Check Fraud and Dallas Small Business

Bert Roofing hit by check theft & fraud

Our office manager was going over our wholesaler statements due in early August and noticed that two of our ordinarily largest bills where much higher than normal. The explanation was easy, when we looked into the matter there was the current month amount as well as the prior month balance. We knew the checks had been written and mailed on time so we needed to contact our suppliers. 

Calls were immediately made to ABC Supply and Wholesale Roofing Supply to see what our correct and up to date balance was. Neither ABC or Wholesale Roofing Supply showed any record of a payment on the July bill. We then checked our Chase account online and the checks to both ABC and Wholesale Roofing had cleared our account. Something was not right.

After second calls to the accounting departments of both wholesalers the results were the same, no check had been received or credited to our account. Things were starting to have a very weird vibe about them. We dug deeper into our online account. We look at the check to Wholesale Roofing Supply and it did not have the normal "For Deposit Only" stamp on the back of it but rather an individual's signature which was sloppy and difficult to read. It was clearly a fraudulent endorsement.

The check to ABC Supply was abused in an even greater manner. It was altered. "ABC Supply" was completely erased and the words "Wholesale Roofing Supplies" was written in it's place follow by the same fraudulent illegible signature. A third check to West End Lumber in a much smaller amount was also discover stolen, altered, and cashed.  

The family owned and operated East Dallas Roofing Company know as Bert Roofing was the victim of a serious crime. 

Nicole McElwee, our office manager and Vice President, was immediately on the phone with the fraud department of Chase Bank reporting the events. Fighting the sickening punch to the stomach feeling, I went to the local Chase branch to close our existing account and open a new one ASAP so we could make our weekly payroll and continue.

The local Chase branch was very helpful in closing down the existing account and opening a new one. Even though we were simply changing one Bert Roofing account with Chase to a new account with Chase, photo ID was required. The Chase employee also went to State of Texas public records to make sure I was an officer of record with the proper authority to be in charge of the Bert Roofing account. I could not help but to contrast this detailed work with the fact someone had recently and fraudulently cashed two checks with a value greater than that of the average new car. 

Retracing events after reporting to Chase, these three checks had one very common denominator. They were all dropped into the same US Postal Collection box in the drive through line outside the Casa Linda branch on the same day. Our checks had been stolen from the US Post Office, likely the same box we dropped them off in.

Next we tried to report the whole thing to the Dallas Police Department. They did not let us make a report and said that the loss is to Chase Bank and they must report it. The US Postal Police were a different story and wanted every detail we could provide. A follow up call from a postal theft investigator revealed to us that theft from US Postal Boxes is an increasing crime and there have been many thefts from this same postal box in Casa Linda, a fact we wished we had known about earlier.

The good news is that the Casa Linda Post Office has 24 hour a day surveillance footage of this postal box. The detective hopes review of this tape will reveal the thief and lead to an arrest.

So now we wait. We wait to see if some one is caught. We wait to see when Chase will reimburse us for letting a fraudulent check pass our account. The only other thing we can do is pass along the warning that your outgoing mail in a US Post Deposit Box may not be the safest option. We have moved most of our bills payable fully to online banking. An now when we need a check mailed, we park and drop our mail off inside the post office.