Save Fred's Auto

Hello, I'm Kevin Pittinaro and I created this campaign to help save Fred's Auto of Schenectady, NY from completely going under and to help the owner with his medical and financial problems.

I have known the owner for going on 4 or 5 years now and he is just the nicest, sweetest old man you'd ever want to meet.  He would give you the shirt off of his back if you needed it and he has definitely helped me out numerous times with my vehicles and lawn mowers over the years.  He is a huge wealth of knowledge about cars and engines and has forgotten more than I will probably ever know.  I enjoy hanging out at his shop and listening to his stories from years gone by and learning new things about classic cars and engines.

The owner, Fred Perillo, started his automotive repair and towing business in Schenectady, NY after he returned home from serving his country in the Vietnam War from 1969-1972.  His uncle used to own a Texaco gas station and repair shop in Schenectady back in the 1940's-1960's, which is where Fred caught his affliction for cars.  He started out building race engines and doing some mechanical work, but then decided that he really enjoyed doing body work and painting, so he became Fred's Auto Body.  He also ran a full service towing and recovery business (including heavy-duty big-rig towing and wrecking) out of his shop on State Street in Schenectady.  One of his passions was racing and he drag raced semi-professionally and won several National Championships in the A Stock Automatic Class with his station wagon drag car.  His "home" track that he usually raced at was the Cicero Dragstrip in Syracuse, NY.  He also did towing and body repair work for the Schenectady Police Department for over a decade and owned and operated the Schenectady Police Department's D.A.R.E. car, which he would drive to car shows and special events for them.

Fred has since retired from being in the automotive business full time and now just runs a small engine repair and welding shop.  He helps people repair their snow blowers in the winter months and lawn mowers and tractors in the summer months.  At this point though, since he is retired, he is only looking for something to do to keep himself busy and active in retirement and because he really enjoys working on fixing things.  He is not just doing it for the money.  He has also long since sold off all of his tow trucks and body shop equipment.

Fred has suffered from some very severe health problems over the past year and a half or so.  It all started in early February of 2014 when he suffered a stroke and fell in front of his shop.  Fortunately, someone found him and called the paramedics, who rushed him to Ellis Hospital where he slipped into a coma.  The doctors were saying that his chances of survival were very slim at the time.  Fred remained in a coma for 22 days and thankfully, the doctors did not pull the plug on his life support thinking that he would never wake up again.  He awoke 22 days later, much to the amazement of the hospital staff, but he had a very difficult road to recovery ahead of him.  He had lost over 60 pounds and was severely dehydrated from the coma.  It turns out that he suffered a traumatic brain injury from the stroke and his subsequent fall and as a result, he lost his sense of smell and taste, which makes eating any food more of a chore now than anything else since he can't taste any of his food!  He also lost most of his hearing and now has to wear hearing aids all the time.

After recovering for several weeks at Ellis Hospital, he still was still not feeling much better and had severe stomach pain and cramps.  The doctors checked him out and did some tests and then he ended up being transfered to Albany Medical Center to undergo surgery to remove his gallbladder and 6 inches of his intestines, which had started to die and got infected from being in the coma for so long.  Then, they found some problems with his heart and they had to perform heart surgery to install a pick in his heart and a pacemaker.  He spent several more weeks and months in the hospital recovering from all of his surgeries in the wake of the coma.  As if that wasn't enough, due to his inactivity from being in the coma and then spending so much time in the hospital in bed recovering from surgery, he has problems with his legs due to poor blood circulation.  He has black and blue marks all up his legs and needs to wear a leg brace most of the time.  He even underwent a couple of procedures to remove parts of his blood vessels that were collapsed or otherwise damaged with silicone ones to try to improve the circulation in his legs.

Meanwhile, when all of that was going on, some of his former "friends" had heard that he was in a coma in the hospital and his odds didn't look too good at the time.  So, rather than wait it out to see if their friend was going to pull through or not, they took it upon themselves to break into his shop and rob the place to help themselves to whatever they could take with them to easily sell for some quick cash!  They stole several thousands of dollars worth of tools, equipment, and parts out of his shop and most likely pawned it all for some quick money while Fred was in the hospital fighting for his life.  They even stole all of the titles to his vehicles out of his filing cabinet and stole one of the cars at his shop that they really wanted!  Now that he has recovered from his stroke and coma as best as he is going to at this point, he is suing his former "friends" for robbing him, but as of this time he has still not received any money from them or had his stolen property returned.  It could be another year before this is all straightened out in court as they are now turning it around and saying that Fred gave them permission to take what they did and they even forged his signature on a phony contract that he supposedly signed while he was in the hospital fighting for his life!

