The tale of the check

Today, my company ended a strange little episode with Microsoft and a "missing" check and it reminded me of another strange little episode of my own with a check, a US Government agency and a small bank in Northern Virginia.

I used to work for the US Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia. Our lab was being closed and some of us were being transferred to other labs around the country. My good fortune meant I was being transferred to the Marine Geology office in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Since it was a transfer between USGS offices, they agreed to pay my moving expenses. I tried to get them to pay a little extra to have my things packed but they refused. So, I paid the extra myself. The move went well and I was quite happy in my new location.

Then, out of the blue, I got a note from the main office of the USGS that they had reconsidered and would pay for the packing of my belongings. They just needed proof that I had really paid for it. Here is where the stupidity started - with me. I sent them the canceled check. This was back when the bank sent you the real, canceled checks at the end of the month. I should have sent a copy but I figured it was OK because it was canceled. No one could use it.

A long time later, long enough for me to forget about sending the check, I got a call from my old bank in Reston (I'm not sure how they got my phone number) explaining that my account was overdrawn. I explained that I had closed the account and moved. They said I still owed them the money and gave me the check number that caused the problem. I told them they had to be mistaken because I had all my canceled checks and would find it and prove them wrong. But, of course, when I went to find it, I couldn't find it - I had sent it as proof of paying for packing my stuff for the move. But I didn't know how the check was used yet. I just knew I didn't have it and couldn't figure out what I would have done with it.

A few days later, while I was trying to solve this mystery, I was contacted by the USGS accounting department that a check I had sent to them had bounced and I'd better send them a new one on a good account. I asked them for the check number and, lo and behold, it was the same number as the one the bank was complaining about. But I couldn't remember sending a check to USGS to pay for anything. In fact, they were supposed to pay me...WAIT A MINUTE! It finally all clicked into place. The check I had sent them as proof of payment somehow ended up in their pile of checks to cash - even though it wasn't made out to them. It was made out to the moving company! And it was canceled! Then, the check got to my bank and, even though it wasn't made out to the USGS, the bank attempted to satisfy the check - even though it was canceled and I no longer had an account there! And they both had the nerve to complain to me!

This happened about 29 years ago so I don't remember exactly how long it took to resolve this but I know it wasn't finally resolved for weeks after I had first figured out what had happened. None of them ever admitted making a mistake. I do recognize, though, that none of it would have happened if I hadn't sent a real, canceled check. Maybe it is good that we no longer get real checks back from the bank. If I was a little more paranoid than I am, I might even believe that banks don't send us real checks because of what happened to me :-)