Never will I understand the mentality of thieves who feel entitled to steal the money of hardworking folks. Quite honestly, such behavior infuriates me.
Falling prey to scammers last week when they wiped out my checking account by stealing my debit card number and pin, I just wanted to punch someone or something.
I deposited money in the bank on a Friday afternoon and later, after a haircut, I swung by the ATM machine outside the Toledo branch of Timberland Bank for $85 in cash. But when I tried to purchase something Monday, the card was denied. At first I figured I must have entered my PIN incorrectly, so I swiped the card again and re-entered the numbers. Still denied.
I shook my head, used my business debit card, and figured I’d check my accounts online when I returned home to see what happened.
Imagine my surprise to find my checking account overdrawn! Someone withdrew $503 from an ATM in Bellevue, and another $403 from a Pacific, Washington, cash machine. I found three $1.50 fees where someone checked my account balance.
I jumped from my chair and rushed to the kitchen, yelling to my husband (despite out-of-state company). “Someone stole money from our bank account!”
I truly did go ballistic, searching for answers as to how this could have happened. I tried to cancel the card using a number I found on the Internet, but it didn’t work. When I called the bank manager at home, Lisa Jasper-Hull calmly told me to call the number on the back of the card, which I did. The entire time, I’m pacing and exclaiming: “How could someone do this? I work too hard for my money for some scumbags to steal it!”
“Calm down, Julie,” my husband said. “Just calm down.”
“I can’t! What about the check I just deposited? If they stole from this account, is that check safe in my business account?”
Hull assured me it affected only that one account, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I rushed down to Toledo and withdrew the maximum allowed from my other account. Then I paid bills to deplete the account.
Hull contacted another bank employee, so the next day I simply had to sign paperwork disputing the charges. At exercise class, I learned about others who were victimized by these criminals.
I hope they catch and imprison these creeps.
Pinochle Marriage
Over the Fourth of July, we played pinochle with my husband’s relatives. As we laid down our meld, I realized arguments may occur in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that gay marriage is legal everywhere.
Will the rules of the card game change too? Will a marriage still require a king and a queen? Or can two kings and two queens of the same suit count as a marriage? What about a king and a jack?
The Supreme Court ruling relegates gay marriage to the same status as abortion; it’s legal but not everyone likes the decision. Florists, photographers, bakery owners and anyone else who opposes gay marriage will be forced to provide services for those weddings, despite their religious convictions.
It’s sad to see what Justice Samuel Alito said has come to pass: “I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers and schools.”
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
