Community helps Oceanside Marine veteran recover $35K lost in phone scam
After a Marine veteran from Oceanside lost nearly $35,000 to an elaborate phone scam, the community came together to help him out in a big way.
“I was in tears last time. But now if I have tears, they’re going to be happy tears,” Tom Eberhardt said.
Eberhardt is grateful for the support he’s received from the community since first sharing his story. The 76-year-old was scammed on his birthday.
“It restored a lot of faith in humanity. It really did. People are really good,” Eberhardt said. “I was just simply blown away about the giving and the love that people gave towards me.”
His daughter Amanda set up a fundraising account to help him get back on his feet. Because of former classmates, friends he made while stationed in Washington, D.C., strangers and generous donors, Eberhardt has recovered every dollar he lost.
“I’d really like to shake their hand and give them a hug and let them know that I really appreciate everything they did,” he said. “Even if it was only a dollar. It didn’t make any difference. It was the thought behind it.”
Eberhardt said the extra money raised will be donated toward charity.
Due to the outpouring of support, Eberhardt is able to return to doing what he loves most: serving his community. On Wednesday, he spent the day volunteering with the Rotary to distribute Christmas gifts to military families on base.
He had a message for everyone who stepped in to help.
“I want to thank everybody that contributed to the GoFundMe. I really appreciate it. It really means a lot to me,” Eberhardt said. “Rotary helped out tremendously and so did all the anonymous folks that contributed to the GoFundMe.”
His daughter said the kindness and generosity has restored her father’s sense of financial and emotional stability, but more importantly, it’s given him back his sense of dignity.
“I might tear up because it was such a wonderful thing to have him finally back to us to share, you know, the bright happy man that my father is with, you know, not just, you know, our community but like within our family,” Amanda said. “My mother and I were utterly grateful for that.”
She and her father are grateful to everyone who was moved to act after hearing his story.
“I want to make sure that we pay all of this forward, that this story continues to inspire other people in order to just do a little bit of good in their own communities,” Amanda said.
“Thank you very much and Merry Christmas to everybody, and thank you again from the bottom of my heart,” Eberhardt said.
Amanda said they have not received any updates from police on the investigation, but she said she’s glad her father’s story has created more awareness about scams targeting seniors.
