-You're kidding.
-I'm not.
-Someone paid $300,000 for a piano? What? Jesus played it or something?
-Hey, it was a 1917 Steinway,
-Hold on, let me look. Says here that, what was it, an M or a C?
-How do I know?
-Look it up.
-An M.
-Let me see that article. You know, you're an idiot; maybe that's why you're still writing for a no readership blog. It was his wife's diamond necklace that sold for $300,000. The piano went for 42 grand.
-That’s still a bundle. Here, the Internet says it's worth maybe twenty-five, thirty tops.
-Yeah, one of his neighbors bought it. Another mogul out on the island.
-That's what it says?
-Yeah.
-Lemme see that laptop. Hmm, nice looking piano, I'll say that for it.
-Here's another ad for one, only $2,500. And look, here's a website, a thread
says, wait, one guy says 'snap it up,' another guy says must be a scam, ‘some Internet scam,’ then, can you believe it, costs like $2,500 just to get it tuned and whatever, if it's in bad shape. Keep the thing tuned and whatever. Oh, and here, says it costs like $5,000 to restring it. Take a look:
‘This Steinway piano was RESTRUNG in April 2008 and REFINISHED in 2005 . The finish is mahogany satin... and the sound is amazing! Truly, one of the best years for Steinway ~*EXCELLENT CONDITION *~ **DETAILS** YEAR BUILT ~ 1917 MODEL ~ M ~ SIZE ~5' 7” . New Mahogany satin finish ( 2005 ) . New strings (2008 ) .New #2 pins ( 2008 ) . New pin block ( 2008 ) . New Steinway decals ( 2008 ) . IVORY KEYS ( EXCELLENT , SNOW WHITE , NO CHIPS OR CRACKS ) . ORIGINAL SOUNDBOARD ORIGINAL %100 STEINWAY ACTION REGULATED (2008).’
-A scam, for sure, they say.
-Well, what're you going to do?
-This guy Meadows, that owned the piano that's being auctioned off. He was into scams wasn't he?
-That's like saying that Bret Favre has something to do with football.
-He stole like what, 50 billion dollars?
-Closer to 60 I think. Didn't exactly steal it, though. Worked a con game. Invested people's money into the stock market, paid them a dividend at the end of the year, kept getting more people to invest in his fund, kept paying out dividends, only problem was he was spending the capital fast as it came in. Paying the dividends with the money the new people invested.
-So he could buy a $20,000 piano and a $300,000 diamond necklace?
-And yachts and houses, and who knows what all. Way beyond my pay scale that kind of stuff.
-Well, he's in jail, now.
-Never got the money back, though. The government. The people he ripped off.
-Yeah. He claimed there never was any money. All on paper, paid out as fast as he collected it, spending a bundle in between.
-You believe that?
-Why not?
-Guy like that, you couldn't believe him he told you he was standing in front of you. Could be one of those sci-fi hologram tricks from out of star wars or whatever.
-That kinda money he could do near 'bout anything. 60 billion dollars. How much is that, anyway?
-60 billion dollars, that’s how much. What kind of a question is that?
-I mean, that number is so huge I can't imagine it. You know, like those school kids in Alabama that couldn't imagine what it meant that 6,000,000 people died in the Holocaust, so the teachers had them collect paper-clips until they had 6,000,000. Then they understood. Each paper clip came with a story of some type, from actors, doctors, people all over the world sent in paper clips, even bought a boxcar used to transport Jews to the concentration camps and put the paper clips in, made a museum.
-So what're you saying, how many boxcars would 60 billion paper-clips fill?
-How much money is it, is what I'm saying?
-A lot.
-That kinda money, you had it, what would you do?
-What do you mean what would I do?
-Go to jail? That kinda money you think you’d just go to jail? Smart guy rips off 60 mil, just says, okay, cuff me, I’ve had enough? You think he’d do that?
-You mean bribe his way out.
-60 billion is a lot of paper-clips.
-Bribe who?
-Whom.
-Yeah, whatever. But he’d bribe everyone he could, that kinda money. It talks, you know, in any language.
-And
-I dunno, disappear.
-But he's in jail. He was on trial. We both covered it. Handcuffs. The works. Put in the van and driven away.
-Maybe it wasn't him.
-Com'on
-No, really, maybe it was like, a double.
