The nightmare is close to ending

[Stormy Peak]

Over the past 2 years, things have gone from bad to worse and my stress level has been at maximum since about mid-November. I have commented a few times here in the past year that I have been under stress, and today, finally some good news that I hope...from here on out...things will calm down, and there will be some hope to look forward too.

After my dad died in 1994, my brother and I took over the family store, and I worked there in total for 25 years, until I was injured and had to go on disability. In working with my brother and knowing him as I did, he was the last person in the world I would have believed to become a drug addict. He got addicted to meth 3 years ago, but hid it pretty good until about 2 years ago...which was when I found out. Then about a year ago, he was stopped and jailed for trafficking.

He was one of the Most Respected businessmen in our town...and in an itty bitty town with a high percent of Christian church goers...it really hit our family's business hard. He bailed out, then pretty much stayed out of sight...built himself an apartment downstairs in the store and left Everything to our long time manager "B' who had worked there for almost 20 years and was at retirement age.

"B" finally had enough of doing his job, plus my brother's....and I was even going in on some Saturday's so "B" could get a weekend off. My brother wouldn't even come upstairs to work those days. "B" put in his notice 3 month ahead of when he planned to retire and my brother...waited until the last week "B" was going to be there before hiring a new manager...who went in on "B's" last week to learn things like the payment schedule for paying the sales taxes, the employee taxes, what carpet mills we ordered from, what loan payments we had that need paid...etc. The manager was in charge of paying the bills and taking care of customers. The manager's job did not include hiring people, or taking out loans, or authorizing the adding of any new workers onto charge accounts at the hardware stores...that was still my brother's job.

But, my brother was still doing meth, ignoring the business and did not realize he had hired horrible person.

The man, immediately hired his girlfriend at the same wages that our retired manager had been earning after 20 years of working there...and every week, both the new manager and his girlfriend gave themselves huge increases in wages.
He forged my brother's signature on a number of loans from loan companies he found on the internet...plus...he put his own house address down rather than the store's address on those papers. He gave himself bonus every time he sold something...sometimes selling something for $150 and his bonus was $400.
He took the store's debit card and maxed it out buying stuff on Amazon for himself and his girlfriend, he also had parties at a bar in a town outside of this one. And, he donated well over a thousands of our store's money to a couple of places...which just made him look like 'Mr. Good Guy Business Manager' He also bought 2 trucks, and he lived about 30 miles from town...but then...got a house even farther away... 60 minutes from town and guess what debit card and who paid for their gas to get to work - each driving their own trucks.

I could see he was spending money on stupid things, and told my sister about it when I asked her to take over Saturdays because it was killing my already bad back, and they didn't want to work Saturdays. (At that point, I thought my brother had approved of her being hired).

My sister, is a snoop, and she was the one who found out what was going on....and after work on a Saturday took the information downstairs to my brother. Come Monday, when those 2 came, in... my brother confronted them, fired him and they left.

My brother, however was to see the judge for sentencing the next day...from his trafficking charge which he had pled guilty to. But my brother still on drugs, decided not to show, but was captured later that night. So, he's in jail, the store has no on there to run it and my sister decided to go down and see what else this guy did and found more and more stuff when she did.

This creature.. I even hate to call him a man... took a store that had been in business for 47 years and in 2 and 1/2 months he embezzled everything. He stole from customers...they would order in goods, pay for it...he would deposit the money, then spend it and never ordered their stuff. He never paid the phone bills, the electric, the taxes...and on and on and on.

I had to go to the store and stay as long as my back would let me to help my sister figure out what all this guy did. I think there was less than $10.00 left in checking...and so no money to even keep the power on. He also hired a new flooring installer...who was legally on disability and who's wife was getting the paychecks...and that guy piled up about $5,000 in PLUMBING parts at the hardware store. We are a flooring store, not a plumbing outfit.

Like I said, it went on and on the stuff my sister dug up on this guy. We had a detective come in and tell us what all we needed for her to get the paperwork going to show to the prosecutor so warrants could be written up. The two had fled the state the day they were fired.

Anyway...and Finally... we heard today that those two are under arrest and here at the jailhouse. They were caught in Utah and brought back to Idaho. They have several felony charges and we are also hoping maybe the insurance company and the state government might add to those for fraud...as they pulled some other things involving those entities.

My brother, btw, ended up with a required minimum 3 years in prison, and the judge wants to see him out in 3 years, but added 4 years onto that, so if my brother doesn't walk the straight and narrow he could end up back in prison again.

I haven't even touched on half of the problems my sister and I have had to deal with in trying to run down problems due to my brother's drug issues and the resulting problems due to this person he hired. Needless to day, our family store cannot /did not survive. The doors were closed officially at the end of December.

But knowing this jerk and his girlfriend are in jail and will see prison time eases some of the stress. It doesn't take away the bitterness though. I Detest the low life worm. My brother was wrong in not keeping tabs on a new hire, but at the same time, I can't blame my brother for someone else's dishonesty. I also realize my brother hasn't been in his right mind for at least a year now...he was really hitting the meth hard, failing drug tests, getting arrested, bailing himself out...rinse and repeat. My heart breaks for him...and I'll never understand how he ever decided to try meth. He turned into a completely different person...one I didn't like at all. : ( I hope he comes out of prison as somewhat the kind of man he was before all of that. He will be 63 by then.

