You probably already knew that, but like Shemika, you probably didn’t think it would happen to you.

Shemika Osborne is planning a party for her sister who’s getting married in Raleigh. Osborne is also the maid of honor. To pay for her bridesmaid dress, she mailed her sister a money order for $183 from her apartment.

“I walked to the mailbox, put my mail in there, dropped it in and then shut it up,” she said.

But the mailbox wasn’t locked, and someone stole the envelope and cashed the money order. Western Union sent her a copy of the money order. It showed someone had scratched off her sister’s name and put a different one on.

Osborne filed a claim with Western Union and Wachovia Bank where the money order was cashed. Wachovia wrote back blaming Western Union for taking four months to contact them about the forgery. Wachovia’s deadline is 48 hours. Neither would reimburse Osborne’s money.

‘They kept giving me the runaround back and forth, so I couldn’t get anything resolved,” she said.

We’d like to believe that just “scratching” someone’s name off the check and writing in another one wouldn’t work, but apparently it does. Thankfully, this sort of heartbreak can be avoided by mailing checks and money orders from a secure mailbox.

Woman Can’t Get Money Order Reimbursement [Action 9]

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