About that BMW. 
and other financial stuff
..
By early January 2008 Travis was working on refinancing his house, trying to take out a $30-35k second mortgage (needed the $$). Also by early to mid-January, he had begun trying to sell his BMW. IIRC, Travis still owed $1,000 on the BMW. The $1k in payments likely wouldnt have been a problem for obtaining a refi. Even if had been, Travis could have used $1k of the money he was borrowing from friends to pay off the lien. Another IIRC- TAs primary interest in buying a Prius was to save, over the long-term, by reducing his travel costs (better gas mileage).
So, by early to mid-January he wanted to sell his BMW, but his refi didnt depend upon selling it, and neither did his ability to buy the Prius, since he bought the Prius in early March, while still in possession of the BMW.
I hadnt noticed before, but the TA-JA car-swapping arrangement didnt begin until the first week in January and as such seemed to end by early February. Ive always wondered why TA would allow her to not only drive the BMW when she had a car of her own, but to play the games she constantly did about returning it to him when he needed it.
I have a theory about why he did. First, the chronology of car-swapping.
The told Travis on January 4 that shed picked up another shift at Mimis but that meant she would need to borrow his car. On January 5 she texted Travis and asked --any word on the car situation?
On January 7 the texted him about swapping cars. The next day, January 8, she texted him saying she had driven her Infiniti to work and that she had a thought on the subject which shed call to talk with him about later.
On January 12 Travis texted a friend that he was trying to sell his BMW (first direct mention by TA in texts about selling it).
My theory--- that her thought was what would seem a mutually beneficial swapping of cars. She didnt have car insurance so needed to limit her driving of the Infiniti, and he wanted to sell his car. Shed help him try to sell the BMW by driving it to Mimis and advertising /showing it off for sale there.
Travis knew she didnt have insurance. The texted TA on January 13 that she would come by later and pick up her car. TA asked her to come before FHE, she said she couldnt, he told her he needed his BMW because he was taking people to FHE and didnt want to drive them in her car because of insurance and all.
Early the next morning she texted him to ask if he was positive the BMW had insurance, and if yes, does it covered passengers? (he didnt reply, she texted againnever mind).
The regular car-swapping continued for another few weeks. On January 18 she told him shed drive her own car to Phoenix, because of the GPS and tires.
Exactly one week after the first time she didnt want to return it in time for FHE, she took his car, didnt answer his calls in the afternoon that were no doubt about whether shed return it in time for him to drive it to FHE, nagged him with calls and texts when she knew hed already left for FHE, and blew him off/lied to him when he replied to her texts, while he was still at FHE. That was January 21, of course, the pedo lie.
The first few days in February were the last on which she texted him about needing his car. After that there are references in the texts about carpooling together to PPL events, not to car swaps.
The last time she brings up the BMW in texts before leaving Mesa is on March 2, when she asks to borrow his car to go to church and tells him shell return it by the end of the day. This is also the day she tells him to pump the brakes on her luxury ghetto car, and then tells him shes stranded (out of gas?) and needs him to rescue her.
He doesnt, and tells her hours later- you never keep your word. I want my car back. He buys the Prius days later. In between those 2 days (jerking him around church day and new car purchase day) she is fired from Mimi's, and now owes him money, has no money coming in, doesn't have a job, and has no car insurance.
----------------------------------------------
Related: one reason why she might have driven his not-sold-to-her-yet BMW to rent a UHaul. She couldnt have rented the UHaul without providing proof of insurance. She didnt have insurance on the Infiniti, but Travis still did on the BMW.
--------------------------------------------
The check to court in January. The Palm Desert house foreclosure was finalized in January 2008. The check to court mentioned is likely related to her having to pay court costs for foreclosure paperwork.
Travis wrote a check for those court costs, not her, which is why she asked him whether or not the check had cleared HIS checking account. She had her own Mesa, AZ bank checking account, so, it looks like he paid the court costs for her, at least upfront. Perhaps it is these court costs that are connected to one of the checks she wrote him in January, or to the money discussed in January that she owed him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last money related thing, this time, the Helio.
In 2008, to get the Helio phone and plan, she would have had to pass a credit check. No way she could, which explains why she did whatever she had to do to con Gus into giving her the Helio phone itself. Not sure if she could have used the Helio with her own Sprint cell account, but maybe, since Helio piggybacked off the same Sprint network.
What she almost certainly didnt do is to get a replacement Helio phone within 3 days of reporting it stolen. The phone had been purchased or whatever in Guss name, not her own; Gus would have had to purchase an insurance plan to cover the phone, without which the phone wouldnt have been replaced; either she or Gus would have had to pay a $50 deductible towards replacement, and not least, Helio customer service was universally terrible around that time, perhaps because Helio was on the verge of being acquired by Virgin. Given all that, a replacement phone within a few days for one only supposedly reported stolen? Nah. IMO.
