Let's talk money - how much is missing?

It's mid October 2009. You're not going to believe this. I just logged into her account to see the latest action. I wanted to see the balance so I could do some math. I circled the ATM withdrawals. Is there some reason why all of a sudden he's using ATM machines all over town including other banks (and paying MORE FEES!)?

OK, here's the screen shot. Click it to enlarge the view. Sit down:

 Here's a couple of recent transactions that occurred shortly after the above image was taken. I circled the new withdrawals.

That's $5215 in two months.

At this rate, it'll all be gone soon. I would have thought a lot of transactions at different locations like this would trigger some sort of alert at the bank. Oh well! Anyway, let's do some math. I'm going to work with the 36 bank statements starting when my mom opened up the new accounts.

So let's keep it simple. I want to start off as if during those 36 statements she received no income and spent no money. I want to start with a number after all the wacky transactions from when I closed/opened accounts.

  10,741 starting balance

+15,223 from stock I sold

-   1,552 miscellaneous withdrawals my mother (I assume) made or directed 10/13/06 - 3/3/09

-   3,263 I paid to the credit card

-        61 bank fees and we're left with

 

 21,088 which is what would be in her account right now with no other transactions. The next is easy. Let's add all of her deposits from social security, her pension and my fathers life insurance.

   21,088

+52,916

= $74,004

Now to subtract her spending. What I believe her spending should be anyway. I actually called the cable company for example. I have a family myself so I can guess what things cost. Here's my estimates based on my mother paying the FULL BILL, which makes no sense since they both use electricity, benefit from gas heat and so on. But I'll start her paying the whole thing EXCLUDING mortgage, property tax and homeowners insurance.

Per month:

139 auto insurance

  80 gas & tolls

    3 towards auto registration

200 doctors/meds

   20 gifts

   50 personal care

 200 groceries (she eats like a bird)

   60 dine out

   30 phone

  200 electric

    25 cable (should be $0 as the two channels she watches are available with rabbit ears.)

  125 natural gas

  275 for other stuff

Now I may be off base on some of that or there may be something I missed. I just want to get a rough idea.

So that comes to 1,407/month. Over the period of the 36 bank statements we get:

    74,004

  -50,652

=$23,352 she should have in the bank if she's paying almost everything.

If we take the figures and assume she pays full for her stuff and splits other items, I get:

     74,004

   -36,828

=$37,176 she should have in the bank if they split certain items.

Finally, if we take the figures, forget about the $275 I have for 'other stuff' and she pays for only her stuff, I get (she puts $100 to electricity and $100 to gas):

    74,004

   -27,360

=$46,644 she should have in the bank if all was handled the way it should have been

What does she actually have in the bank? Drum-roll please.......

$10,114 (29 Oct 09) is currently in her bank. Yup. I can only wonder where they'd be right now if I didn't find that $15K my father had in stock. I mean, they'd be $5,109 in the hole.

So depending on the scenario we use, there's a shortage of $13,238, $27,062 or $36,530. That's a pretty wide range. I think it's safe to say he stole at least $20K. Consider this; when she started her new accounts, she had $10,741.18 which is about where she is now. So XX at a minimum burned through the $15,223.03 I deposited from the sale of stocks, right?

Why is she paying auto insurance when she hasn't driven in several years? Why is my mother paying so much to Verizon and cable? Why is she paying interest, ATM transaction and late fees? Why is she paying anything? I mean, we''re talking about an old woman sitting in basically a small apartment. How much can she really be spending? Many working people are supporting a family. He can't even support himself. He's pathetic.

My mother is clueless and doesn't care. I don't blame her. When you're 80+ and staring death in the eye, would you give a hoot about your money?

To quote my favorite author Kurt Vonnegut Jr., "so it goes".

By the way, I didn't want you to think I'm ignoring the credit card, but with a $2K limit, I'm not really watching it, but here's a screen shot. Notice the bonehead's already into late fees:

SUMMARY: A lot of money is missing. I think XX has stolen at least $20,000 (closer to $30K).