This is a story which makes me _so glad_ to live in a small town (population 8000) where most people know everyone else, and things are handled in an informal way. I never realized -- seriously -- how many people around this town -- Independence, KS -- know me and care about me and try to protect me.
Here is how it happened: Saturday was a _very hot_ day; temperature about 105 in mid-afternoon. But here it is mostly a dry heat, so you don't feel it quite as if it were humid, but still, it was warm. My house is in the middle of a block; there is an alley next to me. A young guy I did not know -- still really do not know -- walked up and down the street a few times over a five or ten minute period, looking sort of exasperated. He finally walked into the alley next my house, and said, "I am sorry to bother you, my ride did not show up, I really was wondering if you had a bathroom I can use." I told him I did have one, and he could use it. I also offered him a glass of ice water from the water cooler/ice maker thing on my refrigerator, which he accepted gratefully. Now I am _NOT_ trying to brag, or be 'holier than thou' or any such thing; but I do sincerely believe in 'doing to others as you would have them do to you', and _I_ have had situations being in a strange neighborhood, needing to use a bathroom, being quite thirsty on a hot day; I knew how _I_ felt on those days, so I thought 'this is how I was raised, in this small town where nearly everyone always looks out for their neighbors, etc, I will be damned if I tell this guy he cannot use my bathroom or have a drink of cold water.' He seemed very grateful when he left _with my checkbook and a box of new blank checks_ (but I did not find that out until much later).
I found out about his 'tresspass' not on Saturday afternoon (when he was here) nor on Saturday night, but not until Sunday about noon when I came back home from the Episcopal church I attend here in town. Phone rang, I answered it, and it turned out to be a lady who idenfitied herself as 'the clerk at Mikies Conoco' up on North Penn Street. "Did you authorize someone to come in with a check?" No, I did not ... "Well, I know you are on the other side of town, and you may not remember me, but I work part time also for Windsor and I have been at your home to do the housekeeping stuff from Windsor, and I could not imagine you ever coming all the way across town to Mikies, or sending some guy with a check to get cigarettes and cash back." She was completely correct. We agreed I would make a trip there Monday morning when the manager was on duty to look at the security video (of the guy cashing the check, and getting cigarettes).
She called me again, Monday morning to say "the guy came in again twice last night, the same way, cigarettes and cash back; the overnight clerk is the son of the manager, and he is sort of new, but I found two more of your checks here, and he told me the guy had been in twice last night." I told her I was going to stop at the bank on the way to the store and get the affidavit Officer John Edwards (Independence Police Department) had suggested I bring to him when I filed my report about the theft.
I was sitting in the office of the bank manager (vice president Karen Stoner) -- [don't be impressed, in banks Vice Presidents are a dime a dozen]. Karen is the manager of our branch, but she also works on the teller line now and then, and everytime I go in she always greets me and is super friendly. [Again, don't be impressed, that's how folks in this town are: either we interact through our work, through community organizations to which we belong, through church, they are a next door neighbor, or some combination of the above. Its not like I am a rich old geezer customer tossing around piles of money at the bank, I am not. I live from one social security check to the next ... barely ...] And our Bank of America here in Independence has all of eight employees total.
I told Karen about this young guy who tried to rip me off; in fact had done so, and I needed an affidavit for fraud, theft of checks, etc. She was getting it drawn up (she is also a notary which is important) when my cell phone rang again. It was Mikies Conoco again ... "hey! he came back again! he is at the front counter now, I told the clerk to stall him a little while, are you coming over here soon?" I told her I was in fact on the way then, would be there in five or ten minutes at most. I told Karen I would be back ASAP and hustled right out the door where our community taxicab driver Jeff had been waiting for me. I told him let's get to Mikies right now, pronto.
He took off, but pronto was not fast enough. We pulled into Mikies, I climbed out of the cab as fast as I could and went in the store, where Officer Edwards, the store manager and her clerk were waiting for me. The clerk spoke first saying, "I tried to stall him as Sandra (the store maanger asked me to do. But then he turned around and saw Sandra whispering in the telephone (she had placed a call to 911 then she reached me (while I was in the bank). He saw her talking on the phone and he took off at a gallop. My boy friend and one of his buddies saw the guy split from the store on a run and they tried to go catch him, but he was too fast."
