My Own Identity Theft Story

“LOST MUSKET DIARY”

Monday September 22, 2014

Sunny w/light haze 86F/30C in Rancho Las Musket

Buongiorno,

                Two stories caught my eye over the weekend! The first was the one about the guy that jumped the White House fence and got to the front door before the Secret Service caught him, bringing a new chorus of criticism down on the agency. The other was the “Sixty Minutes” story Sunday night about a scam that is diverting billions of tax refund dollars from the IRS and away from us taxpayers. Not a good pairing for federal watchdogs. According to the “60 Minutes” story, the US Treasury Department estimates that it sent out nearly three million fraudulent refunds to con artists last year, costing tax payers $5.2 billion.  Let’s face it! We all take a calculated risk every time we go online. These two stories got me to reminiscing, and I've come up with this true story from the “MikeBo Archives.” Okay, kids…..

                Once upon a time in Los Angeles, when I was still a TV newsman, I was assigned from time to time to cover the President of the United States during his visits to California; from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan, and his successor, George H.W. Bush.  Throughout the years, I had also covered events with Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, and Bill Clinton along with heads of state, including HRH Elizabeth II as well as other leaders and dignitaries and had frequent dealings with the US Secret Service. It was during one of those assignments that I became a victim of identity theft. I was not alone. On November 21^st, 1988, President Reagan attended the ground-breaking ceremony for his presidential library in Simi Valley, CA. I was assigned to cover it for INN-TV (Independent News Network), along with my cameraman-editor Dave Cox.

Before the event, we were required to pick up our press credentials from the Secret Service at a nearby hotel in Thousand Oaks. The event credentials had to be arranged for in advance and picked up just prior to the ceremony. The Secret Service would conduct a full background check on every name submitted. Security was always at its maximum when the President made a public appearance.

                In spite of all the hoops we had to jump through to cover events like this, I always enjoyed covering Ronald Reagan as President and all the way back to his days as governor. The ground-breaking in Simi Valley was classic Reagan and we filed our stories without a hitch. He was already working on his place in history, and I covered him again when he returned to California with Nancy just after George H.W. Bush was inaugurated. A few months later, I made a career change myself and went to work for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office as DA Ira Reiner’s News Secretary. Imagine my surprise when my old cameraman, Dave, called me to tell me that a Los Angeles Police detective had called to inform him that someone had tried to use his credit card in a fraud attempt. He wanted to alert me to the possibility that I might also be a victim. I called the detective.  He told me that several of the other victims were also members of the Los Angeles news media, friends of mine and Dave’s or people in the business that we knew. As the detective went down his list of scammed news people, I told him that I knew or knew of everyone on that list and we had all covered the same stories at one time or another. Then it dawned on me! I shared my own theory with the detective. Somebody had gotten ahold of a Secret Service Press Credential list. I quickly alerted my bank, the credit card companies and credit reporting agencies, but I heard no more it until two deputy U.S. Marshals showed up at my office a few months later.

                The deputy marshals confirmed my original theory. The thieves that executed the scam had gotten ahold of the Secret Service press list from the Reagan Library groundbreaking ceremony and used the Social Security numbers on the list to do their crimes. My name and number were used to file a false federal income tax return which netted the crooks a tax refund of more than $17,000.  Since I had filed for an extension that year, I never knew about the fraud until after the criminal case had been prosecuted, and it never caused me any problems. Much later, I received a letter from the U.S. Attorney’s office with the final outcome of the case and some additional details. Bottom line: the guys were caught, pled guilty and were serving sentences for mail fraud. Good news. Even the Secret Service had gotten scammed in this caper.

                In a procedure that I am sure changed after this incident, the Secret Service would do the investigations and background checks on the news media covering the presidential event. But, the actual distribution of the credentials would be done off-site by a committee of Republican Party campaign workers providing support for the events. It was explained to me (with a straight face) that a passing housekeeper had picked up a copy of the press list from the credentials table to give to her son as “a souvenir.” I laughed out loud at that. Of course, the housekeeper had no way of knowing that “her son” worked for an identity theft ring. The thieves had a long list of names and Social Security numbers to use in their scam. My information alone was good for an easy $17,000 payoff from the IRS. I still wonder what the ultimate take from that press list turned out to be.

Ciao, MikeBo     

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” Thursday, September 18, 2014

Sunny Skies 85F/29C in Rancho Las Musket

Bonjour, Mon ami!

Sorting through several boxes of personal documents and pictures the other day, after retrieving them from storage. One carton in particular seemed unusually heavy. When I opened it, I could see why. In that box were about a dozen copies of the National Geographic Magazine dated from about 1916 to the early 1920s. What a treasure trove for this History major. “What was the world up to a century ago,” I wondered as I sat down on my living room floor to leaf through them. Here’s a sampling of some of the issues and headlines:

June 1916-

The Wild Blueberry Tamed, Frederick Colville. A new industry is born in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.

                Our First National Park East of the Mississippi. For historic trivia buffs. It was Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Article by National Geo staff.

                November 1919-

                The Rise of the New Arab Nation.  Frederick Simpich. The Allies were carving up the Middle East into their own spheres of influence. This lead story deals with the new nation of Arabia. Muslims are still called Mohammedans and the British are calling the shots.

                The Land of the Stalking Death. Melville Chater. No, not a present day epic about the Ebola pandemic, but a train ride across the Caucasus on an early anniversary of the Russian Revolution.

                Syria: The Land Link of History’s Chain. Maynard Owen Williams. (I wonder if these folks had any idea we’d still be preoccupied with this part of the world in 2014).

                March 1920 brought Massachusetts-Beehive of Business and Formosa the Beautiful.  April 1920 brought us Peary’s Explorations in the Far North and Around the World with the Salvation Army. The March 1921 issue of National Geographic was devoted to the new field of Aviation with A Personal Narrative of the First Aerial Voyage Half Around the World—From London to Australia by Aeroplane. Sir Ross Smith, K.B.E. and America in the Air by Brig. General William Mitchell, the Army officer who was court-martialed for his anti-establishment view that the Air Age had doomed battleships and the way naval warfare was conducted. He wasn’t proven right, actually until Pearl Harbor.

                As I placed these yellowing copies of the National Geo in my bookcase, I promised myself the time to do some serious reading and share some of my insights in future blogs. And, I uttered a whispered “thanks” to Tony, the maintenance man at my old apartment in Sacramento for offering them to me in the first place. At the time he had told me, “You’re a journalist. How about reading some old news stories?” I practically ripped the magazines from his hands. That’s how they found their way into my collection of “stuff,” the photos and documents I am poring over as I proceed in my personal inventory project.

                When I was a kid, back in the days before television and our radio was the main link to the world around us, LIFE Magazine was everybody’s big screen “window on the world.” LIFE brought us the images of the people and places in the world around us, far better than the Radio did. We had to use our imaginations to add visuals to the words and sounds we’d get from the big box in the living room. Once a week or so, we could catch the newsreels at our neighborhood movie theater to add some visuals to the words we saw in the paper, or LIFE magazine or heard on the radio. Dad had a radio in our old Plymouth, and I could listen to Amos ‘n Andy, or The Jack Benny Show on the way home from our Sunday outings. The National Geographic didn’t enter my life until about the time I reached puberty. The timing couldn’t have been more auspicious, because the National Geographic had lots of photos of NAKED WOMEN. It was all quite stimulating at a time in American History before Hugh Hefner helped touch off the Sexual Revolution. And it explained why the kids were usually kept away from mom and dad’s collection of National Geographic’s. Apparently, it was deemed okay to publish nude photos of “native women” from faraway places like “Darkest Africa” or the Amazon jungles. Unlike straight-laced America of the day, it was acceptable to publish naked photos of “primitive peoples” who lived their lives in the altogether or close to it. There was a good scientific reason for that. And besides, the “natives” didn’t seem to mind.

                Naturally, the first thing I looked for as I browsed through these old copies of the “Nat Geo,” were any pictures of “naked native women.” Just to see if they still meet current prurient interest standards, of course. But, alas. None. Nada. Obviously, Tony kept the hot issues.

