Patrick Combs - Stories

Bank Error In My Favor: Collect $95,000 / ORIGINAL version.
© 1995 Patrick Combs

"The Waiting"

Somewhere along the line a friend of mine suggested that I had a national story for the media. The idea grew on me pretty fast. Everyone I told seemed to love the story. They'd put themselves into it and image what they would do under the same circumstances -- feeling and testing their own ethics and values. So I pictured it could be a national story about, "What would you do if you got a hundred thousand dollars by mistake?"

I also pictured that the story could make waves. Waves that would prohibit false checks being sent in advertisements and waves that would improve the banking system. I found myself recalling the words of one of my college professors, "It's a rare opportunity to get to make or affect law in this country, but it does come knocking."

On the other hand, I feared calling the media because I was scared that a story could very well ruin my career as an author and speaker. After three building years, my career is finally hitting stride, and if I don't do anything BUT stay out of trouble, it will only get better. People had told me that this story could be trouble. How would it look if the author of Major in Success was being sued for bank fraud??

As for why I finally decided to call a newspaper, I can only tell you this: Deep down inside I felt like I hadn't done anything wrong. If people judged me differently it would be because they're different people with different values and different fears. Of the many lessons that I learned from this adventure, one of the greatest was this: Never let fear win.

I decided to call the most prestigious newspaper in the country, The Wall Street Journal. It was July 13th. I called information and found the WSJ had a San Francisco bureau. When I called, a woman answered the phone. I asked her if I could speak to a reporter who writes features, explaining I might have a great story for the paper. "What's your story?" she asked. Figuring that if I could sell her she'd put me through to one of the reporters, I launched right into a brisk and upbeat telling of the story, and after about 15 seconds I could tell that I had her interest. When I finished she said, "That's a great story!! I'd love to write it. Hmmm... there's one consideration though... If we run this story there's going to be a lot of people who will try to copy cat what you did. Let me think about that and I'll ask my editor if I can take this as an assignment. Call me tomorrow. I'm Lynn Hazelwood."

I got off the phone feeling like I had just been told that Christmas might be tomorrow! I couldn't stand the lack of assurance, and my mind flashed on, Kenny Goldstein, a young man I had recently interviewed who got his dream job writing for a newspaper. He earned it by boldly walking into the Chicago Times, without an appointment, to locate an editor who's name he had seen that morning on the Editorial page. When he found the editor (a feat in itself), he bravely pitched himself into a position as a writer. That was all the inspiration I needed, so I gathered my photocopies of the check and the laws, and I jumped into my car.

The San Francisco Bureau of the Wall Street Journal is located in a skyscraper only one block from where my cashier's check was locked. I went up the elevator to the eleventh floor and exited right into the WSJ's tiny little lobby. I asked the receptionist if I could speak to Lynn Hazelwood and I told her my name. She phoned Lynn, stated my request, hung up the phone, and then said to me, "Have a seat and she'll be out in a minute." I didn't take long for Lynn to come walking around the corner. She looked friendly and extended her hand. Our interaction was brief. I gave her a small stack of photocopies and began by explaining that I was there so that she could see it all for herself.

As I was standing there worried about whether she'd run the story, she said, "This is a really fun story. I'm going to do it." This was music to my ears and I said, "Then I won't call The New York Times back" (I had put in a call to them). "Don't talk to them. This is my story! I'm just waiting for our lawyers in New York to give me the OK on it. You don't want to give them this story. OK?!" she said. "OK," I said.

I walked out of that skyscraper flying! Yeee-haw!!! Almost immediately, I began telling friends to watch for an article in the WSJ, any day now. Boy was I mistaken.

The next day I anxiously waited for Lynn to call me. I wondered if she would need to speak with me again or if she would just write the story up based on our previous exchange. But, she didn't call me and at the day's end I called her. She heard my name and said, "I'm sorry I didn't call you. I haven't heard from the NY office yet. I've got to get on them. I'll call you tomorrow. I'm sure they'll approve it, so don't give this story to the Times, OK?" "OK," I replied. Patience is a virtue, I thought to myself.

