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F____'d up LONG story about my brother's friend
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| LuNaSeA |
Short version:
1> my bro's friend Vinny (29y/o) has taken full custody of his sister's 2 kids bc she's a meth addict, a big time theif (cars and ) and would neglect her two sons. She stole vinny's identity and is in jail now. Kids were molested by some ing pedophile when they lived in Utah. They are in Jersey now. Pedophile was caught & arrested.
2> Vinny's credit is fuct for life. He works 3 jobs. Gov won't help him pay the thousands of dollars of credit card bills he didn't rack up bc their have been cases of fake family ID-stealing just to get money from the gov.
3> Mom asked me to write to Oprah and that show 'Three Wishes' to see if maybe they would help do something....No luck.
(I babysit the kids, who are friggin awesome, and vinny STILL wants to give me money for it, which is obvly refuse..he really is selfless.)
Here's the long version w/ a few updated edits:
Dear Oprah,
This is the first time I have ever written to you and the cause is quite a unique and serious one and I thought perhaps you could help. I am writing to you on behalf of my son’s friend Vinny N_______. My 28-year-old son Anthony met Vinny, also 28, while they were both attending Ramapo College in New Jersey in 1995. They quickly became close friends and would remain so much longer after they both graduated. Naturally, no one’s life is perfect. But Vinny’s life has been turned upside down and inside out by the tragic events of the last few years which left him with the death of his mother, one sister in prison, two young nephews to take care of, another estranged sister, a father with a very serious gambling addiction, and a mountain of debt to repay— debts that are not his own.
Vinny’s mother passed away while he was still in college. His father, who was accustomed to going on trips to Atlantic City often, went on a gambling binge after the death of his wife. In no time, he gambled away his very own home, including assets. His father soon moved to Florida while his older sister Tina decided to move to Utah, where they would subsequently be taken care of by the states’ welfare system, which paid for the condominiums they lived in as well as Tina’s two sons’ schooling and much more. In the meanwhile, once Vinny graduated college, he had a huge college loan to pay back and literally had nowhere to go. At the age of 24, he was completely abandoned.
Still, Vinny made it on his own: he became a high school teacher, made his ends meet and began building a life for himself. He has been a high teacher for seven years, currently teaching Science at the Paterson Academy in New Jersey. He is simultaneously attending night courses in order to obtain further administrative certifications so that he can qualify to work his way up to be a principal in the future. Vinny loves his career and is looking forward to gaining more responsibility in higher positions but is going through so much mental, emotional and financial turmoil trying to pay his own bills, paying back his college loans, rent, car insurance, legal fees for the custody case, taking care of 5-year-old Joseph (and soon 11-year-old Tyler) AND paying off the high debts that Tina fraudulently incurred in his name, even just to get his credit back to a decent score. Vinny has already incurred well over $8,000 in legal fees just to fight for custody of the two boys and the road ahead is long and rough.Vinny now works 3 jobs to support himself and his nephews: High school science teacher full time, night school (GED) teacher Monday through Thursday. He also cleans my brother's office 5 nights a week.
Unfortunately, it began in early 2004. Vinny asked my son Anthony, who is a mortgage broker, to check his credit report since he was intending to buy a house. What Anthony discovered led to a massive downward spiral for Vinny. A slew of outstanding bills came up on Anthony’s computer screen, many of them credit card bills that had not been paid in over 180 days or more. Vinny said that this could not be possible as he is always timely in paying bills. At the same time, Vinny’s older nephew Tyler began to question why bills under Uncle Vinny’s name were being delivered to their household in Utah, when Vinny had always lived and still lives in New Jersey. Soon Vinny found out that Tina had been filling out numerous credit card applications in his name, maxing out the cards and not paying a single bill. Tina completely ruined Vinny’s credit, decimating any dream he had of buying a home.
Tina stole his identity in order to pay for whatever she wanted and took out cash advances for alcohol and worse yet, to support her drug addiction. The government attempted to convict her several times on various charges including stealing but the state didn’t send her to jail since she had two children to take care of and putting them in foster care was only more work for the caseworkers. The children were also suffering under their mother’s care, left alone for 4 to 5 days at a time while she was strung out on drug binges. And because they had been so neglected, it led to the devastating discovery that the children, age 3 and 8 at the time, had been molested by a pedophile that lived in the area. The sex offender was caught and convicted but the damage done to the innocent children can never ever be undone.
