An ODD Experience

The kids before the Primary Program at Church today

This week started normal enough. On Monday for family home evening we made a chocolate haunted house (similar to a gingerbread house). The kids had a lot of fun and when we were done we put it on the piano. Whenever anyone comes to the door the kids run to show them the haunted house.

On Thursday the kids had parent teacher conferences. (It was good they didn't have school because everyone has come down with a really bad cold: sore throat, fever, runny nose and cough. Today Ashton, Jeremy and I are the sick ones.) It was fun to hear the raving reviews from their teachers. Matthew and another child in his class will be starting a special math program soon because they are both talented at math and finish well before the rest of the class. Katie is starting a special reading program that will challenge her more. It is amazing how two kids who pretty much have done everything together their whole life can be so different. Katie's teacher remarked on her very neat handwriting and artistic talent (especially drawing and coloring). Matthew's teacher said that she can only get him to draw and color for a couple of minutes, but he LOVES to look at Science books.

When we got home after parent teacher conferences at about 5:05 pm we discovered that someone had cashed a $1320 check on our account. We saw the check number, but couldn't access an image online at the point. We searched and searched our house, but could not find the checkbook that check had come from. The check was number was 523 or something and checks 521 and 522 had cleared over a year ago. They had been written two days before I spent a night in a hotel in American Fork. (I didn't rememeber that right then, but I realized it later.)

So, the next morning I called the Credit Union right when it opened. At first she thought that maybe the computer read the account number wrong, but once she retrieved an image of the check she called me back and said the signature did not look like Jeremy's and we needed to get down to the credit union now.

Jeremy came home from the farm and we spent the whole morning closing and opening new accounts, filling out new debit card applications, and talking with the police. The American Fork and Ephraim police are working together because the check was written to the very hotel I had stayed at a year ago which seems like an extreme coincidence. (Although with three houses under construction in our neighborhood right now, they wouldn't be surprised if it was stolen by one of the MANY strangers working in our neighborhood, either.) They actually expect to catcher the thief/forger next week.

Anyway... it was a very odd experience to be the victim of fraud. Unfortunately, we had our full names, DL numbers, etc. on our checks. We are supposed to follow up with Credit Union and get a credit report on Monday. It is really a pain. We have no checks or cards right now. I did remember that I had some cash someone used to pay for Usborne books. So I kind of embezzled from myself to get us through the weekend. On Monday, I will get some counter checks or cash or something. Anyway... so a word of advice: the Credit Union suggests that you only put your first initial and last name on your checks and no personal info other than address and phone number. That way if you do lose your checkbook it is very difficult to forge and/or steal your identity because they don't know enough about you.