Patrick Combs Deposits $95,000 junk mail check...
 

I was reading a post by Stare At The Sun where he was talking about trying to sell his car and it was sounding like a bit of a scam was being worked on him. A reply to his post reminded me of this story.

Patrick Combs deposited a junk mail and obviously fake check in the amount of $95,093.35 through an ATM completely as a joke and to his shock and dismay the check cashed. The rest of the story which is a detailed account of what happened next is a great read. I found the time (maybe 15-20 minutes) to read the whole thing totally worth it. It's a very funny story and will explain a few things about how the banking system works. The later point explains the segue from Stare At The Sun's post (or actually a reply to it bolded here:

"Thirty days later your bank does its accounts and discovers that his 2000 check is from a fake account, and removes the deposit from your account. You've now sent him $1000, and your car, and he hasn't sent you anything."

Here is the link to the story: Patrick Combs

The story shows up in the pop up window so just scroll down to start the read. :D

an old internet story but a good one.

what makes it good?

a person who learned the ins and out of the what makes something a negotiable instrument.

I read through it, it was a good laugh.

One word: cahones

That was a long read but an interesting one. I had heard about that before, but I never took the time to read it all. Thanks for bringing it up again :)

good read. long, but good.
nice to know it had a happy ending.

I read this ages ago, it was a good story.
http://www.goodthink.com/writing/vie...d=11&page_id=2
is a direct link as far as I can tell.

What a fabulous read! I haven't chuckled so much over a story in quite awhile.

Thanks for posting it.

I once had a bank error in my favor that I DID capitilize on and the bank rained down on me like a ton of bricks, I guess it is important to know the law and to not get intimidated by these shmoes.

It was a really amusing read. thanks kjroh.

Good story, the paypal link is cheesy though :) But I suppose i'd do the same :P

wow... that took a little longer than i expected, but it was a good read... not sure i woulda done the same thing, but its good

:)they probably have laws against this now.

Of course they do.... don't you know that the US government only makes laws when one of two things happens? When somebody dies or when someone rich bastard with Washington connections loses money.

I wonder who ended up getting fired?

If the $$ was legally mine, i woulda kept it :D

Quite the long story, but what a story!

I used to work at a bank keying checks and balancing transactions and we did not accept items that had "non-negotiable" on them. We pulled the items and sent the transaction over to corrections so they could explain why the money wasn't going to show up in the persons account. And we always did it next business day.

Now I know why!

He definately should have kept the money. It was completely legally his. He should have payed off his debt and put a nice down payment on a house.

My thought is that he would have had two options. Taking care of his debt and running with $55,000, or paying $95,000 in lawyer fees before declaring bankruptcy to get out of the lawsuit's conclusion and credit card debt. Either way, the money was *not* going to increase his quality of life.

Good read
I honestly can't say what I would do if I was the one in that situation.
Me having no debts would have a tough time making the decision.

I don't know if i truely believe he deposited as a joke though???
Why did he go after all the media coverage?
Anyone remember hearing about this story when it was happening?

viva las mexico

pay your debt, move to mexico

He needed the money more then a large corporation that f*ked up and treated him like shit, the last guy there wasnt nice to him either so fuck them... besides good excuse to move to mexico :D

ofcourse he probably is making a fair bit now, off of the live one man shows and the dvds and such, not 95k but he is having fun doing it

Long, but interesting read. Fun story, but it strikes me as a bit lame that he's all about giving the money back, but now it "Tip me!!11oneone" and "Buy this Video!!" "See the One man Show, coming to a town near you!"

...

I personally would have found it much more tasteful to not try and sell his story, but hey, a guy's gotta make a living, right?

He was a writer and speaker before the $95,0000 mistake adventure so I see no problem with trying to make money off his story, its what he does. Telling stories is his career so bully for him for his little tip request. Great story as well, I'd often considered depositing one of those annoying checks to see what would happen, interesting to see one man's experience.

I actually saw his one man show at the local fringe fest. It was pretty damn funny and well worth the 8 bucks I spent. Way better than some of the crappy movies I've paid $9.50 for. I don't see that there's any problem with the guy selling the story to make a living, especially if he does it well.

Very long read.. But well worth it..

Wow.

It's been ages since I've sat down and read something so interesting and humourous. A full hour and a half, and I managed to read it all the way to the end.

And I totally love the ending. He took the high road, and did the right thing. I love how he weaseled out $5 simply based on principle.

As for setting up a tip jar, and selling his story, what's so bad about that? It's a completely legitimate, honest way of making money. He's not cashing in illegitimate cheques, or trying to screw a bank out of money. He's providing a product that he feels people would be interested in, they pay him money, and he delivers the product. So, in my mind, he gets to make money with his integrity fully intact.

Incredible story. I remember this happening, as I'd lived in SF at the time, but I hadn't read into it.