When the police apprehended Tina in July 2004, the younger son Joseph happened to be in the hands of Vinny’s other sister Nicole and luckily was not taken by state social workers. Tyler, however, was with his mother when she was arrested and now is in a foster home for the time being. Vinny and Nicole agreed to take care of Joseph and gain custody of Tyler no matter what it took, no matter how long. Just a few months later, Nicole also deserted him when she met a foreign man whom she married barely 2 months later. Now she wants nothing to do with Vinny or taking care of her nephews. As of this letter, Tina is still jail and the fathers of the two boys are nowhere to be found and most likely do not want to be found.
Both Tyler and Joseph will turn 11 and 6 in July, respectively.
Edit: Tyler & Joseph were reunited under Vinny's custody in August 2005; I wrote this story before I met Tyler.Vinny’s wish is to reunite them so that they can spend their birthdays together and he is in the process of obtaining permanent custody of both Joseph and Tyler. However, to say that the state of New Jersey is dragging their heels in Vinny’s custody case is an understatement.—it has been almost a year since the two brothers were separated and Lord knows how much longer it will take for Vinny to gain full custody of both children. Even though Tyler is being taken care of in a foster home in Utah, Joseph just wants his brother back and Vinny only wants to reunite what family he has left and to raise the boys to be productive, intelligent, loving people that grew up knowing what home is and what love is.
Vinny’s story is one of such heartache and unfairness but also of a family uniting to be stronger and live safer and better. Vinny moved out of his 2-bedroom apartment in Clifton, NJ, paying more money for a 3-bedroom apartment just so that Tyler and Joseph could have their own bedrooms. Fortunately, Joseph is a normal and happy 5 year old, adorable, playful, helpful and incredibly intelligent. With Vinny as his guardian, he has a very bright future ahead of him. Vinny is an excellent father figure to Joseph and will be to Tyler once the state of Utah takes him out of foster care and brings him to New Jersey to be united with his uncle and little brother.
As his friends, we do our best to help him out, from giving Joseph extra clothes to wear, babysitting, food to take home, etc. We love Vinny and what his family has done to him is truly a nightmare. He loves his nephews as his own sons and only wishes to do the best he can do as their permanent guardian.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for alone taking the time to read this letter. If there is anything you can do to help speed up the process of reuniting Joseph and Tyler into Vinny’s care I would not be able to express my gratitude to all of you.
I'm actually babysitting the kids right now, at Vinny's house...they are friggin amazing kids... We watched the Peanuts DVD of The Great Pumpkin... so cute!! They liked it.. Joseph fell asleep in my arms and TYler stayed up a bit longer to watched some ghost stories on ABC family channel...he fell asleep next to me shortly after.. here's a few pics:
lol @ tyler's face here ^
I dunno why I'm sharing this story, I thought it was a pretty amazing one. The kids are safe now and happier than ever with the little they have (a lot of their stuff got lost in the move) and Vinny is a great, affectionate and firm father figure to both of them. I hoped whoever read this story liked it and I guess appreciated something from their life from it. :) |
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| ghille |
| Thats too bad for those kids, but it sounds like they have an awesome uncle. My best wishes for them. |
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| jonSun |
| Mothers like that shouldnt be allowed the joy of children. Props to Vinny for being a great stand up uncle. |
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| Ian^ |
| quote: | Originally posted by jonSun
Mothers like that shouldnt be allowed the joy of children. Props to Vinny for being a great stand up uncle. |
Over here girls are getting pregnant just cos they know they can claim benefits for 18 years then & get everything handed to them on a plate.
Dani, he's doing a great job :) |
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| dinoXpress |
touching story..
oprah's a bitch. |
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| LuNaSeA |
| quote: | Originally posted by dinoXpress
touching story..
oprah's a bitch. |
lol. yea, damn it. :whip:
so funny: when we were about to eat dinner, it was Joseph's turn to say Grace and he goes: "Bless Uncle Vinny, Mom, my brother Tyler, Grandpa, Aunt Nicole, Daniela, Tyler's Utah foster parents and everyone in the world...Andblessthisfoodamen!!"
i was like :stongue: FTW! |
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| LuNaSeA |
| quote: | Originally posted by Ian^
Over here girls are getting pregnant just cos they know they can claim benefits for 18 years then & get everything handed to them on a plate.
Dani, he's doing a great job :) |
ah damn, that's some crazy .. i feel so bad for those kids then... :(
yea, vinny's doing a great job as their dad pretty much.. tyler loves music and he plays the saxophone in school.. i'm going to give him my keyboard so i can teach him piano as well :cool: i love these kids! |
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| CleverName |
| I don't have much to add except to point out the irony that a girl named tina became addicted to meth :toothless |
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