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               Tiny bubbles waiting to be popped by a SWAT team

Early this year, someone I haven't talked to in eight years called me out of
the blue with a “business deal.” Curiosity got the better of me, and I spend
most of a day talking to X about his proposal. It was odd—he was planning on
taking out a loan against his house, but because he was self-employed, and
his (then pregnant) wife was bumped down to part time, he was unable to get a
loan of the amount he wanted. But if he got a co-signer, then he could get
more than he was asking for.

And that's where I came in. He wanted me to co-sign the loan, and any excess
money over what he wanted (negotiable) would come to me. Even if he
defaulted, I wouldn't be on the hook because the house was worth more than
the loan in any case. There was simply no “down side” to this (his words). No
risk at all.

We would then use the proceeds of the loan to “invest” in Bitcoin [1]. I told
X back then that I felt it was a bubble, that I didn't know much about it,
and what I did know didn't make me feel confident about it, especially the
insecurity of the various Bitcoin exchanges [2] [and to further pour salt
onto the wounds, at the time, Bitcoins were worth $2,000.00 and as of today,
they're worth $11,679.00. —Editor] [Yes, but the markets can remain
irrational longer than you can remain solvent, and I didn't see you buying
any at the time. —Sean] [Touché —Editor].

It also turns out I wasn't the first person he asked about this. X just
couldn't understand why anyone would pass up such an opportunity.

I ended up passing on the opportunity. Even though I tend to view “good
credit” as a means of going into debt faster, I didn't want to put my
financial health (such as it is) on the line for a rather dubious sounding
proposal.

I'm only bringing this up today because I heard, through a third party, what
happened to X over the past few months. I haven't been able to verify this
but I do trust the source.

It seems that over the past few months he grew more paranoid and irratic. He
(and here the story gets a bit garbled) built? some sort of bubble machine
and was trying to sell it to Disney. He spent over a month at a hotel in the
Orlando area (I don't recall if it was on the Disney property or not) and
eventually barricaded himself in the room with several video cameras
providing coverage of the immedate area. It took a SWAT (Specialized Weapons
and Tatics) team to pull him out and in the end, he was committed to a
facility under the Baker Act [3]. His wife took their kid and disappeared, no
one knowing where she went. Not even X's family knows where she is.

And that's that. A rather bizarre end to a bizarre “business deal.”

[1] https://www.bitcoin.com/
[2] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bitcoin+exchange+hacked&t=ffsb&atb=v80-3_b&ia=web
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Mental_Health_Act

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