Anyway... I hope to be a bit more like myself to in the weeks to come. I've been stressed, cranky and reclusive both here and in real life. I have been exhausted mentally, emotionally and physically by it all.

Stormy

[Dawn Palka]

Gads. I'm sorry to hear all that. To see something your family created/established, a local business with a good reputation....and because of two losers it all goes downhill in two years....
I can only advise you to take care of yourself and PM me if you want to vent.

[Rochelle Bos]

Oh my goodness! You have every right to be upset Is there any way to get the store’s money back or are you guys stuck with the debt? I’m so sorry your family is going through this. Drugs are an ugly beast, my brother has struggled with them his whole life.

[Bertie Bassett]

Must have took a lot of courage to post this. It shows just how strong a person you are and I hope things only get better for you from now on.

[Stormy Peak]

A felony court judge only rolls into our town once a month. The embezzler and his girlfriend were both arrested a few days after that judge held court here...so they will have to wait until next month to see him. I doubt they will get bail, since they ran from town after being discovered...and given the huge amount of money they stole from our family's business.

My brother failed in many regards, but he could have also had hired a person who was honest and all of this stuff would have never happened - a bad twist of fate as far as it being who did get the job.

The jerk also use to managed a dollar store here, so a lot of people knew him...and I think that is what swayed my brother in taking him on...that the guy had been in a manger's job before. He was also a 'charmer'...always smiling, energetic, etc.

My sister and I though, were kind of shocked when we found out he was the new manger, because long before that, we both told each other the guy gave us the creeps. He just seemed too 'over the top' in our opinion..based on what we saw of him a few years ago at the dollar store. He always seemed to look busy, doing nothing, while the help was working their butts off. And with both of us, he would end up looking at our chests, rather than our faces...both my sister and I, are well endowed - so we were never impressed by the guy even from a few years ago.

I hate that man so much... just wish corporal punishment was legal and the victims could have the chance to swing the bat a few times.

Our store supported so many people over the almost 50 years it was in business, and it was the only flooring store in 180 miles...so now people have to go out of town if they want any kind of flooring...and if there's no flooring store, I doubt the few installers here in town will stay as they liked working for a business rather than independently, since none of them liked to track their own taxes owed, nor schedules...we usually had the lay-outs for the houses done for them too, so all they had to do was come in, grab the carpet, and install it...no house measuring or dealing that much with the customers. For months now, almost every time I go downtown, someone will stop me and offer up condolences about what happened to the store and comment on how it's a shame our town no longer has a flooring store.

Anyway...some of my bitterness and stress has eased knowing both of them are behind bars...and hopefully will be for a few decades. They have a lot of felony charges...the embezzlement, tax fraud, insurance fraud...plus some other things that I can't recall at the moment. I hope the judge shows them no mercy when the time comes.

Stormy

[Lisa Bennert]

Kind of late to this, but just wanted to reach out and wish you the best going Forward. This was quite a sad read and I hope that you can find some comfort in them getting at least some justice even though it won't bring the store back or anything.
As for your brother, addiction just plain Sucks, I'm dealing with it myself Right now, too. Let's hope that this was his "rock Bottom", meaning his personal lowest Point ,which he takes as Motivation to turn his life around from now on. There are great supporting Groups for Family/Friends of addicts, too, if you ever feel the Need to just vent/ share your Story in Person.
Wishing you and your Family all the best and some much needed Peace going Forward. My mother always said "who knows what this is good for" and it used to annoy me so much, but now whenever something really bad happens, I try to see it like this, too.
Lisa

[Stormy Peak]

Lisa, I, too, hope my brother has reached rock bottom and will work his way out.

Meth is so terrible, it just ravages the body and mind so fast. My brother's personality changed so much in the last year...he was never a mean person, and was respectful and funny. But he just became MEAN...obnoxious, untrustworthy, hateful...and most of all self centered. He didn't give a #%&@ about anyone but himself.

Last August I gave up on him, and spent about 3 days crying, and just considered him dead...because that body walking around looking like my brother was just that. Nothing of my brother that I knew was left...and as I said, I worked with him for 25 years and in that time we ran the store and got along great.... I admired him for his work ethics, his intelligence, his sense of humor, his honesty, and that he cared about his family.

I tried one time in November, after he was arrested, to talk to him and even though he had been in jail for 10 days, and off the drugs, he was still saying things and trying to blame his choices on everything/everyone but his own self.
I haven't talked to him since then. I love him, but right now, I can't stand him and still feel like my 'real' brother has died...and that there's little chance of him going back to how he was before the drugs.

I've been so stressed over this and it's something I can't fix... I can only try to control my own stress levels and fight my depression more than I have had to do in ages.

I'm sorry to hear you are dealing with the ruin this drug brings into the lives of people who take it and who are around those who take it. I just don't understand why so many people feel the need to * their minds and their whole lives up for a drug.

Stormy