What do I do now???

[chager]

I have been emailing back and forth with a person that posted on one of the Central Ohio groups I belong to that she needed help making Christmas for her son this year. I emailed I had a "Big Kid" bigwheel and asked where she lived. She said west side and the street name. Well there happens to be a street by the same name here. Then she says she has to go to Kansas City(on an OATS bus) with her son for tests because they just found a brain tumor. Red flag!! We have no such thing here and Kansas City is 9 hours away from us!! She said it would only take an hour to get there. She MUST be in MO!!!
What do I do now? The big wheel is too big to ship I think. I guess I could find out how much it would be to ship it, but it will probably be out of my budget! I was also trying to get together Christmas ornaments for them as they were given a tree but can't afford ornaments. Her DH became ill and is currently on LTD from his job. I feel sooo bad!! I know I need to let her know soon, but I figure a couple days won't hurt since they are dealing with alot right now. Although I had sent her a contact number and it should have alerted her I wasn't local! What would you do? I just feel so bad right now. I literally just figured this out from an email I received about 5 mins ago! UGGHH!!

 

[LadyyRedd]

I"m confused - are you worried that she's lying about what she is going through or are you worried because you thought she was closer and now she's too far for you to send things?

If the latter, just be honest with her that you thought she was closer and you can't afford to send the stuff out.

Kimya

 

[mrsv98]

You have a good heart, but please, please be careful. It is tremendously easy to scam people on the internet. I would just email her and explain the difficulty. Say you are sorry for her troubles and point out that she should be on a board for her geographic area. Point out resources for help, but do not send her money.

 

[chager]

I thought she lived in my area. I wasn't sending any money just giving her a big wheel we don't use anymore and few duplicate Christmas decorations we have. Nothing I wasn't already planning on rehoming. The group I belong to does that. It's not a Freecycle group, but along those same lines. Not as hectic as FC though. I have helped a couple families through this group and personally know the moderators of it. Like I said we all thought she was local. She wouldn't have made it past the mods if they thought differently. They would have let her know the group was central ohio mostly with only occasional people from other parts of Ohio. I don't think she is lying about what is going on I just think it was a misunderstanding on her location. I reread her intial post and she had "from MO" and I think she meant "to MO" so that is why it made it through. I just feel really bad!! We had planned on taking some duplicate sports cards over when we took the big wheel. Maybe we can just mail them to her.

 

[daisyduck123]

What would you do?

Tell her I'm sorry & not send her anything.

 

[MushyMushy]

I would just explain everything as you've explained it here. It's pretty clear and very apologetic! No harm, no foul.