Nathaniel LeMaster

Well I haven’t posted in awhile for a number of reasons, primarily because I have been so busy.. Let me start at the top.

Two weeks ago, I sold my laptop to a girl “Kelly” who’s boss was buying it for work. I was selling it so that I could get a machine that would support more RAM (4gig). Since she lived in the area I told her that I could work out a delivery as it didn’t make sense to ship it. Since I need to be at the apple store to get the new machine I told her that I would meet her at the Northridge Mall (where the apple store is). I said that I would sell it for $1600 and she said that she would talk to her boss about it. She called me back about and hour later and said that he said that he would do it and would get the money to me (transfer via paypal) later that day. I agreed but said that I was not even leaving my house until I had the money verified in my account. We talked a few more times then she called me and said that he had transfered the money to my account. I checked the account online and sure enough he had just payed me $1600. I packed things up and Dad and I went down to the Northridge mall and met her there and gave her the laptop. We talked to her for a min then headed into the mall and bought the new laptop. I got home and checked the account and the money had been frozen by paypal, then the transaction had been reversed. Great!
Later I remembered that I had not given her the second battery by accident because it didn’t fit in the box, so I called her Sunday morning and told her that I was sorry but I forgot to give her the battery and would it be alright if we met later Sunday or on Monday. She said that it was alright, and she would meet me after work Monday.
That was all the contact that I had with her, I called Monday morning and the number had been disconnected. It turns out that she used a stolen hijacked paypal account to pay me and a hijacked ebay account to contact me. I have since talked with the person who’s account was used to pay me and they said that apparently their account had been compromised and two $1000+ amounts charged to their account with out their knowledge then paypal froze it and started looking into things…

I have filed a police report and worked with a detective a little, I have also filed with the FBI online crime devision. Unfortunately, everything that we have tried has turned up nothing. I have a feeling that these guys are professionals.. Right now I am working with the detective on getting the IP addresses of the locations that these people signed on to Paypal and Ebay from. If it was from a coffee shop or something then there is no hope if it was a private residence then we may be able to track it to a location. I have also notified apple and they will freeze it if it comes in for repair.

So the last week or so has been interesting trying to figure how to get everything done that I need to get done without a good laptop…

On top of that I am doing a lot better after my shoulder surgery and am ready to start looking for a job in ernest. I didn’t want to before, because I didn’t think that it would be good to start a job, then be out or a number of weeks because my shoulder needed to heal. In the mean time my finances have been running really dry, it seems that God just sends me another check when I REALLY need it but no sooner.

….

Then today it seemed everything happened.

Last night I noticed that my car had started to make some not-so-great-sounding noises so when I got up this morning I was going to talk to dad and see if I could drive the Honda and he could take the van. We go out there and find that the Honda has a flat tire. Great. Dad decided that he would take my car and told me to take the van. On the way down there on a 4 lane street in the valley a Red Camaro without signaling made a quick stop and right hand turn. The Mercedes that was following him was barely able to stop, and the ABS brakes on the van were definitely doing their job but you just can’t stop a 15 passenger van that fast and I crunched the tail light of the Mercedes and a section of the rear body right above the bumper. The guy who I hit was very cordial about the whole matter and has been very helpful, but the simple fact is that I hit him and that is that. The van is mostly ok, the license plate is bent, and the bumper behind that but I can fix that.
I am much more concerned what this will do to my insurance or how I will pay it…
That was just the start, on the way home from work, dad try’s to get some groceries and the card won’t go through. It turns out that the credit card company says that they never got the check that was mailed them so everything on that card (more than a $1000) has been racking up late fees and interest daily.
I get home after school and Matthew is walking in the door holding the chain from Joshua’s new bike. It just plain old snapped from the strain as Matthew was just getting to the top of the hill riding back from class.

So, how many things can go wrong at once?

Oh yeah, and the washer broke, I got to go fix that in a moment…

Yes, it seems that the Lord is giving us our share of trials, and all at once.
Please pray that we would be able to get things sorted out.

Thanks!

-Nathan