Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-08-18
$4,000 LIES SEVEN
YEARS IN LETTER BOX
ENVELOPE CONTAINING FORTUNE
LONG TIME LOST
Left in Hotel, They Are Handled by
Thousands of Guests Unaware
of Their Great
Value

PITTSBURG, Aug. 1.-TWO certified
Pittsburg brokerage house upon a Pitts
burg bank, to the order of a Cleveland
merchant, have been knocking about the
letter box on the counter of a down town
hotel for nearly seven years. The en-
velope in which the valuable bits of paper
were placed had become we'll thumb
marked by the handling of thousands of
| guests who have gone over the contents
of the box for years, but the checks en-
| closed therein were as fresh and crisp as
| though issued bu, yesterday.
| On November 26, 1900, A. E. Masten e.
| Co., the Fourth avenue bankers and brok-
| ers, closed two transactions in stocks for
customer livif G in Cleveland who was
in Pittsburg that week. In settlement the
broker gave two checks, one for $40, 900
and the other for $4,000. These checks
were duly certified by the proper officer of
Fourth avenue bank and were handed to
the customer, who put them loosely in the
inside pocket of his coat.
Four days later the customer wrote
from Cleveland that he had lost the
checks and asked that payment be
stopped and duplicates issued. If the
checks had not been certified this request
might have been complied with! but, hav-
ing been certified, the $4,000 could not,
under the law, be paid to anyone but the
payee on the presentation of the checks
properly Endorsed.
Thousands Tied Up
The $4,000 no longer stood to the credit
of Masten & Co., because it had been
certified to the order of the customer on
the presentation of the properly Endorsed
check. So far as the brokers were con-
cerned their interest in the matter ceased
with the acceptance of the certified check
by the man to whose order it was drawn.
For several weeks the Cleveland man
made a fruitless search for the missing
pieces of paper, and all the time the $4,000
lay Idle in the bank, waiting for the recov-
cry of the only means for securing pay
ment to the owner in the regular way.
The only other method of recovering
the money was through the deposit of
a bond in double the amount of the face
of the checks, and the holding of this
bond good for a period of seven years,
when liability would cease by limitation
The discovery of the missing checks
within little more than three months OF
the time limit was as curious as the loss
The clerk of the hotel recalled that he
had heard Mr.. Masten speak of his GUS
TONER'S loss. The customer was formerly
in the naDlC Oh stopping dI tIlS llOlSl WhiiS
in Pittsburg.
Old Envelope Comes to Light
On Saturday the clerk called around at
the brokers' office and stated that an old
unstamped but sealed envelope had been
knocking around the hotel box for years,
and as it bore the name of the brokers'
customer it had occurred to him as he
was looking over the old letters that it
might throw some light on the loss of
seven years ago. The name on the enve-
lope was instantly recognized as the sig
nature of the customer, and upon opening
it the long missing checks were found.
The explanation for the checks being in
the hotel box is this: The Cleveland man
placed them in the envelope himself ad-
dressed 1t to himself and dropped it In the
letter box for safe keeping over night.
His forgetfulness of this act caused him
to be out the use of 500, 900 securities
which he was required to pledge under
the law for a period seven years, and
cost him the sum of $780, which he paid
as a fee to the surety company which ac-
cepted his bond. The lesson he learned,
which, by the way, is useful to everyone,
was that there is a legal difference be-
tween certified check and an ordinary
check, and that one should be careful not
to lose or destroy certified check, be-
cause a duplicate cannot be issued.