Local Bird Misses Meals When Elder Can't Afford Bird Feed After Being Scammed

Giovanni was a House Sparrow with a passion for bird feed. Whether it was the cool winter or the hot summer in his native land of Indiana, he'd be at his local bird feeder chomping down on his favorite seed mixes. The feeder was a hotspot among his fellow birds, who for the most part got along. The occasional Blue Jay would stake a claim, screaming at the other birds to move away, but beyond that, it was a happy place to get a full belly and sing a song.

The House Sparrows favorite song...well, his only song, was a combination of "cheep" and "chirrup" which he did over and over again. He called the simple song "cheep chirrup" which all the girls loved to hear. All and all, Giovanni had a good life.

When the seed at the bird feeder ran out, a human would come out of her large nest and give the birds more to sing about. Mrs. Winters would replenish the feed a few times a week, slowly trotting out with a container of seeds in one hand and a cane in the other. Since losing her husband a few years back, Edith just now had her birds and the occasional visits from friends and family. While lonely, she enjoyed that she still had her home and was relatively healthy for an 82-year old former school teacher. Her and Earl had lived a good life and though she missed him, she went on and about her days.

Like Giovanni, Edith enjoyed the social and gustatory habits of the birds around her bird feeder. Sitting on the porch, she'd get out a pair of binoculars to spot area birds and take in the variety of songs that they sang each day. She noticed Giovanni frequently, though she didn't know his name. Even so, she appreciated "cheep chirrup." She gave food to the birds and the birds gave her songs and flights.

All was well in the country home outside of a small town in southeast Indiana. Then one day the food stopped. Giovanni didn't think anything of it at first. The old human would sometimes let it run out. But she'd be back out to give them more the next day, right? His little mind didn't spend too much thought on this as he flew from the empty feeder to his nearby home in an Osage Orange tree. There were flights to make and songs to sing and women sparrows to woo.

The next day Giovanni landed on a bird feeder which was once again empty. This isn't right he thought. Where's the seed? He flew back to his vantage point in the tree. After a few hours of waiting, he saw what he was looking for.

Mrs. Winters came out of her home, cane in hand. If Giovanni knew human emotion, he would have been able to tell that there was a sadness in her face that he had not seen before. In her other hand was a small bag of feed. She walked slower than he had ever seen her go, as if it was the last time she would do it.

"This is the last of it guys," she said aloud for all the birds to hear, or at least any who were listening. "I wish I had more." Winters placed the food in the feeder and went to her usual chair to see the song birds come. She didn't have to wait long. There was a mad dash to the food. Thirty minutes later it was gone. Even so, she just sat looking at her yard and where the birds had been. An hour passed and she eventually went inside.

Giovanni would stop by now and again to see if more seed had been replenished in Mrs. Winters' feeder. After a week of the empty food vessel, he moved on to other food sources. Occasionally he'd fly by the property. Sometimes Winters would be out, just staring into the yard and looking sad.

What Giovanni didn't know was that Edith Winters had lost her retirement savings to an Authority Scam. She'd been contacted by someone posing as the government, who told her she had received funds in her banking account from a horrendous crime. The scheme escalated to the point of her pulling her nest egg from an investment account, depositing it into crypto ATMs. The scammer had even arranged for a scam courier (scourier) to pick up cash. The older woman lost it all before she came to realize the ruse. There would be no more bird feed for Giovanni and the other birds; she could not afford it.

Edith ended up having to sell her house to make ends meet. Her son and his family took her in. She was thankful, but that house was not the same. It didn't have memories of her late husband and the little House Sparrow who sang his heart out at her bird feeder. The scam had stolen a generation of wealth and Edith was just the first victim.