This is Nena, TMS' wife. While we will soon go to Small Claims Court to recover our possessions, I have still been answering questions from my large extended family. I learned recently that my brother Manuel, who is a Baptist minister in Kansas, had been inquiring about the incident. He had learned about the matter from my brother Johnny, the lawyer. Manuel and I have not been close the last forty years because of our religious differences. Nevertheless, I sent him the following letter yesterday.
Dear Manuel,
Annalee mentioned that you were asking about the situation between Teresa and me. Anna knows very little and Mom knows just what Teresa has told her. Their view seems to be that this is an incident between sisters that will eventually "blow over." It is deeper than that. Teresa's actions were intentional, calculated and evil. Sadder still, she brought our sister Dina into it as her follower.
I will present matters as carefully and accurately as I can.
Jim and I moved to the valley in April 2004. We left a large rented van with all of our possessions on our property in Arroyo City. We intended to stay a few days with Mom, but she was not home. We ended up at Teresa's for about 4 days while looking for an RV to buy. Teresa mentioned that she had a double garage and there was no need to rent a storage building. We accepted her offer and neatly stacked everything up in less than half of her garage. Several large items, like a huge armor my son bought me, we let her use. She agreed we retained ownership.
We noticed that Teresa's home and property had deteriorated greatly. We offered to help her without cost. The back yard was out of control, about four feet tall. You could not even see her back fence. We cut that all down, removing years of discarded items in the underbrush. Vines were removed from the back windows, trees trimmed, huge oleander bushes cut back.
Next, we concentrated inside her home. I painted her kitchen and dining area. Jim installed moulding. The same with the hallway and Tere's room. Teresa's bathroom was covered with mold. We ripped off the old wall paper and painted the walls and cabinets, etc. We also repainted her screened porch, layed carpet, pit in a new screen door, blinds, etc. We did not charge her a penny and actually paid for many supplies and tools.
During this redecoration, I noticed that Teresa's furniture was well worn. I offered to let her use a few more of my pieces, making it absolutely clear that I retained ownership. She said she understood this and always spoke of "your furniture." With this arrangement, my item eventually were used in every room of her house. We had been given a key to her home and could access our things at any time.
We first sensed trouble when Jim told Teresa he was going to trade out our leather love seat for the new couch in our RV. Teresa said: "But Jim, it looks so good right where it's at." She tried to talk Jim out of the love seat and into buying a day bed. She even called us from a store where she had located a day bed she wanted us to look at. Jim paid Camillo, Jr. to pick up the RV's couch and help him load the love seat into our van. Teresa was not too happy but didn't make a scene in front of Milo. (Anna later told us that Teresa said the next time Milo helped us take out our furniture, she would call the police on him.)
A few days later we used our house key to pick up a five small items: a picture, a night stand, a lamp and two African figurines. Just a handful of items, really. Jim wrote a note explaining what we were picking up and left it on the dining table(ours). When we stopped by a couple days later to see Teresa and her family, she wouldn't open the door. The locks had been changed. She opened one window and screamed at us, stating that she had a restraining order against us. I told her: "Just give us all our possessions back!" She said: "I was going to give you all your stuff back, but I'm not now!" We later learned that she had called others saying that her house had been "broken in to, burglarized." She even called Joey, Anna's daughter to see if any of "her people" had done this. That was just to set us up as criminals.
Teresa received our mail for a time. She learned that I had a delinquent credit card debt. She told Anna: "I don't know what kind of legal trouble Jim and Nena are in, but there's something in Fort Worth."
Jim thought the only ones she would respect were here Church elders so he wrote them a letter, asking one of them to arbitrate. He felt like they were the only ones she would respect. The elders never responded. They simply told her that it was a private matter and to "handle it."
Teresa sent us a letter asking us to remove our furniture and other items from her property. She said her car needed to be parked in the garage during hurricane season. Jim replied with a letter listing all of our possessions we could remember. She responded with a certified letter giving us 24 hours to pick up our things, but also telling us to call first so the gate would be unlocked. The certified letter spent the weekend in the Rio Hondo Post Office, since we were not at home to sign for it. On picking the letter up on Monday, we began calling: No answer. We logged all our phone calls.
Jim wanted to rent a storage van, but I knew it was of no use if her side gate was locked. So we decided to drive by. Imagine our horror when we saw Teresa, Dina and all their kids selling our stuff at a yard sale. Dina's first words were: "You're too late!" Teresa came running out with a big smile: "What would you like to buy?" I went up to Rene and said: "Rene, you know these are our things!" He said: "I have to say what my mom tells me to say!" I began picking up as many small items as I could and throwing them in the van. Then I went through the side gate and gasped! My son's antique dresser drawer was ruined, having been left out in Hurricane Emily. Other antique pictures were tossed out in a box and ruined. The t-shirts we sell on Ebay and been left out in the rain with the plastic storage bags unzipped. They were wet and roaches were in the bags. Four mattresses had been left out and were ruined. These items had been discarded because Teresa had no use for them. Much of my better furniture remained inside the house. She had no intention of ever giving us back most of our items.
As Teresa called the police, Jim told me we needed to leave. I kept picking up items and throwing them in the van. Finally, our van was full and we left. We were met at the end of the street by 5 Cameron County Sheriff's vehicles. Jim stopped and explained the situation, showing the offficers one of the letters. Other officers went to Teresa's and took a statement. When the other officers came back Jim and I were arrested and charged with felony assault. I had never touched anyone and Jim certainly hadn't. Evidently, Teresa and Dina and all the kids indicated we had. Jim and I were handcuffed and placed in the back of unairconditioned police cars with the windows rolled up. I could feel myself passing out and asked for water. I told them I was a diabetic and needed water. Denied. "Should have thought of that before you did this!" one officer said.
At the substation, the police interviewed me for 1-1/2 hours and then took my statement. Jim was in another room. At one point the officer told me that he had been in the business long enough and could tell who was telling the truth. He said he hated it when parents got their kids to lie. He told me that he was reducing the charges to 3rd degree misdemeanor domestic violence. He said he could not drop the charges with the victim's testimony as it was. They wanted to arraign us so that we wouldn't have to spend the night in jail. All of the Brownsville judges were out of pocket so we were driven to Los Fresnos and arraigned.
After arraignment, the officer said he wasn't going to leave us stranded. Our vehicle had been impounded and it was after hours. As we rode back to Brownsville, the officer received a call. Janie, Camillo's wife, had gotten our van out of impound and was on the way to rendezvous at a Circle K and pick us up. Anna and Janie came out of the car and hugged us. We had family after all!
I'm leaving out many details, but I wanted you to see that Teresa's actions go way beyond just a sister disagreement. I view her actions as unforgivable. Mom does not understand this. When I tell her Teresa lied to have us arrested, she just says: "I wouldn't have let you stay in jail." When I tell her Teresa still has most of the things Jim and I accumulated in 36 plus years of marriage, she talks about the time Rosie tooks something of hers. She doesn't want to believe it's as serious as I know it is. I understand this. I've been gone for many years and not been a daughter to Mom. The other girls have. I've been working hard to restore a relationship in recent years, but it's been difficult.
Jim and I were naive to leave our things with Teresa and accept some of blame, but we never imagined she would do this. She also used Johnny by asking him a hypothetical question: "What if a friend leaves their furniture in your house for a year and doesn't come back for it?" She also gained her elders approval of her actions by a similar tactic. Dina bought into all that.
Anyway, I just wanted you to know what we've been through. We will explore other options to recover our possessions.
Nena
