BEN LOMOND, Calif., Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A California man who says he lost more than $700,000 to alleged Ponzi scheme artist Bernard Madoff has gone back to work at the age of 90.
Ian Thiermann spends 30 hours a week greeting shoppers at the Ben Lomond Market near his home, the San Jose Mercury News reports. He makes $10 an hour.
Thiermann and his wife, Terry, 72, say they did not realize that everything they had was invested with Madoff. In fact, they never heard of Madoff until their investment adviser called them to let them know that their entire stake, $738,000, might be gone.
They picked funds that had better returns than the ones they had been in, not knowing that the 10 percent dividends were a bad sign. They got another mortgage on their house in Ben Lomond to add to their stake.
Thiermann, adopted at the age of 3 by a wealthy Minneapolis couple, has been here before. His father killed himself after the 1929 stock market crash and his mother went to work selling insurance to support her children.
"My mother's courage was everything,'' Thiermann said. "Wow, that's what I want to emulate.''