The next day was Friday. Several of my friends bought the WSJ expecting to see my story . I, on the other hand, knew it wasn't going to be in there and sat waiting for the reporter's call. She had promised. By 3 PM, I couldn't stand it and I called again. This time the receptionist informed me, that Lynn had already gone home for the weekend. !#@!

Monday morning came and I called Lynn. Still, she hadn't heard back from NY, but not to worry she tried to assure me, "I'll call them this afternoon and get a reply. They should have answered by now."

Tuesday at 11 AM arrived quickly and Lynn hadn't called. I was feeling crazy and my friends wanted to know when the story was going to run. I called Lynn. "Patrick, I'm glad you called. I was just going to call you. New York approved the story! They like it a lot," she said. These ten words instantly put my mind at ease and escalated my joy! Lynn went on to schedule a telephone interview with me on the forthcoming Friday.

Friday arrived slowly, but Lynn phoned right on schedule. I had a pad of paper and pen handy for taking copious notes so that my friends could judge how the interview went. It was my friend Scott who was most interested in the interview, because Scott and I had spent a couple of dinners intensely discussing how to tell the story for maximum impact. (It was Scott who suggested that it would be a far better story, IF it ended without revealing what I planned on doing with the windfall money. We guessed that this might give the story a longer life. We hoped that this might give people an opportunity to really think about the issues. But at the end of each of our dinners, we knew it was all just guess work.)

Lynn began the interview began innocently enough, but within the very first minute she turned on me. Suddenly she was no longer a friendly person listening to an entertaining story. Now she was a reporter out to discover if I was trying to defraud a bank out of ninety five thousand dollars. The first sign of trouble came with the very first question, which progressed somewhat like this:

Lynn: "How long it was before you deposited this check, that you believed was real?"
Me: [With surprise and shock] "I didn't think the check was real. I must admit I saw the words non-negotiable on it,"
Lynn: [With suspicion] "You did.... Then why did you deposit it?"
Me: "Because I thought it would NEVER cash."
Lynn: [With even more suspicion] "Then why would you waste your time?"
Me: "It didn't seem like a waste of time to me. It was Friday after 4 and my work week was over. I had to go to post office and the walk took me right past my bank, so it didn't strike me as a waste of time."
Lynn: "So why did you deposit it again?"
Me: "Simply because I thought it would never cash. I don't know if that makes sense to you, but to me it seemed like a fun and harmless act. After doing it, I walked home laughing to myself thinking, 'Now I have certainty in my life. Now I'm certain that on Monday I'll get a call from my bank saying, 'Mr. Combs, the check you deposited isn't real."
Lynn: "OK, I don't quite understand but let's move along. Tell me what happened next."

This kind of suspicious grilling was repeated in various forms throughout what became a grueling one hour interview. I felt like a prime suspect, fighting from the witness stand to save himself from an unfair jail sentence. The prosecuting questions kept coming: "You weren't trying to defraud the bank??" or "Again, why did you deposit the check?" and "Are you afraid the bank will bring criminal charges against you?"

Not pleasant. By the time the interview ended I had an enormous knot in my stomach. I was worried sick that something had just gone VERY WRONG. I remembered the friends who had advised me NOT to tell the media about this story, because they warned that it would make me look bad. Instead, I had followed my own instincts that told me it was a positive story. Now, suddenly gripped by a doomed feeling that was overwhelming me and mental images of a damaging Wall Street Journal article, I needed help.

I called Scott and asked him to come over right after work to discuss the interview. "How did it go?" he wanted to know. "I'm not sure -- I need your opinion," I said trying not to bias him with the paranoia I was feeling... I had to wait a couple of hours for Scott to get off of work, and in the mean time nothing, not even a movie, could put my mind or stomach at ease.

