Vanessa’s rent check was stolen somewhere between her mailbox and the property management office. It ended up in the hands of unsavory fraudsters, who altered the check in a decidedly low-tech way: with a Sharpie.

I just wanted to share the story of my stolen rent check.

I mail my rent check to the property management company I rent from a week before it is due every month. I do it at least a week early just to account for possible mail delays even if the place is only across town. (Hey, why drive 15 miles out of the way when you don’t have to, right?)

I placed my outgoing envelope in my mailbox. On the 2nd of the month I call the property management company to make sure that the check got there. The answer was no. I drove down to the office that day and dropped off another check just in case and asked them to call me in case my original check had arrived late. A day later, I noticed that the check posted to my account for $1150. In an immediate rage I called the prop management company to complain. They insisted again they did not receive my check. I checked my account online only to find that the check had been written over with a sharpie (a sharpie!) to a name that could not even been read! There is NO way that one could even read the name –how much more even justify cash it without so much as a phone call to the check issuer considering the amount.

I filed a police report then I called Chase. I spoke to a friendly representative that told me that it was an obvious error and that the amount would be refunded to my account within 2 business days. I felt relief. There was enough money in my account to cover it for the time being but I wasn’t prepared to front $1150 cash for weeks until they sorted it out.

A week later the money was still not there. I called again only to get another representative stating that the claim hadn’t been filed and that there was no definite time frame and that it would be “as soon as possible”. Then he kept asking if I knew who did it. I tried to stay as patient as I could. A few more days had passed. Two weeks later, after more complaining I finally got a refund.

Here is a section of the check to illustrate how ridiculous it was:

While I am glad that I received my money back, I’m wondering what kind of teller would cash this check?

Tell me what you think.

As I told Vanessa, the best part of this has got to be the “I love you” added to the memo line.

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