The boy friend and his buddy watched all this and one of them said to the clerk (about me) "Is this the dude that guy tried to rip off?" and they were by the door, going to go look for the guy again, but the manager and Officer Edwards said, "that's okay, a couple other officers found him down the street; he is in custody; over at the jailhouse now, waiting until I get back to interview him." The manager showed me the security video tape and I identified him as the guy who had been over to my house Saturday afternoon looking like a sad, starved and very thirsty puppy who I had served on the 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you' principle.
Edwards said "go back to Karen's office and get the affidavit, then come by the jailhouse and ask for me; I will take your statement." I went back to Bank of America (the Independence branch to which I usually go), got Karen to finish up the affidavit and we stood there chatting for a few minutes.
She said "you always pay all your bills by computer; your SSD deposit and your Google AdSense deposits are always credited automatically; always like a clock; Social on the fourth Wednesday of each month, Google either a day before that or maybe one or two days after that. Then you come either here to our ATM or you go by First National Bank ATM a few blocks south and take out a hundred dollars for spending money and you then authorize us to pay all your bills. Do you ever write a manual check?" I told her it was very rare; since the brain aneurysm my handwriting has pretty much gone to hell; it was far better to turn it all over to the bank to handle my bills, etc. She was reviewing my account on her screen as we chatted. She then said, "Suppose I just note here on the computer comments the phrase 'question/confirm any manual checks written by customer'; that way in the future no one will be able in a Bank of America at least, to try and rip you off like that again. When you get bills, we pay them, when you come around, you use the ATM. Oh, and if you see your mother anytime soon, tell her I will see her at the next AWOL meeting." (She and my mother are both on the board of the local animal welfare shelter which is known as AWOL [Animals With Out Love]).
I left her office and walked a few blocks over to City Hall, (where our police station is located in the basement); they called Officer Edwards and as he came out to get me, two other officers were taking Timothy Garotte (pronounced 'gah-RUTH', a French name) in handcuffs to the jailhouse next door to City Hall. A thirty-year old resident of Independence, Timothy did a 'stretch' at Winfield (Kansas State Prison) for theft and forgery a few years ago, was released, and about a month ago had done the same thing to someone else. On that second time, he was bonded out of jail to wait for his trial, and _while on bond_ had chosen me as his new 'mark'. Officer Edwards said he did not think Timothy would be able to get bonded out this time around. As he walked out the door in handcuffs in the custody of two officers, he glanced at me. All I could think of to say was "Timothy, I am so ashamed of you ... I treated you the way I would have wanted to be treated, and you did this to me in return."
Edwards found a couple of my checks in Timothy's possession, along with a reciept from Walmart. They _think_ he cashed one of my checks over at Walmart as well, and Edwards suggested "watch your bank statement or talk to Karen and tell her to watch for it; where the local merchants deal with that sort of thing on an informal basis with the victimized customer first in mind, an outfit like Walmart will just keep trying to ACH you until they get their money. " Karen agreed: "Walmart is bad like that; they will probably place you with an agency and listen to no reason at all; take this copy of the affidavit and police report so that when Walmart starts hassling you about whatever Timothy 'purchased' in your name, you can get them to call off the dogs." I will be watching my BOA account on the computer very closely for a few days. I understand under 'check 21' Walmart does not even send the actual check around any longer; just a computer tape. Meanwhile, Mikies Conoco Station and the Ace Hardware store downtown consider the matter closed, for which I am grateful. I'd like to see how Walmart decides to deal with it; I've not had a good fight with them in a long time now.
My brother, the well-to-do commercial artist in Chicago said to me when he was here to visit a couple months ago, "What I have noticed is that everyone in Independence seems to be, ... so ... innocent." Well, yes and no ... there are still small town values and ideas here, everyone still gives out their phone number as four digits only, and the Timothy Garotte -style people are at a minimum. After all, our Montgomery County Jailhouse only holds at capacity about 50 prisoners, and when the County Jail gets more than 20-25 prisoners at any time, they right away start talking about building an expansion to it.
And that was my weekend, how was yours?
Patrick Townson