Idiot arrested at the shop today...

[v8klla]

This whole thing started yesterday when a guy called me looking for a supercharger for his '93 Firebird. I find a distributor that carries it and tell him I can have it for him next day. I also asked him at this point for some money down, and he replied that his wallet was just stolen and he had lost his credit card. Anyways, I want to make the sale so I place the order hoping he would come in today and pick it up. Oh, he came in alright...

I get a call this morning from some guy claiming to be from Bank of America. He says he's calling for this guy, in order to verify funds and place them on hold for this purchase from me. Sounded shady the whole time, not like a bank rep at all. So I ask for an 800 number, which he gives me. Obviously I called back and its some recording for a military base or something. At this point the flags are going up everywhere, he has no credit card and some sketchy guy calls me to verify funds (isn't that normally the other way around). So I do some checking and find out that the cell phone number he is using doesn't match his name. I also couldn't find any info on his name or address online. Then he calls me and tells me he is trying to get off of work at the Hennepin County Police Department! He had some sirens on in the background, and said he was reporting to a domestic violence call! Apparently his sargent let him off early shortly after that and he informed me he was on his way. It was at this point I got the police involved...

The first thing the cops tell me is not to tip him off, they want to catch him red handed. I agree to call them when he arrives to pick up the parts. When he shows up I ask him how he wants to pay. He tells me check, and asked if I had spoke to anyone. At this point I'm still playing around with him until I get the actual check to give to the police. So I show him the parts, talk some more and he finally gives me the check. It wet, torn, and has my name written on masking tape in the "to" field! I put it in the cash box and ask him to call Bank of America so I can verify over the phone again as I "lost" the authorization code. He makes some call and pretends to be on the phone with the bank, in the meantime I call the police and tell them "their product has arrived and they can pick it up anytime." Within a few minutes the guy is hancuffed and in the back of a squad car...

Turns out it was his check, but he had no money in his account! I decide to press charged for non-sufficient funds as it seems he has done this in the past. I feel bad for the guy, but he tried to steal over $3000 from me! This world is just ridiculous sometimes...

So the moral of the story is, we are no longer accepting personal checks!