ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

Today was my first experience with having a customer arrested at work, and fortunately it was a positive one. And when I say positive, I mean it was very satisfying to have caught someone trying to screw us over and to have punished him. When I called the area manager afterward to brief him, the first thing he said was “Fun, wasn’t it?” Strangely, it sort of was.

Earlier today a customer came in with something to cash, and our new girl ended up being the one to help him. She noticed that it seemed funny, and brought it to me to look at. When we realized that the guy had whited out the name of a company and scribbled his own in its place in his own handwriting (also, the original purchaser had even written “For payment on account # such and such” so it seemed unlikely that she originally made it out to some random individual), we called KCKPD dispatch. When the cops arrived they asked him where he’d gotten it.

“I found it on the floor at the casino, so I made it out to myself. It’s my rent money.”

When the cops asked about the white-out on the payee line, he seemed confused and claimed first that there wasn’t white-out on it, and then said that he had forgotten that he did that because it got wet and he had to “fix” it. He kept interrupting himself to explain to the cops that taking someone’s money order and pretending it was his wasn’t like stealing, because “money orders are money and if you just find money then you get to keep it.” Then one of the officers would explain forgery to him, and he would say “Yes, but that’s not like stealing” and the whole thing would begin again. They were having a lot of fun with this guy. By the time the detective arrived on scene to take our statements and get the evidence, the cops were openly laughing at him. What a crazy day.

Also another bank was robbed today, the second this week. The police think it’s the same guy who robbed the Brotherhood Bank on State Avenue this Monday. So Kansas City Kansas really is a hotbed of crime like everyone says. I love it!