Anyone have elderly parent(s) at their home problems?

[Fuddy1952]

Wow!
My in-laws passed years ago (they were 90s...r.i.p.) Dad passed 5 yrs. ago, 89...my Mom is 92, still lives at homeplace farm. One caregiver lives in one house, Mom in her own house with caregivers part-time.
It's the next county over, 1/2 hr. away, the sheriff is a friend (as was the previous two).
Yesterday I get a call from a guy saying he was "working in that area, had extra stone on his dump truck, wanted my permission to fix driveway". I asked his name (Rob!), company he works for, phone number, etc. Which of course was all b.s.
Mom is 92...and he was calling from inside her house!!!!! Well, the h*** flew into me, I immediately said "you are on my property, get the h*** out of that house, get off my property Right Now and I'm calling my friend the sheriff Right Now on my other phone!!!!! Which I did.
Thank God one of Mom's caregivers was there, walked around from kitchen as he was leaving, and got a description (him & truck).
Turns out he was well known to police. Police were super nice, place has a long driveway but they'll start randomly driving up at night to check and I suggested that drive they can use for radar near entrance.
I told Mom never let strangers in...don't even answer door!
Anyone else have similar experiences?

 

[3gunr]

We have guys in the summer come around wanting to seal your driveway for a ridiculous price, Seems like they always target elderly people.Got my parents once.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I usually have ways to get rid of telemarketers. One called today for crude oil investments. I said I had no money. He still insisted on sending me a package. I said I was not interested. He continued. Then, I said I am battling CANCER. He thanked me for my candor, and hung up.

 

[MossRoad]

One of the things I worry about with my wife's parents is they write checks to almost every junk-mail charity that they get. Sometimes it's 4-5 checks a week. We've tried to talk them out of it. But they continue. We can't stop them. We've asked that they just contribute to local charities, as we know where the money goes. They still go to the bank every week to withdraw cash for the week. And their pension checks still come to the house, and they go into town to cash those... they handle too much cash. Can't talk them out of it.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Someone once said if you want to get even with someone, send a little money to a charity in their name. I helped do Moms taxes. There is a scary amount of charitable stuff. I found a lot of tax stuff mixed in with piles of old newspapers. When I asked for the paperwork to renew her license, she gave me a twenty year old tax document!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I can see my dad letting them in. What do you do......

I did put up video cameras in barn after a chainsaw was stolen.

 

[Fuddy1952]

One of the things I worry about with my wife's parents is they write checks to almost every junk-mail charity that they get. Sometimes it's 4-5 checks a week. We've tried to talk them out of it. But they continue. We can't stop them. We've asked that they just contribute to local charities, as we know where the money goes. They still go to the bank every week to withdraw cash for the week. And their pension checks still come to the house, and they go into town to cash those... they handle too much cash. Can't talk them out of it.

Oh man! Every day our mailbox (it's a huge box too) is packed full of animal rights charity mail. My wife is kind hearted and started writing checks to some then the floodgates opened.
I tried explaining you have to be so careful, some are scams, some 99% of money goes to administration, etc.

 

[PILOON]

My mom passed at 98 and we did the clean up of her appartement.
She was a big reader and had every reader's digest book ever.
Only thing in her later years she could no longer read due to eyesight so most were not even opened.
BUT she also believed she would win the publisher's sweepstakes so she had piles of tapes and CD's as she always said 'someone will win so why not me'
At that age modern technology is beyond them.
LOL I had to hot glue her TV remote so that she could not change the set ups leaving only on/off and local channel changes.

The main problem we had was that her trust convinced her to have them settle her estate, at a ridiculous fee. (She was sold on the idea to make it easy for her heirs,)
Fortunately her trust administrator was honest and directed me as how to change that clause, and even that proved to be quite a chore but I was able to do it but that was an 8 month chore and ended up costing a fair penny and IMHO due to less than honest atty that I was stuck with.

Mind U we tolerated her whims as they were minor in the larger scene plus fortunately it was a relatively minor dent in her income.

 

[jbrumberg]

It's a sad reality that many elderly aging in place individuals are victimized/exploited/abused by charities and charity cases, care givers, and family.

 

[Industrial Toys]

That piece George Carling did on religion and money was priceless. One of his all time best.

WARNING! George used some bad language! RIP George.

George Carlin - God Loves You, And He Needs Money! - YouTube