We were treated like Shit

We are outraged.  

We are disgusted at how we have been treated in Mt. Shasta.  

We will tell others what was done to us.  We will not be silenced.

I feel like one of Bill Cosby's victims.

I’m the former owner of Geppetto’s Toy Shop in Mount Shasta.  It used to be located next to Ray’s Food Place.  

We bought the toy store in 2009 after moving to Mt. Shasta.  We brought money and skills with us to help build the area's economy.

We ended up getting burned really bad.  In fact, we were burned so bad that we lost everything we had in life...our house, our cars, our savings, and our retirement accounts.

We were loaded down with so much debt from the Scam that it's likely we will never recover.   The debt is non-dischargable through bankruptcy.  There is no way out.

To make matters worse, nobody seems to care what was done to us.   We've told quite a few people what happened, and not a single human being has supported us.   It's the saddest thing I've witnessed in my life.

I now have a perfect understanding of what Bill Cosby's victims have experienced:  1)Nobody believed them, 2) Victims were badmouthed, 3) it was their word against his.    Only when 40+ victims stepped forward did people start to slowly figure out what was going on:  The victims were telling the truth.

THEREFORE.....

We want to warn others about investing in Siskiyou County.   We want to tell others about what happened to us:

First, you'll lose your business when you realize it's worthless.

Second, you'll lose your house, which was put up as collateral for the business. 

Third, you'll lose all your savings trying to save yourself.

Fourth, you'll be badmouthed by the sellers, saying it was your fault.

We want to tell others about a clever system that allows insiders to swindle newcomers in scam deals.  After the ink is dry, you will realize you've been hoodwinked, and you'll come to the horrifying discovery that you've lost everything, while another human being now has all your money.

Learn about corruption in Siskiyou County economic development, and how the lives of newcomers are destroyed in pursuit of questionable economic gain.

You'll also discover that there is virtually nothing you can do.    In fact, if you try to speak up, you'll have the police called on you and you'll be the target of an "active and open" Siskiyou County Sheriff's investigation, like we were (I'll tell you that story later..its almost unbelievable...but remember that Kerry Ingrham-Criss is married to Siskiyou County Supervisor Brandon Criss...who oversees the Sheriff's Dept.  If you rattle a hornets nest, be ready for what happens next).

How did this all happen?

After moving to the Mt. Shasta area, we enlisted the services of JEDI, also known as the Jefferson Economic Development Institute.

They paired us with a consultant named Stephanie Hoffman, who told us about a business loan program offered by Great Northern Services of Weed, CA.  The loan program helps people obtain capital for the expansion or purchase of local businesses.

We found a local business for sale called Geppetto's Toy Shop, which used to be located next to Ray's Food Place in Mt. Shasta.  Here is our old logo:

The store was being sold by Kerry Ingraham-Criss (who is married to Siskiyou County Supervisor Brandon Criss).

Kerry is the daughter of Ken & Laura Ingraham, who own Noah’s Ark Feed Barn on Lassen Ln in Mt. Shasta, CA.

Kerry Criss, wife of
Siskiyou County Supervisor Brandon Criss, is a
Thief and a Two-Bit Whore who ripped me
off out of my life savings.

During our due diligence, Kerry provided financial statements that showed the toy store earning about $35,000 in profit per year AFTER ALL EXPENSES WERE PAID.

We used those financial statements to obtain a $70,000 business loan through their Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG).   We put our house up as collateral for the loan.

It is extremely expensive to get Audited Financial Statements.  Typically, getting a CPA firm to do a complete audit of a store's books would cost tens of thousands of dollars, and could take up to six months.  For a small business, it is NOT practical to have the financial statements audited.  YOU MUST TAKE THE WORD OF THE SELLER.

The transaction was being sold through a local real estate firm (Century 21 in Mt. Shasta, CA), and the purchase document was done by a local lawyer.

Unbeknownst to me, Kerry was in desperate financial shape:  Kerry hid the fact that she was over $100,000 in debt from operating the toy store. 

To take the easy way out, she decided to cheat another human being out of their life savings.

That person was me.

After owning the Toy Store for a several months, I came to the horrifying discovery that there were no profits.    

I started to dig through the store's computer files and started finding financial irregularities left and right.

I discovered the first of many frauds:  Kerry Ingraham-Criss had defrauded us of $2,500 worth of gift cards.

Under the terms of the Toy Store purchase, we were buying the ASSETS of the store, and Kerry Ingraham-Criss was keeping the liabilities. However, Kerry hid from us that there were $2,500 worth of outstanding Gift Cards that she had collected the cash from those cards, but we would give merchandise (for which we weren't paid).

I caught Kerry Ingraham-Criss red-handed.   Even when I confronted her with evidence of her fraud, she refused to confess what she had done.

After operating the store for a couple months, we were forced to cash in our 401(k) retirement plans so we could keep the store open for two more years.  This was a huge mistake: we should have allowed the store to fail.  By keeping it open, we gave the false impression to the community that the store was fine when we bought it.

We worked at the store for the next two years for no pay.

When our retirement savings were exhausted two years later, we were finally forced to close the store.

We left town in a moving van, having been swindled out of our life earnings.

Today, seven years later, we are still suffering horribly.  We suffer every day because the debt from the toy store cannot be discharged through bankruptcy.  We earn too little to keep up with fees, fines, and interest.

Our lives are destroyed.  

To make matters worse, we have learned that the sellers started badmouthing us to others in the community soon after we bought the store, and they have badmouthed us to people in town ever since.  Our quest for justice has been an uphill climb.

The greatest mistake of my life was investing in Siskiyou County.

The purpose of this Blog is NOT to assign blame for the failure of the toy store...I have absolutely no interest in getting into a debate...

The purpose of this blog is to publicize the FACTS, which is what we are experiencing, and what we have experienced, which are indisputable.

We were taken advantage of