Stolen Checks = Late Rent

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64 SRT8 Dart

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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.
 
Thanks Okla. Just discussing with the wife again, and at an average of lets say $700 on each payment, that's nearly $19,000. And that would be guessing if every payment was for a 1bdrm apt!!

I think someone in managment is making out pretty good on this one, then just telling the property owners that someone is breaking into the boxes.

She said that if the check has been cashed then they would just go ahead and credit it to us for the month and not to worry about it, but we can go ahead and try to do a stop payment with our bank......hmmmmm?
 
...................Oh my, i think somethings alittle fishy...i would get the police to investigate.....kim...........
 
...................Oh my, i think somethings alittle fishy...i would get the police to investigate.....kim...........


That's funny cuz when I brought that up to the manager and about taking finger prints from any checks that may get cashed or attempted to be cashed, she was like, "Well, the police won't do much really, they won't go that far."

Something tells me that they never even alerted the authorities. We never even had some sort of notice divulging this info on our door. Just a late notice and then they would tell you when you went to ask them about it.

Maybe I should call the police and check?
 
I sure would. raise some dust and someone might actually do something about it instead of running you through the ringer while beating around the bush. At the very least you could say you tried.
 
sounds like you and i live in the same place.....that never fun...


Lol, love the avatar by the way! I showed that to my wife a few days ago,lol.
If I read your location right, you live in Mizzoula. I lived in Victor, just south of you a little, during the summer of 2006. Absolutely beautiful in the Bitterroot Valley there!
 
When I was employed with the Post Office I used to go outside to collect the mail once a day. Went outside one day and found a "fishing pole" stick in the slot of the box. It was a cardboard tube covered with a sticky substance, sort of like pine tar you would rub on a baseball bat. When I got interviewed by the Inspection service they told me that particular device is a pretty common tool for thief's.....
 
When I was employed with the Post Office I used to go outside to collect the mail once a day. Went outside one day and found a "fishing pole" stick in the slot of the box. It was a cardboard tube covered with a sticky substance, sort of like pine tar you would rub on a baseball bat. When I got interviewed by the Inspection service they told me that particular device is a pretty common tool for thief's.....


Ahhh, good point, never thought about that, but it makes sense. It's crazy though that they said all 27 supposed payments dropped in there were missing. Never mentioned anything looked inconspicuous, though.

If someone used a tool like that surely they would've had to spend quite some time working at it?
 
Lol, love the avatar by the way! I showed that to my wife a few days ago,lol.
If I read your location right, you live in Mizzoula. I lived in Victor, just south of you a little, during the summer of 2006. Absolutely beautiful in the Bitterroot Valley there!

thanks! I couldnt help but laugh when i found it too. :D Victor isnt too bad, id love to live down that way if it didnt require driving 93 everyday....or as most call it, "the bitterroot 500" It seems the farther you go down, the better it gets, i have a ton of family in hamilton and darby. I grew up farther north in thompson falls. At any rate, best of luck with your situation. I had to do a stop payment, to the tune of 27 smackaroos. Worth it though, my landlord lived in kalispell, would only contact me via e-mail, no phone calls, personal greetings, nothing. He contracted a repair guy to fix things around the house.....this guys idea of fixing a leaky gooseneck sink drain was to rip the cabinet door off, leave it laying on the side, and put a bucket underneath the neck. that and the mouse problem, (the house was built in the 20's and run into the damn ground) the guy just setup a bunch of mouse traps around the house. So my roomies and I found a new joint in the meantime, figured enough was enough, cleaned the house out, completely. Next day he sends me this cheery "thanks for paying rent on time blah blah bs" This was the guy who would cry wolf if your payment was a day late, but wouldnt send the "repair guy" until 4-7 days after the um-teenth call to his secretary. So after i received the e-mail, i issued a stop payment. anything we didnt take or didnt want, went into a pile in the front yard. im talkin a HEAP of stuff. figured that was enough smite to get the point across. Of course, where im at now, not much better....go figure....
 
Ahhh, good point, never thought about that, but it makes sense. It's crazy though that they said all 27 supposed payments dropped in there were missing. Never mentioned anything looked inconspicuous, though.

If someone used a tool like that surely they would've had to spend quite some time working at it?
The Inspection service showed me a second one, a piece of a rod from a clothes closet about a foot long. Had an eye bolt on both ends with a short length of rope. The rod was covered with 2 sided tape. Pretty scary how simple the thing looked for the damage it could do to peoples life's. Good luck in getting things resolved....
 
