Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Identity Thieves Vanquished, News at 11
Over the past week, Our Man in LA and his lovely bride were embroiled in an epic struggle with the vicious Identity Thieves who tried to steal Thanksgiving and the slow and malicious Bank who wanted to rob us a second time.
Folks, it was like something out of a comic book. A six-part, death-defying adventure where a certain mild-mannered super-hero faces not only criminals but lazy, infuriating corporate stooges ready to give the bad guys a leg up.
Finally on Friday, it ended. The bank resolved the issue and elected not to take back the $1,000 that was taken way back in 2005. So Our Woman in LA and I remain solvent.
It's a little dehumanizing being the victim of Identity Theft, and then having your victim status questioned by the bank that's supposed to do a better job protecting your money than, say, the bottom of a mattress. You feel very alone.
Or at least, I did, until I read this column in the LA Times over the weekend:
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-lopez15jan15,0,1102767.column?coll=la-news-columns
Steve Lopez, the writer who handled the Times' coverage of LA's skid row homeless problem, returns here with sometimes hilarious and sometimes downright tragic stories about how banks across the Southland have mishandled cases of identity theft. Like Our Man in LA, Lopez is too discrete to name the bank that done him wrong. If I infer correctly, however, I think he and I are like victims.
Read on.
Folks, it was like something out of a comic book. A six-part, death-defying adventure where a certain mild-mannered super-hero faces not only criminals but lazy, infuriating corporate stooges ready to give the bad guys a leg up.
Finally on Friday, it ended. The bank resolved the issue and elected not to take back the $1,000 that was taken way back in 2005. So Our Woman in LA and I remain solvent.
It's a little dehumanizing being the victim of Identity Theft, and then having your victim status questioned by the bank that's supposed to do a better job protecting your money than, say, the bottom of a mattress. You feel very alone.
Or at least, I did, until I read this column in the LA Times over the weekend:
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-lopez15jan15,0,1102767.column?coll=la-news-columns
Steve Lopez, the writer who handled the Times' coverage of LA's skid row homeless problem, returns here with sometimes hilarious and sometimes downright tragic stories about how banks across the Southland have mishandled cases of identity theft. Like Our Man in LA, Lopez is too discrete to name the bank that done him wrong. If I infer correctly, however, I think he and I are like victims.
Read on.