-A double? You mean like a twin brother? He had a brother, didn't look nothing like him.
-No, you know, someone with plastic surgery, made up to look like him.
-Just like that? He gets busted, and in comes this guy looks like him? Yeah, I've seen movies like that. Doubles. Guys who look like the president. Take a lot of planning to pull it off.
-Hey, the guy conned people for thirty years. He had to know the day was coming the cops would be knocking on his door. So he has a contingency plan.
-But who's gonna want to go to jail for life?
-Someone gets paid a lot of money.
-And no place to spend it? He's in jail, dummy.
-Yeah, but he's got family, kids, grandchildren. Enough money he could set up a trust fund for them, keep them rich for a couple of generations, maybe more. Give him two or three billion paper-clips. Invest it in Switzerland, or the Cayman Islands, whatever.
-As if it’s that easy.
-Hey, Meadows took the fall for everyone, didn't he? His kids, except for the one with the guilty conscience or thought the cops were on his trail, and who killed himself; his brother, his wife, all got off clean. Meadows pleaded guilty, kept his mouth shut, and went to jail. He could have pleaded not guilty, appealed, would have taken him ten years to go to jail. Why'd he just go quietly? Not stall?
-Because he wanted to protect his family. Keep the investigation from including them.
-Yeah, all of a sudden this scumbag is an upstanding citizen. A community minded individual. Nah, I bet he had a plan, that's why.
-And? What about DNA? You think the authorities didn't double check he was who they thought he was?
-Why would they? They had him. He confessed. He'd never been arrested before. No fingerprints to compare to. He could be anyone. He could be Elvis for all anyone knew.
-And he’s where now?
-I dunno. Anywhere.
-And he had this stand-in all ready?
-Like I said, guy knew he was running a scam. Been doing it for 30 years. Couldn't believe it took that long to catch him. Guy like that, wouldn't he have some escape hatch? Some way out?
-Like having a double?
-Yeah, like having a double, living in some place like, I dunno, an ashram in India, with a beard and a sari. That's his job. Gets a monthly salary, his family gets a monthly salary. Live like royalty. All this guy has to do is lay low until he's called on to go to jail.
-If he's ever called on to go to jail.
- If he gets caught.
-Yep. If. And when. Then Meadows heads out of the country on a boat, gets to I dunno, Cuba, the Bahamas, Curacao, where he's got a plastic surgeon waiting, does his face, a belly tuck, changes his hair, his ears, guy comes out looking forty not seventy, takes over running some business he's started years earlier, or moves into an estate that he never occupied, just rented out, who knows. And he's gone. And then there’s his kid. Committed suicide right? Then was cremated. Pretty convenient don’t you think? No way to check DNA. Maybe he wasn’t him, you know? Another double. This time double-crossed.
-You're kidding, right?
-Nope. Well, maybe about his kid. Maybe.
Pause.
-Wouldn’t he get bored?
-Bored?
-Yeah, guy like that, always playing chess with the law, adrenalin pumping. I mean the guy’s in the game his whole life, like a super salesman, he can't shut it off just because the store closes for the night; he carries on being that super salesman, at dinner, at the club, wherever.
-You're saying?
-He's still a thief. He's still into scams. He can't give it up.
-He's a scam junkie.
-Yeah, a scam junkie.
-Kinda guy who would try to scam anyone.
-Yeah, but it would have to be high-risk scam. Close to the edge. Keep the blood flowing.
-Guy who would try to sell you a phony piano just like the one the Feds were auctioning off downtown.
Pause
-(softly) Yeah, guy like that.
-Lemme see that laptop. Where was the ad for this piano?
-Here, how do we find out where it is?
-Look at this, the end of the thread. Say it was a scam. Our guy trolling for credit card numbers before any thing else. Sucker pays 42 grand for a piano, pays by credit card, say. Then here’s the scammer, he owns the credit card from then on. Buys himself a Mercedes just for the fun of it. And he may get other credit card numbers, too. Steal their identity, just for the challenge.
-Sounds like him.
-But how do we find him?
-Oh, we'll find him. He doesn’t think anyone’s looking for him. Maybe toss him
a credit card as a hook.
-Think there's a reward?
-If it's him? Sure.
-I only hope the reward payment’s not in paper-clips.
