A Two Thousand Dollar Nebraska Land Purchase Leads to a Federal Fraud Case
Dolores tapped her finger on the counter again, three sharp raps.
“I told her that in Lincoln County, we do not correct deeds without the original signature of the current trustee. I told her the file would sit in the pending drawer until she brought me a paper copy with ink on it.”
“She never brought it,” Sarah said.
“She knew she could not,” Dolores said. “The trustee was already ninety-four and living in a nursing home in Omaha. He did not know what an electronic filing was.”
“Did she know the land was going to auction?” I asked.
“She knew,” Dolores said.
“She had been asking about the tax lien on that specific two hundred acres for six months. She wanted it cheap, and she wanted it under her thumb.”
I wiped my palms on my thighs.
“She was trying to build her road before anyone else could buy the soil.”
“She was,” Dolores said, looking straight at me. “But she did not expect a retired mechanic to show up with two thousand dollars in cash.”
We stood by the counter for a quiet minute while the copy machine in the corner hummed.
