Some people just ruin things for everybody

I knew the minute I walked in the door that something was different. I hadn't actually been inside the bank in a while. Usually I do my transactions from home on my computer or outside the bank at the ATM. But it was getting late in the afternoon and I wanted to make sure the deposit got posted as quickly as possible so I can pay some bills this weekend.

The first thing I noticed was that the lobby had been rearranged and some more desks added right where the table used to be where people filled out their deposit slips. But that wasn't the only change. That honor was reserved for the bullet-proof glass in front of the tellers. I fell like I was back in Southern California again.

When I moved to Southern California 14 years ago this month, I was shocked to see bullet-proof glass when I walked into the bank to establish my account in California and get checks with my new address on them.

My friends told me that bank robbery was fairly common in the town where I was sitting up residence. Welcome to Southern California.

After living in California for more than 10 years, I got used to bullet-proof glass in the banks. In fact the only bank branches I was in that didn't have the see-through security walls were the bank branches inside grocery stores.

I got used to the glass, but I didn't like it. The glass made banking more impersonal. It didn't help that the tellers didn't seem to want people coming to their windows anyway. At one point the tellers starting asking me on every trip if I had tried using the ATM to make my deposit. For a while, they even set up an ATM in the lobby and had a bank employee going around to people in line offering to show them how to use it. I soon took the hint and started depositing my checks at the ATM and didn't have to shout through the little slots in the glass wall to deal with the tellers.

Eventually banks went to drive-up ATMs and then one employer offered direct deposit and I quit having to visit the bank at all to make deposits.

When I moved back to Oregon in 2005 I had to start going to the bank again from time to time. While my employer does pay me once a month through direct deposit, in order to get paid twice a month I have to take a draw, which is paid by check. Usually I deposit the check at the ATM but sometimes it's actually nice to go into the branch and flirt with the tellers. Maybe they don't consider it flirting, but given my lackluster social life of late, a smile from a lady qualifies as flirting in my book. Banking has been more personal and intimate on those visits because there was no bullet-proof glass. That is, until today's visit.

The branch I visit most often is on Market Street here in Salem. It's on my route between home and work, which makes it a convenient place to stop. Apparently it has proved convenient for people with less scrupulous intentions too, because that branch has been robbed twice in the last year, most recently in January. I guess that was too much for the bank. Now there is bullet-proof glass. So, now the tellers are certainly safer. But banking has become more impersonal again. I miss a lot of things about Southern California.

However, I learned today that impersonal banking conducted through bullet-proof glass was definitely not on the list of things for which I was longing.

The land of the free giveaway and the home of the stupid

It's one of those stories that makes you either fear for survival of the species, because people are too stupid to live, or make you fear for your own survival because people will take any opportunity to rip you off.

Someone posted a couple of ads on Craigslist in Southern Oregon saying a homeowner had to leave quickly and his belongings were free for the taking. And given the power of Craigslist, word got out and people showed up and started carting stuff off. (See the story from Associated Press here.) Even when the owner got tipped off to the ripoff and returned home to confront some of the people on his property, they hauled his stuff off anyway.

According to a report in the Medford Mail Tribune, he is starting to get some of his stuff back.

Check out some of the comments being posted to the news article too. I get a particular kick out of the ones justifying people who showed up to take stuff because they believed the ad.

Maybe our schools, churches and families have stopped teaching the lesson about being wary about offers that appear to be too good to be true because they probably are.

Oh, sure maybe someone somewhere is giving stuff away, but don't you think if someone intended to do that they would be there, or someone would be to hand out the booty? Someone that could prove they had title to the property or authority to give it away?

I guess we can only hope the people who would outright steal so blatantly or be so willing to believe such nonsense are also the same bright folks who steal copper wires from live electrical transformers. Perhaps that problem will take care of itself over time.

And if not, I'm going to start crafting my Craigslist ad for Willamette Valley oceanfront property for a bargain price. Why drive all the way to Astoria or Newport or Lincoln City when you can see the ocean from your own private deck, close to I-5.

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