Tammi McCreary: “Who The (Bleep) Did I Marry?” - Page 4

Tammi McCreary was a woman making moves in the real estate industry in Atlanta, Georgia. She was just starting to get over her second divorce when she met Eric Perteet at a club. Tammi wasn’t looking for any type of romance but she struck up a conversation with Eric because he said he was in the market for a house. Things moved quickly and the two eventually married. But to Tammi’s shock and dismay Eric was not who he said he was…at all. Madame Noire spoke with Tammi to get her story and share what you can learn from it.

Tell us a little bit about how you met your former husband. Where were you in life? Were you looking for love?

I was out with my cousin at a club. That’s pretty much where I met Eric. At the time no I definitely was not looking for love, wasn’t looking to be in any type of relationship, wasn’t looking to date. Was really just getting over a divorce. And it took me years to get over the divorce but I was just coming to accept that the divorce did take place. And accept that I was single, that it was over. Just beginning to embrace and enjoy being single. Just accepting that just because I was single, that didn’t mean that I was a loser.

What attracted you to Eric initially?

Well initially when I met Eric I thought he was cute but I thought he was young. But it didn’t mean anything because I wasn’t looking for anything. When I mentioned that I did mortgages in the real estate industry that’s when he kind of threw out that he was looking to buy a home. He mentioned he was looking in the 500 thousand dollar range. To me that’s like music to my ears because my specialty was loans. So I just looked at it like ok, here’s a young guy, he’s cute. If anything, it’s fun. He wants to take me out, whatever. I wasn’t looking at him like boyfriend material or anything like that.

How did the relationship progress?

It progressed when he started sharing with me about his past. I think what really got me was losing his parents and his children in this really tragic car accident. The fact that he was an only child. I’m an only child. I think that’s where we connected and I attached myself to him at that moment. Because I just started thinking about losing my parents and losing my children and having really no one to identify with. He mentioned that he was disconnected from his family. I started thinking oh my gosh, here’s this guy, he has no one. He mentioned the fact that he once was a physician and after everything happened, he just could not practice any more. I was just thinking oh my gosh, that would be very devastating for me as well and I just couldn’t carry on with life as usual either. As he began to share more about his past, that’s when I began to attach myself to him. Also I had never experienced a male who wanted to be around me all the time. I had never experienced that type of attention. At the time I thought it was cool. Everyday he wanted to be in my presence, he wanted us to do something, everyday. That was a little different. Spending that time with him and learning about his past, I think that’s where the connection came in.

How long did you date before you two got married?

We dated… we met in November, like the end of October, and we married in March, so I guess that’s about five months. To be honest with you, initially it was a little weird but I guess I became comfortable about that because there were so many people within my circle, that I’m very close to, that were like, “You know my husband and I met and we only knew each other six months before we married and now we’ve been married twenty years.”

Then also one of close friends with the security firm, I had him check him out and he came back clean. He didn’t come back as this rapist or child molester, that also made me feel comfortable.

Were there any red flags during your courtship?

The only thing I kind of thought about was I could never find anything on the accident with his family. That I thought was weird but I thought maybe I didn’t have enough information to research it. I thought maybe it should have been a big story. Nothing else really stood out about him that I can think of right now. The only other thing was his urgency to get married. He had a real urgency to get married. Whenever I mentioned waiting, he would become very upset. Like “ok well this must mean that you really don’t want to be with me.”

Your son had some reservations about Eric, what did you make of those?

I just thought, well maybe my son has reservations because my son knew that he [Eric] was younger. He just didn’t know how much younger. At the time my son was also in college. I just thought he was being protective because he knew the effect the divorce had on me and how long it took me to get over it. I just thought he was being protective.

After you were married, when did think he might not be who he said he was?

I never had indications that he wasn’t who he said he was. I never thought anything different until the day that I found out that he was arrested. Because I had people that would call me and say, “I was at the hospital today and guess who I ran into? I ran into Eric.” Whenever he was at the hospital, he would always call me from a landline, within the hospital, because he said he never wanted me to think he was not at work when he said he was there. My only concern about Eric at the time was that he was young, he was decent looking, he was new in Atlanta and he was at the hospital. I pretty much know how the women are in Atlanta, I don’t know if he’s going to be able to handle the pressure. I kind of felt like, at the time when he said he was practicing again, I kind of felt his ego go up a little bit. Kind of like, I’m the junk now because I’m a doctor. I did see a shift in his attitude. I did notice that. When I noticed that I started doing a just a teeny weeny just little bit of snooping. Just a little bit.

What do you mean by that?

I would do weird stuff, when I would do laundry. Men have this thing about emptying their pockets. So I just looked at receipts and stuff for lunch to see if it was lunch for one or lunch for two. There were receipts where I saw there were two orders. I’m thinking, why do you have a receipt that you ordered for two persons and you paid for it? Little things like that. Of course he always had a good answer. Or someone would say, “I was at the hospital and I went to the little dining area and I saw Eric. He was sitting with some young lady.” Oh really? Umm hmm. Oh ok. Just little things like that. And because people were seeing him there and he would call me from the hospital all the time and I would drop him off there some days I just, never thought that he was not who he said he was.

What do you want other women to learn from your story?

Wow. It’s so much. It’s so much that you learn from the story. Initially it really used to hurt my feelings, when I used to read the comments that people had about the story. People thought, “She was desperate and she thought she had a doctor.” I mean I had a decent life before him. It’s just not what people thought. People look at it and think, “You should have known he wasn’t this and you should have known he wasn’t that. How could you be so stupid?” It just really used to bother me but it doesn’t now because everybody has their point of weakness. Nobody is fool-proof. Maybe you wouldn’t have fallen for this but maybe you would have fallen for something else. I guess my opinion is to, when you meet someone, just take your time, really, really research the person and their background. If you’re not able to find anything, if you’re not able to find any information, then that’s a red flag. Don’t be in a hurry, Check things out and go with your gut. Because I did have a gut feeling, which is why I started trying to prolong everything. But I didn’t have anything to confirm the feeling so I just moved forward.

Tammi’s full story will air on Investigation Discovery’s series, Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry? on Wednesday, July 13th at 10 pm (EST)