So here I am this morning opening a pile of mail – schwag from companies, bills, checks for Heather, payroll stuff, the usual. I rip all the envelopes open and then dig in. And I look down and see this check for $1.3 million and change. Trust me, there’s nothing quite like opening up a letter addressed to you and finding a check inside for $1,334,261.05.
First thought: woohoo! Second thought: why? Third thought: oh, it’s not made out to me. Of course. Fourth thought: oh crap, it’s addressed to me but the wrong name, did I just commit a felony by opening it without even paying attention (my lawyer is getting back to me on that, meanwhile, I’m taking a quick vacation in Mexico)?
The check is from Pure Digital Technologies, the company that Cisco recently acquired for $590 million (Pure Digital makes the Flip camera). A letter accompanying the check says that the money represents “net proceeds from the cash out of your stock options.”
So what happened? Pure Digital says the person it was supposed to be sent to used to live in my house a long time ago. They also asked if I could send it back, and assured me they put a stop payment on it. It’s now safely in the mail to them, I promise.
But it does provide a nice bookend to the story. And frankly, I think I deserve at least a finder’s fee for returning this so promptly. Pure Digital wasn’t amused by that request.
Sigh, I wish I had your problems.
lol
damn, no edit button. How about just changing your name to the one on the cheque?
It sure is easy procedure, at least in our country
Damn, no edit.
Just change your name and you are ready to go.
Spending less than the amount of the check to change your identity would be worth it.
I’ve never been THAT UNLUCKY!
Great story though.
Best,
Curtis
OUCH!
You should write a book filled with stories like that.
But it would sell only one copy.
I know that had to suck.
At least you get mail. I don’t even get other people’s mail let alone my own mail.
Chicago= worst mail system (if you can call it a “system”)
Yeah, Chicago has the worst mail system of any place I’ve ever lived. While I lived there I got a letter from the DOJ, turns out some nice folks in the Chicago postal system were stealing my mail!
i second i never been that unlucky .
You would think that PD could at least check a few addresses before sending out million dollar checks..
I was thinking the same
Or call the intended recipient to ask if they *might* prefer a more secure wire transfer.
Didn’t realize the price of a post from an A-list blogger costs that much these days.. well, they got the post, and didn’t pay. Brilliant!
John Erik Metcalf likes this post.
Typical business, they make a mistake (while they’re at the office on the clock spending the company’s $$) and they ask you to spend your $$ (I realize a stamp & an envelope aren’t terribly costly) and your free time to help them.
Medical insurance errors, credit card errorsm, you name it. Hours are spent of your free time while the goobers who made the mistake are on the clock, having coffee and making who knows how many more mistakes.
I once had to call to get a deposit back from a phone company. Then call again. And again. Then I finally got the check. And another. And another. When I called to tell them of their error, they had no idea what to do with me IIRC (it was a long time ago now).
I kept the money and didn’t feel bad about it. I’d made an effort, and if they couldn’t run their business any better than that maybe it’s best they give away all their cash and go out of business anyway!
@dougo
It’s called common courtesy. Your post says a lot about you.
Yeah, suppose it does. I’m tired of having to deal with the mistakes of others.
Aside from the advances in computer technology making it easy for under-grads to crank out voluminous papers, those advances have made it easy for 80% of the work force that’s coasting, downloading iTunes, checking their bids on eBay and making busy work, to make mistakes of horrendous proportions which in turn creates more busy work for them (putting aside the physicist’s definition of “work” for this discussion) and also creates real work for all those heretofore non-participants in the 80%er’s task.
You are more honest than us Kiwis…
http://www.nzhe...jectid=10573570
“They are understood to have applied to Westpac Bank for a $10,000 overdraft and mistakenly had $10 million paid into their account.”
You absolutely deserve a finder’s fee
The least they could have done was laughed at their own mistake instead of acting like an inept corporate giant, which is what you seemed to imply.
nah, they acted completely appropriately.
Did they just send it in the regular mail? You’d think a million dollar check might get the upgrade to FedEx & a signature confirmation…
regular mail.
Amazing! What bonehead sends a $1.3 million check via US Postal Service to an unverified address? FAIL
Epic… EPIC… MY GOD EPIC! Fail.
You have no idea how much money is sent through regular, uncertified postal mail on a regular basis. My company gets paid $10,000-$60,000 checks from regular mail. One of our clients ran rebate programs and received $600,000+ funding checks through USPS. Not even insured. Because issuing a stop isn’t that big a deal.
The fact is, most mail gets there. On time. Accurately. And the paper it’s written on isn’t really worth that much anyway. Plus, committing fraud, as Michael would’ve been doing if he attempted to cash the check, is a federal crime. Not only that, but you better fucking believe that no bank would ever cash such a large check unless they were DAMN sure it was made out to the bearer. (And no check-cashing place could possibly fund it.)
It takes more than an endorsement to deposit a check of that size. So, their not really worried about it getting in the wrong hands.
You can send the check to our address
on this page :http://bit.ly/BiPEY
We will have no problem to cash it in.
What’s with your website? Something about sex with lead?
wow, that’s pretty amazing. only time i get stuff like this is from african princes.
Now, I wonder if this was meant to come to you, knowing you’d blog about it. Hmmm.. but why? hmm..
That must be something to wake up to lol… especially during the recession, its like winning the lottery.
I’d be contacting the dude who the check was made out to, and make an *arrangement* to become a “dividend friend” of his
why things like this don’t happen to me?
their marketing people are good
Well, the US should finally abandoned checks and do wire transfers for free… as the rest of the world in the Twenty-First-Century!
So they just mail a million dollar check to the address on file? You would think they would at least try to handle it through a wire transfer.
Opening it on accident may not have been a felony…but posting its content online kind of moves you out of the accidental category, doesn’t it?
@ Mike – you should charge them for the PR they will get from this, just imagine how much they pay their agency for getting publicity.
You sure it wasn’t done on purpose ?
you should have gotten something for the extra stressing of the heart–the a maize ment factor and the phone call about the error– that check should have been sent certified–or fedexed or sometning sim-lar–
I might have a way for us to make a few mil together–if you are up for the challenge– I like your name ; -))
That is one extremely lame signature and I’m surprised there is no double signature required on checks of that size.
Greetings from Nigeria!
Dear Sirs,
I just find out one of my checks got stolen and mailed to you by mistake, could please forward it to me?
I will not hesitate to commission you for your troubles. 10%?
Do not worry – your honesty will come back to you
BTW – have you been living long in that house?
$1,337,000 would be the perfect payout…
I just made LEET-million!
find out who the guy is on the check and ask him to reward you. you know he has 1.3 million dollars.
Damn, why didn’t I think of that… Send Mike a check for 1 million, get exposure, sell the company then cut Mike his due…
They do say some of the most brilliant ideas arise from mistakes..
(I would not suggest anyone actually try this as Mike not only can make you, but destroy you too lol).
just dropped my own check in the mail for 1.4MM to mike – ha beat that Pure Digital. LMAO.
Wait, who’s the check made out to and is she single??
hilarious, I can’t stop laughing
sending a check of that magnitude through the postal service without any signature is quite dumb
not suggesting that this was, but that would be a good publicity stunt.
Nice post. You are really honest. You will surely be rewarded.
Leo totally tooled on you. Ha, that was awesome.
I wish I had invested to Pure Digital too
you guys send 1million bucks checks by mail? What?! hand carry is that expensive?
Are we supposed to think that you’re a “nice guy” now? Could have fooled me…