Elderly Man’s Home Ransacked

Geno Harry Dodd slumped in his wheel chair.

The strain of a trying weekend showed more on his tired face than his 92 years.

Friday evening, thieves ransacked Dodd’s Spokane Valley apartment while he was out, sheriff’s deputies said. Early Saturday, a man broke into Dodd’s apartment, waved a knife at him and warned him not to cooperate with deputies who were investigating the burglary.

Dodd told deputies that he believes a 20-year-old man who was Dodd’s live-in caretaker and the man’s 19-year-old friend are responsible for the theft.

Detectives are trying to find the caretaker and friend to question them, said sheriff’s Lt. Doug Silver. Neither has been charged with a crime.

The two men couldn’t be reached for comment this week.

Dodd’s caretaker reportedly took him out for breakfast Friday morning. Afterward, Dodd, said, the caretaker helped him onto a transit bus bound for downtown Spokane, where Dodd spent the rest of the day.

“It was a trick to get me downtown so I wouldn’t be there,” he said angrily.

Dodd road the bus back to the Valley about 7 p.m. and found the front door to his apartment wide open. His caretaker and the caretaker’s friend had moved out, deputies said.

“When I came back, (someone) had ransacked my house,” Dodd said. “They left me without money or food.”

The kitchen cupboards Dodd had filled two days earlier with $300 in groceries were barren, deputies said.

The $450 he gave his caretaker to pay the rent never got to the landlord, Dodd said. Another $200 Dodd had hidden under his pillow also was gone.

Some of Dodd’s clothes, a telephone, some blankets, two heaters and a recliner also were missing, deputies said.

In all, Dodd estimated he lost $1,500 worth of cash, groceries and possessions.

Eight hours later, a man with a knife showed up and threatened to “make me disappear if I didn’t keep my mouth shut,” said Dodd, who did not recognize the armed man.

Dodd reported both the theft and the threat to deputies.

In the meantime, he has moved into a downtown apartment.

He borrowed $260 from a friend to pay the rent on the studio apartment he now shares with a new caretaker. Another $100 in borrowed money went toward paying part of the $366 phone bill his former caretaker had run up, Dodd said.

“I’m barely getting by,” said Dodd, who lives on $1,100 from his monthly veterans benefit check. The World War I and II Army veteran doesn’t expect another check until June.

Furnishings in Dodd’s new apartment are modest. They include a chair, a rented bed and two old television sets that were not stolen during the weekend burglary.

“They weren’t worth taking, I guess,” Dodd quipped.

Dodd was diagnosed with a terminal heart condition two years ago, he said. Doctors told Dodd he had six months to live and that he needed help caring for himself.

Dodd placed a newspaper advertisement for a caretaker three months ago. When a man answered the advertisement, the match seemed perfect.

But he quickly discovered the living conditions were less than ideal.

Dodd’s caretaker invited a friend to live in the apartment, too. Both then invited girlfriends to stay in the three-bedroom apartment, Dodd said.

“I knew I had to get rid of them,” he said.

Now that they are gone, Dodd has one more wish.

“I just want my stuff back.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo