Lies and Bounced Checks

At every sale we have a few bounced checks. MOST of the time we have no problem collecting them. I know people make mistakes and most people are honest in this world. This sale I have learned a hard but almost unbelievable lesson. This might take awhile to read :-) But if you like Drama read ahead Last spring sale I had a former consignor bounce a 400.00 check. There was always a crisis when it came time for her to take care of the bad check. Finally after 6 weeks she took care of the check. She did not consign this sale but did ask if she could volunteer. If your a volunteer at my sale you get to shop early. After the volunteer shop Robert came up to me and said did you realize that the nameless person wrote a 500.00 check this sale. I told him I never told her that she had to pay cash but hopefully it would not happen again. Guess What????? It bounced. I had to wait until the check came back. I got the check last Friday Oct 4th back in my mail. It was written on the Sept 20th. So it had been almost two weeks before I could call her. She was not home but I left a message. While I was out she called and came up with a story on my answering machine that now I have a hard time believing. ( you will see why as you read on). She said she lost her debit card and someone took it to Best Buy and spent 8,000. This caused all her checks to bounce in the bank. I called her back and she said that they had frozen their checking account but she would be able to pay me TODAY the 10th . Then she told me she was at Duke Hospital with her son that he was having heart surgery . I thought surely she would not lie about her own son. I felt bad for her and said that would be OK as long as we get this taken care of. She promised! She even told me if her son was still in the hospital next week her husband would take care of it. I did get a red-flag though when I called her home that evening and she answer. She kept saying Hello Hello like she had a bad cell connection. I asked her how she could answer her home phone when she was at Duke. Her response was that she had the home phone forwarded. The story become even sadder and it's not about the MONEY. He has NOT had heart surgery. He has been in school for the past two weeks. I can't go in how I found out because I really want to protect the INNOCENT. ( her husband and kids)Anyone knows that Duke has a phone number and this town is not big. I even sent her a e-mail this morning asking when we could meet and I asked her how her son was. She wrote back and said he was not doing well and to pray for him. She was worried about him . She even said her daughter was having a hard time with her brother being so sick and as soon as she got her off to school she was heading to the hospital. That was a lie too.I know because he was in school yesterday. She also told me she could not pay the full amount she owe me. Legally I can't take partial payments and with her lies I can't trust her. I feel sick to my stomach. I have all day. How could a Mother lie and use their own child like that. Robert told me that we should not worry about her lies that our concern is just getting the money. I don't agree with him. I know there is nothing I could do. Even if I told this woman how sick this made me she would have a lie to cover her lie. I feel sick that someone use my love for the Lord and children to play my heart and pull my strings. I am having even a hard time thinking about praying for this woman. I know tomorrow will be new day and I will be refreshed and see things differently. God has way of making things NEW. I know tomorrow I will pray this woman's heart and especially her family. We have to file a warrant for the check. I have no choice. Usually when this happens people pay because they don't want a record and court cost. The deputy sheriff will make her a visit. I hate that part because of her kids But she made the choice to lie...