“Pedro, you suck. That’s all.“

I gotta get this off my chest. Pull up a chair and a glass of wine, cause I have got some stories to share!!

A few nights ago, a co-worker text me. 15 minutes after I replied to his text, I got another text from an unknown number. The text told me to go buy stuff at the store and it was signed in capital letters [co-worker who had just text me] I thought it’d be fun to play along so I said I was at the store. When asked to send pictures of what gift cards they had, I sent a picture text of a ROBLOX gift card my 8 year old received for his birthday. Then their reply was like hahah, you got it off Google. So I sent three middle finger emoji’s and went about my evening. Photo below.

Please keep the following info in mind. My bonus daughter just told me 3 weeks ago she was leaving her abusive boyfriend, shes homeless but on a friends couch, her baby just died 7/17 @31 weeks, and she’s only 17. DHS failed her. It isn’t uncommon for her to call me panicking and in need of help.

Fast forward to today. 11am, I get a phone call from a number I don’t have saved. A girls voice screams “Mom!!! I got in an accident! Help me! Mommmmm!!!” (Twice) And I said “Mia, where are you? I’ll come get you.” Then a man got on the phone and said if I ever wanted to see my daughter alive, I was to follow his instructions very carefully. I told him I didn’t have more than $100 cash but I could go get $400 more from her Grandma. So he said I had to stay on the phone with him the whole time while I drove. Grandma wasn’t home so I pulled into O’Reily’s on Division and wrote on a piece of paper “Please help me.” And showed it to a guy sitting in his car. He got out, I wrote “my daughter kidnapped” “please say yes” so I pretended I got Grandpa and asked this stranger for $400 to trim my trees. The stranger said yes out loud. Poor guy! I’m sure I startled him. I walked away and got back on my phone. Told Pedro I got the other $400. So he told me to go to the Walmart on 82nd and Powell to get my daughter back. Once I got there, he told me for my safety and his, I was to wire the $500 to Mexico then my daughter would hop in my car unharmed. So I went inside and did it, told him the confirmation info, and once he confirmed his boss got it, he told me to go to Gradin Park in Gresham where she’d be waiting. I started heading towards this park when another guy got on the phone and tried to demand another $500! I basically told him off and to give the phone back to Pedro, so he did. Pedro told me he’d cover the other $500 with his own money cause I was such a nice person and I held up my end of the arrangement. He told me he’d let her go and she’d call me in 5 minutes with her location so I could pick her up. She never called. This whole ordeal lasted 3 HOURS!!! 3 flipping hours! At the end he asked me to send him a picture of myself. I declined. Maybe I should have been a hostage negotiator though. I feel like I made him feel human and almost bad for what he was doing.

When I got home, I waited 30 minutes before calling non-emergency. I was shaken. Scared. Afraid for my life and safety. (He told me to take a picture of the receipt which showed my full name and address) The officer was trying to assure me it was just a scam, but I pushed that she may be in trouble. I gave him her cell number I had, cause I was too afraid to call her, and when he called me back, he assure me she was safe and fine. He told me she was pissed at me but she was fine.

Of course she’s double pissed at me right now for “calling the cops on her!” Damn teenagers!!! 🤬

Moral of the story? I have no clue. I’m pissed. I’m out $500. I reported the scam to PD and MoneyGram. I have to tell my husband when he gets home in 30 minutes. Karma’s a B and I guess I just want others to know to be careful. I know they say to check on your loved ones before sending money but I felt she was in eminent harm.