                Well, so much for old magazines. Let’s see what else was going on in the world on this day in history:

1437 - Peasant uprising in Transylvania.

1502 - Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his 4th & last voyage.

1679 - New Hampshire becomes a county in Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1789 - First loan is made to pay salaries of the President and Congress. (Look ma, deficit spending started early! Before the GOP!)
1793 - US President George Washington lays cornerstone of Capitol building.

1848 - Baseball rules 1st baseman can tag base for out instead of runner.

1851 - New York Times starts publishing (2 cents a copy).

1885 - Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.

1927 - The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air. With 18 stations (and WOR as NYC affiliate).

And, Happy Birthday to:

1733 - George Read, US judge/signer Declaration of Independence.

1905 - Agnes De Mille, NYC, choreographer (Oklahoma).
1905 - Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Oakland California, actor (Jack Benny Show).
1905 - Greta Garbo, Stockholm Sweden, actress (Ninotchka, Grand Hotel, Camille), (d. 1990).

1940 - Frankie Avalon, Philadelphia, actor (Beach movies), singer (Venus).

Now, back to the National Geographic.

Ciao, MikeBo

My National Geographics -My Time Machine

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” Thursday, September 18, 2014

Sunny Skies 85F/29C in Rancho Las Musket

Bonjour, Mon ami!

Sorting through several boxes of personal documents and pictures the other day, after retrieving them from storage. One carton in particular seemed unusually heavy. When I opened it, I could see why. In that box were about a dozen copies of the National Geographic Magazine dated from about 1916 to the early 1920s. What a treasure trove for this History major. “What was the world up to a century ago,” I wondered as I sat down on my living room floor to leaf through them. Here’s a sampling of some of the issues and headlines:

June 1916-

The Wild Blueberry Tamed, Frederick Colville. A new industry is born in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.

                Our First National Park East of the Mississippi. For historic trivia buffs. It was Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Article by National Geo staff.

                November 1919-

                The Rise of the New Arab Nation.  Frederick Simpich. The Allies were carving up the Middle East into their own spheres of influence. This lead story deals with the new nation of Arabia. Muslims are still called Mohammedans and the British are calling the shots.

                The Land of the Stalking Death. Melville Chater. No, not a present day epic about the Ebola pandemic, but a train ride across the Caucasus on an early anniversary of the Russian Revolution.

                Syria: The Land Link of History’s Chain. Maynard Owen Williams. (I wonder if these folks had any idea we’d still be preoccupied with this part of the world in 2014).

                March 1920 brought Massachusetts-Beehive of Business and Formosa the Beautiful.  April 1920 brought us Peary’s Explorations in the Far North and Around the World with the Salvation Army. The March 1921 issue of National Geographic was devoted to the new field of Aviation with A Personal Narrative of the First Aerial Voyage Half Around the World—From London to Australia by Aeroplane. Sir Ross Smith, K.B.E. and America in the Air by Brig. General William Mitchell, the Army officer who was court-martialed for his anti-establishment view that the Air Age had doomed battleships and the way naval warfare was conducted. He wasn’t proven right, actually until Pearl Harbor.

                As I placed these yellowing copies of the National Geo in my bookcase, I promised myself the time to do some serious reading and share some of my insights in future blogs. And, I uttered a whispered “thanks” to Tony, the maintenance man at my old apartment in Sacramento for offering them to me in the first place. At the time he had told me, “You’re a journalist. How about reading some old news stories?” I practically ripped the magazines from his hands. That’s how they found their way into my collection of “stuff,” the photos and documents I am poring over as I proceed in my personal inventory project.

