money which very soon slid into bankruptcy. guys, dale. according to court papers, he had a personal fortune of $4.5 million when he met steve heitman in 1998. by 2000, dale claimed debts of $9.5 million. the seattle media picked up the story, and soon steve heitman s name and face were everywhere. and that s when people realized just as they had in san diego that the man named mike wasn t really mike, that here, the man named steve wasn t steve at all. it s the kind of headline you see every holiday weekend. this particular senseless tragedy took the life of evelyn heitman s oldest son. he stepped backwards and fell over the edge of the rock. and went down into the river about 40 feet below.
you see, ron nelson had lost a young son in a terrible accident, and it turned out that jim rowe, too, had a sad secret. he said his wife and his two children were burned up in a fire in laurel, mississippi. so you had lost a son in a tragic accident? i lost a son. he told you he lost his whole family? that s right. in a tragic accident. that s right. and soon it slipped out that jim rowe was just about the same age as nelson s son would have been had he lived. he studied me. he knew all my family. he knew my son was shot and killed. he treated me like a father, and i treated him like a son. maybe the son that got killed. from here, things developed in a way you will find depressingly familiar. jim rowe was, as a usual, an ex-navy s.e.a.l., a hero of desert storm, but he wasn t a football player yet. southern utah is mountain bike country, so he claimed to be an expert mountain biker.
and now i take that and i go to the seattle public schools, and i get steve s transcripts. and i go to the department of motor vehicles and i get i.d. now you re steve? now i m steve. coming up people will call you a predator. sure. is that true? probably, yeah. but has he turned over a new leaf? i know that i read my bible every day. i know that i pray. i know that a lot of it gives me a little comfort. capital one s new cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody. would you like 50% more cash? no! but it s more money. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash.
did you trust him? not really. in february 1999, the local newspaper did a business feature on the new ski shop in town. steve heitman was interviewed, and his resume expanded to fill the space provided. she said he served in germany in the army, studied at the university of heidelberg and, of course, was an expert skier from an early age and had worked for the ski-makers atomic and head as a designer and field tester. did you ever see him ski? no. nobody had seen him ski. steve worked his people hard, but the rewards could be huge. for instance, during a big ski show in las vegas, he took six employees to a nascar race by helicopter. that little field trip cost about ten grand. it may seem like a lot to you, but it was nothing to steve heitman. handed me a fanny pack one time, and i go what s in this? he goes, my money. hang on to it.
heitman applied for a salesman job back in 1998. the store owner found him charming and impressive. 20 years in the military, been through all the ranks and traveled all over the world. now that he was going to be getting out of the military, wanted to do something that he liked and enjoyed. what he wanted to do is sell skis, and he was a natural. so no one paid much attention to one odd little thing. when he came to work for us, he came to us and said, hi, i m bob heitman. so, fine. he was bob. and interestingly enough, his id that he showed us said that he was steve heitman. steve or bob loved to talk about his military background. which at times seemed somewhat flexible. at first it was the army. at first it was the army. and then i believe it was the rangers and then a navy s.e.a.l. so, you know, i never did figure that one out. according to the military discharge papers he showed, his