Surprise!
As a biographer who has studied a subject for years, there comes a time when you are pretty sure you know more about your subject than they know about themselves. And then they STILL surprise you.
Jim and I were talking today about the time a con artist stole $13,000 from him a few years back—see Chapter 57 The Crime Fighter in “A Most Improbable Millionaire.” Jim mentioned that the prosecutor from that legal case got in touch with him recently and had passed on his name to a journalist from the New York Times who may reach out to him for an interview regarding this event. I was in front of my computer when we were talking and curiously searched for the case again to see what popped up.
There before my eyes was a two-part podcast produced by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) called the Sweetheart Swindler featuring none other than Jim Schmit in Part 1 (Episode 35). I laughed, shook my head in dismay that I was unaware of this interview, and then pushed play. The narrator, Will Johnson starts Jim’s interview stating:
[00:01:53] Will Johnson: We've talked to a lot of scam victims on our show; people who have lost their retirement nest eggs, some who've fallen in love only to learn it was all a scam, run of the mill email and internet scam victims, and massive Medicare fraud victims. They all have an important story to tell, and we owe them a huge thanks for being willing to share their stories, their pain, and sometimes very private aspects of their lives so that we, and you, can better understand and protect ourselves from scams and frauds. Jim Schmidt [sic] is one of those people, and to put it bluntly, he is a real character. He's the kind of guy I'd like to spend more time with actually, just listening to his stories, not just hearing about how he was scammed by a woman named Desiree Boltos.
[00:02:35] Jim Schmidt [sic]: If you look at my past, I could see why she got ahold of me, because you know, if you read articles, I'm known as the Improbable Millionaire, and I did make lots of money and I was pretty generous with it when I had it.
Naturally, I emailed AARP to let Mr. Will Johnson know that he could in fact learn more about Jim by ordering “A Most Improbable Millionaire.” Self-promotion aside, AARP’s “The Perfect Scam” podcast series is well done and covers the epidemic we are all fighting and sometimes losing against scammers and con artists.
To hear the story told from Jim first-hand, use the links below to access the Sweetheart Swindler Parts 1 and 2 in season 3 of AARP’s “The Perfect Scam” podcast series.
https://www.aarp.org/podcasts/the-perfect-scam/info-2019/sweetheart-swindler-part-1.html
https://www.aarp.org/podcasts/the-perfect-scam/info-2019/sweetheart-swindler-part-2.html
Jim still surprises me and he’s still sharp as a tack. When we talked earlier he said, “Oh I need to mention our book to this journalist if they call. That would be neat if we could get the title of the book in the New York Times!” Naturally, I agreed!