                When I was a kid, back in the days before television and our radio was the main link to the world around us, LIFE Magazine was everybody’s big screen “window on the world.” LIFE brought us the images of the people and places in the world around us, far better than the Radio did. We had to use our imaginations to add visuals to the words and sounds we’d get from the big box in the living room. Once a week or so, we could catch the newsreels at our neighborhood movie theater to add some visuals to the words we saw in the paper, or LIFE magazine or heard on the radio. Dad had a radio in our old Plymouth, and I could listen to Amos ‘n Andy, or The Jack Benny Show on the way home from our Sunday outings. The National Geographic didn’t enter my life until about the time I reached puberty. The timing couldn’t have been more auspicious, because the National Geographic had lots of photos of NAKED WOMEN. It was all quite stimulating at a time in American History before Hugh Hefner helped touch off the Sexual Revolution. And it explained why the kids were usually kept away from mom and dad’s collection of National Geographic’s. Apparently, it was deemed okay to publish nude photos of “native women” from faraway places like “Darkest Africa” or the Amazon jungles. Unlike straight-laced America of the day, it was acceptable to publish naked photos of “primitive peoples” who lived their lives in the altogether or close to it. There was a good scientific reason for that. And besides, the “natives” didn’t seem to mind.

                Naturally, the first thing I looked for as I browsed through these old copies of the “Nat Geo,” were any pictures of “naked native women.” Just to see if they still meet current prurient interest standards, of course. But, alas. None. Nada. Obviously, Tony kept the hot issues.

                Well, so much for old magazines. Let’s see what else was going on in the world on this day in history:

1437 - Peasant uprising in Transylvania.

1502 - Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his 4th & last voyage.

1679 - New Hampshire becomes a county in Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1789 - First loan is made to pay salaries of the President and Congress. (Look ma, deficit spending started early! Before the GOP!)
1793 - US President George Washington lays cornerstone of Capitol building.

1848 - Baseball rules 1st baseman can tag base for out instead of runner.

1851 - New York Times starts publishing (2 cents a copy).

1885 - Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.

1927 - The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air. With 18 stations (and WOR as NYC affiliate).

And, Happy Birthday to:

1733 - George Read, US judge/signer Declaration of Independence.

1905 - Agnes De Mille, NYC, choreographer (Oklahoma).
1905 - Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Oakland California, actor (Jack Benny Show).
1905 - Greta Garbo, Stockholm Sweden, actress (Ninotchka, Grand Hotel, Camille), (d. 1990).

1940 - Frankie Avalon, Philadelphia, actor (Beach movies), singer (Venus).

Now, back to the National Geographic.

Ciao, MikeBo

Reminiscing about "The Olden Days"

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” Tuesday September 16, 2014

Partly cloudy with scattered thundershowers

92F/33C/ in Rancho Las Musket

Buongiorno!

Tucked away in my large mixed bag of childhood memories are fond recollections of family dinners and those moments when I, or my brother would turn to our dad and ask him to, “Tell us about the olden days.” Charlie Botula could always come up with a story, and our mother, “Skip,” was always able to enhance any reminiscence dad would share with us.

My mom, whose given name was Mary Elizabeth always insisted that the family eat at least one meal - usually dinner, together in our formal dining room.  Dad, as the patriarch, sat at the head of the table. I took a seat at the opposite end. My younger brother, “Packy,” sat at the middle of the table to my left, and my mother, sat  to my  right, to be the closest to the kitchen, in case one of us requested a second helping, or another glass of milk. The scene was closer to “Father Knows Best” rather “Ozzie and Harriet,” primarily because it was before we acquired our first television set. That would make the time period in the mid to late 1940s, since we didn’t get our 21 inch Emerson until 1951.

Dad had been home from the Navy and World War Two about two years when this era dawned. My mom had given up her nursing career to devote her time fully to being wife, mother and housekeeper. Dad had returned from the Pacific and stepped back into his prewar occupation as manager of the local Personal Finance Company. We belonged to the Riverhead Methodist Church, where I attended Sunday school and church with the family and also sang in the junior choir. As my cousin, Robert, used to kid me, I lived in “Mayberry.”

On Sunday, mom would put a roast in the oven; then we would head off to church. By the time we got home, Sunday dinner was ready and we would sit down around the dining table and commence our weekly ritual. This included the above-mentioned, “Tales of the Olden days.”

