JERK!

So I'm all upset and disappointed right now. As many of you may know, Dan and I bought a beautiful '98 Toyota 4runner over a year ago in December. About three weeks later, we were driving on the highway toward Lewiston on a clear day and hit black ice which sent us barrelling off the road into the median where we rolled and flipped twice. It was the most terrifying and humbling experience of my life! Not just the rolling, and crashing in the snow, but that Dan was in it with me and I was teffified for him and didn't know if he was ok.



Anyway, I'm getting off the subject.

Thankfully we were miraculously not only alive afterward but, mostly unhurt. But our 4runner, the nicest thing either of us had ever had was totalled, and we hadn't put collision on it. So if you learn anything from this post, put collision on your vehicles.



So now our 4runner occupies a space out in our dirt drive way with only a tarp to hid it's battle scars. The engine runs great, it's just body work that needs work, which if professinally done would be as much as we paid for it in the first place. But if someone had the skills and the time, it would be a good investment to buy it cheap off us and fix 'er up.

So we've had in on Craiglist for awhile now, and everytime we get a prespective buyer for it, it snow's like mad and they fizzle out of coming to see it.

But then yesterday, this guy up and emails us saying he wants it! We're so excited!! He's gonna send a cashier's check and have his shipping company come and get it just as soon as the check clear's our bank. Now we're really excited!!! But it was his next email that sent a red flag up for me. I took a Consumer Economic's class my last semester, and now I'm even more glad I did! He said he was going to send a certified cashiers check to us for the amount we wanted for our rig as well as the shipping fees, since "he can write only one check" for this transaction. And once the check clears, if we would then send a money gram to the shipping company "immediately" so that they can then come and pick up the rig. Anyway, I'm thinking, "No wait, this seems fishy." So I go to the bank and ask if there is anyway, that once a cashier's check clears if it can somehow be taken back. Well! it can clear at your bank, and show that you got the funds, but technically they haven't taken them from the issuing bank. Then they, the buyer, can cancel the cashier's checkafter it clears at your bank. After some looking around online I found out this is called "cashier's check fraud." The point of this whole charade is so that you think you have made money on your sale, and then send the "extra" as a money gram which no doubt goes to the buyer. But they cancel the cashier's check , so you're liable for the money gram and it's your money not theirs that you sent. Meanwhile they've got your money and you probably don't figure this all out till it's too late a couple weeks later. The only way to not get got, is to only deal in cash or to take the cashier's check to the isssuing bank and cash it.

This fit all to well.

I'm so bummed, because it seemed like we were finally gonna get rid of the 4runner: the huge mangled remains of our once priced possession that is a constant reminder of our accident. That every time we step out the door, we have to walk by and brings to mind how we felt that day, at knowing I could have died or lost one Dan. And the financial loss because we waited just a little too long to put collison on it. And I'm bummed because there are people that would try to do this to us and others. They'd take adavatage of our need to sell the 4runner and try to take more: Our money, which makes them the most undeserving!

This has all been really depressing, I'm sorry. I do know that despite this whole experience, that the Lord was looking out for us that day on the road when we crashed, and protected us. And I know that Lord was also helping met today, when I felt rushed by that buyer to close the deal, that I was able to slow down and see what was happening.

It'll all work out in the end, someday :)