Time flies whether you’re having fun or not…
And so it is that more than a month ago a local jeweler rumored to be up you-know-what creek fled his nicely appointed Johnson County office in what is said to have been a late night move, for a space far less fashionable. And frankly, that’s accessing the new digs very generously.
Two weeks later I visited the jeweler’s former offices before checking out his new haunt. And since nobody was home, I took a peek through the mail slot in the front door where to my surprise I saw was a very small, very plain room, loaded to the gills with plastic and cardboard storage boxes filled with what appeared to be business records.
They were strewn and stacked about the room, filling the viewable space as if someone had brought them there in great haste and plopped them down willy-nilly.
Again, that was two weeks after the jeweler had moved from his former office space and was rumored to have been behind on the rent in.
His officemate – a fellow jeweler – remained in the former quarters, reportedly having worked out a deal to stay until she could find a new home. I spoke with two of her staff who declined to comment and she did not honor my request to return a call.
So last Friday I visited the jeweler in question’s new office and again nobody was there.
I peered through the mail slot again and saw the same scattered assemblage of unpacked boxes more than a month after the fact.
So what’s going on?
Do rumors about smuggling, missing jewelry and tough times have any basis in fact?
“I’m skeptical of the drugs and diamond smuggling rumor,” says a friend of the jeweler. “What I am not skeptical of is what financial pressures will do to someone. And I do know his financial condition and he’s one of those people who grew up with money – not huge money, but decent, upper middle class money.
“And then he got into the family business and started making pretty big money and traveling. And this is a $250,000 town. If you can bring in $250,000, the cost of living is so low that you can live a pretty nice lifestyle here. And if you can get up to $300,000 or $400,000, you’re on cruise control. But when you’re in the family business and you fall from grace, guess what doesn’t change? Your spending habits.
“So let’s say you go from$300,000 a year to $100,000 a year, you can get pretty far behind pretty fast. The point is he could very well be in the soup having nothing to do with these rumors at all. When I was friends with him, he was spending big money. he belonged to a country club, went on trips and gave money to charity.”
The friend’s take on the move to a downtrodden office and the month later, still unpacked boxes:
“It sounds pretty desperate. The whole thing is sad, man. Whatever happened in the family business, that’s sad right there and it’s a shame.”
Unfortunately falls from grace are very tangible things, the source says.
“Never underestimate what financial pressure can do to somebody. It makes people crazy. We live in a society where if you’re poor, you’re considered subhuman. Where social status is defined exclusively by wealth. No one is accepted in society at a certain level unless they have means. Or you’re extraordinarily talented like George Brett or Itzhak Perlman.
“The point is, in the end we don’t value human beings – just look at our culture – we value money, that’s it.”
The flip side of that assessment from a source with close ties to the situation at hand who thinks where there’s smoke there may be fire, in terms of the smuggling stories.
“I think there’s a reason why people think that,” the source muses. “And what that is, I don’t know, but people don’t come up with those kind of stories without a reason. I know at this stage of the game people embellish things, but they all start somewhere – every piece of gossip starts somewhere. And while they may not be 100 percent accurate, there is usually a grain of truth.”
The latest?
“His ex (officemate) was getting ready to move also because she can’t afford the rent solo,” the source says. “They’re completely going their separate ways. And she’d been getting phone calls from all kinds of different people looking for him and the police were still asking questions.”
I just love some of these quotes you get. Now I will never underestimate the financial pressure of living on $100K a year. The poor downtrodden soul.
Well rkcal, you have to look at the quote in context.
For somebody living a lifestyle in perhaps the half million dollar a year neighborhood, cutting back suddenly to low six-figures might be problematic.
But as you seem to suggest, for most people making $100,000 a year would represent a bonanza
Jesus H. Christopher, Jr., I come back from 2 weeks vacation for the this?
Who gave you permission to go on vaca in the first place TIAD?
And who green-lighted you to come back?
It is nice to know that it was KC Confidential that lured you back home.
So you know, welcome back!
And lest you forget…. he had his son at Pemboke Hill.
Had or currently has?
I just looove these stories where the alleged people shall never be named for things that might not have taken place!!!
More please author!!!
Face it, dude…
You’re addicted!
