エピソード

  • The Treasurer Who Lied to a Town: $411,000 Missing, Box on a Trail

    The Treasurer Who Lied to a Town: $411,000 Missing, Box on a Trail
    2026/09/11
    The Treasurer Who Lied to a Town: $411,000 Missing, Box on a Trail

    A small-town treasurer hid $411,000 in plain sight for nine years while a labeled box of financial records sat on a jogging trail waiting to be found - who would notice and why did no one check the bank statements? This episode centers on the missing booster club funds, the cardboard box labeled "GBCA FINANCIALS FY2010-FY2018" left on a drainage swale, and the single volunteer who could not let a printed summary go unanswered.

    In this episode, we tell how routine volunteer bookkeeping, a string of fundraiser deposits, and one accounts payable clerk's skepticism exposed a long-running theft; what led Sherry Slater to keep pushing for a real bank statement and how her actions cracked the case are the questions that drive the story.

    Person: John Patterson
    Person: Dale Morris
    Person: Sherry Slater
    Location: Hendrick County Recreational Path
    Amount: $411,000

    - On September 9, 2019 at 6:15 AM John Patterson found a cardboard box labeled "GBCA FINANCIALS FY2010-FY2018" in a drainage swale.
    - Grover Flats Regional High School enrolls roughly 340 students supported by the Grover Flats Booster Club Association.
    - The booster club's car wash program brought in approximately $31,000 over four years.
    - Dale Morris became treasurer in fall 2009 at age 51 and served as treasurer while diverting funds beginning October 2009.
    - A $9,200 PA system purchase from fall 2017 was recalled by volunteer Terry Voss but was not documented in accessible files.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    18 分
  • The Motorhome That Never Existed: How a Community Lost $204,000

    The Motorhome That Never Existed: How a Community Lost $204,000
    2026/09/10
    The Motorhome That Never Existed: How a Community Lost $204,000

    Fear that your neighbor’s good name could be the very thing that ruins your savings - a small town trusted a familiar volunteer and lost $204,000 to a raffle whose grand prize never existed; how did a laminated placard become the sole proof of an $84,000 motorhome that was never bought?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline of the Copper Falls Community Lost Fund raffle, the paperwork and personal networks that made it seem legitimate, and the financial trail that exposed the fraud - can a stack of receipts and one careful buyer’s habit unravel six years of local trust?

    Person: Dale Taylor
    Organization: Copper Falls Community Lost Fund
    Prize: 2019 Class A motorhome, 32 feet, valued at $84,000
    Amount raised: $211,000
    Missing funds: $204,000

    - Tickets sold for $25 each or 5 for $100 at least five local outlets including a hardware store and biweekly farmers market.
    - Taylor rented storage unit at 14 Commerce Loop for $80 per month claiming it held the motorhome; unit contained only a laminated placard.
    - Nonprofit registered in January 2021 with three listed directors; two directors were unaware their names were used.
    - Heather Phillips purchased $250 in tickets in June and August 2021 and kept receipts that later helped investigators.
    - Documented legitimate raffle expenses totaled $6,600; remaining $204,000 was transferred into Taylor’s personal account and CF Event Solutions LLC.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    16 分
  • The Man Who Took $2.3M and Left 1,140 Names Behind

    The Man Who Took $2.3M and Left 1,140 Names Behind
    2026/09/09
    The Man Who Took $2.3M and Left 1,140 Names Behind

    Greed and small-town trust collided in Fenwick when a pile of 1,140 contracts and $2.3 million in prepaid funeral funds were found strewn on a church storage floor, while the trust account held exactly eleven dollars-how did a licensed local businessman take decades of payments and leave families with nothing? What went wrong between the paperwork, the trust administrators, and the man everyone trusted with their final plans?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the morning those contracts were discovered to the calls, searches, and referrals that followed, tracing the documents, the fake fiduciary name, and the red flags that prompted a fraud investigation. Can records and a small town's memory reveal where the money went and who was responsible?

