Recently, while emptying my Junk E-mail folder at work, I
came across one email that stopped me during my deleting frenzy. The email subject was simply “Dear Andrew J
Schwartzberg” and it was from “Dutch Law Firms.” I opened it and read the
following:
Dear Andrew J
Schwartzberg,
I am a Citizen of
Netherlands and a Personal Attorney to Late Engr. Roxon Schwartzberg; I need
your assistance in repatriate the funds left behind by my client. (Late Eng.
Roxon Schwartzberg), before he died with his entire family. He deposited One
Trunk Box/Diplomatic Personal Treasure, containing the sum of $12,752,000.00
with a security company here in Netherlands,
Every attempt to trace
any member of his family has proven unsuccessful and abortive.
I'll give you more
information upon your response to this plan with your full name, address and
direct telephone.
Regards,
Advocaat Netherlands
(Attorney at Law)
(Personal Attorney to
Late Engr, Roxon Schwartzberg) Friday, January 17, 2014
I was quite intrigued by this electronic missive from Mr.
Advocaat Netherlands (an odd name to be sure, but hey, he’s Dutch) and wondered
how it was that I never knew I had relatives in that part of the world. And I
was deeply saddened that at the same moment that I learned of my Dutch
relatives, I also learned that they simultaneously met a cataclysmic end. Indeed,
morbid though it may be, I found myself wondering how that entire branch of the
family all perished at once. Did it have something to do with Roxon’s job as an
engineer? Was he tinkering in his
basement workshop when KABLAM! the whole house went up in smoke? Or did Roxon go berserk, wipe out his entire
family with a wooden shoe and then turn the clog on himself? Or maybe they went out to dinner one fateful
night and all succumbed to tainted sushi.
Of course, whatever caused the untimely deaths of Roxon and his entire family no longer mattered. What’s done is done and I was now left to deal with the financial ramifications. It seemed odd that Roxon would choose to place $12,752,000 into a Trunk Box (presumably half trunk, half box) rather than have it spread across various bank accounts and investments, but Roxon was kin and I trusted him implicitly. The only real question that remained was what to do with that kind of money.
As a grant writer, the first thing that came to mind when I saw the eight-figure sum I had coming to me was to use it all to start a foundation on behalf of the deceased—The Roxon Schwartzberg Foundation. The tricky part, however, is that I would want to distribute the money to the causes that Roxon held close to his heart, but I have no idea what those were. Would he want to save the rainforests? Or find a cure to eczema? Or provide honorariums to starving puppeteers? Without knowing Roxon’s wishes I could potentially do more harm to his legacy than good. For example, if I distributed funds to the Jane Goodall Institute, but it turned out that Roxon had a deep-seated fear of chimpanzees, I would never be able to live with myself. No, well-meaning though it might be, starting a foundation with these millions would cause too much of an ethical dilemma.
My next thought was that I could use these funds as seed money to start an engineering firm in Roxon’s honor. But, of course, this idea poses the same type of problem as the previous one. I don’t know what kind of engineer Roxon was. Was he an automotive engineer? A computer engineer? A structural engineer? A biomedical engineer? There are dozens of possibilities and the reality is that I struggle with long division, so no matter what type of engineer he was, I may not be the most qualified to start an engineering firm.
Finally, I thought it might be best for me to spend the money on a Samsung 85-inch Ultra HD TV, a 2014 Porsche 918 Spyder, and 300,000 Kit Kats. And the more I thought about this, the more I realized that Roxon would have wanted it that way.
Of course, the first step is to get a flight over to Amsterdam to claim what’s rightfully mine. Once I have the money in hand I’ll not only be able to make all the purchases I mentioned above, but will also be able to pay for a separate trip to Africa to claim the additional monies I have coming to me from a Nigerian prince.
Looks like 2014 is going to be a VERY prosperous year!
Of course, whatever caused the untimely deaths of Roxon and his entire family no longer mattered. What’s done is done and I was now left to deal with the financial ramifications. It seemed odd that Roxon would choose to place $12,752,000 into a Trunk Box (presumably half trunk, half box) rather than have it spread across various bank accounts and investments, but Roxon was kin and I trusted him implicitly. The only real question that remained was what to do with that kind of money.
As a grant writer, the first thing that came to mind when I saw the eight-figure sum I had coming to me was to use it all to start a foundation on behalf of the deceased—The Roxon Schwartzberg Foundation. The tricky part, however, is that I would want to distribute the money to the causes that Roxon held close to his heart, but I have no idea what those were. Would he want to save the rainforests? Or find a cure to eczema? Or provide honorariums to starving puppeteers? Without knowing Roxon’s wishes I could potentially do more harm to his legacy than good. For example, if I distributed funds to the Jane Goodall Institute, but it turned out that Roxon had a deep-seated fear of chimpanzees, I would never be able to live with myself. No, well-meaning though it might be, starting a foundation with these millions would cause too much of an ethical dilemma.
My next thought was that I could use these funds as seed money to start an engineering firm in Roxon’s honor. But, of course, this idea poses the same type of problem as the previous one. I don’t know what kind of engineer Roxon was. Was he an automotive engineer? A computer engineer? A structural engineer? A biomedical engineer? There are dozens of possibilities and the reality is that I struggle with long division, so no matter what type of engineer he was, I may not be the most qualified to start an engineering firm.
Finally, I thought it might be best for me to spend the money on a Samsung 85-inch Ultra HD TV, a 2014 Porsche 918 Spyder, and 300,000 Kit Kats. And the more I thought about this, the more I realized that Roxon would have wanted it that way.
Of course, the first step is to get a flight over to Amsterdam to claim what’s rightfully mine. Once I have the money in hand I’ll not only be able to make all the purchases I mentioned above, but will also be able to pay for a separate trip to Africa to claim the additional monies I have coming to me from a Nigerian prince.
Looks like 2014 is going to be a VERY prosperous year!
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