Fred's recovery from his health issues has been truly miraculous.  Even the doctors still can't believe how far he has recovered from being in a coma for that long!  At this point though, he is unable to run any kind of "legitimate business" as he has been diagnosed as 100% permanently disabled.  He had been receiving a pension and disability and he also applied for Social Security benefits at age 64 due to his illness and the fact that he is 100% disabled now.  So, this would at least give him some money to live on so that he can afford to keep his home and shop and keep working for a few hours a day repairing customers' machines.

However, the hospitals and insurance companies that helped him to get better health-wise are now threatening his livelihood.  Due to the fact that he racked up over $500,000 in medical costs during his almost 6 months in the hospital last year (and subsequent weekly doctors visits for another 8+ months or so to follow-up on his conditon), the hospitals and insurance companies are now after him for the co-pays.  The VA did pick up the majority of his healthcare costs, but they did not completely cover everything.  So, they are saying that he still owes close to $10,000 in co-pays and uncovered medical expenses that are now in collections and they are chasing him after.

The hospital's collection agency has put a hold on his bank account and seized his pension and disability benefits (which technically is illegal as that money is not supposed to be able to be touched by creditors!), leaving him with NOTHING to live on!  Obviously, this was a major oversight by his bank, who never should have allowed the collection agency to attach to his checking account.  However, at this point, there is nothing he can do about it besides try to have a lawyer figure it out.  He has tried contacting both his bank and the collection agency to resolve this and has gotten nowhere.  They have even told him to go down to Social Services and apply for Welfare then if he needs money to live on.  The only problem is, he can't quality for welfare because they say he makes too much money based on his pension and disability benefits, even though he is currently not receiving the money!  So, that is no help.  He has talked with his advisor at the VA as well as the Social Security Administration about his problem, but they won't mail him a check and they can only direct deposit the money into his checking account, which will then instantly be taken from him due to the hold on his account by the collection agency.

He really is between a rock and a hard place over this whole situation.  He now has no money to buy food or gas for his car to make it to doctors' appointments. He can't afford to pay his electric and heat bills or his phone bill.  Plus, now he needs to somehow come up with over $2,500 to pay the back property taxes on his shop and home or else they will foreclose on it all, leaving him with noplace to go!  He has no wife or kids and what little family he has won't help him out either in his time of need.  His sister and brother-in-law refuse to help him out (and never even visited him in the hospital) and his nieces, nephews, and cousins won't help him out with any money either.  But 10-20 years ago when Fred was in business, they all came around and borrowed money from him and got him to do work on their cars for nothing.  He happily did it too, since that is the kind of guy that he is - always willing to help out others.  However, now that it is his time of need, all of his family and so-called friends have turned their backs on him.

I have personally given Fred a few hundred dollars every month to help him pay some of his bills as well as given him cans of soup and other food so he has something to eat.  One of his cousin's sons did step up and gave him a few hundred dollars as well, but it is just not enough to pay off all of his bills and pay the taxes that he owes on the property.  If they don't get paid, he will accrue over 20% interest on the unpaid balance, which will make it even harder to pay everything off and keep current.  He is now in serious risk of losing his shop and his home that he has worked hard for over 35 years to build and maintain.  I have been doing what I can to help him out, but I just cannot afford to give him the kind of money that he really needs to keep his head above water right now.

That is why I created this campaign on his behalf to try to raise money to help him stay in his home and in his shop working and doing what he loves.  He has helped me out a lot over the past few years and this is my way of trying to help him out in his time of need.  I am hoping that both the local Schenectady/Albany community as well as the online community will come together to help out someone who has done so much for others and to help build his community for so many years.  It is not right that a man who has served his country during the Vietnam War (and was injured in combat and exposed to chemical warfare), ran a successful auto repair and towing business for over 35 years, did work for the local Police Department and volunteered his time to help better his community by participating in the D.A.R.E. program, is now at risk of having everything he has worked his whole life for taken away from him due to his health issues.

So, please donate anything you can to this campaign to help out Mr. Fred Perillo.  No donation amount is too small.  Even $1 or $5 here and there will add up to a lot over time.  Since Fred is not at all computer savvy, he is unable to administer this campaign on his own, so that is why I took it upon myself to run it on his behalf.  I am not getting anything out of this myself other than the satisfaction of knowing I am helping out someone else out who really deserves it.  My goal is at least $10,000 as that is what I estimated that the rest of his unpaid medical bills plus his taxes and electric and heat bills would amount to.  The collection agency will continue to take all of his pension, disability, and Social Security benefits until his medical bills are paid off.  This could be anywhere from 6-8 months.  If we can reach this goal, we can help get Fred through this difficult time until he will start receiving his full benefits again.  Thank you all for taking the time to read his story and for your generous donations!