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Toni Chanakas · Back at CSU…
August 28th, 2008
I have wanted to advance myself and start thinking about taking some classes at Cleveland State University, my old alma mater. The great smell of books and cramped desks, why did I leave this behind? Ah, to go back to school again.
I am amazed with the aestitic look of CSU, however, it is beautiful. There is an actual Business Building instead of housing all personnel in the Main Classroom section of the University. It definitely does not look the same, concrete wise as when I first went there….hmmm. A long time ago, Generation Y’ers.
I went to the second floor of the CSU library into one of the tiny, smelly study rooms. I put my bag on the floor, and took out my checkbook intending to write a check. “No, I thought, I will do it right before I leave.” So I set it aside, then I proceeded to find the restroom. I was gone maybe three minutes, tops. It wasn’t exactly out in the open, it was interwoven among all of my other papers scattered along the desk. In fact, it was hard to see unless you were standing at the doorway. You guess it, stolen. I didn’t realize it right away until I was ready to write that check. I scoured the entire room. Looked in my bag about fifty times, went back to the bathroom, looked in some of the other study rooms just in case someone dropped it. Right!
Okay, now that I look back on it, I was naive. I put too much trust in people. Luckily, I didn’t have my driver’s license in the plastic window, credit cards or a DEBIT card that a lot of people seem to adore. I do not own a DEBIT card for just this reason. If I had one, someone would have emptied my entire checking account with frivolous purchases from Best Buy or fill their gas tanks from Gas USA. In fact, the customer service representative at the bank told me just that they would steal credit cards and/or debit cards to fill at the pump.
What I really want to discuss is personal property. Why do people take valuable items or just things from hard working people? Even though it was just a checkbook that I shouldn’t have been carrying around with me in the first place, I felt violated. Someone entered the study room without my knowledge, my own personal space and robbed me. Take something that did not belong to them. I have had people take shoes from the gym, my favorite clogs that I paid good money for; they decide to take them because I mistakenly forgot to put them in my bag. When I can, I give people’s personal belongings back or return them to the “lost and found” because I know how it feels to loose a prized possession.
What kind of society are we that we don’t respect people and their belongings?
August 29th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Er, losing a checkbook is more catastrophic than losing a credit card or debit card. It has your actual checking account number on it, and the revocation system for checks basically sucks, whereas a credit or debit card can be revoked with less hassle. I hope you immediately contacted your bank, because you effectively have to close your checking account, or minimally put watches on all the remaining checks in the book.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Well, crap. Sorry to hear it, Toni. You’ve got some damage control to do, but the damage to your sense of security may be worse.
What kind of society are we living in? An opportunistic one. Universities are full of people who are inexperienced at living on their own. They are therefore also full of predators.
It happens to everybody. When 401k’s stopped being managed by companies and control was handed over to the individuals, there was a huge influx of newbies on the stock market. And plenty of predators waiting.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
All of that has been done, the bank issued an “alert” on the numbers that I had left in my checkbook, along with my ATM card. Since I didn’t have a DEBIT card, they got No free money. It is harder to cash a check than use a “credit card” type of card to get the things people want. Luckily, I didn’t have my phone number on my checks either. The weird thing, I had my computer sitting out, and they didn’t take that. They figured I had a gold mine in that wallet, I am sure they got surprised when there wasn’t too much in there. You live and learn the hard way.