My father is 75 years old. He is in the intermediate stages of Alzheimer’s disease. He has been diagnosed with this disease by a physician and has been prescribed medicine for it. His memory is bad, but he still has a lot of mental competency in many ways. He still has his driver’s license and still drives where he wants, and he still has control of his finances. However, he experiences what is known as the sun setter’s effect in which his mental capacity declines in the evening. I have been riding with him in the evening when he does appear to lose awareness of where he is, and where to turn to get home. So, he always goes home and stays home after 5-6pm. Further, he lives on a meager retirement and social security income and he is often not accurately aware of how much money he has in his accounts. He frequently overdraws his checking account because he forgets what he spends. In his younger years he was extremely diligent and vigilant about his banking. He never over-drafted any account, and I can remember how much he instilled in me not to over-draft my accounts. His financial behavior is clearly something abnormal. He is divorced from my mother, but still maintains a close relationship with her. My father just moved to a new neighborhood closer to my mother’s house so she can help to look out for him. My younger brother came back home and moved in with my dad and has been living with him for the past year.
Now, considering that background, here is the problem. All of a sudden, a new person has appeared in my father’s life. My father just met this person for the first time about two months ago. He is a young 20-something man of from a lower socio-economic status who has no job and no vehicle. It turns out that he lives in the trailer park down the road from my dad. He appears to be rather thuggish and rough. Now he has started visiting my dad’s house on a regular basis. He brings a different pit-bull to my dad’s house every day and talks about dog fighting. We have small dogs that don not mix well with pit bulls and it is not my dad’s personality to be accepting of such behavior. He never would have welcomed a pit-bull in our yard before. This guy started out knocking on the door once in a while asking for favors, but now he comes to my dad’s house every single day and sometimes multiple times a day. He may come at any hour of night and ring the doorbell, and my dad who is in bed by 9pm every night will get up and go talk to this guy at midnight if he comes over at that time. I know my dad well, and I know he is not mentally sound at that hour of night, especially when he is awoken from sleep. My dad often gives this guy a ride somewhere and stays gone for longer than an hour. One day about 6pm, my brother came home from work and my dad was gone on the car and all the doors of the house were unlocked and one door was left wide open. It turned out that he had gone somewhere to give his new “friend” a ride. My dad had previously made it standard practice to stay home after 6pm since he knows that he is in risk of getting lost, and he had been very diligent about that rule until now. Another night my brother came home from work at 11pm and my dad was gone on the car again! When he finally got home, it turned out that he had given this “friend” a ride somewhere again. I feel sure that my dad was asleep when this guy came to use him for a ride. From the looks of the guy, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the dope-house he wanted a ride to. My dad gets very defensive about any comments we make about this guy, and he insists that he is harmless. I spoke to my dad today, and he told me that he hasn’t seen the guy in weeks, which was not true, since my brother and mom both verified that he was over there just yesterday. Well, my brother and mom found out my dad has been giving this guy money and lots of it. Again, my dad is very defensive when we try to talk about this. He refuses to cooperate with us and refuses tell us how much money he has given the guy. But, my mom knows that my dad’s checking account is currently overdrawn by a thousand dollars. She know my dad’s expenses and bills, and there is just no explanation for him to be that overdrawn. She has reviewed his statements online, and most of his withdrawals are from the ATM. That has never happened to this extent since my dad has been retired. Something is different and it seems to be this new guy. My dad is a very kind and generous man, and he does enjoy helping people, but the rest of my family and I feel that this situation has gotten out of hand. My mom confronted this new “friend” of my dad’s and told him that she knew he was using my dad and taking his money, my dad has Alzheimer’s and does not need to be driving late at night or handing out money, and that she was going to call the police and get a restraining order against him if he ever came back. Well, he was back first thing the next morning. My brother convinced my dad to tell the guy t
the guy not to come back, but he was back again the very next morning. This person has been advised of my father’s condition, but he has no regard for my father’s safety, or his financial burden and continues to use him. I don’t think that anyone has power of attorney for my father. What can we do to stop this person from abusing my father?