Hearing the reporter's questions worried Scott just as much. His reaction confirmed most of fears. Lynn had definitely been trying to get me to crack about fraudulent intentions. But, Scott pointed out something that I had overlooked. He pointed out that we were getting what we had tried for: Of course Lynn wondered if I was a good guy or a bad guy -- because intentionally I had constrained myself from saying NOTHING that would reveal if I intended to profit from the bank's mistake. When she asked me what I intended to do with the money, I replied, "I'm just waiting for a letter from my bank. They said they'd get me one."

Besides than the sheer worry I acquired from doing the interview, there was something else I gained from it: Lynn told me that she had tried to get a comment from my bank, but they refused...

Lynn had told me the article would probably run late the following week. A week seemed like an eternity to have to wait for the WSJ's verdict on my interview. I tried asking Lynn if I could see the story before it ran. "No Way," she replied. Hey, I tried.

Wednesday, July 26 came and I called to see if my story was going to run soon. "Oh, I'm glad you reminded me," Lynn said, "I've still got to write it." What!!! Hadn't even written it yet??!! I just about lost it. "I'm going to do it. It's a fun story -- don't worry. I just need you to call me daily and put some pressure on me to get it done. " "I'm thinking that you're not really interested in the story and that maybe I should give it to another paper," I said. Lynn replied, " And it's good that you tell me you might give the story to someone else because I can use that to put pressure on my editors to run the story quickly. But don't give it away -- OK?! Things are just really busy around here and other stories that are time sensitive have to come first." I vowed to call her daily.

To my pleasant surprise, the next day when I called she said, "I wrote it last night and it came out really well. It's really fun." (Music! Sweet music to my ears!!!!!) Lynn continued, "Now it has to be approved by the NY office. Hopefully they'll like it and won't carve it up too much." Still another gate to get through, but I was optimistic about having progressed to this point. Plus, the friendliness in Lynn's voice and the little things she would say like "fun," made me feel much safer about how the article would judge me.

NY approved the story within a few days. As a matter of fact, Lynn reported that they loved the story and edited what she wrote, "hardly at all." It would run any day now, she told me. She told me to call her tomorrow to see if it was on the schedule. I called. It wasn't. "Call again tomorrow," she said. The next day was Tuesday August 1 and I called her. "Your story is on the schedule for tomorrow's paper!" she exclaimed. Then right before we ended the phone call she said, "Damn!" "What?!!" I questioned. "They took it off the schedule! It was on there this morning." She said it probably got bumped for a story that had been waiting to be ran, much longer than mine. " I'm sure it will run tomorrow. Call me," she said.

The next day, it was not on the schedule. I suggested that I was seriously thinking of giving the story to another news agency. Lynn countered with, "NY is going to run my story any day now. I can't guarantee when, but it will happen unless you give it to someone else. If you do that my editors will kill my story." Again, I was left with only the hope that patience and persistence were the key's to success.

The previous weekend I had begun to look for a back up plan to the WSJ, because with each day that they did not run my story, I felt more and more at their mercy. A realistic assessment of 'current reality' told me that they were still the best chance I had of getting the story into the news, BUT just in case, I had to start on a back up plan. I did two things: (1) I researched press wire services and discovered that for $500 I could fax a press release out to the wire on my own; (2) I began creating a web site for the story. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I used portions of my days and nights to write up the 25 page story. On Thursday and Friday morning I concentrated on translated the story into web pages. And then on Friday morning, August 4, I pitched my internet-famous friend, Justin Hall, on the idea of linking to my just-born, $95,093.35 internet site. Twenty thousand people a day visit Justin's site, Links the Underground . I figured he could make my site popular overnight. I pointed out to him that it was his opportunity to break the story BEFORE The Wall Street Journal. He agreed, for what reason I do not know, but it doesn't matter. The link was established on his page that same afternoon.

