Norridge Mother Gets Her Money Back After Contacting CBS 2 When Her Mortgage Check Was Stolen, Doctored, And Cashed
NORRIDGE, Ill. (CBS) -- A suburban mother now has her money back, after she had more than $4,000 taken from her bank account when someone stole and altered a check she had written to her mortgage company.
Brooke Heyden of Norridge told CBS 2's Jermont Terry this week that she first knew there was a problem when her mortgage company reached out and complained they didn't have her payment when she had sent it.
When she checked her Chase account, she realized the check cleared for way more than what she says it was written for.
"I couldn't believe my eyes, because the check was written for $1,000 - and they changed it to $4,000," Heyden said this week, "and I've never written a check for that large sum of money."
When Heyden got a copy of the check, she noticed that someone not only went in by hand and changed the numeral 1 in $1,000 to a numeral 4 to make it $4,000, but also tried to change the handwritten letters where the dollar amount must be written out from 'O-N-E' to 'F-O-U-R' - in Heyden herself did not find convincing at all.
"It clearly says 'one thousand' in actual written dollar amount," Heyden said this week.
And the biggest red flag, Heyden said, is that someone changed the "pay to the order of" name to what appears to be "Bria Martin."
"I thought, 'Wow, OK, that does not say 'AmeriSave Mortgage,'" she said. "It's clear that someone whited out the original pay-to name."
It is not clear where the fraud happened, but we know she placed the check in a mailbox on Montrose Avenue in Norridge. Yet after going to her Chase Bank, Heyden said the manager told her: "She contacted their fraud department and said that there was nothing they could do. I had to wait through the investigation."
Heyden said she was told the investigation could take a minimum of 30 days – but up to 90 days before getting her money back.
But after Heyden called CBS 2 to get help, Chase immediately gave her the money back.
"From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much," Heyden said. "I don't know if I would have gotten in back if it wasn't for this story."
Heyden said she normally uses online banking, but she recently changed mortgage companies and the first check had to be mailed.
