[BC] Horror storys

[Keith Hammond]

Scott Cason wrote:


> The banks charge you for this now.  I had a client give me a 
> check that I suspected would bounce.  So I headed over to his 
> bank to cash the check. There was a $5 charge to do so.  I 
> was stunned.  I asked the teller why his account wasn't 
> charged the fee, why did I have to pay to cash his check.  I 
> got the deer in the headlights look.  And, I was right, the 
> funds were not there so I didn't get the money anyway.


  Better to pay that "rip-off" than to do what I did! Back in the
long-ago-times of the early 1990's, just after getting married and
making a "new start" (after a previous nasty divorce), I was working for
the princely sum of $200.00 per week for a short time at a small station
in the south. (Powell, YOU know the one I'm talking about that
occasionally "forgets" that 10kw. Daytimers are not authorized for
full-time operation.)

  Each week, on payday, the station employees would literally race to
the nearest grocery store to cash our checks. We'd cash them and, after
buying groceries for the week, we'd all head home or on to pay other
bills. Pretty well innocent and harmless, right?

  Well, Alabama law is apparently a bit "quirky" in that it is a
requirement of a business (who is holding a "hot check") to only notify
the original writer of the check. Yet, after a 180 day period, that
business can sign a criminal complaint against the person who brought it
to them and cashed it. Now, to set the stage for the consequences.,
picture it in this way: The three station employees (myself included)
had been cashing checks at the grocery store on a weekly basis for
several months. We all KNEW everything was OK because the store
advertised on our station. The owner certainly never let on that there
might have been problems, either.

  Fast forward to a pleasant Saturday morning and a knock on my door.
Open the door... Big, burly cop at the door with an arrest warrant for
"negotiating a non-negotiable instrument". (At the time, I wasn't even
sure what this meant!) Of course, after an arrest, a weekend in jail, a
Monday morning bond hearing and all of the associated garbage, it was
finally revealed to us (I was not the only employee this happened to)
that WE were ultimately responsible for the money the store was out.
None of us disagreed with this but, what had us all upset was the fact
that the warrants were served because the business had "duly notified
the defendants" by sending certified notices to THE STATION OWNER that
the checks were no good. Of course, had any of us known what was really
happening, we would've found better jobs and found a way of covering the
checks on our own...

  I did get even, though: Of the several THOUSAND dollars in fines and
penalties, for a Thursday court date I asked my (then) employer to give
Friday's check to me a day early. After taking the check by his bank and
verifying (in writing by the branch manager) that the account was below
empty, I took the check to court (where I knew the judge) and he laughed
as he publicly waved around the check and proclaimed, "Well, I guess
what the guy says happened must be true! Our local radio station just
gave him a hot check to come to court and pay the fines attached to
another hot check from the same radio station!"

  God, that's an embarrassing story and the repercussions still affect
everything we do to this day! (They were considered "crimes of moral
turpitude" and you'd be amazed at how fast people are quick to accuse a
person of something else simply because these show up in a background
check. Since then, I've had all kinds of "interesting" offers made, too!
Owners offering to pay "a little extra" for a bit of help in insurance
fraud and the other "less desirable" kinds of business that I do not
like to be involved in. Not a good choice, either! If you do it, YOU are
guilty while the owner denies all knowledge and yet, if you DON'T do it,
you usually end up looking for another place to work...

  The moral of the story is that working for a crook can (and will)
affect you for a long time to come. Also, just because YOU didn't write
a "hot check" does NOT mean that someone else's won't come back to "bite
you in the butt".

  Oh... Why was the grocery store still advertising with all of this
going on? It turns out this was how the station owner was keeping them
from prosecuting HIM for (you guessed it) hot checks! He was trading out
his debts and the rest of us (aside from not knowing they existed)
couldn't do that!!!

Keith Hammond

KBKH-FM (Shamrock, Texas)

(806) 256-1221