't see or interact with her much.

However, I remember one day coming home from my job at the restaurant and finding a couple of unsavory looking people hanging around in the backyard. They were smoking little cigars and laughing loudly. Empty beer cans, plastic bags, and various other pieces of trash were piled high in the green grass. The barbecue pit was raging with an out-of-control fire. There were several pieces of corn on the pit. The nanny was nowhere to be seen.

Everyone was drinking Steel Reserve beer and no one seemed to have a care in the world. I asked Georgia what was going on and she laughed maniacally. "It looks like they are cooking some corn!" she looked at me quizzically. This was not her natural behavior because she didn't just get along with everybody.

It was up to me to get everyone to leave so I went outside to ask the closest guy what they were up to. He was obviously quite drunk and very aggressive. He said he was our nursemaid's boyfriend and that if I knew what was good for me, I'd get him a job where I work. I smiled and told him I would see what I could do but it was time for them to go home.

After quite a bit of convincing I finally got all of the people out of there. The entire house stunk of smoke and it was a filthy mess. While cleaning up, I noticed several of my own beers were missing from the fridge.

It was only a couple of days later when I was in my room on the computer that I noticed a knock at my door. The caretaker entered my room and stumbled over to where I was sitting near my bed. She told me that I was a particularly good-looking man and sat down next to me putting her dusty hand on the back of my neck.

As you can imagine, this was incredibly uncomfortable so I turned to her and asked her to leave. She leaned forward and tried to kiss my neck. Quickly standing up, I pushed her off of me. She apologized and, smiling flirtatiously at me, walked casually out of the room.

I let the landlord's son know about all of this and soon he came by to check on his mother.

Going through pages and pages of papers from the bank we discovered something strange. There were multiple charges in the amount of $100 made out to the caretaker. Georgia said she had no idea about the charges and appeared to be appalled.

Now you have to remember that Georgia wasn't really in her right mind. The caretaker said that Georgia had told her it was no problem to write her a check for $100 anytime she needed some money. That does seem laughable but I hadn't seen Georgia acting like herself in months. Having said that, the caretaker had to have known that the elderly lady was on a fixed income.

We pressed charges but I never found out what happened to the caretaker after that.

Eventually Georgia lost her mind completely and didn't even know who I was. She just thought I was a stranger living in the same house as her. She didn't even know it was her house. Her son had to come pick her up and take her to live with him and his wife. It was pretty sad for me and for everyone. She thought her son was her ex-husband who had died long before. She kept calling him by the name John which was her ex-husbands name.

I eventually moved out into the place where I am living now and I have been here for over 4 years now.

I hope you enjoyed reading the tale of The Caretaker Thief .

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