The “olden days,” for my brother and I meant the 1920s or the Depression Years of the 1930s. I was born in 1941 and was considered a “Pearl Harbor Baby.” My brother was born in October, 1945, two months after WW2 ended in that mushroom shaped cloud. He was the “baby boomer.”

So, the “Olden Days” covered a lot of ground. From Ellis Island in 1903 and my grandfather’s days toiling in Ellsworth #4, the coalmine where he lost two fingers in a mining accident. There was the first Nickelodeon in Cokeburg, PA and family stories about the great influenza epidemic of 1918. My dad and his siblings played on the slag heaps near the coke ovens, which distilled the anthracite coal that my grandfather and oldest uncle dug from deep in the earth to fuel the steel mills of nearby Pittsburgh, steelmaking capital world, at that time.

My mom and dad both grew up in families with nine children in each. Their childhoods unfolded in the coal rich hills of western Pennsylvania, far from the ocean. Both sets of grandparents had migrated to the U.S. from Europe. Michael Percy and his Margaret came from England. Karel and Johanna Botula came from what is now the Czech Republic. My grandmother entered the country at Ellis Island with the first two of their nine children, Maximillian and Karola in 1903. Later, I discovered that my grandfather arrived in Philadelphia ahead of his family’s arrival in New York. They all worked hard, went to school, learned English and became U.S. citizens, living through the “Roaring ’20s, the Depression, Prohibition, the FDR Years and World War Two.

In case you’re wondering, all of this leads up to the reason, I am  now going to spin my  own  version of “stories of the olden days.”  It’s because, that now, I’m 70-something and closer to the end of the trail than the beginning. And my own children and grandchildren are asking me about “the olden days.” “Grandpa, what did you do before television?” “What’s a payphone?” “You were in San Francisco during the ‘summer of love?’” “The Vietnam war must have been terrible.” “I can’t believe you had to watch BLACK AND WHITE TV.” And so on.

I’ve finally convinced them that I did not live in a log cabin, and that we did have electricity and indoor plumbing. And I admitted that I voted Republican once, for John McCain because my brother was in Hanoi in 1973 when McCain and the other POWs were released by the North Vietnamese. Packy was, by then, an Air Force pilot and part of the advance team that flew into Hanoi to set up the logistics for the airlift that took the POWs home.

So, all of this is for my kids Mike, Jr. and Dana and  the grandkids-Joshua, Jacob Jesse and the twins Jordan and Jaydan. Now that I’m retired and have a lot of time that used to be spent making money for somebody else, I feel that it’s time to begin the “Botula Chronicles.” Now, let’s look at some of the other events on this day in history.

1630 - Massachusetts village of Shawmut changes its name to Boston.

1782 - Great Seal of the United States is used for the first time.

1810 - Mexico issues Grito de Dolores, which called for the end of Spanish rule. Mexican Independence Day celebrates this event. Take note if you think “Cinco de Mayo” is Mexican Independence Day.

1858 – Pony Express service brings first overland mail for California.

1908 - Carriage-maker, William C. Durant, founds General Motors in Flint, Michigan.

1957 - LA City Council approves 300-acre site in Chavez Ravine for Dodgers.

Famous birthdays include:

1822 - Charles S Crocker, President of Central & Southern Pacific Railroad. Instrumental in building first Transcontinental Railroad.

1891 - Karl Dönitz, German naval leader. Father of Nazi U-boat service.

1924 - Lauren Bacall, Staten Island, actress (Dark Passage, Key Largo).

And so, from the “Olden Days,” we say…

Ciao!

Mike Botula 

Found Money-Maybe!

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” Friday September 5, 2014

Mostly Sunny 81F/27C in Rancho Las Musket

Buongiorno, 

I’ve been slogging through a mountain of minutiae during the past week, and, it’s really bogged down my blogging. Essentially, nine months after my Rome adventure and my move back to Southern California, I’m still settling in and sifting through all of the belongings I have in storage and working very industriously to cull out and decide what I want to keep. Normally, I wouldn't think to burden friends with the details of my personal housekeeping, but there is one item I will pass along because others may benefit from my experience.

