Mail box burgle

I guess I have been lulled into a false sense of security. Something about the rural, bucolic island has made me forget about vandals and thieves. In the city, I wasn't such an easy target but, I guess, I am here.

Sometime on Sunday, someone stole a bunch of mail out of my mail box. It is located on a pretty busy road, right in front of my house. I had the red flag up to let my wonderful mail lady know I had some outgoing.

And, I sure did. A big fat pile of bills went out and some monthly reports to my clients. My mail lady came to our house yesterday to let us know what went out unharmed and what was damaged. The thieves had opened up a bunch of mail and taken the checks!

And, because my banking life is sort of complicated, they were able to get checks from 3 different accounts.

AHHHHHHHH!

So, I spent the day placing stop orders on checks, opening new accounts, getting ready to close the accounts that they got the checks from. I mean, they have my name, address, account number and signature!

I guess if they really wanted to wreak some havoc, they sure could.

But, the silver lining is my banker folks were very helpful and waived the multiple stop payment fees. Nice to know that they can do that at the branch. Be sure and ask if they do not offer if this ever happens to you.

They also have gone a long way toward convincing me to do on-line banking from now on instead of checks. I am such a dinosaur about this sort of thing or as marketing folks describe it as "a late adopter". I think I will take this as a signal that it is indeed time.

And, my mail lady says, "Don't put the red flag up. I will check your box each day but we don't need to broadcast to the scumbags that there is mail in there."

Wow. Good idea. What a target I am!