By the next day I had received over 500 hits. The relief I felt was TREMENDOUS. New media had freed me from the control of the old media. I no longer needed the WSJ to run my story. From here on out it would only be a perk. Thank you Justin Hall. You kicked the WSJ's butt!

With the web site up and calling for people's opinions on what I should do, email began pouring in at about 50/day. The very first one said:

From: LaserShark
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 1995 04:19:16 -0400
To: pcombs@dnai.com
Subject: $95,000 WOW!!!

I just finished reading the detailed account of your experiences with an advertisement check and a highly chagrined (though not admittedly) sector of the banking community. I think that Mr. Gauge at FI, in his final conversation with you while at your mother's house adopted a new tone with you because he and his bank most likely talked with their lawyers and found out that you probably have them by the royal sweets. They are most likely willing to take the matter as far as criminal charges in an attempt to scare you into submission or to the point of a judge telling them that they don't
have a case against you. Don't give in. Keep the money, if not for your own personal financial gain, but for a muchly deserved lesson to the banking community. If you do, it will make me feel much better about the hundreds of dollars deducted from my own checking account over the years for NSF fees. Twenty dollars per bounced check adds up when an average of three come in
before you realize that you forgot to note that $200 ATM cash withdrawal made several weeks earlier.

Good luck with this matter. Your adventure is definitely going to keep me checking your site in the near future.

Respectfully yours,
Tony Beard
GHOST in the MACHINE

The activity at my web site took the desperation off of my calls to the WSJ. I called again on August 4, and Lynn was out, so instead I spoke with her boss. His name was Oliver, and he told me he couldn't tell me when my story was going to run. I told him that was fine, but that I was now seriously considering faxing it to the wire myself. "You do whatever you have to," he said, "but if I were you I'd wake up in the mornings and buy the paper. It's on the launching pad."

I took Oliver's words as a discreet way of telling me that the story was going to run tomorrow or the next day. I went back to a routine that I had developed earlier: A midnight walk to the WSJ paper box to wait for the delivery truck. Sometimes at 12:15 AM, and sometimes at 1:20 AM, the truck arrives and I anxiously drop three quarters into the box. Disappointment was a well established part of this ritual, and the next two nights were no different. "Whatever," I walked home thinking.

The next day, my chances of the story EVER running in the WSJ changed dramatically, and quite by accident. That day I was taking care of my business as an author/speaker. I needed to place an ad in a publication called Radio-TV Interview Report , not for the $95k story, but for my book Major in Success . After talking to the publication's salesman for about 30 minutes, I thought to inquire about also placing an ad for radio interviews about my $95,000 adventure. After hearing my story, he flipped out and said, "What TV shows do you want to be on??!!! I'm going to call Larry King Live ! I know lots of TV show producers on a wine and dine basis because of my work here.... Swear you're telling me the truth! Swear it!!" I did and he said, "Then with your permission I'll call them." "You have my permission," I said, "As long as they're not tabloid shows."

As soon as I got off the phone, I felt an obligation to call Lynn at the WSJ. She answered and I said "Hi Lynn, it's Patrick. I'm not calling you to bug you about when it's going to run because I know you can't tell me. I'm calling because" -- she angrily cut in and said, "What do you want?" "I wanted you to know before anyone else, that I may end up on TV soon, " I said, surprised by her anger. "My story would have run on Monday, it was scheduled to and approved, but they canceled it when they found out you released it on the newswire. I'm really angry at you," she said

Immediately I thought of the three thousand hits my web site had already received, and I wondered to myself if it was possible that the story had gone from the web to the Associated Press wire services, in only a matter of days. But there was no way for me to know the answer. I told Lynn that I had not released it to the wire, and she puzzled over how someone in the NY office could have claimed differently. I puzzled out loud over the possibility of my web site and over the question, "Why, if it did hit the wire, have I not received any calls?" I worried that it had gotten to the wire but had been ignored by all journalists because my story mentioned that the WSJ was already given the story. Once Lynn came to believe that I had not faxed to the wire, she vowed to find out what NY was talking about.