They where doing something like that out here not too long ago, ended up being a whole crew that later got caught. We have a large bank of private mailboxes at the end of our street (no mailboxes on your property) with drop slots for outgoing mail. If we have a bill going out I make sure I don't drop it until right before I know the mailman is going to be there. When we lived in an apartment we would only hand it to the manager and make sure we got a reciept. All kinds of assholes in this world looking to take what you got.
 
Sounds about like the drop box I have here, last time I used it the envelope didnt fall so I kinda panicked because it was sticking up just enuff for somebody with twizzers or needlenose pliers to get it so I stood there with my pocket knife for like 20 mins forceing it down in there. Probably wont use it again just to be safe. I use money orders like if that made any difference LOL.
 
While it will cost you a few bucks you can mail it certified with a return receipt. Someone in the office will have to sign for it. If your rent disappears again you have some proof that it was someone in the office.

Can you access your bank account from online? I print out copies of my canceled checks to staple to statements for things like medical bills. My bank allows me access to front and back views. I can see endorsements and the banks where they were cashed/deposited, even the branches.

Someone had to endorse your check. Some bank branch somewhere had to cash it.
 
You better start watching your checking account, the scam is they will scan your check and erase the payee info and write them out to someone. Then they will go to a shelter and get guys with id to cash the check. I know, some SB from a vender that i dealt with sold scans of my shop checks and the thrusday before christmas this year with 5 checks emptied my shop account. The cops dont care, to much trouble to deal with. They know how they do it, i know where the check was copied from but no one can prove who did. So I they lost 3500 - 5000 mo customer and the bank lost a ton for taking checks they should not have because of the safeties built into the checks. Had to max my personal cc's to cover payrole and xmas bonus's.
 
I have been thinking about this some more. Are the banks different in Colorado because as a business owner in Oklahoma I can't "CASH" any check with a business name on it. It has to be deposited and then withdrawn. The only exception to that I have ever found is to take it to the issuing bank and have them roll it over to a "Certified Cashier's Check" and even that check is made to the original business name. I have done this when I was worried about a check still being good by the time it went through the banking system.
 
So, if you make your payment as they ask you to do and it get's stolen from them, why is that your responsibility?

Wish I could tell my customers that.
"Well the check you wrote to us got stolen, so you owe me another one?"
BS
 
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.

Better hope those same maintenance guys dont have master keys.
 
As someone who worked in property management during the last depression {1980} I can tell you there are more greasy people in that business than any other I have worked in ,I always put my own locks on any unit I lease because no matter what the lease say's it's my property inside and I've known a ,maintenance guy who bought a Harley skimming coin op washing machines in the 10 buildings we had and another guy who managed a 320 unit tower with signing authority who grabbed 68k and sent it in a box to his grandmother to hold while he turned himself in for the theft -he did 10 months got out and bought a house and a pickup truck in another province . Guaranteed if she says it happened at another property she managed she or someone she brought with her from that property stole your check and as another poster wrote they will wash the name or scan the check and get someone else to cash it for a split , crackheads will gladly sign for a rock .
 
That's funny cuz when I brought that up to the manager and about taking finger prints from any checks that may get cashed or attempted to be cashed, she was like, "Well, the police won't do much really, they won't go that far."

Something tells me that they never even alerted the authorities. We never even had some sort of notice divulging this info on our door. Just a late notice and then they would tell you when you went to ask them about it.

Maybe I should call the police and check?

man, Colorado Springs is getting bad. i cant believe all the robberies, murders , vandalism and sex crimes, construction scams that have shot up in the last few years. all kinds of madness going on lately. this place used to be a nice place to live. frickin tweekers have taken over the place
 
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!!

Red flag!
 
While it will cost you a few bucks you can mail it certified with a return receipt. Someone in the office will have to sign for it. If your rent disappears again you have some proof that it was someone in the office.

Can you access your bank account from online? I print out copies of my canceled checks to staple to statements for things like medical bills. My bank allows me access to front and back views. I can see endorsements and the banks where they were cashed/deposited, even the branches.

Someone had to endorse your check. Some bank branch somewhere had to cash it.

Yeah, we are monitoring the account online as well. The manager said that last month when the other property had the same thing happen, the checks were cashed. She didn't go into detail on whether or not they washed the checks or just cashed them under the managment name. She did say though that, well the bank cashier must have been in a hurry or something to not notice anything wrong....which is kind of a red flag for me.
 
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