I smell a rat!

There was an article in our local paper yesterday about a couple who may become homeless because of a stolen mortgage payment. Maybe it's just me, but I think their story has more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese. Bill Hankins, the reporter, doesn't say anywhere in the article what steps he took to check out their story. Perhaps he did check it out and just didn't say so, but if he didn't, I predict he's going to end up with egg on his face.

Here's how the story goes:

Robert and Judy Brown of Detroit, Texas, had a mortgage on their home with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. They were $3500 behind in their payments when Wells Fargo demanded the money. They sent $2000 which Wells Fargo refused because it was short of the total owed. The company informed them by letter that the money would be wired back to them by Western Union. That's flag #1 -- If the Browns sent a check or money order, why didn't Wells Fargo just send it back? If they sent the money by Western Union, why did Wells Fargo pick it up in the first place? And if Wells Fargo had picked the money up, why didn't they just send a check back to the Browns? And if the Browns said, "We're sending the rest of the money," why didn't Wells Fargo just hold the $2000?

The Browns managed to scrape up the remaining $1500 to make up the payment. That's flag #2 -- if they were able to scrape together the full amount, why didn't they do so to begin with?

They went to Western Union to pick up the $2000 wired back to them. As instructed by Wells Fargo, they took the letter from the company, their receipt, and a photo ID. They were informed by Western Union that someone else had already picked up the money in New Orleans. That's flag #3 -- I would come much nearer believing this had the money been picked up locally, but New Orleans? Whoever got the money had to have some idea it was there. And how did they get the documentation required to pick it up? And does Western Union not offer some type of protection in this instance? After all, if they released the money to an imposter, aren't they responsible?

The Browns went to the police department and were told, in essence, "Tough luck." That's flag #4 -- if they went to the local police department, shouldn't they have been told to contact New Orleans police since that's where the crime occurred? And if they contacted New Orleans police, you'd think that department would at least go through the motions of taking a report.

Bill Hankins concludes that since the Browns were nowhere near New Orleans when the money was picked up, it is "an open and shut case of stolen identity." Maybe, maybe not. Just because the Browns say they weren't in New Orleans doesn't mean they don't know who got the money.

I smell a big fat rat! But then again, it could be a case of "what goes around, comes around." I did a little checking and discovered in a Lamar County judicial records search that the Browns, themselves, were charged with theft a couple of years ago.