Lynn called me back a few minutes later and told me that she and her bosses were trying to convince NY to run the story ASAP, before I did any TV. She was now convinced that the person in NY who claimed they'd already seen the story somewhere -- simply hadn't.

I didn't go wait at WSJ paper box that night. I slept soundly. But I did wake up in the morning and put another 75 cents into the same blue WSJ box -- and still no story. Well then, tomorrow's paper, maybe... (I should not that two people now following the story via the internet, offered wonderful suggestions regarding this dismal routine: (1) Maybe this was the WSJ's way of getting me to buy their newspaper, (2) Maybe it would be easier if I just got a subscription.

Tomorrow came and it was August 10th. That night I had a gut feeling it WOULD run so I resumed my midnight ritual. At 1:12 AM the truck came with the papers. The man loaded them up into the box and then I plugged my three quarters in. (I wonder myself why I would wait until the man put them into the box). I got the paper out and flipped through, my eyes searching frantically for a key word. NOTHING. Damn, the WSJ! Fooled again and I felt like one. But worse yet, this time the disappointment was it seemed the decision had been made to never run the story, ever.

I called Lynn after the sun rose to see if I had any chances left. I began by restating that I was sure the story had not already appeared anywhere else. She replied, "Your story never hit the wire and they didn't read about it on the interment. The guy in the NY office who claims he saw the story somewhere else, mostly likely saw it on our own internal computer system one of the many times it had been listed on the schedule of stories slated to run." She sounded as down as I felt, but she timidly said she would get off the phone and keep trying. I got off the phone and put in calls to USA Today and The NY Times. Neither one returned my call.

This entire time (so far 27 days hoping on the WSJ) I had heard nothing from my bank. I was still waiting for them to send the letter they promised. But when I went out for my mail on this day, right behind my phone bill was a letter from First Interstate Bank. This would change everything. A new chapter was now being added to the story and The WSJ would have to rewrite the story (Obviously, I was still carrying a small spark of hope that they would run the story -- I am blessed as a extremely hopeful person). I didn't take the letter in the house. I opened it right there on the sidewalk. It read:

Dear Patrick Combs:
We would like to thank you for maintaining your account here at First Interstate Bank of California. We sincerely appreciate the opportunity to serve you. I trust that we are providing the services you need and adding to your financial security as well.

To express our appreciation, we have arranged to provide a new benefit for all eligible checking account customers -- $1,000 of Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance. There is NO COST to you at any time. We pay the premiums.

...
Sincerely, Michael A. Johnson, Senior Vice President

Ha! Junk mail!! I thought to myself, "Either it's junk mail or Mr. Michael Johnson is seriously out of the loop about my account... At the same time it struck me as funny that they were offering me Accident Death and Dismemberment Insurance. Would I be needing it soon?? I believe I'll frame this letter as an absolute testament to the absurdity of computer-generated, supposedly personal letters (I've sent some myself. I think I'll never do it again).

Another funny thing happened to me that afternoon. I received a phone call from a movie production company. A producer read my web pages and called me. He was not making an offer--just expressing interest, but he did say something hilarious, "I'm anxious to see how this turns out. But whether you get to keep the money or you go to jail, from our point of view, both make for a good ending. AND, if you do go to jail, we won't have to pay for the rights to the story -- so keep that in mind!" It seemed like he was saying it in good fun (kinda).

The weekend passed, and on Monday August 14, Lynn called to tell me that she was still trying to convince NY to run the story. She was encouraged by the fact that now both of her bosses were also upset that it was killed and are pitching in to fight for the story.

I'm easy. My hopes went back up.

By this time, I was not anticipating the WSJ article alone. Over 1000 people all over the world were following along via updates posted at my web site the instant anything changed.

Part VIII: Updates"