Reminds me of Hereford House main man Rod Anderson’s kids there as his world came crashing down.
heres what deputy dawg wislon and csi top fern impersonator hearne should read:
“I know at this stage of the game people embellish things, but they all start somewhere – every piece of gossip starts somewhere. And while they may not be 100 percent accurate, there is usually a grain of truth.”
yeah..until the wilward and hearnstein duo came up with this bunch of crap
no one really knew about the deal and the heist. Hearnstein writes 5 articles
which basically say 100% of the same thing…nothing new to be had.
then wilward goes sniffing around a dumpster in a parking lot
hiding under his dashboard of his car….thinking that everyone with
“antennas”on their car is a top secret nsa/fbi/dea agent. Maybe he
should focus on selling his services than watching reruns of Miami
vice and baretta!!!!! hahahaha!
so here’s another article where the source says “people embellish things”…
uh yes…wilward and hearnstein have embellished everything from
seeing boxes in an empty office and hypothesizing that those are top
secret classified documents to trailing a guy who may never go to jail.
Then the two news hounds getinto income distribution in joco with someone
who probably works the shift at hardees. Look at the income levels in
the highest zips of kc and you’llsee its all a bunch of b.s.
then the source says this:
“I think there’s a reason why people think that,” the source muses. “And what that is, I don’t know”…so if this source doesn’t know…why quote him?
Hearne….he says he doesn’t know….so why is that news that this hidden
source doesn’t know anything…just like the rest of us.
Whats even more horrible is that hearne created this series of garbage and
has the few people who read this thinking and trying to figure out who the
bad guy is. I’ m sure many are wrong in their guesses….thereby hurting
many responsible/well known/successful jewelers who are thesource
says….run very legitimate businesses but via rumor now have to
live with lies until the real ‘thief”is caught.
then this bright remark by the deep throat source:
“Never underestimate what financial pressure can do to somebody. It makes people crazy. We live in a society where if you’re poor, you’re considered subhuman”
subhuman…making less than 100K….who is this jagoff? subhuman…well then
about 95% of America is subhuman…..great quote jagoff….you seem reall
intelligent. So that includes seniors toohuh>
Hearnstein and wilward…another example of what not to be doingwhen
you know nothing about journalism or thereal world.
what a freaking clown act do we have here with these 2 super sleuths.
oh and what about stalker kid/rape in Columbia/jardines/…hell
ask roger the plumber….he’s into every house injoco and knows more
about what is happening out here than anyone!!!!!
joke…this series of stories goes down as the biggest joke ever in kc journalism…
and that’s not just Harley…that’s dozen of readers who have written my
email to say what a farce this whole thing is.
don’t censure me hearne….I know it hurts to be picked apart..but
thts the part of being a big time tmz new gatherer!!!!!!! hahahha
Man, Harley…
That’s quite a spanking. You can discount these sources all you wish, people don’t leave heavy duty six-figure paychecks behind to work out of a dumpy office that five weeks after moving in looks like someone’s attic.
Not if they don’t have to or don’t have far bigger fish to fry.
You may find yourself on the outside looking in, but I guarantee you a number of high profile insiders are wondering – as are many of us – what exactly is going on.
And the $100,000 figure and the difficulties of getting by on that some doesn’t apply to Wal-Mart greeters on fixed incomes, as stated by the source, it applies to an individual used to make several times that amount that has to cut back on their lifestyle after having grown accustomed to enjoying the finer things in life.
But keep thinking those good thoughts!
“We live in a society where if you’re poor, you’re considered subhuman. Where social status is defined exclusively by wealth. No one is accepted in society at a certain level unless they have means.”
Unless you live in rural northwest Missouri, where everyone from car dealership presidents to congressmen to entire student bodies have been jumping into cold ponds to raise money for the 5-month-old son of lower-middle-class parents on Medicaid who are well-respected around the community because they are genuinely nice people — not because they make $250,000 or even $100,000 a year.
It’s all just a matter of perspective.
Piss-poor is this year’s lower middle class in the age of the banker’s bailout.
I agree, dream writer…
The source clearly is referring to people in society “at a certain level,” as quoted.
Small town life – at a far different level – can be quite different as you correctly note.
All this stink about a jeweler that may or may not have broken the law to one degree or another, but not a peep about the son of an alleged KC mob boss getting pinched by the Feds for stealing $300k from ATMs he was contracted to service?
While it may not be fair to punish children for sins of the parents, how in the world did this guy get a contract within a federally regulated industry? Seeing that he copped a plea, have to assume that some of that cash was being spread around back to US Bank?
http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/27/4852905/son-of-former-kc-mob-boss-admits.html
I saw that story, PV.
Good question. I’ll take a look.