    Person: Vernon Erickson
    Location: Fenwick, Nebraska
    Date found: July 9, 2014
    Total collected: $2,300,000
    Contracts counted: 1,140

    - The storage annex contained hundreds of contracts fanned on the floor when Paul Padgett found them on July 9, 2014.
    - Serenity Path Funeral Planning Services was registered as an LLC in January 2004 and offered packages costing $3,000 to $8,000.
    - The trust account that should have held client funds had a balance of eleven dollars.
    - Crystal Bishop's mother paid $4,500 for the "Tranquil Passage" package in 2008 and died in March 2014.
    - Serenity Path's paperwork listed "Westgate Fiduciary Partners" as trust administrator on recent filings, but no such company existed in state registries.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    18 分
  • The Trail of $47,000: How a Small Town Found a Hidden Heist

    The Trail of $47,000: How a Small Town Found a Hidden Heist
    2026/09/08
    The Trail of $47,000: How a Small Town Found a Hidden Heist

    Fear that your neighbor's recommendation could cost you everything: a sealed envelope with $47,000 in fifty-dollar bills was left on a gravel path that did not appear on public maps, connected to an account closed by court order with a zero balance - who would carry nearly fifty thousand dollars to a hidden trail and why was it left there?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the morning the money was found to the first official complaint that set investigators in motion, tracing how a local investment circle collected $812,000 from 41 people and why one woman's organized reporting changed the course of the case; how did social trust turn into a conduit for large-scale loss?

    Person: Pauline Osgood
    Date: May 14, 2019
    Location: Ralph Keller Trail
    Amount: $47,000
    Case: Fenwick Forward Investment Circle

    - The sealed bank envelope contained banded fifty-dollar bills totaling $47,000.
    - The attached sticky note referenced "Acct. 7741 - final transfer, J.S., May eleventh" and the account had been closed by court order nine days earlier with a zero balance.
    - The Circle collected $812,000 from 41 people between 2017 and 2019.
    - Stevens paid out roughly $230,000 in apparent returns while $582,000 moved in ways investigators later untangled.
    - Valerie Christensen contributed $19,000 over eighteen months and filed the complaint with Orin County financial crimes on May 31, 2019.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    17 分
  • The River Portfolio: How a Trotline Exposed a Treasurer's $672K Lie

    The River Portfolio: How a Trotline Exposed a Treasurer's $672K Lie
    2026/09/07
    The River Portfolio: How a Trotline Exposed a Treasurer's $672K Lie

    Fear and small-town trust collide: a waterlogged leather portfolio pulled from Sawyer Fork revealed every entry ending in .09, a pattern that unspooled twenty-two years of deception and $672,000 in unexplained county disbursements-so how did nobody add the numbers up for decades?

    In this episode, we walk through the discovery, the people involved, and the records that cracked open a trusted public official's scheme; what started with a fisherman’s trotline and a soaked case became a trail of accounting details that forced a county to face one central question: how did a habitual pattern of nine-cent endings hide for so long?

    Person: Grant Rice
    Event: Portfolio recovered from trotline on May 9
    Location: Sawyer Fork / Harwick County annex / Colville bank branch
    Person: Gary Walsh
    Person: Gina Miller

    - The portfolio was recovered before sunrise on May 9 by fisherman Gary Walsh.
    - Every number on every page inside the portfolio ended in exactly nine cents.
    - Grant Rice had served as Harwick County Treasurer for twenty-two years and four terms.
    - The portfolio contained eleven documents covering January through April of that year.
    - A bank account at a Colville branch had never delivered a single invoice yet remained active and received county disbursements.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    17 分
  • They Bought Creekfront Lots That Never Existed - He Took $343,000

    They Bought Creekfront Lots That Never Existed - He Took $343,000
    2026/09/06
    They Bought Creekfront Lots That Never Existed - He Took $343,000

    Someone convinced nine families to wire deposits totaling $343,000 for creekfront lots that didn’t exist, while five laminated placards stood in a soybean field and the real owner never knew his land was being sold. How did a man with blueprints, a rented office and an escrow clause spend three years selling paper lots until a 22-year-old bookkeeper’s curiosity started the collapse?

