We had planned a long weekend away from the home and away from the kids. Only 3 of the six still lived at home. We were packed and ready to go out the door the minute my husband’s paycheck was deposited. We arrived at the cabin at about 4pm (we were about 150 miles from home) on a Friday night, checked in and then called and made reservations to go horseback riding the next day. We ate a light dinner and had a pleasant quiet evening. The next day, we get up, had breakfast, went shopping at a unique antique store and went to pay but the ATM machine would not accept the husband’s pin number. So we asked her to charge it, it went through, no problem. We arrived to go horseback riding where we paid cash. On the way back to the cabin we stopped at a bank to get cash and again his pin did not work. So, I tried my card and it said no funds available. We about sh*t! We were suppose to have over $4.000 bucks in there. So, we go down the mountain to the nearest bank branch, went in and were instructed to use a phone hooked directly to customer service. This was the beginning of my rudest days I have ever lived. Nothing could be done until Monday. Come Monday, I spend at least 2 hours on the phone talking to a bank employee that obviously could care less about my situation. Finally a branch manager was able to disclose to us the circumstances of what transpired while we were 150 miles away. Apparently someone intercepted an ATM card that was mailed out for my husband. This person took the card into a bank that we had never been to and said that they needed to redo the pin number and then also went to a teller with a bank check and cashed a check for $1800 (the kicker here is, the person signed my husband’s name, but misspelled it and the bank didn’t even blink an eye about it). Then they went on a shopping spree and spent every last cent we had at 3 stores all while were still friggin 150 miles away.

The bank gave us back all the money that was stolen using the ATM card immediately, but did not want to give us back the $1800 for the check. OH MY GOSH… I spent the next 4 days on the phone for hours, being put on hold and passed onto another bank employee, explaining the whole story again and again until I was blue. Finally, they agreed that they would give us our money. It took 6 weeks to get it back into our account.

2 weeks after the incident, in the paper, we read that they caught an illegal immigrant (from Viet Nam) with tons of false ID’s and bunches of ATM cards in his possession. They basically gave him a slap on the hand. What is wrong with our justice system??

I hope no one ever has to have their identity stolen, it ain’t fun!