You hear about people taking advantage of the system, but this might be the greatest abuse I’ve ever legitimately learned of.
Twenty years ago, Rosie Marie Costello came up with a brilliant idea for some extra income. All she had to do was have a mentally retarded child. Her current child, 8-year-old Pete Costello, would be perfect for the part – and bonus! – he wasn’t actually retarded. Not surprisingly, the idea was foolproof.
According to CNN, mother and son raked in well over $200,000 during the course of their scam. What went wrong, you ask? Good question. Turns out the authorities managed to get surveillance of Pete arguing a speeding ticket in court – just like a totally non-disabled person. In the end, his only real handicap was sheer stupidity.
Here’s the thing, though. Why did it take the United States government 20 years to figure this guy out? What are the standards of determining disabilities? Can I fake being retarded? In fairness, there is come conjecture that Mr. Costello might be partially retarded and he has simply been exaggerating the effects. I think that’s just something they’re saying to make themselves feel less inept…because of course, no one in the government could be completely fooled by this act…only partially fooled. Idiots.
Twenty years they’ve been draining money out of an already anemic social security fund. I’ve gotta tell you – this is pretty infuriating. Bad enough I’ve gotta pay for the diapers of baby boomers, but now I have to pay for the acting lessons of an eight year old. And how the hell did this kid even get a drivers license?! Did no one at the DMV realize that he was collecting money for being mentally retarded? How big is the hole that this family fell through? Where else is my money going? Is Bill Gates collecting welfare? But way to nail this guy with the video surveillance, guys – as if his Nobel Prize didn’t give it away.
Another cracker-jack case-cracking job by the Jacques Clouseau of the U.S. Attorney’s office. Where can I request an audit?
Article originally posted at: inthedelivery
3 users commented in " Man fakes mental retardation and collects Social Security for 20 years "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackbacki work in a group home for mentally retarded adults with some severe handicapps and i have to hand it to them they are sly as fox’s and the parents are even smarter, somehow these people manage to make more on social security plus working they earn a wage doing piece work then i make all month wiping there fecal matter, avoiding getting bit, scratched, hit, knocked down and pee’d on all because they might not want to do what is required of them at that time. I get to escort them once of month while my co-workers do the other 3 weeks to a restaurant of there choice last week it was Outback, I havn’t been able to eat there in years. My annual income of 11,000 yearly doesn’t allow for extravegance, TELL ME HOW DOES SOMEONE ON SOCIAL SECURITY LIVE LIKE THIS!!!! and they are allowed to lie to put you under investigation of allegations that you did something to them, and your’e guilty untill you can prove your innocence just because they have nothing else to do but lie that day to there adult day care trainer, the ones that don’t impose rules of it’s toilet time, don’t throw your food, it’s time to get out of bed. These aren’t people that have to put dirty clothes away, wash them or even hang up clean, basic rules of living a 3 yr. old can master, The parents incourage them to lie just so they don’t get mishandeled, I’ve been called every name and dirogetory racial slur ever invented, did these come ingrained in there brain at birth or is there a 2nd party to blame. I’m slowly coming to the conclusion if you want to raise a mentally retarded child, you raise until death and don’t burden the state financially with your problems. How do they qualify when they never worked, I am also working with multple disabilities most people couldn’t handle, would sit in a wheel chair and cry foul, I’m trying to make it and these people are being handed huge sums of money to waste on restauarants, shopping malls, there wardrobe is to die for, I shop thrift store, not cause I’m cheap, my labor is only $8.00 and I’m now mersa positive with possiblities of ecolli positive from caring for these indiviuals, Had I known what I was getting into when I excepted this far and few job, I never would have accepted it. Trying not to be bitter, but am finding them to be a huge drain on what is to be my social security when it’s time for me to collect when there parents are still capable of paying there way or taking responsibilty and caring for what they created. There’s one man I care for that figured out he could go door to door w/inserts from the centers newspapers and solicit donations for the center, when that worked he then bought coffee cups from the centers thrift store again soliciting donations for the center, thought up by himself which he then pocketed, the police figured he collected upwards of 5-10,000 dollars he turned over to his mother, why wasn’t he prosecuted, I would have been, money was never returned, His mother bought a new cadillac, life is good when all you have to do is play the I’m retarded card. This is a cruel statement but I’m beginning to like the way Hitler thought, if you can’t fend for yourself your useless.
well! Just tell those useless people (who are your only income) where to stick it. One thing I noticed about being a retard back in the day is everyone you knew was making a buck or two off of you.
I know this post happened years ago, but I’m just here to say kitchenwitch1 is right. The group home I worked at was for disabled adults, mostly men over 21 and so if they wanted to go down to the strip club and get wasted, they could do it. I once told the owner what was going on and he said “they’re adults and it’s their human rights”. Since the reason they’re there is because they commited some crime and were found incompetant to stand trial, I don’t think they should be allowed to do whatever they want. Some of these individuals were very mentally disabled so I understood why they were there. Others had brain injuries later in life that only made them impulsive but still had a normal intelligence. One time one of the guys there was trying to hook up with a woman online. I called the house manager to ask what to do and she’s like “I’ll call the owner and see” She calls back and says “If anyone comes over check her id to make sure she’s over 18.” No one showed up but I was thinking how unreasonable it is to put me in that situation to make sure he’s not trying to lure a minor. I mostly worked nightshifts and I remember one time the house manager coming in at 3 am bringing the guys back home completely wasted. One was wheelchair bound so we had to lift him out of his chair into his bed. There was one guy too that would make accusations against people then you would have to go down to the company office to explain that it was bs. I was a male staff so it was things like “He’s racist” or “he hit me”. For the female staff it was, “she was sexually inappropriate with me”. Everytime they did something wrong like run off or go berserk they blamed it on the staff. Then the owners/managers would come over to the house and bring them to mcdonalds. I tell them it’s just encouraging their behavior but they don’t care. It’s not like being a parent of children or even working as a cop. You don’t have any rights over these people when they do stupid things except to temporarily restrain them when they’re attacking you or someone else.
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