So today I met one of my tenants to pick up his January rent.  Long story short, part of his rent was a check from the girlfriend of one of his use to be room-mates.  The check was made out to me and I was a bit uncomfortable taking a check from someone I didn’t know, but the bank was right there, so I told him I would go over and make sure the check was good.

I strolled into Bank of America and pulled out my license and a credit card so I would have two forms of ID.  When I got to the teller she asked me if I had an account with them and I said no, so she whips out this little ink pad and says, “I need your thumb print on the check.”

SAY WHAT?

I was stunned.  I said I didn’t understand why I needed to put my thumb print on the check and she said it was bank policy when you didn’t have an account.  I said, well I am not putting my thumb print on a check until I’m sure it’s good, can you check to see if the funds are available?  And she said no.  That’s when I asked to speak with a supervisor.   The supervisor asked her to make sure the funds were available and then at my request explained that BOA had been doing this for years and it started in California because of some employees cashing their paychecks and then saying that it hadn’t been them who had cashed the checks.

I was so stunned, and since the rent is already 21 days late, I put my freaking thumb print on the check; and then I went out to my car and cried.  I mean, how many liberties will continue to be taken away from the people who live in the land of the free?

I felt like a common criminal and I am also pretty sure that it violates some type of privacy act because now this girl who I don’t know can request a copy of that check from her bank and my thumb print will be on it!! 

If any of you reading this have any law background I would love to hear your thoughts on this; and by the way I won’t post a link for BOA because I’m really pissed and won’t bring any traffic to their website!

To those of you who gave me your input regarding the photos,  I do appreciate it and I thank you immensely!  The pictures that got the most votes were the first one of Sampson as a small puppy winking and the other one was the picture of Sampson peering over the wall. 

My idea is to have a tote with one picture on it and a T-shirt with the other picture on it.  I would have Sampson’s website address on the item and my friend Dawn gave me an idea to have the T-shirt/tote say, “Do you know Sampson?”  and list the web address.  I’m hoping this will get some attention regardless of whether I get to meet with an agent or not. 

I’m not exaggerating when I say that anywhere we take Sampson, someone wants to keep him and take him home with them.  I picked him up from daycare yesterday and my trainer said, “My brother was just making out with your dog.”  He wouldn’t be the first and he won’t be the last.  People just love this dog!

In the meantime, I will be revising the website and the book and putting the book up on the website, so when I do finally get the items, everything will be ready to go.

So what do you think?