So, we paid our rent and shared utilities last night ($772) via the night drop box at our apartment complex.
The drop box is built into the side of the club house/office with a flapper/door style mail slot in the wall that drops the payment down into the interior wall. There is a box that opens up on the inside of the c/h.
Today when my wife got home from work, there was a "Notice to Pay" note on our door saying we owed for rent/util.
On my way home I stopped in at the club house/office to see what was up. I told them that I put the payment in the drop box last night.
The "new" manager said that they had a "little" problem with the drop box some time between last night and this morning. Apparently someone had "somehow" mysteriously taken ALL 27 of the checks and payments out through the little flapper door on the outside of the facility. I'm like, are you friggin kiddin me?! Really? She then proceeded to tell me they had the same thing happen to another property they manage last month!! Then she told me that whomever stole those checks WERE ABLE TO CASH THEM!!
I proceeded to tell them that there's no way, I call b.s. on this one. I have a medium sized hand and I can only get up to my last knuckles in that little door. And, when I put my payment in, I made sure it dropped in because I put my fingers in there to make sure it didn't hang up on anything. And I didn't feel any other envelopes, papers, etc. That was at 10:30p.m.
I straight up told them that it was one of their employees whether it was in managment or maintenance. I told them that only someone on the inside of the facility could access that box, it would be nearly impossible to get ALL of the checks/payments out of that box unless you had some sort of X-ray device, large tweezers, and a whole lot of time to see where each exact check fell into place, or some sort of alien creature with an arm that was less than an 1" thick that could reach down past the flapper door.
Even the manager said she was stumped because the box drops down into the wall 1.5ft or so, but yet I was assured that it wasn't any of their staff and that they believe all of their maintenance personell are "trustworthy" and that they were "looking into the matter." The box showed no signs of tampering or breaking.
Needless to say, we had to stop payment of the check, which costs $20. The managment said they would credit that $20 to us on next months rent which we can live with.
We've lived here for nearly 4yrs with no problem like this at all. We get some new managment 2 months ago or so and a few added maintenance men and now all of a sudden 27 payments come up missing in one shot and it's not on their team....I'm not buying it! Something is definitely awry here!
Rant over, I guess. Thanks.