    In this episode, you will hear how transactions, contracts and everyday banking blurred into a small-scale land fraud in Pallister County and how a single routine paperwork review turned months of deception into an eleven-day unraveling. What mistakes did buyers and local systems make that allowed this scheme to persist from 2016 to 2019?

    Person: Neil Meyer
    Date: scheme ran from 2016 to 2019
    Amount: $343,000
    Location: Larkin Creek, Pallister County, Iowa
    Owner: Paul Harwick

    - Nine families wired deposits to reserve lots in "Larkin Creek Estates" they believed were creek-side parcels.
    - Five laminated placards marking foundation forms were found staked in a soybean field on Harwick’s 60-acre property.
    - The escrow agent named in contracts was Neil Meyer, but the escrow account did not exist and deposits went into a checking account for Meyer Residential Development LLC.
    - Margaret Hollis invested $22,000 and Jeff Sato invested $35,000; the Perkins family committed $26,000.
    - The parcel identification numbers in Meyer's contracts were copied from an abandoned 1990s subdivision plat and matched Paul Harwick’s farmland.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    17 分
  • The Filing Cabinet, the Broken R, and $473,000 Vanished

    The Filing Cabinet, the Broken R, and $473,000 Vanished
    2026/09/05
    The Filing Cabinet, the Broken R, and $473,000 Vanished

    Fear and outrage collide when a frozen filing cabinet in a yard exposes a tiny broken letter that links four years of fabricated statements to $473,000 taken from 114 trusting people - how did a single typewriter defect become the clue that cracked the case?

    In this episode, you will hear how a routine drain call led Michael Rice to photograph a scattered statement, how a broken capital R matched every fake page, and how small, methodical checks by family members and bank employees revealed the gap that started the investigation: could a misprinted R really unmask a long-running fraud?

    Person: Michael Rice
    Location: Alderton, Harlan County, Indiana
    Event: Filing cabinet with scattered papers found on March 11
    Amount: $473,000 vanished from 114 people
    Interest rate promised: 4% annually

    - The filing cabinet was found flat on frozen ground with both drawers open and papers in mud and frost.
    - Michael Rice discovered a page headed "Harlan Neighbors Retirement Club" showing a balance statement of $412,000.
    - The capital R in "Retirement" had a small break in the upper serif matching letters on the victim's mail for four years.
    - The scheme collected $473,000 from 114 people through fabricated statements over four years.
    - Gail Burns found an interest discrepancy of $11.40 and the bank reported a balance closer to $41,000 versus a declared $412,000.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    18 分
  • inmediato. Reservar: cómo llegaron ahí

    inmediato. Reservar: cómo llegaron ahí
    2026/09/04
    inmediato. Reservar: cómo llegaron ahí

    Fear that the person you trust with your harvest is stealing from you - that's what hits first: four identical receipts found in the snow, a retired teacher who treated them like evidence, and one man who used a grain elevator's name to siphon $1.4 million from neighbors. How did laser-printed slips, a copied letterhead, and yellowed dashboard pages convince farmers to hand over their stored grain?

    In this episode, we follow the trail from a kitchen table ledger to the receipts on Silo Access Road and trace the methods used to convert legitimate sales into repeated frauds. What patterns and mistakes allowed one operator to sell the same lot multiple times without immediate detection?

    Person: Denise Donnelly
    Date: February 26, 2019
    Location: Garner, Iowa
    Amount: $1,400,000
    Case: multiple sales of same grain lot

    - Four paper receipts with the same lot number, same quantity, and same name "Donnelly" were found in the snow.
    - Denise Donnelly's legit sale of lot 7-4418 was for 22,400 bushels of corn, netting $89,600.
    - Kevin Stein incorporated Kellerman Grain Services, LLC in 2015 and operated from a two-room office in Garner.
    - Stein's own cash-flow projection from mid-August 2018 showed a shortfall of $340,000 on a yellow legal pad.
    - Across eleven farming families the total exposure reached $1.4 million; Donnelly’s account was short $124,400 after Stein extracted $214,000.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    17 分