Some months ago, during a conversation with my cousin Nancy, she mentioned that her son-in-law did frequent internet searches on sites maintained by government agencies who were searching for people who had money owed them. It seems that money left in bank accounts that have been abandoned, or insurance benefits that intended for beneficiaries who have not been located is eventually turned over to the State Controller or Treasurer. My cousin told me that one such search of the New York State Controller’s Unclaimed Property web site had turned up my father’s name, and she suggested strongly that I look into it, which I immediately set out to do.

Nancy had given me the web site that I needed to go to- https://www.osc.state.ny.us/ouf/ - and, “Bingo!” The Yellow Brick Road lay straight ahead. New York State Controller Philip DiNapoli has a whole section of his bureaucracy whose sole job is finding people and giving away money. So far in 2014, the State of New York has connected more that $270 million dollars with people who probably didn’t know that they had it coming to them. And it’s not taxpayers’ dollars either. It’s money that people earned and put away for a rainy day either in a bank or insurance policy and then lost track of it. Or they made an investment and forgot to mention it in their will. Or they died without a will and didn’t name any heirs. There are lots of reasons why people lose track of money. So, I did my search on the Controller’s web site and guess what? My father’s name showed up in capital letters.

Charlie Botula died suddenly in 1965 at age 57. My mom, Mary, had passed on four years before. I had gone to Arizona and had just gotten married. My brother, Charles, was in college in Buffalo, New York. So, my dad was a widower, living alone but just starting into a new relationship with a longtime family friend who had also lost a spouse. Believe me when I say that there is no greater emotional body-slam for a young person than the death of a parent. My dad’s passing meant that my brother and I had experienced this with both parents, four years apart. In addition to all of this, I couldn’t just be a bereaved son through all of this, because Charlie Botula had named me as Executor of his estate which meant that I would be tasked with some very important family decisions. I’d say, as I look back over the past fifty years that I did make the right ones. And, now, after nearly half a century, I discovered that my job as his Executor is not over yet.

Mr. DiNapoli does not simply hand out money. You have to prove that you are rightfully entitled to collect it. The paperwork is very demanding and very specific. And, there’s no guarantee that you’ll convince his flinty bureaucrats with the first submission of your claim. Once upon a time I had a bulging file of documents relating to my father’s small estate, and could produce any required documentation at the drop of a hat. But, no longer. Since then, I’ve been married and divorced twice, and moved a dozen times. Most of dad’s contemporaries are also gone. His oldest son is now a 70-something and retired after his own long career, no longer the 25-year-old who’s just  adjusting to adulthood. So, where do I start in completing this unfinished task?

A successful claim of this kind requires documentation of the people involved and the connections. In my case I had to obtain the required documents to prove: that the person who left the money is really the right person and that I, as the claimant, in entitled to this unclaimed asset. This took some time to do. First, I had to obtain a certified copy of the death certificate. Then I had to provide a copy of my own birth certificate to show that he was legally my father. Then I had to validate the fact that he lived at the address connected with the asset in question. That was problematic, because some long ago clerk had mis-typed the street number. So, I had to write a letter of explanation and include an old US Navy document with our correct address back in New York. I also had to track my dad’s family and list his brothers and sisters. Thank God, I had a copy of my grandfather’s Petition for Naturalization dated 1909. It listed parents and children with names and birthdates of the whole family. I did have to explain in my cover letter that the younger Karel Botula was, in fact, the Charles Botula, Jr. listed in my claim. Now, I should point out, that these are all documents that are readily obtainable, but getting them can be a tedious and time consuming process. It took me the better part of two months to assemble all of the documentation required by the State of New York.

Finally, on September 3^rd, I collated everything, put it all in a FedEx envelope and off it went to Albany, NY where it arrived the next morning. I’ll let you know how this all turns out, but, it’s been an interesting adventure for me. Along the way, I learned some new things about my dad, my grandparents and their arrival in the US back in 1903 and their lives in this new country of theirs.

If you would like to check this out for yourself, each state is holding unclaimed funds or other assets. Just Google “Unclaimed Funds” or “Unclaimed” property on your state government’s web site.

Ciao!