Eli's money - where did he get it?

[metoo]

I've tried to find if this has been discussed before, but could not found anything.

So: How do you think Eli got his money?

In the novel, Håkan gives the prostitute boy 10,000, Eli pays Tommy 5,000 and Oskar later gives him 12,000 Swedish crowns. When Eli left near the end, he had brought "a few one-thousand notes". Additionally, they would have had to pay the house mover a few thousand crowns, and they would have had to pay the rent for the apartment. Still, there is a box-full of money left.

Thus, Eli had at least 30,000 Swedish crowns when he and Håkan moved in, and even more before the move. This was a lot of money at the time, the average monthly salary would be around 8,000, Oskar's mother probably had less. Eli just could not have got that money by taking it from his victims, people didn't carry enough money around. Even if in 1981 credit cards were uncommon, so they would have had carried more cash around than people do nowadays (in relative value, that is).

Additionally, Eli isn't very careful with his money, he readily hands Oskar an amount that is very much too large to pay for the broken headphones. Maybe he didn't understand the value of the money, but I don't buy that. He was the one who orchestrated his and Håkan's lives, he would have some knowledge of the value of money. I rather believe he didn't care, because he could easily get more, if need be.

Elis says he had been given the money, and assures Oskar that "it is true", though Oskar don't believe this. So, again, is it true?

[a_contemplative_life]

Didn't Eli break into a store to by T-Rod at some point? How hard would it be for him to break into a closed retail establishment for a quick dash in and out to grab the cash register? Or a vacant home to grab someone's jewelry box? With his abilities, he'd find getting up to bedroom windows no problem at all. And if he could get in and out quickly, he could do it without losing too much blood. I do think, too, that the people he'd found over the years to help him might have helped him with cash and valuables. Look at Hakan's twisted devotion to him. What if Hakan had been a wealthy, widowed investor instead of a broken down school teacher? Augmented by whatever he could swipe off his victims every 1 to 2 weeks, and I really don't see a problem.

[metoo]

Didn't Eli break into a store to by T-Rod at some point? How hard would it be for him to break into a closed retail establishment for a quick dash in and out to grab the cash register? Or a vacant home to grab someone's jewelry box? With his abilities, he'd find getting up to bedroom windows no problem at all. And if he could get in and out quickly, he could do it without losing too much blood. I do think, too, that the people he'd found over the years to help him might have helped him with cash and valuables. Look at Hakan's twisted devotion to him. What if Hakan had been a wealthy, widowed investor instead of a broken down school teacher? Augmented by whatever he could swipe off his victims every 1 to 2 weeks, and I really don't see a problem.

Well, Eli apparently can enter shops without being invited, since he did break into one. That's a good observation! But cash registers are empty at night, the money is brought to a bank at the end of the day. However, he could break into jewellers' shops, but then he'd have to find a fence. And there is the same problem - the most valuable jewellery is stashed away at night.

Breaking into homes I think is out of the question, after being less than a minute in Oskar's apartment he had lost to much blood to be able to travel.

Wealthy paedophiles, well, are they that common? According to Wikipedia, the prevalence is estimated to be lower than 5% in the general population. If we assume that paedophilia is evenly spread out among rich and poor alike, there would be a couple of percents of wealthy people to get the money from. So, maybe.

[bore]

With his abilities, he'd find getting up to bedroom windows no problem at all. And if he could get in and out quickly, he could do it without losing too much blood.

This assumes that the bleeding stops once he leaves the private space.
I suggest that once the entering into the private space is done it cannot be undone without the invitation of the inhabitant. An intrusion is an intrusion, even if you just are passing through.
I base the idea that it is the intrusion that is important on the idea that Eli has to be invited through every entrance thus it is not spending time in the actual space that is important. If exiting through the same portal as he entered through stops the bleeding is up to speculation but I do not think it does.
Once Eli went into Oskars home he no longer had the option to turn around and run, he had to wait for Oskar to give his permission to enter.

[Nicro]

I don't find her money surprising. I mean hell Eli could snatch a cash bag out the hands of an armored car guard and be gone before he can even draw his gun. Other than that, nom some rich folk here and there, money off normal victims, not to mention getting invited into houses, nomming inhabitants, raiding any money jewlery, electronics etc.... And hitting up a pawn shop to sell it.

[metoo]

I suggest that once the entering into the private space is done it cannot be undone without the invitation of the inhabitant. An intrusion is an intrusion, even if you just are passing through.

I think this is an interesting view, which is within (what I regard as) the rules of LTROI. Additionally, since it is a stricter limitation, I'll adopt it!

[drakkar]

Eli is rather streetwise, he fixes the basement door so it wouldn't lock, and the when he buys blood from Tommy he seems quite experienced in manoeuvring to get his ways. Also, he tells Oskar, people wanted to help him "of various reasons".
In the novel, Eli doesn't seem to steal valuables from his victims, nor does he pick his victims by how wealthy they look. So Eli might be telling the truth when he tells Oskar they was given to him, but he certainly is capable of stealing them (as you pointed out in your fanfic metoo).

I got this impression Eli's money is - like the vampire lord - information given to me to increase Eli's misery. Eli is wealthy, but since he is living outside society, his money doesn't give him any pleasure. He doesn't even seem need the shelter an apartment provides (but of course the helper does), and I don't believe he buy his clothes.

[metoo]

I don't find her money surprising. I mean hell Eli could snatch a cash bag out the hands of an armored car guard and be gone before he can even draw his gun. Other than that, nom some rich folk here and there, money off normal victims, not to mention getting invited into houses, nomming inhabitants, raiding any money jewlery, electronics etc.... And hitting up a pawn shop to sell it.

Well, my rationale for my thoughts is that I want to reduce unlikely elements as far as possible in my (future) fanfic. My idea is that Eli becomes more fascinating and interesting if he operates in a truly realistic world, as opposed to one that fits him.

Thus, to snatch a cash bag out the hands of an armored car guard would realistically create awareness of him and his supernatural powers that would not suit him. The fact that he has survived for 200 years shows that he is able to conceal the truth about him rather well. Plausibly by revealing it only to people without influence, such as Oskar or Håkan.

However, stealing money from criminals might do the trick. They wouldn't approach authorities to get the loss investigated, but on the other hand they might become really dangerous if they came to believe the truth. Thus, Eli would have to take care of making it plausible that some other criminal gang actually did the stealing. Which is my idea behind this fan fiction, but in the "realistic" scenario, I think it is too neat to be entirely plausible.

Nomming rich people has the same disadvantages as snatching cash bags, I think Eli wouldn't do that if he didn't have some reliable means of disguising the result. He needs to stop the infection. Twisting the head is a tell-tale, burning is better. But an epidemy of burning houses would also raise the awareness of the public, so he could do that only sporadically. In the "realistic" scenario I aim for, Eli would have to live mainly on marginal people.

[Nicro]

Good points. I do agree on the criminal thing, easy targets for cash. I mean even if she just robs the cash from an average street gang she could make off with a couple thousand. Easy money.

[metoo]

I got this impression Eli's money is - like the vampire lord - information given to me to increase Eli's misery. Eli is wealthy, but since he is living outside society, his money doesn't give him any pleasure.

This is maybe JAL's reason for making Eli wealthy, additionally it gives Oskar an additional reason for distrusting Eli. It's just too much money, and Oskar knows that, since he has started to earn his own.

He doesn't even seem need the shelter an apartment provides (but of course the helper does), and I don't believe he buy his clothes.

That is something I have pondered. Does Eli need the money just to be able to provide subsistence to his helper? If going with a turned Oskar ends that (which I assume), would he not stop bother getting money altogether?