TTY

 At Macy's, we had hourly sales quotas.  Mine was $50/hr.  That would not be hard to do, if I sold a piece of luggage, but it was harder when we didn't have any customers.  So, I would hang out in Housewares to try and make that goal.  That was when the phone rang.
 I answered, and it was the TTY operator on the other end.  She is someone who is a person who helps someone who may be deaf or mute communicate with someone on the phone.  A person will type in their conversation to the operator, and then she will read it to the other person, like me.  I then would respond, and she would type it out for the other person to read and respond.  It is a long process, but very needed in this world.
 So, she told me who she was and that she had someone wanting to know if we had 25 rice cookers which were on sale for $50 each.  I checked and came back to the phone to say that we did.  She then gave me a credit card number and an address to ship the rice cookers to.  This sale would make my whole week for sales.  I wouldn't have to do anything for the rest of the week.  I could just chill.  The address she gave me was in Miami.  Wait a minute.  I got to thinking.  Macy's had a least two stores in Miami, and both were much bigger than ours.  In fact, Macy's had a grading system for stores based on size and sales.  Miami were "A" stores.  Columbia was a "C" store for most things like Housewares.  Why would someone from Miami call a small store and have to be a whole bunch of shipping, when they could go to one of the big Macy's stores in Miami and load up their pick up truck with rice cookers.  It just didn't make sense.  I had a number to call after I had figured up the shipping to give them a total.
 Instead, I got the number for one of the Macy's stores in Miami and got hold of their Housewares Dept.  When they answered, I just asked if they had a particular rice cooker that was advertised, and they said they did.  I then asked if they had more than 25 in stock.  The associate checked and came back and said they had at least 50.  If a store was sold out of an item, they could do an "item locator" on the register to see which stores had them and how many.  So, this person in Miami could not have gone to Macy's and had them to an item locator.  In fact,  there are many Macy's stores between Miami and Columbia that could have filled the request.  The light went off in my head, and I asked the associate to transfer me to their security department.  When I got that person, I told him who I was and what had happened.  I asked him if he had a street directory to tell me who lived at the address I got from the caller.  It turned out to be a UPS store that had a drop box.  The security man said not to send the product.  It must be a scam.
 After I hung up the phone, I went to our security office and told our person about what had happened.  One thing we figured out was that the card number I was given was stolen, because when I asked for the 3-digit number o the back of the card, they gave me the last three digits of the card number.  The register rejected the transaction.  I called the TTY operator, who in turn called the person back, and told them the card had been rejected.  That person said that was not a problem and proceeded to give me another card number.  That was rejected, too.  That person said no problem and said they would try later.
 Our security person was working with me on this strange call, and we decided it would be best if I would be the one to get the call if the TTY operator called again.  The next day, she did.  This time it was for sets of cookware.  I went through the same procedure with her, and she gave me an address in New York.  Un huh.  The flagship Macy's store is in New York.  Why call little old Columbia?  It was obvious that there was something wrong, so our security person contacted the FBI.  They told her that they had been trying to catch these people for some time.  They were using stolen credit card numbers to buy large quantities of items for the Home.  The store would then send the items to an address.  That person would receive the merchandise and then resell it on Craigslist, eBay, or elsewhere, and then take 10% out for themselves.  They would then send the rest of the money to some people in West Africa.  That money would fund terrorist operations.
 The FBI told us what to do.  When the TTY operator called, tell her not to type what I was telling her.  That it was for her ears only.  I told her who these people were, and that we needed to get as much information as possible.  Name, address, phone number, and when they could be reached.  She would tell them the transaction went through (even though it didn't) and how much it was.  We would have the card number which was turned over to the FBI along with these addresses.  We had addresses all over the country including California, Ohio, Florida, New York, Georgia, and many more.  The FBI used those addresses to arrest the people receiving stolen goods, and contacted the people whose credit numbers had been stolen.  I heard later that a computer store in Ohio had also been contacted.  The FBI put out a nationwide bulletin on these people and their MO using TTY operators.  This computer store got the bulletin.  They got a large computer box and filled it with cement blocks and porn magazines instead of a computer.  I thought that was creative.  I wished I had thought of that.
 The money stopped flowing to this terror group in Africa. Their operation was exposed.  I don't know if anyone did anything to him, but at least this scheme was stopped.  I wonder what would have happened if another associate instead of me had answered that call for the rice cookers.  I guess that I just have an inquisitive mind and a nose that smelled something fishy.

Barbie

 As you probably have seen from some of my posts, there have been some people that have taken me into their homes and welcomed me into their lives.  One was in my last post, and another is in this one.
 I worked with a woman named Peggy.  Her husband died just before my Mother did, and we shared a common bond.  Peggy was about 20 years older than me.  She had won a contest at Macy's and was flown to England to see the Wedgwood China factory and have tea with Sara Ferguson, when she was still married to Prince Andrew.
 One day, Peggy asked if I wanted to go to an apple farm in North Carolina.  I had never been to one, but it sounded like fun.  She told me to bring a jacket.  It was warm in Columbia, so I didn't think I needed a jacket.  When we got to the mountains, it was absolutely freezing.  She said I could wear her granddaughter's jacket, which was in the car.  I agreed, but found it had the Barbie doll logo on it.  I put it on anyway.  There were a lot of people there at the farm, and everybody pointed at me and laughed.  The jacket was warm, so I just had to accept the stares.  We had lunch up there at a good restaurant, and the workers there pointed and laughed.  I think I cheered up a lot of people that day, and there are probably folks even today laughing about the 52-year old man wearing a Barbie jacket.  That's okay.  At least, I learned to take a jacket when going to the mountains.  Don't be macho about it.  Comfort is more important.