I'd Like to Dispense Some Biblical Justice

At work, we have an electronic device on the door of the mailbox which sets off a beeper inside the office when the mailbox door is opened. That way, we know when the mail has been delivered. We also have a locking mailbox, because mail was stolen out of the box a few years ago. The incoming mail is deposited into a locked area where it can't be retrieved without a key. Outgoing mail is not secured, however. I wrote out several checks to pay bills this morning and put them in the mailbox.

Just before 10:00, the beeper went off so I go out to get the mail. Less than a minute after the beeper went off. And I discover that the mailbox door is hanging open, along with several up and down the street, and that the incoming mail container is empty because it hasn't been delivered yet. But what did happen is that someone stole the mail that was in the outgoing container. Which means that my checks were stolen. I normally use a gel pen as they are harder to "erase" to forge the checks. However, this time I'm not sure if I did or not. I think I used a regular pen. Which means that my checks can be erased and forged. I went back inside and told my boss, he got in his car and started driving around to see if he could see anything. He didn't find the theives, but he did see several neighbors and he told them.

I called my bank, they immediately stopped all 5 checks and told me to call the police. Which I did, and they said that normally the post office has to make the report. But when I told them that it was my personal checks, they said that changes the procedure and that they would send someone out. The officer was very nice, but he couldn't really do much in the way of a report since nobody saw it happen and we don't have any type of a description.

I went to the bank at lunch and closed the account. The bank transferred everything into a new account for me. Now I get to shred all 4 boxes of the brand-new checks I just ordered! One of the bills I was paying was my credit card, I called them and they also closed the account and are sending us a new card. I called all the places I wrote the checks to and explained the situation, so they are all taken care of. The stolen checks are cancelled, and the account has as many safeguards as we can think of so nobody can get into any of them. But if the thieves bleach the checks and get the writing off, which is why they steal them in the first place, they will be able to write them to anywhere they choose. And if they are written to somplace that does not have the new electronic check feature, then they will be able to at least get something out of them. Let's hope that they go to Wal-Mart! And not to some mom & pop place that can't afford the loss, when my bank doesn't honor the checks because they are stolen.

I'm just glad we have the beeper at work, if I hadn't found out about it I would not have cancelled the checks and who knows how much we would have been out when the thieves wrote them! Also, they have my credit card number and I'm sure that they would have used it or tried to. I honestly think that as soon as they opened our mailbox and saw the device, they ran off because they were gone too quickly.

It's not been a good day. But it could have been worse.