Cleaning up... from a stolen check.

Well, yesterday found me waiting with several other people at the bank to have my affidavit signed and notarized, so they can chase down the person who stole my check. Stealing from someone their money is bad enough, but the time lost in cleaning up after such a violation hurts and then the confidence and trust in people goes out the window. We just can't do things like we could in the past. The lady waiting next to me had her information stolen through an ATM. She had to use cash all weekend, until the Banks opened up again. I don't use ATM's anymore. It's to easy for someone to put on a false ATM front and sit outside with a computer stealing everyone's card numbers and pins. The man on my other side was trying to remove charges from his credit card that he didn't authorize. Ah, money, we can't seem to live without it, yet it can really be a pain.

I am very grateful that the person didn't change the check for a greater amount, and they left their thumbprint on the check. The bank has camera's in all of it's branched, so surely, with the time on the check of when it was cashed, they will be able to find this person. They could have ruined their own life for pennies... These are desperate times and who knows when the economy will reverse and the recession stop. Our parents and grandparents lived through the depression, maybe we just need to learn some lessons about wanting so many material possessions.

Mail Fraud

Do you ever get that feeling that you should not do something, but you don't know why, so you do it anyway? I put a payment for an invoice into my mailbox for the postman to pick up and that little feeling came not to do that, but there were other envelopes in there already, and besides the mailman should be coming soon. You guessed it, someone stole my outgoing mail, altered my check and cashed it. Luckily I had the money to cover the check, because they only changed the 3 to a 5, but I lost the whole afternoon reporting it to my bank, the fraud department, and the US Postal Postal Inspector. (The Police said I didn't need to file a report with them, just the Postal Inspector.) Monday I get to go and open a new account, because they closed my account today as an added measure of safety, in case the criminals try to do anything else.

I know, and we all know we should never leave our outgoing mail in the mail box to be picked up. I usually take it to the Post Office myself, but I was lazy and rushed for time. Well, look at the time it has cost me today. We are now going to buy a mailbox that can lock. This will protect our incoming mail, but I will always have to remember to take my outgoing mail to the Post Office. It is a small inconvenience for that added measure of safety.

But the day didn't start off bad. We helped with an Eagle Scout project this morning, painting a new design on the play ground wall at an elementary school. A lot of people turned up to help and the wall looks so colorful, light blue, with yellow, red, and green designs, and it looks fabulous.

Hope you all have a great day and remember to protect yourselves against fraud.

Happy New Year!

Well, we have rung in a new decade. What will this year bring you? The new year creates thoughts of new things to do and accomplish. This year I am not making the usual lists. I don't need to, I can just recycle the old ones. This year my goals are simple. Be Happy and help others be happy.

I will probably look over my goal lists from last year and I may be surprised that I actually can cross a few things off the list. In spite of not doing what I may have wanted to do, I had a great year and learned so much about taking myself out of the center of my world and putting others in that spot.