Monday, June 23, 2008

A Mystery

I want to post about our trip, but I also want to wait until I have the pictures from my mom's camera. In the meantime, I'll describe the mystery we have on our hands. On probably Friday, UPS left an Express envelope on our back porch - I say probably because we hardly ever use the back porch, and Dave only found the envelope when he went to put some trash out, and his best guess was that is must have been delivered on Friday. The package was addressed to him, and inside was a regular envelope also addressed to him; inside that was a cashier's check for a fairly significant amount of money (significant to us, anyway!). Now, when he showed all this to me, I thought immediately it must be some kind of scam. I looked to see if it was one of those checks that sign you up for something when you cash it, but it did indeed appear to be a straightforward cashier's check. Dave had looked up the bank it was drawn on, and it's a real bank with branches all over the Midwest. But that's another thing - the check came from Missouri, and we definitely don't know anyone there. I've heard of random acts of kindness where strangers give people money, but this would be REALLY random! Dave called his dad, who has the same name, to see if perhaps it was meant for his business, but his dad wasn't expecting anything like that, either. The other wierd thing about the check is that it's dated in May, but was sent on the 19th of this month. It all seems very suspicious, of course, but the fact that it's a cashier's check seems to lessen the likelihood of a scam, since it's already cleared the sender's bank account, and non-payment wouldn't be an issue - unless it's some really elaborate scheme that makes only appear that the bank the check came from is legitimate... It's all very bewildering, but I think Dave is going to talk to someone from our bank about it today. We're certainly not going to do anything with it until we've explored all the possibilities as far as we're able. Any thoughts are quite welcome!

3 comments:

Jenny said...

Wow, a random large sum of money! Hmmmm....things that come to mind...

1. Inheiritance of some kind?
2. Some money from the sale/purchase of your home somehow?
3. Medical bill overpayment?

Gosh, that's all I can think of...and I'm totally intrigued!

Hannah said...

Anne,
My first thought was, and still is, that this may be some kind of gift from God via someone who doesn't want to "let the right hand know what the left hand is doing." Tim and I have actually done this before, but only for people we know and where we knew there was a need (I wouldn't even share this with you except by way of explaining that this is possible!). We've also been recipients. Maybe He just put you on someone's heart and they wanted to bless you in this way without incurring any sense of indebtedness or gratitude toward anyone but Him.
I hope this is the case, rather than something nefarious! Why not just pray about it and see if you have peace to accept it?

Anonymous said...

Hmm. That is very odd. Hopefully your bank can sort it out and it is real. Who couldn't use some surprise money?