My old address used to be a nice little suburb of Chicago. My life seemed perfect: we had a cozy house, a job, and friendly neighbors we ran into every now and then for barbecues. Among them was one couple, Liz and Michael, who stood out. They had moved here a year ago, and it was clear that Liz was in control: She was always neat and tidy, there was always a beautiful garden, and Michael seemed to idolize her. But after a while, I started to see something strange.
Strange Signs
I saw one morning that Liz was going someplace. It was unusual: before she had always been home in the mornings. I saw her a few days later outside again, but this time she was obviously in a hurry and looking around. My suspicion was increased when at one of the barbecues Liz dropped her phone and it happened I noticed a notification pop up. The screen said, “Paperwork Is ready. Meet me somewhere else. He has a security camera outside the house”. I was surprised, but I forgot to let it get to me.
Random Circumstance
Later, I came across a service called ClarityCheck that helps you verify public data. Just for fun, I decided to give it a try. When I logged in, I entered Liz’s name and was surprised to find that her real last name was not what she had given when she moved. Moreover, she had lived in another state in the past and had suddenly changed her address. That made me suspicious. But why would a person hide her past life? And why didn’t she change her phone number?
A week later, I saw Liz again, but she wasn’t alone. She got out of the car with a man I’d never seen before. They stood by the car for a long time, discussing something. At one point, I noticed Liz handing him a folder of documents. That evening, I called Michael on the pretext of asking him for some gardening tools. When he opened the door, I asked him if everything was okay. He looked surprised and replied briefly that everything was fine.
The Butterfly Effect
I have an old acquaintance, Dan, who works at a local law firm. He and I chatted occasionally about various topics, and I knew that he not only knew the law but also had connections in law enforcement. We chatted and I started talking about everything and touched Liz. I was surprised that Dan listened to me carefully and promised to look into it, even though it seemed like idle chatter. A few days later he called to say that the information I had given was useful, and a few days later the police came to Liz’s house.
And when I was told the reason for the police visit, I could hardly believe it. It turned out that four years ago before Liz had started her new life, she’d been part of a criminal gang. They were real raiders. Liz and her “colleagues” used forged documents to deprive people of their apartments and then sell the properties at low prices. After her accomplices were arrested, Liz managed to escape. She moved to Chicago, made a new life for herself, and seems to have found a naive husband who didn’t know about her past.
Impossible Maybe
But Liz’s past was not forgotten. Some of her former business partners, who were also hiding under new identities, started looking for her and trying to get back into business. And now, the very “documents” she’d been hiding from everyone, and the strange business I’d heard about, turned out to be no accident.
The phone number Liz was using, of course, wasn’t hers. But the most incredible thing is that the woman to whom the SIM card was bought on the darknet and given to Liz was registered had the same first and last name! There are often hundreds of such SIM cards lying around in the hands of those involved in illegal activities, and someone accidentally gave Liz this very SIM card. Whether you believe in fate or not, this case is literally karma.
How It All Ended
The police department that dealt with Liz’s case hadn’t been interested in this “Liz” at first, because they knew for a fact that she was just a namesake. But when I accidentally told the story to Dan, and he to his police contacts, they got interested and decided to check it out again. And they got lucky.
Liz had hidden herself pretty well, as it might seem, but it was now clear that her footsteps had been carefully monitored for a long time, as soon as the signal was given. A series of fortuitous circumstances led to a real operation, which resulted in the arrest of Liz and her husband. It turned out that the “clueless” Michael was also involved in the document fraud.
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