Wild story: My cousin’s dad, who has/had a house in Costa Rica where he spends the cold season, is missing. Since Christmas. Usually he would call his son every fortnight. A neighbour was kind enough to ring up and inform my cousin that something seems to be wrong. Some stranger staying in his house and driving his car, the man himself gone. Longer than a normal jungle trip, looking for gold, would last. Now police was alarmed, my cousin flew over. With poor results: no hint as to the whereabouts of the man, some blood found in the house, his credit card used twentyeight times by the very guy staying in his house, the account empty. Being questioned by the police, he just answered that my ex-uncle went to look for gold together with his pal, who is also missing. Himself being entrusted with looking after the house and car. No information as to why he was allowed to clear the account. Which is the last thing my ex-uncle would ever have done. He is/was a nice enough guy but would not part with his money, ever. Tightfaced old miser, Scots call that, I believe. Lots of read tape followed for my cousin. None of the officials cares much. So my cousin is left with: your father is missing. Without corpse no investigation. Wait ten years, then come back for a death certificate. If you are lucky, he just was high-jacked and you shall be contacted soon. No hope for that anymore. Two months have passsed since, so if it were for money, people would have gotten in touch already, one can assume.
And the trouble doesn’t stop there. He can’t really use his dad’s car, he does not know who pays for the house in Austria and whether the pension his dad draws is liable to be returned as soon as his dad is declared dead. If so, he has to sell their house because he can’t really keep it up alone. Which is also impossible as half of the house belongs to his dad. Apart from the personal loss and worry, this is really an odd situation to be in.