Sandy the Shill

Sandy the Shill

HE FIRST MET SANDY THE SHILL during the three-months long attack extravaganza that took place against him in 1995. She was sitting at the bar at a singles event and invitingly smiled and gazed at Hal. He is not usually that lucky. She is thirteen years younger than he. He walked up to her and they began to chat.

Hal noticed a tall, grayish haired man who had just entered through a nearby exit door and while speaking to another man he frequently glanced at Hal and Sandy. He wasn't at all sure but Hal thought the man to be a private investigator. But you know how men lose their common sense when around attractive women; so he unwisely invited her out to dinner.

They had just one date after that, on a Saturday. Sandy asked to see Hal's condo. It was on the fifteenth floor and had great views of the ocean, the lake and the city of Fort Lauderdale. She drove to Hal's place instead of having him pick her up where she lived and she walked through the apartment before they went out to dinner.

During her brief look at the apartment and all the views, Sandy did a couple of odd things; first, before they left she said she wanted him to stand out on the balcony with her for a moment and then as they were about to walk out the door of the apartment she hurriedly said she must go back in and use the bathroom.

But there was no flushing or rinsing bathroom type sounds as would normally be heard in the apartment; only the sound of something hard dropping to the floor. He believed it was her cell phone that fell out of her bag. Back then cell phones were larger than now and there were much fewer users.

Hal drove and his car was followed by two vehicles. Upon returning to the condo building from the restaurant he walked her to her car parked at the guest parking lot in front of the lobby. Instead of getting a hug or even a small kiss, Hal received an awkward, quick handshake and she got into her car and drove off.

He never saw her again except once many years later when he went to a singles gathering at a restaurant in Coral Springs where she was dining with a gentleman in a booth that was not part of the singles event. She kept staring at Hal, with no smile this time, but they did not greet one another. She left with the man and the next and only time he saw her was when she was at the Whole Foods Market in August of 2010, dressed in all-white and was being photographed by the FBI guy on the pretext of a professional photo shoot.

SO WHAT WAS GOING ON BACK THEN? Just a guess: She and Hal were able to be photographed on the balcony by the goons who rented rooms at two of the adjacent hotels. And whatever she said – either true or false - while using her mobile phone while in the bathroom could have been recorded, or maybe it was merely to let the accomplices know they were leaving so as to prepare the surveillance car drivers.

She also tipped off the bad guys of Hal and a friend's plan to ride their bicycles the next day on the boardwalk at the beach in Hollywood, Florida. She couldn't come but an abundance of goons and their helpers were there and made it into an intimidation spectacle; one that was witnessed by Hal's friend.

Two vehicles full of accomplices were already there waiting for Hal on Sunday when he arrived. One was a truck and the other a Chevy; both were red.

In addition, Hal confronted a PI that was photographing him as part of the spectacle and made the man an offer he could not refuse. He induced him to accept a twenty dollar bill in exchange for the roll of film in the man's camera. When Hal had it developed it confirmed that the man was engaged in surveillance but the film was not the most recent one being used.

"SO MAYBE I'M MISSING SOMETHING," thought Hal. He could not fathom the purpose for which the FBI Guy presented the shill on August 20, 2010, and did so using a mock photographing activity. It did make a connection to 1995 and thus reconfirmed continuation of the source of the current momentum along with the reality that it would not go away. But Hal thought there had to be more to it than that.

Having no clear comprehension of the true intent of the rather sick performance, it is nonetheless clear that the goons had a reason to consider the episode one of significance. Based upon that assumption Hal decided to include a reference to Sandy the shill in his updated website for consideration by the public.