17 Wild And Heartbreaking Small Town Secrets

13.

“A family moved to town after one of those shows that build a house for people in need. Supposedly, the kid had some kind of rare disorder that required specialized rooms and larger doorways so they could get medical equipment in and out of the house. They moved to my town because it was a cheaper alternative to living directly in the nearby city where their child was supposedly getting treatment. There was a big to-do about it, the TV people showed up, did their house thing, the parents and the kids were on TV, the whole shebang. However, months later the police showed up at their house. Not only had the husband embezzled money from his previous job, their kid was not ill. They had taken in a ton of money from donations that were meant to help with things like medical bills and equipment that was supposed to be put in the house to help this child. When the police got there, the house was totally vacant. All the furniture was gone, no cars, nothing.”

“As far as I know, there’s still a warrant out on them, but they haven’t been caught. It was speculated that this wasn’t the first time they’d pulled a scam like this, but that they hadn’t thought through the TV appearance beyond ‘look, mom, I’m on TV!’ Because that’s how the police tracked the dad down about the embezzlement.”

—Anonymous