My spouse was headed to prison for running a ponzi scheme and agents of the federal government were at what had once been my home seizing our assets.
The second day of the seizure was a media disaster!
Satellite trucks, camera men, reporters hounding us, people photographing me as I came and went, people chasing me to get a photograph, media coverage in print and on television (locally and nationally), the phone ringing off the hook, and the doorbell constantly ringing as reporters looked through the windows of my home and watched me, shoved notes in the crack of the front door, and my neighbors told everything they knew in interviews.
I can’t detail all the horrors of that day. In fact, to some degree, I still can’t comprehend it all.
I felt like I was the one person involved in the nightmare who had done absolutely nothing but who had lost everything. And I had no voice. I had been directed to not talk to anyone, including the victims. It was a shocking position to be placed in when I’d done nothing wrong and had taken no part in any crime, and forgive me, but toward the end of the second day, I snapped.
I flaunted my unwillingness to chat with the media that surrounded my home, rang my doorbell all day long, and stared through the windows at me. It was my version of expressing my frustration, metaphorically thumbing my nose at the people reporting the destruction of everything as I’d known it in the face of my humiliation, shock and grief. Here’s what I did.
Occasionally, intentionally, I’d walk by the front door where reporters were waiting outside and looking through the glass at me…and I wouldn’t answer the door in spite of their knocks and rings! I’d laugh (sort of, inside) as I’d hear them say, “What is she doing? She’s in there and she’s not opening the door! Can you believe that?”
What did they think I was, stupid?
Oh, yes. I was married to a man accused of stealing (according to the last media reports I saw) $23 million dollars over a period of 15 years while he ran a ponzi scheme and I never had a clue. Yes, they probably did think I was lacking in intelligence.
But I showed them.
Not only did I ignore their knocks, I taped white paper over all of the glass they were looking through (as they looked through it) so they wouldn’t be able to stare through the windows at me any more. (And of course, that also got reported. Something to the effect about “someone taping cheap, white paper over the glass in the front door.” THAT is news? Lets just say the media coverage of my nightmare was far below the standard of “newsworthy” I had been trained in as a journalist!)
For our safety, that night my children and I didn’t stay in our home. Too many people, too many spotlights shining on our home and lighting up the inside of our house like it was mid-day. And in a situation like that, no one knew if a victim would snap or a crazy person would try to steal into our home. (The government had recommended that at least my children and I NOT stay in our home that night.) Instead, we stayed at a friend’s home and they treated us royally–with pizza, pop, salad, dessert, and normalcy away from the craziness of our home and situation. It was the most peaceful night of sleep we’d had since our nightmare began.
I’m smarter than I look.
Hey, media outlets! Go and report THAT to the world, why don’t you?
I can see the headline now…in my dreams.
