Shoplifting, Larceny, Robbery, Theft Bad Check and overzelous business

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mthedude

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I'll attempt to keep this brief. Sometime in August my wife had lunch at an eatery about 40 minutes from home. She paid with a check and we were informed after about a week that the check was returned for NSF. It was a timing issue and the funds were there when they told us about it, so we advised the business to please re-present the check and it would be fine. The owners said they would not do this and that we had to come in a pay the original amount of the check $13, plus a fee, I don't recall what the fee was. So we found it odd that they wouldn't submit it twice as most businesses would, and told them we'd get them paid. In the meantime we don't get over that way too often and the nasty phone calls from this business started w/my wife. They said if we didn't come in and pay them the police would arrest her and then the fees would be up to $500, etc. I found all of this absolutely insane, so I called the owners myself and asked them to please submit the check again and I guaranteed it would post. They again refused to do so and said they've already turned the matter over to the police. So I called the PD of thier town and explained my situation to an officer, he agreed that they were making this very difficult and he knew the owners and said he would go speak to them for me. The officer said quote "if they want the $13, they should just represent the check, sounds like they're stopping the parade to pick up a dime", so I thought it was resolved. A few days later I get a 10 day demand letter from the PD delivered by my county sherrif's deputy. I read the letter, contact the PD again and this time I'm told since the exchange was an "arms length transaction" it was considered theft as soon as the check came back. I advised IA Civil code specified a check has to be presented twice in order to be considered bad. The officer said that's civil code and this matter is criminal. I did some reasearch on IA Code 714.1(6) and according to most police dept websites, a check has to be returned twice and it must be over $200 to apply to this criminal code, of course those rules are not law and are up to the police dept.

So I decide this is getting crazy and these people must be related to the police chief or something, so I'll just go pay the stupid fee and waste my time, gas, and money. So for a $13 check I paid over $42, went to this business and everything was fine, they said they do this to every bad check writer, etc. I just got my copy of the check, initialed on a manilla envelope and left. Matter over, right? Wrong. We get a call from the crazy owner's wife saying we need to pay her $90+ for the fees they incurred for us to be served by my county Sherrif. I told her they chose to make this matter difficult by not representing the check and I'm not paying another dime. So of course she tells me their lawyer says they can collect this and if we refuse to pay we'll be served again by the sherrif, etc.

So at this point I decide to contact my county Sherrif. I spoke with a deputy and advised of the situation. He asked if the paper I was served says anything about reimbursing the business for other fees, I said no, it stated a dollar amount, I paid it and I thought it was done and over with. Basically I was told by the deputy of my sherrif's office that the police have better things to do than deliver businesses mail for them and he doubted very seriously the law allows them to make it a criminal matter after we paid the demand. He said worst case scenario, they'd file a small claims case against us. I said that would make more sense.

So what I'm asking is, does the business have a right to try to collect these fees they incurred to serve us these papers? And if they do have to go to small claims (I think they are crazy enough to go to court, they evidently don't have anything better to do) court, will I automatically loose or can I present my case as them being overzelous and point out they chose this course of action and they should be responsible for the fees.
 
Just to clarify, we have already paid the check and fee in full, on time, I was asking about the additional $90 the business is wanting me to pay.
 
Just to clarify, we have already paid the check and fee in full, on time, I was asking about the additional $90 the business is wanting me to pay.

They can sue you; I don't know if they'll win or not.
 
I would just pay it and blow off steam constructively however it is you usually do, Exercise, video games, whatever.

Take how much money you make an hour, and multiply that by how much time you've spent dealing with this jerk, thinking about the jerk, agonizing, etc. It's probably a hell of a lot more than $90.

Sometimes the bad guys win. Then they continue being bad and it catches up with him. ARe you or your wife going to the eatery ever again? No. Lost money. Do you or your wife tell money about this guy and the eatery to others? That travels, and now more people that won't go there and his reputation ruined. So, his $90 may end up costing him much more than that in lost business down the road.

You don't have to take my advice, it isn't really legal advice but philosophical, but in my experience that's the way to go.
 
While I know that's the high road and I typically do that sort of thing I'm just really tired of these jerks, I mean in all rights I should be at this guys door kicking his teeth in the way they talked to my wife, it was totally uncalled for and that's just not how you do business.

I thought about trashing this places reputation online, BBB, etc. but I think what I'll actually do is get them on the phone and explain to them that they have 2 choices. They can walk away from this whole thing or they can take me to court and present thier case. If they chose to go to court I'll expend the next year of my life devoted to finding every possible place on the internet to review thier crappy restaurant and make sure anyone searching for this place sees my review. I know they're stupid enough to think I'm scared of them taking me to court, at the end of the day I've got $90 to pay them I could care less, but I'm not letting someone as foul as these people get away with treating someone like this.
 
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