Complaint Review: Mike McGraw

My grandmother, eighty years old and a widow of eight years, a respectable woman of the Pullman District of Chicago, had a stroke right before the 2009 holidays, which left her unable to walk and in a nursing home for therapy. My father, who has not lived in Chicago but in another state, returned to Chicago to hire an estate salesman to handle the sorting and sales of over two hundred years' worth of my grandparents' items in order to raise money to pay for the nursing home. My father had a limited time to start the process as he had to return to work.
My grandmother's neighbor, Karen, who had been in my grandmother's house numerous times to help my grandmother off the floor whenever she fell, recommended a man to my dad by the name of "Mike McGraw" who "handles estate sales, etc. and can sell the house, too." Mike took the antiques, valuables, and my grandmother's personal belongings. It is believed that he is selling these items at an antique shop called Three Sisters in Blue Island, IL, according to my friends looking into this. This began over Thanksgiving week and he is still in and out of the house to date. When I spoke to my grandmother on the phone, who is alert and very much aware of her surroundings, she asked me to look for specific items that she was worried about such as money she had hidden in various locations within her home and other items of value to her. She described the exact locations of these items to me and having frequented her house many times as I was growing up, I knew right where she was talking about.
I contacted Mike McGraw and told him that an item I inherited should not be put up for sale as I was trying to get it and I asked him about some heirloom items, my great-grandfather's pipes, that were to be passed on to me. First he said he knew nothing of them, then he began to recall them, and by the end of the conversation, he said he knew right where they would be. I told him to be in contact with me when he located them as they were to stay in the family and not be sold.
I journeyed to Chicago to pick up the item I'd inherited from my grandfather. I stopped to see my grandma and to get a written note from her, allowing me entry. I called Mike over New Year's 2010 on my way to Chicago to have him allow me in my grandmother's house.
Mike declined to meet me at the house and said he'd leave the key in the mailbox, which I didn't think was a secure idea and he kept evading the idea of meeting me.
I did not find any of the items my grandmother was concerned about and wanting. I phoned Mike and when I questioned him about where those items were he evaded my questions and gave me the runaround, telling me that he and my grandma "go way back" and that I don't need to worry about her.
My grandma tells a different story: that Mike was trying to enter her home while she was waiting for a lady friend, while her door was cracked. He had three big dogs with him. She sent him away. She said he was very insistent on getting into her house. We are thinking that Karen, the supposedly "sweet neighbor" may have told Mike, the scavenger, about the goods she's spied in my grandma's home while she was helping my grandma off the floor.
It is evident that Mike is not experienced in estate sales, but that he is looking for opportunities to get into the elderly's estates and to gain access (via Karen's recommendation, manipulation) to get an idea of what valuables are inside. Karen had even expressed an interest in the heirloom item that was entitled to me. Could it be that Karen and Mike have a deal in getting in to these poor elderly people's houses for self-gain?
I never found out what happened to my grandma's valuables or her money. Mike had an excuse for everything, but no straight answers. My mom told me that she and my dad believe Mike McGraw took it. The note that had been on my heirloom item for years stating that my grandfather wanted me to inherit the item had been removed when I checked. I may have made it to Chicago just in time, as it probably would have found it's way to one of Mike's antique booths or Karen's home.
It was night when I left the house and I didn't want to leave the key in the mailbox as Mike had insisted. I drove to the address listed on his business card that he'd left me at my request to drop off the key safely. At this point, he had not returned any of my phone calls. The address was that of a tax accountant's and the man inside the business said there was no Mike McGraw there. So there is not a permanent address for him and no permanent phone number. And the money, that only my grandma knew the exact locations she'd hidden it, was gone. My grandma said she was upset about him being allowed in her home and that she was upset that my dad had went with Mike. He had told me he visits my grandma many times, but she says he was there only once or twice and very briefly.
I have a friend who knows antique dealers where Mike is doing some of his business, and they have reported to me that no one (consumer or other estate salespeople) had heard of him in the estate business. It was reported to me that he has been "bragging around the antique hall" about the "deal he got at his most recent estate." Yep, you guessed it, my grandmother's estate.
I am very, very, very ANGRY that Mike McGraw has taken advantage of my family, starting with my father and ending with my grandmother. My grandmother is entitled to her belongings and to her money!! She is not gone yet!! Mike is not a professional, but a con and a liar and he has yet to return my phone calls. My dad is under so much stress and is worried about a fraudulent mortgage contract that Mike was supposed to handle, that he is confused about how to pursue this. Mike knows how to manipulate my dad. Mike refuses to talk to me because he knows that I know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I want justice for my grandmother! This guy needs to be investigated and it made known to the public what he really is about -- and it's not estate sales!!!!
People of Pullman, IL: PROTECT YOURSELVES!! DO NOT LET MIKE MCGRAW IN OR NEAR YOUR HOME!!! He uses his charm and phony compassion to manipulate people going through difficult times so he can get rich! If you need an estate salesperson, don't accept recommendations, no matter how stressed or in a hurry you are; call, call, and investigate the hell out of the person before you hire them. After all, they may not even be who they say they are!!!!